God is just behind my reason

Today and every day, and is guiding me

To do the right thing always.

His Light has just driven away

The accumulated darkness of ages

Which lay hidden within my soul.

Just as God silently, uncomplainingly

Forgives our sins, likewise

May I calmly and lovingly

Forgive others who try to injure me.

I shall behold the Infinite Beauty

Peeping at me

Through the colorful beauty-windows

Of the petals whenever I look at a rose.

I will make my life

A garden of rosy qualities,

Where God may come and visit me.

Whenever I find anyone

Injecting in me

The poison of hatred,

I will neutralize it

With the antidote

Of the continuous bestowal of love.

I will feel God wrapped around me

With the warm sunshine.

I will feel God

Breathing the breath of life

Through the breeze and caressing me

Through its coolness.

In the voice of the viol, the flute,

And the deep-toned organ,

I will hear His Voice.

Food, money, and possessions

Placed before me

Are useless if my heart fails.

Therefore

I know that I am living directly

By the Power of God.

Sunshine, breeze, and life

All come from God.

Therefore I am living

Directly by the power of God.

God is my prosperity.

I will possess Him first

And through Him all things, and wisdom,

Abundance, and happiness

Will be added unto me.

God is my own inexhaustible Divine Bank.

I am always rich,

For I have access to the Divine Storehouse.

God is the shepherd of my restless thoughts.

He will lead me to His abode of peace.

With the pure love of God,

I will love all Creation.

Since birds, beasts, and men all

Are the children of our One Father,

I will love them all as my brothers.

If anyone speaks ill of me,

I will try to heal that one by my love.

In my real spiritual friends I will behold

God’s offering of friendship unto me.

God gives me light

Through the sun and the moon,

Life through the breeze,

Power through my thoughts,

Wisdom through my reason,

And Bliss through my soul.

Through the portals of peace

I will feel God

Entering into my temple of daily silence.

I will love Christians, Hindus, Jews,

Mohammedans, Buddhists, and the followers

Of all religions, as my brother devotees

In the temple of our One Father—God.

I will love all races as my own countrymen,

Living in the United States of the World

With Truth as our President.

The Infinite Christ is born

In the cradle of my consciousness.

He was crucified by my ignorance,

But now He is risen again in deepest love.

I will listen to the sermon of God

Every day in the temple of my conscience

And inner discrimination.

Since God’s perfection is present

In all my body parts, they are well;

They are perfect.

In every soul

I will behold the temple of God.

I will try to meditate deeply every day.

Today I will meditate deeper

Than yesterday.

Tomorrow

I will meditate deeper than today.

In the temple of Nature,

In the temple of Souls,

In the temple of Activity,

In the temple of Blossoms,

In the temple of Thoughts,

In the temple of Wisdom,

And in the temple of Love

I will worship Him.

May Thy wisdom-guided,

All-powerful Will

Guide and strengthen my Will

To do the right thing at all times.

May Thy unceasing Love visit my heart

And lead me to forgive my enemies

And love all equally.

Happiness is the only good.

The place to be happy is here.

The time to be happy is now.

The way to be happy

Is to make others happy."

In Thy Consciousness, Oh, God!

I’m the sighing of the breeze

Which is wafted through the trees,

Where the songbirds nest with ease;

I am the trees.

I’m the mountain peak, the dell—

I can lift man out of hell;

In my bosom he may dwell and rejoice;

I am joy.

I’m the billows, I’m the sea

Where staunch ships sail forth in glee—

I can bring all home to me;

I am the port.

I’m the sun which shines to bless,

Leading men from the wilderness

To my Supernal Consciousness;

I am Peace.

I’m the wisdom of all the ages,

Pondered o’er by all the sages,

Through the Bibles, books, and pages;

I am truth.

I’m the rock, yea, I’m the sand

Scattered over every land—

I’m the pearl within Thy hand;

I am that I am.

I’m the velvet turf beneath

The knees which bend in grief (at the grave);

I am Courage, making brave

Both the free-born son and slave;

I am Spirit.

I’m the bursting cannon shell,

I’m the tolling of the bell—

Yet I snatch all souls from hell;

I am Power.

I’m the warrior, war, the marts—

I’m the balm to heal all hearts;

I’m Prosperity and Wealth;

I am Health.

I’m the babe who loves to play

And at weary close of day

Finds repose on Mother’s breast;

I am she.

I’m the faithful child in prayer—

What he asketh, it is there.

I, his yoke and burdens bear;

I am Faith.

I’m the waving of the grass;

As the ardent lovers pass

In all bliss, beyond compare,

I am there.

I’m the bridegroom and the bride

Dwelling happily, side by side.

In love spiritual I abide;

I am Love.

I’m the aged man and wife

Journeying onward without strife.

Love in unity is life;

I am Life.

I’m the sunset’s golden hue,

Painted there for all of you—

I’m the rainbow aft’ the shower,

And in every gladsome hour

I am You.

I’m the planets on their courses;

I am all the Cosmic Forces;

I’m the music of the spheres—

I’m the radio, my dears.

I am Harmony.

I’m the starlit azure sky;

I’m the meteor on high—

I’m the light of Christ within,

Which doth cleanse all souls from sin.

I am the Christ.

Let us call all Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Mohammedan, and Hindu Temples by the one name—"Altar of God, or Sanctuary of Our One Father." Let us call the different teachings by one name—"Sermons of Wisdom." Let us call all different races, the brown, the yellow, the red, and the white, by one name—"Human Brothers," children of our Father-Mother-God. Let us call all countries—"United States of the World." Let us call our government—"International Government of Truth."

Let us all train the soldiers of our hearts—love, faith, kindness, and understanding, and declare a world war against selfishness, church bigotry, industrial and individual greed, unkindness, territorial aggression, race and class prejudice, armaments, international distrust, poverty, sickness, spiritual ignorance, and blind, excluding patriotism. Let us have the world policed by the guardian angel of true brotherhood, and let us have spiritual education of our hearts.

Let us live simply outside, but let us be supremely happy within. Let us learn to build mansions of wisdom in the unfading garden of peace, which blooms with the million-hued blossoms of beautiful soul qualities.

Let us learn to use the aerial planes of imagination and intuitive vision to take flight in His kingdom of Infinite Beauty and Bliss. Let us soar in the Ark of Silence over the peaks of the highest wisdom, and let us roam in the land of endless beauty. Let us get rich richer by acquiring the great wealth of peace, and become peace-millionaires.

Let us raise our own paradise, which lies buried in our fancy and let us bring the Living god of Pure Joy onto the altar of our hearts and worship Him there with the flowers of immortality and deathless devotion.

People have often asked me to teach them how to relax. They confess that they cannot relax at all and are living in such a tensed condition that they are suffering from nervous exhaustion and might have a breakdown any time.

This is the problem of the day; How to live a comparatively quiet life, and how to maintain an inner serenity in the midst of the turmoil and confusion of the world.

There are a few practical suggestions I would like to make in this article which have helped people in the past and which I am sure will help people any time if practiced properly.

The first point I would like to emphasize is to control the mind. It is rather a broad statement to make, but when we realize the burden we place upon our mind, then we wonder why we did not have a breakdown long ago. We burden our mind with all kinds of worries and anxieties, so that soon we are overwhelmed with the load. Fear creeps in as a result and we lose our mental poise and spiritual balance.

The trouble with us is that we do not live in the present, but we try to live in the past and in the future at the same time. These loads are too heavy for the mind to carry, so we must restrict the amount of load the mind shall carry. Let the mind take care of the burdens one at a time. The past is gone.

Just as a swan drinks only the milk out of the mixture of milk and water, in the same way let us only remember the lessons we have learned from the past and forget their unnecessary details. This will relieve the mind to a great extent and eliminate worries, which can be compared to an insect which goes in a flower and starts eating the inside petals of the flower, resulting in its destruction. Similarly worry consumes all our inner vitality without our conscious knowledge. When we wake up to the fact, we find that the damage done has a far-reaching effect on our nervous system.

Once upon a time there was a King who was ridiculed by his son because he worried too much and did not administer the State well. The King, to teach his son a lesson, put him in charge of the State of a week, and stated jokingly that he would die at the end of the week. The Prince, at the end of four days, looked as if he had grown fifty years older. His father asked him what was wrong with him and why he was not looking after the management of the State. The Prince confessed to his father that he was so much worried at the thought that he would die at the end of the week that he could not find any peace of mind and power to do anything.

Similarly, like the Prince, we fear and worry about future incidents which may not take place at all, and thus bring on nervous exhaustion. So our first lesson is that we shall not overburden our mind, but let it carry one load at a time. We shall not worry about the past, as the past is gone. We might shed oceans of tears, use all our power, but we cannot bring the past back.

We can break the habit of carrying the past by remembering that the disappointments of yesterday are to be buried in deep oblivion and not to be carried all through our life. Thus a great deal of strain of the mind will be relieved. Also, we will not worry so much about the future, which is yet to come, but this does not mean that we shall not plan. We may live in the present and use all our energy in making it a success, but carry only one load at a time.

The second rule, which is equally important, is one of the lessons from the Bhagavad Gita (sacred book of the Hindus): "Thy concern is with action alone, never with results. Let not the fruit of action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be for inaction." Another quotation: "Steadfast in devotion do thy works, casting off attachment, being the same in success and failure. Evenness is called Yoga."

Let this be the motto of our life: that we shall work for the sake of work alone, i.e., we shall perform our duty to the best of our ability; otherwise, if we thirst for the result from the beginning, we shall not be able to perform our duty well, the reason being that we shall be very self-conscious of the opinions of others. The trouble with most of us is that we do not listen to the dictates of "the Inner Voice." as Mahatma Ghandi calls it, but we try to please everybody else; thus we please no one.

We pay attention to what others will think and how they will like our actions. In a word, we become slaves to the opinions of others. We care too much of the recognition, commendation, and applause of others. To accomplish this result, we do not hesitate to twist our work in the direction in which the wind blows. This deviation pricks our conscience, spoils our peace of mind, and the ultimate result is unhappiness.

What, then, should be our attitude? We should learn to do our best and let the results take care of themselves. We can not please all, however we try. Someone is sure to find fault and criticize. There will be many who will fail to see the purpose and object of our work. There will be others who will not appreciate the efforts we have wasted to please all, so we must place ourselves above the likes and dislikes of the people and go on doing our work, leaving no stones unturned. Neither should we be attached to inaction, thinking "of what avail are these painful works if their fruits should not be desired," nor should we be fatalists, believing that what is to be will be whether we try or not.

We must remember another point in this discussion. We must not expect to be successful in all our attempts. Some ventures may fail, but others will be successful. Success and failure are interrelated. One cannot exist without the other. Life will not be pleasant if we have either success or failure all the time, so we must not get egotistical and be sunk with pride if we find abundant success, nor should we lose heart and become discouraged if we meet several failures. We must possess strength and will power. With concentrated energies we must approach our nearest problem or duty and execute it to perfection. This should be the philosophy of our life.

This brings me to my last point. We must possess courage, faith, and hope. Courage is needed to fight against the dreaded fear. We have said before that fear destroys life. There are many people who even will not attempt to work because they are desperately afraid of the work. They feel that they are not good enough to do the work, and thus meet failure even before starting. This is very well exemplified in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna, who has been overwhelmed with fear in the battle field to destroy fear, braces up and performs his sacred duty. Secret fear creates tension, anxiety, and brings ultimate collapse. We must have faith in our ability, and hope in the triumph of the righteous Cause.

If we do not possess these qualities, we must create them in our own mind through mental concentration. This can be accomplished by determined and long continued practice. There is no fixed time to start and to end. Fortunately, we can start practicing any time and in any place, concentrating upon our defects. If we are lacking in will power, let us meditate upon that, and through conscious effort we shall be able to create strong will power in ourselves. If we want to relieve ourselves of fear, we should meditate upon courage, and in due time we shall be freed from the bondage of fear.

Through concentration and meditation, we make ourselves powerful, and this new power enables us to focus our attention upon one point at a time, and continual practice for some time will enable us to concentrate our energy upon a single problem or a single responsibility without any effort. It will become second nature to us. Possessed with this new quality, we shall succeed in our life’s undertakings whether spiritual or material.

In summing up, may I ask my readers to shake off the shackles of fear, cowardice, and worry? Opportunity is knocking at our door all the while. Let us give up laziness and prepare ourselves for the big adventure. Let us keep our ideals in our mind, and let us remember that we are doing God’s work in this universe and we shall offer all the results of our efforts at the feet of the Divine Father. Let us arise, waken up our Spirit, gird up our loins, and with determination and will power encounter the internal and external difficulties.

Let us roll the stones aside, climb over the obstacles, wade the forbidding streams, and go straight on with Divine Light as our guidance. If our purpose is honest and our efforts are sincere, we cannot fail. Success has never been handed out to people, but it has been earned by perseverance, work, energy, patience, and singleness of purpose.

The Past is gone; the Future is to come; the Present is here. Today is the time to start. All we need is a mind willing to be disciplined through meditation. Thus peace, happiness, and serenity will adorn and balance our lives.

Nathaniel said unto him: "Whence knowest thou me?" Jesus answered and said unto him: "Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." Nathaniel answered and said unto him: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said unto him: "Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these." ("Walks and Words of Jesus," page 21, by Rev. M. N. Olmsted.)

Jesus said to Nathaniel: "I saw thee under the fig tree, i.e., I saw thy soul under the nerve branches of the cerebro-spinal tree. Jesus, by his Spiritual Eye saw Nathaniel’s soul resting under the astral nervous system (fig tree.) Man’s body is an upturned tree with roots of hair and cranial nerves at the base of the trunk of the spinal tree of life, shooting out branches of the nervous system. Any spiritual adept looking into another soul deeply can see the soul and its astral nervous system. Spiritual souls have a refined astral nervous system. Material souls have the poor figs of material desires vibrating on the branches of their astral nervous system.

The above explains how Jesus saw Nathaniel under the fig tree. Nathaniel might have been under a real fig tree and Jesus could have seen him there, but here Jesus speaks of seeing Nathanial, not with physical eyes, but with the telescopic spiritual eye which can reveal the remotely situated fig tree of the astral nervous system in the Kingdom of the unseen.

Nathaniel could feel the astral body of Jesus entering into his. That is why in an instant he said: "Thou art the Son of God." A son of man is attracted to one body and is unconsciously ejected only at the time of death, but a Son of God, like Jesus, feels His omnipresent consciousness existing in His great body of all matter. Jesus, although apparently existing and working through one body, was not limited by it, but could transfer his consciousness into any other body and feel its sensations, perceptions, and thoughts and emotions.

Jesus, through his omniscience, could simultaneously feel his own body or any other group of bodies at the same time. That is why He said: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." (Matt. 10:20.)

Jesus, being one with the Father, had the same omniscient consciousness that His Father had. Therefore, Nathaniel, feeling the consciousness of Jesus transferred within himself, felt himself divinely transmuted and acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel. The first title is the Divine Title and is of tremendous significance.

Nathaniel spoke of Jesus as the son of God and owner of the universe and, being such, he was also the greatest power (King) in Israel, which lay somewhere on this little pill of earth situated in God’s Kingdom of the universe.

Jesus answered and said: "Because I said unto Thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these." Jesus was pleased to find Nathaniel respond to His spiritual vibrations. Nathaniel’s belief in the words of Jesus was the result of the vibratory experience which Nathaniel received from Jesus.

Many people do not believe even after they feel a truth, so Jesus said unto Nathaniel: "As you believe in Me, just receiving My vibrations, you will see greater things, (greater miracles) than these, i.e., than these miracles of My sending to you astral and thought vibrations."

And He said unto him: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

Verily, I say unto you: Afterwards you shall see the astral region through the opening of the telescopic Spiritual Eye and you shall see the luminous astral bodies ascending out of the dead physical bodies into the Astral Kingdom. Also you shall behold many astral bodies descending into the physical bodies of newly conceived babies. Son of Man signifies the physical body.

In Genesis, God created the firmament., He called the firmament "Heaven," and He divided the waters from the waters. Space is the pearly gate of Heaven, which hides the finer forces of waters, and the waters, (gross elements) under the firmament gathered together and the dry land appeared. The gross elements lie on the outward boundary of space.

Different races conceive of Heaven according to their racial habits of thought. Certain sects believe that Heaven is filled with large-eyed damsels and fine food, and so forth, even as the fish who live in water might conceive of human beings living on earth as a heaven of celestial fishes all swimming in water. Just as this is absurd, so most human beings talk of Heaven as a place where cool, breezes blow evermore, where weather is not violent, where all kinds of fruits can be found, and where winged angels move. We can easily see the idea that angels were given wings because of the human desire to be like the birds, freely flying where they choose.

Modern man may picture angels using airplanes moving at the rate of 4,000 miles an hour, yet, when we think how fast light and electricity move, the flight of airplanes seems like the movement of an ox cart. The time will come when man will learn to change the atomic vibrations of his gross body and make them into an astral force. It is then that he will be able to shoot along with the astral light rays at the rate of 500,000,000 miles per second—even faster than light.

When man learns astral travelling, he will find that he can travel faster than light, but when man learns the full mystery of mind, he will be able to travel faster than any force—material light or astral. If he wished to be in the sun or the moon, or the fastest star, he could be there instantly.

Jesus speaks of the opening of Heaven. This is possible in two ways.

1. By losing the limitations of the physical eyes (which see nothing but the gross vibrations of matter) through years of practice in looking into and penetrating the Spiritual Eye until it is possible to see into the Astral Heaven.

2. By having the vibrations of space and other finer walls of lights removed through the command of the Ultimate intelligence, then man can see the luminous Astral Kingdom hidden behind the Firmament.

In this Astral Kingdom everything is light. There is astral land, astral sea, astral air, astral skies, astral darkness and light, and astral gardens and beings, all made of the different vibrations of light. They may be compared to different kinds of fish which have to live in differently-vibrating spheres. It is difficult for astral beings living in grosser vibrations to go into the subtle astral vibratory sphere where finer astral bodies live.

We have astral gardens and flowers planted on the soil of the ether. They surpass any human description. Here the flowers glow like Chinese star shells, ever growing and ever changing, and ever adapting themselves to the fancy of the astral beings, and disappearing when they are not wanted. They come back again with new colors and fragrance when desired again.

Here the astral beings drink many-hued lights from living fountains falling from the bosom of Astral mountains. Here millions of miles of deep and wide astral oceans heave with azure, opal, green, silver, gold, blood red, yellow, and aqua marine. Diamond colored waves dance in perpetual rhythm of beauty. Astral beings swim here and use all their subtle senses as we use them in the dreamland. The only difference is that there is more beauty and perfection in the Astral World than on the earth. The earth is so full of decay and destruction. In the Astral World the havoc done by an astral earthquake could be remedied by mere willing. Of course, this Astral Kingdom decays slowly and is a billion times older and longer-lived than this earth has been or is going to be.

In the Astral Kingdom there is only spiritual marriage, and children are created by the immaculate method of condensing the positive or negative thoughts and will, and feeling tendencies of parents into the form of a male or female child, the positive thought producing a male child, the negative thought producing a female child.

In the Astral World there is birth and death. Souls promoted from the earth are born in the Astral Kingdom, and when they leave, at the end of their good Karma, they go back to the earth or to similar inhabited planets in other island universes. Some souls, who develop in the Astral Kingdom, do not die there, but consciously lift themselves into the omnipresent bosom of God and become One with God.

Jesus had gone beyond the Astral World, so He said: "I and my Father are One." Souls who consciously spiritually develop on earth, and who can retain their consciousness during the transition of death, can come into the Astral Land and consciously develop until final freedom in God is attained. Then the Karma-compelled journey of reincarnations toward the earth is stopped.

In the Astral Land souls do not use imperfect limited mortal intelligence and senses. There they use various grades of semi-developed intuition and highly developed intelligence.

The Astral Land is conspicuous for the absence of books, for the Astral Beings can concentrate upon anything and know about its nature through the instantaneous knowledge-producing power of intuition.

Here in Astral Land we find highly developed saints and also ordinary beings with only semi-developed intuitions. It is only after becoming One with God that a soul does not have to read books or concentrate upon anything in order to know it by intuition. When a soul becomes One with God, that soul’s intuition, being identified with Spirit, already knows all and see all without trying to know anything, even by the effort of intuition.

I. Introduction.

II. Remote Background of the New Testament:

(a) Hebrew Migrations

(b) Silent Centuries

III. Immediate Background of the New Testament.

IV. Origin of the Word-Bible.

V. The Gospels and Epistles.

VI. Prominent Characters:

(a) Marcion

(b) Tatian

(c) Clement

(d) Origen

(e) Eusebius

VII. The Age of Councils

VIII. The Murtiorian Fragment

IX. The Form of the New Testament Bibliography

Because of the genuine soul’s awakening, which has given rise to interest in all of the finer things of life, during the past two years the writer has made an intensive study of Biblical Literature, Hebrew History, Philosophy and Aesthetics, and at this time is engaged in making a complete survey of the most outstanding and progressive religious organizations in the city of Los Angeles. This intense religious awakening has given impetus to the writer for a better understanding of the Bible and how it came into being; but, as time will not permit of a research project covering the making of the entire Bible, this paper deals only with the making of the New Testament Canon.

In order for one to appreciate fully the New Testament Canon, one must know something of the background upon which it was founded. Turning one’s attention to such, one finds that the Mediterranean world in which the Bible came into being saw the rise of the successive civilizations of Babylonia, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Syria, and Rome, and they form the shifting background of the book. To understand with any degree of satisfaction the cultural and religious, as well as the historical record of Hebrew life, one must understand these great civilizations that profoundly influenced the Hebrew people, and with which they were in such close relations. The study of these great civilizations and their archeological findings of today has been the most interesting experience during my ten years of university work. Even a mere peep into these ancient empires forms an indispensable aid in the interpretation of Scripture.

To link somewhat the Old Testament with that of the New Testament Canon, let us take a peep into that period of the four forgotten centuries often referred to as: "The Silent Centuries."

The Old Testament history closes with the restoration of the Hebrew commonwealth, as narrated in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The four hundred years following have already been referred to as "The Silent Centuries" because the idea has commonly prevailed that no Divine voice was heard and no revelation vouchsafed in that era. However, as one delves into the literature of that period one finds that these forgotten centuries were by no means silent. Instead, they were replete with stirring events, heroic achievements, picturesque personalities, significant movements, and filled with vivid narratives, charming stories, great sayings, and noble dreams.

A brief resume of the history of these ancient peoples will help one to appreciate more the cultural background of the Bible. The emigration of the Semitic clans from their Babylonian home; the settlements on Canaan soil and the expansion into Egypt and the desert; later, the return of Egyptian groups with some of their desert adherents; the gradual occupation of Palestine; the slow development of Hebrew culture through the brief period of national unity under David and Solomon, followed by the division into the northern and southern kingdoms in 937 B.C.; the overthrow of the northern tribes by the Assyrians in 721 B.C., and their disappearance from history; the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians; the departure of expatriated and refugee Hebrews into Babylonia, Egypt, and other portions of the east; the gradual return of some from the lands of dispersion; the long and painful process of Jerusalem’s revival under many adverse conditions; the rise of Judaism; the life of the Jews under Syrian and Roman government; and the beginning of the Christian Movement in the first century A.D. all occupy a comparatively brief chapter in the long story of the centuries.

Upon this background, historically and culturally, the literature of "The Silent Centuries" came into being, and out of that literature the Canon of the New Testament came into existence. One author made the statement that the real story of the Bible covers a period of about sixteen hundred years, from the fifteenth century before Christ down to the end of the first one hundred years of the Christian Era. However, as I went further into this research problem, it is to be noted that other authors cite the period as extending several centuries beyond that of the first century of the Christian Era, thereby covering a much longer period than previously mentioned. While the history covered by the Old Testament runs back into dim antiquity and appears to date almost from primeval time, the New Testament was composed much nearer to our own time and is less than two thousand years old. The New Testament really is quite modern rather than ancient; it is a recent document.

With regard to the origin of the word Bible, I have been interested to note that it took its name from the town of Byblos on the Syrian coast, from which quantities of papyrus were brought to the Greek cities of the West for the use of writers in the making of rolls or books. The extensive copying of the Hebrew Christian Scriptures tended to connect the word "biblia" with that collection of documents, and so it gave the name Bible to the whole. The word in itself means "the books par excellence."

The books now included in the Bible are but a small part of the total mass of writings produced by the Hebrew people and early Christians; but, since this paper must be confined to the New Testament Canon, consideration will be limited thereto.

Having taken into consideration, briefly, the remote background of the New Testament as that of Hebrew History, let us consider briefly also the immediate historical and cultural background of the New Testament. True it is that the setting and scenery of both Testaments are the same, but the political, social, intellectual, and religious environment were totally unlike. Persia was in power in Ezra’s day, the close of the Old Testament history, while Rome ruled in Jesus’ time. Hebrew was the spoken language of the Old Testament, whereas Aramaic and Greek were the vernacular of the New Testament. In Ezra’s day the returned exiles were rebuilding the Temple, while the Acts and Epistles tell us of synagogue worship. For these reasons, among many others, one finds the immediate background to the New Testament quite different from that of the remote.

Owing to the fact that Jesus was himself a Jew among Jewish friends, living in so small a world as that of Jerusalem and the surrounding territory, there was little need for writing the life and works of Jesus. There was little literary impulse in the church for years, and it was not until the teachings of Jesus began to spread into non-Jewish communities that the need of writing came to be felt. It was the ministry of the Apostle Paul which awakened the Christians to the importance and value of His written communications.

After a considerable period of unrecorded preaching in his own home country, Paul had been called to Antioch, and then on to other cities to preach, finally reaching Corinth. When Timothy arrived, bringing him the good news regarding the Thessalonians, he wrote the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, which is the earliest writing in the New Testament.

It is believed that the twenty-seven books which comprise the New Testament were all written before the year 100 A.D., but at that date not one of them was regarded as Scripture. The New Testament books were in no way grouped together, and probably no single Christian had read them all. Each book was originally the cherished possession of a church or individual. Gradually the separate books began to circulate from church to church, sometimes as a loan and sometimes with permission to have a copy made. Factors which made these books attractive and acceptable to various communities was the fact that many of them contained the Sayings of Jesus, or that the manuscripts were the work of Apostles who were direct disciples of Jesus.

When the Acts was written, the letters of Paul had not been collected and put into circulation as a group among the churches. Paul had not published them nor even thought of their being published. One of the first Christian books to appear after the Acts was the Revelation of John. It is believed that John was so impressed by a publication of a collection of Paul’s letters to the churches that he adopted the letter collection as the form for the portal of his Revelation. This is given as a striking proof of the Pauline collection’s recent appearance, and the great impression it had made. Further emphasis of this fact is found in the immediate collection of the letters of Ignatius of Antioch soon after his martyrdom at Rome between 107-117 A.D. This was a striking example due to the fact that even before the news of his martyrdom had spread from Rome to the East, the churches of Smyrna and Philppi had begun to collect the letters written during the last months of his life. The unmistakable influence of the Pauline letters is seen here. The Pauline letters are said to be the key to the new letter-writing movement at the end of the first and the beginning of the second centuries.

As to the size of these collections, those of John and Ignatuis each contained seven letters; the Muratorian list at Rome, about a century later, observed that Paul had also written to seven churches. It is thought that the collection in its earliest form contained seven letters to churches, but the earlier writers who refer to Paul’s letters show acquaintance with but five.

The Gospel of Mark, the first written Gospel, appeared at Rome as a means of preserving Peter’s recollections of Jesus. This was the beginning of the gospel-making movement. Matthew was written at Antioch soon after 80 A.D. Luke ten years later wrote Luke and the Acts, probably at Ephesus, as a history of the Greek missions. The Gospel of John appeared early in the second century. The earliest order of the collection was as we find it today, and appeared a few years after the Gospel of John, about 125 A.D. At their first appearance these gospels were not considered as authority, but soon gained that recognition. When, a half century after their first collection, the New Testament came into being, the four-fold gospels, which had already become a unit, served as its cornerstone.

Marcion is recognized as the first man who set out definitely to form a christian Scripture. He conceived the idea of combining a representative gospel with the well-known collection of Paul’s letters, and giving the whole the authority of Christian Scripture. It was his contribution to the formation of the New Testament. His was the first list of authoritative Christian books of which we have any real knowledge. It was made about the year 140 A.D. and is considered of little value, as it was drawn up on the principle of including only such books as agreed with the view of the author. None of the four Gospels pleased him, as he was bitterly opposed to anything Jewish, consequently he included only an abridged version of the Gospel of Luke. According to him, St. Paul was the only true Apostle, and the Pauline writings formed the chief part of his Canon. As further books appeared, it was very natural for further attempts at discrimination to be made.

Tatian’s book—Diatessaron, "The Gospel of the Four," also dates about 170 A.D. This text removed all the genealogies and all other passages which show that the Lord was born of David according to the flesh. This document enjoyed a wide ecclesiastical popularity, but when the heretical character of the book was recognized, they were all gathered together and discarded.

*Westcott says that "during the first age and long afterwards, the church had offered no limits and groundwork of an authoritative collection of sacred books." It is believed that the Canon of Marcion was the first that was publicly proposed. The formation of a Canon was a gradual growth, and not a series of contrasts.

By the close of this first period—about 170 A.D.—the East and the West agreed with remarkable exactness upon the Canon, the contents of which was as follows:

1. The Four Gospels.

2. The Acts.

3. The thirteen Epistles of St. Paul.

4. The first general Epistles of St. Peter and St. John.

The second period of the history of the New Testament Canon dates from the time of Hegesippus to the persecution of Diocletian, 170-303 A.D. During this period—the time of Irenaeus—the canonicity of the four Gospels occupied the same position in the estimation of Christians as they hold now. However, one noticeable factor enters here—that of questioning the authenticity of the Apocalypse by the Western church. As in the case of Tertullian, Irenaeus, and Clement, by the close of the second century all of the Fathers agree in appealing to the testimony of antiquity as proving the authenticity of the books which they used as Christian Scriptures. Tertullian marks the introduction of the phrase, "New Testament," but it should be borne in mind that this document was a gradual growth and that there is no evidence to show that at any time the claims of the Apostolic writings, to be placed on an equal footing with those of the Old Testament, were ever deliberately discussed and admitted. "Step by step the books which were marked with Apostolic authority were separated from the mass of other works which contained the traditions or opinions of less authoritative teachers. Without controversy and without effort, ‘The Gospel of the Apostles; were recognized as inspired sources of truth in the same general sense as ‘The Law and the Prophets.’"*

As I have already noted, the fragmentary Canon of Muratori did not include all of the New Testament Canon of today. It seems there were seven books of the New Testament Canon which gave cause for controversy, because of lack of Apostolic authority. Among those questioned were Hebrews, St. John, St. James, St. Jude, and the second Epistle of St. Peter. The final authority as to St. James and Hebrews rested upon the authority of the Eastern-Syrian church; the second and third Epistles of St. John and of St. Jude upon the Western church; the Apocalypse upon that of the church of Asia Minor.

The writings of Clement do not contain a catalogue of the books of the New Testament, but in the summary of his outlines by Eusebius one finds a concise explanation of the Canonical Scriptures. This list was complete, without even omitting the disputed books referred to. However, I note the author refers to Clement’s Canon as including all of the books of the New Testament except the Epistle of St. James, the second Epistle of St. Peter, and the third Epistle of St. John.

The work of Clement was continued by Origen. He repeats the same classification as that of Clement, who divided the Christian books into two great divisions—the Gospels and the Apostles. Origen went a step beyond Clement by writing them into one whole as: "‘Divine Scripture of the New Covenant,’ written in the same Spirit as those before Christ’s coming, and giving a testimony by which every word should be established.’"*

The third period of the Canon is marked by the period of Diocletian to the third Council of Carthage—303-397 A.D. As the result of the Diocletian persecution, which ordered the destruction of all the Christian sacred literature, the African churches were left in possession of a perfect New Testament Canon, including the Gospels, the Apostolic Epistles, the Apocalypse of John, and the Acts of the Apostles.

Among the Palestinian writers of this persecution was one Eusebius. According to his classification, the books of the New Testament were formed into distinct collections, a quaternion of Gospels, fourteen Epistles of Paul, and seven Catholic Epistles. The persecution had wrought its work and a New Testament arose complete from the fires which were kindled to consume it.

Besides the books which we find in the New Testament Canon of today, numerous other books were written and circulated, such as the Epistle of Barnabas, the Epistle of Clement, the Epistle of Polycarp, the seven Epistles of Ignatius, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Apocalypse of Peter. In the original estimation, these various writings held equal rank with those now included in the New Testament Canon. The early church had only the Greek Old Testament as its Bible at the end of the first century; however, by that time the church had developed an extensive religious literature of its own, which was highly prized as private reading but not yet as Scripture. The very first step in raising these writings to the level of Scripture, nd the second step in the formation of the Canon, was the reading of them in the church services along with the Old Testament. Through the continuous reading of these books in the church services their superior power was revealed and their consequent religious value was augmented, until finally they came to be regarded as Scripture. This was really the third step in the formation of the Canon.

Following the steps thus far mentioned came what was known as the "Age of Councils." This included the seven Ecumenical councils, namely: Nicea—325; Constantinople—381; Ephesus—431; Chalcedon—451; Constantinople—553; Constantinople—680; and the second council of Nicea in 787. Suffice it to say that these councils determined only what Gospels, Epistles, and sacred literature should be included in their Canon. They had nothing to do with the composition of the literature that had been written centuries before. *Godspeed says that "The decrees relating to the New Testament books supposed to have been issued by various early Popes, Damascus, 366-84; Gelasius, 490-96; and Hormisdas, 514-23, have proved to be really no earlier than the sixth century." Thus we are able to discern something of the great scope of the centuries which influenced the making of the New Testament Canon as we have it today.

It was very interesting to me to note that the oldest list of the New Testament Canon extant is the Muratorian Fragment, written possibly about 170 A.D. The relic was discovered in the Ambrasian Library at Milan in a manuscript of the seventh or eighth century. The Fragment includes only twenty-two of our present New Testament books. The books omitted are James, first and second Peter, Hebrew, and an Epistle of Job, probably the third, but it includes the Wisdom of Solomon and the Apocalypse of Peter. The significant factor regarding this Fragment lies in the fact that the author regards the four Gospels as inspired and in close agreement, *"Since in all of them all things are declared by the one and supreme spirit." On the whole, the Muratorian document corresponds closely, but not identically, with our New Testament.

As to form, it is believed the books were written first in the roll form, perhaps a roll to a book. The book came into existence sometime near the close of the first century; yet, I find another author who cites the book as appearing probably not until during the third century. The oldest scrap of the New Testament known is a papyrus fragment, in the book form, from the third century. Several such scraps exist, but the most extensive specimen of New Testament papyrus is a manuscript of Hebrews in the form of a roll. It dates from the late third century or early fourth.

The New Testament was copied by hand and used in the manuscript form for about fourteen hundred years, from the first to the fifteenth century.

______

*Westcott, "History of Canon of New Testament," *Simms, "The Bible from the Beginning," *Godspeed, "The Formation of the New Testament,"

Nothing is so rash as fear. Its counsels

Are always sure to aggravate the evils

From which it would fly.

Parjaptam twidamatasam balam Bhimabhirakshitam.

Asmakam (our) Tad (this) balam (army) Bhismabhirakshitam (protected by Bhisma) Aparjaptam (unlimited) tu (whereas) Atasham (their) Bhimabhirakshitam (protected by Bhima) edam (this) Parjaptam (limited).

This (our forces protected by Bhisma) is difficult to count, whereas their army, defended by Bhima, is easy to count.

Bhisma Abhas Chaitanya or Asmita—The Pseudo-Soul, or Ego.

Bhima Bayutatwana—By the powerful flowing force (Life Force) acting in conjunction with vitality and breathing exercises.

When the spiritual devotee snatches himself away from the snare of the senses, practices breathing exercises, and tries to control the Life Force, material desire, (with the Pseudo-Soul, or Kingly Ego) with his countless soldiers of earth-bound inclinations, tries to fight the spiritual efforts of the Divine aspirant.

The man sliding down evil paths finds no resistance, but as soon as he tries to oppose his evil habits by the adoption of spiritual laws of discipline, he finds countless instincts of temptations roused to fight and foil his noble efforts.

In this Stanza the two important opposing generals of the forces of good and evil are Bhima and Bhisma. It is found that Bhima, the Soul-guided vital force and breath-control, leads to Soul consciousness. For this reason, the Soul-guided vital force is spoken of as the greatest enemy of Bhisma, or the body-identified Ego.

By proper breathing exercises, as taught in the classes of "Highest Self Realization," the venous blood is burned out and the body is electrified. When the body stops decaying, the heart gets rest and learns to control the Life Force moving through the five sense-telephones of touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight.

Of course, when the Life Force is shut off, the material sensations cannot reach the brain to snatch the attention away from God and entangle it in the material world. That is why Bhima, or proper breathing exercises, and the few strong soldiers of concentration, intuition, inner perception, calmness, self-control, and so on, can be awakened to fight the forces of the Pseudo-Soul, or Ego.

It is the breathing exercises that are responsible for cutting off the nerve force through which the sense impulses reach the brain and invade attention with darts of material desires. Therefore, Bhima, or Soul-guided Life Force, is the principal enemy of Ego, or Bhisma.

On the other hand, the purpose of Bhisma, or Ego, is to keep the Soul’s attention continually busy with the living reports and countless enticing ways of sensations. The Ego, or Pseudo-Soul, instead of throwing the searchlight of attention on God, keeps it reflected on the senses. The Ego consciousness is the consciousness of Prince Soul in bondage in the slums of the body. Hence, it is the Ego, and the deluded fleshbound consciousness of the Soul, which is responsible for awakening all the countless soldiers of temptations couched within the human body.

Without Ego consciousness, the entire army of evil and temptation vanishes like a quickly-forgotten dream. If the Soul dwelt in the body without being identified with it, as the Souls of saints do, then no temptations could keep it tied to the body, but the trouble is, as the Soul descends into the body, it projects its individualized ever-conscious ever-new Bliss nature and identifies itself with the limitations of the body and its relations, and then thinks of itself as the miserable Ego of many temptations.

At this point it must be realized that the identification of the Soul with the body is only imaginary and not real. Essentially the Soul is ever pure. Ordinary mortals allow their Souls to live as flesh-entangled Egos and not as Spirit’s reflection, or real Soul.

A wealthy boy prince went into the slums and lived there so long that he thought he was poor and miserable. He ascribed to himself all the troubles that go with poverty, but when he was forcibly brought back to his palace and lived there for some time he realized that he had never been poor except in his imagination.

Likewise, when, by proper breathing exercises, the five sense-telephones are disconnected, then Prince Soul’s attention is automatically switched off from the Ego consciousness and misery-making senses. Then the Soul, finding itself, says to itself: "I was never anything but ever-new joyous Spirit, and I only imagined I was a mortal man subject to temptations."

However, it is hard to realize that you are not a fleshly Being and that in reality you are neither a Hindu nor an American Temple, nor any of the other limited sense-bound things you appear to be. God, in sleep, in an unconscious way, makes you forget all your flesh consciousness. Sleep is a salve to make you forget temporarily your hallucination about matter. Meditation is the real panacea by which you can permanently cure yourself of the day-dream of matter and all its evils, and realize yourself as pure Spirit.

Of Course, unless the Ego is killed by snatching the attention away from the senses and identifying it with God, the devotee finds his spiritual experiences of vitality, self-control, and so on, born of breathing exercises and life-control, or Bhima, ready to be challenged by the Ego consciousness and its countless soldiers of temptations.

VIBRATION is a law. Vibration is the result of a disturbance of a slow or stagnant condition. The cause in every instance is thought of some nature. We may receive this from a person, a book, a beautiful sunset, or even a tiny flower.

Every individual life will receive just the right thoughts from the Infinite mind, for its further growth and progression, if that life will fear nothing, demand much, and love all.

Our ideals are ever reaching upward. As soon as one ideal is made manifest, we attract another experience for further progression toward our goal, understanding, and wisdom.

Realize that every atom of life is in a state of constant activity, always active and progressive. Keep in harmony with this great unceasing, unchanging law of constant vibration. Do not violate this law by having a limited thought behind an unlimited desire.

East life holds all possibilities. There is no limit to our power, excepting what we ourselves determine by our own thoughts, for as we change our thoughts we change the vibration, and vibratory action changes all conditions.

Seek within and find the Truth that will satisfy our individual life. Each atom is constantly changing by gradual expulsion of its electrons or intrinsic energy and attracting new substance. All constant change.

As we evolve to higher rates of vibration and understand the Universal Laws of Life, we enjoy the blessings of freedom as never before. We realize the Oneness of all life and keep harmony within, which helps for harmonious vibration for all life. It is the countless ideals and actions of the individual, which are so inextricably intermingled in all life and thoughts, which vibrate and re-vibrate over the whole universe. We radiate according to our individual character, and character depends upon the harmonious operation of the Inner Laws. The inner spiritual grace made manifest.

How glorious to understand we are in a process of eternal unfoldment to receive the inexhaustible richness of Eternal Kingdoms!

In final analysis, love is the law of all existence. It is a systematic and harmonious universal vibration, which harmonizes all conditions.

"The harnessing of the atom by converting the mass of its nucleus into energy" is the discovery, they explain, that eventually will make virtually all present forms of material wealth as free as air, and substitute the problem of leisure for the problem of work.

"We don’t know enough about the nucleus yet to control the release of any of its energy," Langer asserted, "but there appears to be some foundation for the theory that the mystery of converting atomic mass into energy is related to the process of radioactivity. One thimbleful of a radioactive substance, whose atoms could be made to explode simultaneously, would generate an explosion 1,000,000 times as powerful as that produced by the same amount of nitroglycerin."

The human brain, it seems certain, cannot faintly conceive the enormous potential energy hidden in every stick and stone. Dr. Einstein, in what is considered his most sensational single achievement, calculated that the energy in any bit of matter is equal to the mass or weight of the substance multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. It is this Einsteinian equation that has made it possible for physicists to compute the masses of atomic nuclei by first determining their energies.

From that same equation, scientists estimate that if all the energy in a spoonful of water could be utilized, it would be sufficient to propel a battleship across the ocean. Similarly, a spoonful of water, asserted to contain 6,000,000 kilowatt hours of electrical energy, would provide a city of 100,000 inhabitants with ample power and light for more than a month.

Those with a flare for imaginative prophecy hold that the time will come when descendants of the present generation, through enslaving the atomic hosts, will themselves forget how to perspire. In that Utopian era, they predict, a baby need only to toss a single mud pie into the international atom factory to obtain independence from manual labor for life, and when airplanes are powered with "atom engines," a globe circling flight might be fueled, so they say, by trapping a few flies in the carburetor.

A better understanding of the naturally produced explosions of atoms in radioactive substances, according to some physicists, would speed the time when men, by producing these explosions at will in any substance, will approach realization of such dreams.

Although a few of the great scientists think it improbable that any persons now living will voyage to Europe on a ship powered with a spoonful of atomic energy, they nevertheless admit that it is only pure scientific research of the type being done by Langer and Raitt that may result in fulfillment of that dream.

"Man and his energy depend upon climatic stimulation, and that determines his development," he said. "All activity is a matter of man’s energy. In the Gulf States, tropics, and the Orient, the lack of climatic stimulation causes man’s energy to be low. In the northern regions man must adapt himself to wide, sudden shifts of temperature. For a good part of the time he is left with an unexpended excess energy which drives him to expend it on other things. That is responsible for the typical American restlessness. We can’t remain at a given level, but must expand, and of course we often go too far."

"In the last three years," he said, "we have had only three normal cold waves, whereas we should have them time after time throughout the winter. Gland stimulation lessened, and consequently the driving force slumps and man relaxes. He loses that urge toward expansion and is willing to let things drift. He won’t go into debt and he won’t rush out to buy an automobile."

To demonstrate his theory, Prof. Mills kept some animals for years under various climatic conditions. Some, in a room at 90 degrees, had little surplus energy. Others, kept in a 60-degree temperature, had more activity to burn, but still others, shuttled from the hot room to the cold room, were the most active of all.

Reporting on her soap-like synthetic fatty acid salts, Miss Burnell said: "Fungus infections and mixed infections, both deep-seated and surface in character, have responded to the treatment. Twenty cases which responded to no other treatment were cleared up by application of the salts. It has been found that recurring surface infections due to a constitutional condition can be controlled by proper use of the salts. They are essentially non-irritating, but are probably more penetrating than any other bacteriocide. They appreciably soften the skin. If the surface to which they have been applied is merely rinsed off with warm water at any time after application, it will be cleaner than if washed with soap. In dissolving the skin oils and in removing dirt, scale, and other foreign matter, the salts change the soil in which the fungi or bacteria may grow, and they vitiate the organisms so that favorable results are obtained."

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars

That shine and twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced;

But they out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company;:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth ...the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the Bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

We now come to a consideration of world history as it followed the rise of the Autumnal Equinox on the Ascending Arc of the Zodiacal circle. The span from 498 to 1698 A.D. comprised the 1200 year period of the Ascending Kali Yuga. We have seen how the last Age (702 B.C. to 498 A.D.) of the Descending Arc was accompanied by the fall of mighty empires and civilizations and the gradual extinguishment of the lamp of knowledge which had so wonderfully illumined the Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages of the ancients. The equinoctial swing from the Descending to the Ascending Arc ushered in new races in new lands; new actors were assigned the leading roles in the historical drama for the new Age. The main scenes shift to new lands: western Europe, Arabia, Mongolia and America.

A few countries, notably China and India,1 survived the universal wreckage wherein lay the corpses of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Sumeria, Crete, Greece and imperial Rome.

Whereas the Ages of the Descending Arc were from greater to lesser, from Golden down to Iron, the Ascending Arc Ages are the reverse, from Iron to Bronze, from Silver to Golden. When the year 498 A.D.2 introduced the new Iron or Dark Age (Kali Yuga), the first Age of the Ascending Arc, the world broke with the past and started on a new journey of civilization which will culminate in the year 12,498 A.D.

The peoples that spread from the danube to the Great Wall of China, the nomadic tribes—not barbarians as the historians call them, but certainly without either a settled culture of their own or any practical knowledge of the ancient civilizations that were dying or dead by the time the last hour of the Descending Iron Age had struck—come forcibly into history with the fall of Rome before the conquering Goths and Vandals in the 5th century A.D., though various nomadic tribes had already settled in different European lands during earlier centuries. By the 10th century, the population of Europe differed greatly, racially, from that which had existed during the days of the Roman Empire. Nomadic blood had entered into the people of every European and Asiatic nation. Huns, Goths, Vandals, Alans, Franks, Teutons, Lombards, Czecks, Burgundains, Magyars, Bulgars, Slavs, Norsemen, Ephthalites, Indo-Scythians, Finns, Arabs, Turks, Avars, Angles, Saxons, Jutres, Picts and Scots—all migratory peoples, nomads who had previously wandered between summer and winter pastures in the lands between the Danube and China—had been invading and settling, century by century, in Europe, Africa and Asia. From these races, who intermarried with the peoples whose lands they conquered, our modern races have sprung.

As we are dealing in this article with the influence of the Ascending Equinox on the affairs of the world, we shall trace the gradual betterment of mankind that took place from the fall of Rome to the end (1698 A.D.) of the Ascending Kali Yuga.

The unifying force among the chaotic European states after their conquest by the nomadic peoples was their acceptance of Christianity. By the end of the 11th century, the Pope could appeal with success to the common sympathy of all Europe for the start of the first Crusade. The Age of Feudalism, from the 9th to the 14th centuries, has been called the "Dark Ages" by historians (appropriately enough, from the viewpoint of our Equinoctial time-chart, which places these centuries within the Ascending Dark Age) but feudalism served certain worthy ends in a period of universal insecurity and political confusion. The Crusades had at least two good results: they ended the outworn feudal system, and presented to the European gaze the far more advanced civilization of the Moslem world.

Arabia rose to great power in the 7th and 8th centuries of this Ascending Kali Yuga. Filled with proselyting zeal inspired by their religious leader, Mohammed (570-632), the Arabs conquered and converted peoples from India to Spain, and from the borders of China to northern Egypt. However, their chief contribution to the progress of this Dark Age was the scientific learning which they received mostly through their contact with the decayed but still glorious civilization of India, and which the Arabs disseminated to the Europeans. Many great universities dotted the Moslem world and influenced the later universities of Paris, Oxford and other European centers. The University of Cairo boasted 12,000 students from all parts of the world, so great was the Arab fame for knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine, pharmacy and the use of anesthetics. The introduction of the so-called Arabic numerals, brought from India, was a great stimulation to the European mind. In algebra and spherical trigonometry, the Arabs made great strides; they built astronomical observatories, and produced some of the best astrologers of the time. Their textile fabrics were of marvelous beauty. They followed scientific systems of farming and irrigation, and maintained free schools for the poor. From the Chinese, with whom they traded, came their knowledge of the manufacture of paper and the use of the magnetic needle in navigation. While the monastery schools in Europe were teaching the flatness of the earth, the Arabs were using globes to teach geography. Arabic translations of Aristotle and other Greeks were the introduction of Europe, in the 15th century, to the genius of Grecian thought and literature. Thus it was that the Arabs played a great constructive part in the onward march of progress during this first Age of the Ascending Arc.

From the 13th to the 17th centuries, we find a new world power, the Mongol nomads. The amazing empire of Jengis Khan stretched from the Black Sea eastward through China, and from Russia down to northern India. The capital of this vast empire was in Mongolia. The conquests of Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon fade into insignificance when compared with the extent of this Mongol Empire. History tells us much of Mongol ruthlessness, but Jengis was not so wanton a conqueror as Alexander, and the former spared numberless cities and works of art. Complete religious toleration reigned throughout his empire—a boon indeed in a world torn by Christian and Moslem persecutions. The Mongol, courts of Jengis and later of Kublai Khan were the meeting places of all the learned men, merchants and religious representatives of the time. In many ways, the Mongols have played an extremely important role in transmitting and disseminating knowledge. Further, the intermingling of blood that went on between the conquering nomadic Mongols and their subjects, supplied an additional racial diversity to the peoples of the world—a diversity that seems to be a feature of the new Ascending Age, and particularly prominent when we reach the time of the settling of the New World.

"The Travels of Marco Polo," a book dealing with the 13th century experiences of a Venetian adventurer at the court of Kublai Khan, and in China, Japan, Persia, Burmah, Sumatra and India as an official and envoy of the Mongol ruler, contributed to a widening of the European viewpoint and interests and was the start of a vigorous intercourse between East and West that proved immensely profitable and instructive to the Europeans, the Mongols also furnished a series of six able rulers in India, of whom Akbar, in the 16th century, was the most beloved. For these reasons, and notwithstanding the barbarous devastations of Hulagu, Timurlane and the Ottoman Turks, we can realize that the Mongols played a major part in furthering the progress of the world during the Ascending Dark Age.

Europe struggled to throw off her chains one by one. The insurrection of the Hussites in Bohemia in 1419 marked the first of the religious wars which finally destroyed the vast temporal power of the Papacy, and released experimental science from ecclesiastical restraint. The widespread Peasant Wars of the 14th century ushered in an era of revolt against social inequality and of claims for the rights of labor that has continued down to our present day. The great revival of learning in Europe started in the 15th century with the introduction of the printing press and paper manufacture. The Renaissance of intellectual vigor which brought the Middle Ages to a close was due to the rediscovery of the old classical culture, the thought of ancient Greece and Rome, of Babylon and Egypt. The distinctive tongues of modern Europe achieved a standard in the 14th and 15th centuries through the literary labors of Dante in Italy, Chaucer and Wycliffe in England, and Luther in Germany, stimulating the growth both of a national spirit and a national literature in the various European countries. The 15th and 16th centuries saw the start of courageous exploration, and the voyages of Columbus to the New World, and the discovery by Vasco da Gama and Magellan of new ocean trade routes to the Orient, resulted in an era of widespread prosperity in Europe.

Names of great thinkers, scientists, writers and artists begin to enter the history of Europe as the Iron Age ascends to its closing centuries. Roger Bacon was the isolated splendor of the 13th century, but the 15th and 15th centuries shone with the genius of Shakespeare, Spenser, Cervantes, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Francis Bacon and Harvey. Paracelsus was one of the great alchemists, physicians and astrologers of this period. The same centuries produced those pioneer astronomers who laid the foundations of modern astronomical science: Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo.3 Newton came a century later, and the change, in 1698, from the Iron Age to the Bronze or Dwapara Yuga, occurred during his lifetime.

The 17th century, which brings the Ascending Dark Age to a close, saw a world vastly superior to that of the 5th century, when the momentous climb of the Autumnal Equinox began. The last century of this Kali Yuga witnessed the spread of republican sentiment, with notable results in England, under Cromwell, and in Holland. The same century saw the settling of European colonists in the New World. The stage was admirably set for the next and greater Age (Dwapara) at the start of the 18th century.

That the Kali Yuga of the Ascending Arc, whose history we have been reviewing, was a time of countless woes, of ignorance, wars, plagues and cruel religious intolerance, is beyond dispute. It was an Iron Age, the darkest span of a 12,000 year Equinoctial Arc. Human misery is the principal theme of the last two Dark Ages. However, we have seen in the preceding article that the Kali Yuga of the Descending Arc (702 B.C.-498 A.D.) sank from comparative enlightenment at its start to social and political chaos and intellectual stagnation at its end. The Kali Yuga of the Ascending Arc reversed this sequence. Thus has the Equinoctial Age time-chart, advocated in this series, proved its truth and its worth.

A point of great interest must be mentioned here. The works of Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and scientist who taught the heliocentric theory of the universe, came to the attention of Copernicus through the revival of European interest in classical vulture, and inspired the great Pole to obtain proof of the truth of the heliocentric theory. Two thousand years elapsed between the times of Pythagoras (582-507 B.C.) and Copernicus (1473-1543), and each of these two great scientists was born a thousand years away from the year (498 A.D.) which marked the change between the Descending and Ascending Arcs of the equinoctial cycle. Because Pythagoras was born in Kali Yuga of the Descending Arc, he was one of the last teachers in the ancient western world to maintain the heliocentric theory, and by the time the Autumnal Equinox had reached the nadir of its Descending Arc, the false geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy had gained full acceptance. The Equinox traveled a thousand years on its Ascending Arc before Copernicus arose to revive the heliocentric theory, and, because he was born in Kali Yuga of the Ascending Arc, he was one of the first founders of modern astronomy, and succeeding centuries saw his work carried on with greater and greater accuracy and expansion.

In fact, the great age of Hellenic glory—the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.,4 when Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Phidias, Pericles, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Meton, Anaxagoras and many other great intellects produced the last great oasis of creative culture in the desert of the Descending Dark Age—has a perfect correspondence in time, according to our Age-Chart, with the next great intellectual revival in the western world. The 15th and 16th centuries, which witnessed the rise of so many stars of learning, are as distant from the nadir, on one side of the equinoctial cycle, as the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. are on the other side. Thus we glimpse—through the connection of the world Ages with the great cycle of equinoctial precession—the measured epochs of our history, and the repetition of opportunity that occurs at equidistant points in that cycle.

1The spiritual and cultural roots of India and China were too firmly embedded to be uprooted by the "equinoctial storm" that swept the other great nations of antiquity into oblivion. The destiny of India and China seems, comparatively, timeless; one 24,000 year equinoctial cycle does not see either the beginning or the end of their racial cycles. These cradles of civilization will live to regain all that they have lost during the Dark Ages of the world.

2This particular year merely measures to the last exact coincidence of the two (Fixed Star and Equinoctial) Zodiacs. The change from one Age to another is not, of course, confined to the one given year; rather, the change manifests itself not only after but also before a new Age. See the October, 1932, East-West for the length of the transition periods which occur between the Ages, and which combine the influences of those two Ages which they connect.

3Biographical histories seldom mention that many of the most eminent founders of modern European astronomy were also devoted students of astrology. Such were Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Newton, Regiomontanus, Flamsteed, first Astronomer Royal of England and the founder of the Greenwich Observatory, and the famous 16th century mathematicians, Jerome Cardan, Lord Napier of Merchiston and Johann Morinus.

4These were also the centuries that produced, in the Orient, Guatama, Confucius and Lao-Tze.

THE root of sorrow lies in the dearth of heroism and courage in the character of the normal man. When the heroic element is lacking in the mental make-up of a person, his mind becomes amenable to the breath of all passing sorrows. Mental conquest brings happiness into life, but sorrow arises out of mental defeat. As long as the conqueror in man is awake, no sorrow can overshadow the threshold of his heart.

There are only two ways in life, one leading to happiness and the other to sorrow. There is no mysticism about life. It is very simple in spite of its complexities. Look at life unmasked in the mirror of your experiences. View time and space as they come to you in the form of problems, experiences, and relations. Look at the perpetual current of emotions, and thoughts that arise within you. Go into the heart of your aspirations, dreams, hopes, and despairs. Dive deep into the mute cravings of your inner self. Life is manifesting itself through all these channels and demanding your highest intelligence, wisdom, love, and vision.

Sorrow is not necessary for the progressive march of life, though seemingly it appears that the birth of joy comes out of pain. In our relative existence, it is evident that the conditions and circumstances as they surround life are either conducive to sorrow or to happiness, as if in their very nature they were either desirable or undesirable.

Essentially, conditions are neither good nor bad; they are always neutral, seeming to be either depressing or encouraging because of the sad or bright attitude of the mind of the individual concerned with them. When the individual sinks below the level of circumstances, he surrenders himself to the influence of bad times, ill luck, and sorrow. If he rises above circumstances by the heroic courage that is in him, all conditions of life, however dark and threatening, will appear like a blanket of mist that will disappear with the warm glance of the sun.

The sorrows of the normal man do not arise out of the conditions of life; they are not inherent in the conditions. They are born out of the weaknesses and infirmities of the human mind and human experiences. Awaken the victor in you, arouse the sleeping hero in you, and lo! no sorrow will ever darken your door.

Sorrow has no being of its own. It has no objective existence. It is in the subjective nature of the fighter. Constantly you affirm it, therefore it exists. Deny it in your mind and it will exist no longer. This is what I call the hero in man. It is his Divine or essential nature. In order to acquire freedom from sorrow, man must assert his heroic self in his daily activities.

Always think that every day is a fresh opportunity on the part of the human Ego to gather more and more exploits of heroism. Meet everybody and every circumstance on the battle field of life with the courage of a hero and the smile of a conqueror. Whatever comes in the way and needs attention is to be considered as a duty. Duty is not imposed on man by any super-power. It is the inherent urge of life toward progression: therefore, duty is action that needs care. Neglect of duty is a source of evil which can be avoided by wisdom.

Mental victory over the conditions of life is fruitful of happiness and also is essential for the furtherance of life’s work. In fact, lack of success in life is caused by failing to hold one’s mentality on the plane of the conquering Ego. The untamable heart may sometimes bleed, but mind should never succumb. Hopes may be shattered, but do not let the Ego accept the frustration. Defeat of the Ego is the only real defeat. Outside of his Ego there is no defeat for man-Heroism is not egoism. It is the native dignity of the Ego, wedded to the Infinite.

Tears and sighs of the battle field of life are the liquid cowardice of a weak mind. Those who give up the fight become prisoners within the walls of their own ignorance. Life is nothing if it is not a continuous overcoming of problems. Every problem that waits for a solution at your hand is the pious duty imposed on you by life itself. Any escape from problems, physically or mentally, is no escape from life, as there can be no life which is not all problems.

Every man is a soldier entrenched in the barbed wire of problems. From all sides problems stare him in the face. His inability to solve a problem as it arises is his mute acceptance of defeat in life at that particular instant. Solve all problems by means of keeping the eye always focused on the ultimate good.

The gradual simplification of problems that press on life from within and without paves the way to freedom. As long as problems remain unsolved in the mind of man, there is no place for freedom, as freedom can never exist with chaos. Clear your mind of all chaos, so that the Bird of Paradise, which is Freedom, can sweep over your whole existence.

THE man who walks with his face to the light will always have his shadow behind him.

He who once realizes the supreme power of his Soul will never again submit to allowing the dust of fallacy to obscure the vision of the Sun of Truth.

A moth, flying just in front of an arc lamp, throws a shadow as large as an eagle on the earth. Our little troubles, great as they seem, make gigantic shadows on the pathway of life, but they pass, with the passing of that which causes them, while the light continues to shine.

The cave man fled from his shadow, until he learned that, although the shadow never stopped pursuing him and was always at his heels or threatening him from the walls of his rocky home, it could not do him harm. Equally powerless to injure man are all the ghosts of his own mind.

"The valley of the shadow of death" is just that and nothing more, and it is quickly crossed by the Soul that knows this truth. This Realization is "the light that shineth in darkness" and, while "the darkness comprehendeth it not," it guides the fearless Soul to the field of Life Eternal.

"When it is evening, ye say: ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning: ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering.’ O, ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye no discern the SIGNS OF THE TIMES?"—Matt. 16:3.

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."—Matt. 24:7.

In the time of change, when a new deliverance is at hand, mortals get excited and panicky, and become extremists and alarmists, while the wise remain actively calm and calmly active. This emotional tendency on the part of unbalanced, unwise mortals runs to either extreme unbelief or extreme belief—the one denies the existence of God, and the other runs after the spirits of the dead, believing that every voice emanating for the Unseen is the voice of God, or Christ, or the spiritual Masters on the astral plane. This condition prevails today more than we suspect and involves a potent Sign of the Times. The wise man, posed and calm, goes right on, observant of all things, adapting himself thereto, obtaining knowledge that applieth to the awakening of the soul in comprehending the times and works of the Almighty.

Know the Present, reason aright, use your Will as reason dictates, not as feeling urges, and act with discrimination under Divine guidance, not permitting the imagination to introduce the evil possibilities of tomorrow, which have no existence, but which, through your thought and ideation, you are in fact creating. Know the Present. Be up with the Signs of the Times, firmly established with faith in God on the side of Truth. Make the Creator, the Great Spirit, the idol of your soul, opening up your understanding to find the Tree of Light and Righteousness of your soul, neither looking for miracles nor phenomena, nor signs of wealth nor affluence, nor fame nor name, but learn HOW TO LIVE and rejoice and do good, and make your neighbor rejoice also, seeking FIRST the kingdom of God, and all good things necessary to your perfection shall be ADDED unto you. This is Wisdom.

The negative Signs of the Times, as foretold by the Master, Jesus, nearly twenty centuries ago, are all familiar to you: Wars and rumors of more wars; perplexity, distress of nations, and earthquakes in divers places.

International Signs: Rebellion, assassinations, dethronement of kings, bankruptcy, and economic chaos. These affect the individual, and we see national signs of unemployment, depression, poverty, hunger, sickness, crime, murder, and suicide.

Mortal life is a warfare, and these unattractive entities are the outer sentinels around the Bivouac of Life, who challenge man and drive him back to God. Poverty, sickness, and death prove man’s disobedience to God’s commands. Rebellion and anarchy prove the disobedience of Governments to the Progressive Spirit with which God created man.

Never was there a time in the history of this particular cycle when mankind was in such a complication of miseries. Truly, as Daniel said, the sign of the end would be a "Time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, and at that time thy people shall be delivered," and this brings us to a brighter side of the signs of the times. This depression and distress of spirit and time of stress in all human affairs, has limits, and when its purpose is accomplished, it shall melt away like snow before the sun in springtime, so, turning from the negative aspect of the signs of the times, what do we find to encourage us?

Speaking of the rearing of that Immortal Edifice of which the Tabernacle in the wilderness and later Solomon’s Temple of gold were symbols, Daniel says: "The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times, and at that time thy people shall be delivered."

This is the deliverance from evil we have prayed for nearly two thousand years in the Lord’s prayer. You think all is dark and hopeless for the future, that this depression, with no work, no money, and Hades round the corner, will always last, whereas you are only learning a valuable lesson of deliverance from the evil yoke of an economic system by which the rich were growing richer and the poor poorer, and their interests an interminable conflict with one another. It takes a situation like the present to make men think and devise a better system. Again we are counselled in the Bible that the days of the locomotive and automobile, and phonograph, are the days of His preparation, when mankind must awake and make himself ready for the deliverance.

Seeing the signs of the times, and knowing it to be the time of the end of the evil aspect of life—the world element, and the establishment of God’s dominion and kingdom in the hearts of men—how shall we prepare ourselves? What is it to be "worthy and well qualified, duly and truly prepared?" First, it is for the reception of Light—the acquisition of wisdom. We must comprehend intellectually what it is all about. "With all thy getting, get understanding."

Secondly: We must rightly apply the knowledge gained and rightly use the power accruing therefrom to the living of a life, ever striving for the light of God’s dominion as we relinquish the old order under the dominion of Satan, and god of this world. The world is without God and without hope, and unless we turn to the higher light, we shall be destroyed, as it is written, "for lack of knowledge."

Christ’s command is: "Come out from among them and be ye separate." Man, the prodigal, must return in humility to the Father’s house. He must come up out of the enemy’s country, where, through the wrong use of reason and will, he wandered and allied himself with the Evil Genius, which caused the Christ to say: "Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." The call is to return to his uprightness, to his manhood, from whence he fell. The deliverance is from the prison-house of matter to the Realization of his true Spiritual nature.

Of all positive Signs of the Times on earth today none is more potent and final than the increase of knowledge, the incoming of Light from far-off regions to our planet through divinely-appointed Vehicles and Their accredited Representatives. No greater Sign shall be given than that of Jonah, the prophet. The warning voice: "Blow ye the trumpet. Sound an alarm in my holy mount." Hence, we say, by the inspiration of the Almighty, which giveth understanding: "Arise, Shine, for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." We speak of the Light of Yogoda, the SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUE OF SALVATION—THE SPIRITUAL TECHNIQUE OF SELF REALIZATION.

With joy we herald the coming of that Messenger, that Interpreter, that One among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness—that man has only been masquerading in the sleep of delusion, as a son of Satan—that God made man upright, but he has sought out many inventions in his dreams, inventions of procreation prompted by memories of the Soul’s experience in a lower kingdom, resulting in compulsory death and reincarnation, thus creating an interminable bondage upon the wheel of birth and death.

Blame not the beneficient Creator for these three-fold works of the evil genius. In all ages He has sent to making His Annointed Ones to show man his uprightness and the way of deliverance. To destroy these works of the devil, Jesus Christ was manifested, our Bible says.

The Light of Yogoda, revealing the way of deliverance from the wheel of birth and death, is the Sign of Signs. Sex creation, sickness, death, and reincarnation were not in the decrees of the Almighty, but are the direct result of man’s wrong use of reason, and outcome of allowing feeling to overcome reason. When man awakens, he will perceive this and seek to know the will of God. Man, in his independence, with freewill and liberty of choice, not only turned a deaf ear once in the long ago, but to this day, in his ignorance, continues to turn a deaf ear to the Voice of the Infinite, as saith the Lord: "Forsaking Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, they hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Man, in ignorance, self-will, and wrong reason, continues to be ruled by his senses, which lead him a sorry chase around the wheel of birth, death, and reincarnation. For a million years and longer this may continue and man, again and again, may "be born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."

The grand essentials of happiness are:

Something to do, something to love,

And something to hope for.

If every person were to make fair play

His objective in his dealings with others,

Most of our problems would disappear,

Many of which have arisen

Because of greed and selfishness.

As I see Him cradled everywhere.

I shall sing the ever-matchless story

Of His love effulgent, now and here.

AS THE chick lives

Imprisoned in a little world

Within its milk-white, oval shell,

And then by some mystery cracks it

And steps out onto the vaster earth, so, also,

Man lives embedded in the little brown ball

Of mundane clod encircled

By the elliptical skiey shell.

The flame of Silence

Bursts the opal blue tunnel of the Inner Eye,

And the Soul Chick is born

In an endless eternal empire of light.

Fellow prisoners of the earth and flesh,

As I lay behind the mystery walls

Of five hundred miles of breath

Which circles o’er the throbbing bosom

Of the globe,

Encompassed by the mighty moat

Of chill space,

I wistfully sought to break through

And escape into my own Lost Kingdom

Of endless ever-new Joy.

As I kept looking

And searching intently

With a burning desire

For a way out, I lost myself

In the prison hall of this earth,

Bedecked with green hills, starry canopy,

Pictures of life and death

Framed with dark human destiny,

Beautiful pictures of scenery,

And portraits of friendly memories

Painted with life’s many colors

On the canvas of my heart.

As I wandered in ecstatic daze

Through this wondrous prison,

I loved to live

Behind its prison bars

Of limitations, in death,

In struggle, in quest of temporal fame,

In broils of Karma, and in pursuit

Of fickle prosperity.

Suddenly I wearied

And became aware of something more,

And cast away the playthings of this beloved,

Charming, mortal prison

And sought some way

To escape from it into Eternity.

In secret, I gathered the steel saws

Of Silence and of Wisdom

And silently began

To saw through the bars of earthly desires,

And lo!

I escaped

Beyond the walls of flesh and beheld

Open doors before me everywhere.

Through the portals of open petals,

Through the molten discs

Of solar and inner rays,

Through every atomic pore,

Through every door of devotion,

Through life and death,

All my living children

Of thought and feelings

Open Mystic doors for me everywhere.

And through them all,

Beholding a glimpse of Thee,

I quenched my thirst.

Finding Thee,

I found my Lost Kingdom

And Freedom at last.