ogians have followed him in this thought. If
we enjoy, we have earned it; if we suffer, we have earned it; in both
cases through our own endeavors and efforts, and not by "chance," nor by
reason of the merits or demerits of our forefathers, nor because of
"predestination" nor "election" to that fate. If this be true, then one
is given the understanding to stoically bear the pains and miseries of
this life without cursing Fate or imputing injustice to the Divine. And
likewise he is given an incentive toward making the best of his
opportunities now, in order to pass on to higher and more satisfactory
conditions in future lives. Reincarnationists claim that rewards and
punishments are properly awarded only on the plane in which the deed,
good or bad, was committed, "else their nature is changed, their effects
impaired, and their collateral bearings lost." A writer on the subject
has pointed out this fact in the following words: "Physical outrage has
to be checked by the infliction of physical pain, and not merely by the
arousing of internal regret. Honest lives find appropriate consequence
in visible honor. But one career is too short for the precise balancing
of accounts, and many are needed that every good or evil done in each
may be requited on the earth where it took place." In reference to this
mention of rewards and penalties, we would say that very many advanced
Reincarnationists do not regard the conditions of life as "rewards and
punishments," but, on the contrary, look upon them as forming part of
the Lessons in the Kindergarten of Life, to be learned and profited by
in future lives. We shall speak of this further in our consideration of
the question of "Karma"--the difference is vital, and should be closely
observed in considering the subject.

Before we pass from the consideration of the question of Justice, as
exemplified by Reincarnation, we would call your attention to the
difference in the views of life and its rewards and punishments held by
the orthodox theologians and the Reincarnationists, respectively. On the
one hand, the orthodox theologians hold that for the deeds, good or
evil, performed by a man during his short lifetime of a few years, and
then performed under conditions arbitrarily imposed upon him at birth by
his Creator, man is rewarded or punished by an eternity of happiness or
misery--heaven or hell. Perhaps the man has lived but one or two years
of reasonable understanding--or full three-sco