HYMN CCLIII.

ALL FORMS OF LIFE, FROM SPECK TO SUN.

L. M.-"Spohr," or "Hebron," or "Uxbridge."

1. All forms of life, from speck to sun,
In kinship and in aim are one;
One Life Divine they all express,
And toward a common glory press.

2. Transmuted by alchemic fires

The stone to human form aspires;
"The grass doth sagely plot and plan
What it will do when it is man;

3. "And striving to be man the worm
Doth mount through every spire of form;"'
While man, of every race and time,
To spheres celestial seeks to climb.

M. K. S.

HYMN CCLIV.

P. M.-"Dominus Regit."

4. All heaven-born souls do thus unlock
The secret crypt of every rock;
With grass and worm they freely talk,
"As kings unborn they with them walk."
5. No high, no low, no great, no small;
For Life Divine includes them all;
And, in the speck as in the sun,
Proclaims-all forms of life are one.

6. FATHER of Spirits, SouL of souls,
Whose boundless LIFE all lives controls,
Thine offspring all, below, above,
Unite in bonds of boundless love.

7. From all that dwell below the skies
Let songs of peace and gladness rise,
Be mutual help and mutual care
The law pervasive everywhere. -- Amen.
[The quotations are from Emerson's Poems.]

FATHER, THE MYSTERY UNFOLD.

1. FATHER, the mystery unfold Of long-prevailing Evil

Of wrongs and sufferings untold

From "demons" or from "devil"!

2. From root to worm and worm to man
A time-long strife prevailing

Of class with class and clan with clan,
No prayer or plea availing;

3. So pain and sorrow, crime and wrong
O'er all the earth, unbroken,
Still cry to Thee; how long! how long!
Giv'st Thou no sign or token?

4. Shall Evil, "demons," "devil" reign,
If Thou art wiser, stronger?
The mystery, we pray, explain
Nor hold it sealéd longer!

THE

EVOLUTION OF UNIVERSAL RELIGION.

(As illustrated by Hymn CCLI—and also by

all the Hymns, Prayers and other

teachings of this book.)

I. The Divinity of Nature as a perpetual Manifestation
of the SUPREME ONE.

II. The SUPREME ONE as the Impartial Parent of all
Mankind.

III.

Mankind as a Human Family united in the relations
of Selfless Love.

Intelligent Recognition of the first, growing into trustful Submission to the second, and eventuating in unceasing Practice of the

third- these are the three grand stages of

Spiritual Evolution in man.

Thus evolving appears, at length, a Religion that is genuinely Catholic-UNIVERSAL RELIGION.

"Prepared by the love of God,
For an eternal spirit," sent
To use it as an instrument;
Not till the "spirit" takes control
Does man become a living soul."

2. All bodies are divinely wrought

More marvelous than sun or star-
As instruments of love and thought

For souls who God's own "offspring" are;
With wondrous powers and charms possessed
He lays them on a mother's breast';
Then doth the "spirit" take control

And man becomes a living soul."'

3. A graded school of lore profound
With myriad lessons to engage —
From those of worms that crawl the ground
To those of highest saint and sage-
Is earth-life, whither God doth send
His children, countless years to spend,
That they may learn the self-control
Befitting an immortal soul.

4. Each mortal body He has made,
As instrument of thought and love,
Of this great earth-school is a grade
Wherein the soul its worth must prove;
Into these grades all are returned
Until their lessons, all, are learned;
And thus is gained the self-control
Befitting an immortal soul.

5. And not one struggle, not one lossOne deepest sorrow, sharpest pain, One bitter cup or cruel cross

That does not bring eternal gain; Lessons neglected, wisdom spurned, Demand hard tasks. till all are learned; So mortals rise to self-control

And man becomes a deathless soul.

6. All men must learn, where'er they tread
In every path beneath the stars,
That virtue lifts and crowns the head,
While vice depresses, shames and scars;
This wisely learned, earth's "karmas" cease
And blest nirvana" brings them peace:
Thus man may share Divine Control,

Enthroned and crowned-a deathless soul.- Amen.

M. K. S.

*In the ancient Jewish Scriptures we read that when Jehovah had formed the body of man He breathed into his nostrils the life-breath (the eternal "ego") and "man became a living soul."

In the Christian Scriptures we find many kindred phrases: "a body hast Thou prepared me "before Abram was I am -"destroy this body and in three days I will build another" "the glory I had with Thee before the world was"-"the logos [the eternal ego'] became flesh"-"the body without the spirit [the eternal ego'] is dead ̈*. -"we know that when these earthly tents in which we tabernacle are dissolved we shall have a house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens," etc., etc.

Mrs. Besant in Man and His Bodies, page 76, speaks of "the Ego returning to Earth-life" as follows: "Dealing, as we do here. with the present human cycle, we may say that until this [the Ego] comes into existence there is no man; there is only the physical tabernacle prepared for his habitation. When, by the power of the Infinite Self preparing its habitation, the mind [spirit] begins to evolve, then there is a downpouring from the great ocean of Atma-Buddhi which is ever brooding over the evolution of man-and this, as it were, meets the upward-growing, unfolding mind [spirit] and comes into union with it: at that point of union the individual is formed. Those who are able to see in those lofty regions say that this form-aspect of the re-incarnating man is like a delicate film of subtlest matter, just visible, marking where the individual begins his separate life, that lasts through the whole of the human evolution, the thread on which all lives are strung, the re-incarnating Sutratma, the thread-self."

EVOLUTION OF RELIGION EXPLANATIONS OF THE SYMBOL.

1. Man is essentially religious and numberless pre-historic forms of Religion existed as branches of the up-springing Tree which now spreads its more vigorous and fruitful branches over all the earth. Some of the latest of these pre-historic branches are indicated near the roots of the Tree; but others, numberless, which have entirely disappeared, are not included in this presentation.

2. Existing sub-religions or sects are indicated as twigs upon each living branch. All the existing "sect" religions once were sub-religions or "sects" of pre-historic branches, i. e. were their higher evolutions or re-forms.

3. The most saintly sages and truest prophets of the world, in all the religions and periods, have transcended their sects and eras so far as to apprehend the Catholic or Universal Religion of the period now "at hand ̈'; but the masses of mankind, with their leaders, ever have been partisan or sectarian, and so remain.

4. Demonstrations of history, science and philosophy suggest that, one after another, all Sectarian Branches will fulfil their mission and disappear their essential vitality being re-absorbed and appropriated by the Branches of Catholicity or Universal Religion now beginning to appear in all most highly civilized portions of the world.

5. Of the Religion of the Ideal Period now "at hand," no such questions should be asked as: Who shall be its leader? What its name? What its methods? All such questions belong to partisanship or sectarianism. They who choose a leader, devise a name, contrive methods, are not yet fitted for this Catholic Religion. The kingdom of heaven cometh not by observation." At the right time its true leader or leaders will arise, while its name will be unimportant and its methods spontaneous.

6. All that any man or combination of men should attempt to do is to repent" and "prepare the way." The times, seasons, leaders, names, methods, all must come by natural evolution-under direction of The ALL who is in All.