THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 19275, 14 June 1926, Page 3

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

In addressing his audience lastuighton the subject ol ‘The (-treat M orld s Altar Stairs,’ Mr D. W. M. Burn road extensively Iron) Tennyson’s ‘ In Memoriain,’ and particularly tho section in which the .subject of immortality engrosses tho poet’s mind. There is a certain class of critic, said tho speaker, which considers Tennyson a scientist rather than a poet, hut they are wrong. Tennyson is ot those winy work not alone by intellect ; intuition is his subtle instrument—the heart rather than tho head his inspiration. Several selections from tho poet’s works wore quoted to demonstrate that Tennyson, was an evolutionist as to tho soul of man, which, with all great teachers, ho believed to he from above, and not Ik>low. Ho was not a lollower of material evolution. Tho speaker did not enter into tho subtle differences between Eastern and Western presentations of tho law of evolution, hut referred particularlv to the Western division of the kingdoms—viz., mineral, _ vegetable, animal, and human—to which ho added nno other, the Kingdom of Hod. Consciously or subconsciously wo ate all striving to enter this next- kingdom, ho averred. Behind the permanency ot the mineral, the sensation ol the yegetnble, the incipient desiring ol the animal, the desireful mind of the human man stands now the thinker, able to set aside from himself even his desires, if he ehooso. -In every groat faith wo arc told the stops of the great stairway to the Divine Kingdom. In the second cpEtle oi I’eter a very familiar scries occurs— 1, -Add to your laith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 'ln enumerating the steps which mad from tho kingdom of man to the Kingdom of God tho apostle assumes that there is already faith. Faith is often mistaken for credulity, and some people still give credence to the absurdity that faith is believing something you cannot understand; but iaith is a vision of what may he, and, if a man wills, shall be. Faith removes mountains on this physical plane not by waving a wand, but with a homely pick, and .shovel. It is fourfold—there must ho faith in your object, faith in yourself, faith in your leader, and iaith in the good lawj sometimes and rightly called the Will of God. Without all four faith is imperfect. Add to laith virtue. There is a goodness which is negative, but virtue in its essence is manliness. Add to virtue knowledge. To know is a necessary stop on tho way, but to the one who knows there comes a fierce temptation to interfere with the lives of others and with the course of Nature, and so Jig must take the next stop, called by Peter temperance, spoken of by Lord Krishna as rightenergy, right-abstinence. Temperance means both energy and abstinence. It is a big step, but must bo reached by him who would climb to tho kingdom of spiritual man; and as wo practise temperance slowly there evolves the wonderful virtue of Patience. Patience is not indolence. The frequently misquoted French proverb “Everything comes to him who knows how to wait’’ was illustrated by a description of Lord Kitchener’s preparation for eventualities while awaiting eleven years in Egypt for England’s command to proceed to the Sudan. Having mastered patience conics the next step, godliness. Man is tho rebel, but when his rebellion is past and ho has learned what ho is hero for lie becomes a carrier-out of tho Divine Will, and so godliness is the next step. But wc are still of the human hierarchy, and so Peter reminds us that we must add brotherly kindness—to tho family, tho town, tho State, the world, to the kingdoms above and the kingdoms below tho human. And then comes tho crowning step inevolution, the supreme characteristic of the Christ. Add to brotherly kindness love, which is the last step on the altar stairs leading to tho doorway of the Kingdom of Heaven.