THE REV. J. J. B. COLES, ON THEOSOPFY. 



35 



Christ of the Christian are not antagonistic concepts, but com- 

 plementary aspects of a fact in nature. While each is looked 

 on as unique by the adherents of each religion, all are looked on 

 as repeated examples of the same truth by the follower of the 

 Wisdom Religion. Every man is regarded as the incarnation 

 of God, and the work of evolution is the gradual manifestation 

 of that divine nature. 



The Supreme Teachers of the race, the Divine Founders of 

 great religions, are men who, during ages of evolutionary progress, 

 and reincarnations have so purified and sublimed their himian 

 nature that it has become translucent to the God within. 



The Buddhist should see in every man a potential Buddha 

 and the Christian in every man a potential Christ. To recognise 

 this esoteric truth under the exoteric veil will not only soften 

 religious antagonism, but will help religious teachers to appeal 

 to the divine nature in man instead of treating man as being 

 naturally inclined to evil and only to be held back by threats. 



The above short explanation of this Wisdom Eeligion almost 

 in the very words of its principal teachers, is intended, as will 

 be seen, for anyone who may take up this paper without having 

 had any previous acquaintance with Theosophy. 



In order to interest those who for many years have been 

 students of Theosophy, and especially the Members and 

 Associates of the Victoria Institute who may wish for 

 suggestions as to the proper attitude which an educated 

 Christian should assume towards it, we shall now consider the 

 claims of Theosophy to be a science, a philosophy and a 

 religion. 



In Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, by Madame 

 Blavatsky ; A Study in Consciousness and Esoteric Christianity , 

 by Annie Besant; Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, and The 

 Gospel and The Gospels, by G. E, S. Mead ; Man Visible and 

 Invisible, by C. W. Lead beater, and Thought Forms and Occult 

 Chemistry, by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater — not to 

 mention many other works such as Natures Finer Forces, by 

 Eama Prasad, and The Perfect Way and Clothed ivith the Sun, 

 by Dr. Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland — we have a fair 

 and ample selection from Theosophical writings on which to 

 form our judgment as to this attempt at a synthesis of all 

 knowledge relating to God, Man and the Universe. 



Let us turn over the pages of Occult Chemistry, a series 



