A LAY CREED 



107 



physically realised as a concrete experience and foretaste 

 of that spiritual existence enjoyed by some of the best 

 of humanity even in this life, but which necessarily must 

 be the final lot of all. Human life is multiple, and that 

 portion of it passed here composed of stages running into 

 each other, and constituting one continuous whole, which 

 should but does not always reach its " allotted span," 

 is but preparatory to other stages which science and 

 revelation alike attest will follow with the inexorable 

 certainty of cause and effect in accordance with the 

 absolute necessities of definite law and order for ever 

 and ever. 



The appreciation, therefore, of the words of this thesis 

 should prove a great individual and communal incentive 

 to the cultivation of the dual aspects of life, in order that 

 the most, so to speak, should be taken out of that life, 

 and that death, when it does come, may release that life 

 to pursue its destiny wherever it may be determined by the 

 reign of law to which it has already conformed, and which 

 will still enable it to conform more and more. Whether 

 life is " here or hereafter," therefore, there is absolute 

 continuity between its parts, the difference being only in 

 relation to its material and dynamic conditions and 

 environments, the essential oneness being continued ad 

 infinitum, while development of its character and attributes 

 will in like manner be subject to the operation of eternal 

 law, order, and necessity. 



Moreover, the applicability of the words is capable of 

 immediate and constant use in the everyday experience of 

 man, his "natural" and better selves being equally included 

 and interested in the practical working of the doctrines 

 advanced in them, and of the great personal obligation lying 

 on every human being of working out his or her " own 

 salvation." 



When material wants have been met, it is very frequently 

 assumed that all obligations and necessities have been met, 

 and that " sufficient for the day is the evil thereof," but 

 that is only half the truth ; true, the material part of man 

 has been provided for, but the immaterial and better has 

 not thereby been provided for, and as that is equivalent 

 to his eternal part, provision for that also requires to be 



