A renowned Professor in one of our leading American Universities has recently said: "Not a mere shifting of lines, but a change of base; not a mere readjustment of details, but a reconstruction of Christian Theology is now necessary. There can be little doubt in the mind of the thoughtful observer, that we are now on the eve of the greatest change in traditional beliefs that has taken place since the birth of Christianity. But let us not be at all disturbed thereby. For as then, so now, change comes not to destroy but to fulfil."

One more citation may be made illustrative of still broader interpretations: those of what we may term World-Theology, or the new, but already well established and widely studied science, known as Comparative Religion. That profound and honored scholar, Professor Max Müller, a few years ago concluded a personal letter to the author (which may be found on one of the introductory pages of the volume called Ancient Sacred Scriptures of the World) with these words: "There never was a false God, nor was there ever really a false Religion-unless one may call a child a false The true religion of the future will be the fulfilment of all the religions of the past-the true religion of humanity, that which in the struggle of history remains as the indestructible portion of all the so-called false religions of mankind."

man.

The citations now made indicate the position, the method, and the spirit of all that will be found in the following pages.

3. "The originals are not original." Except in phrase, dress, fresh statement or re-arrangement "there is no new thing under the sun "-no new Thought, no new Truth. Whoever professes to be "original" displays mingled superficiality and conceit. Every wisest speaker or writer takes pains to say with Confucius, "I only hand on "; or with Jesus, "I came to fulfil." All truth" was in the beginning" as God's eternal Logos, "is now and ever shall be." There is no more, no less; except as the expanded vision enlarges its Revelation or the contracted vision shuts it out. It is

all a matter of the enlargement of vision; and this is all a matter of clean hearts and clear minds. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and mind." All true Seers see the same everlasting Truth; the cleaner their hearts and the clearer their minds the more expansive their vision. No true Seer can contradict another, for he sees the same things. Neither can he "add unto nor take away from": for Truth is a constant quantity "the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Neither can he turn or change it into something new, for Truth is the "Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,"-"the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." This scriptural and rational teaching will explain the following marked features of this volume:

(a) Its rejection of the common belief that there is an exclusive Revelation, a chosen line of Prophets, a deposit of Truth, a Faith once for all delivered to the Saints, a favorite People of God, or a one and only True Church.

(b) Its rejection of the common belief that the Seers of the Jewish and Christian religions saw different Truth from that which the Seers of other religions had seen-though doubtless they saw wider, and deeper, and higher, on account of that enlargement of vision which resulted from cleaner hearts and clearer minds.

(c) Its rejection of the common belief that absolutely new Truth is found in the Bible; and its constant affirmation that, so far as they go, all Religions reveal the same Eternal Truth.

(d) Its strong affirmation that "sacred" Scriptures are modern as well as ancient; that the "canon" of Divine Revelations has but just reached its Alpha Volume; that there are Seers to-day (or ought to be) as many and as great as ever were “raised up" in all the Past-nay, more and greater they ought to be: that Inspiration includes everything that is "pure, and beautiful, and good"; that all "holy' men (and women) are "inspired of God," and that the Old* Testament Prophecy has, as yet, only just begun to be ful

filled-"It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on all my servants and on all my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy." Such is the promised and ever-ready-to-be-conferred-Enlargement of Vision to all Mankind; so that all may be Seers whenever they fulfil the essential conditions-clean hearts, and clear minds. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and mind,"-then shalt thou too become one of God's Prophets, as well as one of His Saints and Sons.

66

But when we in our viciousness grow hard,

O misery on't! the wise gods seal our eyes

Make us

Adore our errors, laugh at us while we strut
To our confusion."

vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that

Blessed are those that are both pure in heart and clear in mind for they do see God.

What is true of seers or prophets in religion is equally true in every other department of human advancement. "The same idea, or invention, or discovery, has come about in many parts of the world at the same time. Strange views break out all over the globe by apparent spontaneity. Hardly ever is an important discovery made by one man alone. The correlation of force was simultaneously announced in three countries. The discovery of Neptune was announced by a Frenchman coincident with its determination by an Englishman. Chloroform was discovered on the same day by two men independently. Darwin and Wallace and Haeckel, without intercommunication, propounded simultaneously the hypothesis of evolution. It is as when mountain tops of equal height catch the morning sunbeam at the same moment. When races or individuals reach an equal height they touch the same ideas. Egyptians, Chinese, Mexicans, and Peruvians, all independently discovered the making of bronze. The Chinese, the Mayas, and the Germans invented the printingpress. Confucius, Zoroaster, and Jesus independently promulgated the golden rule." ("Our Heredity from God.")

4. In this volume (except in the introductory pages, and pages 19-22) no names of authors cited or quoted from are given. All citations and extracts are indicated by the usual quotation marks. The special reason for this is that no citations have been made or extracts included but such as are axiomatic or self-evident-to all who combine the three attainments of moral purity, intellectual honesty, and unselfish love of truth. For none others than those who have attained (or are hungering and thirsting to attain) these, is this volume designed. General reasons for this omission of names may be found in Section XXXV., page 53, "All Sacred Scriptures are Anonymous," and in Section XXXVI., page 54," Hiding Self behind Truth."

5. An unusual number of italicized words, of words beginning with a capital letter, as also an unusual number of general marks of punctuation have been designedly used throughout the volume. The author has thus tried to make clear his meaning in passages that otherwise would (almost certainly) be wrongly understood, and unfairly represented by any sectarian or otherwise prejudiced person who might take the trouble to read or to glance through the pages. The mechanism of a book is of far less account than its meaning; and to be understood (especially in controverted or debatable statements) is of far greater importance than to follow approved methods of punctuating sentences or of printing words.

6. Sharp phrases and ofttimes seemingly severe (especially in the sections entitled Degeneration of Christianity, Tendency to Revert in Protestantism, Mercenary Conformity, Double-tongued Esotericism, and Hireling-Priests) will be found, and by some will be objected to. The author has been conscience-compelled in the use and retention of these. Many times did he propose to strike them out or to modify them. But, convinced that they were truths, and truths that needed to be spoken; convinced that it was only cowardice or fear of being criticised that suggested their omission or their smoothing down, at last the resolve was fixed to retain them, and to retain them unchanged. Every sharp

word and every severe rebuke, as well as every dissenting or (seemingly) heretical opinion expressed in this volume has been many times re-considered; and written and re-written "with all humility of mind and with many tears."

"Then answered one of the lawyers (Doctors of Divinity) and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he said, Woe unto you also ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne. . . . Woe unto you! for you build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. .. Woe unto you! for ye have had taken away the key of knowledge ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindred." "You wish pleasanter words . . and very likely consider my preference for such plain words a perverse sort of a partiality on my part . . . you wish I had not thrust them so butt-foremost at you,-you wish to use milder terms. Well, I admit there may be just a dash of perversity in their choice. The spectacle of the mere word-grabbing game played by the soft-determinists has perhaps driven me too violently the other way; The question is of things, not of eulogistic names for them; and the best word is the one that enables men to know the quickest whether they disagree or not about the things.... Any other words permit of quibbling and let us, after the fashion of the soft-determinists, make a pretence of restoring the caged bird to liberty with one hand, while with the other we anxiously tie a string to its leg to make sure it does not get beyond our sight."-[Prof. JAMES in "The Will to Believe."]

"'T is an unweeded garden

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it chiefly."

"The time is out of joint; O cursed spite

That ever I was born to set it right."

(O blessed privilege that I may help to set it right.)

Though all can never be wrong-the existence of even one faithful soul to recognize wrong, or to protest against it, means that something, at least, is right-yet there is always something wrong somewhere, which each of us was probably born to help set right.. When we examine it, moreover, we shall probably find that it is not something wholly new which we are required to do, but something in the line of what has been already done; developing and extending to a new case a principle already recognized."

Divine Fatherhood and Human Brotherhood constitute the Religion of Jesus. This simple character Christianity retained for two centuries. Then the union of the Church with the State, its corruption by heathenism and its assumption of temporal power remanded the simple teachings of Jesus to the background and gave supernaturalism the control of Christianity for centuries. There have always been individuals and sects to keep alive in the Church the