AN INCONCEIVABLY LONG time ago, a great train of bright little flames went forth from their Eternal Home, where a delicate breath of spring had only just awakened them out of a deep sleep. Many a luminous hand was raised in blessing, as though in a last greeting, and loving, kindly glances followed after them.

The bells of Paradise were ringing as they departed, and even at the last moment they caught this silver-clear tone, and cherished it deep in their young hearts.

Then the little points, whirling merrily, sank into the world-embracing depths. -

The time came when these delicate little flames had blossomed forth in purity into human spirits, and in the blossoming there mingled a faint note from far, faraway lands, which touched the strings of their hearts like gentle hands, awakening that tone which had sounded so beautiful to them as they departed, and which they had quietly received into their innermost being.

Then they were seized by a vehement urge; for they knew the sweet sound of home, and soon their strings resounded more fully, and their song grew into a melody filled with longing.

That was the time when planet earth still revolved in luminous orbits, and when fresh heavenly dew fell on it each day.

Then came a day when that longing-filled ringing became fainter, weaker. Discords were heard. At first here and there, and then they filled the Universe. Alarmingly the Jubilation of the voices faded, soon the great chorus had fallen silent. No echo could be heard any longer in the Dome of Heaven. The holy singing of earthmen had died away. -

Man had voluntarily created for himself a very effective trap. Following the urge for development, he descended from Paradise into the material substance of Subsequent Creation, but he forgot his origin and was caught in the World of Matter. Thus he could no longer make anything of the urging and exhorting within his heart.

In place of the longing, the yearning for Truth and Eternal Life, the greater part of mankind put the craving for earthly things, the desire for pleasures of the lowest kind. When for once the Heavenly did knock warningly under a dense cover, they sought to drown it in the earthly.

One frenzy after another seized the human spirit. Had some poison paralyzed it that it could so forget the song of its Spiritual Home? Was it no longer able to recall that wondrous sound, which so strangely makes the heart tremble in secret joy?

When people far from their earthly homeland meet with others of their countrymen, the joy of seeing each other again is often endless, and they are proud of their earthly country. But do they then no longer know that they call yet another Homeland their own, one much more beautiful, much more flourishing? Why do they never speak of this, their original Home, Paradise, why do they not rejoice together over it when they meet down here on the earth-plane during their long journey through the Worlds?

Has then the sublime song of Heaven grown so completely silent in the hearts of men? Does not its melody after all still secretly sing and ring, where seeking men on their long journey truly long for it?

The yearning that slumbers in the core of the soul is only veiled. Does man not mark how the unquenched longing is constantly knocking and exhorting, when he sets out on his travels, when he wishes to journey through the lands, across the seas, when he climbs the mountain peaks, or when inexplicable restlessness comes over him in the hurly-burly of everyday life?

If he bursts these coverings with the purity of true yearning, then he is instantly connected with the eternal power of the spirit. On the path of this connection happiness quietly comes to him, a new great hope dawns in his heart.

He who can constantly keep the connection here on earth has succeeded in mastering life; he is gripped by the great love which is always anxious that his fellow-man should also find the impetus upwards to the Blessed Fields.

But he who seeks the true yearning seeks also atonement, the liberation of himself from all the guilt of past earth-lives. He therewith obliterates the traces of wrong paths which he had followed, and achieves already on earth a high degree of spiritual consciousness.

Thus man will then be firmly anchored in earth-life, and yet able to draw from the full Fount of Heaven. And the more he draws, the more alive becomes that healthy idealism which, within natural limitations, always creates lasting spiritual values, thus building a golden ladder upon which his spirit may finally enter Paradise.

What a miracle will then take place! Unconscious little spirit-sparks went forth from Paradise, and they will return as self-conscious personalities. They had already been in the Kingdom of God before, and yet they can see and experience it only after they have allowed their longing for the complete understanding of the Laws of Creation to mature far from home - after there had been bestowed upon them, along with the attainment of full consciousness, the simultaneous knowledge that they are allowed to exist eternally.

Do you hear how an invisible hand glides over the golden strings of the Heavenly Harp, and how more and more loudly it rings and sings the pure, sublime melody, so that the sound may awaken the longing of your spirit, and blessed recollections rise up from the depths? Once more you can so fan your yearning with it that it may burst into flame, scorching everything base that holds you down, and luminous rays may strike your soul.

Then after a long, long time the gates of the Blessed Lands from which you once, slumbering, took the first step will be opened again. You will return on that path by which those human spirits may come who did not forget that bell-clear Heavenly Song, and let its last note, which they caught even as they were departing, resound in a jubilant chord. Therefore make room within yourselves for the true longing, and free yourselves from all petty considerations. May what is great and pure be your wish and goal eternally!