Be satisfied with sensuous joys, That age so soon! Are not all things wherein Lie bonds and death! Yea, in those very joys Lurk gaol and headsman. They who seek t'indulge Their lusts needs must thereafter suffer ills. Him will straw-torches burn who holds them long And lets not go. So, in the parable, Desires of sense burn them who let not go. Cast not away, because of some vain joy Of sense, the vaster happiness sublime, Lest like the finny carp thou gulp the hook, Only to find thyself for that foredone. Tame thou thyself in sense-desires, nor let Thyself be bound by them, as is a dog Bound by a chain; else will they do forsooth With thee as hungry pariahs do with dogs. 4. Once more I say: immeasurable Ills And many weary miseries of mind Thou'lt suffer yoked to life of sense. Renounce, Renounce desires of sense! They pass away. reborn, Truth the 5. Endurance in the Truth Teacher taught— This is the source, the root of Peace; This the first link in the long Line of Cause; This is Nirvana, endless calm and joy. Thus acting, they who put their trust in this Wisdom Supreme lose every wish and hope Of coming back to earth-and, thus released, They from all passion's stain are purified. SELECTION XXIX. (Experience of Gaudama the Buddha) There is, that groweth never old. O SCARCE thirty years were mine, the how Canst thou be satisfied with sense desires blessed Teacher said, when I forsook all else to seek the Highest Good; and now Uor M Full fifty years have I fared forth as strenuous pilgrim Nor knows, nor can, Celestial Joy who in the senses live. Through the wide realms of Right- | And none can others blame or eousness and Truth Where, and where only, can be And makes its own environment, praise; self-wrought is all. Each finite self an effluence and a refluence is Of the Self Infinite, but, as a god, endowed With self-hood and free-choice eternal as the Source. This is its Karma: reaping what- 5. Within an atmosphere, environ ever it has sown, ment or sheath And sowing, by free choice, what- Of its own making-according to its ever it shall reap; The harvest is Prov-rittika-pas sion, turmoil, strife— wish and will Each self exists and travels; surrounded Or blest Nirvana-calmness, tran- By a countless, e'er-increasing host quility and peace. Free-will to sow and reap, or this or that, is given to all. of living forms, Embodiments of every thought or wish indulged. forms, or bad or good, 3. Who lives for sensuous joys doth | This all-encircling host of living bind the wings And blind the vision of the immortal | Are evil demons to torment or shinself; ing messengers Who lives for Purity and Truth To guard and minister; each thought doth upward rise, With vision clear, on wings of Faith and Love To the Eternal Good; like tends to like; downward or wish, or bad or good, Becomes a demon or an angel to in crease the self-surrounding host. 6. Thus its own hell or heaven each self doth make; Or upward sinks or soars the self as Carries, as atmosphere, environment it doth choose Darkness and Error or Eternal Light and Rectitude. All have, according to Eternal Law, whate'er they wish and will. 4. Untested never can one comprehend or know or sheath, Its self-made hell or heaven whence And others, as protector strong and The sweetness of Celestial Joy; by Such is the Eternal Law of finite observations sensuous selfhood and freewill: The super-sensuous ne'er can be ap- Whate'er one thinks one is and, prehended or explained. more and more, becomes Both for one's self and others, woe or weal; each thought Indulged weakens or strengthens, degrades or elevates, All the sands of the seashore in number are less. 2. The flowers in their beauty spring up at Thy feet, Making the Karma which conditions Attend all Thy steps and o'ershadow and constrains All dreadful Hells and all Nirvanas bright and calm. Thy seat; On all who surround Thee a radiance is shed 7. They who are slaves to lust drift By the halo of light that encircles down the stream, Like to a spider gliding down the web He of himself has wrought. But the released, Who all their bonds have snapt in twain, With thoughts elsewhere intent, forsake the world, And all delight in sense put far away. 8. Be pure and free; even as the full orbed moon Behind the darkest cloud sails clear on high; So, pure and free from all that hides or hinders thee Heart pure, mind free-move on, move on! Softly and brightly, with all things at peace, Wrapt in the robes of light thyself hast made, Scattering the clouds of ignorance and sin, move on! SELECTION XXX. (Arranged from Brahmanic-Buddhist Hymns.) 1. Compassionate Saviour, Revealer of life! Thy head. 3. Like the sun, when full-orbed in an unclouded sky, Thy beams cause all shadows and darkness to fly; Thy mercy resembles a fathomless sea, And to all it is offered impartial and free. 4. All toilers who struggle, all sufferers who grieve, Thine arms are outstretched to help and relieve; Through rough paths of Karma they guide to the Rest Of peaceful Nirvana, the Home of the Blest. 5. Like a Shepherd Thou watchest with tenderest care, In Thy bosom the wayward and wandering dost bear; The friendless and helpless, the outcast and weak Thou dost ever, and ever, and everywhere seek. 6. Compassionate Saviour, O help us to heed The laws of Thy Path, which to righteousness lead; Bring peace to all victims of sorrow Thy wisdom and goodness assure us and strife! Thy fulness of pity no words can of Rest In the Home of the Holy-Nirvana express; the Blest.-Amen. SELECTION XXXI. (Arranged from Brahmanic-Buddhist Hymns.) 1. O blessed Nirvana! what language can tell The beauty and glory which there ever dwell! The secrets of knowledge unveiled we behold And treasures of Wisdom more precious than gold. 2. In that Land of the Blesséd the flowers never fade; Each terraced ascent is of diamond and jade; Nirvana, the land of the great Diamond Throne. 4. Their forms all ethereal, all spotless and bright, Resplendent with beauty and radiant with light; Around them green fields, above them clear skies; No sun ever scorches, no cold winds arise. 5. All errors corrected, all mysteries made clear, Their peace is unruffled by sin or by fear; And the truth, that before was by darkness concealed, The law of perfection is sung by Like a gem without fracture or flaw each bird, In garden and meadow their music is heard. 3. From all worlds assembled redeemed souls are found, is revealed. 6. Through numberless Kalpas their time flows along In missions of mercy, and not idle song; Transfigured with virtue and wis- For endless compassion, and not dom profound; They cease not to wonder, nor cease to make known endless rest, Is the glory and joy of Nirvana the Blest.-Amen. GRECIAN SCRIPTURES-GENERAL SELECTIONS DI-OS: Heaven-Parent, Father-Mother, Our Father, Our Mother. SELECTION I. EVERY man is created with two sets of eyes, those of the body and those of the soul. The eyes of the soul are never open while one remains in the animal or sensuous stage of development; only as one rises into the stage of spirituality are these inward eyes quickened into clear vision; until then soulblindness is the condition of man as of the beasts below and around him. The World of Reality is, to these, as if it were not; only the palpable exists and all else is non-existent. But those who are twice-born, who have risen to the spiritual stage, find the eyes of the soul open and rejoicingly see a new world-the World of Reality, full of Beauty and Truth, of which all palpable objects are only transitory and imperfect manifestations. Eternal Life, the Energy of All 3. The One Supreme Intelligence 4. The Author of all things is too great to owe existence to any other than Himself; nothing is hidden from His sight; night and slumber never weigh upon that Infinite Eye which alone looks upon the Truth. By Him we see, from Him we have all we possess. Giver of all good, Ordainer of all that is and of all that will be; it is He who makes all, and who gives all. In Him are the beginning, the end, the measure, and the destiny, of everything. 2. We sing that eternal, wise, allperfect Love, which brought order out of chaos; the empyrean, the earth, the ocean, all that is, all that has been, and all that will be was and is contained in His fruitful bosom. He is first and last, the be- 5. He is, by nature, the Father of ginning and the end; all beings de- men; and all best men He calls His rive their origin from Him. He is sons. When we sin, He does not Primeval Parent, Immortal Virgin, | turn from us; He is not angry; He |