in the organism, and is using it for its own selfish ends. Judas was "a thief." The selfish use of the life and vitality of the organism for the gratification of sense pleasure, robs the higher nature, and it fails in carrying forward the spiritual man. This is the betrayal of Christ, and it is constantly taking place in those who live to fleshly, selfish ends. A time comes, however, when this Judas must be eliminated from consciousness. The agony of mind, and final crucifixion of Jesus, represent the crossing out wholly of the false Ego, Judas. "I die daily," said Paul. The "I" that dies daily is personal limitation, which is made up of fear, ignorance, disease, the lust for material possessions, pride, anger, and the legion of demons that cluster about the personal Ego. The only Savior of this one is Jesus Christ, the spiritual Ego, or superconsciousness. We cannot in our own strength solve the great purifying problem, but by giving ourselves. wholly to Christ, constantly denying the demands of the personal self, we grow into the Divine Image. This is the process through which we "awake in Thý likeness." AFFIRMATIONS. BY URSULA GESTEFELD. With reverent recognition of my birthright, The Infinite Health is made manifest in me. With all that is in me I rejoice and give thanks. God and man are the all in all, now and forevermore. Amen. NOT DEATH BUT TRANSMUTATION. To the Editor of UNITY: As one of your readers I have followed with much interest your endeavor to penetrate the mystery of man's being, and have observed with pleasure your recognition of the claims of Jesus Christ as the world's true guide to the knowledge of the Father. I beg to suggest, however, that there is one principlewhich you acknowledge indeed - but to which you do not give proper place in your system of belief. I refer to a principle which underlies the constitution of the human race, and so determines the mode by which its final perfection is to be realized. It is this, that the human race is an organism in which those whom we call the dead continue to hold place with the living. This makes them fellow members in the corporate body of humanity, and partners with us in the struggle toward the goal. On the one hand, those of us who are still struggling to escape from the errors and vicious propensities inherited from the past, have for our helpers and guardians those who, as victors, have won the crown of life. On the other hand, the imperfect souls who have passed on, and the material of whose shattered lives is more or less woven into the fabric of our earthly life, are helped, and obtain their final deliverance, through the virtues of those who represent them on the earthly plane, and fight over again their battle of life to victory. There is thus an "elect race," who, both on the lower and the higher planes, take part with the Christ in the world's redemption. Each of us, therefore, on this earthly arena is engaged in a contest, not merely against false and materialistic conceptions into which our senses have betrayed us, but one in which we are required to compel the spirits to be subject unto us;' not merely for our own welfare, but for theirs also. Our failures, as well as our successes, affect the whole body of humanity to which we belong. The point I am making is that this struggle of the race out into the light and liberty of sonship to God, is not one merely in the realm of ideas, as the New Thought writers chiefly present it, but one in the realm of Life itself, and of the spiritual powers and potencies that there prevail. The world is just now receiving an object lesson of the wonderful power that lies in the conception of a corporate relation between the living and the dead, in the marvellous achievements and self-sacrificing bravery of the Japanese. This idea has long been the dominant one in their religion. Their ancestor worship is but the surface manifestation of this underlying principle-that the human race is an organism. Although largely lost out of our modern Christianity, this principle is fundamental in the Old Testament revelation, and therefore, since the Christ came to fulfill it, it is essential in Christianity. Strange that Western Christendom should need to receive this new illumination of it from the far East! From this point of view, I am persuaded that you need to enlarge your conception of the mission of the Christ, and of the meaning of the two great facts in it upon which the Christian faith rests - his death and resurrection. These can be understood only in the light of the corporate relation He sustains to the body of mankind. The New Testament represents him as the New Head of the race, which is being gradually lifted up to the new and higher order of manhood into which he passed through the gates of death. His resurrection was the first fruits of this new creation of humanity in the power of an endless life. It carries with it also the promise and the potency of the emancipation of the whole natural order, the cosmos, out into the liberty and glory of the sons of God. Much that you have written does indeed point to him as the great example of that to which we shall attain. But it is deficient in testi mony to him as the power of it, and to the place and office of the "elect race," living and dead, who now share in his risen life, and who, as "the first fruits of God's creatures," are the seed of blessing for the future harvests until "all generations shall call him blessed." And so with regard to your view that this transformation of our humanity may take place through a process of spiritual culture without physical dissolution; this voids the death of Christ of this deep meaning, that even he must pass through this change in order to enter into his glory. Must not we therefore "put off this tabernacle" in order that our mortality may be swallowed up of life? It is true indeed that the more we have now of the "firstfruits of the Spirit," the more marked may be our prelibations of the final victory. But we see no other way in which this "body of humiliation" can be exchanged for "the body of his glory" except through its dissolution.-L. C. BAKER. [We concur in the foregoing very deep and comprehensive production, except in the conclusion that physical dissolution is necessary in order to attain the "body of his glory." We have again and again called attention to the fact that the body of Jesus did not go through dissolution, but was transmuted before his disciples' eyes. "He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." The "cloud" was their own sense consciousness, which is in darkness. The form and character of the body has its foundation in thought. An harmonious thought produces a like condition in the body. This, carried to its ultimate, means complete harmony, or wholeness When this state is attained, the body is no longer subject to disease, and, being indestructible, must necessarially live forever. This transformation and refinement of the organism results in a very high vibration of its atomic structure - - so rapid does its cells vibrate that the fleshly eye cannot receive its light, and it seems to disappear to such an onlooker. But this is in appearance only- the man is still a member of the race, and in close touch with its higher mentality. The recent discovery of the "N-Rays" of the body is a hint in this direction. Here is where Jesus exists; and from whence he is pouring his ideas, which are really spiritual substance and life, out upon all who acknowledge and follow him as the Perfected One, and their bodies are being regenerated as was his. This regenerative process begins in the mind, and through the mind it is transferred to the body. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." We do not, as a rule, enter into the discussion of the Grand Man of the Universe, or the man-organism forming the human race, which our brother in the foregoing letter explains so comprehensively. Our department in the school of Jesus Christ is to instruct individual students. When they "awake in his likeness" they will understand the relation of the whole.-EDITOR.] SOMETHING ABOUT PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. URING the last few months the American press has devoted more space than usual to the discussion of Spiritualism and the claims of Spiritualists. Mrs. Piper's letterreading performances in Brooklyn have been studied by friend and foe, and various opinions have been offered as to her being a genuine psychic, or a fraud and imposter. Mrs. Piper claims to read sealed letters by the aid of disembodied spirits. My opinion in this matter and upon the entire subject has been asked by many correspondents. I agree with a famous Judge of the Supreme Court of New Orleans, La., who recently remarked to me that proof of the existence of the mind of men after death was the most important matter in the whole world. I have never seen Mrs. Piper or Mrs. Pepper, both noted "psychics," or mediums. But I have seen hundereds of others of various kinds of demonstrations, and I have studied the subject for at least twenty years; first with curiosity, then with care and calmness, and during the last two years from a most satisfactory and scientific standpoint. I use the word "scientific" fearlessly, however the purely physical scientist may question my right. If he will give as much time and application to the subject as I have done, he will come to an understanding of my right to employ the phrase. It is interesting to find such men as Bishop Samuel Fallows, Minot Savage, Heber Newton, Dr. Funk, and Edgar M. Webster, a prominent physician of Chicago, all acknowledging a belief in the sometimes communication of the living with the dead, or rather.the embodied with the disembodied souls. It is not only interesting, but gratifying, because it lends dignity to this important and beautiful study, |