from the lips of one who
believes it rather than by the exposition of one who does not; for
only so will you catch the spirit of the different religions. If you
would learn about Roman Catholicism, win a Roman Catholic student or
priest to come and tell you how his Church appeals to him; or if you
want to learn about the Church of England, win some clergyman who will
come and tell you what that Church means to him; or about
Buddhism, win a Buddhist to come and tell you what his own
religion is to him; and so with the Hindu, and on and on, all round
the different religions. For none can really tell what a religion is
to its followers who does not believe in it, and no one can give you
its spirit who does not feel it. And it is in that way that your
Theosophy should lead you into sympathy with every form of religious
thought, learning it as it comes from the mouth of a believer, and not
in the sort of warmed-up fashion in which one who does not believe it
re-cooks it for his fellow Theosophists. There, it seems to me, is
your field of work under the Second Object; and out of this study
would grow literature, illuminating these various religions and
philosophies, and from your classes should be evolved teachers, to
carry to the different communities the results of their study on
different lines, thus bringing the Second Object to the helping of the
First.

I had a letter the other day from a good member of the Theosophical
Society, and the writer said, being a Christian, that Christian lines
of work attracted her, and she thought she ought to leave the Society
in order to help people along those lines. But what sort of Theosophy
is that? You who are Christians, or believers in any other faith, you
should become Theosophists to help your own religions, and to bring
them the life, not by leaving the Society, but by learning in the
Society to help them; that is the duty of every believer in whatever
religion you may happen to believe. For you should be messengers to
the various religions, helping them to understand more deeply than
many of them do to-day; and if you would understand that that is part
of your duty, to help your own faiths, to enlighten those who will not
come to the Theosophical Lodge but yet will listen to the fellow
believer offering them the knowledge that in the Lodge he has gained,
then the spread of our doctrines, rapid as it is, would be far more
rapid and along healthy lines. For we do not exist as a