| The Basic Truths to Date These basic truths
never change because they are related to the nature of Deity Itself and have become
apparent to mankind through revelation, as evolution has proceeded and man has developed
the needed perceptive faculties and the required persistence of search, plus the unfolding
of the inner light of the soul. These truths, inherent in the divine nature, reveal the
soul of God. They are:
- The Law of Compassion. This is the truth of right relationship, of loving
understanding, of actively expressed Love. It is the foundation of brotherhood and
the expression of the inner unity. [289]
- The Fact of God. This is the truth that Being is God Immanent and
God Transcendent; it involves the recognition of the great Whole and the related part; it
is the knowledge of divinity, ascertained through right relationship and identity of
origin. It is the revelation of the life of God, pervading all that is (God Immanent), and
of that same life, providing that still greater cosmic relation (God Transcendent) which
is the final guarantee of all progress and of progressive revelation. 'Having pervaded
this whole universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain' is the challenge of Deity and the
eternal hope of humanity. This is the answer of Life Itself to the demands of humanity, to
the enquiries of science and to the whole world problem. God is here, present among us and
in all forms of expression; He includes, pervades and remains beyond. He is greater than
all appearance. He reveals Himself progressively and cyclically as man gets ready for
further knowledge.
- The Continuity of Revelation. Ever down the ages and at each human crisis, always
in the hours of necessity, at the founding of a new race, or in the awakening of a
prepared humanity to a new and wider vision, the Heart of God - impelled by the law of
compassion - sends forth a Teacher, a World Savior, an Illuminator, an Avatar. He gives
the message which will heal, which will indicate the next step to be taken by the race,
which will illumine a dark world problem and give to man an expression of a hitherto
unrealized aspect of divinity. Upon this fact of the continuity of revelation and upon the
sequence of this progressive manifestation of the divine nature is based the doctrine of
Avatars, of divine Messengers, divine Appearances, and inspired Prophets. To all these
history unmistakably testifies.
- The Inevitable Response of Humanity. I have expressed in these simple words the
instinctive spiritual reaction of man and of the undying human spirit to the three above
foundational truths. This divine spirit in humanity must ever, and most surely does,
respond to the divine Appearance. The witness to this is sure and proved. There is that in
[290] mankind which is akin to God and which recognizes its own when it appears. Such is
the unshakable reality in the human heart, and recognition is the inevitable reward and
result of revelation.
- Progress. The reaction of the individual man and of the masses of men to the
continuity of revelation - historically proved - cannot be denied. It is the basic fact of
religion. The types of that revelation may vary but each new revelation - given in
response to human need and demand - has ever led humanity onward towards a steadily
brightening goal and a greater glory. The revelation may come on varying levels of the
human consciousness. It may be the revelation of new lands to conquer, terrestrial or
mental. Some person pointed the way. It may be the recognition of new laws and facts in
nature, scientifically grasped and used; it may be the response of intelligent man to
increased knowledge, producing a new type of civilization. Some liberated spirit pointed
the way. It may be the response of the human heart to the Heart of God, leading to the
mystical beatitude, and to the recognition of spiritual Being. It may be the reaction of
man to some new teaching, some further unfoldment, resulting in a new and enriched
religious approach to the center of life. Some Messenger pointed the way. But always it
has meant progress, a moving forward, a rejection of some existing limitation, a
repudiating of the undesirable and the evil. Always it involves the recognition of the
possible, the ideal and the divine.
- Transcendence. This means the innate capacity to pass beyond so-called natural
law. This surmounting of limitation is ever taking place and this process of transcendence
will call forth increasing recognition. It marks the next major phase in the manifestation
of divinity in man; it signifies domination over physical law and humanity's imminent
triumph over the forces which have for so long held him to earth. Of this transcendence
the present mastery over the air is the symbol. Man is rapidly mastering the four
elements. He cultivates the earth; he rides the waters; he [291] controls the electrical
fires of the planet, and he flies triumphant through the air. The question now emerges:
What, my brothers, next? Another transcendence lies ahead. It is one of the things which
the coming Avatar will reveal.
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