There is also an opposite illustration, familiar to all who study the laws of nature, that the relative ray-germ of Spirit, that coming from the Absolute, descends from its realms of primeval innocence that it may be born into matter, and, through the Soul, grow through spheres of ripening and discipline into perfected Spirit or Angelhood, is like the little acorn, springing from its dark earth mould into a gigantic oak. Even so in the Soul planted within the darkness of the animal. man, softened through affliction, warmed by sympathy and love, the tiny Spirit germ of light bursts forth. Struggling on through spheres of gradual unfoldment to wisdom and knowledge, it is at last gathered in as a ripened Soul, a perfected Spirit — an Angel.

The Ray which was originally sent out from the Eden of innocence returns again with renewed strength, refreshed by its planting on some fair planet of God's universe, through its ripening into wisdom, love, and sympathy, which alone constitutes an Angel of God. "Forever and forever," says the weird chant of the Lamas, "As it is in heaven, so it is on earth."

Swedenborg affirmed that all Angels, even the highest that move about the throne of God, had once been men.

The only difference claimed by Eastern Adepts is that Angels were Rays from the Absolute planted in the living Soul of some being on some planet to grow and ripen into Angelhood.

What man of thoughtful, unbiassed meditation, who has travelled over and about this fair globe, has failed to observe the positive indications of changes in this planet? The silent voices of nations who left no history breathe through the colossal remains of their ruined cities and silent temples half buried in the drifting sands, for ages proclaiming, with mute eloquence, what an axial change might bring. The great scars or roads among the glaciers; the upheaval of nations; the sinking of kingdoms into ocean depths; the riven mountains and empty river-beds, point in mystic writing and speak in mute stony language, whispering and beckoning away back through the ages, in unspeakable eloquence, of unrecorded time.

Force, whether active or latent, is co-equal with substance. We can conceive of neither without the other, while both are expressed in and by Law and Order. From these three, co-equal and co-eternal, proceeds the universe. As in a lake of pure water are mirrored the images of things above it, so in the phenomenal world is seen the projection of the Real. By means of the former, we apprehend the latter. Such is the basis of the famous doctrine of Correspondence, which has been handed down through all ages. The aphorism

of ham is a well known paraphrase. There is but one substance, and the Law of Correspnime is uns exponent

Ma erallam, with clever, mined, modding words, may clamor for recogs Son by the intellect of men. But weeping loves and holy, sacred memories will not let one accept its empty ashes and frigid mockenes.

The wheel of time never turns backward. An orthodox can become liberal, but never can a liberal mind, which has once fully realized the truths of Soul and Spirit, return to orthodoxy again, for the rising light of perception and understanding could not be repressed.

Spiritualism is non-sectarian. It has its followers among the members of every denomination, and every religious system without exception is becoming permeated with its freshening influence. And still it grows, silently, for Truth is mighty. What is termed strong orthodoxy to-day was but a few years ago the strongest liberalism. Spiritualism is not built upon the Divinity of a book, but from all time was built upon the eternal rock of ages; having for its lesson the great book of Nature; for its temple, the temple of God within; its truths, the Great absolute God-Truth-forever and forever, without end.

Without churches or temples; without schools or methods; without funds for missionary purposes; its societies broken up into individual fragments by the softest breath of dissension, we find Spiritualism propagating itself like a grain of mustard seed, growing every year, with increasing vigor, numbering millions of members of the silent church.

Turning back over the pages of history, we find the remarkable fact that at all times there have been men who communed with the so-called dead and were guided by invisible intelligences, living apparently in some supernatural manner. Men whose thoughts have run so far ahead of their time and generation that their contempora ries could not follow them; silent men who in that very silence radiated an atmosphere of attraction and peace or by some strange, mysterious power radiated a mentality that would carry the moltitude to wildnew of ecataag.

That there are extravagances, wild theories and mondt eronescences sheltering them selves under the widespread wing ミッ alism is freesy admired. Is not the site teď Ò

science daring to assert a higher law, in the face of a corrupted society and conforming creeds. It is Will setting at naught the world's tyrannies, and putting into action the private whispers of the still, small voice. It is Heart resting in the universal, changeless law of eternal, transcendent Love.

THE COMMANDS, THE DIVINE GIFTS, AND THE SPIRITUAL TEACHING of JESUS CHRIST.

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."-John iv.: 24.

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less.".

And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame-1 Thess. v.: 23.

The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” — Prov. xx.: 27.

"For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift.”— Rom. i.: 11.

"For he that is spiritual judgeth all things.". I Cor. ii.: 15.

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All our fathers were under the cloud. . . . And did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." -1 Cor. x.: 1, 2, 3, 4.

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."— Matt. xxviii.: 20.

Mark these emphatic words, "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded." What were those things that Jesus Christ commanded? Listen: —

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” — Matt. xxii. : 37.

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"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." -Matt. xxvii.: 29.

"Have faith in God."-Mark xi.: 22.

These were the teachings and commands of Jesus Christ that

were to be" observed" to "the end of the world."

Great deeds are natural to great men,

As mean things are to small ones.

By his work we know the master.

Spiritual Truth gives freedom of thought and liberty to every Man. It teaches Charity, Wisdom, and Justice-Justice to all.

“New times demand new measures and new men," says a modern philosopher, and it is our conviction, based upon the analogies of history, that the life and power of this New Dispensation will, in God's own good time, evolve an organism of its own commensurate with its intrinsic capabilities for establishing a higher civilization, a larger liberty, a greater equality, a deeper, broader, and higher education, and a religion that shall be—what existing ones are not—the will of God "done on earth as it is in Heaven."

No man or woman can be Spiritually ripened until he or she becomes an earnest Spiritual Worker. We hold that our Heavenly Father has bestowed his Divine aptitudes on all, that they may labor for the Kingdom of Heaven and the Salvation of Man. Thus our constant aim is to realize in our Movement universally a “School of the Prophets."

All Pilgrims of the Illuminati and every Dweller on the Threshold have found that it is more blessed to give than to receive; and that boon of teaching others and working for the Father, which we have so much enjoyed, we long to see bestowed on all others, so that they may enter into our joy, and unite with us in that most glorious heritage of being pupil-teachers in the School of Eternity. It is a continuous “sacrament" without sacerdotalism.

Spiritual Light and Understanding through communion with the immortals has sounded the knell of every despotism, sung the requiem of every form of superstition and idolatry, and enthroned Reason as the arbiter of all truth. It has declared nature to be the only word of God, and all Bibles to be but man's fallible inspirations, each adapted to its time and place, but all revealing more of man's finite conceptions than of God's infallible Truth. It has taught us to prepare to live, not to die—that a good life in this secures happiness in the next sphere; that we must work out our own salvation from ignorance and sin, as there is no vicarious means of grace and growth. It has revealed to us the innate divinity and infinite possibilities of every human being, and that Angelhood will be evolved out of universal man and womanhood, through the law of progress and by personal effort. By its all-pervading influence it has greatly improved the preaching of the pulpit and the tone of the religious press. It has permeated and spiritualized literature, rationalized metaphysical philosophy, and opened a new world of life and force for the investigation of science. It has inspired and elevated woman, humbled the

pride and arrogance of man, and taught the equality of both. It has stimulated thought, inspired invention, hastened progress, energized reform, inculcated honesty and charity, broken mental shackles, liberated slaves, spiritualized religion; and it has proclaimed equality, justice, liberty, and love as the inalienable rights of man, and declared their recognition in all the laws and institutions of the world as the only palladium of individual, social, and national peace, prosperity, and happiness.

Of all the thousands of communications that come to mortals from disembodied Souls, the chief burden of their cry is certainly this, viz. that all the Soul Spirits whose thoughts are centred on self are in an unripe state, and left disconsolate in that state of darkness, until they are willing and strive to engage in works of usefulness in some way or other, so that their own self shall be forgotten in the desire to assist unselfishly in the work of elevating others.

We look for that better time near at hand, when the Spirit will be poured out more abundantly than ever, and when all of us-professional or otherwise will have the gratification of seeing our footsteps followed by those more worthy to take the more advanced position. This is our faith—not in our own poor services, but in the larger capacity which Infinitude holds in reserve, and which must yet unfold itself in the ever onward labors of a progressive humanity.

The ideal Spiritualism is a universal Spiritual faculty in all, so that no man shall say unto his brother: Know the Lord, but when all shall know Him from the least even unto the greatest. Yea! we have the Spirit of the writer who admonished "forbearing one another," and invited all to enter a divine fraternity in which there was "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, Bond nor Free," in which the brotherhood should "teach and admonish one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in the heart to the Lord," who is the Divine Teacher, speaking to the Souls of all, no platform expositor being necessary.

Then there will be no need of Professional Mediums, for all will have the light of the Spirit within, and the outward manifestation will be universal and spontaneous. And this is not a mere speculation, for out of it as a fountain of Truth and a matrix of causation have sprung, and will spring, the most revolutionary movements in the faiths, practices, and institutions of mankind ever recorded in the annals of evolving time. Already have its phenomenal facts done more to checkmate the rapidly growing materialism of the age than all the religious agencies of the world combined. It has furnished,