Sectarianism is a natural outgrowth of independent thinking too easily satisfied. It separates religious societies by dogmas; and yet, throwing dogmas aside, all claim to be working largely to the same end - the advancement of their members morally, and the helping of the needy. Dogmas are the enclosures that separate the Presbyterians from the Methodists, and the Baptists from the Lutherans, and so on. Another circle of dogmas holds all these and other sects as one, and it is named Protestantism. Another and still wider circle takes in the Roman Catholics as well, and calls itself Christian, leaving the Jews only outside. In short, we have circles within circles - angles of agreement and angles of divergence. These various sects live, grow and flourish, not because of their dogmas but in spite of them. They live and grow, because to some extent they are moral powers in the community. All they have done for the education and upliftment of the masses, they have done for progress. Many of them have grown somewhat liberal with the growth of mentality generally; but now - at this period of history - a thought current has risen that will bring more than liberality - it will bring about, it seems to me, a breaking from all the chains of error.

I will not here attempt an analysis of this or that dogma, distinguishing one sect from another - this paper has another purpose. In a general way, I ask my readers to note that it is the moral influence of the various sects in their efforts to teach honesty in business relations, uprightness in social life, and charity to the needy, that has given them their power. In these three particulars, at least, all the sects are united, and to these I may add also the three branches of the Catholic Church - the Roman, the Anglican and the Greek; and even the Jews come forward and say, as to those teachings, we are working in harmony with the Christians. With such purposes as these, it is not surprising that modern religion has been popularized to the masses and become formidable and powerful. Often, it has opposed scientific progress, because the light of science proved a dogma erroneous. In some cases the church fought vigorously for its pet dogma; but its power, though often retarding progress, has never been found great enough to overcome truth.

There is one dogma only to which I will refer and that is a broad one, for on it rest the pillars that sustain the entire fabric of belief of modern Christianity. Every sect or church calling itself Christian is founded upon belief in a Jewish institution of blood-sacrifices. Now, the origin of these sacrifices was not Jewish, it was Persian. They sprang from the genius of the Aryan, and were, therefore, Zoroastrian - not divine, but distinctly human. To appease God, that the sins of coming generations, as well as of those who had lived in the past and so believed might be wiped out, human blood must be shed. "Christ died for our sins," wrote Paul.

Through all Paul's teachings is found this need of the sacrifice of human blood of a supremely spiritualized and innocent man. In the four gospels these teachings are not found except in one clause in the 26th chapter of Matthew, which is plainly an interpolation to Judaize this gospel, as it was the only one that was circulated freely among the Jews.

So much for the history of blood-sacrifices upon which modern Christianity founds its doctrine of atonement. I will go no further here. I recognize that many of my readers may still accept it as the foundation of their faith - only half-believing it may be, yet fearing they will plunge themselves into chaos by letting it go. I present now no argument against it, except to call attention to the fact that historically it descended from old religious rites and ceremonies, which the Jews borrowed from Persia.

To bring forth the Christ principle within us, we must free our minds from dogmas and passively open them to truth, for thus do we develop our spiritual or real entities, and learn to draw, through conscious mind, upon the inexhaustible resources of the universe. To be able to draw from this source, one must be spiritual. That word "spiritual" has been abused by the ecclesiastic. He was blinded by his dogmas, and so we must not censure him. To be spiritual means to him primarily the entrance into membership and communion with the church. It means more, of course, but this is the preliminary step. Next, it means the renouncing of pet ambitions - the giving up of ideals - in a word, self sacrifice here, for possible joys beyond this plane of existence. Some would add other requirements. They would have you, particularly if possessed of ample means, unite yourself with organizations that distribute charity. Another class might urge you to join the Good Government Club as an aid, and so on.

To be spiritual - how those words have been abused! Why it has taken nearly nineteen hundred years for people generally to understand their true meaning. The spirit speaks in dreams - in fond desire - in roseate hope. That dream, that desire, that hope is spirit's breathing of God's message to you, telling you what may be yours, if you will. Trust the spirit. It will never waken you to desires or ambitions that may not be realized. Trust the spirit - that is being spiritual. Your desires are your good - your good is your God - believe the messages he has thus telepathically sent your consciousness. He is most spiritual who lives closest to his ideal.

We have studied the record too seriously from the logical side and from the dogma side. This has misled man. The Bible has lived through all these thousands and thousands of years, because of the intuitional truth it contains. There is much there, however, that is not inspiration. The child of the sixth race will, early upon the opening of the new century, I prophesy, point out from it the intuitional truths man should recognize, and its other pages will cease to be read. Inspiration is a word signifying upliftment - everyone may feel its force and utter spirit truths. It would take millions of volumes to express the inspirations felt by mankind during a single year.

In India the simplest layman has no confused idea as to the meaning of being spiritual; and the principal reason for this is that he has never looked in his sacred books or studied any dogma to learn of it. Let him belong to the school of the Vedanta, or the Jains - he looks within for light. The books cannot teach him how to be spiritual - they may illustrate it somewhat, but that is all. His discipline brings to him the unfoldment of spiritual consciousness. He reads his sacred books for joy.

Not separating, in our daily thought, objective consciousness from subjective consciousness is largely due to the fact that we have held erroneous ideas as to the Christ principle. We were trying to place it somewhere in the skies instead of in our hearts. We did not know that desire was divine - we did not know it was a promised blessing. We did not know that material desire could be obtained through spirit help. To-day clairvoyance is recognized by philosophers and scholars as a gift some possess. It has been called by some a sixth sense, but really this sixth sense includes other occult gifts, such as clairaudience and intuition. It may be a little later that we shall find these gifts are senses just as real as any of the five senses we possess, but senses that have been lost by man through nonuse. The consideration of spirit phenomena, as seen by the clairvoyant, would take me beyond the limits I have allowed myself in this article and beyond its province.

Buddha taught happiness to be the annihilation of desire, but Jesus, a later and to my mind (recalling the evolution of man) a more advanced psychic, taught happiness to be the attainment of desire. We are to-day believers in and followers of the Galilean who taught the oneness of man and God in purpose and power in "I and the Father are One."

"What would ye know? To silence go,

There shall ye learn, for what ye yearn

Is but the portion waiting the way -

To reach you. In faith then, each day,

Seek the silence - rehearse there your longing,

To your aid come the spirits, not singly, but thronging,

And rejoicing to bring all the blessings, they sing,

All hail to thee, praise to thee, thou art the King."

Each of us wants to know more of and to consciously possess the Christ principle - the incarnate Christ within. The way to its possession begins in worthy desire, and it ends in triumphant faith. The path between the two is the bridge of silence. Let us seek it - find it - cross it - and fill our lives with joy.

"We see the whole universe is working. For what? For salvation, for liberty, consciously or unconsciously, from the atom to the highest being; working for that one end, liberty for the mind, for the body, for the spirit, for everything; always trying to get freedom, flying away from the bondage." - From Karma Yoga of Swami Vivekananda.

Work is the external must that gives expression to life, and happy he who has learned to love what makes life possible to express individuality.