MODERN MYSTICISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14525, 12 November 1910, Page 1 (Supplement)

MODERN MYSTICISM.

BY THOS. J. rEMBEBTON.

My "wireless" showed impatient signs that it was being spoken to, but I was not troubling about messages that were meant for some stray man-of-war. Besides the Government had discouraged private enterprise in this direction. Still there are new things to learn in wireless telegraphy, and, Government or no Government, the unexplored realms of science belong as much to the individual as to the State. There is not much interest, however, in intercepting messages chietty made up of longitudes and latitudes of certain oceangoing steamers, and much less interest when those messages are hidden beneath a secret code. If only one could " ring up" some one with an original idea ! Surely the ether through which .we send our electric waves is as devoid of intelligent entities as the air through which we send our sound waves. Otherwise we should long since have had more interesting communications tapped out on our machines. Perhaps, however, the natural courtesy of the gods forbids their interfering with us until we have faith to make a direct inquiry of them. Again, perhaps our wireless messages are so much made up of worldly and commercial matter that they never penetrate the mental sphere of the unseen beings. The electric waves may pass through their ethereal bodies without their being conscious of them, just as the denser vibrations of material movement constantly pass through the bodies of mortals without their being made aware of them. Sound waves or electric waves mean nothing to us until we have mutually agreed. upon their meaning. The train of thought passes on to regions beyond investigation. But before it got there it left a definite ideaan idea now incorporated in the machine. It is not an idea altogether based upon exact science. Exact science is.for those who want to prove things. If one wants to find out things, and .is not impatient for the proof, a leap into the uncertain realms of occult science is the best method to adopt. My " wireless" showed more signs of wanting to talk. " Very well, I'm ready. Only talk in plain English." Then I began to take the message. It was plain English. ',' From all ages man has sought to know the mysteries of the unseen world. He has loved sensation. He has striven to acquire the mastery of laws which would bring him power and luxury. But, in that he has also used his knowledge for the comfort of those who have merited new gifts, and for the annihilation of ignorance and sin he has been vouchsafed the mastery of many forces. But these forces contain the means to destroy all those who misuse them. If then you are seeking for knowledge to gratify your own vanity it were better that you destroy the toy you have created, and go forth to labour with your hands amongst those sons of men whose souls are made strong by means of their constant battle with poverty for the sake of those they love. Knowledge is the reward for effort, sacrifice and love. It comes to those who are worthy of it, and who can do without it. It is enough , that the strong ones of the earth feel the Divine call within them to labour and to suffer and to sacrifice. They may never know the reason of their comings and their goings while the darkness of the physical brain is theirs, but when the earthly limitations have vanished the mind will claim its own in knowledge. The effort and the sacrifice and love will be transmuted into forms of beauty, each bearing the stamp of Divine wisdom. "We sr>eak with mortals not to give them knowledge that will be a burden to their souls. If you have neglected the teachings of your sages, if you have turned from that which is lovely among i the things around yon, much more will ! you turn from the things, that are beautiful in the world that is unseen. Our ! knowledge is not different from yours, but it is greater. You see in the rosebud a thing of beauty. It appeals to all that is pure and selfless in you. Wo see in the rosebud the form of a Divine thought sent out and down the interpenetrating worlds, moulded in each denser world by the purest thoughts of an army of workers, and finding at last a sacramental form for the purest joy of man. The secrets we are willing "to unfold to the sons of men are not those which will lighten the burden of his life to the loss of the eternal man within him. ' These he may wrest from the great void when he is . brave enough to venture. If he is brave enough to venture he will also be wise enough to know that the secrets must be used for the benefit of humanity and not for its undoing. But what we would unfold are the laws which reveal to man his great responsibilities; which cause him to use the powers he already possesses to the advantage of those about him ; which help him to conquer self. We are but bidden to reveal that which lies hidden; which is there for man's use, if he will but create the conditions. Let him trample upon greed and selfishness, and live the life that is chaste and delicate; let. the actions of his body be a sacrament, and into his mind will flow the wisdom of the ages. But he is too much concerned with results, forgetting that, if the labour is perfect, the result must be perfect too. To the eye of a stranger the result, may be poor and unlovely, but to the eye of him who has laboured with love the result is clothed with a mantle of perfection. And this is the spiritual in maw.; the eye to see in the wonted gifts of Providence the lavish hand of the bestower. Let not the magnitude of another's worldly goods rob you of the power to look with affection upon the little you have gained in the years of your labour. For your golden tokon has "within it a soul that may curse or a soul that may bless. Its worth is not counted by weight, but by blood and by sacrifice. 'The gold that is gained with a full and manly heart, that is an emblem of your ungrudging devotion to those who are placed in your keeping, is endowed with a spirit whose touch turns all to joy and gladness. But the gold that is gained lightly or by the pain and the suffering of others is a vampire at the heart of the man who possesses it. "Keep your outward forms, but look beyond; look through to the spirit that fills the forms, and judge of the worth of the things that are seen by the power and the greatness of purpose of which those things are the outward signs. Whether they be the familiar forms which daily greet the eye in a home, the little things that lie to hand for the service of man; whether they be the forms of your social life, the forms of your religious devotion, or whether they be the forms of friendship or of love; whether. they be these — let each be a sacrament. Thus may you flood your lives with the spirit that is eternal, for the physical forms may vanish away, but the structures you have built through them and about them are not of dust, and remain through the ages, gaining greater glory with the years. "Have you risen to greet the morning sun? Let your spirit rise to bathe in the all-pervading spirit of the Life-giver. Have you cleansed your body with water ? Bless the water that it may have within it the spirit of purity to cleanse your soul as well. Have you eaten of the fruits of the earth"? Give heed to the labour of man, and be worthy of the toil that has shaped the fruits to the palate; but pray that you may retain a tithe of that spiritual energy which came from the mind of the Creator and gathered weight through the interpenetrating worlds until it found expression in the fruits of the great Mother Earth. Have you laboured with brain or with hands through the hours of the day Let your labour be a sacrificial offering to the God of Labour, who swings the universe through space. Have you felt the harmony of friendship? May those harmonious waves gather power in their union and make music in a world where music is seen and heard and felt. Have you known the touch of love, the mingling of being with being, the melting of soul into soul ? Then let such harmony be a flood of mighty chords rising to blend with the full diapason chorus of the ora--1 *-orios of the gods."