of the day, in judging the value of a man, that
"it does not matter what he believes but only what he does." That is
not true. It matters infinitely what a man believes; for as a man's
belief so he is; as a man's thought, so inevitably is his action.
There was a time in the world of thought when it was said with equal
error: "It does not matter what a man does, provided his faith is
right." If that word "faith" had meant the man's thought in its
integrity, then there would have been but little error; for the right
thought would inevitably have brought right action; but in those days
right thought meant only orthodox thought, according to a narrow canon
of interpretation, the obedient repetition of creeds, the blind
acceptance of beliefs imposed by authority. In those days what was
called Orthodoxy in religion was made the measure of the man, and
judgment depended upon orthodox acquiescence. Against that mistake the
great movement that closed the Middle Ages was the protest of the
intellect of man, and it was declared that no external authority must
bind the intellect, and none had right to impose from outside the
thought which is the very essence of the man--that great assertion of
the right of private judgment, of the supreme principle of the free
intelligence, so necessary for the progress of humanity. But like all
things it has been followed by a reaction, and men have run to the
other extreme: that nothing matters except conduct, and action alone
is to be considered. But your action is the result of your thought of
yesterday, and follows your yesterday as its expression in the outer
world; your thought of to-day is your action of to-morrow, and your
future depends on its accuracy and its truth, on its consonance with
reality. Hence it is all-important in the modern world to give back to
thought its right place as above action, as its inspirer and its
guide. For the human spirit by its expression as intellect judges,
decides, directs, controls. Its activity is the outcome of its
thinking; and if without caring for thought you plunge into action,
you have the constant experiments, feeble and fruitless, which so
largely characterise our modern life.

Pass, then, from that first assertion of the importance of right
thinking, to see what message Theosophy has for the world of religious
thought. What is religion? Religion is the quenchless thirst of the
human spirit for the Divine. It is the Eternal, plunged into a world