THEOSOPHIST LECTURE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1639, 4 January 1913, Page 6

THEOSOPHIST LECTURE.

THE COMING OF THE MASTER.! A lecture was delivered in tho Mnsoni Hall last night by Mr. D. W. M. Bun M.A.,'National Representative of, tho.Oi dor, of tho Star in the East. Mr. W.-,£ Shortt, chairman of tho Wellington branc of the Order, presided. The Order, i may be explained, is recognised by th Theosophical Society, and tho"hcads of i are Mrs.. Besnnt and Mr. J. Krishno murti, better k\iown by the name of Aloj one. It is not, "however, wholly a Theost phical Order. In the July number of th "Theosophist" Mrs. Bosaut wrote:—"Thi Order has been founded to draw togethc those who,' whether insido or outside th Theosophical Society, beliove, in tho nea coming of a great Spiritual Teacher fo tho helping of the world. ■ It is though that its members niay, on tho physica plane, do something, to prepare publi opinion for His coming and to create ai atmosphere of welcome and of reverence nnd on the higher plane may unite ii forming an instrument of service read] for His. use." .' _ • Mr.'Burn commenced his lecturo whicl .was to bo mainly an exposition of wha 'the Order of the Star in the East 6too< for, with a passing Teferenc© to' some o: tho cardinal beliefs of Theosophists, not ably tho belief that certain divine men perfect men, are reincarnated from ng< to age, and become actual living beings ir touch with common men. Theosophy, h< said, told to men more about tho Mastei Christ than they knew before; it told then for instance how He walked and lived ir tho mountains of Lebanon, with nnothei name in another age. Now, evervthins pointed to the fact that wo were near tc the birth of a new; age. Those whe studied the magazinos, tho newspapers, and tho scientific books of the day could not escape from the idea that tho whole world 'was looking for tho beginning of a new time. Signs most frequently remarked upon were the decay of righteousness, 'and the sense of terrible injustice present in thominds of masses of men. Many to whom tho law of re-birth was unknown, felt these things; and all felt that something must come to reform tho world because the need was groat. All the signs wore point-' ing to tho fact that wo wero near to tho beginning of a now cycle. If wo wero, indeed, at the dawning of a new day, men should have tho right to look for a reappearing of God manifest in tho flesh. In tho lesser seasons of tho cosmic year, a lesser Holy One might como, but in tho great seasons then Ho nimsolf camo forth. When Christ had been on earth He had promised them that Ho would return. Tho next coming wns in modern faiths confused with idens of tho end of tho world. In ncttinl fact, wo were a long, long way from tho end of tho world, md Christ would eotno many times before that. He exhorted all to study tho signs, md thoy would sco that all theso beliefs nrero not mero fancies. Tho Master would soon como to a hungering world, nnd when Ho did como they_ should be ready to rreot Him.and enjoy Him. and ready to lo ns Ho directed. Mr. Burn explained it length tho aims of tho Order, ; and 16 stated that already it had a memberihip of 12,000, of whom 000 were in Now Zealand. . . Before and after tho lecture Miss S. VTFadycn nnd Mr. Sydnoy Butler sang ;wo solos from tho Messiah, nnd associited they sang a duct "Love Divino! All i/ovo Excelling," from Stnincr's "Dnugh:er of Jairus."