life ', ' JiP si % for; the founding of a. College lathis Colonf >Y^LH*WJMiiVJii&sirirY° ° iLniais^mr ° Gift of New York Tribune 1923 »^"!^';';i -—>¦.-_- ¦ - -- ---¦"--^--l- — EVOLUTION OF ui CRUDE SPIRIT By JUSTE MILIEU • Copyright 1920 By Wilat Publishing Co. Inc., All Rights Reserved The Price of this Book is $2.00 It will be mailed postage prepaid upon receipt of the price. PUBLISHED BY WILAT PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. BUFFALO, N. Y. INDEX — o — INTRODUCTION WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 5 SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 24 THE MAGNETIC FORCE OF THE MATERIAL BODY .38 ZOROASTER THE NATURALIST 46 . BUDDHA THE MYSTIC 51 REINCARNATION 57 THE UPANISHADS AND THE BHAGAVADGITA 61 LAOTSZE AND CONFUCIOUS 64 THE PEOPLE OF CHINA b6 CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 68 INERT SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL FORCES 83 MIRACLES AND THE SUPERNATURAL 88 THE OCCULT SCIENCES 91 SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 95 CONVERSION AND SALVATION 109 « THE PSYCHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY 112 QUOTATIONS FROM "WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM" 116 SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 126 THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 143 EVOLUTION THROUGH MATERIAL CONDITIONS 159 SOCIALISM 167 LEARNED AND EDUCATED 176 THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 180 THE LEGAL PROFESSION 184 FEAR 192 INSPIRATION 196 SELFISHNESS 198 WHAT IS CHARACTER 209 QUESTIONS 220 WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 225 BELIEF 238 WHAT CHURCH DO YOU BELONG TO 244 EVERY-DAY AMUSEMENTS 253 PULPIT METHODS 263 JOAQUIN MILLER'S LAST MESSAGE 289 NEW CALENDAR 293 INTRODUCTION In placing the "Evolution of Crude Spirit" before our brother men we wish them to realize that our conclusions have not developed through imaginary conditions nor have they been built upon sandy foundations but are the result of careful study to learn the natural laws of life. These laws have always existed although generally ignored. We too often look upon them as of no consequence and at the same time ready to criticise our neighbors as we see how those laws are operating upon their lives. It was through investigation and study that led us to find a w:orld existing about us that we did not, in our younger days, know anything about. It was these various investigations and studies that helped us to find the simple natural laws of our being, and from them we have learned that immortality in and through the evolution of spirit, in the material body, is a fact and not a myth. In our evolution we should never allow our minds to become biased nor permit the fanatical thought suggestions, given to us by a representative of this or that particular idea or hobby, to influence us in the consideration of any question. In expressing our thought learn that in using the words supernatural, superstition, or superstitious, sinful or sinning, that they express the development of immature and imaginative minds. If better under stood the word ignorance covers the whole situation. Again when we use the word teacher or teachers it means not only every school teacher but every Priest, Minister, Clergyman, Rector or other person exercising sacerdotal duties. Selfishness and Fear are- the two dominant condi tions that control the mind of every person. It is from these two forces that each one of us must learn the value of true companionship as well as to learn the realities of character building. The gradual development of the personality comes through the environment of the individual. As we learn to master ourselves through the two basic con ditions of selfishness and fear, so do we make our character as we advance in years from childhood to old age. If we, in the following pages, have repeated any thought in various word formations, it has been done to bring clearly to view the grand truth of our spirit ual birthright. To be a material King is only for the moment. An eternity of time follows this A.B.C. class of life. Re member that those who proclaim their special rights only manifest the coarsest kind of selfishness. Their egotism blinds them to the fact that spirit is the life- giving principle which permeates all nature, whether visible or invisible. That we, in our material body, are now individualizing our spiritual personality and when our spiritual body leaves this material body we will enter and continue in the spiritual world as we have made ourselves here. And this is just as natural as our material body was formed in our prenatal condition. If the classic metaphysical and philosophical words are not used to meet some particular style of express ing our thought, that the reader may expect to find, kindly throw the mantle of charity over the omissions and find our thought world, which is the character development of every individual. JUSTE MILIEU. WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT? The first question one asks is — "What is Crude Spirit?" That we may start. from a simple founda tion to find a reasonable answer to this question, let us ask — "What is Crude Iron; what is crude copper; what is crude silver or gold? What is it that is formed into a brick but a part of the earth called clay or crude clay?" Everything in its original or virgin state is crude. When we take any crude material and transform it into any object that pleases the imagination we have, in transforming that crude material, used our thought (an unseen force) and moulded that thought into the material article that expresses a new form of material. But thought, the unseen force, was the power that caused the transformation from the crude to the useful. As we try to analyze our own thought suggestions so as to understand how that thought produces a 6 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT suggestion, and that suggestion causes the action that gives us the material evidence of thought force, we soon find ourselves asking very awkward questions. In fact, so awkward that those hearing the questions will look at us in surprise and wonder if we are in our right mind. But when they try to fathom and answer those questions they find themselves unable to frame an answer. Everything in this world has developed from crude conditions and that development has come through natural causes and through the unseen thought sug gestions from those spiritual personalities that are in harmony with a mind in a material body. The fundamental law of nature (that gives to each one of us the power to use a thought that will produce another thought which is transformed into a living individuality of character or soul making) is the Air we breathe. The Air is all powerful in its action but it is an unseen force that every living thing is dependent upon for its existence. The character of every individual is the result of the various thought suggestions (that one allows himself to use), to produce the actions which are in evidence before our brother men. WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 7 It is the concatenation of a life from Crude Air, an unseen force, into character, another unseen force, which culminates in a completed personality, another unseen force, called the soul. These concatenated conditions are all dependent upon the Air we breathe and all are of the spiritual unseen forces in and by which we live. A draftsman, meditating, takes a piece of blue print paper and a pencil and commences to draw lines in various directions which are so complicated to one looking on as to be confusing. The onlooker may laugh as all that he can see is a confused lot of lines and may ridicule the work that is being done. But ignoring all of it the draftsman keeps the men at work and slowly the vision of his thought world is finally completed as a material body and you see that ma terial body formed into a ship, and named the Maure- tania, running from Liverpool to New York. Where was that ship with all of its complicated machinery twenty-five years ago? All in very crude conditions in both the material and the thought world. Can you see the thought force that produced that ship? Can you take hold of the thought with your material hands and understand its working upon the material body? 8. EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT You may say that thought is something that is trying to find a reason why it exists. But that thought in its development takes crude material and molds it to please that thought into a moving force that exhibits the results upon crude matter through that unseen developed thought of spiritual conception. Finally, something from an unseen thought power has been built up from crude material and is standing before you that one might say was brought out through a miracle while, as a matter of fact, it is only the process and development of thought (that unseen and intangible power), that we have learned how to use, through natural laws. Crude clay, when formed into bricks, represent our thoughts which we can use, guide and turn them in any direction we please. But before we had the thought formed into an act it was transformed from crude spirit, air, through our material brain and other organs of the body in a regular way of development the same as the brick was formed from crude clay. Every thought we have had is placed and cemented to other thoughts like bricks in a building. It is one ceaseless moulding of characteristic bricks which, we are shaping and placing in our spiritual personalities. The subtile and the subtle influence of each thought WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 9 is firmly fixed in the formation of our character or personality. This similar to the bricklayer who places brick after brick in a wall of a one or thirty-story building. Each brick small in itself, is cemented to, and becomes a part of, the thousands or millions of other bricks in the walls of that building. In like manner, we have placed millions of thoughts and acts in the development of our character, and those thoughts and acts will be our soul or spiritual person ality when we graduate from this primary school of life. Bricks are not all alike. You may paint or white wash them in order to make them appear alike, still their real character will remain the same. In a short time the paint or whitewash wears away and then you see them as they really are. We ^ may paint or whitewash the things we are ashamed of. But neither paint nor whitewash will change a single act or thought that has been cemented into, and becomes a part of, our character building. Crude spirit is the living, acting force that supplies the spiritual and magnetic forces of the material body. This in the air we breathe, in the various foods we eat, as well as in the water we drink. It is the all- powerful force in nature upon which every living 10 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT thing depends for its life. It is so common that we hardly ever think about it or give it any consideration in our study of life. It is about us, in us and we in it, every moment of time. It is an invisible ocean of crude spiritual power in which we live and act like a fish in an ocean of water. Without it life would never manifest itself. Its force is so powerful that when it is moving at the rate of one hundred miles an hour, it is all one can do to withstand its force. Still the earth is going its twenty-five thousand miles every twenty-four hours. This is over one thousand miles an hour and at this moment, where we are,. it is a dead calm. The earth traveling at this speed, has the air going with it at the same speed, still you cannot see the air, nor can you grasp it when you try to use material force to bind or to hold it. No one can tell of its movements. But if it is held in bondage it soon becomes poisonous and dangerous to use. It is like water in its power to renew itself, for if it is kept moving it is always renewing its life- giving principles, but if allowed to become stagnant it becomes impure, and neither water nor air can be used when in stagnant conditions. For years the writer has taken the position that the air we breathe is spirit in its crude or virgin state. WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 11 This crude spiritual force co-operating through the lungs with the material brain creates thought which is another unseen but active force which is the con trolling power that shapes the character as well as the body of every human being. What we think is the first cause of every act and that first cause be comes a part of our character which is another unseen and intangible force which is the subconscious part of our lives which, to the material eye, is another un seen and intangible force which is, in reality, char acter or soul building. This crude spiritual force is always seeking natural avenues through which to develop itself in some ma terial form. It may be in some plant, flower or thorn. It may be in some vine, bush or tree. It may be in some fish, bird, animal or man, but each one will be in its proper environment and each a part in the natural formation of its life-giving power. He or she that masters the material, selfish and animal desires is transforming his or her material body into one that is spiritual while the spirit remains in the material body. It was this transforming power that was exem plified in the life of Christ, an example that no one in history has equalled. 12 EVOLUTION OF, CRUDE SPIRIT It is quite common for some earnest students to draw fine distinctions between the soul and the spirit ual personality or body. As a matter of fact, there can be no such distinction for the soul and the spirit ual body are one and the same spiritual personality. The spark of life is evident as the babe takes its first breath and begins its spiritual and material evo lution. As that babe is guided and takes thought of itself, so does its material and spiritual personality develop. If the spiritual part of our nature is being culti vated through the ideals of the unseen spiritual, then our spiritual perceptions broaden and we better understand our spiritual personality. If the material side of our nature has been given the precedence, then our spiritual personality or character has taken on that material condition and the spiritual ideals have been smothered through those material desires, but the spiritual character or personality is the soul as then developed. The soul is the all of our living. It develops through the desires of material or spiritual ideals into the one spiritual personality. In another analysis the soul is the development of character. The spiritual personality we evolve is the counterpart of our WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 13 thoughts and acts as we develop that character from our environments, thoughts and acts. The man with one talent who, through indifference and neglect, did not improve what he had is an illus tration of our mental propensities. We are all co workers. The man who ignores his responsibilities to other co-workers shows that he is not a co-worker and he has to step one side to make room for one who does his wiork cheerfully and earnestly. The truth concerning our responsibility for the building of our spiritual personality is clearly given to us not only in the Bible, but by every true and noble thought-giver who has helped us to see our selves and our responsibility for ourselves as we have entered the sacred chambers of the soul. It is back in the Sixteenth Century that we see it credited to one Edmond Spencer as being the author of these two lines: "For of the soul the body form doth take For soul is form and doth the body make." It is such, suggestions as these that have been planted in the thought world that leads us into the fields of spiritual idealism where we can find the truth of our evolution from crude spirit into a spiritual personality. 14 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT This air, crude spirit, contains so many and various . ingredients that when analyzed one finds that it con tains the most powerful forces in nature. Think of setting wheels in motion that will con centrate from the air the electricity that is used hun dreds of miles from the place where it is concentrated or made. Think of the power of air that, when in circular motion, will create a tornado or a typhoon and when in that condition, will twist and tear trees from their roots. Even then, when its power is so clearly dem onstrated, we can only see the results of its action but never the air itself. Here, in the air we breathe, is a force, a life-giving element not equalled by any other force or power in all nature. Are we claiming too much when we say that here is the foundation of spirit in its crude condition and in that crude condition we have existed and waited to develop our spiritual personality and this in co-opera tion with our material body? That we are evolving a character or soul from this crude spirit through our material body? That we receive thought suggestions from both the spiritual and material and from those suggestions we take the ideal spiritual thought or the low selfish WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 15 material thought and weave those thought sugges tions into our character or soul building and make them a part of our individuality, not only for today but for all time? This spiritual law is a natural law and has its roots in an unfathomable past and its branches penetrate into a limitless future. Were we a part of the unfathomable past? When we answer "yes" we must consider that we were in that limitless field of inert spiritual force waiting for our opportunity to advance and become spiritually individualized through the co-operation of the spirit ual and material magnetic forces in the material body. Will we be a living spiritual body, the embodyment of our personality in the limitless future? The same law which enveloped and evolved us from ' the inert to the active material personality will always be present with us. In fact, we are a part of the active force which we receive from the spiritual and mag netic inert forces while in this material body. The magnetic forces of the material body develop from the inert into a distinct material and spiritual personality and that personality will represent us and we will be known through it and go hand in hand with it through all eternity. 16 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Our daily living, thinking, acting, speaking and example enters into this process of individualizing our material body and this places us in form, thought, word, act and manner, the same as we have molded and formed them into our character, our soul, our spiritual personality, precisely as we have placed them in our individual lives. Our individual selves will stand as distinct and clearly identified and separate there as we are here. As we breathe this air into our lungs we are shaping our character, our soul and our material body through the thought then in our mind. If the thought is — "I do not feel well," etc., etc., — then the reality of sickness soon appears in the body. When the thought is a desire in any direction it directly affects the material body, for every nerve answers by adding new energy to the effort of creat ing new conditions about us. If the thought is one of selfishness so is the im print of that thought moulded into our character. If the thought is one of indifference and a "don't care anything about the result," then you see the character developing a listless indifference that is repelling even to the most listless when they see that character developing in others. WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 17 If the thought is to enjoy a good time at the expense of another or it is other thoughts that lead to gossip, criticism, or the using of unkind words, all each and every one are clearly placed in the individual characteristics of the one allowing those thoughts. "Birds of a feather flock together." So will the various characters in a natural way flock together who have a similar desire for the same conditions. One of the most simple problems in character development is the intemperance question. Here, you find one who is disgusted with his environment while his neighbor is so delighted with his oppor tunity to satisfy his animal appetites that he can never be satisfied until he is "soaked." No clearer example of the power of thought that lies back of the outward act can be as clearly seen, and its value in character development so vividly expressed, as in that man who sacrifices himself, as well as degrading his family and friends, through his thoughtless support of one of the greatest evils in this world. Whether it is using alcohol or other narcotics the results are the same. The power of thought shapes the desires and acts of every human being and they (thoughts, acts and words) are stamped into the foundation of our char- 18 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ,,,, acter building as firmly as the Rock of Gibraltar. You see crude spirit developing in the blade of grass, in the tree, the dog, the horse, and every living thing. Have we any right to say that we are the only its in the universe of space? No two persons are alike. At birth each one has a small portion of spiritual force within them called the soul. The spirit is planted within us, like a seed in the ground, to grow and as it develops it will rep resent our personality. It is a living germ waiting upon us for its spiritual food to give it strength and power. It is pure and ideal and will develop grand and noble characteristics if properly guided in its spiritual and material environment. With a large number, this germ always remains a germ, never waking up to its spiritual opportunities, but always suppressed and smothered by the animal and selfish propensities pertaining to the material body, and therefore they never open their spiritual eyes — in other words they are never born again but live to gratify their material desires. This germ of spiritual force (a germ spiritual in a material body) can be developed, educated, evolved into a living spiritual personality of thought, memory, emotion and working intelligence by our personal WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 19 effort in living communication with the higher ideals and spiritual realities within our environment. If neglected or ignored it not only remains dormant but becomes stagnant, while the body, fed by animal forces, craves every selfish desire to satisfy its lust ful propensities. Step by step it deadens the spiritual ideals until they become like clay. "Eyes have we, but we see not; ears have we, but we hear not." Full of self- important egotistical ignorance we kill by inches our subconscious self so that our conscience is unable to act and we can see no other relation in our environ ment but our material desires. The existence of a spiritual world within and around us is a complete blank for we have disconnected the two conditions by our own one-sided thought development. The spiritual and animal magnetic forces work in harmony when both are intelligently guided to ele vate, purify and strengthen both the spiritual and material body and both are dependent, one upon the other, in the development of our character or spiritual personality. Neglect of either injures both. But the neglect of the spiritual is worse in its results as that will lead to spiritual decay. When the spirit is the all important thought it will 20 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT aid, by its power over all material forces, in protecting its temporary home — the material body. But often, very often, the over zealous spiritual student will go so far in that one-sided direction that the material body is made to suffer through the one-sided spiritual development, and by our own neglect we weaken the material body. Natural law is all and in all, both spiritual and material. Both work to the one end of evolving the ideal material and spiritual body. But both are changeable and are controlled by and under the power and influence of our own will force. This will force will land us in a quagmire of thoughtlessness or up to the mountain tops of earnest desire to help us in finding the better side of our material and spiritual nature. Why did Luther and Wesley have the power to change the spiritual thought of the people? Why does Mr. Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, take such a prominent position in arresting the atten tion of the religious world ?. Simply because they, by their teachings and by their living example, placed in evidence that their thought world was not confined to the temporary material body in which we now live. But every word and every act, that has been in evi- WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 21 dence to the material eye and sense, has been to impress upon us the value of our spiritual birthright. They continually brought the highest subtile and ideal truths of spiritual development clearly to the minds of the people and they always made the material forces secondary to the spiritual ideals.. It is their successors, the same as the successors of Christ, who have added their own methods to the working machinery and have given us these various plans in working out our spiritual evolution. Every man or woman who has ever helped another to find their spiritual ideal has ignored and cast aside every formality and has given plain simple truths in a plain simple way. Their great effort has been to show that creeds, ists, isms, forms, ceremonies, or following any par ticular set of rules formulated to guide one through the intricate paths of life, lead only to spiritual decay. Many of our teachers are limited in their spiritual development. With them the material magnetic forces are more powerful than the spiritual and they forever work to please the material eye and sense. They blindly assume a superior position and through their superficial knowledge of spiritual and material conditions lead their people hither and thither with 22 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT an assumed spiritual authority that is so childish that one is disgusted at the exhibition. In the past some of those teachers have formulated certain forms and ceremonies for conducting church services, claiming that they were restoring the forms and ceremonies inaugurated by the Apostles. If, as those leaders claim, the Apostles adopted any such forms and ceremonies, who gave them the authority? When you investigate this matter you find that there is no foundation whatever for such a claim. But even if it were true, why do they use the poor fishermen, Apostles, as the leaders in that foolish piece of work and not refer directly to the example and teachings of Christ Who was and is the master teacher of each and every one of them, both the Apostles and the divines who claim to represent Him and speak for and in His name? How sadly true it is that — "When the blind lead the blind they both fell into the ditch." The arrogance of these teachers in claiming a knowledge of spiritual things as their God-given right with authority to use as they wish, and their brother men unable to comprehend these simple truths, is humiliating to the last degree. When one considers this condition it is not surprising that the weeds of rank ignorance come WHAT IS CRUDE SPIRIT 23 very near swamping us in the quagmires of spiritual decay. It is such material minds that are always doubtful about immortality and ready to questin the state ments of those who . have passed through various experiences until they have become satisfied of the truths about the evolution of a spiritual personality and that, it is all a natural condition which all humanity has to pass through. It was this same material mind that could not understand Socrates when he faces death in absolute confidence of his immortality. Even in that trying hour he frankly states to those about him: "Did I not think that I should go to dwell in the company not only of Gods wise and good but also of men that have died better than these here on earth, I should be wrong in not feeling sorry at my approaching death. But as it is, be assured that I trust to join the society not only of good men but that I shall go to abide with God." Will the reader consider when these words were used Socrates was on earth over twenty-four hundred years now passed, and then consider how these thoughts expressed in other words, but as earnestly stated, as if by a Socrates, and then find their state ments looked upon as coming through some delusion. 24 SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM Never in the world's history has spiritual law been so universally studied and investigated by all classes of the people as it is today. When we enter this field of thought there are so many who have taken the full power into their hands and claim their supreme sovereignty, that we have to move carefully so as not to break the threads of truth running through these barnacles of superior selfish ness. Spiritual law, like electricity, is a living force that is about and within us every moment of time. In fact no life can exist without it. It is a masterly power when the proper relations are maintained between the subconscious self, which is the soul or character of the individual and the material body through the active influence of the will force. This subconscious self is sensitive, subtile 'and subtle to the slightest degree. Its operation and effect upon material forces is not considered as valuable or important because its active power is invisible, but it is the fundamental principle and active force of the thought world. The material forces are so plainly demonstrated as SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 25 being beyond the power of man to master that when we come to the stronger spiritual powers we overlook their true value. The lower forms of life (called material, because they are evident to the material eye) are subject to, and under the control of, the higher spiritual law. This is demonstrated in our every day life when our subconscious self (the spiritual) is united with our material self through our will power and when these forces are united in one harmonious effort we can use and mold all material matter. Those people who have these spiritual gifts and use them continually do not understand why every one is not possessed of the same powers and should not use their own spiritual gifts. To them their gift is so natural that they suppose it is the common property of every one. They have known of their gift from childhood. To them it is a natural law but beyond them to explain it to others, although it is their spiritual birthright. Every human being has more or less of the spiritual and material magnetic forces within their personality. Each one of us shows in which direction we are drifting through our thought expressions and the general trend of our daily living. 26 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPHIIT If we are spiritually inclined we will show it in our expressions of sympathy for others. We often see it in evidence when some kind action is shown in pro tecting and caring for those about us who are so situated that they are dependent upon others. If we are materially inclined we show it in our indifference to the rights of others and we ridicule the spiritually inclined by calling them childish, womanish, weak-hearted, and hundreds of other silly expressions. "Live for today, for tomorrow we die" is as far as their thought extends and they look upon the spiritually inclined as foolish and blind. It is in the separation of these two forces (the opposite way in which they produce ultimate results in, our growth) that the material thinker and worker fails to see the grand and noble side of his ever-living self; fails to see that the spiritual part of himself is now being smothered by his material thoughts and acts, and that he is individualizing himself in his material ideals and fails to see that he is deliberately burying himself in material desires and selfishness. These spiritual and material forces are in a neutral, dormant state in infancy and work to a harmonious end if we use them both for our spiritual and material benefit. But we can, by our own selection and use, SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 27 make either of them the dominant factor in our lives. When we use both of these forces to meet the ideals of character building then we know, through intuition, the active force of our subconscious self, when either is abused or neglected for they put out a thought signal to warn us of our thoughtless steps from the path of true knowledge and honorable living. The center of magnetic activity in uniting the spiritual and material forces in the material body is through the brain. This is the breeding ground for thought suggestions which each one of us plants, in the soil of character building. Every impure thought breeds an impure desire. When we allow such thoughts to so control us that we satisfy the desire, then the thought seed has taken on a living principle in the soil of our character or soul building. When we gratify that desire by plant ing more seeds of that same thought suggestion,, we are committing moral suicide and not only are we allowing our ideals and character to become dwarfed but we are undermining the very citadel of the soul and this \o such an extent that it is open to breed within ourselves every disease that the material body is subject to. The gratifying of any impure thought destroys, to 28 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT that extent, the purity of the spiritual and thereby pollutes the home of the soul. Every such impure thought acts upon our material body and weakens its resisting powier against the various diseases that attack the material body as well as its spiritual force. Continue with that selfish and impure thought and gradually the material body loses its material and spiritual powers. But if we live above our material desires and keep the spiritual ideals always in the ascendant and master the impure and selfish, then we spiritualize the material body and become the spirit ual masters of our environment. It was this development in the life and character of Christ that made Him our great teacher and master of the material conditions and having spiritualized His material body, that body was then the expression of His spiritual growth and power over material things. The spiritual pertains to educating and developing the immortality of the spiritual body, which body is the expression of our thought, act and habits devel oped into characteristics during the time the spirit is developing in this material body. The material desires conflict with the spiritual ideals and they work only for the present material SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 29 good without considering the rights due to the; spiritual. We suffer both spiritually and materially when we allow any conflict to arise between these forces. Satisfying the material desires through the various forms of selfishness develops our ambition to every expression of material power and we become so absorbed in our efforts to excel others in our material race for leadership, that we recognize no other force in life as its equal. When we, with our will power, unite these two forces, the spiritual and the material, in one harmonious effort, thus creating a trinity of action in our personality, we can control thought action as Well as living material matter. But when the trinity is broken and we use either of these forces to the detriment of the other, or abuse and neglect either one of them, then we have an imperfect result, and so clearly defined is the imperfection that we severely condemn ourselves for our weakness and ignorance. Have we ignored our spiritual development in our efforts to follow our material selfishness into the by ways of profits, vulgar display of material or spiritual authority over others, or of material adornment and luxurious surroundings ? Have we so used our will 30 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT powers that we become indifferent to our responsi bilities in helping to make this world better while we are in this A. B. C. class of life? If these questions are the foundation stones that we have been working into our personality (and unfortunately this is too much in evidence in every department of life), then the law of material force has been our magnet and it has given us an abnormal development upon that side of our nature while the spiritual magnet, with its equal power in our child hood days, has had no opportunity to express its living force within us. In fact, we have smothered it by oUr indifference and neglect. If we recognize the laws governing our lives and only follow the leading of that one which pleases and satisfies our desires and do not modify that desire by the use of our will force brought into action through the knowledge we have obtained as to our relations with other laws, then we have a natural result in the formation of our character — an imperfect personality. If we are ignorant of any laws about us, then we blindly follow our desires and whims without the restraining influence that knowledge brings to lis. It is the knowledge of ourselves in our environment that produces our individuality, and that individuality SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 31 is molded by our own force of will and our character is developed as we guide that thought. Take that thought with you into any department of life you may please to select and you will find that each one has evolved his or her own personality and the expres sion of their thoughts are given upon the level of their attainments. This is the clearest kind of evidence that develop ment is a natural law, that each one of us is over shadowed and immersed in the great ocean of inert spiritual force. That the growth, development and evolution of man is simply. the growth, development and evolution of the spirit. Our present development is but the placing of a fractional part of our ideals into an active personality. To practically teach, we must practically live— not in any namby-pamby, half foolish way, but openly and frankly like men among men, and make it evident that common honesty in every detail of our relations with others is the vital and important question that should always guide us. And through that school of character making, learn that it is the true, unselfish and noble ideals, which develop our spiritual magnetic forces. It is true that this material body is attracted to its 32 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT natural element of material raiment, food and luxuri ous home conditions. The glitter and show of the material factors in life which are produced to please the eye and taste will, at times, take possession of our faculties and, for the moment, we are as toys and playthings tossed about at the will and whim of our material impulses. But after the material storm has passed, after the feasting and the "hail fellow well met" hour is over, and the realities of life once more resume their usual course, then the sham and shallow ness of it all comes upon us with such a force that any earnest student will be convinced that this material body must be guarded and protected if it is to be the home of our spiritual development. This temporal body must have food and water, it must be protected by clothing and it must be shel tered. But if these necessary material things are allowed to dominate us in our acts and habits, we are simply buried in gluttony and sensualism and our selfishness finds expression in our pride and vanity. It is through the attractions of the material forces that we clip the wings of the soul and fetter our spiritual growth so that we never reach the godlike ideals ever before us. Our ideals are there, beckoning us to come up to SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 33 them. We struggle to reach them and earnestly work for them but, in a. moment of time, the thought shuttle changes over to some selfish desire and we awake to find ourselves switched off upon some side track where we are obliged to wait to have our spiritual ticket renewed. Has the thought ever passed through your mind that it was in all these material desires and varied experiences that Christ was so severely tempted? That He, like ourselves, came under their influence and power? That it was in His study of the profes sional religionists, noticing their style of living and comparing it with their wordy and loud protestations to the people of howT to live true and honest lives, that led Him to become so severely critical towards them? That when the temptation became too powerful He withdrew to quiet places to renew His spiritual forces and thereby be able to continue His mastery over Himself? Have you noticed in your study of His life that it was after having been alone with His spiritual friends that His grandest demonstrations of spiritual power were displayed? We place these few questions here for the purpose of setting our thoughts to work and see if they will help us find the true character of Christ as our 34 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Brother, and finding the reason, understand why He proved Himself to be the greatest spiritual teacher the world has ever known. Experience teaches us that the terrible result to body and soul comes through trying to please a desire of the material body. It also teaches that body, soul and will power suffer when the body is not properly guarded and protected. Our first duty is to make our will force co-operate with our spiritual and material forces and create a trinity of magnetic power working as one harmonious whole. When we study this side of nature we find one who is all will power. Spirit and material are both subject to its dominant force, and both must acknowledge -this one power as the supreme Godhead. Start your thought shuttles and analyze these forces and you will find that both spirit and material are in revolt against this one power which claims its supreme authority over all other forces. Watch the action upon the body, for we can see that with our material eye, and we see that the body begins to droop and become exhausted in its efforts to follow the un reasonable demands of the will. Now the will itself begins to show a weakness, a reaction from the over burdened body, and it also droops and now exhausted SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 35 gives up the battle. Really the will power had been fighting against itself for in the end it exhausted itself. Here is another earnest, strong character with a strong will power, with every faculty used with the keenest insight in illustrating his pet theory that the stomach is the supreme Godhead. That it guides us in constructing our thought and dominates our every act, habit, and characteristic. Talk to him about the divine ideals and his answer is that all is produced from the action of the stomach. Speak about will power and thought affecting the material body and that the action of the secretions, in their work of keeping the body in a normal con dition will react under certain fixed laws of nerve action and create an abnormal condition, and he looks upon us in a manner which expresses his pity for our ignorance and immediately takes us in hand and pro ceeds to enlighten us upon the action of the stomach in making character. That all thought, action and development comes from the material body through the stomach. He mixes a little philosophy of spiritual and material matter with the will power of his earnest personality and he unloads a deluge of words upon us which rise 36 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT no higher in his thought than his stomach. When we smile, as he illustrates his pet ideal, he becomes vehement and expresses himself in very plain terms about the little thought that is given to place the stomach in its right relation to the people in lifting them up to a higher manhood. Not one moment is lost by him in running his visionary thought factory to its full limit and he talks himself out of our presence with a self-conscious expression of his superior wisdom and of our imbecility. The stomach has its place as one of the organs of the body and is the all important organ in digesting the food for the whole body, but no more important than the heart, lungs or other organs, for each has its place and all are important. Here is another who is all spirituality and recog nizes no other factor in the growth and development of our material body but spirit. If our material body is out of harmony and diseased, it is because the spiritual part of ourselves has been neglected. If we but restore the spiritual to its proper standard of purity, then our material body will become pure and be restored to its normal condition. It makes no difference as to the diseased condition of the body nor how foolishly we may have abused it by our con- SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL MAGNETISM 37 duct nor does it require any other attention than the spirit to bring that body into harmony and restore it to its normal condition of health and purity. It is this one-sided development that produces a serious rut in our character. To make natural law effective we must use the whole law and not a part of it. Only one Man in all of history has lived up to that requirement and the results of that life were in daily evidence. Even His disciples failed in their united efforts to cure some of the sick who came before them and it was a surprise to them when Jesus arrived and cured the afflicted by a simple command. This spiritual law will produce wonderful results when united with our will power: But to apply it as a purely spiritual force under the added stimulus of our will power and ignore the magnetic force of the material body by calling it spiritual, will not give the same result that we would receive if we recog nized the added force of the magnetic material power, co-operating with the spiritual, to assist in restoring the material body to health. 38 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT THE MAGNETIC FORCE OF THE MATERIAL BODY As we breathe, or take crude spirit, air, or atmos phere, into our lungs, we are using the living and acting powers of oxygen and hydrogen with other ingredients in the air, and from these various ingre dients we take, while that air is in the lungs, the living force that gives the vital powers to the material body. It is then exhaled as dead material although its life is immediately restored when it again comes in contact with the fresh and unused atmosphere. This life-giving principle, taken into the lungs, as well as the food we eat, is used by the organs of the material body as it is placed in circulation through the blood, and these create a magnetic power that supplies the wasted energies of the body. After the lungs use this magnetic power from the air it leaves a sediment which is absorbed by the nervous system and other tissues of the body. This dead magnetism is the fundamental cause of THE MAGNETIC FORCE OP THE MATERIAL BODY 39 every disease and other trouble of the human animal. We can increase the quantity of that dead magnetism, through our thought world and methods of living, until the body becomes so overloaded with it that the organs cannot work and then the graduation day, or the end of their material world follows as a natural result of their, method of living. Some call it death. The one great force through all nature is spirit. Every living, moving thing has that power within it. In the birth- and. development of all matter it is the active force of spirit that moves into new forms and environments, but it never acts alone.. It requires the support and co-operation of every by-product produced through that force, which works under and through its influence, to assist in the growth and pro tection of any and every spiritual and material body. To restore this material body of ours to a normal state of health when it is in a diseased condition caused by our own abuse or neglect, requires not only the spiritual but also every material magnetic force that will co-operate with the spiritual in assisting and protecting nature at every exposed point of weakness. When we bring the material body into right rela tions with the spiritual, we produce a harmonious action which will, through our will force, bring us 40 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT back where we can find and see ourselves. But we lose one-third of our power in some directions, and nearly all of it in other directions, when we utilize one force and through our will power try from that one force to supply another power which natural law plainly speaks to us and says that it will not be ignored nor diverted from its proper magnetic con nections with the other forces. By reversing our loose methods of living and over coming the desires of our unworthy thoughts and acts we will restore the material body to its normal and healthful condition. When we unite the spiritual and material forces under the dominant power of the will creating a trinity of effort, the three working in harmony for a true ideal, then the natural result will be the ideal development of character. Natural law is firmly fixed and rigid in its require ments. We may use any one part of the force that works through all nature and we will receive t'he benefit of what we use so far as it works in harmony with the whole law, although we may use it ignor- antly as to its relation with any other part of that law, but we will not receive the benefit of any other part of that law which requires a co-operation of the three conditions to receive the full benefit of that law: THE MAGNETIC FORCE OF THE MATERIAL BODY 41 To make an independent, active, spiritual body requires the spiritual force positive and the material force negative, united under our personal will force, and these develop an independent material body, which body, in its finality, will be our personal spiritual body. Electricity permeates all space and all material matter, but the eye cannot see it. To produce electric power we must have material dynamos, batteries and w|ires to generate and concentrate the electric force. Then we have the air, which is electric power in its crude condition. But both are dormant, practically useless and worthless as an active energy until we unite them under our personal will power, the power which makes the machinery and puts that machinery in motion. Then from the active co-operation of the three we produce electric power, which we have con centrated from air, and developed it into a living, acting, invisible force which will move or destroy any material body. It is the harmonious working of each and every part that produces a perfect result. Every electrician knows how easy it is to disconnect and destroy the power which is under his control. But to obtain that power every care has to be exercised to keep the con- 42 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT nections in perfect order. If this be true of electric force, how much more prudent must we be in keeping the proper relations between these two more subtile, not subtle, of all forces, the spiritual and the material magnetic, that in evolving our spiritual personality a perfect result may be obtained. The sensitive action of these two forces is suscept ible to our will power, for a thought will change a person's actions and modify the character instantly. This is true in electrical force, for when we allow any part of the working mechanism to overdo its share of the work, then danger signals instantly appear. If we use each and every law of nature in its proper place we will produce a perfect result, but let us overdo any part and danger signals are before as well as behind us. The doctor, who opened his library for us to use, would always express his thought through sugges tions to impress upon the minds of his patients the importance of changing their habits in order to help them over their weaknesses. This suggestion is very old. We heard it over sixty years ago and presume it has gone around the world and now in general THE MAGNETIC FORCE OF THE MATERIAL BODY 43 use, but it should be repeated to every one in order for them to learn some of the laws that are always with us. The Doctor admired a young man who was the leading athlete of the town. This athlete became acquainted with a young lady of about his own age who was the athlete in her class. In a short time they married. Within six months both of them were visit ing the Doctor for his advice. It was this, that or something else that was always out of tune. Within two years a baby arrived that appeared to have taken the vitality of both parents, for its general condition would have pleased the most ardent supporter of eugenics. One day the former athlete came in for some advice about a nervous breakdown. This is a term that is used in a general way. The Doctor turned around in his chair and in a very friendly manner remarked : "Yes, yes, I know. You see I have been studying the conditions of your home ever since you were married. You and your wife were both strong and vigorous in mind and body. You have both drifted and have not used the rudder of common sense to guide your boat of character building. Now you are wondering as to what is the best thing to do for your 44 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT nervous condition. My advice is that you take the first train for any country place that you prefer to visit. Walk in any and every direction. Take all the sleep you can at any and all hours. The nervous system is recuperated through sleep and through use of the lungs to obtain the benefits from the air. Therefore, keep up your breathing exercises in order to keep your lungs in proper condition." Yes, Doctor, that sounds well, but what about my wife and baby?" "Well, send her to another town a hundred miles awlay from you and give her a chance to walk and sleep.. You both need the same tonic but in different places." After he left we asked the Doctor, "What do you believe he will do?" The Doctor replied, "Well, no one can tell, but there was so-and-so who was in the same condition. He followed my suggestion and remained away for over six months. When he re turned he came in and said, 'Well, Doctor, I never appreciated that suggestion of yours until I was walking in the country and saw a flock of sheep jumping over a stone wall into another field. It was as fine a sight as any I had ever witnessed. The last one was the master and father of them all but when he came to that wall his calculations did not work for THE MAGNETIC FORCE OF THE MATERIAL BODY 45 he did not go over. This surprised me and I stopped and watched him as he tried and tried again to jump over that wall. It was then that your suggestion came vividly to my mind that what he needed was a trip to the country where he could walk and sleep for six months.' " We do not have to break all the laws of nature to stop any machine, divine or human. When we break any one of those laws or we forget or ignore any one of them, danger signals will be put out to warn us of our improper methods. If we have placed any imperfections in our char acter there they will remain and all the will power we possess cannot erase or change the record we have inscribed. Let us again repeat that we have made ourselves by our daily living; that it is our spiritual house and a living representation of our indi vidual efforts and develoment in our material body, and through that body will our spiritual body and personality be eternally established. 46 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ZOROASTER THE NATURALIST To make the evolution or development of man more clearly evident let us consider what science has devel oped in the history of the various religions in all parts of the world and see if we overstate the situa tion when we have frankly expressed our conclusions as above outlined. It was and is, at the present time, the all important thing to find young men and women who would go to distant places to act as missionaries in saving the heathen world and bring those people over to Christianity. Never will we forget asking the question — "Who are the heathen and where are they to be found?" — "Why! child alive, they are those poor people in India and China who have such peculiar beliefs about rein carnation, transmigration and ancestral worship of the dead, and nearly all of them never heard of Christ or Christianity and it is our first duty to help those poor people find the truth that they are immortal beings." Then followed a reading up and a study of the various religious beliefs of those people so as to ZOROASTER THE NATURALIST 47 have some knowledge about them and why they did not know all about Christianity and why they had been left in ignorance regarding their eternal life. As we studied and opened up our thought world to the conditions as they exist in those Eastern nations, we found that there are as many imaginary beliefs and as many ists, isms and egotistical hobbies, advanced by the various leaders to save the people from their sins, as we have here in this so-called Center of Civilization, this Western World. Through the misty conditions there existing, which are various and confusing, there stand out in bold relief the teachings of one of the greatest in all India, Zoroaster the Naturalist. We name him as a Natur alist, for all of his thought suggestions are based upon common sense foundations that will stand the test of a study of natural laws. Zoroaster appears upon the scene in the history of religious thought in India — so far back in time that few in our Western World can be sure of the year of his birth or just when he was upon Earth in his material body — but it is stated to be about one to two thousand years before Christ was born and between three and fifteen hundred or more years before Buddha was born. The principal point upon which he based his thought suggestions for the 48 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT continuance of life, was that every thought and act followed from one to another in the development of our character; that life is one continued whole and what we do here will also be a part of ourselves when we pass from our material body into the next although ever present world. There is no selfish thought suggestion about at taining the position of a perfect being by using the personal rights belonging to others, as suggested through reincarnation and transmigration, but it is one continual evolution which step by step leads one on to immortality in a simple manner that can be easily followed and understood as a natural result from preceding conditions. The thinkers and leaders in the world of thought, who have tried to find the natural laws of the evolu tion of spirit, have been those who have lived in a quiet, reserved manner among the people. Their influence has broadened out and their thought sugges tions have been more earnestly assimulated by the people after they have passed from the material body on into the spiritual body. Their influence upon the minds of the people after their graduation or so-called death, reaches out into fields beyond their few ac- qaintances who were their companions while in their ZOROASTER THE NATURALIST 49 material body. This does not apply to any one or a dozen persons more or less known in the world or to any city, town or village in which they spent the early years of their lives, but it applies to every human being who has been here in the past, and now graduated into the higher class of life, or one who is a living, developing personality here today, or may be here at any time in the future. That is, if, and a very large if, the eu genic and birth control manipulators will permit any' one to be here. The thought suggestions, advanced by Zoroaster, have developed a religious body of believers who are the deeper students of the evolution of immortality, and therefore very conservative in their position be fore the people. (Zoroastrianism in India is some what like our Unitarianism here in the Western World.) That body of believers has a large and growing influence in the East although not as large a body of believers as those who follow Buddhism. Like all select bodies that are looked upon as of the higher cast, Zoroastrianism is more confined to the earnest students where the reality of things takes the prece dence over those that merge into the imagination. & 50 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT When one tries to wade through the built-up imag inary beliefs that exist in this world of ours, and tries to find the solid foundation upon which all of them are built, he or she will soon learn how slender the thread is that holds them to the fountain head. In fact, it is so slender that it is the fundamental cause of so many being indifferent to their environment in their character building. Out of the millions of believer's of Zoroastrianism in the bygone ages, there now remains the devout followers known as the Parsis. Kapadia gives the age of Zoroaster as about fifteen hundred years be fore the birth of Christ. While Zoroaster laid a foundation that will stand for all time, still the religion of the East, that is now prominent with the people, is Buddhism. In the study of the various religions of the world, both Zoroastrianism and Buddhism lead one on and up to ancestral worship — in one word, spiritualism — which is the central truth of all religions. The more one learns about ancestral worship, the clearer one finds the road that ends upon the same mountain top and there finds that all of our forefathers and friends are now alive as spiritual personalities and that they are nearer to us now than we realize. BUDDHA THE MYSTIC 51 BUDDHA, THE MYSTIC. { Was the author and founder of that wonderful religion of the East, called Buddhism, a world leader? This leads one back into the history of the man who was the founder of that particular belief which dominates the Eastern World. Historical accounts give us the information that he was born in India about 570 years before Christ. He was the son of one of the leading families, a prince, one of royal blood in India. He had the social standing that is so much envied by those beneath the opportunities of royalty ,and also the wealth of the family to give him everything that one could ask for. One can easily follow his development from boy hood as following the usual customs of the people in his social caste, and living as others were living, in and with his circle of friends. He married, at the age of nineteen, a princess in the same social caste with himself. His life continues in the usual and ordinary way until a son was born, when his whole idea of life sud- 52 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT denly changed, and he leaves his wife and child, his family of high social distinction, as well as the oppor tunities for material advancement, and takes up the life of an ascetic, becomes a beggar and dependent upon the kindness and charity of the peasant class for his living. While this change is stated to be as a "sudden change" in his methods of life, still no such change comes suddenly to any one. While a change in one's life may appear as though it was sudden, still behind the outward appearance there was' going on in his mind, as in the mind of every one who has the inclination to understand the spiritual side of our nature, a psychological condensa tion of thought that finally was strong enough to break every social or material consideration, and he takes the step that no one can understand the why or wherefore for such an action. It is clear that he met and was conversant with the traveling ascetics, who bordered upon the side of fanaticism, in following the teachings of the religious sects so common in the East. With their example before him there can hard ly be a question but what their ideals, of a better spir itual personality, if one followed their example, laid the foundation for him to take the radical step he took BUDDHA THE MYSTIC 53 to satisfy his ambition of mastering" his material ap petites in order to obtain a more spiritually enlight ened position. He remains in seclusion ,with his thought centered upon self-abnegation, until he appears before the public (at the age of 35) with the result of his studies as given in his "Every one's salvation is dependent upon the growth of his own inner nature"; this fol lowed by his "Those indeed are conquerors who have conquered the intoxicating disposition, the mental intoxication arising from ignorance, sensuality or craving after future life." The Eastern people are more given to the study of the spiritual side of life than are our Western people. They do not value the material things of this life as much as they do the spiritual. This leads them to be indifferent to their present conditions while they are looking into the future as their ob jective abiding place or home. Many of them are looking for reincarnation or transmigration to help them on their way to that desired haven. The suggestions of reincarnation or transmigra tion did not come from Buddha, but were developed in the East through the teachings of other sects which have attached themselves, like barnacles, to the work 54 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT of Buddha as the religious foundation for Buddhism. This, in about the same manner as the Theosophists have taken the solid foundations of Christianity, as taught by Jesus, and then have added the reincarna tion theories, to help them out of their fanatical selfishness. Buddha is no more to blame for the peculiar con ditions that have developed in the various sects of the religion of Buddhism than Christ is to blame for the hodge-podge conditions that have developed in our religious organizations under the name of Christi anity. When considering Buddhism, it is but a step to link the name of Buddha as being the author of the reincarnation theories, but as far as we can trace Buddha's thought and example, as expressed in his works, he did not father that theory any more than did Zoroaster before his time, or than Christ did in his life and teachings. Selfish and fanatical men, with dominating sugges tions, are always very earnest in expressing their thought, and will impress their selfish desires upon the minds of others, irrespective of fundamental prin ciples, and it is this dominating characteristic that is the cause of all of our peculiar "ists" and "isms" that BUDDHA THE MYSTIC 55 now holds the world under their influence. That Buddha fully comprehended the wonderful mastery he had made over his material desires by overcoming his sensual appetites is, to our mind, established beyond a question. Zoroaster and Buddha introduced many ideals of the spiritual world that are looked upon by careful students as the foundation stones of Christ's teach ings. When one commences to look for the real authors and producers of our spiritual personality he stands as in a fog trying to see through it all to find a solid place upon which he can stand and be sure that he is upon solid ground. We are too apt to take it for granted that our par ticular religious thought was the first and all im portant thought suggestion that has given the world its present standing in civilization. As a matter of fact, we belong upon the tailboard of an overloaded wagon of religious thought suggestions, that are as old as the human race. When one considers the life of Buddha, we are prone to ask did this man do the honorable thing with and for his wife and child and for his parents when he, born a prince of one of the leading families 56 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT of India, who had been educated to succeed to the position of his father, had married into another family of the same social standing and after a son was born to them he leaves everything of this world's goods that one could ask for, leaves his home, ignores the wishes of his parents and taking up the life of the Ascetics lives the life of a beggar to develop the ideals which had taken possession of his mind? Was he in his right mind or was his proper place in some re treat for the feeble-minded? In other words, was he doing right to ignore his material environments and give his time and energies to develop his ideals of helping the people to better understand their proper place in the niche of spiritual development? It is under such conditions that we have to study the motives or point of view before we can find the proper answer. REINCARNATION 57 REINCARNATION. Theosophists have taken spiritualism and use it as the foundation for their religious belief, which is the same belief as that used by every creed, ist or ism, and then allow their imagination to work out a plan of saving themselves as coming through reincarna tion. Credit is due to the people of the East for giving us the civilized ideals that show us the proper valua tion of being just and generous over the selfish and brutal side of our natures. In fact, it is from the Eastern people that we have received our ideals of real spiritual development. But this one of reincarna tion, which originated in the East, stands as an ex pression of selfishness unequalled in the history of religious development. How it has hampered human beings and blinded them to the simple truth of immortality is only equalled by some of the formalities used by some of our church organizations that play upon the ignor ance of their members. Stop and think, my theoso- 58 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT phical friend, and note the result of your suggestions as you would apply them in the evolution of your spiritual personality of character building. You are not satisfied with your present environ ment and you wish to return again to this material condition so that you can pass through other experi ences that you are not now enjoying in order to give you sufficient wisdom to become a perfectly developed spiritual being. This ,as you say, may take several reincarnations to fit you for that exalted position. If you return here again you must occupy the place of another person and thereby force the one who should be known in that personality to step out while you are satisfying your selfish desire for favors that in reality belong to another individual. Every time you repeat that reincarnation you are taking the place of another and crowding out his or her right to de velop their own individuality. Even if there was a natural law that would allow of such a backward step, can you conceive of a more coarse and brutal expre- sion of selfishness than your desire to reverse the laws of nature to satisfy your morbid imagination for spe cial favors? In obsession you can satisfy your selfishness and practically destroy the individuality of another REINCARNATION '. , 59 through natural laws. But in so doing, you have to use the same selfish desire in order to utilize the per sonality of the other person to answer your own wishes. When you use obsession or, through hypnotism, obsess the mind of another, you, if carrying an atom of a selfish thought other than one of the highest of ideals, thereby degrade yourself to a lower level than that of the brute. When you disseminate the thought of reincarna tion are you helping your brother man to find the truth and the importance of developing a spiritual personality while here and now in this material body? Very important questions, my dear friend, specially so when even a thought suggestion expressed to one who is careless, and with no settled thought about the matter, is ready to take the first cross-road that leads to a quagmire or to a gold mine. When he or she follows your suggestion about re incarnation, thinking that they can return and correct the mistakes they are now making when here the next time, they are not considering their responsi bility for their present opportunities. These side door entrances are only blind paths that lead to the same imaginary and visionary things one meets with in 60 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT * different parts of the world. All of them have devel oped from a fanatical, guess-at-it, method without taking the time to learn of the natural laws that are sure to bring their natural results. Soon the guess- at-it is taken for the genuine, and the truth of things may be buried for centuries before it finds the light. When one looks for any natural law in the evolu tion of spirit or of material matter that will help them to find a path that leads to or from reincarnation or transmigration, that one will find himself fighting against natural law and that always ends in failure. To be able to reverse the laws of nature to please the desire of his or her imagination, only makes one ridiculous before the earnest student. Obsession is a natural law and the careless student can, through a lively imagination, easily lead himself or herself from the thought and conditions of obsession to that of reincarnation or transmigration, but no law can be found that will sustain the position so taken. THE UPANISHADS AND THE BHAGAVADGITA 61 THE UPANISHADS AND THE BHAGAVADGITA The Upanishads is the oldest book in the world. It is reported to be over eight thousand years old. Its philosophical teachings and thought suggestions are similar to those in our book of Proverbs. We have often wondered if the writer of the book of Proverbs, or the man or men who composed or rewrote it, were not well acquainted with the Upani shads, of India, for the book of Proverbs in our Bible gives similar epigrammatical thought suggestions as those given in the Upishads. They have another book, of eighteen chapters, called the Bhagavadgita. The chapters are in size about the same as the chapters given in our Bible. This book is reported as being about two thousand seven hundred years old. Some claim it to be nearly as old as the Upanishads, but it is impossible to locate the time when either book was written. They, the 62 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Upanishads and Bhagavadgita, are the oldest books of intellectual importance in India. The Sanskrit literature abounds with Vedas and other books, giving various visionary ideas floating in the realm of space, but the foundation for those ideas are no more to be relied upon than what we know of the realms of space. The Upanishads and Bhagavadgita, with many other books of the East, were in the hands of the people of India one hundred and thirty years or more before Buddha was born, and over seven hundred years before Christ was born. The Bhagavadgita is full of the same thought suggestions that are given to us in the Gospels as the teachings of Christ. While the same words are not used in the construction of the sentences, still, as you study that book, many of the same thought sugges tions are there as we find them in our New Testament. One who has been in an orthodox environment is surprised to learn that India is today the leading religious thought center of the world and was for centuries before our Christian ideals were ever thought of. The so-called dreamers were the leaders of the Psychological and Philosophical world cen turies before the time of Buddha, and all of those THE UPANISHADS AND THE BHAGAVADGITA 63 leaders turned to their Upanishads and Bhagavadgita as we turn to our Bible for spiritual knowledge. When we try to understand the men who wrote those two books and imagine the civilization that then existed in their country and then transfer our thought to the history of the Jewish nation from which the whole white race developed and then refer to those people as being barbarians, it causes us to look upon ourselves as being the barbarians and that our duty to them is not properly considered. 64 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT LAOTSZE AND CONFUCIOUS Laotsze and Confucious, Laotsze the older, were both born about five hundred years before Christ and about seventy years after Buddha was born. Laotsze was a librarian in one of the libraries in China, and Confucious visited him when compiling his book of Philosophy. The works by Laotsze and Confucious show that both men were acquainted with the Philosophical and Psychological works of the Eastern thought world. The Upanishads and Bhagavadgita were in com mon use with the people of India and no doubt both of those books, as well as others from India, had gone over into China. Here was Buddha born about 570 years before Christ, Laotsze and Confucious about 500 years before, and Socrates about 470 years before Christ. These men born in different parts of the world, and the four within the period of one hundred years of each other, leads one to believe that it was the influ ence of Zoroaster upon the people of the East that LAOTSZE AND CONFUCIOUS 65 had its effect in bringing about such results at that time. They, with Zoroaster who was born about 500 years or more before their time, were, excepting the unknown authors of the Upanishads and the Bhaga vadgita, the leaders of the people and the greatest teachers of immortality the eastern world had ever known. When we look back and see the influence of those men upon the lives of their brother-men, it makes one careful about the suggestions that are placed in the thought world of another person. What will that seed planted in a well cultivated thought garden produce? When we analyze this question it will explain the meaning of what we believe to be the simple method of our evolution. The spiritual world existed then as it does today, but the people of the East have given more study to that side of life than we of the West, with the result that they live more for the future than for the present. The work done by Zoroaster and Buddha in India and by Laotsze and Confucious in China, in helping us to find ourselves, are not only recognized but those men are held in the highest honor by millions of the people of the eastern world. 66 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT THE PEOPLE OF CHINA The people of China, as well as others in the Eastern World, are too often referred to as being Barbarians. As a matter of fact, their simple and open methods of dealing with each other, when com paring them with other nations in their educational development, places them far above the general average. They have decided opinions about the Spiritual Evolution of humanity and have great respect for their Ancestors who have graduated from this school of life into spiritual personalities. It is a revelation to our Western World to learn that these people are well educated in the philosophy of their own teachers as well as in the philosophy of the various nations about them. To judge American citizens as being upon the same level as the citizens of China is upon the same basis as calling the people of China Barbarians. Because two persons do not have the same ideas or THE PEOPLE OF CHINA 67 beliefs- about the philosophy of Spiritual Evolution is no reason why they should be branded as heretics or Barbarians. No greater mistake can be made than to judge any nation by the lowest examples of its people. Every nation has its pest holes that are below the general average of its citizenship. To judge the civilization of any nation one should always look for its best and not for the lowest repre sentatives of its citizenship. It is too often in evidence that a nation's citizenship is judged by its noisy and bombastic talkers instead of the quiet and better educated. It is this misunderstanding (or not trying to under stand the point of view of each other), that causes the various foolish statements to be made about our neighbors which, with more study and a careful analysis of the conditions existing in the citizenship of every nation, would change our point of view. All are our neighbors whether by our side or they are thousands of miles away. 68 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT CHRIST, THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS. It was about one thousand years after Zoroaster was born, and about five hundred years after Buddha, Laotsze, Confucious and Socrates were born, or about two thousand years ago, that another spiritual teacher was born, this in a village a few miles from Jerusalem. The boy worked as other boys do, in helping the father in his trade as a carpenter. From early childhood the intuitional side of his nature was impressed upon all members of the family as well as upon the friends of the family who were acquainted with their every-day conditions. His wonderful spiritual gift of seeing and understanding the spiritual side of nature, as well as the material side, were well known, but little appreciated by those who should have profited from His suggestions. The first important event that is recorded was His visit to Jerusalem when He was about thirteen years of age. While the family were passing through the CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 69 crowds of people viewing the sights of the "side shows," or "midway" as we call them, the Boy was lost. (Any one who has visited the fairs in those Eastern cities can understand, in the hurly-burly crowds that are always in evidence, how easily not only a boy but a grown person can be lost.) The parents, believing that the Boy was with friends of the family from the same village, did not worry about Him until they started back for home. They then learned that their friends had not seen Him. Not finding Him with their friends, as they expected, they became anxious and a little annoyed to think that they must retrace their steps and go back to Jeru salem to find Him. When found He was with the Church dignitaries, the Rabbis or Doctors of the Law, who were the leading representative men connected with the syna gogues, or churches, of Jerusalem. That these earnest and serious-minded leaders of the people were aston ished at the exhibition of the spiritual gifts possessed by this Boy can be readily understood by those who have made a study of the development of the spiritual laws about us, especially so by those who have studied the Bible and have found that the important truths contained in that Book reveal the evolution of our 70 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT spiritual personality as it merges into immortality. When you look back to study the effect upon your self, when you have met one of those frank and open- minded mediums who, to an unusual degree possess these spiritual gifts, you will remember your own surprise and in wonder ask yourself if it is the truth or some trick that is a semblance of the truth that is being placed before you. It was the same with those Rabbis. They were surprised beyond measure and could not understand how that village Boy obtained such a wonderful gift. Wherever you go, with all of the study and experi ence he or she may have had, every one is surprised to find that that gift is exhibited just where they least expect to find it. The more surprising thing is to learn that the medium is surprised to find that others do not see and understand what, to them, is a natural and every-day common occurrence. When you recall your visit to a real medium and have found several there that you did not expect to meet, all studying the spiritual side of their nature and then studying each other to see the effect produced upon their minds and learn how surprised they have been to find the truth in such a quiet place, leaves one in a state of mind that requires one to pinch himself to see if he CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 71 is in a material body. You then talk with the medium and find another surprise when you hear — "Well, I am surprised to see so many who cannot see their own natural birth right and come here to find the plain simple truths that are within their own personality if they would only open their own minds to the truth." When one leaves such a meeting the mind goes back to that meeting of Christ with those Rabbis, and he can soon see how natural it was for them to be surprised when in the presence of that spiritually gifted young Boy. The curtain now falls upon that Boy's life for about seventeen years, when He again appears before His friends and the people of Jerusalem at about thirty years of age. That He must have visited the eastern part of the world during this period of time appears, to a student, as the natural thing for him to do. A person with that turn of mind will go to any part of this world and use up his or her last penny seeking for that pearl of great price, the truths about immortality, which are the natural conditions of our development that are today and tomorrow our own property if we will but take possession. Upon His appearance he begins at once to teach 72 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT His people about the natural laws of the spiritual world and the results that will follow if they will live in conformity with those laws. No one was more •earnest to have His people understand the value of these simple laws than He was. Every so-called miracle performed or parable uttered carried, with that action or thought expressed, the suggestion of His brotherhood with man, and being a Man they could do any and all of the things He had done if they would live as He had lived. It is the knowledge of these spiritual laws about us, though unseen to the material eye, that gives to man the mastery over this world and all worlds. He not only brought to us the religious ideals of the East, but He outclassed Zoroaster and Buddha as to the importance of our daily living as well as setting an example for each one of us by associating with the different classes or castes of society, as well as ignor ing all sanctimonious formalities, and associating with those who were spiritually inclined of every class. No one ever used more severe words, in con demning the hypocritical methods of the leaders of His own religion or made it more clear that honest thinking and plain living brought into the lives of every human being the realities of character of soul CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 73' building than He did. That what we are now work ing into our lives is, in reality, a heaven making per sonality here that will continue and be our heaven hereafter. No greater mistake was ever made than in using the word supernatural in trying to explain His work. It was all as natural to Him as for us to do any simple task. When we see something done that is new or strange to us we may call it a miracle but, as a matter of fact, it is simply ignorance upon our part, and when we say miracle or supernatural we only advertise our ignorance of the natural laws through which the work is carried out. His wonderful occult develoment was clearly exem plified in His meeting with a woman of a different nationality, the woman of Samaria at the well, as given in the fourth chapter of John. But to exercise that natural gift in a natural way, one must live under requirements of the laws that will bring about those results. The one who knows is our master and teacher until we are as familiar with and know the laws through which the work is done. You may ask if it was possible for Him to walk upon water and if He could do the various things in 74 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT healing the diseased as He did and this in a natural way? Our answer is absolutely yes. By living a true life in and through the spiritual laws He had so spiritualized His material body that He had, through the spiritual being superior to the material, become the master of the material laws and they were subject to His will. Notice again, that the natural gifts He exhibited with the Rabbis when He first went to Jerusalem, was a part of His nature, and this He had preserved through the mastery of Himself, and this made Him the stronger man spiritually. This, with His broader knowledge of the people of the world, placed Him superior to any man in all history. We have not found another man who had the wonderful spiritual vision and had so clearly mastered the material desires of His animal nature and lived so earnestly and reservedly in His spiritual environment as did Christ. The two who were second, and stand out in Biblical history as nearly His equal, were Elijah and Elisha, but whenever they allowed their thought to develop a selfish desire they immediately tarnished their spiritual ideal. These selfish desires Christ mastered, and this CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 75 mastery of selfishness gave Him the knowledge of the spiritual world that made Him the leader in bringing the spiritual side of nature more clearly in view. While He gave evidence of a knowledge of the Eastern religions, and clearly supported the ideals advanced by Zoroaster and Buddha, still He did not allow Himself to depart from natural law, but always and in every place was its champion and defender. His remark to allow children to come unto Him, "For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven," was a state ment showing the requirements of every one who desired that environment. Children are natural in their ways, more kind and free from selfishness and pride than older persons. When you take that thought into consideration you have honest and clean-minded thought suggestions which make one at home wherever he or she may be. "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you." This being so, where are we building our mansion? Is it with the lowest in ignorance and selfishness? Or is it with the ideal workers who are trying to make the conditions surrounding us better and the burdens of our daily duties easier to carry? Have we learned that we are now in the spiritual U EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT world? That our character building is soul building? That we are now making our mansion in Heaven? That the least thought we allow to become evident in word or act or to so plant it in our minds that we wish for it to ourselves, but always unknown to those about us, becomes a part of our character building and will be evident in our spiritual personality? That we will have to meet those thoughts and acts in the clear light of the spirit when we graduate from this A. B. C. school of life? It is when we learn the truth of these natural laws that we can understand, but at a distance, the greatest medium the world has ever known in opening the doors of the spiritual world so that we can see that we are now building for all time. That we may better understand that we are today a living spiritual personality, we refer the reader to the manifestation as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew. "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answers Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord, CHRIST THE GREATEST OP SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 77 it is good for us to be here; if thou wilt let us make here three tabernacles, one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elias," etc., etc. Here is an important record that should always be placed in the limelight to help us over any doubtful position. Here were two of the oldest and greatest of the Jewish leaders; one Moses who had been dead, so called, for over fourteen hundred years, and the other, Elias, the identification not clearly given, reported as having been dead for over eight hundred years. Some claim that the Elias here referred to was Elijah, while others claim it was Elisha. As a fundamental fact, in helping us to find the answer to our spiritual evolu tion, it will not make the slightest difference as to Whether it was Elijah or Elisha. Both men were companions and lived about eight hundred years before Christ was born. In the history of civilization (which is another expression for understanding ourselves or evolution), the lives of both men in their desre to help humanity were, in their time, unequalled. When we study the last days of Elijah's life and notice the large number of seers, prophets or mediums that were in every place that Elijah and Elisha .passed 78 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT through (also notice that these same seers, prophets or mediums of all grades, according to their spiritual attainments, knew that Elijah was going to graduate from this A. B. C. school of life, and speaking to' Elisha about it were told by Elisha that he knew Elijah's transition would soon take place), it takes us into the presence of those where we enjoy quiet hours of meditation and then, turning our thoughts to the occult side of life, we see the natural process of our evolution from childhood to old age and then into a spiritual personality. The transition of Elijah soon follows with Elisha left to act as his successor with the people. We can imagine that if the seers, prophets or mediums had given as much attention to the transi tion of Elijah as that given to it by Elisha they would have traveled far to be present. As we place our selves back to the day of the transition of Elijah and then pass over eight hundred years of time to the day when the materialization of Moses and Elias took place, it appears to us that the sequel of immortality was settled for all time. Were those men dead or were they alive as the spiritual personality of their material development while here in their material body? CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 79 To call one dead because he changes his environ ment and has left his material body and graduated into the higher class of life appears ridiculous, for Christ made it manifest that they were not dead and this before witnesses so that no doubt could arise about its proof. The record is made by Matthew while the witnesses were Peter, James and John. No meeting or manifestation in all history equals this demonstration in bringing us to a realizing sense of our spiritual birthright. Its importance in estab lishing the truth of the continuation of our living in the spiritual body and that body recognized through its connection with and relation to the former mate rial body, cannot be too strongly impressed upon our minds. That we will know and be known there as we are known here is so evident, from that manifestation, that we cannot see how anyone can question it. If there remains a doubt, then we should carefully study and investigate until we know by actual experience that those who have lived here are now living there and that they are separated from us only by the natural laws which pertain to the two different con ditions, as different as those that existed one hour before we were born and one hour afterwards. But these conditions are merged into one if we will open 80 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT our spiritual eyes and find the Kingdom of Heaven dwelling within us as an ever present living reality. The different phases of Christ's mediumistic gifts were manifested in such a remarkable manner that, at first thought, it appears as unnatural. But when one goes below the surface to find the foundation for it all, then the clear light of truth illuminates the whole life as natural for every one if they will live up to the requirements that will produce the results. His gift of clairvoyance was clearly given when He met the woman of Samaria at the well, but He did not look upon that as so important as His other gifts. When Nathaniel was surprised at the remark made by Christ that he saw Him while sitting Under a fig tree, Christ said to him that he would see greater things, implying that clairvoyance was of minor importance to His other gifts. The supreme thought that runs through His parables is for us to live pure spiritual lives while we are now developing through the material body, and if we followed that teaching our spiritual gifts would be limitless. This is repeated over and over again in His various thought suggestions. The more we study and investigate the various conditions the more clear and simple it appears that His life was so frankly CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SPIRITUAL TEACHERS 81 honest that it was confusing to the materially in clined. We cannot understand why anyone will try to build up some imaginary idea about His character and personality when the natural laws of our being are so plain that even the simple minded can follow them without a mental effort. One remarks that natural law applies only to this material world but, my dear friend, every material thing is only the outward appearance of the spiritual ideal that is within. Where were you and I five minutes before either of us were born? In the womb of nature and there in its prenatal condition which receives from its parents their characteristics stamped upon us at birth. Where are you and I today? In the womb of nature weaving into our character, or soul building those qualities that will make us a spiritual person ality when we are born or graduate into the next sphere of life. Our individuality was, up to the minute of birth, dependent upon our parents. Then we commence our individual character building and step by step we are today what we have made of our selves through our environment. When we consider the character and life work of this Man and compare His life with our own to ascer- 82 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT tain why He, in a natural way, could develop a power beyond that which is manifested by His brother man, and at the same time learn from His statements that He was a Man like ourselves and subject to like temptations, the thought overwhelms us as we begin to seek for the laws which exist, and under our con trol, that make such a difference between His life and our own. He plainly states that we are brothers and all possess the same powers and live under like con ditions. This being true, why do we fail to reach the mental altitude to comprehend His spiritual develop ment and remain oblivious to the great truths in and under which we live? 83 INERT SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL FORCES Mankind, with their material desires, live and con trol material things to satisfy their material wishes. But when any man wakes from his material sleep and begins to see the action of spiritual law working in this material world, begins to master his material desires by overcoming and holding them in subjec tion, to advance within himself his spiritual intuition, then he grows in the spiritual, becomes the master of the inert spiritual forces, the same as the one whose aim is material wealth becomes the master of the inert material forces. When one is seeking for the truth of spiritual laws about us it is then that the spiritual laws of the material forces are gradually developed and he becomes a master of those laws as he becomes more the master of himself, and thereby the natural laws pertaining to the spiritual world are more clearly comprehended. When any man begins to understand the spiritual laws in this natural world, as well as the natural laws 84 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT in the spiritual world, as he develops spiritual knowl edge over the inert spiritual and material forces, he makes law or nature a true exponent of itself by re vealing his real selfhood to himself. The man Jesus became master of the inert spiritual and material forces by mastering the selfish and material desires within himself. The two inert forces, the spiritual and the material, entwined within each other, serving the supreme and active spiritual force, became His servants. Although living in this material environment He was surrounded by the active spirit ual forces which were drawn to Him through His noble ideals and true living He thereby became the Master of the inert spiritual forces and could make them active through His spiritualized, material body. The knowledge of this power was to Him a simple, natural law, although to us it is called miraculous and incomprehensible. It is knowledge over ignorance the same as an educated man leads and instructs an ignorant man. To the one who is master of the law, it is a simple natural result and he cannot understand why another is in doubt about the plain evident facts. But to the one who does not understand the law, he is spiritually blind and everything to that one is in comprehensible, and too often these laws are laughed INERT SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL FORCES 85 at and called ridiculous. When you analyze the natural life-giving laws that Christ laid down for us to master, one is amazed at the simple methods given for us to follow. When you study the results that come from the kind of living that He suggested, you will find the same laws at work as they worked through him at that time. It was a common remark of His that if anyone lived as He had lived they could do the things He had done. It is a simple matter to give the spiritual part of our nature the preference over the material when the spiritual has been so developed that it can be indif ferent to the material environment. But when we try to meet those ideals in our daily living, we soon find that the material conditions of our environment have planted seeds in the foundation of our character so deep that the little we have done that we should not have done has given those seeds an opportunity to grow until that foundation is so full of cracks that one wonders, as he looks at his character building, whether that building can weather the storms that are so trying and never ending. It is when we come in conflict with the activities of our daily living that they wake us up to our responsi bilities and we ask ourselves. — are we here to play the 86 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT part of a puppet or to evolve from the inert spiritual and material forces a spiritual personality with its own individual characteristics that will inscribe its record upon our book of life and lay a foundation for our spiritual development as we graduate from this primary, class of material desires into the higher class of spiritual living? When we ask this question we are upon the ground and in the presence of a power that far transcends our comprehension. Its limitless force makes it an all-important subject for our earnest consideration so that we may comprehend life in its entirety and not forget that every step we take is a part of our journey. The eternal factors of our spiritual development from the chaotic conditions of I believe this or I believe that, is to bring into actual living force the clearer and more satisfactory condition of I know this and I know that. The trouble with everyone of us is that we have preconceived notions about some hobby of our own and hug it as our personal right to make others see our one-sided view of things. We have forced, through our prejudices, our half- baked thought upon the no-baked thought of others so that they have remained blind to the real truth INERT SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL FORCES 87 through our prejudiced influence. Later, when we analyze the meaning of the word "prejudice," we find that the words prejudice and ignorance mean the same thing to those who hear those words used. Many earnest teachers have given their all to help us find our real and ever present spiritual birthright but, ignoring all, we go rambling and stumbling along with our preconceived notions in the environ ment of believing things and never reach the hill top of knowledge where we can say — I know. While the lessons in this school of life have been severe still we have learned that spirit is the domi nating factor in the development of the human family, that it permeates all material matter, that the person who is intellectually and spiritually minded is always the master of the lower vibratory conditions of the spirit in the material body. The evolution of character from childhood to old age is only the open door to see our soul evolving from ignorance to knowledge. The development of a spiritual personality from crude spirit is similar to that of the development of a watch spring from crude iron. The life giving ele ment which permeates every material thing is the air we breathe or crude spirit. 88 MIRACLES AND THE SUPERNATURAL A miracle is an evidence of a superior knowledge and power possessed by the operator but not known or understood by those witnessing the demonstration. It is a proper and natural use of that law known to the one who understands the law. But to the inexpe rienced or ignorant it is a supernatural and miracu lous demonstration. Such demonstrations are grand thought leaders to make us investigate and study the natural law through which they are produced. The miracle worker has given Us a large world to explore when he says that a miracle is the evidence of supernatural power. There is no more fruitful subject for the imagination to work upon than this about the supernatural. When we try to enter any room that is labelled supernatural we have found door after door locked and bolted by some fanatical leader who has loudly proclaimed his right to stop our mind from thinking and analyzing any thought suggestion that has been MIRACLES AND THE SUPERNATURAL 89 labelled supernatural. But the thought factory re fuses to be satisfied with those dogmatically closed doors and begins to investigate so as to learn about this supernatural world. What has surprised us, and this beyond measure, is that when we have asked those who speak so glibly about the supernatural, "What is supernatural and where is this supernatural world?" The only answer we have ever received has been, "It is the mysterious things in life that are super natural." Again we have asked, "What are those mysterious things?" To this question we have re ceived various answers but in every case it depended upon the experience and knowledge of the one who answered the question as to what he considered supernatural. Many consider the acts of Houdini and Thurston as being supernatural. But when we investigate any one of those so-called supernatural powers we have found one and all of them based upon natural condi tions and the result follows in a natural way. When one investigates and studies the various propositions placed before him for consideration, we have found that it is all within our knowledge if we will master the laws through which the result is obtained. 90 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT That wonderful force, electricity, can be trans mitted for miles through a simple wire. Several parties, ten, twenty or more miles from civilization and away from any supposed danger to any one of them personally, may pass one of those wires and one of the number carelessly touching the wire, and hav ing made a connection through himself and the earth, is instantly paralyzed. His ignorant companions, not knowing the natural law which has acted in a natural way, will call it a miraculous power and a judgment from God. THE OCCULT SCIENCES 91 THE OCCULT SCIENCES In every part of the country we hear people, the supposed more highly learned, criticize and ridicule the subtile sciences of astrology, thought transfer ence, hypnotism, palmistry and phrenology. Also the spiritual gifts of occultism, mediumship and healing, and when we meet the less informed they do not stop with criticism and ridicule, but we hear the stigma of black art, witches, sorcery, charlitanism and many other names used by the ignorant in giving expres sion to their babyish egotism. When we criticize, condemn or sneeringly ridicule any one of these sciences or spiritual gifts, we smother and kill by brute force the foundations of our life-giving forces. It is through these sciences and gifts that we have evolved from the lowest forms of selfishness to our present environment. Through them We are led to higher and cleaner ideals of truth. It requires earnest thought and years of patient in vestigation before one can say, as doubting Thomas at last admitted, "My Lord and my God." 92 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT It is from these subtile, not subtle, sciences that we receive a knowledge of our subconscious self. They are the seeds which are planted in spiritual soil and are the result of our care and thoughtfulness. With careful consideration of the occult sciences our spirit ual harvest will be evident to us in our ideals and more perfect manhood. We should never laugh or sneer at any science or new thought that is strange to us nor in any scornful manner make it appear ridiculous. We cannot change any truth or modify any law through noisy criticism or any foolish act of our own. The truth will remain firmly fixed and our childish ness will come back to rest upon our own personality and expose our ignorance and selfishness. We are proud of our supposed superior civilization and belittle the attainments of other nations with our wordy weapons of brutes, barbarians, savages, heathens, pagans, etc., etc., and do not see the same, or lower conditions, existing in our own cities, towns or villages. We are too ready, with our ridicule and vulgar egotism, to place a stigma upon our brother-man for no other reason than that he is not of our color, does not live under our form of government, does not dress THE OCCULT SCIENCES 93 as we dress, does not speak our language, does not go to our church, does not belong to our sect, does not use our noisy methods to attain notoriety and for dressing their feet with some peculiar foot wear that raises corns and bunions in odd places a little different from our own. When any new thought comes to us we should not ignore it nor criticize the source from which we re ceive it, but our duty is to search for the germ of truth which lies back of that thought. In our seeking we should save and preserve every portion of that truth and leave behind the dead wood which has obstructed our pathway. When we have learned to use the truth we have found we will then make it a beacon light that will lead us through the mists of doubt up to the living bud of spiritual life which exists therein. We should not smother our own spiritual develop ment by ignoring these ideal sciences. For centuries they have been trampled upon and' we, by our indif ference, have allowed ourselves to remain in ignor ance of the foundation stones which help us in the formation and growth of our living spiritual per sonality. It has been well said, although a sad thing to admit, 94 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT "that ignorance is the greatest of all sins." When we have analyzed that thought to its finality, that our mastery over ignorance is evidenced by the degree of our attainment, that we have only mastered a portion of ignorance, and to that degree that our knowledge of today is an evolution from the undeveloped of yesterday, that we have learned from this inward analysis of ourselves that a little growth is but a partial attainment of the perfect whole and therefore all these is of sin is ignorance, then the mastery over our material self has reached a point where the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man begins to be a living reality in our thoughts, habits and daily living. Let us face the truth like men and admit that we know but little of ourselves, and less of the world in which we live. 95 SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS Spiritualists place their belief as knowing of the evolution of spirit into a spiritual personality through the material body. They place it as a natural law of spirit that permeates all material matter. These believers are to be found in every church organiza tion, irrespective of its creed, ist or ism. They know that every thought and act becomes a part of, and is woven into, our character and that that character will continue into the future as a part of the development of the person while in this material body. They know that spirit is evolving through the material body and that it is forming its future spiritual personality through that body, and will be recognized in the spiritual as clearly and intelligently as we are now recognized in our material body. The air we breathe is the life-giving principle in all nature. We call it crude spirit evolving its own spiritual personality through the material body. Our inventors, poets and other mind workers are credited with superior intelligence. Ask any one of 96 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT them from whence came the thought that brought that result, and all of them will answer that the idea came unexpectedly. Or "I was asleep and dreamed it, I was in a quiet and dreamy state of mind, I was half asleep and exhausted with the thought of what to do, thinking of the best thing to do, of which way to turn out of my dilemma" — and then follows, "when all at once it dawned upon me what to do." With varying conditions, for no two are alike, the above are similar to the answers you will receive from each and every one of them. Will any one of them recognize the source of their inspiration and give the credit to whom it really belongs? Even spiritualists who know the truth are prone to follow the crowd of egotistical egotists in their selfishness and too ready to hold up their important selves as I this, or I that, which always leaves them in the quagmires of their own conceit. It is from the world of spiritual intelligence that these truths are given to us and from them one can understand immortality as the foundation upon which is built every church organization. There fore the importance for everyone to keep in mind the responsibility for their suggestions, as it too often exposes the moral standard of their intentions. SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 97 Character building commences with the first breath we draw and continues until the last breath is expelled from the lungs. We then enter the next world as a spiritual personality as naturally as we came into this world a material body. In other words, we are simply building a soul from crude spirit in conjunction with and through our material body. There are many who have become satisfied that their lives will continue into the next world of spirit as spiritual personalities and who will answer as believers in spiritualism and immortality. A few of them having learned that fact and have made it their profession to go about the country as mediums to explain to the people the natural law of immortality. Many of them have studied the sciences of as trology, palmistry, phrenology, physiology, as well as the natural laws of the evolution of spirit, in order to better know the human animals and their environ ment. Finding this knowledge valuable for deceptive purposes, some of their number take a low and selfish view of life and use their knowledge to prey upon mankind. This is very common in every walk of business life. It is too common among those from whom we expect to find our highest ideals. When seeking for the 98 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT truth of immortality one must be very careful and see that' they are not taking a counterfeit for the genuine. Counterfeits are made in imitation of the genuine article. When you meet one who is a genuine medium, you have one that does not ask questions about your friends in the spirit world for they can tell you about them without information from you. The counterfeit is always suggesting or guessing to find some infor- - mation to hash up and satisfy your mental desires. It is this class, generally with an extensive vocabu lary, that are too often taken for the genuine. True and ideal mediums or seers have been in this world from the beginning of the human race. Every human being has the intuitional faculty that can by study, proper living and environment, develop this knowledge of his or her immortality. Many have this gift from their birth and being natural with them they expect that every other person possesses the same natural knowledge. It is here that the value of a clean personality should be considered and never overlooked. It is not so easy and simple as one may imagine to find the inner chambers for it is the study of a life-time to learn the A. B. C.'s of its importance and its value to all. SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 99 When studying or investigating these natural laws, do not be as rash and become blinded to the truth as we were. Do not look upon it as a thing to play with, or to joke about but, at all times, be the seeker and learner for the truth. When you can separate and sift the chaff from the wheat you will find a world about you that words cannot express. Many believers in spiritualism have stated their position as believers in immortality as a natural law. Many of such spiritualists, too earnest in their efforts for the human family to understand, have been ostra cized and their suggestions ignored. Many times we have asked the mediums we have met — "Why dp you allow your wonderful gift to be used for any selfish or material benefit?" And we have always received the same answer — "We must eat and we must have clothes to wear and a place to sleep and it takes money to pay for these necessary requirements." This is all true, but that fact does not appear to change the result for we have always found that as they give way to their material desires their intui tional, as well as their spiritual, gift diminished until at last it was lost to them. 100 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Why they do not hold themselves up to the high standard they teach when they know the value of their spiritual gift, has always surprised us. This has led us to carefully study their characteristics. We have found that each and every one of them are human beings, but very sensitive and sympathetic. Their great desire is to help the people and make this world a better place to live in that true equity may be the first principle in the mind of everyone. Naturally their position brings them in close touch with all classes of people. The temptations and annoyances surrounding them are from every direc tion. They are criticized, ill-treated and bitterly denounced upon all sides. These things drive them nearly to the boiling point of frenzy. In their despera tion they forget themselves and lose their patience with people who will not seek honestly for the truth, but blindly place a stigma against them. When in such depressed mental condition they will act impul sively and follow some selfish desire. This instantly acts to weaken their spiritual power.- For the moment they do not see any change; but it becomes evident later when their spiritual magnetic forces are crossed by the material magnetic forces and their spiritual vision has been disconnected and they find themselves SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 101 unable to complete demonstrations which they had formerly found were very simple for them to do, and this on account of their gratifying material desires. Not only have we found these results among those we have personally studied, but it was the result which every one of the prophets, seers, teachers or others that are recorded from Genesis to Revelations, who sold their honor or spiritual birthright for a mess of material pottage. But all of them have stood firmly with the greatest thinkers and leaders upon earth for immortality, and try to make the truth an open book for the people to understand. In looking for a reason as to why the mediums are misunderstood one has to conclude that it is the fault of the people themselves. For example, here is one who finds himself or herself in trouble and, instead of using the natural gifts within himself or herself which by neglect has laid dormant, and so far as he or she is concerned practically dead, he or she looks for some medium who is reported as having that wonderful gift of spiritual insight into every one's personal affairs and, having found the medium that pleases him or her, he or she then seeks for that grand revelation from the spiritual world that will reduce all of his or her material troubles into air. 102 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT The medium, who has learned something of the natural laws of our environment, notices the crude conditions of the mind of the one seeking for infor mation, and commences to impress upon the mind of the visitor the importance of the message that is being given. By questions or through insinuating remarks the medium learns enough, so as to guess at it, and gives to the seeker enough, through hints in various directions, to convince him or her that he or she must call again for more information. He or she being pleased with the insinuating suggestions, and anxious to follow the hints that have been so adroitly given, goes back again, and many times more, to hear more of that same twaddle. There are thousands of such seekers for truth who finally wake up and, using thier common sense, see the foolishness of their action. The trouble is that this class then commence to rail at the spiritualists as being responsible for their ignorance. Spiritualists know that there are thousands of so- called mediums who trade upon the credulity of the public and they know that it is from this class that one finds the counterfeits that too often pass for the genuine teachers of immortality. While the world is full of these selfish and materi- SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 103 ally minded people there are others who would not lead anyone on for any sum of money that one can pay them. Having learned that they are responsible for every thought and act and that every such thought and act is a part of their character or soul development they will not barter their spiritual birth right for any material consideration. It is of such mediums that one cannot speak too highly. It is of such a class as this that are mentioned in every book in the Bible. While this class of mediums are a credit to the world how pitiful it is to visit a meeting of spiritual ists and find one, recognized as their leader, conduct ing their meeting with an assumed spiritual gift that is recognized by the audience as a pretense and a sham. These leaders may be in earnest in their desire to help others but their desire is lost in their egotism. They will close their eyes then tremble, or create some shimmering act, so as to leave an impression of their mediumistic powers, and then deliver a sermon of words that not one common sense thought can be found in the jungle of noise that you have listened to. While the general public is to blame for following 104 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT some so-called mediums still the fact remains true that these leaders of the various meetings of spirit ualists are sowing seeds of flimsy deception that will retard the harvest of truth that should follow earnest and sincere effort. When you study the evolution of spirit and wish to locate the greatest medium of all history then you find that Christ the recognized leader of the Christ ian faith, stands out before the world as unequalled. His work is better known, and its influence upon the people is better understood, than the life and work of any other man in the world. When one thinks that It was only about two thousand years ago that He was here, and that the history of His work is now world wide, one must stand in silent admiration of His wonderful self-control. It is to Him that every spiritualist refers as their representative leader and also refer to Him as an example for every medium to emulate. Even the so-called Witch of Endor possessed that gift and , instead of casting slurs at her by calling her a witch, she should have received the highest honors of her time. As you read the account of Saul's visit to this medium at Endor vou will notice that the word SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 105 "witch" is not used in the record but the translators headed the chapter with "The Witch of Endor." Through this fanatical action the word "witch" has followed these gifted people from that day to this. As those people were abused and hounded to their death ,in the time of Saul, so has it followed them down to our own day. It was this heading that influenced our judgment during the earlier years of our life and we cannot too strongly impress upon the mind of any student the importance of studying every phase of any subject under consideration to learn whether he or she is allowing any preconceived idea to influence his or her judgment or whether the underlying truth has been carefully sought out analyzed and the facts clearly comprehended. These mediumistic people are generally poor and often homeless. They are ridiculed, abused and laughed at. Their spiritual gift is made to appear as a sham and -a pretense. If the leaders of the various churches, creeds, ists and isms will honestly and unselfishly investigate this natural law, they will soon change their minds about the mental development of those so-called heathenish people of the East. May we be so bold as to make a suggestion to all 106 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT of our representative orators, speakers and teachers, whether in the pulpit, in politics, or the curbstone or soap box variety of orators, that they study more and talk less and while so studying ask themselves — "Is it not better to avoid allowing thoughts to find ex pression in unkind words about others and modify your style of dictatorial anthemas by turning those thoughts, words and acts into kindness and consid eration for others?" When one says to you — Lo ! here is one who is ask ing all mankind to follow the eaxmple and life of Christ as exemplified by him in his living with the people of his time ,is it not better to answer that any one who is speaking for Him must be His friend. Do you know that when you criticize and hurl anathemas at the people because they see his life and character in another light from the one that fits your vision that you are doing the very thing that He most severely condemned? We may murder and slaughter our brother man because he does not think in the same rut with our selves and believe that we have crushed the truth when the man was murdered, but at the next corner we meet the same truth with more followers behind it. It was this superior knowledge possessed by Christ SPIRITUALISM AND MEDIUMS 107 that angered the religious leaders of His time, and their active antagonism through the people brought about His death. One is amazed when such scenes of human brutal ity appear and when one searches for the cause of it all, he is further amazed to find that it is some fanat ical leader who is in the front with a fanatical popu lace following his every suggestion, and from it all you then learn that fanaticism is only another word for rank ignorance. The spiritual world has never been so far away from human beings in any age or in any generation but what its reality was manifested through some one of these mediums. The account given of Saul's visit to the medium at Endor makes it clear that they were numerous at that time, but they were abused and murdered for teach ing and educating the people that every one is devel oping a living and acting spiritual personality that will be identified for all time. It was the same ignorant and fanatical acts that prevailed in the days of the Salem witchcraft when the innocent suffered at the hands of the brutal "Know-it-all-class" of their time. Instead of study ing and seeking for the living truth their leaders in 108 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT that game of selfishness and murder, allowed their preconceived ideas to dominate their judgment and their daily example made their deplorable religious bigotry and ignorance so obnoxious that, to this day, the fanaticism of those so-called reformers is heralded around the world. 109 CONVERSION AND SALVATION One asks — Wherein will conversion help us, and can we expect forgiveness for our past acts? In answering this question, let us use an illustration. We allow ourselves to do a selfish and very unkind act. Our conscience, the intuitional faculty, instantly exposes us to ourselves and we try to force our better nature to accept some easy thought to help us in covering up that dishonorable act. We instinctively know that we have marred our ideal and recognizing our responsibility for that action we cannot go to a stranger and ask him or her to forgive us for that would be absurd. The only one who can forgive us is the one we have injured. It is to him or her we must go and make the matter right. It is simply placing common honesty as the principal foundation upon which we are building a character among our brother-men. "As a man thinketh so is he." If our work among men is dishonorable, selfish and evil it is the direct result of our thoughts behind, the works. If we 110 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT master the dishonorable, evil and selfish thoughts then the law of conversion is manifested in our deal ings with the people about us. In other words, if we are doing the things that are wrong and selfish, stop it and do the things that are right and unselfish and we are then showing to the world in our daily ex ample all there is of conversion. When we adopt the ideals of true living we have adopted the principles laid down by Christ, and by so doing we have all there is of conversion, or as having been converted. From ignorance to knowledge is the meaning of salvation, although the words converted and con version, salvation and saved, are used with various results upon mankind. We should not be so simple and foolish as to think that because we are trying to live noble lives and do right today that we will erase any wrong thing that we committed yesterday or that it will blot out any part of our past history. We cannot use words strong enough in expressing our thought so that it will influence the thought of another, to wake up him or her to the importance of understanding the truth that every action of our lives will stand as our record. It is our individual book of CONVERSION AND SALVATION 111 life. Every thought and act will be a part of our spiritual personality. It is one eternal evolving from a condition of ignor ance, belief, to a higher and better foundation of truth I know. The peculiar action of this development within us is that when we are working under the leadership of belief we are positive that we know all there is to learn about truth. Our positiveness blinds our reasoning faculties and it leads us through many unnecessary pit falls, but when we have passed these and, through study, investigation and experience, arrive at the observation point that covers a wider field of knowledge and we can then say within our very being that we know, then we hardly ever express ourselves as knowing anything. In fact, the over powering conception of our weakness and ignorance is such that, as we grow step by step and begin to see our real living self, it humilitates us. We are stunned by the revelation and we can only stand in mute silence in its presence. 112 THE PSYCHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY This society is trying to prove that immortality is one continuous evolution through the demonstrations given by various mediums. Here and there one hears and reads too much of the egotistical mediums that this society brings before the world to satisfy others, as well as themselves, that immortality is a truth that should be known by every one. It is a truth that should be universally known. Still their methods smack too loudly of the egotistical. The class of mediums they have employed will never be free from self-glorification. While the Society will receive proofs that will sat isfy them that it is a truth, still it will always be a little of the truth, mixed with the material desire of the medium to satisfy the investigators. The dominating thought in the mind of every medium is what can they say or do that will carry the conviction of that truth to the mind of the investi gator or investigators. THE PSYCHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY 113 Remember, Gentlemen, that a spiritual personality is now being formed in and through this material body of ours, that spirit and material are now co operating in the development of that spiritual per sonality and it is only through self-abnegation and the analysis of thought that leads one to understand some of the natural laws of our spiritual birthright. Therefore, when you are seeking for the evidence of the spiritual part of our being you must look more for the spiritual than for the material. The material body too often dominates the spiritual and when it does the counterfeit medium passes too readily for the genuine. Always remember that one ounce of what you really know is worth tons of any belief that can be found in this world. There is no subject that is of such vital importance to everyone as this about immortality and our place in its development. Everyone has some hazy idea about it, but to clear up that hazy condition of mind requires earnest thought and the study of ourselves, our aims and ambitions and what will be the result of our efforts one hundred years from now if we follow those ambitious aims? The logical way to obtain a little knowledge about ourselves is to study the natural law of our being 114 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT and from these laws learn that all is one continual development or evolution. How is it that we are here today? First, there are the hereditary conditions from grand and great- grandparents that laid the foundations for the pres ent physical condition of our parents as well as of ourselves. Then the prenatal conditions of the mother's thought world which are pressed into the forming mind of the embryo. In its evolution, it begins at birth to form its own character from its environment and guidance from others until it stands for itself. Then the person is responsible to the general laws of the country in which he or she lives until they pass on into another sphere of life as natural as they came here. So is our character or soul building one continuous whole from crude spirit to the spiritually developed personality that continues on into the future life. The members of the Psychical Research Society are doing a good work in helping us to find ourselves, but when anyone advances the thought that the ideals of a spiritual personality can be found through material demonstrations, they will always keep the thoughts of the people so near the earth that one is miles and miles away from the spiritual which every- THE PSYCHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY 115 one is so earnestly trying to find and to better under stand. The most important matter to every one of us is to know our personality, not only for today but for all time. This point of view should have a foundation as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar and not formed through .any narrow-minded fanatical guess-at-it method that leaves one floating around in the air and trying to use some soothing syrup idea to rock us to sleep with their own egotism. Spiritualism or occultism should never be considered as a frivolous matter to play with, for it soon rebounds like a boom erang to strike us in the face. It is subtile and subtle in its influence, but absolute honesty of purpose and using every day common sense will open the doors to the inner chambers where we find that our sub conscious self is our best friend in helping us in our search for the truth. 116 QUOTATIONS FROM "WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ISM," BY J. M. PEEBLES, M. D. J. M. Peebles, M. D., of Battle Creek, Michigan, is the author of a book called "What Is Spiritualism." In that book he expresses his conclusion very frank ly. We take the liberty of quoting some of his state ments ,as well as his quotations from Rev. Doctor Thomas of Chicago and Victor Hugo of Paris. "Spiritualism is the philosophy of life — and the direct opposite of materialism. If the illustrious Tyndall saw the 'potency and promise' of all life in matter, Spiritualists, with all rationalistic idealists, see the potency and promise of all life and evolution ary unfoldment in Spirit, which Spirit permeates and energizes the matter of all the subordinate kingdoms, mineral, vegetable and animal." "Thinking — meditating, Columbus concluded that if there was a 'this side' there must necessarily be a 'that side' to the world. And so sailing on and still onward toward the western sunset under the inspira tion of a lofty faith, he discovered the new world — and, like a flash, faith became fruition." QUOTATIONS PROM "WHAT IS. SPIRITUALISM" 117 "And so students of the occult : Spiritualists of the last centuary, meditating, investigating, discovered, or rather, re-discovered the spirit world — the Spirit ualism of the older ages. Intuition and the soul's higher sense, with the outreaching ideal, are ever prophesying of the incoming real." "Spiritualism does not create truth, but is a living witness to the truth of a future existence. It reveals it — demonstrates it, describing its inhabitants — their occupations and characteristics." "Inspired mystics and philosophers testified alike to the reality of ap paritions, the appearance of good angels and the ful fillment of dreams." "Patriarchs, prophets, and seers in Abraham's and Isaiah's time conversed with spirits and angels. Apostles, disciples, and the early Christians before and after John and Paul's time, consciously com muned with the spirits of those they had known on earth — and why should not we? Neither God nor His laws have changed." "Is God dead? Are angel lips padlocked? There were visions, trances, apparitions, spiritual gifts and conscious spirit communications all through the past ages — why not now? Have the heavens over us be come brass? and have angel tongues become palsied? 118. EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT These things did happen in the past — and they occur today. And few, if any, except the most illiterate — except the atheist, the impudent bigot and the iron- class, creed-bound sectarist deny it. Spiritualism is very unpopular in sectarian club rooms, idiotic infirm aries, and State penitentiaries." "When that highly inspired man of Nazareth preached his radical doctrines in Palestine, and per formed his astonishing mediumistic works, crowds following him, some of the doubting, cautious con servatives of those times asked the question: 'Have any of the" rulers of the Pharisees believed on him?' That is to say, have any of the great and wise believed on him? If so, we, the driftwood, — we, the putty- headed policy men- — will fall in line. Human nature is the same in all ages, and cowards are ever the same shrinking, apologizing, oily-tongued moral cowards." "Spiritism is a psychological science — a fact — a sort of modernized Babylonian necromancy. The baser portion of its devotees, hypnotized by the un- embodied denizens of Hades, divine for dollars. It is promiscuous commerce with a high tariff. It moral ly gravitates toward the dark. It has its legerde main, its tricksters', frauds and traveling tramps. They should be exposed and shunned as you would QUOTATIONS FROM "WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM" 119 shun dens of adders. Spiritism, I repeat, is a fact; so is geology, so is mesmerism, so is telepathy, and so, also, is a rattlesnake's bite." "Spiritualism — a grand, moral science, and a wis dom religion — proffers the key that unlocks the mysteries of the ages. It constituted the foundation stones of all the ancient faiths. It was the vitalizing soul of all past religions. It was the mighty uplift ing force that gave to the world in all ages, its in spired teachers and immortal leaders." "Rightly translated, the direct words of Jesus are (John, 4:24) — 'Spirit is God.' The spiritual is the real and the substantial. The spiritually minded are reverential. They are religious. Their life is a prayer. 'The fruit of the Spirit,' said the apostle to the Gentiles, 'is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gen tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.' Spiritualism, by whatever name known, without the fruit of the Spirit, without religion and moral growth, is but rust and rubbish; and religion, by whatever name known, in any age, without Spiritualism, and its accompanying spiritual gifts, is only an empty shell — an offensive creedal cadaver that should be buried without ecclesiastical formalities." "Spirit is God. And Spiritualism, while inhering 120 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT in and originating from God, does not center alone, nor rest entirely upon phenomena, but upon spirit" ¦ — "upon the spiritual and moral constitution of man, which constitution requires such spiritual sustenance as inspiration, prayer, vision, trance, clairvoyance, and heavenly impressions from the divine sphere of love and wisdom. Spiritualists, like the primitive Christians, believe in God, the Father, and in the brotherhood of the races." Mortals enter the future world with as abso lutely substantial bodies as we have here, only more refined and etherialized. There are different degrees of happiness there. Memory is the undying worm. There is intense mental suffering in those lower Cim merian spheres. And yet, God builds no hells; he burns no man's fingers here, damns no souls here after.. Men are the architects of their own hells; they reap what they sow. Every child born into this world is a possible archangel or a possible demon; his head touching the world of light, his feet the world of darkness." "Man is a rational, moral and responsible being, having the power of choice. Pun ishment follows sin, as cause and effect. There is no escape. Divine punishment is disciplinary in all worlds." QUOTATIONS FROM "WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM" 121 "Personally, I know that the dead are alive — know that friends departed, live and manifest to us still - — know by careful observation and patient experience in connection with reason and my best judgment, that the angels of God are about us and minister to us. It is knowledge. And I can rejoicingly say with the apostle, "For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." "Premonitions, hypnotism, telepathy, trance, vis ions, clairvoyance, psychometry, and other varied spirit phenomena are all about us, and to ignore them without most candid, critical investigation . is the shabbiest sort of self-stultification. Having wit nessed levitation, i. e., a human being floating in the air at high noon (himself and myself in the room alone), I am quite prepared to believe that the 'Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip from the sight of the eunuch, leaving him afar off at Azotus. Having seen a medium's hand put by the entrancing spirit into the full blaze of a kerosene lamp and there held unburned, I am all the more inclined to believe that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked in the fiery furnace, the "form of the fourth" as a protecting shield being 122 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT in their midst. Having witnessed spirit writing in the air as well as upon walls by a vanishing spirit hand, all the more readily do I accept the recorded accounts of the "fingers of a man's hand" mystically writing upon the wall in Belshazzar's palace." "The Rev. Dr. H. W. Thomas, probably the ablest preacher in Chicago, recently said in a sermon: 'The perfect vision should see. in Spiritualism the essential truth of the continuity of life and the possibility of communion between the two worlds. The phenom enal manifestations or forms of slate writing, seances, and materializations are but incidents — but the inci dents attending any form of faith should not be per mitted to close the vision to the underlying realities. The fact of a conscious intercommunion between the two worlds has become an established truth.' " "Victor Hugo, that eminent literary celebrity, with intellect so1 clear and radiant and moral nature so highly developed, could not well avoid being a Spiritualist. Upon my second voyage around the World, I met him in Paris in a seance of the literati, Mrs. Hollis-Billings being the medium. Hugo wept in gratitude when his risen son gave him a most sat isfactory communication in written French, when she, an American, could neither speak nor write it." QUOTATIONS FROM "WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM" 12S "In his work on Shakespeare, Hugo said: 'Table turning or speaking has been greatly ridiculed; the ridicule is groundless. To substitute jeering for ex amination is convenient, but it is not very philosoph ical. As for me, I regard it as the duty of science to fathom all phenomena; science is often ignorant and has not the right to laugh. That which is unex pected ought always to be expected by science,. It is its function to arrest it in its passage and to examine it, rejecting the chimerical and establishing the real. Science has no other concern with established facts than to endorse them; it is for her to verify and dis tinguish. All human knowledge is that of analysis; that the false complicated itself with the true is no reason for rejecting the mass. Since when has chaff been a pretext for refusing the wheat?' 'Root out the worthless weeds of error, but harvest the facts and leave them for others. Science is the sheaf of facts.' " 'The mission of science is to study and probe everything. To elude a phenomena, to refuse to pay it the attention due to it; to bow it out; to close the door on it; to turn our backs on it, laughing, is to make bankruptcy of the truth; it is to omit to put to it the signaure of science. * * * To abandon 124 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT these phenomena to credulity is to commit treason against human reason." "In his 'Toilers of the Sea,' he writes : 'There are times when the unknown reveals itself to the spirit of man in visions. Such visions have occasionally the power to effect a transfiguration, converting a poor camel driver into Mahomet; a peasant girl tend ing her goats into a Joan of Arc. * * * Those that depart still remain near us — they are in a world of light, but they as tender witnesses hover about our world of darkness. Though invisible to some, they are not absent. Sweet is their presence; holy is their converse with us.' " 'Man is an infinitely small copy of God. That is glory enough for me. I am a man, an invisible" atom, a drop in the ocean, a grain of sand on the shore. But, little as I am, I feel that God is in me, because I can bring forth out of my chaos. I make books, which are creations. I feel in myself the future" life. I am like a forest which has been more than once cut down; the new shoots are stronger than ever. I know I am rising toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights me with the reflection of unknown worlds.' QUOTATIONS FROM "WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM" 125 " 'You say the soul is only the result of your bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. There I breathe at this moment the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets and the rose, as twenty years ago. The nearer I approach the end, the more plainly I hear the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me.' " 'It is marvelous, yet simple. For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and verse, history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode and song. I have tried all, but I feel that I have not said a thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the grave I can say, like many others, I have finished my day's work, but I cannot say I have finished my life.' " 'My day will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight to open on the dawn.' " 126 SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. The latest important advance in religion that has surprised every church and creed and has run like a prairie fire over the English and Continental world, is Christian Science. When you carefully analyze its fundamental prin ciples, you will find the same spiritual laws for the people to follow, in order to keep themselves in good health, that has been the guiding force of every re ligion, church, creed, ist or ism, in this world of ours. The doctors of divinity, prelatical teachers and fanatical exhorters have been so immersed with their special hobbies, looking more to outward show than to spiritual advancement, that the spiritual side of our nature has been neglected. This has caused a feeling of indifference in the minds of the people who are earnstly seeking for the truth. To such an extent has this material desire been ex hibited that when Mrs. Eddy comes before the world with her ideals of our spiritual birthright, which is the property of every human being, she sweeps the SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 127 churches nearly clean of those who have been spir itually inclined, whether members or non-members, and through their assistance has formed the various Christian Science organizations that we now find in different parts of the world. Mrs. Eddy ignores the degrees of evolutionary progress in this material body and, because the beginning is spirit and the end is spirit, therefore all is spirit, leads the student to overlook the natural law of the evolution of spirit which develops through all material matter. This absurd and fanatical position has caused the death (so-called) of thousands who were only beginning to understand the natural laws of life. Are we not forgetting our duty to ourselves when we think only of the spiritual side of our nature and believe that by so doing our material body will be healed from its aches and pains as well as from the chronic diseases which through our indifference have taken possession- of our body? In order to better understand ourselves, let us change the point of view and look at nature as it works upon other material conditions. For instance, the home you live in requires your constant atten tion in order to keep it in proper condition. Dust and dirt are continually accumulating. The drain 128 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT pipes are so easily clogged that one must always be on guard to see that dangerous conditions do not develop. The water pipes always need attention and the garbage must always receive prompt and care ful consideration. If you fail to paint so as to protect your home from decay, the weather soon shows its silent work. Any one thing overlooked and, it stands in evidence to show our neglect. When you pass such a home you say to yourself, some one is living there who is so shiftless that they do not keep their own home in proper condition. That is what each one of us is doing when we allow our material body to become diseased, and then with some fanatical idea try to make ourselves believe that the body is all right and ignore the proper use of foods and exercise to restore that body to its normal condition. No words of praise can be used strong enough to emphasize the value of what Mrs. Eddy has done to make the people see the importance of spiritual power over the material body." But when the ma terial body has been neglected until that body is little more than material, and that of very low order, and expect to restore that material body to normal con- SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 129' ditions through a fanatical effort upon the material body through the spiritual power that remains in that worn out body, then you are asking ignorance to take the place of plain Common Sense. It is when the material body is brought under subjection to the ideal spiritual, and they work in harmony for the good of both, that the material body is benefited. No greater example of this fact can be mentioned than the life of Mrs. Eddy herself. When one fol lows her history, as stated by herself and those who knew her, it is evident that she was of a very generous' but material temperament with her imaginary facul ties very active. This is natural with people of that temperament, although of various degrees of development. From the Life of Mary Baker Eddy, by Sibyl Wil bur, we quote from pages 132 and 133 the following: "Of the great discoveries in the world's history, it may be well to consider a moment which have blessed the human family most, the discovery of gunpowder and the invention of movable types came in about the same period. The discovery of the use of ether as an anesthetic and the discovery of mind science also occured in relatively the same period." It is such statements as the above that causes those who 130 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT know the real facts to question any statement that is made by Mrs. Eddy, for the 'Key to the Scriptures' is full of such misleading remarks. Gunpowder and movable types were in use years, and many of them before Mrs. Eddy was born. It is to the honor of Mrs. Eddy that she gave the credit to Quimby for opening her mind to the value of natural law in cur ing the body of its ills. We believe that if Quimby had lived there would have been credit given to Mes- mer for introducing one of the greatest blessings given to mankind. Quimby followed Mesmer's sug gestions and caused Mrs. Eddy to recognize the merit of nature's healing powers, although what she had learned from Quimby was the foundation for her success, still after his death she desired to kill these natural conditions and everything about Mesmer and Mesmerism she repudiated. Never allow yourself to repudiate any kind action. There is nothing so inhuman, really brutal in its results, as ingratitude, and it is to be regretted that Quimby was ignored. As Mrs. Eddy gradually found the real spiritual side of herself, her will power asserted itself over her imagination and this, co-operating with her subcon scious self, strengthened her material body as she mastered the desires of that body. SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 131 From her experience she early learned from Quim by that in the development of a spiritual personality there is no death and that all of our ills and aches arise from our ignorance and are the result of our own thoughtless and loose methods of living. As she developed and understood her real self better, she proved her position to be right by living the life she suggested for others to live. Her statement that there is no death causes her followers to look upon life as a continual advance from ignorance to knowledge. This removes the element of fear from their minds which has held humanity in thralldom from the beginning of time. With fear removed from their thought they can use their will power to re-establish their thought world over themselves. This important lesson so vividly and so clearly ex emplified in her life, was of untold value in helping mankind to find itself. The nervous system lives upon thought force and when you restore strength to the mind it permeates the whole body, but asking the spirit to restore what you have destroyed, without using your own powers to restore the body to its natural condition, is re versing the natural laws of our being. 132 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT As Theodore Roosevelt said — "If you wish to be healthy you must work for it." This means the using of the combined forces of the spiritual in and with the will power of the material brain to bring about healthful conditions of both mind and body. Mrs. Eddy, in her "Key to the Scriptures," tries to explain the common spiritual laws as having been discovered by her; therefore the importance of mas tering her "Key to the Scriptures."' The same thing is said of all prayer books — that one must learn to be a "true follower," while the Bible, the real foun tain head of spiritual intuition and power, remains an unknown book. "A true follower" is an expres sion that one hears at every turn. Did you ever stop and ask yourself a follower of who and of what? Is it possible that the Bible is so full of spiritual intuitiveness, in one word "spiritual ism," that it will not do to allow it to become too common with the people so that they can study it independently and know its real value as a spiritual guide, or is it more important to keep their minds side-tracked with prayer books and "keys to the scriptures" and thereby keep them in ignorance of their spiritual birthright? The foundation of every religion, science, creed, SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 133 ist or ism is Spiritual life or Spiritualism. In and through it we learn about ourselves as spiritual beings developing a spiritual personality through our present material body. This being the truth, why serve up indigestible mental hash in the shape of prayer books and "keys to the scriptures," while the Bible, the real meat in the cocoanut, the one book that is filled with spiritualistic thought suggestions from Genesis to Revelations, is left unread and un known? That book teaches that life does not end here, that this is but the beginning of life as a per sonality and that it continues on into the future as it has been formed here. Will it help anyone to become a "follower" of any particular church, creed, ist or ism in his efforts to find the truth? Yes, if in so doing it will help him or her to find his or her spiritual birthright. Every organization of individuals, under whatso ever name of church or society with their crude ma terial ideals expressed in creeds or dogmas or ex pressed through forms or ceremonials, help to edu cate and lift human beings up to a position where they will find themselves. They are the material alphabet in leading us to see the door that opens into the. ideal chamber of truth and by earnest study 134 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT and investigation we may be able to open that door into the thought world and find our real spiritual birthright. But when that material alphabet is placed in the front rank and made to take the place of spiritual knowledge, which should be the ideal of every human heart, then we say no, and a dozen times no. By so much as any organization can educate its people to a realization of their living spiritual per sonality that every thought, word and act becomes a part of us and is our personal record placed by us in our Book of Life, and these form our spiritual char acter which will be known to everyone we may meet here or after we have graduated into our higher class of life, then that organization has ppened the door of spiritual truth and should receive the full support of everyone. All religious sects, working for their particular denomination or creed, are the outcome of trying to fit, through some fanatical or ambitious leader, their deformed ideals to a world-wide natural law. Christ never advanced a single one of these sects, in fact, the great sect of his own people he ruthlessly attacked to open the eyes of his followers to their natural born spiritual birthright and he made it so SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 135 plain that a child can understand that this is the natural right of every human being. And his sup posed followers, who should have been true to. their trust, instead of continuing the work that he laid down for them to do, began their selfish work of each one trying to be the leader. It was among them that dissentions first commenced. And from that day to this sects have been formed, churches organ ized, creeds, forms, dogmas, ceremonials and rituals adopted, and all of this by men whose selfishness and bigotry have forced this grand spiritual birth right, this natural gift to all humanity, into deformed sects of ists and isms to fit their little asthmatic egotism. Go back to the fountain-head of any one of them and you will find a dogmatic fanatic. Every creed, dogma or ceremonial takes away the personal responsibility to seek and find spiritual truth and apply it by practical application to ourselves. They weaken the mind and make it the plaything of another. In Mrs. Eddy's "Key to the Scriptures," a chap ter is given, commencing on page 70 and continuing to page 99, upon spiritualism. From the beginning to the end of that chapter it is one continual mis application of facts pertaining to spiritualism. The 136 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT foundation of her work, like every other religion in the world, is spirit. This she entirely ignores and even ridicules it in her analysis of spiritualism. Not even the selfish suggestion of a supposed medium can equal the peculiar suggestions that are given in that chapter. In fact, the twisting of thought sugges tions, pertaining to spirit and spiritualism, we have never found equalled. When one reads that chapter he has to reread it many times to find an intellectual expression of thought pertaining to the subject. It is affirmation and contradiction of thought in the same sentence that leads one to believe that her one ambition was to crush spiritualism, while spiritualism is the real foundation upon which her work was de veloped. On page 70 she says : "The divine mind main tains all identities from the blade of grass to a star; as distinct and eternal." The questions are "What are God's identities? What is soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing formed?" In this quotation she repeats the thought given by Christ as to the individual identity of each one, but ignores his spiritual suggestions and uses Divine Mind as the authority, and then raises the question of "What are God's identities?" Does she make a SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 137 distinction between 'Divine Mind and God. As this quotation implies? When you think of a person making that state ment, and this the fundamental principle of her teach ings, and at the same moment question God's identi ties, it dazes one when looking for a true expression of her thought suggestions upon' spiritual evolution. On page 71 she says — "When the science of mind is understood spiritualism will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis nor origin, no proof nor power outside of human testimony." In this statement she allows a doubt to escape about spiritualism being true when she says that it is "mianly erroneous" and that it has "no proof nor power outside of human testimony." Did she or does anyone know of anything in this world, or from the world of spirit of whatever form, quality or na ture, religious or otherwise, that can be established or verified outside of human thought and testimony? As for its scientific basis, it is the direct result of our evolution through the natural conditions in the de velopment of our immortality. "When the science of mind is understood." This means that when our knowledge about God is under stood, etc., etc. And still here is the Bible filled with 138 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT spiritual suggestions from Genesis to Revelations that is treated as of no account and it is this very Bible that she claims to have given a key to its real meaning. Again, on the same page, 71, she says, "It is the off-spring of the physical senses." Think of such a statement from any student of natural law, spiritual or material, who will assert that spiritualism "is the off-spring of the physical senses." Any such thought suggestion does not come from the idealistic spiritual side of nature. One is prone to think that Mrs. Eddy was unfor tunate in meeting some of those who believe in that great truth. Specially so when again on that same page, 71, she says, "There is no sensuality in spirit. I never could believe in spiritualism." The thought suggestion herein contained should show clearly to all of her followers that her intense human nature was founded upon the impulses of material desires in connection with her spiritual un- foldment. To place her as an equal, or near an equal, with the greatest spiritual teacher the world has yet known as many of her followers have done), is not a credit to her or to her work. When they show her evolution from the nervous and intensely human SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 139 nature to the spiritually developed master over the material body, then they show her in the light that is transcendent in its evolutionary development, for it can be easily understood and her example fully appre ciated. If you analyze her statement in its crude thought suggestions as a reflection upon spiritualism, then it will rebound like a boomerang and' expose a very crude nature that in reality was not an ex pression of her spiritual ideals. Again we quote: "The basis and structure of spiritualism was alike material and physical." This statement leads one to ask if it could be possible for her to believe that it depended upon the nervous sys tem of the material body to make a record of its de sires in its material and physical experiences? No real spiritualist or mystic ever confused the thought of the. material and the spiritual. Each has its nat ural sphere, but both work together in the develop ment of the spiritual personality. This, according to Mrs. Eddy, is "A theory contrary to Christian Sci ence." ' Again, we quote from page 78: "Spiritualism, with its material accompaniments, would destroy the supremacy of spirit. If spirit pervades all space it needs no material method for transmission of mes- 140 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT sages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity to be omnipresent, spirit is not materially tangible." Were wires and electricity used in the materializa tion of Moses and Elias by Christ in the presence of his disciples? Real spiritualism is here referred to by Mrs. Eddy as though it was some trick of a sleight-of-hand per former. No one will make a statement of this kind who is acquainted with the rudiments of the spiritual laws of our being nor will they be responsible for such a wrong thought suggestion to go out to the world. These suggestions are so crude that one is con firmed in the belief that Mrs. Eddy never came in contact with a real spiritualist. In fact, we must go further and remark that it is confusing to see how Mrs. Eddy allowed herself to make such suggestions about that part of nature which is so complicated and important in our evolution. Again, we quote from page 81: "If spiritualists understood the science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish. At the best, and on its own theories, spiritualism can only prove that certain individuals have a continued existence after death and maintain their affiliation with mortal flesh, but SPIRITUALISM AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 141 this fact affords no certainty of everlasting life." Here she admits that certain individuals may have a continued existence after death, etc., etc., but frankly questions the continuation of life in the future. Her admission that certain individuals may have a con tinued existence should prove to her followers that life continues and follows in regular order for each and everyone alike the same as our birth into this world continued our life at that time in a regular and orderly manner. Here, also, the spiritualists can claim that if Mrs. Eddy had possessed a better understanding of her spiritual environment she would have been more careful in her work. For in this statement she ques tions immortality and tries to smother the great truth of natural law, and that not only reflects upon her as a teacher of spiritual intuition, but shows that her work is not as spiritual as it is material. When we commenced to quote the statements made in this "Key to the Scriptures" we intended to give many quotations in order to show the narrow mindedness of the author when considering the sub ject of spiritualism as well as of the other occult sciences. This to make it evident that she was so prejudiced that she could not give the subject fair 142 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT and proper consideration, to which it is entitled. The quotations given are similar, in thought sug gestions, to those running through the whole chapter. Enough of her criticisms of spiritualism have been given to show the bias of her mind so that every earnest student can see the peculiar mixture of truth with half-truths and avoid the pitfalls contained in those indigestible thought suggestions. No consideration would influence us to modify or weaken the spiritual link that Mrs. Eddy has forged in the chain of truth in her efforts to help the people find themselves. To say the least, it is unfortunate that she failed to grasp the Biblical teachings that are so vividly placed before us in every book of the Bible that help us in finding the evolution of a human soul. It is doubly unfortunate that she has treated this greatest of all truths in our spiritual development as a Coney Island side show charlitanism. It is the opportunities for educational development, the point of view upon any subject, that influences everyone in arriving at a conclusion. THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 143 THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF The formation of character is guided, first, by pre natal conditions and then by our environment in the earlier years of our childhood. The environment of the young will, in a large majority of cases, place them in the world as a fixture long before they can take an intellectual position for themselves. In order to help us in finding a clearer idea of the evolution of life, its effect upon humanity and its vital force upon us personally, let us give a sketch of our past experience and thereby learn how that experi ence helps us to understand what others have to pass through in trying to find themselves. It is now over sixty years ago that the writer was fortunate enough to have a friend in a physician who opened the door to his library, such as it was, and said "Become a physician." Soon after this he was placed in a family of strict Episcopalians to see that his religious education was not neglected. Although in a material environment, we were under the guid- 144 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ance of theological teachers who believed that the larger part of the human family were barbarians. The important lessons that we had to master were the prayer book, and a very little of the Bible. These, especially the prayer book, were thoroughly satu rated through and settled in our mind. So well was that done that to this day we can, when attending any Episcopal service, go through that prayer book formula from memory. About seven years later we took up the subject of Spiritualism, Spirit return Spiritism, etc. This in Boston, the supposed center of that particular ism. We were, like our former teachers, earnest to have others see through our mental back window and ever ready to condemn, and in many cases to insult the intelligence of others who differed from us. Our special pride was in attacking and belittling those who made any pretense towards following in the wake of spiritualism. What we learned about it at that time placed a barrier in our path which, for years, kept us from un derstanding the fundamental truths of all religions. We were so thoroughly disgusted with what we found that we ridiculed and laughed at the preten tions of the mediums who assumed a gifted intelli- THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 145 gence of the spiritual world that they did not possess. They know that immortality is a truth and they become too anxious in trying to convince the investi gator of its truth and allow their egotism to run away with their spiritual intuition. If you will examine the situation carefully you will find that their material ideas are crowding out the plain spiritual suggestions that the medium should express, but are modified in the expression in order to use agreeable suggestions to please the visitor. The more you study the prob lem the clearer you find the truth, that they are try ing to make the matter of fact spiritual secondary to their desire to please the materially inclined investi gator. Too often the supposed earnest seeker for the truth is only using the opportunity to gratify his or her supposed wisdom in detecting a fraud. It was, at that time, our chief delight in trying to show that spiritualism was the most ridiculous of all beliefs for any one to follow. We were frank in our statements when we' stated that we believed that each one could see and know of his or her immortality, but did not believe that another could interpret it to us. We have since learned that when we approached this subject with 146 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT that thought in mind we were only injuring ourselves. About thirty years ago — when we were sure that mediums were frauds and spiritualism nothing more than a humbug — we were discussing the various phases of spiritual gifts with a spiritualist and he was frank enough to say that he did not believe we had ever met a real medium. Did we smile? Of course we did. Had we not commenced the study of spiritualism about thirty years before this in Boston? Had we not been to their meetings and seances and in all that time had found but little that would give us any satisfaction? Did we not know all there was to learn, about it? Of course we did. Our friend listened to our tirade very patiently, for which we are thankful. He then suggested that we give it one more trial — drop every prejudice and see if there was not something about it that we had not learned. Certainly. We would not hesitate to meet anyone who could give us any light on any subject, and while we believed that it would be a waste of time, still if he knew of any such person we would like to see what there was to learn of any new ideas in the medium business. At his request we visited a medium that he thought would give us a proof of his statements. We did it in THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 147 the day time, and faced the world as we have ever done, in broad daylight. We met a stranger — one who could not have known a thing about us, our family or our friends. For the first time we found a spark of the living truth. It was such a surprise that it startled us. Could this be true? Have we, all these years, been the fool and could those we have been traducing hold the key to truth? Investigation and study in every part of the world has been one continuous pleasure from that day to this. It was like coming out of some dismal swamp and climbing to some mountain top where the morn ing sunlight gave us a distant view of the dark roads we had been traveling. Have we, in our investigations, found any frauds? If you mean by that question mediums who try to leave the impression that they possess wonderful gifts when they have but one talent, then we answer — Yes, by the hundreds — in fact, that is too often in evidence. The result of our study, as to the effect upon any medium assuming more power than they possess, has been that they suffer by losing their spiritual vision in proportion as they assume a greater gift than they have attained; but we have found that they have 148 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT spiritual gifts from one talent to many talents. This study has taught us never to be guilty of allowing an unkind thought about the personality of others for they are the hardest things to forget as we grow in character building. In time, and with a gradual opening of the mind to learn the truth about life, we have found that every one is now living in the presence of those who have gone on before us and that we are developing a spiritual personality through our material bodies now and here. Every human being has. that intuitional faculty, and it is developed as we master our material desires as well as our selfishness and egotism. Those who have graduated from this school of life and passed on into the next world, through the door of so-called death, will co-operate with us and help us to master our difficulties if we will but listen to, and be guided by, the intuitional thought suggestions that come to us in our quiet hours of meditation. We know how serious our example has been in affecting the thoughts of others, and, Paul like, we wish to make all the amends we can to correct every word we have ever spoken against spiritualism and mediumistic gifts. We would humble ourselves in THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 149 the dust if we could only change the current of thought which we, in our ignorant zeal, so earnestly set in motion against those people. But when any medium tries to impress upon others the wonderful gift that he or she possesses over another, remember that you also have that same gift if you will so live as to develop it. It will repay any one to take up this study in an earnest and serious manner. One of the first stumbling blocks one will meet with will be to find a marked distinction made, among their teachers, between the professional spiritists and the true spiritualists. We had con sidered them both of the same class as many igno- rantly do who class Socialists and Anarchists under the same head. When the writer began the study, and investiga1 tion of this ism in Boston, he also took up, through the different churches, the study of every creed and ism in use to educate and fit human beings for the duties of life. Fulton, at Tremont Temple, was the then Evan- gelizer of the city and with others, of like evangelical bodies, it was the proper thing for them, irrespective of their denominational environments, to rail at Science as a danger post that one must not approach. 150 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT In fact, it was considered their "stock in trade" to become excited and frighten their congregations into submission when anyone tried to obtain the intui tional or spiritual meaning of the Bible. That book was made of more importance and more sacred than a human being and, to their way of thinking, one must be very careful about having a mind of his own when trying to understand it. You could read and study the various prayer books and no criticism would be made. But the Bible. Well, that was a sacred book which the special few could read and interpret, and when they interpret it you will find that they explain it so that it will fit their own par ticular ist, ism or special hobby. Naturally, that will lead any earnest minded stu dent to study the Bible and learn why it is that nearly all of our teachers make it a practice to attack those who wished to know by saying, in an insulting man ner — Oh! he is a scientist. It was always a tirade against "Science" whenever they had an opportunity to express their thoughts. These repeated attacks upon "Science," as a too dan gerous thought to analyze, led us to go more deeply into the study of its real meaning. We soon learned that science is "penetrating and comprehensive infor- THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 151 mation, knowledge duly arranged to general truths and principles, donates a systematic and orderly arrangement of knowledge. In a more distinctive sense science embraces those branches of knowledge which give a positive statement of truth as founded in the nature of things or established by observation and experiment." Then this word science, that so many use with direful effect, turns out to be a subject for us to study until we know enough about the subject to under stand the truth hidden within its petals. In other words, educate yourself upon any subject that is im portant so that you can have a mind of your own and not be led around tied to some ignorant noise-maker whose apparent aim and ambition is to belittle the work of those who have given years of study to unlock the laws of nature so that mankind can better know itself. While studying these, various ists, isms and other favorite hobbies of the religious enthusiasts, we did not overlook nor neglect the study of the theaters (too often spelled theatres), as to their influence upon the public mind. At that time the orchestra at the Boston Theater was the finest musical organiza tion in any theater in the United States, and no play 152 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT was then produced on that stage that we ever missed. Neither did we ever miss one at the Museum with Warren, Mrs. Vincent, Anna Clark and Sewell in the cast. It was at the Boston Theater that we first saw Forest, Edward Kean and his wife from London. It was here that Edwin Booth was playing when his brother shot President Lincoln.. The theater was crowded that evening, for all Boston was unnerved and ready for revenge for that crime. No one present can ever forget the scene when Mr. Booth came be fore the audience. A few hissed him but the humble manner in which he received those hisses turned the feeling of criticism into an applause that for the whole evening was a mild ovation to his honor, his character and his art. While our mother was visiting us in Boston we asked her if she would go with us to see Maggie Mitchel in "Little Barefoot." She looked at us as though we did not comprehend her social position. She had never entered a theater and being a Metho dist, of the old school, it was not quite the respectable thing to ask your own mother to go to a theater, but we remarked that we had learned that a person was held responsible for his acts and that if a person THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF 153 wished to find the good or the evil side of life he or she would find what they were looking for, whether in a church, a theater or on the streets. That she would learn more and hear a better sermon, a dozen in this one play, than she had ever heard in any church. To please him she consented, we believe more to study him than the play. The first act was not half through before she was in tears. Not a word was said until the play was over. Then as we were passing out we asked her what she thought of the play. Her answer was — "Well, if it is all like that," and said no more, but from that day she never questioned our going to any theater nor criticized our reading any book that she had, on account of her beliefs, formerly questioned. Since that time we have visited the various churches and have studied their creeds as well as visited the theaters of many nations both as a study and mental recreation, and all of them are doing "their bit" in helping human beings to better under stand their environment and themselves. We have also found that kindness and considera tion for others lifts us all up to worlds of thought that selfishness and egotism can never find. One word in honor of such men as Edward Everett 154 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT Hale, Phillips Brooks, Dr. Hall, Fifth Avenue Pres byterian, N. Y. ; Dr.. Potter, Grace Church, N.. Y. ; Minot Savage, of the Thirty-fourth Street Unitarian ; Henry Ward Beecher, Dr. Hall, of Holy Trinity, Brooklyn; Dr. Cuyler, Brooklyn, and others, without number, of the different teachers who have led us through the gauzy show, glitter and tinsel of noise and nothingness up to a better understanding of our selves and the world about us. Never forgetting such organists as Dudley Buck, who was at Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, and Samuel Warren, who was at Grace Church, N. Y., including hundreds of others who have been teachers through their art, like Edwin Booth, the peer of the American stage, and Henry Irving, who placed "Faust" upon the Lyceum stage in London and gave to the world the greatest moral uplift the English stage has ever known. Strong words, but whoever has followed the vari ous plays and players for the last fifty years will admit the truth of these conclusions. Years have passed since that time and as we are roaming around, in the thought world of the olden days, we notice the advertisements of two lectures to be given by prominent lecturers— one upon the Bible, etc., and the other upon Christian Science. THE SUBCONSCIOUS . SELF 155 Two of the largest theaters in the city have been selected. Therefore important lectures are going to be given. As usual, we are interested and So attend both. We found both theaters "packed" with human beings to listen to those lecturers. Both used the Bible as the Book of Books, but this one upon the Bible gave his whole thought. to the abuse and igno rance of the higher critics and the evolutionists "who have been developed from a monkey and have placed him before mankind as a man with a hat upon his head and named him Darwin." Why not Carlisle, Victor Hugo, Henry Drummond, Sir Alfred Russell Wallace, and hundreds of others as well known? He is also determined to have this world come to an end to please his peculiar ideas about the words in the Bible as he interprets them. This ending of our material world has been a com mon theme for a few religionists ever since we can remember. One would think that a little of nature's laws would seep through their minds and help them to find a spark of the truth that governs our environ ment. The other lecturer upon Christian Science is pro claiming the value of "Mrs. Eddy with her text book 156 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT and Key to the Scriptures" as the one' and only panacea in saving human beings from their many ills and aches. Teaching the people how to use natural laws so as to help them rise above material appetites, and how to keep the body in a healthy condition is one of the greatest and most vital subjects that can engage human thought. But when anyone, however earnest or fanatical he or she may be, makes the claim that "Mrs. Eddy discovered the law of spirit as truly as Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravitation," they should have a little real knowledge of the devel opment of the human family up to the present day conditions and thereby avoid placing themselves in a position as ridiculous as the other lecturer did who is going to bring the world to an end. When anyone makes such a statement, as made by this lecturer, they should be careful to know, for mere assumption will soon find its level. Every thought that helps man to understand him self has many and various effects upon the evolution of character and it depends upon the development of the mind of the individual as to the manner the thought may be received by that individual. No one has a higher regard for the work that Mrs. THE SUBCONSCIOUS SELF .157 Eddy has done, in opening the eyes of the church world to the value of true living as the real healing power of nature, than the writer. That she has lifted the forces of spiritual law in this material world and "natural law in the spiritual world" up and out of the rut of ignorant superstition and has placed spiritual law as ever present in the material body and made it a part of our daily living, is absolutely true. But when she ignores the value of spiritual inspiration, which is spirituality, in its real essence, as expressed in Christ's living with his brother man, and in latter years has been called spirit ualism, and this the fundamental principle of every religion in the world, and uses words that are mis leading and contrary to known facts, as shown in her chapter upon Spiritualism, then she or anyone who speaks for her, simply belittles her work and makes it too evident that the material, which she has been teaching others to ignore, is the principal thing that is made prominent before her followers. Further, when anyone asserts that Mrs. Eddy discovered the law of spirit, then the ignorant fanaticism of the fanatic is too manifest even for a mild suggestion that he read the Bible long enough to learn about our spiritual teachers who gave us that first insight. 158 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT The evolution of man from primeval time has been the greatest and grandest study for human minds to unravel and the important matters that should re ceive our earnest consideration are : What have we developed from? What is our condition and environ ment today? What will be our condition and en vironment in the eternal tomorrow? This tomorrow may be one, five, twenty or one hundred years from now. These questions are vital to every human being and there should not be a question in the mind of anyone about the immortality of our character or soul development. But when two men, lecturing for their special hobbies, fill two of the largest theaters in the city with people seeking for the truth, and we hear such rash statements as were made by those two lec turers, and this in December, 1916, it is time to study and examine the results of natural law in the develop ment of ourselves and the human race and not allow our thought world to become befogged nor placed upon a side track where we can be used to nurse and cuddle into life any one of these ists or isms that depend upon the credulity and support of the super stitious public for their existence. 159 EVOLUTION THROUGH MATERIAL CONDITIONS That it may help us to find a better understanding of our evolution let us follow the making of a piece of carpet, or any article that is full of the various patterns and colors that have to be used in the fac tory, and see if our thought of the development of character will be better conveyed to the reader. First, there is making the ground ready for the seed. Then the planting and protection of the grow ing crop. Then the harvesting. The care and skill required in selecting and sorting the fiber and making the threads ready to be placed upon the loom of life. The process of preparation represents the heredi tary and prenatal conditions which were planted in our personality through our parents and grand parents. Our parents having placed us as living threads in warp upon the loom of life, and having arranged that warp, their ideals and characteristics implanted in our personality, we must now use our own thought 160 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT shuttles in filling in the woof of our thoughts, acts, habits, mannerisms and characteristics which will make a complete record of this material life from baby days to old age and transform that record into character which is our personal spiritual soul or body. Here by our side are the thought shuttles threaded with every kind of thought matter, both spiritual and material, as well as all grades and colors that are ready for us to select from. These we can use care lessly or seriously as it pleases every whim or fancy of our own. The weavers, our parents at first, have learned how vital it is to have those shuttles handled carefully. They know that they placed many bad threads in the warp and that many others are very weak where they should be strong. Therefore, the importance of guid ing those shuttles carefully to strengthen those weak threads that every thought and act may be one harmonious whole in developing us into a spiritual individuality. As we grow older we, like the experts in the mill, gradually take the place of our parents in doing our own weaving, but we are always under the influence of our earlier hereditary and prenatal conditions until we have learned to be master of those conditions. EVOLUTION THROUGH MATERIAL CONDITIONS 161 As our thoughts take shape and we begin to assert our own will force, the colors change in our thought shuttles and begin to show their little patterns in our web of life. Now we are running the shuttles of selfishness and then of generosity unlimited, there of unkindness and then of kindness unbounded, here of irritated expres sions and angry words and then such ideal expres sions that words fail to express the thought, here of brutish acts and lustful desires and then remorse followed by another climb up the mountain of idealism to find our better selves. These represent various threads upon our loom of life which we are continually breaking and have to stop our machines in order to unite the threads we have so ruthlessly broken. Every selfish, unkind, irritated or angry thought is like a rank weed woven into our character. They soon exhibit themselves in coarse manners and actions which lower the moral thought standard. If the thought is one that is made evident through a foolish outburst of words or some hasty action, then it is like some terrible storm that destroys all before it and many of our ideal threads have been broken through one foolish act. Our ideal of a true 162 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT and noble life has been smeared through our igno rance and selfishness. Or the thought may be for an earnest desire to be close companions with those who have graduated from this class of life and away from the temptations which surround us. It may be that selfish desires will lead us and we assume a Lordly air of self-importance, showing our material gains in every form of selfishness and lustful desire. As we meditate over our character building what do we see? Not only that angry words and hasty actions are woven into our web of life but we see that the expert, our God, is beside us and knows every thought and act we have placed in our character building. They all stand out as clear as the sun at noon-day. What a feeling of loneliness and isolation sur rounds us here we are in the world of bustle and activity upon every side. Every form of selfishness, and vulgar display of brute animalism, meet us at every corner. Our thoughts are forced into byways where one would not imagine it possible that human beings could be so greedy and coarse. And remember that this is not so often found among the poor and needy as it is among the so-called better classes. In EVOLUTION THROUGH MATERIAL CONDITIONS 163 mingling with our brother-men thousands pass and repass and day by day plans are modified or revamped which, at first, we considered as very important that we now see were childish and ridiculous. Years have passed as days and we notice, as we study our character or soul formation, that the thought shuttles have kept up their ceaseless work. Every ideal thought and effort, every kind and un kind act, every generous impulse or sarcastic expres sion, every crude and coarse action, every material and selfish effort, each and every one of these con flicting emotions in the past and today are playing back and forth, and we are weaving into our spiritual personality that which will be the exact counterpart of our thoughts, words, acts and mannerisms in our character making. It is when the truth of these natural laws stand out clearly before us that we become disgusted with our selves and see that the efforts we have made are smeared with selfishness in every form. Nearly every step we have taken is identified with this or that desire for some material gain or profit and when we review our ideals, the reality of our narrow, bigoted and fanatical sectarianism reacts upon us like loads of lead. 164 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPTRIT If we could but clear our record of each and every one of these deformities and could remove every impurity from our web of life, we would gladly give the whole world if we could control it. In our evolution it has been one mistake after an other and so fearfully bad have we mixed our patterns that we have a jumble of besmeared work and broken threads that we would like to see the mountains fall upon that part of our record and bury it completely out of sight. Where is the man who has not in his experience and dealings with his brother man been through such experiences and supposed he was showing his bril liant qualities and manly attainments when he used his knowledge for selfish purposes. While this work is progressing we notice that the machine automatically winds up the finished product and, as the work progresses, the past acts in our character making are all, good and bad, wound into that completed roll and now it is taken from the machine, through our graduation into a spiritual per sonality, so-called death, and placed before the eye of the examiner for his approval. Now we can clearly see that we have been running the machinery of character making, that we have EVOLUTION THROUGH MATERIAL CONDITIONS 165 been the master and head bookkeeper, our own broker and commission clerk, our own railway manager and the passenger and shipper who paid the freight. Whatever our occupation or profession, every detail of our life work, even to the last dot in our character or soul formation, is there as written by ourselves into our book of life. Not only have we made a record of our acts, but every thought and desire is there as recorded by ourselves and we will, with those beside us, act as judges upon our own work as true or false, noble or ungrateful. That record is the record book of our lives and we were the weavers that selected the shuttles and made every entry in that book. There we stand with others as living witnesses to our every act as there recorded. The book of life means the record of every thought and act pertaining to our character building which, in reality, is soul building. But you and I have made, and are now making, every entry in that record. It is useless to try and blame someone else for our faults. Others must answer for theirs and it is use less for them to try and shift their faults upon the shoulders of others. Each and every one of us is making the record of his or her life while we are in this material body, right here and now. 166 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT There are many reasons for the mistakes we have made and only our God and ourselves know whether they were honestly made through ignorance or dis honestly made. A careful weaver breaks threads when he is learn ing the business of weaving, but that careful weaver learns the cause for that break and then tries to avoid that danger point. In learning about life, it is one continual mistake after another from which we learn to avoid similar conditions. The one who never makes a mistake is generally the one who makes the greater mistake in not finding himself. When one finds that the results of natural law will bring him face to face with every selfish thought and act we have passed through and that everyone we have met will see us in the clear and open light of truth, then we will see that it would have been better for us to have given more thought and study to these natural laws pertaining to our evolution. 167 SOCIALISM Very few appear to comprehend that the principles of socialism are based upon Christianity. It was this very ideal that was' placed as the fundamental prin ciple of American life by the Pilgrim fathers when they landed at Plymouth Rock. It was this same ideal that was cemented in the minds of every true American when the Constitution was adopted for the guidance of our people. This ideal has too often been forgotten, but it is firmly fixed in the minds of every American from Maine to California. It has only to be mentioned in order to make the truth of this statement plain to everyone interested in the development of our national characteristics. • For the last thirty years or more emigrants by shiploads have come to our shores from the various nations of the European and Eastern world and have settled in the various states. From their number there has appeared at various times the noisy and ignorant leaders of their people, called Socialists. Those leaders do not understand 168 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT the fundamental principles of our Country, nor are they properly informed about what is required for American citizenship. Before they left their Father land they had concluded that the Americans were a lot of half-civilized people that required their special attention. Their mental development was based upon the conditions that existed in their early environment and it was but natural that their ideas about liberty, etc., etc., were based upon the conditons that were expressed by others in their home land. Upon their arrival here they at once commence to talk loud and long about liberty, free speech and a free country. Many of them had so conducted themselves in their own country that they were looked upon as belonging to the criminal classes and were obliged to leave their Fatherland and find a home in some other country. But the large majority had, through their selfish, pessimistic and ignorant zeal, developed the spineless characteristics of the Christian pacifist and too ready to follow the leadership of any bold, but ignorant, leader who gave his or her thought to criticizing the Governments that represented the optimistic methods of educating the people through earnest and energetic co-operation. SOCIALISM 169 Those leaders, through their ignorant and noisy methods, are not educating their people as to what is required to make American citizens or good neigh bors, but they, influence many to take the path that leads to their ultimate ruin. Remember, my socialist friend, that your brother- man has the same rights for liberty, free speech and a free country that you possess. That you have no more reason for trespassing upon his rights than he has for trespassing upon yours. That our people recognize that there is a great dif ference between liberty and license and that liberty is never to be construed as giving anyone the license to trespass upon the rights that belong to others. That free speech does not give to you or to any other person the right to use words that will bring about a criminal or an unjust act. That loud talk about the Christian duties of your neighbors, or the Christian duty of the government to its citizens, does not stop the ignorant criminal in his counterfeiting, burglarizing, bomb-throwing and child-stealing ten dencies. In fact, many look upon your methods as a blind that will protect or help those criminals. That a free country means to every American that the rights of everyone are to be protected through the 170 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT laws, rules and regulations laid down for honorable- minded men to accept and abide by. Americans conclude that you are abusing the hos pitality that has been given to you and that you are, perhaps ignorantly, making a great mistake when you judge the principles of this country as being the same as those existing in the country from which you came. If a wrong exists it will not modify nor correct that wrong when you or I commit another wrong. The licentious, vicious or other criminal characters who inhabit every part of the world should not be allowed to enter this country and those who have come here through the oversight or design of others, should be returned to the country from which they came. It is nearly forty years ago, when returning to New York from Switzerland, that we met two young men, who had been well educated and could speak and read English, French and German, who had, from their college experiences been too familiar with the cut glass punch bowl, committed some criminal act that had caused them to be sent to prison. Through the influence of their families the authori ties had concluded to let them out if they were sent to America. SOCIALISM 171 America being the "Melting Pot" for all kinds of people, that country, like Australia in its earlier days, was looked upon as the place to send the weaklings and criminals from all classes of society. Emigrants have come to our shores in large num bers and have been made citizens without having any interest in the principles that go to make up a real American citizen. New York was the leading city of the country for them to go to and there to seek for their citizenship. Anyone acquainted with the condi tions existing in New York will remember how easy it was, and is, for Tammany Hall to make citizens of the foreigners. And this from all countries and all classes, if they voted the Tammany Hall way. Few of those citizens who were born here of foreign parentage, or have come here with their supposed knowledge of the principles that are re quired to make true Americans, have ever advanced from the noisy soap box orators found in our leading cities. All of them should be carefully examined and a history of their lives recorded from their childhood days. In this way, we will know who are the vicious characters that claim citizenship and see that each country takes care of its criminals. The principles of socialism are trampled under foot 172 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT by those citizens and talkers, and earnest workers for the benefit of humanity are often misled and confused through the indiscriminate speech-making mania of those so-called socialists. If one is careful in the analysis of the suggestions they express he can easily sift the chaff from the wheat and thereby he can pro tect himself and other earnest Americans who are too often mixed up in their propaganda work. The ideal American Socialist has always been a home maker and identified with our churches and other organizations that are working to help man kind through the evolution of civilization, although the words socialism or socialist may never have been used. This is clearly exemplified by our act in giving liberty to Cuba and our present war to give freedom of action to all nations. The important matter that has been neglected by our people is in educating the vast numbers who have come to this country. Too many of them cannot read or write. Their early environment has been under the leadership and guidance of their church and that church has been supported by their government and their government is manipulated by those in control of its affairs. It is natural for the emigrants to resume their SOCIALISM 173 church relations and continue along the same path that they traveled when in their Fatherland. The influence upon our social life through our indifferent method of selecting and educating these strangers has been far more serious upon our people than we recognize. When one studies the present conditions from one end of the country to the other he can hardly believe that such changes have taken place. It is so serious that it is appalling. It is ignorance of the ordinary responsibilities due to each other that meets one at every turn. Our teachers should promptly meet this condition and broaden their thought world to the importance of teaching the simple truths of Christianity and not confuse the people with their ceremonials and forms which are too commonly used in the various churches. Not enough consideration has been given to the various church methods commonly used in the coun tries from which these emigrants have come to us. In all of those countries the Church is the all- powerful factor in leading and educating the people. Christianity or ideal socialism is always obliged to follow in the wake of the church as it teaches the Christian religion. 174 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE, SPIRIT The unfortunate part of it is that too many of their people have not studied our language and our public funds have been used, through political influence, to educate the youth of the country in other languages than our own as well as using our public funds for sectarian purposes. The language of our country should be carefully taught and protected from every influence that leads to any foreign publication. We are now learning the value of self-protection and the lessons that are so valuable to us should never be forgotten in any part of our country. Education is the foundation of our protection and words cannot be used strong enough in thanking Mr. Carnegie for his forethought in this direction. The influence that has permeated the minds of the foreigners has all been through their church relation ship. In this they have been educated under cere monials and forms as the required formula for their salvation. The simple truths of Christianity, nor a proper explanation of the real meaning of socialism and what it stands for in our dealings with each other has never been explained to them. Too much attention has been given to set phrases SOCIALISM 175 by the leaders of the various church organizations and they have been too ready to imitate the "quick rich" in their pompous ostentations and not enough attention has been given to the "still small voice" that is ever present in every personality. The church has too often assumed the authority that belongs to the individual and this has left the people in ignorance of their spiritual birthright. While in this condition of mind the people are ques tioning socialism as well as Christianity. This because they have not been educated in the evolution of their own religion as well as the religion of others. The teachers in the various churches have not educated their people about the other religions in the world nor the various Bibles existing that are in use by the people who are strangers to us. The true way to correct these conditions is to teach no language in our public schools but our own. That no publication of any kind should be permitted other than in English. These conditons will oblige every one to learn our language and thereby become better acquainted with the fundamental conditions required for American citizenship. 176 LEARNED AND EDUCATED It is quite common to hear the words learned and educated used as having the same meaning. The two words represent two different classes, or develop ment, of men and they should not, unless the person is both learned and educated, be considered as having the same meaning. The learned man is one who devotes his thought to mastering literature so as to become the master of some profession; with this thought in mind he takes a Collegiate Course with the belief that it will give him the common sense, as well as the learning, to fill any position in life that he may decide to accept. What has interested and amused us is to see the importance that is attached to a piece of paper, or parchment, that they receive when they complete their college course. Many take this to signify their ability to fill any position or to take up any profession. Many of them have started out to become members of the Legal or the Medical profession. When they LEARNED AND EDUCATED 177 select the Legal Profession and decide to be a second Webster or a Choat or to be a second Paracelsus of the Medical Profession (Paracelsus was a natural physician of the sixteenth century of whose life our specialists can learn much), then their example be comes important in idealizing either profession but when either profession is selected and they debase it through any selfish motive and by their words and acts try to mystify and mislead others, then they are worse than Common Criminals. Not only should their real character be exposed but they should be placed where they cannot injure others. The educated man is one who has studied the prac tical things pertaining to every day matters among business men. He is often mentioned as "a jack of all trades," but when you study his characteristics you find him using his common sense in analyzing or adjusting the various matters that arise, daily, for consideration. It is the mingling with men in their various occupation whether it is a Bank Presdent, a Theologcal Professor, or a day laborer, that opens one's thought world to the obligation's resting upon each one of us. It is the practical experience, the understanding and relation of things to each other, that fits us to live as one with our brother man. 178 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT It is only through this experience that one finds an educated man, but how laughable and often ridiculous, is the Learned Professor when trying to answer questions that refer to the practical matters of life. The Learned Professor will become enthusiastic over the study of Latin, the language of the Ancient Romans, and will use earnest suggestions to make one believe that it is required in daily use with the general public. Not only Latin but other dead languages are continually referred to as of vital importance in the evolution of mankind. The educated man becomes enthusiastic over the study of things that belong to our daily living and words fail him as he criticizes the learned men for their, efforts in trying to complicate and confuse the thought of the people over very simple matters. The differences between the learned man and the educated man are as far apart as the imagination can conceive for they both look upon each other as wild eyed and brainless ignoramuses. That both are wrong, in their judgment of each other, is perfectly clear to one who wishes to give to each one the credit due for trying to make this world a better place to live in. Both are valuable, in their place, in helping LEARNED AND EDUCATED 179 us to make our environment a practical part of our evolution. When the learned man adds education to his learn ing then you have a well developed character in one person. This was clearly exemplified in Theodore Roosevelt who was both learned and educated. His tory does not give another character that was so earnest and well versed in our obligations to each other. If all men would educate themselves as did Colonel Roosevelt, each one in his own way, there would not be so much selfishness in evidence as one now finds in all parts of the world. . As teachers, in the evolution of mankind, both the learned and the educated have been valuable but the educated man always takes the leading part through his practical experience in helping others to better understand themselves. It was Colonel Roosevelt's common sense methods in meeting and dealing with all kinds and classes of people that placed him as a leader among men. 180 THE MEDICAL PROFESSION As our college graduates select the medical pro fession for their ideal occupation, it is natural for them to join some medical society that represents their special hobby. That special selection may be Alopathy, Homeopathy, Osteology, Christian Science or other society, of which the world has many that is approved by their followers, and when that selection is made they are then connected with the one and only society that should be allowed to practice their profession. Their one-sided view of the situation is the nucleus that causes the people to study the vari ous professions and thereby learn the value of all of them. Study broadens the thought world until we find that there are good points in each and every one of them. Each and every one has to learn of has learned, that natural laws are better to follow than all of the professions put together. It is in this field of thought that every one should admit that Mrs. Eddy has THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 181 accomplished a great work in helping humanity to find itself, but when Christian Science is placed before the world as the greatest spiritual thought ever given to the people and it is used to modify the natural laws of our being, then fanaticism is the working tool that will expose the foundation upon which it is built as being of sand and that sand of such a poor and loose quality that when one studies and analyzes that foundation it goes out with a rush. It will well repay anyone to study the evolution of the life and work of Mrs. Eddy, especially so when one will separate the chaff from the wheat, for then he will learn to live properly with himself and avoid the superfluous use of the scalpel in the hands of any one however well they may be recommended and advertised to the profession. Too often the scalpel is used to remove the appendix when the'cause of the trouble is found to be constipation that results many times in old fashioned wind colic which will be readily corrected by using a good dose of Castor Oil. A little forethought in this direction will save humanity much trouble. The study of the human anatomy will give to all of lis a better understanding of ourselves. Every M. D., irrespective of the particular school he' favors, raises 182 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT his hat in honor of John D. Rockefeller for the broad minded methods he has adopted to help the human family find the cause of the various diseases that have given the medical profession so much trouble to master. It is the common theme of our street orators to berate our wealthy men and this for no other reason than that of their wealth and for saving the money that came into their hands. That they were eco nomical and industrious and accumulated money as they worked is no reason for placing them before the world as brutal beings who are selfish and grasping misers. If all of our> monied men will use their wealth as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie used theirs, then every man should try to follow their example. Our M. D. friends are prone to ignore the immortal part of our being because they cannot, with their scalpels, find the soul in the material body. Every M. D. knows that there are, in the air we breathe, the various elements of the material food required to help sustain the material body. Why not be more careful in expressing your thought ? THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 1S3 Why not study more deeply into the conditions that maintain the material body? Can you not see this air working through the material body, developing a personality that is as invisible as the air itself, but as real in its spiritual personality as is the body in its materal form? That when the materal body has exhausted its vital forces the spiritual personality of that body continues into the spiritual world as a natural result of its evolution through that material body? When any M. D. of any profession tries to ignore the immortal part of our being because he cannot, with his scalpel, find the spiritual personality in the material body, then we ask him to try and use his scalpel to carve up the food contained in the air we breathe and place it before us as bread, cake and ice cream for our lunch. 184 THE LEGAL PROFESSION No profession has been more scandalously used than that of the legal profession. It has given our jurisprudence a character that is too often criticized and made a "laughing stock" among men. When one meets an attorney he hesitates in placing such a man as an ordinary acquaintance. Some go so far as to say that if they asked an attorney "if their necktie is properly adjusted" they would not be surprised to receive a bill for the advice they had received. Our Legislators pass a law, asked for by the people, to govern some condition that is giving them trouble. In order to side track the wishes of the people, as expressed in the law passed, those who are opposed to the people and selfishly interested, begin to haggle over the exact meaning of the words used and thereby try to change the meaning and intent of the law so as to make it appear contemptible. To carry on their propaganda they employ attor neys to besmear that law so as to make it valueless. Study the case carefully and you will find the court THE LEGAL PROFESSION 185 is indifferent as to the rights of the people or the Legislators. The Court appears ready to follow any precedents that have been suggested in order to make the law appear ridiculous and to make the Legislators appear as a lot of school boys. When the decision is rendered the Court follows the suggestions made by the able attorneys, who have been subtle enough to try and mystify the people as well as the Court over very simple and plain terms, and the people as well as the Legislators are left to find their way out of the con flicting conditions. It is widely commented upon that notorious crimi nals can, with the assistance of some of our able attorneys, escape the just penalty of their crimes. This is all wrong and it is to these examples, of how our courts deal out justice to protect the rights of the people, that has placed our jurisprudence in such a disgraceful condition before the world. If you have any controversy, however simple, and go to an attorney for advice, he will use his time, as well as your own, looking up precedents. When the case comes up for trial the attorney appears in Court with enough books to keep the judge busy for a month to study up the precedents. Here is where 186 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT the judge should use his authority and make it clear to the attorneys before him that the case on trial is the case that he wishes to understand. That each case before him must stand upon its own merits irrespective of the conditions that governed any pre ceding action. Too many cases have been influenced through quotations from precedents while the case before the court was scarcely considered. Why any attorney will allow himself to represent a case that he is satisfied the parties interested are trying to evade their responsibilities, is beyond us to comprehend. We fully understand his selfishness and that, as an attorney, he is after the money, irre spective of the rights due to others interested, but he is overlooking the important fact that there is something in this world besides money, and is using his subtle abilities to weave into his character, con ditions that will ostracize him from companionship with honorable men, is the question that is always before us. As we study the situation, we are prone to ask about the judge who allows the sharp and shady attorneys to appear before him. Does the judge fully comprehend his position before the world? Does he understand that he is the THE LEGAL PROFESSION 187 moral representative of the whole community? That he stands before the people as a guide for honesty and justice between those who appear before him? That his plain and moral duty is to obtain the whole truth of any matter on trial whether one side of the case has a weak attorney and the other side has selected a sharp and shady attorney to represent them? In giving his decision (irrespective of the representations made by any attorney), is he render ing his decision upon the merits of the case on trial? When the Judge allows precedents to be introduced he is permitting the precedents to take the place of the facts that are before him. These precedents are conditions introduced to mislead and divert the attention of the court as well as the general public. Any Judge who allows his mind to be influenced by an able or friendly attorney, who introduces prece dents to confuse and mislead the court, or when that Judge makes a ruling or renders a decision in favor of any man or party of men by allowing the truth to be suppressed or side tracked through the sugges tions, or methods, of an astute and sharp attorney or permits technical conditions to influence him in any manner, he is laying. the foundation for his own retirement. For every such decision disgraces him .188 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT in the minds of honorable men. Remember that when you are considering the facts of a case on trial that no two cases are exactly alike. That when you allow any reference to a similar case, or cases, that may have preceded the case on trial, you are laying a foundation for deceptive purposes. Any foundation so laid not only disgraces the Judge who permits it but it is a moral disgrace to the whole Legal Profession. For the last three years, this in 1920, the Govern ment has been quietly investigating the various characters who have come to the United States as emigrants — this in order to find the undesirables and see them deported to the country they came from. Having found a few, of the many who should never have been allowed to come here, they were placed in the custody of officers for deportation. Some judge, we believe it is in Massachusetts, issues restraining papers that are a direct insult to our Government. Is the Government, in trying to deport the undesir ables, going to allow this Judge to interfere with its plans? Can any man or state stop the work of removing from the country those who have boasted about their right to change our laws and Constitution, which has THE LEGAL PROFESSION 189 developed through patient effort of our people, and this through some judge who assumes the right to stop the Government, in its work, and thereby make us, as a nation, the laughing stock of the whole world? Is our country to be at the mercy of those who will not see that the honest emigrants must be protected from these ignorant soap box orators who make no distinction between Liberty and License and try to call it all as Liberty? Some Americans appear to believe that the "American Melting Pot" is so large that it can assimilate all of them, as well as their whole propa ganda, and the body politic will still remain pure. Remember, gentlemen, that a pin prick has caused the death of a man and the larger the man the more dangerous the poison. We are in a similar position to that of Thadeous Stevens, who, in carrying on his professional work, was obliged to appear in a Philadelphia Court where the Judge was overplus officious and expected every one to recognize in him his supposed superior intellect. The Judge had, by his persistence and noisy affirmation, bordering upon the methods of "Ambu lance Chasers," convinced his neighbors that they 190 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ought to select him for their Judge. Having been elected for that position he became so important that he was inclined to be distant and tyrannical in his rulings. Mr. Stevens was annoyed to find that his duties called him to appear before such a Judge. While waiting for his case to be called he was indifferent to the Court as well as towards those about him. At last his case was called and with the same indifferent attitude towards the court he answered and pro ceeded with his case. His manner irritated the Judge and in a sharp tone of voice he asked the attorney if his attitude was to be construed as expressing a con tempt for the Court. In a dignified and masterly manner Mr. Stevens arose and said, "Your Honor, I am trying to conceal it." Several have asked, "What do you mean when you say Ambulance Chasers?" Answer. Every large city has a number of lawyers who give their time in try ing to find something that will turn a dollar in their direction. When any accident occurs an ambulance is called. The lawyer follows the ambulance and learning a little about the accident starts a suit for damages-, etc., etc., etc. Suits have been started when THE LEGAL PROFESSION 191 the one injured did not know the lawyer or that any suit had been started in his name. New York was credited with starting that kind of work and the words "Ambulance Chasers" have, for years, been given to those who do that kind of business. 192 FEAR In the development of our spiritual personality or character we stand in fear of the conditions under which we live. We are trying to make our God out of material matter and thereby seek to worship the material as of more importance than the development of the higher spiritual ideals of our nature. The more we place our thoughts upon the proper development of our character the more simple the truth appears that those who have passed on before us as spiritual personalities are those who were here before us in the material body. This is the reason why the Chinese worship their ancestors and consider their cemeteries or burial grounds as sacred while, as a matter of fact, their cemeteries or burial grounds or any other cemetery or burial ground only hold the material matter through which the spiritual person ality was developed. The confusion of thought over very simple factors in our development has caused many to doubt and FEAR 193 question as to what life really is when it is all as clear as the noon day sun if one will only side track the ifs, doubts and fears and analyze our development here as indifferently as he would analyze any other matter under consideration. . Our teachers are continually using the word super natural to impress upon the minds of the people that miracles are beyond the understanding of human beings. They never study the natural laws through which those demonstrations were, and now are, car ried out, but appear dazed and confused if one asks them why they try to impress upon the minds of their people a fear of God by using the word supernatural and why one should fear the best friend, companion and protector he or she has on Earth. For an answer one receives a look of surprise that cannot be ex plained in words. They fail here as well as in many other places where questions are promptly side tracked. Are natural laws to be disregarded by these leaders in the thought world? Are they specially licensed to teach the people to stand in fear of this supposed supernatural power? Have you noticed that when you are alone and in silent meditation, which is the ideal hour of prayer 194 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT and companionship with God, that walls vanish and you are in the world of spirit and space unlimited? That later, when you hear one of those teachers, ad vance the thought of supernatural powers, it shocks you and for the moment you doubt the God who has been your companion in your hours of meditation? As far as we can learn those thought leaders never analyze the importance of the thought that they sug gest for others to accept, but throw a lasso of sanctity around that word supernatural, which leaves a thought of fear in the minds of their people and causes them to avoid the study of natural conditions that will in a natural way bring about the results that are supposed to be supernatural. We have often thought that these teachers have never given any study to the reality of spiritual laws in this material world, nor to the analysis of thought action upon the mind of an individual, but had taken this word supernatural and placed it upon their ban ner as a bulwark of sanctity for their protection. By so doing they have obliged their people to take their definition of supernatural, which is another word for ignorance, and thereby they have built a spiritual wall around themselves so that their people will not FEAR 195 question their position as one of prime importance with the spiritual world. This word supernatural was freely used in the past to hold the people in dogmatical strait-jackets. It is still used by the same class of teachers, who allow themselves to build certain fixed rules, forms and ceremonies as the proper formulas for their people to accept in order to become a member of the Christ ian faith. 196 INSPIRATION. This in another word that expresses a condition of the evolution of religious thought that is. often ac cepted for more than it is intended to express. Whatever we do is inspired. It is the active thought force behind the action whether it is the ideal, or the low,, beastly, selfish, that is the controlling power of the act. Inspiration should not be confused with Visions or Revelations, although all three are more or less the result of occult conditions. In following any thought suggestion of the occult world, care should be exer cised to find the reality of things, both spiritual and material, so as to see that our conclusions are not based upon some inspired hallucination that keeps the mind in a torpid condition. The words inspiration and supernatural are both used to support the imagination as it floats into the realms of space seeking for the natural conditions that are in reality right by our side in our every-day living with our brother men. INSPIRATION 197 Can it be that this class of teachers are the men that Christ referred to as having eyes they see not and having ears they hear not? May it be that their desire for self-glorification has so engulfed them that their living at the present time is looked upon by them as supernatural and that they come under another law from that which surrounds and governs the other members of the human family? It is important that we do not allow our imagina tion to so guide us that we cannot place the "Rock of Ages" as the foundation upon which to erect our character building. It is no visionary or imaginary action that will carry us through space and drop us into Heaven with out any actual energetic effort upon our part, for it will only be by trying to live as a man among our brother men that will help us to reach that ideal posi tion which every one is trying to obtain. 198 SELFISHNESS. In the development of better conditions for the human family selfishness is the foundation that leads each and every one. It is the quality of selfishness expressed that determines its object in life. The burglar takes the property of others to gratify the selfish desires of his material body. The philan thropist gives to satisfy the desires of his higher spiritual ideals. These two extremes cover all grades, from the low, beastly, selfish to the ideal spiritually selfish, but in every case it is satisfying the selfish wish of the human mind which is, to the brute in man, to live upon others or, to the ideal in man, to help others. With this thought in mind can you not see natural law at work in the lives of each individual? Here is one whose desire is for material show and for the accumulation of material things. This is simply the higher type of the* burglar and whose general remark you hear upon every corner — "The world owes me a living and I am going to collect the bill." As this is the expression of an ignorant mind SELFISHNESS 199 one soon learns that collecting bills for which no value has been given only brings its natural result and he has to be guarded to protect the public from injury. Gradually one learns that the low thoughts of the materially inclined do not help him over his low de sires and that instead of "The world owes him a liv ing" that he owes everything to this world for the opportunity of developing a character that he or she is responsible for and that that character moves into the next world as it is made here. The giving of one's time and energies to collecting material things for the pleasures of an hour when this world, so far as any individual is concerned, may come to an end at any time, is so narrow minded, so full of the burglar idea of life that one is bewildered when with such people. It is such persons who know everything there is to learn about life but what they have learned is the low burglar thought that life is to eat and sleep and then dress to eat and undress for sleep and so on from day to day. They call a doctor for every imaginary trouble and upon his arrival commence with their nervous.expla- nations about themselves and then on to the coming 200 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT end of this world. Why this fear and fret about when this world is coming to an end when every day thousands are passing out of it and into the next? Why so much noise about the end of this world when we will be out of it ages before any one of us will need to give it any consideration? Did it ever cross your mind that it is the death of our material body that means the end of the world? It is this selfishness and fear of things that causes all of the cares and ills of this part of our lives, and when we obtain a glimpse of this truth it will help us in clearing away the foolish ists and isms' that have held humanity under the control of the ignorant fanatic whose egostical selfishness is openly flaunted in one's face while the real spiritual side of one's nature is side-tracked and literally starved to death for the want of the spiritual insight that will help us in building our spiritual personality. We are living in and with these spiritual laws every moment of time and still we go on in absolute ignor ance of them and give our thoughts and energies to accumulating and packing around us the material things of this world. It is through the co-operation of the spirit in the material body that the soul is de veloped, but do not forget that the material body is SELFISHNESS 201 the foundation for building the spiritual personality. The importance of understanding these spiritual laws, that co-operate in the development of the soul through the material body, cannot be too strongly emphasized. Your friend will be the same in spirit ual form as he or she was and is in the material body. We fully realize that this is a very strong statement to make and it may appear as fanatical as the revival ists' hodge-podge that is given out indiscriminately when in the heated moments of saving the world. But these statements are made and here placed before you for consideration in a room with no other one present except those who we know are really alive as spiritual personalities and are conversant with the truth of the statements here made. You will remember that Paul had an unusual ex perience that changed his whole thought world about the present as well as his future life. In his younger days he was known as Saul, one of the extreme Jew ish religionists who was so orthodox in his ideas that those who did not agree with him were not fit to live. He was so earnest in his belief that he did not hesitate in murdering anyone who suggested the Christ life and gave it the preference over the Jewish. He had a vision that caused a change in his world 202 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT of thought. He then learned that an expression of his willful egotism was not the way 'to educate the people. That there were other people in the world beside the Jews. That there were other ways of helping people besides murdering them. That there were other religions and beliefs besides the Jewish religion and its beliefs. The change from believing to knowing also made him wish to repudiate the early part of his life so as to make a clear distinction between what he in the past believed and what he now knew to be the truth. Up to the time when Saul had that vision, he had carried into his life an earnestness which was that of a religious fanatic. As an exhibition of rank ignor ance, of spiritual ideals, there is not in all history another that equals the evolution of Saul into Paul. While he was busy with his work of injuring others he had that vision. Immediately he turns and be comes a leader in supporting Christ's methods to help mankind. From that time on he stands firmly for the right and for the balance of his life it is a con tinual subordination of self for the general good of all. These experiences we know have been given to some and we believe they have been given to many SELFISHNESS 203 who have looked upon them as too sacred to mention to one's best friends. Not until we heard those two lecturers did it ap pear to us that we had passed through life to old age and committed the blunder of our lives by remaining quiet and not giving to our brother-man the wonder ful truths that have been opened to our spiritual un derstanding. These experiences have been given to us from our boyhood days so that we know that everyone is a living spiritual personality and so developing in our material bodies. Through our desire for material results we have besmirched and stunted the proper development of our spiritual opportunities and have kept this great truth within ourselves. Not but what we have tried to make this fact known to others for we have, many times, started to explain the natural laws surround ing our lives and trying to make clear the value of comprehending our spiritual evolution. But when ever we enter that field of thought we have found very few who had given the subject any consideration although interested to know about their future life. We have also found that when one tries to explain his various experiences, or implies that he is studying 204 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT the natural laws that lead one up to immortality, he is looked upon as trying to live in another world be fore, he arrives there. As a matter of fact, we are now making the Heaven that will be our future en vironment. Like Joaquin Miller, we know that there are some in this material world who have had this knowledge. To them there is nothing more absurd or childish than that of questioning the evolution of life in a per sonality or that that personality will move into the next world as naturally as we moved into this one. Knowing this to be true we believe that there are others, the world over, who have had similar experi ences. It is a natural law and easily understood if we will live a life that brings us in harmony with that law. The Eastern world has been the religious thought center in teaching immortality as the natural sequence of our present evolution from crude con ditions. This is clearly examplified by the indiffer ence of the people of India, China and Japan to their material environment, even to the value of their ma terial lives, and only consider the importance of their future immortality. From this one can see that they overlook the value .SELFISHNESS 205 of their present opportunities in making their mate rial environment conform to their spiritual ideals. If we, like them, form loose and disorderly habits in our daily living it will appear in our character develop ment and a part of ourselves when in the spiritual body. The people of the East do not give enough thought to the importance of sanitary conditions in keeping themselves in good health and devote their thought and time too much to the ascetic side of life and thereby forget the value of 'their material , environ ment in the development of a harmonious life that properly, while laying the foundation for the future, adjusts itself to the material as well as the spiritual present. The concentrated thought upon the spiritual side of our lives is apt to lead us to overlook the require ments of our material bodies and then a true balance is lost and not only the body, but the soul, the spirit ual personality, will carry that experience and devel opment with it as it graduates into the higher class of life. When we transfer our thought to our Western world and see our people immersed, in a mad desire to accumulate the material things about us ; see how . 206 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT men have made their material wealth at the expense of their honor; see people open their doors and allow the characterless vampires to enter their homes and associate with their families upon an equal basis, and this on account of their material wealth, although their ideas of morality have sunk to the level of the male cortesan; see people of this Western civilization so-called, making it their ambition to be at the head of this condensed selfishness, one cannot be surprised to hear us placed among the people of the world as a characterless lot. When men who came to America to make their homes here and then have returned to their home land and meeting them there you hear them say, "You Americans are in a mad race to make every dollar there is within sight, even to the extent of doing dishonorable things to obtain that dollar; you are living more to satisfy your selfishness than for the best interests of your country; you never stop to con sider what you are doing nor ask yourselves as to the end of your mad scramble, but on you go ignor ing the rights due to others, thinking only of your selfish material returns and using words to deceive your best friends. Why, man ! I was so sick of your moral perverseness, your inability to see that you SELFISHNESS 207 were deceiving no one but yourselves, that I have come back to my own country to live decently with myself." What can one think of his country after hearing such expressions as these in different parts of the world ? In our travels we heard the story of a party of friends who were taking a pleasure trip upon a steamer on the Pacific Ocean. They stopped at one of the islands where it is summer all the year round, this to study the people and to learn of their habits and how theyr lived. As they walked about they saw a man receiving unusual attention from the people about him. Every one would go out of his or her way to show their respect for him. Approaching one of the islanders they asked him — "Who is that man that every one is so anxious to treat with such honor ?" "Why, that man has accumulated one million cocoanuts." That answer made it evident that even on an island in the Pacific Ocean the human animal with his material wealth was the all-powerful potentate that every one had to recognize. How easy to link this up with the rich man who had accumulated so much wealth that it was neces- 208 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT sary for him to build more barns and outhouses to hold his material accumulations but, and this can be emphasized with a very large "but," "This night thy soul shall be required of thee then to whom will all of that material wealth belong?" To give our thought too much to the material side of our nature we are liable to neglect the require ments of our spiritual ideals and when we do so the neglect or abuse of either one will1 be in evidence in our soul or spiritual personality. There is a happy medium between these two ex tremes of the Eastern and Western people that would redound to the credit of both if they would consider the value of each other's ideals in their efforts to make this world a better and a brighter place in which to develop character where each one will forget self and each one will work to advance his neighbors' welfare and thereby help us all to better understand each other. J09 WHAT IS CHARACTER? Did you ever consider the evolution of your thought world from your childhood days to the pres ent time and thereby learn the value of your environ ment in the development of character? Did you ever try to grasp a thought with your hands with the desire to suppress it? Did you ever study the action of the air we breathe, as it enters and leaves the lungs, to find its value in building up the material body and how rapid the tissues will decay if you are indifferent to its im portance in developing your physique? Did you ever learn that your life depended upon your lungs to properly use the air that will, when so used, give you the opportunity to develop your own individuality? Have you learned that every thought you have is dependent upon life and that your life is dependent upon the air you breathe to build up or destroy your material body and that your body is the home of your thought world? 210 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Have you learned that as you think you are form ing your material body to fit the thoughts that you allow yourself to think? Have you learned that you can select your thoughts as you can your companions and thereby become the master of your thought world as you can be the master of your material desires? Have you learned that the words you use, or have used, come from the thoughts that were first planted in your thought world and that you have the power to control those thoughts? Have you learned that in using words which leave a false impression upon the minds of others that they are not the real expression of the thought world of the individual and that this method is often called diplomacy, which is the cause of all the misunder standings that arise among men as well as between nations? <•"/.- i ''! '^I'^J Have you learned that words and acts are the out ward expression of the thoughts molded into the character of the person using them and that these outward expressions are the intangible powers of that inward formation of the thought world called character? Did you ever study the effect upon your character WHAT IS CHARACTER - 211 of using words contrary to your thoughts and ideals and then turn the mirror upon yourself to see the result upon your development as you permitted those thought suggestions to be expressed ? Did you ever analyze these intangible suggestions until you find them imbedded in your character and then examine yourself further until you find that these intangible characteristics are the real develop ment of your individuality and this is your soul? The word soul is often considered as too sacred to use in the affairs of every-day experiences while the word character is trundled about as of little conse quence. As a matter of fact both words express an intangible substance with an identical meaning in every person's individuality. Are these intangible characteristics a material sub stance for one to handle and trade with to please some thought whim of the moment and thereby barter away a spiritual birthright for a mess of material pottage? As our character has developed we find ourselves considering our material requirements in providing for the demands made upon us. We then ask our selves about our evolution and the why and wherefore 212 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT of many things that have been woven into our char acter building. As we try to understand the full meaning of Christ's suggestions, as reported to us by His Apos tles that a blade of grass or a flower of the field is not overlooked by God, that every hair of our head is numbered, that a sparrow does not fall without His notice, etc., etc., we conclude that Christ's knowledge of natural law was broader and better understood by Him than it has been, by many students, generally conceded. After many years of study of the various ists and isms (and giving careful thought to the claims made by those who assume to know all about it and are too ready to hurl their know-it-all anathema's upon the heads of their nervous and sensitive people) we are prone to ask, what is character, what is the sub conscious self, and what is it that gives life to each one of us and through it gives us the opportunity to develop a soul? When in the company of those who are seeking information about the spiritual side of nature, you will hear, in their conversation with each other, the phrase "the subconscious self" used as a common ex pression of their thought world. This led us to give WHAT IS CHARACTER . 213 a special study to learn the reason why this sub-con scious self was in common use among the students of occult sciences. In so far as we have found the exact meaning of this phrase we have not been able to find any difference in its meaning from that of soul, character, or spiritual personality. Each and every one of them mean the same identical thing. Will it not help each one of us to find our spiritual personality, our character, our subconscious self, our soul, when we ask you to use your memories and go over your own past experiences as you go with us in our travels in the subconscious or spiritual part of our journeyings? Remember, that as you go with us, as we jump from place to place, that it gives but a small part of what the memory reviews as we travel through space over the intervening places. You now find us meditating over our past and while in that mood of thought we go back to our childhood days and recall how we enjoyed the village band as it played upon the old horse boat that ferried across the lake. How we enjoyed the companionship of Mother as we went from the farm house to the lake shore. How we worked in that country store to become 214 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT acquainted with the conditions that would fit us for a mercantile life. How we enjoyed the Handel and Hayden Chorus in the Music Hall on Winter Street in Boston. Then to hear Mr. and Mrs. Davenport when they intro duced their daughter to the theatrical, profession (then in her teens and later one of the leading ladies of the profession but long ago passed over). How we enjoyed Kopitz orchestra at the Boston Theater. Now leaving a good play at the Museum and walk ing beside Gilmore's Band as it played and marched around the Common to the Providence Depot. How many times, even to this day, and that oc curred over fifty-five years ago, we have enjoyed a good laugh at ourselves for that action. Then over to New York when omnibusses con trolled Broadway and Fulton Ferry was the thor oughfare to Brooklyn. It was at that time that we heard Forest in King Lear at 444 Broadway and studying Nast the favored artist in exposing Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring. Then hearing the various political orators as they yelled liberty and free speech upon the Fourth of WHAT IS CHARACTER ,215 July, which led us to believe that everything English was dishonorable, barbarous and uncivilized. We often thought that the way the speakers twist ed the lion's tail that we could see him sneaking out of sight. Later we learned how we had been de ceived for when we came to know them as they are we found that the English nation takes the lead over all others in educating and helping her people to better know and to govern themselves. These are strong words but anyone who has in vestigated, as well as visited, the leading nations of the world will find that in the civilizing methods used by the English nation, England stands as far superior to all others as the sun stands superior to the moon. Let us be honest with ourselves, gentlemen, and give the credit where the credit is due and hot allow our egotism to run away with our common sense. Now we leave New York for the Opera House in Paris and listen to its fine orchestra. Now in Montreal at the Notre Dame Church wit nessing a marriage ceremony in one aisle while a funeral service is being conducted in another. Now in London attending Irving's production of Faust at the Lyceum Theatre. 216 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Now in Denver, Colorado, at the Tabor Opera House. Now in Berlin at the old fire trap Opera House on Unter den Linden. Now at Sutro's Point, near San Francisco watch ing the seals upon the seal rocks opposite. Now in Appenzell at the foot of Mount Moritz, Switzerland. Now in Salt Lake City listening to that wonderful choir singing from memory its parts without notes. Now in the Louvre Art Gallery in Paris viewing Rubin's wonderful work. Now in the Metropolitan Art Museum viewing the Horse Fair and the Storm. Now at the National Gallery in London witnessing that Painting of the Misers, Painted in 1492. Now walking down the Strand in London to Char ing Cross Station for the Continent. Now on the train through the Royal Gorge to the Marshall Pass and to Glenwood Springs in Colorado. Now in Westminster Abbey in London and over to St. Paul's. Now at Lake Harriett and out to Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis. Now at the Seven Dials in London where Dickens WHAT IS CHARACTER 217 found some of his characters. Now in the old mud brick Church in New Mexico where you find a bell sent to that Church by Queen Elizabeth of Spain. Now in London on the way to Leicester Square to view the monument erected in honor of Shakespeare upon which is chiseled the words, "There is no dark ness but ignorance," noticing on the way the Irving statue erected in memory of him and his works, and apparently only yesterday we saw him in the play of Faust at the Lyceum Theatre, in this same city. Now in the Field Museum in Chicago and out to Lincoln Park before the Lincoln statue. Now among the lakes and mountains of Switzer land. Now back in the museum in Washington. Then to Niagara Falls, studying the explosive force of the air, when exploding the water is carried higher than the Falls. Every step upon that journey was made through that unseen and intangible substance called Air. It is the fundamental principal of all life and without it these lines could not have been written. That trip, by the subconscious self, covered thous ands upon thousands of miles and many more thous- 218 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ands of miles not mentioned that passed through our memories on that journey, and all of this quicker than it has taken our time to write these words. Who is it that is beside us to jog our memory about that horse boat and the village band long ago for gotten, as well as to help us in reviewing this evolu tionary process of a life that exceeds over seventy- five years ? What is it that gives to anyone the opportunity to transfer these conditions in life and to place them in any person's individuality? As we consider these various processes of evolution we are driven back to the fact that without the air, Crude Spirit, no thought can exist. That this natural element, in crude condition, is the foundation for that intangible result called Character or Soul which represents the development of every indi vidual. It is natural, for us, to see the Air, Crude Spirit, working in and through the material body creating a living and acting spiritual personality that is and will be the exact counterpart of our experiences in our material bodies but an entity independent of the material body. This air is transferred into Character or Soul as it is used through the lungs and this Char- WHAT IS CHARACTER 219 acter or Soul is a spiritual essence of the Air that can not be handled with material hands nor can it be seen with the material eye. To doubt the value of this invisible factor in our daily living is to nullify the action of thought. To nullify the action of thought one must destroy the air we breathe for air is the fundamental principal of every formation of thought. After we had closed this chapter the stenographer asked us why we jumped from extreme points in giv ing this illustration. Answer: That every one may see that the subconscious self is a living spiritual per sonality that can annihilate space and transfer itself to any distance without losing a moment of time. That this spiritual personality, this subconscious self, is an independent body of which the memory is the active guide force that separates it at the will of the thinker from the material body but while it acts in dependently of that body it is dependent upon the material body for its character or soul development. 220 QUESTIONS. Alfred Russell Wallace, through his suggestions about the spiritual side of nature, preceded Darwin's work upon the evolution of material matter as it finally developed in mankind, although Wallace's suggestions were unknown to Darwin. We believe, but do not know, that it was the suggestions made by Wallace of spirit' in all matter, and the work of Darwin upon the evolution of material matter, that laid the foundation for those grand lectures by Henry Drummond upon the evolution of the material world as well as his ascent of man. As we read the record, as given in Genesis about the evolution of our little Planet, God formed its de velopment in six days. That statement has been in terpreted as meaning six days of twenty-four hours each. Not only has been but it is so interpreted to day by millions of people. Are we to translate such statements literally and say that this process of development was carried out in six days of twenty-four hours each? Or that each of those days covered thousands of years, in fact, QUESTIONS 221 thousands upon thousands of years were used as this world gradually, developed. Are we to be hand and tongue tied by some fan atical idea about ourselves as well as our God who we know has been by our side and protected us con tinually? Are we to follow this or that particular hobby and not try to find the reason for the things that we know exist about us? Are the studies of Astronomy and Geology, as well as the more important subject, The Human Animal, to be ignored and the only things of importance to us shall be our selfishness and our Pin Head Planet? Shall everything about us be as we conclude to make it? Or shall we consider that the records we have and the interpretations handed down to us were given by men who were interested in helping their people to find themselves? Shall the records of ages behind us be considered as of no value in this school of life and shall the uni verse of space bow to our ignorance as the dominant power in our civilization? Shall we use common sense to learn about our world as well as about ourselves, or shall we follow some fanatical ideas advanced by others? 222 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT It is to be regretted that no written word has come to us from Christ and that everything we can learn about His teachings and wonderful life has been given to us by those who were his daily companions. May it not be true that the various statements made in the Bible about the end of the world, refer to the end of a dispensation or to some change in the development of our civilization at certain times and under certain circumstances? That these various references to the end of the world may be mixed with a reference to the end of our natural lives in this material world, which would mean the end of this world so far as it applies to every human being? There are many questions that one can ask about the authenticity of the various translations that have come down to us as to whether the words used con vey the proper meaning to our minds. May it not be true that many obscure suggestions would prove to be very simple and give us a better knowledge of the thought, that was really intended, if we would place everyday words into the thought expressed and thereby have a better view of what was intended for us to understand? May it not be true that the faulty conditions of translating the words through the biased thought of QUESTIONS 223 the translator may have left a thought for us to sift that was never intended ? Our Bible is full of many obscure suggestions which are very easily comprehended if we will use ordinary common sense to bring their real meaning to our minds. For instance, the translation given to us about "Many are called but few are chosen." This is confusing in our English language for it does not convey the right thought to our minds. When you use the word "choice" to take the place of the word "chosen," then you have a simple distinction that carries the right thought to one's mind, for it would then read, "Many are called but few are choice." That a New Heaven and a New Earth may mean that, as the people become better known to and for themselves, they will see that it is but the ordinary steps of development or evolution from this world to the next. That their supposed death is but a birth from this womb of nature into another womb of nature the same, and in as natural a way, as our coming here. May it all not be a New Heaven and a New Earth when the people fully understand these great truths of nature? And that this better and broader view of 224 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT life may be the new conditions that would mean a New Heaven and a New Earth? Why forget the lessons taught us in our child hood and allow our material desires to dominate and thereby develop characteristics that place us before the world as acquaintances, but not companions ? Are we using good judgment in selecting the thoughts of accumulating material things, which only satisfy our pride, when the things accumulated, except our character and the memory of our acts that formed our personality, must be left behind us? In our study of life how often that thought, ad vanced two thousand years ago, comes to our mind, "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul." Think it over. It may be that the reader has read these questions with an indifferent or critical thought as to their value and significance in our development. If so, read them over again ; yes, many times, for when fully comprehended they open the door into the next roorn where one begins to find the value of true living. 225 \ WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD? The writer, while studying the various religions in this world of ours, has met leading mystics and eccle siastical Divines of every ist, ism and science. Through that experience we have formed opinions that to us are as solid as the Rock of -Gibraltar, but very hard to place the thought in words that will properly convey their meaning. It was while walking with a musical professor, a fine musician, who had been an organist in several churches of the various creeds, and while discussing the Evolution of Spirit, he abruptly put the question of "What is your opinion of God?" A question of this kind is so unusual that when placed suddenly before us for consideration one feels like avoiding it, but it is a question in the mind of everyone, and it is too often left in the misty condi tions of a too serious and too sacred a matter for human beings to talk about. However sacred it may be, it is one of vital importance in leading us to look to the fountain head for our present existence. Everyone has his or her own opinion about God 226 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT which every other one would like to know. As we try to answer the question placed so abrupt ly before us we wish to give a few extracts 'from a lecture given by the Rev. J. T. Sunderland upon a kindred subject of "Was Jesus God," "and how did He come to be worshipped as God?" In making selections from this lecture we wish to compliment the author . for his clear and concise methods of expressing his thought. It has so inter ested us that we have not made the proper quotation marks and have not the copy to make the corrections. It is because he has given our thoughts, upon that subject, in better wording than we can express that we are under obligations to him for the selections here incorporated. "The impression seems to be quite common that to regard Jesus as not God, but as a Man, is to degrade and dishonor Him. On the contrary it is to lift Him into truer and really greater honor. * * * "Jesus born as a Babe, and in a few years dying; during His boyhood growing in knowledge as you and I do; after He was a Man sometimes disap pointed; trying to accomplish ends and again and again failing because of opposition. ***** "Jesus as a Man commands the honor and homage WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 227 of all the world. None can look upon Him without feeling the beauty, the greatness, the essential divine- ness of His life. ***** Not only do we most honor Jesus by accepting Him as just what He claimed to be, a Brother Man to all of us, but we bring Him closer to our humanity and make Him far more helpful to us all as an example, as a guide, as an inspirer in life, than He can possibly be when thought of as a deity. ***** But as a Man who has been tempted as we are, who has suffered as we suffer, and yet who has overcome and out of it air has risen up into purity and peace, such a Man can be an example and an inspiration to all men. "If we could only strip ourselves of our conven tional habits of thought and the influence of early education, we should require but a very short time to find ourselves. "Familiarity with an idea has great power to blind us to its strangeness, its absurdity, its inherent in credibility. Many an idea which, could it come to our minds freshly and for the first time, would be considered as unworthy of consideration, it may be carried in a mind which has become familiar with it from childhood without a perception of its irrational and essentially absurd character. * * * Go back to 228 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT the days of the old Roman Empire and you find the people declaring their Emperors to be God's and wor shipping them. What do you do? You turn away pronouncing it superstition and folly. "Go among the various peoples of Central and Eastern Asia where Buddhism prevails and you find men today worshipping Buddha as God just as ortho dox Christians worship Jesus. "Go among the Brahmans of India and they will tell you that God has been incarnate in the world but it was in their Hindu Krishna. "Go to Thibet and there you will be told that every one of their Grand Llamas is a special incarnation of God. "Do you believe these people? Certainly not. Yet they all present to you what seems to them strong evidence for what they affirm. To you it seems no evidence at all. "Now turn round and present to them your reasons for your belief that Jesus was God and it will seem to them no evidence at all, yet you accept it. What is the explanation? This: each has been educated from childhood into his own belief and so does not see the absurdity of it. But when he comes to see the same thing in a different dress, and under other WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 229 circumstances, its unreasonableness at once comes to VI cw "Look at it how we will, the idea that the infinite, eternal, and all-wise God has at some time come to our world and assumed a special human body in the person of the great Teacher of Nazareth or of any other human being, for the purpose of saving the race from some supposed perdition, need only to be can didly and fairly looked at to find that it is unreason able. It is one of those things which would not be believed by any intelligent person except for the fact that people were taught it when they were children, too young to perceive how utterly irrational it is. "Legends have grown up around great men of the past, especially religious teachers, such as Buddha. Buddha was born of a virgin; so was Fo-hi, the ancient founder of the Chinese Paradise. Zoroaster was miraculously conceived. Romulus, the founder of Rome, was a son of the God Mars. Alexander the Great had a human mother, but his father was the God Jupiter. Caesar was called the son of the Goddess Venus. There is nothing strange, therefore, that similar legends of a miraculous birth should attach themselves to Jesus. Can any one fail to see that such stories no more prove the deity of 230 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Jesus than they do of Caesar, Alexander, Zoroaster or Buddha? Especially is there a tendency to asso ciate the miraculous with the birth of these historic leaders. The narratives of the life of Jesus that we possess are four in number — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Of these the first three, called the synoptic Gospels, are regarded as more authentic than the fourth. Indeed, a large number of scholars have doubts as to whether the fourth Gospel came from John or any disciple; many go as far as to af firm that the evidence is that it did not. "Jesus in the first three never says that He is God; but over and over again says, what is equivalent to the declaration, that He is not God. ***** "The declarations from Jesus that He was not God are numerous in all four of the Gospels. Among them such passages as these: 'My Father is greater than I,' T can of mine own self do nothing,' 'The words which I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me he doeth the works,' 'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me,' 'Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father,' Why callest thou me good? there is WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 231 none good but one, that is God,' 'I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' Jesus constantly prays to another as God and teaches His disciples to pray to that other and not to himself.. Nowhere does He teach or intimate that He is a being to whom any one is to pray — now or in any coming time. Jesus always mingles with men as Himself a Man. He suffers as others suffer. He weeps as others weep. He is disappointed as others are dis appointed. When on the cross He exclaims in agony 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' If the synoptic gospels are true He did not claim to be God. Nor do the gospels make such a claim for Him. Everywhere He is portrayed as a Man, a Brother of all other men and a Child of the infinite Father as all other men are. * * * Nothing in the writings of the Apostles has more light to throw upon the deity of Jesus than the Epistle of James. James, the writer of this Epistle, was probably the brother of Jesus, son of the same parents, brought up in the same home; surely he knew if Jesus was God. But read that Epistle and you will not find the slightest intim ation of any such thing. Do you think he would fill his Epistle full of other things, and not mention or hint the fact of most importance in the history of the 232 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT world ? "Turn to the histories of that age, what do we find? Those Roman writers — Tacitus, Pliny the y©unger and Suetonius — mention Jesus and that He origin ated the Christian movement, but that is all. "The ideas of God's incarnating themselves in human forms and of men becoming Gods, are not new ideas in the world. The Oriental world, from the earliest times, has been full of such ideas. There was hardly one of the Oriental nations existing at the time of Jesus but had its legends and popular beliefs of one or more of the Gods coming down and assum ing the form of a man and dwelling on earth. "Rawlinson, in his Herodotus, tells us that the Egyptians believed that their God Osiris had incar nated himself in human form and dwelt among them. "Brahmanism is full of the incarnation idea. Vishnu is believed to have been incarnated nine times. "In the Greek and Roman world, in the midst of which Christianity had its birth, we find the same thought everywhere. "The incarnation idea was not something unknown * * * on the contrary, it was a common idea, enter tained among many peoples and in many forms. It was familiar, at the time of the rise of Christianity, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 233 to everybody in the Roman world. What could be more natural, in such an age and as the real human Jesus faded into the background, than that he, too, was an incarnation of God? "All religious doctrines' are, more or less, the out growth of their age. What doctrine could have been more perfectly the child of the age, in which Chris tianity had its origin, than this doctrine that Jesus was God? Such a doctrine once formulated and in corporated into the creeds of the church would hold its place against no matter how much new light." In the Eastern world they do not place any one as the supreme being, but recognize everyone who has tried to help his brother-man to better understand himself, as a teacher and leader among them. While Zoroaster and Buddha are recognized as their greatest leaders in their religious thought world, still there were others who gave their thought to the development of the ideal spiritual part of their nature. To make our position more clear we use the thought of one of their professors from India, as ex pressed to us some twenty years ago. "We believe in no one God but in many. Any one who devotes his time in improving himself and to help others is 234 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT one of our leaders and teachers. Thousands of them have given their lives and have done the best they could to make conditions better, who are unknown to us, but who will be recognized as leaders there the same as they were here. To locate anyone of them would be like selecting a picture from the thousands that have lived here and left the imprint of their per sonality behind them. Your people place all of these different teachers as in one person and call him God." This thought, as suggested by that professor from India, started the wheels of the thought factory in motion. With that before us, let us enter any large building with a dome, say, St. Pauls in London or the Capitol building in Washington, and, going to the center, look up and see the pictures of thousands upon thousands of persons, none larger than a ten cent piece, who have lived and have given their thoughts and energies to help mankind. Here and there in that collection you will find one whose pic ture is larger and takes a more prominent position and occupies the space of dozens or hundreds of the others around him. It is among these more prominent that you find Zoroaster., Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Loatsze, Con fucious, Aristotle, Luther, Swedenborg, Paracelsus, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 235 Shakespeare, Wesley, Huxley, Emerson, Carlyle, Victor Hugo, Spencer, Alfred Russell Wallace, Dar win, Drummond, and thousands unnamed, but as prominent in their time, all standing out clearly and overshadowing their contemporaries as the great thought leaders of the world. As your eye passes from one to the other you come to one in the center and see Jesus placed as the prominent leader of them all. This causes one to study and see why it is that His simple, plain honesty was the foundation for giving Him the position as the greatest Mystic and Teacher of the Evolution of Spirit even over others before or since His time that the world has ever known. It is through His example that the path is made clearer to find that in the evolution of the human race God is an evolutionary development of a spiritual per sonality and this through the same laws that are the making of our environment. These laws are the same that have lifted mankind up from brutal igno rance to civilized and thoughtful human beings. May it not be possible that each planet has de veloped through its own evolutionary processes its own God? That, as planet after planet has been formed, its highest and best spiritual thought sugges- 236 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT tions have extended from planet to planet and help to shape the thought world of the spiritual person alities which develop the Gods belonging to each planet. That these spiritual personalities about us are today our spiritual guides to help us find the real meaning of life and immortality? Is not God, living as the Supreme Spiritual Per sonality, the one who has lived upon our own earth and through the higher ideals of spiritual living is now recognized as one of the leading spiritual per sonalities in the spiritual world ? The one who in the spirit has guided over and protected our lives, and has partly lifted the veil of ignorance from our minds so that we can see ourselves as children grouping in the dark to find the truth that is within our reach if only a little more light is given to help us in our efforts to find that truth? The important question for each and every one of us is — Where are we seeking for the truth? Is it in some low condition of material selfishness or through study and meditation learning to connect our spirit ual wires with the wires belonging to those unseen spiritual personalities that run beside our own and are always about us ? When we have a better knowledge of spiritual WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ABOUT GOD 237 matter so we will have a better understanding of the wonderful powers within our own individuality. We were born into this world in a natural way and we will be born into the spiritual world, with all of our experiences added thereto, in the same natural way. In other words, God is to us any one in the spirit ual world who has been our protector and guide. The teacher who has taught us our responsibility to our selves for ourselves, who has opened the thought world of intuition so that we can see the results of natural law in our evoluton from crude spirit to a spiritual personality. Not only a guide but the com panion who has been with us and by our side when we have played the truant and sidetracked our high est ideals for the material benefits that would satisfy our selfish desires and overlooking our faults has ever remained by us to see us through the quagmires of our selfishness until a clearer view of ourselves leads us to see it all as but lessons in this school of life that will make us understand who, what and where we are in this evolutionary process. 238 BELIEF. Here is a double-track railroad from New York to Boston. .You wish to go to New York and you take the train that you believe is going to New York. You enter the car, are nicely seated (perhaps the seats are in a drawing-room car and they are doubly cushioned) when the conductor comes through for your ticket. You hand it to him and he, looking at you as well as at the ticket, says — Why, man, this ticket reads for New York and you are on the train for Boston. Then you wake up to find that your belief did not change the running of those trains and that you are obliged to comply with the ordinary conditions upon which the trains run in order to reach New York. We only deceive ourselves through our supposed know-it-all environments when we allow ourselves to believe that we can change any natural law that per tains to our development. Nor will our belief change the results that always follow when we allow our sel fishness to become the dominant factor in our lives. Again we only deceive ourselves when we allow BELIEF 239 ourselves to believe that in following this particular ist or that particular ism. This particular science or that particular religious hobby, this particular church or that particular formality will change or modify our responsibility for ourselves as we develop a personal ity through our character building. We may follow the noise-making Revivalist when we walk his particular "sawdust trail" and believe that we are saved and in the place of the selected few but the A. B. C. lessons are soon learned and we find that our belief did not change our relations to, with or for our brother-man. That the principles of co operation hold us as firmly to and for our responsibil ities to and for others as they did before we walked the "sawdust trail" under the influence of our earnest Revivalist. Do not for one moment believe that we desire to leave an impression upon the mind of any one that we would discourage any Revivalist in his efforts to help us find ourselves for without the revivalists to shake the foundations of our character building some people would never think. Even with their earnest efforts to make simple truths understood there remains the greater number who sleep on in their selfish egotism. Let us be thankful that we have some fanatics who 240 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT will be revivalists, for they do a greater amount of good than they receive credit for. A pronounced idea or belief of what is supposed to be truth is very hard to eradicate. What we learn from our parents and teachers we are prone to place as perfection. As we grow older we learn that what we supposed was a truth, is a myth. The severest lessons we have to learn are those we have to un learn. To plant truth in the place of supposed truth. This is simply the development from ignorance to the better condition of knowing ourselves. Those who are interested in the study of natural laws, of environment and the conditions that bring about that environment, are continually surprised at the ignorance of the people about these spiritual laws. It is all the more surprising when one knows how vital those laws are in the evolution of ourselves. You read the notice of a lecture to be given for the benefit of the people. This naturally interests one of the people and we go to hear the lecturer. What can surprise one more than to hear the lecturer say that Mrs. Eddy discovered the spiritual laws of our nature when those laws were known in this world for cen turies before Christ was born? Not only known but many tried to live up to their requirements and this BELIEF 241 before prayer books or keys to the scriptures were ever thought of. Upon the same day we go to hear another lecturer for the benefit of the people and find that his subject is a general one, but he specially dwells upon the com ing to an end of this material world of ours and prides himself upon his ability to criticize the evolutionists and higher critics who have been trying to find the truth about the Bible, about ourselves and about im mortality. Kindly remember that any statement made by an egotistical fanatic about any. belief or creed promul gated by any one never changed the action of natural law. Fanaticism is very popular in the religious world. It is also popular with those who are accumulating material things when showing off their special hob bies and woe unto him or her who stands in the way of that selfish juggernaut. It was a favorite expression of Shakespeare that "there is no darkness but ignorance." And Robert Ingersoll, a great admirer of Shakespeare, changed the wording of that thought when delivering one of his addresses by saying "If you will write the word ignorance over your door you will find that it covers 242 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT everything, even to so-called sin." The surprising thing about this is that when you carefully analyze this word and apply that analysis to any condition about us, you will find that igno rance covers every complaining, thought of the human family. Where was that spark of life in its crude condition that added life to our bones, muscles and flesh when we came into this world? Where and who is it that has been with and beside us in our development since that moment when we came here as a bundle of mate rial matter? Where and who is it now that is so im portant to each one of us in helping to mold and shape our character for all time? What about our selves when that character has developed a personal ity that is known and understood by every one? How any one can question his own development, or evolution, from his baby days up to where he is today and not see his own spiritual personality, his own immortal self as a growing and developing part of nature, is unthinkable. One feels like treating such people as infants who have never had a serious thought about life or what it means to each one of us. Immortality is as simple to understand as our being BELIEF 243 here today. When anyone questions it or looks upon it as a doubtful question, it is like asking yourself if you are alive, and then proceed to the pinching pro cess to learn if your nervous system will respond to that pinch. When you meet one who is carried away with his imaginary thought with no foundation in nature for his reasonings, then look for egotism in its crudest conditions or for a mind that is so far out of gear that it requires a mental nurse bottle filled with common sense to nurse and restore it into, a reasoning con dition. 244 WHAT CHURCH DO YOU BELONG TO? In discussing the various conditions of spirit and the evolution of crude spirit the question of what church do you belong to is always asked as though that would signify one's mental ideals. If evaded it places one at the mercy of the questioner. Generally that question is asked by one who cannot see any other organization or society than the one he or she is connected with and so set and orthodox in his or her views that one is up against a stone wall when he tries to explain the thoughts that have been woven into his character. When the Professor asked that question it came from a mind that was mentally digesting thought, one that was ready to receive as well as to give. Our answer followed promptly that we belonged to every church in the world. Naturally he asked for an explanation. In answer ing your question, Professor, we believe that you will better understand our position if we refer to an article written by us in 1882. It had been our good fortune WHAT CHURCH DO YOU BELONG TO 245 to be connected with business matters that caused us to travel in different countries. In our travels we also made a special study of the various religious sects and what the various sermonizers gave to their people as thought food for the mind to digest. After listening to a prominent Evangelizer in Brooklyn, New York, we wrote the article "Reason and the Pulpit" or "The Pulpit From the Pew," which, in part, reads as follows: Reason is the result of thought and consideration forming just grounds for conclusions. The faculty or capacity for the human mind to give a reasonable account or explanation. To carry on a process of de duction in order to convince or confute. The higher as distinguished from the lower faculties as sense, imagination, judgment, perception, memory and in tuition in contrast to the feelings and desires. The Pulpit, a term generally used for ministers, clergymen or priests. Those who serve at the altar or perform sacerdotal duties, who are or should be teachers in moral and spiritual things. The various methods which have been adopted by the pulpit to interest and instruct their people in the Bible and the historical events connected with it con stitute many of the greatest evils of the present day. 246 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT The man age, or man power, as it is displayed in the pulpit at the present time, giving to the world its own opinions as infallible and leading wheresoever any will follow, is fully exemplified in all quarters of the globe. Instead of the large multitude of preach ers of today trying to pick up the threads of spiritual truths left by earnest men, you will find those with little knowledge of the world trying to lead their people as original thinkers and magnifying their indi vidual light as being the most brilliant and astound ing. The unlimited power at the mercy of the pulpit is controlled by some of the best and wisest of men, but it is also under the control of the inexperienced and ignorant. The abuse of that power causes a great injury to religious truths which they wish to advance. Many of their number introduce subjects entirely beyond their comprehension and serve them up in such a manner as to leave a false impression upon the minds of their hearers. There are those who have been years in the pulpit who have continually preached at, but never taught the people. They use words put together in a con glomerated style with no idea of information or in- WHAT CHURCH DO YOU BELONG TO 247 struction to follow. The importance attached to their words is greatly magnified on account of the position they hold and those who are anxiously seeking for knowledge are led to a confusion of thought by their general style of "mixing things" and if the same language was used outside of the pulpit it would not be noticed or if noticed, only to be ridiculed. It is this indiscriminate use of words put together and called a sermon that is the cause of many turning from their uncertain and questioning state of mind to that of a doubter and then on to an unbeliever. The thoughtful minded, those who have reasoned with themselves and go to church because they formed that habit in earlier years, will go from church or lecture room paying little or no attention to the foolish words that have been used. But how is it with the one or hundreds present at that same service who ignorantly and wilfully place the wheat and chaff in the same pile and do not try to separate them? If they discover any reason to question the remarks made, as compared with what the same speaker has said before, or others of the same sect or denomination, then they question and doubt and in stead of studying and searching for themselves they listen to others who, by their boldness and assump- 248 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT tion, leave an impression of their great importance. Generally these preachers deal with their subjects with more or less sophistry and try to convince the listener that they know it all, but their ideas of truth are buried so deep in confusion that one is left com pletely bewildered. You hear men of all ages and nationalities denying the existence of God. Some will admit that there may be a supreme force or being, but will deny the truths of the Bible even as an ordinary historical work in which any confidence can be placed, giving for their reason that the various accounts of the sup posed miracles are preposterous and they look upon the whole subject with contempt, or pretend to do so. It is a simple matter to believe in nothing and to make more or less noise about it, but it is not so simple to understand what we see and know exists around us. If it is beyond our power and we are un able to comprehend the mysteries of things we see about us, what manner of man must he be who would question and doubt the unseen? There are large numbers who doubt everything. The large majority, however, never use their own thought factory but allow any one who is able to make the most noise to lead them. WHAT CHURCH DO YOU BELONG TO 249 Those who act as guides on the road of doubt and spiritual ignorance should be met with truth and knowledge. Have your reasons for the position you take and be ready to place them in a simple manner before the people and you will see the ranks of doubters, recruited from the stubble of ignorance, diminish like dew before the morning sun. In' our efforts to find a reason of why it is that so little respect is shown by church members and the church-going public for spiritual truths, we do not propose to build an imaginary wall for the simple purpose of battering it down or to attack some imag inary enemy outside or beyond the influence or con trol of man but affirm, what we believe to be a truth, that two-thirds of all this trouble is due to the pulpit. We know that we are dealing with an all-important and serious subject, one that every true man and woman should have at heart and not speak about in any light or foolish manner. We know we have not studied the world as this or that one may have done or looked through the same telescope or pair of specs to find a reason for the indifference of the church-going public. Neither would it be expected after meeting with free thinkers, evolutionists, spiritualists, scientists, Buddhists, the 250 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT so-called Atheists, infidels, unbelievers and an end less number of those "who know all about it," listened to bishops, clergymen, ministers and priests of every denomination, that the same conclusion would be arrived at. As to the reasons given by those who believe in nothing, little need be said. In trying to destroy the work which has taken ages to evolve, their great object is to make you believe that it is worthless. From doubting questions and their own affirmations they weave a net work of words into arguments that lead in any and every direction. A few of the critics are bold, satirical and bitter. They make doubters. If the doubters they make are thinkers, then they have done a noble work for the thinkers will evolve the truth from their chaotic ideas but, unfortunately, they lead large numbers who never read or reason for themselves. The majority of those who question the Bible never read it. They may have in the past skimmed it over, but their minds have been so saturated with ists and isms that when asked if they have made up their minds after careful consideration of its con tents they indifferently inform you that they never study the Bible and would not waste their time over WHAT CHURCH DO YOU BELONG TO 251 any such books. Where now do we find the pulpit that should stand in the front rank to teach and guide the. people? Un fortunately they fail to interest their own people who go here for one service and there for another anxious to hear some other clergyman for one or both ser vices. In most cases, whichever church they attend they regret that they did not go to some other. Sermons are not remembered over night unless it is one of those in which everything is denounced that does not meet the approval of the speaker. Some of their number condemn simple amusement with a merciless hand as though the foundation of the christian religion was in danger if a person smiled in any other way than that prescribed by their creed or doctrinal instructions. Here is a minister who would not allow dancing, no matter when or where. Another condemns games in any form and says "checkers, chess, back-gammon and croquet are sinful under any and all circum stances." Say theater and it is like holding a red flag before a mad bull. They go raving at you with an endless array of words that are strong enough to frighten one out of his wits. Do they use reason when they try to hold their 252 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT people in dogmatical straight jackets and prescribe certain fixed rules which must be carried out in such and such a rut as requisite for church membership and when that formula is complied with, acknowl edge their people as christians ? Those who occupy the pulpit are supposed to be men of noble and thoughtful minds. They are ex pected to lead consistent lives and above all to teach their people the grand maxim of "moderation in all things." To govern their actions by the higher as distinguished from the lower faculties, but in these matters they act as though they never heard of such a maxim. Ask them why they should not allow dancing and they will talk about everything in connection with, or foreign to, the subject, but you can sum up the whole argument in one expression — "we never dance and can see no good in it" There are many who would have become active and zealous members of the christian denominations if their young lives had not been frozen up by these nonsensical ideas. 253 EVERY-DAY AMUSEMENTS. What can take the place of many of the simple games which can be used for amusement and diver sion when your friends call to see you? But what can be more disagreeable and unpleasant than to see any of them carried to excess or when any of those friends submit to such an earnestness that they go beyond the bounds of prudence and good taste and dictate to, or find fault with, other members of the company. Under such circumstances it does, and should, receive the censure of every one who would teach others to respect themselves. It is the abuse of that which is for our good that is the cause for all of the evils in life. Here is where the whole truth lies and the work of the pulpit should be to teach the people how to make a distinction between moderation and excess for it is these different conditions that educate the people and not gratify any personal whim or preju dice by indulging in any wholesale denunciation. As to the theaters, they are railed about and abused 254 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT beyond measure. No distinction is made between a respectable place of amusement and an immoralone but all are blindly condemned. It is a question with progressive students whether the theater is not more valuable in educating mankind than the pulpit. There you have placed before you a speaking picture, giving scenes and characters that represent people as you find them in every day life. On the one hand, those who are leading honorable lives and trying to merit the respect of their associates; on the other, the dishonest, trying to build themselves up by pull ing the honest down. If those who attend places of amusement will apply what is there portrayed to themselves and their own acts in life it cannot fail in being beneficial to them, while the thousands who go for pleasure see virtue rewarded and dishonesty stamped with dis grace. Visit a place of amusement and see the selfishness of man portrayed. How he never stops at anything Which will bring him gain. Gold (his great object), he will not hesitate in sacrificing a friend if it will add a few dollars to his already great wealth. Inquisitive and impertinent to the last degree, you will find him loitering around every place where information may EVERY-DAY AMUSEMENTS 255 be had as to how he can make some investment that will give him an extra return. He is ready to help the needy at any time when he can get twice the value in mortgage security and they will give him his rate of interest. All he desires is to have his idle money bring in a return. Apparently he is never anxious about return pay ment; they can feel easy about that and take such time as they require. His ever scheming brain never loses a chance. When the interest is due he is on time to collect it. They are a little delayed with the interest and now he informs them that it is his money and that he wants the use of it. They tell him of their losses which have caused the delay and ask for time. This is the very information he wanted and now, not only the interest, but the principal must be paid. He holds a mortgage upon their home for the money and one or the other he must have. They plead for time as they supposed they would not be pressed for the money. That sounds very well in words but it will not pay the debt. They cannot pay then, so out they must go. In that manner he makes himself the owner of that home. Now a widow and her children are in a sim ilar position. Certainly he will be more human and 256 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT considerate, but no, he is as harsh as ever. He must have the mortgaged property in order to make pay ment to himself. The mortgage was good while they were not embarrassed, but now they must be put out so that he can be the owner. Year after year he is growing more selfish and grasping. Old age finds him in his happiest moods when talking of his investments, his real estate, his bonds, his stocks and his gold. He dies and is buried with all the pomp and glitter of a costly funeral. He was rich and every one must know it. Certainly that is the least that can be done to show the world how disinterested the mourners are in his estate. The funeral now over there com mences a grand grab by all the heirs and some of their own flesh and blood are obliged to use the law to get a small portion from that selfish hoarded pile. What a picture of "man's inhumanity to man." Who can witness it and not receive a lesson from it? Let us visit another place of amusement where the character of the artful and deceiving is portrayed. How the schemer will manage to place the honest worker in such peculiar situations as to make him appear dishonorable. He slanders and misrepresents him, using every means in his power to place him in a EVERY-DAY AMUSEMENTS 257 false position, that his own treachery and baseness may appear as a virtue, and the victim of his ani mosity stands in the light of a deceiver or worse, but in the end you find the honest, hard worker, who has been played upon, steps to the front and gradually you see him coming out of the mist honored and respected. Here is another theater where a large number of people are seeking admission. Let us go in and see what the play can be that interests so many. The play represents one in the prime of life with a noble ambition and full of hope for the future. He is visiting new business friends and wishes to be socia ble and a "hail fellow well met." He takes his first glass of wine and then another. This new experience is exhiliarating and now he is leader of them all. His weak point has been reached and his new friends enjoy the fun as he grows the more foolish.. Now he is completely infatuated with his imaginary pleasure and is well launched upon the sea of full indulgence. His older friends, seeing his business neglected, try to reason with him. His wife begs and pleads with him to stop and save himself and family from degradation. The picture, true to life, you see him fall step by step. His self control gone, he wastes his 258 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT time hanging about places where his passion for drink can be satisfied, while his wife and children are suffering for food and clothing. At last they are starving and making terrible sacrifices to keep body and soul together, while you see him in the degraded condition of a drunken sot, more like a beast than a human being. Life with him ends in a prison cell. What an ending to such a beginning. It makes one shudder as he sees it so plainly before him. How many there are, refined in their tastes and noble in their character, who supposed they were taking one for life who would be an equal, or superior to, themselves and wake up to find that life has been made one horrible nightmare. They never complain and rarely is their position made known to the outside world, for they are always hoping against hope for the future. Go with me to another place of amusement and see how a criminal suffers from his selfishness as repre sented by Irving in "The Bells." Note carefully the different scenes and mental agony as there exempli fied. Look at the audience and study the different sides of human nature, as that play is sure to bring out. Study all to the end. Will you say that no good result will come from such representations because EVERY-DAY AMUSEMENTS 259 given in a theater? Nothing for our brother-man to learn and lead them to a more thoughtful and careful life? In this age of sharp practices and tricky deceptions such examples, and others of like nature, are of untold value as the most thoughtless will receive a lesson from them and instead of being ridiculed or sneered at should be recommended. When a distinction is made as to the place of amusement and the play to be given condemning trash of every description and recommending the various comedies and tragedies which educate the people, then such counsel commands and will receive all due attention. But, says one, how are we to know the difference and make a distinction between the various places of amusement and the plays they pro duce? True, we have read the different works, but we understand that when they are placed on the stage they are materially changed to please the de praved tastes of those who attend such places. Not only that, but, "they say" that the actors and actresses lead most disreputable lives ! Asking such questions and making "they say" statements shows an unwarrantable lack of knowl edge on the part of those who should understand 260 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT themselves better and for those who talk so much about charity to use such language about others who are strangers to them, is anything but Christianity. By your questions you admit that you know noth ing about places of amusement and yet you are a teacher and supposed to know whereof you speak. Do you not consider it unjust and unreasonable to condemn anything you know so little about? Do you add anything to the happiness of man or in any way raise him in the scale of moral and spiritual develop ment by continually referring to, him as a degraded being not fit to associate with? Do you find any such condemnation of poor humanity in the life and example of one we all respect and honor? From His teachings we learn that kindness and loving words will do more to kindle a spark of true wisdom, purity and unselfishness in the minds of others than all the hard words you can find in any lexicon. Christianity does not need white-washing with the reputation of any profession and it would better become us all to try and find the beams which are floating around in our own visionary world instead of denouncing others. Always keep in mind one little truism — "That it is evil to him who evil thinks." EVERY-DAY AMUSEMENTS 261 Everything should be done to place the stage upon a higher level and make it an institution to be hon ored. In the effort to do this, how much better would it be to hear everyone echo the words of the late Ella Wheeler Wilcox when she refers to that profes sion in these noble words: Oh, man, with your wonderful dower, Oh, woman, with your genius and grace, You can teach the whole world with your power If you are but worthy the place. The stage is a force and a factor In moulding the thoughts of the day, If only the heart of the actor Is as high as the theme of the play. No discurse or sermon can reach us Through feeling to reason like you; No author can stir us and teach us With lessons as subtile and true. Your words and your gestures obeying, We weep or rejoice with your part, And the player, behind all his playing, Ought to be as great as his art. 262 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT The genius that shines like a comet Fills only one part of God's plan, If the lesson the world derives from it, Is marred by the life of the man. Be worthy of your work if you love it ; The king should be fit for the crown ; Stand as high as your art, or above it, And make us look up, and not down. But how do we find the pulpit upon this matter? Here and there you meet one who has lived with, and learned a little of, his obligations to others, but, with these rare exceptions, everything is blindly con demned which does not agree with their views. And in the expression of their opinions you would imagine there were several whirlwinds and as many earth quakes taking place around them while the "still small voice" is so completely buried in sound as not to be heard. While the pulpit continues to indulge in such noisy and meaningless harangues, they must expect to hear from friends as well as critics. "We have listened to all the drowsy, idea-less and vapid sermons that we wish to hear." 263 PULPIT METHODS. While we have touched upon a few of the evils that are widespread and by some may be considered the most important, still the greater and by far the most pernicious of all is the promiscuous style of preaching and conducting church services. The church trying to Christianize the world, each one seeking to outdo the other and, instead of work ing together as one united body against the common enemy, you find them trying to build up their own individual church and ignoring the existence of other Christian organizations. Here is a church that will not occupy any other pulpit but that which is set aside for their special use. Neither will it allow any other denomination to enter and worship there. Another will dress its choir in white or black, march them in with every imitation of a street parade, conduct the whole service in the same sham fashion and then march back with due form and 264 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ceremony, while others of the same denomination will conduct their services with such becoming dignity, simplicity and refinement, and using that same kind of a parade, that it not only commands your respect, but your admiration. Some think the services are not complete without an organ and a first-class choir, while others of the same denomination would not have an organ or choir in the church, not even if they knew it was going to scatter the congregation to the four ends of the earth. Here is one that will not affiliate with any other church at the communion table, while others of the same denomination invite every Christian believer, and so on to an endless number of "We do this" or "We don't do that," each one claiming to be the better Christian and continually preaching up this or that organization as the great basis of Christianity and theirs the only church. All supposed to be teachers, all working in one vineyard, all for one master, while most of their time is given to working upon man's creeds, man's societies, man's denominations, man's churches, man's forms and ceremonies and making them of more importance than Christianity. Let an organist favor you with such a quantity of discords in his music and you would march him out PULPIT METHODS 265 of your church in short order. Let us visit some of the more noted and well- known churches in different parts of the country and see what we can learn from the various sermons preached that will educate and prepare us for our daily duties as well as for our spiritual development. It is now Sabbath morning. Upon our arrival at church we find a good, and to appearances, an intelli gent congregation. The minister, a fine looking man, reads the lessons with an accent of grand superiority from which it is but natural that our expectations are placed a little high for the sermon that is to follow and we become a little impatient while waiting for the regular parts of the services to be concluded. At last, the text from which he starts out upon a general tour of inspection going over mountains, then through tunnels, makes a visit to an oil territory and a mining town, is next on railroads and then steamboats. Waters deep and shallow are portrayed with a lively imagination while trees and shrubbery receive the usual touches as if from nature's hand. Then he closes by, trying to make an application of the mental poultice to the conscience of his congre gation. Whether we were to know any more about the 266 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT contents of the Bible or its authors at the end of the service than we did at the beginning is a question that in all probability was not thought of. And if that same minister should find that amount of jargon in print he would wonder who could endure it for forty minutes. As we leave the church we notice a large number of young men hanging around the church doors, leaving hardly room enough upon the sidewalk for the people to move along. Possibly they were wait ing to meet some one who was in the church but the larger number were gazing everyone out of counte nance as they passed by. Unfortunately, this uncouth and vulgar habit of using the church for a waiting or loafing place is not confined to that one church. If you have friends to meet, remember that the home is the place to meet them, not at church doors nor upon the streets. In the evening we attend another church where we find a small congregation and an every-day appearing man in the pulpit. He takes his text from First Timothy, first chapter, part of the nineteenth verse — "Holding faith and a good conscience." From that text he proceeds to give his views of the virtues and evils of the present day, heading his sub- PULPIT METHODS 267 ject, "Sympathy and Sentiment." That our sympathy for others was carrying us to extreme points and running into sentiment, the evil and curse of our time. A man commits some shock ing crime and we are horrified by the various reports given. At the time everyone would have the law enforced and full penalty enacted, but before the trial is completed our sympathy is aroused and he receives but a slight sentence. Not satisfied with that blunder our conscience becomes deadened to the crime committed and we allow ourselves to overlook the past. At first a full penalty would be demanded, yet in a few months we intercede or sign a petition to have him pardoned when the law should take its course. The contemptible state of politics, the character less characters of politicians generally, our suspicions without a cause, thinking everyone dishonest, then going to the other extreme and placing large amounts in the charge of others, finding, when too late, that we did not use ordinary caution or prudence in our management. The lowering of the moral standard among the people, placing no great value upon conduct or char acter in society, all were condemned with an unspar- 268 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT ing hand and with the ring of true, manly, Christian principles. It was a grand lecture. One that should be de livered from every pulpit in the land not only once, but many times. But what was the object of going through the prescribed formula of taking a text? Why refer to any subject that was foreign to the matter he had in view? Why not announce his subject as a lecture upon "The Evils of the Day" or "Sympathy and Sentiment" and then give his views upon the evils ? We arrive at a leading town and at the usual hour visit their representative church. We enter a costly edifice which contains a fine organ and a showy choir. Some of the more noted and superbly dressed arrive just enough late to attract the attention of everyone present. This does not disturb the service in the least as both minister and congregation appear to be quite pleased upon the arrival of such noted persons. The lessons are read by the minister with consider able stage effect. His hands, linen cuffs and the peculiar way he has of hanging on to his words are particularly noticeable. If these faults were unavoid able they would not attract so much attention, but this is evidently a style he has adopted for effect. PULPIT METHODS 269 As the singing is concluded the congregation drop their hymn books into the book racks with such in difference that for a moment one thinks that he is in some armory where a regiment of men are grounding arms. We wonder if that is the only church where that thoughtless act is allowed. After quoting his text the importance and vir tuosity of the man is self-evident. That he is a word manipulator of the first order you must not for one moment question. He is not going to stand up and talk for thirty minutes or more without letting you know that his perspicuity and exegesis are above criticism. He would leave no other impression upon the minds of his congregation than that his ver nacular and teratology are so perfect that he can throw the whole of Webster's dictionary at them in exactly five minutes. He goes into details about how you should live and in what manner you should spend your money. At times his voice is pitched in a very high key and then becoming sympathetic he talks in a fashionable weeping style about sin and this corrupt world, but never, from the beginning to the end of all that talk which he calls a sermon, does he make any connection whatever with the text he has taken nor any portion 270 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT of the Bible that could be connected with it. Like hundreds of others, who take a text to intro duce some other matter that they wish to give their attention to, they touch two or three of the extreme points to make some appearance of a connection with their text, but no process of ordinary reasoning can make them harmonize. Their principal effort is to spin out their words and measure what they have to say that they may not cut too close to aldermanic power, mercantile influences, retired capitalists or political wire pullers who, for the time being, control the church finances. In passing another prominent church we notice a sign that reads "Seek for those things that are above." Here is a suggestion that will cause any thinking person to halt and take notice. When we consider this suggestion, the thought that is prominent in our mind is that here is a minister who is supposed to be a teacher of spiritual matters who has taken his lessons in some old theological school where Heaven is above us and surrounded by imaginary pearly gates with the usual paraphernalia that goes with the illus tration. He certainly has been credited with enough theological training and spiritual zeal to obtain the position as a spiritual guide. Whatever the circum- PULPIT METHODS 271 stances may have been that has placed him as a leader, he is now pointing his people to some future conditions that they should consider as the all-impor tant ideal for them to aim at. This is the same old material that we had to wade through in order to learn that now at this very moment each and everyone of us are in Heaven. This Heaven is of our own making and whether we are here or there we will be just what we have made of ourselves. The understanding of ourselves now opens the door so that we can see into the next room and see "those things that are above" that we are now weaving our thoughts and acts into an indi viduality of our character or soul building. That individuality will be our real selves in that next room. Then we see that "those things that are above" are, in reality, working in and about us every moment of time and that the tomorrow is a part of the ever- present now. What surprises us is to see how a teacher of spirit ual things fails to comprehend his subconscious self, his real spiritual personality, and imagines that when he arrives above he will change his individuality. Here or there we will be our real selves as we have made ourselves. 272 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT In our journey we meet a young man who is of a questioning-and-doubting turn of mind. From his conversation you can see that the foundation for the professed beliefs and views he gives expression to have been formed from false reasoning and contrary statements that he has heard from the pulpit. He has any amount of self-assurance and is very positive in his opinions with which he is bountifully supplied. As we are to travel in the same direction for a short time, it is decided that we shall visit a few churches together. At the usual hour we are in church. When the text is given we note several references that will help us to better understand the subject. The sermon was an exhortation for the members of the congregation to become Christians. The most lively imagination could not find any connecting link between the text and the remarks made.. Our critical freind is ready to argue but we ask him to wait until we have heard others. Again at church and the same text is used. This time as the heading for a moral sermon to young men, but it does not add any further information. Our young friend is enjoying the position and his keen satire is decidedly unpleasant. PULPIT METHODS 273 We try again and find the same text is chosen and the speaker discourses upon the sciences. He touches upon all sides of theology, theogony and theosophy. It is quite evident that he is not acquainted with either subject he is trying to explain and assumes a knowledge he does not possess. If he had given the time to "read up" upon the subject matter of either one of them his thought would have left a better im pression. It was plain that he was mystified and left his congregation in the same state of mind. Once more we try and the same text is selected for a eulogistic sermon for one of the late leaders in his church. We are surprised and mortified while our young friend is so inflated that he can hardly contain himself. His side of the case is not weakened by their reasoning and it is a continual effort to find some excuse for what has been said but we decide to give one more trial. Again the same text and now it is served up to be used as the basis for political exhortation. The speaker suddenly inspired with the thought that he must tell his people how to vote. Using the pulpit for any educational purpose is always in order but why use a text from the Bible? Why not express one's ideas frankly and plainly without introducing 274 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT other matters? We are mortified with the former experiences, but now we are thoroughly disgusted. No amount of common sense reasoning could make any connection between the text and the subject matter. Our friend remarked that perhaps they were seek ing a just ground of conclusion, a reasonable account or explanation or trying to carry on a process of deduction in order to convince or confute. As we do not care to have any arguments upon the noisy expositions that we have listened to we prefer to ignore the experience we have had and to finish our trip alone. Once more we are upon our travels. It is a fine summer morning that finds us at the, usual hour on our way to church. The minister has a very easy, independent manner and reads the lessons with a peculiar affected jerk in his delivery not before met with. In giving out notices for the week he made special remarks about the prayer meeting. It had not been well attended of late and he would impress upon their minds the importance of that meeting. It was as much their duty to be present at that meeting as at either of the Sunday services. If there was to be any PULPIT METHODS 275 party or social event everyone would make an effort to go. This meeting was certainly more important and should not be forgotten. He could understand that there were cases where they had been Provi dentially detained. He had been absent but it was Providential and if their absence could not be avoided it was always excusable, but he hoped they would bear it in mind and make a special effort to be present. Now note his closing remarks — "I would call your attention to the weather this morning. It is rather sultry. I have had a little extra work to do this week and I feel tired. No doubt many of you would prefer remaining at home this evening than coming out to church. Taking your feelings into consideration, I will announce that there will be no service this evening." Almost in the same breath he condemns them for neglecting some meeting at which he was present and then neglects his own duty by omitting a regular Sunday service because it was a little warm. Here is enough Christian zeal to satisfy the most obtuse or sleepy pew holder. Once more it is Sabbath morning and we are on our way to church. We join the large company wait ing at the dopr for the hour to arrive when those who 276 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT are not members of that church will be allowed to enter. Everyone is anxious to get to the front and there is considerable crowding and many an angry look because a more favored position cannot be ob tained;, At last we enter one of the most noted churches in the country. Our expectations are raised to the highest point as we are to listen to a man whose name is known the world over and one so noted must be an able teacher and making good use of his talents and influence to instruct the people. We listen to him attentively and go away sadly disap pointed. We go again to learn why "he draws." The secret is soon learned. He totally ignores the solemn posi tion he occupies and does not hesitate to use light jokes to make any point the more prominent or ridiculous and appears the most pleased when he makes some remark that will cause a titter or applause from his audience. Ask some one from that vast company what they have learned from such talking and they look at you as though dumbfounded. Instead of an answer, will ask, "Do you know that he is the smartest speaker in the country?" "His very attitude in the pulpit carries everyone away and he is\put down as PULPIT METHODS 277 the first orator of the day." Is this what is to be expected from the pulpit? Do we go there to hear jokes, titter and admire the vari ous attitudes they may invent to please the eye, not only for one service, but month in and month out? Do you ask why there are' doubters and unbelievers when you hear such an endless amount of trash from one end of the country to the other? Can any man, who tries to use his reasoning faculties, learn any thing regarding the evolution of the human family from such talkers? No! A dozen times no. And to these arrogant, all-wise, self-opinionated pulpit stuffers, whose great aim is to impress upon the minds of their hearers their own personal importance and oratorical powers, you may look for the grave evils of the day. Their texts are only a few words said over to introduce their subject and could as well be taken from the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Moore, Byron or ¦ Dickens as the Bible. Apparently their duty is to talk around everything they are paid to inform the people about. Haggling over unimportant matter in church government, in troducing forms and ceremonies in conducting*their services that are invariably from simplicity to un- 278 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT warrantable display of themselves and by their too much familiarity and assumption have brought with it a certain amount of indifference to the sacredness of their position that borders upon the ridiculous. Some have an unpardonable habit, in their remarks about collections. Condemning those who give small amounts and leave the impression that the church is organized as a money pressing machine to grind out all the collateral they can and never content with what the people are able to give. If the membership of a church were composed of misers, that style should be recommended, but where is the church with such a membership ? It should be remembered that Christians are not misers and a great mistake is made when the pulpit speaks in tones of condemnation because the collection does not satisfy them. The number is larger than is generally supposed who stay away from church because they are not able to put even a five-cent piece upon the collection plate. And, spasmodically, these teachers are great advocates of the missionary cause and wish to see the world brought to a knowledge of the truth — "Consis tency, thou art a jewel." It would be better if such jewels were never PULPIT METHODS 279 allowed in the pulpit the world over for, as teachers, they are dead failures. While the pulpit is filled to overflowing with such men, here and there, like diamonds among huge boulders, you will find one leading the people in a quiet and unpretentious manner, their mode of living and teaching giving them the most exalted positions in the minds of the people. With them you will find earnestness and zeal in speaking the truth to one and all alike. Their whole purpose is to instruct the people and represent the Christian ideals. They commence upon some subject and Sabbath after Sabbath will follow it up to the minutest detail. Every historical faot connected with it is brought forward and explained until their hearers are as well acquainted with the subject before them as their teacher. It is a pleasure to listen to one of these grand exceptions who, by his simplicity and directness in handling his subject, gradually rivets your attention and leads you on to deeper thought. Never studying this or that position to impress his own importance upon your mind, but forgetful of self' with one grand object in view, he conducts you through the many labyrinths of theological puzzles that have been 280 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT raised by foolish and ignorant men and places before you a picture complete in every detail. One that even a child can comprehend and enjoy. After listening to such men one wonders why their numbers are so small. Men study for years to fit themselves for the pulpit. Many of them, in fact, study the various languages in order to better qualify themselves for the important positions they are to fill. But when they obtain that position, ignore what they have given years of study in learning and try to make themselves famous by convincing their hearers of their wonderful oratorical powers or, by their acting, try to convince you that they have the ability to go upon the stage where they would be overrated, if they were allotted the position, of a fourth rate actor. Some may think that our object is to ridicule or place the pulpit in an unenviable position. This is directly opposite to our intention. Education is not confined to the selected few for them to lead others in some blind-folded manner as it has been in ages past. People in all walks of life are now reading and thinking for themselves and will not be led nor frightened by mere noise. The time will come when the pulpit will have to PULPIT METHODS 281 meet and face the growing demand for more knowl edge about our Bible and all Bibles. More of the historic events and circumstances surrounding the evolution of all religious thought and civilization. More about the authors of all the Bibles in the world and their lives, what their position, and where their writings belong, as compared with events recorded by other historians of the same period. Knowledge, not Sentimentalism, is what is de manded. And the earlier those who occupy the various pulpits recognize that the church is a school house for the older people and that they are in their position as teachers and give their time to teaching what they have made a special study of and supposed to have fitted themselves to teach, the better it will be for the pulpit and for the enlightenment of the world. Too many are inclined to give undue importance to theories which are often placed in the world of thought as established facts. The boldness and self- confident manner of the assertions made by the speakers captivate numbers of good and earnest thinkers. Some of such crude matter will in time find its true value. Some of it is good. Much of it is ridiculous and absolutely childish. In our years of study and investigation we long ago 282 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT concluded that it was the abuse of the spiritual powers in the hands of our spiritual leaders who leave an impression of their superior knowledge about spiritual things that has caused a great injury to every church and has dwarfed the importance of plain, simple truth in our spiritual evolution. A few years ago there was introduced a uniform system of international Sunday School lessons. These lessons are now given out months before they are to be used. This gives the teacher and scholars an opportunity to become familiar with the subjects to be studied upon the days that are to follow. In whatever part of the country you may be you know the lessons that are to be considered. Not only have the children become more interested but the older people have been studying the Bible, as well as other Bibles in the world, and now one of the prominent features of church work is the Adult Bible Class. Those uniform lessons have done more to educate mankind, since they were introduced, than all the sermonizing in the world. As the Pulpit, so the people. Wherever you find a teacher, interested in teaching his people, there you will find the people in terested in the subjects he brings up for consideration. PULPIT METHODS 283 Let your teacher announce that he will give several lectures upon a certain subject and you will find the whole congregation interested and telling others about what is taking place "at our church." At each meeting an increase of numbers is observed and when the closing lectures are delivered there is not suffi cient room to accommodate the throng. After the lectures are over and he returns to the usual style of sermonizing, you find less interest manifested and the congregation again resumes its former apathetic state. The teachers ought to understand from this that the great want of the people is intellectual food and anything in the form of sermon soothing syrup will make a sleepy and indifferent congregation. Let the pulpit work together as one body and correct this insufferable evil, study and open up the spiritual truths that are in our Bible and all Bibles. Study and investigate until you learn that all is life and that death, so-called, is only the regular process of our evolution. Study until you find that there is a spiritual law in this natural world as well as a natural law in the spiritual world and that both blend into one and work in unison to bring clearly to our minds the grand 284 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT truth of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Both being united in every human being which, if intelligently used, will open to our spiritual vision the oneness of life in our duality of being. There are thousands upon thousands who want to learn about these matters who are not reached on account of the pompous spiritual position taken by our teachers. We are all anxious to convert and educate those who are a few hundred miles away, but always for getting those who live about us. Let us commence our missionary work at home where true charity begins. This will help us to better understand the value of helping others who are far from us. Let no one be too hasty to condemn; espe cially about such matters as we are little acquainted with. Let no one magnify any personal hobby or vanity of his own but broaden his vision to the fact that the whole world is our home. That our personal selves are but atoms in its make-up, each atom a neighbor to another atom. That neighbor may be very un pleasant, his conduct and methods of living decidedly disagreeable, but he is here the same as we are, not only by our side, but in distant lands and it is our PULPIT METHODS 285 duty to educate and help everyone as well as our selves that we may all be more equal in our attain ments. None are perfect. All make mistakes. But if we aim to a more perfect manhood, much that is un pleasant, discouraging and inhuman may be so changed that, with patience and kindness, love will take the place of selfishness and pride. With these few1 illustrations of our experience and the conclusions we have accepted, we trust that you can clearly understand our position, Professor, when we say that "we belong to every church in the world." By that we mean that we approve of every and any organization of people, however small, who are trying to find themselves or are trying to help others to make this world a better place to live in. This irrespective of its particular beliefs, the color of its members or in whatever part of this world it may be located. But we thoroughly disapprove of any and every dogmatical leader or teacher who tries to lead the people through his or her special power to guide them or allows his or her egotism to take the place of learning and knowing about ourselves. When one studies the various conditions that are in and about the church, which is the barometer of 286 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT our civilization, see how it has drifted away from the ideals and simple methods of spiritual Christianity and is nearly stranded upon the rocks of material and political desires, he finds that Christianity and Churchianity are as far apart as the north and south poles. Christianity has always been in the front rank for education and spiritual development while Church ianity has always been in the front rank for ignorance and spiritual decay. When our teachers understand this simple fact it will not be "What church do you belong to, nor what is your occupation among men for material success, but what are you doing in this primer class of life in helping humanity to learn and better understand its present opportunities for the whole of life and not confine its thought to the pleasures of the hour. Once more we repeat the thought suggestion and we hope it will be strong enough to sear that thought upon the mind of every human being: That we are molding and weaving characteristics into our lives that will be known and clearly understood by us after we leave our material body as a spiritual personality or soul. That we will be there, just as we have developed in character building and have made PULPIT METHODS 287 ourselves while in our material body. We should not allow our imagination to build visionary air castles about our selfish or evil acts being forgiven or pardoned except by and with the one we have injured or sinned against. The people have been misled in this direction and we hope that a more careful study of natural law will correct this evil tendency upon the part of our teach ers as well as the leaders of the various churches so that they will recognize the fact that every act of ours we are responsible for and for that act we must answer. This irrespective of the spiritual authority claimed by any church or person. Everything has developed in a natural and orderly manner and we have no right to claim that a super natural power is about us when everything is under the control and influence of natural law in both the material and spiritual world. Our imagination is at work when we overlook the direct control and influ ence of spiritual personalities and call that influence supernatural. We are as babes when we approach the divine principles that help us in our character making, but we are responsible for the acts as well as for the decisions made that cause the act and we cannot 288 EVOLUTION OP CRUDE SPIRIT transfer that responsibility and place it upon another. It is our individual act and no one but ourselves can answer for it. 289 JOAQUIN MILLER'S LAST MESSAGE. Joaquin Miller's material body through which his character building or spiritual personality or soul was developed is now disintegrating and becoming a part of the material dust that surrounds it. Before he graduated from this A. B. C. class of life the latter part of the year 1916, and knowing that the hour for his graduation was near, he gave to his wife a piece of paper upon which he had been laboriously writing and said: "This is my last message to the world." AT FINAL PARTING. Could I but teach man to believe, Could I but make small men to grow, To break frail spider webs, that weave About their thews and bind them low, Could I but sing one song, and lay grim Doubt? I then could go my way in Tranquil Silence, glad, serene, and satisfied, From off the scene, But, ah, this disbelief, this doubt, The damned spot will not out. 290 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT Wouldst learn to know one little flower, Its perfume, perfect form, and hue? Yea, wouldst thou have one perfect hour Of all the years that come to you? Then grow as God hath planted, grow A lordly oak or a daisy low, As He hath set His garden ; be Just what thou art, or grass, or tree, Thy treasures up in Heaven laid Await thy sure ascending soul, Life after life be not afraid. When one follows the thought suggestions con tained in this poem one is surprised at its. grandeur and lofty7 ideals as well as at the earnestness of the writer in trying to make his brother-men comprehend their present opportunities. When a man can place such thoughts in circulation and he knows that he stands between two worlds and is stepping from one room into another and that he knows he is going through the same door that every human being has passed through, and that each one of us will have to pass through, and that he knows that life is continuous and asks us not to be afraid, JOAQUIN MILLER'S LAST MESSAGE 291 then words are weak things to express one's thought in honor of the man who gave that little poem to the world. It should make each one of us halt and take stock of our treasures so as to know our position. Are we building a character like a lordly oak that will withstand the material whirlwinds of selfish suggestions that are always before us? Or is it a daisy low that is thankful for the compan ionable protection given to it by the Lordly Oak that, through the co-operation of both in the natural posi tion of just what they are, they are selecting their treasurers that will properly furnish that part of the mansion they will have to live in when they move over into their future home? Very earnest suggestions, but when one knows that all material things will be left behind us and that our companions and friends there will be those with like desires and ideals, then it is that in "Taking Stock" we try to find the true value of the life we are now living. Wisdom is the greatest of all gifts to man. It is not for one or many to use in any selfish or narrow- minded form of sect or ism. It is for all humanity alike. We should use our reasoning faculties to compre- 292 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT hend our weaknesses and our responsibility for those weaknesses as well as our responsibility for every thought and act and their influence upon our brother- men Remembering, that "When all external differences have passed away, One element remains intact, The everlasting basis of our common nature, The human soul by which we live." If we knew the name of the author of those four lines we would print his name in the largest type used by the printer. THE END 293 THE SUGGESTED NEW CALENDAR When we look up the history of our calendar and see how it developed up to the meeting of the Council of Ni.caea.and also notice how it has been treated since that time and even down to our day, we ask: Why should every business in the world submit itself to the ignorant egotism that has been forced upon us ? Today we have one month of 31 days, the next 30 days, and February with only 28 days — a condi tion that is annoying to everyone whether he is a banker, a merchant, or an ecclesiastical egotist. In order to bring simple and direct methods into active use, which will not affect locating any feast or festival as it may please anyone to select, we suggest: January, February, March, April and December shall have 31 days; all the rest shall have 30 days, except May, which shall, one year in four, have 31 days. You will notice that the months with 31 days and 294 EVOLUTION OF CRUDE SPIRIT the months with 30 days come together and follow each other in regular order. With this method we will not have a "hop, skip and a jump" idea to contend with. Also notice that Christmas and New Year's will be upon the same days as now in use. This change can be easily adopted and we suggest its acceptance, all over the world, on January 1st, 1922. Anyone interested in the "calendar" we refer them to the Encyclopedia Britannica, nth Edition. HlHH IB. If •v , Iff I