Man looks out upon nature with a conscious sovereignty. Though at birth the most helpless of beings, by virtue of the quality and capabilities of his mind, he steadily advances towards a state of supreme command, he subdues and domesticates animals vastly his superiors in brute force. He constructs tools and implements to facilitate his work, he bends the forces of nature to his service.

Other forms of animal life adapt themselves to conditions as they find them, or enjoy but a limited and specific instinct for self-assertion; as the bee in building its hive, the beaver in constructing dams, the bird in making its nest. But these are in no sense comparable to the powers of mind with which man contemplates the material universe. To him it is a workshop, a theatre for achievement; matter is but the crude material in which his ideals shall be wrought.

He clothes himself not merely by necessity, but according to fancy. Nor does he stop, in the matter of habitation, at simple protection from the elements; he is imbued with an aesthetic instinct, he aspires not merely for comfort, but elegance. Stately architectural structures spring into being at his word of command, and imposing public edifices and worshipful temples arise.

He banishes night by artificial light, which within its sphere even rivals the sun in brilliancy and chemical force. Within enclosed areas he controls the extremes of heat and cold, creating and maintaining artificial seasons and temperature at will.

The wind and waterfall are utilized, machinery invented and constructed for almost every conceivable purpose, while the expansive force of steam is invoked to impel and thus increase the productive capacity of man a thousand-fold.

The steamship and locomotive equalize the commodities of the four quarters of the earth, while the telegraph and printing-press lay beside his breakfast table the events of the habitable globe.

In order to realize how vastly man has distanced the ox, the horse, the elephant, and all other known animals, we have but to glance at the classified stores of fact and knowledge in the departments of agriculture, horticulture, floriculture; the wealth of experience and knowledge in the mechanical arts, the researches of geology, the vast discoveries of natural wealth in oil, coal, the various metals and minerals, their expeditious manipulation and practical uses. Nor can we overlook the profound spirit of investigation with the resultant brilliant record of chemistry which, together with mathematics and astronomy, has enabled him to analyze, weigh, measure, and wonderfully interpret the laws of matter and

space.

Mind is the great subjective fact at the center of this extended realm of objective possibilities, and though the domain we have contemplated is regally stupendous, the significance of a man outweighs it all, and at best material research, achievement and discovery but brings him to the threshold of true existence; for man is something more than matter.

Geologically speaking there was a time when God said, "Let there be light". The dense vapors which enveloped the earth, shutting out the face of the sun, were rolled away and the vivifying rays of the sun of our planetary system fell full upon the surface of the earth, giving nature a grand impulse forward in the evolution of a human race.

The spirit of the nineteenth century is crying "Let there be light." It is but the echo of God's Spirit moving in the expanse of man's spiritual nature, rolling away the clouds of mental and moral night, that we may come to know the true import and value of being; for we are, so to speak, privileged to be a people" clothed with the sun." Though many are prone to be like the early cave-dwellers of the earth who knew comparatively little about the power and glory of light, the time has arrived when in the economy of the universe, the mental, moral, and vital atmosphere of man is being clarified, and we are coming to understand more substantially that there is a luminous presence above and behind life, a something that gives potency to the faculties of the mind, and health and vitality to the powers of the body.

Even the most material philosophies acknowledge the presence and operation of an all-pervading principle of nature, and, furthermore, that its manifestations are those of order and intelligence. The human mind is the key-board wherein this intelligence finds concentric expression, and by virtue of the complex and wonderful arrangement of the brain we are in possession of faculties, by which we may not only fathom the domain of nature, but explore the boundless realms of thought itself.

While man is a most wonderful complex of matter, yet the intuition and philosophy of all ages has had a deep conviction of the fact that the real man is something infinitely more enduring and truly substantial than the ever-changing material of which his earthly body is formed. In short, the most enlightened are rapidly coming to accept that all phases of organized existence are but the outbirth of an underlying spiritual cause. If matter assumes the form of a flower, a tree, a bird, there is a spiritual cause and necessity for its so doing. In accordance with the same law earthly substance assumes the human shape and semblance because of an indwelling force, which is the true and very man; while the material body is simply an adjustment of the spiritual man to the conditions of a material universe.

It is an important step forward, when we are able to discriminate between the spiritual, the immortal or real man, and the mere semblance or material structure built up for his convenience and use in this life. Therefore, as we have a spiritual body within our natural body, so within our natural brain we have a spiritual brain, composed of spiritual or true substance.

We have shown how the brain is related to the outward universe through the senses. In a similar manner the spiritual or living mind is conjoined to the spiritual universe. We duly commiserate the misfortune of being blind or deaf to the sights and sounds of this world; but blindness and deafness to the things of the intellectual and spiritual universe is a calamity of far greater magnitude, and one of lamentable prevalence. We perceive that God is a Spirit to be worshiped in spirit and truth, hence the necessity of activity and wakefulness on the spiritual side of being. We can readily understand, in view of man's spiritual opacity, why Christ should say to Nicodemus," Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The fact seems to stare us in the face, that, by some strange eclipse or divergence, the race is involved in an illusory life of the senses. That which should be least has become the greatest, while the vital, living, and truly real side of being has been ignored or cast down. Nevertheless the spiritual is the true and we must set

ourselves to discern how this new birth or re-adjustment of forces can be effected. This is especially rendered necessary from the fact that every vestige of disease, inharmony, or evil that is known to earth primarily comes from the lack of comprehension and conformity to the laws of our spiritual being. Therefore, if the fountain-head is not pure how can we expect "sweet waters?"

This brings us to the consideration of a pivotal and fundamental principle of spiritual being, viz., the existence of a spiritual sun, which is the primal center of all occult thought and philosophy. The great wonder is not so much that such a sun should exist, as that man should have become so nearly oblivious of this spiritually thrilling fact. As the spiritual man is the real man, and the body, so to speak, but its ever-changing garment so the spiritual sun is the real sun, while the bright center of our solar system is but an outward symbol, a vast electric light created and sustained by the spiritual sun.

Whichever way we turn we find the operations and limitations of natural law, everything is done according to method and system, nothing happens by chance, everything has its cause. The phenomenon of life is regulated by law as well as the revolution of suns and planets. Their sufficient and ever-present cause and law is the spiritual sun, whose rays are more important to the things of our spiritual being than the rays of the natural sun are to the outward life of nature.

The spiritual sun falls upon the faculties of the mind like living light. It is the luminous and vital principle of thought. Its presence is inspiration and power to the heart and affections; it is the true well-spring of life.

While the sun of our planetary system is a representative of natural fire, the sun of spiritual being is the fire of life itself. Its every ray is instinct with thought and affection. It endows man with true humanity and personality. It shines for universal man whether in the body or out of the body. It is by virtue of its potency that men and angels are, and continue to be. It is the all-pervading and ever-present Comforter or Holy Ghost. It is the true Olympic or Divine energy whose presence is in the earth like a mountain of power, only requiring suitable states on man's part for its abounding and mighty revelation.

As the sun of the natural world shines alike for the evil as well as the good, so also does the spiritual sun shine for all, regardless of religious faith or previous conditions, the difference or degree of reception being solely due to the states of the invidual, and not to the absence of the sun itself.

The sole consideration in opening one's mind to the influence of the spiritual sun is an honest desire for its benefits, a yearning for wisdom and truth, a willingness to conform to the laws of spiritual being as they are daily made known; for in this source we have an ever present revelator, it opens the book of life to each to the measure of his requirements. It is the providence of God constantly ministering to the higher necessities of our being, and as the higher includes the lesser it consequently becomes a providence embracing the minutest particulars of our lives. This is implied in Chrits's words where he states that not a sparrow falls to the ground without notice and that the very hairs of our head are numbered.

We can nowhere escape beyond the operation of law, yet we are everywhere and at all times free to give willing co-operation, or even in a measure place ourselves in opposition to the grand providential dispensation of spiritual forces. The law of universal good does not always operate to suit our narrow views or selfish interests: hence, we act from a center of supposed personal interest. We thereby close ourselves to the general providence, and in our endeavors to reconstruct or modify the universe to our wishes, new conditions of friction, suffering, and ultimate blight are the result. The internal life of the race has consequently become as a tangled web, and we have friction and inharmony in almost every nook and corner. Ignorance, injustice, sorrow, suffering, disease, and untimely death form the warp of life which should properly be composed of shining threads. For we are privileged to be a people clothed with the Sun, with the Moon (self-derived intelligence) under our feet, a crown of Stars upon our head; a people against whom the powers of night cannot prevail, and who shall bring forth a man child, the new truth or law of the mind which is to rule the nation.

It is not the purpose of esoteric philosophy to banish God or offer new names or symbols as the essentials of salvation. We take the universe as we find it and merly endeavor to demonstrate the reality of spiritual substance and its existence in accordance with laws as fixed and definite as those which control the domain of matter, which in reality is but a reflex or lower form of the same. In the spiritual sun we have the fountain head of all life; its vibrations are the voice of conscience, its rays the glad ideals and light of the mind.

To those who contemplate God as a person, or accept Christ as the incarnation of Deity, it will be appropriate to still approach the source of life and wisdom in such form of mental recognition, prayerfulness, worship, or humility, as habit or experience demonstrate to be most serviceable and responsive; for out of this spiritual sun flows a most intense, luminous and adequate personality, and its provisions are more than sufficient for every necessity of man's nature, because it holds not alone the power of life, but of the requisite form for its material expression.

The period has arrived when in the economy of the universe, the mental, moral, and vital atmosphere of man is to be purified, that he may become more keenly aware of this most substantial and wonderful domain of inner life and being. This, of course, must be an individual work, for all progress is based on individual effort, and esoteric truth appeals to personal consciousness for acceptance and out-working.

This Spiritual Sun is the adequate source of life and healing. It is the supreme force of the mind and its reception evolves "a new Olympos," or WILL, through the marriage or proper adjustment of the spiritual and natural substance of the mind, which in turn gives birth to new activities and vital forces supplying new life to the brain, heart and lungs, practically and literally fulfilling the conditions of being born again, as announced to Nicodemus.

There are consequently before us to-day new possibilities of health, wisdom, and power, which it should be our pleasure as well as duty to ultimate on the earth.

There are few persons, if any, that have not occasionally had more or less vivid experiences of this his inner sunshine, revealing sources of light

to the mind and warmth to the affections, as real as the voice of a friend or the warmth of a glowing grate.

Again, who has not seen how wonderfully the will is at times potentialized, overcoming apparently insurmountable difficulties, breaking up deepseated disease and even thriumphing over death itself.

So-called miracles ar not wrought in defiance of law, but in conformity with true esoteric principles, and such works are possible to all in the same ratio as true conjunction is formed between the forces of Spirit and Matter.

OCCULT MEDICINE.

VAN HELMONT ON MAGNETISM.

[Concluded.]

"The ignorant only," Van Helmont continues," will take offense at the term magic power (which he claims for the blood); on my account they may also call it spiritual power, for the name does not matter, but the thing. There is such a magic power in the inner man, whether you mean by it the soul or the vital spirit. Since there is, in all things, a certain relation between the inner and the outer that power must pervade the whole man, only that in the soul it is more active, in the flesh and blood more relaxed. The vital spirit in the flesh and blood holds the place of the soul, i.e. the vital spirit in the external man is the same that in the seed fore-knows the whole form of the man, that magnificent structure and perfect outline, as well as the nature and the limits of his action, because this spirit contains all that in itself: it accompanies man from his mother's womb to the end of his life. Although it disappears with the life, it remains to a certain measure in the body of a man killed by violence, whilst the body of a man who dies from weakness of nature is left by the inborn as well as the inflowing, or sustaining spirit.

“The soul, as a purely spiritual entity, could move neither the vital spirit, nor the flesh and bones, did not a force, pertaining to the soul, but magical and spiritual, outflow from it into the mind and the body. How should the vital spirit obey the command of the soul, if this command were not able to move the mind and then the body? But perchance the objection will be made against this magical agent that it, indeed, acts within the body and its natural residence, but if we call it magic it is only a misnomer, since it cannot move or change anything outside of its body. To this objection we answer: That magic power, pertaining to the soul, that acts at a distance, lies latent in man and wants awakening; for it is, so to speak, in a state of sleep, which, however, does not prevent it from daily performing its duties in the body."

As an illustration of magic action by the animal man Helmont adduces moles, or birth-marks. "If a pregnant woman has a great desire for cherries and, therefore, forms a vivid image of them in her mind, the form of a cherry is impressed upon the child, just on that part that the mother touches with her hand on her own body. Such an impression then is not the lifeless image of a cherry, a mere stain; but it blooms and ripens at the same season with the natural cherries, which is seen in the changing color. This is certainly a great power of the microcosmic mind that produces, by mere thought, a true cherry i.e. flesh characterized by the inner properties of the cherry.