The Theosophical Society in America, as such is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an official document. S IGNS multiply of the coming of the Great White Dawn. During the long spaces of the night, minute follows minute, hour drags on after hour, with little change. Darkness and silence blend all things in one. But when the time of darkness is past, and the coming of the day-star is at hand, the first faint gray of the East grows white with ever added swiftness. Then the white reddens. Red passes into gold, heralding the lord of day. Meantime all nature is awakening into light and song, and every moment brings new change, new awakening. While night lasted, it was easy to enumerate the changes: darkness succeeding darkness, with only the majestical stars wheeling silently westward through the clear ether. But when dawn comes, light and color and song are poured forth with such swift richness that one can. no longer record their quick succession. Some such dawn has come upon us, after long years of quiet preparation. We see on all hands the ideals triumphing, for which we fought what seemed for years a hopeless fight. The spirit of peace is enfolding mankind with gentle wings, and universal brotherhood is the spoken ideal on many lips in all lands. And not on lips only, but in gentle and aspiring hearts. The recognition of spiritual reality behind this painted veil of appearances spreads swiftly too, and we are confronted with our own ideals, which greet us with the smile of victory. What we have long taught and held, that this personal self is but the apparition and minister of the Higher Self, is now meeting with ever fuller recognition. It has come as an ideal, knocking at the hearts of men, and they have opened the door and made welcome the guest. The old hard forms of thought, the materialism and dogmatism which made men's minds rigid and dark, have not been piece by piece destroyed. They have been laid aside; they have melted away of themselves. They find themselves without defenders. Their case goes by default. A generation ago, the most powerful minds, the most persuasive voices were on the side of materialism. Those voices are now stilled, and no others are there to take up their message. The voices of the new day speak no longer for things material but for things spiritual. Very noteworthy among these signs of the coming Dawn is the change which is passing over Theology, not in one land, but in all lands, not in one Church, but in all Churches. It is not that the old, hard views have been hammered to pieces, but that they are quietly laid aside. New ideals, first conceived in the silence of the heart, have come forth as eloquent thought and speech, and the miracle is accomplished. Very noteworthy among the records of this new awakening within the Churches is a book which has just appeared, entitled, The New Theology. Its author is one of the most popular preachers in England, the Reverend R. J. Campbell, Minister of the City Temple in London. The book has had instant success, drawing the minds of all, as did the sermons from which the book gradually grew. It has been praised or blamed in a hundred sermons, in a hundred churches. Articles have been written for and against the views put forth. New editions have been called for, and the New Theology, albeit the book is only a few months old, is already an accomplished fact. We shall try to give the essence of its teaching, at first without comment, leaving the book to testify for itself. Here is the view of the New Theology concerning God. It begins with the thought that all religion is the recognition of an essential relationship between the human soul and the great whole of things of which the soul is the outcome and expression. The mysterious universe is always calling, and, in some form or other, we are always answering. There is in the background of experience a conviction that the unit is the instrument of the All. Religion is implied in all activities in which man aims at a higher-than-self. But religion, properly so-called, begins when the soul consciously enters upon communion with this higher-than-self as with an all-comprehending intelligence. Religion is the soul instinctively turning toward its source and goal. What name are we to give to this higher-than-self whose presence is so unescapable? The name matters comparatively little, but it includes all that the ordinary Christian means by God. The word "God" stands for many things, but to present-day thought it must stand for the un-caused Cause of all existence, the unitary principle implied in all multiplicity. "When I say God," says the author of The New Theology, "I mean the mysterious Power which is finding expression in the universe, and which is present in every tiniest atom of the wondrous whole. I find that this Power is the one reality I cannot get away from, for, whatever else it may be, it is myself. Whatever distinctions there may be within the universe, it is clear that they must all be transcended and comprehended within infinity. There cannot be two infinities, nor can there be an infinite and also a finite beyond it, What infinity may be, we can have no means of knowing. We can predicate nothing with confidence concerning the all-comprehending unity wherein we live and move and have our being, save and except as we see it manifested in that part of our universe which lies open to us." The wide sweep of rock and sea and sky tells us of "a beneficent stillness, an eternal strength, far above and beyond these finite tossings. It whispers the word impossible to utter, the word that explains everything, the deep that calleth unto deep. So my God calls always to my deeper soul, and tells me I must read Him by mine own highest and best, and by the highest and best that the universe has yet produced." But why is there a universe at all? Why has the unlimited become limited? The reason may be, that this infinite universe of ours is one means to the self-realization of the infinite. "Supposing God to be infinite consciousness, there are still possibilities to that consciousness which it can only know as it becomes limited. Those to whom this thought is unfamiliar have only to look at their own experience in order to see how reasonable it is. You may know yourself to be a brave man, but you will know it in a higher way if you are a soldier facing the cannon's mouth; you will know it in a still different way if you have to face the hostility and prejudice of a whole community for standing by something which you believe to be right. It is one thing to know that you are a lover of truth; it is another thing to realize it when your immediate interest and your immediate safety would bid you hedge and lie. Do not these facts of human nature and experience tell us something about God? To all eternity God is what He is and never can be other, but it will take Him to all eternity to live out all that He is. In order to manifest even to Himself the possibilities of His being God must limit that being. There is no other way in which the fullest self-realization can be attained." Thus we get two modes of God,-the infinite, perfect, unconditioned, primordial being; and the finite, imperfect, conditioned and limited being of which we are ourselves expressions. And yet these two are one, and the former is the guarantee that the latter shall not fail in the purpose for which it became limited. "Thus to the question, Why a finite universe? I should answer, Because God wants to express what He is. His achievement here is only one of an infinite number of possibilities. God is the perfect poet Who in creation acts His own conceptions. This is an end worthy alike of God and man. The act of creation is eternal, although the cosmos is changing every moment, for God is ceaselessly uttering Himself through higher and ever higher forms of existence. We are helping Him to do it when we are true to ourselves To put it in homely, everyday phraseology, God is getting at something and we must help Him. We must be His eyes and hands and feet; we must be laborers together with Him. This fits in with what science has to say about the very constitution of the universe; it is all of a piece; there are no gaps anywhere. It is a divine experiment without risk of failure, and we must interpret it in terms of our own highest." The real universe must be infinitely greater and more complex than the one which is apparent to our physical senses. "Suppose we were endowed to hear and see sounds and colors a million times greater in number than those of which we have at present any cognizance! What kind of a universe would it be then? But that universe exists now; it is around us and within us; it is God's thought about Himself, infinite and eternal. It is only finite to a finite mind, and it is more than probable that spiritual beings exist with a range of consciousness far greater than our own, to whom the universe of which we form a part must seem far more beautiful and fuller of meaning than it seems to us. Imagine a man who could only see gray hues and could only hear the note A on the keyboard. His experience would be quite as real as ours, and indeed would be the same up to a point, but how little he would know of the world as we know it. The glory of the sunset sky would be hidden from him; for him the melting power of the human voice, or of a grand cathedral organ, would not exist. So, no doubt, it is in a different degree with us all. The so-called material world is our consciousness of reality exercising itself along a strictly limited plane. We can know just as much as we are constituted to know, and no more. But it is all a question of consciousness. The larger and fuller a consciousness becomes, the more it can grasp and hold of the consciousness of God, the fundamental reality of our being as of everything else." Nowadays we hear a great deal about the subconscious mind, as it is most clumsily called; the sub-liminal or supra-liminal consciousness; the consciousness above the threshold of our habitual personal selves. This supra-liminal consciousness, this "consciousness above the threshhold," seems to be the seat of inspiration and intuition, according to the author of The New Theology. The thoughts which are most valuable are those which come unbidden, rising to the surface of consciousness from unknown depths. The best scientific discoveries are made in much the same way; the investigator has an intuition and forth |