ers of perception have become so enlarged and keen, by reason of an expanded and highly intensified consciousness, that they are enabled to grasp the more comprehensive meaning of things. No doubt Jesus realized very fully the truths he taught. He meant, too, that we should know the truth. And if we would come to a knowledge of the truth that insures freedom we must live in harmony with the truths he taught.

When we have awakened a yearning desire in the soul for liberation from the bondage of matter, and feel the need of more spiritual light and understanding, then, and not until then, will the higher phases of truth be disclosed to us.

Verily,

"Truth, like a torch, the more it's shook it shines."

E. P. SAMBERG.

THE HINDOO SKEPTIC.

I think till I'm weary of thinking,
Said the sad-eyed Hindoo king,
And I see but shadows around me,
Illusion in everything.

How knowest thou aught of God,
Of His favor or His wrath?

Can the little fish tell what the lion thinks,
Or map out the eagle's path?

Can the finite the infinite search?

Did the blind discover the stars?
Is the thought that I think a thought,
Or a throb of a brain in its bars?

For aught that my eye can discern,

Your God is what you think good-
Yourself flashed back from the glass
When the light pours on it in flood.

You preach to me to be just,

And this is his realm you say;
And the good are dying with hunger,
And the bad gorge every day.

You say that he loveth mercy,
And the famine is not yet gone;
That he hateth the shedder of blood,
And he slayeth us every one.

You say that my soul shall live,
That the spirit can never die;
If he was content when I was not,
Why not when I have passed by?

You say I must have a meaning;

So must dung, and its meaning is flowers;

What if our souls are but nature

For lives that are greater than ours?

When the fish swims out of the water,
When the birds soar out of the blue,

Man's thought may transcend man's knowledge,
And your God be no reflex of you.

-Selected.

TO THOSE SEEKING THE HIGHEST GOAL OF AT

TAINMENT.

(Continued from Vol. XI. June number, page 558.)

We have reason to thank God that the laws and methods by which we may obtain his likeness are not a secret hid from mortal perception, but that they have been the vitality of all religions from the beginning of the world to the present time. The Christian religion excels all others in that it contains more of this vital truth than all others.

The term "converted," as used in some of the church organizations, expresses the fact that the individual who experiences the conversion realizes that he has been changed; that the things he once hated he now loves, and that those he once loved he now hates. "Do you love God?" has become almost a cant expression among laymen and clergy, and yet how rarely has the one who asks the question, or he who answers it, any conception of what it is to "love God." If we regard another with a loving veneration, we immediately begin to strive after his attributes. The church so well understands this principle that she uses every means to keep the example of great and good men before the minds of her people. And if we love God the one desire of our life should be to become like him.

Now, the question of what this divine likeness involves, is one that those earnestly seeking the highest attainments should make the study of their lives. In the limit of one short article we can but touch upon the leading characteristics of the Divine Nature, and all time is insufficient to grasp them in their entirety. Two principal attributes are distinctly apparent: if God created all things he must know all things as they really are, and, therefore, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, is the first great attribute toward which we should aspire; and, second, if he created all things, then it is his love that preserves, that strews the flowers of kindness, gentleness, meekness, purity, and all the holier qualities most to be desired by

the human family. Consequently, knowledge and love, in their interrelation and in their relation to nature, must of necessity be the beginning of all effort toward true attainment. As all power in heaven and earth emanate from the Creative Mind, it is evident that the only means by which we may gain real power is through the perfect conformity of our lives to the divine attributes.

They are

Upon arousing to a consciousness of the necessity of a higher life the desire for knowledge is the first step taken by the awakened soul; and with that knowledge comes the need of hands with which to handle and make use of it. These hands are not material, but mental and emotional ones. the activities of a loving devotion. It is by loving that we draw to us, and incorporate within ourselves, the qualities loved. It is by hate that we repel the qualities that we do not want. The plant growing in the ground loves and attracts to itself the qualities of its nature, and it repels all else. We, as trees growing in the garden of God, must love and grow from his qualities; and, consequently, there can be no intermittent devotion: Jesus has charged us to pray always, with all prayer. The mind must be fixed in loving devotion upon God, with the desire ever active within us, first, to know the attributes of his great and glorious nature, and, second, to inspire, draw in and embody within ourselves, those attributes.

Our experience has taught us that this is best accomplished by the following methods: There must be ever present an active desire to know the mind and will of God concerning you personally and concerning the world generally-concerning what you should do, what knowledge you should possess in order that you may take the right direction in the pursuance of the desired ultimates. And in connection with this you must possess the spirit of love, in order that you may draw to yourself and keep always in your atmosphere, and certainly in your mental action, the highest attributes of Divinity of which you are capable of conceiving. You must live in these thoughts and desires; make them the continual quality of all your life and thought. Your duties to your own body and to those around you will inevitably take a portion of your thought, but

this will be confined to the external, reasoning brain, while there is an interior mentality, thought, consciousness, that may be continually occupied with those divine attributes.

Those who are alone in the world can have a room all their own, and they should make it a rule of life never to carry into that room any thoughts, feelings, or desires that do not belong to their efforts toward attainment of the divine attributes.

It

is one of God's laws that every creature has a right to its home, to a place; therefore when you go into your room fill it with your thought and with the inspiration of love and wisdom.

To you who contemplate leaving the world and uniting your lives with ours here, we would say that, before doing so, the above conditions must be thoroughly established in your life, so that the divine attributes become the controlling characteristic of all your nature. You must make up your mind that you are going to live in them, be them, and live for them; but, at the same time, you must remember that the very constituent parts of your bone and flesh are made up of the old perverted order, that this must be eradicated from your system and the body built up of pure and holy thought element.

When you have thus complied with the law of Divinity, the Nature of God, you will then begin to possess the powers of God. It is true that you may conform to certain natural laws and obtain results in so far as you meet their requirements; there would, otherwise, have been no such thing as black magic in the world. But all they who would obtain Godlikeness, Christlikeness, or the highest possible goal of attainment, must clear away all the rubbish of former beliefs, superstitions, desires, passions, and take as a corner stone, as the germ from which the future man or woman is to grow, a spirit of love to God and a knowledge of his attributes, a knowledge of what to love and what to hate. These as a foundation, most carefully guarded, ever watched, and nourished by one's own life currents, will be found perfectly safe and the results absolutely sure.-[ED.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE YEAR.

While it is a fact that the spiritual spark, the divine atom, is the power which animates and gives consciousness to the the physical body, yet, at the same time, we must not lose sight of the truth, that before the spiritual man is fitted to dwell in the realm of true consciousness, he must have not only a com. prehensive understanding of the laws of creation, but of the purpose and ultimate destiny of the human family as well. A knowledge of the laws governing creation must be obtained while the soul inhabits a physical organism; it is, therefore, imperative that the Esoteric student, who truly desires to possess a broader comprehension of truth, familiarize himself with the duties he owes to the external man.

In order that the mind may be capable of expressing the subtle working of infinite law, the brain cells must be arranged in an orderly manner, so that the harmonious blending of the whole make it a fit instrument through which the interior man may express characteristics which are in perfect consonance with creative law. The student can only effect this by beginning at the foundation,-he must so order his life and acts that the external organism may express the harmonious arrange. ment of his thoughts; he must establish methodical thought, must endeavor to think in a precise, and, consequently, in a harmonious manner. He should strive so to arrange his man. ner of thinking, that a well defined purpose underlie his thoughts. His thoughts should be not only orderly, but, as nearly as possible, they should be in line with the expressed purpose of God when he created man.

If man is destined to rule the earth through the powers of mind, it follows that before he can do so he must understand how to control his own mind,-how to think and how to stop thinking. It is an easy matter to think, but a hard matter not to think. No man is capable of preventing thoughts from forming in the mind, until he has control of the fountains that sup