Bishop Irving Cooper, a Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, gave most interesting and illuminating lecture at the Masonic Hall on Wednesday under the auspices of the Theosophical Society.
We cannot for Inck of space give 'a full account of his lecture but the chief points were as follows:
This world is ours is filled with the most aniazing contradictions—one man is born a hopeless cripple in the midst of utter poverty with tne possible chance of education or any of the beautiful things of life, another is born in happy cireumstanees with the powerful brain of philosopher; it seems as if re~ wards come to those who have not earned them and that others have suiter apparently undeserved miseries, If God is a God of love surely He must mete out justice to all equally, Have these two utterly fiiTerent souls come straight from hands of God? What is it that kee the difference between people? 'The theory of Reinearves a great answer to these Chyist Mimsett' taught it, and. all Tt is not a now theory. p.
the geant religions, of the. world conta it Science deals with the evolution of the physical body and the Tnnterialist asserts that there is n> ife beyond that of the psychical, Reinearnation shows the wonderful evolution of the soul and that Wis born again and again. many Hundreds of times into different human bodies, suitable for the resent, stage of the soul's develop. Ment,. The work of the Psyehical Research Society had established beyond the shadow of doubt that lite existed "after death. This un-scon world is all about and it extends a long distance into space.
Range up a number of men of all diferent mentalities, from say the poor evolve to a man of great interest and. spirituality, that long. Tine tells you the whole' story. The difference between there two souls ig not merely of centuries but Hundreds of centuries. The picture Reinearnation gives is of the world school, a very interesting school. That is. why events come into our lives, to tome us through exper ence, and instead, of whining ws should ask what there events are trying to teach us and life would take on a new interest. Surely this is better than the old idea of an Inserutable Providence behind every- s thing whose ways we may not question. This is no ans rat all to the questions of li In Reincarnation there is no need for a Hell in a universe governed by a God that is all compassion. Tt would seem that there is a po sibility of splendid growth for everyone and that instead of damning a to endless torments the great Divine Power brings the humas No Opposition to Christianity There is nothing opposed to the deepest and most perfect Christianity in the teaching of Reincarnation. Some people have an idea that what. ig meant is that when we die we shall come back again as a dog or a cat. This is not so. There is a long period of rest in the unseen world after the death of the physical body, in order that we may assimilate the experience of the past life. Much experience has been gained, ideals formed, friendships "made, tarted, all these have to out perfectly before we come back to the earth again. When a child dies very young it comes back very soon but in the majority of cases several centuries may elapse. After we have assimilated the experience previously gained we want more experience and it is this that brings us back to the earth again. We are born into a family in exact accordance with the necessity which brings us back. We have made ties of love or hatred in our previous lifes and these souls are drawn, to us in the next life. By love we are drawn into contact with people we have met before and thus sudden simply the drawing two souls who have known and loved one another before.
In this life difficulties and troubles and happinesses do not come by chance, they are brought about through the law of justice which! is the companion thought to that, of Reincarnation. This law has been. brought out in various religions. Our constant thinking along different lines builds up our character. The desires we have influence our character also and bring us the things we desire. Our actions create conditions. If in the past life we have been cruel then by that law] of justice we must bear the con-Sequences, the people that sometimes hurt us and do us wrong are merely the working out of results fand causes that we ourselves have set up. This. is where the Taw of justice comes in. Surely this thought takes away the sting of life. We may have done wrong in the past and if instead of erying out we seek to make the best of what comes to us to-day we transmute the Fight to-da} for hate and justice for injustice shall be paying our debts from past lives.
A thotight to-day can change our character, our desire of to-day can boring the right things and our aztion can bring good resuits. As a pact of India says "Just tovday is but a dream and to-morrow only "a vision, Dat to: Well lived makes Sesterday: a dre Thanpiness and tosmorron" a sion of hope-look well then to this da
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.