EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 281, 22 August 1921, Page 7

EVOLUTION OF THE SOUL

A large gathering of people attended Nr. Vivian H. R. Deacon’s lecture at the Concert Chamber of the Town HaE last night. Mr. Deacon continued his outline of Evolution, and said he was going to contend that reincarnation of necessity was tho method employed whereby man climbed from the stage of infantile humanity until ho reached the zenith ol perfection. From the point of view of reincarnation an altogether different atr titudo was assumed toward life than that understood by Christian orthodoxy. The orthodox apparently believed that man was a body and had a soul, a. niisty nebulous something that could be very easily lost and apparently with equal far cility bo saved; reincarnation assumed on tho contrary, that man had not got a soul. Reincarnation asserted in no indefinite manner that man is a soul ana lias a body, and that he can no more lose his soul than bo can lose himself Reincarnation asserted with the early Christians that "man is body, sou l, and spirit,” and that he was tlie citizen of tho heaven-world. Just as a bird ho■; ering in tho air above might dive down into the water below, and thero partake of some fish that ventured too near the surface of the sea, and then rose into its native element, there to eat and di gest tho food it had gathered beneath the waves so in tho same way we had dived down into the sea of matter to gather food for the soul, and by and by when our earth-lifo was. ended, *e would rise again into our native e ement our home in tho heaven-world, theie to eat and digest and to build into our souls as added faculty and power the result of tho experiences wo had gone through while on earth. Is earth-lire of any value?" asked the lecturer. If it is not, then where u’ *he Wj£ ce God. in the case of a child whi.h dies n few hours after birth? Is it fair to us if there is only one life, that, wo should have to live out the span of Jthreescoro years and ten all for nothing. On the other hand, if earth-life is of eternal valuo to tho spul, will not that child be ZtcrnaUy the ‘loser, if it never again has opportunity.to incarnate on earth£ "The idea of reincarnation, boworcr, explained these difficulties, it envied one to believe God just and. all-loving, as well as omnipotent; for it taught that, law ruled in tho moral and mental realms as in the physical, that M Injustice could happen to any soul, that whatsoever wo sow that exactly and inevitably we had to reap. Science told that some children were born congenital criminals, while others from infancy were stamped with the hall-mark of genius. Did God give the instinct of criminality to the born criminal and then punish him for it' Did God stamp upon others tho humane faculties of saintslup, and then reward the recipient? A thousand times Not God was the same yesterday, to-dnv, and forever, and was no renpect-er of persons. Reincarnation showed these seeming inequalities to be due to a-ner-ence of ago in lhe soul. The genius naa earned his ffcnius in lives gone by, tho born criminal was but a child soul whoso genius would yet manifest ns the fruition of experience in lives to come, until all had hecomo perfect, even as the Father in Heaven was perfect. Then would we become a "pillar in the House of God and go out no more.