AN ETERNAL CAREER

BY
FRANK L. HAMMER
AND
LYDIA HAMMER

1947
 An Eternal Career By Frank L. Hammer.

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CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
1. What Is Life?
2. What Is Human Nature?
3. What Is Man?
4. Unity
5. The Mystery Of Suffering
6. Love
7. Religion
8. Where Is God?
9. Accidents
10. Unfinished Business
11. Supply And Demand
12. Preparation
13. The Mystery Of Death
 1

DEDICATION

Dedicated to Our Friend WILLIAM THOMAS REID, LL.D. President University

of California 1881-1885 and Founder, Owner and Head Master of Belmont
School for Boys 1885-1918

LOOK TO THIS DAY

Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.
For yesterday is already a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision;
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation of the dawn!

From the Sanskrit

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PREFACE

The purpose of this book is to acquaint readers with the fact that they are
immortal souls embarked upon an eternal career.

Also, to impress upon them that they are every day, yes, every moment,
fashioning the bodies and creating the conditions of their future existence.

Unfortunately most people incorrectly suppose life to be only that brief

interlude between birth and death; consequently they live as if this world
were all and devote themselves to mundane affairs and material pursuits.
Indeed, the appalling futility and the purposelessness of the lives of the vast
majority can be traced to this delusion—that life is but a temporary affair
ending forever at death.

If this were true, that earthly existence is all—there would be little purpose
in learning to live; in fact there would be no sense at all to being born.

If this fallacy prevailed justice would be a huge farce and life a hollow
mockery; as for some the earthly sojourn is very brief, while others abide
here for many years. Nature however, never suffers a wasteful
arrangement; for unlike temporal careers life cannot be ended if one makes
a failure of it, or because he is "tired of it all."

This being the case, preparation for life should be the first concern of every
man. Inasmuch that mankind in general is still in bondage to the idea that it
is exempt, and not subject like the rest of the universe to natural laws, it is
not surprising that so many try to relinquish life in despair and desperation.

Since men will never have surcease from their afflictions until they do
understand and harmonize themselves with God's ever present laws, it is of
paramount importance that everyone be educated to this end. Our hope is
that this book will prove a help in this direction.

F. L. H.
L. H.
 3

San Francisco, California

101 Parnassus Avenue;
January 1947.
 4

1. WHAT IS LIFE?

"Life is God, which is infinitely

individually expressed."

Life is an unsolved mystery, an unfinished symphony, the solution and

conclusion of which is known only to God.

Reluctant as Life is about divulging its secrets, certain laws and principles
have been discovered which serve as clues for those attempting to wrest
from it an answer. Some of these follow.

God is Life—the First Great Cause and Source of all things, created and
uncreated, manifested and unmanifested.

Life has neither beginning nor end and is the invisible Principle animating all
forms. Life is independent of forms, but forms are dependent on Life. Life is
limitless, but forms are limited. Life is priori and posteriori to form. For
example, when Life withdraws from the human body, the body becomes a
corpse and disintegrates. But man is and was a spirit long before incarnated
in flesh, and continues to be after the form is discarded.

Man is an effect from God the Cause, and the Cause and the effect are one.
We are dependent on God first for existence and evermore for support. In
Him we live and move and have our being, which is not a neighborly relation,
but one of ineffable permeation. Apart from God there is nothing.

God, or Life, is constantly projecting Himself into all manner of forms, and
extends without inequality and separation into all men. God is in all, and all
are in God expressing Him according to their capacity and organization. The
lowest contains the highest undeveloped, while the highest pervades the
lowest. Man is an abridged edition of his Creator with all of His powers and
faculties in a latent degree. Man is God in quality but not in quantity. From
Life there is no escape, no door to annihilation; when once created and
individualized, man is an eternal fact in the universe.
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Life, as known to man, is associated with consciousness and intelligence, in

one form or another, on some sphere of expression or another. Life without
self-consciousness would be merely an abstraction, not a being.

What is man's relation to Life? It is analogous to his relation to the air which
he inhales and exhales. He is a participator, a spectator and a vehicle of Life.
As with the air so with Life; it is ours to use but never to possess.

The meaning of Life is never found in the world of effects or unrealities; but
only in the spiritual realm of causation or realities. It eludes the intellect but
reveals itself to intuition. Life is not a vicarious but a personal affair, and has
to be lived in order to be understood. The teacher is experience which
eventually makes us wiser. The purpose of Life is expression, progression
and liberation from ignorance which is the mother of all vices, the author of
all sorrows.

Life to be understood must be studied in its eternal aspect, for only thus
does it have dignity and security. Fragmentary, fleeting terrestrial existence
separated from the whole of Life is as useless and purposeless as a finger
severed from the body. The part is worthless without the whole; and only by
contemplating the whole of Life can we have a true conception of any of its
parts. Those who believe Life is only associated with the form have not yet
learned their spiritual ABC's. Life is not chopped into bits, but is an eternal
stream of flowing consciousness. It is an eternal journey, with innumerable
stopovers where we change trains and then continue.

Throughout all nature one sees a miraculous power ever at work; a perfect
harmony between all its parts and abundant provision for all created things.
The Creator has endowed all according to their requirements, with
capacities and faculties for obtaining from Life, the Unlimited Source, that
which is needed for sustenance. Plants instinctively draw from the soil and
the air what is necessary for their growth and nourishment. Animals who
have infallible instinct choose that which is beneficial and reject that which is
harmful. Man in common with the lower forms of life must also nourish his
body. He does not eat, breathe, drink and sleep to sustain Life, but to
sustain his form. Life is God and is self-sustained.
 6

Man not only has his body to nourish, but also his mind and soul. For this
purpose his Creator has endowed him not only with instinct but also with
intelligence and intuition, enabling him to appropriate from Life that which
is essential for his triune nature. What man selects, that he reflects. If he
ardently craves material things, he will manifest wealth, fame, health,
possessions, etc. Consciously or unconsciously his thoughts are in rapport
with the laws governing this plane. One who persistently concentrates on
money will not attract spiritual things, nor vice versa. "Where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also."

When the goal or aim is for intellectual attainments, wisdom, understanding

of certain subjects, one's thoughts or antennae tune in on the mental
sphere of life. Geniuses of art, literature, science, music and mathematics
express Life from that plane of consciousness. When the selective process is
spiritual, the Life expressed is of that nature. Religious and ethical teachers,
like Christ, Buddha and Confucius, consciously tapped Life's spiritual
resources, enriching not only themselves, but humanity as well.

The great masses of humanity have not commenced to live, are hardly
aware of their possibilities. They express chiefly on the physical plane and,
through ignorance of Life's laws, frequently attract the undesirable and
destructive. Conscious of only the material, they overdevelop it to the
exclusion of the spiritual, becoming lopsided. They become great in one
direction and remain small in all the others. A millionaire is usually regarded
as a criterion of success. If his intellectual and spiritual development were as
great as his material, he would be a composite of Croesus, Socrates and
Christ—a Colossus.

Man's sphere of activity extends far into time and space, into the real,
invisible world where his consciousness broadens, enabling him to attain
Life's greatest enjoyment—conscious expression of his higher powers.

Man like God has the power to create and thoughts are his tools. Thought is
the ancestor of all manifested things, for to think is to create. Man's use of
his creative power makes his happiness, health, success, or their opposites.
Thought projects itself in like conditions to material things, and all things on
this earth are effects of man's thinking. What has man created? Mostly
 7

Frankensteins—war, famine, disease, pestilence, sorrow, suffering,

destruction. There is no evil in the world save that which man has created.
There is only ONE God, ONE Power, ONE Life; and man's use or misuse of
this Force creates his happiness or misery. Evil is temporary, while good is
eternal.

Good living is easy and simple; wrong living is difficult and complex,
especially when false prophets and foolish methods are followed.

Life is ageless and so is the soul; Life is changeless and so is the soul. The
only change is our attitude towards Life which comes with expansion of
consciousness, a larger mental horizon. None of us will have the same ideas
a hundred years from now. Some may say, at that time none of us will know
anything. How much we will know, depends entirely on our efforts to
progress, advance and utilize our time and talents. Life is a becoming
process and is what we make it.

"Is Life worth living?" That depends entirely on who is living it, and for what
he is living. His years may be many, yet his life be an empty vessel. Many
persons go through their earthly expression never seeing any of the true
things, but only the objective. Others see in nature and humanity a harmony
of spirit and soul, a sublime and exalted idea of Divine Mind.

Nothing is more noticeable amongst individuals than the difference which

exists in the love of Life. All possess the instinct, but its degrees vary more
than is generally imagined. Some desire earthly life so intensely that they
view death as the greatest calamity; they would rather live in endless misery,
than part with existence, which they suppose is associated only with form.
Other individuals experience no such passion for earthly life. To them death
is not appalling, and the prospect of immortality is not essential to their
enjoyment of the present life.

"Life begins at forty?" Life begins when the person resolves to live on more
than one dimension, when he realizes that the real Life of man is in the mind
and spirit.

"Life is a disappointment, failure, trap, web, farce, joke, etc." Just as light
falls on all substances alike, but is very differently reflected, so is Life
 8

interpreted. No two people have the same attitude towards Life, for no two
people are alike. However, Life, or God, never plays jokes on His children;
never fails or disappoints those who keep His commandments.

"I don't see what they get out of Life," one often hears people say when
regarding the plight of the blind, maimed, crippled and deformed. These
individuals frequently get far more out of Life than those who regard them
with compassion, but who are unable to see beneath the surface. In their
extremity they have turned to God and draw deeply from the wellsprings of
Life. Whatever experience turns man to God is not a calamity, but a blessing
in disguise.

Recently we saw, standing before a sports shop, a handsome young man,

with an amputated leg, looking long and longingly at some tennis rackets.
What do you suppose he was thinking about? How do you think he would
answer the question: "What is Life?"

"Why do some people get so much out of life, while others get so little?"
One gets exactly as much out of life as he has put into it. One might as well
try to draw money from a bank without first making deposits as to expect
Life to pay dividends without first making investments. God is the
Exchequer of Life's bank and He always pays with heavy interest.

"Life," says society coolly, well-dined and well-wined, sitting before its
comfortable fire, "is a struggle for existence, the issue of which is the
survival of the fittest." So is the law of the jungle, only the jungle is more
humane.

Substance, motion, consciousness are the three principles of Life we

encounter everywhere. We are living not in a dead but in a living world; not
in an unconscious but a conscious universe in which death implies a change
of garment or form.

There is only ONE world and that is populated with living people. Billions
walk this earth of which statistics take no account. The "dead" are those
who are insensible to their better selves; unresponsive to spiritual
vibrations; impervious to all except the promptings of their dense, physical
 9

organism, whose life is associated with the eating, drinking and sleeping
form.

These are the dead—buried in graves of flesh.

 10

2. WHAT IS HUMAN NATURE?

"Be noble, and the nobleness that lies in

other men sleeping but never dead, will rise
in majesty to meet thine own."—LOWELL.

Human nature is the basis of character, the temperament and disposition; it

is that indestructible matrix upon which the character is built, and whose
shape it must take and keep throughout life. This we call a person's nature.

The basic nature of human beings does not and cannot change. It is only the
surface that is capable of alteration, improvement and refinement; we can
alter only people's customs, manners, dress and habits. A study of history
reveals that the people who walked this earth in antiquity were moved by
the same fundamental forces, were swayed by the same passions, and had
the same aspirations as the men and women of today. The pursuit of
happiness still engrosses mankind the world over.

Moreover no one wishes his nature to change. One may covet the position
of President or King, but would not change places with them unless it meant
the continuance of his own identity. Each man sees himself as unique, and
so far as he is concerned, the hub of the universe, different from any other
individual. Apologies are in order when Mr. Smith is mistaken for Mr. Jones.

Although human nature resists all efforts at alteration, there are some
people who never weary of trying to make others over, usually into a replica
of themselves. Public reformers, for example, who would dare tell God how
the race could be improved. They consider themselves the model for all
mankind, and strive to make others conform to their own image and
likeness, as they are confident that such similarity will bring about the
millennium.

Then there are the wives who cherish the fond delusion that husbands are
capable of reform, and vice versa; and mothers who endeavor to mould
their children into an ideal of their own. Failing in their ambitious attempts
to remodel others, these people will admit: "You cannot change people."
 11

Why should anyone wish to change another's nature? What makes some
people believe that they can improve the Creator's work? If human nature
were the work of man it would require a great deal of rectification. But since
it is created by God, we can be assured that it is potentially God-like. In fact,
human nature and Divine Nature are analogous. This is certain, if man had
the power to change the nature of any species it would become either a
hybrid, a freak or a monstrosity.

For whenever man tampers with nature he only succeeds in defiling it, for
deterioration follows such violation.

Not even education is able to change human nature, although many people
labor under this delusion. Many parents expect education to make a dull
child bright. Children can only be trained and guided along the lines of their
inherent capabilities, they cannot depart from nature's pattern. A moron is
one, not for lack of education, but because his intelligence is incapable of
normal training. Learning, instead of overcoming mental disability, tends
only to expose it. Not even Jesus, the greatest of teachers, was able to
change the nature of his disciples, who to the very end retained their
original character, and manifested their original tendencies.

For centuries we have had dinned in our ears that "man is a miserable
sinner," "a frail mortal prone to error and sin," "a weakling whose nature is
corrupt and base." These disparaging assertions originate in the fallacious
theory that man is a product of matter. Human nature is God Nature; and as
such it needs to be respected, for never before has its original Divinity been
so doubted and its dignity so debased.

Since human nature resists all efforts at modification and alteration, it is

useless to legislate toward uniformity—to require men to be what they are
not. Laws which depend upon compulsion instead of persuasion or
education never work. Those which aim at regimentation likewise miscarry.
Human differences, dissimilar capacities, ideas and talents must be
recognized. The most successful governments are those which permit and
encourage men to develop their basic differences.

Human beings were created unlike, and the more they unfold the more will
they differ. Their innate unlikeness cannot be eradicated, but it can and
 12

should be developed. Compulsory conformity in all respects is contrary to

man's nature, and induces him to break those laws that restrict his freedom
of expression and action. The masses must some day awaken from their
stupor and begin to think. Thought is of course about the last thing rulers
encourage; their ambition is to eliminate it altogether.

Every man unfolds a distinct character over which circumstances and

education have only the most limited control. No two people will ever draw
the same conclusions from the same experiences, but each must interpret
events and fit them into the mosaic of his own life's pattern. Human nature
is ever true to itself, not to systems of faith or education. Each holds to the
structure of the mould into which the soul was cast at the time of its
individualization. The qualities born in one remain as potentials whether
they have a chance to develop or not. Under pressure, or change of interest,
they can partially or wholly disappear from view for considerable periods of
time; but nothing can permanently modify them, nothing can obliterate
them.

The constancy of human nature is proverbial, as no one believes that a man

can fundamentally change his nature. This is why it is so difficult for one who
has acquired an unsavory reputation to re-establish himself in public
confidence. People know from experience that an individual who in one year
displays knavish characteristics seldom in the next becomes any different.
Nor does a thief become a trustworthy employee, or a miser a
philanthropist. Nor does a man change and become a liar, coward or traitor
at fifty or sixty; if he is one then, he has been one ever since his character
was formed. Big criminals are first little criminals, just as giant oaks are first
little acorns.

Although man is potentially perfect he is far from being actually so. If he

were actually perfect there would be nothing for preachers, teachers and
humanitarians to do; no use for churches, schools, courts and prisons.
Therefore while it is impossible to change human nature, it can be studied,
controlled and directed, and this should be the supreme function of our
religious, educational and social institutions.
 13

Man is perfect as a seed is perfect, germinally. The spirit is perfect, but when
it inhabits human structures, it participates in the imperfections of the
latter; and during its association with matter takes on the mortal
weaknesses, desires and limitations. But the spirit, the inner man, remains
untouched and undefiled by evil. Only the outer man,—the personality and
the physical body—becomes imperfect, due to ignorance, wrong thinking
and violation of the laws of being. The outer man, too, was originally
perfect, but man has so desecrated and abused it that today it is a far cry
from the original model.

Man's majesty and nobility are taken for granted, although his faults and
weaknesses are constantly paraded before our eyes. Only when behavior
deviates from the normal does it attract attention. The good neighbor, the
conscientious citizen, the kind father and faithful husband pass unnoticed.
But the murderer, robber or wife beater is singled out for publicity, because
such conduct is unusual.

Man's inherent goodness, moreover, is revealed by his countless acts of

heroism, unselfishness and sacrifice. Daily one reads of men saving others at
the peril of their own lives. One plunges into the surf and rescues a swimmer
from drowning; another dashes into a burning house and carries a stranger
to safety; others snatch a child from the wheels of death; many give their
blood that others may live. Not only the Nazarene but countless unnamed
and unrecorded men have given their lives for their fellowmen, not only on
the battlefront but on the home-front as well.

We care not how outwardly base and cruel a man may appear to be, there is
a vulnerable spot within every man. There is a spark of Divinity which must
be appealed to.

Some will deny man's Divinity, especially in times of war. True, today many
men have reverted to a stage lower than savage, but this is the result of
coercion. They would have shunned such action if left to themselves.
"Whenever stupid rulers disagree, they commit conspiracies against
mankind and cunningly incite them to murder one another," is as true today
as in the time of Carlyle, the author of this statement. If people had access
to the truth, wars would be impossible; but truth will never be available so
 14

long as governments control the news and its sources. The tragedy of it!
Men are capable of so much heroism, nobility, generosity and kindness. But
leaders who should encourage this conduct, incite them to fly at each
other's throats like mad dogs.

The reports of psychiatrists prove that murder is a violation of human

nature. During World War I, one-third of all casualties were mental
disorders. Thirty-four thousand mentally disabled veterans from previous
wars are still in government hospitals, costing to date more than a billion
dollars. It is still too soon to count the victims of the recent slaughter, but
the number will far exceed those of previous wars.

Now another carnival of carnage is halted, the last shot is fired for some
people. But the war is not over for these hundreds of thousands of insane
and shell-shocked victims who are still in their world of hell, secluded from
the public, forgotten and neglected by the politicians and the war-for-profit
patrioteers.

Human nature does not and cannot change but unfolds its inherent pattern
on the loom of Eternal Time. All created things fulfill their destiny and the
purpose for which they were created. We may not understand why God
made man as He has; we can only endeavor to understand man as he is. He
has a nature and its laws can be known. It was not said of man, "thus far
shalt thou go, and no farther." He was made to advance; the power to do so
distinguishes him from the animal. A true knowledge of God is universally
written in man's nature; and every effort to know more, every aspiration,
looks toward the achievement of this knowledge.
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3. WHAT IS MAN?

"Men are spirits clad in veils,

Man by man was never seen;
fill our striving somehow fails,
To lift that which lies between."

What is man? According to the evolutionist, man is an evolved animal and

natural selection accounts for the existence of the different types. The
material scientist traces man's origin from an amoeba and avers that man is
matter. The anthropologist also subscribes to the materialistic origin of life,
studies remnants of prehistoric man's body. The psychologist similarly
believes that man is mortal and confines his investigations to the present
life. All have one idea in common, namely that man is matter and mortal.

We differ with these materialistic speculations. We hold that man is not

matter but spirit. Man is an immortal monad, a spark of the Divine Spirit, a
portion of the Almighty Soul of the universe temporarily encased in matter.
Hence in order to know what man is, it is necessary to study vastly more
than his body. It is imperative that we go to the First-Cause, GOD, Who alone
is capable of solving the mystery. For God is the All-Inclusive, the
Undifferentiated, the Unmanifested of all things. All men, all forms of life
have a common origin in GOD.

According to our understanding of evolution, man has always been man and
did not evolve from an animal., There is no possibility for a plant to evolve
into an animal, or an animal into a human being. History supplies no record
of one species producing another type, or a lower species of living matter
changing into a higher order of existence. There is no change going on in the
lower orders who are said to resemble man by which it is possible that they
might become men in the future. The gorilla and the ape, though resembling
man outwardly, fail to resemble him inwardly. The great difference between
animal and man is not of organic structure; their bodies are similarly
constructed and endowed. The difference lies within the quality of spirit
 16

manifesting itself through the form. Man is a thinker, a chooser; he has free
will, and these qualities reside within himself.

Man is one of four parallel kingdoms—human, animal, vegetable and

mineral. While the protoplasmic beginning of the four kingdoms are
separate, they emanate from the same source. Each protoplasm can only
produce its own kind. An inconceivable amount of variation and
specialization can take place of course, but only within the range of
protoplasmic limitation. Discontinuity occurs when a new nature is
introduced. If evolution is to work smoothly, consciousness must have been
present from the very beginning.

The mineral, plant, animal and human species are the only four that come
within the range of human intelligence and experience; but there are
innumerable other varieties of life which come before the mineral and after
the human. Life is not at the mercy of matter. Life never had a beginning
and will never come to an end, but is a continuous and eternal process.

All known substances have their birth or origin in the unknown; all gross
objects spring from a subtle origin, and all concrete creations come from an
abstract source. Herbert Spencer aptly describes it: "An entire history of
anything must include its appearance out of the imperceptible, and its
disappearance into the imperceptible."

It was a settled conviction amongst the ancients that man had his origin in
Spirit, that he gradually "falls" into matter, eventually reaching the earth-
plane. Though temporarily imprisoned in matter, his real existence extends
far beyond time and space into realms totally uncomprehended.

"What is man?" Man is a union of spirit and body, PLUS the soul or spirit
body which is the intermediate and connecting link between them. The
spirit is the innermost principle, eternal and changeless. The soul acts as a
covering or body of the spirit. The spirit requires this vesture in order to
realize a separate sense of existence or personality, for without this it would
be absorbed in the Infinite ocean of Spirit. St. Paul, the Apostle, makes a
sharp distinction between the natural and the spiritual body, the mortal and
immortal form. The material body enables the spirit to manifest on earth; for
without this dense, physical organism we would be as shadows or ghosts.
 17

Man's inner body the soul, though invisible, is as palpable to other spiritual
bodies as physical bodies are to one another. The spirit extends into both
bodies and animates the whole. Spirit exists eternally but could not be made
manifest or individualized without form.

It is the spiritual and not the physical body which is the seat of sensation and
emotion, and which registers all experiences of pain, pleasure, happiness,
sadness, moods, etc. The medical profession, which has no knowledge of
this inner body, is baffled at the recurrent phenomena of finding people
with amputated limbs complaining of pain in the region of the missing parts.

Recently we read of a Marine who had lost an arm tell the surgeon of
intense pain in the place where wrist, hand and fingers were. The doctor
said the boy was suffering from an hallucination, but admitted the pain
might be real and horrible nevertheless. So he injected novocain and the
pain in the "phantom" limb disappeared.

This inner body constitutes what is called the animal part of man, for the
animal kingdom also have their spiritual counterpart, and experience
sensation and emotion. Likes and dislikes, animosities, and also many good
qualities possessed by animals are all expressed through the medium of this
spiritual body.

Destruction or mutilation of the physical body in no way affects man's

spiritual counterpart. General knowledge of this fact would be of
inestimable value today when millions of people have been maimed,
crippled, blinded and mangled beyond recognition. Those who believe in a
physical resurrection, that the dead wait in their graves to arise in the same
bodies, clothes and all, are hard pressed for a plausible explanation for the
performance of this feat. How can the dead arise when their bodies have
been blown into fragments?

However, ALL men do arise and are resurrected in their spiritual body, which
becomes their instrument of expression and manifestation. Bombs, bullets,
dynamite and disease destroy only the outer material form. Regardless of
the injuries or damage inflicted upon the physical form, the inner body is
never mutilated, maimed or scarred.
 18

While injuries to the physical body do not deface the inner body, violations
of the moral and spiritual laws do disfigure and deform it. Not only on earth
but also on the lower spiritual spheres are there people with repulsive faces
and hideously misshapen bodies.

The spirit body reflects the life the person lived on earth, and contains the
imperishable record from the moment of individualization throughout
eternity. On earth there is not always a correct correspondence between
the type of body and nature of character. The dense physical body acts as a
cloak enabling men to pretend to be what they are not, and often
dishonorable men occupy honorable positions. Over There dissimulation and
hypocrisy are impossible. Death, the great Revealer, shows man as he is
morally, mentally and spiritually.

The physical body is nourished and sustained by food, drink and air which
are transformed into energy, vitality and magnetism; these in turn sustain
the spiritual body. Obviously, judicious eating, drinking and breathing habits
are essential. But of vitally greater importance are the quality of thoughts,
desires and aspirations habitually entertained; for these are the molders of
the spirit body making it either beautiful or ugly. Thoughts even leave their
impress upon the physical body, for how a man thinks is written on his face.

Most people take care to eat only pure, wholesome food, with regular
periods for rest and recreation. Laws have been enacted forbidding men to
labor more than a stipulated number of hours; laws also protect them
against the unscrupulous merchants who would sell deleterious and noxious
foods. Nearly all comestibles are now subject to rigid inspection, and
containers must be honestly labeled, acquainting consumers with their
contents. No one will deny that these laws were urgently needed.

But there exists another type of diet about which the average person knows
little or nothing, the mental diet. For the soul no less than the body lives and
grows on what it feeds. If people were as careless with selection of food for
their bodies as they are with mental food, they would soon become
seriously ill. The absence of certain fundamental truths from the moral diet
results in moral diseases much more disastrous for society than physical
maladies. This fact is scarcely heeded. The twentieth century phenomenon
 19

of a constantly deteriorating moral diet seems to worry no one, least of all

our legislators. Neither they nor their constituents seem to consider the
mind of sufficient importance to enact laws forbidding the sale of poisonous
and noxious mental wares.

We doubt if there ever has been a time when such quantities of salacious
and pornographic material was vended to the public. Fortunes are made
selling these wares; fortunes are made in corrupting public morals.
Periodicals and newspapers reek with sensuality, vicious and criminal
suggestions contaminating the minds of all who read them. Food merchants
selling this quality merchandise would soon be fined or imprisoned. But how
about poisoned food for the mind? It is high time that mental food should
also be inspected, and that purveyors of foul and unfit products be
penalized. The damage done to youthful minds is as yet uncomprehended
by those entrusted with their education.

Over two thousand years ago Socrates warned his followers against the
dangers of indiscriminate partaking of mental food. Socrates, in
his Protagoras, admonishes one of his disciples against the practice of
committing his mind to one of whom he knew nothing, nor what he had to
offer in knowledge.

Socrates says to Hippocrates: "You are going to commit your soul to the
care of a man whom you call a Sophist. You do not even know whether you
are committing your soul to good or evil." "I certainly think that I do not
know," Hippocrates rejoined. Socrates: "Well, but are you aware of the
danger which you are incurring? If you were going to commit your body to
someone, and there was risk of your getting harm or good from him, would
you not carefully consider and ask the opinion of your friends and kindred,
and deliberate many days as to whether you should give him the care of
your body? But when the soul is in question, which you hold to be of far
greater value than your body, and upon the well-being of which depends
your all—about this you never consulted either with your father or anyone
else."

"For there is far greater peril in buying knowledge than in buying meat and
drink; the one you purchase and carry away in other vessels, and before you
 20

receive them into the body as food, you may deposit them at home and call
in any experienced friend who knows what is good to be eaten or drunken,
and what is not, and how much, etc. But when you buy the wares of
knowledge, you cannot carry them away in another vessel; they have been
sold to you, and you must take them into your soul and go your way, either
greatly harmed or greatly benefited by the lesson."

What then is this most important part of man, the Spirit? The spirit is always
conscious although few of its experiences reach the brain. It has a memory
and existence apart from the body and, as Kant says: "What I think as a spirit
is not remembered by me as a man." The empirical self, the familiar self, the
ego, is not the spirit. This is related to the objective consciousness. Behind
the shifting scenes of consciousness, and the kaleidoscopic carnival of sense
impressions abides the eternal, changeless, transcendental, pure self. This is
the Divine Guest, the Holy of Holies, the God within. The spirit remains pure
and undefiled, and in this respect it is correct to say that man is perfect.

In recapitulation: Man is a spirit with two bodies; one material, the other
spiritual.

In addition man has a mind, for in order to have soul expression we must
think, and so must enter the world of MIND through thought power, which
can be greatly augmented through training and study. For a detailed analysis
of mind we refer the reader to our previous book, Life and Its Mysteries, and
to the chapter UNITY in this one.

The body and brain are compounds and undergo constant alteration. But
the spirit is a simple spiritual element and is fixed and unchangeable with no
separable parts. Consequently, it is absolutely impossible for parents to
bestow a portion of themselves to their children. The belief, that parents are
the creators of their offspring is one of the greatest fallacies entertained by
man.

All spiritual thinkers are convinced that the powers of the mind and spirit are
derived from their Celestial Progenitor. There is slight reason for believing
that mental and moral characteristics are inherited, although many scientists
make this claim. Mozart did not inherit what neither of his parents
 21

possessed; nor does any other man. Every person inherits himself so far as
mental and spiritual attainments are concerned.

Since men are sons of God, it is to Him they owe their primary allegiance. For
it is from God and not man that they have derived their inalienable rights to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Of these inherent rights they
cannot be lawfully divested by any Government or State, whose sole
function is to promote and to protect, and not to usurp these God-given
rights. Whenever a Government or State ceases to discharge this sovereign
duty, there is no reason why it should continue to exist.

THE INDIVIDUAL IS SUPREME OVER ALL AUTHORITY OTHER THAN GOD.

When people are slaughtered for the multiplication of wealth and to
appease the insatiable lust for power and ambition of rulers, as in the recent
war, the laws of God and the rights of man are violated. False prophets
deliberately mislead the people into disastrous conduct. Kings and rulers are
authors of all wars, and dupe the masses into believing that people in
foreign countries are their enemies and must be exterminated. Whereas, if
people knew the truth—that all men are brothers and must learn to live
together, they would be free, and wars would be impossible.

What is the remedy? How can the masses be awakened when they do not
have access to the truth? How can people know who is the best man to
follow when issues are so confused and facts so misrepresented? There is
only one safe rule that is: Follow the man who follows God. Then you ask,
how can this be ascertained when all candidates are equally voluble in
professing allegiance?

The man who follows God keeps His commandments. He does not lie, covet,
steal or kill, directly or indirectly.

He does not profess to love God, while preaching hatred and violence
against man. He does not mock God by making a slaughterhouse of his
country. Such men are followers of Baal and worshippers of Marmon, and
people have paid dearly for their allegiance to these.
 22

How will the masses be awakened? It will be a spiritual renaissance brought

about by spiritual leaders who will spread conviction from man to man and
group to group.

No materialistic force will be able to oppose or overthrow it. Light will come
simultaneously to people all over the world.

This work of enlightenment will be aided and abetted by millions of souls on

the Other Side who work incessantly to redress and correct the evils of
injustice, persecution and murder. Distorted truths, lying propaganda do not
deceive them, who divine its purpose and thwart it at every opportunity.
Already there are signs on the horizon that the work of liberation has
commenced.

What is man? Man is a child of God and, like his Father has unlimited
possibilities. Man is a spirit now; he is immortal now, and is in eternity now.
 23

4. UNITY

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent;
Spreads undivided, operates unspent."
—POPE

There is no law so little understood as the law of unity or oneness. Few are
the people who have any conception of the inseparable relation existing
among all created things; but imagine that they are separate and unrelated
to their fellowbeings; and that it is possible to inflict atrocities and cruelties
upon others without injury to themselves.

This illusion has caused untold suffering and destroyed the peace of the
world. Undoubtedly, permanent peace could be ours today if, by some
miracle, men might know this truth—that they are members of one body
whose spirit is God; and that what they do unto others they are doing to
themselves. This is certain, men never will have surcease from their woes
until they do understand and apply this basic law of oneness in their daily
life.

Tragically, the greatest obstacle to unity is that those who should be uniting
men, instead divide them into factions, sects, cliques and parties, and
foment national, political, racial and religious strife. For example, this is true
of rulers who sow seeds of dissension between brother and brother to
forward their policy of "divide and rule." And scientists consider it of greater
importance how to split the atom than how to unite mankind.

Not only do rulers divide men into factions and cliques, but they also
attempt to apportion freedom by granting it to some peoples but
withholding it from others. Freedom and liberty they consider commodities
to be bestowed or withdrawn at will. But freedom and liberty are not
tangibles, they are realities and realities have no separable parts. They are
rooted in man's nature and not something superimposed or artificially
constructed for him. They exist nowhere if they do not exist everywhere. No
 24

nation, no race can endure which outrages the law of brotherhood, for all
men share the ONE life.

That national isolationism is no longer feasible is apparent to most people.

But that religious isolationism is equally impracticable is not yet obvious to
the leaders of the numerous religious denominations. True, clergymen
publicly observe Brotherhood Week once a year, but their profession of
brotherhood is not followed by practise. Religious heads of different
denominations will not officiate before the same altars, nor will they
countenance their parishioners attending other forms of worship. This is the
greatest single barrier to the furtherance of unity.

Furthermore, this lack of religious unity is one of the greatest barriers to

peace, for all men are deeply religious and should be permitted to unite first
on this basis. Spiritualization of humanity is imperative to world harmony.
Moreover, united men would have a fuller understanding of truth; divided,
each has only a partial understanding. And if people would learn to live
together in peace, they would not have to die together in war. The common
people of all countries have the warmest friendliness for one another; it is
only their stupid and astigmatic rulers who cannot agree.

Unfortunately men know as little about the law of unity as cats do of

calculus. The only cure for ignorance is knowledge; that all men have their
being in God and are eternally One. They are bound and related to every
other being in the universe through the law of attraction and sympathy. All
are integral parts and members of one body; and no member can say to
another member: "I have no need of thee."

What is this force which unites men with all other things and makes the
universe a whole? What is the principle of oneness? Good intentions are not
sufficient, and are no substitute for knowledge in any realm of endeavor
whether in music, mathematics, mechanics or oneness. Unity in order to be
usable must be understood.

MIND is the subtle, invisible and unbreakable force which unites all into
oneness. MIND is the universal substance which contains and unites all
individual minds. MIND permeates and pervades the entire universe and
unites all creation. Through this medium we are forever bound to the lowest
 25

forms of life as well as to the highest. In reality there is no more space

between bodies, minds, suns and universes than there is between one grain
of sand and the grain adjacent.

When we view ourselves in space and time we are conscious of ourselves as

separate individuals. But when we pass beyond space and time, they form
ingredients of a single continuous stream of life. The phenomenon or illusion
is that individuals carry on separate existences in space and time, while in
the deeper reality beyond space and time, they are all members of one
body.

Life is ONE, but it has many aspects. It is the diversities of forms which give
the illusion of separateness and which are only superimposed upon life, but
do not separate it. Forms are the externalities, the objective effects of
causes which are the reality. Forms are projections of materialized
substances and different proportions of the same qualities. Reduce them to
their elementary substance and they are one and the same. Forms
continually change, but the underlying life principle remains forever the
same.

Life regarded objectively has the same illusion of multiplicity as the stars,
when seemingly we behold them as countless orbs of light, because we are
un- able to observe the stellar system as a whole. But when viewed from the
vantage point of celestial distance, they appear not as perforations in the
heaven, but as one immense flame. So with men, they are separated no
more than are the planets and the stars.

Yet another illustration: On a map of the earth the continents seem to be

separated by bodies of water. This is illusion for under the water the earth is
united. So with life; on the surface all things appear unrelated and
dissociated; but when reality is contemplated, the unity and harmony
appear.

Similarly, our idea of time is an arbitrary division of eternity related to a

standard of consciousness. We speak of time being divided into hours, days,
months and years, a method enabling us to establish order in our lives. But
clocks and calendars split time no more than forms separate life. TIME like
LIFE is ONE, eternal and indivisible.
 26

The contagion of physical diseases should be proof that men cannot be

separated even bodily. Plagues often have wiped out entire communities, as
during World War I influenza claimed more victims than did the battlefield.
Science has made marvelous strides conquering physical plagues, but the
moral and mental epidemics still await conquest. The latter are infinitely
more dangerous than those which destroy only the body.

Sociologists and criminologists lag behind because of their abysmal

ignorance of man's true nature. They believe the body is the man, and
assume that incarceration will end his anti-social activities. It is easy enough
to quarantine bodies, but it is impossible to quarantine ideas.

At present there is in progress the execution of war criminals. The

complacent public believes that their lives are being extinguished, whereas
the truth is, instead of exterminating them they are increasing their sphere
of action. Destruction of the body frees men from the impediment of the
flesh enabling them to travel to any part of the earth in a few seconds. But
the mirage called society imagines itself safe, whereas it is in greater danger
than before and constantly menaced by the vicious and vindictive thoughts
with which criminals populate the atmosphere.

Unfortunately the wicked and depraved do return to earth, often obsessed

with thoughts of vengeance and hatred for the injustice once inflicted upon
them. They influence whoever they can to do their work of vengeance,
often those not any too well-balanced.

The prologue and epilogue of war is hate. A country cannot discourage

murder by imitating murderers and killing on a larger scale. Killing criminals
does not destroy crime. Murder by the state or by a country should be
discontinued because it defeats its own object; it tends to increase evils
instead of decreasing them. Society treats the crime but not the criminal.
Those who would injure others should be restrained and surrounded with
educational influences. They should be shown the error of their conduct so
they will not be inclined to evil practises after being discharged from prison,
or after passing over.

For no man can be segregated from the society of which he is a part and a
product. No individual mind can be separated from the Universal Mind. So
 27

long as a part of humanity is treated as pariahs and criminals and ostracized,

so long will we all suffer.

"Crime waves" puzzle many people. But they are no enigma to those
acquainted with the power of suggestion and the contagion of thought.
During war and even more so afterwards, crime is always rampant. For what
is war but the greatest of crimes? War deluges the mental atmosphere with
thoughts of hate, lust, murder, vengeance and destruction affecting the
minds of everyone, particularly the unstable and impressionable. Many
heinous crimes are committed by those who never before entertained such
ideas. For the greatest tragedy of war is its effect upon the human mind.

Recently a boy of ten who killed his playmate was asked why he did it
replied: "I just felt like shooting him." Those who are indifferent to the
implications of such an answer are guilty of ignorance greater than the
boy's.

More and more murders are being committed by children. Who is to blame?
The criminals are not the children, but the adults who generated the
thoughts of hate and murder, Children are the victims of the destructive and
evil thinking of their elders; they do not plan the murder, but only act upon
suggestions in the atmosphere.

How often people make injurious and wicked statements! They hope that a
dire calamity will befall some malefactor; or that a dreadful fate will
overtake their enemies, particularly foreign ones. They wish that death or
worse will occur to one who has wronged them. What frequently does
happen, is that the fate they wished for another befalls a member of their
own household. Their thoughts were intercepted, with resultant tragedy.
Thoughts boomerang; hence the paramount importance of never sending
out aught but what is good.

Since the source of social and moral ills originates in the minds of men, it is
there the cure must begin. Just as physical plagues were abolished by
eradicating their causes, so the roots of mental and moral diseases must be
extirpated.
 28

Education is the cure for crime, collectively as well as individually, and in it

lies the basis of the solution. Experience has shown that it is cheaper to
educate children than to punish criminals; hence it is of vital importance that
every individual become educated. By education we do not mean veneer;
we mean ethical training, the inculcation of morality, and an understanding
of life and its spiritual significance. Not getting degrees, not how to make
money, but how to think constructively and to live in harmony with the laws
of God.

Formation of character should be the primary duty of those entrusted with

the guidance of the young. Better thinking is necessary for a better world
and this should be commenced in the highchair and not in the high-school.
Crippled and deformed bodies can often be straightened; but twisted and
perverted minds are usually beyond repair.

MIND is the most inflammable substance in the universe and on it thoughts

travel with a rapidity exceeding light. Unfortunately few people realize the
tremendous responsibility incumbent upon right thinking. Few have any
idea that their thinking governs their lives and affects the lives of others.
People who wouldn't dream of polluting a city's water supply are frequently
guilty of a far greater crime—contaminating the Universal Mind, the fount
of all individual minds. The unspeakable tragedies, the epidemics of hatred,
suspicion, intolerance resulting in war are all caused by people poisoning the
thought atmosphere. War, like all other evils, exists in the mind before it
exists objectively.

We have recently seen in Europe the revolting effects of the indoctrination

of hate. The unspeakable brutality of the masses when their minds have
been incessantly subjected to the vicious lies and evil propaganda of current
Cains.

Here again education is the only solution. However, rulers have little faith in
education, but adhere to the stupid belief in the efficacy of force, and now
are attempting to segregate and police entire nations. This method, which
has never achieved any individual reformation, they now propose to
duplicate on an international scale.
 29

A formidable armed police may compel mock obedience and feigned

deference; but the souls within the captive bodies will hate and defy their
captors and show their contempt in innumerable ways. Guns may force
them to bow and salute but cannot bend or break their wills. Blows reigned
upon their bodies will not erase what is engraven upon their minds. When
rulers destroy bodies they reach their bounds of power; they cannot kill
ideas. And a conquered and humiliated nation will deluge the atmosphere
with such an avalanche of destructive and vindictive thoughts which will
make future wars inevitable.

Men being one and inseparable, no ruler or dictator can isolate himself from
the fate he imposes upon the people. When he signs their death sentence,
as in war, he automatically signs his own. History, ancient and recent proves
this. Moreover, whenever a country wages war upon another, regardless of
pretext, the fate inflicted upon their enemies descends upon their own
heads with multiplied fury. Another such Pyrrhic victory for us and we too
will be destroyed.

Thought is the yeast that leavens the mass consciousness, and every good
thought deposited in the ocean of life makes the ocean better. And a
universal knowledge of oneness and a universal adherence to spiritual and
moral principles would render all force, individual and collective,
unnecessary. In reality men own nothing; consequently they have nothing to
quarrel or fight over. Taking what belongs to God and labelling it as mine or
thine, is the acme of folly.

Men must either learn to live together in peace, or die together in war. They
need yet to learn the lesson so ably demonstrated in the organic and insect
world—the lesson of cooperation. In the world of organic life, no part
attempts by force to assert its egoism and control another part, for its own
benefit. There is instead, a reciprocal dependence of whole and part, each
part working for others for their mutual benefit. This results in harmony and
happiness for all. And if men would regain their lost estate they must
respect the Brotherhood of man and live in harmony and love. Eventually
the Universal consciousness will have to be accepted by all men.
 30

5. THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING

"Earth hath no sorrows that

Heaven cannot heal."

All over the world people are asking, "Why is there so much suffering?"
Sorrow and pain are excellent awakeners, conducive to thought; and when
people have had abundant afflictive experiences they seek the cause, and
for a means of future prevention.

Why there should be pain at all is a paradox for undoubtedly Omnipotent

God could have created man differently; but for wise purposes beyond our
present range of knowledge created him with the capacity to suffer. God
also gave man free will, and it is by the exercise of this, that man settles his
own destiny and makes his happiness or unhappiness.

Searching for causes of suffering leads to the inevitable conclusion that the
responsibility of it rests with man, and not with God. Although the primitive
view of suffering was that it was made by God, and that therefore it should
be removed by Him without any effort on the part of man. Backward people
have always imagined that God is cruel and capricious and delighted in
torturing His children. Enlightened men, however, do not subscribe to this
theory and hold that God is goodness, mercy and justice with a profound
love for His creations.

Since men can choose good or evil, why do they often elect the latter? Why
do they inflict injuries upon their fellowmen when they can confer benefits?
The answer is ignorance. As all men are ignorant to some degree, all men
suffer.

The only antidote for ignorance is knowledge. Not academic or intellectual

attainments for they will never solve the problem; but the understanding
and the application of spiritual laws and principles. Tragically, most men are
unaware of them. They do not understand their true nature; they have no
knowledge of the relation of the soul to the body; of the continuity of life,
and that immutable and irrevocable laws govern their thinking and conduct.
 31

Humanity's prevailing unawarenes of these truths is reflected in the misery

of the world.

Unquestionably physical suffering is the most common. While everyone

admits that good health is one of the greatest of blessings, yet few are they
who can boast of all around good health. Despite the advance of science
and the discovery of drugs, hospitals and sanitariums are more crowded
than ever. Why? Because people violate the laws of health and hygiene.
True, they do it mostly in ignorance, but ignorance does not change or
suspend the laws of nature. Many people delude themselves that they are
"getting by with it" because the effects of the violation are often slow and
subtle, only in later years to pay the penalty in pain and suffering.

Another source of suffering is the flouting of the civil laws. Like hospitals,
reports from every section of the country indicate that the jails, prisons and
penitentiaries are badly over-crowded. With statistics disclosing that more
than one-half a million people are incarcerated, one would suppose that
men would see the folly of such conduct and become law-abiding. Such
however is not the case. Peculiarly, men remain unteachable save through
bitter experience, and persist in trying to do what never has been done—
outwit the law of cause and effect.

The fact that only about one-tenth of the criminals are apprehended leads
many people to believe they can get by with it if sufficiently clever.
Circumventing earthly laws is only postponement for the episode does not
end when the judge and jury pronounce them "not guilty." Eventually all
violators are overtaken by the law of retribution which operates with a
geometrical rigor penalizing all wrong-doers.

A prolific source of suffering arises from the violation of the mental laws.
Few people have the slightest conception that their thinking has a
corresponding effect upon themselves and the external world. Yet it is in his
creative capacity that man most closely resembles his Creator. THOUGHT IS
THE CREATIVE POWER! BEWARE HOW YOU USE IT! Harboring thoughts of
hate, envy, malice, ill-will, jealousy and the rest of their breed is inviting
certain disaster. It is the nature of thoughts to become objective and man
then finds himself surrounded by his mental creations.
 32

Wrong thinking has filled the world with injurious and malevolent
productions, and the worst of these is war. Thoughts are highly contagious
and quickly infect the minds of the multitude with the epidemic of violence.
The masses unfamiliar with the nature and power of thought, supinely allow
their minds to be manipulated by a morally corrupt and spiritually bankrupt
minority. Governments spend billions of the people's money for
propagandizing them to hate and kill one another, much in the same
manner as thugs are primed with dope. Yet much less money would be
needed to indoctrinate people with peace, because peace is natural, while
war is unnatural.

Profanation of the law of brotherhood has caused more sorrow and

suffering than any other single factor. It should be, but unfortunately it is
not even apparent that the individual man is but an infinitesimal part of the
whole, and that he is indissolubly linked with the rest of the race. The will,
thoughts and actions of other men influence his life, affect his destiny and
contribute towards his happiness and unhappiness. We cannot rise above
humanity, nor isolate ourselves from them, or escape their ignorance,
degradations and other diseases. What we do to one man, we do to all men;
so long as one man suffers, we shall all suffer.

The poor suppose that money can eliminate all troubles. But poverty is only
one affliction of the human race and by no means the worst. If money could
cure trouble, the rich would be care-free. But the slaves of poverty are no
worse off than the slaves of wealth, whose poverty is often worse than that
of purse. Both are miserable. Suffering has nothing to do with a man's
station in life or his assets. Afflictions that money can cure are not really
afflictions. Those who have experienced tragedy, frustrations, separations,
disappointments and despair, know how little material things avail at times
like these.

Some men seem to lead an untroubled existence, but we do not know what
they may be carrying around in their hearts. And we may be sure that if life
has not already dealt with them, it will. On the highway of life all men carry a
load, and if one could see beneath the surface he would be amazed at the
even-handed justice with which burdens are distributed, and appalled at the
weight of these burdens.
 33

Many believe that when children are born physically, morally or mentally
defective, that they are being punished by God, or for the sins of their
parents. Firstly, God never punishes anyone, innocent or guilty. Men punish
themselves by violating God's laws. The theory that because a father
committed crimes before the birth of his child, therefore the child is
punished, is not substantiated by knowledge or record. The truth is, that the
soul is ancient and has behind it at birth a past replete with every manner of
experience. When it is born with deformities he is discharging his own, and
not an-other's Karmic debts. Every soul has created its own fate, and when
he does not like what he has created blames chance, relatives, God,
everybody but himself. Whenever we suffer we are responsible for it, and
not innocent victims of another's iniquities.

Not a few suppose that one is rewarded in the next world because he has
suffered in this. There are, however, no premiums or vicarious rewards
attached to suffering. Life bestows neither rewards nor punishments, only
consequences; these are correspondingly pleasant or unpleasant as their
initiating cause was good or bad.

Sins can be forgiven but their consequences cannot be remitted, which

continue to exist in Cosmic Mind wherein all things of earth have their
imperishable record. No cause can be severed from its effect. Nor are
prayers, penitence, tears of any avail when they encounter the operation of
the spiritual laws. Neither can a sum of money be paid another for remission
of sins, a fallacy which many have learned to their sorrow after passing over.

Only physical suffering ends with death; all other forms continue in more or
less active form. Emotional and mental distress is intensified when one has
lived an unethical or selfish life, the suffering of which lasts as long as the
consequences. No agony is comparable to that of a condemning conscience,
remorse and regret which constitute the fires of Hell.

There is no greater illusion than that death liquidates sins. It was Plato who
said: "If death had only been the end of all, the wicked would have a good
bargain in dying, for they would have happily quit not only of their body, but
of their own evil together with their souls."
 34

The contemptible practise of "getting even" takes a terrific toll in suffering.

It is natural when we are wronged to seek to retaliate, but this is the worst
course to pursue. Revenge does not obliterate the injury, but only puts into
operation another set of causes with resultant suffering to the operator. All
history declares that revenge is a costly business. Revenge has no place in
civilized conduct for it harks back to the primitive promptings of the savage
whose concept of justice was the iron fist.

Pearl Harbor was avenged by the annihilation of two cities and their 125,000
helpless inhabitants. "We settled the score," said many with sadistic glee.
We settled nothing. What we did was set into motion innumerable other
evils which will culminate in dreadful disasters for us. The people of this
country have good reason to fear the atomic bomb—their fear is coupled
with guilt. War never decides who is right; it only determines who is left.

Reaction is sure to follow for those who sow the wind shall reap the
whirlwind. Men who go abroad to rape, murder, and rob have no suspicion
that the consequences of their deeds will at length come home to them, and
they will bow the neck in turn.

Mankind still awaits the realization and fulfillment of the law of non-
resistance, the only method that will ever overcome evil and abolish
suffering. Returning good for evil is stressed by all wise men. Plato says: "If
thou wouldst punish thine enemy, allow him to go unpunished; that is true
retaliation." The Hindu sages also teach the law of non-resistance and forbid
their followers to commit acts of aggression against their oppressors.

Non-resistance was not only taught but demonstrated by Christ for when he
was nailed to the cross by his enemies he did not say: "Crucify those who
have crucified me." No, he said: "Father forgive them for they know not
what they do." And in forgiving them he gained his greatest triumph.

Selfishness contributes its quota of suffering. In fact selfishness is about the

most wretched of vices with innumerable manifestations called diseases. A
selfish individual is always miserable; while those who live for others are
impervious to the things which vex and irritate those whose every thought
is, "What will I get out of it?" Or "how will this affect ME?" A God-centered
life is free from the cares and worries of a self-centered life.
 35

All great teachers, including Jesus, insisted upon the extinguishment of the
self. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose
his life shall find it."

Inasmuch as man is responsible for his suffering, it will cease when he

ceases doing the things which cause him to suffer. It is only a question of
how long will man persist in doing them. Christ invariably admonished those
men he had healed "to go and sin no more;" implying that sinning had
caused their suffering, and if they violated the law again, the result would be
the same.

The capacity for suffering depends on the nervous system which is the
instrument of emotion, and there is a wide range of differences in the
development of the nervous organizations. Some people's nerves are like
taut strings and vibrate to every shade of thought and feeling; they suffer
excruciatingly at things that the dull and gross laugh off with a shrug. On the
other hand they derive far greater enjoyment from life for they have an
acute awareness of it; they are responsive to spiritual vibrations and in tune
with the higher forces. It is to the sensitive souls the world is indebted for its
artistic treasures; for its literature, music, poetry and religion.

Some people think life intolerable because they suffer; yet without pain little
progress would be made. Few people listen to spiritual truths before they
have been through the purifying process of loss, disaster, calamity or death.
Sorrow and suffering are builders, and millions of people but for these
would not have made the progress they have. In the crucible of pain great
souls are fashioned; the strong sturdy ones, those whose characters shine,
are well acquainted with grief.

The higher the unfoldment of the soul the more impregnable it becomes to
suffering; for after having been dealt many blows, instead of sharp anguish
feels only a dull ache. It is the tears and heartaches of friends and loved ones
that now cause him to suffer. No one lives unto himself alone, but each soul
is a link weak or strong in an endless chain.

Suffering that emanates from love and the affections is ennobling and
worthwhile, even though it may sear the mind and scar the soul. We cannot
love and not suffer. We cannot have children or a companion without
 36

experiencing deep anguish. We cannot have a friend and not grieve.

Suffering is the price we pay for these blessings, and we should count
ourselves fortunate if we have been worthy of them.

Pain, in its manifold aspects is the supreme cure for the imperfections of the
soul, and is like a bitter medicine in our onward march towards the goal of
liberation from ignorance. People resent painful experiences and rejoice at
pleasant ones; yet from happiness we learn but little. We should rather hold
closely to the things that have been painful; investigate their action upon
our inner self, and endeavor to ascertain whether we have learned the
lessons contained therein. Later, when we survey the events of our life we
behold only mercy from the hand of God; the crosses, afflictions,
misfortunes and calamities when judged by their visible effects were in
reality blessings in disguise.

Suffering teaches us the universal language of the heart; we learn to

understand our fellowmen and help our struggling brothers upwards
towards the light. It develops patience and inculcates kindness and makes
us tolerant and compassionate. Those who are indifferent to the distress of
others have yet to learn this language, and their turn will surely come when
they too will walk the treadmill of pain.

Do not feel sorry for one who has suffered tremendously. Feel sorry for one
who has had a smooth, soft and easy life. Do not pity one who has been
frustrated; who has tasted bitter defeat and has had frequent
disappointments; and has been crushed to earth time and time again. Pity
the one who has never known anything but wealth, ease, comfort and
achievement. Do not weep for one whose heart has been broken
innumerable times. Weep for the one who hasn't a heart to be broken.

Who are the individuals who have the most vitality, energy and endurance?
They are those who have suffered the most; who have had bitter
experiences, and thus gained wisdom, sympathy, tolerance and
understanding. Who are the individuals that attract us the most? They are
those who have found an answer to life's problems, and in their deep, hard-
won serenity have found peace.
 37

6. LOVE

"Life and Love are ever one,

And upon the same loom spun."

Love is the highest vibration of all, and covers all our relations with our
fellowmen. Love is the most important law in the universe, and he who is in
harmony with this law will be in harmony with all of the others. It is the
transgression of the law of love which causes all evil.

Love is the great force to which all men are subject, and is more vital and
powerful than electricity. Love is the life of man, for without love, life is
mere existence. Every soul, without exception, craves love and affection
and atrophies for lack of it. To love and to be loved makes life worthwhile.

Love is the essence of Divine Nature, and since love is the nature of God, it
must be the nature of man in a correspondingly lesser degree, for man is
created in His image.

Human love, which is a reflection of Divine Love passes through three

stages. The first stage is selfish; only the "I" is considered; one's own
satisfaction, pleasures, desires and comfort. It is the taking, not the giving
stage; an elementary expression of love, much too common.

The second stage of love is mutual, give and take, or sharing of love. Each
lover considers the other's happiness, wishes and welfare. This type of love
is a much higher manifestation than the first and becomes more prevalent
as man develops.

The third stage of love is selfless; it asks nothing in return. The only desire of
this type of love is to serve and to worship the adored one. Needless to say
few have reached this high plane of selfless, spiritual love.

Since love is manifested chiefly in the first stage, one sees a constant misuse
of the term. It is employed by many people to designate a liking for articles,
a fondness for foods and drinks, an attachment for places and things. Love,
however, in its highest sense can only be properly used to denote affection
 38

between individuals. Love expresses something spiritual, and as such can

have no connection with objects that minister solely to the senses.

The word love should never be employed to express animal passion, desire
or appetite, for it has no relationship to these. Nor is it applicable to the
affairs of sensual and licentious men and women which hold the daily front
page with lewd and unsavory details. Such people understand neither love
nor marriage; they know only lust and mating.

Worse still, are the periodicals which use love as a euphemism for lust,
telling us that murder and heinous crimes are committed for "love." There
are no crimes of love but only crimes of lust. The demons of lust and murder
are twin brothers and follow in each other's tracks.

Nor is progressive polygamy to be confounded with the pure and

permanent tie of holy matrimony. People do not marry for practical
considerations such as money, security, in order to advance their social or
material opportunities. Those who do so, sell themselves. Love is based on
mutual respect and consideration, without which a relationship is mere
possessiveness, not to be mentioned in the same breath as love.

Jealousy is no ingredient of love although many assume it is. Jealousy

emanates from self-love only. One who truly loves has no thought of
rewards; the only desire is the happiness of the beloved. Happiness is rarely
possible with a selfish or jealous individual. Almost any vices are preferable
to these, and most others are more easily overcome.

Love is an intense and absorbing emotion. It draws one toward a particular

person and causes one to appreciate and delight in that person, and to crave
the presence of the beloved. There is a desire to please and to benefit the
beloved, and to advance his happiness and welfare. If we love we must give.

"How can I know if it is really love," the young and many no longer young,
often ask. They have been mistaken before and now wish to be certain that
this time it is love, and not temporary infatuation or merely physical
attraction. There is one sure test. How much will you give of yourself, and he
or she for you? Love never counts the cost. Many Anthonys and Cleopatras
have considered the world well lost for love.
 39

Many people are so niggardly with their affections and then complain that
they are not loved. Whose is the fault? The unloved and unloving individual.
Love begets love, and love attracts love. Love is the mainspring of life and
he who loves the most lives the most. This is certain; humanity has no love
for people who have no love for them.

There is, however, nothing possible to do if one's love is not reciprocated. It

is utterly impossible to compel love. Resorting to vicarious means,—charms,
trickery or sensual appeal accomplishes naught. Artificial tricks may produce
temporary passional attraction, but not permanent sentiment.

If our love is unrequited, are we any poorer for having loved? Quite the
contrary, for loving enriches and does not impoverish us. As the old friar told
Evangeline when she told him of her wasted affection:

"Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted;

If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning
Back to their springs, like the rain,
shall fill them full of refreshment;
That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain."

Love's supply is inexhaustible and one can never become bankrupt by

loving. Parents with one child feel confident they have lavished all their love
upon it; but when they have others, they discover they are capable of loving
them all equally as much.

"Love your enemies" is the soundest advice ever given to man, yet of the
Master's injunctions this one seems the most difficult to obey. But what
other solution have we to overcome the enemy? With force or revenge one
places himself on a level with his opponent. For the time being you are no
better than he, however much he may be guilty and you the innocent party.
Moreover hate intensifies the vibration while love nullifies it.

When you hate a man you are bound to him with bonds stronger than steel.
Consequently nothing is so foolish as to hate another, for the hater is
getting the worst of it. So, if only for your own peace of mind love your
enemies; in no other way can you ever be free from them.
 40

Loving people does not mean that you must love all persons to the same
degree. Even Jesus had his favorite disciple, the one he preferred above all.
But loving does mean that we can be kind, understanding and sympathetic,
and love people in a Platonic sense, which is a beautiful manifestation of
spirit. Moreover, it is easy to love the good or God which is in all men.

"Love is blind," that is what is claimed in an old proverb. Is it true that one
who loves is incapable of seeing defects and faults in a beloved, which are
apparent to friends and relatives? Love is not blind; love is the clarifier. No
one is so blind as one who hates; one who can see only people's faults and
weaknesses. Moreover, love stimulates the development of latent
capacities for good, and one becomes better and nobler for having truly
loved, or having been the recipient of an unselfish and pure affection.

Why do we love certain people? For their admirable traits, excellencies of

character, or sterling values? Often the opposite is true. We love them
despite their shortcomings and defects. We love them for some
characteristic, or peculiarity, for their wit, or perhaps charm, friendly manner
or kind heart. In other words we love people for themselves; because they
are as they are, and we would not change them if we could.

One can never give a logical reason for love; when love ascends the throne
reason abdicates. Intelligent people just as often as the unintelligent place
their affections unwisely. And there is no greater agony than to love
someone with all your heart, someone you know to be unworthy, and yet be
helpless to free yourself. Time alleviates but never obliterates the scars of
such emotional suffering; never do we forget those who have made us
suffer.

Love's power accounts for many peculiar relationships. One sees individuals
cling to those who no longer love them, frequently even to those who abuse
them. If love were under the control of the will such unions would be
speedily terminated; but, alas, they cannot for the time being sever their
emotional bonds.

Often married people seem mismated; they differ in temperament,

education, tastes, ideas and ideals, and yet despite these apparently
irreconcilable characteristics they achieve a plausible harmony. While such
 41

people may have many interests and ideas not mutually shared, they do
have in common at least one point of interest; it may be only an instinctive
attraction, but it is sufficiently powerful to keep them together.

Look around and try to explain to yourself how certain individuals ever
found a mate. You wonder how anyone ever came to marry such an
unattractive and peculiar person. It seems strange to us who do not love
them; but not to the lover, whose life would be devastated with the loss of
his partner.

Nature always has her ultimate purposes, with no regard or consideration

for the suffering involved to the individual. Nature is never interested in
individuals, only in people collectively.

Love, like God, is no respecter of persons or with the worth of an individual.

Hence it is not uncommon to see unworthy people the recipient of deep
affection. This is not because the loved one is worthy or capable of inspiring
so much devotion; but it is due to the great capacity of the other to love.
That is the secret of all great loves—the capacity to love, and not the worth
of the recipient.

Love is the theme for all great music, literature, sculpture and painting. Love
inspired the conception and construction of the world's most beautiful
building—the Taj Mahal. Everyone who has seen it has marvelled at its
sublime beauty; has felt it to be different, apart from all others in the world.
True, it was built for a mausoleum, but it is not death one thinks of when
contemplating its beauty. One thinks of deathless love and eternal marriage.

"What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder," has
been interpreted by some theologians that man has the power to undo the
work of God. Divorce is man-made and puts asunder only carnal marriages.
"What God hath joined together" NO MAN can separate. Man can only put
asunder what he or the flesh hath joined together. What God or love hath
joined together are forever one. Divorce separates only those who are
physically mated, never those who are spiritually married, for the twain are
one. Surface marriages are as naught compared to the holy tie of spiritual
matrimony.
 42

True marriage, or soul affinity, is the realization that man and woman have
no actual existence apart from each other; that they are, in fact,
counterparts, without which their separate lives are imperfect and
unformed. Neither man nor woman can enjoy anything alone; they need
their other half to share their joys and sorrows and make their life complete.

Life is dual, and love, true soul-love, is the bond of union which reunites the
severed parts. The bond exists independent of personal charms or mental
endowments. It annihilates self and selfishness; prefers the beloved beyond
all else; survives through sickness and health; through good or evil report;
lives for the one beloved, dies and realizes heaven only in the union which
death may interrupt but cannot sever. Divine spiritual affinity survives death
and the grave, unites the two, and in eternity perfects the dual nature of
man and woman, companions for eternity.

Lives are made or broken by marriage; lives are permanently altered by

marriage whether the union be temporary or permanent. When marriage is
entered lightly and severed carelessly, usually both parties are deeply
wounded and lose some of their idealism through this experience. Neither
emerges from the situation as they entered it. And their affection instead of
being a living and beautiful thing becomes ashes, and bitter ones at that.
Often people value material possessions more than love and affection. They
guard and insure them against accident, fire, loss and theft; on the other
hand they let their marriage die for lack of love and understanding.

Some erroneously regard marriage as synonymous with bondage, and

assume that their liberty is relinquished with marriage. There never was a
greater mistake. In true marriage both parties have more freedom than out
of it. Married, many people rise to heights they never would have attained if
single. One marital authority truly says: "There's nothing you can do outside
of marriage that you 'can't do in marriage—and do a lot better."

Everything in life has its price and love is no exception. But unlike most other
things love is always worth the cost—which is pain. Love and pain are
inseparable; one cannot be had without the other, for eventually death will
impose a temporary separation. If, however, one realizes that the
separation is only temporary, it will ease the agony of parting and enable
 43

one to bear the loneliness and to look forward with absolute certainty to
reunion.

"Shall we meet those we love when we die?" Most assuredly we shall. All
those we loved on earth we shall see again. Where there is love there is no
death, for love is of the Deity. No way has ever been found to kill real love;
that which perishes is not love but a counterfeit. If you have ever loved
anyone, loved their very soul, you have never ceased to love them. Love is
like the soul, it is eternal and does not experience death.
 44

7. RELIGION

"God will not ask thy race,

Nor will He ask thy birth;
Alone He will demand of thee
What hast thou done on earth?"

Religion is the instinct to worship and varies with the age, the race, the time
and the place. All religions serve some purpose, and every age requires its
particular form; and different revelation is given to man at different times
according to his ability to understand. There are as many interpretations of
religion as there are men, for no two persons think exactly alike about God
and His attributes. But unfortunately, some who are seeking God according
to their own ideas are not always called brother by those who worship the
Creator in a different way.

Basically all religions are one, and all creeds but various aspects of the one
religion. They all agree on the truths, on the fundamentals; there is no
difference of opinion as to what constitutes these, for they are based on the
moral and spiritual laws which admit neither of argumentation nor dispute.

All religions believe in a Supreme Being; in the immortality of the soul and in
the brotherhood of man. Most of them are in accord that the soul was
originally pure and perfect but through ignorance and disobedience "fell"
from this divine state. They also agree that man will regain his original purity
by redeeming himself through penance and suffering; and that through the
acquisition of knowledge he will throw off the bondage of ignorance and
superstition.

There has been much rancorous dispute as to what constitutes fundamental

doctrines. But there are no fundamental doctrines, only doctrines which are
fundamental to certain established systems of theology. Conflicting
doctrines which are emanations of men's minds, not God's, are the cause of
all the division and dissension existing between sects.
 45

Religion is founded on truth, and truth never conflicts whether found in

science, art, music, literature, mathematics or philosophy. For truth blends
with truth as light blends with light. It is only theology which cannot
reconcile itself with other aspects of truth. Proof of religion is in
demonstration and not belief, for all truth is demonstrable. We all know
people who believe much but demonstrate little.

The perfect religion of all the ages is "Love thy God with all thy heart and thy
neighbor as thyself." Religion is only another name for love, and love never
employs weapons or force. Therefore it is a contradiction in terms to talk of
religious and holy wars, since there never has been a war waged in the spirit
of love and holiness. Theological strife, doctrinal jealousies and sectarian
dissensions have countless times drenched the earth with blood. Even today
some sects, in the name of duty, would gladly run all others off the earth if
they had the power.

Religion unites men; it never divides them. Whatever divides men, sets
brother against brother, creates disunity, fosters intolerance and breeds
hatred, assuredly is not religion but a counterfeit. If religion does not make
one kinder, more tolerant and more charitable, it is spurious. If it makes us
feel exclusive and sets us apart from our fellowmen, we are better off
without it.

People have confused religion with creeds which frequently have little true
religion in them. Some consider themselves religious when they are only
superstitious. Many imagine church attendance to be synonymous with
being religious. If you would know whether a man is religious, ask not if he
attends church; observe how he lives, whether he keeps the moral and
spiritual laws. Do not ask how he conducts himself on the Sabbath, but how
he acts on all other days, proclaims his religion. As we live, so is our religion,
and our temple of worship. For we do not worship God with our lips, but
with our lives. Men are instinctively religious and need neither churches nor
ordinances to make them so.

True religion is dynamic, equal to all of life's vicissitudes. It sustains one

under all trials and ordeals. It is false religions which fail to work under stress
and strain. True religion is a lifeboat at its best when the sailing is rough, and
 46

keeps one afloat on the stormiest sea. False systems uphold one only in
smooth waters. True religion gives us a staff to lean upon. True religion
makes us strong, fearless and invincible. Religion is man-making, not man-
made.

False religions like false friends fail one at the first sign of distress. When a
man faces trouble, illness, sorrow and loss, his religion is tested. If at these
times he gives way to self-pity, despair or goes to pieces, his professed
religion had no foundation of truth; he had no faith in something higher
than himself, and no support from resources beyond his own.

True religion proves itself when put to the test. When death enters the
home and takes from it a loved one, real religion comes to the rescue and
sustains one with the inner strength based on conviction and knowledge.
Theology, on the other hand, offers only a vague belief, a desolate perhaps.
Those to whom immortality is a truth, and not merely a theory, do not
subscribe to the pagan belief that their departed lie in cemeteries. They
know that no soul ever inhabits a tomb or a grave but returns to the spiritual
home from whence it came. Christ demonstrated the truth of immortality
when he left his body on the cross, never again to take it up.

While churches do not make a man religious, they are nevertheless of

incalculable spiritual value and a means of social control. Most people still
require spiritual leadership, and without this would be like a ship without a
rudder. Rites, symbols and ceremonies are still necessary as concrete
methods for the training of men's minds. How many can bear testimony to
God from personal experience? How many can comprehend and worship
abstract Truth or Spirit? How many can see God embodied in man?

For this reason most men do better when allied with a spiritual organization.
The specific name of the affiliation is not important provided its leader is
worthy of emulation. One who can help them to keep order in their lives and
assist them to adjust their lives harmoniously with the spiritual laws.
Religious organizations are a spiritual fraternity, a spiritual tie which binds
men together.

Some sects are alarmed that religion is being abolished in some foreign
countries. This is, however, a groundless fear, for religion is not a matter of
 47

externals, but is an internal bond between man and God, and over this
relationship no earthly dictator has any control. True, he may curtail the
outer observances, suppress or forbid church attendance, but no ruler can
prevent man from worshiping God; God is omnipresent and is immediately
available in all places. Religion is in the heart, and this kingdom no footsteps
can invade.

That religion will ever be exterminated is an unfounded anxiety. Destroy all

temples of worship, abolish all ecclesiastics, demolish all shrines and burn all
holy books and men will still continue to worship God. It is folly to suppose
that religion can ever be extinguished, or even endangered by the
arguments or ridicule of the profane, or by enactments of earthly agents.
Forms of worship may change, certain religious tenets come and go. But
while the human heart continues to beat, awe and reverence for the Divine
Being will ever animate the soul. The worshipper will cease to kneel, and the
hymn of adoration fail to rise only when the race of men becomes extinct.

Moreover, freedom of religion means freedom to reject any or all forms of

worship, if the individual so desires. No one has the right to impose his
system of theology on others because he assumes his to be superior. If it is
superior, he should prove it by a superior way of living. A moral man is a
religious man whether or not he conforms to any set of ordinances or rites.
There are other ways of worshipping God than by church attendance. Man
can worship in labor, love, devotion and in service to mankind. Many prefer
to worship God in this manner.

The world is athirst and hungers for a spiritualized religion; it is perishing for
lack of one. Futilely men have sought happiness in material prosperity and
found only bullets and bloodshed. Yet out of this terrible debacle of murder,
rapacity and hatred a revitalized religion will arise to meet the spiritual
needs of man. Pain and suffering are excellent awakeners. The tragic
distress now unfolding everywhere in the world must stir all minds.

Man is naturally spiritually inclined and requires a corresponding religion.

Man is a spirit NOW and his religion should acquaint him with God, with his
own true nature, his origin and his destiny. Instead of erecting more public
 48

monuments to an Unknown God, men need to know God better, to

understand why they worship him.

Since men are immortal the coming religion will be the gospel of
immortality. No longer are people content to lower their buckets into empty
wells. No longer are they satisfied with husks. Men are surfeited with rituals,
dogmas, creeds and ordinances; it is the bread of life they crave. They seek
an answer to their constant search for the purpose of their existence.

Men are seeking knowledge; knowledge of their souls and their relationship
to the Creator. They want logical answers to logical questions. WHEN, and
not IF a man die shall he live again? He wants to know something of the
place to where he is going. He wants to know where his loved ones are,
what they are doing, and whether he will see them when he dies. No longer
are people appeased with a desolate "perhaps." They demand proof of the
things that for centuries they have been told to accept on faith. They ask for
proof that death does not close the door on life but opens to a wider and
fuller expression. Too long the soul has been denied its rightful heritage, but
it will not be denied forever.

The value of true religion cannot be fully estimated in this life. It shines like a
beacon through the darkness, like a beautiful star in the heavens. When
sorrow and despair are about you true religion will guide and comfort you.
Without religion man is as a boat at sea without a compass. He is like an
organization without a head. Without religion one may flounder into some
port, he may even achieve a measure of happiness and success, but not the
ultimate goal.

The value of true religion cannot be fully appreciated without the

experience of it. Those who have come into the full understanding of their
earthly mission realize the value of religion. And those who ever have felt at
one with the Deity can understand it, too. Do not confuse the outer forms
with true religion. Do not always expect your brother to have the same color
of skin, or to speak the same language.

When man outgrows ritual and creed, and seeks the truth unvarnished, just
the truth—then he realizes the deep value of religion. He looks within the
 49

heart to see the motives which actuate man rather than listening to his
words.

It is well to know something of your brother's religion; you will understand

him better and become more tolerant. Never despise or ridicule any man's
religion; listen to him reverently, for man can only worship God according to
his capacity and understanding. We attend many forms of worship and
nowhere do we feel alien. Often we are profoundly moved by the eloquence
and sincerity of the speaker, often greatly uplifted by the sublimity of the
music and the beauty of the surroundings, often highly exalted by the
awareness of Divinity.

Religion belongs to all races of men, for it is a gift of the Deity to His
children, to keep them on the path of right and to direct them into the Inner
Kingdom. The value of true religion will most surely be brought home to you
when you are ready to depart for your future home. THEN you will be most
happy to have its support and comfort.
 50

8. WHERE IS GOD?

"Do not seek Him—SEE Him!"

A hindu child once said to his playmate: "If you can tell me where God is, I
will give you a mango." The playmate replied: "If you can tell me where He is
not, I will give you two mangos."

Yes, where is He not? While most religions teach that God is omnipresent,
the majority of people have difficulty in grasping this truth. They are under
the illusion that He must be sought in particular places and in definite
localities, such as in churches and in Heaven. Many make the mistake of
attempting to fit their ideas of the Deity into their limited intelligence, and
liken God unto themselves. They ascribe to Him hands, feet, face, senses and
emotions, and assume that He is local and individual. The majority are
unable to realize His ever-present nearness, but believe He is remote and
separated from the universe, inaccessible and only to be approached
through intermediaries.

Yet Jesus, who knew the Father, has told us that God is Spirit. Spirit fills all
infinitude, is wholly and completely present everywhere and cannot be
divided into segments; nor is Spirit relegated to some parts of the universe
and excluded from others.

God is Pure Intelligence or Spirit; the Primordial Essence of all things; the
eternal basis of all forms. God is everything there is, seen and unseen,
manifest and unmanifested; for nothing is lifeless but endowed with varying
degrees of Intelligence, Spirit or God.

What is His relation to the universe? Deity and Nature are counterparts; the
phenomenal world is the body of God just as the physical form is the body of
man. Just as man's spirit animates all parts of the corporeal body, so does
Infinite Spirit animate all His creations. However, the objective universe is
God no more than the corporeal body is man. God is in everything, yet all
these things are not God. God is in me, but I am not God.
 51

Is God with form, or is He formless? God is both with form and without form.
God is one but becomes many and is constantly projecting Himself into all
manner of forms. Forms are superimposed upon Spirit and change
continually; while God or Spirit remains forever the same. God creates by
thought and the universe is filled with creations which form His parts. All
things are in reality the same substance with different rates of vibration.
Seen subjectively there is Unity—beheld objectively there is multiplicity. Is it
possible to see God, and what is meant by seeing Him? Is He perceived or
conceived? Never can God be seen with the physical eyes, but only with the
eyes of the soul. Never can the Architect of the universe be seen sitting on
some planet, sun, cloud, throne or mountain. The only necessary
qualification to behold Him is to be pure in heart. He whose spiritual eyes
are open sees God in all existing things.

Those who have difficulty seeing God should begin by looking for Him in
man at his best. It is there we receive the clearest revelation. Every man is
God-made flesh. He dwells equally in all men, the humblest as well as the
greatest, be he man or angel, saint or sinner. God dwells on earth as well as
in Heaven. He mingles with man and in men on the battlefield, the home,
and on the street; in the market-place and in the mosque. Man is never out
of the sight of God.

How can we know God? God and Truth are inseparable, and our knowledge
of the one increases our knowledge of the other. Knowing God is the most
important truth to be known, and a true understanding of Him is found
within oneself. Since man is never separated from God, He can be contacted
instantly and without intercessors. If man wants happiness in this life, if he
wants to know who he is, why he was born, and what is the purpose of this
life, then let him devote himself to knowing God.

However, in order to know God we must study more than His forms; we can
do that forever and learn little. We must devote ourselves to observing His
ways, His modes of manifestation, methods of operation, and study His
attributes, which are Wisdom, Beauty, Order, Power, and Love.

Knowing God, or Oneness with the Divine is the supreme goal of spiritual
aspirants. It is the highest spiritual experience, to be attained only by deep
 52

contemplation. Oneness with the Divine implies not only consciousness of

God, but identification with Him. For example, take the term "body
conscious." This means that we are identified with the body and cannot
separate ourselves from it or its conditions. The same state is true when we
are God-conscious; we feel a oneness with Him, and cannot separate our
consciousness from His. It is a blending of consciousness much as the
fragrance of flowers intermingle with the summer breeze.

Oneness with the Divine is the intuitive recognition of being one with the
source of all life and all created things. It is a kinship with the leaves, grass,
flowers, birds, animals and all forms of life. It is a love and sympathy for all
which breathes and lives, an affinity with all nature, animate and inanimate.

God-conscious people are known by their great compassion for their

fellowmen, and labor unceasingly for their improvement and
enlightenment. They know that when one man falls, all fall; that when one
man rises, all rise, as all share the one life for each is bound to every living
being and thing by unbreakable bonds. Only those who are yet unaware of
their relationship to God and His creations ever injure or exploit their
brothers. Those who enslave and degrade others wind up by becoming
enslaved and degraded themselves. This is true of both nations and
individuals who hold people in bondage.

Many people are unable to see God in men, particularly in the unfortunate
members of His family such as the criminal and the depraved. Nevertheless,
despite the repellent exterior, God dwells in them, too; otherwise they could
not exist. Since God dwells in all, there is good in all. The so-called "good"
people who attempt to exterminate the so-called "bad" people end by
becoming like the bad. They should instead look for the good, or the God,
which is in them and appeal to it; the spirit will respond.

Jesus healed and reformed men because he saw them as perfect

expressions of the Father. He appealed to the Divine or Good within and
always got response. For life is a mirror in which we behold our own
reflection everywhere, and Jesus was too pure to see aught but good. Who,
for instance, had first claim upon him? It was the lepers and sinners, who
 53

were considered outside the pale by the respectable people of the

community.

We do not see God because we are short-sighted, inexperienced and lack

soul vision. We see only . the outside of men, which is often disfigured with
faults and imperfections, and which covers the real man. In order to behold
the real man, or the God within, we must pierce the exterior and see him as
he actually is, as God made him, innately Divine and beautiful. No amount of
sin and error can ever defile this inner man. While it is often impossible to
love the outer aspect of man, it is easy to love God or the Good within. A
spiritually minded person constantly strives to do this, and always thinks of
men as spirits, not as bodies or intellects.

Unfortunately for mankind, rulers are completely unaware that God and
man are one. They arc equally ignorant of man's true nature, for they believe
he is matter and exploit him only to attain their selfish aims. Life they use
primarily to promote their vanity and ambition. They protect private
property and wealth, but desecrate and destroy these temples of God, the
bodies of man. Judas was innocuous compared to the recent crop of traitors
who sold their country and millions of souls to foreign greed and power.

Leaders are needed who have reverence for human life, who realize that life
has dignity, that every man is an expression of God, and that one soul is of
far greater worth than a continent. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his soul?" The first consideration of any
government should be to safeguard human life and not to protect territory.
When millions are slaughtered for the multiplication of wealth and the
acquisition of real estate, rulers are guilty of treason against God and man.
Those who profess to love God and hate man are liars and traitors. The
masses need to be dehypnotized, to regain their usurped rights; for no man
rules by Divine right, but only by the consent of the governed.

Never has human life been held so cheaply. Never has the slaughter of
millions occasioned so little comment. When mossy monasteries, ancient
cities and antiquated cathedrals were destroyed there was loud
lamentation. When works of art were in danger they were buried deeply
underground. Yet such loss is not irreparable. Ravaged cities can be rebuilt;
 54

demolished structures replaced; damaged churches repaired and other

works of art created. But temples of God no man can raise again. There is
nothing made by hand in the house of God; they are not made of steel,
stone or wood. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
spirit of God dwelleth in you? And the temple of God is holy, which temple
ye are. And he who those destroy, him God will destroy."

Only man does not trust God. All other forms of life trust God implicitly to
supply their every need. But man with his superior ideas believes the Creator
incapable of providing for him. Man, in his folly, trusts too much in material
wealth, and little does he know how unstable it is. What is his today, is
another's tomorrow. Those who know God depend upon Him as their
source of life, love, health, knowledge, supply and power. They know
nothing can ever separate them from the Infinite.

Those who know Him, never put a limit to His Infinitude. To them, God is not
a matter of opinion: HE IS. He is boundless love, beyond the grasp of the
intellect. He alone knows, he alone understands His mysteries, to whom God
in His Infinite mercy reveals Himself. When a man realizes Him, the gates to
infinite knowledge open. When a man attains enlightenment, he knows for
certain that he is in God and that God is in him. The mysteries of this world
and the next are open books to him.

Do not seek Him—SEE HIM! Where? EVERYWHERE.

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9. ACCIDENTS

"Nothing with God is accidental."

—LONGFELLOW.

We recently read that accidents in this country alone claim the lives of
4,000,000 people a year. According to this report automobile accidents
account for the greatest number of fatalities; then come deaths due to
accidents in homes.

It is not the statistics, however, that amaze us. It is the fact that mature
people, well educated and intelligent, should believe in accidents. For the
general idea seems to be that all those who do not die in bed of old age are
victims of accidents.

Such a phenomenon as an accident has never happened, and can never

happen because the universe is governed by laws that are immutable. Its
equilibrium is more delicately balanced and more accurately adjusted than a
chronometer and regulated by the Master Hand. If accidents were possible,
the most trivial, imaginable and unpredicted one which interfered with the
established order of things would result in universal chaos and destruction.

If automobiles can accidentally collide, then suns might inadvertently crash,

as both are subject to the same laws. There are major and minor injuries, but
not major and minor accidents. Accidents so-called are the consequences of
the person's thoughts and acts, conscious or unconscious, premeditated or
spontaneous, produce the effect. For neither natural laws nor natural forces
can exercise volition or display purpose, but can be manipulated only by
living, conscious and intelligent beings. Whenever the cause of an event is
obscure, as is often the case, people see the effect as coincident or accident.
As in the darkness of night all animals appear black, so in the darkness of
ignorance all causes are obscure.

Natural laws have a strength and precision which no man can disturb, and
not even major catastrophes vary their operation by a hair's-breadth. These
laws are not to be confounded with mere human decrees which are
 56

arbitrary, changeable, local and, as well, ineffective and partial. Natural laws
are definite, inexorable, immutable, perfect and beyond the interference of
men. They have been from the beginning in exactly the same form as they
are today. They have not been added to, nor diminished. They have not
been communicates by God to emissaries; but man has discovered them as
his mind unfolded sufficiently to comprehend certain phenomena. No man
has ever succeeded breaking them; but on the other hand they have broken
many a man.

Consider how different are the laws of men! In reality no man has ever made
a law. What men term laws are only temporary makeshifts which are as
imperfect and changeable as men themselves. Indeed, many human
ordinances are a travesty of justice. Take for example the iniquitous law
of bankruptcy which permits a man to declare himself insolvent in order to
evade payment of his debts. Then later permits the use of his concealed
assets to resume business under a different name, or moves in another
community.

But ah! What a difference when the moral law is encountered! There is no
such thing as spiritual bankruptcy; this, the moral law exacts payment in full
for all debts whether contracted on earth or elsewhere. All obligations must
be fulfilled, all debts paid, all liabilities discharged before the soul can
progress and have any happiness or peace.

It is because natural laws are intrinsically and organically perfect that

astronomers can predict the position of suns and planets many years hence.
They know that there never has been, and never will be any intervention in
the operation of these laws. They dismiss all ideas of chance or accident and
rely solely on the fixed and constant operation of law; thus they can make
unerring calculations.

Students of natural laws have observed that nature never excuses any
particle of matter or spirit from obedience to her laws. They know that
every cause is followed by its invariable effect, which is first registered in the
mental world, later materializing on the objective plane in visible events.
Only the unthinking and the unobservant assume that they are exempt from
these laws.
 57

Since the issues of life and death have not been entrusted to men, they do
not always die when or how they would wish. Some are removed through
disasters such as war, pestilence, famine, drowning, fire, disease, etc. One
hears particularly in times of war of many miraculous escapes and peculiar
deaths; but these merely appear miraculous and peculiar because they are
not understood.

In no species do all attain old age, and the human variety is no exception.
The time of departure is fixed, and from this law there is no repeal.
Moreover, not all souls require a long physical embodiment, and no
scientific skill can alter the decreed length of their life.

Sometimes individuals have a premonition of the manner in which they will

meet their death and take elaborate precautions to prevent it, but to no
avail. For instance, we knew of a man who had a foreboding that
automobiles would prove fatal and under no circumstances would he ride in
them. Nevertheless, he was killed by one when crossing a street.

Birth, like death, is also governed by immutable law and no child regardless
of circumstances is ever an "accident." Children often are unwanted and
unplanned for, but never "accidents." "Man proposes but God disposes,"
and when a soul is destined for earth it gets there, human will
notwithstanding.

"It is all a matter of accident whether a child will be a boy or a girl," declares
a scientist. He further adds, "that there might be a law of 'caprice' which
governs sex." But, because scientists and parents have no jurisdiction over
sex, it does not follow that its determination is an accident. The soul of
course is sexless; but the sex of the body it will inhabit is determined long
before the advent of physical birth. Nor are parents, environment and
circumstances accidental, but the result of the soul's karma.

Who cannot recall the accidental meetings with strangers which turned the
tide of destiny? Who does not remember the peculiar times and places they
have met people who were instrumental in altering their course? In this way
some met their life partner; others met those who promoted their material
success; or brought them into a different understanding of Truth. Such
meetings appear accidental, but they are in complete accordance with law.
 58

For whenever one life touches another, it is always for a definite purpose, a
part of the universal plan.

"Chaos, complete and utter chaos has engulfed the world," lament the
apostles of gloom. Chaos is impossible in a world of universal law and order,
and what man calls chaos is but harmony misunderstood.

Many believe that war is discord, but it is no more discord than the clashing
cymbals in an orchestra which are as much a part of the score as the violins
and the wood-winds. Life is governed by immutable law and order even in
war; it has a purpose although unknown to man. Man's insanity and
stupidity do not alter or jeopardise God's ultimate plan and eternal harmony.
Man makes war and God's law knowing neither wrath nor mercy leave every
cause to work out to its inevitable conclusion.

Singularly, the law of Karma though of ancient origin, seems unknown to all
but a few religions. Even when they do, they fail to include it in their Articles
of Faith, or acquaint their followers with it. This is most unfortunate, as
human conduct would undergo revolutionary change if people knew that as
they deal with men, so men will deal with them. Men will never become
civilized or cultured until they do understand and live this law; for so long as
men do not see any relationship between causation and effect, they will
continue to inflict cruelties and barbarities upon others.

Some faddists make the claim that life could be prolonged indefinitely if
men lived in certain climates and ate only specified foods. In fact, they see
no reason why men cannot become immortal! As if they were not already
immortal! Like all materialists, they cannot conceive of life apart from the
form, so they would preserve the body forever —if they could!

But scientists will never be able to chain a race of immortals to earth. With
infinity to explore and to be condemned to this plane, would appeal only to
the crass materialist. A philosopher would deem it the worst of all possible
fates. Moreover, the soul wears out many bodies in this life, so why should it
not outlive the last and most decrepit?

"It was just his luck," say people when a man falls from a ladder and breaks
his neck. If he falls heir to a fortune, "It's just his luck again." "Luck," good or
 59

bad, is the operation of the law of cause and effect. Everyone is the creator
of his luck; everyone is the arbiter of his destiny, happiness, misery, success
or failure. Nothing ever happens to anyone for which he is not either directly
or indirectly responsible.

Many individuals wail and whine that they never had a "break." They say
that lack of education, opportunity or influence prevented them from
getting ahead. Yet nearly always their only real lack has been that of
character. With the same materials different individuals construct totally
different destinies. It is no "accident" that handicaps often are a spur to
achievement and success rather than deterrents. History and literature
afford innumerable illustrations of those who triumphed over seemingly
insurmountable obstacles. Life is not a calamity to be endured, but a
challenge to be met.

Some allege that the existence of immutable laws eliminates all exercise of
free will. They argue that men are helpless pawns in the clutch of cosmic
forces and are controlled by invisible laws that compel them to act contrary
to their will. God's laws always work with men, and never against them.
Without these laws men would have no volition at all. Men are free without
being free from these laws, and are free only because of them. Men are not
at the mercy of chance and caprice, but are protected, enfolded, sustained
and guided by Nature's great protective and beneficent laws.

Life is no puppet show. Life is an eternal drama enacted by immortal actors

who are free not only to choose their roles, but also free to interpret them.
In our eternal career we are scheduled to appear in many parts.
 60

10. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

"I depart from life as from an inn, not

as from a home."—CICERO.

Eventually there comes a time when we are faced with mysteries so

profound that we are constrained to ask WHY? WHY did this happen to me?
WHY am I in this condition? WHY am I compelled to do things not to my
liking? WHY is my life cast among people for whom I have no affinity? WHY
the frustration, disappointment, loss, separation and death of loved ones?

In order to understand some of these conditions it is frequently necessary to

go far back into our life; for many of our current perplexities and calamities
are traceable to the past. Either early in life, or even before this life, many of
the conditions now plaguing and puzzling us were set into motion. Not all of
us come "trailing clouds of glory," but bring instead quantities of unfinished
business much of it not to our liking.

Upon its arrival here, the stage is all set for the immortal actor. He has been
attracted to the parents, environments and circumstances best suited for
the manifestation of his inherent tendencies. He has drawn to himself a
body consonant to his degree of development. He has created the
limitations and advantages he will have to live and work with while here.

Since only the body is new at birth and the spirit and mind are ancient with
an infinite history behind them, infants seldom are as innocent or ignorant
as their parents think they are, but usually have a past replete with every
manner of experience and adventure. Some are old in guile and full of
experience, and have a wise and knowing look which belies their supposed
state of innocence and lack of experience. Some are wise as sages, or are
gifted geniuses and early show unmistakable signs of precocity and talent.
Others give evidence that they are not entirely unacquainted with perversity
and evil. And yet when parents find a genius or a black-sheep in their flock
they exclaim: "I can't understand it!"
 61

The theory of heredity is true so far as it goes, but it doesn't go nearly far
enough, for what we receive from our ancestors is only a fraction of what
we are, and what we will become. So far as mental, moral and spiritual
acquirements are concerned we inherit ourselves.

Every soul is an integral center from which he operates and exercises

selection and choice, and is not at the mercy of his predecessors. Children
derive from their parents a physical organism sound or unsound, their
environment favorable or unfavorable, and that is about all. Physical
resemblance does not indicate spiritual relationship as frequently parents
and their children are actually strangers, and meet for the first time on the
earth-plane. However, when one life touches another it is always for a
definite purpose, or for the working out of karma.

Souls are not always permitted to choose their earthly setting, but are given
one best suited for their progression and the unfoldment of their innate
possibilities. Birth is never accidental, but is in conformity with the law of
destiny which arises from deeds of body and mind.

Often there is little affinity for blood relatives, and when this is the case one
should realize that no one is isolated, no one can live unto himself alone, for
all are members of one large human family. Sometimes when souls are cast
into uncongenial surroundings, there may be no great benefit to the alien
one, but he benefits those whose lives he has contacted. Some people come
into our life for only a brief period; and then, like ships that pass in the night,
hail each other in passing, and disappear again into the darkness.

Not all karma is of ancient origin, for it may be immediate, as in case of

bodily injury when effect quickly follows cause. Karma may be postponed,
as the follies and excesses of youth do not always overtake one until
maturity or old age. But eventually every infraction of law exacts its penalty;
we reap as we have sown, and oftimes have a harvest we fain would
destroy.

Not many people expect to transgress physical laws with impunity, but
legion are those who believe it possible to circumvent the moral laws.
Indeed many doubt the existence of such laws. Many guilty people elude all
tribunals and justice, and often the worst crimes go undetected or
 62

unpunished, through the miscarriage of earthly laws. Some rich people

imagine that because they were able to buy earthly justice that they will be
able to buy God if they leave enough money to charity or for prayers. But
the rich no more than the poor can escape the consequences of sin.

Evasion is only postponement, and "beating the law" is a prolific source of

future unfinished business. All around us we see widespread misery and
suffering; we see children born crippled, deformed, blind and diseased. We
look for the reason for this apparent cruelty and injustice, but we do not see
the causes underlying all effects. Those who in this life are violating laws will
find themselves in the next expression of life in analogous conditions as the
consequences of their unethical conduct. Not only here but elsewhere are
there people with deformed, crippled and hideous bodies, compelled to live
in circumstances and environments anything but pleasant.

Every effect is connected to its cause in an endless succession which finally

culminates in visible events. Many who are now undergoing bitter
experiences and severe ordeals are transacting former unfinished business
or misconduct, the effects of which they thought to have escaped. Their
present suffering is payment of debts perhaps long overdue, and instead of
blaming others for their plight they had better search their conscience for a
correct understanding of their difficulties and for a means of future
prevention.

Fortunate are those who discharge their liabilities on earth; it is so much

easier and far less painful when still in the flesh. For while in the body one is
covered by a mist of ignorance which is instantly dispelled on passing to
spirit, and this sudden revelation is almost too much for the guilty one who
sees himself as he actually is. Far better to pay all debts here than to have
unfinished business awaiting us Over There.

It is on the moral plane where "the mills of the gods grind slowly but
exceedingly small," centuries sometimes elapsing between a crime and its
punishment or a cause and its effect. Moral violators seldom show any grasp
of the relationship between cause and effect and when overtaken by
retribution lament: "I don't know why this should happen to me!" And
 63

invariably they blame everything and everyone except themselves for their
predicament, even suspecting the Deity of injustice.

Volumes of unfinished business accrue from ignorance and violation of the

mental laws, for as yet the importance of right thinking has hardly
penetrated the minds of men. Few people exercise any thought control but
are at the mercy of any thoughts which come their way. Fewer yet have any
idea that they are accountable for their thoughts no less than for their
words and deeds.

For example, a man who planned to commit murder is just as guilty as if he

had accomplished it. For morally the act of murder is the intent to kill; while
legally the act involves the striking of the fatal blow. If men knew that they
do not, by death, escape the consequences of their thoughts and acts, they
would be disposed to avoid culpable deeds.

Staggering to contemplate is the unfinished business which springs from

wholesale murder or war, and not many men would wish for their souls the
responsibility of this. "Over There" the responsibility is fixed on the real and
not the apparent criminals, who are known to God, if not to man. The real
criminals are those who plot and intrigue to bring on war; those who incite
the people, inflame their passions, promulgate untruths, foment strife, and
indoctrinate men with hate for their brothers.

No man lives unto himself alone, for all lives are inextricably interwoven; and
nations, races, families, as well as the individual, are used for the settlement
of unfinished business. Settling scores does naught but set up a new crop of
unfinished business for future generations. While one cannot but help have
the utmost compassion for the victims of war, they would do well to
consider how they got in such a tragic plight. What were they doing when
they were maimed, blinded and crippled for life? Furthermore, peace is only
an armistice until the masses come to their senses and realize that anyone
who murders and destroys another's property is not a hero, but a fool.

Just as unfinished business was carried over from the past life, so we will
take with us into the next life whatever remains undone. There is no greater
superstition than that death liquidates sins and liabilities. Destruction of the
 64

physical body in no way affects the individual; his morality, obligations and
acquirements.

We are powerless to undo the past, but the future is ours to make by
present thought and conduct. While bound by the past, we can at every
moment exercise a certain amount of free will and choice and make the
future what we will. The surest way to make this pleasant and profitable is
to live each day to the highest of our knowledge, to the best of our ability,
and to avoid doing the things which will handicap us in the future life. In
other words, set no vibration into motion that will result in painful
unfinished business.
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11. SUPPLY AND DEMAND

"Man is never separated from God, his source

of life, love, health, supply and happiness."

The world faces its greatest famine. 1 Millions of people in Western Europe
have already perished of hunger, and millions more will experience a similar
fate unless definite action is taken soon. One would think that the countries
which devastated their lands would feel a moral obligation to remedy the
situation; but such is far from being the case. Some even contend that it is
the duty of the vanquished to feed the victors.

For centuries famine has stalked India and China while the rest of the world
lived in abundance. Slow mass starvation means nothing to the well-fed and
over-fed classes who glibly tell the Indians and Chinese that they have only
themselves to blame for their misery and hunger. Others equally indifferent
to the suffering and rights of others lay the blame at the door of Nature.

However, it is not Nature but man who is responsible for the world's misery
and hunger, for whenever there is a scarcity in one part of the world there is
an over-abundance in another. The anomaly of want in the midst of plenty is
due to the fact that those who have the surplus refuse to share it with the
needy. There is no need for even one person to perish from hunger, leave
alone millions. If men would cease violating the law of supply and demand,
all people would have sufficient and famine would be unknown.

Surely it is common sense and better for the. health of society for all to have
sufficient for their needs, than for the majority to lack and the minority to
have too much. A man who would permit a member of his family to be
hungry and in distress while he and the others were well-fed and had a
superfluity would be a monster. This is what ails the social system. There are
too many monsters whose greed reminds one of hungry dogs who not only
eat, their own portion, but devour the food on the plates of others.

1
October, 1946.
 66

The existing social and economic order is about as healthful as a man

suffering from cancer. When one part of the body draws upon another, or is
opposed to the other, every species of evil, pain, wretchedness and
disorganization is generated. Cancer in man cannot be cured unless the
roots of the disease are completely extirpated, which usually means a
removal of a large portion of the unhealthy tissue. No less drastic treatment
will suffice for the cure of social cancer.

Nothing is more hazardous than extirpating social cancer. Alleviating the

symptoms is applauded and approved; but woe unto him who would
remove its causes—as for example, war, crime and poverty. He is
ostracized, persecuted and often thrown in prison; for those entrenched in
economic power exhibit horror at any curative measures. But millions of
afflicted people, who possess nothing, and can only gain something,
welcome them.

Despite hostile opposition, progress is being made in the eradication of

social cancer and its deadly contributory roots. Social legislation is being
enacted compelling ruthless and greedy industrialists to do what they
should have done voluntarily long ago—namely, to provide for their
employees' unproductive years. Until recently they squeezed them dry and
then threw them on the social scrap-heap to starve, or to subsist on charity.
Now employers, much to their chagrin, must contribute towards
unemployment and Old Age Insurance. These are only first steps on the road
to a happy and healthy commonwealth, and incredibly naive are those who
think they can obstruct social progress.

There remain some conspicuous examples of social stiff-neckedness who

refuse to move with the changing order. Workers they regard as a separate
class of inferior animals who must be kept poor or else they will cease to
slave for the enrichment of their economic exploiters. But if poverty is
beneficial for some it is beneficial for all, as all men are animated by the
same Spirit, and all tend towards the same goal.

Then too, the law of supply and demand is not generally understood. Most
people confound the channels with the source and assume that with the
loss of employment, securities or savings that the supply is diminished or
 67

dissipated. There is, however, but one source of supply, and that is God, and
the Infinite can neither be increased nor decreased.

Some will surely object and ask: "If the supply cannot be lessened, what
happened to it during the depression when millions were unemployed,
hungry and in dire distress?" There was no lack of supply; but an artificial
condition of scarcity was created by designing and unscrupulous men whose
main interest was filling their purses. So they deliberately clogged the
channels of distribution and diverted to their own use what rightfully
belonged to others, thus creating economic dislocations and social
maladjustments. This monstrous situation, coupled with the destruction of
natural wealth; contempt of human rights; and the removal of men from
public office who would not conform, were the order of the day and
brought about the debacle.

Today an analogous condition exists, except that restriction has replaced

destruction in order to create the illusion of scarcity. While the method is
not so apparent, the result is equally effective—greater profits for the few.
Multitudes are allowed to go hungry so that a minority may profit and
become wealthy. Even though half the world is hungry, in need of clothing
and shelter, restrictions prevail. The result is high prices which are the
motive.

A famous financial expert recently made an accurate diagnosis of our

monetary system. He said: "The present money system will work when we
reform our system of taxation. In this country we tax everything;
necessities, luxuries, amusements, transportation, and everyone who works
and earns more than a subsistence. We tax all but the man who has a million
dollars idle in the bank. Present system favors hoarding and penalizes
spending. Those who control investment funds say: 'We will spend our
money or not as we please. And we will invest only if we are assured a
satisfactory profit to ourselves, and not otherwise. Let the people starve for
all we care, or let the government feed, clothe and house the idle and
hungry.' Idle funds should be taxed, thus lightening the burden of those
who work and produce."
 68

Many people assume that in order to get rich they must appropriate what
belongs to others. Such gains are always temporary, eventually
impoverishing the thief. Taking what belongs to others does not lessen the
total amount, we only make it less to those we rob. Whenever a man
accumulates and keeps for himself a hundred times more than he, needs, he
deprives at least a hundred people of the necessities of life. There is nothing
wrong about being a millionaire—if all could be millionaires. Money in itself
has no creative power; and when a man lives off interest or dividends, he
lives off the labor of his fellowmen.

Maladjustments are further increased by the fact that as soon as there is an

increased demand for anything, the cost of the item increases in proportion
to its scarcity. People fear the supply will fail and they create a false value by
increasing their demands. This occurs because people are governed by the
law of self-interest and not the Golden Rule.

People fear the shortage of oil and rubber. But the supply will last as long as
the demand, when something else will appear, as it always has.
Unfortunately, new discoveries are often unwelcome and suppressed
because they will interfere with the profits of a current and often inferior
and outmoded article. It is common knowledge that large corporations
spend millions every year for the express purpose of keeping inventions
from the public.

The law of supply and demand, like all natural laws, is not concerned with
the worth of the individual; its only requirement is undeviating obedience.
Consequently, those who achieve the greatest benefits from the law's
application and manifest abundance, are those who harmonize themselves
with it. For example, the farmer who has the most extensive knowledge of
the laws of agriculture, and follows them implicitly, will have an abundant
harvest even though he may be a rogue or a reprobate. On the other hand,
the man who is ignorant of these laws, or fails to comply with them, will
have scant crops, regardless of worth or character. Hence it is not
uncommon to see selfish and dishonest men have an over-abundance, while
the worthy, kind and devout often lack the necessities.
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When in harmony with the law of supply and demand it is as easy to

manifest thousands as hundreds of dollars. The injury and injustice arises not
from the accumulation, but in the refusal to share it. All the wealth of the
world comes from the land and belongs to the Creator, and is only loaned to
man for 70 or 80 years at most. Whenever one has more than he needs it
should be distributed among those who are in need. This is done by
enlightened individuals.

When one takes without giving the law is violated; when service is
exchanged or an equivalent rendered, the law is fulfilled. A man who breaks
into another's house and robs him is a thief and punishable by law. A man
who appropriates from life what belongs to others is also a thief and
punishable by spiritual law. Whatever we take from life we are obligated to
pass on. Life flows through us, and whenever we attempt to obstruct it
trouble, illness, lack, failure and unhappiness follow. When life flows
unobstructedly through us, we are in harmony with it and we are happy,
healthy and successful.

A new social consciousness is needed—the realization of abundance for all.

This consciousness, however, will never be acquired collectively; it is an
individual process, each man linking himself with the Infinite Source of
supply and claiming his inalienable birthright to physical, mental and spiritual
abundance. To go to the First Source of Supply—God—rather than to
earthly channels. The supply is Infinite, it is the demands that are made upon
it which are niggardly. When we shall have grasped this truth, then the fear
of poverty and scarcity will vanish.

Convincing an impoverished man of unlimited supply is difficult; but because

he does not understand the law does not alter it. If a man does not know
the law of mathematics he will get wrong answers to his problems. The
same is true with the law of supply and demand. That the supply is always
equal to the demand was demonstrated by some people even during the
depths of the depression; they had ample while around them were others
who lacked the necessities.

A poverty consciousness staves off supply. Men. think they are poor and
fear poverty, and because they think and fear it, they are. When we doubt
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we limit our supply, but we do not make the supply any less; we merely
lessen it to ourselves. Lack of faith clogs the channels, while faith keeps
them wide open. For instance, a man with faith who loses one position soon
obtains another.

Many erroneously suppose that getting enriches, and that giving

impoverishes. It is the reverse which is true. What you keep you lose, and
what you give is yours forever. For man owns nothing in its entirety; if he did
it would be his beyond all question; none could take it from him, or destroy
it, and upon his demise could take it with him.

Life abundant is all around us and yet some live like misers who have
fortunes concealed in their rags. How often one reads of beggars who drop
dead in the street and police find thousands of dollars stuffed in their
pockets or in banks. In order to accumulate this wealth they subsisted on
meager rations and lived in sordid surroundings. We wonder at these
wealthy paupers who lived in deprivation to hoard money. Yet how many
more live in abject intellectual poverty while all around them are mental
riches? Moreover, these are available to all for none can hinder another from
contacting the Universal Mind and acquiring all the knowledge he desires.
Nor does he have the keen, merciless competition to contend with, as he
does on the material plane.

Plato, Socrates and Aristotle possessed the greatest of mental riches while
all around them were hoards of impoverished intellects. Today, as then,
most people are content to reflect the opinions of others instead of being
original. Yet we contribute and enrich the world and ourselves only by that
which we have extracted from the Universal Mind and individualized into a
thought or an idea.

To see physical life undermined by hunger is pitiful; to see intellectual life

enfeebled is tragic; but to see spiritual life starved is calamitous. Yet
everywhere there are spiritual mendicants living in abject poverty,
enveloped in materiality. Blindly they pursue material things and ignore the
immortal truths which heal, soothe, enlighten and bless, and which, like
flowers, are scattered at their feet. The wisdom of the philosophers, seers
 71

and saints has been preserved and are easily available to all who can read.
But how few partake of them?

Lastly, it is only the intellectual and spiritual. things that man can rightly call
his own. All material things, whether he earned them, or whether he bought
them, or whether they were gifts, must be left at the threshold of death.
Therefore it is a great mistake to live poor in order to die rich, for no dead
man is rich save in good works.

"To live rich and not die rich, should be the aim of life; for it is good works
and not goods that will follow us."
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12. PREPARATION

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost;

When health is lost, something is lost;
When character is lost, all is lost."

Life is forever with us. Indeed, life is an eternal career, yet how many people
realize that as immortal souls, their main concern should be to prepare for
life, which is eternal. Living is an art with its own inexorable laws, obedience
to which is the basis of successful life and happiness.

In spite of this truth, instruction in the art of living, the most important of
the arts, is neglected in our institutions of learning. Children are drilled in
every description of physical and mental gymnastics, but left woefully
uneducated in the ways of life. No one would hope to attain proficiency or
skill in any profession without adequate instruction and appropriate study,
yet most people are of the opinion that life has no laws, or if it has, they can
be ignored and disregarded.

Unfortunately our system of education is most deficient in moral and ethical

training. Take for example the study of natural laws, instruction in which is
restricted to the material sciences such as mathematics, chemistry, physics,
etc. In the laboratory the student learns that there are definite laws
controlling matter. He sees demonstrated that action and reaction are
always equal, and that a given cause is always followed by an invariable
effect. He knows that there is never any deviation in the operation of these
laws.

But here the instruction ends. The student is not taught that every sphere of
life has its own laws, and that their action is just as undeviating and
irrevocable in ethics as in chemistry. He is not informed that man's physical,
moral, mental and spiritual life is subject to natural law. Consequently, many
young men and women leave school utterly unprepared for life.

The appalling increase of juvenile delinquency and crime attests to the fact
that those who are entrusted with the guidance of our youth have failed to
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impart the basic principles of a successful life. In our schools, the lack of
emphasis upon the character building, cultural values and that honesty is
the best policy, results in maladjustment and broken lives for many young
men and women.

Youth needs definite and concise knowledge that it is easier and far more
profitable to live an ethical life than a corrupt one. That a dishonest man can
triumph, if sufficiently clever to outwit earthly laws, is entirely too prevalent
an idea. Children follow the example of their elders even when the latter
blindly attempt to break immutable laws, only to find themselves broken.
Men who try to cheat both God and man are only too abundant these days.

In order to correct this condition it is necessary that teachers have, not only
high academic standards and sound moral character, but also practical
knowledge of life, and that they be capable of imparting this knowledge.
They should be able to inculcate cultural and spiritual values, and above all
they should make it clear that no man is exempt from the great natural laws.
They should explain that it is impossible to rob or cheat another without
doing the same to themselves. The student discovers in the laboratory that
something cannot be made out of nothing; neither can he get something for
nothing out of life, although many still cherish this delusion, even in their old
age.

Why are there such multitudes of wrecks of humanity dragging their

wretched forms through life? Why are hospitals, asylums and penal
institutions filled to overflowing? Simply because the laws of life have not
been heeded. Long ago it was conclusively proved that crime does not pay.
All history fails to record a single instance of anyone ever getting by with it.
But there is no lack of proof that men who tried it were ruined in the
attempt.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that the moral laws conspire to wreck
the unjust and unethical, numerous are the people who try to build a
successful life upon a dishonest foundation. They say it doesn't pay to be
honest, and they cite individuals who amassed fortunes fraudulently. That
some unscrupulous and corrupt persons became wealthy proves nothing.
They see only a part of life; they are not present at the inevitable hour of
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reckoning. One cannot plant thistles and reap roses on the material plane;
neither can this be done on the moral plane.

Eventually the path of knavery reaches an impasse when the misguided one
must slowly and painfully retrace his steps and undo the wrong he has done.
Retribution is merciless, knowing no abatement, no vicarious method, but
demanding that every farthing be paid, every injustice corrected.

Trial and error is foolish and costly; for life is no uncharted sea into which
men have been thrown and left abandoned to the mercy of blind forces and
cruel nature. Life has been well navigated, and enlightened voyagers have
given us the benefit of their experiences. We can follow their wise counsel
or we can ignore it. We succeed in proportion to the extent we follow their
advice, and suffer in proportion as we disregard it.

Life is merciless to cowards and weaklings who seek to evade its issues and
responsibilities and who blame others for their miserable existence. Life
eventually forces them to become adult through painful and disciplinary
measures, and after they have had abundant afflictive experiences, they will
learn that self-rule is the only safe rule.

It is unfortunate that earthly success has become synonymous with money;

indeed the man and his money are often well-nigh indistinguishable. It is
foolishly assumed that when a man HAS millions HE is wealthy. Everyone
knows men of whom it was said they died rich, when the man himself was
actually a pauper and should have been listed amongst the world's neediest
cases. Then happily we all know men of whom the reverse is true; men who
were poor in the eyes of the world but who were genuinely rich in spiritual
goods.

A distinguished writer on financial affairs who has known all of the wealthy
men of the past forty years, said that only one of them was happy; and he
wasn't happy until he had given away his money. Too often, in order to
reach the coveted top of the economic pile, friendship, love, ideals and
ethics are sacrificed. Not the money, but how it is made, does the damage.
The black magic of wealth pays its dividends in loneliness, bitterness and
unrest. And the ambition which strives to attain the material top regardless
of method, invariably leaves its victims at the spiritual bottom.
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Who would call an unhappy man successful? If you would know whether or
not a man is successful, look not at his bank account, his house or his
automobile. Look at his face and see what is written therein, indelibly
engraved for all to read.

It is well known that far more rich people commit suicide than poor; for
people who have everything money can buy often find life intolerable.
Others who rely upon the outward semblance of wealth for happiness and
security, become so bored with life they take refuge in drugs and drink in
order to endure their vain and empty existence. Such individuals attribute to
money a power which it does not possess, namely, the power to bestow
happiness and peace.

Man's real existence is spiritual, and consequently material possessions

cannot satisfy his soul. All earthly happiness wears a crown of thorns, and he
who seeks it in material things is doomed to disappointment. Moreover,
there is no happiness in bondage whether that bondage be circumstances,
emotions, bad habits or wealth.

Staggering is the price some people pay for material success. One wonders
if the game is worth the name. Which is better, to be poor and obscure at
little cost, or to be rich and famous at terrible cost? Moreover, it was written
of the rich and not of the poor that the Kingdom of Heaven would be hard
to enter. For riches more often than poverty stultify the soul. There are
many things more worth striving for than money and fame.

Of course, desire for happiness is a mainspring of endeavor. Also it is natural

for men to desire recognition. But the happiest people are those who have
the loftiest goals. Those who don't know what they are living for should ally
themselves with a worthwhile cause, notably one which renders service to
mankind. Because happiness grows from such an alliance.

It is erroneous to suppose that all men crave wealth and fame. Many do not
desire these at all, but wish only to be useful to society and to leave the
world a little better than they found it. Those who live for others choose the
wiser way; for no matter to what heights of success a man may attain in
business, political or professional life, he can always be replaced. There is,
however, one place in life which a man may vacate and leave forever empty.
 76

That is his place as a good father, a kind and loving husband and loyal friend.
No worldly success can equal these in satisfaction for the individual.

A financial success is not within the reach of all, while a successful life is.
Developing character is infinitely more meritorious and laborious than
making a fortune. Then, too, great financiers are often abysmal failures as
builders of character, which is the real purpose of life.

He who creates character in himself produces a masterpiece of far greater

worth than one created out of paper, canvas, stone or wood. He who
develops his mind and soul accomplishes the highest work of genius,—the
loftiest achievement possible for man on earth or in heaven. Nobility of soul
is the most valuable acquisition, and this is neither negotiable nor
purchasable. It is obtainable only through moral, mental and spiritual
endeavors. Capitalists who buy titles of nobility for themselves or their
children get as phony an article as dime store jewelry.

Life is a constant struggle; in fact without struggle we cannot even retain

that which we have gained. The Scriptures tell us, "That he who ruleth his
spirit is mightier than he who taketh a city." A military genius, a conquering
hero is applauded by the multitude. He is decorated, photographed,
flattered and showered with adulation. But he who wins a victory over
himself wages a lonely fight and wins a solitary triumph. There are no
medals granted, no recognition rendered, no honor bestowed and no public
acclaim. Yet the victory he has won is greater than any ever gained upon the
battlefield. He has conquered himself.

We have often heard people say they had no interest in a future life,—that
this present, terrestrial existence was enough for them. The time will
inevitably come when they will regret not having given some thought and
preparation to life hereafter. He who lives for this life only is as foolish as the
man of whom the Master spoke who built his house of life upon sand; or the
one whose philosophy is "take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry for
tomorrow we die."

Earthly life should be lived to the best of our ability, but not as if it were all;
for life follows life in endless succession. Those who were remiss in their
duties before coming here found themselves poorly equipped for the
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struggle of terrestrial existence. Those who neglect the present and fail to
make preparation for the life to come will similarly find themselves sadly
deficient in spiritual requirements. We should live so that we will have more
assets than deficits. We should think less of what we can hoard and more of
what we can take with us. Far better to accumulate spiritual wealth,
treasures in the Heavens, that faileth not, where no thief approachest,
neither moth corrupteth." Far better to be right with God than to be right
with man.

And if we have made a few hearts happier, a few minds wiser, lifted the load
of a few fellow-travelers, we shall have done a work acceptable to our
Father in Heaven. We shall have made a success of life.
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13. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH

"You call it death—this seeming endless sleep;

We call it birth—the soul at last set free.
’Tis hampered not by time or space—you weep.
Why weep at death? ’Tis immortality!"

DEATH! Who coined that awful word with its dread implication? Who
painted death with its dark and false colors? People shrink with terror when
they hear of it; their voices sink when they speak of it; their minds fill with
fear when they think of it; their whole being vibrates to a different force
when they contemplate it. They look upon it as the greatest calamity and act
as if their loved ones were no more, and become immersed in the deepest
despair.

THERE IS NO DEATH! What seems to be cessation is only transition; the soul

withdraws from the physical organism and continues to exist as an
organized entity of spirit, mind and spirit-body. The external form mingles
again with the elements of earth nevermore to be reclaimed; but the spirit is
clothed in its spiritual body which has senses and faculties corresponding to
all of the physical ones.

Death is a mystery because of its silence, but it is not a fearful one. It is the
friend who frees you, who has the key to the door that can be opened in no
other way. It comes unsought, quite often with a stealthy tread and you are
called to go elsewhere. All the collected power of the world cannot ward off
this visitor; no excuses avail; no period of waiting is permitted; no time
extended to finish earthly business. If your pen is lifted you may not be able
to write. You may be active in your daily duties when this messenger arrives;
or it may overtake you in your sleep, to awaken in another state of
consciousness.

Death, the last act on the stage of human activity, liberates the soul from
the bondage of the flesh. It is but a breath and life anew is experienced; and
unlike moving from one earthly locality to another, this change is easily and
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quickly effected. No garments are required; no possessions are taken; the

only preparation needed is a mental and spiritual one.

On your arrival in the land of spirit you are always met, usually by your
nearest and dearest ones who have requested and been granted permission
to greet you. They understand what you have been through for while the
experience is new to you, it has already been theirs. They also knew the
momentary terror you felt when you released the hand of friend or relative.
They, too, underwent the sorrow of bidding farewell to loved ones.

You will not necessarily dwell with those you lived with on earth; rarely will
you always be together, no more than on earth were you constantly with
them. You will be led to those who have greater wisdom and wider
experience, enabling you to progress more rapidly.

You will not be changed beyond recognition! You will not be changed at all!
Death effects no alteration in appearance or in the intellectual, emotional,
moral and spiritual nature of man. Death changes a man no more than does
moving from one city to another; nor does it absolve him from his moral
obligations. Evil men are not transformed into angels, nor good men into
demons. Human nature here is human nature there.

No fabrication is more pernicious than the one which makes death an

avenue of escape from the consequences of one's acts. As, for example, the
suicide who hopes for oblivion. Dissolution, he believes, will save him from
his sins and free him from his troubles and obligations. Whereas, if he knew
the truth, that there is no escape from life and its problems, he would not be
apt to make such a dreadful mistake as destroying his body. Suicide solves
no difficulties; it erases no errors; they must be solved in a future day under
conditions less favorable.

So long as man is convinced that through faith he can secure forgiveness, so

long will he gratify his evil desires. So long as he believes that through death
he will be absolved from his sins, so long will he continue many practices he
would abandon if he knew that life is eternal, continuous and changeless;
that fulfillment of its duties and payment of its debts are inescapable.
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The goal reached on earth is the starting point Over There. While on earth
you form certain habits; develop inherent faculties and unfold latent
capacities, and if you have enlightenment build your character. As you
acquire wisdom you discard undesirable habits, modify intolerant opinions
and overcome the defects which retard your progression. So by the time
you are old, your character is closer to perfection than when you were
young. Your acquirements, capacities and abilities determine your status on
earth; they will also decide your position in the spirit world. Death in no way
affects man's status or his accomplishments, and what is known to man will
be known to spirit.

Contrary to some peculiar ideas no soul is ever transported into the

presence of the Most High, nor onto the bosom of Jesus with all its sins
miraculously washed away. They will find themselves instead in a place
congenial to their nature and consonant with their manner of thinking and
living. Some souls gravitate to higher planes, others to lower; but many
remain on earth chained to their material interests and their physical
desires. Wise are they who overcome the desires of the flesh and the
attractions of matter; let their vices die before them, so that they will be
prepared to live in spirit.

"He is at peace, he is happy NOW." How often one hears these expressions
at burial services. But death is no gain and cannot give us what we do not
already have. Unless one has happiness and peace here it is folly to suppose
he will have them elsewhere. Felicity and serenity are not vicarious gifts;
they are states of mind which must be earned, and having been earned must
be guarded very carefully.

Unquestionably the most criminal hoax ever perpetrated on mankind is the

belief that when the body is laid in the grave the man is laid there also. And
that when the organs of sense are buried, the senses also are interred. This
deception has caused untold sorrow and suffering.

This fallacy is also responsible for another great evil, namely the extravagant
expenditure upon funerals. The pagan preoccupation with the body has in
every age been a source of much mischief and has contributed greatly to the
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impoverishment of the people. It is a custom universally deplored by

enlightened people, but which no efforts seem able to eradicate.

It is only too evident that people are ignorant as ever as regards their true
nature. For at the request of relatives, the government is planning to bring
300,000 bodies of American boys buried abroad to this country for
repatriation. The cost of this project will be over $333,000,000 which would
be as naught IF it brought the boys back. But, alas, all the money and power
in the world cannot restore life to a single body. Then why all the
expenditure upon corpses? Because the bereaved parents, unable to
conceive of life apart from the form, wish them returned home and to honor
them with a memorial service.

Honor the victims of war by reburial of their corpses? Who benefits by it? No
one.

There is only ONE way to honor these slaughtered boys. Honor them by
preventing another catastrophic war from being passed on to another
generation.

Another egregious error cherished by many is that the citizens of the higher
realms spend their time resting, sleeping and mulling over the past.
However, life Over There is entirely different from these orthodox
misconceptions. Pause a moment and consider. Many people commence
things on earth which they desired with all their soul but were forced to give
up, and must wait until passing to spirit before resuming these occupations
or interests. These they do resume and perfect, and then return to earth to
help those struggling with similar studies and problems.

For example, many on earth longed to sing but had no voice. Others lost
their voices yet had a song in their heart all their days. On passing to spirit
they perfect their singing and return to earth to help discouraged students
and inspire them to greater effort. The same is true of other vocations, for
all occupations not purely material are continued. Life needs completion and
fulfillment; interrupted plans, deferred hopes and uncompleted designs, all
aspirations and longings find realization Over There. Nothing worthwhile
can be accomplished in one short earthly life.
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Indeed there is much to be done Over There. Many labor caring for the sick,
and for those who have taken their own lives. Others teach people on earth
to understand its laws better, and to help them understand their fellowmen.
All souls on leaving the earth-plane must be met on coming to spirit. The
departed often return for hundreds of years to assist the troubled ones of
earth to conquer error, despair and superstition. Everyone labors for others
in the name of love and kindness, and for a common end in which all are
mutually interested and benefited. There are periods for repose but they are
employed in study, meditation and contemplation.

Heaven and earth are in reality ONE; not many but ONE world with only a
thin veil between the spheres. The so-called "other side" of life is very close
to this one—as close as you will have it, so do not close the door to it.
Communications can be had with its inhabitants while still in the flesh,
telepathy being the method used. One of the conditions that strikes the
newcomer most forcibly is the prevailing silence; for with the exception of
the planes where dwell the children, birds and animals, thought and music
are the means of communication.

How do the people look Over There? They look as they did in earthly life at
their best; returning to the age of beauty, happiness and health. You find
not only youth, but also aged persons, well and perfect of their type.

There are many degrees of the so-called Heaven and Hell as by no means is
all bright and glorious beyond the vale. There are places where go those
who have little spiritual enlightenment, whose tastes and habits are against
the accepted laws of their country. Those who are depraved, whose
intelligence is not far removed from the animal; those who spent the major
part of their lives in selfishness, taking advantage of their fellowmen, with
few good deeds to their credit—do not find even a reflection of Heaven.
Instead they gravitate to the place prepared by themselves, surrounded by
the effects of their evil thoughts and deeds.

It is an historical fact that all the greatest criminals have sat in the seats of
the mighty. There are no lack of accounts of tyrants in power, rogues in
control, imbeciles on thrones who showed their contempt for God by
making war, which resulted in unspeakable oppression and retrogression for
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the human race. Death is the great leveler. Those who on earth abused their
positions of trust and power will find themselves in very different and
inferior circumstances in the spirit world.

"Dead men do tell tales," notwithstanding the widespread fallacy that the
departed are so remote from terrestrial scenes that they have no
knowledge of what occurs here. "Dead" men do communicate with people
on earth; sometimes disclosing the manner of their passing, and unknown
circumstances connected with it. Moreover, all the inventions, discoveries
and knowledge on earth were relayed by discarnate entities to those whose
minds were sufficiently sensitive and receptive. Absolutely nothing
originates on the earth-plane; all things have a spiritual origin. The "dead"
are not mute; it is we on earth who are spiritually deaf, dumb and blind.

"He was stingy, mean and selfish," or "he was generous, kind and
charitable." There is no past tense for man. Man IS. As he is before death, so
he is after death.

"His troubles are over," is another common expression used by those who
cling to the oblivion theory. All troubles, with the exception of physical
conditions, man takes with him into the next world. Life is synonymous with
struggle; all created things evolve through conflict which is proportionate to
their degree of development. Not until the soul becomes emotionless and at
peace are its troubles over.

"How happy and proud a mother or father would be if they could now see
their child grown to maturity." "He or she would turn over in the grave if
they had any idea of what is going on." "I am so glad that they didn't live to
see certain conditions transpiring on earth." The general supposition seems
to be that when a soul discards his physical body that he is no longer
conscious, or that he is so remote from earth he can have no knowledge of
its activities. Consequently people say and do many things they would never
say and do if the departed were present. Nevertheless, the "dead" are often
a silent auditor and witness, and some of the things they hear and see make
them writhe and squirm. Furthermore, they usually are present at the
reading of their wills, which often proves to be a painful and revelatory
experience.
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"We will be a long time dead," is a common statement true only of those
who pass on in spiritual darkness; those who refuse to believe in an after
life. Even as on earth some people are obstinate and close their minds to
spiritual truths, so they are obstinate in spirit and reject the fact of
immortality. Such as these are unaware that they have passed on but
imagine they are dreaming, and in this state often wander on the earthplane
for years. Of these it truly can be said that "they are dead for a longe time."

"They will live again," is an oft-heard phrase. But in reality no one ever
ceases to live. Forms and habitations change, but life, the eternal stream of
consciousness, continues forever without interruption.

How did this state of affairs ever come about that men have so completely
forgotten the nobleness of their origin and the grandeur of their destiny?
Their plight can be compared to that of a wealthy man who has lost
conscious knowledge of his identity, believes he is poor and lives like a
pauper.

The ancients tell us that man's association with matters begins long before
his advent into the physical body; that he does not suddenly "fall" into
matter but by gradual, successive and insensible alterations. Pure spirit
dwells originally among the fixed stars and first surrounds itself with a body
composed of their essence before it becomes involved into a physical body.
Then as it journeys through the various spheres envelops itself with ethereal
matter more and more gross, eventually descending into the earthly form it
attracted.

It is during its pilgrimage into matter that the soul gradually forgets its
heavenly home and its Divine Nature, and by the time it reaches earth dim
indeed are memories of its former estate. If souls carried with them into the
bodies they occupy all the knowledge they had acquired in Heaven, men
would not differ in opinion as to the Deity and Divine Truths. But some
forget more, and some less of that which they had learned prior to physical
birth. And some forget so much they even deny the existence of the Creator
and the immortality of the soul.

Fortunate are they who have knowledge of immortality when death enters
the home, as eventually it does every home. When the grave opens up and
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seemingly swallows all that life holds dear, of what comfort is it to be told
that the loved one is now eternally at rest, or forever asleep in the Lord?
When hearts are breaking at the thought of farewell who can derive
consolation from a desolate "perhaps" that in some remote time there may
be a reunion? Contrast this pagan attitude towards death with that of the
early Christians who rejoiced and gave thanks to God when one of their
number had departed from this world.

It is not death but life which separates people. As our lives diverge we grow
apart from friends and relatives, not physically but mystically. We are
separated not by space or distance but by lack of affinity and similarity of
tastes. Quite often, too, the soul on earth finds itself in uncongenial
surroundings. Quite often one member of a family feels alien and strange,
and yet the path of duty is definite and responsibilities are great. So rather
than wound others by breaking away, the soul prefers to live in an
uncongenial atmosphere. In the land of spirit this is not necessary. The soul
is attracted towards those with whom it is at home, with those for whom it
has affinity. The way is quite clear; it is not decided by desire, but by the
ability of the newcomer to adapt himself and give obedience to the laws.

Is the spirit world a place of realities or phantoms? The spirit world is as real
and tangible to the spirit-body as the material world is to the physical body.
It is the world of realities of which the earth world is the shadow, and
wherein all things have' their eternal pattern.

Men rejoice at birth and weep at death; in reality they should do the reverse.
Birth is death to the soul, while death is the soul's resurrection; and is not an
occasion for mourning but for rejoicing that a soul has risen!

The gateway of death is not dark! It is the entrance into the most beautiful
of countries! All the loved ones we knew long ago are waiting for us, for
where there is love there is no separation. Death has no dominion over the
immortal soul. Time never was when man was not; time never will be when
man is not. Suns and systems will perish—the great universe will pass like a
dream, yet man will still live.

Death is not the conqueror of man; man is the conqueror of death!

 86

"Farewell, dear voyageur—the river winds and turns;

The cadence of your song wafts near to me,
And now you know the thing that all men learn;
There is no death—there's immortality!"

FOR US

If we have not learned that God's in man,

And man in God again,
That to love thy God is to love thy brother,
And to serve thy God is to serve each other—
Then Christ was born in vain!

If we have not learned that one man's life

In all men lives again;
That each man's battle, fought alone,
Is won or lost for everyone
Then Christ hath lived in vain!

If we have not learned that death's no break

In life's unceasing chain,
That the work in one life well begun
In others is finished, by others is done—
Then Christ hath died in vain!

If we have not learned of immortal life,

And a future free from pain,
The Kingdom of God in the heart of man,
And the living world on heaven's plan—
Then Christ arose in vain!
Charlotte Perkins Gilman