33 



510th OEDINARY GENERAL MEETING. 

 MONDAY, JANUARY 9th, 1911, 4.30 p.m. 

 Dr. a. T. Schofield in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. 

 Announcement was made of the election of the following : — 

 Member : Eev. J. J. B. Coles, M.A. 



Associates : Rev. Samuel Roberts ; H. Lance Gray, Esq. ; H. Nugent 

 Sharp, Esq. 



The Chairman, in introducing the lecturer, said that Mr. Coles was a 

 gentleman of profound study ; the subject has depths perhaps few of us 

 realised. Anything that comes from him comes with authority. 



The following paper was then read by the author : — 



THEOSOPHY. By the Rev. J. eT. B. Coles. 



GfoC (ro<f)Lav iv fjLvarrjpla rrjv dnoK€Kpvfxfxei^T]v. I Cor. ii, 7. 



ET me first give in outline a brief summary of Theosophical 

 I teaching. 



Brief Summary. 



" The word Theosophy means not the * Wisdom of God' but the 

 * wisdom of the gods,' or Universal Wisdom. This wisdom is the 

 inner, hidden, spiritual truth which underlies all the outward forms 

 of religion, and its central thought is the belief that the Universe is 

 in its essence spiritual, that man is a spiritual being in a state of 

 evolution and development, and that by proper physical, mental, 

 and spiritual training humanity can so progress on this path of 

 evolution as to develop faculties and powers which will enable it to 

 get behind the outward veil of what we call matter and to enter into 

 conscious relations with the underlying Reality. To the Theosophist, 

 man is composed of seven principles, which are resolvable into the 

 lower and the higher parts of his nature, the four lower principles 

 forming the personality, which is his non-permanent side, disintegrat- 

 ing after death, and the three higher forming the individuality, the 

 intelligent and spiritual side, which is permanent and eternal. 



" The whole Universe is in a continual state of progression ; the 

 spiritual, having descended into matter, is ever and always working 

 its way upwards, and the duty of man is to assist this upward 



