# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1916_S407
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Vermischtes. 407

purpose of this Organization is to study ancient and modern re-
ligion, science, philosophy, and art; to investigate the laws of Nature
and theé divine powers in man.“ „Theosophy is sometimies called the
Wisdom Religion, béecause from immemorial time it has comprised
knowledge of all the laws governing the spiritual, tlie mental, the
moral, and the material worlds. The theorv of Naturé and of life
which it offers is not one that was at first speculatively laid down,
and then proved by adjusting facts or cçonelusions to fit it, but is
an explanation of existence, cosmie and individual, derived from
knowledge reached by those Who have acquired the power to sée be-
hind the curtain that hides the operations of Nature from the
ordinary mind. Such Beings aré called Sages, using theé term in its
highest sense.“ Theosophy holds that it is à misuse of terms to say
that theé spiritual naturé cau be cultivated. The real object to be kept
in view is to open up or make porous the lower nature (through puri-
Hcation, self-Control, and self-mastery), that the spiritual nature may
shine through it and become the guide and ruler.“ „This spiritual
culture' is only attainable as the grosser interests, passions, and de-
mands of the flesh are subordinated to the interests, aspirations, and
needs of the higher nature. This spirit can only become the ruler
when the firm intellectual acknowledgment or admission is first made
that 11 alone is. And eit being not only the person concerned, but
also the whole, all the selfishness must bé eliminated from the lower
nature before its divine state can be reached. So long as the smallest
personal or selfish desire — even for spiritual attainment for our own
sake — remains, so long is the end desired put off.“ „When sys⸗
téematically trained in accordance with the aforesaid system and law,
men attain to clear insight into the immaterial, spiritual world, and
their interior faculties apprehend truth as immediately and readily
as physical faculties grasp the things of sense, or mental faculties
those of reason. Or, in the words used by some of them, They are
able to look directly upon ideas'; and hence their testimony to such
truth is as trustworthy as is that of seientists or philosophers to truth
in their respective fields. In the course of this spiritual training
such men aeduiré perception of, and cçontrol over, various forces in
Nature unknovn to other nien, and are thus able to perform works
usually called miraculous, though really but the result of larger
knowledge of natural law. Their teéstimony as to supersensuous
truth, verified by their possession of such powers, challenges candid
examination from éevery religious mind.“ „Upon the subject of Man
Theosophy teaches: I. That cach spirit is a manifestation 0F tho
One Spirit, and thus à part of all. It passes through a series of ex-
periences in incarnation, and is destined to ultimate reunion with the
Divine. 2. That this incarnation is not single, but repeated, each
individuality becoming reembodied during numerous existences in