THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 254, 15 July 1918, Page 8

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

NEW HALL OPENED. Last evening an important epoch in the life of the Wellington Lodge of the Theosophiuill Society was inaugurated by the opening of a new brick .building in Marion Street, which is 'bright, cheerful, well-lit, and possesses vitluable acoustic properties, rendering it in every way suitable for tho purposes of the society, and .also for public meetings. The sealing capacity is three hundred. The construction was undertaken by Messrs. Mace ami Nicholson. The post was .filOM.

The subject chosen for the opening lecture by Mr. .T. Ross Thomson, general secretary for New Zealand, was appropriately' "The Message of Theosophy to Hie World."

In opening the hall, the president, Mr. W. S. Short, welcomed (he Audience of fully three hundred people. The society, he sniil, had been established in Wellington for thirty years, and its membership had grown to such an extent that it had to have a hall nf its own, which, he- trusted, would become, a centre of light, learning, mid charity to all around, nml take its part with the uplift of. Immunity movements, of the city. The society had no dogmas, but sought to further three objects: (1) To form -n nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity without: caste, creed, sex, race, ov colour; (2) to study comparative religion and science; (3) lo Investigate unexplained laws in Nature and the powers latent in man. Anyone could became a meml>pr; the only adherence was to the ideal of brotherhood. The application of Iheosophy to the modern world was the particular subject of Mr. Thomson's address. The mission of the society, he said, was to bring about a moral and spiritual revolution in the world. The society was a revolutionary body in the world of ideals. It canio to bring into ultimate realisation the brotherhood of man; the present war whs proof (hat. the antithesis of that idwt. held sway to : day. War was inevitable; dip boil on the human body had' burst, ami comparative purification would conic. The dead would reincarnate with added faculty and character, the result df the present awful experiences. The nations were intended to live in amity, (ind the war would teach this. War was si surgical oiicrnlion. on ttie part of the (treat fMivsichin, who was cutting out deceit; and selfishness. The law of love had tn be learned. Germany was mad with the lust nf power.. Here was our lesson. We must cease to attempt to dominate anyone but oursclve-

• A number (if highly-acceptable violin select ions were given by Mr. Gregory Ivanoff. who wax accompanied on the piano by Mr. Holland.