COUNTESS WACHTMEISTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5485, 10 February 1896, Page 2

COUNTESS WACHTMEISTER.

ADDRESS AT THE ART GALLERY. A large audience gathered at the Art Gallery yesterday evening, when the Countess Wachtmeister, the well-known Theosophical leader, gave an address in connection with "Our Father's Church." Mr J. O'Bryen Hoare introduced the lady by saying that "Our Father's Church" possessed a platform so broad that it could give a place to all seekers after truth, by whatever name they were called, only they must have some guarantee of good faith from a church, society or organisation. Countess Wachtmeister slightly resembles in appearance her co-worker, Mrs Besant, but is younger. Her voice is clear and resonant, and she speaks, without any trace of a foreign accent, in a plain, direct and fairly forcible style. She has considerable power of " word painting," but as a rule her language is unpretentious — at times almost needlessly simple. Her English, it need scarcely be said, is unexceptionable. Her subject was " Devotion' in Daily Life," and she prefaced her address by saying that she had spoken in several churches in America and in one in Sydney. She described the methods of prayer of various people, remarked that Christians, as a rule, did not concentrate- their minds upon; their devotions when in their, ehiirches^ and defended the Hindus from the charge of idolatry, by telling how her researches in India had shown her that the^ idols were used solely as. a means for mental concentration— for fringing the worshipper's mind to one point; so as to elevate it to the plane, They are, she was told, made ,:uglycso. that the senses may not be attracted to them, as they would be if- they were made ul. Were this to happen it would be im\2P ss ikl c *° ra ise the mind to the spMtuaTpiiiSfr The Hindus, the Countess said, can bring^^^jc^ration of their minds for devotional p^rposes^W^S-i 6 / markable pitch. In India, she assertea/ she had, in the icase .of very holy men, seen the light shining through their flesh — a phenomenon which had caused her to understand .why early Christian artists had represented their saints with a halo or aureole. Prayer, she said, should permeate our lives. Every holy thought or aspiration, every worthy deed was a prayer. The prayers of those who lived in direct contradiction to the laws of God were of no avail. To enable us to pray properly we must be imbued with love. Prayer for self was false prayer, so was prayer asking God to change his eternal laws. In the latter category the Countess included prayers for rain. The discordant prayers of warring armies for success were also false. The Countess concluded with a brief exposition of theosophic tenets as to the three planes, physical, psychical and spiritual, and the onward struggle of the soul through successive incarnations towards the goal of perfect rest and peace. She instanced Christ, Buddha, "all the saviours of the world " and " the men who are at the head of the Theosophical Society," as those who, having reached that goal, had made the great vow of renunciation, and for the sake of suffering humanity had returned to earth. Countess Wachtmeister will give a lecture at the Oddfellows' Hall to-morrow evening on "Man the Master of his Own Des tiny." •