The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul Part 19

CHAPTER X

CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE

The devout and conscientious believers in the Christian Religion of to-day often view with sorrow and alarm the encroachments of modern science.

Unable to prevent these encroachments, they stubbornly resent them. Once admitted, it seems to them that nothing sacred or worthy the name of Religion would remain. To s.h.i.+ft to other and more ancient faiths can never be considered at all, for the "higher criticism" and "pragmatism" have left them all in even a worse plight.

It seems to these devout souls like the death of religion itself, and its elimination from the life of man.

The intuitive basis and the intrinsic necessity of religion in some form have already been considered.

This point is often overlooked or ignored by the Iconoclasts.

Their position would seem to be, "Unravel the superst.i.tion, disprove the possibility of miracle, and let the deluge come if it must."

Neither pragmatism nor higher criticism has been in any large sense constructive, but more largely destructive. The really spiritual element in all religions, already referred to, is generally lost sight of.

Modern psychology is no nearer a science of the soul, than are folklore and superst.i.tion to true religion. It should be recognized and granted once for all that psychology, as a department of modern physical science, has no subst.i.tute whatever to offer in the place of Religion.

It is gathering facts, cla.s.sifying, and labeling psychic phenomena.

Here and there an advanced scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, ignores tradition, repudiates orthodox scientific restraints, and steps over the border of actual or implied nihilism.

This smug nihilism with its superior air of scientific wisdom, is often only the opposite pole of the dogmatic cert.i.tude of the churchman. Actual knowledge of the human soul is quite as far removed from the one as from the other. Credulity and Incredulity simply annul each other; often make faces at each other; while Progress stalks alone in the middle of the road, a "tramp" or a "vagabond," like Paracelsus, "reading the leaves of the book of Nature," laughing at poverty, fleeing from persecution, yet _knowing_, and "becoming a light to man forever."

The consensus of opinion among the presidents and professors in the leading colleges and universities of this country, their unhesitating and unqualified denial or repudiation of the claims set up by the church regarding revelation and the basic dogmas of the Christian Religion, and which his "Holiness" of the Vatican designates as "Modernism," reveal, not only the "signs of the times," but show indisputably that modern education has shaken itself free from the superst.i.tions of the past, and repudiated the old restraints to free thought and modern progress.

Orthodoxy in religious matters has often nothing to do in determining college curriculums, in the selection of presidents, or in filling the chairs.

Bright young men and women, the advanced students of the schools of to-day, who are to become the leaders of thought and the teachers of to-morrow, find little restraint and no formative element in the creeds and dogmas that in the past have been so much in evidence, and so constraining. Intensity of feeling has given place to breadth and inclusiveness, and under the name of "Comparative Religions," ancient faiths and modern, are cla.s.sified, and studied like fossils in the different ages of the past.

The "crusader impulse" has rather settled down in each individual breast, as the master pa.s.sion, to do, to dare, and to become something more and better than the individual, or than the past has. .h.i.therto known. Such a general period of intellectual activity, with so few restraints, history nowhere else records, and the world has never before known.

Here lie the elements, the impulses, and the formative stage of the new Avatar.

At this stage of our discussion it is of exceeding interest and importance to bear in mind one great fact. The average intelligent student of to-day may take this fact tentatively, reserving final judgment till acc.u.mulative evidence becomes satisfactory and conclusive.

No one who is dominated by shallow incredulity, and who attempts to close this door contemptuously, will ever arrive at the real truth. The judgment of such individuals is simply worthless, notwithstanding the smug conceit of their own opinions.

The important fact referred to, is the demonstrated existence, all through the ages, of the so-called _Mysteries_.

Their existence is beyond all question. What they concealed and taught is sometimes difficult to determine.

There were also the genuine and the spurious Mysteries, and a fair appreciation of their origin, purpose, methods, and genius, as ill.u.s.trated by Plato, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, and nearly every great sage of antiquity, leaves no possible doubt that in these "Secret Orders" were preserved the loftiest and the most profound mental and spiritual achievements of all previous human history.

If there were no other evidence in existence at the present day except the traditions, landmarks, ritual, and Genius of Freemasonry, a careful and intelligent study of that Ancient Order would be sufficient.

Whether one Mason in a thousand to-day apprehends and realizes this fact, has nothing whatever to do with the real question. The evidence is there, and the indifference or superficial intelligence of numbers cannot alter it.

CHAPTER XI

CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR

The conflict between Science and Religion has been thoroughly thrashed out during the last half century, and the "reign of law," and orderly, and progressive evolution, have made for themselves a habitation and a name that nothing is likely to overthrow.

It is recognized that every effect has a sufficient and a commensurate cause, not _en bloc_, but in matter, energy, mind, and spirit. Action and reaction are definite mathematical processes. The parallelogram of force tends everywhere to equilibrium and secures further action and new processes under universal law.

The "special creation" theory--everything made out of nothing by a personal G.o.d--is no longer regarded as tenable by intelligent individuals, though miracle and special providence are often included in accounting for the vicissitudes of life, just as the so-called scientist superficially and flippantly uses the word "coincidence," as though it really explained anything.

"The rational order that pervades the universe," as Prof. Huxley defined the concept and aim of scientific discovery, has steadily gained ascendancy, until it dominates and measures individual intelligence.

The criticism is still occasionally made that this means Pantheism, overlooking the fact that in all mythologies and cosmologies, an ideal and pure theism was recognized as lying back of and beyond the pantheons of the G.o.ds and the deification of the powers of Nature.

This was true in the Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Hindoo mythologies.

Back of the many, and beyond the transient and contending divinities, was the _One_, postulated, but unknown and changeless.

Every religion known to man, with the advancing civilization of a people, copied, modified, adopted, and adapted the mythology and folklore of some pre-existing religion and people. This is readily demonstrable with the Hebrew, Greek, and later Christian dispensations, notwithstanding the most strenuous and persistent determination to deny, disprove, and destroy the ancient records.

It is embodied in the etymology of the very names of heroes, G.o.ds, and demiG.o.ds. A new language arising with any people _de novo_ can nowhere be found.

Phonetics and picturegraphs, the various alphabets and glyphs, are mixed and modified, but never invented nor altogether changed.

Complicated as they may be, it is thus that philology, ethnology, theology, and anthropology const.i.tute a consistent whole, the mythology and folklore of mankind. This reveals the practical unity and solidarity of the human race.

The tradition and prophecy among the ancient Hebrews of the coming of the Messiah, the portents that heralded, and the signs and wonders that preceded or accompanied his appearance, are merely translations or adaptations from previous eras, Buddhas, or Avatars.

Whether Christian or non-Christian, the object of the advent is always identical.

The light of the spirit having become enfeebled or obscured, the people are left in darkness and given over to sin and wickedness. Moral ruin seems inevitable unless there is a divine influx, a new Avatar, or Buddha, or Advent of the G.o.d-man.

G.o.d incarnates himself as the son of Mary, and Jesus says, "I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness."

Christna says, "Though I am unborn, and my nature is eternal, and I am the Lord also of all creatures, yet taking control of my nature-form, I am born by my illusive power. For whenever piety decays, O son of Bharata, and impiety is in the ascendant, then I produce myself. For the protection of good men, for the destruction of evildoers, for the re-establishment of piety, I am born from age to age." (Bhagavadgita.)

The historical Buddha taught that he was only one of a long series of Buddhas, who appear at intervals in the world, and who all teach the same system. After the death of each Buddha his religion flourishes for a time and then decays, till at last it is completely forgotten and wickedness and violence rule the earth. The names of twenty-four of these Buddhas who appeared previous to Gautama have been handed down to us, just as the "second coming of Christ" is believed in and referred to among the Christians.

Even the Mohammedan Koran refers to this succession of prophets and messengers of Allah. The same is true of the Parsis.

"I have said that I first of all chose Abad, and after him I sent thirteen prophets in succession, all called Abad. By these fourteen prophets the world enjoyed prosperity."

"Tradition informs us that when these auspicious prophets and their successors behold evil to prevail among mankind, they invariably withdraw from among them--as they could not endure to behold or hear wickedness."

This is precisely what happened to Egypt after the ambitious priesthood had gained the ascendency. The Master Builders retired.