The Life Everlasting | Page 5

love than that
with which He has endowed His creatures. For the very first lesson in
the beginning of knowledge is that Life is the essential Being of God,
and that each individual intelligent outcome of Life is deathless as God
Himself.
The 'Wilderness' is wide,--and within it we all find ourselves,-- some
wandering far astray--some crouching listlessly among shadows, too
weary to move at all--others, sauntering along in idle indifference, now
and then vaguely questioning how soon and where the journey will
end,--and few ever discovering that it is not a 'Wilderness' at all, but a
garden of sweet sights and sounds, where every day should be a glory
and every night a benediction. For when the veil of mere Appearances
has been lifted we are no longer deceived into accepting what Seems

for what Is. The Reality of Life is Happiness;--the Delusion of Life,
which we ourselves create by improper balance and imperfect
comprehension of our own powers, must needs cause Sorrow, because
in such self-deception we only dimly see the truth, just as a person born
blind may vaguely guess at the beauty of bright day. But for the Soul
that has found Itself, there are no more misleading lights or shadows
between its own everlastingness and the everlastingness of God.
All the world over there are religions of various kinds, more or less
suited to the various types and races of humanity. Most of these forms
of faith have been evolved from the brooding brain of Man himself, and
have nothing 'divine,' in them. In the very early ages nearly all the
religious creeds were mere methods for terrorising the ignorant and the
weak--and some of them were so revolting, so bloodthirsty and brutal,
that one cannot now read of them without a shudder of repulsion.
Nevertheless, from the very first dawn of his intelligence, man appears
always to have felt the necessity of believing in something stronger and
more lasting than himself,--and his first gropings for truth led him to
evolve desperate notions of something more cruel, more relentless, and
more wicked than himself, rather than ideals of something more
beautiful, more just, more faithful and more loving than he could be.
The dawn of Christianity brought the first glimmering suggestion that a
gospel of love and pity might be more serviceable in the end to the
needs of the world, than a ruthless code of slaughter and vengeance-
-though history shows us that the annals of Christianity itself are
stained with crime and shamed by the shedding of innocent blood. Only
in these latter days has the world become faintly conscious of the real
Force working behind and through all things--the soul of the Divine, or
the Psychic element, animating and inspiring all visible and invisible
Nature. This soul of the Divine--this Psychic element, however, is
almost entirely absent from the teaching of the Christian creed to-day,
with the result that the creed itself is losing its power. I venture to say
that a very small majority of the millions of persons worshipping in the
various forms of the Christian Church really and truly believe what
they publicly profess. Clergy and laity alike are tainted with this worst
of all hypocrisies--that of calling God to witness their faith when they
know they are faithless. It may be asked how I dare to make such an

assertion? I dare, because I know! It would be impossible to the people
of this or any other country to honestly believe the Christian creed, and
yet continue to live as they do. Their lives give the lie to their avowed
religion, and it is this daily spectacle of the daily life of governments,
trades, professions and society which causes me to feel that the general
aspect of Christendom at the present day, with all its Churches and
solemn observances, is one of the most painful and profound hypocrisy.
You who read this page,--(possibly with indignation) you call yourself
a Christian, no doubt. But ARE you? Do you truly think that when
death shall come to you it is really NOT death, but the simple transition
into another and better life? Do you believe in the actual immortality of
your soul, and do you realise what it means? You do? You are quite
sure? Then, do you live as one convinced of it? Are you quite
indifferent to the riches and purely material advantages of this
world?--are you as happy in poverty as in wealth, and are you
independent of social esteem? Are you bent on the very highest and
most unselfish ideals of life and conduct? I do not say you are not; I
merely ask if you ARE. If your answer is in the affirmative, do not give
the lie to your creed by your daily habits, conversation and