The message of the new cycle is thrilling through the earth. Its keynote is Joy; its chords, harmonic; its measure, action; its theme, Brotherhood! The men of earth feel the new impulse, and, pausing in their mad pursuit of the selfish idols and ideals of the old time, ask themselves the meaning of the unrest and self-dissatisfaction which has seized upon them.
For man is divine, and, bury his divinity as he may under matter, it is ever seeking to manifest itself. If it be crowded out of the larger life by the false business ideals of the age, it will appear in a thousand little ways — the kind word, the charity bestowed with real feeling, the impulse to share one's happiness, are all but the higher self within seeking to impress itself upon the sordid lower life.
And They who sit at the helm, guiding the course of the Hierarchy of Life, can feel the response to the touch of their thought, and give of their help willingly and gladly. Saviours the world has always had but Crucifixion and death have been their reward until now. Now, in, truth, they may die; worn out by pain and service, but crucified they can never be again — that much have they won during the long Battle of the Ages. For these Helpers of Humanity have awakened and drawn to their service those who in turn are glad to help them, glad to be permitted to "render noble service" in the struggle for the uplifting of Humanity.
So the fight goes on; but with hope, courage, and the assurance of ultimate success. The old sin-darkened earth feels the spiritual glow which is already illuminating her mountain peaks, and leaps forward as though into new Space! And she is entering new space; a space peopled with new thought-currents and purer and more perfect thought-creations. Earth is ever what men make it; and if we have made it a hell, we alone are to blame, and we alone can redeem and make it the heaven which it ought to be.
Unity and Brotherhood, helping and sharing, joy and peace — these are the watch-words of the New Cycle. The New Cycle Unity Congress which has just been held is a type and forerunner of the glorious days which await the full dawn of the Golden Age. It would not — it could not — have been possible even so short a time as five years ago. Glad enough were we to feel the force and encouragement arising from bodily presence at our old Congresses, and the thought that we could reach out in heart-touch and soul-union, though continents and seas divided, seemed an idle dream until it was conceived and actually carried out. Even as Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem by setting to each the task of erecting anew that portion before his own house, so the Leader set to each Lodge the task of lighting the beacon fires of Brotherhood on its own mountain tops, with the result that the whole world was ablaze with light.
It was amazing, unique, but a grand demonstration of the power and fact of Hierarchal Consciousness. Men are but parts of one grand Whole; they are synthesized and unified in the great cosmic Oversoul. The moans of the widowed and orphaned, the cries of the laborers whose wages have been kept back, the shrieks of the wounded and dying in our unholy battles — these are the discords to which the Heart of Being has been compelled to listen for ages. If men could but catch the dreadful, forceful, hierarchal note of all the moaning orphans of this greed-cursed world as it unites and is synthesized in the Over-soul, how would the walls of their Jerichos of pride, ambition, wealth and power, fall into the dust-heap of a common repentance and a common humiliation.
We must recognize this common, hierarchal consciousness; that brotherhood is a fact in nature; that the woe of one is the woe of all; that the sin of one is the shame and sorrow of all; that the joy of one is also the joy of every soul on earth — aye, and in the heavens above the earth! We have had an object lesson in this Congress; let us learn and take it to heart. We have felt that time and space were not, when men were united in heart and mind. Each Lodge felt the influx of the force from other centers; each saw the glow of the beacon fires on distant hills; each heard from afar the cry, "To your tents, O Israel!" For a brief time, at least, all felt the underlying unity of life; the protection and peace with which the Oversoul broods over its humblest unit.
All hail to the dawn of the Golden Age! to the days when the Divine Kings of old will again consent to rule over men! Small wonder that the large-hearted are everywhere viewing with growing dissatisfaction the creeds which have blind-folded them and so shut out true spiritual vision! "God is a Spirit," said one of old, "and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." Men are realizing that this is true. "Mine" and "thine" are giving place to "ours"; the recognition of the brotherhood of man is also the recognition of the Fatherhood of God. "Christ is risen" indeed, for in the hearts of men is the true East, and only there can the Sun of Righteousness arise.
Brothers, all, let us take hope, and fight on with renewed strength. Battling for humanity, what matters to us the regimental colors carried next to ours in the field? Call we our Gods Jehovah, or Brahm; appeal to them in the name of Buddha, Mohammed or Christ, if we are striving to lead men to a higher life we are brothers, and are fighting Wrong, Sin and Darkness. Only one duty we have — to face the common foe; only one common privilege — to fight and to die in the front of the fray. Shame to us if we enshroud ourselves in the grave-clothes of creed; if we babble of "my God," and "thy God," and fail to perceive they are the very same! Let us tolerate each others religious beliefs with all love and charity; they are but the outer robes which conceal the same divine form. Let us in the West, and who affirm that ours is a Christian civilization, lay to heart the reply of the Master to the Pharisee who asked:
"Master, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Jesus said unto "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it. THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF."