^ Library of Congress, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Shelf. OC-L .-o , //, ^y r ^^y/ ^^"^^ cxx^^y V, Z'i .v§ LECTURES ON MYSTICISM AND Nature Worship SECOND SERIES By C. H. A. BJERREGAARD — Cod! Thou art love! I build my faith on that. — — You must be merged in the Beloved to know the beauty of the Beloved. — M. R. KENT 198 CUSTOM HOUSE PLACE, CHICAGO 1897 v^ ,^-r^ COREITT & BURNHAM, PRINTERS CHICAGO ,l> I. ■«&• PREFACE Most of the following lectures were delivered in Chicago, November 28-30, i8g6, but they have been thoroughly revised aijd much enlarged for print. I wish to express my thanks and gratitude to those friends who made it possible for me to go to Chicago. I regret that they desire to remain unnamed, but I agree with them, that only by SERVICE ARE WE PERFECTED. C. H. A. BJERREGAARD. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/lecturesonmysticOObjer CONTENTS Preface. — Uplift of Heart and Address. First Lecture. — Motto. Pilgrims of the Infinite. The Fourth World. Vision of the Sephiroth." The Presence of the Woods. The Kabbalistic worlds and forces. Dionysius on how to unite. Second Lecture. — Motto. Cry for Freedom. Heart and Soul- life. Faith. Jacobi. Appeal for spiritual life. Third Lecture. — Motto. Music and Numbers. Idealism. Fourth Lecture. — Motto. History in the Heavens. Lawless- ness and Occultism. The Universal Ministry. Fifth Lecture. — Motto. Universal Ministry. Religion of Jesus. Value of the Bible compared to Oriental Philosophy. Yogas. Decalogue, Lord's Prayer and Sermon on the Mount. Emblems and Symbols. Miss Farmer on Greenacre. Sixth Lecture. — Motto. Invocation. The Human. Nature worship. Influence of the stars. Freedom. Merged in the Beloved. Seventh Lecture. ^^— Motto. Invocation. Nature worship. Pine trees and cones. Vortex. Cycles and Historical Development. Eighth Lecture. — Love. Ninth Meeting. — Questions and Remarks. Excursion to Mt. Salvat. Appendix to Lectures on Nature worship and Love. Epilogue. UPLIFT OF HEART. May that spirit of ours, which is a ray of perfect wisdom, pure intellect, and permanetit existence, an inextinguishable light set in ■mortal bodies, recognize its glory and consciously become united with the Self, supremely blest ! Thus shall we beco?ne ^'living souls." I trust the flowers that bloomed so recently have not been killed by winter frost, and that -your enthusiasm has not bumed out! You cannot worship (worth-ship) without fire and you ought not lay faded flowers on the eternal altar! Do not allow the rudeness of vulgar circumstances to usurp the place which belongs to the Vision and do not give way tO' the petty details which clamor for the control of your soul! Withdraw regularly to the Secret and throw new and fresh sacrificial butter on the hearth, that the Log may burn. The log is your body and soul in their lower aspects, and it burns only when you sacrifice! Be not afraid of what you call being too familiar with "The Beloved." Let not that temptation destroy the elevation of life you have attained. Can there be any too great familiarity between the bride and the bridegroom, between the soul and the Divine? No! No! "Nearer, nearer, my God, to Thee!" Your Beloved is no far off God, who is indifferent and who goes off occasionally on a trip to Ethiopia, leaving the world to Vortex. Your Beloved is a present God, the God of your heart and kidneys. I am my Beloved's, And his desire Is toward me. The New Age has come out of the ritualistic view, which sup- posed, that the Beloved demanded conventional forms as cards of admission to his heart, and loved not in fullness of body and soul and joy, but by means of symbols. Symbols of those days were idols, either in the form of priests or an oblation. There is nothing now between the bride and the Beloved. The veil is rent. Isis has raised her garment. The night is past and the Sun of Salva- tion shines gloriously in the sky. The New Age does not speak in emblematic language. The breath, the sigh, from a pure heart moves the well of living waters and we may all ^drink. Eat, O friends; Drink, yea, drink abundantly of love! The New Age hates the smell of burnt offerings; we stand no more in the signs of rams and goats. Zoolatry was in order for Israel and Egypt, but not for those who have realized their kin- ship to the Divine; not for those who are Sons of God and who commune early and late, whose every act is worship, and whose hearts are quick with Divine Life. The New Age does not look to a temple in Jerusalem or elsewhere. The whole world is our temple when we look outside. Our hearts within is our individual temple. Man is the temple. There is no outer and inner, no place more sacred and pure than another. The world is the garment of the Beloved. No High Priest and no door-keeper is needed, the holi- ness of instinct guides the bride. The New Age keeps every day as a Sabbath-day, needs no set times for prayers and does not circumcise one flock and not another. The Holy Spirit makes every land a Holy Land and all the tribes of man may dwell in it. Our God is Human. God, Jehovah is no more a dreadful name. Neither Doctors nor Scribes stand guard over it. We have seen the Divine face to face. He created us for His glory. // is the ground we do not tread upon which supports us. Taoist Wisdo?n. FIRST LECTURE. I do not want to address you by the conventional "Ladies and Gentlemen." It is out of place where we meet to "reason to- gether" on Eternal Things. I address you as Pilgrims of the Infinite, for you are pilgrims; I can see that on your faces. You are not pilgrims either from or to the Infinite, but you are of the Infinite. From and to indicate space and time relations, but in ihe Infinite we recognize neither time nor space; there is no to-day and to-morrow; no here and no there. Eternity is no farther off from the Mystic, than the moment in which he speaks. You are Pilgrims OF the Infinite, which indicates a peculiar relationship, one of SAMENESS, one .which far surpasses anything ordinary thought can conceive. I come to you the second time — for what purpose? To lec- ture! No! I come as a Fellow pilgrim to SPEAK to you, to address you and call upon you to come to look upon the pictures of the Infinite, I have to show. I feel the same harmonious condition in this hall as when I spoke to you in the Spring. You were then in an attitude of peace and rest and the smiles on your faces now, indicate that you again are in the Highest. I feel encouraged by your smiles, for they prophesy nothing but Good. I need all your goodness and your peace, for I shall speak from a standpoint that can only be maintained by your support. Re- ferring you to this diagram, I shall speak from a standpoint here indicated as the Fourth World. Matter : Soul : Solid. Vegetable. Fluent. Animal. Gaseous. Human. Fourth form. Fourth form. Spirit: Fourth form: Knowing. First form. Willing. Second form. Loving. Third form. Fourth form. Fourth form. The Fourth form can never be entered except in states of quietness and peace. For the time being we must absolutely re- move all distressing thoughts and perplexities. The Fourth form is Heart Life, is Soul Life. 11 In the Spring, I gave you numerous definitions of this plane by quoting the Mystics. Let me to-day add one by a modern. In his "Science of Rehgion" Max Miiller, speaking of this plane as a faculty, says: "There is in man a faculty which I call simply the faculty of apprehending the Infinite, not only in religion, but in all things; a power independent of sense and reason, a power in a certain sense contradicted by sense and reason, but yet, I suppose, a very real power, if we see how it has held its own from the beginning of the world, how neither sense nor reason have been able to over- come it, while it alone is able to overcome both reason and sense." Still another expression is this by Sophie Germain, in Ravais- son: Philosophic.) "There is within us a profound sense of unity, order, and pro- portion, which serves to guide all our judgment. In moral subjects we find in it the rule of right; in intellectual, the knowledge of the truth; in matters of taste, the tharacter of beauty." Those who were not here in the spring I refer to the printed lectures and ask them to read up for themselves. We shall not have time to go over that ground again. The plane we want to enter is the Soul- and Heart-Life. You are all perfectly familiar with those first forms, — Matter, Spirit and Soul. You all know the three forms of Matter, Solid, Fluent and Gaseous, and also those of the Spirit, Knowing and Willing and Loving, and also those of the Soul, Vegetable Animal and Human. Each one of those has a fourth one, with which you are somewhat familiar, although not consciously. You are living in it. I will give you an illustration which I think will cover the whole ground. Wben you write a letter to a friend or to a lover, — ^to somebody in whom you are intensely interested, you instinctively throw yourselves into that letter. You may write a great many words that in themselves are expressive of something and tell their own story, but the one that receives that letter gets, alongside of that, another thing: gets that love which you laid on the surface of the paper, the Something which was not penned in the words and was nowhere located on this or the other line, but is wound in with it and exudes froim it. The friend that receives the letter reads it 'and sees all the facts and data and declarations that are made, and when be or she lays down the letter, then comes an influx (or efflux) from that letter, and that is the spiritual in- fluence that you put in that letter. You are all aware of this. You have been working in the Fourth World. You must not come here in an intellectual state. You are not here this morning to get any information which is directly to give the much-coveted POWER. You sihall get that power, we all are seeking, but you shall get it only by devoting yourselves to that Fleart and Soul Life which I 12 shall urge upon you and which we, you and I, shall show in these meetings. You see, I am addressing myself to the fourfold office, as I defined it in the spring; I am taking it for granted that you know where you are in colors and that you have tho'se ministries developed in you. It is on the fourth plane, the Mystic Life is lived. It is not occult but mystical. You will remember I have defined the difference between the two, between the attainment of power by processes of knowledg"e and the attainment of power, and influence by perfect freedom. A letter of the kind I have been describing, you cannot write unless you are free; that is, unless there are no disturbances be- tween the two, the one that is writing and the one that is receiving; there must be perfect peace and harmony between the two, or you cannot throw this spirit into the letter. You can throw into a letter the spirit of fact and criticism, etc., which also lies on the surface, but it is of an intellectual character. But this one thing that I want to urge, that you have not thought of before, you can only produce when you let your love nature have the best of you for the time being; you can call it heart-, soul-, or love-life, I do not care what you call it, but it is this, the Fourth — I have written no name in either of the spheres. You can call it by the name of Energy or by any name from eastern or western philosophy, no matter. To give a general clue to that whole life, I should say it is Fire-life. I can best express it for myself in terms oi Fire. If you will examine yourselves, you will no doubt feel and have found by observation, that in passing through your lowest states, if they have been deeply sensuous, in those sensuous-degrees that you would not openly acknowledge, that the Fire life raged wildly. It exists in all of the states of Matter, Spirit and Soul, but particularly in the fourth form. I call it Fire life, and there is one way I can help you to live and see it. Will you all turn toward the sun* and bold your hands with the fingers together, as I show you, and place them over your eyes so that the sun's rays will not destroy the optic nerve. Let the sun shine through your fingers, through the transparent part of the fingers. Do this and report to me what you have seen and we will make some comparisons. Keep your eyes open and see through your hand. Stare directly into the burning furnace of the sun. You may consider the sun physical, spiritual or otherwise, it is immaterial. Throw your- selves into the best mood of heart and soul, or an emotional at- titude, and then tell me what you have seen. Let nobody observe anyone else; be absolutely unknown to and not recognizing your neighbor. I will go out of the Hall for a few minutes. . . . Now that you have done this, will those of you who have found your positions in the Four, rise. You need not tell us what you * The audience turned to the sun, just then shining brightly into the hall. 13 saw or perceived. And now the others who have had any distinct perceptions will please rise. A member: I think some of us do not understand your mean- ing. Tiie lecturer: I mean those of you who have recognized your fourfold office in the spring. Those of you who know where you are, either in the Apostolic, Prophetic, Evangelistic or Pastoral quality, — those, if they have seen anything, vv^ill please rise. (Several members arose.) The lecturer: You must not tell anybody what you have seen. I will warn you, — if you have seen anything that you could de- scribe, then it is worth nothing, and you should experiment over again. If it takes a definite form so you can describe it, it is not what you want. What you should receive is an influx. You will be able to receive it if you will hold your hand as I show you, — perhaps you have not understood what I mean, — when you hold your hand up and let the sun shine through it, you know how it glow^s. Looking through that glowing flesh you shall be able to travel up those rays of the sun that enter your hand and you can follow those powers that are yours by affinity into those four worlds respectivel}/. But neither of those four w^orlds is so material that you can describe them in any way. You may de- scribe them to yourself, that will be all right, — you must have a definite conception; but if you can reduce it to a formula to give to another, your vision is not worth anything. How many of those who arose had such conception? If any of you had them I would say to them, continue those experiments, when the sun is beating right straight on your face, particularly at high noon. There will come a time sooner or later, and perhaps you have already had it now, that you shall see not only yourself in those rays, but you shall see visions such as Jacob had, of angels ascending and descending, — not angels in bodies with wings, etc., no, you shall see powers moving and that in the colors of the four. The seeing of all that is not the seeing of the eyes, or the brain, but is the seeing of your heart. The heart-life has an intellectual side, and that is the side you want to develop; in it is the true mystical life, or as I also call it, the personal or the human life; it centers there; and that is this fourth world we are so anxious to enter. Those of you who are in your fourfold office shall not only find your place in the cosmological make-up of the universe, but you shall actually see yourselves in the back. I think I have spoken of it before. There is a mystery in the way we are made. We are always going forward, never going back; we are the ultimates of divine rays. When you come into your office you shall be able to turn yourself around and see the fiery rays that strike the back of your head. Having attained that, you shall have the much- 14 coveted power; and the best of it is that you shall have that power in a form that will make it harmless to others and beneficial to yourself. Many of the other powers you know, attained by breath- ing, taking drugs and all those many queer methods, that are recommended, are dangerous ; they will sooner or later turn against you; but powers attained this way can never turn against you, or be injurious or ruinous. It is a source from which you will literally draw life, — literall}^ take it up and feed on it, and you shall be able to clim.b up over those "golden stairs" that the mystics talk so much about; it is not a fable or allegory. The reason for this is that life thus descends in an, orderly way; but the powers attained by the mere occult methods do not come in an orderly way. You will please understand I am not here to attack anybody; when now speaking against certain occult practices, I am not having anybody in mind whom I am aiming at and attacking either openly or in- directly; I am not in conflict with anybody; I 'have come in a peace- ful spirit and will not be misunderstood as if I were saying anything against anyboidy here. I want to make a distinction between what I call ordinary occult methods and the mystical methods. If I say anything that sounds hard or critical you will please understand that it is done only for the purpose of bringing out by contrast the world I wish to lead you into. Our Heart-life, as I said before, has features that Oirdinarily are not understood. It is not under- stood ordinarily that we can read and write and talk and examine things by the heart; it seems so irrational to people, that they will oppose it and say they do it with their brain. How can you do it with your brain? You are not understanding any more by your brain than by your finger-tips. You generally think you are doing it through the nerve-centers in your brain; but the key to your life is in the heart, not in the brain. Tlie brain can be removed and can wither awa}^ and still life goes on. All the best work you have done and do do, the love that now shines on your faces, is not brain work, it is heart and soul life. There is another way in which you may perceive the great and glorious life that lies abroad and is everywhere, the life of the Fourth Plane. The next time you go into the woods, go into some place among the trees where they stand thick enough to prevent your seeing the sky on the other side; you can easily find such a place, no matter whether among the pines or the leaf trees; stand perfectly still, look in among the trees, hold your eyeballs still; not exactly staring; look intently but hold your eyeballs still. Som^e of you may have to hold your breath in order to hold your eyeballs still, but a very little practice will soon enable you to do so. In a second- or two, — certainly within a minute, — you shall perceive something. You shall perceive the spirit of that wood; it will appear before you; the spirit of the wood is living there as 15 vigorously and personally as you live, and, your contact with it is as real as with any human individual. You understand what I mean when I say PERSONAL contact with another human in- dividual. The best influences that you receive from your friends, or neighbors, or whoever you meet with, or talk to, is not that which they say or do, but the personal efflux that comes from them; it is that which you perceive and appreciate, feel and love, and is that which makes the sympathetic bond between them and your- self. Such a presence as you thus perceive in your neighbor, such a presence you shall perceive in the woods and all these things belong to the sphere of soul-life, heart-life, that I talked of. It is a fact that a villain can also throw out an atmosphere and we feel his presence, but he is not throwing it out with love, or per- fectly; they are "crooked" vibrations those that come from him — the others are "straight," — or, as I prefer to say, orderly; they have come through a gradual descent, through different degrees of this angelic world through which we are connected with the Almighty, the Great One, the Great Being, and they were all given in the spring lectures ; but it was not said there what the con- nection was between those higher orders and yourselves; that I left out last spring, but I shall attempt to give it this time. Now I will ask for questions. A member: In using the word "seeing" or "perceiving" in looking into the depths of the woods, was it in the sense of vibra- tion? The lecturer: I should have defined myself more closely. By "seeing," of course, I did not mean merely seeing, as we ordinarily understand it, viz., throwing ourselves on an object and examining it in the light of either af the three forms as represented on the diagram. You know I warned you against that. It has been asked again and again. What shall I dO' to enter this world, or to stay in it, to live in it? I should give as a general rule this formula: "Live in the idea of the thing." Those of you who are artists, all those who in any way have been working with the plastic powers of life will know what I mean. Suppose you were an arohiteot; when planning your house you built it in your mind, as you know, and of astral matter. You had the whole house fully perfected in all its forms, standing there in your mind, and what you did afterward was to reduce that mental house to an expression on the paper. When you make a design, reduce your idea of the thing, or the arcane, the "schema" of it, to a presenta- tion on the paper. If you can enter into the spiritual conception of such a presentation and hold the idea in your mind and stay in it, you are then in "the idea of it," and in the Fourth World. A member: You mean that we should live in our ideals. The lecturer: Yes, you may put it in that way. You may have some difficulty with the word idea. I am not taking it in the sense as meaning merely a notion of the thing, which is the ordinary sense of the word; I take it in the good old Platonic sense as the type, the plastic form, the model. You are more or less familiar with the Platonic idea, I suppose. Now stay in the idea of the thing, and you have found the way of the mystic life. You have an idea of your friends, and it is really that idea you are clinging to and not your friend. So long as that idea is not disturbed or polluted, your friendship lasts. These are things you are all familiar with but things you do not understand con- sciously. Make this a matter of understanding and stay in the ideas, then you are mystics and occultists, and there is not a thing in existence, all the way from infinite Being to the most minute particle, that you are not familiar with. That is all there is to the mystic ways of entering things. Now please look at this diagram: THE FOURFOLD OR FOUR DIMENTIONAL LIFE: Matter: solid fluent corresponds to gaseous " 4th form Spirit: knowing willing loving 4th form Soul: vegetative animal human 4th form 4th form Iform 3 " 3 " 4 " / \ all fire \ / Aziah, the world of action- ^apostles control — Yetzirah, the world of formation- — prophets reveal — Briah, the world of creation- — evangelists proclaim- Atziloth, the archetypical world- — pastors guide — 17 My object is to point out the cosmological parallels to the psychological states I gave you in the Spring. You all know the Kabbalistic terms of the diagram. As I said: flatter is known as solid, fluent, gaseous, and under a fourth form. Spirit is known as knowing, willing, loving, and under a fourth form. Soul is knoAvn as vegetative, animal, human, and under a fourth form. These fourth forms are of Being, which means Wholeness Divinity, etc. To these three existences Matter, Spirit and Soul comes also a fourth existence, which also is divided into four forms, but their names are not even known to-day. To Matter answers the Kabbalistic world Aziah, more par- ticularly that unnamed fourth form mentioned above, which ex- presses the World of Action. To Spirit answers the Kabbalistic world Yetzirah, more par- ticularly that unnamed fourth form mentioned above, vrhich ex- presses the World of Formation. To Soul answers the Kabbalistic w^orld Briah, more par- ticularly that unnamed fourth form mentioned above, which ex- presses the World of Creation. To the fourth existence, also referred to above, and. which is also divided into four forms, answers the Kabbalistic archetypical world, Atziloth. The real sphere of Apostolic activit}- lies in the world of Aziah, the World of Action. The real sphere of Prophetic activity lies in the world of Yetzirah, the World of Formation. The real sphere of Evangelistic activity lies in the world of Briah, the World of Creation. The real sphere of Pastoral activity lies in the world of Atziloth, the archetypical world. I have alread}^ in the Spring-lectures given you the Dionysian hierarchies. Let us now stud}^ them in the light of the four worlds and we shall see hoAv wonderfully ever\rthing corresponds and we shall learn to do our Avork. You will each for yourself understand the myster\^ of your place in the universal man and also your work. It is vers^ useful on general principles to compare the nine orders of the three hierarchies of Dionysius to the Sephiroth. By so doing we shall get a great deal of life wisdom. According to the vision of Dionysius, immediately upon the Trinity — Kether — come Seraphim, "all flaming and on fire," then Cherubim, "glorious beings of light, shining in nature." The Seraphim are "wise lovers" and correspond to Binah, Intelligence. The Cherubim are "loving wisdoms" and correspond to Chokhmah, Wisdom. We place ourselves in communion with the first by "our universal charity" and with the second by ''divine wisdorn." The Seraphim and Cherubim unite in the Thrones or Seats, the third order of the first hierarchy, who themselves also are wise, loving and "kingly;" they correspond to Tiphereth, Kingly Beauty. We commune with them -by "being just." In the second hierarchy we see first Dominations, "an express image of the true and archetypal dominion in God;" they corre- spond to Geburah, Strength. The next order is Virtues, in which are "zeal and care and energy, that all things in God may be strongly and manfully valiant in chaste and masculine virtue." They correspond to Ghesed, Mercy. With the first we commune by "self control;" with the second by "compassion for suffering." Dominations and Virtues unite in the Powers, which "exhibit in themselves the divine unity, simplicity, power and authority." They, too, correspond to Tiphereth, Kingly beauty. We commune with the Powers by "resisting temptations." The third hierarchy, the last, consists of Princedoms, Arch- angels and Angels. The first, "an image of the true and exalted principality in God" corresponds to Hod, Splendor. The second, "cL certain supreme, wise and virtuous power" corresponds to Netzach, victory; the third order. Angels, are "tiding bringers" and the ultimate result of all the emanations, hence so beautifully corresponding to Yesod, Foundation. As all the Sephiroth unite and coalesce in Malkhuth, the Kingdom, so the Plierarchies are a Unit. With the Princedoms, we commune by humility, or with the Archangels, by "the study of the Divine Law;" with the Angels, by obedience. The Sephiroth are not only objective forms of Being, they are the very Ground of our individual existence. They are "the Prim.ordial or Archetypal Man," the "Heavenly Man," in us. In another arrangement you will find this occult teaching in the followina: diaeram: 19 .2 ti "> s fi ■£ « >~> >. >. ,0 3 X3.2 ,Q Xi x> ^ '^ r-! ^ ^H -a "'^ll -k= -fJ — ' -IJ (D -t-3 t-l iJ +^ aj .r-< O •rW i/3 •r-i O — 1 Q. '^ ^^ ^ ^ CM ed w ion f ed w tern] TJ o T3 O 'O ^ o s tfi a a a a a-s o G o ^ o o o o o S o S o a; o •^-. o o o O O J^ a § >» ^ ^ ^ &n -^ i=l ^ >> Ti tr a a _c > 3 cu .^ ^ ai '^ o 2 20 Kether, or the Crown, is the head; Chokhmah, Wisdom, is the 'brain; Binah, Intelhgence, is the heart or the understanding. These three form "the head." Chesed, Mercy or Love is the right arm. Geburah, Strength, the left arm. Tiphereth, Beauty, is the chest. These three form the second triad. Netzach, Firm- ness, Victory, is the right leg. Hod, Splendor, is the left leg. Yesod, Foundation, is the genital organs. These three form the third triad. All nine Sephiroth, or three triads, are harmonized in Malkhuth, the Kingdom. Next time I meet you, I hope to be able to give you the practical application of this. I have not been able to finish the diagrams necessary. I do not know that any- body has presented to the world any study in this line, but though I stand single with my results and may have made mistakes, I shall not hesitate when the time comes, to publish that which I here give only in hints. 21 The Philosophic vindication of Faith is the proof of the impossi- bility of comprehending all things in a reasoned system of knowledge. — Fraser's Berkeley, in Philos. Classics. 23 SECOND LECTURE. I hear throughout creation a cry for freedom. Everywhere mankind is sighing and from pole to pole there comes a groan of travail from the brute creation. Even inanimate creation voices the longings of the superior orders of being. The solemn night is mournful and the sea is melancholy; the sighing pine and the sobbing wave on the beach cry for redemption ; the tropical forest is lonesome and the vast prairies look longingly to the pale moon; the majestic mountain rises in mute appeal to heaven, but cannot enter, and in the deep mines despair broods over an eternal dark- ness. In all these forms of creation, I see the same as I see in the deep and lonesome eye of the dog and the horse and the cow; they all call for freedom and for liberation. They are chained by Necessity and they sigh for the freedom of man's glorious kingdom: his ideal self. Though man is called to freedom and is free by birthright he is nevertheless in bondage. He has hound himself voluntarily and he too cries for freedom. How is he to get it? In the first place he IS free, I said, hence the first thing for him to do is to realize that fact. He must realize that he never was anything but saved; that he always was saved; that God is to be had for the asking. Next, he must take possession of that freedom. The realization is no intellectual process, it is mystical rather. He must, as I said in the Spring lectures, re-collect himself and then in Meditation he will attain Union with God. The attainment of Union with God is freedom or realization of Self. I shall not now repeat what I said in the Spring. At that time I quoted the Mystics. To-day I wnll quote a modern philosopher, Jacobi. Chalybseus said of him: "He showed that there is some- thing more in our soul than a dead and empty mechanism of logical thinking and shadowy representations; he reassured us of a deeper, and, as yet, an inviolable, treasure in the human spirit; and, although this boon be hidden in the sevenfold veil of Isis, yet has he powerfully excited us to the investigation of it, by pointing to the reality of so precious a germ." This deeper and yet unrealized treasure in the human spirit is freedom, freedom realized by the feelings ; not feelings in the common vulgar sense as feelings of body, but spiritual perceptions. 25 Said Jacobi : "There is light in my heart, but it goes out when- ever I attempt to bring it into the understanding. Which is the true luminary of these two? That of the understanding, which, though it reveals fixed forms, shows behind them only a bottomless gulf? Or that of the heart, which points its light promisingly upward, though determinate knowledge escapes it? Can the human spirit grasp the truth unless it possesses these two luminaries united in one light?" In the former address, I emphasized very strongly the heart life because I want you to cultivate it. You are top-heavy with knowl- edge, with understanding. You need a great deal of ballast, and the ballast you need is Heart, Soul, Love-Life. You have realized that in the understanding lies imbedded all the laws or forms of existence, and you have probably also dis- covered that through the understanding we enter into a bottomless deep of wisdom and marvels. But you want to acquire an equal reali- zation of the heart as the source whence all influx flows, as the bridal chamber in which the human ego meets the Divine. Its light is dim, but its pov/er is eternal. You cannot define its charms, but you are richer than before every time your heart has acted. Your un- derstanding leads you out and away from yourself, but your heart builds a home and in Home are the gates of heaven. You want to realize this before you can attain the much-coveted power, divine power. But there is still more to do before you are a perfected man, before you can TAKE POSSESSION of Power. You must unite Heart and Understanding. The Divine is a Unit. You must be- come a Unit. The two must be UNITED, not simply come together in union. The human ego does not live as Immerman's Captain. This officer had served both Napoleon and the Germans ; from both he had received numerous decorations and he had collected a vast mass of memorials of his campaigns. After the war, he did not know where his sympathies were the strongest, so he fitted up one room in his house in which he kept all Napoleonic souvenirs and another in which he kept the German mementoes, and lived alternately in the one and the other room, being now Napoleonic, now German. The human ego cannot live that way. The same Jacobi, whom I quoted, also solves the problem he propounds. To him immediate and mediate knowledge unite in one, in the "deeper, and, as yet inviolable treasure in the human spirit." The Mystics call it God in the Ground of the soul, as I told you in the Spring. Jacobi understands it to be freedom, and so do I. It is to me that Heart and Soul-life which I locate in the Fourth World. The key to it is Trust, Faith. I cannot speak enough for the Fourth Form ; I cannot bring it often enough before you, because you need it. Not only do I speak from this standpoint, but I v/ant to be understood to be doing so. Much of that which I say will have no meaning if not thus understood. I am not speaking- science as now understood. The science I care for, and which I study, is that of the heart. I want to know the workings of the spirit in me, and so do you. Influx is from above and not from below. If we know the laws of influx from the Deity, we can begin to acquire power and take possession of our heritage from eternity. Modern science — all science — equips man, but does not guide him to heaven. It teaches him ebb and flood in the sea, but not the currents of his own heart life. It leaves night in his heart. Science is reasoning from one (so-called) fact to another, but as we never can get that point outside our world which Archimedes asked for, and which is necessary for the true science, our reasoning, or our science can never be more than merely something very relative, a driving round in a circle. The farther we reach in knowledge, the farther we come in duality; even into manifoldness, ajnd— farther away from the spiritual reality, we desire to attain. The mystic does not want cognitions of objects, he wants to transcend the relations of subject and object. We want consciousness, but we do not want to have consciousness. We want knowledge, but we do not want to have knowledge. The two states are diametrically opposite. You want to remember this, especially when you retire into the silence. I fear that many of you never come there. You bring something with you, while the secret is that you shall leave everything behind you. You must go out of this world, changing as it is, like the clouds, and enter That which it symbolizes. There is one truth that has become very clear to me, year by year, and that is that I must live and do live by Trust, Faith. It is a truth I have not come to by any intellectual reasoning, nor is it a result of a lively instinct. I say lively, for an instinct there is, no doubt, behind it, but that instinct is not lively. It is hard and persistent experience, which has taught me to live by Faith, in Trust; and you can easily see that it is so, that we must live by faith, when you hear my argument. r know nothing of and cannot know the purposes of the Divine. I can speculate and in my own wisdom propound wonderful theories. I can, under the influence of passionate desire, make myself beHeve that the future is mine. In conceit I can dictate to the Divine what to do. But all comes to Naught. The wonderful scheme of history leaves nations and individuals free to act and to work out their indi- vidual purposes to the uttermost, but the Divine Will reaches its own purpose after all. And what that is we do not know. I throw myself absolutely upon the belief that Everything is for the best. I know, that every time I have had my own will on important subjects, subjects involving the highest ethical problems, I have chosen the wrong thing and.sufifered for it. I know also that Everything that has come to me, which ivas given to me, was the only thing worth hav- ing, the thing I needed. That which is worth anything to me now, 27 that which I prize, that which has been of universal use to me, is a gift. Numerous factors in my Hfe, entanglements, and troubles, are all of my own choosing, of my own will. Am I therefore wrong in giving up my will and saying "Th}^ purposes be fulfilled," a more literal meaning of the Lord's prayer: Thy will be done? Do not understand that this philosophy has made me a fatalist, or, that I am indifferent in acting. Nay! I try to walk cautiously, I look up and inquire daily: "Is this it?" I do try to carry^ out the lesson of the birds under heaven and the lilies of the fields. I am neither a bird, nor a lily, but a man and that means a compound of many ele- ments. Being a man, I cannot stand still as the lily does and wait for the "early and late rain," for sunshine, etc., but I can acquire the stillness of the lily, I can introduce a certain simplicity into my life, etc., and that is Trust, Faith. In quietness and peace is our salva- tion. "Not by power, or by might, but b}^ my spirit," said the Lord. Like yourself, I have my melancholic states in which I cannot come to rest with anything in this world. I am so dreadfully alone. I long, I yearn for the Universal. I look into all the faces I meet for a soul that can satisfy my call. I cry, but hear no response. Shall I therefore think myself alone and iling myself into despair? Nay, I have learned, like the lily in the Spring, just before budding into flower, to know that this melancholy arises in the new life, that seeks freedom of expression. I feel powers in my soul, too strong for expression, so they revert upon m^e and for the time I suffer. Be quiet, like the lily ! Soon you will find your work ! Like yourself, I have burned with intense longing to know the Truth and be done with the false images of Maya. If I have become restless, I have only become entangled in some notion or other, in some philosophical system, eastern or western, and — I went away from the Truth. Now, when this great longing arises, I close my eyes to all ephemeral things and notions. I sweep out everything human and by and by a new life dawns upon me. Like the lily, I open my chalice to the Sun and I drink from the universal source. Like yourself, I sometimes suffer agony when I come to realize my ignorance and sin. I call for redemption. Does it come by external means? Never! I seem to grow in mud, I draw my nourishment from dark earth and I breathe poisonous air. I am utterly miserable, for I see no redemption. But the redeemer liveth in the soul! After a while I see myself like a lily, whose very exis- tence is drawn from the mud and dark earth and whose purit}^ and high stalk is made from the carbon of the poisoned air it breathes. Then I thank the Great Being, whose manifestation is in opposite elements: who makes both light and darkness! I see evil trans- formed into good! I see mud, but a lily coming out of it! Then I understand that the Great Being is a wise gardener. With these experiences, should I not trust? Why will I be 28 impatient? Impatience withers the soul more than old a^^e and disease. Now as to knowledge. What do ive know? Nothing about the real nature of things! That which we call knowledge is only a result of possiting some one experience as a fact, and then reason- ing from that fact. But such knowledge is not knowledge; it is only our ideas. But as we never can get beyond such notions, why should we be restless and worry? As Ficlite has truly said, "All we need to know is God, freedom and immortality," so I believe it is. And these three facts we have by immediate consciousness. No mediate consciousness has given them to us, nor can it prove them after we got them. Let us then rest and trust! The time will come when we shall know, if it be so best! Let us stay in and with Trust, it is the very door to Divinity. There a well opens with rich waters to quench the thirst of the soul. The moment you have learned to narrow down your philosophy to that state or condition, I call Trust, you will find that the world opens up on the other side of existence. The first plane you enter is the Fourth World, I have spoken about. Can I not prevail upon you to come to Rest? You say you want to come to the Universal Consciousness, to Union with God, etc. You will come there by Trust. You cannot follow the mystic method, so fully described in the Spring, except you trust! You cannot enter that Universal Ministry you are called to, except by Trust, and you cannot work in it, except in Trust ! Will you overcome yourself? 29 There is ever a song somewhere, my dear ; There is ever a something sings alway ; There's the song of the larli when the slties are clear, And the song of the thrush when the skies are gray. The sunshine showers across tlie grain, And the bluebird thrills in the orchard tree ; And in and out, when the eaves drip rain, The swallows are twittering ceaselessly. There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, Be the skies above or dark or fair, There is ever a song that our hearts may hear — There is ever a song somewhere, my dear — There is ever a song somewhere ! There is ever a song somewhere, my dear. In the midnight black or the midday blue ; The robin pipes when the sun is here. And the cricket chirrups the whole night through. The buds may blow and the fruit may grow, And the autumn leaves drop crisp and sear ; But whether the sun, or the rain, or the snow. There is ever a song somewhere, my dear. There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, Be the skies above or dark or fair. There is ever a song that our hearts may hear — There is ever a song somewhere, my dear — There is ever a song somewhere ! " THIRD LECTURE. In continuation of the morning lectures I will bring up another standpoint from which you can enter the plane of the Fourth Dimension. I will give some other material with which to work, so that you can see yourself, — and that which I shall now say will be useful particularly to those of you who are musical. But I must make this confession before I go on with my talk, that I myself am not musical, and that vou may hear some curious statements that will convince you of my utter incapacity for talking on the subject, that I have undertaken to talk upon, but I cannot help it, whatever I know of it, little or much, must be stated, and you must take it as it is, and I must stand the criticism. The fact is, that if I can convey to you the spiritual, or the soul-meaning of numbers, you can hereafter use those numbers with moral effect. That is, instead of counting dne, two, three, four, etc., — instead of merely counting those num- bers, I want you to express the sense they contain; I want you to have before your mind not the number concept, but a vision of their spiritual content, a certain image which represents that number. When you are playing your scale, let moral conceptions run along with the scale; it is then inevitable that those who hear the music must perceive that life that flows with that music, because you can- not now any more play that music as mere mathematics. I am sorry that most music is so little more than a mathematical performance. Music should not be so, and was not so in the Beginning. It was then a moral factor in the human life. I must say that I have before presented this subject to musical people, and they have agreed with me that there is something in it worth studying; a method by which they could not only find themselves, but communicate moral truths to those who listen to them. There are in New York some musicians who were at Green- acre last summer, where I first spoke of it, some who are experi- menting and practicing on this line. I came to this thing in the year 1864, during the Schleswig-Holstein war, and right outside of my native city Fredericia, where is located one of the largest estates, in the possession of our family. I went there quite often as a scout and spy among the enemy, both in the day and night time, and I spent days among the Hungarians who were located there. These Hungarians had the habit in the evening of coming together in the large court yard, somebody would strike up a tune 33 and they would all fall in and sing, sometimes the whole brigade of five thousand men, without any conductor. You can readily understand what an enormous volume of tune came from those five thousand throats, and from those souls, and that it had an over- powering effect on a sensitive soul. The Hungarians are perhaps the most musical people in the world. Those men were the enemies of my country and I was among them to find out what they were trying to do, yet those men completely overpowered me and carried me along with them. I heard in that music THE HUMAN ELE- MENT. As I said this morning, it was not merely the sound of those human throats singing a melody, there was something en- tirely different there, the human element had so peculiar an effect that I, as I told you, an enemy among them, was completely carried out of myself, and for the moment forgot myself as a Dane. Later in life I have heard it repeatedly. When we in the regiments train the men to learn the signals we usually take them out on the drill-ground away from the city wdth a corporal and a trumpeter, — the trumpeter is there to sound the signal and the corporal to attend to order; the trumpeter plays the signal, and the men sing it to certain words, which express its meaning. They are usually men coming fresh from the fields, country boys, etc., who, as a rule, have had no training whatsoever ; they sing whether they have a tune in them or not; most of them have no tune whatever, but the less tune the more human life there is in it. If you listen to them a thousand feet or two off you would hear the human element rather than the signal. I have never heard it when near the men, but when I went to the other end of the drill-ground and then listened, I could hear that peculiar sound, the universal element. These signals sung by the men always produced a moral effect upon me; I mean a soul-effect. I use "moral" because it is customary to speak of that w^hole world I refer to as the moral world, — but as I have used the terms heart- and soul-life I will now say it had a heart and soul effect. The notes created a peculiar effect and put me in certain states w^here I could have done almost anything along that line of vibration that came from the sound. When another trumpet would be sounded, and another signal w'ould be given and the men singing that, another feeling would be created. These, my feelings, I could in a certain sense SEE, I could mani- fest them before myself. I was under the influence of those trumpets in the same way as old cavalry horses are. I don't know whether any of you have been on a drill-ground and seen the old cavalry or artillery horses answer to the signal. The raw recruit cannot control the horse, the horse knows the signal and obeys, and they teach the recruit that way; — they always put him on old horses. The moment a certain signal is sounded, the horse will obey that and cannot possibly do anything else, it never fails. 34 This is an exact parallel to what took place in me and what takes place in you if you will observe yourself. I am perfectly sure that the next time you hear a band going through the streets, if you will observe the efifect of the various instruments upon you, you can easily single them out. You will find certain peculiar thrills going through you with certain peculiar notes. If you next time will be on the watch, you will very easily in your own way be able to translate the music into some words that express certain feelings. That will be what I call the soul effect, and that will bring you into this fourth world that I spoke of this morning. Now we will go through the scale. There is One. I will call that Being. By the One you should have a mental picture before yourselves of Being, without any characteristics, not the Becoming, but the simple indififerentiated Being, the All, the Universal. In sounding the note which in your scale would be the One, you will, after a little while, or perhaps at once, by that note, convey the idea of Being to those who listen to it. One has that effect. That is what it stands for in soul-life. One then is Self, the Great All, but Two is duality, the Self in diremption, in the double, no more esse, but now existere. Counting is nothing in itself; it is a means by which we define relationship, discover order, rhythm and harmony, a means by which we reveal Being. By counting our scale we reveal Being or show Being in relationship. Being revealed. Music is an interpretation of "the music within," the revelation in the soul. If your music is merely counting, however, it is an "empty thing." It must be personal, born of your soul. It must interpret the vibrations or the motions of Being through your soul. Two means Being in self duplication, viz.: Being out of rest, in diremption. Being is no more self centered, but exists as the Becoming. An enormous primitive force lies in two; it is intensely personal; with it arises egoity and evil; it means dif- ferentiation; the Pythagoreans called it audacity. It can express disturbance, but it can also create virtue. Two* has been called Patience because we Tcnow Patience only by contrast. It has also been called Matter because it is the opposite to One. Two has also been called Nature, because it is the Becoming (from nascor, to be bom); being the Becoming, it is also the key to One, to Being, Perhaps the most interesting name given to Two, is Love. Two is Love because it is both Being and Becoming; love IS always and BECOMES always. But One and Two cannot exist apart; they never do. You cannot conceive of Two without a connecting member. Father and Mother invariably unite in the Child. With Unity and Duality is given the Trinity. One and Two belong to one group, are a group for themselves, but their very existence is conditioned by 35 the first member of the following group 3 and 4. Three is called Perfect, for it perfects One and Two; it is called Perfect also be- cause it is the full expression for that which lies Beyond. What is that which lies beyond? It is the esoteric glory of the Divine. The Trinity is the manifested Unity, Three is a divine number like One. Four holds the same relation to Three as Two holds to One in the first group. One represents Being and Two Being in duplication. In the second group, Three represents Being in manifestation and Four represents that mani- festation as Human. Four, being Fluman, was by the Pythagoreans called like man, "the greatest miracle." It is man's figure par excellence. It manifests man especially in the Temple, the Square. The square is related to the Trinity as its mother. The Trinity manifests itself in the temple, the square, like One manifests itself in Two. The third group consists of Five and Six. Again we have the same relationship. Six is related to Five as Four to Three, as Two to One, and, Five, Three and One represent, each in their group, the same idea. Five is "the union of the four elements with Ether," or the square with a dot in the middle, viz.: The Temple with the indwelling Divinity. Five is "the hearty one," Cordialis. It unites in friendship the even and the odd, this way: 2 5 » 369 Thus Humanity is united around the Divine. Five is the center of movement between the Universal and the Individual. It is the at-one-er, the creative hand, that molds existence. It had therefore a phallic character in the ancient religions. Five is really the most interesting number of all and a most extraordinary helpful way for a musician on which tO' enter the Fourth World, I am talking about in these lectures. A member: Perhaps, for that reason it is called the Fifth or dominant note. The lecturer: I must again confess my ignorance of music theory. I did not know that Five is called the dominant note. I have come to this knowledge of the numbers by intuition or by interior revelation, if you like to call it that way. What you say, con- firms my words.. Now Six. The Pythagoreans called it "perfection of parts." It is "the marriage number," "the form of forms," "the all suffi- cient." It is related to Five as Four to Three and Two tO' One. You all know Seven as the number of completeness, fullness, perfection. It is the "venerable" number, but related not to divine 36 perfection alone, but also to Human perfection; it is the sevenfold nature of the soul. We are now so far removed from the One, that we have the first of this group, Seven and Eight, no longer a pure type of Unity, it is Union now, union of the Divine and the Human. Hence it is so characteristically called "fullness." As Four was the human figure, the temple figure, so is its duplication. Eight the same. The Ogdoad is the only "evenly even" number within the Decad. As if referring to the temple, the Greeks said that "all things are eight," and called it Mother. The last group of the Decad is Nine and Ten. Nine bounds all the numbers and Ten denotes the Whole Man. You may con- tinue to twelve, but the plan of grouping must be the same. The first in each group representing something universal, the last some- thing particular, individual. I am painfully aware of the defectiveness of my presentation. The subject is an immense one and my knowledge so limited because I am not a musician. But I trust to your indulgence. No doubt some of you know more than I do, and I hope that you will study the subject and bring it out in complete form. That the numbers of the scale are so many various forms or vessels by which the spiritual content of the musical sounds can be conveyed, I am sure of. Not only shall you be able to enter the Fourth World yourself, by means of this method, but you shall be able to educate your fellow-man in moral and spiritual life in a manner in which education has never been attempted before. A member: I believe that this is the theory of Wagner, and that all his music was composed accordingly. The lecturer: Yes, I believe that is one of the secrets of Wag- ner's influence. A member: Was he not a mystic? The lecturer: Yes, he was a mystic. Through Shopenhauer he was connected with the East and there he learned about vibra- tions and would naturally apply that to his music. That which I want to convey with this, is not so much some- thing about Vibrations, but I want to have you see everything as Human. Music is the Human, not Mathematics, and I want the Human brought out of it and conveyed to man. I come to think of Shelley's poem called the Skylark. I wish you to read it. It is indeed untrue to nature. No lark be- haves as described by Shelley. But it is not Shelley's purpose to give a nature-description and you feel it, when you have read the poem. You are stirred with the Human, not with Nature. There is a power in this poem similar to St. John's description of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Both authors are not concerned with the description of facts. They are painting pictures with which to con- vey the Human. Both poems are delineations of character, states, 37 conditions of mind, of that specifically human world, the moral world, or, spiritual world, that world, which man directly creates by manipulating force. It is our world of art, literature, society, history, all that which nature knows nothing of, to which she is blind and indifferent. She even lends herself to be manipulated by man for the upbuilding of his world, but she takes no interest in the work and is as ready to destroy it as to furnish material for it. We also call that world, the world of freedom, because it is the sphere where man, free from the trammels of an external order, develops his own inner world; where he takes the subject matter out of himself, and the form as well. It is the world by means of which man sees himself outside himself and thus realizes himself, something he could not do but for this world. We of the New Age live in this world. You may call this Idealism. It is Idealism. As soon as I have seen these lectures in print, I shall write you a book on Ideal- ism, its doctrine and history. Such a book is very much needed for the kernel of all advanced teachings of to-day is idealistic; yet how many know what Idealism really is? Before I conclude, let us be idealistic for a while. Let me tell you a story, which is thoroughly romantic, but nevertheless the veriest truth. I say nothing against the various methods proposed by the various teachers, methods by which we are to rise out of ourselves. These methods may be those of the Bhagavad Gita or other Eastern Holy Books; they may be those of the Stoic, the Epicurean, the Christian, etc., they are no doubt excellent methods, but they are only methods; in themselves they are nothing. The jewel is in the lotus, but the lotus itself is only a means. But if you follow the last method of the young girl in this story, I will now tell, you shall have a method, which is not only a method, but which in itself is much more, for it is the life of the Fourth World. The word, that contains all this is Consecration. Consecration is not only a Way, but also the Life. The story is drawn from the Danish philosopher, R. Nielsen, but largely modified by me. We see a young maiden. A certain stamp of nobility shines on her brow and her bearing is lady-like — still she is only an im- mature girl. In her present mood she appears dejected. She is a servant in a fine house, but she does not want to be a servant; she feels she is freeborn. She had once begun a course of training designed to give her "a position in life," but now — now that had come to an abrupt end, and she seemed to be far from "a position in life"^ — she is only a servant, a maid to the lady's maid of the house. 38 She was goodhearted by nature, kind to the children, and her general deportment was good. She was liked in the house, but nevertheless she was never happy, for she felt lonesome — she felt she stood alone in the world. She fell into the habit of going to her own room to sit down to cry and to pity herself. One Sunday afternoon, in one of those odd hours which we all know so well from their intense wearisome nature, she almost broke down. She had just finished a letter to her mother — her poor mother, whom circumstances had brought to the poorhouse. She had not dared to speak about her forlorn life, for she feared to hurt her mother's feelings, and was too good to add to her sufferings. Her own pent up feelings nearly broke her heart. But at last she found relief in the hot tears of agony, and she burst out in prayers for help to understand the meaning of this -sorrow. She did find relief and help. How long she cried she did not know, but all of a sudden she perceived an old man standing at the door. She knew him it seemed. She forgot to ask him how long he had been waiting and what he wanted. Those questions did not seem to be needed, at least they did not suggest themselves. The two engaged in conversation at once, like old friends, knowing each other's afifairs. Really they were more than friends. The old man knew all the secrets of the maiden's heart— she had no need of ex- plaining anything to him. He was herself (her Self). Still, upon the direct questions as to why she was weeping, she tried to evade him and could not bring herself at once to a clear statement. But he knew how to talk, and after a little while she confided in him that she wanted to learn (the) Language, Music and Drawing. If she could learn these three arts she could get a "better place" she thought. "Ah!" said he, "you want to learn (the) Language, Music and Drawing. Very well! You need cry no more; I am an old *peda- gogue ; I will teach you if you be attentive." She promised to be attentive! And so the old man began to speak the Language. He spoke the Word: calm, still, intense and affectionate. He spoke and it penetrated to the soul. In his Word she heard all her own thoughts and emotions. Every unclear long- ing found its expression. She learned (the) Language at once. "Now, my child," continued the pedagogue, "What is Music?" His expression and intonation were such that she herself could answer the question most readily — the very cords of her heart vibrated and resounded to his question. The question itself con- tained the answer. The harmony of existence thrilled her through and through. The old friend smiled, raised his finger and said, "This * The highest and most exalted title which the Talmudists hestowed in their most poetical flights upon God himself was that of "Pedagogue of Man."— Em. Deutsch. 39 is Drawing!" Before her vision the world's idea was revealed. She saw and beheld the ideal forms of life as they passed before her vision. She saw the root and meaning of her own being and the possibilities of all her dreams. Time passed rapidl}^ away. The midnight hour had come and gone before the guest left her. Before he departed, he admonished her to be silent and preserve her heart pure; to avoid having any- thing to do with things not pertaining to her life; to be obedient to superiors; and in thought to dwell much upon what he had told her and shown her. He added that if she followed his admonishings she should see him again at some other time. She made the promise and he departed as suddenly as he had come. But the young maiden soon fell back to her dreamy and dissatis- fied states. The teacher seemed to have taken all that bliss away with him which he brought. She appeared to be more lonesome than ever, and, what was worse, she could not restrain her feelings and ill humor, but became critical and troublesome. She meddled in everybody's afifairs and at times refused to obey orders. At last she was called before the lady of the house and reprimanded, and told that she would have to leave the house if she did not change her conduct. She was ordered to her room to think it over all by herself (her Self). When she came upstairs she found her teacher and friend there awaiting her. The scolding she had received had made her bitter, and she burst out before her friend, upbraiding him as the cause of all her trouble. He had turned her head, the housekeeper had said. If he meant her welfare, he must at once teach her the art of being governess, that she could find another place; this house she would have to leave. If he could not do that he might just as well leave her at once and take all his wisdom with him^ — it would be of no practical use to her. "Poor, vain child!" began the pedagogue, the teacher of The Personal, "you have forgotten your promise. It is not my gift that ruins you, it is your unfaithful mind and heart. You have not been obedient and you have angered your superiors. You must repent of that by asking forgiveness from your lady and by changing your conduct entirely. If you do not do that I will leave you, never more to return. Obedience and humility are necessary to learn my wis- dom. I shall be sorry to leave you, for then you will be alone in- deed !" The young and pure heart bent down before the kind warning voice. She cried tears such as she never before cried. She begged his forgiveness and that of the lady of the house ; she begged every- body to forgive her — and she humbled herself. Everything now came all right. The pedagogue and best friend 40 came and went. Nobody noticed anything except the radical change that had taken place. Silently and in quiet she gained possession of her soul; and more than once the lady of the house was heard to remark to her husband: "What a sweet soul!" — "Wonderfully gifted!" Here we might terminate our story. It is of no consequence what becam,e of her afterwards. The main thing is that she is happy and in possession of her soul, and that the old pedagogue takes care of her. Thus far we have been describing the life of a young girl as represented by the pictures in a book that lies before us. There is still one more picture in the book, and the children declare that it belongs to the story. Evidently the children only look over all the other pictures for the sake of coming to this one, the last of all — but the brightest. It represents a wedding feast, and the bride's features are so much like those of our maiden as we have seen her on the other pictures that we really believe the children. She has been married, and now there is feast in the castle and all the great people of the kingdom are there. " But, where is the teacher? Ah, he sits next to her! He is as happy as she is — perhaps more so ! He has been married too. ^ That has been a soul-marriage indeed! But, if this young being had not been obedient, if she had thought it "too much" to bear the burden of humble submission, there would have been no wedding. This young girl is an exact copy of thousands in life. Her actions we see daily all around us, her actions up to the time she upbraids the teacher. But we rarely see the consecrated woman who follows. Will you follow her example in this last respect? 41 Whom have I in the Heavens but Thee; and there is none upon the Earth whom I desire besides Thee. Ps. LXXIII. 23. Lift up your eyes to the Heavens, and look upon the Earth beneath. Isa. LI. 6. Sing, O ye Heavens, for the Lord hath done it. Isa. XLIV. 23. Night unto Night showeth knowledge. Fs. XIX. 2. The Moon and the Stars rule by night. Ps. CXXXVI. g. Even the Night shall be light unto me. Ps. CXXXIX. 11. Arise, let us go by night. Jer. VI. 5. / saw by night. ^ Zech. I. 8. 43 FOURTH LECTURE. The leading' thought in all mythologies is the conflict of Good with Evil, or with the demonic powers. With singular persistency this thought comes to the surface in all leg^ends. The ancients must have had a good reason for this. With some of them this conflict lies in ag'es past the existence of this universe ; with others this conflict is a natural element and law of the present universe. In either case the subject is one of importance. I have chosen this subject for an introduction to my address on the "Universal Ministry," in which you must serve, because the demonic powers, especially in our day, have gained control where they ought not to have any influenccj and it has become your duty to fight them. Among- the multitudinous constellations a few stand out very prominently and have by the Chaldeans and Egyptians been called "the signs of the times." If you will look on this sketch of the heavens you readily see these constellations and how they are ar- ranged on both sides of the Milky Way. You can find them very easy in the sky, if you place yourself facing the North star. Let me say that in the heavens you see, every time you look up, the greatest book of revelations. In indelible ink the figures have been traced there by antiquity — can I say by nature? No scribe can copy them wrongly and no book can be loist. That Bible is inspired indeed; it is written by the hand of God; its word is sacred. Those heavenly scriptures are given for your instruction, and they are profitable for teaching, "that the man of God may be complete." Around the constellations, I have indicated here merely by their names, you will find on your map a series of demonic powers in the form of dragons and serpents. There are the Northern Dragon, the World serpent and the Hydra; they represent, according to the most ancient traditions, the demonic powers in existence. From all sides they surround and try to crush the universe. While the ancients so forcibly taught this lesson, they also acknowledged that these very powers represented the mystical powers of support. The apparent contradiction is easil}^ solved: The demonic powers were cosmic forces of an earlier existence, either "fallen from their estate" or dethroned for some other reason. Whether fallen or dethroned, they remain cosmic forces, though no longer beneficent forces, but now more or less malignant, not perhaps malignant by nature, but 45 OPHIOCHUS SCRPENTARIUS CEPKEUS ANOftOMEOA ORION BULL 46 antagonistic because progressive eons left them behind. As it was in those days so it is now. The forces we contend against are antag- onistic because they are not in order, or line, with the present progress. In the following, I understand by the word demonic all antagonistic powers, forces or circumstances, be they represented by man or not. To the constellations of the Dragon, Serpent and Hydra come by natural characteristics Scorpio, and Sagittarius, who aims at the heel of Ophiochus. In connection with Scorpio we see the Wolf, the Centaur, Cerberus and the overthrown Altar. Everywhere in the heavens we see conflict. The central figure is Ophiochus in the southern Summer sky. He is the World-spirit in ONE figure, but the gradual development of the World-spirit is represented in THREE figures leading up to him. The three are Orion, Perseus and Hercules, Orion is the most glorious of the constellations on the Northern winter sky. You all know him, the valiant hero, fighting the rag- ing Taurus, followed by Cetus, the sea monster. He is accompanied by two dogs, symbols of faithfulness ; Sirius, the brightest fixed star, in front. Orion is not the biggest, but the best known among the star heroes. When he sets, Ophiochus, the "greatest among the ^eatest," rises. Orion occupies the same position as Odin accom- panied by Thor occupies among the Asas. Both represent the light- world, the cosmic manifestation of the Eternal Intelligence. Orion was a son of Neptune and a giant and a mightly hunter, and therefore in favor with Diana, who loved him. Her brother, Apollo, was displeased at this and often chid her, to no purpose, how- ever. One day Apollo observed Orion wading through a lake with his head only above water. He called Diana's attention to the black -object and declared she could not hit it. Diana aimed and killed Orion. Bewailing her fatal error with many tears she placed him among the stars, where he now follows the chase across the heavens. Sirius follows him and the Pleiades fly before him. At dawn he sinks toward the waters of his father Neptune, but through the winter night he is the giant of the heavens, who fights Taurus, the ferocious Surtur of Norse Mythology or uncontrolled fire, natural necessity. Orion is human intelligence who fights unrestrained passions, the blind nature powers, the wild and ferocious demonic forces. ' By intelligence these are controlled — during the hours of night. When day arises with the heavenly orb, the Sun, human intelligence pales and sinks into the sea of the infinite. When summer rules, the "greatest of the great," the Serpent-bearer or Serpent-de- stroyer, rules the "northern heavens and Orion is then visible only in the southern hemisphere. In our present day conflict, human in- telligence is the hero that subdues the unruly demonic passions. 47 When the New Day comes, human intellig-ence will take a secondary position and the Solar Hero, the Great God, will rule. Perseus claims our attention next. When our eye rises from the sinking Orion, we see the beautiful Capella, a star of first magnitude, which never gO'CS entirely below the horizon. It shines in Auriga. Right over it we see Perseus and Andromeda. You know the myth. Andromeda has been sacrificed, like so many women are, to appease a monster who ravaged her father Orpheus's country. Perseus, the Gorgon-slayer, saw her chained to the rock of sacrifice and sought to find the reason of her disgrace. At first her modesty kept her silent, but finally he learned the true cause. He killed the monster and married Andromieda. In the northern sky, the sea-monster is the northern fish in the zodiac. Cepheus and Cassiopeia, her mother, are seen right above Perseus. The chained princess is the Beauty of the World bound in un- freedom and by grossness. Eternal reason under the form of the imaginative art-impulse liberates the beauty. The true poet and artist is the one who liberates the chained heavenly beauty by de- scending to the confines of night and in the depths of the soul slays those passion-monsters who hold possession at the springs of life, and who rise from the abyssal sea claiming the daughters of men as their legitimate prey. The true minister is he who' bears the armor of truth and beauty and who "in stern tranquillity of wrath" awaits the monster and fearlessly plunges his sword of righteousness into it. There is no more wonderful picture in the heavens than that of the chained Andromeda. In that myth the ancients represented the very riddle of existence: Why is man chained to this existence? Why the dissonance? Why does every age show so much evil and why must we from time to time rise Perseus-like to liberate our better nature? You, too, must go out to kill tbe monster, that mon- ster, who in our day threatens the life of our daughter Andromeda, the truly Human. That is the ministry I send you to. You cannot serve your ministry in your own strength, you need tbe Pegasus, the head of Medusa, and the training of Perseus. When you kill the monster you will hear the cry, "the great Pan is dead." In Hercules we recognize the giant will, the third psychological form of divine manifestation, also one of tbe heavenly heroes and champions of freedom. Earthly Hercules is brutal force, unrefined and coarse, almost self-destructive, but the celestial Hercules is moral will, purified endeavor. Like Orion and Perseus, be is one of the greatest heroes in the World-conflict, but unlike these two be is a tragic hero. Though be stands upon the head o^ the dragon, he nevertheless falls, overcome by his own strength. Tbe falling herO' turns in his fall his head toward Ophiochus and learns, like Balder on the funeral pyre, that he shall rise though he falls. Our will only 48 conquers when it ceases to be OUR will. In your ministry you must not go forth in your own strength, but must let the warrior in you do the fighting. in these three World groups, Orion, Perseus and Hercules, we have the Platonic trinity of the true, the beautiful and the good. Marvelous and beautiful as they are in their significance, they are nevertheless., defective. They are earthbound forces and ideas. Neither the true, the beautiful, nor the good can liberate man. Neither art nor philosophy brings us freedom. And the ancient world knew it. In Ophiochus antiquity has expressed its deepest insight; has shown that the Divine is incarnated and holds the serpent-demon in its hand, ready to strangle him when the time comes. Like the Divine, the constellation Ophiochus is so large that but few see it. The Equator goes through the Serpent-bearer's breast and the lower half of his body is never seen on the northern hemisphere; so only half of the Divine is visible to either of the hemispheres, the upper or the lower, the open and the occult. The Greek saw in Ophiochus the great healer and savior, Esculapius, and rightly. Men's dividing lines pierce the breast of Love. The physician comes without arms, trusting tO' his righteous cause. Ophiochus has no weapons; he- steps upon Scorpio and takes no notice of Cerberus; still he grapples with the great Serpent and with his hand alone controls it. Relying solely upon iiis inherent divinity and superior virtue he stands erect in the conflict, he looks boldly forward to the End of the Age, to Spica, the ripened corn in the hand of the virgin Seraph, the celestial Astrea, and toward the love world of the Twins. I want you to study carefully and often this great picture-book open in the heavens. It is the Bible which contains the laws, the promises and the prophecies of the Universal Ministry. I see one form of modern occultism, which is lawlessness, and a very dangerous one at that. We hear of organizations being formed, 'here and abroad, who stand in with each other and who cooperate to influence the course of history. What right have they to do so? Are they Providence? Are they the executives of the Great Being? Who appointed them? How do they know that they are in possession of the truth and that they influence humanity in the really good? How dan- gerous is not such a self-appointed Providence? These people are lawless in my opinion. They are seeking their own will; they are 49 anti-Christian, viz., anti the spiritual life, which seeks not its ovvn^ but inquires from moment to moment what is the Divine Will. Do not be led astray by these movements. Many societies are now organized in which you involuntarily serve such lawless purposes, if you are a member. Do not join any secret society. Their day is past. We have no use for them in this nineteenth century, which is the age of democracy, the age of the people. In the past, secret societies were of use when man could not think freely nor be allowed to express himself freely if he had any thought. But we are beyond all that now. There is nothing in the whole range of human knowledge that ought not be public property, if it be beneficent. If it is dangerous it is criminal and ought not to be conveyed even secretly. You want to work against all these forms of lawlessness. The most emphatic way you can counteract the modern law- lessness and at the same time a way in which you can come to exert all the secret influence you may desire, consists in entering upon that glorious office to which you and all spiritual people are called, whether brought up on Bible food or not. In quoting the following passage from Peter's letters, I want you to bring it in connection with that which I shall speak of in my next lecture, the excellence of Biblical philosophy. Peter, speaking to all, called in the Christ principle, to the glory of the great Being, calls them "an elect race, a royal priest- hood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him, who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." You, all of you, called in the Christ principle, are in "that royal priesthood" through which the divine influx comes to the world. In your conversations with God you have realized that. Have you not? Your priesthood is to be made active under the present circumstances of your life, be they at home, in the kitchen, in the s-hop or before the bar. Your character, such as that is defined by color, is to be made an influence there and at once. Xo ceremonies are needed. No initiations take place. Arise and look into the Divine Face and you wdll receive a kiss of love. Let that be the initiation. If you be called from a narrow^er sphere to a larger, remember it means greater duties and that you are not prepared for the larger sphere, till you have serv^ed your apprentice- ship at home. Let the world feel an influence of holiness come to it from your realization of being a "holy nation;" to be holy means to be set apart for special uses! Let the w^orld understand that you belong to a race, elect "to show the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness. Those who are elected do not mingle with the lawless. How could 50 they return to darkness, which they have just come out of; their election, viz., their growth from out the law, the mean, the unclean protects them. Make sure of your election by study and daily g-rowth, by asserting it, and beware of your lower self, "the dog turning to his own vomits." Increase your treasures, let "the day- star arise in your hearts" by opposing the many false teachers of to-day. They are the false teachers, who by "lascivious doings" promise to reveal mysteries; they are false teachers, who set you up in rebellion against the existing order of things, before you have grown to the New; they are false teachers who tell you that you are a God, forgetting the Human; they are false teachers, who for money and for bank-accounts sell the Divine-Gifts; they are false teachers who only will teach you in secrecy; they are false teachers who teach that which they, themselves, have not lived and ex- perienced; they are false teachers, who substitute an impersonal god for a personal, who gives you an abstract conception for a concrete; what have you gained? False teachers everywhere! False teachers abound! Brighu, whose heart was the pure essence of virtue, who proceeded Jrom Manu himself, thus addressed the great sages: ^^Hear the infal- lible rules for the fruit of deeds in this universe." Manu Lawbook. 63 FIFTH LECTURE. I want now to impress upon you the idea of religion as regards your ministry. Of course, you understand that I am not going to speak theology. I shall speak simply about religion as universally understood, and have nothing to do with the dogmas of any special religion. Religion is consciousness of God and an active love to God. Religion presupposes a distinction between God and the World, God and Man, but is also a relationship of union between the two. Religion is therefore really an expression for man's company with God. Both philosophy and art concern themselves with man's re- lationship to God; the first expresses that relation in thought; the latter does it in plastic forms or by color, etc. But neither of them rep- resents a life in God. Religion does. Religion is personal living and doing in God. It is this idea I want to emphasize. And this is a new side of that fourth form I spoke of before, and the form you must live in, in order to fulfill your ministry religiously; yea, which you must live in, in order to fulfill your ministry perfectly. Follow that great teacher, whom the world looks to as the Christ. Follow him, viz., do as he did, live as he lived, etc. I am not now^ laying much emphasis upon his teachings, be they ethical, dogmatic, etc. I point to the religion of Jesus, to the way he had religion. To find what his religion was, or what consciousness he had of his relationship to the Father, look upon the praying Christ, the Christ in retirement on the hills; look to the Jesus of love in that wonderful high-priestly address given us by John, the apostle; imitate the trusting Christ, see that faith, that adores, and give way to that tenderness which wept over Jerusalem. Do that and you shall understand the Religion of Jesus, and you shall get religion; not the religion of the scribes or the doctors, but the religion of the pious heart, the child's simplicity and faith. You shall thus go forth a power and redeem your fellow men. You redeem him from sin when you show 'him his disobedience, and he asks the Great Being to be forgiven; you redeem him from his ignorance, when you teach him that the A B C of religion is to cry "Father;" you redeem him from his degraded life, when you cause him to bathe, to hope, to smile and to start anew to carve out a life. You become a Re- deemer in that way. All this I have now said is or ought to be acceptable to you, whether you look upon the Lord as a man or as a God. 55 There is another thing you want for your ministry, and that is more reading in the Bible. Of course you will believe me when I say that I am not a bibliolater and have no by-purposes in recalling you to the Bible. I will not take you away from your Orientalism. No, not for a moment. Study with the Orientals early and late. Invite 'them to this country in great numbers and learn all they have to teach you. I have heard nothing that is not sound from these men. I know many of them personally; some of them I love; for all I have the greatest respect. But this is a fact, easily enough verified, that historically we are farther on in development than they, for to-day they teach and pride tlhemselves that they teach doctrines many thousand years old. Historical progress means much. It means advancement, it means additions, it means deeper and new experiences, for we with our globe have come, on the spiral movement, to a position in the universe, where other and more factors have come to play than were known thousands of years ago. Another fact, also easily verified, is this, that we as Western people are radically different from those of the East. We have grown out of another soil, and we live differently, and cannot live as the Orientals live, even if we wanted to. These and many other differences make it impossible for us to accept many if not most of the details of Eastern teachings. We may learn from them on gen- eral subjects, however. We have neither their depth nor their subtlety. We have not their peaceful natures, nor their simplicity; and I wish to God that our American people could learn something on those lines. I say this and I can say much more that is favorable to the Orientals, but they need not my recommendation. You have so many of them right here in Chicago, that you know per- fectly well what they are and what they can do. You understand me now as regards the Oriental Bible, Let me now say a word or two for the Western Bible. Every one of the most important doctrines, which the Orientals teach you and lay so much stress upon, are found in your much- neglected Bible, and, as a rule, it seems to me, better stated there; at any rate, those doctrines are stated there in a form more suited to our use. Let me review some of the more important ones. Let me begin with the doctrine of illusion, Maya. Turn to Ecclesiastes or the Preacher and you read : "Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, Vanity of vanities; the whole is vanity. What ad- vantage is to man by all his labor, etc." That's the philosophy of Ecclesiastes, and exactly, in Hebrew rendering, the doctrine of Maya. We have the same teaching in ordinary church theology. There the doctrine runs: "Forsake the devil, the flesh and the world," and the reason is the same: they are illusory. The under- tone of the whole Bible is the same. We learn that S at-Chit-Ananda — Existence, Knowledge and 66 Bliss — are the characteristics of Being in manifestation; we learn that Atman, the only true existence, Self, is THAT, which alone endures, while everything else changes and disappears. In the Bible we have a wonderful parallel to this teaching and one more personal or more direct than the philosop'hy of the East. In Col. I we read that "Christ is the principle in whom all things stand to- gether." In 'true oriental fashion we have here a person spoken of as a principle, and, moreover, declared to be the principle in "whom all things stand together." What is this but teaching in St. Paul's fashion that the Self is the enduring element? This same Christ is elsewhere declared to be "the way, the truth and the life;" does this trilogy not answer marvelously to Existence, Knowledge and Bliss? As for that terrible dogma of Karma, we can beat that with the Old Testament teachings about the Law. No man can fulfill the law, and the law is the condemnation of man. Indeed, the Bible holds that that which we sow, we shall reap, and that we are judged by our fruits, and that we are saved by our works, etc. This dogma of Karma and that of the law is only partially true. Life does show us cases where the uttermost farthing has been asked. Often it seems that we atone for our sins and pay the penalty for every mistake. But as true as it is that nature shows straight lines — lines of righteousness — so true is it also, that she shows curves, lines of love, and it is a fact, that she shows more curves than straight lines. What does this show? It shows that there is an abundance of love and mercy to counterbalance the straight lines, and the demands, which these make because we do not follow them. Have we not individually experienced that there is forgiveness? Ah! there is an ocean of mercy, deep and large enough to swallow up all Karmic influences and Karmic sins ! Mankind — excepting the Hindus and the Jews — believes it and its experience is a warrant for its belief. Though we do not know the exact workings of Law and Forgiveness; neither do we know all about Karma. Let us rest assured that there is mercy as well as law. We may even go so far as to take the Christian teaching for our guide and say that so long as we are under the law, we are judged by the law, and when we place ourselves under mercy, we receive mercy. Some of the Orientals will not admit our dogma of curves, of mercy. I spent the most of a night with Chatterdi Mo'hini, when hie was here, some years ago, discussing the dogma. He would not admit the curves nor mercy, but counted them both as Karma, good Karma. The logical contradiction of a finite man making good Karma strong enough to redeem him, he would not see. Other Orientals are not so rigid. I believe they have learned mild- ness in the West. The whole doctrine of Karma, it sbould be re- 57 membered, is really a philosophical play toy of latter date. As now taught, or as it has been taught for a thousand years or more, it is not found in the Vedas. The Jewish harsh doctrine of Law is a product of the scribes and scholastic doctors of Egypt. Both Karma and the Law are the clocks of sanctimoniousness. Love is the key to life and mercy makes the world move. Then there is the great doctrine of Nirvana: union vv^ith the Divine, howsoever that be conceived by the various schools. Jesus has declared: ''The Father and I are O'ne," and that is true for every man. We always were in Nirvana, and when our Mediaeval Mystics speak of Union with God, they mean to reassert this funda- mental doctrine of the West and remind themselves and their hear- ers of it. Our Bible ends with the declaration that God shall be all in all, and it opens with the picture of God creating man in his own image. Between these two, the End and the Beginning, every page teaches how this nirvanic bliss was forgotten and how it is recovered. And the Bible is not uncertain in its teachings nor indefinite in its definition of Nirvana. Nowhere does it teach a loss of The Personal, or the Essential in Man, the most irrational of all Eastern teachings. The Bible teaches that we find ourselves in God. That "flaming glory," the soul, which left the Deity on that morning of creation, does not return empty to its source. It re- turns heavily laden with experience. It is "the Divine in Diremp- tion," and returns to itself plus its human experience. Souls have been returning ever since "the divine awakened in man," and the DIVINE IS BECOMING HUMAN. It is therefore that I say so often in these lectures and addresses that EVERYTHING IS HUMAN. I proclaim a great Mystery! Thus it is! THE DI- VINE IS HUMAN. The cry is for Adeptship. Mahatmas are wanted everywhere. Let the world have them, but why necessarily go to India to become an adept by those peculiar ascetic methods, there adopted, especially as the adept produced is a recluse and one who shuns human so- ciety? Why not fulfill the law implied in the Sermon on the Mount. He is an Adept, a Mahatma, a Great Spirit, who lives up to that sermon; and that sermon does not drive you into selfish seclu- sion to give you powers outside human uses and society. The Sermon on the Mount is eminently practical. We need that sort of adeptship. One who possesses those eight Blessings has cer- tainly attained the Universal Consciousness so much desii'ed, but rarely tried for among the modern aspirants for mahatmaship. The truth is that most of the candidates condemn themselves by their methods. External methods are for the materialistic; the method of the Sermon on the Mount is purely spiritual. Everyone seeks his methods according to his disposition. The moderns talk a great deal about overcoming, so much so 68 that the talk has become Cant. Of course, we must learn to over- come, and the first step in overcoming self is to keep still about our work of overcoming. Overcoming is proved by overcoming: "The truth shall make you free." We are judged not by works, but by our fruits, and spiritual fruits cannot be seen by the vulgar. The Hindus offer us many kinds of Yogas or means of over- coming. They are all fine and we have them all in our Bible, and under forms more suited to our wants. There is Karma Yoga, the yoga of work, which teaches that by incessant and faithful work you will liberate yourself from all kinds of bondage, attain supreme wisdom and finally lapse into the Deity. This is magnificent phi- losophy, true to the uttermost, but there is more in religion than there is in philosophy. He, whose work consists in giving him- self, that others may live, and who gives himself after God's own example — God is both sacrificer, the sacrifice and the sacrificial lamb — he is a pattern for others to follow and unites in his char- acter both religion and philosophy. Turn to your New Testament and you will see two such workers in Peter and James. Read their epistles. The Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of love, is beautifully illustrated in John and his gospel, "The Heart of Christ." I have already spoken of the Sermon, on the Mount; it is all Bhakti Yoga. Our mediaeval mysticism is full of this yoga. Holy Grael and Romanticism are Bhakti Yoga. Gnana Yoga holds that man is essentially divine. I have spoken of that already. By the Gnana Yoga we are to attain free- dom, to go beyond this or that form of existence and to stand in Being. Is not this fully declared in the apostle's word: "Not I, but Christ in me?" How rich is not this word and how practical! Here is a personal power, we can imitate, no abstraction. Here is religion, not merely philosophy. Raja Yoga, the psychological yoga, recommends concentration as a means of union with God. If you will look through, once more, the lectures I delivered here in the Spring, you will see how elaborate Mysticism is on this subject, and the Mysticism I defined is all an outgrowth of the Bible. All these Yogas blend most beautifully in the true Christian religion. And our Western view has an advantage over the Ori- ental. By the Yogas of India Ave are led to an impersonal God, to an undififerentiated God, but do we gain anything by that? Why and how is an oriental impersonal God better than the Western theological and personal God? They are both of no use to the spiritual man ! We want no dogmatic God of any kind ! We want the whole God, the whole man! We want fullness! I claim we get that sooner by means of the Bible than by the Yogas. Not only has the Bible shown itself the superior, when we 69 compare it to the most universal teachings of India, but intrinsically it has claims upon our attention and study. For you, who are to engage in the Universal Ministry in these days, it is important that you should have a definite program to offer, and a program which is not only essentially biblical, but which also contains the essence of the Bible. Please look at this diagram : 60 5? 5 5 W S3 w w CfQ en; oq ^OQ (TO tro oq' B- ^ g- ;S ^ P" p; B- 2- "^ 3 i § tt. CD g p" W t^ td o 3 ►O B" » o- 3 g- ^- o g O CD CD o :=; , B ' CO CD O t^ 1 O 1 >t S J 1 1 ( 3 [ j ; ' "* 1—1 p P po 3 J-- H^^ ^ ^ ^ H 1^ H yq ^ w yq ^ 2 o ^ • o o crq £, g g- S O g o p CD C5 ^^ p g^ -•p-pr B- B CD (D «, / o g ^ 5 CD =r ETw o o '-* B S tn CD S^ p --g S-"-:^ «= ?* '^ o o Q 1^ H a o O p ^ P 3 „. CD :^ 3 b3 CD P^ ^ p CD CD < ^ o B ct> o 5' CD CD 5' CD CD P^ od' «'o p- p pq^ tCCD B p p- ■ CD CD p- '-^ 5' o< o B 5' at! O c; i-s H 1-^ S t-' ^ CD 1 ? ?^ ^ O ^. P en CD o o 3 CD CD p- B' ' W to W td 2 2 W td td (R j» !^ CD CD CD CD CD ci' CD Cd" cd' '~+s CD Dj CD fo CD tB O 05 O CD CD CD O cn en CD en O en C tn B CD CD n5 CD re CD CD CD en l-S CD = CD rj- 2 g CD D S f^ CD s; f* CD CO CD & g a Di CD Qi Qj CI' „ c O O CD (Ti in rt O ,r» c^ CD i" CD l-i5 5-1- O p" P5 p^ . p M5 p i-i »-! CD pH (p ^ P= ^ a> "^ fo CD *-i g CD o P- g S ■^ S. CD '^ &? 3 p- ^' < ^ <^ m CD 2 f B CD 3 CD CD Ms o 3 1| IS- O Hi CO ?; p" p B^ ft> CD CD 3 ^' B j;- p — CD l-i l-j CD