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the uni- versal moral causation. And this morality, this vision, and this understanding consti- tute the new consciousness, the divine life. The transcendent man is he who is above and beyond the dominion of self; he has transcended evil, and lives in the pradice and knowledge of good.

He is like a man who, having long looked upon the world with darkened eyes, is now restored to sight, and sees things as they are. Evil is an experience, and not a power. If it were an independent power in the uni- verse, it could not be transcended by any [ 37] jFtom Passion to Peace being.

But though not real as a power, it is real as a condition, an experience, for all experience is of the nature of reality. It is a state of ignorance, of undevelopment, and as such it recedes and disappears before the light of knowledge, as the intelledual ig- norance of the child vanishes before the gradually accumulating learning, or as dark- ness dissolves before the rising light.

The painful experiences of evil pass away as the new experiences of good enter into and possess the field of consciousness. And what are the new experiences of good? They are many and beautiful — such as the joy- ful knowledge of freedom from sin ; the absence of remorse; deliverance from all the torments of temptation; ineffable joy in conditions and circumstances which for- merly caused deep afflidion; impervious- ness to hurt by the adlions of others; great patience and sweetness ofcharafter; sere- nity of mind under all circumstances; eman- cipation from doubt, fear, and anxiety ; free- [38] jFrom Passion to peace dom from all dislike, envy, and enmity, with the power to feel and adl kindly towards those who see fit to constitute themselves one's enemies or opponents; the divine power to give blessings for curses, and to return good for evil ; a deep knowledge of the human heart, with a perception of its fundamental goodness; insight into the law of moral causation and the mental evolu- tion of beings, with a prophetic foresight of the sublime good that awaits humanity; and above all, a glad rejoicing in the limi- tation and impotency of evil, and in the eternal supremacy and power of good.

All these, and the calm, strong, far-reaching life that these imply and contain, are the rich experiences of the transcendent man, along with all the new and varied resources, the vast powers, the quickened abilities, and enlarged capacities that spring to life in the new consciousness.

Transcendence is transcendent virtue. Evil and good cannot dwell together. Evil [ 39 ] jTtom lPas0ion to Peace must be abandoned, left behind and tran- scended, before good is grasped and known, and when good is practised and fully com- prehended, then all the afflidions of the mind are at an end, for that which is accompanied with pain and sorrow in the consciousness of evil is not so accompanied in the consciousness of good.

Whatsoever happens to the good man cannot cause him perplexity or sorrow, for he knows its cause and issue, knows the good which it is or- dained to accomplish in himself, and so his mind remains happy and serene. Though the body of the good man be bound, his mind is free; though it be wounded and in pain, joy and peace abide within his heart.

A spiritual teacher had a pupil who was apt and earnest. After several years of learn- ing and pradice the pupil one day pro- pounded a question which his master could not answer. After days of deep medita- tion, the master said to his pupil: "I can- not answer the question which you have [40] JFtom Pa0Sion to Peace asked; have you any solution to offer?"

Whereupon the pupil formulated a reply to the question which he had propounded; and the master said to him: "You have answered that which I could not, and hence- forth nor I nor any man can instrudl you, for now you are indeed instruded by truth.

You have soared, like the kingly eagle, where no man can follow. Your work is now to instruct others. You are no longer the pupil, you have become the master." In looking back on the self-life which he has transcended, the divinely enlightened man sees that all the afflidions of that life were his schoolmasters teaching him, and leading him upward, and that in the mea- sure that he penetrated their meaning, and lifted himself above them, they departed from him.