of the Self. Only in the desert of loneliness rises
that Sun in all His glory, for all objects that might cloud His dawning
must vanish; only "when half-Gods go," does God arise. Even the outer
God must hide, ere the Inner God can manifest; the cry of agony of the
Crucified must be wrung from the tortured lips; "My God, my God, why
hast _Thou_ forsaken me?" precedes the realisation of the God
within.

Through this all Mystics pass who are needed for great service in the
world, those whom Mr. Bagshot so acutely calls "materialised Mystics".
The Mystics who find God outside themselves are the "unmaterialised"
Mystics, and they serve the world in the ways above mentioned; but the
other, as Mr. Bagshot points out, transmute their mystic thought into
"practical energy," and these become the most formidable powers known in
the physical world. All that is based on injustice, fraud and wrong may
well tremble when one of these arises, for the Hidden God has become
manifest, and who may bar His way?

Such Mystics wear none of the outer signs of the "religious"--their
renunciation is within, not without, there is no parade of outer
holiness, no outer separation from the world; Janaka the King,
K[r.][s.]h[n.]a the Warrior-Statesman, are of these; clothed in cotton
cloth or cloth of gold, it matters not; poor or rich, it boots not;
failing or succeeding, it is naught, for each apparent failure is the
road to fuller success, and both are their servants, not their masters;
victory ever attends them, to-day or a century hence is equal, for
they live in Eternity, and with them it is ever To-day. Possessing
nothing, all is theirs; holding everything, nothing belongs to them.
Misconception, misrepresentation, they meet with a smile, half-amused,
all-forgiving; the frowns, the taunts, the slanders of the men they live
to serve are only the proofs of how much these foolish ones need their
help, and how should these foolish ones hurt those on whom the Peace of
the Eternal abides?

These Mystics are a law unto themselves, for the inner law has replaced
the external compulsion. More rigid, for it is the law of their own
nature; more compelling, for it is the Voice of the divine Will; more
exacting, for no pity, no pardon, is known to it; more all-embracing,
for it sees the part only in the whole.

But it has, it ought to have, no authority outside the Mystic himself.
It may persuade, it may win, it may inspire, but it may not claim
obedi