46 SKETCHES OF GREAT TRUTHS

heart, and the fundamental idea is the same.
Max Muller tells us that 4t May the Sun quicken
our mind " is probably the oldest prayer in the
world. The setting Sun has been specially
reverenced in many religions and is kept as a
sacred hour. " Going west" is a common
phrase and refers to the setting of the individual
Sun, the passing into another life. You may
ask what has this to do with Theosophy. I reply
that in seeking the Wisdom of God we must
seek it all over the world and especially in the
religions of the world, for the religions are the
expression of the attitude of the people to God,
and the religious life of a country is the ex-
pression of the religious thought in that coon-
try. The older the religion as a rule the more
debased has it become, but that does not alter
the fundamental truths, if we search deep
enough to find them.

In all religions there have been sacred books,
many, alas, destroyed, but many remain, and in
them we find the same teaching of the sacred-
ness of birth and life, and the consecration at
birth of the child to God by Baptism, as the
Christians call it, water being generally, if not
in all cases, the outward or visible sign in the
regeneration and presentation of the child.
When once one begins to compare the religions