Glass JBXia 
 
'*IVHY WEEPEST THOU?" 
 
 91G 
 
My Dear Friend: - 
 
 If this little booklet has comforted 
 you, would you not like to comfort someone else 
 who perhaps is now in great grief? If so, why 
 not loan it to that person and try to ''keep it 
 going"? It is impossible for one person to know 
 all who suffer and the bounden duty of all who 
 can to comfort those who grieve. 
 
 Please, therefore, make this little book 
 count for as much as possible by having all read it 
 who you think would be interested. 
 
 Cordially yours. 
 
To Her 
 
 Whose vanished hand I hope once more to clasp 
 in Friendship and in Love.'' 
 
hur-i-^^lsL^ . '^A.OaaJL^ 7 , 
 
 (I :''/ 
 
 **WHY WEEPEST THOU?" 
 
 UohnXX-l3:) 
 
3 ^/f f f 
 
 The sole purpose of this booklet is to comfort the sorrowing. To 
 them it is a free gift. If possible to prevent, it shall never be sold. 
 For this reason it has been 
 
 Copyrighted, 1913, 
 
 Bp Frank T. Lodge, 
 
 Detroit, Mich. 
 
 It is not, however, intended to use the copyright for selfish pur* 
 poses. If, therefore, it should be desired to reprint the contents 
 of the booklet for an unselfish purpose, that privilege will be freely 
 granted upon application to the holder of the copyright. 
 
 
 OCT 21 1918 
 
A CKNO WLEDGEMENTS 
 
 ) T gratefully acknowledge » with 
 
 I sincere and heartfelt apprecia- 
 tion, my indebtedness to my 
 friends, Mrs. Lou B. Webster, who 
 first suggested to me the idea of this 
 booklet; Dr. J. D. Buck, 33o, who 
 first caused to be opened up to me the 
 way to a personal instruction in Nat- 
 ural Science, and who has since 
 then, in numberless instances, laid me 
 under obligation to him; the dearly 
 beloved Master TK. , the Center and 
 Inspiration of the Great Work in 
 America, who has kindly permitted 
 me to use the copyrighted matter of the 
 Harmonic Texts herein quoted; and 
 my dear friend and beloved Instructor, 
 Charles Crane, who has, for many 
 months, guided my footsteps along 
 the Southward Path and who has 
 very kindly relieved me of the busi- 
 ness and mechanical details of the 
 publication of this booklet. 
 
"WHY WEEPEST THOU?" 
 
 My Dear Friend: — 
 
 I wish I could make you feel how deeply I 
 sympathize with you, — ^how I long to say or do 
 something that may help to comfort and console 
 you in this your crushing grief. Possibly, it 
 may help you to know some of the things that 
 have happened to me since I was bowed and 
 crushed like you under the heavy burden of 
 the greatest sorrow of my life. 
 
 On the third day of August, 191 1, I was 
 wakened out of a sound sleep to receive the news 
 that my dear Wife was dead. She had been in a 
 Sanitarium for a month. Every report was 
 encouraging. I had arranged a beautiful trip 
 for us both up the Lakes. The thought of her 
 death had not occurred to me. 
 
 Her disease (nervous prostration) was such that 
 I had not been permitted to see her for eight days 
 before her death, although we exchanged mes- 
 sages each day. I was busy preparing for our 
 trip, when, ' ^in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
 eye," she was gone and I had left me only the 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 dear dead face and form which, I knew, must soon 
 be put away from my sight. 
 
 Do you now sufifer? So then did I. Are 
 you dazed and stimned and helpless? As you 
 now are, so then was I. Do you stretch out 
 your arms into the darkness and long and sob and 
 pray for the dear one to come back, if only for a 
 moment, to say Good-bye? Again and again did 
 I do that very thing. 
 
 But it was useless. She had gone, never to 
 return, and whatever thoughts I had of ever see- 
 ing her again were promiseless as to this world 
 and dim, misty and indefinite as to the world to 
 come. 
 
 I believed in Immortality. I believed that 
 the Soul which God had given my dear wife 
 could never die. I felt that the beautiful body 
 which had housed it for far too brief a period 
 was only its outer garment, which she had laid 
 aside because she had outgrown it. 
 
 But what had become of HER? What was 
 SHE doing? Where had SHE gone? What 
 kind of a life was SHE leading now? In what 
 form would I see her again? 
 
 Oh! how these questions agonized me in the 
 silent watches of the night as I gazed up into the 
 darkness, trying, so vainly, to pierce a way 
 through to her! 
 
 I had read and heard of Re-incarnation; and, 
 
 [ 8 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 again and again, the thought tortured me that, 
 possibly, that would be the form which her 
 future life would immediately take, that she 
 would be * ^Re-incarnated" out of all knowledge 
 or memory of the husband who loved her, that 
 the Wife whom I loved so dearly was forever gone, 
 never again, in conscious identity, to greet, or be 
 greeted by, me. 
 
 My Dear Friend, I have been just where you 
 are now. I have suffered just what you now 
 suffer; and, because I have at last foimd comfort, 
 and because I love you and wish so much to 
 lighten and console your grief, I want to open a 
 way so that you may, if you desire, be comforted 
 as I have been. I think I can best do this by 
 relating to you my experience. It is a sacred 
 thing to me and you may appreciate how much 
 I want to help you when I lay bare my heart to 
 you in this way. 
 
 When Mrs. Lodge died, I had been for years 
 identified with the different activities of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church and had held a 
 number of its offices. In addition to the wide 
 experience which the active practice of the law 
 brings, I had been a physician for a number of 
 years; and, as a medical jurist, had come into 
 frequent contact with the bodies of the dead. 
 
 I had also been for nearly a quarter of a century 
 an exceedingly active Freemason, had drunk 
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 deeply at the fountains of its inspiration, had 
 studied its history and what I then understood 
 to be its symbolism. Night after night, and week 
 after week, in its different departments, I had 
 taught incoming candidates its lofty lessons as 
 to the Resurrection of the Body and the Im- 
 mortality of the Soul. Frequently, I had con- 
 ducted the funeral service of the Craft over the 
 mortal remains of a deceased brother and had 
 spoken to bereaved ones the words of hope and 
 cheer which that impressive service contains. 
 
 So it seemed as if the experiences of my entire 
 mature life should have prepared me to accept 
 with resignation and cheerfulness this parting 
 from the dearest thing on earth to me, to look 
 upon it as simply temporary and, joyfully, hope- 
 fully, to press forward, serenely confident that we 
 two would soon be reunited. 
 
 But, when the blow came hom_e to me^ when it 
 was my hearthstone that was desolated and my 
 heart that was emptied, all these things failed me. 
 I could not be cheerful. I could not be resigned. 
 
 I was wise enough to know that no amount of 
 grief and lamentation would bring back my dear 
 Dead, and that all I could do was, dumbly, 
 stolidly, to take the blows of Fate and stagger 
 on in the darkness. 
 
 I could not sleep except from pure physical 
 exhaustion. I could not eat except when forced 
 
 [ lo ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 by absolute hunger. In the morning, I was sorry 
 another day of misery had dawned and I shud- 
 dered when the time came at night for me to try 
 to force my eyes into the sleep that came not. 
 
 One Sunday morning, early, I went out to the 
 cemetery with a friend; and, as we stood over my 
 wife's grave, he told me what I had so often heard 
 and had so often repeated to others, that the Soul 
 never dies, that the physical body is but a garment 
 and the Soul goes on in endless evolution in worlds 
 to which this beautiful physical world of ours can 
 bear no manner of comparison. 
 
 But my friend told me the old, old story in a 
 very different way from an3rthing I had ever 
 heard before. He spoke '^as one having authority", 
 as one who had, himself, seen and heard the things 
 whereof he told me; and, for the first time, a feel- 
 ing of hope and a sense of comfort sprang up in 
 my heart. 
 
 The next day, I stopped at his office at the close 
 of the day's work and asked permission to ride 
 home with him on the street car. Again he told 
 me those wonderful things, which, up to the time 
 of our first conversation, I had never heard before ; 
 that the two worlds of matter and spirit, here 
 and hereafter, are but one, so closely co-related 
 and co-ordinated that, to ^'one who knows", 
 the transition is very simple, short and easy to 
 make; that the Great God, the Universal Intel- 
 
 [ II ] 
 
a 
 
 Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 ligence, who formed this wonderful, physical 
 world and regulates it by the silent, changeless 
 operation of immutable law, framed also the world 
 of Spirits and governs it in the same way; that 
 the Spiritual World is also a world of matter 
 closely resembling this; that those who are trans- 
 ferred from this world to that carry with them 
 consciously their own identities and selves; that 
 they love and hate, are wise and foolish, work and 
 play there in much the same manner as they did 
 here; that there are schools and colleges there 
 wherein those who have been denied Opportunity 
 here may drink as deeply and quaff as freely a^ 
 they please of the fountains of knowledge and 
 wisdom, that the separation which death brings 
 to loved ones is only half a separation and, 
 while these dear ones may have vanished from 
 our sight, yet our spiritual selves, our thoughts 
 and deeds of love and memory are fully known 
 to them; that, by absolutely scientific methods, 
 ^^one who knows" may himself enter the Spirit 
 World, converse with its inhabitants face to face 
 and return to the physical world imharmed. 
 
 And, as my friend talked to me so wisely, so 
 gently, so comfortingly, a peace fell upon me 
 which I had never hoped to experience again, and 
 I marvelled where this man (who, up to that 
 time, had seemed to me to be just an ordinary 
 human everyday being) could have secuied this 
 
 [ 12 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 wonderful knowledge, and I asked him, ^ ^ Where 
 on earth did you learn these things?^' 
 
 He replied, ' ^It is the wisdom of the ages. Men 
 have known these things almost ever since the 
 world began. Although there have only been a 
 few in each generation, yet the world has never, 
 at any time, been without some, and their knowl- 
 edge and experience have been accumulating with 
 the development of mankind in other branches of 
 knowledge. At first, those who knew it not 
 termed it Sorcery. A century ago, it would have 
 been called Witchcraft and Black Magic. A 
 generation ago, it would have been called Super- 
 stition or Insanity. 
 
 But, today, when Crookes and Roentgen, Tesla, 
 Marconi and Edison, those Wizards of modem 
 physical science, and Sir Oliver Lodge, Alfred 
 Russel Wallace (who for so long wrought with 
 Darwin) and coimtless other Masters of Science 
 and Metaphysics have shed such floods of light 
 upon the wonders of the world, upsetting and 
 ttuning pre-conceived notions lopsy tiu-vy, the 
 minds of men are more open to consider exactly 
 what it is. And, in the light of this advanced 
 thought and achievement, the truth may be 
 more readily appreciated, that these things are 
 matters of scientific demonstration — demonstra- 
 tion which has been made a part of the demon- 
 strator's actual personal experience.'' Said 
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 my friend, ' ^I know because I have demonstrated. 
 I have seen and heard, touched and tasted and 
 smelled the things of the Spiritual World." 
 
 For a while I scanned my friend carefully. His 
 language was so strange that I probed his actions 
 and his words to see whether he was, or was not, 
 insane. But I was convinced he was not insane. 
 For a quarter of a century, I had known him to be 
 rational, honest and sincere. He responded 
 favorably to all the tests which I then made of 
 his present sanity; and, at last, the fact that 
 these things might possibly be true forced itself 
 upon my consciousness. 
 
 One lingering doubt, however, remained, and 
 I said to him, * 'But this is rank Spiritualism, is it 
 not?'' For, while my knowledge of Spiritualism 
 was very limited and indefinite, I did not consider 
 it to be an institution of culture, refinement, wis- 
 dom, knowledge or reason. I also felt that, if I 
 could converse with my wife at all, I wanted to 
 talk to her directly and not through some frowsy 
 medium. 
 
 ''No," said my friend, 'This is not Spirit- 
 ualism." The practice of Spiritualism is danger- 
 ous and deadly. The mediumistic process and 
 its twin brother hypnotism (really one and the 
 same process) have done more to fill our insane 
 asylums than any other single cause and have 
 
 [ 14] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 also been a very prolific source of downright 
 bestial immorality. 
 
 ''Where can I find out about this wisdom?'' 
 asked I. My friend replied that, while he was in 
 no way connected with that School, the clearest, 
 most scientific and disinterested exposition of the 
 subject could be fotmd in the Text Books of the 
 * 'Great School'', so-called, and he especially 
 commended to me "The Great Work." 
 
 I at once procured these Texts, read them 
 eagerly — devoured them, if you please. I also 
 procured and read all the collateral books con- 
 nected with the scheme, studied, analyzed, 
 criticised, investigated and finally traveled to 
 the American headquarters of the School and came 
 into personal touch with its leaders. 
 
 I found them to be sane, soimd, sincere people, 
 intellectual, cultured, bearing in their appearance 
 the marks of sincerity and truth, not faddists nor 
 "cranks", neither long-haired nor woolly; and, 
 (surest mark of genuineness to me) all suspicion 
 of "graft" is absent. Their instruction is abso- 
 lutely gratmtous, and they believe and teach that 
 he who attemps to use the learning of the School 
 for any selfish purpose is unworthy of its rewards 
 and forfeits his high estate. 
 
 After more than a year spent in the most care- 
 ful and critical study of its Philosophy, I have 
 discovered in it nothing which does not inculcate 
 
 [ IS ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 SL standard of conduct the principles of which are 
 recognized by all men to be the purest and loftiest. 
 
 The result of all this has been to confirm me in 
 the belief that these wonderful things are true. 
 They have shed a flood of light upon much that 
 had always, before that, seemed to me strange. 
 While not accepting in fiill certain human inter- 
 pretations of the Bible and especially of the New 
 Testament, it is in no sense opposed to the spirit 
 of that wonderful Book and has for me thrown a 
 flood of light upon the meaning of certain pas- 
 sages therein. 
 
 Best of all, however, it has anchored me, has 
 given to my lonely life a definite motive and pur- 
 pose. I know now how close my dear wife is to 
 me and this wonderfiil science holds out to me the 
 hop-e, that, even before the eyes of this physical 
 body shall close in death, if I '^Live the Life", 
 if I cleanse my Soul and purify my heart, loving 
 my neighbor as myself, and doing my best to help 
 him bear his load of sorrow in this world, I may, 
 in time, ' 'Hope once more to clasp her vanished 
 hand in friendship and in love, " to hear the tones 
 of her sweet voice and tell her once again of the 
 abiding love which is incentive enough for me to 
 persevere along the narrow * 'Southward Way" 
 which will lead me to her. 
 
 And, my dear friend, because I want you to be 
 comforted as I have been comforted, I have 
 
 [ i6 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 condensed into a short synopsis some of the au- 
 thoritative statements of the definite findings of 
 this Ancient School of Wisdom with regard to 
 death and the future life. They are not my 
 statements; they are quotations from definite 
 and competent authority, the reading of which I 
 hope will bring peace and comfort and consola- 
 tion to your Soul. 
 
 Sincerely, your Friend, 
 
 [ 17 ] 
 
I. NOT DEAD. 
 
 The First of these Great Truths, a 
 Truth which God has planted as an 
 Instinct, or Intuition, in the depths 
 of every human Soul, which Man- 
 kind's great pulsing, throbbing heart 
 (despite its mental doubts) has ever 
 felt, which every analogy of Nature 
 sustains, which Prophets have foretold, 
 which the Masters of every aq^e have 
 demonstrated, which Twentieth Cen- 
 tury Science is fast learning to prove; 
 — ^the great fact which takes away 
 our fear for them and teaches us that, 
 if we grieve, we grieve selfishly — ^for 
 ourselves, not for them — ^is the sublime, 
 consoling Truth, OUR DEAR ONES 
 ARE NOT DEAD. 
 
 The most profound problem of human life and 
 the most pathetic cry of the htrnian Soul through- 
 out the ages have been the problem and the cry: 
 ' If a man die shall he live again? " To the great 
 majority of mankind in all times and among all 
 peoples physical death has been a fearful leap 
 into the darkness. The River of Death has been 
 the deep and troubled waters of uncertainty and 
 
 [ f8 ] 
 
Not Dead 
 
 dread with the farther shore enshrouded in 
 deepest gloom. The travelers of earth who have 
 journeyed down to its shadowy bank that skirts 
 the plane of physical life, with rare exceptions 
 have vaiWy peered out into the darkness across 
 its black surface to catch one assuring glint of 
 light from the farther shore. Their sense of 
 vision has been lost in the blackness of darkness, 
 and they have responded to the signal of the 
 dread Ferryman with no ray of hope to guide 
 them. — The Great Work, p. 436. 
 
 What man or woman is there above the intelli- 
 gence of the poor imbecile who does not desire 
 a completely satisfactory answer to the question? 
 Many no doubt still take this matter on faith, but 
 few are thus satisfied. Few, indeed, who have 
 strong ties of affection, and who find the pathway 
 of life broken by open graves, are thus easily 
 reconciled. — A Study oj Man, p. 229. 
 
 Now and then, however, there has been one 
 whose vision has been clear, and to whom the 
 other shore of life has been distinctly visible. 
 These few have been able to penetrate the dark- 
 ness of physical obscurity and behold with perfect 
 vision the Spiritual World shining clear and strong 
 beyond the dark and troubled waters. 
 
 What a difference this clearer vision has made 
 in the attitude of Soul of those who have come 
 down to the River of Death at the end of this 
 
 [ 19 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 life's journey ! To such as these the voyage across 
 the dark waters that stretch between the two 
 worlds, or the two continents of life, is but a 
 voyage from the dark Continent of Death to the 
 Land of Spiritual Life and Light. It is a voyage 
 toward the Harbor of Truth and the Haven of 
 Peace. It is a voyage from the banks of Time 
 to the shore of Eternity. To those who, from this 
 side of life, have been able to look across to the 
 other shore and see the light of the City of Life, 
 the journey is begun with a song of joy in the 
 heart and of thanksgiving upon the lips. A 
 definite knowledge of that which lies beyond re- 
 moves all doubts and all fears. Those who pos- 
 sess such knowledge know that the closing of this 
 life is but the opening of the doors of the higher 
 life. To such as these "Death is swallowed up In 
 Victory. '^ 
 
 And those who have had the definite knowledge 
 of another life have been able to share their joy 
 with many whom they have been able to inspire 
 with an abiding Hope of Immortality. The defi- 
 nite testimony of the Masters has inspired many 
 to walk by faith the hard path of this life, and 
 with serenity and confidence journey out into 
 the mysterious realms of the, to them. Unknown. 
 — The Great Work, pp. 436, 437. 
 
 THERE IS NO DEATH, declares Natural 
 Science. In laying down this proposition as a 
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
Not Dead 
 
 scientific fact it is, of course, understood that the 
 reader is probably not in a position to either 
 immediately accept or reject this declaration. 
 Before attempting to do either, the inquirer is 
 asked, first, to consider in brief those lines of 
 evidence which go to support the fact of life after 
 physical death. The most significant historic 
 evidence as to the fact of another life is the per- 
 sonal testimony of the few master minds which 
 have dominated human intelligence for ages. 
 The millions come and gone, together with the 
 living hosts of mankind, have acknowledged, and 
 continue to acknowledge, these few great teachers 
 as messengers of Truth and exemplars of Natural 
 Law. 
 
 The great world religions testify to the uni- 
 versal faith that has been placed upon the indi- 
 vidual honesty and intelligence of such as Gau- 
 tama, Prince of India, and our Christian teacher, 
 the Nazarene. — Harmonics of Evolution, p, 23. 
 
 What does this faith of the world indicate? 
 Does it point to trickery or insanity of those 
 teachers? Does it indicate that the world has 
 accepted knaves and lunatics as its moral guides? 
 
 So far as history, sacred or profane, informs us, 
 the individual lives of those accepted teachers 
 were examples of honesty and wisdom. So far 
 as the history of their personal lives and their 
 accredited doctrines can show, they are the 
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 worthy guides of humanity. Their lives and 
 their doctrines are wholly irreconcilable with any 
 theory of either deliberate fraud or emotional 
 insanity. 
 
 Each of these '^Masters'' claimed to have 
 proved the fact of life after death. Without this 
 basic knowledge both their lives and their doc- 
 trines become meaningless. 
 
 If there is nc life beyond the grave these 
 teachers lied to the world and the world is without 
 guidance. — Id. p. 24. 
 
 Those scientists of world-wide reputation for 
 skill and learning, Prof. William Crookes, F. R. S., 
 and Alfred Russel Wallace, who for years have 
 conducted experiments with superphysical phe- 
 nomena, set out upon their investigations in a 
 skeptical attitude of mind, and entertained the 
 belief that the complete exposure and utter rout 
 of Spiritualism simply depended upon a few sci- 
 entific tests directed by the rational mind of a 
 physical scientist. But, after having employed 
 every test known to physical science and reason, 
 they have satisfied themselves that death does 
 not end all — Id, pp. 21,22. 
 
 The expectation of life after physical death 
 comes first as an intuition. That purely spiritual 
 intuition is as strong in the savage as it is in the 
 civilized. — Id, p, 14. 
 
 In spite of the fact that physical life is a veritable 
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
Not Dead 
 
 house of decay and death, the expectation of, and 
 faith in, a life to come have increased with the 
 higher evolution of man. 
 
 It is therefore evident that this faith and ex- 
 pectation are based in the spiritual intuitions of 
 all men. It is also evident that such faith and 
 such expectation are not the mere superstition of 
 savages since they increase with the higher stages 
 of intelligence and moral life of man. — Id, p. 15. 
 It is as natural to desire life after physical 
 death, to hope for it, to seek knowledge of it, as 
 it is to desire food, light and air. It is an un- 
 furtunate man who does not hope for life to come. 
 It is a diseased or abnormal one who does not 
 desire it. A man without hope or desire merely 
 exists. He can scarcely be said to live. 
 
 He who gives heed to his own spiritual intu- 
 itions is never without hope. He who has hope 
 may acquire faith. He who has both hope and 
 faith may acquire actual knowledge, provided 
 he have the INTELLIGENCE, the COURAGE 
 and the PERSEVERANCE to prove the law. 
 — Id, p, 14. 
 
 Love of life inspires every living thing. It is, 
 however, man alone who hopes for immortality. 
 It is safe to say that all men desire to live after 
 physical death. Most of them hope for such a 
 life. Many have faith. There are, however, 
 more whose hope and whose faith alternate with 
 
 [ 23 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 misgiving and doubt. For hope is not faith, nor 
 is faith knowledge, yet both are inspirations to 
 life. Hope is but a fleeting intuition, while faith 
 is the steady expectation of the soul. 
 
 Hope for and expectation of life beyond physical 
 death appear to be almost inseparable from human 
 intelligence. In this desire and expectation the 
 savage, the seer, and the child find a common 
 ground. — Id. p. 13. 
 
 This tremendous truth has for ages been in the 
 possession of a few patient, self-denying scholars 
 whose knowledge of the continuity of life has been 
 a matter of daily, rational experience, just as is 
 their knowledge of this physical existence. — Id. p. 
 12. 
 
 Dtiring all the past ages of which we have 
 authentic information there have been men who 
 have wrought out the solution of the problem of 
 another life through a definite personal experience 
 and thereby reduced the great problem to the 
 basis of actual demonstration. 
 
 Those who have accomplished this triimiphant 
 result have at all times been exceptions to the 
 general rule among men, and for this reason 
 their numbers have at all times been compara- 
 tively insignificant. But nature has so provided 
 that there has never been a time, within the 
 period of authentic history, when the world has 
 been without those who could speak of that life 
 
 1 24 ] 
 
Not Dead 
 
 with definite authority, the result of personal 
 experience and personal demonstration. — The 
 Great Work, p. 425. 
 
 Who can estimate the benefit that would flow 
 from the exchange of mere faith in a life to come 
 for actual knowledge that such is the fact? — Har- 
 monics oj Evolution^ p. 19. 
 
 If the individual could really know that life 
 after death is a fact, our whole dismal para- 
 phernalia of death would disappear. Indeed, if 
 men entertained even an unwavering faith, their 
 lament for the dead would be modified. The 
 truth is that the professing Christian mourner 
 exhibits but little greater fortitude and faith 
 when death claims a friend than does the average 
 unbeliever. Oiu: Christian brothers mourn their 
 dead with an abandon that demonstrates the 
 instability of their faith. — Id,, p. 19. 
 
 If one really believes in a spiritual life to come 
 there is neither reason nor excuse for this in- 
 temperate grief. If, however, a man could know 
 what he but mournfully hopes rather than be- 
 lieves, the house of the dead would never be a 
 house of despair. Instead, it would be a house 
 of unselfish rejoicing whenever death released 
 the spirit from old age, disease or sorrow. When 
 a man knows what physical death is he will never 
 retard the passing soul with selfish grief. — /J., 
 p. 20. 
 
 [ 25 1 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 Especially selfish is this grief in view of its 
 harmfiil effects upon the dead themselves. * The 
 grief of an earthly husband for his spiritual wife, 
 or that of an earthly mother for her spiritual 
 chil d binds the one in spiritual life to the plane of 
 earth by a magnetic bond which few in that life 
 are able to overcome. The bond of sympathy for 
 sorrow is one of the strongest ties of the Soul.'' 
 — Life and Action, 11-279,280. 
 
 Did v/omen possess the faith they claim, they 
 would not swathe themselves in unsanitary 
 crape nor visit cemeteries to commune with the 
 dead who are not there. — Harmonics of Evolution, 
 p. 19. 
 
 To the man who knows, the dead body is but 
 the discarded mantle of his friend, one that had 
 served the uses of the soul for the time. As 
 such, the body is entitled to due reverence and 
 is consigned to the earth or the fire without 
 exaggerated grief. — Id, pp. 19, 20. 
 
 It would be as correct to say that we die into this 
 world and are bom out of it, as to say that we 
 are bom into it and die out of it. Our mistake 
 of the meaning of life includes a mistaken idea 
 regarding both birth and death and this mistake 
 is shown in the fact that we have allowed fear 
 and foreboding of evil to gather around the exit, 
 which is painless and beneficent as a babe's sleep, 
 and have come with rejoicings to welcome the 
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
The connection between us and our dear 
 ones in the spiritual world is so close that, under 
 ordinary conditions, they are conscious of what 
 we do, and especially, of our grief for them. 
 Life and Action VI, p. 20j. (Bottom.) 
 
 Our grief for them affects them unpleas- 
 antly or painfully in precisely the same way we 
 are painfully or unpleasantly affected by the grief 
 of one of our loved ones on this side of life. In 
 addition to this, there are certain magnetic 
 attractions between us here and our loved ones 
 therej which may, under certain conditions, bind 
 the spiritual loved ones to earthly conditions in 
 a way to interfere with their liberty of individual 
 progress in that life. 
 
 Life and Action VI, p. 206. (Top.) 
 
Not Dead 
 
 entrance, which is often an inferno to both 
 mother and child. — A Study of Man, p. 235. 
 
 At this point a broader science conies forward, 
 with its cheering '1 know/' and rationally ex- 
 plains the ground of its affirmation. It does 
 more than this. It directly challenges repre- 
 sentatives of theology, metaphysics and modem 
 physical science to offer themselves as students 
 and demonstrators of the fact of life after physical 
 death. — Harmonics of Evolution, p. 22. 
 
 Natural Science has at command the facts of 
 Nature which support the real doctrines of Christ, 
 which dispel the vagaries of metaphysics, and 
 will aid in the extension of scientific knowledge 
 and research. 
 
 Its pursuit is something more than a study of 
 ancient creeds and Oriental Philosophy. It is 
 the study and demonstration of those natural 
 laws which govern the body, spirit and soul of the 
 individual man. — Id. p. 23. 
 
 [ 27 ] 
 
2. THIS PROVABLE 
 
 The next Great Truth which should 
 cheer and sustain us, which assures 
 us that our Faith may blend into 
 Sight, our Hope end in Fruition and 
 our Ejiowledge crown the whole, the 
 Great Truth which gilds our dark 
 horizon with the golden light of Hope 
 and spans life's dark gloom with the 
 crimson Bow of Promise, is that the 
 fact that our dear ones still live is 
 
 SCIENTIFICALLY DEMONSTRABLE 
 
 From the beginning human intelligence has 
 occupied itself with speculations, hopes and fears 
 as to a life beyond. The finest intelligences 
 among men have employed their powers to merely 
 elucidate a resonable theory looking to life after 
 physical death. — Harmonics of Evolution j p- i6 
 
 Mankind, as a whole, in its expectation of a 
 future life, is sustained by faith and not by any 
 actual scientific knowledge of the life to come. 
 — Id. p. 17. 
 
 Intuitions of a spiritual life are not proofs even 
 to the rational mind of any individual. They 
 
 [ 28 ] 
 
This Provable 
 
 are, however, truths to his soul and are sources 
 of consolation, of hope and of inspiration. 
 
 Intuition is not knowledge. It is, instead, a 
 suggestion of knowledge that may be acquired. 
 Every man and woman knows the potency and 
 inspiration of those spiritual perceptions which 
 are not explainable in reason. Intuition, though 
 not knowledge, is a higher guide to human life 
 than is cold reason when it entirely ignores those 
 convictions of the Soul. — Id. p. i8. 
 
 Man is a rational as well as an intuitional 
 being. Man alone is capable of reasoning upon 
 his own intuitions. Man alone has the intelli- 
 gence to seek a rational explanation of those in- 
 tuitions. Man alone demands that Nature shall 
 yield the secrets of those mysterious. hopes, fears 
 and expectations which alternately inspire or 
 terrify the Soul. The spiritual intuition of the 
 savage establishes an expectation of life after 
 physical death. Later on the higher grade man 
 attempts to verify his own inttdtions by rational 
 means. — Id, p. 15. 
 
 Both reason and intuition are differing phe- 
 nomena representing separate functions of in- 
 telligence. The more comprehensive Science 
 demonstrates that there is a spiritual side to 
 Nature and that man lives on self-consciously 
 after physical death. 
 
 Natural Science, and the philosophy of life 
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 fotinded on that science, accept Christ as an 
 exemplar of truth. It regards Him as one among 
 the greatest of Masters who have proved the fact 
 of life after physical death by scientific and 
 natural means. — Id. p. 25 (4, 5). 
 
 The claims made by Natural Science are sup- 
 ported by two lines of evidence, the one direct, 
 the other indirect. 
 
 The first class of evidence includes the direct 
 personal testimony of such as have proved the 
 law, or of such as have come in contact by any 
 means with the spiritual plane of life. The 
 second class includes the testimony of such as 
 have witnessed spiritual phenomena under test 
 conditions. Under the first-named class we 
 have: 
 
 1. The direct testimony of the world's 
 chosen teachers, among whom are Moses, Bud- 
 dha, and Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. The direct testimony of the personally 
 instructed pupils of a Master. Among such were 
 the Disciples of Christ. 
 
 3. The direct testimony of so-called seers 
 and prophets and the oracles of all ages, races 
 and religions. Among such are Abraham, Daniel 
 Isaiah, and Jeremiah. 
 
 4. The direct testimony of vast nimibers of 
 * 'psychics'' covering the history of all ages, such 
 
 [ 30 ] 
 
This Provable 
 
 persons being the hypnotized subjects of stronger 
 disembodied intelligences. 
 
 5. The recorded testimony of the members 
 of all the ancient schools of spiritual knowledge. 
 
 6. The direct personal testimony of their 
 living members. 
 
 7. The direct personal testimony of count- 
 less living psychics, or spiritual mediums, many 
 of whom hold daily communication with physi- 
 cally disembodied persons. 
 
 8. Many of the priesthood of the Catholic 
 Church could testify to the conscious and intel- 
 ligent communication between men in the body 
 and men out of the body. This, in fact, is the 
 secret of the power of the Catholic Chtirch. 
 
 9. Countless monks and nvms of the same 
 Church could testify to the same facts. The 
 seclusion and austerities of the monastery and 
 the convent originally had this object in view. 
 The Roman Catholic Church preserves its direct 
 touch with the spiritual side of life through its 
 truly celibate priests, monks and nuns. 
 
 ID. To this could be added the direct testi- 
 mony of coimtless living Oriental yogis, fakirs and 
 dervishes who acquire spiritual insight and 
 spiritual powers through barbarous physical self- 
 torture and physical self -suppression. 
 
 II. The direct testimony of countless Oriental 
 priests and Oriental philosophers and students. 
 
 [ 31 ] 
 
Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 Such testimony is found especially in India, 
 where climatic conditions, and native tempera- 
 ment and dietary habits foster the spiritual 
 development of man. 
 
 12. Lastly, the personal testimony of certain 
 Students of the Great School, who are neither 
 Masters, seers, nor prophets, nor yet spiritual 
 mediimis; the knowledge thus gained of a spirit- 
 ual plane having resulted from a certain degree 
 of experiment and demonstration under the 
 formula for self-development. 
 
 This brings us to the second class, or to indirect 
 evidence of life after physical death. Under this 
 head we have: 
 
 1. The great world religions which are the 
 responsive bodies of faith supporting the declara- 
 tions of a few great Masters of the Law. Almost 
 the whole of mankind subscribes to one or the 
 other of these religions. 
 
 2. The testimony of the individual intuitions. 
 Every normal individual, risen to the plane of 
 intelligent life, enjoys intuitions and experiences 
 which, at times, suggest another plane of life. 
 Such intuitions and experiences cannot be con- 
 verted into rational proof. The individual con- 
 cerned, however, knows them to be facts. He 
 recognizes a silent, subtle, interior guide and 
 critic that he names Conscience. He finds that 
 this Conscience speaks through the intuitions 
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
This Provable 
 
 alone, and that it is a thing independent of 
 reason. — Harmonics of Evolution^ pp. 26, 27. 
 
 When the intelligent soul of man exercises it- 
 self upon the physical plane, man enjoys a rational 
 conception of physical things. When it exercises 
 itself upon the spiritual plane, the physically 
 embodied man enjoys spiritual intmtions of 
 spiritual things. How often that inward moni- 
 tor declares ^^ There is no death. '^ How often 
 the rational mind denies this intuition of the soul, 
 one who has been a skeptic can testify. 
 
 3. The spiritual intuitions of man declare 
 ''There is no death^\ The soul of man rejects 
 the idea of annihilation. Instead, it universally 
 entertains faith or a hope in a life to come. This 
 expectation of continued life characterizes the 
 savage, the seer and the savant. Because these 
 intuitions of man are so imiversal they are there- 
 fore nattu-al. Natural impulses imply a natural 
 law of fulfillment. A universal desire implies 
 a natural means of accomplishment. Universal 
 tendencies are always based upon adequate 
 principles. 
 
 4. The indirect evidence presented by thousands 
 who have witnessed the phenomena of the seance 
 room or have come in contact with psychics under 
 other circumstances. It is xmreasonable to hold 
 that these large and intelligent classes of persons 
 are either entirely deceived or are deliberately 
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 deceiving others as to what they have witnessed. 
 
 5. Perhaps the strongest indirect evidence in 
 this line is that which has been furnished by cer- 
 tain eminent representatives of physical science. 
 Especially does the recently published work of 
 Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace deserve attention 
 and demand respect. This is not a hastily written 
 opinion. It is not merely the result of a few 
 desultory observations in the seance room. It is 
 a carefully prepared summary of scientific tests 
 and investigations of Modem Spiritualism cov- 
 ering a period of fifty-three years. 
 
 After more than half a century spent in the 
 critical study of Spiritualism, one of the greatest 
 intelligences of the modem school of physical 
 science declares such phenomena to be the direct 
 result of super-physical (spiritual) laws and of 
 physically disembodied intelligences. 
 
 Thus it is that six centuries of the method? of 
 physical science have not equipped it to disprove 
 the claims of Modem Spiritualism alone. It 
 leaves one of its foremost representatives to 
 declare for the truth of those claims. 
 
 In short, it leaves the collaborator of Charles 
 Darwin to reaffirm what was declared ages ago 
 by Buddha and later by our own acknowledged 
 Master, Christ, viz.: THERE IS NO DEATH. 
 — Harmonics oj Evolution, pp. 28, 29. 
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
3. DEMONSTRATION 
 
 Strong statements are quoted herein, 
 statements which no one could be 
 blamed for doubting; for they reverse 
 the current of the lifelong modes of 
 thought of most of us. Of the truth 
 of these statements those to whom 
 they are addressed have the right to 
 demand proof. The quotations herein 
 made are from a comprehensive state- 
 ment which recognizes this right to 
 proof and meets it fully and fairly, 
 providing for the obtaining of proof of 
 the kind which the Master of men 
 gave when he furnished the skeptical 
 Thomas the palpable proof that he 
 was, indeed, the Crucified Christ. 
 
 Throughout the Text Books appear statements 
 that the data of the Great School are ' 'scientific 
 data''; that they are the results of '^scientific 
 demonstration"; that Natural Science is an 
 ''exact science"; that it constitutes the natural 
 bridge of "science" between the two worlds of 
 matter, life and intelligence, etc. 
 
 [ 35 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 In Vol. II, at page 107, the simple and un- 
 qualified statement is made, and without apologies, 
 that * 'Natural Science has demonstrated with 
 absolute certainty the continuity of life after 
 physical death.'' — The Great Work, p. 95. 
 
 By ^'demonstration", in this connection, the 
 School of Natural Science means actual personal 
 experience, so checked and guarded that there 
 can be no opportunity for self-deception or im- 
 position. 
 
 It holds that wherever a ' 'personal experience'' 
 is possible nothing short of this will be accepted 
 by it as a "scientific demonstration". All data 
 which cannot be reduced in their final analysis 
 to a basis cf "personal experience" are held by 
 it as qualified, and subject to further and more 
 complete verification. — The Great Work, p. 99. 
 
 There is only one process, or one method, 
 whereby the physical scientist will ever come to 
 know with "scientific" certainty that there is a 
 spiritual world and a life beyond physical death. 
 There is but one way by which he will ever make 
 the ^ 'scientific demonstration ". That is by ' 'the 
 development within himself of a higher power of 
 perception.'^ He must admit this new ele- 
 ment into the problem. By this method and this 
 alone he may be able to reduce the ' 'demonstra- 
 tion" to the basis of a "personal experience." 
 Then and then only will he know. But even then 
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
Demonstration 
 
 he will not be able to ^^demonstrate" his knowl- 
 edge to any other member of his profession by- 
 physical means nor on the plane of physical 
 nature. The most that he could do would be to 
 point out the way whereby he proceeded to 
 ^'develop within himself the higher power of 
 perception" which brought the spiritual universe 
 of matter and material things within the limita- 
 tions of his own sensibilities. This is as far as he 
 could go. His fellow scientists would have the 
 rest to do if they would verify the ^'demonstra- 
 tion" and make it their own. — The Great Worky 
 pp. 104, 105. 
 
 Nothing but the internal consciousness of a 
 definite personal experience will ever be accepted 
 by the Intelligent Soul as proof positive of a 
 Spiritual World or of Individual Life after 
 physical death. — The Great Work, p. 429. 
 
 One who possesses the independent power of 
 spiritual vision may witness with perfect dis- 
 tinctness and absolute certainty the separation 
 of the two bodies at the moment of physical death. 
 
 With his physical eyes he may see the dead 
 physical form and with his spiritual vision he 
 mi.ay see the live and actual spiritual body — a 
 perfect duplicate of the physical, except that the 
 one is dead and the other alive. — The Great 
 Psychological Crime, p, 292. 
 
 In accordance with this view, the School goes 
 
 [ 3V 1 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 further and asserts that in conformity with a 
 definite and scientific formula for an independent 
 development of the spiritual senses and psychic 
 powers of a physically embodied individual, each 
 full Member of the Great School has made the 
 * 'scientific demonstration'* through a * 'personal 
 experience.'' As a result, he is able at will to 
 ''sense" a plane of material conditions and 
 material things of a degree of refinement and 
 activity wholly above and beyond all that is 
 known as physical. For want of a better and 
 more appropriate name, they have chosen to 
 designate this world of finer material as the 
 ''spiritual" world, or the world of "spiritual 
 material." In it they see and recognize and 
 communicate at will with those who have passed 
 into that realm, through liberation from physical 
 matter and physical limitations, in the transition 
 we call physical death. — The Great Work, p. loo. 
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
. SIMILARITY OF LIFE HERE 
 AND THERE 
 
 The next Truth, which must come 
 as a healing balm to the wounded 
 spirits of those of us who have 
 loved, lost and mourned for them, 
 is that they are in no strange land; 
 they are in no terror of wonder and 
 fright; their Souls have not been 
 rudely torn up and roughly trans- 
 planted into a foreign, hostile soil. 
 Their new life is only an extension of 
 this. 
 
 THEIR LIFE HERE AND THERE HAS A 
 
 COMMON DEVELOPMENT AND A 
 
 COMMON PURPOSE 
 
 Scientific demonstration has repeatedly shown 
 that, when our dear ones enter the spiritual 
 world, they find analogies to physical life every- 
 where although they find no conditions that are 
 exactly identical with earthly life. 
 
 They find a world of superior material refine- 
 ment, whose vibratory activities respond to the 
 spiritual senses only. This new world appears 
 to be wholly independent of the old. There is 
 
 I 39 1 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 nothing in it that would impress the physical 
 senses. That which they see is difficult to com- 
 prehend or describe. They are simply dazzled, 
 delighted, bewildered. All efforts to translate 
 that experience to man in the body are neces- 
 sarily inadequate. That statement is literally 
 true which declares, ' ^It hath not entered into the 
 heart of ma.an to conceive '' what this higher world 
 means, either as to its appearance, its intelligence 
 or its activities. 
 
 The first great fact that forces itself upon the 
 intelligence is the universality of matter. The 
 spiritual world is as truly material as our own. 
 It is simply a world of matter finer in particle and 
 more rapid in vibratory action than our physical 
 world. The spiritual world is just as real and 
 tangible and visible to a spiritual man as is the 
 physical world to the physical man. — Harmonics 
 of Evolution, p. 59. 
 
 Finite intelligence has never yet succeeded 
 in passing the limitations of matter. As far as 
 science has penetrated (thus far) it finds both 
 matter and intelligence everywhere manifesting 
 itself as the positive force in Nature acting upon 
 matter. It finds everywhere matter as the 
 negative property of Nature being acted upon 
 by intelligence. 
 
 They prove also the truth of that statement 
 of St. Paid which has been the subject of con- 
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 troversy for nearly nineteen hundred years. 
 They prove that there is a ' 'Natural'' or physical 
 body and that there is also a ^'Spiritual body.'' 
 They find that this spiritual body is but a finer 
 representation of the physical organisms they 
 have quitted. 
 
 Whether the ego, or intelligent soul, ever dis- 
 cards this spiritual body is a question not ger- 
 main to this present writing. It is a question, 
 however, that is much debated in spiritual life. 
 
 This spiritual world has locality. It encircles 
 this planet like a vast girdle. How far outward 
 and upward it extends is a question not involved 
 in this discussion. In appearance that world is 
 analogous to this. That is to say, it has a 
 similar distribution of land and water. There 
 are oceans and continents. There are moun- 
 tains, valleys and plains. There are forests, 
 lakes and rivers. The same activity in the 
 material world exists there as here. There is 
 movement of all waters. There are magnetic 
 changes of matter. There is growth in vege- 
 tation. — Harmonics of Evolution^ p, 60. 
 
 That world is inhabited just as this world is, 
 by intelligent beings capable of moral improve- 
 ment. They are real people; in fact, the same 
 people who have previously lived here. They 
 are simply spiritually embodied intelligences 
 instead of physically embodied individuals. They 
 
 [ 41 ] 
 
"Why Weepest Thouf" 
 
 preserve their identity as certain individuals from 
 this plane. They continue to follow in the same 
 general lines of intellectual and moral activity 
 which engaged them in this world. 
 
 The spiritual plane is divided into many planes 
 or spheres of life and action. The divisions are 
 local as well as intellectual, social and moral. 
 Scientifically speaking, the spiritual material of 
 this higher plane is subject to the law of polarity 
 or vibration. By reason of this law its several 
 zones or spheres are regulated by what is known 
 as the spiritual law of gravitation. The coarser 
 material moving at lower rates of vibration very 
 naturally constitutes the immediate stratum 
 encircling the coarse physical earth. By the same 
 law of spiritual gravitation the remote regions of 
 the spiritual world are those whose material 
 substance is finest and whose vibratory action 
 is highest. 
 
 The physically released inhabitants of the 
 spiritual plane occupy the several zones or belts 
 composing the spiritual world. They find their 
 spiritual homes in one or another of those strata 
 representing lower or higher states of refinement 
 and vibratory action. They select as their 
 homes that particular sphere or locality to which 
 their own vibratory condition impels them. This 
 means that spiritually embodied men differ in 
 degree of material refinement and vibratory 
 
 [ 42 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 action just as do men in the physical body. It 
 means that spiritual people, like earthly people, 
 seek those localities and that social environment 
 which correspond to their own stages of develop- 
 ment. 
 
 The spiritual law of polarity or vibration is 
 again illustrated by the separation of spiritual 
 beings into many social castes. — Id. p, 61. 
 
 For example, the spiritual plane immediately 
 surrounding this earth consists of the least re- 
 fined spiritual material moving at the lowest 
 rates of vibration. Hence that zone is the 
 negative state of spiritual material. It therefore 
 does not reflect light. It appears (to spiritual 
 vision) darker than those localities above and 
 beyond. Mere liberation from the physical body 
 does not in the least change man in his essential 
 nature. It does not mean an instantaneous 
 absorption of universal knowledge. It does not 
 eflEect a sudden revolution in the moral nature. 
 —Id. p. 62. 
 
 Men, women and children upon the spiritual 
 planes of life appear to possess all the natural 
 faculties and intelligent capacities and powers 
 with which they were invested at and prior to the 
 time of physical dissolution. — The Great Psycho- 
 logical Crime J p. 145 (5). 
 
 In fact, the change called death leaves a man 
 very little wiser and morally no better than he 
 
 [ 43 ] 
 
Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 was immediately before. He finds himself some- 
 what in the same position of an ignorant American 
 who has been suddenly transported to the center 
 of some European civilization. Certain ad- 
 ditional facts of Nature are literally thrust upon 
 him. He cannot, however, obtain any definite 
 information as to the nature of those facts without 
 study and investigation. — Harmonics oj Evolu- 
 tion, p, 62. 
 
 Indeed, so like at times is the spiritual world to 
 the physical that, frequently, those who have just 
 entered it find it difficult to realize that they have 
 '^died^\ that they are spirits instead of human 
 beings. — The Great Psychological Crime, p. 241 (3). 
 His own limitations, spiritual, mental and moral, 
 curtail his comprehension and enjoyment of 
 that which confronts him, just as ignorance 
 curtails a man's enjoymient in this world. He 
 finds in the spiritual world, as in the physical, 
 that a man enlarges his store of knowledge and 
 capacity for enjoyment through the slow processes 
 of education and self -development. If ignorant 
 and vicious when released by physical death, such 
 a man will follow the same impulses and passions 
 which governed him in earthly life. He neither 
 appreciates nor seeks that which is refined, intel- 
 ligent and noble. Instead, he seeks that which is 
 in natural or vibratory sympathy with himself. 
 The physically disembodied man discovers that 
 
 ( 44 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 it is his own acts, thoughts and motives, which 
 have conditioned his spiritual body to one or 
 another of the spiritual zones or localities. If 
 his earth life has been intelHgent, chaste and 
 purposeful he finds himself attuned to the higher 
 planes and the higher circles of spiritual life. 
 Under such conditions he passes outward from 
 the earth plane by the law of spiritual gravity and 
 dwells in that sphere and among such people as 
 are harmonious to himself. If, on the contrary, 
 his life has been vicious, ignorant, criminal and 
 impure he finds that the ''spirit'' has been 
 coarsened by that previous life in the body. He 
 finds, therefore, that he is in touch with only 
 the lower stratum of spiritual material and 
 spiritual society. — Harmonics of Evolution, p. 62. 
 
 Under these conditions the spiritual body can- 
 not rise. It remains in the negative regions of 
 spiritual existence. It is therefore an integral 
 part and natural representative of negation or 
 darkness. It cannot rise to the light. It appears, 
 therefore, as darkness to itself and to others. 
 
 By reason of this natural law and this actual 
 condition in the spiritual world have arisen those 
 well-known but mysterious allusions to ''earth- 
 bound spirits," to "angels of darkness," to "re- 
 gions of darkness," to the "outer darkness" and 
 to the "darkness of ignorance." 
 
 In this physical world darkness and evil and 
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 ignorance are linked rather in a figurative sense. 
 In the spiritual world they are linked in a literal 
 as well as in a figurative and ethical sense. 
 
 What we term the law of spiritual gravity is, 
 in fact, that universal spiritual principle of 
 polarity which governs evolution upon both 
 planes of matter. This is the principle which 
 underlies all of the propositions of Natural 
 Science. It is the principle of spiritual affinity 
 or polarity which, reduced to a general propo- 
 sition, is as follows: — 
 
 '^ There is a principle in Nature which impels 
 every entity to seek vibratory correspondence with 
 another like entity of opposite polarity, '' 
 
 Under this universal principle the spiritual 
 world divides itself into many material and social 
 regions. By the same principle spiritual beings 
 seek that zone or locality whose material refine- 
 ment and social development correspond to them- 
 selves. It follows, therefore, that the wise and 
 the ignorant, the good and the evil, the active 
 and the idle, group themselves in the order of 
 their affinities. — Id. p. 63. 
 
 This principle of Nature continually tends to 
 bring together all things of the same degree of 
 refinement and vibratory activity. — Id, p. 64. 
 
 Under the Constructive Principle and process of 
 evolution, growth, development and progress, 
 man disappears from the lowest plane of spiritual 
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 life, only to appear upon the next higher, inhabit- 
 ing a finer spiritual organism, clothed in richer 
 splendor, and in possession of all the natural 
 faculties and intelligent capacities and powers 
 with which he was invested at the time of the 
 transition and with the same individuality. He 
 is fully conscious of the transition and is able at 
 will to appear upon the lower plane through which 
 he has passed, and manifest himself to those who 
 have known him there. In an analogous manner 
 he is able to pass on to higher planes of spirituality 
 and life. — The Great Psychological Crime, p. 145. 
 
 This same principle of polarity operates in 
 htiman society upon the physical plane. While 
 caste in this world appears to depend almost 
 wholly upon external advantages and physical 
 conditions, this is not the fact. In reality all 
 human organizations and social integrations are 
 dominated by the spiritual sympathies rather 
 than the physical conditions, professions or ad- 
 vantages. A conamon expression in our own 
 society illustrates this principle. We hear it 
 said that a certain person is *'out of his sphere," 
 meaning that the individual is not mentally or 
 morally equipped for fellowship in a certain circle. 
 
 There is one radical difference between the 
 physical and spiritual worlds in this respect. On 
 the physical plane we only know by intuition 
 when a person is spiritually out of touch with his 
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 social environment. In the spiritual world, 
 however, the law of vibration sets its ineffaceable 
 sign upon every man. That is to say, one who 
 remains in the lower stratum of the spiritual world 
 is himself in that negative state which causes 
 him to appear dark. On the contrary, he who 
 rises by reason of his own refinement vibrates at 
 a higher tension. He is in a positive state of 
 activity which may appear first as color and next 
 as light. 
 
 ^^Heir' and ' 'darkness," therefore, are not 
 mere figures of speech. The word ' 'heaven" 
 has a literal significance. Darkness is both 
 locality and condition, as well as appearance. 
 Light is both locality and condition, as well as 
 appearance. 
 
 Every individual, whether physically or spirit- 
 ually embodied, throws off spiritual magnetism. 
 During earthly life those magnetic waves are 
 invisible to the physical eye. 
 
 In spiritual life, however, they are distinctly 
 visible to the spiritual eye. The spiritual man 
 appears to his fellow men as veiled in darkness, or 
 he gives off magnetic waves so rapid in vibratory 
 action as to produce the effect of either color or 
 light to the spiritual eye. Thus a spiritual man 
 appears in an aura of darkness, or of color, or of 
 light, according to his degree of development, 
 viz., according to the degree of his material 
 
 [ 48 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 refinement, vibratory action and magnetic power. 
 — Harmonics oj Evolution, p, 64. 
 
 Persons familiar with the seance room will 
 recall how frequently a clairvoyant meditim will 
 refer to the ^^aura" of certain visitors. At one 
 time the medium may allude to a physically 
 embodied visitor, at another time to a spiritual 
 visitor. In both cases the medium sees spirit- 
 ually those waves of spiritual magnetism thrown 
 off b}^ the person in the physical body or out of 
 it, as the case may be. 
 
 In this we find explanation of the ^^halo^' or 
 the shining cloud surrounding ^ 'angels" that have 
 for all ages been written about or reported by 
 mediimas or pictured by artists. The finer the 
 spiritual condition the more brilliant and mag- 
 netic becomes this aura. — Id, ^.65. 
 
 It is only in the higher life that all relations are 
 natviral, where the unclothed spirit must seek its 
 true affinities. In this fair country, where 
 thought is one with action, and where desire is 
 flight, no two souls are linked together that would 
 be free. — Dream Child, p, 179 (i). 
 
 Saul of Tarsus was prostrated by what he could 
 only describe as a great light. There was a very 
 excellent reason why Moses' spiritual visitors were 
 concealed by a cloud from the uninstructed 
 Israelites. The effect of sudden contact between 
 a highly developed spiritual being and a physi- 
 
 [ 49 1 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 cally embodied man wholly unprepared for such 
 contact is a dangerous encounter for the earthly 
 man. It would be as fatal as the live electric 
 wire. 
 
 Thus the law of vibration governs the material 
 conditions of the spiritual world. It is a natural 
 law that assigns man to darkness or envelopes 
 him in light in accordance with his own essential 
 nature. 
 
 It must be imderstood, however, that it is the 
 intelligent soul itself which controls the vibratory 
 action of both bodies, physical and spiritual. 
 The vibratory action of the spiritual body is, 
 in fact, but the reflex action of the soul itself. 
 It is, therefore, the soul or the ego which is 
 coarse or fine, weak or forceful, dull or active. 
 To be dull and heavy of soul is to be coarse in 
 material texture, slow in vibratory action, nega- 
 tive in condition, dark in appearance. To be 
 active of soul or intelligence is to be fine in ma- 
 terial particle, rapid in vibratory action, positive 
 in condition and Itiminous in appearance. 
 — Harmonics oj Evolution, p. 65. 
 
 Thus, after all, it is the soul which drags the 
 body down. It is the activity or inactivity of 
 the intelligent soul which determines the local 
 habitation of the spiritual body and thus its own 
 social environment. 
 
 Caste in the spiritual world means more than 
 
 [ so ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 it does here. People there are not so often found 
 out of place. In a literal sense, men show their 
 * 'true colors ' ' in the spiritual world. The natural 
 spiritual law leaves the individual little oppor- 
 tunity for simulation. He appears as he is, 
 stupid or active, dull or intelligent, evil or good. 
 He appears selfish or cowardly, noble or exalted, 
 just as he is in fact. He is clothed in darkness or 
 light according to his own self-made conditions. 
 In short, he is '^known" in the spiritual world. 
 
 At the hour of physical death the released ego, 
 invested with its ethereal body, may rise rapidly 
 from the earth or it may cling indefinitely to its 
 former earthly haunts. It may condition itself 
 to the coarser and darker regions close to the 
 physical plane, or it may be able to rise rapidly to 
 those finer, lighter and more positive regions lying 
 far from the physical world. It is the soul of 
 man which holds his spirit earth-bound, or impels 
 it to higher planes when once released from the 
 physical body. 
 
 Except a man knows this law he can form but 
 the faintest conception of earth's immediate 
 spiritual surroundings. It is only the student 
 who realizes that humanity as a whole is in closest 
 touch with the lowest strattmi of spiritual life and 
 intelligence. He perceives that mankind is 
 assailed by evil spiritual influences more fre- 
 quently than he is approached by the higher and 
 
 [ SI ] 
 
Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 better influences. The too often demoralizing 
 results of the seance room are particularly due to 
 the easy approach of vicious disembodied intel- 
 Hgences — Id. p. 66. 
 
 It must be understood, however, that the 
 physically disembodied man is not permanently 
 bound to any one locality nor to any particular 
 social environment. Nothing but his own con- 
 dition binds him either to place or to people. 
 When that condition changes he releases himself. 
 In that life, as in this, the individual is the arbiter 
 of his own destiny. He rises or sinks by and 
 through his own efforts or his own failures. 
 
 In that world, as in this, love of knowledge, 
 together with the courage to do and the strength 
 to persevere, will gradually raise a man from a 
 lower to a higher plane of existence. 
 
 The spiritual man overcomes unhappy spiritual 
 conditibns through educational processes. As a 
 result his spiritual body becomes finer in particle 
 with increased vibratory action. He is thus 
 changed from the coarse, negative and dark state 
 of being to the fine, positive and luminous state. 
 
 Thus there is a basis for our popular belief in 
 halo-enveloped angels who go down into the dark 
 places and among the fallen. 
 
 In the spiritual world there is an increase of 
 purely intellectual activity as well as of philan- 
 thropic effort. Released from the exactions im- 
 
 [ 52 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 posed by the physical functions of life man finds 
 leisure for the intellectual pursuits he may have 
 been denied here. Release from physical life 
 means increase of time and opportunity for higher 
 work. When the strain of this planetary life is 
 over, the intelligent soul is free to follow its highest 
 aspirations. 
 
 The scholar, statesman, artist, and poet, as well 
 as the philanthropist, is now free to move forward 
 in his chosen lines. In that world, as in this, 
 there are facts to be learned. There are people 
 to govern. There are beauty and love to be 
 translated. There is music to be written and 
 there are songs to be simg. There are romances 
 to be lived. There is work to do. 
 
 In short, the higher life furnishes opportunity 
 and means which most of us vainly seek here. 
 
 In another respect that life is analogous to our 
 own. The same differences of opinion and in- 
 tellectual controversy exist there as here. It is 
 true that men no longer dispute as to the fact 
 of life after physical death. It is true that they 
 no longer regard the spirit world as a supernatural 
 world. There is, however, no abatement of 
 discussion and dispute and speculation over other 
 facts in Nature. Men there, as here, debate the 
 ultimate issues of existence. They speculate 
 upon the immortality of the soul, the nature and 
 
 [ S3 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 character of God, and the probabilities of rebirth 
 upon this planet — Id. pp, 66, 67. 
 
 In yet another respect these two worlds are 
 analogous. The inhabitants of the spiritual 
 world are men and women. The sex division is 
 as distinct on that side of life as on this. More 
 than this, upon that plane as upon this, man is 
 the intellectual master. He is the organizer and 
 ruler of spiritual mankind. On the other hand, 
 woman is there, as she is here, his companion, co- 
 worker and mate. In that world, as in this, man 
 is the aggressive factor, while woman is the pacific 
 factor, typifying the spirit of love. Though man 
 continues to dominate the larger public life, the 
 influence of woman continues to penetrate and 
 ennoble the entire social organism. 
 
 Men and women continue to occupy the same 
 relative position in that life as in this. In spirit- 
 ual life, as in this life, man particularly represents 
 law, order and knowledge, while woman par- 
 ticularly represents peace, love and all the 
 aesthetic and ethical activities. 
 
 In spiritual life, men and women continue the 
 individual love relation. Between men and 
 women on the spiritual side exists the same irre- 
 sistible attraction which leads them into indi- 
 vidual love relations. 
 
 This individual love relation must not be under- 
 stood to mean merely an impersonal and altruistic 
 
 [ 54 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 friendship. It means instead, a personal and 
 exclusive love and partnership based upon the 
 spiritual law of affinity. This relation, therefore, 
 is a more permanent one than the average mar- 
 riage here. The union of a spiritual man and 
 woman is unlike marriage upon the physical plane 
 in that it lacks the physical functions, passions 
 and sympathies growing out of the purely physical 
 nature and physical conditions. Instead, it is a 
 much closer bond based upon the spiritual prin- 
 ciple of affinity. It is a union based, not upon 
 physical passion, but wholly upon spiritual, in- 
 tellectual, aesthetic and ethical S3mipathies. 
 —Id. p. 68. 
 
 In short, sex is an immutable spiritual principle. 
 The bond between men and women outlasts all 
 earthly and physical ties and relationships. The 
 mutual love of man and woman transcends the 
 physical functions and passions. It includes all 
 that which goes to make up the higher man and 
 woman. On earth we cherish an ideal of true 
 marriage. That ideal contemplates not only the 
 physical relation but a perfect sympathy in the 
 higher intellectual and moral nature. How sel- 
 dom that ideal is realized, let each one judge from 
 observation and from his or her personal matri- 
 monial experiences. 
 
 These facts concerning sex in spiritual life are 
 proof that it is a fundamental principle in Nature, 
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 and that the spiritual destinies of man and woman 
 are correlated to each other. They are proof 
 that the sex office transcends the mere physical 
 functions of generation and reproduction. They 
 are proof that the uses and purposes of sex are 
 not exhausted in physical life. Instead, on the 
 best authority of Natural Science it is declared 
 that this question of sex is boimd up in the 
 highest development of intelligent moral beings. 
 — Id. p. 69. 
 
 A scientific acquaintance with the spiritual side 
 of life establishes the fact of two correlated worlds 
 of matter, life, intelligence and love. Man 
 occupies each of these worlds in turn. The inves- 
 tigator discovers that both are governed by one 
 set of general principles and that causes in one 
 world may produce effects in the other. 
 
 There is no death. Instead, a man has one 
 life in two worlds. When he leaves the physical 
 body he simply takes up life on the other side as 
 would any stranger suddenly transported to some 
 strange and unfamiliar country. He takes up 
 life under new conditions while remaining in 
 essence the same man he was on earth. He is 
 released from physical exactions and physical 
 activities, nothing more. He continues to feel 
 the same impulses, passions, appetites and desires 
 that he had encouraged here. He is moved by 
 the same hopes and aspirations which governed 
 
 [ 56 ] 
 
Life Here and There 
 
 him here. He is released from physical toil but 
 not from activity. He does not suffer pain 
 through physical disease. He is not, however, 
 exempt from pain. 
 
 All of which means that an ex-human being is 
 the identical individual who passes from this life 
 to that, be he wise or foolish, good or evil. 
 
 Spiritual life is an inevitable sequence cn! 
 physical life and development. An intelligent, 
 purposeful and happy spiritual life depends upon 
 the substantial basis of an intelligent, purposeful 
 and chaste hirnian life. Man is, therefore, the 
 arbiter of his own destiny. Nature furnishes the 
 time and the opportunity. Man is left to either 
 improve or waste his time. He is left to accept 
 or ignore the opportunities which Natiure offers. 
 
 What may appear to be adverse conditions in 
 this life may, in fact, be the very conditions which 
 best develop the in dividual spiritually and morally. 
 
 With this array of important facts Nattiral 
 Science looks upon the evolution of man from a 
 very different point of view from that taken by 
 either scientific skepticism or dogmatic theology. 
 These conclusions represent the combined re- 
 search, experiment, experience and judgment of 
 all the great Masters of the Law, past and present. 
 Thus it follows that the whole philosophy of life is 
 based upon the proposition, LIFE HERE AND 
 HEREAFTER HAS A COMMON DEVELOP- 
 MENT AND ACOMMON PURPOSE.— /i./^. 70. 
 [ 57 ] 
 
5. HOW WE MAY MEET THEM AGAIN. 
 
 Could we know that it is possible 
 once more to meet and commune with 
 our loved ones, is there any effort we 
 woula spare, any sacrifice we would 
 forego, to do so? To those who "hav6 
 loved and lost,'* is there any bliss thaj> 
 could be imagined comparable to thes 
 blessedness of reunion and communion 
 with the dear ones gone before? 
 
 We are so much creatures of educa- 
 tion and habit, so prone to take on the 
 color and tone of our age and environ- 
 ment, so accustomed to the idea that a 
 blank, impenetrable wall shuts off the 
 dead from the living, that we would be 
 very apt, at least at first, to doubt the 
 sanity of him who says it is possible to 
 view the things of the Spirit World 
 while yet in the flesh. 
 
 Yet the Great School of Natural 
 Science, after ages of proved, scientific 
 experimentation, assures us this can be 
 done, although the way to such Spirit- 
 ual unfoldment is long and toilsome, 
 rough and rugged. 
 
 Between the visible and the invisible, between 
 earth and heaven, rolls no impassable gulf. All 
 life is one and inseparable. All trath is one and 
 
 [ 58 ] 
 
How We May Meet Them 
 
 indivisible. There is no death, there is only 
 transition. — Dream Child, p. 96 (2). 
 
 The evidences of life after physical death, as 
 obtained by men of science, are evidences which 
 flow from a personal and purely rational course 
 of development. 
 
 The formula for this course is based upon exact 
 knowledge of certain ftmdamental elements and 
 principles in Nature. It is a formula which has 
 been successfully demonstrated by the special 
 students of all ages. It is a far more exacting 
 course of discipline than those prescribed by our 
 great universities. It includes development in 
 the physical, spiritual, mental and moral depart- 
 ments of life. This formula of self -development 
 has been known only to the few. Hints of this 
 definite, tried, tested and fully demonstrated 
 method may be fotmd in a few existing publica- 
 tions. The authors, however, writing for the 
 general public, have so veiled their true meanings 
 in allegory, poetry and mystical symbolism as to 
 conceal rather than reveal the correct principles 
 and the true method of development. 
 
 A notable instance is the Bulwer literature, [It 
 is a fact not generally known that Bulwer was a 
 Student of the Great School and was deeply 
 versed in occult matters.] His ^^Zanoni" and 
 *' Strange Story'' have been at once the puzzle 
 
 [ 59 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 and delight of the past half century. — Harmonics 
 of Evolution, p. 30. 
 
 Asceticism, to some extent, is an important 
 factor in the development of spiritual insight and 
 of spiritual powers. The fasting, solitude and 
 silence set forth, with more or less prominence, 
 in all sacred writings have a rational and sci- 
 entific explanation in natural law. The long fast 
 maintained by Christ was not a theatric episode. 
 It was a matter of pure science. The Apostles 
 were taught the value of asceticism. John the 
 Baptist attained spiritual vision partly through 
 such means. The same is true of St. Paul. 
 
 No eater of meat and drinker of wine, nor one 
 given to undue physical indulgence, has thus far 
 in the history of spiritual development demon- 
 strated the fact of life after death, scientifically. 
 
 While there is but one purely rational and sci- 
 entific course of spiritual self -development, there 
 have been and still are, many unnatural, revolting 
 and dangerous practices which enable man to 
 reach spiritual vision. The horrible Yogi prac- 
 tices antedate Buddhism. Buddha rejected and 
 condemned that revolting formula. — Id. p. 31. 
 
 Spiritualism is the most useless and dangerous 
 form of other-worldliness. It draws the attention 
 from present duties and possibilities in the present 
 life, and reverses the only method by which 
 
 [ 60 ] 
 
How We May Meet Them 
 
 either any individual, or the race as a whole, 
 has ever risen in the scale of being. The whole 
 effort of Spiritualism would seem to be to de- 
 termine and to force the return of a disembodied 
 soul to earthly consciousness, and to drag it back 
 into matter; while every thoughtful person ought 
 to be aware that the elevation of man depends 
 on the degree in which he rises toward the spirit- 
 ual world. The time will doubtless come when 
 the so-called materializations will be better under- 
 stood, and every clean person will avoid them as 
 the more enlightened among the Spiritualists 
 do now. Admitting, for th e sake of the argument, 
 the whole philosophy and phenomena of modem 
 Spiritualism, these efforts to drag the soul back to 
 earth and down into matter can justly be com- 
 pared to criminal abortion, where the embryo is 
 wrenched from its normal environment by an 
 impulse akin to murder, the fitting handmaid of 
 animal lust. — A Study of Man, p. i8o. 
 
 The exact and scientific formula for self- 
 development rests upon that fundamental prin- 
 ciple in Nature which is commonly termed the 
 law of Motion and Nimiber. This law of Mo- 
 tion and Nvimber (so termed by the ancients) or 
 the law of Vibration (so termed by the modems) 
 is, in fact, the spiritual principle of polarity. The 
 law of polarity has to do with the positive and 
 receptive vital energies in Nature acting upon 
 
 [ 6i ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf 
 
 matter. The law of vibration or polarity has to 
 do (primarily) with the refinement of matter and 
 its rate of vibratory action.- — Harmonics oj Evo- 
 lutiofiy p. 33. 
 
 The student of Natural Science undertakes his 
 own development in conformity with this law of 
 vibration. He undertakes it having in mind the 
 triune nature of man. That is, he accepts, as a 
 working corollary, the proposition that man 
 is composed of body, spirit and soul. This 
 means that man has a physical body and a spirit- 
 ual body which are controlled and operated by 
 the highest entity, the intelligent ego, the soul. 
 Accepting this proposition as a working principle, 
 he proceeds to demonstrate for himself by purely 
 rational and scientific means and methods. — Id. 
 
 P' 39. 
 
 The law he evokes to carry out that demonstra- 
 tion is the law of vibration, that law which refines 
 matter and increases its vibratory action. The 
 physical body is composed of physical matter. 
 The particles which are coarse in texture move at 
 a correspondingly low rate of vibratory action. 
 The physical body is provided with physical 
 sensory organs. Natiu*e conditions these organs 
 to receive and register the vibrations of physical 
 matter only. These vibrations are registered 
 upon the physical brain, through which instru- 
 
 [ 62 ] 
 
How We May Meet Them 
 
 ment they become cognizant to the intelligent 
 soul. 
 
 The physical sensory organs are not adapted 
 to all of the vibrations of even physical raatter. 
 Their combined powers only embrace a limited 
 range of vibration. This range includes only the 
 vibrations of physical matter which lie upon the 
 same plane of refinement and vibratory action 
 as the physical body itself. By aid of these 
 organs the intelligent ego or soul becomes cog- 
 nizant of different external physical objects, 
 elements and conditions. The recognition by 
 the ego of ihese external physical objects, ele- 
 ments and conditions constitutes what we term 
 physical sensation. 
 
 Each one of the physical organs of sensation 
 recf ives and registers a different range of vibra- 
 tion. The whole surface of the physical body it- 
 self is so supplied with sensory nerves as to 
 become a medium of vibrations. The general 
 sense of touch is experienced when any portion 
 of the physical body comes in contact with 
 physical matter that is made up of the coarser 
 particles moving at the lower rates of vibration. 
 —Id. p. 39. 
 
 The spiritual body of a man is composed of 
 ' 'spiritual material,'* that is, of matter much 
 finer than the finest physical matter, and moving 
 at a higher rate of vibration than the finest parti- 
 
 [ 63 ] 
 
Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 cles of physical matter moving at their highest 
 possible rate. The spiritual body permeates the 
 physical and constitutes the model upon which 
 physical material integrates. The spiritual body, 
 like the physical, is provided with five sensory 
 organs. They are adapted to receive and register 
 vibrations of spiritual material only, that is, of 
 matter lying upon the same plane of vibratory 
 action as the spiritual body itself. By the aid 
 of these organs the intelligent ego becomes cog- 
 nizant of different external spiritual objects, 
 elements and conditions. The recognition by 
 the ego of these objects, elements and conditions 
 constitutes what we term spiritual sensation. — Id. 
 p. 42. 
 
 The preparatory work of every student's life 
 may be said to be chemical. The chemical re- 
 finement of the physical body is the foundation 
 upon which he builds. This refinement is brought 
 about solely through scientific knowledge of the 
 vibratory principles. Given a healthy body, a 
 vigorous brain, a determined will and the proper 
 instruction and environment, and the course of 
 this self-development will increase rather than 
 impair the physical strength. Unnatural and 
 unscientific methods only do injury to either the 
 body or the mind. Ignorant experiment is al- 
 ways fraught with danger. 
 
 The chemical refinement of the physical body 
 
 [ 64 ] 
 
How We May Meet Them 
 
 is brought about to a certain degree by a system 
 of diet. Fine foods in limited quantities are 
 substituted for coarse food in unlimited quantity. 
 By fine food is not meant rich food, but fine 
 natural food, as grain, fruit and nuts. Supple- 
 menting this dietary course is a systematic covirse 
 of exercises which may be termed breathing 
 exercises. This is a course of training analogous 
 to our athletic exercises. It is, in fact, a purely 
 physical training, having in view primarily an 
 increased regular and rapid oxygenation of the 
 body. Supplementing this chemical and physical 
 course of development is a purely intellectual 
 system of training. This is a course of instruction 
 by which the mental powers and the will are 
 trained to the knowledge and emplojnnent of 
 Nature's finer forces. — Id, p, 46. 
 
 Ordinarily, the physical body in its coarser 
 state is opaque to its own embodied spiritual 
 sensory organs. It has the effect of darkness 
 to spiritual vision. When the physical body is 
 refined to a certain stage under scientific direction, 
 a remarkable thing occiirs to the student. While 
 still exercising his own will and rational powers 
 he finds himself, as it were, in a house of glass. 
 He finds that he is able to exercise independently 
 first one, then another, and finally all of the 
 spiritual organs of sensation. He does this 
 
 [ 6s ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 independently of the material composing his 
 physical body. 
 
 He finds himself now just as consciously and as 
 rationally in touch with the spiritual plane as he 
 is ordinarily with the physical. He now feels the 
 touch of spiritual objects. He hears spiritual 
 soimds . He smells spiritual odors. He also sees ob- 
 jects which are reflected by the rays of spiritual light . 
 
 The spiritual plane is just as tangible and visible 
 to a spiritual man as our physical plane is tangible 
 and visible to the physically embodied man. 
 The hand-clasp of two spiritual beings is just as 
 real as, and far more magnetic than, that of two 
 physically embodied individuals. 
 
 This free outlook upon the spiritual plane is the 
 first great victory of the student. (Other still 
 greater victories are explained in the Texts which 
 lack of space forbids our mentioning here.) 
 
 Thus, by personal experiment under an exact 
 scientific formula a man in the physical body 
 proves the existence of a spiritual world in- 
 habited by ex-himaan beings. This experiment 
 involves the demonstration of the fact that there 
 is no death. 
 
 This is the most important single discovery 
 ever made by finite science. To prove that death 
 does not end all has been the most valuable single 
 achievement of man in the physical body. — Id, />. 48 . 
 
 This experiment involves no risk. It is indis- 
 
 [ 66 ] 
 
How We May Meet Them 
 
 putable proof of the spiritual side of Nature. It 
 is indisputable proof of the fact of life after 
 physical death. It is to this point of demonstra- 
 tion that the school of Natural Science is prepared to 
 carry any man who possesses the necessary qualifica- 
 ticns of body, mind, will and motive. — Id. p. 49. 
 
 The past half -century has been a turning point 
 in the history of the highest races. Certain 
 groups of the Anglo-Saxon race have reached that 
 stage of physical refinement which mxakes access 
 to the spiritual plane comparatively easy. 
 
 There are, however, dangers to be encotmtered 
 by reason of this near approach of the two worlds. 
 The daily press is filled with accoimts of hysterical 
 mediums and hypnotic crimes. Everybody is 
 investigating. Most of these investigators are 
 walking blindly into danger. 
 
 The chief difficulties to be overcome by the 
 Student of Natural Science are not dietary. He 
 meets something more exacting than the mere 
 demands of the physical appetites and passions. 
 The intellectual and moral demands of this 
 philosophy constitute the severest test to which 
 he will be subjected. 
 
 Neither torture of the physical body, the re- 
 nim.ciation of material comfort, nor the sup- 
 pression of the affections is required of the modem 
 student. Holiness in the modem sense does not 
 mean a life of isolation, introspection and sub- 
 
 [ 67 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 jective ecstasy. Instead, it means a practical 
 life in the midst of men. It means a natural, 
 wholesome, himaan life lived out in conformity 
 to the spiritual principles in Nature and the re- 
 quirements of an intelligent soul. 
 
 It means a practical share in the world's activi- 
 ties, benefits and accomplishments. It means an 
 exemplification of natural, physical law upon the 
 physical plane of life, as well as natural spiritual 
 laws through physical conditions. — Id. p. 55. 
 
 To such a man as this, however. Natural Sci- 
 ence opens the way to this formula far enough to 
 demonstrate that this philosophy has a scientific 
 basis. The individual may do this without 
 detriment to health, to business, or to any earthly 
 relation or ambition. More than this, he is as- 
 sured that he would be able to fulfill the last re- 
 quirement of that formula without violating * 'his 
 duty to his God, his religion, his country, his 
 neighbor, his family or himself.'' — Id, p. 56. 
 
 THIS PERSONAL EXPERIMENT, GOV- 
 ERNED BY EXACT RULES AND IN CLOSE 
 CONFORMITY TO NATURAL LAW, CON- 
 STITUTES THE SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRA- 
 TION OF THE PACT OF LIFE AFTER 
 PHYSICAL DEATH.— 7J. p, 57- 
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
6 THE SOUL'S HIGHWAY 
 
 The Independent Method of Spirit- 
 ual Unfoldment comprehends a rigid 
 course of intellectual and moral, as 
 well as physical, training. It is based 
 upon a scientifically wrought code of 
 Morality. Its fundamental teaching 
 is the Living of a Life of strictest moral 
 rectitude. The refinement of the phys- 
 ical body is chiefly gained through re- 
 finement of the texture of the Soul and 
 the SouFs straightest highway to the 
 Celestial City is the Royal Highway of 
 Prayer. 
 
 We have already seen that, while the physica 
 body, in its ordinary coarser state, is opaque to 
 its own embodied spiritual sensory organs, and 
 has the effect of darkness to spiritual vision, when 
 it is refined to a certain stage under scientific 
 direction, its possessor, while still exercising his 
 own will and rational powers, finds that he is, as 
 it were, in a house of glass, and is able to exercise 
 independently first one, then another, and 
 finally all, of the spiritual organs of sensation. 
 
 We have also already learned that, when the 
 student has reached this point, he is just as 
 consciously and rationally in touch with the 
 
 [ 69 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 spiritual plane as he is ordinarily with the 
 physical; that he feels the touch of spiritual 
 objects, hears spiritual sounds, smells spiritual 
 odors, and sees objects reflected by the rays of 
 spiritual light. — Harmonics oj Evolution, p. 48. 
 
 While it is true that this chemical refinement 
 to such a degree that it will respond to impressions 
 from the spiritual plane is brought about, to a 
 certain degree, by a system of diet and that fine 
 foods refine, while coarse foods coarsen, the 
 texture of the tissues of the body, — {Id, pp. 46, 51.) 
 it is also true that the chief difficulties to be 
 overcome by him who seeks Independent Spirit- 
 ual Unfoldment are not dietary. — Id. p. 55. 
 
 Mastership is not a problem in dietetics. 
 Constructive Spirituality is not a question of 
 food. True Religion is not fotinded upon a bill 
 of fare — The Great Work, p. 413. 
 
 While Independent Spiritual Unfoldment in- 
 volves the co-ordinaticn of the physical condition 
 with the unfolding condition of the Soul, — {Id. 
 p. 420.) constructive Spirituality — the ability to 
 see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the things of the 
 ''other Coimtry," to meet and mingle with those 
 whom we have 'lost awhile" — ^is almost entirely 
 a thing of the Soul. 
 
 The refining process which is to make one 
 Master of these finer forces and more subtle 
 powers of Nature is not simply an art; it is a 
 
 [ 70 ] 
 
The SouVs Highway 
 
 transformation of man's whole being, a higher 
 evolution, a regeneration. — Constructive Psychol- 
 ogyy pp. 89, 90. 
 
 * 'Mystics'' and ' 'Saints" in all ages, by fasting, 
 prayer and meditation, have gained refined and 
 wider range of perception, though knowing and 
 learning nothing of the science of the method, or 
 the meaning of the law. — Constructive Psychology ^ 
 p. 88. 
 
 Constructive Spirituality (by which is meant 
 the Independent Unfoldment of the Intelligent 
 Soul of Man wherein it is brought into conscious 
 and immediate contact with the world of spiritual 
 material and spiritual things through the channels 
 of the Five Spiritual Senses {The Great Work, 
 p. 127,) rests upon a scientific basis. That basis 
 is Morality. The process of development begins 
 with the study of Moral Principles. The next 
 regular step in the process is the dt finite practice 
 by the student of those principles in his daily life 
 and conduct, in good faith, and without equivoca- 
 tion, mental reservation, or evasion of any kind 
 whatsoever. In other words, he is obligated to 
 make of his life a living exemplification of the 
 moral principles which his reason and his con- 
 science accept. The fundamental principle upon 
 which the Independent Method of Spiritual Self- 
 Development depends is Morality. The essential 
 key to that method is the exemplification of moral 
 
 [ 71 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 principles in the daily life and conduct of the 
 individual concerned. The scientific basis of 
 ''Spiritual Evolution" which alone leads onward 
 and upward to individual ' 'Mastership'' is — 
 simply and solely, — Morality. — The Great Work, 
 p. T44. 
 
 In other words, Morality is Nature's established 
 foimdation for the support of Constructive 
 Spirituality. There is none other. — The Great 
 Work, p. 148. 
 
 The Master Jesus was not merely rhapsodizing 
 nor indulging in mere figures of speech, as many 
 who profess to follow Him would seem to imply, 
 when, in the Eighth Beatitude, he said ' 'Blessed 
 are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 On the contrary, he was talking ' 'science. " Per, 
 whilst we do not know that the eye of man has 
 ever beheld the great ''God of the Universe" 
 which we designate as the "Great Universal 
 Intelligence," yet we do know that "the pure in 
 heart" may in time, under proper instruction, 
 develop the independent power of spiritual vision 
 by the Constructive Process, whereby at will they 
 may penetrate the realms of spiritual material 
 and commune with those who, by comparison, 
 are as "Gods" to men. And we further know 
 that their ability ever to accomplish this pro- 
 found achievement is fundamentally due to the 
 fact that they are ' 'pure in heart. " — Id, p. 149. 
 
 [ 72 ] 
 
The SouVs Highway 
 
 The definite work of Constructive Unfoldment, 
 therefore, is not merely an intellectual diversion 
 or employment . While it is all that, it is also vastly 
 more than that, for it is the application of moral 
 principles to human conduct. It involves the 
 LIVING OF A LIFE in conformity with the 
 Constructive Principle of Nature. — Id. p. 151. 
 
 The body of man is a human form in which 
 to unfold divine attributes — a wayside inn in the 
 upward joimiey of the Soul. — A Study of Man, 
 p. 126. 
 
 The great Law of Personal Responsibility, 
 which makes every individual personally responsi- 
 ble for all his thoughts, words and deeds, which is 
 inexorable, which no one can evade or avoid, can 
 only be fulfilled by the Living of this Life, — The 
 Great Work, p. 386. 
 
 The one Standard by which so to Live the Life 
 as to discharge the individual's Personal Re- 
 sponsibility is the standard of his own best intelli- 
 gence and highest ideals of Justice, Equity and 
 Right at any given time. This standard is at 
 the basis of all Constructive Spirituality and con- 
 stitutes one of the fundamental keys to Inde- 
 pendentent Spiritual Unfoldment. 
 
 Every individual is bound by his Personal 
 Responsibility to conform his life to that Stand- 
 ard.— r^e Great Work, p. 388. 
 
 Mrs. A. J. Stanley has, from another viewpoint, 
 
 73 ] 
 
''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 very finely described this Living of a Life: — *'He 
 has achieved success who has lived well, laughed 
 often and loved nauch; who has gained the respect 
 of intelligent men and the love of little children; 
 who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; 
 who has left the world better than he foimd it, 
 whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem 
 or a rescued soul; who has never lacked apprecia- 
 tion of earth's beauty nor failed to expressit; who 
 has always looked for the best in others and given 
 the best he had; whose life has been an inspira- 
 tion, whose memory a benediction." 
 
 Now, while Morality is the foundation of Con- 
 structive Spirituality, Prayer is a very important 
 part of its superstructure. If Constructive 
 Spirituality may be likened to a splendid tree. 
 Morality would represent its roots firmly planted 
 in the ground, through which it draws in the life- 
 giving sap from the fertile soil, while Prayer would 
 represent the myriad leaves of its foliage, through 
 which the life-giving elements of sun and sky and 
 air are added to that sap. 
 
 The Great School teaches that Intelligent 
 Prayer is the open door between the two worlds. 
 Right Praying is the bond between those who need 
 and those who can give. — Who A nswers Prayer, p. 3 7 . 
 
 Men must Pray, and whether they pray rightly 
 or wrongly, whether they pray intelligently or 
 
 [ 74 ] 
 
The SouVs Highway 
 
 ignorantly or selfishly, the Impiilse to Pray must 
 be gratified. 
 
 The appeal to a Higher Power is as natural, 
 as inevitable and as necessary as food for the 
 physical body. The Soul of man is as insistent 
 for its natural sustenance as is the body. No 
 matter imder what guise, no matter how foolishly 
 or how selfishly that appeal is made, nor with 
 what superstitions or mummeries, the simple 
 fact remains that MEN MUST PRAY. 
 
 If God or Nature had not endowed the indi- 
 vidual man or woman with an Intuitive Appre- 
 hension of Spiritual Things and Higher Intelli- 
 gences, these towering systems of 'Vorship''. 
 never could have risen in infant races and flowered 
 in the maturer ones. — Who Answers Prayer , pp. 
 
 34, 35. 
 
 The conscious soul of every individual of earth, 
 whether he knows it or not, whether he wills it or 
 not, is so intimately associated with the greater 
 world of Spiritual Life that his cry can be heard 
 by vast ntunbers of those who inhabit this higher 
 plane of life and activity. — Who Answers Prayer? 
 pp. 25, 26. 
 
 Under certain conditions there are petitions 
 from those on the spiritual side of life to some 
 wiser friend in the physical body. — Id. p. 38. 
 
 Right praying is the bond between those who 
 need and those who can give. The whole oflSce 
 
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''Why Weepest Thou?'' 
 
 and meaning and purpose of Prayer is Mutual 
 Service. — Id. p. ^y (2). 
 
 In order that it may comply with the Con- 
 structive Principle, prayer involves in the life of 
 him who prays, an attitude of soul very different 
 from that of the individual who asks with no 
 higher motive than to satisfy a selfish desire, or 
 mere want. 
 
 Constructive Prayer is never selfish. Whilst 
 it involves the asking and the receiving, both of 
 which are selfish when limited to a purely personal 
 want, Constructive Prayer involves yet another 
 element which far transcends a purely personal 
 self interest. 
 
 This other element is the Law of Compensation, 
 the Law of Mutual Service, the Law of Right Use. 
 
 This Great Law fixes upon every individual the 
 obligation to become the true and willing servant 
 of all men. 
 
 Under it, no man has the moral right to pray 
 for that which, if granted, would deprive another 
 who is in equal need, or would become to himself 
 a mere personal and selfish benefit, from which 
 all others are excluded. The very attitude of 
 soul which prays for special and exclusive benefits, 
 without regard for the interests of others, is 
 spiritually destructive. 
 
 To answer such a prayer is only to add to its 
 
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The SouVs Highway 
 
 destructive impulse. — Who Answers Prayer? 
 
 PP' 5h 52> 
 
 It should be our purpose to make each indi- 
 vidual life both a prayer and an answer to prayer. 
 
 —Id, p, 62. 
 He prayeth well who loveth well 
 Both Man and Bird and Beast. 
 
 He prayeth best who loveth best 
 All things both great and small, 
 
 For the great God who loveth us 
 He made them one and all. 
 We must pray with hands full of burdens, with 
 hearts full of sympathy, and with feet bent on 
 missions of charity. — A Study of Marty p. 214. 
 
 OUR CREED 
 
 Who asks not, the chambers are darkened, 
 Where his Soul sits in silence alone. 
 
 Who gives not, his Soul never hearkened 
 To the love call of zone tmto zone. 
 
 Who PRAYS not, exists, but he lives not; 
 A blot and a discord is he. 
 
 Who asks not, receives not and gives not 
 Were better (far) drowned in the sea. 
 
 Ah, the asking, receiving and giving, 
 Is the Soul of the life that we live. 
 
 All the beauty and sweetness of living 
 Is to ASK, to RECEIVE and to GIVE. 
 
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(( 
 
 Why Weepest TJiouf' 
 
 PRAYER 
 Lean on thyself tintil thy strength is tried; 
 Then ask God's help, it will not be denied. 
 
 Use thine own sight to see the way to go; 
 When darkness falls ask God the path to show. 
 
 Think for thyself and reason out thy plan; 
 God has his work and thou hast thine. 
 
 Exert thy will and use it for control; 
 God gave thee jurisdiction of thy soul. 
 
 All thine immortal powers bring into play; 
 Think, act, strive, reason, then look up and 
 pray. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL PRAYER 
 The following beautiful prayer, 'Tor a De- 
 parted Friend," was written by Rev. William 
 Griffeths, of Worcester, England. It was pri- 
 vately circulated, and was used in Gladstone's 
 family, among others. It was later published in 
 church papers and as a leaflet. With certain 
 changes it was recited when the body of Mr. 
 Gladstone was deposited in Westminster Abbey, 
 After this, it came into general use, iaterest in it 
 being increased by the knowledge of Gladstone's 
 practice of praying for the dead. 
 
 It has comforted me so much that it is printed 
 here in the hope that you may be blessed by it 
 is I have been. 
 
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The SouVs Highway 
 
 * 'O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, in 
 whose embrace creatures live, in whatsoever world 
 or condition they be: I beseech Thee for her 
 whose narae and dwelling-pl^ce, and every need 
 Thou knowest. Lord, vouchsafe to her light 
 and rest, peace and refreshment, joy and con- 
 solation, in Paradise, in the companionship of 
 saints, in the presence of Christ, in the ample 
 folds of Thy great love. 
 
 Grant that her life (so troubled here) may un- 
 fold itself in Thy sight, and find a sweet employ- 
 ment in the spacious fields of Eternity. If she 
 hath ever been hurt or maimed by any unhappy 
 word or deed of mine, I pray Thee of Thy great 
 pity to heal and restore her that ^^she may serve 
 Thee without hindrance. 
 
 Tell her, O Gracious Lord, if it may be, 
 how much I love her and miss her and long to 
 see her again; and if there be ways in which she 
 may come, vouchsafe her to me as a guide and 
 guard, and grant me a sense of her nearness in 
 such degree as Thy laws permit. 
 
 If in aught I can minister to her peace, be 
 pleased of Thy love to let this be; and mercifully 
 keep me from every act which may deprive me 
 of the sight of her as soon as our trial time is 
 over, or mar the fullness of our joy when the 
 end of the days hath come. 
 
 PARDON, O Gracious Lord and Father, what- 
 
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''Why Weepest Thouf' 
 
 soever is amiss [in this my prayer, and let Thy 
 will be done; for my will is blind and erring, but 
 Thine is guided by infinite wisdom and able to 
 do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 
 
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