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{| style="width:100%; border-bottom:3px double;"
| style="width:33%; text-align:left;" | October 14, 1882.]
| style="width:34%; text-align:center;" | LIGHT.
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| notes = Two curved blue strokes are marked beside the beginning of the second paragraph. The writer has not been identified. <!-- HANDWRITING-ATTRIBUTION-RECHECK --> Printed source page: 463.
  | author =
  | author =
  | author signed = S.
  | author signed = S.
  | source title = Light
  | source title = Light
  | source details = Separate pasted letter; publication date not established
  | source details = v. 2, No. 93, October 14, 1882; separate pasted letter
  | publication date =
  | publication date = 1882-10-14
  | original date =
  | original date =
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<center>''To the Editor of'' “{{Style S-Small capitals|Light.}}”</center>
 
{{Style S-Small capitals|Sir,}}—The editors of “{{Style S-Small capitals|Light}}” and the ''Psychological Review'' have “done the State some service” by their recent circular on this subject, even if no other result than having elicited such a noble reply from Mrs. Hardinge-Britten had been attained. That letter may be considered as the last nail in the coffin of public dark séances. The courageous lady, true to her glorious mission, comes, like another Joan of Arc, to point Spiritualists to their duty, and to shew those who would be recreant to themselves and to the cause that has uplifted them, that it is not given to them for selfish purposes, as some would have it by their exclusiveness. She says:—“To me it has always seemed as if the chief value in holding circles was to convince the ''public'' of the truth of Spirit communion.” Of late years Spiritualism has become mere dilettantism with some who are called “advanced” Spiritualists, “Christian” Spiritualists, and not so very long ago we had “Inner Circle” Spiritualists. These are calling for “more light,” whilst at the same time they are keeping that light from vivifying those who need it. What we want is not “more light,” but less ''mist'', less human-invented ''fog'' that obscures the light. Spiritualism needs no prefix, whether “Christian” or anything else. As well might we talk of “Christian” ''Sunlight!'' which might again be divided into Protestant ''Sunlight'', Catholic ''Sunlight'', &c., &c.
 
And what does this heroic and devoted lady say to those Spiritualists into whose minds the insidious and pernicious poison of Theosophy is stealing? Let them lay the words well to heart:—“There are wild, monstrous, and wholly unsupported theories growing up on the new soil of Spiritualism, like fungi, ready to eat the life out of the movement, quench its most momentous revealments, and substitute hideous ghouls and phantoms for the immortal existences with whom Spiritualism has brought us face to face. And what is the corrective to these fantastic and groundless fantasies? Nothing under the high heavens but the {{Style S-Small capitals|Facts}} of Spirit communion.” Her concluding words fitly close her communication, illustrating as they do, once again, her desire that the seed shall be sown on the broad ground of all humanity instead of a few isolated mounds:—“I can only bid you God-speed and assure you that in your attempts to purify and elevate our noble cause from the degradation which human folly and wickedness have put upon it, you may command me to the fullest extent of my power.” <span style="float:right;">S.</span>
 
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  | continues =
  | continues =
  | title = Hindu Terms.
  | title = Hindu Terms.
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  | author signed = I. O.
  | author signed = I. O.
  | source title = Light
  | source title = Light
  | source details = Separate pasted letter; publication date not established
  | source details = v. 2, No. 94, October 21, 1882; separate pasted letter
  | publication date =
  | publication date = 1882-10-21
  | original date =
  | original date =
| notes = Printed source page: 475.
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{{Style P-Title|HINDU TERMS.}}
<center>''To the Editor of'' “{{Style S-Small capitals|Light.}}”</center>
 
{{Style S-Small capitals|Sir,}}—Will you permit me to suggest that a short glossary of the Hindu words most commonly used by Psychologists and Theosophists, would be a great boon to your readers, to many of whom they are unknown? It need but occupy half a column or so, and would be an immense lift for learners. Perhaps some one more competent than I am would undertake the task.
 
While I write this will you permit me to call the attention of students and earnest inquirers into Spiritualistic philosophy and science and religion to that most wonderful of all books which has appeared since the beginning of the Christian era, “The Perfect Way to the Finding of Christ.” It is a book that no student can be without if he will know ''the truth'' on these matters. It furnishes us with a master key to the phenomena which so perplex the minds of inquirers, and it gives a system of which the like has not been for eighteen centuries. Swedenborg was great indeed, but here we find a greater, without the prolixity and voluminousness of the Swedish seer and with a clearness which is wanting in his writings. Let me also commend to all students the works known as “The Keys of the Creed” and “The Soul, and How it Found Me,” by the author of those most instructive and fascinating romances, “The Pilgrim and the Shrine,” and “By-and-By,” which have delighted so many seekers for light; and let them, if able, study the pages of the ''Theosophist'', in which they will find the wisdom of India, so long unknown to Europe. Armed with these, the student will be able to fight the powers of darkness, and to rend the veil which obscures the light—that light which, shining in darkness, will lead us into the perfect way, and guide us into all truth.—Yours truly, <span style="float:right;">I. O.</span>
 
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I regret to learn that “Morgenröthe” and the “Supremacy of Man” are both out of print, as I hear from the author, but I trust he will shortly reprint these valuable books.
 
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  | title = “The (Most) Perfect Way.”
  | title = “The (Most) Perfect Way.”
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  | author signed = G. W., M.D.
  | author signed = G. W., M.D.
  | source title = Light
  | source title = Light
  | source details = October 14, 1882, pp. 459–460
  | source details = v. 2, No. 93, October 14, 1882
  | publication date = 1882-10-14
  | publication date = 1882-10-14
  | original date =
  | original date =
| notes = Printed source pages: 459-460.
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{{Style P-Title|“THE (MOST) PERFECT WAY.”}}
{{Style P-Separator custom|width=45px}}
 
The authors of “The Perfect Way” and the Countess of Caithness, by their letters in “{{Style S-Small capitals|Light}}” seem to imply that I worship only the historic Christ, and that in the orthodox or exoteric form, and that I am ignorant of the doctrine of the Christ as signifying the Divine Spirit in the soul of man, who is made in the image of God.
 
It is strange that this mistake should be made because the essential teaching of my “Theosophy and the Higher Life” is to shew how the Christ in man is ''scientifically'' the method of man’s salvation, soul and body; and the teachings of that book are well-known to one at least of the authors of “The Perfect Way,” for she was pleased to say to me that “my views were in many respects identical with her own, even to the construction of the sentences as revealed to herself.”
 
When, therefore, they say that “if I fail to perceive the ''divinity'' of all their utterances, no avenue exists through which Divine Truth can reach me,” and that “I must beware lest haply by rejecting the teachings of ‘The Perfect Way’ I may be found to be fighting against God,” they remind me of the damnatory clause of the Athanasian Creed, which denounces everlasting perdition on all those who do not so believe.
 
But, as I have said on a former occasion, I wish by all means to avoid any discussion which may lead to controversy, and will only add that with the authors of “The Perfect Way,” and with the Countess of Caithness, I am at one as to the doctrine of the Christos; although I may differ from them in my method of viewing that doctrine; for while they would seem to teach that the Christ in us may be found by all by reason of a pure life, I would rather believe that the Christ as “the Light of every man coming into the world” is as a light in a dark lantern, and that this lantern can scarcely be opened except through a power higher than my own, and therefore my cry is: “Lead me to the rock which is higher than I.”
 
Believing, therefore, most profoundly in the doctrine of Salvation by the fact of the Christ in us; I, none the less, but all the more, love and worship, “the historic Jesus, the Christ,” as not only the highest manifestation of God ever given to this planet, but as the highest manifestation of God in man which my mind can conceive, and therefore, for me all-sufficient. Moreover, I feel this, that the abstract doctrine of the Christ is insufficient for human nature, and that the Christ in the person of Jesus, who took flesh and dwelt among us, and “became in all things tempted like as we are,” is as a living being, still my Elder Brother, and ever able and willing to help all those who call on His name in sincerity and faith—while by the mystery of His holy Incarnation, by His Baptism, by His life and by His death, by His Transfiguration and by His agony and His bloody sweat, and by His Resurrection and Ascension, He is to me the be all and the end all.
 
I feel also this, that to ignore or be indifferent to the historic Christ is as if anyone who owed not only his spiritual knowledge, but his life and estate, to an earthly father, should, on the death of that father, ignore all that is due of human love and reverence, and remember only the doctrines which he taught.
 
Some have said that the Christianity in which I believe is not the Christianity of the Gospel, but I maintain that it is so, and as this is often questioned, I will ask permission to give what I conceive to be the doctrine of Jesus and the doctrine of the Christ, as revealed by the Christ Himself, and, as much as possible, in His own words.
 
I find that Jesus was from His Mother’s womb, “born of the Holy Spirit,” and thus as the manifestation of the Logos or Word in Christ, “contained all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
 
At His Baptism He was declared by an audible, external voice to be “The well-beloved Son of God,” and thus, as Spinosa says, “God is the Sub-stans of all things, but He has manifested Himself most in man, but most of all in Jesus Christ.”
 
I also believe that “never man spake as this man,” and if so, then, when He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” I believe this, and I understand and see that it is so, and therefore, neither the teachings of Buddhism nor of any modern writers believing themselves to be infallibly inspired can teach me such wisdom as I find when I go to this Jesus the Christ direct.
 
This Jesus being tempted by “the Evil One” to use His spiritual and miraculous powers for self-glorification and {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|14-60}}


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<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
Light v.02 n.93 1882-10-14.pdf|page=11|Light, v. 2, No. 93, October 14, 1882, pp. 459-460, 463
Light v.02 n.94 1882-10-21.pdf|page=11|Light, v. 2, No. 94, October 21, 1882, p. 475
</gallery>
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