Navigate the Chapters of this Book

1. The World Situation

The bringing into manifestation of the New Age upon earth and the accompanying emergence of the fifth kingdom of souls, is a task which calls for the united and concerted efforts of all those who are applying themselves to achieve this objective.  It also needs the cooperative endeavours of that more advanced portion of humanity that is sensitive to these new influences, who can grasp the nature and far reaching potentialities of this momentous happening, and who are, therefore, prepared to share, to the best of their ability, in the response to the need of this crucial moment and to the service which the Great Ones are seeking to render.  This cooperative effort by the more receptive portion of humanity is, in reality, what the Hierarchy is seeking to bring about among the sons of men.

The pressure upon the Hierarchy and upon all connected with it upon the Path of Discipleship and the Path of Initiation is today great.  There has been necessitated a constant collaboration and an extreme activity, for Those guiding human evolution have been deeply concerned to preserve the balance needed in the world today.  If possible, there must be no rapid climaxing of the situation, either into a general conflagration [630] nor (alternatively and quite possibly) into a general seething unrest of such widespread dimensions and of so persistent a character that the peoples of the world would be, in the one case, devastated by war, with its consequences of famine and pestilence, and in the other, worn out by the suffering engendered by economic unrest, destitution and the exploitation of the masses by fanatics, publicity seekers and well meaning but impractical idealists.

The dangers to the race and to its development of a disastrous war or wars, and the equally disastrous condition of no real or definite development, but simply decades of the present impasse and economic bankruptcy, are equally great and equally undesirable.  To offset these possibilities and yet produce, during the next ten years, the maximum desired change, has been the objective of the planetary Hierarchy (that hidden band of Workers which the Christian calls the Christ and His Disciples), and constitutes the focal point of their struggle.  I use this word "struggle" advisedly.  The Hierarchy is struggling hard with the so-called "forces of evil," and the New Group of World Servers is the instrument, at this time, upon the physical plane, with which the Hierarchy has to work.  They have no other instrument.

What do we mean by the phrase "forces of evil?"  Not the armies of unrighteousness and sinfulness, organised under that figment of the imagination, the devil or some supreme antichrist, for such an army does not exist, and there is no great enemy of God, arraigned in battle against the Most High.  There is only suffering, erring humanity, still half-awakened, dimly sensing the vision, and struggling to free itself from the thralldom of the past, with its tarnished allegiances and its unchecked loyalties.  The forces of evil are, in the last analysis, only the entrenched ancient ideals and habits of thought which have served their purpose in bringing the race to its [631] present point of development, but which must now disappear if the New Age is to be ushered in as desired.  The old established rhythms, inherent in the old forms of religion, of politics and of the social order, must give place to newer ideals, to the synthetic understanding, and to the new order.  The laws and modes of procedure which are characteristic of the New Age must supersede the old, and these will, in time, institute the new social order and the more inclusive regime.

The world today is full of experiments, particularly in the realm of government, which are the attempts of men everywhere to apply the new dimly-sensed approaching ideals.  These have to be applied to our modern conditions of living and eventually supersede them.  There is no form of national experiment which is not based on some such ideal, and which is not essentially an effort on the part of some school of idealists to better world conditions, or to bring relief to some group of human beings.  This is an axiom which must be accepted from the start, and it is one upon which the New Group of World Servers takes its stand.  It therefore negates in them all political antagonisms.  In the process of materialising the ideal, in the effort to procure its recognition and thus bring about conformity to the life purpose of the idea, the methods employed and the hatreds induced, the cruelties done in its name, the enforced acceptance demanded, and the evils perpetrated in the name of the new goals, have produced a condition of such an inflammatory nature that Those who stand behind world affairs and the development of humanity have been hard put to it to keep matters as quiet as they are.

What have we got in the world at this time?—for the lines of cleavage are daily clarifying, and the situation can be more distinctly grasped.  Those with no vision and a myopic outlook upon environing events regard what is happening in the world as steadily becoming worse and more aggravated.  They [632] see no light in the darkness, and talk wildly of our civilisation being doomed.  Others regard the situation as one in which they have their opportunity to assume prominence, to come to the forefront or surface in some department of world activity.  They thus exploit the masses, and twist the situation to their own ends, sometimes with the best intentions, sometimes because they see their chance to arrive at power and prominence, and sometimes because life, destiny, fate or karma (we can use whichever word we like) casts them for that position, and they become men of destiny.  They find themselves with their hand upon some ship of state, and are the controlling agent in some party, some group and in some political, religious or economic situation.  Yet all the time they are but pawns in the hands of Those who are working to some wider end.

This whole matter might be looked at from two angles, and it may profit us to do so, remembering always that the objective of the new social order, of the new politics and the new religion is to bring about the unfoldment of the human consciousness, to institute and bring to men's attention the higher values, and to end the reign of materialism.  It is, after all, the goal which all true knowers and spiritually minded men down the ages have set themselves—to bring in the rule of the Kingdom of God, the control of the soul, whose nature is love, and to carry forward the work which Christ inaugurated,—the era of peace on earth, good will towards men.  This is plainly indicated by the widespread emphasis upon world peace, as voiced by the great political leaders and as worked for by the churches everywhere.

The peoples of the world today are divided into four groups, from the angle of Those Who are seeking to guide humanity into the New Age.  This is of course a wide generalisation [633] and there are many bridging groups between the four major divisions.

First, the ignorant masses:  These, through poverty, lack of employment, illiteracy, hunger, distress and no leisure or means for cultural advantages, are in an inflamed condition.  They are developed just enough to respond to the mental control and suggestion of slightly more advanced people.  They can be easily regimented, influenced, standardised and swept into a collective activity by leaders of any school of thought which is clever enough and emotional enough to appeal to material desires, to love of country, and to hatred of those who possess more than they do.  They can be controlled by fear, and thus aroused to action by emotional appeal.

Knowing no better and suffering so much, they are easily swept by the fires of hatred and fanaticism, and so they constitute one of the greatest and most innocent menaces of the present time.  They are the playthings of the better informed, and are helpless in the hands of those who seek to use them for any purpose whatsoever.  They can be reached most easily by emotional appeals and by promises, whereas ideas can make but little impact upon their consciousness, for they are not yet developed enough to do their own thinking.  The bulk of them are young souls, though there are exceptions, naturally.  It is not the idealism of the leaders and demagogues which impresses them and impels them into action (usually of a violent nature), but the desire to retaliate, the longing to possess in the material sense, and the determination to be what is colloquially called the "top dog."  They embody mob psychology, mob rule, and mob violence.  They are helpless, exploited and—because they are an unthinking, unreasonable mass of human beings,—they present a very real problem, as we all well know and as all governments realise.  Blind, unthinking violence has hitherto been met by armed force.  Such [634] is the case today.  The masses fight and die on the urge of inflammatory speeches and seldom know what it is all about.  Their conditions must be bettered, but not through bloodshed and exploitation.

Secondly, the middle classes, so called, both higher and lower.  These are the bulk of the nations, the bourgeoisie—intelligent, diligent, enquiring, narrow-minded, essentially religious, though frequently repudiating the forms of religion.  They are torn and devastated by the economic conflict, and are, without exception, the most powerful element in any nation, because of their capacity to read, to discuss, to think, to spend money, and to take sides.  They form the bulk of the partisans in the world, the fighters for a cause, and are formed into great groups, either for or against this, that, or the other party.  They love to recognise and choose a leader, and are ready to die for a cause, and to make endless sacrifices for their ideals, based upon the ideas presented to them by their chosen leaders.

I am not differentiating the so-called aristocracy into a group, because that is entirely a class distinction, based largely on heredity and capital, and the modern adjustments in nations are rapidly fusing them into the large middle class.  We are dealing with basic matters, with the groupings which are founded on major attitudes, and not on divisions which emerge when material resources are under consideration.  The bourgeois mind is today slowly and steadily permeating the masses, the proletariat, and it is also penetrating into that circle which has hitherto been called the upper classes.  It is found existing as a state of consciousness in the aristocracy of any nation and absorbing them under the great present levelling process.  Because of this levelling which is everywhere going on, the spiritual aristocracy can now emerge,—an aristocracy based on a realisation of divine origin and goal, which knows no [635] class distinction, no barriers in religion, and no separating differences.  We are therefore dealing with human divisions and not class distinctions.

This second group is the most fruitful field from which the new leaders and organisers are being drawn.  They constitute an intermediate group between the world thinkers, the intelligentsia, and the masses of men.  In the last analysis, they are the determining factor in world affairs.  The masses suffer from world conditions and from the situations brought about through the activity of this second group as it responds in some way or another to the new influences, the new ideals, and the new controlling factors in the modern world.  This great second group itself suffers at the hands of these who seek to impose the new rhythms upon the peoples,—the political groups, the religious idealists and fanatics, and the protagonists of the new social order and economic regimes (as interpreted to them rightly or wrongly by their leaders).

Because of their intelligence, due to the improving educational facilities, the ability to read, and the impact of the new methods of propaganda, the press and the radio, they provide the most powerful group in the world in each nation, and it is to them that the leaders make their appeal, and it is their backing and their partisanship which is demanded, and which means success to any leader.  They are the ones who have the controlling vote in national affairs.  They are today swept by uncertainty, by questioning, by deep-seated fears and by the desire to see justice done and the new order of things established.  Above everything else they desire peace, stable economic conditions, and an orderly world.  For this they are ready to fight, and are today fighting in every party, every group, and for every kind of political, nationalistic, religious, economic and social ideals.  If they are not literally fighting, [636] in the physical sense, they are fighting with words, speeches and books.

Thirdly, the thinkers of the world:  These are the intelligent and highly educated men and women, who sense ideas and formulate them into ideals.  These people speak the words, write the articles and books, and utilise all the known methods to reach and educate the general public, and thus stir up the bourgeoisie to activity, and arouse, through them, the masses.  Their function and the part they play is of supreme importance.  From their ranks come those who are steadily influencing the trend of world affairs, sometimes for good and sometimes for selfish ends.  They play uon the human mind as a musician plays upon his instrument, and the power of the press, of the radio, and of the public platforms is in their hands.  Their responsibility is enormous.  Some few, more perhaps than might appear, are working selflessly under the inspiration of the new era.  They are dedicated to the amelioration of human conditions, and the betterment of world affairs along certain lines which seem to them (rightly or wrongly) to have in them the hope of the future, and the uplift of humanity.  They are found in every government, party, society, and organisation, and in every Church and religious grouping.  They constitute the most influential unit today, because it is through them that the large middle class is reached, swayed and organised for political, religious and social ends.  Their ideas and utterances percolate down through the upper and middle classes and finally reach the ears of the more advanced of the undeveloped masses.

Fourth, the New Group of World Servers:  These are the people who are beginning to form a new social order in the world.  They belong to no party or government, in the partisan sense.  They recognise all parties, all creeds, and all social and economic organisations; they recognise all governments.  [637] They are found in all nations and all religious organisations, and are occupied with the formulation of the new social order.  From the purely physical angle, they are not fighting either for the best in the old order or for the betterment of world conditions.  They consider that the old methods of fighting and partisanship and attack, and the ancient techniques of party battle have utterly failed, and that the means hitherto employed on all sides and by all parties and groups (fighting, violent partisanship of a leader or a cause, attacks on individuals whose ideas or manner of living is deemed detrimental to mankind), are out of date, having proved futile and unsuitable to bring in the desired condition of peace, economic plenty and understanding.  They are occupied with the task of inaugurating the new world order by forming throughout the world—in every nation, city and town,—a grouping of people who belong to no party, take no sides either for or against, but who have as clear and definite a platform and as practical a programme as any other single party in the world today.  They take their stand upon the essential divinity of man; their programme is founded upon good will, because it is a basic human characteristic.  They are therefore organising the men of good will throughout the world at this time, outlining to them a definite programme, and laying down a platform upon which all men of good will can meet.

They state and believe that their initial appeal has been of such a nature that, given the assistance of the trained minds to be found in the third group outlined above, and given the needed financial assistance to do the required educational work and goodwill propaganda, they can so change the world (through the sole agency of the men of good will) that—without war, without arousing hatred between men, and without attacking any cause or giving partisanship to any cause—the new order can be firmly established upon earth.  [638] Their programme and their technique is outlined a little later in this discussion.

Behind this fourfold panorama of humanity stand Those Whose privilege and right it is to watch over human evolution and to guide the destinies of men.  This They carry forward, not through an enforced control which infringes upon the free will of the human spirit, but through the implanting of ideas in the minds of the world thinkers, and the evocation of the human consciousness so that these ideas receive due recognition and become in time the controlling factors in human life.  They train the members of the New Group of World Servers in the task of changing ideas into ideals.  These become in time the desired objectives of the thinkers, and are by them taught to the great middle class, and thus worked up into world forms of government and religion, forming the basis of the new social order, into which the masses are patiently incorporated.

It should be remembered at this point that the men and women of good will belong to all the groups outlined above, and that herein lies their strength and herein lies their usefulness to the New Group of World Servers.

The strength of the New Group of World Servers lies in three factors:—

1. They occupy a midway position between the masses of men and the inner subjective world government.

2. They draw their membership (if such an inadequate word can be used) from all classes,—the aristocracy, the intelligentsia, the bourgeoisie, higher and lower, and the upper layer of the proletariat.  They are therefore truly representative.

3. They are closely inter-related, and in constant contact and rapport with each other, through unity of objective, [639] definiteness of method, and uniformity in technique and good will.

Let us look for a moment at the world picture as we find it at this time, and as it is coming to be recognised by the intelligent observer of world affairs.  Nothing that is here said must be regarded in the nature of criticism,  for that would be infringing one of the basic rules of the New Group, and such is most definitely not contemplated.  Therefore we mention no specific groups, nations or parties, nor do we refer to any particular personalities.  We are concerned with only one subject, the ushering in of the new world order.  To do this, we must recognise the situation as it exists.  We are occupied with the formation of that new party which will gather into its ranks all men of peace and good will, without interfering with their specific loyalties and endeavours, though probably modifying their methods considerably where based on the old order.  This new party can be regarded as the embodiment of the emerging Kingdom of God on earth, but it should be remembered that this kingdom is not a Christian kingdom or an earthly government.  It is a grouping of all those who—belonging as they do to every world religion and every nation and type of political party—are free from the spirit of hatred and separativeness, and who seek to see right conditions established on earth through mutual good will.

The ferment in the world today has permeated the very lowest depths of humanity.  All fields of human thought are involved in the divisions and the confusions.  In the past, time and time again, the nations were swept into wars of aggression.  Such wars are rapidly becoming rarer, and our strifes today are based primarily upon our economic needs.  For this there are obvious objective reasons.  Over-population, trade barriers, the inequalities of supply and demand, plus the ambitions and [640] [640] well-intentioned experiments of individuals in all departments of human thought and life are responsible for the upheaval.  More need not be said, for the causes are generally recognised, and we are outlining a solution of a practical nature.  But the true reason is deep-seated and not easily recognised, though the world thinkers are beginning to deal with it and to see its outlines clearly.  This reason is the conflict between certain great ideals, all of them based on spiritual ideas, but all of them prostituted to ends which lead to separativeness, to hatred, party strife, civil war, widespread economic distress, terror of a general conflagration, and fear on every hand.  We are surrounded by fear and uncertainty, grinding poverty, suspicion, plus the general collapse of the bulwarks of religion and government which hitherto seemed to offer a refuge.

Leaders—both national and religious—are everywhere attempting to deal with these problems, prompted sometimes by a true love for humanity, sometimes swayed by ambition, or galvanised into violent activity by some ideal for human, racial and national betterment.  Sincerity and insincerity, hatred and love, service and exploitation, divisions and unifications are found on every hand.  Catch words are everywhere—religious unity, standardisation of mankind, human freedom, the problem of the left and the right party, communism, fascism, nazism, the New Deal, liberalism and conservatism, creative living, population problems, sterilisation, utopias, the rights of the people, dictatorships, re-armament defence tactics, public education, secret diplomacy, isolationism—such are a few of the words which are today on everybody's lips, and which indicate the aliveness of humanity to its problems, to the difficulties with which it is confronted, and to the impasse which we seem to have reached.  On every hand, people are coming to the front with some solution, gathering a party to put it over, and fighting for their ideal.

[641]

Every day sees money spent like water in order to offset the propaganda of some leader, or to support the ideas of another.  Campaigns are held all over the world to raise the needed funds to overthrow some ancient entrenched ideal, or for the substitution of some new idea.  Men and women in both hemispheres are swept today by the desire to change the old order and bring in the new era of economic comfort and peaceful living, and are dedicating their lives to the defence of some principle which seems to them of paramount importance, or to the overthrow of another principle of importance to their brothers.  Attack of personalities, defamation of character, the imputing of motives, and the stirring up of hatred are a recognised part of the technique of those who—with good intention—are attempting to salvage the world, to bring order out of chaos, and to defend the right as they see it.  Love of humanity and desire to aid is unquestionably present.  Yet the chaos grows; the hatreds increase; the warfare spreads; past efforts seem futile to stem the tide which seems about to sweep humanity over the brink of disaster.

This factor of futility, and the fatigue incident to the long struggle, are today recognised by the leaders everywhere.  There is a demand for a new way, a desire to know what is basically at fault, and to discover why the strenuous self-sacrificing and divinely motivated efforts of many hundreds of men and women have failed to stop war, solve the economic problem and release humanity.

It might be stated that the failure is due primarily to two things:

1. The effort has been expended in dealing with effects, and the underlying causes have not been touched, even when realised by a few.  The attempt has been made to right wrongs, to expose evils and evil personalities, and to attack [642] organisations, groups, parties, religions and national experiments.  This has led to what appears to be a futile expenditure of time, strength, energy and money.

2. No effort has been made to find and blend into one organised whole the men of good will, of peaceful loving intention, and intelligent kindliness and goodness in the world, so that they can cooperate together in their vast masses.  Those constitute an incredibly large number of people who hate war because they regard all men as brothers, but who see no way to end it, as all the organisations to that end seem powerless in the last analysis.  They grieve over the economic distress but do not know what to do, as all the various groups dealing with the problem are occupied with laying the blame on others and seeking scapegoats; they are conscious of the breakdown of the many efforts towards good.

This spirit of good will is present in millions, and it evokes a sense of responsibility.  This is the first indication in the race that man is divine.  It is upon this steadily growing good will that the New Group of World Servers is counting, and which it is their intention to utilise.  It is found in the membership of every group which exists for world betterment, and constitutes an unused power which has never yet been organised into a whole, as the loyalty and effort of the individual man of good will has hitherto been given to his organisation or endeavour.  It is the intention of the New Group of World Servers not to interfere with this loyalty or to arrest any activity, but to gather into one organised whole all these people, without creating a new organisation or sidetracking any of them from the work they have already undertaken.

The New Group of World Servers is already a functioning active group.  Every man and woman in every country in both [643] hemispheres, who is working to heal the breaches between people, to evoke the sense of brotherhood, to foster the sense of mutual inter-relation, and who sees no racial, national or religious barriers, is a member of the New Group of World Servers, even if he has never heard of it in these terms.

The members of the New Group of World Servers belong to no party or religion and yet belong to all parties and religions; they assume no attitude or position either for or against any existing government, religion or social order.  They engage in no political activity of any kind, and attack no existing order.  They are neither for nor against a government or a Church, and spend no money, organise no campaign, and send out no literature which could be interpreted as attacking or defending any organisation of a political, religious, social or economic nature.  They say nothing and write no word which could feed the fires of hatred, or tend to separate man from man, or nation from nation.  Yet these members will be found in every political party and every world religion.  They represent an attitude of mind.

The members of the New Group of World Servers are not, however, a band of impractical mystics.  They know exactly what they seek to do, and their plans are laid in such a manner that—without upsetting any existing situation—they are discovering and bringing together the men of good will all over the world.  Their united demand is that these men of good will should stand together in complete understanding and thus constitute a slowly growing body of people whose interest is shown on behalf of humanity and not primarily on behalf of their own immediate environment.  The larger interest will not, however, prevent them from being good citizens of the country where their destiny has cast them.  They will conform to and accept the situation in which they find themselves, but will (in that situation and under that government [644] or religious order) work for good will, for the breaking down of barriers, and for world peace.  They will avoid all attack of existing regimes and personalities; they will keep the laws of the land in which they have to live, but they will cultivate the spirit of non-hatred, utilising every opportunity to emphasise the brotherhood of nations, the unity of faith, and our economic inter-dependence.  They will endeavour to speak no word and do no act which can separate and breed dislike.

These are broad generalities, governing the conduct of the men of good will who seek to cooperate with the work being done by the New Group of World Servers.  As they learn effective cooperation and achieve steadiness in the right attitudes to their fellow men, they are gradually absorbed into the ranks of the New Group, not through a process of formal affiliation, for no such process exists (there being no formal organisation) but through the development of the necessary qualities and characteristics.  It is of value to reiterate at this point that the New Group of World Servers is not an organization.  It has no headquarters, but only units of service throughout the world; it has no president or lists of officers; it has only servers in every country, who are occupied simply with the task of discovering the men of good will.  This is the immediate task.  These men of good will must be found and trained in the doctrine of non-separateness, and educated in the principles of cooperation and the characteristics of the new social order, which is essentially a subjective re-alignment, resulting in pronounced changes brought about through the weight of a world opinion, based on a good will which knows no national or racial barriers or religious differences.  Year by year there should develop much active work and much dissemination of the teachings upon universal good will, so that it changes from a beautiful sentiment and becomes the [645] practical application of good will by action in the affairs of every day life, in every country throughout the world.

In terms of Christian teaching, the citizens of the kingdom which Christ came to found must be discovered, and will be recognised by their spirit of synthesis, their inclusive point of view and their emphasis upon a world unity which is based upon our international synthesis (the recognition really of our human relations), our religious unity as children of the one Father, and our well known, though largely ignored, economic inter-dependence.  The education of the men and women of good will will be in relation to the expression of a practical loving understanding.  The New Group of World Servers will know who these citizens of the kingdom are and where they are to be found.

The next task to which the New Group of World Servers will consecrate their efforts will be to eliminate the fear in the world.  This can be done and will take place when the men and women of good will awake to the fact of the wealth of good will there is in every land.  There are millions of these men of good will in the world; they have been increasing steadily in numbers as a result of the agony of the world war, but, feeling isolated and alone, they have been impotent and futile.  They have felt separated, useless and unimportant.  As individuals, they are.  As part of a great world movement, with a spiritual basis and expressive of the essential divinity in man, they are not.  The massed power of good will, a thing which has remained hitherto unorganised, will be found to be irresistible.  The work of the New Group of World Servers until May 1942 is to organise this latent power and bring it forth into expression by fostering it, by educational methods, and by indicating steadily the lines along which this potent spirit can manifest.

The New Group of World Servers should therefore organise [646] for itself a programme covering this period, under the direction of Those who watch, on the inner, spiritual side of life.  This programme must have three objectives:—

1. To discover, educate and blend together the men of good will, demonstrating to them the fact that in every country in the world, without exception, much is being done along the lines of

a. International understanding and the brotherhood of nations.

b. The betterment of human conditions by groups, churches and organisations, working along the new lines, without hatred, eliminating attack on groups or persons and the expressing of a partisan spirit,

c. Religious unity and spiritual unfoldment within and without the churches,

d. Educational activity, carried forward along lines of non-separativeness and broad inclusiveness.

This can be done through the instrumentality of a new magazine which will be the organ of the men of good will.

2. To prepare the men of good will for a repetition upon a far larger scale of the "act of appeal" which took place on May 6th, 1936.  Then the Great Invocation was used by millions, and of its effectiveness there can be no doubt.  It greatly strengthened the hands of the Hierarchy and established a "channel of contact" which can never again be broken.  Greater similar efforts can be launched during the next few years and they will embody the next great spiritual effort and expression of the men of good will for which the intermediate period is a preparation.  It is desirable that there should be, if possible, a far [647] wider use of the radio, so that sequentially and following the journey of the sun, there may go forth over the air this appeal to God at the time of the full moon.  The day of appeal will be the expression of the spiritual attitude of humanity and will lead to a subjective spiritual synthesis between the men of good will and the New Group of World Servers and the inner spiritual Hierarchy which is working to bring about the manifestation of the new order on earth, to inaugurate the New Age, and to materialise the kingdom of God on the physical plane.

To this future day of appeal or world prayer much thought and preparation should be given, so that the results achieved can be even more definite and potent than in the first quite successful attempt.  Prayer or appeal is either a potent way of setting certain great forces in motion or it is not.  The testimony of the ages is in favour of its efficacy along these lines.

3. To hold before humanity, as part of the living instruction which the men of good will will teach and live out in their daily lives, the necessity of a great group participation in a Day of Forgiveness and of Forgetting.  This may be possible in a few years' time, but could be effectively tried in 1942.  This is a forgiveness which is based upon a recognition of the universality of human error in the past, and the fact that there is no blame to be apportioned to this or that group, nation or church, but that we have all made mistakes, have all failed to understand, and have all been guilty of lack of love and of tolerance.  It is not, therefore, a forgiveness which is based on a spirit of magnanimity or a sense of expediency or superiority, but upon a desire to forget the past, and to push [648] forward into the New Age and participate in the new social order, free from the ancient hatreds, relinquishing the memory of the old mistakes in policy, judgment and method, and ignoring the habitual barriers and our normal separative instincts.

This is the triple programme to which the New Group of World Servers is pledged and in which we are urged to participate.  To this endeavour they will in their turn call the men of good will.  They have no other programme or intention.

Loosely knit together by mutual understanding and similarity of objective, the members of the New Group of World Servers stand, whether they are conscious or unconscious of each other or the group, as it is here described.  In every country they are found and actively are working.  Through them the men of good will are being discovered.  Their names and addresses are being noted and collected into mailing lists.  Their capacity, whatever it may be, to serve their fellow men, will be also noted when possible and utilised, if desired.  Thus through the men of good will everywhere, the principle of good will can be nurtured and developed in every country, and eventually turned to practical use.  These people will constitute a new body of practical thinkers in every nation, who will be no menace to any government, nor will they work against the established order.  They will throw themselves into those movements and undertake those activities which can in no way foster hatred, spread enmity, or cause division among their fellow men.  To this group, no government or church can object.

Danger lies in laying down rules and in making forecasts.  These will only lead to premature activity and hasty procedure.  If the work which is outlined here proceeds along the desired lines; if, through daily use of the Great Invocation:

[649]

Let the Forces of Light bring illumination to mankind

Let the Spirit of Peace be spread abroad

May men of good will everywhere meet in a spirit of cooperation

May forgiveness on the part of all men be the keynote at the time

Let power attend the efforts of the Great Ones

So let it be, and help us to do our part

the channel is widened and firmly established, and a day of prayer is duly organised; if the daily recognition of forgiveness in the sense in which St. Paul wrote when he said "Forgetting the things which are behind, press forward," becomes the rule among the men of good will, leading eventually to a world-wide day of forgiveness, then the task of the New Group of World Servers will go forward along constructive and fruitful lines, and will lead to success.  Those Who seek to lead and guide on the inner side will also have reason to go forward with increased confidence, and the Christ will see the fruits "of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

Having thus the programme for this immediate period outlined before us, what are we going to do about it?  This programme cannot succeed nor can this middle party in the world—intermediate between the partisans and the groups pro and con in world affairs—come to fruition and constructive activity without each one realising the need, and bending anew every effort—individual, financial and spiritual—to the helping of the Plan.