Lecture by Mr. W. R. Judge.

Mr. W. R. Judge, of New York, vice-president of the General Theosophical Society, lectured last evening in Holden Chapel, on "The Underlying Basis of All Religions." He said that religion of some sort universally prevails, and that its three greatest divisions are Brahmanism, Buddhism and Christianity. Of these, Brahmanism is the oldest, but it has not as mand followers as the other two; Buddhism embraces two-thirds of the human race; Christianity includes a large part of the remaining third. If, then, we can find any common foundation underlying these three great branches of religion, we may safely regard it as the basis of all religions.

Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Christianity all agree in asserting a revelation, though Christians go so far as to maintain that the revelation made to them was the only true one. There are many other points of similarity in the three religions. Floods, fires, and cataclysms appear in them all; all insist on the immortality of the soul and the immutability of the supreme Being; and all have a heaven and a hell. Of course the details vary, but the general underlying basis remains, and it is this with which theosophy concerns itself.

Theosophy asserts the existence of a primeval teaching, tantamount to a revelation, yet deduced from fact and experience. This teaching is known to certain choice souls, is preserved by them, and though at times obscured in different nations, is handed down through the generations of mankind. It runs through science and all religions, and shows a single underlying basis, of which the various phases it exhibits are but variants.