d. Even as the walls of a building only
imperfectly indicate the nature of that which is within, that which
the building stands for; that which it symbolizes, so physical
appearances are symbolical hieroglyphs of the inner nature.

"Learn to look into the hearts of men" admonishes the spiritual
teacher. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The character of
the heart is the test, and though a man's lips utter words that are at
variance with his inner nature, yet if we have learned to look within,
we are not deceived. This then is the key to the kingdom--interior
vision.

Words are like buildings; like personalities; they have their exterior
and their interior message. Knowledge may be accumulated; piled up
like a mountain of possessions. But knowledge may not bestow one grain
of true wisdom. It is only as we extract the interior message from
knowledge that we attain wisdom. We possess knowledge and we _find_
wisdom, when we have transmuted that knowledge into its interior
meaning.

The fundamental difference between mysticism and theology is a
difference founded upon this axiom. The true mystic penetrates to the
interior nature of manifestation and gets the message of Experience.
Mysticism excludes nothing. It includes the manifest with the
interior; it penetrates the outer and seeks the interior; but never
does the true mystic confound the spirit with the letter; never does
he mistake the external for the Reality; the symbol for the message.

Suppose that what is generally called the practical side of life were
the only reality. What would be the inevitable conclusion of the
thinker if he were to consider only the outer, the manifest, the
visible results of a given achievement? He would conclude that
civilization is insane.

If we did not know with an intuitional grasp of truth that all this
which we call "marvels of achievement" is symbolical of what Man is in
his interior nature, it would be the veriest folly. What, for example,
is there in a modern sky-scraper indicative of man's advanced
civilization?

With millions of acres of unused land, it would be inconceivable folly
to project into the inoffensive atmosphere twenty-eight stories of
wood and iron merely to buy and sell the products of man's brain and
hands. But while our Twentieth Century feverish activities are
ostensibly engaged in the external world, they are symbolizing,
embodying, teaching if we will but learn, the fact of the evolution of
m