186 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



destroy others of our most cherished beliefs, but increased 

 wisdom is more likely in the long run to add to the strength 

 of religion than to destroy it, for it is, as I have shown in 

 this chapter, nothing else but the best assortment of the accu- 

 mulated collection of man's wisest comprehensions of the 

 knowledge and revelations of the past, which hitherto he has 

 had to accept on Faith, seeing and believing as best he could. 



But a brighter day dawns with the coming Epoch of Charity 

 which is to evolve a higher order of wisdom in his 

 soul, for this is the Epoch that is to be marked by the descent 

 into the mind of man of the Spirit of God the Holy Ghost as 

 foretold by Christ in just the same way as the Epoch of Hope 

 marked the descent of God the Mother in the evolution of 

 religion, and which is to enable his mind not only to see and 

 believe, but ultimately to understand and put into practice the 

 revelations of God. But do not forget it has taken two thou- 

 sand years to evolve the present form of Christianity. It 

 took about another three thousand years to make the Jews 

 accept the belief in God and His Trinity, and probably any- 

 thing between twenty-five and fifty thousand years to evolve 

 this belief in the mind of mankind in prehistoric ages amongst 

 the fables of the East, and to convert these fables into any 

 shape or form that was of concrete thought or practical utility 

 as a fixed and recognizable teaching, distinct and unassoci- 

 ated with older forms of idolatry. Nevertheless the Persian 

 philosophy and astronomy had advanced nearly, if not quite 

 as far as we have to-day or it would never have arrived at 

 the knowledge of the revelations displayed in Genesis, till 

 owing to the march of civilisation destroying the energy of 

 the East, this knowledge is again lost in Idolatry. 



We have yet to raise the minds of mankind to see that 

 labour and energy are greater means of virtue and happi- 

 ness than wealth or knowledge ; for any nation that loses its 

 energy loses its brains and vitality as its punishment. Add 

 to the beauty and magnificence and truths of religion as much 

 as you can by cultivating higher ideals whenever science and 

 evolution permit of fresh additions to this storehouse of revela- 

 tion, but remember that God never destroys past evolutions. 

 He only builds more perfect evolutions on and around the 

 past, and you cannot go wrong if like Christ you follow -His 

 example, by aiming at retaining the old as well as the new 



