Chapter X: Part II: Lectures to Theosophical Students (3)

Now if a clairvoyant watches what is done when a sacrament is taking place, he sees that on the repetition of the words of consecration and the making of the sign of power a visible change occurs in the consecrated object. It is most marked if we turn to the Mass, or Holy Communion. You have there on the altar the sacred elements—the bread and the wine. According to the Roman Catholic doctrine, at the words of power, what is called “transubstantiation” takes place. That teaching has been very much misunderstood by the ordinary Protestant. He does not realise that in every visible object there is an invisible and formative idea; that that idea, working along ordinary lines, produces one of the ordinary objects that you see around you; but that if the idea be changed by the use of a word of power, a mantra, that that change of the idea produces a change of astral matter, and in the etheric and even dense physical matter also a change of vibration is set up. And although it is true that in the densest matter the vibration is not powerful enough to alter the arrangement of the particles, it is true that in all the most important part of that object a change has occurred, and it is that change which is indicated by the word “transubstantiation.” No instructed Roman Catholic ever was foolish enough to think anything save that which I am now putting to you. Now if that idea seems strange, let me remind you of a simple fact which will throw light on the whole thing. Students of organic chemistry are familiar with isometric compounds. Those compounds are made up of exactly the same number of the same chemical elements. Nevertheless, the chemist will tell you that according to the inner arrangement of those elements will be the qualities of the thing. You may have in some of the higher carbon compounds (even so low down as where you have entering into the base only four carbon atoms) an arrangement or rearrangement of those elements such as to give you entirely different qualities—in one case a poison, in the other harmless. That change of arrangement makes all the difference. Is it so strange, then, that in changing the inner arrangement the qualities change? In the invisible worlds these things can be seen, so that that piece of opaque bread, when the words are spoken, utterly changes in appearance, becoming luminous and shining out in every direction. Now the moment one sees that, one begins to realise what a sacrament means from the material standpoint. You are dealing with an object that can be changed in its qualities. You are reconstituting the subtle portions of that by the forces you are bringing to bear on it. With what object? In order that, from the planes above the mental, spiritual power pouring down may find a vehicle which is able to assimilate it and carry it down to the densest plane of matter, and by that vehicle may be passed on to those who are partakers of the sacrament. And not only do you see that change appearing in the elements, but you see also that that change draws to the altar numbers of those whom the Hindūs call Devas, and the Christians call Angels, who lend their powers to the helping of the worshippers, and change the atmosphere of the whole place to which they throng.

Now the moment anyone sees this, he realises that much has to come back to some of the religious sects of the West in order to make them what they ought to be. And the result of losing sight of all this inner part of the Christian ceremonies, rites, and formulæ has been the tendency to grow more and more materialistic, until you find that the ordinary Protestant knows of nothing as between himself and God, nothing of the work of all that mighty hierarchy of spiritual intelligences who form the ladder between earth and heaven. Hence the gradual disappearance from the modern mind of the teaching of the ministry of Angels. How much of it has slipped out of knowledge, and how much all life has lost of beauty by the passing away of these links between the higher and lower worlds. When a person takes the sacrament, you have there the actual physical touch all along the material lines, a real purification of the body as well as illumination of the intelligence. But you may say: “Does it all turn on this outward ceremony—these words and signs?” No. There is, in addition to that, in the consciousness of the worshipper, a tremendous potency which assimilates that which pours down from the higher worlds. And although it be true that that potency is very much more readily assimilated when all the material coverings have been tuned and made ready to receive it, none the less is it also true that even where that part of the sacrament is wanting it is a veritable means of grace to those who realise the inner meaning, although not understanding the importance of the outer form. I think that there is little doubt that, as Occultism spreads, this will all come back to the Churches; for it is part of the Theosophical mission to restore that which has been lost, to bring to knowledge again that which has been forgotten.

And there are also other things in relation to this which will come into modern life again as the truth of the sacrament is recognised. So many discussions there have been about the Apostolic Succession, the passing of power from one to another by a sacrament, not recognised as a sacrament in some part of the Anglican Church, but recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as the Sacrament of Holy Orders. There, again, a physical passing of magnetism; there, again, a definite succession, a hierarchy which is an image of the hierarchy in higher worlds. For always religions have reflexions of the realities of the higher worlds, and these reflexions have their power and their use. Now, in the ordinary Protestant community, and even in the great Anglican Church itself, only two sacraments are normally recognised—the sacrament of the altar and that of the font. Outside those, as you know, the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches have others in addition to that of Holy Orders above mentioned—all of them, from the standpoint of the sacramental life, important. They have the Sacrament of Confirmation; but that ought surely to be recognised as a sacrament everywhere, for you have there the essential parts of the sacrament and the conveying of a spiritual power. So also they have the Sacrament of Penance, in which the spiritual power is again conveyed which enables the penitent by effort and repentance to regain spiritual strength when it has been injured by sin. So you have also the Sacrament of Matrimony, and the loss of the sacramental side of marriage has led very largely to its degradation in Protestant countries. So also the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, which is, curiously enough, coming back among Protestants. Look at the accounts of the Guilds of Healing established in the Church—no less than three in the Anglican community. They have restored the sacramental use of oil, founding themselves upon a passage in the New Testament: “Is any sick, let him call the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”—a sacramental act. You have the oil as the vehicle of the magnetism, the name of the Lord as the word of power, and in putting on the oil ever the sign of the Cross is used. Now it is a very significant thing that that has been brought back definitely by members of the Anglican Church, priests and laity, to-day; and one wonders very much why in the Roman Catholic community, with the occult knowledge of its leaders, it has that use of sacramental oil only at the death-moment, when its great value cannot be utilised. That is one of the points I cannot quite make out in studying the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church.[4]

Now, supposing that you recognise that fact of a sacrament, how would it affect your ordinary daily life? It would gradually discipline your mind to realise that all life is sacramental, rightly understood; that every outer action should be connected with a spiritual truth; and in this way all your actions would cease to be hindrances, and would tend to become helpers. Among the Hindūs this is largely recognised, for all the great actions of the daily life with them are sacramental. Every true Hindū, on waking, prays that as his eyes open to the light of the day, so his Spirit may open to the light of the inner Self. In his daily bath, as he pours the water over his body, his prayer is, that as the water washes the body, so may the mind be cleansed and the heart purified. All the bodily actions are consecrated as the reflexions of the spiritual life, and the effect of that is to make a disciplined, self-controlled, balanced character. The daily training gradually makes the whole life orderly; and it is not without significance that in the religions where the sacramental life is realised, there it is that you find the type of character that all speak of as the Saint—a man who is ever alive to the realities of the higher world; the man who lives in the Spirit, although also living in the body.

Now I said that this idea was connected with the Mysteries and with the Grail. Let me try and show you how; and in this I am using the thought of the great French writer, Schuré, who, writing on the mystical idea in the music of Wagner, pointed out the close resemblances and differences between the sacrifice of the Mass and the legend of the Grail. Now it is a historical fact, apparently, that with the disappearance of the Mysteries from Europe and the Christian Church, this legend began slowly to work its way among the European nations. There were the Mysteries of Jesus, and those played in the Christian Church exactly the same part that is played by the Yoga training, say, in Hindūism or Buddhism. There was the life of the ordinary sacraments for the ordinary believer. Those were the means whereby the true believer came into touch with the higher worlds. But when a man had learned all he could in the outer circle of the Church, when he had used the sacramental means of grace so that he was able to say that his life was pure, that he had been “for a long time conscious of no transgression,” then he was allowed to present himself as candidate for the Mysteries of Jesus. Within those Mysteries the realities replaced the outer mechanism of the sacrament. There, no longer by gift from without, as in the sacrament, but by effort and struggle the vision of the spiritual life was attained. And when those Mysteries passed away, not because there were not teachers, but because there were no pupils ready to be taught, then it was that this story of the Grail was given as an announcement, however veiled, that the ancient Path still remained open to the worthy aspirant. For what is the inner meaning of the Grail, and how do the main points of it connect with the Christian sacrament? Different, yet similar. In the one it is the outer form of bread and wine, symbolising the body and blood of Christ; in the other, the sacred cup, in which it was said that once a year the blood of Christ shone out with brilliant and purifying light. In both an outer symbol. But in the sacrament that outer symbol is given to the believer, and, without effort of his own, the greater Self outside him gives to the weaker Self within. But in the Grail it is by effort and struggle, by temptation and resistance, that the vision becomes possible. He has entered on the Path where outer aid is withdrawn, and where the inner power must replace the outer assistance. In the Church sacrament, faith is the means whereby the truth must be attained. In the inner, vision and knowledge take the place of faith, for the successful knight sees the vision of the Grail—the Cup, with all its glory, is revealed before him. And so in the outer a dogma is taught, in the inner there is knowledge. But what is a dogma? Knowledge imposed by authority. In the Grail it is an inner revelation, a true initiation into the Mysteries; and it is that inner revelation which takes the place of dogma, a revelation which comes by inner illumination instead of being taught by the outer authority of a Church. And so you find that in that vision the dove appears—symbol of inspiration. The inspiration of the inner revelation is ever there, and that inner revelation belongs to the body of the Initiates, the elect out of all humanity. They hand it on to the world outside, that which is knowledge to them becoming dogma to the outer world. And so you can see that in the Grail legend the teaching of the Mysteries was symbolically conveyed, and those who were able to pierce through the meaning of the legend had their feet placed upon the Path where the symbols became reality; the principle running through was identical. And so the lesson was taught that for those who cannot yet themselves build a bridge to the higher world, the outer sacrament is given as the bridge to unite the two; but when the man is able to make his own bridge, the sacrament for him is no longer necessary. He can reach the worlds above without the assistance of the bridge, and then he becomes the Knight of the Grail. That is still true. The Churches must ever give the sacraments, because the masses of their believers are not yet evolved enough to be able to build their own bridge. For those who have reached the point in spiritual manhood where the other worlds are known and are ever present in consciousness, for them the value of the sacrament is over, and the reality of the inner life no longer needs the grace that is conveyed by the sacrament.

Now if you realise the facts I have been putting to you, if you understand what the sacrament means and what its value is, you will never speak lightly, contemptuously of it, remembering that those who need it receive in it a real power, and that those who have gone beyond that necessity are those who are ever the tenderest to the souls that still require it, and are careful that with their wisdom they do not bewilder the ignorant, that they do not lessen the means of grace for those who are unable to reach knowledge for themselves. And inasmuch as it is the duty of the members of the Theosophical Society to know these facts of the different worlds, and to use them for the helping of others, they have the duty of trying to bring back the realisation of all the immense value which may be found in these rites which are little understood by the more skeptical communities to-day. That your mission and your privilege. Whether in your own religious communities you still find help or not in these outer veils of spiritual things, that is a comparatively small matter. As long as they help you, use them to the utmost; and when you no longer need them, then treat them with the reverence which is due to them, and explain them to those who do not understand them. Not very, very long will pass before all and much more than I am saying to you will become common knowledge in the Churches. Yours the privilege of knowing a little sooner than the outside world; not because you are specially favoured, but in order that you may carry knowledge to the outside world. For every one of you ought to lead the sacramental life, and that means that you shall be a channel by which the spiritual forces shall pour down and spread through you to those who surround you, vivifying and spiritualising the world. That your privilege, from the knowledge that has come to you; that your duty, for knowledge brings responsibility. And just in proportion as you understand the occult truths out of which the esoteric religions have sprung, so will you try to make those religions deeper, more vital, more spiritualising to all that belong to them, so that you may truly act as servants of religion, for such servants every lover of the Divine Wisdom should be.

Lecture V

Address on White Lotus Day 1909

All over the world to-day the sun in rising has seen in country after country men and women gathering together to bear in memory those who have passed onward through the gate of death, but who, in passing through the gate, have remained even more living than they were when they carried the burden of the flesh; men and women who have left their names behind them as workers for the Ancient Wisdom in its modern dress, and whose memories remain dear and precious because of the work they did, because of the message they spread.

We have listened this evening to verses from the _Bhagavad-Gītā_, to lines from _The Light of Asia_. In India, on the early morning of to-day, words were read from that same sacred Scripture of the eastern land, spoken there in its ancient tongue, the Sanskrit. In town after town, village after village, the memory of those same lives is kept in mind. There also _The Light of Asia_ has been read, and the sacred memory of the Buddha has been recalled. And all over India, from the Northern Himalayas down to the South, thousands of the poor have been fed by the branches of our Society in memory of those who lived, of those who passed away, some of whom have come back to earth again. And as the sun came onwards along its western path, it lighted up other countries also, which kept the same memory, used the same books, spoke the same names, and so across Italy, and Russia, and Germany, and then in France, and now here, and a few hours hence across the Atlantic, in America, the same memories will be recalled, the same books will be read, the same thoughts will be spoken and will spread from heart to heart. For all round the globe this day is kept sacred in memory of those who died, as men say, amongst us, but who live to carry on the mighty work that here they took up for the brief day of mortal life. And we think of our dead, our truly living, not with sorrow, not with mourning, but with glad hearts and thankful lips, for we know that death is nothing but a passing from one world to another, a dropping of one body for the more effective wearing of a subtler, finer, more powerful one than that which, outworn, is cast away. For we have learned, and some of us know practically, that that is true which is written in that same Eastern Scripture of which we heard some verses to-day, that the Dweller in the body throws aside the outworn body as a man throws aside garments outworn; and as the man takes new garments for his wearing, so does the Dweller in the body take new bodies for his wearing, for new days of a never-ending, an immortal life.

And we think of those who have gone onward to-day—not only of our greatest, but of all who have worked and striven for the same great cause. And perhaps it is fitting that first in that great roll we should send message of love to the one who has left us last, who laboured so long and so faithfully in France—Dr. Pascal—the General Secretary there, who only a few weeks since passed to the rest so well deserved. A weary time had he in the passing; years of weakness, of suffering, of ever-decreasing strength. And many ask, when they see so long an illness and so much of pain, when they see a life that was bright and helpful and full of service set to this world in so long a twilight of sadness and suffering, sometimes they ask: “Why should one who served so well have so long and so sad a passing to the other side?” But people do not always understand that, when a man has worked well and done good service, ere he goes to his rest for a little time on the other side, it is well for him to pay the debts incurred, which otherwise would hamper the new life when it comes back to earth; and that there can be no better karma—sad as it may seem to the outward sight—than when these ties of the past are fully paid before the day of passing comes, so that the new birth is unshadowed by the shadows of the past, and debt is paid which otherwise would be demanded when the new life is born. So that in a life like that, which has ended sadly, as men say, with body failing and brain failing, looking at that with seeing eyes we see the preparing for a better birth, a greater service, and we know that it is well that the debt was paid, and that the new life shall come unencumbered with the sad heritage of the past. And so to our friend to-night we send messages of love and gladness that the debt is paid, thankfulness that he has passed over, so that he may come back again to work under conditions fairer, nobler, more full of promise than those in which he worked so bravely and so nobly through the life that now has closed.

And as we look back we see the faces of many friends, all of whom we commemorate—some of our own country, some of other lands, some near at hand, and some far off, who have passed to the other side in order that they may return. For you remember that it is written: “Certain is death to the born, and certain is birth to the dead.” And those who have passed onward are some of them turning their faces earthward once again, because the times demand fresh workers, and much is to be done in the years that are dawning upon us.

And one man stands out strongly in the minds of all, our President, the President-Founder, who passed away only two brief years since, and who is residing in his Master’s home, but not altogether resting as men call rest, inasmuch as he is ever eagerly working for the Movement he loved and loves, and longing for the day when he shall be permitted to take again a body to do once more the work to which for many lives he has been devoted.

And there rises the greatest name of all, H. P. Blavatsky, the name of her who threw down the body she was wearing on this 8th of May, which, for her dear sake, was chosen as the day of commemoration of all our workers who have passed onward—her name dearest and nearest to our hearts, the Messenger of the Lodge, she who was chosen to bring back to a world in darkness the light which she carried so bravely and unflinchingly through a life of suffering and toil. And strange is her recompense, that she, round whom so many quarrels arose, she who was a sign of storm and dispute through the warrior life that she led, she who saw the Society well-nigh crumble round her in those days of the Coulomb plot, when all over the world it seemed that Theosophy was doomed to popular contempt, and deserted by most who at one time had welcomed it; she who, wherever she went, met storm and trouble, who perhaps was more loved and more hated than anyone of our own time, she has now the recompense that hers is the one name which is everywhere beloved through the great Society of which she and her colleague were the founders, and also among those who have gone out of it through the past years, those who left it in the Judge secession, those who have gone out since; hers is the one name that unifies, to whom all look back as teacher and as friend. And a great and a beautiful lesson grows out of that, that although life separates, death unifies; and those who in life went away, as it seemed, from the movement that she made, look back to her as founder, and round her name, among the prominent people inside and outside the Society, there runs to-day absolute unanimity, and a peace without one ripple of dissent.

And to me that seems a very beautiful thing, that the name that was the name of strife and of combat has become the one name which is recognised as the foundation of the Movement everywhere, no matter by what passing changes that Movement may have been affected. And it carries with it a valuable lesson. These changes that we think so much of do not matter; all the storms and troubles are of no account; on this great advancing tide of truth and light, it matters not what apparent storms may come, what rocks may be in the way, what angry waves may rise and break, what feelings may be expressed—the whole of it vanishes in the face of the great unifier, Death; and those who were rent asunder because they thought more of personalities than of principles, they catch sight again of the principle when death has smoothed away the difficulties of the persons over whom they quarrelled. And so, looking back to her to-day, we can see in her life and death a presage of the future. None of the storms matter, and none of the secessions and divisions count in the great work. They are all mere trivial incidents of passing days, and the one great Life rolls on, only the richer for the divergence, only the fuller for the differences which it catches up and blends into one.

And on this day, looking backward to those who have gone through death’s portal, shall we not also look forward to those who are coming back through birth’s portal to work in the Movement in the future as they worked in the Movement in the past? How far has it struck you, during the days of storm and stress through which you have been passing, that to those who believe in Reincarnation and Karma there is no possibility of real separation, no possibility of lasting discord? For those who went far away apparently from the Movement, or who left it by the gateway of death, see on the other side the fundamental unity, even though on this side, for a while, they may have been blinded by the superficial differences, and join together in the work from which, on this side perhaps, for the moment, they had let themselves slip away for some trivial discord, some passing divergence of opinion. Take that great man amongst us round whom raged the last great struggle, the one before the struggle which is now nearing its close—W. Q. Judge—one of the greatest and noblest workers in our Movement, even though in the last days of his life he made the great rent in the Theosophical Society which cost us for the time pretty well the whole Society in America. He again, winning clearer vision on the other side after something of difficulty and something of struggle (for the man was strong, and was not easy to move or change even when the physical body had been cast away), he after a while worked his way through the mistake that had been made, and has again thrown his life force, his enormous energy into the Movement of which the outer partial manifestation here is the Theosophical Society, and into that Theosophical Society also. For remember that the Theosophical Society is only the partial manifestation of that great stream of Life which is flowing in the other worlds, and of which some appears here. This great Theosophical stream is like one of those rivers which flows underground, and then bubbles up above the ground so that all can see. And the river of the Ancient Wisdom, with its source in the Great Lodge of the Masters, is out of sight for the greater part of its course, in worlds greater and higher than this, and then comes up above the earthly surface and shows itself partially in what we call the Theosophical Society; and into that River of Ages lives which have passed onward throw their energy from the other worlds, so that they are working in the same Movement and strengthening the same current, and are not apart from us, but with us all the time.

And then there are some others to whose return amongst us we have the right to look forward. One whom I may remind you of, who has not passed through death’s gateway, although out of sight for so long, is that faithful chelā of H. P. Blavatsky—Damodar—who left India after the great Coulomb struggle, went up into the Himālayan region, and found his way to his Master’s home near far-off Shigatze. He has been living and working there ever since, and is now a man of middle age, but his return ere very long we may without fear look forward to. He will come back to us with all the gained knowledge that he has won during these many years’ training in the presence of the Teachers Themselves; he has already shown himself in India, not physically, but preparing to come back when the Movement is ready for his work, and the getting ready of it is the work which we have to do in the few years in front. For ere many years have gone we may look for his coming as a leader and teacher amongst us.

And of those who passed through death’s gateway some have already come back, H. P. Blavatsky amongst them; so that in the years that come many of you will see that strong life again manifested amongst us to take share in the working of the Society, for which he is working now as ever before. Remember how a Master said of him: “The brother whom you know as H. P. Blavatsky, but we—otherwise.” One who was spoken of in such words by the Master M. does not leave the work to which he has put his hand because the worn-out body was thrown aside for the time—the brother whom we know as H. P. Blavatsky, but They otherwise, the great and strong disciple will again come amongst us to work more powerfully than in the woman’s body that last time he wore. And others, too, who worked with him in the earlier days—Subba Rao, whose name many yet know; he is now a lad of nearly fifteen, in the Indian body once more, born in fact in the same family (using the word “family” in the wider Indian sense), a lad of fifteen, very soon to be ready again to take up his work.

And there are others, less well known, who have been reborn, and who are preparing to take part in the great forward movement which is so soon to begin. But before that work could begin it was necessary to have the shaking through which we have been passing during the last three years. I have told you often that from time to time these shakings recur, and are necessary before a great time of onward progress. Few of you probably will remember the progress that was made after the Coulomb trouble, but many of you will remember the spring forward which the Society took after the American secession. History repeats itself in small cycles as well as in large ones, and before the great forward movement could take place it was necessary that the shaking should occur once more, to shake out for the moment those who were not ready to go forward.

What is the great difficulty before the world? When those who know more and are able to teach are to come forward and live among the men and women of the time, and bring to them the treasures they have harvested of the Wisdom of the ancient days, the one thing that stands in the way of their reception is the spirit which is not able to recognise greatness when it sees it, but meets it with suspicion, doubt, slander, calumny; which ever supplies evil motives where there is no understanding of the reasons for action, and so paralyses those who know, and builds up barriers which even they cannot overstep. You saw it in the life of H. P. Blavatsky. Look back to that life of hers; see how her efforts, her endeavours to teach and spread the Wisdom, the message with which she was charged, were everywhere frustrated. And that has been so now for very many centuries. When the greatest of all Teachers came, that mighty Teacher whom in the East we call the Bodhisattva, whom in the West we call the Christ, when He came—mightiest of spiritual Teachers, the very spirit of Wisdom and love incarnate—He could not live three years in this world ere He became so insupportable to the people of His day that they slew Him, while His love for the Father was denounced as blasphemy, His teaching denounced as coming from the devil. And that same spirit has been seen ever since. The great teachers have ever been met with the same spirit, and we have to change it. The chief mission of the Society at the moment is to prepare the way of the Lord, and the only preparation that can be made is to substitute reverence for greatness instead of suspicion and hatred. And because that is the immediate work which lies before us, it was necessary to shake out of the Society those whose spirit was rather suspicion of greatness than acceptance of it when seen. For the immediate work is the preparing of the world for the coming of greater Ones, in order that the new impulse may be given when the new sub-race and Root Race are to be born.

That is the immediate work, the preparation for the coming of some of those whom I have been mentioning—Damodar, Subba Rao, H. P. Blavatsky—not, remember, with flourish of trumpets, or with anyone declaring “this is so-and-so” and “this is someone else,” with the exception, perhaps, of the first named (Damodar), who went as a boy to his Master, and is now middle-aged, but will be recognised by old Indian friends. But others will be coming in new bodies, unknown, with no proof of who they are. They will have to make their way, they will have to prove their apostolate, and probably their views of things will be very different from the views of many of those in the Theosophical Society. Inevitably so; for people whose eyes are opened to more than one world cannot see things, as those see them whose eyes are blind save to one; those who see the wider horizon will have different thoughts from those who are cabined in by the life and conventions of their day. And that is why the great Ones are always misunderstood, for They must be other than those to whom They come, else how could They teach? And that is where your General Secretary spoke very truly in saying that the mind often misleads, and the things we “think” cover over the things we “know.” Now the things you know, you know by the light of the Spirit which is within you; by that intuition which is the voice of the pure, not the impure reason, speaking above the mind and through the mind, but very often in contradiction to the mind. And in order to hear that voice of intuition, so far as I know, there is only one way, that when once you see the Light shine out through any human being, you hold to that human being, no matter what the mind may say. That is what spells success, and that was pre-eminently the case with H. P. Blavatsky, for anyone more confusing to the ordinary mind you could not possibly come across—awkward, athwart one’s conventions in every way; in speech, manner, actions, the very reverse of all that you would expect. When I first met her and saw in her the power of the Master, from that day to this I have never challenged and never doubted her. And very, very largely because of that have come the knowledge and power that I have won not by reasoning and arguing—“Was she right or wrong?” “Would it not have been better if she had been different from what she was?”—but having once seen in her the Light of Truth, refusing to see anything else except the Messenger of the Master.

And that is what you need in the coming days, that is what some of you have been winning through the storms of the last three years—to realise that when once you have known a teacher to be a teacher you shall cling to that knowledge, no matter what clouds for a time surround, no matter what storms for a time may hide; for that means intuition, which is above the concrete mind; it means the testimony of the God within you to the God without you, and that cannot lie. And we have to spread that through the whole Society in order to make the way possible for those who will be coming amongst us during the next few years, and the greater Ones who will come later if we can welcome the Messengers, but not otherwise. Our years of mortal life are not those by which time is reckoned in the great cycles of the occult world. It is true that we say: “Probably between thirty and forty years hence a great Teacher will come back, the greatest Teacher, the Teacher of Gods and men.” But a date like that, which is counted by the revolutions of the world, is always a doubtful thing from the occult standpoint; for time there is measured by consciousness, and not by the turning of the sun. Efforts may shorten or failure may retard the date, and hence it is always rather vaguely put; and if, when these less great ones came we were not able to receive them, if we are repelled by the superficial appearance and have not the intuition to recognise the Messengers, that will inevitably delay the coming of the greater Ones.

At different times different virtues are wanted. To know the virtue of the time and to develop it, that is wisdom. At one time courage is the great thing wanted; at another time recognition of spiritual greatness, and the power to hold to it, and that is the virtue wanted now. Not in order that you and I as individuals may take part in this great work, but in order that the world may be prepared, that the way of the Lord may be made straight, so that He may come. For He cannot come to be a curse to the world instead of a blessing, as He would be if the world were wholly unprepared. And so greater and greater Ones will be coming in order that the greatest of all may be welcomed when He appears amongst us.

Some of you think, but you think mistakenly, that you would recognise, say, a Master, or even a Christ, if He appeared. Are you so sure? They never have been recognised by the people of their time save by a small minority, and why should we be different? The Christ was not recognised when He came last; His Messengers have not been recognised since, save by a minority. They are so different from the people of their time that there is much to get over before you can recognise them. And it is a good practice sometimes to throw yourself back to those days in Judea when the Son of Man trod the earth. Realise what He would have seemed to you then, not what he seems to you now through the vista of centuries of the adoration of millions of men. What would he have seemed as the vagabond travelling about on foot, with a number of half-educated people round Him, disturbing the peace of society, antagonistic to the respectabilities of His day, looked down upon by the aristocracy of the time? See Him as they saw Him, and ask yourself: “Should I have recognised the Christ?” And that is where the test has been, right through these last three years, and where it will be as the people I have been speaking of gradually come amongst us again. If you would recognise them when they come, try to cultivate the power which answers to greatness without, by cultivating greatness within, remembering that spiritual recognition is the recognition of all those who are kindred to yourself. If you have the virtue in you of the spiritual man you will know spiritual men when you meet them; but if you cannot answer to Him, then He will pass you by unknown, and probably disliked.

Now our work is clear before us: to try to change the public opinion of the world into the attitude which is sometimes called disparagingly hero-worship, which is essentially the thing we need at the present time—the power to know the hero when we see him. “No man is a hero,” it is said, “to his valet.” And people think that that means that he is small when seen close by. Not so; but that the small soul which is typified by the word “valet” cannot appreciate the greatness of the hero near whom he stands. The servant soul does not recognise the greatness of the hero, and therefore the hero is no hero to him. Only the heroic recognises the hero; and if you can develop that in yourself which is like a Master, then, and then alone, will you know a Master when He comes. And the best way to cultivate it is for a time to let go that spirit of criticism which makes people so superior to those around them. Cultivate the faculty of admiration rather than that of criticism. Try, when you meet a person or when you read a book, to see the good things in the book or person, and not the faults. And the faults in the people around you, these are no business of yours; and if you would once understand that and live it, your path would be so much easier. So many of you are so anxious to get other people out of their faults that you really have no time to look after your own steps and put them in the right way. The faults of the other people will work out through karma, and they are not your business—a hard but true lesson. Of course, if you are a master or a teacher, and have others in your charge, their faults are then yours to correct; but you are not, generally speaking, masters or guardians, and you have no responsibility to criticise or put others right. Take out of your friends the value of the good and let the faults go. You need not say they are virtues, you need not pretend that you think wrong right; but you can say: “That part of the man is not my business; let me help the God in him to manifest, and let the other side in him wear out in its own way.” If you can do that you will be more useful now than in any other spirit, and it is that lesson I would ask you to take with you. Think of H. P. Blavatsky and of those who have passed away in the spirit that they helped us, and not in the spirit that would blind our eyes to their value, and then carry that spirit on to the people around you, and in every one round you try to see the God, and let the rest go. Admire the admirable, and leave aside the regrettable; for in doing it you will help them more to conquer their faults than by criticism.

Seeing the God in them, and loving and trusting, that will help them to grow out of the limitations, of the blunders and errors that are hindering the divine manifestation. And remember that is what is wanted now, not for yourselves only but for every one around you, so that when the Teachers come They may be able to remain in the world amongst us. They dare not come yet, because even in the Theosophical Society They would not be welcomed. A Master who came amongst you now would not for the most part be very much liked by you; His ways, His views, His thoughts would be so different, He would raise suspicion and dislike. We saw it in the earlier days when They came out more, and were met by judgment and criticism, until one of Them said, in the fashion in which They look at ignorant criticism; “The standard of the Adept is not kept at Simla, it is kept at Shamballah and I try to accommodate myself to that.” There is a great lesson in that for all of us. The standard of those who are passing onward into the higher life is not the standard of the judgment of the people around them, but the standard that the Masters hold up before them, to which they are ever trying to conform. Think of that in your attitude to the people around you; remember that on you, and on people like you everywhere, depends the success or the failure of the next great manifestation of the divine life on the earth; that this Theosophical Society, spread everywhere over the world, is literally the John the Baptist to prepare the way for the coming of the Christ; to fill that part is your work and duty—and need I say, your privilege, your highest honour?

To leave the Society now, in the days which are just dawning, surely it is bad karma enough, and you should only feel the tenderest thoughts of pity towards any who go out from us in the days when to belong to the movement is the greatest crown that can be given for any nobility of past life that any one of us may have had. No words of harshness or of condemnation, nothing that will make it harder for them to return, but everywhere gentlest and most tolerant speech—this is our duty to our immediate brethren; and to the world what I have told you.

And so from this White Lotus Day look forward more than backward, rather to the work that is coming than to the difficulties that are now well-nigh over. Remember, for your strengthening, that the only great shaking has been here and in America, nowhere else. You can count on your fingers practically in other countries those who have been shaken out. You have had the struggle and have come out well. It is practically over now. There may be some slight effort made now to make things difficult, but what does it matter, with such hopes before us, with such strength behind us, with such knowledge within us? Why should we allow ourselves to be ruffled by anything that can take place in this outer world of men? We have been through many such struggles in past lives, shall have to go through many greater ones in lives to come; why make too much of present-day trouble? Those whose lives are in eternity need not be troubled with even what seem to be great difficulties to the men and women of the world. And so to you I would say: Gather together on the Day of Memory, but turn it now more into day of looking forward. Let the past go; it has done its work, it is over. Turn your eyes to the work that is opening before us, more splendid than any work of the past. And remember it is not the Messengers who may stand in front who are the strength of the Society, but that the life comes from the Masters and the strength from the Lodge. Knowing that, you need not mind even if those of us who are well known in the world make mistakes, are attacked, or evil spoken of. Never yet a Messenger of the Lodge that went through life without being evil spoken of, and you need not grudge us the sign of our apostolate; for such has ever been the sign of the Messengers through all ages. Rather rejoice with us that the stress for the time is over, and the days of going forward are upon us; do not let the remnant of the trouble shake any one of you, but know that the Masters are with us, and where they are no failure can come.

Lecture VI

The Nature of the Christ

Delivered to the Christo-Theosophical Society, at the invitation of Sir Richard and Lady Stapley, Tuesday, May 25, 1909.

It is with pleasure that I find myself amongst you, as I have often found myself before. I think my membership in the Theosophical Society is of about the same length as the life of your Society. We both began our careers, so to speak, about the same time, in the same year.

The subject that I have taken is in many ways a difficult one, and one that may very naturally arouse differences of feeling. It is, however, one which is being discussed very much in the Christian Church at the present time, and it is for that reason that it seemed to me that it might be useful if we could exchange thoughts on a subject of enormous importance. I also want to make certain suggestions which I think may be welcomed in regard to an idea to be found in the East, which perhaps is not quite familiar over here; and which presages a unity greater and profounder than could be reached, I think, in any other way. Naturally, I am putting only my own views, and they commit no one but myself. These questions that touch alike the intellect and the heart must always be treated reverently by those who realise the Brotherhood of man, and they are also ideas of the profoundest importance with regard to the future of religion and of civilisation.

In the _Hibbert Journal_ of January last the subject that I have taken for our talk was to some extent discussed from the standpoint of one who I suppose would be called an extremely liberal Christian. The writer is the Rev. R. Roberts, Congregational minister, of Bradford; his name is still in the Congregational Year-book, but I heard that he was not at present ministering in any pulpit. I take his view as my starting-point this afternoon. The title of his article is at first sight a little startling from the ordinary Christian standpoint, “Jesus or Christ?” and he distinctly puts forward the view, and argues for it with a good deal of ability, that we have to do at once with one supposed to be a historical person, and then apparently with what he could only regard as a Mystical Ideal.