necessity for the inculcation of a special doctrine of the inner light. But, from the time when Christianity became external, an authoritative religion with official representatives, the foundations were gradually laid for the age-long conflict between the right of individual thought and the canons of ecclesiastical rulers. Thus a doctrine of the inner light became a necessity, and that which originally had been a natural accompaniment of all religious beginnings, became a prize to be won by utmost skill in evading persecution and the inquisition.

Jesus besought all men to look within where the Father had already provided guidance for all. The ecclesiastical authorities bade all men obey the dictates of venerable creeds and formalities. It. became heretical to announce anything new, and thus the life went out of the inner world; and the supreme principle of the inner light was completely obscured, namely, the law that to be true to its guidance one must be ready to break with the past, must constantly grow.

One of the earliest of medieval philosophers to prepare the way for the recovery of the inner authority was Abelard, born in Brittany in 1079, who taught that reason is independent of theology, and is capable not only of explaining theology, but of enouncing doctrines of its own. Arnold of Brescia carried this heresy to Italy, in return for which he won banishment and finally public execution in Rome, in 1155. The humanism of the Renaissance was of incalculable assistance in preparing the way, as its whole tendency was the emphasis of human right, the right to be an individual, to be broadly cultivated, and cherish new thoughts. Montaigue was a thorough individualist, and one might deduce the entire doctrine of the inner light from his essays. Emerson classifies Montaigue as a skeptic, yet his skepticism was really a vindication of the right to think. He doubts external authority only to turn with firm conviction to listen to his own soul.

But it was the religious reformation in Germany which furnished the fullest opportunity for the development of the inner light. The authority of the pope had been discarded, and a new authority had to be substituted. This was ostensibly found in the Bible, yet it was more truly the right of individual reason. Direct personal experience thus became the foundation of religion, and once more religion was a live thing, not a dead husk or shell. Luther believed in the natural man, as opposed to the merely ecclesiastical man. Melancthon supported him by actually enouncing a doctrine of the "natural light." The way was now open for freer individual development, although for many generations it was necessary for philosophers ostensibly to agree with theology while secretly cherishing doctrines too heretical even for Protestants to tolerate. Jean Bodin, a French liberal thinker of this period, wrote a book so heretical that for ages it was known only in manuscript form and was not published until 1841. Yet the heresy which caused the withholding of this book was the simple principle that a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Jew and a Mohammedan, might meet on a basis of spiritual equality, each one retaining his own faith!

Lord Herbert of Cherbery was a firm believer in the inner voice, and greatly aided the development of religious naturalism in England. Finally, Jacob Boehme rose from the humblest ranks in Germany and developed a complete mystical doctrine on the basis of the soul's inspiration. With him the inner light became a purely spiritual sense, and he seems as free from external authority as the great prophets. of old, or the seers of our own time.

The growth of inner individual experience was greatly aided by the growth of science. Here the bondage to be thrown off was not merely the ecclesiastical authority, but the scholastic interpretation of Aristotle, so long the accepted theory of nature. Nicolas of Cusa made a great stride toward

freedom of scientific thought when he declared that all our points of view are relative. The discoveries of Capernicus and Galileo greatly strengthened this position, and the growth of individual thought might have proceeded as triumphantly in Italy as in Germany had it not been for the martyrdom of Giordano Bruno, and the caution in expression of scientific opinions which his fate inspired. Galileo dared not stand by his private thought, but set an example which was followed by many who might otherwise have made a great reputation in natural philosophy. Descartes was cowardly enough to conceal his acceptance of the Capernican astronomy beneath a subterfuge, while he hardly dared to express himself on ethical questions. No one will ever know how great a wealth of knowledge was hidden in the minds of those who dared not express it lest it conflict fatally with the doctrines of the church. Even Hobbes, who thought out a complete system on a materialistic foundation, taught that religion is an affair of the state, and his doctrine is rather a reaction against the liberalism of the Renaissance and the Reformation than a development of free thought. And Spinoza was presecuted by both Jews and Protestants, even in free Holland.

Every well informed reader knows more or less about the persecutions endured by George Fox and the other Quakers. This brings us to our Own country, whither many of the Quakers came. It brings us to Unitarianism in its struggle with orthodoxy, to Emerson and more recent times, when the inner light is the guide of millions of liberal thinking men. The subject is so familiar today that we forget the ages in which men struggled to attain the freedom we now enjoy. To think once more of those ages is to discover what a priceless possession we now enjoy when the inner light is at once the inspiration of an art and of science.

BY MRS. A. A. PEARSON.

[A paper read before the Kansas City Mid-week meeting ] The prime motives of all the schools of philosophy, the real object of all the different sects of religion, and even the underlying principle of the Society of Psychical Research, is summed up in this one word. The story of the "Prodigal Son" is being enacted every day; if it were not so, there would be no wars, no strife, no inharmony in our national or individual affairs. We wander away from our "Father's house." The "pride of the eye, the lust of the flesh," and we are beginning to discover another influence far more insiduous in its nature. I refer to the subtle influence of mind substance dominating from the mentality of those around us. We too often allow ourselves to be drawn under the whirlpool rapids of the world's mental Niagara. Darwin says "we evolve," but it looks very like we revolve, going round and round, sometimes up and sometimes down, sometimes forward and sometimes backward, but always reaching out after our own idea of perfection. This dissatisfaction with our present state is proof to me that the origin of our species" was perfect Being. That something within us called "natural longing,' that disposition to cry out against, indicates better conditions beyond. We catch glimpses of, we reach out after, but we do not always grasp that which is always within our reach, and with some of us, even after we have gotten hold of, but do not hold fast to. There is nothing the mental eye can see that is not ours to possess, if we go after it in the right way, and are persistent in our purpose and steadfast in our efforts. The earnest cry of the socalled "fallen race" is but the soul's effort to get back. Every tear of sorrow, every sensative sigh indicates that. But how-ah, "there's the rub," for often our efforts end in disappointment; for, like the

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end of the rainbow or the mirage on the desert, the point of satisfaction is just beyond, always a little ahead.

We will never reach that place of perfect satisfaction until we are redeemed, re-established, restored, renewed - renewed from center to circumference, just as all other things in nature grow. There is a secret

in the method we all must learn. There is a shadow in our pathway through which we all must go. There is a dark chamber in front of the Shekinah where the silence is so profound that its stillness can be felt. Once possessed of that secret, we become invulnerable. To get in that shadow is to be hid with the Almighty. We come to a point in our journey where we see that even the shadows have their blessed purpose, for they come between us and the scorching heat of our mortal passions. They stop us on our downward way; they shut out from our view many undesirable things. In that shadow we first feel the omnipresence; in that stillness we hear the voice of conscience; in that silence we commune with the Good.

One single moment spent with Omnipresence will do more to heal our diseases than all the medicine concocted by the apothecary. One real conviction of the Omnipotent Good will do more to dry our tears of sorrow, to calm the troubled waters of strife, than all the human sympathy in the world. One single ecstatic sense of your atonement (at-one-ment) will establish your reconciliation with the Father, will awaken you to the knowledge of your own omniscience. You literally come back to your own, you find the lost trail, you get on the right track, because you come over to where you belong, you re-establish your oneness with the source of your being. But there is one thing upon which your success or failure depends - your will. Desire prompts, wisdom leads, necessity probes, pushes us on, but willingness alone will let you in. In this attitude of willingness there is a letting-go of that which hinders. Buoyant is the