< The Guardianship of the Thoughts (continued from page 11-297) >
comes the slave of secondary causes. He who resists and overcomes the irrational animal nature by the aid of the supreme reason, shall enter into an imperishable absolute life free from all the vicissitudes of life and death.
Every kind of inflation or intoxication of the mind is false and not comparable with the divine exaltation which finally crowns the Adept, and every precaution should be taken to render oneself impervious to such intoxication. Man should avoid everything which Would over-ride his reason or momentarily exalt him to cast him down again; he should adhere to an invariable mean of tranquil equanimity which should only give way to intense aspiration for the Absolute, and fervent prayer to the divine soul.
Delusions come with inflated intoxicating influence, and whatever comes with such influence is delusion. All loud emotional excitements, all pompous appearances, all high-sounding verbosities, all arts that are not of utility are useless slavery and delusion; and care must be taken that the divine impulse does not run into the sand of some useless art or science. Care must be taken not to grasp the shadow and lose the substance. All transient material things are shadows before the divine and eternal Absolute. There is no liberty but in absolute slavery to the all-good, for outside of the all-good is only evil. All human beings are of divine origin and all have gone astray. There is no exoteric religion that is absolutely true. Far from it, all exoteric religious systems contain human inventions and are equally false, while all exoteric religious systems in as far as they contain the same divine truth are equally true. No mere theoretical belief, however irrational can serve as a universal transport to heaven, for it is by individual exertion and development, by righteousness, faith and love of God and man alone that each being can become saved, but each must work out his own salvation.
It is not essential to believe in one religious system more than in another. AU truths in the various religions had their origin in the divine soul; it is our design to know the Absolute, while others by their ignorance and indolence are compelled to believe. He who adopts the rules of life of the Kabbalists, sets religion on a true scientific basis. The true religion of faith, gnosis and love, becomes the destroyer of fear, ignorance and selfishness; and should during life’s pilgrimage doubts arise in the mind, then, until they are solved by the intuitional gift which gradually developes, the words “be just and fear not’’ will serve as peaceful reassurance.
If the reader keeps in the one direction pointed out, living rationally and on right food; if his thoughts are pure; if he places his self-will under divine guidance and strives to know God with intense aspiration, he will in time understand the meaning of the words “Behold I come as a thief in the night.” In this way only, the Absolute is attainable.
Although not everyone will in this life attain to the Exaltation—the crown of the Adept—as “many are called but few are chosen,” still it is better to have been called and not chosen, than not to have heard the divine voice at all.
Desecration of a Tomb
Last Friday it became generally known in the locality that the Balcarres family tomb, at Dunecht House, near Aberdeen, had been desecrated, and that the body of the late earl, interred in May last, had been carried away. The theft is supposed to have been effected so long ago as May. The corpse was embalmed by an Italian. Months ago the vault had been closed, covered with earth, and sown over with grass; and but for the fact that on Friday morning part of the surrounding railing was found broken down, and a slab propped up, perhaps the theft would have remained undiscovered till the death of another member of the Balcarres family. The chapel is practically a part of Dunecht House, there being an entrance to it from the library, and the apparatus necessary for raising the slab and removing the railing would be at hand, building operations being at present in progress at Dunecht. The coffins were opened skilfully, and without the least violence; neither the outer one of oak nor the inner wooden one have been broken, the lids having been simply unscrewed. As the lead shell had been soldered, it had to be cut open, but this also has been neatly performed, and so the appearance of the vault did not awaken in the spectator any such feelings as would naturally be associated with the application of force and violence.
The deceased peer was the 25th Earl of Crawford and the 8th Earl of Balcarres, a man held in very high estimation. He died at Florence about twelve months ago, and his remains were brought to the family residence at Dunecht, being interred in a vault which had been constructed shortly before under his lordship’s own directions, and rendered neces-<... continues on page 11-299 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Desecration of a Tomb by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 485, December 9, 1881, pp. 280-81
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 485, December 9, 1881, pp. 280-81