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Journey
The Unfolding
At length came the time when the
Voice of Unity should speak and declare to the People, without the need of
Priests or Priest-craft, without miracles save those that happen now an
always in the spiritual world, without mystery, save those mysteries which
unfold themselves in the growing inner experience of man and his vision of
God -- to declare with unfaltering voice the Unity of God, the Brotherhood
of Man, and Grace and Mercy, Bounty and Love, poured out in unstinted
measure forever and ever.
The Healing Light
And
this great healing light shone among a people steeped in ignorance, brave and
free, but without cohesion or union, simple and rude, but with an easy
familiarity with Nature, accustomed to Nature's hardships and her rugged
resistance to man, but dreaming of the delights of gardens and fruitful fields,
cruel, yet with a rough sense of equality, and wielding a tongue, flexible,
beautiful, and able to respond, with brevity and eloquence, to the sublimest
thoughts which man could conceive.
Love & Justice
Who were fit to be vehicles of this light? -- not men intoxicated with words and
mysteries, men whom politics had debauched or tyranny had subdued, men whose
refinements had ended in vices, who saw Nature only through books or artificial
conceits, or in moods which bred softness, indolence, or luxury, who spoke of
love and justice but practiced gross selfishness between class and class, sex
and sex, condition and condition; and had perverted their language, once
beautiful, into jargons of empty elegance an unmeaning futility.
Exclusive Arrogance
For the glory of Hellas,
and her freedom and wisdom had departed; Rome's great systems of law,
organization and universal citizenship had sunk into the mire of
ecclesiastical formalism, and dogmatism, and exclusive arrogance; the living
fire of Persia's prophet scarce smoldered in her votaries of luxury; in
India, countless castes and kingdoms cancelled the unity of Buddha's
teaching; the wounds of China had not yet been healed by T'ang culture; and
Japan was still a disciple of China.
The Spreading Light
Then, in the sacred city of pagan Arabia, shone a light that spread in all
directions. It was centrally placed for the bounds of the world of men's
habitations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It made the Arabs the leading nation of
culture and science, of organized enterprise, law, and arts, with a zeal for the
conquest of Nature and her mysteries. |
