It may occur to some readers to wonder how it is that though those men on earth, whom I call the Masters, are of Eastern birth, they can preach Christianity in place of Buddhism, Mohammedanism, etc.

In the "Gayan" of Inayat Khan there is a prayer, used constantly by his disciples, which embodies the "New Thought" view of the Christ. I use the term "New Thought" for public utility. Needless to say its teachers are the oldest on earth.

SALAT

"Most gracious Lord, Master, Messiah, and Saviour of humanity. We greet Thee with all humility. Thou art the First Cause and the Last Effect, the Divine Light and the Spirit of Guidance.

ALPHA AND OMEGA

Thy Light is in all forms, Thy love in all beings. in a loving
Mother, in a kind Father, in an innocent child, in a helpful
friend, in an inspiring teacher.

Allow us to recognise Thee in all Thy holy names and
forms; as Rama, as Krishna, as Shiva, as Buddha.
Let us know Thee as Abraham, as Solomon, as Zara-
thustra, as Moses, as Jesus, as Mohammed and in any
other names and forms, known and unknown to the world.
We adore Thy Past; Thy Presence deeply enlightens
our being, and we look for Thy blessing in the future.
O Messenger, Christ, Nabi, the Rasoul of God! Thou
whose heart constantly reaches upward. Thou comest
on earth as a dove from above when Dharma decayeth,
and speakest the Word that is put into Thy mouth, as
the light filleth the crescent moon.

May the Star of the Divine Light shining in Thy heart be
reflected in the hearts of Thy devotees. May the Message
of God reach far and wide, illuminating and making the
whole Humanity one Brotherhood in the Fatherhood of
God.-AMEN."

It will at once be seen that this wonderful prayer instantly wipes out all the semi-atheism so rampant in the church, which looks on Christ as no more than a highly spiritual, or perhaps divinely, inspired man. This prayer is addressed to the Eternal and Universal Christ, who lives as a mighty spiritual presence in the world, guiding and sustaining His people. It acknowledges Him as Messiah and Saviour. As Alpha and Omega. It falls in with the words of the Christian creed. Begotten of His Father before all worlds. God of God. Light of Light. Very God of very God. Being of one substance with the Father."

Now here we come face to face with the wide divergence between the "New Thought" and the old thought which still dominates the churches.

The orthodox churchman is conscious of Christ coming for the first time to earth two thousand years ago. He thinks of that Advent in the womb of Mary and the cradle in Bethlehem as a solitary incident in history. He virtually denies that the Christ spirit dwells in any other faith save his own. His missionary activities prove this to be so.

New thought draws its main inspiration from a vivid faith in the eternal Christ, the Living Christ. It seeks not to commemorate a Christ who lived two thousand years ago, but to serve as a channel, as a tabernacle for the living Christ who said “ Lo! I am with you always." "Before Abraham was

I am."

Sometimes one reads of "The Second Coming," but this is a very misleading phrase. Our extensive readings of the world's great scriptures give every encouragement to the belief that the Christ

has taken flesh, and visited this world before the Advent of two thousand years ago, which we commemorate. We believe the words "Lo! I am with you always" to be true. We believe He never leaves us, though it is very probable that many times again His Spirit will overshadow and completely ensoul some tabernacle of flesh when the Divine purpose requires a human manifestation. Manifold the renewals of my birth

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Have been, Arjuna! and of thy births, too!
But mine I know, and thine thou knowest not.
When righteousness

Declines, O Bharata! when wickedness

Is strong, I rise, from age to age, and take
Visible shape, and move a man with men."

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St. Augustine says That everything which is now designated the Christian religion was in existence amongst the ancients, nor was it absent even from the commencement of the human race up to the time when Christ entered into the flesh, after which true religion, which already existed, began to be called Christian."

Certain it is that every religion in the past looked for and must have possessed a revealer, a Messiah, a Buddha, a Mahdi, and the cross appears as a religious symbol many centuries B.C.

"New Thought" believes that the Christ has been with us from the beginning, and that He will remain with us until the end of the world. We speak of Him as the Cosmic Christ, for we cannot sufficiently enlarge His sphere. Being very God of very God there is nothing outside Him. He is universal, and "in Him we live and move and have our being."

The Masters therefore offer Brotherhood to all nations and creeds, believing that though life exhibits many forms, the one God dwells in all. To confine the indwelling of the Christ to those who profess the Christian creed, would to them be equivalent to discriminating in the work of the Creator Who made all things. We are taught that there is no point in time or space in which God is not. We are taught to sing with Arjuna :

"Thou God of Gods, Life's dwelling place and rest!
Thou of all souls the soul !

The comprehending whole!

Of being formed and formless. Being the Framer ;
O utmost One! O Lord!

Older than old, who stored

The worlds with wealth of life,

O Treasure claimed."

CHAPTER XIII

THE MYSTIC AND THE CLIMBER

"From the murmur and subtlety of suspicion with which we view one another-give us rest. Make a new beginning, and mingle again the kindred of the nations in the alchemy of love. And with some finer essence of forbearance and forgivenesstemper our minds."-ARISTOPHANES, 400 B.C.

THE mystic is born, not made, and what constitutes a mystic it would be hard to define. The true seer can foretell the destinies of nations and worlds more accurately than the destinies of human beings. The knowledge is acquired in no supernatural

manner.

The truth is that the psychic faculties tend rather to universal than particular views. The swing of the mental orbit is wider than that of the orthodox materialist, and imagination, the foundation of every great discovery is studiously encouraged and cultivated. The truth of the part imagination really plays in the evolution of man is slowly beginning to be understood. The mystic looks, not at the puny activities of the ant man working out the various ant heaps of earth, but rather to the significance of those broad washes of sullen colour that sweep continuously from out a cimmerian gloom across the face of the whole Cosmos, to those great gales of collective feeling that rush resistlessly round the world. Gathering impetus as they go, they drive nations before them