The Life Everlasting | Page 7

it would be of no use to us, as we are bound
hard and fast by certain natural and elemental laws over which we have
no control. Old truisms are re-stated and violently asserted--namely,
that our business is merely to be born, to live, breed and arrange things
as well as we can for those who come after us, and then to die, and
there an end,--a stupid round of existence not one whit higher than that
of the silkworm. Is it for such a monotonous, commonplace way of life
and purpose as this, that humanity has been endowed with 'infinite
faculty'? Is it for such poor aims and ends as these that we are told in
the legended account of the beginning of things, to 'Replenish the earth
and subdue it'? There is great meaning in that command--'Subdue it!'
The business of each one of us who has come into the knowledge and
possession of his or her own Soul, is to 'subdue' the earth,--that is, to
hold it and all it contains under subjection,--not to allow Its forces,
whether interior or exterior, to subdue the Soul. But it may perhaps be
said:--"We do not yet understand all the forces with which we have to

contend, and in this way they master us." That may be so,--but if it is so
with any of you, it is quite your own fault. Your own fault, I say,--for
there is no power, human or divine, that compels you to remain in
ignorance. Each one of you has a master--talisman and key to all locked
doors. No State education can do for you what you might do for
yourselves, if you only had the WILL. It is your own choice entirely if
you elect to live in subjection to the earth, instead of placing the earth
under subjection to your dominance.
Then, again, you have been told to 'Replenish the earth'--as well as to
subdue it. In these latter days, through a cupidity as amazing as
criminal, you are not 'replenishing' so much as impoverishing the earth,
and think you that no interest will be exacted for your reckless plunder?
You mistake! You complain of the high taxes imposed upon you by
your merely material and ephemeral Governments,- -but you forget that
the Everlasting Government of all Worlds demands an even higher rate
of compensation for such wrong or injurious uses as you make of this
world, which was and is intended to serve as a place of training for the
development and perfection of the whole human race, but which, owing
to personal greed and selfishness, is too often turned into a mere grave
for the interment of faulty civilisations.
In studying the psychic side of life it should be well and distinctly
understood that THERE IS AN EVER LIVING SPIRIT WITHIN
EACH ONE OF US;--a Spirit for which there is no limited capacity
and no unfavourable surroundings. Its capacity is infinite as God,--and
its surroundings are always made by Itself. It is its own Heaven,-- and
once established within that everlasting centre, it radiates from the
Inward to the Outward, thus making its own environment, not only now
but for ever. It is its own Life,--and in the active work of perpetually
re-generating and re-creating itself, knows nothing of Death.
* * * * * *
I must now claim the indulgence of those among my readers who
possess the rare gift of patience, for anything that may seem too
personal in the following statement which I feel it almost necessary to
make on the subject of my own "psychic" creed. I am so often asked if

I believe this or that, if I am "orthodox," if I am a sceptic, materialist or
agnostic, that I should like, if possible, to make things clear between
myself and these enquirers. Therefore I may say at once that my belief
in God and the immortality of the Soul is absolute,--but that I did not
attain to the faith I hold without hard training and bitter suffering. This
need not be dwelt upon, being past. I began to write when I was too
young to know anything of the world's worldly ways, and when I was
too enthusiastic and too much carried away by the splendour and
beauty of the spiritual ideal to realise the inevitable derision and scorn
which are bound to fall upon untried explorers into the mysteries of the
unseen; yet it was solely on account of a strange psychical experience
which chanced to myself when I stood upon the threshold of what is
called 'life' that I found myself producing my first book, "A Romance
of Two Worlds." It was a rash experiment, but it was the direct result of
an initiation into some few of the truths behind the veil