Christ nor His disciples anywhere speak in favor of the anthropomorphic God of the Old Testament.

Where is God? In His kingdom. Where is His kingdom? "The kingdom of God is within you", says Christ (Luke, xvii, 21). In Romans, x, 8, Paul says:

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith, which we preach.

And in I Corinthians, iii, 16-17, he says:

For we are God's fellow-workers; ye are God's husbandry, God's building. Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Reading again Christ's answer to the lawyer, we shall see that he meant that we should love the Lord within us, or aspire to our seventh principle, Atma, and practice altruism, or regard all men as brothers, in our relations with our fellows. The worship of an anthropomorphic God is limiting and illogical, and the worship of an impersonal power, on the other hand, is something the mind cannot grasp.

As to prayer, Christ did not condemn it, but he enjoined (Matthew, vi:

When thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut the door [to the external senses] pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which is in secret shall recompense thee.

In the Key to Theosophy it is fully shown that He meant by prayer an aspiration or desire unto the highest principle in man, the spiritual spark, the Atma. The passage quoted has been misconstrued by the orthodox for centuries, for they have built costly palaces to pray in, and even pray on the street corners, just as the hypocrites and Gentiles did in the time of Christ.

Christ taught reïncarnation in the case of the man born blind and in his reference to John. Paul taught Karma in I Corinthians, iii, 8:

Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one; but each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

And in Colossians, iii, 25, where he says:

For he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.

See also Galatians, v, 7:

For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.

Nothing has been so much adduced to the world at large to show the divinity of Christ as the alleged fact that he performed miracles, or contravened the laws of nature. That he did so

Theosophists will respectfully deny, and assert that anyone who has become a Christos has such powers, entirely within the laws of nature, as to perform acts which seem to the ordinary eye wonderful or miraculous. Things which years ago would have been called a miracle, or sorcery, are to-day commonplace: for instance, our great power over the forces of nature, which is as nothing to what will be. The border-line of the mysterious is being daily passed and its field becoming more and more limited, and to-day the scientific or metaphysical mind pays no attention to the word "miracle" in a literal sense. For one, I believe that the so-called miracles of Christ have a spiritual explanation, if the events took place. He never boasted of them, and said of those alleged to be dead that they were not dead. In all ages miracles have been declared, and are said to-day to be performed at the shrines of Roman Catholic saints, etc. The miracles of Apollonius of Tyana, in a gross sense, are as well, if not better proven than those of Christ; and wonderful things are done by Indian Yogis and by Adepts, but they are all within the law of nature. If Christ performed miracles, others did in his day. (See Mark, ix, 38.)

John said unto him, "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followed not us." But Jesus said, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a mighty work [or better, who has a mighty power] in my name, and be able to quickly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us."

The same circumstance is repeated in Luke, ix, 49-50, and the answer is the same. Now just before this Jesus was said to have cast out an evil spirit from a child; and his reply above was not only an admission that those on his plane could do like things, but also a plea for toleration. In Acts, viii, we find Simon Magus performing wonders in Samaria, but as to him read the able articles of Mr. Mead in Lucifer, our London magazine.

If you ask why the church has so largely departed from the esoteric doctrine, I answer, Because the Church was founded on Peter. Christ foretold that he would betray him. He did betray him before the crucifixion, and afterwards, for he understood not the inner teaching and taught largely the exoteric doctrine. He sowed dissension among the congregations, and Paul preached against him and Barnabas boldly, but the words of Paul were not understood by the many, and were gradually forgotten. The only reason why Paul stands preeminent among the Apostles is because he knew and taught esoteric Christianity.

H. W. CRAGIN, F. T. S.

WA

KOREAN STORIES.

(Begun July, 1893)

III.

A CHINESE STORY OF REINCARNATION.

ANG-SU-IN was the Governor of a province in China, and

lived about one thousand years ago.

there was a temple in which for

५

五

In this province

open

door man

is shut door man

5- o years ago Wang-Sa-dn

PA

門

人是閉門

years the priests had kept sacred from intrusion a cabinet or box. This box had been closed by a high priest of the temple before his death, which had occurred fifty years previous, with the strict injunction that it should never be opened. The Governor, hearing of this box, conceived the most intense desire to view the contents; this being refused by the priests in charge, he was obliged to use his authority to have it opened, whereupon he discovered a paper within inscribed with a verse giving the number of years since the box was closed, the age and name (Wang-Su-In) of the Governor who now opened the box, and saying that "he who had shut the box was he who opened it". All this was written in Chinese characters or hieroglyphs, so that it left no question as to the identity of the Governor with the Priest who had died fifty years before and who had been able to foresee his next reincarnation. This story and its hero were so well known and so popular among the Chinese that since then the Confucians have

人

some belief in a future state. Confucianism, being a moral philosophy rather than a religion, is of materialistic tendency, and contains no teaching of a future life.

The foregoing is the verse of Chinese characters found written on the paper within the box.

IV.

TIGER STORY.

There was a young man who ardently longed for knowledge. His heart was sad, not knowing where to find a Master to lead him to Divine Wisdom. He feared that he might not be able to become the pupil of such a Master should he find one, and perhaps the earth was all too unholy to still contain such wonderful beings. One day he heard a vague story that in a certain mountain there lived a Master whose wisdom was like unto that of a God. But no one could tell him how to reach this Teacher, who was said to live in the deepest recesses of the mountain, and the path which led to Him was surrounded with so many dangers that no human being could possibly pass them all in safety.

The young man was so eager to find a Master that he determined to try, although all was so difficult and uncertain. After weary search he discovered a narrow path almost obscured by long grass. He traversed it patiently until between high hills this path disappeared in a stream which crossed his way. So foul and so terrible was this stream that he dared not risk the crossing, but after a little his strong faith forced him through, and he gained the other shore only to find his further progress checked by thousands of poisonous serpents. Despairing he sat all day on a distant hill, hoping they might disappear, but, alas, the serpents only increased in number. With sorrow he thought he must abandon his noble desire to press on, but he reflected it were neither manly nor righteous to cowardly relinquish his task; rather would he lose his life than give up his search after Divine Wisdom. With invincible determination he pressed through the army of serpents without injury. Elated with his success, he had proceeded but a short distance when from high banks came a thick shower of rocks, any one of which falling on him would kill him. Sad and discouraged, he dared not return for fear of again encountering the army of serpents, so he bravely ventured on and remained uninjured. All these trials over, he hoped to see some traces at least of the Master he sought, but all was silence. At last this unhappy traveller lifted his weary eyes, only to be

hold advancing on him a tiger of tremendous size. It approached so near there was surely now no escape; he thought, "Is this the end of all my labors, to be torn in pieces by this wild beast?"

Suddenly his intuition awakened. Rushing forward he fearlessly threw his arms around the tiger's neck and cried: "My Master, I know you are my Master". The tiger disappeared, and in his place stood a dignified and holy man, who kindly accepted this earnest seeker as a pupil. The young man eventually became a great Adept through the teaching of this wonderful Master. POм K. SOн.

LITERARY NOTES.

JUNE LUCIFER. Bertram Keightley's "Necessity for the Study of Metaphysic" is both able and useful, full of nutrition for Theosophists. "Free Will and Karma" by W. Kingsland is a fine paper and with wise distinctions, but the assertion that the unit of consciousness we call "I" is the aggregate and sequence of the cells or molecules of our body is a rather startling dictum of extreme materialism. Dr. Hartmann in "The Foundation of Christian Mysticism" administers a powerful blow to certain metaphysical theologians: 'An unconscious God, a God not knowing His own existence, would not be a God." Mrs. Besant's "Theosophy and its Practical Application" is another of those grand articles which uplift one with enthusiasm, especially the first two paragraphs and the bearing of Reincarnation upon the slums. Why is H.T.E. so savage against the Brown-Sequard elixir? Is it worse to put animal matter into the veins than into the stomach? Karma and Astrology" is a deeply interesting paper by R. B. K. Laheri, though possibly making Karma a trifle mechanical. The Fourth Dimension", by Herbert Coryn, delights and instructs: it is admirably done. Not so with Unconscious Development", an apparent effort after striking paradox, really the utterance of absurdity. Fancy "conscious effort towards moral or spiritual progress" as "of no use"! -[A. F.]

THE NEW CALIFORNIAN for June contains two papers of extraordinary merit. "A Brahmanic Legend", Carl Burell, is exquisite, simply exquisite. Dr. Jerome A. Anderson's “Dealings with the Dead" is a clear and close analysis of spiritualistic phenomena, eminently valuable and instructive. Yet many of us must strongly oppose the statement (p. 384) that the consciousness of the physical cells is synthesized in the Atmic Ray, man's Seventh Principle! -[A. F.]

JUNE THEOSOPHIST is a monumental number. "Old Diary Leaves XV" is of such singular, transcendent interest as perhaps to be surpassed by nothing in literature. Col. Olcott gives further details as to the agencies writing by or through H. P. B., one a famous Platonist disincarnated in 1687, others Masters, each distinctly individual, and recognizable by the bodily mannerisms she at the time displayed. Strange, thrilling incidents are told of these various in