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Lesson VIII: Dharma.393
by man’s actions. If the teachers and the prophets commanded that man
worship God, it was solely for the purpose of bringing man’s attention to
the fact that there was a Power above, the fact of the attention being so
directed causing man to obtain the advantage of the upward attraction of
the Absolute in his unfoldment. Get out of your mind the idea that God
needs your praise and worship in order to satisfy His love of approval and
your statements of His exalted position. All the benefit of prayer, worship
and love of God is on the side of Man—it is all one-sided.
To understand the teachings of the prophets of all religions, we must
put ourselves in the place of the prophet and see the kind of people he
had to deal with. Then will we understand that the crude commands were
calculated to bring them up just one step in the scale—and they did. But
because the teachings were so intended, and accomplished their purpose,
we must not allow ourselves to be bound by the letter of them at this time.
If we grow to an understanding of the matter, along the lines pointed out,
we will be able to discard the chaff of the teachings (which was the wheat in
the past) and to seize upon the scattered grains of wheat still to be found
in the measure. Let us make use of all the good in the old teachings for
there is still much good to be found in them—they have not as yet outlived
their usefulness. But let us not bind ourselves with the worn-out teachings
of the past—let us not forget the spirit of all teachings and tie ourselves
to the dead letter of the old law. Let us not commit the folly of claiming
that because a teaching was inspired, that it is an infallible rule of conduct
for all time, and all people—let us remember the other two pillars of
Dharma, intuition and reason. But, at the same time, let us not sneer at the
old teachings, and deny their inspiration, simply because they belong to a
long past age and time. Let us recognize the thing for what it is, and govern
ourselves accordingly. And let us not suppose that the day of revelation and
inspiration has passed. There is as much inspiration in Emerson as there was
in the Hebrew prophets—each was ahead of the times, and the message of
each is but imperfectly understood by the multitude—each struck a higher