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shall always see upon the dark cloud of disaster the bow that stands as the covenant between God and man,
showing that we are always able to contact the higher life. It may not be best for us then to do so, for we all
need a certain material evolution, which is best accomplished when we do not contact too closely the higher
life. But in order to evolve and progress and gradually seek a higher and higher state of spirituality, there
must in time come to us troubles and trials which will bring us into contact with the higher life. When we can
look upon trial and tribulation as a means to that end, then sorrows become the greatest blessings that can
come to us. When we feel no hunger, what do we care about food? But when we feel the pangs of starvation
and are seated before a meal, no matter how coarse the fare, we feel very thankful for it.
If we sleep every night of our lives and sleep well, we do not appreciate what a blessing it is. But when we
have been kept awake night after night and have craved sleep, then when it comes with its corresponding rest,
we realize its great value. When we are in health and feel no pain or disease in our bodies, we are prone to
forget that there ever was such a thing as pain. But just after recovering from an illness or after we have
suffered much, we realize what a great blessing health is.
So in the contrast between the rays of the sun and the darkness of the cloud, we see in the latter the bow that
beckons us on to a higher life; and if we will only look up to that, we shall be much better off than if we
continue in the paths of the lower life.
Many of us are prone to worry over little things. This reminds me of a story recently printed in one of our
papers of a little boy who had climbed a ladder. He had been looking up as he was climbing, and had gone so
far up that a fall would have meant death. Then he stopped and looked down, instantly becoming dizzy.
When we look down from a height, we become dizzy and afraid. But some one above called to him and said:
"Look up, little boy. Climb up here, and I will help you." He looked up, and at once the dizziness and fear left
him; then he climbed up until taken in at a window.
Let us look up and endeavor to forget the little worries of life, for the bow of HOPE is always in the cloud.
As we endeavor to live the higher life and climb the sublime heights toward GOD, the more we shall find the
bow of peace becoming a circle and that there is peace here below as well as there above. It is our duty to
accomplish the work we have to do in the world, and we should never shrink from that duty. Still we have a
duty to the higher life, and it is in the interests of the latter that we gather together on Sunday night and by
massing our aspirations advance toward the spiritual heights.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE BOW IN THE CLOUD 55
 Teachings of an Initiate
We should remember that we each have within a latent spiritual power that is greater than any worldly power,
and as it is unfolding, we are responsible for its use. To increase that power we should endeavor to devote
part of our leisure time to the cultivation of the higher life, so that when the cloud of disaster comes upon us,
we shall by the aid of that power find the bow within the cloud. As the bow is seen at the end of the storm, so
when we have gained the power to see the bright rainbow in our cloud of disaster, the end of that disaster has
come, and the bright side begins to appear. The greater the disaster, the greater the needed lesson. When on
the path of wrong doing we sooner or later are kindly but firmly whipped into line by the realities of life, and
forced to recognize that the path of truth is upward and not downward and that God rules the world.
CHAPTER XXV. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE
At the time in the far, dim past when we began our lives as human beings we had had very little experience,
and consequently we had very little responsibility. Responsibility depends upon knowledge. The animals, we
find, are not amenable to the law of causation from the moral standpoint, although of course, if an animal
jumps out of a window, it is amenable to the law of physical causation, inasmuch as when it falls upon the
ground beneath, it may possibly break a limb or cause itself some injury. If a man should do the same thing,
he would be amenable to the law of responsibility in addition to the law of cause and effect. There is for him
a moral responsibility, for he knows better, and he has no right to injure the instrument that has been given
him. So we see that we are morally responsible according to our knowledge.
As we have gone through the experiences of many lives, more and more faculties have become ours, and we
are born each time with the accumulated talents which are the results of the experiences of those lives. We
are responsible, therefore, for the way we use them. It is necessary that we should put these talents to use in
life, for unless we do, they will atrophy just as surely as will the hand that is not used and that hangs limp and
idle by the side. Just as surely as that hand atrophies, so surely will our spiritual faculties atrophy unless we
put them to usury and gain more. There can be no resting, no halting on this path of evolution which we are
treading; we must either go forward or else degenerate.
There is, then, evidently much responsibility attached to knowledge. The more knowledge we have, the more
responsibility we have that is very plain. But looking at it from the still deeper viewpoint of the occult
scientist, there is a responsibility attached to knowledge which is not ordinarily perceived by humanity, and it
is this particular phase of responsibility that we wish to discuss here.
Mabel Collins avers that the story in her book called "THE BLOSSOM AND THE FRUIT, OR THE STORY
OF FLETA, A BLACK MAGICIAN," is a true story. She states that the material for this story was brought
from a far distant country in a very strange manner, and that from the standpoint of one who knows, there are
in it some of the very deepest truths pertaining to the gaining of knowledge and its use. We are told there how
Fleta in the beginning of her embodiments, while still in the savage state, murdered her lover, and that from
that murder, through the cruelty involved in it, she obtained a certain power. That power, naturally, according
to the deed, went in the direction of black magic. Therefore in the life with which the story deals, she
possessed the power of a black magician. She forced her lover to kill an entity in order that she might gain
new power. It was in this black manner that she utilized her knowledge.
There is a very deep truth here. All knowledge that is not saturated with life is empty, purposeless, and
useless. The life that gives power to knowledge may be obtained in various ways, and may also be put to use
in various ways. Once it has been obtained, it may be stored in a talisman, and then used by others for a good
or for an evil purpose according to the character of the one who uses it. If it is stored within the one who [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]