selves, the higher and the lower. Take the very first exhibition of disobedience or ill temper, and help him to see for himself that this is the act of the lower self, that his real self is speaking to him and telling him what to do, but that he has opened the door to one of the devil's black angels, and that it is sitting in the place that belongs to his real self and is giving orders as if it were the real self. Gradually a child can learn to know the pairs of opposites,-selfishness, cowardice, laziness, carelessness, rudeness, and many others, and the virtues of which they are deflections. When he knows that the virtues are himself, and the faults are things that sweep over him from the outside, then he may come to look at them quite impersonally, identifying himself with the real self and throwing stones at the other as he would at a venomous serpent. Pictures of the Christ Child, with his parents, his friends-both children and angels-and little stories about them, help in establishing a friendship with him. Then there are stories of saints who loved him and made him their companion, trying never to offend him,—St. Agnes, St. Jeanne d'Arc, St. Genevieve, St. Francis, and many others, and for the older boys, St. Paul. How attractive is that picture of St. Teresa and the Christ Child, in which the little boy Jesus says, "Who are you?” “I am Teresa of Jesus," she replies, "and who are you?" He answers, "I am Jesus of Teresa.” Sœur Thérèse, at the age of six, being deeply impressed with the greatness and power of God as she looked out across the sea for the first time, said, “I picture my soul as a tiny barque with a graceful white sail, in the midst of the furrow, and I resolve never to let it withdraw from the sight of Jesus, so that it may sail peacefully and quickly towards the heavenly shore." Thérèse would write letters to Jesus and talk with him in intimate friendship and tenderest love. She says the first word she learned to read was heaven, and she ran and told her father. At play, she built altars in the garden wall and called her father to see them. He took great pleasure in seeing them, and lavished much love on his little Queen, as he always called her. Even at this age, Thérèse realized that the devil is a coward and, as she once said, “will fly from the gaze of a little child." To her, goodness seemed full of charms, and she gave her whole heart to Jesus and asked that she might spend her heaven doing good upon earth. If we fill children's minds with the beautiful, there will be no room for the ugly. Children can feel the Master before they can see him. Make them understand this by analogy-it is true of the wind that lifts the kite, of the heat they feel from the sun's rays; when absent from mother, they can feel her love; the plant within the seed cannot be seen, yet they know it is there. Help them to believe in the unseen. I remember a child who was told that God was everywhere, even in the littlest things. One day she sat cutting paper into tiniest bits, and when asked the reason, said, "I am trying to find God. Mother says he is in everything." Would it not have been wiser, safer, truer, to have taught her that he is the life in everything— as the Gita puts it in Book VII, "I am the taste in the waters, I am the light in moon and sun," etc. I think almost any country-bred child could add to this:"He is the protecting love in the outstretched arms of the apple tree that I played house in. He is the power and strength of the oak. He is the joy in that little brook in which I built bridges and dams. He is the unity and love in the Sunday afternoon family walks." One could add many more instances, but each will do this from his own experience. How rich the life of a child who makes Him consciously a part of every experience!—and parents can make this possible, if they will. Can we not all enter into the feeling of the little chicks, gathered under the ample wings of mother hen, at the sound of the harsh cry of the hawk? This is the Master's own imaginative expression of his brooding love for his children. B. To the Branches of The Theosophical Society: 1. The Annual Convention of The Theosophical Society will be held at 64 Washington Mews, New York (new address) on Saturday, April 30, 1921, beginning at 10.30 a. m. 2. Branches unable to send delegates to the Convention are earnestly requested to send proxies. These may be made out to the Assistant Secretary, Miss Isabel E. Perkins, 349 West 14th Street, New York, or to any officer or member of the Society who is resident in New York or is to attend the Convention. These proxies should state the number of members in good standing in the Branch. 3. Branch Secretaries are asked to send their annual reports to the Secretary T. S., Mrs. Ada Gregg, P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York, N. Y. These reports should cover the significant features of the year's work and should be accompanied by a complete list of officers and members with the full name and address of each; also a statement of the number of members gained or lost during the year; also a record of the place and time of Branch meeting. These reports should reach the Secretary T. S. before April 1st. 4. Members-at-large are invited to attend the Convention sessions; and all Branch members, whether delegates or not, will be welcome. 5. Following the custom of former years, the sessions of the Convention will begin at 10.30 a. m. and 2.30 p. m. At 8.30 p. m. there will be a regular meeting of the New York Branch of the T. S., to which delegates and visitors are cordially invited. On Sunday, May 1st, at 3.30 p. m., there will be a public address, open to all who are interested in Theosophy. ADA GREGG, Secretary, The Theosophical Society. P. O. Box 64, Station O, New York, N. Y. February 15, 1921. CORRESPONDENCE To the Editor of THE THEOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY: Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. January 20th, 1921. In the current issue of the QUARTERLY the question is asked: Why did those who framed the Resolution agree to suspend judgment for a year? and it is answered according to the writer's view; as this answer does not at all coincide with our view we shall be glad if you will kindly give space for this letter in the next QUARTERLY (April, 1921). (1) We agreed to suspend judgment in the same spirit and for somewhat similar reasons as those put forward by the Chairman at the New York Convention last April, when he submitted that the passing of the Resolutions should be deferred until the afternoon session. (2) The second reason was that the resolution was said to have been brought up without notice and consequently sprung upon the meeting. (3) The Resolution was opposed and it was felt that considerable discussion would be entailed, for which there was no time available, and further that a limited discussion would not reflect the considered judgment of those members who had not had opportunity nor time to arrive at a decision previously. (4) The exact rule under which members could be expelled was for various reasons not available when demanded. (5) The Resolution was not supported as it ought to have been and it was hoped that the slight majority would be considerably increased by so doing; and it may be added that we have now good reason to believe that it will be increased. We did not believe it untheosophical to fight it out on the floor of the Convention because we felt that it must be fought out there, and it was only suspended on the understanding that a decision be taken at the next Convention. It was felt that in fairness to the members the decision should be deferred so that each member could record his own considered and mature decision and we consider that the final result will be of far greater value, both to the Society and to the individual member, than any ill considered judgment which could have been rushed through in the very limited time at our disposal on the afternoon of the Convention. We should like to add further that in our opinion the election of Mr. Kennedy as General Secretary was not made for the sake of peace. On the contrary two additional names were submitted for the office but for individual reasons both members asked leave to withdraw. This we now see was a mistake as it left Mr. Kennedy to be appointed. We understand that the Executive Committee are now arranging for a referendum on the endorsing of the Resolution, and we trust that through suspending judgment at the Convention, the true position of each member will then be shown, We are, Yours fraternally, I. W. SHORT, FREDK. A. Ross, E. HOWARD LINCOLN, Committee on Resolutions. Human Immortality and Pre-existence; Henry Bedinger Mitchell, 14, 126 245 IN THE HOUSE OF DEATH, Katha Upanishad; C. J. . . . 320 ... Life and Death; Labouring Layman Logos Doctrine, The; Stanley V. LaDow.. Materialism and Spiritism; Henry Bedinger Mitchell..... Mitchell, Henry Bedinger 233 25 298 .14, 126, 248, 298 Mouldings; S. Moulvie NOTES AND COMMENTS: 21 48 Realm, the Radiance and the Power, The (Reprint); C. J. REVIEWS: Archaic England; Harold Bayley Benedictine Monachism; Rt. Rev. Cuthbert Butler. From Theosophy to Christian Faith; E. R. McNeile... Gist of Swedenborg; Julian K. Smyth and William F. Wunsch.. 187 ... 165 136 .. 378 188 377 376 57 Edward G. Browne 376 India and the West; C. R. Lanman 284 Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei; Dwight Goddard and Henri Borel.. 187 376 Life of Viscountess de Bonnault D'Houet; Rev. Father 57 Story of an English Sister, The; Ethel Romanes. 57 Through an Anglican Sisterhood to Rome; A. H. Bennett.. 57 285 Romance; A. G. Saws Bent and Otherwise: Robert Packham STUDENTS' SCRAP BOOK 117 148 354 |