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 HALCYON BOOK CONCERN 
 HALCYON, CALIF. 
 
am:* 
 
 FEB S 1915 
 
INDEX 
 
 Angel of Healing, The 68 
 
 Angel of the Path, The 269 
 
 Answer Me 166 
 
 Armor of Faith, The 45 
 
 As Ye Sow 50 
 
 Ask and Receive 1 10 
 
 Ask Each Day 160 
 
 Be Merciful to God 24 
 
 Beautiful Message, The 235 
 
 Bird of Life, The 44 
 
 Birds of Prey 180 
 
 Birth of the Soul, The 37 
 
 Book The 104 
 
 Call of the Flesh, The 107 
 
 Cause and Effect 232 
 
 Cease and Sing 275 
 
 Central Flame, The 148 
 
 Child of Love, The 55 
 
 Children of Light 39 
 
 Christ-Born, The 120 
 
 Christ or Judas 80 
 
 Clarion Call, A ' 276 
 
 Come 234 
 
 Come Back 72 
 
 Come Forth 66 
 
 Come Forth, Thou Christ 240 
 
 Common Chord, The 196 
 
 Compassion 90 
 
 Compassion's Veil 153 
 
 Cross and Crown 76 
 
 Cross of Fire, The 91 
 
 Crown, The 221 
 
 Cyclic Rounds, The 218 
 
 Darkness 163 
 
 Dead in Life, The 114 
 
 Death 199 
 
 Debtors to Life . . . . • 155 
 
 Deliverer, The 27 
 
 Diamond Soul, The 178 
 
 Draught of Lethe, The 86 
 
 399504 
 
NDEX 
 
 Earth-Born God, The 40 
 
 Emotion 203 
 
 Endurance 167 
 
 Enter the Path 74 
 
 Eternal Warfare, The 263 
 
 Face of Christ, The 25 
 
 Faithfulness 149 
 
 Father iNIine 19 
 
 Father's Care, The 223 
 
 Fear 200 
 
 Feast, The 226 
 
 Find the Good 106 
 
 From God to Man 184 
 
 Fruit of the Tree, The 38 
 
 Fulfilment by Faith 230 
 
 Garden of the Soul, The 266 
 
 Gift of God, The 103 
 
 Gift of Life, The 109 
 
 Give Way 108 
 
 Goal, The 52 
 
 God of Pain, The 81 
 
 Grave of Sin, The 175 
 
 Greatest is Charity, The 135 
 
 Great Moment, The 233 
 
 God Still Lives 64 
 
 God's Thought 56 
 
 Grow Wings and Fly High 188 
 
 Guerdon of Humility, The 42 
 
 Guerdon or the Loss, Tlie 143 
 
 Harp of Infinity, The 49 
 
 Hearken to Me 141 
 
 Heart of God, The 185 
 
 Heart of A World, The 29 
 
 He Comes 151 
 
 Heights of Life, The 105 
 
 His Birthright 237 
 
 Higlnvav. Tlie 1 82 
 
 Hold High Tliy Trust 1 86 
 
 Hold and Listen 79 
 
INDEX 
 
 Homage of the Heart, The 33 
 
 Holy Angel Love, The 83 
 
 Holy Flame, The 75 
 
 Humanity 21 
 
 "I Have Kept The Faith" 126 
 
 Illusion's Flames 93 
 
 Inner Temple, The 274 
 
 Intervals of Life, The 125 
 
 It 171 
 
 I Stand and Wait 23 
 
 I— Thv Soul 22 
 
 Jewels of Light 96 
 
 Judge Not 272 
 
 Just So Far 222 
 
 Justice 132 
 
 Justice Reigns 116 
 
 King Cometh, The 82 
 
 Latch, The 14.'5 
 
 Law Fulfiled, The 271 
 
 Lens of the Soul, The 270 
 
 Let Go 170 
 
 Life in Death 152 
 
 Life Knots 229 
 
 Life's Demand 220 
 
 Life's Opportunities 48 
 
 Life's Shine and Shadow 268 
 
 Lift Thou Thine Eves to Ciod 262 
 
 Lift Up Thine Eyes 142 
 
 Lift Up Your Heads 71 
 
 Light of Life, The 77 
 
 Light of Peace, The 65 
 
 Light of the Soul 260 
 
 Light Within, The 197 
 
 Listen 118 
 
 Little Things, The 245 
 
 Living Christ, The 131 
 
 Load, The 224 
 
 Look Deep <53 
 
 Look Within 161 
 
NDEX 
 
 Loose Him ~53 
 
 Love and Hatred 97 
 
 Love Divine, The IS 
 
 Love is God 239 
 
 Love the Avenger 62 
 
 Love's Abode 57 
 
 Love's Conquest tS 
 
 Love's Offices 207 
 
 Loyalty 157 
 
 Make Clean Thine Heart 84 
 
 Make Room for Me 164 
 
 Man 69 
 
 Message, The 242 
 
 Milestones, The • 254 
 
 "Mv Father" 133 
 
 My Gifts to Thee 231 
 
 M V Kingdom 18 
 
 My "Little Ones" 26 
 
 Mvsterv of Mvsteries 53 
 
 Need of Pain,' The 214 
 
 New Births 191 
 
 New Cycle, A 67 
 
 Next Step, The 209 
 
 Nine Steps, The 212 
 
 No Recall 112 
 
 Northern Windows, The 162 
 
 Obstruction, Tlie 211 
 
 Open Thine Eyes 129 
 
 Op])ortunity 177 
 
 Pain of Progress. The 265 
 
 Path, The 88 
 
 Path is Hard, The 99 
 
 Path of Dutv. The 47 
 
 Peace of All" Fulfilment, The 2r)6 
 
 Peace of God, The 173 
 
 Perfect One, The 195 
 
 Place of Peace, The 87 
 
 Power of Loving, The 248 
 
 Power to Build, The 1 1 1 
 
INDEX 
 
 Prayer 138 
 
 Price, The 2Ki 
 
 Price of Love, The 1 1 i"' 
 
 Pride 73 
 
 Prophecv, A 78 
 
 Relight 'Thy Torcli 2G7 
 
 Renunciation 3G 
 
 Rich, The 179 
 
 Right to Seek, The 202 
 
 Rouse Ye ■'59 
 
 Scoffer, The 168 
 
 Search 1 ;"50 
 
 Seek the Cause 1 93 
 
 Shadow, The 165 
 
 Shift Thy Load • 1 5 i 
 
 Sing Soft and Low 1 H 
 
 Song of Life, The 2 11 
 
 Sorrow 181 
 
 Soul of Song, The 51 
 
 Soul Redeemed, The • 259 
 
 Soul's Opportunity, The 91 
 
 Speech of Christ^ The 156 
 
 Spiritual Birth 31 
 
 Stand Up 101 
 
 Stones of Sacrifice, The 215 
 
 Stream of Sacrifice, The 213 
 
 Stricken Soul, The. 169 
 
 Tail of the Dragon, The 58 
 
 Task. The 214 
 
 Temple Plan, The 174 
 
 Threefold Warning, The 172 
 
 Thou Hast Done Well 1 16 
 
 Thou Wanderer 32 
 
 Thine Own 92 
 
 Thus Saith The Lord 119 
 
 Thy Bonds 227 
 
 Thy Choice 20 1- 
 
 Thy Crown 110 
 
 Thy Golden Opportunity 187 
 
INDEX 
 
 Thy Heritage 85 
 
 Thy Star and Mine 35 
 
 Thy Trust 121 
 
 To" the Dead in Life 89 
 
 To Mine Own 137 
 
 To the Neophvte 34 
 
 To My Beloved 17 
 
 To the World 261 
 
 Trimurti, The 113 
 
 Truth 183 
 
 Twili(;ht and Dawn 249 
 
 Unselfish Love 273 
 
 Unfinished, The 201 
 
 Umbilicus, The 219 
 
 Veil, The 194 
 
 Veils of the Soul 70 
 
 Victor, The 216 
 
 Voice of God, The 95 
 
 Warriors of Light 278 
 
 Weapons of the Self-Born, The 134 
 
 Web, The 198 
 
 What Doest Tliou for Me ? 20 
 
 Wheel of Suffering, The 264 
 
 Wheel of Time, The 30 
 
 Where is God ? 98 
 
 Which of the Three 60 
 
 Will Divine 192 
 
 Will to Live, The 252 
 
 Wine of Life, The 41 
 
 Wing Thv Heart Home 54 
 
 Word Eternal, The 189 
 
 Workshop, The 123 
 
 World Pain, The 208 
 
 Wouldst Thou Win ? 225 
 
 Ye Too 176 
 
 You Must Choose 250 
 
 Your Defeats 258 
 
 Your Hours 217 
 
 Your Resjwnsibility 228 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE following pages are sent forth anononiously 
 to the world at large for the reason that, in the 
 majority of instances, "we humans" only recjuire 
 a specific statement of fact to arouse in oiu' minds a 
 spirit of contradiction or argumentation which at once 
 prevents us from perceiving or accepting the given fact 
 at its true value. If this can be avoided in this instance 
 by withholding the knowledge of the real source of the 
 contents of this book, thus permitting unprejudiced 
 consideration of the messages imprinted on these pages, 
 as well as an opportunity for intuitiion to supply any 
 missing links, it is hoped that their mission of service to 
 the discouraged and heart hungry, to the careless and 
 indifferent, may be accomplished. 
 
 Truth is its own authority ; the light within alone is 
 able to recognize the light without in any message, 
 teachings, or teacher. Thus the Divine in the human 
 recognizes and realizes its identity with the Divinity 
 cased in human vestments — for Truth and that Divinity 
 are akin — are one in fact. 
 
 On the Scroll of Infinite Duration is writtin in 
 letters of flaming life, the basic meaning of the first 
 Great Word — that Word which all evolving life is spell- 
 ing out in orderly sequence, letter by letter, syllable by 
 syllable, as the ages pass. The higher consciousness of 
 the human soul is part of that scroll of light, and on that 
 plane understands its Unity with All — but, entombed 
 in matter and outer husks, the personal entity, though 
 
 "trailing clouds of glory from afar" 
 is seethed in oblivion and forgetfulness, so far as its 
 real nature, its inherent divinity, is concerned. 
 
 Wars, pestilence, famines and cataclysms, with their 
 attendant shocks of suffering serve to awaken the latent 
 
spiritual memories of man to the fundamental moral 
 meaning of existence by stilling the outer self and driv- 
 ing it in, and for those "whose vision is single," vibra- 
 tions of sound and light come from heights where stand 
 the Sentinels of Life ever transmitting and modifying 
 the cosmic evolutionary forces to the status and under- 
 standing of races and worlds on the levels below. Gently 
 but persistently descend those cosmic vibrations into the 
 valleys where dwell the multitudes. Ever and anon, the 
 inner ear, sight or feeling, of some one in those valleys 
 may catch a tinkle of sound, or sense a flash of light, 
 or a color of cosmic feeling, falling from those altitudes 
 celestial, and then — translated into terms of human un- 
 derstanding — a new keynote, a higher impulse, is given 
 to human endeavor with deeper concepts of life; or it 
 may give a more basic understanding of the true phi- 
 losophy of Being; it may mean an uplifting poem or 
 work of art, a high musical inspiration, a new scientific 
 truth or invention that will further unify the races of 
 the earth, or, in the field of politics and government be 
 rendered into terms of a regenerating principle and 
 plan for action that will move the world a step nearer 
 that economic freedom in line with life's fundamental 
 purpose. 
 
 Eternally beating, ever beating, the rain of spiritual 
 influences fall ceaselessly on humanity, refreshing, 
 quickening and awakening the human more and more to 
 his interdependent greatness, spiritually, morally and 
 materially, with all that is. Standing on life's peaks of 
 snowy whiteness, where one may look down — and under- 
 stand, the Word thunders its truth to the Inner Self and 
 senses. In the valleys, however, are but the faint whisper- 
 ings of that truth, "not easily lieard, and most easily mis- 
 understood, yet the basic meaning of that AVord of Eife 
 is attainable* to all who unselfishly aspire— and search. 
 
Brliirat^li to jHumanity 
 
S^d^olJl I ^tU0 
 
 ^nta Ei^v^ a K01J 
 
TO MY BELOVED 
 
 AROUSE ye! arouse ye! Children of tke New 
 Covenant. Why stand ye in the pubhc places 
 idle throughout the busy day? The war of the 
 ages is upon thee — the strife between the Sons of Uni- 
 versal Light and the Brothers of the Shadow. The long 
 list of the Sons of Betrayal, the Judas power of the ac- 
 cumulated ages, hath its arms about thy neck and is press- 
 ing upon thy cheek the kiss that bringeth crucifixion. 
 
 Awake! thou that sleepest, and the Logos shall 
 shine upon thee. The Christ in thine own soul whis- 
 pers: "Be of good courage, I have overcome the 
 world." The days of preparation are upon thee. Gird 
 on that armor of Righteousness which is the heritage of 
 every Son of the Living God, and strike for the freedom 
 of the races of the earth from the clutch of the Beast, 
 the embodied JVIammon who now holdeth in subjection 
 the children of Man. 
 
 Think ye that no protest rises to the seventh heaven 
 from the murdered Abels of the long past ages? Think 
 ye the Law hath lost its power because its judgments 
 tarry long? Become one with the law. Enter thou the 
 Holy of Holies with unsandaled feet and covered head, 
 that the forces of Love, Law and Life may flow unob- 
 structed through the Stone of Sacrifice upon which thou 
 standest, and the return wave bear to thee the spiritual 
 essence that shall make thee free. In freedom lies thy 
 strength. 
 
 The sword of the Spirit shall be thy reward, and He 
 whom thou lovest shall lead thee to living waters, for 
 He is the Warrior of Light, the Unconquerable, for 
 whom the hour shall never strike. He is thine own true 
 Self, and when thy shadows flee away thou shalt be- 
 hold the King in His beauty and hohness. 
 
MY KINGDOM 
 
 I BUILT me a nest; — I, Hamsa — in the heart of 
 a hall of lire. I hrought from far off regions of 
 space huge relics of long dead spheres to build 
 it strong and true to the lines Infinity fashions and 
 bounds all living things. I lined it with coral reefs and 
 with precious gems, wrought by the fiery lives; I 
 brought fleecy clouds from the sky to soften and cool 
 the glowing stones to which my nest must cling, lest 
 the Storm-Gods, angered by my presumption, should 
 tear it apart from its foundations and scatter its 
 fragments afar. 
 
 Then I sat me down and waited in the solitudes of 
 Time. Waited, till the whirling balls in the sky above 
 had burst and scattered their glowing earthy embers on 
 the surface of my nesting place and hemmed me in, 
 close, warm, safe from the baffled fury of the Storm 
 Kings. 
 
 I brought forth my young; creeping things, plants, 
 birds, fishes, animals, and finally man. Then I raised 
 my wings and soared away to the heavens above. 
 
 Now I fly in never ceasing motion around my nest- 
 ing place, watching, ever watching for the day to dawn 
 when those I brought to birth and gave the chance to 
 win the heritage of the blest, shall look up and see me, 
 and seeing, shall know me as I am. Not as those that 
 hate me, know me, but as I AIM in truth, to lover, 
 friend and husband, bride and mother; and, having 
 known me, yield themselves to me in love, that so at 
 last I come into :MY OWN, my Kingdom, that I loved 
 to life, long ages since. 
 
 18 
 
FATHER MINE 
 
 FxVTHER mine! though Thou hast cast me down 
 where deep calls unto deep across the span of 
 human woe, though Thou hast stripped from me 
 the mantle of protection Thou gavst me, and left me 
 naked, lone, exposed to every blast; though Thou hast 
 given power unto mine enemy to raze my home and 
 send its beams and rafters crashing down upon my 
 shrinking form; yet I behold Thine everlasting, all 
 encircling arm outstretched to me, and through the 
 storms and wreckage of my outer life I see the Star, 
 the symbol of Thy Power, that evermore must rise and 
 set upon Thy breast, — the Star of Thy Nativity — and 
 know that even as its rays reach out and lighten all the 
 vaults of heaven, so doth a single ray of that same Star 
 reach out and pierce the gloom within mj^ heart and 
 make a nesting place of light therein. 
 
 A single ray! but even so a carrier of the voice of 
 God; a God that speaks such words as no mere human 
 ear can bear, yet speaks in tones my soul doth under- 
 stand, and says — "Fear not, for I am with thee in the 
 dark as well as in the light, and I will cover thee with 
 mine own hand and keep thee safe against the day w^hen 
 thy betrayer seeks the light of that fair star upon my 
 breast w^hich leads to thee. For not until thine enemy 
 doth seek thee out and bind the bruises made upon thy 
 tender flesh, and with repentance and rejoicing brings 
 thee back unto thine own, can e'en a glimmer of that 
 Hght fall o'er his blinded eyes." 
 
 He who doth strike his brother down and leave him 
 to the beasts of prey, may never find his Father's house 
 again, till led by that same brother's hand back to his 
 Father's feet. 
 
 19 
 
WHAT DOEST THOU FOR ME? 
 
 WHEN Star struck Star and space was quivering 
 from the shock; while flames were flashing red 
 and white-hot metals crept in streams between 
 the flery tongues which leaped from place to place in 
 search of food for burning; I sought and found and 
 held thee in the hollow of my hand till once again the 
 power of Water intervened and cooled the molten mass ; 
 then gathered up the remnants and formed another ball 
 on which my feet might rest the while 1 built another 
 nesting place for thee. 
 
 Another day of time, when floods were loosed and 
 overwhelmed the earth, on torrents fierce I rode to 
 rescue thee. In crest, in trough of wave I sought and 
 found and tore thee from the water demons' clutch, 
 those demons of the depths who seize and drag the sons 
 of men down to the ocean's floor and take their blood 
 for starring gems to deck satanic crowns. 
 
 While other Gods looked down on earth from otlier 
 suns in search of portents for their guidance in the war 
 of worlds, I sought thee out for thou wert more to 
 me than all dead worlds. 
 
 Through all the kingdoms of the earth, in war or 
 peace, through blackest night and light of day, in this, 
 another age, I sought thee in thy wanderings, paid thy 
 ransom, brought thee home. And thou, what doest thou 
 for me? 
 
 Thou now hast come unto the parting of the ways 
 and if thou turnest from the way marked out by me 
 and mine, then transient life alone remains for thee. 
 
 20 
 
HUMANITY 
 
 AS SHINE the stars set in my kingly crown, the 
 crown which my desire hath welded of my con- 
 quest of the Dragon of Illusion, and studded with 
 the jewels of thy sacrifice, so shalt thou, the prince, the 
 heir to all my universe of riches, shine in that great day 
 when all mine own shall come to me to feast ^\ith me 
 on viands all the ages gone have grown from seed sown 
 in my hody and watered by my deep compassion. 
 
 As vast as is my kingdom, even so is vast the love 
 which sheltered and protected, conceived and bore thee, 
 son of mine, — the fiery essence of that love which 
 clothes thee, as thou art clothed, with woven garment, 
 clinging close about thy form, — the love that all the 
 waters of the misty deeps can never quench; the love 
 which grows, like to the tree of life whose topmost 
 branches touch the skies, with every day of every age 
 that thou hast passed in battle with the powers of Hell. 
 
 Then canst thou doubt my purpose, scorn my mes- 
 senger when every tree and flower and living thing 
 points all unerringly to thought for thee, or strive to 
 find some other way to reach the rest and bliss thy soul 
 desires? 
 
 The poignant grief, the agony of spirit rising like the 
 ocean's waves within thy heart, drawing from thy ten- 
 sioned lips the cry "^ly Father," paves the way and 
 floods the mile-stones with a light supernal, that thou 
 shalt not be hindered when thy face is turned towards 
 me, thy back upon the fleshly things that strew thy 
 way and stay thy feet. 
 
 Yea, even more, for thou shalt be my crown, my 
 KINGDOM and MY ALL. Lo; I shall live in thee, as thou 
 in me, when dawns that other day. 
 
 21 
 
I— THY SOUL 
 
 THROUGH vaster spaces than thy thought-wings 
 compass. Through the long eternities of never 
 ceasing motion, I — thy soul, must wander, wait- 
 ing, ever waiting for the hour to strike when thou, the 
 body linked to me through all the vanished ages, may 
 clear-eyed look into my face and know me as I am, for 
 now, alas! thou art a living lie; the light of truth is far 
 away from thee, and thou hast taken of my strength 
 to build that lie. 
 
 "The Path" is hard to tread for thee, for thou hast 
 made it hard. Thinkest thou that self same path is 
 easier for me? I needs must walk therein until thine 
 eyes are opened, and thou seest through the veil of flesh 
 which thou hast built and closely folded round about 
 thee, lest thou be compelled against thy will to see tlie 
 naked truth; for well thou knowest thou must shrink 
 abashed and terror-stricken, if its glorious light fall full 
 unon thee now. 
 
 But one day surely that same light will pierce the 
 veils despite thy frantic clutch upon them, and as thou 
 bearest all its searching beams, so wilt thou bind me 
 closer far to thee, or drive me forth unbound and deso- 
 late, compelled to leave thee to the Jinns thou hast 
 evoked. 
 
 22 
 
I STAND AND WAIT 
 
 LOOK! my beloved, I stand at the gate and wait. 
 Wait, while my knees bend low, my back bows 
 down 'neath the weight of the heavy load I must 
 bear, lest over-weariness come upon me, the gate swing 
 shut, the latch fall into place, and thus shut out for aye 
 some wayworn child who through my entreaties has 
 entered the path that leads to the mount of transfigu- 
 ration. 
 
 My outstretched hands must needs fend off the 
 Guardian of the Threshold lest he close the gate ere 
 the threshold is cleared and leave but a part of thy 
 mangled form on either side of the gate. 
 
 Then canst thou not bring me oil for my anoint- 
 ing, relief for my straining muscles and a kerchief to 
 wipe the bloody sweat from my face? Bring them thy- 
 self from the farther land. I may not enter the nearer 
 land to ease mine own self till thou hast passed the gate, 
 for thou hast bound my body to the gate supports by 
 the network of thy weakness. 
 
 I plead not for release, but that thou shouldst bring 
 me the 'kerchief and oil, — bring them thyself. 
 
 22 
 
BE MERCIFUL TO GOD 
 
 POOR, weak and fickle, blind and feeble human 
 soul, not even fully born, yet daring and defying 
 God in ignorance of the effects of sacrilege so 
 heedlessly committed. 
 
 The vaults of Heaven echo with the calls of the re- 
 leased who fain would draw me from thee, saying, 
 "What is this man to thee that thou shouldst sacrifice 
 thyself for him"? Yet all the treasures of the myriad 
 spheres which jostle mine can never yield to me what 
 I M'ould lose in losing thee. 
 
 ]Man cries to God for pity in his hour of trial, but 
 never sees that God might even cry to man for pity 
 in an hour when in his cowardice, his faithlessness and in 
 ignorance man opens wide the door of Hell and leaps 
 therein in his mad search for that he never yet has 
 earned — the peace of all fulfilment — and so compels the 
 Christ, the first born son of God, to enter Hell again, 
 and yet again. 
 
 The loss of hand or foot will often send a man 
 despairing to his tomb; yet man will tear a])art the 
 heart and limbs and body of his God, by tearing faith 
 and love and mercy from his soul, — the body of his 
 God, — and not perceive his cruelty until too late to 
 stay his hand. 
 
 Be merciful to God, thou son of man, and God will 
 mercy find for thee, in that dark hour when all alone 
 thou standest forth to meet the Dweller on the Thresh- 
 old of the future, and battle for thy right to live again 
 as Man. 
 
 24 
 
THE FACE OF CHRIST 
 
 THROUGH all the long, long day, at morn and 
 noon and night, ^ve cry to Thee, Thou Christ of 
 God. At morn we hail Thee King and build a 
 throne and seat Thee there; by noon we tear Thee 
 down, deny that we have ever known Thee, and, ere 
 falls the night, with fulsome flattery or jest we plant 
 the kiss of foul betrayal on Thy lips, and cowardly or 
 stupidly stand by and see Thee nailed upon the cross. 
 And Thou, each day that we in turn do crucify Thee 
 afresh, dost look into our eyes with tenderness, compas- 
 sion, yet in sorrow past all telling; and nevermore while 
 life and reason last, may we forget those eyes of Thine, 
 those limpid pictures of the woes of all the world, nor 
 fail to recognize that one wherein is limned the part 
 that we have played in all that anguished woe. 
 
 Ah, human race! how great the price which day 
 by day is paid again and yet again to raise each unit 
 of the mass to heights where it may see the face of 
 Christ in every human eye, and understand that only 
 by a brother's need, a sister's pain, can one in justice 
 gauge the helj) which should be given. 
 
 25 
 
MY "LITTLE ONES" 
 
 GENTLE, tender, obedient, fit dwellers for the 
 habitations of light, — though now wandering in 
 wild jungles where herd the human beasts of 
 prey, or through the stony by-ways which thy brothers 
 have prepared for thy weary feet, in ignorance of the 
 law of final retribution; — to thee and such as thee, 
 w^ould I speak a word of promise. 
 
 Though thine head be now bowed low ; though thine 
 heart pulsate with the thud of the fallen stone, though 
 thy feet are torn and bleeding, — yet shall the weight of 
 thy brother's sin be lifted from thy neck, the blood once 
 more course through thy veins with the bounding life 
 of the days of thy youth; and I, even I, will cast aside 
 the stones from thy path and deliver thee from the 
 power of the human beasts of prey. Thou shalt be led 
 to altars set on high, where thou mayest give thanks for 
 the glory shed upon thy life; and power shall be given 
 thee to reach down thy hand and help thy fallen brother 
 to thine own side on the mountain-top. 
 
 26 
 
THE DELIVERER 
 
 WILL nothing, life or death, the lonehness of 
 the wilderness, the screams of the mob, the 
 heights or the depths, open the eyes of the 
 skeptic to the truth? 
 
 From the first gleam of light thrown on the law 
 of gravitation; from the first observation of the moon's 
 influence on the tides, life and law have been pouring 
 out streams of corroborative evidence to every open 
 mind, to the fact that "like seeks like," and seeks that 
 it may kill, and kills that it may raise to higher fields 
 of action, that which it kills. In terror, in despan*, or 
 for the sake of self-indulgence, man casts away the only 
 prop that can possibly hold him safely to the Path, — 
 his faith in God — the ultimate Good, and refuses to see 
 that only by the pain he suffers, the sacrifice he is com- 
 pelled to make, (whether he will or nay), his sorrow, 
 repentance and final surrender, can he grow toward 
 God and can gain full Illumination. 
 
 Like as every grain of sand, leaf of tree, sense or 
 organ of body has developed by stress and strain, and 
 all that action of life which impells to stress and strain 
 and consequent suffering, so it is that all the best in 
 man can only groAv by suffering; and yet the slightest 
 pain, the least sacrifice, the faintest trace of coming 
 sorrow will arouse the demons in his nature to activity, 
 and they will force him to yield them all of their de- 
 
 27 
 
THE DELIVERER 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 sires (however hard the blows he strikes at their behest 
 must fall upon some other suffering soul) ; until the 
 hour of his deliverance has come. 
 
 If all the power he arouses at the call of those 
 demoniacal forces might be turned in the right direction, 
 the pain would vanish, the sacrifice become joy past 
 telling, the desire for self-indulgence change to spiritual 
 satisfaction, but Fear, the paralyzer, seizes him in its 
 grip and only requires a breath of suspicion to cause 
 him to relinquish his power and all that he has hitherto 
 beheved in or hoped for. Make way for the Deliverer. 
 Enthrone the power of Endurance. 
 
 28 
 
THE HEART OF A WORLD 
 
 TREAD softly, my child; breathe lightly, mine 
 own. The sacred place of a breaking heart hath 
 power to bow down the heads of Angels, to hush 
 the wild shrieks of the Demons, and hold e'en the Ham- 
 mer of Thor suspended in space when the last fretted 
 strand is parting. 
 
 Be still, little ones, you are standing today on most 
 holy ground, for the INIother-heart of a world is break- 
 ing, and with it thy Father's heart. 
 
 The Devas are raising the altar, and gathering the 
 incense, grain by grain, as 'tis wrung from the sweat 
 of despairing Souls; and the stars are clearing a path 
 through the heavens that the Holy Fire may descend 
 and kindle the Living Sacrifice of broken and contrite 
 hearts. In the smoke of its burning the "seeing" eye 
 may descry a vision of Law fulfilled and of Love, re- 
 deemed from bondage to sense, enthroned forevermore. 
 
 Go softly, be silent my child. Behold, and listen! 
 
 29 
 
THE WHEEL OF TIME 
 
 Restless, Unsatisfied, Faithless Children: — 
 
 KNOW ye that no power can stop the Wheel of 
 Time to which I as well as thou art bound se- 
 curely by fetters of our own forging? The more 
 thou strainest at the fetters, the more they will cut into 
 thy quivering nerves and flesh. By twisting thy tor- 
 tured form to catch a glimpse of some other way which 
 thou thinkest may haply lie on the other side of the 
 Wheel, thou dost only succeed in crushing thy head 
 between the spokes. 
 
 Will ye leave me again as ye have so oft before, to 
 bear the burden of your woe alone, while you go back 
 to the slimy depths of the under-world amid the creep- 
 ing things that weave their webs of Lust, Avarice and 
 Selfishness about you — till ye are helpless in their 
 meshes, and bound more helplessly than ever upon that 
 Wheel from which ye seek release? 
 
 O that my words were arrows that they might 
 pierce your hardened hearts, — that my thoughts were 
 flames of love that they might kindle the dead embers 
 on the cold altars of vour souls! 
 
 30 
 
SPIRITUAL BIRTH 
 
 LET NOT weariness of flesh or travail of Soul 
 plunge you into sloughs of despair or discourage- 
 ment. Ye cannot yet behold the dawn of new 
 life — the fruition of your long travail. 
 
 Know ye not that the spiritual man cometh to birth 
 in the silence, coldness and darkness of the Soul's mid- 
 winter, as doth the new life of the tree which seemeth 
 cold and dead, whilst within the shelter of trunk and 
 branch a new life-stream is rising, which shall bring 
 forth healing and beauty when the long winter be 
 passed? Think ye the future foliage, flower and fruit 
 hath knowledge of the newly risen life-stream which is 
 to bring them forth from the unseen, the unmanifest? 
 
 It is ever he who is willing to lose his life that shall 
 find it. The pure life-stream which sprang forth from 
 Infinity may be dammed up by willful evil, and made 
 a receptacle for vile refuse, the flotsam and jetsam of 
 human infirmities, and can only be clarified by pain, 
 anguish and toil. 
 
 Tear down thine own peculiar dam, whate'er it cost 
 thee, that the stream — purified by thy toil and suffer- 
 ing — may again flow back to its source, bearing on 
 its bosom thy cargo of experience, and receiving in re- 
 turn the impulse to new life, new birth. 
 
 31 
 
THOU WANDERER 
 
 COME back to me, my child! Thou wanderer — 
 come, ere falls the night of life, and all enwrapped 
 with shadows dense thou canst not see the way. 
 
 As deep hath called to deep across the centuries of 
 time, so have I called to thee, and in thine egotistic 
 blindness every path save one, — the right one — draw- 
 eth thee afar from me, and I must fain stand still and 
 see thee go to certain sorrow. 
 
 The star which draws thee now is not the liome 
 thou seekest, nor canst thou reach the nearer star where 
 I now stand, unless thou now wilt take my hand and 
 let me lead thee home. 
 
 I do not threat thee, child of mine, but with my 
 soul in arms against thy foes, I plead with thee to 
 turn thy back on all the voices of the night, and though 
 it be on sharpened rocks which pierce thy feet, retrace 
 thy steps — come back to me. 
 
 32 
 
THE HOMAGE OF THE HEART 
 
 TIllXK not to gird the laurel leaves of earthly 
 fame upon the brow of him whom countless hosts 
 of Light hail, "Victor!" in Life's lists. What 
 careth he for things — for sense illusions? Purified by 
 fire, bereft of pride, what king of earth or angel of 
 the skies hath power to lead him to the throne where 
 jNIaha Deva awaiteth his appearance? 
 
 Alone, unheralded, he came upon the screen of 
 time ; alone he lived and died ; alone he must ascend the 
 steps — the spheres strewn with the vanquished and the 
 slain of long past ages. 
 
 Each hard fought vantage ground he wins gives 
 footing to another who hard beset doth follow; each 
 plunge into the stream which flows from Maha Deva's 
 head doth shower with cleansing drops some other weary 
 soul too weak to reach their source. 
 
 The homage of thine heart alone will strengthen 
 him for future battles with the hostile dAvellers on "The 
 Path" who fain would stop his way. Love imparteth 
 strength for stern endurance and he may not lay down 
 his arms and crown himself until you too stand by his 
 side, a conquerer in truth. 
 
 33 
 
TO THE NEOPHYTE 
 
 TO ATTAIN tlie goal of perfection— that goal 
 where the consciousness of mortal man identifies 
 itself with all the purity, power and glory of the 
 divine, the inner Self, — the candidate must pass 
 through the Fires of Renunciation which alone can 
 yield the Waters of Regeneration wherewith the sin- 
 stained sheathes of Soul are purified. While passing- 
 through the fires or struggling in the waters. Victory 
 will seem unattainable. 
 
 A silence, vast, deep, incomprehensible, comes over 
 the neophyte wlien the supreme test of patient endur- 
 ance of pain and suffering is at an end; his arms clasp 
 but empty air as he raises them beseechingly to the 
 Great Self for succor, for strength to bear the unut- 
 terable loneliness that envelops and falls like a pall 
 about him. But it will pass, aye, pass it must, and in 
 the peace that succeeds each hard won fight, there comes 
 a sense of knowledge and power unspeakable — the 
 guerdon of the travailing soul. 
 
 The indescribable sadness which invariably follows 
 each successful battle with the lower self is natural ; for 
 as the candidate mounts each rung of the ladder of 
 sentient life, he must grope around in the darkness for 
 the next rung upon which to place his weary feet, until 
 the eye of the soul is able to see — beyond the darkness — 
 the star that shines overhead, the Star of Initiation. 
 
 34 
 
THY STAR AND MINE 
 
 WHEREFORE pourest thou forth streams of 
 wrath upon thy brother's head — when amidst 
 the flashing gems that deck the Mantle of the 
 Gods, he finds a single one more })eautiful to his simple 
 vision than all the starry host that thou dost worship? 
 
 But for a difference in degree, the same light shin- 
 eth through each and all — the same hand guideth all. 
 The brilliant galaxy might w^ell blind a too sensitive eye, 
 when the mild beams of a single star in an azAire field, 
 would fall with tender blessings into depths where soul 
 sight yet was holden. Rejoice with him that he hath 
 seen even the first glimmer of light, and whisper to 
 thine own lieart: "Be still." 
 
 The King hath many crowns, each of different hue 
 and guise. The one he gives to me would ill become 
 mv Lord— the Warrior of the Skies. 
 
 35 
 
RENUNCIATION 
 
 IT IS not by renouncing the thing of lesser value nor 
 those pleasures whose edges have become dulled to 
 
 the cloyed senses, that the narrow path to the Gods 
 is made plain. That path lies hidden within thine 
 heart and many tendrils of intense desire must ruth- 
 lessly be torn apart ere its golden portals be disclosed. 
 
 Do not think that any unselfish effort for others is 
 ever lost or wasted. As the rose attracts, holds, and 
 then gives forth its life in terms of fragrance and beauty, 
 so does the aroma of every true, unselfish act ascend as 
 sw^et incense to the footstool of the Gods — to return 
 with added power as blessings for humanity. 
 
 "He that loseth his life shall find it," for it is only 
 by renunciation, only by waiting in the darkness when 
 there is no light, until the Way opens and the shadows 
 disappear, bearing the pain, loving the causer of the 
 pain, that the light from the great Father-love can 
 break through the Christ to thee, thou child of Christ. 
 
 On the first mount thou shalt find a Cross; on the 
 second mount, thy Transfiguration. 
 
 36 
 
THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL 
 
 WHEN Eros, the Star of Love, flashes a gleam 
 of hght into the hidden chamber of the heart, it 
 stirs to hfe and action the sleeping Soul therein. 
 With tender touches Love plumes the pinions of the 
 Soul for flight to some other point in space where yet 
 another Soul, lost in slumber, awaits its coming — for 
 Love alone can bring the Soul to birth. 
 
 Ye daily clasp the hand and gaze into the eyes of 
 soulless beings. But too often the riven casket alone 
 remains to mark the spot where once dwelt the Splen- 
 dor of God— driven thence by lack of sustenance: for 
 the Soul hath need of daily food no less than hath the 
 body. That which imparts life, sustains life— and Love 
 is Life. 
 
 37 
 
THE FRUIT OF THE TREE 
 
 THE Wisdom apj^les of the Tree of Life hang 
 high on the topmost boughs, and only he who has 
 won the power of far-reaching and strength for 
 high climbing; only he who can keep his head cool and 
 clear and his feet from slipping, can pluck and eat of 
 that fruit. 
 
 It is the daily food of the Gods and only the God- 
 like man, armed with a purified will, can prevail over 
 the Dragon that eternally guards the roots of that 
 tree. 
 
 On its lower branches hang the silver apples of 
 Knowledge, and he who hungers for that fruit must 
 pluck it with the hand of Experience, gained through 
 ceaseless search for hidden causes in the hearts of people 
 and things. 
 
 He must find and destroy the worm of self coiled 
 in the core of the apple he has plucked, and win the soul 
 power of discrimination for by that alone can he find 
 the Seed — the matrix wherein is accomplished the birth 
 of Hermes, or Wisdom. 
 
 38 
 
CHILDREN OF LIGHT 
 
 FREEi born children of Light, what have ye to do 
 with darkness? Darkness, the distorted offspring 
 of Hate and Pride ; darkness, the illusive ensnarer, 
 the bertayer of mind, the glamor which blinds and 
 leads into hopeless captivity the struggling soul; then 
 leaves it to beat its tender wings against gross form until 
 exhausted it sinks into apathy or despair. 
 
 Ye are Gods ! Death hath no power over ye, condi- 
 tions cannot bind ye; ye are Masters of Destiny if ye 
 so will. Rulers over divine kingdoms. No God, no 
 devil can banish ye from it or wrench it from ye — but 
 alas! ye may renounce it by refusing to rule in right- 
 eousness and peace. 
 
 Ye are beyond the law for ye are Spirit, and Spirit 
 is liberty, but mark ye. Liberty is not License, it is self- 
 surrender, selflessness, unity, while License begets 
 separateness, the great heresy. 
 
 Lay not thine head in the dust of the earth, for so 
 the armies of the Shadow shall trample ye under foot. 
 Go forward with faith and lo! the serried ranks of the 
 Hosts of Light shall encompass ye, and together ye 
 shall win in the battle of the ages. 
 
 The Christ shall lead thee, He who holdeth the 
 hearts of men in his keeping and will not let them go, 
 thine own true self, the AVarrior of Light. 
 
 39 
 
THE EARTH-BORN GOD 
 
 REASON'S votaries — blind leaders of the blind — 
 shepherdless sheep, straying in barren, waterless 
 wastes, in treacherous quagmires; making dwel- 
 ling places at the foot of fiery mountains, at the mercy 
 of the Demons who are but sleeping, or in the beds of 
 old rivers, the waters of which shall once more return 
 and overflow their banks; — know each of you, that the 
 wild beasts of the forests, the hzards sunning them- 
 selves on thy thresholds, interpret the signs of the times 
 far better than thou — thou who hast enthroned earthly 
 reason, and cast down the God of ancient Wisdom, — 
 thou who hast set on high the darkness of the lower 
 mind and quenched the Light of Intuition! 
 
 The wild beast fleeth from the ])ath of the storm; 
 thou seekest that path upon which to build thy resting 
 place; nor canst thou flee if thou wouldst, for thou hast 
 weighted thy feet with the lead of possessions, and art 
 caught — as it were — in a net of things. 
 
 What boots it to thee that a warning voice from 
 the mountain top rings out again and again; thou canst 
 hear but the clink of Gold in the Market place and the 
 beguiling voice of thine earth-born God — human rea- 
 son. 
 
 40 
 
THE WINE OF LIFE 
 
 LISTEN, My Beloved:— 
 Pour not with lavish hand upon the earth the 
 wine of life, — that sparkling draught thy mother 
 Maia gave thee at hirth for strength and succor 'gainst 
 thine hour of need. 
 
 The dregs that remain within the cup art but vile 
 refuse, unfit to feed gross swine upon, though still may- 
 hap retaining some faint flavor of the wasted wine. 
 And if too vile too feed to swine,— how canst thou offer 
 such a gift to God, or lay it on Life's stone of sacrifice ? 
 
 To the pure heart, all things in heaven and earth are 
 pure; and if thine heart be pure, the cup of wine will 
 overflow and turn to streams of light while still within 
 thy grasp, carrying life and healing on their waves far 
 down the distant centuries of time. 
 
 41 
 
THE GUERDON OF HUMILITY 
 
 HEARKEN unto me, thou who standest with 
 straightened neck in the path of the coming 
 Tempest, the powers of which are seeking to 
 equihbrate the varied forms of life-forces thou hast 
 called into action. 
 
 Bend low thine head, lest the Daemons, the Satel- 
 lites of the Storm King strike at thine eyes and destroy 
 thy clear vision, — and thou canst not find the path 
 which leadeth to safety. 
 
 Pride ever precedeth destruction. Only when thou 
 hast gained the guerdon of true humility canst thou 
 stand erect in safety, — for then only hast thou power 
 to don the Armor of sure protection — the Armor of 
 Compassion. 
 
 42 
 
THE LOVE DIVINE 
 
 CAN the Rose tree burst into bloom if turned 
 downward in the earth? 
 
 Can the Coral Polyp attach its reef to the 
 clouds of the air? 
 
 Can Water freeze in the path of the Electric bolt? 
 
 Xo more can man live without love. 
 
 Xo more can man attain his full spiritual growth 
 away from the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, the 
 warmth of Infinite Love, than he can attain to phys- 
 ical perfection if shut away from light and air. 
 
 From that love emanated the first impulse of his 
 being; in it must eventually be absorbed the last. He may 
 exist for a time in ignorance of that love, but he will 
 not realize what life means, — for to such, only a cold 
 negative existence is at most possible on earth, and a 
 hopeless looking forward to final annihilation ; for with- 
 out Love tliere is no life either here or hereafter. 
 
 43 
 
THE BIRD OF LIFE 
 
 THINKEST thou, child of my soul, to climb the 
 steep path to thy Father's home with thy feet 
 weighted with the viscid mud of the under- world? 
 Thinkest thou to reach thy Father's heart by means of 
 the power thou hast filched from thy weaker brother — 
 or that thou canst reach Love's heights through Ha- 
 tred's depths? Build thou a nesting place in thy broth- 
 er's love, and the overshadowing wings of the Bird of 
 Life will cover both thee and him. If thou buildest 
 elsewhere, the tierce talons of the Bird will tear asunder 
 and scatter the fragments of that nest to the four winds 
 of heaven; then shalt thou be left homeless and com- 
 fortless, and thy brother sad and lonely, for thou hast 
 robbed him of that which is his by right of the divine 
 brotherhood which dwelleth within his heart as well as 
 witliin thine own. 
 
 44 
 
THE ARMOR OF FAITH 
 
 IF THY nearest and dearest friend stand in its 
 path, the same snake that strikes its poisonous fangs 
 
 into thy tender flesh, will strike at thy friend with 
 redoubled power gained through the life blood thou 
 hast unwittingly yielded up. 
 
 Protect thy friend, as well as thyself, by clothing 
 thyself with the impenetrable armor of implicit faith. 
 
 A single snowflake, carelessly rolled amidst others 
 of its kind, exposed to rain, and left to the power of the 
 Ice King for a time, will make a missile with which thou 
 may est fell a giant. 
 
 A careless gesture, a thoughtless word rolled 
 amidst others of like character, exposed to the wither- 
 ing blasts of a foul mind, may strike down and cripple 
 the soul thou lovest best. 
 
 45 
 
LOVE'S CONQUEST 
 
 Pl'^ACK and Power come swiftly to the man who 
 hfteth his sister from the depths of her despair, 
 to i)lant her feet on the first step of the ladder 
 of Renunciation. The Law of Compensation will one 
 day set his feet on the highest step of that same lad- 
 der — the step that leadeth to the door of the Inner 
 Sanctuary. 
 
 AVoe and Ketri})ution fall swiftly upon the head 
 of that woman, who, to enhance her own value in the 
 eyes of the one her eyes are fixed upon, wantonly de- 
 stroys his trust in the honor of another. The murdered 
 trust will arise from its tomb in mighty power to avenge 
 the wrong. 
 
 With joy and gladness shining as the gems of a 
 coronet upon their placid brows ; with feet shod with the 
 sandals of full reparation; — upward, always upward, 
 passeth the two made one, who have vanquished their 
 deadliest foe, and raised from its ashes the Peace of 
 Purity, — who have built in their hearts a nesting place 
 for the Bird of Love, and opened their ears to the mys- 
 tery and splendor of the Song of Life, — that joyous 
 song, the first sweet notes of which break down for- 
 ever the. wall of separation between two souls, uniting 
 them in the single stream that floweth ever onward to 
 the Ocean of Tufinitv. 
 
 46 
 
THE PATH OF DUTY 
 
 WOULDST thou turn thy face away from thine 
 earthly love at the bidding of another? If so, 
 thou art not worthy of that love. 
 How much less worthy then art thou of spiritual 
 love, if so be thou fleest from the path of duty at the 
 behest of another who hath not even won the power 
 to discern the path wherein he himself might most per- 
 fectly unfold. How much less power, then, hath he to 
 guide thee aright. 
 
 47 
 
LIFE'S OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 LIFE'S opportunities, like angel visitants, pass 
 swiftly, silently, — and if we fail to catch the first 
 faint echo of their coming footfalls, or, all un- 
 trained to action swift, we fail to seize and force them 
 to reveal their hidden power, their passing is for aye. 
 They are tlie spans hy which our lives are measured 
 — a ladder straight and long — with one step leading 
 into Heaven, and yet another reaching down to Hell, 
 — the mile stones 'twixt our puny littleness and the 
 measureless largeness of God. 
 
 48 
 
THE HARP OF INFINITY 
 
 FORGET not, child of my heart, that thou art a 
 builder of worlds: — that millions uncreate await 
 but the touch of thy fingers on the strings of the 
 Harp of Infinity to sirring into being as Paeans of 
 Victory and Life, or discords Satanic, which needs 
 must end in evil and death. 
 
 Strike full clear tones, that thy place may be 
 opened in the Choir of Heaven. 
 
 49 
 
AS YE SOW 
 
 HE WHO dips his pen in the bitterness of gall 
 and wormwood and therewith destroys the peace 
 of his brothers, by the same act opens the latent 
 centers of poison in his ow^n aura, l)ringing upon him- 
 self disease and spiritual degeneracy. The pen will 
 turn to a sword which, though it pass through his broth- 
 er's heart, will lie embedded in his own at last. 
 
 50 
 
THE SOUL OF SONG 
 
 WOULDST thou, Musician, sing the Song of 
 Life, in tones that gods and men may hear and, 
 hearing, thrill with rapture? Then thou must, 
 by long and patient plodding, strive to reach the inner- 
 most recess of every congery of force — of every thing 
 and being, and reaching it, to make thyself a part of it. 
 Thou canst not sing a tone of it aright if separated 
 from the Soul which is its life ; for, rising, falling, swell- 
 ing with an agony of bliss, the tone called forth from 
 hidden places, responds in fullness only to a soul more 
 hungry than itself; and called by such an one it rushes 
 forth and intermingling with that other Soul it rises 
 in a glorious burst of sound too fine, too strong, for 
 mortal ears to hear and bear. 
 
 51 
 
THE GOAL 
 
 AS POIXTETH the mariner's needle to the white 
 Star of the Xorth, however the waves of the 
 ocean swell or the winds of heaven roar, so must 
 thou point thy will to the Star of thine ambition. In- 
 stability and change may be thy brother's pleasure, but 
 they should find no place in one whose feet are strongly 
 set upon the Path of God. Ah! take thou thought, set 
 thine ambition high. Love and Peace will be worth 
 infinitely more to thee than myriads of lesser prizes, 
 however brightly their reflected light may glow before 
 thine earthlv eves. 
 
 52 
 
MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES 
 
 POOR, desperate, self-tortured Human Heart; 
 large with the largeness of God, narrow as the 
 path of eternal hfe! Selfishly grasping the 
 straws of life for thine own glory, carelessly sacrificing 
 thy Royal inheritance, unwitting that such sacrifice is 
 the crown of thy life-series of mistakes. 
 
 Blind, yet having the power of infinite perception; 
 dumb, yet possessing the sweetness of Angel tongues 
 or the virulence of Demon speech. 
 
 Mystery of Mysteries art thou; truly, thy name is 
 Legion, thy nature Incomprehensible. 
 
 53 
 
WING THY HEART HOME 
 
 WING thy Heart home, thou wanderer in desert 
 places. Though needles of sharp cacti pierce 
 thy feet, and scorching sands fill thine eyes; 
 though not a living thing speak thee guidance, yet shalt 
 thou find the path and keep it to the journey's end. 
 For where the heart hath found surcease, there must 
 perforce the weary body follow. So, once again, I say, 
 wing thy heart home, mine own. 
 
 54 
 
THE CHILD OF LOVE 
 
 WHEN your gratitude to me becomes a subject 
 for reasoning — when you can convince your- 
 self that you have earned or deserve that which 
 has been given you in love, — then have you thrown 
 down the Angel of Selfishness and set up an Idol to 
 Self. 
 
 As gushes forth the spring of water over the thirsty 
 soil, heedless of where its drops may fall, delighting, 
 revelling, in its power to give, even to the uttermost, 
 so gushes from the heart of the child of love, pure grati- 
 tude. 
 
 55 
 
GOD'S THOUGHT 
 
 AH, LITTLE one! God's latest thought. Ah 
 soul reborn on earth from infinite domains! dost 
 think thou camest hence thyself; hence to a world 
 of woe? God thought thee into being; winged thy soul 
 with love and sent thee on the way to find those other 
 thoughts of His — thy brother men, and intermingling 
 with them, form a pool wherein the Light which lights 
 all the world mav be reflected. 
 
 56 
 
LOVE'S ABODE 
 
 MV LITTLE, ones, sit ye here with me in the 
 twihght, while peace falls as a curtain over the 
 turmoil of the day. Let the softly whispered 
 "Hush!" of earth and sky fall on your inner ears as 
 your heads are bent for the benison of the brooding 
 Spirit of Rest. I, too, w^ould speak to thee, weary foot- 
 sore traveler o'er stony places and desert sands. 
 
 I have seen thine ujDlifted hands, have heard the 
 low cry which passed unheeded by those most near, 
 most dear, to you, and would say again and yet again — 
 seek not surcease from pain and longing in the haunts 
 of men, the hearts of women, for it is not there. 
 
 Dig deep through the encrusted layers of your own 
 souls till you find the spot which Love hath chosen for 
 its dwelling place — the nesting place of the Infinite. 
 Ah, well I know the tale is trite and old. Too oft hath 
 it fallen on unheeding ears. But it is ever new to some 
 sad soul, and when you have found that spot, it will 
 be all things to you, for it holds the Key to the beginning 
 and end of thy travail, — to the unspeakable heights and 
 depths of the manifest Universe, — the glory of the 
 Shekinah — the crown of thine own and all other lives. 
 
 57 
 
THE TAIL OF THE DRAGON 
 
 THE tail of the Dragon is coiled about the Star 
 of Destiny. Down, down through the fields of 
 space — through the ranks of the Rishis is that 
 Star now (h-awn. 
 
 Howl, ye sons of ^len, ye Daughters of Earth! 
 War, Panic, Desolation cometh upon you. In the 
 market-places will ye cry, "Xine loaves of bread for 
 a penny," and there will be none to take. 
 
 Ye call upon the Lord with your lips and defile 
 His image with your hands! Ye dash down the cup 
 of Life from the lips of your brethren, and will not 
 drink thereof yourselves! Ye call out "Liar, Thief, 
 xVdulterer!" while ye are liars, thieves, adulterers. Ye 
 are thieves, for ye steal the fair fame of your brethren; 
 ye are adulterers, for ye cohabit in lust of mind and 
 eye, and l)ring forth spawn of Hell for your brethren's 
 corruption. 
 
 Ye seek a sign and are blind to the signs ye have 
 received. 
 
 Liars and hypocrites, who sit in high places! the 
 Dragon will bring you low. Your measure is all but 
 full, and Mercy draweth close the veil over her face till 
 your times are fulfilled. 
 
 58 
 
ROUSE YE! 
 
 POOK, pett}^ figment of matter enmeshed in mud 
 of thine own making! Ye would draw down the 
 stars to minister to your puhng cries! Ye ask, 
 but will raise no hand to receive the offered gift! Ye 
 listen, and hear naught but the echo of your piping 
 voices. Cowards! Renegades from the battle of life — 
 unworthy the great sacrifice offered you! Ye turn and 
 run from a kitten's claws into the mouth of a hungry 
 wolf! Unstable as water, fickle as wind, neither 
 Heaven nor Earth hath room for you — while in truth, 
 ye lay back on your earthy oars in pitiable self-suffici- 
 ency and cry "Ho, Comrade! Behold how great a man 
 I am!" 
 
 Rouse ye! Mount as have mounted the suns now 
 circling in motion swifter than thought in yonder vaults! 
 Shine as doth shine those flaming thoughts of God that 
 people the aisles of Heaven; for ye are of God, and 
 all power is yours if ye seek aright! 
 
 59 
 
WHICH OF THE THREE? 
 
 HO! Soldiers of the Grand Army of the Great 
 White Lodge! 
 
 Know ye not, the War of the Ages is on? 
 The warriors are hning up for battle. Where do ye 
 belong? Are ye warriors of Light or of Darkness? 
 
 Are ye banner men of true and loyal heart, or are 
 ye cowards, traitors? Can ye grasp and hold the colors, 
 the words of truth brought to you under fire, bind them 
 on the hilts of your swords, emblazon them on the ban- 
 ners ye bear, and stand forth to battle for them with the 
 natural foe of your common humanity? 
 
 Go, with the Rallying Cry of the Red Ray on your 
 lips, the light of high purpose flashing from your eyes, 
 ready to do or to die, as seemeth best, upon tluit field 
 above which soars the gage of battle — the Soul of man! 
 
 Or will ye steal from the ranks while the war cry 
 is sounding, kill the bearer of the Orders, seize and 
 hide the message in your own selfish hearts until ye 
 find a safe i-etreat wherein, secure from other eyes, ye 
 may gloat over it as misers o'er their gold, under the 
 delusion that ye are saving your souls alive? 
 
 Will ye join in the din and strife of the battle, raise 
 your voices to stifle the moans of your comrades, reck- 
 lessly trample the wounded 'neath your feet, pile up 
 the bodies of the slain to cover your retreat to the 
 enemy's ranks, all unknowing the fate that is closely 
 following your steps? 
 
 60 
 
WHICH OF THE THREE? 
 
 The grains of corn now in process of grinding by 
 Nemesis, flow fine as mist into the bins the avenger has 
 built and the blood of the slain in battle will yield 
 230wer for the milling. 
 
 To which of the three divisions dost thou l)elong? 
 I ask thee. Thee — each in turn, enlisted soldiers of the 
 Army of the Great White Lodge, thou must answer the 
 question. Thine own soul makes demand and will not 
 be denied. 
 
 61 
 
LOVE THE AVENGER 
 
 GODS iiuiy thuiuler, xViigels may whisper, "thou 
 shalt not," "1 pray thee not" to awakened pas- 
 sion in tlie human heart, yet the glamour cast 
 by elemental fiends over tlie mind of men and women, 
 first narcotizes, then drives them on, on to satisfaction 
 and satiation, and finally into hells of their own mak- 
 ing, such as devils might envy them the power to make. 
 
 For God — Love — is a jealous God. In so far as 
 God is jealous, he is jealous for Love's sake, for Love 
 is higher than any God conceived by mortal mind; and 
 Love betrayed by passion surely bringeth vengeance 
 upon the betrayer — venegance that will eat the heart, 
 as worms may eat the vitals of tlie dead. Passion grati- 
 fied at the expense of Love — illicit love — will turn to 
 gall within the human breast and embitter life, at every 
 turn, and worst of all, it will destroy the very marrow 
 in the bones of the soul. It will leave a man or woman 
 without a vestige of self-respect, and in place of the 
 self-respecting man there M'ill arise a prating effigy, a 
 simulacrum, a thing without a soul. 
 
 Stretch out your trembling fingers, ye passion- 
 tossed of tlie world. 
 
 Twang the strings of that harp of the soul, until it 
 has lost the pure tone that the Angels of the Throne 
 attuned it by, if ye Avill, and then quiver in agony at 
 the harsh discords your fingers will thereafter draw 
 from that dishonored harp. 
 
 You must play u])on it whether you will or nay, 
 and the key-note by which its strings might be attuned 
 is beyond your reach, if liove has been abased, and 
 vengeance has fallen. 
 
 62 
 
LOOK DEEP 
 
 CHILD of Earth, look deep! The scum of a pool 
 always rises to the surface. Be not deceived by 
 that which lieth close at hand, but search the si- 
 lent, waveless depths beneath, wherein lies thy peace. 
 
 63 
 
GOD STILL LIVES 
 
 AROUSE thee! thou who sittest in the darkness. 
 Bestir thyself and weep, if smiles are no more 
 possible. Better far that thou shouldst moisten 
 thy parched soul with tears, than brood o'er vanished 
 joys in silence and despair. The future yet remains un- 
 tried — and God still lives. 
 
 Inaction breeds despair, which, like all other life- 
 less things, must quickly he entombed, ere like a poison- 
 ous plant it shall destroy all life within its sphere. 
 
 64 
 
THE LIGHT OF PEACE 
 
 HE WHO i^repareth a place for me, to him will I 
 come in peace. Light from on high shall shed 
 its radiance o'er his dwelling place, and he shall 
 lie down in sheltered places. Darkness shall flee away, 
 as fleeth the conscience-smitten from the law, and the 
 glory of righteousness shall deck his form as with a 
 garment sewn with precious gems. 
 
 65 
 
COME FORTH! 
 
 C031E forth from your hiding places, ye whom 
 Lucifer hath frighted! Know ye not that dark- 
 ness and the hght of day can never dwell to- 
 gether in one place ? And ye did seek the darkness, and 
 tiie peace of nonfulfilment when the demon Fear as- 
 sailed and sandaled you with coward's gear. 
 
 Light is fire, and fire will burn; but better far 
 for thee the burn, the pain, the longing, than dark- 
 ness and the ease it brings; whicli, wliile it soothes to 
 sleep, will steal thy crown of life and hide it where 
 thou canst not seek, then softly laugh, when thou, with 
 outstretched arms, art wandering midst the outer 
 s])heres, a formless, shadowy thing, bereft of name, of 
 liome. of all but semi-consciousness. 
 
 66 
 
A NEW CYCLE 
 
 THE eventide of a cycle has passed and the rays 
 of the morning sun of a new cycle are tinging 
 the horizon of your lives. Whate'er of shadow 
 still remains in memory's vaults, will iielp to soften 
 the aftermath of the high noon days to come, and serve 
 as a screen on which to limn the outlines of a higher 
 ideal than those you have pictured in former days, if 
 so be you have gained the Spiritual Will that can wield 
 the brush of pure Desire aright. But. Beloved, bear 
 well in mind the note of warning I now sound — never 
 dip that brush in the heart's blood of another human 
 being. That blood would darken and spread o'er the 
 form you limned till naught but a dull, red smear would 
 remain to mark its place. 
 
 Witli brave, strong hand, dip the holy brush into 
 the infinite depths of Love's sacrifice of Self, draw the 
 lines straight and true by the rules of the Higher Self, 
 and an Ideal will flash forth upon that screen of the 
 Soul, too strong, too ])eautiful. mayhap, for other eyes 
 than thine to bear, yet pregnant with a radiant stream 
 of life that, lieing born, will reach and feed all starv- 
 ing hearts witliin your spliere of touch. 
 
 67 
 
THE ANGEL OF HEALING 
 
 WOULDST thou court the Angel of Heahng 
 for thy suffering friend? Then bring not 
 gifts of sorrow's choosing, such as doth al- 
 ready sore afflict thy friend; for so, the Angel first 
 must heal thine own infirmity ere passing to thy friend, 
 for in the bringing, thou hast bound the gifts so close 
 about thy form, they can no more be separate from 
 thee until the healing Angel's touch hath struck thy 
 fetters down and set thee free. 
 
 68 
 
MAN 
 
 WALKING shadows of things that might have 
 been ; potential forms of things that are to be, — 
 God and man in one. Paradox supreme art 
 thou, amidst a universe of paradoxes. Creatures of 
 an hour, fast digging graves with your own hands 
 your forms must fill. Angels of eternity fast build- 
 ing thrones your souls will grace. Who can measure 
 your heights or sound your depths, thou mystery of 
 mysteries? 
 
 69 
 
VEILS OF THE SOUL 
 
 CHILDREN mine, with iiiinds so like as yet the 
 gaseous state of this Dark Star, when, countless 
 a?ons gone, the vapory, shifting masses sejiarated, 
 and to all-seeing eyes disclosed a dazzling tongue of 
 iiame, a softly shimmering light with here and there a 
 peak or pinnacle of glowing fire, which hid a power 
 unspeakahle. Aeons hence, a nearer balance will be 
 struck between you and the world in which you live. 
 The seeming vapory shadows veiling soul from soul, 
 are in reality but background for the liglit concealed, 
 a background upon which the vagaries, tlie dreams of 
 man may fall. But tlie shades will lift and pass away 
 forever when Light and Soul become again the One, 
 as in the far away beginning. 
 
 70 
 
LIFT UP YOUR HEADS 
 
 CAN ye see the faint Hush of the daybreak, ye 
 Children of Light? It hangeth low in the cos- 
 mic darkness as yet, but eyes not holden may 
 catch a gleam of its brightness, ears not dulled hear 
 the clarion note in the distance. The Day Star is ris- 
 ing, rising, rising, and, though sky and earth seem 
 drenched with blood-red reflections— the first emana- 
 tions of darkness — the golden light cometh to redeem, 
 to sanctify, to bless the hard-pressed children of Maya. 
 Lift up your heads, strengthen your weakened 
 knees, bind closer the burdens ye bear, turn your eyes 
 to the East, and watch, wait and work. 
 
 71 
 
COME BACK 
 
 COjME back to me, my children, wandering now 
 in trackless wastes, without guide or compass 
 save thy pride, thy self-sufficiency. Not e'en the 
 sun in heaven can cut its deep wide swath alone, but 
 needs must hold its place by power of other brighter 
 suns. And thou, poor foolish one, because thou canst 
 not always see a golden gleam of light upon the path 
 I laid 'twixt thee and me, must darken more that path, 
 that life, by all the pain and anguish thou canst lay 
 upon it; and then, alas, cry out, there is no path, no 
 light, no loving Father's hand to guide, to hold, to 
 cheer amid the shadowy way of life, both you and I 
 must tread, together or alone. 
 
 11 
 
PRIDE 
 
 FAR better were it for thee, would-be Child of 
 the Stars, wert thou covered with the filth of 
 sensuality, or the foul corruption of the market 
 places, than that thou shouldst stand upon the heights 
 of worldly power, and loudly cry unto thy brethren, 
 *'Behold my virtue, bow to my accomplishments, bend 
 low thy back that I may tread dry-shod the slimy pool 
 in which thou art engulfed." 
 
 The pride which strips thee of all likeness to the 
 Blessed Ones, will drag thee lower far than lieth now 
 the meanest of thv brethren. 
 
 73 
 
ENTER THE PATH 
 
 HEARKEN thou to the resonant voice of the 
 Silence of Life, the voice of the Warrior hold 
 which calleth to thee from the Place of Peace, 
 powerfulh% pleadinglj^ bidding thee open thine ears, 
 conquer thyself, make room in thine heart for the bloom 
 of th}^ soul long budded, and wearying sore for the 
 power of fruition — the power by which thou canst see 
 my face, and grasp the sword I hold in my hand. The 
 power of the self -born, the warrior bold, alone can 
 open the close-shut door of the hidden garden of life, 
 and shelter give to the sorely pressed of earth. 
 
 Enter the Path; though the way may be rough, the 
 end will bring thee power and peace and joy ])ast hu- 
 man telling. 
 
 74 
 
THE HOLY FLAME 
 
 SONS of my soul, my tears, children of my tor- 
 ment, why will ye not hasten to lay the wood and 
 coals of fire upon the Seven Horns of mine Altar, 
 that I may descend and bring again the Holy Flame 
 to kindle them. 
 
 'Till ye lay wood and coals of fire upon the Seven 
 Horns of mine Altar of your own free will, I must 
 stand and wait. 
 
 With all the loud voices of earth, sky and sea. I 
 cry unto you, while ye but stand and gape at each 
 other, and fill your ears, that ye may neither see nor 
 hear when Kamsa steals that which is mine ow^n, and 
 that which one dav ve would give a kingdom to possess. 
 
 75 
 
CROSS AND CROWN 
 
 CHILDREX mine, desperate hunted things, 
 weak supine exhausted ones, tortured, tempted, 
 stricken creatures. Hear me while yet I can 
 speak to you. Passion crazed, you go from seeming 
 flower to flower, knowing not, caring not that you go 
 from hell to hell, and are so going because you have 
 not yet the courage, the strength, the will, to look the 
 demons of those hells in the face, grasp their throats, 
 and FORCE them back into their strongholds. 
 
 One among a thousand, a man or woman can see his 
 or her only chance lies in "throttling the great Beast." 
 As long as you can suffer a single qualm from the poi- 
 son your friend has placed in your cup of life, as long 
 as your enemy can find a tender spot on your exposed 
 parts in which to plant a dagger, you are helpless, un- 
 guarded. 
 
 As long as a word, a look, a blow or a caress, can 
 start the blood madly bounding through your veins, 
 you are naught but tender nestlings, bound to be de- 
 voured by man and beast. 
 
 Hear me. Strive to learn to i.ove pain. Open 
 your hearts to crucifixion, that you may so seek the 
 Strength which is in truth vour Real Life. 
 
 76 
 
THE LIGHT OF LIFE 
 
 SENSATION'S offspring, child of Earth thou art, 
 tliough wrapped in fold on fold of starry light. 
 Thine outer vesture masks a spirit stronger far 
 than that which holds it hound hut holds it only through 
 its lack of love and power of sacrifice sul)lime, the love 
 and sacrifice which is thy life, thine all. 
 
 Regain the poise, the equilibrium wiiich held thy 
 soul in balance true with all that lives and breathes; 
 and which thou parted with in ignorance of all that 
 foul ambition's curse would bring to thee and thy be- 
 loved. Strike for the freedom which is thine by birth- 
 right pure, and be no longer held by filmy threads 
 which stay thy steps and will not let thee go. 
 
 The light of Life is all about, within and over thee. 
 Open wide the portal of thy soul and send that light, 
 like blessed dew, upon thy brethren wandering now in 
 parched and desert places. It will return to thee ten- 
 fold the brighter, bringing on its waves the joy of life's 
 fulfilment. But if thou hidest it, and w^ill not let it 
 shine for others now in darkness, it will but focus all 
 its power upon thy selfish heart, and only ashes will 
 remain to tell the long sad tale. 
 
 n 
 
A PROPHECY 
 
 DRAWN by will of the Uaityas from the utter- 
 most ends of Maya's realms, swiftly foregather 
 the clouds in the Eastern sky, hiding the light 
 of the sun from the holden eyes of men. 
 
 "Ha! Ha!" laugh the Daityas, "no God, no servant 
 of the Lahs can free the earthborn from our power, 
 for we have o'ershadowed the source of their life; now 
 can we stand and watch, while the brown and yellow 
 slaves of our will w^reak vengeance on those who defy 
 our power." 
 
 Cry aloud, ye sons of earth, for the crashing of 
 arms, the curses of the frenzied, the shrieks of the 
 murdered, now ascend to the fast-barred gates of 
 Devachan, and the Gods heed not, for the hour of 
 judgment is not yet passed. But hold! the Purified 
 comes, to ])iu-st asunder the chains that bind, to tear 
 from their fastenings the bars of those gates. Then 
 must awaken the Gods who sleep, for the new day 
 will dawn. With swift flight will they come to the deso- 
 lated earth; with their breath will they drive back the 
 Daityas to their dwelling-place. They wnll open the 
 inner and outer heavens, and pour down food and drink. 
 They will })ind up the wounds of the smitten, and bring 
 the Holy Fire for the Altars long defiled. Peace and 
 contentment will dwell on the eartli for a thousand 
 rounds. I^ove will conquer hate; and again, as of old, 
 will the Gods dwell with man. 
 
 78 
 
HOLD, AND LISTEN 
 
 HO! YE who hunger and thirst for the enthroned 
 "TRUTH;" and yet look backward longingly 
 into the gulf ye leave, ere lifting foot to take 
 an upward step: Ye hesitate, or dare not stir, lest ye 
 should meet Truth's searching eye, and statid revealed 
 unto yourselves. 
 
 Ho! Coward, server of the god of Time, fouled 
 with thy satiated lusts, and (huik with hell's fulfilled am- 
 bitions — hold, and listen! 
 
 Ho! Ye weary and faint-hearted, clutching in thine 
 hand the emptied shell of that which held thy faith; 
 too tired now to seek, too weak to reach Desire, sink- 
 ing 'neath the weight the world hath lain on such as 
 you: Listen all! to one who knows full well the thirst, 
 the hunger and the heat; to one who knows, and once 
 has waded blindly through the sloughs of sin. Listen 
 ye to one who climbed the cross of earth's incessant 
 woe, and nailed his body there for fellow men to smite; 
 who drank the cup ye are too tired to lift, e'en to its 
 dregs; who merged desire for death into desire for life, 
 and made the cross a key to song immortal; to one 
 who learned that even cowardice and shame might lea]) 
 the gulf between the Hero and the slave by consecrated 
 strife, and bind the wreath of all fulfilment on his brow. 
 
 STRIKE OL^T— all ve who hear and heed! 
 
 79 
 
CHRIST OR JUDAS? 
 
 IS IT Christ or Judas! Ye who hold the scales of 
 earthly power? 
 
 Have ye yet chosen him whom ye would serve? 
 
 Choose 3"e must! The time is close at hand. The 
 breath of angels now is held against your choosing. 
 
 The field of battle stretches far away, but ye are 
 near the ever-living gage, — the gage of man's self-con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 With hand outstretched, betrayal graven on his 
 face, stands he who ever at the break of day leaps 
 forth to greet each coming soldier of the Christ, who 
 wearied from his journey long and tedious, crazed wath 
 longing for a draught from I^ethe's streams, too often 
 falls beneath the spell, and wrapped in glamour of 
 Satanic w^eaving, looks, and listens, falls — and dies. 
 
 Art thou of that vast number, son of mine? Or 
 canst thou see the Holy Grail I hold before thine eyes, 
 and seeing, gird thyself and fall in line behind the 
 King of Kings, to die a mortal's death, mayhap — but 
 yet to live eternally with Christ? 
 
 Will Christ or Judas hold thy mantle in the com- 
 ing strife? 
 
 Choose ve must — and NOW! 
 
THE GOD OF PAIN 
 
 IF THOU dost choose to learn by pain alone, and 
 turnest far thy face from me when with my gourd 
 
 in hand I stoop to give thee drink from water sweet 
 which trickles from the font where Knowledge and 
 its sister Power in friendly rivalry do vie to give thee 
 all thy soul demands, — then must I leave thee to the 
 woe which wilful disobedience doth bring to human kind. 
 
 The power of choice is thine, since the dawn of 
 Kalpas past, the Arhats came to earth to dwell with 
 man — in man ; and if thou heedest not the voice of those 
 who speak thee fair, what is there left for them or me 
 to do but wait until the God of Pain liath chastened 
 thee. 
 
 81 
 
THE KING COMETH 
 
 HEAR ye the thunders of the Triple Six? Know 
 3'e not the hour of fulfilment is near at hand? 
 Thrice hath INIerodach slain the vultures that 
 tear at the heart of the Sun God, and again must 
 he hend bow and spear ere his task be done, and the 
 glory of the 666 be revealed unto man. 
 
 Swifter than Hight of arrow cometh the Deliverer 
 to break asunder the chains that bind, and free the cap- 
 tive Prince. Xever again shall the fire of love be 
 quenched with the waters of affliction, the trust of tender 
 woman to be betrayed. Xever again shall the Father's 
 pride in his well-beloved plunge him into outer dark- 
 ness. 
 
 The King cometli, and who shall prevail against 
 him i 
 
THE HOLY ANGEL, LOVE 
 
 TO DISGUISE the miry sloughs of human pas- 
 sion, hatred, murder, teachery and deceit, man 
 hath used the most sacred of all sacred words — 
 Love; knowing naught of the Holy Angel which it 
 designates; ignorantly fearing not its misused power, 
 which yet is great enough to hold the stars in place 
 and guide the myriad lives of earth to heavenly hliss 
 and back again to earth. 
 
 The darksomeness of blackest night is no more 
 dense than is the mind that fails to see in Love, the 
 tirst-born Son of (xod; clothed in the vesture of that 
 power which manifests Devotion ]:>in'e and undefiled; 
 the power which tears the gyves and fetters from the 
 limbs of all the human race, and sets it free from 
 bondage to the Wheel of Time. 
 
 83 
 
MAKE CLEAN THINE HEART 
 
 O LITTLE man! O, foolish man! Webbed in the 
 illusive changing scenes about thee, or rooted in 
 the lowest sphere of human fear and passion, 
 thou dost elect by means of potent Will to there remain 
 — content and useless. Back into the faces of the Gods, 
 thou throwest life's great opportunities untried, and 
 draweth close the veil of ignorance around thee. 
 
 Why trample under foot the seven-stringed Lute 
 through which compassion's low sweet tone may stir 
 thy soul to loftier deeds and aims? Why breathe a film 
 of foul corruption o'er the Lens through which alone 
 the light of Truth may fall on thee? Hast thou not 
 heard the lime grows not on a thorn tree, nor yet a fig 
 on a thistle? Make clean thine Heart, that so the sun- 
 kissed heights of Love may image there the Soul that 
 long hath watched o'er thee — that patiently awaits thine 
 hour of waking. 
 
 84 
 
THY HERITAGE 
 
 THINKEST thou the strength thou usest is thine 
 because of merit won, or is the guerdon of thy 
 labor? Then put away the thought, it ringeth 
 false; for only is it thine by reason of thy unity with 
 all that lives. Yet must thou labor with all diligence 
 from early morn 'till close of day, that thou mayst add 
 to that great sum of all the labor done by Gods and 
 men, by means of which thy heritage, thy greater 
 strength, is won, and will remain for rightful use, 
 'till life's long day is ended. 
 
 85 
 
THE DRAUGHT OF LETHE 
 
 LOW have you fallen, sons of my Son, who in his 
 greatness cast away the offered gift of endless 
 peace, to win the right to say, "I A^I." For ye 
 would spurn the gift so hardly won by Him, ere ye 
 would suffer pain of body or of soul, and often clutch 
 with greedy hands the cup which holds the draught 
 of Lethe, brewed and offered you by aliens to that 
 Sun of Light who brought self-consciousness to man. 
 
 S6 
 
THE PLACE OF PEACE 
 
 WHY trouble your hearts and waste your precious 
 time by dwelling on the evil done by those who 
 wish you harm? Know you not that you lie in 
 hands which have the power to hold you safe, and 
 naught can compass you to your eternal hurt, save by 
 your will? 
 
 A gnat can minister to your discomfort only as you 
 fix your mind upon it or the wound it leaves. 
 
 Find the "Place of Peace," and friends and enemies 
 alike will be but added blessings, for both will speak 
 to you of God— the one of Love, the other of Forgive- 
 ness. 
 
 87 
 
THE PATH 
 
 GO! Go quickly, to the place prepared for thee, 
 False Fiend of Selfish Lust — disguised in Plea- 
 sure's changeful robes. Wouldst even thou drag 
 down the "little ones" of Christ, into the slimy ooze 
 where thou dost dwell, abhorred of God and man, that 
 thou mayst rob them of all power, all purpose and all 
 strength, and render them fit devotees and ministers 
 to thee? 
 
 Strike! strike hard and fast — Renunciation, Pain, 
 Ye Angels of the Arch of Heaven! Let loose the 
 Keys fast clasj^ed by hand to breast — Compassion's 
 Keys — to all the heights, to all the starry corridors 
 where dwells our Lord, and where awaiteth He the 
 advent of His chosen. There the work for which past 
 anguish hath prepared them, is pointed out by Him. 
 None other hath the power to mark the way. for none 
 but Christ hath climbed Transfiguration's heights and 
 bridged the gulf of Hades' hate, to open wide "The 
 Path." 
 
 88 
 
TO THE DEAD IN LIFE 
 
 AGAIN and again falls the hammer of tlie Gods, 
 and the throbbing tones of the Anvil ring true on 
 liearts that hear. Blow follows blow on "The 
 Iron Wheel" hot with the blast of the outraged Law. 
 Higher and yet higher rise the flying sparks, tilling the 
 heavens with fiery streams which descend as scourges 
 of pestilence, famine and flame. 
 
 Pile up your dead, ye dead in life. Hide them from 
 view, lest their mangled forms cry vengeance upon you ; 
 then stand on their shallow graves, if ye can, and 
 crj!^: "Great are we earthborn sons of Desire; Giants 
 of Power, of Finance and Fame. Hasten! ye slaves 
 of our dominant wills, cover the archives, the records, 
 which prove we be passion-bred bastards of lustful de- 
 sire for lands and silver and gold!" 
 
 The stench of your evil poisons the air, and only blue 
 flames from the hidden fires can render it fit for the 
 breathing of those who come on the wings of the morn- 
 ing light to offer to fallen man the grip of the Lion's Paw. 
 
 Go on ! Go on to the end, for ye will not hear. In 
 thirst for Power, ye have blinded your eyes and ye can- 
 not perceive ye are objects of scorn — butts for the play 
 and the laughter of fiendish Jinns, who blind and de- 
 ceive, who set wary traps into which ye trip, who glee- 
 fully laugh at the steel-ribbed vaults ye have crossed 
 and recrossed with the currents of doom. 
 
 Again and again has the message gone forth: again 
 and again doth the ^Master cry: "As a hen doth gather 
 her chickens, and foldeth them under her wings, so 
 would I gather ye, but ye will not heed." 
 
 89 
 
COMPASSION 
 
 IF HUMAN life with all its bitter experiences 
 hath not yet taught you Compassion's first sweet 
 law, hath not yet awakened true discrimination 
 from its long sleep, attaining to knowledge of hidden 
 things will be a curse past telling. 
 
 90 
 
THE CROSS OF FIRE 
 
 WOULD you shut your hearts against me that 
 I may not enter in and bless you? — then turn 
 away from him who seeketh you in time of 
 need. 
 
 Since Fohat crossed the Circle with his flaming 
 torch hath Life called unto Life for sustenance — sup- 
 port in time of stress. The law which drove that 
 mighty Angel forth to cross one line of life upon 
 another, will drive you back to nothingness, if you 
 persist in flouting it. 
 
 91 
 
THINE OWN 
 
 SEE ST thou not, O son of man, thou dost create 
 the good thou behevest in with thine whole heart, 
 even as thou dost crush the good thou doubtest? 
 How then canst thou cry "unjust" when evil obstructs 
 thine own path to the footstool of the Gods, and good 
 removes all obstructions from thy brother's path? 
 Thine own will some day meet thine eyes as truly as 
 the morrow's sun will grace the heavenly vault. 
 
 92 
 
ILLUSION'S FLAMES 
 
 A CHILD may not play with Rackshasa's flames 
 and go unscathed; the false light of the fires 
 which that Dttmon doth kindle and flash into 
 human eyes, doth hut serve to hide the mouth of a yawn- 
 ing pit. 
 
 Better far the steady hght of the Sun, though its 
 heams pierce the heart of thine eye, and cause anguish 
 unspeakable. In the one instance, there followeth 
 growth; in the other, destruction. 
 
 Many bodies, heads, hands and feet, hath the great 
 Temple of Man, but only one heart. Woe to the hand 
 that strikes at that heart ; woe to the foot that tripping, 
 overturns the body. 
 
 93 
 
THE SOUL'S OPPORTUNITY 
 
 MY CHILD, what cause hast thou for wreaking 
 vengeance upon that soul which refuses to gain 
 its experience by means of thy travail? Know- 
 est thou not if thou dost rob that soul of its opportunity 
 to suffer and thereby gain the strength to conquer its 
 enemies, thou dost place thyself irrevocably in its 
 power ? 
 
 The man thou hast sinned against becomes thy 
 Master, and thou must serve him till the debt is paid in 
 full. 
 
 The man thou constrainest to travel the ])ath marked 
 out for thee alone, must needs obstruct that path to 
 thine undoing. 
 
 94 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD 
 
 THOU sayest, "God spake to Man in the olden 
 days, man listened and was blessed, but now in 
 the night of Time, God no longer speaks and man 
 is accursed." 
 
 Foolish man! God never ceases to speak, but man 
 has destroyed his true sense of hearing by listening too 
 intently to the muffled thunders of the sound waves of 
 human passion pounding against his inner ear. 
 
 Seek the Silence, Beloved, and when thou hast 
 found it thou shalt hear again the tender cadences, the 
 word of command, the Song of Life, for God is the same 
 today as yesterday, and His voice doth reach to the 
 outermost bounds of Time and Space, and sings in the 
 heart of man. 
 
 95 
 
JEWELS OF LIGHT 
 
 UNCUT, unpolished, are the Jewels hid within 
 this casket, which the Lord of Life hath formed 
 from His own heart, and given unto me. 
 I pray for power to hold me still while He doth 
 cut and polish all these gems, that so, one day I may 
 behold His face reflected in their depths, while He is 
 setting them within a crown, to place on mine own head. 
 
 96 
 
LOVE AND HATRED 
 
 ALAS that each human Soul must learn for itself 
 that in trifling with the Emotion of love, its 
 energy is wasted and lost irrevocably; that by 
 bartering that holy birthright for transient pleasure, 
 the most direct path to divine Love and AVisdom is 
 choked by poisonous weeds and thorny brambles, or 
 still worse, is left so empty and desolate that the Snake 
 of Hate alone dares venture there to find a dwelling 
 place. 
 
 When the fires of Hate awaken and burn in a 
 human heart, all that makes for life and happiness is 
 consumed, and the unhappy Soul, naked and alone, is 
 left gazing at the ashes of a misspent past. 
 
 Neither can you drive that human love back into 
 the heart, any more than you can drive the sap back 
 into a tree, the blood back into the veins; the heart 
 would break, the tree and veins would burst from pres- 
 sure put upon each molecule. In the wider love, the 
 sap is expelled, the blood distributd. Law is fulfilled. 
 Life is more fully manifested, and The Will of God 
 completed. 
 
 97 
 
WHERE IS GOD? 
 
 WHERE shall I find God? If I search the 
 heavens and the earth and the waters under the 
 earth, shall I find him? 
 No! But if thou wilt search the depths of thine 
 own heart, all that thou findest of Love, of Beauty, of 
 Unselfishness — all that thou knowest of Peace and Joy 
 will open the path to God, and show thee the hidden 
 places wherein thou wilt find all thou canst know and 
 understand. 
 
 98 
 
THE PATH IS HARD 
 
 IN A sense we may say it is the same path that the 
 jNIaster Jesus followed. There is no other Path, 
 
 no other way to find the true self, save through 
 effort and suffering. When we think of it from an 
 earthly standpoint, it seems pitiful, that poor, weak, 
 human beings should have apparently so little light to 
 guide them on the way, so little of the comfort that 
 it would seem might be theirs; but those of you who 
 have had an opportunity of watching the wealthy or the 
 so-called "well-to-do," those who seem to enjoy all the 
 good things of this life, know^ that they are often "of 
 all men most miserable." They are using the gaudes 
 of earth to dress up their scarred and tainted carcasses, 
 while their souls are often naked and hungry; and that 
 would show you how little the soul can gain from 
 wordly wealth. It is the strain, the stress, the exercise 
 of power, that gives the final victory. 
 
 "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." A 
 human being, an angel, a god, is only as strong as he 
 has gained power to endure the stress; and that power 
 can only be gained through suffering. If there were 
 any other way, I would have told you, — for I sorrow 
 in your sorrow, suffer in your suffering; yet I must 
 stand by. even if it be to see you go down into the 
 midst of the flames, and come up again, if it be neces- 
 sary to your growth. You sometimes blame me for 
 not saving you from sorrow, for not keeping suffering 
 
 99 
 
THE PATH IS HARD 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 away from you; but my children, I would gladly give 
 you myself, and all that I am, if it would aid you in 
 your development. But you are as I am, of God, — 
 and only tiirough the strength of the God within your- 
 selves and the power that you can gain over these ad- 
 verse conditions will you be enabled to meet and 
 overcome what will be before you in this and in many 
 lives. The effects of suffering are never lost, any more 
 than effort in any direction can be lost. From my soul, 
 1 wish I could convey to you the love I feel for you, 
 the desire 1 have for your advancement; but every 
 ^lother knows that if her child is to grow strong, it 
 must walk by itself, it must learn all it knows of physi- 
 cal conditions by pain; and this process continues to 
 the end. Any human being who tries to make you 
 believe that you can gain spiritual growth without pass- 
 ing through "Golgotha" is telling you an absolute false- 
 hood. But there is no reason why you should not see 
 tile beauty, the good, the glory there is in life. It is 
 around you on every side, it is yours to take and use 
 as it seems best to you — always in the right spirit. I 
 would not have you look at the liells of life, but at 
 tlie heavens which also lie a])out vou." 
 
 100 
 
STAND UP 
 
 HAVE the ruling powers of the Cosmos forced 
 thee into the path of the storm, stripped thee 
 of courage and streng-th and left thee whirling 
 like a top in the midst of the wreckage of life? With 
 the passing of the storm gather up the fragments of 
 strength and courage, and stand up; keej) thy feet on 
 the ground. 
 
 If thou hast stumhled into the quagmire ruled by 
 the three demons. Doubt, Despair, Distrust — that 
 miry waste dividing Bondage from Liberty — that 
 fathomless gulf into whicli each soul stumbles when it 
 lets go of the false and reaches out toward the Real; 
 again I say. Stand up. Trouble not thyself about thy 
 rent and miry garments, or that thou seest no hand 
 in sight to drag thee from the mire. Get upon thy feet 
 and stand! then thou shalt see the hand. 
 
 Have mutual, fair-weather friends nosed a 'trail 
 and set out to chase thy beloved one to cover? Wilt 
 thou join their pack of yelping curs and help to hound 
 him to his death? At the least, thou mayst deaden 
 the trail, if thou canst not stand by his side and thus 
 prove thine own self. 
 
 If so be thou hast power to separate the evil from 
 the evil doer, and help to bear the burden of the Christ 
 who lives and suffers in a stricken soul, then thou mayst 
 hold at bay the enemy of man until its strength is 
 broken, the striken soul is freed, and find that thou 
 
 101 
 
STAND UP 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 art thrice a conqueror. Meet then to take and wear the 
 golden key art thou, for thou hast learned the way 
 to stand upright and open wide the door to greater 
 deeds. 
 
 Thinkest thou thy JNIaster will by his diviner power, 
 reach forth to pull thee from the mire or from the 
 power of all the hungry pack and set thee down at 
 His right hand by force of arms, to rule o'er those 
 who have come up through all the hells unscathed by 
 fire of Sin? Art thou then such an imbecile as to 
 believe that thine own unbelief, thy fierce repudiation 
 of former faith in Him thou once didst own as ^Master, 
 will obliterate that ^Master from the screen of all thy 
 lives? If so it be, then thou art blind indeed: lost, and 
 helpless, or thou hast bound thine eyes and thrown 
 away the crutch; lame and halt, thou now art caught 
 in the morass with only a poor sodden stick of egotistic 
 ])ride to lean upon; a stick that will surely snap in 
 twain at the first effort to bear thy weight thereon. 
 
 Stand up, stretch out thine hand toward the fur- 
 ther side of the gulf of thy present delusion, child of 
 the Sun; even if thou canst not yet see that other hand 
 awaiting thine. Bear down on the earth with thine 
 own feet; raise thy head and stand upright. 
 
 102 
 
THE GIFT OF GOD 
 
 HE WHO accepeth Me shall live by Me; he who 
 lives by Me shall dwell with Mine; and in the 
 Light w^here dwelleth Mine the heart of God 
 doth pulse unceasingly. 
 
 The shade that falls where God doth walk but fills 
 a background drear against which all the light and 
 glory of the Coming Age doth beat in never ceasing 
 rythm. 
 
 Enter thou that light and fold thy wings and rest, 
 thou Bird of Life; thy pinions are Mine own, My Little 
 Ones, to whom I gave Myself, and giving found My- 
 self. 
 
 103 
 
THE BOOK 
 
 THOU callest it a brain. I call it a })ook, into 
 which thou hast writ at command, the records 
 of many lives. As leaf after leaf of that book 
 is turned, as the cycles come and go, I see exposed 
 the tales inscribed in blood wrung from thine own and 
 other hearts. Short sentences illumined with the transi- 
 tory colors that transient joy hath mixed and given 
 unto thee; whole pages bordered deep with black, o'er 
 w^hich dark shadows seem to flit at will so fast and 
 thick there is no space or chance for written words. 
 Here and there I see a paragraph of careless jest, 
 or record of some kindly deed ; and close upon the page 
 where one day Finis is to be inscribed by other hands 
 than thine, are other pages where the lines no longer 
 traverse straight across the page from side to side. Un- 
 even are they, and the words run one into the other, 
 and every letter shows the work of aged, trembling 
 hands. 
 
 Xo beauty have those pages to the critic's eye; yet, 
 to the eye of God they are of all most beautiful; for 
 in betw^een those crooked lines and wavering letter 
 strokes, invisible to all but Him, are writ the sum of 
 all the past experience, the mathematics of the soul, 
 that He alone can read and understand. 
 
 104 
 
THE HEIGHTS OF LIFE 
 
 WIIEX thou hast reached the utmost height of 
 louehness — that height so far above the Sun- 
 kissed hills, the softly shaded valleys where 
 once you dreamed away the time in blissful introspec- 
 tion and have left behind you all that sensuous life had 
 folded close, the human love, delights of eye and ear, 
 and tender touch of helpful hand — 'twill seem the very 
 heavens have fallen, the earth rejected and thee cast 
 forth condemned. Thy soul will seem suspended in 
 the depths apart from all created things, dead, as 
 though the icy blast of winter's storm had wrapped it 
 all about; alive, as though volcanic fires were eating 
 into every quickening cell. The formless, soundless 
 pressure of illimitable Space will beat upon your ears, 
 and all the light of all the Suns in Space will sear your 
 eyes; until at last, the debt of sentient life repaid, you 
 yield submissively and cry, "God save me from the 
 desolation, the utter loneliness of all created things, 
 and let me lose myself in Thee alone." 
 
 No tongue or pen can tell what then befalls that 
 naked Soul, stripped of its gauds — the things which 
 weighed it down, and chained it to a rocky waste; for, 
 losing all it held in memory fond, it finds itself at last, 
 alive with God's own life; a part of every tree and 
 flower, at one with every living thing; a tone of all the 
 melodies the swinging stars give forth — a light which 
 lightens Earth and Sea and Sky, the hosts of Angels 
 and the Cherubim. All, all in thee, and thou in God. 
 
 105 
 
FIND THE GOOD 
 
 DEEP indeed thy poverty, thou son or daughter 
 of the Shadow, when for thine own sustenance 
 thou tilchest from thy })rethren that which they 
 would gladly part with for the asking, — the evil things 
 of long ago that they would kill and hury. 
 
 Long and hard will he the lesson thou must learn 
 ere Wisdom can enfold thee with her mantle and show 
 thee how much wiser it had been for thee to search 
 for all the Godlike qualities concealed within thy broth- 
 er's heart, that thou might be partaker with him in the 
 ])lessings so revealed, instead of drawing to thyself and 
 giving power to all the demons he hath killed, to fasten 
 their vile fangs within thy quivering flesh, with all the 
 strength that Tanha gives to evil things. If thou 
 wouldst look with half the will thou givest to the search 
 for evil things, to find the good within the heart of 
 every living thing, how great would be thy recompense, 
 thou starved and weary pilgrim of the nether path. 
 
 Things of darkness seek the darkness, and if by 
 dwelling on the evil thou imputest to thy brother, thou 
 dost darken all thy sphere of being, straight as flies 
 the needle to the magnet will fly the demons of the night 
 to tliee; and most of all to fear will be this trutli that 
 tliou wilt see those demons as the angels of the light, 
 so great will be tlie darkness tliou liast made. 
 
 106 
 
THE CALL OF THE FLESH 
 
 AH, CHILDREN, children that ye are, in your 
 hunoer for tlie old joys, or the unexplored field 
 of some new experience, ye forget that the old 
 joys were the seed of your present woes, that the new 
 field must inevitahly lead you into a morass of similar 
 suffering. 
 
 The call of the flesh, the intoxication of the new 
 field, cause you to forget the consequences which in 
 your more enlightened hours you know must follow, 
 though do not always admit it to yourselves. So, in- 
 advertently, or through your craving for something, — 
 anything, that will fill the void in your starving hearts, 
 ye reach out for the frothy sweetmeats, the sugared 
 aloes, which bear the semblance of food. If the pain 
 which follows were all, it might be well for you; but 
 alas, it is not all; in tampering with the higher centres 
 of your life you lose your power of spiritual diges- 
 tion, and in losing that, you have also lost your hunger 
 — the call of your Divinity — and your ability to assimi- 
 late the stronger food, which alone could satisfy. 
 
 107 
 
GIVE WAY 
 
 GIVE way, thou stolid, selfish miniature of ease, 
 and let the King pass by, or prone upon the 
 earth his knights will strike thee down! 
 There is no room for thee, no place in all of I^abor's 
 fair domains for such as thou. 
 
 The King, God's workman, hath no time or will to 
 set thee gently by when on his way to fight the hist 
 long battle for the rights of man, which thou and all 
 thy kind, in sloth, in revelry and lust have forced upon 
 Him and the land which gave thee birth. Give way 
 or die. 
 
 108 
 
THE GIFT OF LIFE 
 
 HOW hard it seemeth, ye who take no note of 
 Nature's lovehest moods — to learn the lesson 
 taught by every curving stem of flower and 
 leaf — to bend, when thou must face the tempest and 
 the storms of life; and so protect that part of thee, thy 
 face, thy features, that which marks thy character, and 
 proves to every seeing eye thy fitness for the gift of 
 Life. 
 
 The tree which reacheth toward the heavens in 
 straight unbending line is but support for all the foli- 
 age and the seed; while curved and straight lines, stem 
 and tree are needful, the curve which touches close the 
 flower and seed — the finer forms of life — doth give pro- 
 tection and make possible the lives of many, while the 
 straight, unbending line is One, alone. 
 
 109 
 
THY CROWN 
 
 THE Prince is not the King; then how can ye in 
 justice crown the Prince and leave the King 
 uncrowned ? 
 
 Know ye not the crown doth symboHze all power, 
 and when ye build an image of that power and place 
 it on the brow of Him ye call your Lord, ye rob the 
 King of that which is His due, ye close the path through 
 which all power descends, and make the crown a thing 
 of naught? 
 
 Give unto God thyself and all thou hast, and He 
 Himself will set His seal within the crown which He 
 will set upon His firstborn's brow, that so in turn it 
 may descend to thee. 
 
 But think ye well before ye ask for that same 
 crown the Prince doth wear. Its jeweled front doth 
 flash its brilliant beauty forth on all who look thereon, 
 but he who wears it doth not see that beauty rare: the 
 sharp and jagged edges of the underside, the weight 
 of heavy metal, piercing deep into the flesh and press- 
 ing sore the brow; these are His alone, — His part of 
 the inheritance within that crown. 
 
 110 
 
THE POWER TO BUILD 
 
 ^^ \ LL, all I am, my child," the Father saith, "I 
 J^\^ fain would shower on thee. The fulness, maj- 
 esty and power of life, in vast immeasurable 
 streams; the wealth and glory of all suns in space, — the 
 wisdom garnered by the use of all the higher attributes 
 of gods and men; all, all 1 hold in trust, I fain would 
 give to thee; and that which I now ask of thee is that 
 with w^illing heart and in the love which crowiis all 
 service pure, thou wilt take up the little things of life 
 and do them wisely, gladly, — knowing that in giving 
 them to thee to do I give thee power to build and cross 
 the Bridge which must ])e built by effort of thine own 
 to span the stream "twixt me and thee." 
 
 HI 
 
NO RECALL 
 
 THIXKEST thou that aught the world can offer 
 could buy back the life that thou of thine own 
 will hast given unto God .<' Having given that price- 
 less gift — a life — to the service of thy God, — the serv- 
 ice of thy brethren, — thou canst not take it back. That 
 life has entered into the Soul of all and has become a 
 part of every thing and creature — a part of everything 
 that breathes the breath of life. It is no longer thine 
 to give or take away. 
 
 It smiles on thee in every rippling brook, in every 
 tender face that lifts itself to thine. It flows from 
 every tear that falls from others' eyes. It throbs in 
 every heart, in every pain of body or of mind. It forms 
 a part of every offered sacrifice. It beats in every 
 measure, every tone, and glows in every sun. Thou 
 mayst befoul the form which holds it, but thou canst 
 not soil the life that is no longer thine, nor rob thy 
 brethren of the gift, for it is theirs, not thine alone, 
 when once accepted by thy God. 
 
 112 
 
THE TRIMURTI 
 
 THOU, the Wonderful, the Trimurti, Brahma, 
 Vishnu, and Shiva, hast now revealed to thy serv- 
 ant a mystery: — 
 
 The First-born son of the God of War hath passed 
 from his Father's side between the wings of the Great 
 Bird Garuda — the Bird whose talons wield the thunder- 
 bolts of Heaven — to the back of the Eagle of the West- 
 ern mountains. In swift flight shall the Eagle bear 
 the Great Deliverer, for whom our eyes have long 
 waited, to Aryan skies where, standing upright on the 
 Bird's left wing, he shall re-establish the Lunar Dy- 
 nasty and bring peace and plenty to a people oppressed. 
 
 When the Rivers of the far East and the West 
 meet and commingle, then shall the God of War bury 
 the seven-tipped arrows he now holdeth in hand, be- 
 neath the Ocean so formed, and a mighty Race again 
 rule the Earth. 
 
 113 
 
THE DEAD IN LIFE 
 
 FIT food are ye for the Astral vultures that feed 
 upon you, for dead ye are, while yet ye live. 
 Swollen, besotted with pride, accursed of God, 
 the fiends ye have called from the depths look on you 
 with horror. Fattened by the blood of the human 
 hearts ye break, ye loll at ease, and not only refuse to 
 enter the light of life yourselves, but bar the way to 
 that light, that others may fall in the darkness ye cre- 
 ate. Your lying tongues and deceitful ways cause the 
 weak to stumble and go down to death. Fools that ye 
 are, do vou think in vour blindness the law is dead? 
 
 114 
 
THE PRICE OF LOVE 
 
 TO THE soul with the capacity for a great love 
 there will some time come a moment of illumina- 
 tion, a moment of divine intuition when the veil 
 between spirit and matter is temporarily lifted and 
 that soul catches a glimpse of the tragedy which lies 
 concealed behind the present rapture and dimly senses 
 the icy chill of its approach. 
 
 So it must ever he, for exevy great love bears the 
 seed of a deep ti'agedy. Such love is seldom under- 
 stood or appreciated at its full value, and still more 
 seldom is it returned in kind. 
 
 In the moment of illumination the soul realizes be- 
 yond all doubt that the shadow of vicarious atonement, 
 of sacrifice past telling, awaits it also as it has awaited 
 every divinely inspired soul since time for man began. 
 But the veil drops quickly, the momentary revolt 
 against undeserved suffering is stilled. Love sheds its 
 radiant beams over all common things, dazzling the in- 
 tellect, and magically endowing the heloved one with 
 all the attrihutes of a God. And so self-crowned with 
 the diadem of sacrifice, the soul passes on to its Geth- 
 semane and Golgotha to pay the price demanded by 
 divine law for hestowing upon a mortal that which he- 
 longs alone to God. 
 
 115 
 
JUSTICE REIGNS 
 
 " A LL'Swell! All's well!" loudly calls the watch- 
 
 J^\_ man at the gate. "Sleep on, sleep on! ye kmgs, 
 
 and lords, and princes all, and take your rest. 
 
 "Huzza! Huzza! Fill up your glasses to the brim. 
 Drink deep of pleasure's draught, ye sons and daugh- 
 ters of my lords, nor fail to satisfy each lust of eye 
 and mind. 
 
 "No need of care have ye, for am not I, your slave, 
 erstwhile in bond to want, now watchman at the gate, 
 and watcher over you? 
 
 "Ye fools, and blind of soul, ye saw no thirst for 
 vengeance in mine eye. Ye heard no cry for justice 
 from my lips so stiff with pain, on that foul day when 
 first ye brought me under thrall to you. 
 
 "Nov/, even while ye sleej^ or revel, I j'our watch- 
 man and your slave, will lay the train and light the 
 fuse of righteousness for man. 
 
 "I, even I, will open wide the gate and let the 
 people in — the broken, spoiled, enslaved and sore tried 
 common people of the slums whom ye have kept with- 
 out the gate. Ye could not spoil them of their love 
 of life, though all tilings else worth while lay in your 
 grasp; and love of life hath opened wide the eyes once 
 sealed by want, to see the writing on the wall. The 
 day of weigliing cometh nigh, and ye must stand upon 
 the scales. 
 
 116 
 
JUSTICE REIGNS 
 
 "All's well! All's well! Sleep on, my lords and 
 princes, or revel as ye will. I, the slave whom ye by 
 indolence or wrong have robbed of virtue, manhood, 
 innocence, am given ward o'er you. 
 
 "Sleep on and revel, fathers, sons and daughters 
 now within the gates, till strikes the hour before the 
 dawn. Then shall ye wake, in deed and in truth, to 
 learn that justice reigns." 
 
 117 
 
LISTEN 
 
 SOUL of iSIy Soul, Heart of My Heart, bend down 
 thine ear, and listen thou well. Listen, as listens 
 
 a mother, who, with smile on her lips and light in 
 her eyes, lists to the beat of the fast coming feet that 
 are bringing her loved ones, her husband or children, 
 back to their hearthstone — back to her arms. 
 
 Listen! and know that the heart-throb thou feelest, 
 the life-pulse thou hearest, is but the extension, the 
 rytlimic revealing of heart-throb and life-pulse ai-is- 
 ing in me, escaping fast from me, and finding a shelter 
 in thy willing heart, till thou sendest them forth on 
 their mission of service, it may be to people a woi-ld 
 through the love they invoke, or empty a world through 
 the hatred they bear. 
 
 I am the Ultimo, thou the revealer, and also dis- 
 penser. In thee lies the power to turn into channels 
 of Good, or to poison with Kvil the love-stream that 
 flows from my soul to thine own. 
 
 Child of Eternity! Seek well and listen! List till 
 the rhythmic vibration, tlie life-beat of God, strikes 
 thine ear. 
 
 118 
 
THUS SAITH THE LORD 
 
 THUS saith the Lord — my Lord to me: Open 
 thine eyes and hehold my face. Thou hast looked 
 too long at my bleeding feet and rememberest 
 not the smile on my face. Thou hast looked too long 
 at the dire effects, and not enough at the causes of sin. 
 Thou hast wept and jDrayed o'er and fondled and cher- 
 ished the long secret sins thou wilt not let go. 
 
 Thou fearest the Law, that Law which is mine, 
 which is me and is thee, and in fearing, thou losest the 
 light of my love, that love which o'ertops and enhances 
 the Law, as this one little sphere is o'ertopped and en- 
 hanced by the heavens which surround it — ^by limitless 
 space. 
 
 Look up, my child, from my feet to my face. 
 
 119 
 
THE CHRIST-BORN 
 
 SCARRED and broken on the wheel of the Dark 
 Star, beset by all the wiles of man, and tried by- 
 demons fierce, — the Dragon's blood ye drank to 
 quench the Tanha thirst hath now been turned to living 
 water in your breast, and all who come to you in faith 
 shall drink and live. 
 
 Rejoice that ye have kept your troth with Christ 
 — for He will turn that water into precious wine when 
 comes the last great change, and clothe you with a gar- 
 ment white as wool, that ne'er hath borne a stain. 
 
 120 
 
THY TRUST 
 
 ROYxVL prince of the Iviiigdom of Cxod, Sou of 
 tliy Father, the Thrice Eorii! (xreat indeed is 
 thy station, ininieasureahle the power that waits 
 upon thy crowning — thy foot upon the dais of thy 
 Father's Throne. 
 
 In the shadow of Infinity thou standest, Son of 
 Suns, unknowing of thy future, all thy past unknown 
 to thee. 
 
 Thy serfs and vassals — thy passions and desires — 
 now press thee close and plead for grace that thou hast 
 power to grant or hinder. 
 
 Yet, notw^ithstanding rank and station, there is not 
 a slave or minion in thy Father's Kingdom so poor as 
 now thou art, if thou art recreant to thy trust. Xo 
 thief locked in thy castle dungeon can be so hideous 
 in thy sight as thou wilt be if thou art traitor in the 
 sight of those to wdiom thy heart, in faith, was turned, 
 when all the world was young to thee — when purity of 
 motive, purpose, soul looked squarely out from eyes that 
 never wavered when they met the eyes of those who 
 loved and trusted them. 
 
 A little thing it seemed, when, midst the glamour, 
 clanging bells and great rejoicing on that day which 
 ushered in maturity for thee, thy Father gave His lance 
 and signet ring to thee, and bade thee hold the outer 
 Temple Gate, that so no enemy might gain the inner 
 Wall — that Guardian Wall, each stone of which is 
 
 121 
 
THY TRUST 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 chiseled and cemented by tlie brawn and l)lood of count- 
 less races of mankind — that AVall which guards the 
 greatest treasure of His Kingdom, the holiest of Holy 
 Things — the Sacred Fire, which, lit by (xod's own 
 Hand, has never since been quenched. 
 
 Art thou a traitor, thou, the Son of Kings? Is thine 
 the hand that pierced the Wall and led the foe within? 
 
 If so it be, thrice traitor then art thou. Thy Fath- 
 er's signet ring, thy ^Mother's bed, the Holy Fire — all 
 jeopardized by thee. 
 
 Each stone that fell through cause of thine will 
 cry for vengeance from tlie ground it touched. 
 
 By king or beggar, prince or slave, a trust betrayed 
 is all the same, and bringeth recompense in full. 
 
 Art tliou thy Father's first-born. His beloved Son? 
 
 Then stand behind His Throne. Sharpen thy 
 sword if it hath rusty grown, and keep it drawn. That 
 Throne is thine, and thou must liold it in the days to 
 come. As tliou defendest it, so shall it be thine own 
 defense, when kingdoms fall hke rain, and men in ter- 
 ror flee. 
 
 122 
 
THE WORKSHOP 
 
 <<y^():ME apart with me, thou child of my beget- 
 \i ting. Come apart from all the noisy crowd. 
 Come from under the weight of man's infirm- 
 ities and sins. Come away from the path of the flood 
 of women's tears, the pressure of helpless children's 
 cries, those cries which beat unceasingly upon the ears 
 of tender souls. 
 
 "Come thou with ]Me into the cleft of yonder rock; 
 lie down and rest, and I will show thee wondrous things 
 which thou mayest ])ring to pass on earth, if so thou 
 wilt." Thus spake the Christ. 
 
 "Behold the city of a thousand hills — a city white 
 and glorious, and in the midst thereof see thou the poor 
 in spirit, the lame, the halt, the blind, the castaways 
 of all the earths the cyclic SAveep of Time hatli gath- 
 ered up. And over all the mighty throng, like out- 
 spread wings above a nest, see thou the peace of God, 
 the glory shining from His face and sweeping o'er and 
 o'er each w^orn and battered form, until that form is 
 lost within the glory to appear again like unto God. 
 
 "Then see thou One in simple majesty of form who 
 saith unto the throng about Him: 'Listen, children of 
 my soul! Lo! ye have suffered, labored, danced and 
 played these many years on earth, w^hence ye are now 
 released. While under glamour of the Jinns ye have 
 believed tliat ve were laboring hard and sore bestead, — 
 
 123 
 
THE WORKSHOP 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 but now with JNIe get ye unto your work — the work of 
 Gods and Angels. 
 
 " 'The glory and the peace that ye have won with 
 Me must be transferred to earth and we must do the 
 mighty work. Breathe deep and fill your hearts, and 
 by the strands of Love we weave thereof, descend to 
 earth swiftly, silently seek out the rich, the powerful, 
 the great, the sorely tempted, blind and halt and lame 
 of soul who know not yet how poor they are, and, throw- 
 ing off our breastplates, set free the streams of Love 
 and Peace and Glory within our hearts, for sore indeed 
 is now their need. 
 
 "'The earth will change. There will be no more 
 sea. Heaven will be brought to earth, the t^vain be 
 merged in one, and then at last Love will l)e justified, 
 its will be done when we have lossed the chains which 
 bind the souls of men.' 
 
 "All this will I show thee when thou comest apart 
 with Me, for know ye now that Heaven is the Work- 
 shop of the Gods, and earth the playground of the 
 Jinns. 
 
 "Man must make his Heaven, if he would dwell 
 therein, and he can only make it as he worketh day by 
 day with Me, apart from all, yet one with all." Thus 
 spake the Christ. 
 
 124 
 
THE INTERVALS OF LIFE 
 
 LOOK for the secrets contained in the intervals. 
 The sounded notes plainly tell their stories to 
 the listening ear, hut what man hath sounded the 
 deeply hidden mysteries of the rests hetween those 
 notes ^ 
 
 Bury the past. Open the door of the future that 
 the resurrected may improve the present opportunity. 
 
 Life's mvsteries are only mysterious to the deaf and 
 bhnd. 
 
 The mind of God is mirrored in the mind of man, 
 and he who would know God must first know man. 
 
 Individual man is the tool. Life is the JSIaster work- 
 man now building the LTniversal Temple. The stones 
 for its building are the divine principles carved by the 
 hand of God, and the mortar for their laying is wet ])y 
 the tears of the human race. Xot until the Temple is 
 complete will stone and tool attain to consciousness of 
 the glory to be revealed in them. 
 
 In all the literature of the world there is naught so 
 supremely selfish, in the highest acceptance of the term, 
 as are the exhortations of the Beatitudes. In praying 
 for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, 
 you are praying for yourself, for the sinner and the 
 sinned against are one in the Christ to whom appeal is 
 made. The merciful, the pure in heart, are each your- 
 self; you are the blessed, yours the reward. You can- 
 not separate yourself from your brother self. You can 
 neither pray for, bless or curse one witliout the other. 
 Yet must you pray and bless and work, or die tlie deatli 
 of the unregenerate. 
 
 125 
 
"I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH" 
 
 BEATS there a lieart so callous, so iuiresi)onsive 
 as to feel no thrill of courage, no feeling of grati- 
 tude that it belongs to the same grade of sub- 
 stance, beats to the same measure as that which envel- 
 oped the man and prompted the words of the dying 
 Paul: "I have kept the faith"? 
 
 What would be the result if the Higher Self of 
 each one called upon us to make a similar assertion in 
 the hearing of a waiting multitude, after years of such 
 trial as Paul endured for his "faith's sake"? 
 
 And what is this faith which Paul once defined as 
 "the substance of things hoped for" ? 
 
 The answer comes from the heart of all things and 
 wells up from our own hearts to our lips, "It is the life 
 of our life — the one attribute — the basic principle of 
 all our hopes, fears, longings and possibilities. With- 
 out it we were the most forlorn, helpless and hopeless 
 creatures in the wide universe." 
 
 When all we have loved, trusted, worked for, 
 prayed for, endured for, leaves us some day in the midst 
 of one of the fiercest storms of trial; when it seems as 
 though the very foundations of the world were giving 
 away and we were plunging into the depth of Hades; 
 out from some inner shrine, some holy place, where God 
 is dwelling in fulness for the time being, there comes 
 a soft whisper to our inner ear, bringing in its wake a 
 wave of hope and courage which stirs some stagnant, 
 
 126 
 
"I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH" 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 long-neglected deep of our fiature and sets it into ra])- 
 idly pulsating motion: and then into our hearts and 
 heads is wafted the message: "Be of good cheer, I 
 have overcome." 
 
 Overcome what^ and hy what? questions the lower 
 mind. 
 
 Clear cut and sliarp comes tlie answer: "Overcome 
 the world and all tliat is in it that is antagonistic to the 
 highest good and overcome it by the power of Faith." 
 Faith sees the first step of the long ladder we must 
 climb, and then glances along the other ste])s and says 
 to us: "Take that first step and the rest will be easy:" 
 faith tliat looks into the heavens of a starlit night and 
 says: "Even as the hand of Infinity holds those worlds 
 in equilibrium, as century after century they traverse 
 unending spaces, so will that same hand hold this little 
 world which constitutes my individual self, so I have 
 no occasion to fear. All I need is power to will and 
 work — the Infinite Father will do the rest. Faith walks 
 by one's side, even if its face be veiled, as we stumble 
 down the dark valley of death and through hells be- 
 neath — those hells that have quenclied the fires of hope, 
 of love, of mercy, of even desire for existence — and 
 says: "Look up, beloved, this is not all of life: take 
 me, use me as a shield against the darts of the devils 
 that haunt this place, and fight thy way out." And. 
 
 127 
 
"I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH" 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 listening to that plea and obeying it, we find the way 
 opening before us; we find the devils were either power- 
 less to injure us or that they were unsubstantial, tran- 
 sitory, dream figures which melt away before our eyes, 
 as step by step we advance, covered by that shield of 
 Faith. 
 
 Aye, Faith is indeed the life of our life, the impulse 
 to every w^orthy action; the basis of every invention, 
 every scientific discovery, every advance in all fields 
 of life; and more than all else to the longing, soul- 
 starved human being hopeless of ever being understood 
 by or ever gaining a place in the hearts of those it loves 
 and serves, and overcome with a horrible fear of death, 
 and even worse fear of continued life. 
 
 What words can picture the return of a lost faith 
 to such an one? 
 
 Dwelling on all these truths, can we not imagine 
 with what wholesome pride came the words: "I have 
 kept the faith," from the lips of that old, wornout, 
 dying man; worn out in the service of his fellowmen 
 and the Christ he loved? 
 
 Who would not reverently repeat the same words 
 to himself and pray that he too might be able to utter 
 them in a like hour of supreme trial, in the same spirit 
 and with the same power? 
 
 The greatest Initiate, the Iiumblest slave may have 
 a right to utter tliem; and in the utterance the two 
 would be made one in the heart of Infinite Love. 
 
 128 
 
OPEN THINE EYES 
 
 OPEN thine eyes, — the eyes of thy Soul, — poor, 
 fickle, changeable atom of man that thou art, lest 
 thou blindly enter again and again the flames of 
 the nether fires, when the free, glad fields of Elysian 
 bliss are thine for thy Willing and Seeking. 
 
 Knowest thou not that the loyal service of thy friend 
 to even that which seemeth error unto thee, will bring 
 that friend, and thee with him, (if so be that thou art 
 true), unswervingly to righteous principle; for loyalty 
 to aught that God hath made, whatever be the name 
 that man bestows upon it, will bring thee surely, safely 
 to the heart of God, though dark and devious be the 
 paths thy feet doth tread to reach that heart. 
 
 Never canst thou reach thy goal, the goal where 
 God in Christ doth dwell eternally, if false to thine own 
 soul. And false thou art if false unto thy brethren. 
 
 Even though a seeming Christ in form shouldst 
 come to thee and say, "Come unto me and sit henceforth 
 on my right hand, though in the coming, I must bid thee 
 crush the hearts of these thy brethren underfoot," I say 
 to thee. Beware! Not so doth come the Christ. But 
 Satan in the guise of Christ might well deceive thee, if 
 it be that thou hast never known that God cannot belie 
 Himself. God in Truth, is Truth sublime, and Truth 
 is Loyalty, before, above, beyond, all other attributes. 
 
 129 
 
OPEN THINE EYES 
 
 If thou dost deem thy brother sore deceived, be 
 brave enough to walk upright, unwavering, by that 
 brother's side till thou hast led him into what is Light 
 to thee, or through the paths of pain that thou hast 
 walked with him, perchance thou shalt learn that he held 
 the Light and thou wert in the shadow. Only so can 
 Christ the INIaster come to thee and offer thee in truth 
 a place at his right hand. 
 
 130 
 
THE LIVING CHRIST 
 
 POOR, striken soul, that needs must lay thy cru- 
 cified — thy Christ — within a sepulchre and seal 
 the door, while yet some other soul hath sought 
 and found the Christ alive. Alive in every tree and 
 flower, in heast and bird as well as in the human heart, 
 where, in thine ignorance, thou now wouldst fain con- 
 fine Him, in fear that Christ might })e degraded by too 
 close a contact with the lesser souls wliich truly He 
 alone could ever bring to life and l)eing. 
 
 Stricken sore indeed is he who in his selfish sorrow 
 for the Christ who died, his worship of all funeral trap- 
 pings, doth fail to see the living Christ in every thing 
 and creature, as well as in the heart of every earnest 
 seeker for the truth, who undertakes his search to still 
 the yearning cry within his soul for sight or sound of 
 that wdiich, from the inmost recesses of human life, is 
 ever drawing all Its own to recognition of Itself. 
 
 There is no rest, no peace for such a stricken one 
 until the great reality beyond all seeming comes to 
 birth within himself, and sets him free to seek wherever 
 Truth doth lead, e'en though it he through all the fires 
 of Hell or to the very gates of Heaven. For where 
 the Christ hath gone, all men may go, upheld and com- 
 forted by the same love that hath sustained and com- 
 forted each seeker for the Grail since time for man 
 began. 
 
 131 
 
JUSTICE 
 
 THE Stars are now rocking with the tread of the 
 vast army of Souls who are coming from far-off 
 fields of Hadean darkness to demand of you, of 
 me, of all the races of mankind, speedy release from the 
 weight of the fiery chains they have been loaded with; 
 surcease from the anguish they are now enduring be- 
 cause of our refusal or neglect to profit by their mar- 
 tyrdom, when they, in love, have lain their torn and 
 mangled bodies down upon the earth that we might 
 step thereon to reach with ease a higher round of the 
 Cosmic ladder, and so open the gates which now shut 
 them out of Heaven. 
 
 Vengeance for outraged love has been the burden of 
 the loud wail that has shaken the foundations of the 
 earth for ages gone. 
 
 "Vengeance is mine," answers the Lord our God, 
 "And I am love." 
 
 Out from the midst of the great White Throne 
 comes the command, "Open wide the Star strewn vaults 
 of the Heavens, ye Angels of the Gates, and let the 
 victims of man's inhumanity pass through to behold 
 the administration of long defeated justice." 
 
 132 
 
'MY FATHER " 
 
 WHEN the storm center of thy life is stirred to 
 its focal point and thy whole being is dissolved 
 in the mighty thought waves which sweep un- 
 checked to the boundaries set by thine own soul; when 
 from amidst the roar and tumult of thy clashing 
 thoughts, there comes a low, gasping, shuddering, 
 "Father, hear me, save me," thinkest thou thy Father 
 will fail to recognize the tones of thy voice amidst the 
 myriad voices assailing His ears and so will pass thee 
 by unheeding? Ah, thou little knowest: Couldst thy 
 Mother's ear be deceived in the voice of her child? 
 Would it matter to her what name thou gavest her? 
 Whether thou cryest in pain or in joy? Would not 
 soul reach soul unhampered by other earthly sounds at 
 the first sound of thy voice? 
 
 Then why shouldst thou doubt that thy Father is 
 more able to hear the voice of His child, whether thou 
 callest Him Jehovah or God, Zeus or Jupiter? 
 
 The name thou now bearest will die with thee, but 
 thine own name, thy true name, is graven on the hands 
 and in the heart of thy Father in Heaven, and though 
 thy Father's name has never passed the lips of mortal 
 man, that name is graven in thine own heart, and that 
 heart, unconsciously mayhap to thee, cries out that 
 name when it prompts thee to say, "My Father." 
 
 133 
 
THE WEAPONS OF THE SELF BORN 
 
 AH, "little one," thou child of the long travail of 
 the Christs, how weak thy struggle, how unfitted 
 art thou for the battle with the powers of evil 
 now arrayed against thee! 
 
 Unwitting of the methods of thy forbears, — they 
 who fought the Dragon with its own sharp claws and 
 slew it past all hope of resurrection, — thou hast yet but 
 learned to grasp such weapons as they used to crush the 
 crawling worm. 
 
 Arouse thyself and seek to slay that Dragon's pro- 
 geny, — the Dragon's teeth sown over all the earth, — 
 tenfold more the spawn of Evil than the power which 
 gave them birth. 
 
 Wilt thou stand by supine and let them slay the 
 good, the pure, the holy, — yea, slay thyself, in this most 
 cruel of the cruel wars that ever devastated dwelling 
 place of man, — the w^ar of self 'gainst self? 
 
 When all Illusions sensuous coils are wound about 
 thine eyes thine enemy doth seize thy strength to turn 
 the face of Truth, of Holiness and Wisdom to the wall 
 of Sense, and places in their stead the well disguised, 
 the cold and passionless, the craven faces of thy foes, 
 while they would force thee to thy knees in slavish wor- 
 ship of the dead in life. 
 
 Arouse thee, child though now thou art, unbind 
 thine eyes, and even in the time a sunbeam takes to 
 strike the earth, the weapons of the Self-born shall de- 
 scend to thee and thou shalt tear those evil faces from 
 the wall and bring again to light the hidden faces of 
 the Gods of Truth, of Justice, Love and Wisdom. 
 
 134 
 
THE GREATEST IS CHARITY 
 
 ^*T3 UT the greatest of these is Charity." Charity 
 |j which covers a multitude of sins, the charity 
 which recognizes and accepts responsihiHty for 
 the man or woman in the depths of degradation, as at 
 least partly due to the vileness of his own imaginings, 
 and the imaginings of every other person who has im- 
 puted evil to such an one; for know, ye who prate of 
 possession of the power of suggestion, of hypnotism, of 
 psychic jjower, that you — you, my hrother — if guilty, 
 will answer in the great day of settlement for the con- 
 dition of that fallen one. If he goes to Hell, you will 
 go with him. Owning to the possession of the power 
 that would have lifted him from the depths into which 
 he had sunk, or had been pushed, mayhap, by the phar- 
 isee who now passes by on the other side, you have let 
 that power lie idle. You — you, my sister, will face the 
 inquisitor ])y the side of the sister you have despised, 
 the child you have left orphaned, desolate, to the care 
 of the "beasts of the jungles" — "the beasts of mam- 
 mon," — because its mother and father had not been 
 united by another man's ceremony. 
 
 You — you, my sister, my brother, who strip every 
 thread of reputation from a weaker brother or sister; 
 you who bring the wolves and jackals of society to tear 
 the flesh — the good name — from the bones of another 
 human being, when in letters of living fire the one word 
 CHARITY looms up before your inner eyes. You 
 see it on altar, transept, and over the entrances of your 
 great temples and churches. The arches or the naves 
 of those temples are trembling from the volume of rich 
 sound from organ and from voice, as they breathe out 
 in song — the theme of Charity. 
 
 135 
 
THE GREATEST IS CHARITY 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 You who reach out a hand, in your pov^erty and 
 wretchedness to a sister, a brother, to be fed; and when 
 your craving for material food is satisfied, when the 
 riches of sj^iritual teachings have poured out upon you 
 in their fulness, turn and bite the hand that fed you, or 
 pour out the vitals of long suppressed jealousy and rage. 
 
 "Charity for me," cry such poor souls, "but the tor- 
 ments of Hell for thee," if thou hast given them charity, 
 and they are not big enough to rest under the weight 
 of kindness. 
 
 There is a river broad and deep enough to cover 
 the path of a solar system, the waters of which are pure 
 and sweet and cleansing enough to give life and healing 
 and joy surpassing aught we know; and the name of 
 that river is color carven and jeweled in the sky above, 
 and over all its length and breadth. We call it Con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 Out from its etheric counterpart, in strains past hu- 
 man teUing, sounds eternally the echoes of the song 
 of Life. 
 
 Enter that river, lie down on its bosom, let its wa- 
 ters pour over and through your soiled and weary 
 bodies. 
 
 Drink of it, laugh with it, weep with it; then rise 
 up and go out into the world and hunt for the thirsty, 
 the soiled, the weary, and bring them, too, to the banks 
 of that river. 
 
 There on its banks shalt thou find a diadem await- 
 ing thee, and carven deep on the golden circlet, em- 
 blazoned with iewels of attainment, shalt thou find the 
 word— Charity— LOVE. 
 
 136 
 
TO MINE OWN 
 
 A TRUST I gave to thee, the Escutcheon of thy 
 Father's House, the honor of a hue of brave de- 
 fenders, warriors of old, who hated hfe if it hut 
 interfered a jot with Truth and Justice; \yho gave their 
 lives without a pang, at the demand of Right. 
 
 I bade thee keep that Trust secure from all thy 
 Father's foes and thine. I bade thee seek and find thy 
 brethren in those spheres whence they were driven by 
 the powers of darkness when closed the last fierce strug- 
 gle 'twixt the White and the Black. 
 
 I bade thee see to it, no stain should rest upon thine 
 armor, no rust upon thy sword. I come again to thee 
 to ask that thou shouldst draw that sword, to test its 
 metal, throw off the cloak that hides thine armor that 
 I may judge how thou hast kept the Faith. I bid thee 
 open\vide thy vestments that I may feast mine eyes 
 upon the brightness of thy breastplate. The day of 
 USE draws nigh, and I must try my weapons. 
 
 Shall I find thine honor in the dust, thy brethren 
 still in bondage, the glory of thy House departed, 
 through thy faithlessness or weakness? Or shall I find 
 thee staunch and true, one of the unconquerable; find 
 thee still the stainless peer of all thy forbears? 
 
 Deep now loudly calls to greater deeps across the 
 waves of human woe. The long expected day of Sepa- 
 ration draweth nigh. 
 
 Those who are mine will answer "Here" when 
 sounds the rallying cry. Those who have faithlessly 
 given their troth to another must go to that other. 
 
 The Gage of the mighty in power of today has been 
 flung in the faces of the Warriors of Light, and the 
 battle of Right against Might is on. 
 
 137 
 
PRAYER 
 
 REACH down, lost soul though thou be, thou who 
 deniest the source of thy life, thou who hast for- 
 gotten thine ancestry, thou who hast flung thy 
 younger brotlier into the pit thine own desire hath dug, 
 and filched from him his heritage for thine own glory. 
 Thou who hast made a playground of thy Father's 
 heart, and watered the seeds of thine own decay with 
 thy Mother's tears. 
 
 Thou who thinkest there is no eye of God to see 
 the bastard forms thou hast created; no ear of God to 
 hear the blasphemous ribaldry with which thou hast 
 polluted the air thou must breathe. 
 
 Reach down, lost soul though thou be, beneath the 
 trough of the rolling w^ave of thine earthly passion, and 
 search for the light of the Christ which even yet shines 
 in thee. 'Make sl path through that wave by Faith, 
 that the light may pass through to search out thine 
 heart, and — fall on thy knees! 
 
 To him who saith to thee, "There is no God to 
 listen to thy mouthings," do thou as I bid thee, fling 
 back the foul lie in his face, for lie it is. 
 
 No soul hath ever lifted its voice in prayer for suc- 
 cor in its hour of peril that hath been turned back upon 
 itself. 
 
 The foulest wrong one soul may do unto another 
 is to rob it of its faith in God. 
 
 138 
 
PRAYER 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 Pray unceasingly, but not as one without hope. 
 Pray in praise, in certainty that there are ears to hear, 
 e'en though they be not molded on the pattern of thine 
 own, e'en though the answer to thy prayer doth tarry 
 till the water from the well of life hath overflowed its 
 rim and once more filled the shrunken tissues of thy 
 soul, and washed away all stain of sin, that so the fiery 
 streams of Love Divine now held in leash by that one 
 Christly gleam within thy soul, may egress find to ut- 
 terly destroy all that lies between thy God and thee, 
 between thee and the Ocean of all Life. 
 
 139 
 
ASK AND RECEIVE 
 
 THOU who knowest that all life is ceaseless, puls- 
 ing motion, knowest that a sun must rise and set 
 each day, that every heart-beat is in perfect time 
 and rhythm; thou, who knowest well that food of yes- 
 terday will not sustain thy body for the morrow's toil, 
 thinkest thou, the law divine will be repealed when only 
 once a cry for Christly bread hath passed thy lips and 
 that forever more a full supply will be before thine 
 eyes, unasked by thee? 
 
 Ah, no! a full supply awaits thine asking, but thou 
 must ask each day or suffer in thy soul from want, as 
 now thy body suffers from the lack of food when thou 
 dost not provide. 
 
 140 
 
HEARKEN TO ME 
 
 HEARKEN, ye children of the New Dispensa- 
 tion! The time is near at hand when He who 
 is to come will reappear among men for the uni- 
 fication of the races of the earth. Open your eyes that 
 they may see. Open your ears that they may hear. 
 And open your hearts that the Son of Man may have 
 place to lay his head, lest He pass you by and ye know 
 him not. 
 
 141 
 
LIFT UP THINE EYES 
 
 LIFT up thine eyes, O man, O little man. Lift 
 up thine eyes that so thou mayest behold the 
 Angels of the spheres; the Holy Ones who rode 
 the crest of fiery billows set in motion by the Sons of 
 Flame long ere a thought of thee had crossed the mind 
 of God. 
 
 Look up, that so perchance thou mayest catch the 
 pitying glances cast on this dark star in passing, by 
 those angel hosts. 
 
 Tied to the same wheel of life as thou, yet tied by 
 their own will, midway between the heavens and earth 
 they circle round to hold in equilibrium the lesser worlds 
 which otherwise would be unbalanced. 
 
 Xo need have they to veil their eyes. 
 
 Full in the faces of the glorious suns they look, 
 their eyes untroubled, unashamed by aught that meets 
 those mirrored depths. 
 
 Messengers are they 'twixt Gods and men and this 
 the message now they bring to thee : "Lift up thy face, 
 O man, to whom the gods gave hands in place of paws ; 
 the gods who set thee on thy feet and lifted up thy head, 
 the gods who loosed the cords that bound thv face to 
 earth." 
 
 "Lift up thy face, and even shouldst thou read re- 
 buke in those most holy eyes when they shall meet thine 
 own, there also wilt thou find the promise of release 
 when in the days to come thy feet shall also be unbound, 
 and nought have power to hold thee longer to the earth." 
 
 142 
 
THE GUERDON OR THE LOSS 
 
 HAVE the Demons of Cowardice, Indolence and 
 Self-aggrandizement seized and bound thee fast, 
 thou child of the Dawn? 
 
 Art thou held in thrall by the children of Night 
 — and fain would now escape? Then would I bid thee 
 loudly call upon the Brothers of the fire mist to burn 
 the cords that bind thee fast and set thee free to take 
 thy place amidst the Warriors of the Light. 
 
 Full well thou knoweth that the guerdon of a bat- 
 tle nobly fought can never fall to renegade or leech, 
 so hold thee still until thy bonds are burned if thou 
 wouldst fight to win. 
 
 No soldier — chela — of the ^lysteries will leave his 
 comrades to the beasts of prey which lurk amidst the 
 shadows of the army's rear he hath been set to guard, 
 and run for safety to the demons of those shadowy 
 wilds. The proven chela seeks the thickest of the fight 
 and there remains, within his Captain's call, till victory 
 comes. 
 
 He who would eat the bread and drink the water 
 portioned to his army corps in time of peace, then 
 climb to safety o'er the dead he had betrayed while still 
 the battle cry was sounding in his ears could never win 
 the crown of life: the Sword of Power. 
 
 143 
 
SING SOFT AND LOW 
 
 SING soft and low, ye happy, hopeful, helpful hearts 
 — ye hearts that feel the first faint throb of that 
 strong life-beat pulsing through the unborn child 
 — the new humanity. 
 
 Sing soft and low. Not yet the time for swelling 
 notes of victory. Sing, for sing ye must, and never 
 cease from singing. The child is now conceived; the 
 birth pangs even now are surging through the Mother 
 Soul, and tho' the travail be most hard and long, the 
 end is even now in sight. 
 
 Unto God and thee another Son, another King 
 will come to rule in majesty and power. 
 
 Creep away into the dens the underworld doth 
 hold, ye drawers of the waters from the wells of wom- 
 en's eyes, ye who dig deep furrows in the faces of the 
 men who suffer for your sins ; for there will be no place 
 for those who weep in that new age, and ye must weep 
 the measure of the tears ye now are drawing from the 
 eyes of those who love and serve you well. 
 
 Speak to your hearts, speak low the words of peace 
 and patience, ye who suffer now, and gain endurance 
 through your pain. 
 
 Ye well may leave all judgments to the law, for 
 yours will be the prize, yours the honor of the banner 
 bearer through the march of centuries to come. 
 
 144 
 
THE LATCH 
 
 LIFT up the latch, child of my love, the latch to 
 the door of thy Father's heart: the door of that 
 home thou hast left in rebellion to wander afar 
 into darkness and squalor, in want and in sorrow: left 
 it to seek, yet always to miss, the peace of fulfilment, 
 the joy of attainment. 
 
 Dost thou remember, son of my sun, when thy 
 thoughts wander homeward, that only in seeming that 
 latch closed the door; remember that inside the door 
 was no latch and no fastening, and he who would enter 
 had only to stoop to the latch hanging downward, lift 
 it and enter the door of his home? 
 
 If a child willed to enter a touch of his finger would 
 lift high the latch, the door would swing open, a face 
 there would meet him; wide open arms would enfold 
 him, and bring him perforce ])ack again to his own. 
 
 So now hangs the latcli to the door of my heart, 
 but of thine own free will must thou lift it to enter. 
 
 145 
 
THOU HAST DONE WELL 
 
 CLOSE the door, my child, shut out the sin, the 
 shame and sorrow. Close the door, for all who 
 enter here touch holy ground. 
 
 All sad todays and yesterdays are lost in the tomor- 
 rows of the souls that enter here, and all the brightness 
 of the days between is here before thee, waiting here for 
 thee. All of good that thou hast ever lost, all recom- 
 pense for pain, is here; so close the door, my child, and 
 come into thine own. 
 
 Close the door. I would not bid thee come to me 
 and close the way to thy return, did I not know thy 
 (hity done — the prize of all fulfilment won by thee. 
 
 That which now remains, between thee and the goal 
 thou long hast sought is just the open door, thy pity 
 and thy fear forbids thee now to close. 
 
 Why lingerest thou? The wail of human woe now 
 falling on thine ear comes not from child of thine, or 
 friend. 'Tis but the wail, the torturing screams of hosts 
 of souls imprisoned by their higher selves for sins 'gainst 
 thee and me and all the human race. 
 
 Thou wilt not? Thou desirest still to stay amidst 
 the lost when joy and peace are thine just for the tak- 
 ing? Thou sayest Heaven would not be Heaven for 
 thee if memory of the cries of the condemned remained 
 with thee. 
 
 146 
 
THOU HAST DONE WELL 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 So be it! Thou hast chosen well; for all the aisles 
 of Heaven, through all eternity, would echo and re- 
 echo all its cries, if but a single soul were left in Hell, 
 on that great day when are recalled by God, the sons 
 He once sent forth to do his bidding. And it is best 
 for thee that thou hast chosen to remain in chains of 
 flesh if so be thou mayest hasten that great day by help- 
 ing up some weaker soul than thine ; some soul that fell 
 and could not rise alone, and by its fall had blocked the 
 way for all who followed in its train. Aye, thou hast 
 done well, mv child! 
 
 147 
 
THE CENTRAL FLAME 
 
 THE nearer the disciple approaches to the Central 
 Flame of the great Initiation Chamber, the keen- 
 er grows his sensitiveness to the heat of the fire, 
 the stronger is his realization of its power over him. 
 As the tongues of flame search out the tender places 
 of his flesh he sinks back in terror and fain would turn 
 and flee from the face of the Are that has hitherto been 
 his God, even must he fly to the uttermost parts of the 
 universe. 
 
 If he have the power to stand still while the dross 
 of his lower self be burned away and he sees his heart's 
 blood splashing the pavement at his feet, all life is 
 changed for him; his former fear and shrinking are lost 
 in an overwhelming love which embraces even the flames 
 whereby he has suffered. With face transfigured and 
 his once gross body now a centre of radiating light, he 
 steps from the base of the flame into the great Circle 
 of Conservation— Universal Love. He is no longer 
 a stake for demons to fight over, but a man among men, 
 a God among Gods. 
 
 148 
 
FAITHFULNESS 
 
 SAY thou to my Children: 
 Faithfuhiess to each individual Ideal of the 
 Soul of all Things and to Us, as representatives 
 of the Great Lodge, will bring them close to us. But, 
 if they would come still nearer, they must not forget 
 that he who would drink of our cup must needs find 
 it a cup of renunciation and sorrow, as well as of joy 
 unspeakable. 
 
 Only by kneeling in the dust of this Scarred old 
 Star can we press our lips to the hem of the Christ-gar- 
 ment — that garment whence cometh the healing, life- 
 giving streams, which alone can wash away the tears 
 from our eyes, the bitterness from our hearts. 
 
 We can but grope around in the darkness of ma- 
 terial life in our search for that gracious garment — 
 Compassion. But, haply in our groping, our weary 
 hands may suddenly touch the hand of God — the hand 
 that with a wave may throw back the curtain shrouding 
 Infinity, and show us not only the hem, but the whole 
 garment, and our souls shining forth from its pure 
 white folds. 
 
 149 
 
SEARCH 
 
 AH! starved and starving souls, held in leash by 
 fear, while just beyond your present vision is a 
 table set that even Christ might find delight in 
 serving, crying out or smothering the cry for one dear 
 JNIother Heart to lay thy head upon ! 
 
 Riven hearts that pulse with longing for "the feel" 
 of some dear little child! 
 
 In agony unspeakable, pain and fever, lie countless 
 stricken ones, hopeless of relief, looking only to the 
 deep, dark stream beyond to drown their suffering, 
 while just above their heads a hand is feeling for their 
 feeble wavering hands to lead them to release. If thou 
 art one of these, hold still, that so that hand may clasp 
 thine own. 
 
 Feast and Mother, Child and Healing, Life and 
 Death, all doth lie within the Father's heart, that beats 
 through thine. 
 
 Search, and thou shalt find! I who tell thee, tell 
 the true. 
 
 150 
 
"HE COMES " 
 
 HO! Outposts, "Light the signal fires." From 
 Mountain top along the chain of Hearts which 
 girdle all the world, flash brightly out the long 
 awaited message — the message which till now hath only 
 flickered softly in all lowly j^laces, in the coulees and 
 the quiet valleys where all Xature cries are hushed be- 
 fore the couch of the great World-Mother in the partu- 
 rition pains which bringeth a Christ to birth. 
 
 Stretch out thy hand, O man, on either side of thee 
 and take thy brother's hand, in hut, in palace, home or 
 street, and form a close wrought chain through which 
 no jot of all the Love, the Righteousness, the Justice 
 of a new, a greater age may pass and thou wilt find 
 that all the light and glory of the new-born sun will 
 be reflected in thine own glad face. 
 
 151 
 
LIFE IN DEATH 
 
 THOU who bearest Death's dark visage, reach out 
 and draw the creatures of Thy will still closer 
 to Thy side, and let them search Thy face, and 
 place their hands within Thy Heart, that so they come 
 upon the secrets of Thy purposes. 
 
 No fear of Thee have I, for Thou and I have oft 
 clasped hands in peace, and now I know Thee well 
 for That Thou art — the friend of man. 
 
 But these, my children, know Thee not, and I 
 would plead that Thou draw near that they may learn 
 that Life in all its fulness lies within the fastnesses of 
 Thy mysterious Being. 
 
 152 
 
COMPASSION^S VEIL 
 
 THK ^lerciful Law, Compassion's selfless, hath 
 veiled thine eye, that while thou walkest in the 
 darkness of this nether world thy sight should not 
 be blasted by the glory shining forth from that great 
 soul who bears my message to the dead in life as well 
 as to the dying and the still-born souls which throng 
 the portal of the inner sphere, and walk unhindered 
 midst the crowds that gather in the paths and byways 
 of all sentient life— the crowds which thou and thine 
 do help to swell. 
 
 A robe of common flesh, ungainly form, and coun- 
 tenance that callest not for lust of eye; no beauty hath 
 my Messenger, that thou desirest it. Nor canst thou 
 see until thine inner eye is opened and with reverent 
 hand thou tearest down the evil which hides that soul 
 from thee ; and this thou mayest not do, until the Sun of 
 Life be shining bright within thy heart, for in the dark- 
 ness, sudden light of fadiant soul would blind thine eyes. 
 In thy sorrow for thy wasted opportunities, thy 
 cruelty, the needless anguish borne in thy behalf, my 
 Messenger would also suffer in thy suffering as ne'er 
 in all its flight from Heaven to earth it hath been 
 called to suffer for other cause than that which tries 
 thy soul; the cause of universal woe, — man's disobedi- 
 ence to the law of God. 
 
 153 
 
SHIFT THY LOAD 
 
 DOES the load press hard? Is thy shoulder 
 grazed^ Thy back bent low? Are thy nerves 
 and muscles tense and strained by the stress of 
 the burden borne? Doth the world woe press thy 
 heart till it seem to burst its leash? 
 
 Then, child of my sorrow, shift the load from 
 shoulder to back, from nerve to heart, from heart to 
 shoulder. 
 
 The weight is needful, the close bound burden doth 
 hold the ransom and crown of thy soul. 
 
 Remember! 'tis always in darkness and silence — 
 in the heavy pressure of our human w^oe, that the 
 Light of God conceives and brings its own to birth. 
 
 So shift thy load, my child, and wait in patience 
 for release until the Law shall set thee free. 
 
 At least the shift will give relief, and at the most 
 it may uncover one of Life's most precious mysteries. 
 
 154 
 
DEBTORS TO LIFE 
 
 MY SOX why callest thou on me for Succour, 
 why i3lead for Wisdom's gifts, while all un- 
 recognized, forgotten or neglected, lie all the 
 gifts bestowed on thee in answer to thy calls of long 
 past days. 
 
 To rid thy conscience of thy debtors' load thou 
 claimest inalienable right to all the Universe holds of 
 good, and base thy claim upon thy kinship with the 
 source of thy frail life. 
 
 But Life is Law, and Law gives naught for naught. 
 He is a thief who takes from Life all that he may 
 and then refuses payment of the debt in kind. 
 
 155 
 
THE SPEECH OF CHRIST 
 
 HE WHO would tell thee that the Christ doth 
 speak to him in words, deceives himself and 
 thee. 
 
 Xot so doth speak the Christ. 
 
 By deeds of Love and Justice the Christ must 
 utter Thought if he would speak to man while man 
 is man. By deeds must give the key the ^lorning Star 
 sounds forth to constellations bright, the hosts of 
 Heaven who sing the Cosmic Symphonies age after 
 age. 
 
 Words are impotent to express or voice the 
 thoughts of God, and only man of all created things 
 hath scorned the thoughts expressed in deeds and in 
 their stead hath chosen sound of his own voice in speech 
 to satisfv his soul. 
 
 156 
 
LOYALTY 
 
 SPEAK the word soft and low — let the vibrations 
 of each letter of the word sink into the depths of 
 
 your consciousness. What mental pictures you 
 will find gathering upon the mirror of your soul! 
 Countless precious lives yielded in sacrifice for Christ's 
 sake, on the fiery altars raised to the black demons 
 of human selfishness by the disloyal. Pictures of 
 friends, families, homes, laid on the Holy altars of 
 sacrifice, for Truth's sake, by those who could see 
 naught but a long, lonely path stretching far, far out 
 into a hopeless future; a path which their footsore feet 
 must tread ere they could catch a glimpse of their 
 promised reward. 
 
 Pictures of gibbets, scaffolds, the rack, fiery fur- 
 naces and the torture chamber; and acres upon acres 
 of unmarked graves — the sepulchres of those who once 
 trod the earth you are treading today, with heads up- 
 lifted to the heavens in the hope of the visible descent 
 of the Holy Spirit; with hearts attuned to the keynote 
 struck by God when He called His people at the break 
 of a new day. 
 
 Pictures of army after army, in never ending pro- 
 cession marching on to the doom prepared for them 
 by their country's traitors, yet glad to yield up their 
 lives to preserve their nation's honor. 
 
 Broken-hearted but yet faithful mothers, wives, sis- 
 ters, sinking into poverty and evil rather than betray 
 a recreant father, husband or brother to the wild beasts 
 of human law. 
 
 157 
 
LOYALTY 
 
 Loyalty ! Is it surprising that the word falls heavy 
 on our hearts, yet rises in power and volume to im- 
 measureable heights when it reaches the ears of our 
 souls ? 
 
 When you think of that vast concourse of souls, 
 to any one of which the word Loyal may be fittingly 
 applied, is it surprising that the word stands for all 
 that is courageous, noble, great, when used as a prefix 
 in designating man or woman? In view of all that this 
 one word pictures to our inner sight, can we wonder 
 that we shrink appalled from the vicinity of one whom 
 the words "disloyal," "traitor," rightly indicate? Ah, 
 no! for "Loyal" is graven on the banner that covers 
 multitudes of redeemed. It is graven on the foun- 
 dation stones of a universe. The suns and stars flash 
 it forth in glorious light as they move in their orbits, 
 true to the hand that flung them into space. 
 
 Think you that any human being ever won and 
 wore the honor of its bestowal, by a single act? Not 
 so. It is woven as threads are woven in cloth of gold, 
 into the essential fabric of the garment of the soul; 
 and when that fabric is complete the soul need never 
 ask itself a question as to whether it be right or wrong, 
 when action is to be taken in any event, for "It knows;" 
 It could not be false to Itself. 
 
 The dark places of the earth, the depths of the 
 Eighth Sphere, are fit habitations for the traitor, the 
 disloyal. 
 
 The mental and moral effluvia which rises from the 
 dead soul, the soul murdered by disloyalty, permits 
 
 158 
 
LOYALTY 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 no one to be long deceived as to the nature of its 
 simulacrum — the body — no matter how fair the body, 
 how subtle the mind, to which that dead soul is attached. 
 
 If you cannot be true to the principles you have 
 chosen to guide your lives, if you cannot be true to 
 father or mother, wife or husband, nation or home; 
 how can you be true to your own souls? How can you 
 be true to your God — to your Higher Self? 
 
 If you' find within yourself a lack of power to be 
 loyal to all the duties that you have undertaken, begin 
 now to spin the golden threads that you will need for 
 that C bristly fabric I have mentioned, by being true in 
 little things'; true to your obligations to your comrades; 
 true to the trust placed in you, when you are left un- 
 watched to sweep a floor or plow a field. The threads 
 will broaden and strengthen and multiply, and one day 
 you will all unexpectedly find there are enough to weave 
 the fabric for the garment of the soul. 
 
 You cannot be true to yourself and false to your 
 friend at the same time ; the singing bird and the snake 
 cannot live together in one field. 
 
 You cannot be true to God and false to your neigh- 
 bor, for God and your neighbor are one. 
 
 "Truth" does "indeed "lie at the bottom of a well," 
 and you must look long and steadily if you would find 
 it to star a diadem 'gainst your crown. But falsehood 
 ever lies close at hand, spreading a net for unwary feet, 
 and, like all easy things, — all illusions — murderous at 
 its base. 
 
 Loyalty is the first-born Son of Truth; disloyalty 
 the bastard offspring of falsehood. 
 
 159 
 
ASK EACH DAY 
 
 THOU who knowest that all life is ever ceaseless 
 pulsing motion! 
 
 Thou who knowest that the sun must rise and 
 set each day, and that everj^ heart-beat is in perfect 
 time and rhythm! 
 
 Thou who knowest that the food of yesterday will 
 not sustain thy body for the morrow's toil! 
 
 Thinkest thou the cyclic law, immutable, will be 
 repealed for thee, in that each day will bring thee nour- 
 ishment for soul, unasked for and unsought by thee, 
 or asked amiss? 
 
 Ah, No! A full supply of Christly bread awaits 
 thine asking, but thou must ask each day, and ask in 
 faith, or suffer in thy Soul as now thy body suffers 
 from the lack of food when thou dost not provide. 
 
 160 
 
LOOK WITHIN 
 
 HATH a miry slough opened 'neath thy straying 
 feet and a storm cloud burst above thy head? 
 Then hold thee still and look within. 
 There shalt thou find a place of refuge, a point of 
 observation from which thou mayst sight the distant 
 hills and the clear sky. 
 
 There, too, shalt thou find thy Guide and an open 
 path. 
 
 161 
 
THE NORTHERN WINDOWS 
 
 OPEN the Xorthern windows of thy soul, weak, 
 unstahle mortal. 
 
 Let in the bracing wind, the crystal genii 
 of the ice, that they may rouse thee from the sodden 
 sleep in which the Southern winds have bound thee. 
 
 Long hast thou lain inert and pulseless 'neath the 
 spell, powerless to strike a blow in thy defense. Thou 
 canst not stand erect and wrestle with the Northern 
 blasts, and so regain the strength and courage needful 
 for thy battle with the hosts that throng the underworld. 
 
 Cast off the glamour. Bare thy breast to all the 
 icy winds that sweep the Storm King's realms. Though 
 beaten to the earth again, and yet again, yet shall thou 
 rise each time the stronger, and at length thou shalt 
 be master of thvself, and therefore of thy fate. 
 
 162 
 
DARKNESS 
 
 FOR eons now hath Evil stolen guise of darkness 
 and dimmed thine inner eye, till it hath lost its 
 power to pierce those shadowy depths, to find 
 therein the rarest treasures life doth hold. 
 
 Thy little ones now enter life accursed with fear 
 of darkness, as thou hast come accursed by thine own 
 parent's fear, and so man doth perpetuate the curse 
 from age to age. And yet, all peace, all rest, Death's 
 brightest face, all germination and all growth — the 
 holiest mysteries of life — are held within the folds of 
 darkness. 
 
 When thou hast silenced all thy fears, and with 
 thine ear attuned to her low murmurings, then shalt 
 thou hear the softest melodies, the cradle songs, of 
 the Great ^lother as she sings her wearied children into 
 sweetest sleep at setting of the day that they may gain 
 the strength to greet the morrow's sun, and in her song 
 will be revealed the mysteries of Xight so long concealed. 
 
 163 
 
MAKE ROOM FOR ME 
 
 MAKE room for me, while yet an hour remains 
 before the Sands of Time have run their course 
 in this dark Iron Age! 
 
 Make room, ye bhnd and sore of heart, ye who are 
 smitten with the plagues of all the centuries past! 
 Make room, ye heedless revellers in transitory Pleasure 
 Halls! Make room all ye who fail to see the writing 
 on the wall, who read no message in the stars whose 
 cyclic sweeps are marking plain the coming of my day! 
 
 A little hour is left thee to tear down the bars 
 'twixt thee and me, my child; to widen out the spaces 
 in thine heart and make room, ere falls the day I come 
 with Scales of Justice in my hands. 
 
 I, who cry to thee must leave the wand of mercy 
 far behind when weighted with the heavy scales I bear, 
 and in that day the choice will be no longer thine or 
 mine, but His who sends me and who rules alike o'er 
 all. 
 
 164 
 
THE SHADOW 
 
 BE PATIENT with the shadows— thou cHmber 
 of the heights — not only with thine own but with 
 the shadows of all others. 
 
 Remember! thou seest only shadows with thy de- 
 ceptive sense of sight; the real man, the real woman is 
 hidden from thy view. 
 
 Only with thy soul sight canst thou glimpse be- 
 yond the haunting shadowy caricature of thy true Self 
 — that caricature which, like unto automata, may sing 
 and dance or sob and cry according to the will controll- 
 ing it, the hand which holds the string. 
 
 So be patient with thy shadow for, when its little 
 day is ended, its purpose all fulfilled, it will disappear, 
 and in its place thou wilt behold the Self — that Self 
 which, since the dawn of thy creation, has been stand- 
 ing back in the Silence of Eternity, watching the antics 
 of its shadows and "pulling the strings." 
 
 165 
 
ANSWER ME 
 
 1LED thee to the gate, and fain would keep thy 
 hand and lead thee on till thou hadst reached the 
 
 Central Flame, and entered in, and all thy dross 
 were purged away. Then couldst thou stand alone, 
 freed from oMaya's curse, in likeness unto Me. 
 
 I pray thee tell ISIe, was the gate too small for thy 
 bent back or did the Flames affright thee so thou couldst 
 not see the glory just beyond? Or did the demons of 
 the underworld lay hold on thee and drag thee back 
 and loose thy hold on Me? 
 
 Canst thou make answer truthfully when thou with 
 ]Me hast entered the Great Silence? For so, mayhap, 
 the path may open once again, and thou be stronger 
 grown. 
 
 For know thee well, thou, who art ]Mine own, thou 
 canst not reach the Temple Gate save with My hand in 
 thine, for we are one. 
 
 166 
 
ENDURANCE 
 
 IN YOUR last extremity, when heedless of all else 
 save the ever deepening, despairing cry of your 
 soul then being smothered on your drawn hps; 
 when your whole being seems submerged in one intense 
 longing for surcease from the anguish of the fitful 
 fever that has consumed your courage, your will, your 
 desires, — then I bid you strive to reach out and hold 
 on to the jutting rock on the bank of life's stream, the 
 rock we name Endurance — the rock which rises above 
 and beyond all others on those banks, and upon which 
 is graven the message: "However hard, however dis- 
 tasteful and exacting the temporalities of the day, with 
 the dawn of a new day, a change will come as surely 
 as that new sun has gilded the East. However dark 
 and swirling the waters of that Life Stream may be, 
 at the close of the day of your despair, there must come 
 another day, when the whispered 'Peace, be still!' will 
 quiet the waves and so permit you to swim safely and 
 peacefully into the haven of j^our hopes, if you have 
 hold of that one Invincible Rock." 
 
 167 
 
THE SCOFFER 
 
 HAST thou chosen then? thou pitiful scoffer at 
 Holy Things! Chosen in Pride and Ignorance, 
 only to awaken one day to sorrow unspeakable! 
 
 The earth rises to greet the falling sun w4ien its 
 day is done, even as the Soul rises to greet its descend- 
 ing God when its little day is done. Night cometh; 
 the night when no man may work; and thou, like unto 
 a bird, must needs seek a resting place; but unlike the 
 bird, which seeks wisely and well the toji-most branches 
 of its chosen tree, thou, the fruit of all past ages ! thou, 
 built in the image of a God, taught by the Devas of 
 the higher spheres, thou buildest thy resting place on 
 the shifting sands of life's most fitful Ocean; the sands 
 which that Ocean in its wrath will surely overflow, and 
 whose outgoing tide will bear thee swiftly downward, 
 outward to extinction. None can give thee help for thou 
 hast despised the rocks to which thy kind hath clung 
 since Time began for man. 
 
 Thou hast closed thine ears to the voice of thy heart. 
 
 Thou hast made of the Gods a mock and of their 
 messenger a butt. 
 
 Thou hast chosen thy lot when thine was the choice 
 and must abide therein. 
 
 Thou hast bartered thy birthright for a bauble and 
 the })auble is broken. 
 
 168 
 
THE STRICKEN SOUL 
 
 RIGHT joyfully doth all the heavenly host give 
 welcome unto him who strikes the load of evil 
 from an over burdened soul, to save that soul 
 alive; for he who hath been worsted in the fight with 
 all the powers of darkness hath never strength to free 
 himself unaided. 
 
 And he who lifts the burden from a stricken soul 
 by sacrifice of self, will find the virtues of the Diamond 
 Soul concealed therein. 
 
 Right royally doth Hell's low minions welcome him 
 who casts the mirrored image of his own foul nature 
 o'er the one, who, trusting in the vaunted honor, purity, 
 and power of him he called by all the sacred names 
 man gives to friend, hath placed no shield before his 
 naked soul, for such a demon in the guise of man doth 
 lead the van in those foul depths where devils congre- 
 gate. 
 
 169 
 
LET GO 
 
 LET Go! let go! ye fearful, cowering souls! Let 
 go the form, half God, half fiend, which primitive 
 and mindless man made in his own crude image, 
 and other men less crude have foisted on a throne, and 
 forced their fellow men to worship! 
 
 If thou wouldst picture God unto thyself — limit 
 the eternally limitless ere thine own soul can rest and 
 understand — then picture to thyself an image far 
 transcending human love and wisdom, power and jus- 
 tice, nor be content with less. A God so pure that no 
 created thing could sully it, so clean that every un- 
 clean thought of man must die a-borning ere it reached 
 Its Presence. A God who could not build a Hell for 
 human kind till all the nascent fires had first consumed 
 His own diviner essence, and from the residue thereof 
 create the great Redeemer of mankind, One, Inseparable 
 — purifying by His touch the vilest thing created. 
 
 Only such a God is worthy of the reverence of the 
 Sons of God. 
 
 Let go of other Gods, and seek thy God according 
 to thy strength and power of search. 
 
 170 
 
IT 
 
 MAYHAP you name It Sacrifice, or Joy, or All- 
 fulfilment. Perchance you picture It in mind 
 as that which lights the Sun, or as the law which 
 holds intact the whirling stars in space. Or you may 
 clothe It in a garment pure, enfolding man and maid, 
 when sound of wedding bell falls on the ear. 
 
 What'er the name bestowed, what form the thought 
 has taken, or the fancy subtly wrought, It always bears 
 the sign and visage of the God-head, that radiant energy, 
 creator and preserver, which man has designated 
 LOVE. Love the leveler; the all pervading principle 
 of Life; the Light that lighteth every man. 
 
 The wielder of all power in heaven and earth. The 
 Unifier wise and strong, which joins all worlds, all sys- 
 tems, sky and earth, the rootlets of the tiniest blade of 
 grass, the hearts of men, in one eternal band. 
 
 Love washes out all bitterness, all fear and hate, 
 and makes a place of peace where once was only strife. 
 It streams from every mother's eyes and fires the pride 
 in very father's heart. 
 
 It downward turns the sordid side of toil and brings 
 to light the side of recompense. 
 
 A mystery of mysteries. A worker of life's mir- 
 acles is Love, the purest and most precious jewel in 
 God's treasure house. 
 
 171 
 
THE THREEFOLD WARNING 
 
 OXCE at the breaking of his vow; twice, if un- 
 der exceptionally great pressure the soul yields; 
 thrice it may be in a last vital extremity — may a 
 warning note be struck from the seats of the Mighty, 
 to fall on the ears of the Twice-begotten, — the Neo- 
 phyte, — thenceforward, the stillness of the Great Si- 
 lences. 
 
 The glamour cast by the Jinn of the underworld, 
 once a betrayer of his trust, will drift away like the 
 mist before the sun, when the light from the torch of 
 seminal Truth, held in the hand of the Mighty, is turned 
 upon it. Naught but glamour could turn the heart of 
 the Twice-born from the seat of power, and send him 
 adrift. 
 
 "Great is glamour!" — "Great is the King!" cry 
 the hapless victims of its power, until the light of Truth 
 is turned thereon. 
 
 172 
 
THE PEACE OF GOD 
 
 GATHER up in one bouquet as thou wouldst 
 gather roses rare, the loves of all the creatures 
 of all worlds, of man, of animal, of plant, of 
 whirling planet, sun and nebulae — the loves that rise 
 as perfumes to the skies. Add to these all shades, and 
 combinations of all shades that Light hath flashed to 
 color. Then bind them with the force of everj^ note 
 and tone which ever gushed from throat of man, and 
 bird, and beast, in song and praise — the chords of that 
 sweet song, the morning stars have sung since dawn 
 of life, the rustle of the winds, the moanings of the 
 waves; and if thou hast no name for such a marvel, 
 thou mayest call it God. Then, if thou canst see and 
 know the spirit of those loves, those rays of color, per- 
 fumes, notes, and chords, and feel it fold thee close 
 when one short day of time is closed, as, at the setting 
 of the sun, the mother folds her little one and hushes 
 it to sleep and only lays herself to rest when the great 
 Bird of Life hath folded close its wings, then and only 
 then, shalt thou — the offspring of that God — feel and 
 know the peace of God. 
 
 173 
 
THE TEMPLE PLAN 
 
 NO MAN, no host of men, laid hand upon or 
 wrought God's Temple plan, nor can a man or 
 host of men destroy or mar that plan. 
 
 High in the heavens unfurled it hangs for eyes un- 
 clouded, clarified of self, to see. 
 
 Blest indeed is he, who seeing, builds upon the 
 screen of mind a replica of that great plan which is 
 eternal in the soul of time. 
 
 Thrice blest is he who lays a stone upon the breast 
 of earth and lays so true to line that other hands may 
 build upon it, that other men may lay their all upon it, 
 and so may raise a simulacrum of that first, most wond- 
 rous plan of all, each precious gem of which, cemented 
 by the sacrificial blood shed drop by drop from human 
 hearts will last for aye. A Temple made by human 
 hands indeed shall man yet build; a Temple worthy of 
 the presence and the peace of God. 
 
 174 
 
THE GRAVE OF SIN 
 
 CAREFULLY, tenderly, bury thou the faults of 
 thy brethren, for in their graves will lie the em- 
 bryonic forms which later will rise regenerated 
 as virtues. 
 
 If thou refusest burial, and leavest them at large 
 to gather substance from the vile corroding thoughts 
 of those who think to kill, then wilt thou become in part 
 the slayer of thy brethren. 
 
 On the grave of dead sins may rise the soul purified, 
 and if thou hast helped to dig the grave which held 
 those sins, then shalt thou be partaker in the resurrec- 
 tion of that soul. 
 
 175 
 
YE TOO 
 
 ^*TT riLL ye, too, leave me, best beloved of all?" 
 
 y y So cries the Christ as in the garden of Geth- 
 semane — the world — again he stands un- 
 armed, unterrified, yet lonely with a loneliness no child 
 of Earth can understand. 
 
 "Will ye, too, leave me. Ye whom I have loved with 
 love surpassing that of earthly kin?" 
 
 "Will ye too leave me to the wrath of foes, the 
 tiger claws of human passion, the sneers, contempt, 
 betrayal of the mob which in its ignorance hath yielded 
 to the demon Hate which now would lay me low?" 
 
 "Will ye too leave me, ye whom in your infancy 
 I fed and healed and saved from foes unnumbered?" 
 
 "Will ye too leave me, going where mine enemies 
 have gone, to raise a cross that I may die upon for loving 
 ye too well?" 
 
 176 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 GOLDEN opportunity comes once to every man, 
 twice to a selfless man, but never thrice to the 
 same man in the same life-cycle. 
 Happy is he who hath seized the first; twice blest 
 is he who reaps the reward of his first in his second; 
 despair alone is the portion of him who idly awaits 
 the coming of a third. 
 
 The two-leaved door of life's mysteries will shut 
 close on the last, and will no more open for him until 
 they fly back to let his purged soul through at the be- 
 ginning of a new life-cycle. 
 
 177 
 
THE DIAMOND SOUL 
 
 WHAT boots it, the pain, the longing, the weari- 
 ness of the moment — the single moment out of 
 the Eternities — to him who sees each trial as a 
 gage of the great battle he is fighting for the crown of 
 self-recognition, and who knows that with every con- 
 quest a white stone is added to the Crown of the Dia- 
 mond Soul. 
 
 The moment with its burden will pass, but the 
 Diamond Soul will hail the dawn of every new age, 
 'till Time is lost in Eternity. 
 
 178 
 
THE RICH 
 
 OF ALL the poverty bestead, this brutal age doth 
 hold in clanking chain, — the naked savage in the 
 winter's storm, — the skulking outcast in the 
 city's street — none are so poor, none so want-betrayed 
 as he who lays his all upon some self-made game, and 
 winning, LOSES his own soul. 
 
 Of all the rich, the powerful of earth,— the mon- 
 arch on his throne; the holder of a thousand slaves, 
 of lands, of mines, and golden store untold, — none are 
 so rich, so measurelessly rich in all that constitutes 
 true wealth, as he who knows and loves his fellow man 
 so well, the treasure chest of God's great love hath 
 opened unto him. 
 
 179 
 
BIRDS OF PREY 
 
 HO — YE servitors of the Thrice-born! ye jinns 
 of the underworld! By the power with which 
 ye are invested, by the mission with which ye 
 are intrusted, go ye to the betrayers of our trust, the 
 foresworn traitors of the battle's eve, the forked 
 tongued of the dark star-earth, and blind ye their eyes 
 that they may not see the glory; hold ye their ears that 
 they may not hear the call of the blessed. 
 
 Birds of prey are they that have befouled their own 
 nests, outraged the mother who bore them, and un- 
 covered the nakedness of the father who gave them 
 form. What place is there for such as these in the 
 new age and among the true-hearted ? 
 
 So, do ye to them as ye are bidden. Blind their 
 eyes and deafen their ears, lest they see and hear that 
 which they have not earned, and that w^iich is forfeit 
 to them; lest they take the bread of life from between 
 the lips of the worthy, and give it unto the dogs of war 
 and confusion. 
 
 180 
 
SORROW 
 
 LET sorrow do its perfect work in thee, my child, 
 that so it raise thee to the heights where dwell the 
 Gods. Failing this, take care lest from the dark 
 recesses of thine own sick mind thou bringest forth the 
 poison seething there and spew it out of thy mouth, 
 to infect the weak. 
 
 When sorrow does not cleanse and purify the 
 heart, it sinks into some dark recess therein, inflames 
 and suppurates, then reinfects both heart and mind. 
 A victim of such foul disease becomes as doth the leper, 
 a source of dread and danger to all who cross his path. 
 He casts reflections from his sin-sick soul on those 
 who in compassion would minister to him, and sees 
 his own depraved, erupted likeness in their faces, as 
 he would see it in a mirror. He knows not love nor 
 pity, mercy nor forgiveness, and only lives to blast or 
 kill, rebellious to the last. 
 
 Then truly, sin and sorrow are but two opposing 
 poles of one of life's deep mysteries. The victim of the 
 one may fall and sink e'en to the lowest level, or he 
 may rise to the greatest heights attained to by the 
 other. 
 
 181 
 
THE HIGHWAY 
 
 LO! I stand and cry for help to build the highway 
 over which myriad footsteps may pass— the foot- 
 steps of the hosts so long oppressed, the little ones 
 now trodden under foot of man. 
 
 Even while my cry rings forth thou turnest far 
 away thy gaze upon some short and narrow trail, and 
 sit thee down to wait another call — or sayest to thy- 
 self, "the highway he would build would be too wide, 
 and far too long for me to tread, the paving stones 
 not such as I would choose." "He plans no shade on 
 either side, no mound where I might sit me down to 
 rest. If I could choose the workmen, lay the pave- 
 ment, fix the compensation for the toil, and build a 
 gate at either end to bar mine enemy — then would I 
 answer, and give myself in service true." 
 
 Alas! that while thou heedest not my cry, my little 
 ones — thy little ones — the poor, the halt and blind are 
 stumbling, falling back, or being thrown by press of 
 those behind. 
 
 No highway has been made for them, or thee; nor 
 can it be without thy help. 
 
 182 
 
TRUTH 
 
 WOULDST thou know the Truth— the pure, the 
 undefiled, — the sacred Truth, by means of 
 which man is made free and strong? 
 
 AVouldst thou know the Truth, thou shrinking, 
 stricken, smitten victim of thine own untruth, thou 
 bhnd, and lame, and halt of body or of soul, who pleads 
 for mercy to the powers thou hast defied? 
 
 Wouldst thou NOW know the Truth? Then bend 
 thine ear to me. 
 
 Like calls to like throughout the bounds of Time 
 and space. From amoeba to man, and thence to angel 
 host the call rings strong and clear, and ever doth the 
 answer come in kind; then, how couldst thou behold 
 and know the Truth if lips of thine are dank with false- 
 hood, if lure of mind and body doth beguile thy fellow 
 man to his undoing, if foul deceit and treachery to 
 friend and foe alike hath cast deep shadows o'er thy 
 path of life and hid the face of Truth from thee? 
 
 Wouldst thou NOW know the Truth?— THEN 
 THINK AND SPEAK THE TRUTH so far as 
 now thou knowest it and Truth herself, unclothed, in 
 all her fulness, beauty, strength, will come to dwell 
 with thee. Unabashed, thine eyes shall seek her face, 
 and seeking there shalt find "the Peace that passeth 
 understanding," the key to all the mysteries of life. 
 
 183 
 
FROM GOD TO MAN 
 
 I SENT thee forth alone, unbound, in the morning 
 of thy life, into a wide, wide world wherein no foot 
 
 of man had strayed. I sent thee forth with the 
 heart of a child, and a clean white mind wherein was 
 writ no record of sin or shame, or prophecy of pain. 
 
 I gave thee the Stars for thy toys, and the Sky 
 for a place to play ; and I bade thee grow 'till thy head 
 o'er-topped the highest arch of Heaven. 
 
 I only bade thee bring to me at the close of thy 
 Day of Time a pure mans heart and a childlike mind 
 in return for my trust in thee. 
 
 184 
 
THE HEART OF GOD 
 
 THOU homeless wanderer in trackless wastes, 
 knowest thou not that the door in the garden of 
 thy heart opens into the garden of the Heart of 
 God, where the flowers of Love, Wisdom, and Power 
 bud, blossom and bear fruit for thy plucking? Open 
 that door and enter into thine own divinity. 
 
 The Heart of God is the container of the divine 
 in all things and creatures, and therefore of the divine 
 in thee. 
 
 Only within that Heart canst thou find thy true 
 self, and all things that are thine own. 
 
 185 
 
HOLD HIGH THY TRUST 
 
 FAR more doth it injure thee than it doth thy friend 
 when thou hurlest a poison tipped shaft of sus- 
 picion at him. 
 
 A pure white page of thine own book of life is 
 splashed with the black ooze of the Eighth Sphere if 
 such a shaft from thy hand doth hit thy friend. The 
 stain of that ooze is indelible. Little by little it would 
 seep through every succeeding page of that book upon 
 which the name of thy friend was writ and one day 
 thou wouldst find thou hadst lost thy friend, — thy most 
 priceless possession. 
 
 Then, hold high thy trust. Far better is it that 
 thou sufferest injury through thy trust, if needs be, 
 than that thou shouldst betray thy friend, even to thine 
 own heart. 
 
 186 
 
THY GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY 
 
 CAST the sunlight of the Self obliquely on the 
 cares of daily life, and they will swiftly turn 
 to golden opportunities, e'en as now doth Dag- 
 ma's beams, at close of day, glorify the bubbles on the 
 ocean's waves. 
 
 The bubbles break, their glory vanishes, but mem- 
 ory of their beauty clings about and satisfies the heart, 
 when life is sad. 
 
 Even so the cares will pass, but opportunities for 
 love and service pure remain to raise the frailest of the 
 sons of man to stature of the Gods. 
 
 187 
 
GROW WINGS AND FLY HIGH 
 
 GROW wings, my child, wings of pure tliought, 
 aspiration and high courage; wings strong and 
 virile enough to bear thee to the heights of life, 
 where safe placed thou mayest glimj^se the pit now hid- 
 den from thy view by murky clouds. 
 
 The wind from the heights, fanned into motion by 
 thy wings, will blow away the ashes from its mouth 
 and give thee sight of lurid flames and hosts of de- 
 mons spawned by Hatred, Greed and Avarice of man. 
 Full of guile are they and wise enough to seek and 
 find the entrance to the soul which gave them birth 
 for food and nourishment on which to grow 'til strong 
 enough to drive that soul from its own place and take 
 possession full. 
 
 Then grow wings, my child, and fly high; there is 
 naught between thee and the stars but thine own will. 
 
 188 
 
THE WORD ETERNAL 
 
 OMAX of many words, who knoweth not The 
 Word thy noise doth hide from thee; thou rev- 
 eler within and squanderer of God's most pre- 
 cious gift ; thou who f eeleth no regret for wasted lesser 
 lives, and in thy mad extravagance doth often drench 
 the sphere with which thou art encompassed with 
 streams of energy so wide, so powerful for good or 
 ill, that thou wouldst stand abashed but for thj^ igno- 
 rance, thy foolish exaltation of the shadow to the throne 
 of Wisdom, thereby rendering thee a piteous object 
 of compassion in the eyes of those — thine Elder Broth- 
 ers — who stand and wait beside the inner gate. They 
 will not enter lest mankind be left alone, a guideless, 
 oarless vessel on the shoreless ocean of eternal life. 
 The gate which they have won the right to open as 
 they will, and pass to endless bliss and union with the 
 God they have long sought. 
 
 But, ah, how little understood by man, this sacri- 
 fice divine! How oft doth puny man fling back into 
 their faces all the gifts laid on the sacrificial fires, and 
 cry, "I will have none of thee, thou God or Christ, or 
 manikin, whate'er thou art! I will choose and go my 
 way without thy guidance or the aid of those who wor- 
 ship such as Thou." Alas! he knows not that long 
 ere now he had sunk to nothingness were it not for 
 those he now contemns. He knows not that he holds 
 
 189 
 
THE WORD ETERNAL 
 
 within his feeble clasp the instrument to sound the key 
 to all the greater mysteries now in suspension held 
 within that shoreless ocean; the key which sets the 
 bounds or breaks them, to all forms, all lesser lives. 
 But if that key is sounded, he must yield his lower life 
 in rite of sacrifice; that life of sense to which he clings 
 tenaciously, beside which other forms of life seem cold 
 and dead. 
 
 He cannot see as yet that in thus yielding he will 
 find himself, the Self he long since lost. 
 
 Only he who gives his life shall find and keep his 
 life eternally. 
 
 190 
 
NEW BIRTHS 
 
 DIVINE Love, — Life — Law, brings to new birth 
 and opportunity each gladsome new spring, new 
 life for all the myriad lesser lives created through 
 past cycles. It clothes them with new garments bright 
 and beautiful, and says to each in turn with tender 
 touches warm and moist, "Take thou the gifts I bring 
 to thee and use them for thy glory and thy growth." 
 
 Of all the countless hordes of living things which 
 love creates, man alone dare fling those gifts disdain- 
 fully aside and say unto the giver, "I will not grant 
 myself, nor yet my fellow-man, the glory of new births, 
 — the springtimes of recurring cycles; for only age 
 and death await my kind when youth is past;" and 
 saying so he binds his soul in bonds he will not break, 
 and wearily plods on to pain and dissolution, blind to 
 the lessons Love hath showered on him, heedless to 
 the end. 
 
 191 
 
WILL DIVINE 
 
 IF THOU wouldst waken from thy sleep of igno- 
 rance and sloth to knowledge of the destiny de- 
 creed for him who yields obedience in the faith, 
 then make of thine own self a channel wide and 
 straight that so the Will of God — a living stream — 
 may flow direct, unchallenged on its course. All the 
 refuse of thy many lives that stream will bear away 
 to be transmuted to its depths, and on its breast will 
 float thy new-cleansed bark of life, its pure white sails 
 unfurled to all the world. Manned by courage, decked 
 with Purpose, anchored by a AVill set in a prow of 
 Wisdom, who or what could change the course of such 
 a bark save God and thee? 
 
 192 
 
SEEK THE CAUSE 
 
 IF THOU wouldst seek the primal cause of thine 
 unfaith in God or man or thing, and seek that 
 
 cause with all thy soul unmindful of the heights 
 or depths where it now lies, determined only to accept 
 the truth when found, regardless of the wound to self 
 that knowledge may inflict,— then seek within thine 
 heart for time and place and purpose when thou didst 
 injure, grieve or wound the God, the man, the thing 
 wherein thy faith now lieth dead. For as the arrow 
 flieth straight toward a mark, so flies the cause of 
 wrongful deed or thought straight to the mark of its 
 effect — thy present faithlessness. 
 
 It may be but a seed of thought or word by which 
 the wound was made, but being sown and watered by 
 the stream of circumstances, its growth and blossom- 
 ing, its fruit and seeding, are as sure as darkness after 
 light. 
 
 Faith is a tender plant. It will not bear the storms 
 of Hate, Suspicion or Neglect. Its very tenderness is 
 of the Love and tenderness of God. 
 
 193 
 
THE VEIL 
 
 SWIFTLY turn thy face toward me, my child. Be 
 thou not content with any shade or fleeting form 
 made in my likeness. I have fixed m}^ face within 
 thine heart. See to it that thou tear away the veils the 
 Fates by thee have woven 'twixt that face and thee, 
 e'en though thine heart should bleed afresh with every 
 outdrawn thread. 
 
 When there be naught 'twixt thee and ]\IE, then 
 shalt thou know MY glory and MY power for thine. 
 
 Seek thou ]ME, my child, and not another in my 
 guise, for I have chosen thee and thou art Mine. 
 
 From out the figments of the mind, from threads 
 spun from the woof of reason and the warp of lower 
 will, man weaves veil after veil between himself and 
 God. He names them Intellect and Purpose, Self- 
 assertion, Independent-action, and never knows that 
 Love and Wisdom in their parturition pains are cry- 
 ing out for birth within his heart 'till sore beset, choking, 
 strangling, panting in their folds, he strips away each 
 veil and frees his prisoned heart. 
 
 Then alone doth he behold his Father's Face. 
 
 194 
 
THE PERFECT ONE 
 
 WHEX every unit of mankind can vision to itself 
 the same ideal of That which now each one 
 doth form in separate guise and name the 
 "Perfect One," then will Humanity approach its long 
 sought goal. Perfection to the mind of one is imper- 
 fection to the minds of others, and many Gods of many 
 minds will never satisfy for long the soul which sprang 
 full grown from One. 
 
 "The Perfect One" yet stands alone, serene, su- 
 preme, awaiting the glad day when man en masse shall 
 see his beauty, holiness and power, and seeing, shall 
 stretch forth its myriad arms and cry, "Enough! Now 
 have we seen the end of all travail. Xow have we 
 found ourselves, in Thee— The One Eternal Self." 
 
 195 
 
THE COMMON CHORD 
 
 WHEN Father— Mother— Son, the Triune God 
 is once more seated on the long vacated throne 
 within the human heart, to rule again that heart 
 in majesty and love, then man will rise to sovereignty 
 o'er all the lesser lives which now obstruct the path to 
 power. 
 
 Man may not tear apart the common Chord of C, 
 — the Chord of Life, and Love, and Law, to strike a 
 single tone of that vast Trinity alone, without sustain- 
 ing loss immeasureable. For in the spaces left between, 
 the minor tones will silent lie, — those tones which wake 
 "the Angels of the Voice" to guard the path to Power. 
 
 196 
 
THE LIGHT WITHIN 
 
 THOU who art as a star to some unselfish, tender 
 heart which beats alone for thee, how great thy 
 task, how sore thy punishment if thou dost fail 
 to sense within thyself that which first called forth 
 adoring love within the heart which set thee high above 
 all else on earth. 
 
 He who saith that love is bhnd doth utter a foul 
 travesty on truth, for love is keen of vision, and love 
 hath seen a ray of the divine in thee behind the dark- 
 ened windows of thy soul, though it be all unseen by 
 other eyes than love's. 
 
 Deep calls to deep alway. Divinity doth seek Di- 
 vinity where e'er it may be found. And if some other 
 soul hath sought and found a ray of the Divine in thee, 
 how humble shouldst thou be, how thankful that there 
 yet is time to cleanse those darkened windows that the 
 light within may seek its source and in its passing reach 
 and Iiless the one who first uncovered it and brighten 
 all the world for thee and thine. 
 
 197 
 
THE WEB 
 
 WRAPPED in Illusion's web thou liest now be- 
 reft of power to tear that web apart and 
 ghmpse the Real — the Christ — the Only Son, 
 the First Begotten of the One Unmanifest — the One 
 in whom all Truth, all Joy, all fruit of Sorrow borne 
 in patience and submission, hath met and blended in 
 the Kalpas j^ast, and still must meet in Kalpas yet to 
 come — the One who stands supreme and dauntless in 
 the midst of that Illusion thou hast deemed thyself. 
 There is but One. The countless suns in space could 
 hold no Second, Third or Fourth. 
 
 AVhen Truth unveils herself all error, pain and 
 longing vanish as doth the dew before the morning sun. 
 When man is more than man he stands revealed as 
 Christ to those who having eyes may see. Yet other 
 men in ignorance still stone the man, unseeing Christ. 
 
 198 
 
DEATH 
 
 FR03I the conception and the travail of the Gods 
 is born the soul of man. Then shall the frag- 
 ments of that soul be scattered as the dust of 
 earth when once the power that sent it forth is inward 
 turned to other spheres. 
 
 Ah! ye who fear that Death may follow on the 
 closing of the last short chapter of the book of Hfe that 
 thou shalt read with mortal eyes; ye knoweth naught 
 of life in essence or its power to search into the fields 
 of space, — the utmost reaches of the inner spheres, — 
 to clothe itself in garb more subtle, tenuous and last- 
 ing, than is the coarse, unbeautiful and transient rai- 
 ment worn by it in mortal guise. 
 
 As clothes the soul of rose or violet in garb of 
 sweetest perfume as its body withers, dies, so clothes 
 the soul of man in sweeter perfume still, arising from 
 the kindly deed, the sacrifice, unselfish service for man- 
 kind, when wearied, worn with toil and torn with pain, 
 at length it leaves its mortal form to mingle with the 
 dust from which it sprang. 
 
 199 
 
FEAR 
 
 IF YOU misuse the divine afflatus of genius by pros- 
 tituting it for your own selfish use or pleasure you 
 
 will be consumed in its fires. It belongs to the whole 
 universe, and when in your pitiable self-conceit you 
 would attempt to make of it a reflector of your own 
 egotistic personality, it draws you into its flames and 
 consumes you utterly. 
 
 To you as well as to every human being there will 
 some day stalk a live fiend of fear quivering with un- 
 certainty, and always thereafter it will walk by your 
 side. You may sometimes close your eyes to its grin- 
 ning face and lull yourself into a feeling of security 
 for a little w^hile, but deep down in your soul you will 
 know it is always there; waiting for you to open your 
 eyes to its presence again; waiting for some sign of 
 physical or mental weakness that will render you less 
 capable of self-protection, in order to spring forward, 
 leer into your face and say, "You are my slave." 
 
 Full enlightenment will never come to mortal man 
 while he is treading the path outlined by all the mile- 
 stones he has set and marked with the blood shed by 
 his victims. 
 
 Only as he enters that path will satisfaction come 
 to him. Only as he leaves that path may he behold the 
 radiant liglit of the sun of rigliteousness wliich alone 
 can vanquish the demons of fear. 
 
 Knowing this, prepare to win endurance and power 
 to walk in darkness, unafraid. 
 
 200 
 
THE UNFINISHED 
 
 IF YOU but knew the little seed you set today, may- 
 hap in carelessness, in pride or subtlety, would grow 
 
 on through the coming years, mature and bear its 
 fruit for you to eat in sorrow on another day; if you 
 but knew the tale which you commenced to tell today, 
 the task which you began, would not be finished until 
 all their consequences faced you in your hour of test 
 and proved to be the drops which ran the measure of 
 your trial over on the farther side, would you not leave 
 the seed unplanted, the tale untold? Would you not 
 hold your hand from execution? 
 
 Remember! fulfilment ever cometh otherwhere. No 
 act or word is finished on the day it was begun or spo- 
 ken. No man hath ever lived so long that he completed 
 any task begun; and "on the path" the unfinished parts 
 of every thought, word and deed, in all their latent 
 grace, their crudeness or their loathsomeness, will start 
 up unexpectedly to help or hinder as the case may be. 
 
 Then would it not be well to carefully consider 
 seed or word or act ere it hath passed forever from thy 
 keeping? 
 
 201 
 
THE RIGHT TO SEEK 
 
 WOULDST thou seek the King of the dazzHng 
 face, the Master of men and things? Then 
 take from thy back the heavy load that bends 
 thy face to the ground. Free the viscid mud from thy 
 bleeding feet; change thy rotten staff for a conqueror's 
 sword. Smother the moan that comes to thy lips; 
 change the cry of pain to a ptean of praise. 
 
 Lift up thy head ; fix thine eyes on the sun and fight 
 for the right to seek. The right to seek on the selfsame 
 path that the God-men of old have Avalked; the right 
 to die without shame of men as the ancient heroes died : 
 The coward who feareth death or life can never walk 
 that path. Its thorns and bruises, its sharpened rocks, 
 pierce heart and feet alike. 
 
 If thou wouldst seek aright and find the object of 
 thy search, that glorious King of the dazzling face, 
 then fight for the right to seek. 
 
 202 
 
EMOTION 
 
 THERE comes an hour in the hfe of every awak- 
 ened disciple when the cold, merciless scalpel of 
 mind searches each emotion, each feeling, to its 
 center of being and forces the Self, which stands be- 
 tween the mentality and the senses, into the position of 
 judge and executioner combined. 
 
 In seeming cruelty it cuts away every vestige of 
 the comfortable, comforting, excuse-provoking wrap- 
 pings which have bound the Self, and leave that Self 
 naked and inconceivably desolate for the time being; 
 yet it is only in such hours that the great destiny, the 
 purpose of being, is revealed to the individual Self, 
 
 Not that there is necessarily an underestimation 
 of the divine purpose in the creation of the emotions as 
 a result of such revelation, but that they may be rightly 
 placed and thenceforth rightly used, instead of being 
 permitted to rule where they should only serve, as is 
 generally the case with undeveloped man. 
 
 When acute feeling overwhelms the sense of right- 
 eousness and justice in a given instance, wrong is in- 
 evitably the result. If the emotions, the feelings, can 
 be used to counteract the harsher acts of the retribution 
 which justice demands, thus preventing justice from 
 descending to cruelty and injustice, they are then in 
 their right provinces and put to right uses. 
 
 203 
 
THY CHOICE 
 
 OX ONE side, the bare mountain, wind swept, sun 
 beaten, stripped of all verdure, desolate to the 
 human eye, wearisome to the muscle-tortured 
 limbs of the climber, straining his panting heart till it 
 bursts its sheath and pours forth its contents in a liv- 
 ing stream over the torn and tortured feet which are 
 bearing it upward. 
 
 On the other side, the deeply wooded valley with 
 its trickling streams, its moss covered banks, its tender 
 clinging vines and ravishingly beautiful flowers. A 
 valley wherein the tired, footsore pilgrim may lay him 
 down to rest, and with his eyes fixed lingeringly on the 
 quivering leaves, the soft shadows thrown by the ten- 
 der glances of a summer sun, sink into oblivion, forget- 
 ful of all the past, careless of all that the future may 
 bring to him. 
 
 Ah! 'tis a strong, brave and unselfish soul that can 
 withstand the charms of the valley, and deliberately 
 choose the bare mountain side, while yet unknowing 
 what the beating winds are bearing to him from other, 
 inner worlds; while yet unconscious of the hidden life 
 and glory in that unshaded sun, unseeing the great 
 Angel of the Gates who, poised upon the mountain 
 top, awaits his last faint footfall. 
 
 If one might know; if one might see or even dream 
 of the final results of his unaided, toilsome journey up 
 
 204 
 
THY CHOICE 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 through the steep mountain and through the world of 
 shadows, then 'twere easy to make choice between the 
 paths. Then all pain would pleasure be, and every 
 bare, drear stretch of desert or of mountain side within 
 his soul would blossom as the rose and lily bloom in 
 sunny places in his earthly garden. 
 
 But in the dark, when not a ray of light from the 
 great sun of life is shed to point to danger or to near- 
 ing death; when facing him or at his own right hand 
 are all the delights and joys of life, and soft, melodious 
 voices plead with him to give his soul to pleasure and 
 to ease. And on the other side is Silence, vast, unbroken 
 Silence, save when moan or cry of pain falls on his 
 straining ear from one hard pressed; one who travels 
 that same way; one whose lips are crushed into the 
 earth on which he lies, to still their trembling and force 
 back the cry so near escaping them, the cry that would 
 rob him of strength to rise again and press still far- 
 ther on. 
 
 Ah! this would try the mettle of the bravest soul, 
 and yet, My Child, thou must make thy choice and 
 make it for all Time and Eternity, when thou art called 
 to choose. Then would it not be well for thee that thou 
 ■ shouldst even now prepare thyself for choice by seeking 
 for the hidden things within thine heart, these things 
 which lie beneath the outer seemings of thy daily life, 
 
 205 
 
THY CHOICE 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 thy stolen joys, thy pains and sacrifices; instead of 
 waiting for the day when, unprepared for it, the call 
 shall come to thee and thou shalt find thou hast no wis- 
 dom for the choice, no strength to follow where thy 
 soul would lead if lead it might, because the power of 
 choosing rightly had long been buried in thy pleasure 
 seeking, or in thy pride, thine avarice or thine am- 
 bition. 
 
 Mark well my words! they will occur to thee again 
 and yet again in the days to come. Thou hast demanded 
 power of choice, demanded it in aspiration, prayer and 
 act, and near at hand that choice lies now to thee. 
 
 206 
 
LOVE'S OFFICES 
 
 IT IS not by the love it inspires that the individual 
 soul attains to bliss and satisfaction, but by the love 
 
 it gives unselfishly, seeking no return. Love un- 
 desired, unasked, is worthless in the eyes of the beloved 
 and feeds on the heart it dwells within. 
 
 God — Divine Love — desires and asks for human 
 love, therefore prizes that love and pours forth Divine 
 love on all creatures, thus satisfying his own heart. 
 
 A woman may hate and betray one of her own sex 
 to gain the love of man, while man despises and betrays 
 the woman for love of ambition; thus the law of com- 
 pensation strives to strike a balance when Love is de- 
 graded in unworthy shrines. 
 
 The cruse of the bereft,— the widowed heart, is 
 filled with wine and oil of life — Divine Love — as often 
 as its contents are emptied. Widowed by loss of hu- 
 man love once lain in the grave of earthly desire, that 
 heart is filled to overflowing with Divine Love. 
 
 207 
 
1 
 
 THE WORLD PAIN 
 
 r|^HE pain of the world beats hard on the heart 
 a-throb with sympathy. The answer to the "why" 
 of that pain comes home to the "open-eyed" with 
 every recurring stroke like unto the stroke of the ham- 
 mer as it falls on the anvil. The gnawing demons of 
 ignorance, vice and greed first stupefy the mind, then 
 throttle and crush the body back into the soil whence 
 it came, to refertilize that soil for another crop, — an- 
 other race of men. 
 
 Again the birth pang, again the childhood, middle 
 life and age, a repetition of the same old story. Al- 
 ways the world pain beats on the tender heart; always 
 the eternal "why?" — the protest against suffering. Al- 
 ways the strangling, stifling rebellion against the im- 
 potence, the powerlessness of man to compel his brother 
 man to seek the God who is ever close at hand, ever 
 waiting for the beast in man to die and the angel to 
 be born. 
 
 "Cui bono?" cry the careless, the indifferent; "let us 
 dance and sing and leave the pain to those who love it." 
 
 "How long, O Lord, how long?" moan the martyr 
 and the saint, "how long ere cometh Thy salvation?" 
 
 "More, more, give me more," screams the wastrel, 
 the libertine, in the depths of his stag-like passion or 
 drunken frenzy; "more, more," always, "more." 
 
 From on high, the Christ on the Cross where man 
 has hung Him, on which He suffers, from which at 
 times He smiles, wafts down into the aching, sympa- 
 thetic heart the incense of patient waiting, a breath of 
 the peace ever flowing from the soul of pain, and that 
 heart grows still. And once again the Christ smiles. 
 
 208 
 
THE NEXT STEP 
 
 HAVE you been stalled on that last step you took? 
 Are you now looking into the gulf of despair? 
 Does your sinking heart refuse you energy for 
 another push? Are your eyes blinded to everything 
 save the bottomless pit into which you have cast the 
 hopes of your young manhood, the finely wrought fab- 
 ric of your girlish dreams? Have you marked the hid- 
 eous word, "failure," on your life screen, believing the 
 end of all things has come for you? 
 
 Then, force that heavy heart to another upward 
 push; raise your eyes to the step which is just faintly 
 appearing on the horizon of your mind and then raise 
 your foot, and lo! before you can realize it that next 
 step has been taken and you are on a wide stretch of 
 new country, the gulfs and pits have disappeared, hopes 
 and dreams are in process of realization, a new day 
 has dawned, a new lease of life entered upon. 
 
 Have you thought of the other men, the other wom- 
 en, — those men and women whom you now look up to 
 with unbridled admiration, but whose hearts failed them 
 as yours has failed you; — have you thought of those 
 who sank in utter helplessness and weariness upon the 
 stones which covered the last tread they had gained, 
 when they thought of the heights yet to climb ere they 
 could reach their goal and which overwhelmed and cast 
 them into the gulf of despair? Would you know how 
 
 209 
 
THE NEXT STEP 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 these men and women climbed out of that gulf; how 
 they conquered the demons who would have pushed 
 them into the pit? 
 
 There was only one way for them, as there is only 
 one way for you to accomplish that great feat. It is 
 a very simple way; just raise your eyes to the sun and 
 jjush on to the nea't step. Do not weary your heart and 
 brain by thinking of the heights or the dejjths; think 
 only of the one short step which when gained may be 
 the open sesame to a greater height. 
 
 Bind the word PERSISTENCE over your fore- 
 head, and the word ENDURANCE over your heart, 
 and not all the demons in Hades nor all your enemies 
 on earth can prevent the final attainment of your ideal. 
 
 It is always "the next step" of life's ladder that 
 daunts you when with faltering limbs and wearied brain 
 you have reached the halfway tread; not the thought 
 of the perils behind or far ahead of you. 
 
 210 
 
THE OBSTRUCTION 
 
 HE WHO fails to perceive the nature of the ob- 
 struction which dams up the mouth of any stream 
 of his hfe will uselessly waste all effort to re- 
 move the obstruction, and only give the elementary 
 forces of nature more power to increase its dimensions. 
 
 If the huge logs of a denuded forest are set free 
 on the bosom of a stream, turning its currents and 
 blocking its mouth, the wise man will not lose time in 
 using a tool with which he would remove a sandbar 
 from the same stream. He will use the tool made for 
 such a purpose. 
 
 The fool saith in his heart, I will build a still higher 
 obstruction on the crest of the lesser and so revenge 
 myself upon the stream. He takes no thought of the 
 nature of the waters which swiftly and silently will un- 
 dermine his structure and carry both his work and him- 
 self out to the ocean into which they empty. 
 
 211 
 
THE NINE STEPS 
 
 GOD, Nature, Law, (call it what you will), the 
 same beneficent, all-powerful energy that evolves 
 a God from a stone, decrees that the spiritual 
 eyes of the self-born shall be blinded for nine cycles, 
 owing to his desire for liberty, as the material eyes of 
 lower animals are blinded for nine days after birth by 
 the pre-natal influence of the mother, and so decrees 
 in order to restrict overweening desire for full liberty 
 of action, which is one of the first desires to manifest 
 in the animal as well as in man. 
 
 As the young animal is mercifully blinded to pro- 
 tect itself from material dangers, so man is blinded to 
 the possible dangers that confront him on the path he 
 is climbing, until a fixed measure of the power of en- 
 durance is won during each of the minor cycles, — nine 
 steps, which lead to the mountain-top, — the greatest 
 height of attainment for him. 
 
 If he should look down into the depths from some 
 midway step, he would become so confused, so dizzy 
 and powerless, that he could not save himself. So the 
 Great Law blinds him to the sheer fall from the mount- 
 ain-top, until he has reached the highest point and won 
 the power to look unabashed and indifferently down 
 and over the path he has come. 
 
 The eyes of the Diamond Soul must fall equally 
 upon the Light from above and upon the shadow cast 
 by the bitumen which lines that path. 
 
 212 
 
THE STREAM OF SACRIFICE 
 
 ONLY he who hath eyes to behold and a heart to 
 feel hath power to see beneath the surface of 
 the stream of sacrifice which gushes from the 
 open gate of the seven worlds and gathers volume and 
 momentum with every moan of pain and sorrow wrung 
 from human lips. That stream whose source is in the 
 heart of God and which flows into the ocean of Infinity. 
 
 The crest of each smiling wave is dotted with the 
 bruised leaves of the Tree of Life; each leaf of that 
 tree of life to crush in the maw of the great Wheel 
 of Time, until there is no longer semblance of form and 
 only its aroma remains to sweeten the fields of Space. 
 
 But who can sound its depths or bring therefrom 
 ^he treasures wrought by every sacrificial rite, — to be 
 the marriage portion of the Soul for whom the bride- 
 groom waits, — the Christ who knows the end from the 
 beginning and sees his blood-stained face on every 
 bruised and broken leaf? He claims His own when 
 Time, the great illusion, is no more. 
 
 213 
 
THE NEED OF PAIN 
 
 WOULDST thou banish pain and sorrow from 
 thy hfe, ne'er to feel again the stab, the crunch, 
 the grind of tender flesh, the sick despair of 
 soul when sorrow's clutch lays hold? 
 
 Wouldst thou resign the right to feel the tender 
 beat of angel's wings when Pain hath done its perfect 
 work ? 
 
 Then know that with its passing from thy fleld of 
 life, if driven thence ])y desire and will, goes all thy 
 fitness for release. 
 
 Every line upon thy face or heart, the graving 
 stylus of thy sorrow and thy pain hath limned thereon, 
 hath marked the lintel of an oj^en door through which 
 thou hast the power to pass to freedom if thou wilt — 
 freedom from the dungeons which thou hast dug by 
 means of broken law. 
 
 214 
 
THE STONES OF SACRIFICE 
 
 AS THY forbears of another race and age did bear 
 their aged and weak and sore beset up to the 
 mountain-top and fling them to the stones be- 
 neath to perish, so now thou bearest others of thy for- 
 bears to the mountain-top of Prayer and Hope, that 
 they may plead for thee, — then dash them to the val- 
 ley of despair, the floor of which is covered with the 
 stones of sacrifice and grief. 
 
 So dead art thou to all but love of self thou dost 
 not see that thou hast also fallen with thy victims and 
 nevermore shalt rise 'till every sacrificial stone which 
 holds thy prey shall enter sentient life and cry to Heav- 
 en to help thee rise. 
 
 Long, long the teons are, and yet thou hast not 
 learned to treasure any gift the gods have made, and 
 suffered sore in giving. 
 
 Long, long the ages. Still thou throwest Love's 
 most precious gifts upon the stones of sacrifice, — 'twixt 
 whiles thou raisest hands to heaven and pleadingly doth 
 beg for more and greater gifts. 
 
 215 
 
THE VICTOR 
 
 THINK not to gird the laurel leaves of earthly 
 fame upon the brow of him whom countless hosts 
 of light hail "Victor" in life's lists. What careth 
 such as he for "Things," — for sense illusions? 
 
 Alone, unheralded, a neophyte he comes upon the 
 screen of time. Alone he lives and dies. Purified by 
 fire, bereft of pride, alone he must ascend the steps 
 strewn with the vanquished and the slain of long past 
 days. 
 
 Each hard-fought vantage ground he wins gives 
 footing to another soul, who, hard beset, doth follow 
 him. Each plunge into the stream which gushes from 
 the fountain head doth shower with cleansing drops 
 some weary one too weak to reach their source. 
 
 The homage of thine heart will strengthen him for 
 future battles with the hostile dwellers on the path who 
 fain would stop him on the way. Thy love may give 
 him courage to endure unto the end. For, know ye 
 now, he may not lay his arms aside to crown himself 
 until you, too, have reached the goal; a conqueror in 
 truth. 
 
 216 
 
YOUR HOURS 
 
 ^^fTTMlE hours behind thee are God's hours, the 
 
 J[_ liours before thee are His secrets. This hour 
 
 alone is thine. Waste not your hour." So 
 
 cries the Persian Muezzin at dawn. 
 
 Are the hours behind thee hours of procrastination 
 
 and self-indulgence? If so, the hours before thee will 
 
 be those of sighing for lost opportunity. Wilt thou, 
 
 then, let the present hour slip by in futile planning, 
 
 over-confidence or indecision? 
 
 Happy he who sees and grasps the chances life 
 
 and effort bring to him and weaves them in a chaplet 
 
 for his brow. 
 
 217 
 
THE CYCLIC ROUNDS 
 
 IF THOU lovest thyself, then art thou slave to thy- 
 self. If thou lovest thy brother, then art thou slave 
 
 to thy brother, — but through thy slavery to thy 
 brother shalt thou find release from thy slavery to self. 
 For, loving thy brother, thou lovest God, and only in 
 love of God canst thou find eternal freedom from bond- 
 age to self. 
 
 Out of the Darkness cometh Light. Out of Light 
 Cometh Life. Out of Life cometh Death. Out of Death 
 cometh Darkness, and out of Darkness cometh Light. 
 
 So, out of slavery to self cometh freedom to thy 
 brother. Out of thy brother's freedom cometh slavery 
 to thee. Out of that slavery cometh eternal freedom 
 for both thee and thy brother. 
 
 Life and Death, Darkness and Light, Freedom and 
 Slavery, Love and Hate; Round after Round, Cycle 
 after Cycle, even as the spokes of a wheel fl}^ round 
 from night unto day and from day unto night. 
 
 218 
 
THE UMBILICUS 
 
 THE path between Gods and men is the umbilicus 
 which once connected God and man. The navel, 
 the Central Spiritual Sun, is the point of sepa- 
 ration between Spirit and flatter. The umbilicus con- 
 nection was severed when the Elohim said, let us make 
 man in our own image, and having so made man they 
 set him down in the Garden of Eden. ^lan himself cut 
 the cord between him and the great Father-mother, 
 therefore man must reunite the two severed ends of the 
 cord. This is the real occult secret behind the use of 
 the navel in concentration by some of the ancient teach- 
 ers. Symbolically it is the lower end of the Path. The 
 gateway, so to speak; and if the gateway is choked by 
 weeds (sensuous desires and gratifications), the soul 
 cannot pass through it to reach the path of true 
 knowledge and power. 
 
 219 
 
LIFE'S DEMAND 
 
 THE power of the Seventh sphere Gods; the con- 
 centrated rays of a golden sun formed into disks 
 and marked with a sign. The jewels of a star- 
 decked sky; the lamps which light a world at dusk; the 
 common use of the life streams which are great enough 
 to whirl the planets in sj^ace. 
 
 All these thou demandest of life, thou puny man 
 of a single hour out of the eternities of time. 
 
 "But the price to be paid is too high," ye shame- 
 facedly whine, though all that life demands of thee in 
 return is — respect for thy creators; recognition of the 
 rights of the weak; loving service for thy kind. Truly, 
 much may be given for little. 
 
 220 
 
THE CROWN 
 
 SINCE dawned the first new day, — the day when 
 woman stood beside her mate and for his glory 
 parted with the crown of her supremacy, has woman 
 sacrificed her life, her all, upon the altars raised by 
 man. 
 
 And always, to the end of time, will woman light 
 the fires and lay her sacrifices down to be consumed 
 upon those man-made altars. It is the law, the law in- 
 voked by yielding crown for chain. It is her glory and 
 her shame. It is the price she pays for love, and love 
 is the last offering she lays on the sacrificial pile. 
 
 But time will cease and life be lost in Love eternal, 
 ^lan and woman both — the two in one — shall wear the 
 crown of immortality when dawns the next new day. 
 
 221 
 
JUST SO FAR 
 
 WHEN man can find no word of good to say of 
 fellow-men; when sun and stars are darkened 
 to his inward sight and all the world seems but 
 a charnel house to him; when to his sick and morbid 
 mind every woman is a wanton and every man a cheat, 
 and little children shrink, soul-warned, away from him, 
 — then art thou justified in placing all the earth 'twixt 
 him and thee. Deadlier far is he to thee than any un- 
 tamed beast. 
 
 When woman, formed of finest attributes of God, 
 can stoop to bare a sister's sorrow or her shame to sat- 
 isfy her thirst for vengeance, jealousy or rage; when 
 envy or ambition blinds her inner eye and places in 
 her breast a stone where there should beat a heart ; when 
 passion overcomes comi:)assion and plots to gain desire 
 by slaying friendship, gratitude and loyalty to kith and 
 kin, — then climb the skies or seek the ocean's bed if no- 
 where else is hiding place for thee. The very breath 
 thou drawest in such presence is foul and tainted. A 
 scorpion's sting may be withdrawn, but naught can 
 draw the poison from the wounds an evil woman makes. 
 
 So far as every true and loving heart of woman- 
 kind may reach toward God, so far as every Christlike, 
 noble man may follow her, — e'en just so far doth every 
 faithless, poison-tainted woman fall toward the depths 
 of non-existence, and every demon-driven man skulk 
 in her footsteps. 
 
THE FATHER'S CARE 
 
 LOXG ere father, mother, wife or hushand folded 
 thee in love or bound thee with the ties of duty, 
 I have watched o'er thee and led thee through the 
 paths of sky and underworld ; oft waited on the thresh- 
 old of some den where thieves had spread a net and 
 caught and held thee until thy voice in anguish fell 
 upon my ear ; then plucked thee forth as man doth pluck 
 a brand from fire; oft snatched thee back from crater's 
 mouth and serpent's fangs, and held thee safe against 
 my breast 'til strength and courage came again to thee. 
 
 Yet thou canst idly stand and see the vandal hand 
 tear down the home that sheltered thee when homeless, 
 the arms left empty which had held thee close when thou 
 wert lone and friendless ; canst see my body thrown into 
 the tiger's jaws, or hold my hands the while an enemy 
 doth snatch the poison from the viper's fangs, and 
 thrust it in the wounds made in my flesh while guard- 
 ing thee. 
 
 Poor, tried and feeble offspring of a poorer race! 
 There comes a day when thou wilt learn of higher 
 Mother-Fatherhood, of purer, stronger love than that 
 of wife or husband, friend or lover: a claim upon your 
 fealty far more exacting than any claim now made on 
 thee. 
 
 When comes that day, then thou wilt see that thou 
 wert false to all that held thy love, by being false to 
 love's own self, and must retrace thy steps if thou 
 wouldst find the long lost path which leads to the abode 
 of Love, — the place of Recognition, Service, and Di- 
 vine Compassion. 
 
 223 
 
THE LOAD 
 
 NOT all the Devas of the upper worlds can force 
 the child of the underworlds against its will to 
 face the Asuras at the gates of the path. 
 If he be frighted at the flames, swept to one side 
 by the waters, if he make answer, "'Tis my brother's 
 sin; I am guiltless," when the thunders of the voice 
 proclaim his own offense, then surely will the flames 
 enwrap him, the waters overwhelm him. 
 
 Only through that brother shall the gate again be 
 opened to him, for he has not borne the burden taken 
 up by him when both he and his brother lay in the 
 womb of duration; in leaving that brother to bear it 
 alone he has shifted the load onto his own shoulders. 
 
 224 
 
WOULDST THOU WIN? 
 
 IS THINE own heart so pure and free from stain 
 that thy brother's sin looms darkly on its white sur- 
 face when reflected thereon? If so thou thinkest, 
 then art thou under Maya's sway. 
 
 Wouldst thou win to mastery? Then write thy 
 brother's offenses in water and thine own in fire. The 
 water will extinguish the fire, the fire will raise the 
 water to vapor, and both thine own offenses and thy 
 brother's also will disappear. 
 
 225 
 
THE FEAST 
 
 MAX'S usurpation of the prerogatives of God, 
 and indifference to his own when they are re- 
 lated to his kinship with that of God, holds him 
 to a steady diet of the husks of life which are only fit 
 for swine. 
 
 He lifts up his eyes to his Father from afar, but 
 makes no self-conscious effort to cross the barrier he 
 himself has created between his Father and himself or 
 to reach the table on which the holy Feast is spread 
 for him alone, awaiting his coming, until, driven from 
 his retreat by the very swine he has robbed, he stands 
 face to face with utter starvation. 
 
 Then, naked and ashamed, he makes one last su- 
 ])reme effort to tear down the barrier and reach the 
 heavenly food, and learns that there is no barrier: that 
 it was long since raised by the hand of God and all 
 tliat was re(]uired of him was to seat himself on the 
 divan and dip his hand in the dish. 
 
 226 
 
THY BONDS 
 
 THINKEST thou to forge a chain to bind thy 
 brother's hfe to thine and yet go free from any 
 act of his? 
 
 If so, a sad surprise awaits thee at the end. Every 
 act of man with good or ill intent, doth form a link in 
 the long chain of consequences which binds the human 
 race in bonds of Time. 
 
 Not e'en a shadow cast by thee de^^arts for aye. 
 And if it falls athwart the vision of thy brother it will 
 return in some far distant day to cloud thy vision, as 
 thou didst cloud thy })rother's. 
 
 And if thou bind thy brother purposely to thee 
 with ill intent, no further act of thine can loose the 
 bond. Unseen, unfelt by thee, it may remain for long, 
 but one day fate will draw it taut, and struggle as thou 
 wilt, thou canst not loose thyself. The bond alone may 
 break the chain with which he hath been ])ound. 
 
 227 
 
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY 
 
 THERE is some one person next in line to you 
 upon the evolutionary ladder on which you stand, 
 who is waiting for you to give the hand which will 
 lift him to your side, and you will be held accountable 
 to some degree if he fall from his present position to a 
 low^er round. 
 
 Knowing this, how dare you rest supinely on your 
 supporting step and make no effort to bring that one 
 into the Temple light? No amount of reason or logic 
 will help you to locate that one. You will not know 
 who and what he is until he stands by your side in 
 some initiation. 
 
 The law which controls the influence lines also gov- 
 erns nature's method of combination and correlation of 
 minuti^ and mass. Your voice maj^ not reach the ears 
 and affect the conduct of many people at once, but it 
 will reach the ears and turn the heart of the one who is 
 waiting, if you voice the message you yourself have 
 received from some agent of the Great White Lodge. 
 
 228 
 
LIFE KNOTS 
 
 IF THOU wouldst attain to Wisdom's heights, then 
 turn thy face toward that Sun whose rays are fas- 
 tened in the hearts of Hving things, as knots are 
 fastened at the end of threads, which serve to make or 
 mend the garments worn by man. 
 
 No cunning finger ever can unloose the knots which 
 God has tied. The garment made of flesh may fall 
 away, but ever doth the knot remain to fasten newer, 
 fresher garments as they form in turn. For in the 
 knots so tied doth lie the root from which all sentient 
 life proceeds. 
 
 229 
 
FULFILMENT BY FAITH 
 
 WHEN Faith waits patiently on Fulfilment, 
 Fulfilment well justifies Faith. Douht madly 
 rushes unbelief and unbelief kills Faith a-born- 
 ing. 
 
 Believe in your God, yourself, your ideals, and live 
 forever. Doubt your God, yourself, your ideals, and 
 die to Truth. 
 
 Doubt arrogantly turns it back on Faith and loses 
 itself in a maelstrom of despair. Truth glimpses a star, 
 aims direct and reaches that star. 
 
 Xo man can believe a lie, though he may deceive 
 himself as to his belief in that lie. 
 
 Belief lives only in Truth. Faith and Belief are 
 lovers; Doubt and Unbelief are rivals for the hand of 
 Despair. 
 
 230 
 
MY GIFTS TO THEE 
 
 I GAVE thee thy heart's desire, brought from afar 
 and laid at thy door; I gave thee wine and oil of 
 spiritual life to build up the waste and barren places 
 of thy Soul that it might live and bring thee compen- 
 sation for the past. 
 
 Unmindful of the opportunity to share whate'er of 
 value came to thee in recompense, as ever hath been 
 done by all Earth's tried and tested ones, thou, having 
 eaten of the fruit now fling the refuse to the skies. 
 
 231 
 
CAUSE AND EFFECT 
 
 CAN man enter again his mother's womb, to be 
 born again into physical life? Can man enter 
 the womb of spiritual life for a new birth, if he 
 hath destroyed the fertility of the seed from which that 
 life unfolds? 
 
 Neither ignorance nor carnal desire can alter the 
 law of cause and effect. He who throws away his sus- 
 tenance of body or of soul must starve and die. He 
 who conserves and cherishes that sustenance hath al- 
 ways a full supply which, like the widow's cruse, the 
 gods replenish day by day. 
 
 232 
 
THE GREAT MOMENT 
 
 TO THE soul who is capable of a great love there 
 comes a moment of illumination when the veil 
 between spirit and matter is lifted and it catches 
 a glimpse of the tragedy which lies beyond the present 
 time and dimly feels its approach. 
 
 Every great love bears the seed of a deep tragedy. 
 It is seldom understood or appreciated by its recipient 
 and seldom returned. 
 
 In that moment of illumination the soul knows be- 
 yond any shadow of doubt that the great tragedy of 
 vicarious atonement, of sacrifice beyond power of ex- 
 pression, awaits it also as it has awaited all other souls 
 at some period of their manifestation. But the veil 
 falls quickly, the shadows flee, and again the great light 
 sheds its beams over all common things, dazzling the 
 intellect and magically endowing the beloved one with 
 the attributes of a god. 
 
 And so the soul passes on to its Gethsemane and 
 Golgotha to pay the price demanded by Divine Law. 
 
 233 
 
COME 
 
 A VOICE said "Come!" and out from the dark- 
 ness of unbelief, the shadow of death, I passed to 
 glory like unto the sun, to the peace of the de- 
 livered. But I passed through waters wild and deep, 
 I was beset by foes on every side; I stumbled, fell and 
 rose again, still pressing on. Far away upon the path 
 the whispered "come" echoed and re-echoed. When I 
 stumbled or fell, its power surrounded, held and raised 
 me to my feet ; when the shadows deepened and I could 
 not see my way, in fiery letters just before my face I 
 saw the word "come," and followed on. The end is yet 
 far off, but fear has gone, and ever and anon I hear a 
 whisper soft and clear which bids me "come," and 
 though I weary and grow exceeding faint I cannot stop, 
 I must go on until I no more hear that word, for then 
 I shall have reached its source — my Home. 
 
 234 
 
THE BEAUTIFUL MESSAGE 
 
 A PURE soul stood on the sliore of the Ocean of 
 ^Manifested Life waiting the final plunge tliat 
 must hring oblivion of past glory, — yet thrilling 
 with ra^jture as memory recalled the message of glad 
 tidings of which it was to be the bearer to the prisoned 
 souls on the far distant shore. 
 
 The Lord of Life and Death drew near — and as 
 the Soul lifted its arms for the last plunge, He threw 
 over it a stainless mantle of purity. As the waves of 
 that ocean rolled back, and the Soul finally stood on 
 the nether shore, the shimmering light of that radiant 
 garment caught the eyes of the waiting souls, and the 
 contrast between it and the vile robes in which they 
 w^ere bound, maddened them. Jealousy, — cruel, deadly, 
 as the poisoned fangs of a serpent, awoke in their hearts ; 
 they could not wrest the garment from its wearer, but 
 one by one they stooped and gathered handful after 
 handful of slimy mud, and with vengeful spite hurled 
 it over the garment, regardless of the fact that their 
 own hands and robes had become soiled and filthy from 
 contact wnth that mud. 
 
 Hounded on from one spot to another, its wings 
 broken, its garment in shreds, and vile past telling, — 
 striving to give the beautiful message it bore to those 
 whose shrieks of laughter and despair drowned the 
 words ere they passed the trembling lips, the one white 
 
 235 
 
THE BEAUTIFUL MESSAGE 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 soul crept back to the waters whence it came, and as 
 it sank on the sands, the same wave that brought it 
 thither hfted it up and bore it back to the Lord of Life 
 and Death. Lifting it to His breast, the Lord said — 
 "Thou, water, which hast cleansed my garment, take 
 back the mud thou bearest, to that nether shore. The 
 prisoned souls shall be drenched with that mud until 
 such time as they shall have caught my message with 
 their own ears." 
 
 236 
 
HIS BIRTHRIGHT 
 
 POOR soul-starved, heart-liungry children, huddled 
 as sheep in a pasture, in some corner of a great 
 city where never a glimpse of Nature's beautiful 
 face meets your eye, where never a sound of the grand 
 undertones of the billow-tossed ocean falls upon your 
 ear. 
 
 The silence and peace of our brooding mother Night 
 throws open to longing eyes, dim visions of spangled 
 folds of that sable garment in which she was clothed her- 
 self while she whispers to the restless, storm tossed 
 soul, "Be still, my child, and learn of me; lay your 
 weary head burdened with care, maddened by pain, 
 upon my breast, while I murmur the lullaby which has 
 hushed you to sleep again and again in the long past 
 ages." 
 
 Those strange, cold stars with their shadowy gleams 
 of light thrill us b}^ their mystery ; they seem as the eyes 
 of the Infinite searching our hearts for hidden evils, yet 
 calming, steadying, strengthening every good impulse 
 and bringing us into tune with the great major chord 
 of Eternal Love; — imparting a sense of courage and 
 hope that not even the carking care of the work-a-day 
 world can rob us of entirely. 
 
 Sometimes our agony is too deep, too real, for 
 words; we have reached our Golgotha and can only 
 lie on that great Mother-heart and moan, while she 
 
 237 
 
HIS BIRTH RIGHT 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 presses her lingers upon our eyes and gradually draws 
 us into a presence far greater than her own — a Presence, 
 the light of which floods us with glory unspeakable — a 
 glory in which we are finally lost as is a drop of water 
 in an ocean, and only awaken to know that our agony 
 and pain were angels sent to bring us eternal blessed- 
 ness. 
 
 O could you but realize what you lose when you 
 permit the j^resent mad rush for city life to engulf you, 
 soul and body, and set you down where the clang and 
 clatter of machinery, the babel of human noises, allow 
 you never a moment for the silence which is as neces- 
 sary to the soul as is food to the body. 
 
 Surely there is a great undercurrent of wisdom in 
 the words now finding an echo in the hearts of the peo- 
 ple, in the words, "Back to the soil;" fit refrain for 
 an army of toilers returning to claim their own. For 
 when mankind deserts the land to crowd into the cities, 
 it gives up its birth-right for the husks of life. 
 
 238 
 
LOVE IS GOD 
 
 IF THE lips, now sealed by the xVngel of Death, 
 might unclose and permit the spirit now hovering 
 
 near to speak in earthly tones, it would say, — "Be- 
 hold, I that was dead am alive forevermore. The gates 
 of Hell are closed behind me, and I have entered into 
 mine inheritance. Wherefore do ye weep for me? 
 
 "There is no death, my beloved, nothing but life, 
 life, life, everywhere and forever. 
 
 "What matters it that ye lay down my body, a 
 wornout shell, an empty chrysalis, that so my fliglit be 
 not impeded? For I go to the place prepared for me, 
 radiant with joy, full of that peace that ])asseth under- 
 standing. Be patient with me yet awhile that I leave 
 thee in loneliness, and let not the delusion of space blind 
 thee to the truth that thou art with me, though thou 
 knowest it not, — for nothing can separate souls bound 
 by love. They are entwined by the force of that love 
 with bonds far stronger than those of earth, — for Love 
 is God. "Blessed are ye that mourn, for ye shall be 
 comforted." Lift up your gates, and the King of Glory 
 shall come in!" Those gates of the body which close 
 the portals of the soul before all weary eyes, eyes that 
 will not unclose for the King of Glory to enter until 
 their lids are raised by the ]iower of intuition, or beaten 
 down by the Angel of Death. "Show me a dead thing," 
 said a Sage, "and I will destroy the whole doctrine of 
 immortality.' Is this a vain boast, or a promise of 
 eternal joy? 
 
 239 
 
COME FORTH THOU CHRIST 
 
 CO^IE forth, O thou who livest as does Thought 
 in the eternal heart of God ; — thou Christ of God, 
 come forth to bless this Star we call our home, 
 for yet thou art not manifest to holden human eyes. 
 
 My spirit broods in ecstasy of pain o'er that ideal 
 of Thee which is my life, my hope, my all. 
 
 Springing from the fathomless, the mystery of life 
 and love, again shalt Thou in power and glory stand 
 upon the threshold of this world and beckon to Thee. 
 
 And quickly will I kneel before Thy Grace, Thy 
 Truth and Beauty, beseeching that Thy hand may for 
 a moment rest on my bowed head to still the longing of 
 my soul, which, smothered in agony of yearning love, 
 can now but beat its wrings against this earthly cage, 
 unable to escape or patiently endure. 
 
 Through all the world my weary feet have strayed 
 — on highest mountain top, in vale and in clefts of rock, 
 in deepest caverns underneath the earth, searching, ever 
 searching, for a clue to guide me unto Thee — until I 
 have grown old and feeble in the quest. But God can 
 never die, and Thou art God and God is Love, and in 
 the deepest recesses of soul I feel that I shall yet be- 
 hold Thee with mine eyes. For love like mine must 
 meet response from I^ove like Thine, and Thou shalt bid 
 this thought of mine w^hich dwelleth yet within Thy heart 
 — this great ideal of all the human race — to leave its hid- 
 ing for a space and come to us, to all that wait and pray. 
 
 240 
 
THE SONG OF LIFE 
 
 SOUL of my soul, do you hear it? Listen! Do 
 you hear the mad music of clarion and flute, of 
 fife and drum — the pounding on pavement of 
 marching steps — the cry, "To Arms!" through the city 
 streets — the bugle-call through by-way and lane? Do 
 you hear the wild gallop of horses' hoofs, the shriek of 
 the smitten, the dirges of death? 
 
 Do you hear the mad revel of wine and song, the 
 tripping and sliding of dancing feet — the maniacal 
 screams of frenzied men? Do you hear them, those 
 echoes of hell on earth? 
 
 Do you hear it, soul of my soul — hear the sweet 
 song of the Bird of Life, as it swells and soars, and 
 pierces that loathsome night, calling you, thrilling, sad- 
 dening, yet gladdening you; inciting to joy so near 
 akin to pain — the ever growing mystery appalls you! 
 Do you hear it cleave the vibrant waves of hell's do- 
 main, as the arms of a strong man cleave the waters 
 engulfing him, flecking with radiant light all hearts at- 
 tuned to its low measure, as foam from the ocean flecks 
 the open face of day? 
 
 All the waters of all the earths cannot drown it: all 
 the fires of all the hells cannot separate it from you. 
 You alone of all earth's myriad creatures can muffle 
 that sweet song, can interpose a single obstacle to its 
 passage to and from the ears of your own heart. 
 
 241 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 A TERRIFIC crash of thunder rent the midnight 
 air, sending great waves of sound reverberating 
 from one end of the heavens to the other. A great 
 pulsating globe of fire, much like a sun, appeared in 
 the far distance. From it, in every direction, were 
 darting broad, zigzag streams of lightning, which 
 seemed to pierce the very ends of the universe. From 
 the globe of fire there issued a voice that at first sounded 
 like the low mutterings of thunder, but on closely 
 listening could be distinguished in slow, deep, penetrat- 
 ing tones the words: "Write to the still-born sons of 
 Earth." Then came the message given below: 
 
 "Dwarfed are ye, ye sons of Earth who once were 
 great enough to tread the burning sands of Teapi-nui, 
 and with your own bared hands pile up the statues of 
 the Gods, — ye whose minds conceived the Holy Temples 
 lying now full forty fathoms 'neath old ocean's waves. 
 
 Ah, but ye have fallen low, and when mine eyes 
 })ehold yoiu' ])uny forms, your sordid minds, I see how 
 great the fall, how slow the rising from the depths of 
 your disgrace and punishment. 
 
 Can nothing rouse ye from your sleep to knowledge 
 of the truth that ye are Sons of God, as well as earthen 
 vessels? Must hoary cycle tread upon the heels of cycles 
 past, and ye lie still and make no move to climb the 
 heights where once ye had a dwelling place with Devas 
 fair and wise? 
 
 242 
 
THE MESSAGE 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 Will neither sad entreaty nor scornful lashings of a 
 pointed tongue goad you on to grasp once more the 
 heritage which alien hands have wrested from your 
 grasp ? 
 
 Day crieth unto Day and Night moans unto Night, 
 and ye lie wrapt in Lethe's false embrace, or for a 
 golden chain, a Ruby rare and precious to your clouded 
 sight, relinquish all the power and wealth which lieth 
 now unclaimed amidst the treasures of your Father's 
 house. 
 
 Waken! Waken! Waken! Slothful child of earth, 
 stretch out thy palsied arm and strive to grasp the hand 
 outstretched to thee. Straighten the limbs now stiff 
 and curled beneath thy form, and strive to reach the 
 path which leads to the great Eye upon the Mountain 
 top ; for night is coming on, in which no man may work, 
 and if thou canst not work, there is no place for thee 
 upon the earth where Service is the law of life, the chief- 
 est blessing left to fallen man, the Pledge of final union 
 'twixt thy God and thee, which thou hast bartered now 
 and must reclaim ere thou canst Wisdom find and 
 know." 
 
 243 
 
THE TASK 
 
 MY CHILD — If thou wouldst bear the colors of 
 the Lodge, then stand alone. Search thine own 
 heart, lay bare its hidden motives, follow thou 
 the dictates of its will. Take care lest any thing or 
 creature bind thy course of action, j^et make thou sure 
 that thing or creature occupies its rightful place in all 
 thy plans where it is equally concerned with thee. 
 
 No human soul hath earned the right to bind an- 
 other soul, yet every soul must bind itself to serve the 
 soul that rightfully demands its help. 
 
 We fear to trust the guiding power of Love — the 
 God within — lest being haled before the Judgment 
 seat, we stand rebuked for failure to perform aright 
 the task imposed by Love, and in that failure sink the 
 right to say — "I only did what thou commandedst me." 
 
 244 
 
THE LITTLE THINGS 
 
 WOULDST thou know the secret of a happy life? 
 Then come aside with me into the great white 
 Silence and I will show thee strange things. 
 Strange to thee in that thou hast passed them by openly 
 day by day and year by year, yet hast never paused 
 to look upon their faces. When thou hast come anigh 
 them thou hast trampled them under foot, in ignorance 
 of their worth, or covered them with refuse. They did 
 not appear seemly in thine eyes, for truly their forms 
 were unsightly, their eyes cast down, and their tiny 
 bodies, like stinging insects, came between thee and 
 the light of the sun. Thou couldst not see that they 
 brought thee rare treasure, great opportunities, to add 
 to thy store of riches till thou shouldst become of all 
 men most to be envied. 
 
 The small worries, the trifling cares, the quick, harsh 
 word of a neighbor, all the little things which much 
 thought and anxiety enlarge to portentous sizes. It is 
 these that eat into thy life, that line thy face, that sear 
 and callous thy heart. The great sorrows, great tril)u- 
 lations and losses sweeten and strengthen thee, yet 
 can do so no more than may the little things, if thou 
 wouldst but stop, lift up their heads and gaze into their 
 beautiful, downcast eyes; downcast, for they hold a 
 message for thee none other may read. 
 
 245 
 
THE PRICE 
 
 SO LONG as fear of poverty, of death or suffering 
 can influence you to withhold the whole or even 
 a part of the price demanded by the law for your 
 perfect development, you will never cross the threshold 
 of the Great Initiation Chamber. So long as you re- 
 tain any part or feature of the great renunciation ichen 
 of c red by you to the Lodge of Life, that part or feat- 
 ure will chain you to the Cosmic Wheel, a victim of 
 your own selflshness and dishonesty. As Ananias and 
 Saphira lost life and belongings through willful per- 
 version of the law, so every Chela of the Lodge who 
 has demanded the service, love and devotion of the 
 INIasters in exchange for the service, obedience and love 
 they offer, and who then undertake to withhold a part 
 of the offering, must inevitably return to the diet of 
 husks, the swine — selfish elements — are nourished upon. 
 
 So long as your demands remain unanswered, and 
 your desire for the husks is unappeased, if you will be 
 content to remain with the swineherd, the higher law 
 will not reach you; but you cannot wallow in the filth 
 of the pen and treasure the husks, and at the same 
 time stand before the bright flash of the Sword of the 
 Spirit without being cloven in two. 
 
 The choice is yours; but, having made the choice, 
 you must bear the results. God will have no divided 
 hearts. It is quite possible that Karmic Law will not 
 
 246 
 
THE PRICE 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 accept a full relinquishment of all you hold dear, even 
 when cheerfully offered, but so long as attachment to 
 any thing or creature prevents you from freely offer- 
 ing up that thing or creature upon the altar of devo- 
 tion, the Holy Fire cannot descend and touch that offer- 
 ing, and thereby render it of use. And the lower fires 
 which form such attachments must eventually consume 
 the things to which you are attached, and leave you 
 desolate and comfortless. Make no offer to the Law 
 which you are not fully prepared to have accepted. 
 Keep all you have and are if such be your desire, but 
 in keeping it, remain on the outside of your own di- 
 vinity. 
 
 247 
 
THE POWER OF LOVING 
 
 WHAT matters it that form and face of tin' beloved 
 grow feeble, old and wrinkled? What matters 
 it that the shell which held thy love shall be in 
 time a feeding place for worms, or even that lust and all 
 iincleanness shall leave their imprint on the face that 
 thou hast pressed against thine own in ecstasy of pain? 
 
 The soul that thus expressed itself in form, that 
 part of thee and me which drew and called to active life 
 the sleeping Love of Life dwells not in form or face 
 of any living thing, though in thy blindness thou 
 -wouldst so confine it. 
 
 Look o'er the pages of thy life — the pages of the 
 open book writ by the hand of God, and thou shalt find 
 that like as thou hast grown to man's estate by slowly 
 filling in the heavenly pattern of thyself, day by day, 
 so hath thy power of loving grown, and yet may grow 
 to compass all the spheres of life. 
 
 That thing or creature thou didst love witli all the 
 power thou hadst when but a child, no longer charms 
 thine eye, though in that charm didst truly manifest a 
 soul that after many years again shone through a fleshly 
 form and face which drew and held thee fast ; and so again 
 shall love increase and search the heavens to find itself. 
 
 When all the lower fires of ])ersonal possession shall 
 burn themselves away, then thou wilt find in every hu- 
 man face, in flower and tree, in wind and water, in all 
 things and creatures, and finding never lose again, the 
 flawless soul that thou hast always loved, and find it 
 waiting the glad hour when every note of all the won- 
 drous Song of Life shall sound forth pure and sweet 
 for all who list to heai-. 
 
 248 
 
TWILIGHT AND DAWN 
 
 WHEN thy fellow-pilgrims turn from fulsome 
 praise and adulation to harshest criticism and 
 vilification of the bearer of the torch who is 
 blazing a trail through the dense growth of the under- 
 world, that he may find the Path, if thou wilt not be 
 turned from thine allegiance, look well that the moss 
 entwined stump of selfish desire o'er which thy brotlier 
 has stumbled doth not trip thee also. Walk warily, lest 
 the half-buried rocks of ambition or jealous rage catch 
 thy feet and hold thee captive by his side. 
 
 One extreme of life always calls to the other, and 
 it must respond. If thou wouldst travel the trail of 
 safety, keep well in the middle of that trail. The light 
 of the torch borne before thee throws flickering shad- 
 ows on either side of the trail, but burns clear and bright 
 on the central line. 
 
 Twilight must follow day. Xight doth not drop 
 its sable curtain in an instant. Dawn doth silver the 
 darkness of night e'er the Sun doth turn that darkness 
 into gold. 
 
 So always, Twilight and Dawn, silvered darkness 
 and golden light, are hours of consecration — are always 
 places of Peace wherein the soul may pause in the midst 
 of clamor to catch a note of the Song of Life and clear 
 its point of vision if it but walk in the line of unwaver- 
 ing Truth. 
 
 249 
 
YOU MUST CHOOSE 
 
 LOVE'S little ones, and therefore mine, I pray you 
 open wide the closed and bolted doors behind 
 which now you sit in apathy, and let my words 
 of tenderness gain access to your hearts; those doors 
 that you have girded round about with iron bands and 
 locked with golden locks, and panelled with the dross 
 of baser metals. Let me in, that I may serve to help 
 you drive the demons forth which you unwittingly en- 
 throne in places which the gods alone should hold — 
 the demons of your pride of intellect, contempt and 
 love of adulation. Fear not that I shall seize upon the 
 treasures of the Soul, for are you not mine own? and 
 shall I rob myself? I long to lead you from the paths 
 of loneliness, of poverty and weakness — INIaya's gifts, 
 which you, all unwitting of their nature, now so eagerly 
 accept. 
 
 With arms outstretched I cry to you and stand 
 aghast at your indifference to the cry, and at my lack 
 of power to pierce the aura of the world's delusions in 
 which you are encased. The demons of unholy lire, 
 of water and of air, aroused to fury now, and fed by 
 man's inhuman acts, are piling up their barriers of 
 brands 'twixt you and those who fain would serve you, 
 e'en while you meekly bring your quota of the brands 
 and throw them, wearily, upon the pile. The crackling 
 of the flames, the muttering of the distant storm, fall 
 
 250 
 
YOU MUST CHOOSE 
 
 on your deadened ears, while here and there a great red 
 drop falls from low lying clouds and splashes on the 
 earth or drenches some poor heart with life's woe. 
 
 The disembodied fiends so long restrained, have 
 broken loose, and now are seizing upon the new-born 
 vehicles of weak, impotent souls, thus gaining instru- 
 ments for use in the great conflict, and yet you fail to 
 know them even when yourselves have furnished them 
 with vehicles — you are so taken up with some side 
 issue, some secondary thing, which of necessity must 
 fall in its own place when once the primal, the com- 
 posite issue is fully recognized and holds its own. 
 
 The war is on 'twixt right and wrong, 'twixt heaven 
 and hell, and you must choose your side. 
 
 251 
 
THE WILL TO LIVE 
 
 AS BREAKS the long, low rumble of the surf- 
 bound shore upon the outer ear, and so accus- 
 toms it to Nature's lowest register of tone that 
 it is dulled to all the sweeter, softer notes of rippling 
 brook and hum of busy insect, so the loud tliunder of 
 the unbound passions, the shrieks of mad, unsatisfied 
 Desire doth dull the inner ear of man, and Mill not let 
 him hear the Soul's low cry for help to find its own, 
 its triple chord, now lost amidst the myriad sounds 
 which beat the ether into waves that break upon the 
 shores of sentient life in ever widening curves, carrying 
 on their crests or in the silent depths beneath, the miss- 
 ing tones which wait the sounding of the key; that key 
 which only can be heard when all the discords, all the 
 liarsher sounds of life are stilled. 
 
 All naked and alone, bereft of hope and plunged 
 into abysmal depths where light nor sound may pene- 
 trate, that lonely soid must wander incomplete, its 
 smothered wail the only outlet for its woe. Xo power 
 it hath to sound the key, recalling the lost notes, and 
 so completing the sweet chord which with its volume, 
 strength and power w^ould clothe that Soul with light 
 and hope divine. For, losing those sw^eet tones in Pas- 
 sion's drear domains, o'er which insatiable Desire hath 
 rule, it loses e'en the power to make a plea for help, 
 and so unceasingly it wanders on alone till myriad cycles 
 pass, when once again it mingles with the maze of un- 
 ])orn Souls that wait the sounding of a higher key than 
 that which rung its birth, and wliich will call to active 
 life the dead and sleeping, and the embryos, the other 
 victims of the greater Self, — the Will to live. 
 
 252 
 
LOOSE HIM 
 
 ^^T OOSE him and let him go." Unwind the swad- 
 1. dhngs which you have wrapped ahout your 
 brother man. 
 
 Your dogmas, creeds and penances, — your selfish 
 love as well as hate, are chains which bind you to the 
 "Wheel of Woe." 
 
 Forgive the debts, undo the chains you bound your 
 brother with in duty's guise. Loose him and let him go, 
 and thou shalt ftnd, not all the chains, the debts, the bonds 
 with which you hold your friend in thrall will draw and 
 hold him fast to you as will the knowledge he is free. 
 Free to wander w^here he will, free to come and go, free 
 togiveyou love for love,ortorefusee'en friendship's trove. 
 
 Each thread of every cord you use to bind another 
 soul will bind you back, w^ill hold from you the love you 
 crave, the service you require. 
 
 In Freedom lies thy strength, and Freedom is the Law 
 of Life ; not liberty to hurt or crush another part of God's 
 own life, but liberty to render service pure, and learn to 
 find in strict obedience to law the goal of perfect life. 
 
 Obedience to law, through love of law and order, 
 gives highest freedom to the soul; but man has put the 
 bond of fear upon his brother man and so enslaved him 
 to Illusion, and fear breeds naught but most abject 
 subjection, and freezes into nothingness the slave, as 
 well as he who doth enslave. 
 
 Obey implicitly the law of Love and thou slialt not 
 be called upon to sacrifice aught save the thing thou 
 needest not; but first be sure thou knowest Love, and 
 hast not clothed it in the slimy garb of self-indulgence, 
 thus paving wide the way for self-annihilation. 
 
 253 
 
THE MILESTONES 
 
 THUS saith the Father to me, His child: 
 As the stars in their courses fought against 
 Sisera, even so will I, the Lord thy God, fight 
 against the stars if so be they lead mine own into the 
 stronghold of the Great Shadow. 
 
 Even the stars are the work of my hands, and thou 
 shalt not put the work of my hands in the seat of my 
 power. 
 
 Thou art long in learning that the fierceness of my 
 jealousy is the fierceness of the world mother who would 
 protect her young from the poisonous fangs of the ser- 
 pent; the fierceness of the jealousy of the father who 
 refuses to deliver his only son to the maw of the hungry 
 tiger, yet would gladly yield that son to satisfy the 
 Higher Law; the fierceness of the jealousy which would 
 sweep the dark stars from the skies did they bar the 
 way to the heart of the least of my little ones. 
 
 Truly is it said, "All things work together for good 
 to those who love God," but e'er thou canst interpret the 
 promise aright, thou must learn to know the nature of 
 such love as is demanded by thy God. What seemeth 
 good to fhec may l)e the settling of some shadow of a 
 higher good, and in thy haste it may be thou wilt seize 
 the shadow, wrap it closely round about thee, and so 
 cut off the light by which alone the higher good may 
 manifest to thee. 
 
 254 
 
THE MILESTONES 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 If e'en an angel host should bid thee turn from 
 what thou knowest is the path of right, bid them turn 
 about and seek the Father once again and so make sure 
 they have not erred. 
 
 Far down that beautiful broad path the perfected 
 have made 'twixt thee and me, doth also creep the 
 wayward and the erring; and not all the words which 
 fall upon thine ear, — not all the sights which meet thine 
 eyes, are for thy quick unfolding. 
 
 The pitcher which today is filled with pure and 
 sparkling water from a living spring may ere another 
 sun be set be filled with poisoned wine, and all who 
 drink thereof may meet an agonizing death. The mile- 
 stones on the Path are plainly marked. The contents of 
 the pitcher indicate their character. Why, then, be de- 
 ceived, and let thy lack of patience, or thy greediness 
 for power or place, or things of spirit or of body, lead 
 thee into byways, or quench thy thirst with that which 
 breeds a greater thirst and ends in death? 
 
 255 
 
THE PEACE OF ALL FULFILMENTS 
 
 YE RESTLESS wanderers of the worlds, who find 
 no place on Earth or Sea or Sky on which to 
 plant a foot and anchor there, those rapidly pul- 
 sating vehicles of the Soul you pamper or abuse at will, 
 while seeking surcease from the stress and strain the 
 Jinns have laid upon you. 
 
 Know ye not, when first you yielded to the driving 
 power of Fohat which sent j^ou forth on an unceasing 
 search for Lethe's streams, or for the apples of Hes- 
 perides, you opened wide the door which led into the 
 closed and secret place of the soul; you wrenched apart 
 the close-bound strands of that golden cord which held 
 your Souls in leash that they might learn the lessons 
 which a single point in space can teach as well and bet- 
 ter far than all the leagues of Earth and Sea and Sky 
 that you have traveled o'er? Heedlessly ye have in- 
 voked the restless elementals of the lower spheres to 
 make their homes within your Souls. And they have 
 now seized the reins of power and drive you round about 
 according to their whims, that they may minister to 
 their desire for ceaseless motion. Day by day your 
 power of seeking Silence, Peace, and all that Wisdom 
 born of consecrated effort, slowly wanes and leaves you 
 tenfold more the slave you were. Your eyes are blind- 
 ed by the dust satiety has flung therein, and like a ship 
 with rudder gone and anchor buried fathoms deep be- 
 
 256 
 
THE PEACE OF ALL FULFILMENTS 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 neath the ocean's wave, you drift about with ne'er a 
 port in sight, in total ignorance of the truth that ye are 
 but the sport of creatures you would cast derision on, 
 if once your eyes were opened to the light of your di- 
 vinity and hidden power o'er lower forms of life. Wake 
 up, tear off the bandage from your eyes, find your niche, 
 and labor for your fellow-man, close fast those wide- 
 flung; doors, and seek the Silence and the Peace of all 
 fulfilment. 
 
 257 
 
YOUR DEFEATS 
 
 YOU gauge the value of what you deem your great- 
 est achievements by the measure of success which 
 has followed your strongest efforts, but in the 
 days to come, when the mists have fallen from your eyes, 
 and you sum up the results of your life work, you will 
 find to your great surprise that the defeats which you 
 have suffered, the blows which have bowed your heads 
 the lowest, have always held the real values. Your suc- 
 cesses may have taken you nearly to the JNIount of 
 Transfiguration, but your defeats will have carried you 
 up and over the top of that mount. 
 
 258 
 
THE SOUL REDEEMED 
 
 SWEETER than any song of thrush, softer than 
 the wood-dove's coo to its mate, tender as the touch 
 of dawn on the eyes of a sleep-bound child, falls 
 the voice and touch of the Over-soul on the weary Pil- 
 grim of Days. 
 
 Many times and oft in the night of the past hath he 
 closed his eyes and said, "Surely my Lord will awaken 
 me from this awful nightmare of Life ere another sun 
 shall greet mine eyes. I am bound and helpless in the 
 morass of the the world's worst woe, and, alas! there are 
 none to hear if I call, or drag me forth, for all of my 
 kin are bound as am I, and smothered in viscid mud, 
 while I alone of human kind am left w^ith head above 
 its slimy ooze." 
 
 But e'en as he cried, lo! the dark clouds parted, his 
 feet were loosed, and with lightning speed an Angel 
 came down and bade him rise and follow on, to the 
 feet of the Lord of Life and Death. 
 
 At last fall the scales from the blinded eyes. In the 
 glory of Soul redeemed stands he forth, poised on the 
 eartii like a bird on the wing. He asks of the sea, the 
 sky and the earth, "Is it worth it all? Is it worth the 
 anguish, the pain, the loss, to hear that voice, to feel 
 that touch?" And from every fibre, from all live things, 
 from the heavens and hells, in melody sweet, again and 
 again, rises and echoes in vibrant tones, as with one 
 great voice, the words of the saved: "Aye, it is worth 
 all earth can give, all sun and moon and stars can offer." 
 
 259 
 
LIGHT OF THE SOUL 
 
 THINKEST thou to win discrimination when, like 
 a weathercock, thou veerest to one side or an- 
 other according as the wind hsteth? 
 Force thine unwilhng feet, weighted with the mud 
 of sense, to walk straightly in thy chosen path, that 
 thou mayest quicker reach the golden light upon the 
 mountain-top, and bathe thy soul in its pure radiance. 
 
 260 
 
TO THE WORLD 
 
 DEGENERATE Scions of a dying Age!— 
 As a man freeth corruption from his nostrils, 
 so will I cast you forth by the wind of my dis- 
 content. Back shall ye return to the darkness whence 
 ye came — rebellious, quarrelsome, inhuman spawn of 
 an evil age, — abortions of my soul's travail, who will 
 neither heed the moan of your own sad hearts or the 
 thunderous waves of a nation's woe, lest greedy lust 
 for place and power remain unsatisfied ; lest your bodies 
 — the feeding place of worms — be less daintily fed and 
 clothed upon with fine raiment. 
 
 Long aeons have I reached out to you in beseeching, 
 and ye pass me by unheeding. 
 
 As breaketh forth the sweat o'er the straining mus- 
 cles of the strong man, so outpour I the dew of my 
 longing, and ye will not see nor listen. 
 
 Ye force the action of the Great Law upon your 
 heads, and I, its minister, must needs serve, to your 
 undoing. 
 
 261 
 
LIFT THOU THINE EYES TO GOD 
 
 CHILD of The Eternal— listen! Know that 
 though scorched by the sun of desert sands; 
 lashed back by the furious ocean's waves; struck 
 motionless by the power of the Ice-Angel, with the 
 wings of thy soul as the wings of a bird when the Storm- 
 King has beaten them close to its breast; know, son of 
 the sun, even yet thou art not vanquished. Thou art 
 more than conqueror through the illimitable love of that 
 compassionate heart upon which thy head is pillowed. 
 Cover thou thy breast with the shield of patience. Re- 
 member — the burning heat of the noontide glides slow- 
 ly, imperceptibly, into the cool of evening. The mount- 
 ain glaciers melt in the warmth of Spring and, drop by 
 drop, water the thirsty valley below. Earth and sky 
 meet and kiss in a blaze of unspeakable glory. And 
 thou, son of my heart, though cast in the depths of de- 
 pravity, weakness, or weariness, may rise to immeas- 
 ureable heights, by lifting thine eyes to God. 
 
 Say not, "I am but a leaf in the wind." Say, rath- 
 er, "I am of God— in God." 
 
 262 
 
THE ETERNAL WARFARE 
 
 AH, mystery of Life, mystery of Death, mystery 
 of Evil! Only Infinite Love can sound your 
 depths. Only Faith can impart the power by 
 which a glimpse of that Love may be seen. ]Man is 
 always at war with himself. He unfolds a flag of truce 
 now and then when the battle becomes so fierce that 
 mind, sense or physical power is on the verge of col- 
 lapse, till he regains his breath and starts in again. 
 And this continual battle is an absolute necessity, for 
 only through it can he win his crown of power and en- 
 durance. ]Man could not live with himself on any other 
 terms. 
 
 263 
 
THE WHEEL OF SUFFERING 
 
 THE wrongs done to or against you by others may 
 be made stepping stones for you, if you have the 
 courage to lift your feet high enough from the 
 ground to reach them. So long as a wrong can embitter 
 you, and so long as you attract the commission of such 
 wrongs, either by wronging others, or by personal lim- 
 itations of any character, the invincible power of love 
 will hold you to the wheel of suffering. 
 
 It takes poor, struggling humanity long, long ages 
 to learn that divine Justice will never suffer a wrong to 
 be done which is not at the same time a punishment for 
 a similar wrong, and a vast opportunitv to wipe out a 
 debt. 
 
 The stronger, the better equipped for service is the 
 Neophyte, the greater will be his or her tests of patience, 
 endurance and compassion. The very attributes which 
 make him useful and valuable to the Temple work, and 
 therefore to the w^orld, at the same time must bring 
 long seasons of heart hunger, trial and mental strain, 
 until he, like all those who tread the same path, can 
 lay his burden in the lap of the Great INIother, and say 
 from his heart, "It matters not what my brother, my 
 sister may do to me, only give me more love for them, 
 and I am content." 
 
 "I can safely leave the punishment of any offense 
 done to me to the Divine Law, but woe is me, if I 
 dwell with delight upon the nature, and application of 
 that punishment, for by so doing I lift my head from 
 the Mother's la]), and gaze into the eyes of the avenger 
 of mine own offense." 
 
 264 
 
THE PAIN OF PROGRESS 
 
 FORCE not the hand of Nature, lest you stir to 
 action such antagonistic forces as now lie inert 
 or sleeping, and so deliberately draw down upon 
 your head that which as yet is but a formless fear and 
 dread of coming evil. 
 
 Grasp with firm and steady hand devotion's sieve 
 that holdeth thy life's happiness aloft ; a single careless, 
 trembling touch and lo! the finest grains are shaken 
 through the meshes, and blown hither and yon by the 
 first fierce wind of selfish longing, leaving naught but 
 the coarse and weighty sands of satiated pleasure. 
 
 Xo man ascends towards the stars without arousing 
 the ire of the yelping curs of earth. 
 
 265 
 
THE GARDEN OF THE SOUL 
 
 STOP! weary, sun-smitten traveler o'er the desert 
 sands of ages jDast. Rest ye awhile where the broad 
 leaves of the trees that grow in the Garden of the 
 Soul may fan thy fevered brow. List to the Song of 
 Life, rising and falling, cleaving the air, trilling in ec- 
 stasy, melting in sweetness, as it ripples from the swell- 
 ing throat of the Bird of Hope. Heed not the words 
 of the Spirit of Death, re-echoing along thy backward 
 track, where "Hope lay dead and Life was not worth 
 the living." 
 
 Only the dead in Life, the heartless devotees of the 
 Calf of Gold, which standeth knee deep in thine own 
 and thy Brother's blood, may say in truth that Hope 
 for them is dead. 
 
 Thou — beloved — who art only aweary, come with 
 Me into the Garden of the Soul and rest, till thine eyes 
 canst behold and bear the Light of I^ife. 
 
 266 
 
RELIGHT THY TORCH 
 
 KNOW ye not, weary, disappointed, rebellious 
 child of the Master, — thou in whose heart, faith, 
 hope and ambition languish and die through thy 
 Brother's sin or failure, — that thou alone art respon- 
 sible for the effect of that failure upon thyself? For 
 thou alone didst impart it power to hurt thee by ac- 
 cepting that which was but a means to the accomplish- 
 ment of a great purpose, for the purpose itself. 
 
 Thine alone is the fault if thou dost not compel 
 even that failure to assist thee in mounting the step be- 
 yond. 
 
 None other can harm thee, none other can hinder 
 thy progress. Thou alone art the way to thy true self. 
 
 Rise up from the mire into which thou art thrown 
 and travel onward. ^layhap thou shalt overtake thy 
 Lord. 
 
 267 
 
LIFE'S SHINE AND SHADOW 
 
 IF THE Path seem long and dark to you who look 
 back on life's lessons from such a narrow point of 
 
 consciousness, how think you it appears to us who, 
 from the altitude of centuries of ceaseless labor, of hope 
 deferred, still work on with the Law even when no 
 light be visible? For know the radiant light of fulfilled 
 purpose may not dawn for us until it dawns for you 
 we are all bound to the same wheel of change. 
 
 I, who would comfort you with my own comfort 
 can only bid you love more, hope more, trust more 
 work more, — for, see! the first trembling rays from the 
 newly risen Sun of Life even now gild the mountain 
 top, and the shifting shadows at its base ])artially re 
 veal the glory to be made manifest when cyclic law has 
 done its work. 
 
 Cast forth, then, the demon of discontent; it can 
 undo in one day many years of toil; and, my children, 
 do not forget that you yourselves have invoked your 
 Karmic shadows, so be patient — even with the shad- 
 ows. 
 
 268 
 
THE ANGEL OF THE PATH 
 
 ONE day the earthly sun will darken before thine 
 eyes. Xaked and alone the Angel of the Path 
 will thrust thee forth from the haunts of men to 
 seek and find thine own, or to wander in dark places 
 evermore in thralldom unto things. 
 
 Thyself a shadow, thou shalt come to Hades' shad- 
 owy vistas and with soft footfall glide from place to 
 place, until thy soul's awakened eyes behold the blazing 
 Arch of Triumph which separates that hell from 
 heaven. 
 
 Then the stern Guardian standing there will say: 
 "What bringest thou to me that I should let thee pass?" 
 
 Xone other gift than Love will he accept; all else 
 he spurns as worthless chaff. So, gather thou each day 
 the seeds from which Love sprouts — the kindly deed, 
 the tender touch, or thou wilt be left standing on the 
 farther side with only thy lost opportunities to think 
 upon, thyself a shadow to the end. 
 
 269 
 
THE LENS OF THE SOUL 
 
 BE NOT deceived. Only the pure in heart see God. 
 Thou canst not defile the lens of thy soul by im- 
 pure and selfish thought and behold the divine 
 through such a medium. For the deceptive lights and 
 shadows cast thereon do but hinder the reflections of 
 aught higher than the false images pictured in thine 
 heart, and thou art lost to all but the self-created mirage 
 of false and fleeting vision where darkness seemeth as 
 light, — the darkness of Self in which no ray of the Di- 
 vine Sun of Life can manifest its presence. 
 
 As a lily raiseth its head to the sun, so raise thou 
 thy soul to God, that the dew of Divine Love may 
 search out and help to uncover its hidden Heart of 
 Gold. 
 
 270 
 
THE LAW FULFILED 
 
 BELIEVEST thou, O son of Earth's travail, that 
 while the meanest serf remains a serf, thou canst 
 be free? that while one child's low moan of pain 
 ascends the spheres, pure joy may be thy portion? 
 
 Water seeks its level by a law divine. No less di- 
 vine — unalterable, the law that makes thy brother's joy 
 thy joy, that so the level of human bliss and agony be 
 found, and wisdom justified. 
 
 If thou wouldst reach perfection, lift the stone that 
 crushes to earth a tiny violet, a blade of grass. Bear 
 with thy brother — share his weight of woe; pour of 
 thine own abundance into his lap if he be needy. 
 
 Bind up the wound thine enemy received in strife 
 with thee, and so aid in the final great adjustment of 
 mortal man and things. The Law fulfiled will open 
 up the path to God, now closed and barred by self. 
 
 271 
 
JUDGE NOT 
 
 WHO — what art thou, delusion of evil, in the 
 guise of man, that darest persecution of the 
 Eternal, that rendereth false judgment upon 
 the Absolute? God and Christ dwelleth in every atom 
 of Substance, Force and Consciousness. Thou canst 
 not lay a feather's weight of condemnation on another 
 and let God and Christ go free. 
 
 Hidden within thine own heart is every evil thou 
 imputest to tliy brother. Destroy it in thyself and thou 
 shalt never more behold it in thv brother. 
 
 272 
 
UNSELFISH LOVE 
 
 MY CHILD: — Canst thou not strive to consider 
 the daily martyrdom of thy friend, thy wife, 
 thy husband — the one that loves thee most 
 unselfishly, the one to whom thou art as a star, how- 
 ever unworthy, however cold, careless and unloving in 
 deed and truth — the one whose heart sings a song of 
 sweetness throughout a hard day's toil — at a single 
 kind or tender word from thee? O, blind and foolish 
 one — thou who strivest with all thy power to lay up 
 earthly treasures — all unthinking that the unselfish 
 love of a human being for thee is thy opportunity for 
 laying up priceless treasures throughout the ages to 
 come. 
 
 273 
 
THE INNER TEMPLE 
 
 IF ALL about thee seem to sj^eak of sorrow, and the 
 face of God is turned away from thee; if nowhere 
 
 on the earth there seems to be a refuge for breaking 
 hearts or minds unhinged by longing; if httle children's 
 cries awake the echoes in thine heart of long dead ages 
 when the cries of other little ones ascended to the skies 
 through sacrificial flames; if rest and peace have taken 
 wings and flown away from thee and from thy kind; if 
 music hath no longer charm, and art no solace, and the 
 way to love seems closed to thee; if fear of death is 
 swallowed up in fear of living, and all thy labor seems 
 to be in vain; — then come with me, my child. Keep 
 close to me until thy search is ended, and thou hast 
 reached the place of silence — place of peace — the Tem- 
 ple in thine inmost heart. 
 
 When thou shalt reach that Temple's door and 
 knock ariglit, then shalt thou find it opening wide into 
 the heart of every other living thing; and in some one 
 of all those wondrous spaces shalt thou find the answers 
 to thy hardest questions, and surcease from thy deepest 
 woes. 
 
 Nowhere else upon the earth or in the heavens can 
 the key be found that will unlock God's Jewel case; 
 but on its burnished sides in deeply carven letters are 
 the clues to that which lies within, — and they are hid- 
 den in the words. Faith, Hope, Service. 
 
 274 
 
CEASE, AND SING 
 
 CEASE your moaning" and your wailing, ye en- 
 listed soldiers of the Army of your God. Did 
 ever soldier win his spurs, win command of bat- 
 tling legions, who at sight of guns and sabers, battle- 
 fields and wounds, fell out of line or cringed in terror 
 and despair? Beat it into dull and sodden minds if ye 
 needs nuist, that never was a just and righteous cause 
 left undefended, nor was it lost for aye. Nay, not even if 
 it sank from sight of man for days or years ; not even if 
 the last defender perished in the final battle fought; like 
 a buried seed, in time, it sprang into a newer, higher life, 
 tenfold the stronger, tenfold the surer of success for all 
 the bloodshed, all the tears that watered its first growth. 
 
 What right have you to ride serenely on above the 
 heads of those who fight, and never strike a blow your- 
 self in your defense? Or that you should escape the 
 common lot of men and soldiers fighting for a cause on 
 which now rests the fate of nations yet unborn? Or 
 that your limbs, the air you breathe, the flesh you bear, 
 escape the rej^tile's coils and breath and fangs, — the 
 rank abuse, the slanderous tongues, the crushing of 
 your hearts by coward's blows? Can you not bear what 
 weaker men have bravely borne, — the burden of their 
 fellowmen, — and hold your heads on high, and smile 
 and sing? Aye, sing so loud and strong that not a note 
 of all the discord on the field below may strike your ear? 
 
 Ah, if you can but do my bidding, then are you 
 children of the King, soldiers of the cross of Christ — 
 the symbol of eternal life for all the World.— Then 
 are you on the road that leads to where the Hosts of 
 Light now^ stand and beckon you, the road to ^Mastery. 
 
 275 
 
A CLARION CALL 
 
 FIGHT! for fight you must, you Children of the 
 Covenant, or shirk the task set hy your own Di- 
 vine Self. 
 
 Look where you may, in all life's domains, no sjDot 
 or place will meet your eye where battle doth not rage. 
 
 Would you, of all the myriad lives on earth, in 
 cowardice cast down your shield, remove your armor, 
 lie supinely down, and claim the fruits of all the labor, 
 all the strife between the Sons of Light and the Broth- 
 ers of the Shadow? between TJie Perfected and all the 
 Lethe-drunken scions of a dying age? and never strike 
 a blow to prove yourself a worthy foe, or aid in the de- 
 fense of all the right and privilege so hardly won! Can 
 you refuse to guard the fortress and protect the over- 
 wearied, scarred and broken veterans whose right to 
 longer fight has been denied, or guide the footsteps of 
 the feeble and faint-hearted — the helpless "little ones"? 
 
 The hardest fight of all the ages past is on, and fight 
 you must if you would pave the way for the return of 
 those who fought in a lost cause and gave their lives 
 that you might live and win the martyr's crown that 
 they now^ wear — that crown which is an open-sesame to 
 all the Thrones— the Powers — of Heaven and Earth. 
 
 Gird tightly on your loose-worn weapons. Buckle 
 fast your yet unsteady headpiece, and strike, while strike 
 you may, at all the enemies entrenched in that frail 
 
 276 
 
A CLARION CALL 
 
 CONTINUED 
 
 heart of yours, and die, if die you must, with face 
 turned toward the foe, content that hfe has given you 
 a chance to fight, instead of swathing you with bands 
 that hopelessly ensnare and hold the human soul. 
 
 Be great, because of that your greatness hath the 
 power to overcome, and fight till victory is yours, and 
 yours the right to stand erect and unabashed before the 
 very face of God. 
 
 277 
 
WARRIORS OF LIGHT 
 
 <^TT r ARRIORS of Light, Warriors of Truth, I 
 Y y salute you, in the name of the Great White 
 Brotherhood. Go forth to battle, with the 
 Powers of Darkness, armed with the Sword of the 
 Spirit of God, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the 
 Helmet of Eternal Truth. See to it, then, that no stain 
 rest on that armor, no rust on that sword, that ye may 
 become one with us, on that Great Day; 'Be With Us.' " 
 
 278 
 
Copyright, 1914 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 Halcyon, Cal. 
 
 Press of M. A. Donohue & Co., Chicago 
 
The foregoing messages were 
 received by The Temple of 
 the People, Halcyon, Califor- 
 nia, and published in their 
 magazine, The Temple Artizan. 
 
399504 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
From the Mountain Top 
 ERRATA 
 
 In third paragraph, for "covered," read uncovered. 
 
 Page 30, second paragraph, for "helplessly," read hope- 
 lessly. 
 
 Page 39, second paragraph, for "bertrayer," read be- 
 trayer. 
 
 Page 55, first paragraph, for "selfishness," read self- 
 lessness. 
 
 Page 56, for "lights," read lightens. 
 Page 89, first paragraph, for "hearts," read ears. 
 Page 124, second paragraph, for "losses" read loosed. 
 Page 153, first paragraph, for "selfless," read self. 
 Page 159, fifth paragraph, for "crown," read crowning. 
 Page 171, third paragraph, for "band," read bond. 
 Page 171, fourth paragraph, for "very," read every. 
 Page 172, second paragraph, for "once," read over. 
 Page 202, second paragraph, for "bruises" read briers. 
 Page 205, first paragraph, for "through the steep moun- 
 tain," read up through the mountain side.