Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/98

84 Now this is simply, in my humble opinion, a mistake, resulting from differences in the significations attached by different persons to the terms Personal and Impersonal God.

Let me at the outset, however, explain, that I am not here seeking to defend the or yourself, you are quite able to defend yourself, and I am in no way empowdered or competent to express your views or those of the Himalayan Brotherhood whose representative you are, as to the nature of the First Cause—nor do I desire to enter into any controversy with any man; I desire to live in peace and brotherly love with all men; I have my own views, which satisfy my head and heart, in which I firmly believe, and which I hope all other men will respect in me; and I do not doubt that others who differ from me have equally seized the views that satisfy their heads and hearts, are equally justified in holding these and have an equal claim on me to respect these their views.

Looking round the universe nothing so strongly impressed me, as the system of division of labour which pervades it. Practical results never spring from solitary causes; they are ever the resultants of the more or less divergent effects of an inextricable plexus of diverse causes. It is from contrasts, that all the joys and beauties of the world arise; it is from the equilibrium of antagonistic forces that the Universe subsists. All progress springs from difference; all evolution is the result of differentiation; as in the great, so in the spiritual; as in the visible so in the unseen universe.

How, then, can men fail to see that differences of opinion on matters spiritual are parts of the necessary mechanism of the spiritual organism that everywhere underlies (as the bones underlie the flesh and skin) the physical or visible world? How can they find fault with others for holding views different from their own? How fail to realise that those others are as truly working in harmony with the pervading design or law of the as themselves? Night is as needful to our mundane economy as day; shall the night revile the day, for its glare, its noise, its heat, or the day reproach the night for its dusky stillness?

So then it is no spirit of finding fault with those who differ from me, but only in the hope of clearing away imaginary differences which being unreal work harm, not good as real differences do),