HPB-SB-14-39

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

T i

vol. 14, p. 39	volume 14, page 39 vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 174 A blue curved mark runs beside the lower right edge of the clippings. The writer has not been identified.
Legend HPB note HPB highlighted HPB underlined HPB crossed out <Editors note> <Archivist note> Lost or unclear SBT, DT Restored

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eng • рус

September 23, 1882.]

LIGHT.

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< “The Perfect Way” and its Critics. (continued from page 14-38) >

The secret, however, of the opposition made in certain circles to the doctrine set forth in “The Perfect Way” is not far to seek. It is to be found in the fact that the book is, throughout, strenuously opposed to idolatry in all its forms, including that of the popular “Spiritualism” of the day, which is, in effect, a revival under a new guise and with new sanctions of the ancient cultus known as Ancestor-Worship. “The Perfect Way,” on the contrary, insists that Truth is accessible only through the illumination, by the Divine Spirit, of man’s own soul; and that precisely in proportion as the individual declines such interior illumination, and seeks to extraneous influences, does he impoverish his own soul and diminish his possibilities of knowledge. It teaches that “Spirits,” or “Angels,” as their devotees are fond of styling them, are untrustworthy guides, possessed of no positive or divine element, and reflecting, therefore, rather than instructing, their interrogators; and that the condition of mind, namely passivity, insisted on by these “angels” is one to be strenuously avoided, the true attitude for obtaining divine illumination being that of ardent active aspiration, impelled by a resolute determination to know nothing but the Highest. Precisely such a state of passivity, voluntarily induced, and such veneration of and reliance upon “guides” or “controls,” are referred to by the Apostle when he says: “But let no man beguile you by a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.” And precisely such exaltation of the personal Jesus as “The Perfect Way” repudiates and its opponents demand, is by the same Apostle condemned in the words: “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”

This, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter. God, with “Christ,” is in the man who, purifying his spirit after the secret of the Christ, aspires prayerfully and fervently. And it is to this interior spirit that he must look for illumination and salvation, and not to any outside “angel” or fleshly Saviour. Attaining such illumination for themselves, our critics will be able both to recognise the source and to verify the teachings of our book for themselves. For, thus invoked, the Divine Spirit will “bring all things to remembrance” for them, even as it has for us. Opinions will be merged in knowledges. And, instead of limiting the Spirit by the form in which its past revelations have been couched, they will be able to discern, in all its plenitude, the Spirit through the form. Your correspondents referred to have, clearly, not yet recognised the source of the teaching to which they take exception. They will find it fully described in Part I. of Appendix III. If the divinity of this utterance is beyond their power of recognition, argument in their case is hopeless, and no avenue exists through which Divine truth can reach them. God grant it may not be so.

The Writers of “The Perfect Way.”

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<Untitled> (The Leisure Hour, which once employed Mr. Irving Bishop…)

The Leisure Hour, which once employed Mr. Irving Bishop to write some sorry stuff about Spiritualism, now allows a writer to advertise him as a thought-reader, “the son of a landed proprietor in New York (!) and godson of the celebrated Washington Irving,” as if these latter statements, if ever so accurate, had anything to do with the matter. This psychically curious son of a landed proprietor has, it seems, succeeded at the Deanery, Southampton, in reading Sir J. Lubbock’s mind so far as to give with approximate correctness the number of a £5 note. This he did with only momentary contact, and practically without any possibility of direction by muscular movements, or by any unconscious indication. Dr. W. B. Carpenter, in an undated letter, propounds his satisfaction with Mr. Bishop’s “remarkable power of thought-reading”—a satisfaction, he unkindly adds, shared by “a number of the professors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities.” Those professors, I should fancy, are indeed acquainted with Mr. Bishop’s “remarkable powers,” which extend far beyond mere thought-reading. Probably he is an ordinary medium (if one may venture to apply such an epithet as “ordinary” to such a person). If he exercised his powers as other mediums do, he would be roundly abused by the Carpenters and Lubbocks. But, as he goes about abusing Spiritualism, he is patted on the back by these eminent seekers after truth, to whom that precious possession is valuable only in proportion as it squares with their preconceived opinions.

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M.A. (Oxon.)

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<Untitled> (Il y’a de joie…)

“Il y’a de joie,”

Editor's notes

Sources

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  Light, v. 2, No. 97, November 11, 1882, p. 501