THE Rfc.V. J. J. B. COLES, ON THEOSOPHY. 



53 



and bids us love our fellow men and serve them ; it enjoins the 

 assertion of will as against desire, to this extent enjoining self- 

 control. 



But the aim proposed is not the regulation of desire ; it is its 

 destruction, whether the desire be good or bad. It seeks not 

 improvement but extinction. Theosophy is a philosophy of suicide. 

 Theosophy fails to satisfy either mind or heart. Its fundamental 

 postulates — successive incarnation and the necessity to extinguish 

 all desire — are certainly not self-evidently true, neither are they 

 proved to be true. They are conjectures and nothing more. The 

 science and philosophy connected with Theosophy are of a doubtful 

 and limping character. 



Nor does Theosophy satisfy the heart. It fails to get rid of sin. 

 and attacks only one kind of sin, namely, selfishness. Other 

 sins — disbelief of God and rebellion against His holy law, falseness 

 and deceit, sloth, etc. — it leaves out of account. In his difficult 

 warfare against sin and supernatural enemies, man is left by 

 Theosophy without divine aid. Theosophy does not teach him 

 that God is Love, nor lead him to love God because God has first 

 loved him. To get rid of pain (even if possible) is, as the supreme 

 end of a joyless life, not a particularly noble aim. As a rushlight 

 pales before the sun, Theosophy pales before Christianity. Not 

 Theosophy, but Christianity, restores man to fellowship with God. 

 Not Theosophy, but Christianity, gives communion with Infinite 

 Love in the presence where is fulness of joy and pleasures for 

 evermore and satisfaction. 



Additional remarks by Mr. Coles : — 



Mrs. Sharpe quotes the words of Christ. " Other sheep I have 

 which are not of this fold " ; but is it not in the same Gospel of 

 St. John that the Lord says that " He is the Resurrection and the 

 Life," and that all judgment has been committed to Him 1 And is 

 it not in this same scripture that we are told that He is the 

 "Logos" by whom all things were made? The Good Shepherd 

 gave His life for the sheep. How is it possible for any theosophist 

 to accept the teachings of Madame Blavatsky, Anna Kingsford and 

 Annie Besant and then to profess to believe the teaching of Christ 

 as given in the Gospel of St. John 1 



In a paper on the " Masters " of Theosophy by Annie Besant 

 written less than a year ago, we read : " Those who are named M. 



