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MODERN REFORMERS construct theories of economics to suit their fancy. The forms they propose are mere toys of the mind; and if placed in the way of the moving reality of human relations, they would be crushed like card- houses. The great social issues of the world must be settled by means of the decisions of genuine science. There must be something adopted to wisely direct the great tide of human energy.
Nothing but some great master principle, a master ful conception coupled with greatness of character, can still the tempest of human discontent and restore confidence in the immutability of righteous law.
Undreamed-of marvels of possible achievement may be seen through the eye of science. The greatest works the world has ever known maybe accomplished through the polarization of the mind and soul of a na tion.
The era of rest for which the world seeks, will obtain through human equipoise. The affairs of the world should be in equilibrium, and just proportion and balance should characterize human industry and commerce.
OUTLINE OF THE KORESHAN SYSTEM
The Social and Other Phases of the Progressive Movement (From the New York Herald) OUR GEOGRAPHIES and astronomies are false guides. Even the poets are all astray. We are not living, as we have been deluded by the scientists for centuries into believing that we are, on the surface of a sphere revolving through space, and part of a tremendous universe whose other worlds are mysteries to whose unveiling we look forward to at some time in the future. The Koreshan Universology has demolished the standard beliefs and explained that our little world is all that there is of the universe. Be yond us there is nothing. The earth is a great cell and we live on its inner surface, not on the outside. The “ glorious orb of day” is at the centre, only about four thousand miles distant. We do not see it because it is surrounded by three atmospheres, one of which is of hydrogen. What we do see is the focalization of the sun’s energies at a distance of about nine hundred miles from us, a t the junction of our atmosphere with the sea of hydrogen.
There are no starry heavens in the sense we have always believed that there are, no peopled planets. Even the comets are disposed of by new theories. The Koreshans can prove that all these things are illusions.
Unhappily, everyone is not acquainted with Koreshans and their theories. To many persons the Koreshans are as little known as the inhabitants of Mars.
Of course, when we come to understand the principles of the Koreshan Universology, or Cellular Cosmogony, we will know that there can be no Martians, and that the canals which are alleged to have been seen on Mars are nothing more than lines on the telescope.
K oresh, the Founder of the new religion, science, and social system that bears his name, was known as Dr . Cyrus R. T eed before he became the prophet and accepted Messiah of the new order.
He began with a declaration in favor of the Cellular Cosmogony. Since all life in the process of development progresses in a cell,
[ * EDITOR’S Note .—-The article herewith , appeared in the New York Herald, January 19, 1908, with a number o f excellent and striking ing illustrations.
It has been pronounced on e of the best and fairest a rticles concerning th e K oreshan M ovem ent that ever appeared in the daily p ress.]
% he held that the assumption that the earth is a great . cell in which the development of human life is taking place, is altogether reasonable.
Tho next step was to prove that all material life exists on a concave instead of on a convex surface. This theory became a proved scientific fact, according to the Koreshans, when certain experiments were per formed by means of the Rectilineator, an instrument devised by Professor U. G. Morrow in making surveys ou the west coast of Florida. Freeing themselves from the accepted formulae) and methods of science, they undertook the survey with the open ’minds of explorers of an undiscovered country. Tho result, they assert, was the scientific mathematical proof that the earth's surface does curve eight inches to the mile, as the old- time scientists say it does, but that it curves concavely instead of convexly. Their experiment covered a dis tance of four and a half miles, which was far enough to prove the case. The air line sighted at the distance of four and one half miles from the start, actually ran into the Gulf.
As a result of this survey the following principle has been incorporated as one of the fundamentals of the science of K o r e s h : “ A straight line extended at right angles from a perpendicular post, over land or water surface, will meet the water or surface of the earth at a distance proportionate to the height of the perpendicular. We have, then, the plumb-line, consti tuting the radins vector, the chord or rectiline, and the arc. This figure, with its indisputable elements, com prises the premise for the cosmic structure upon which theology and sociology rest as their eternal firma ment.” The earth’s crust is estimated to be about one hundred miles thick.
What is termed an exact knowledge of the form and function of the physical universe is the basis for the religious system of Koreshanity, and from this develops the governmental and social life of the order.
A Cooperative and Communistic Colony at Estero, Lee County, Florida, cherishes the new science, fans the fire of the new religion, and practises the sociological pre cepts taught by K oresh, the Founder. Mrs. Ordway, known as Victoria G ratia, is styled the Preeminent of the Koreshan Unity, and is to be the head of the new church when K oresh shall have been translated. He is not to die as mere men die, for he is of Messianic
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mould. The age of iron in which we have !>een living is soon to come to a close, and the age of gold is to be ushered in. The spirit of K oresii, it is believed, will descend upon his church even as did the spirit of Jesus Christ upon the Christian church, when his body was dissolved into Holy Spirit and was absorbed by his church, from which the Sons of God will come. This dispensation is now coming to a close, says K oresii.
The old heaven and earth, that is, church and state, are about to pass away, and the new heaven and the new earth are to appear.
K oresii sees a sign of the dissolution of the old church and state in the fact that Aries in the physical heavens is now passing out of the constellation Pisces into the constellation Aquarins. When the sign Aries has passed into any succeeding constellation, the pas sage has always been attended with a revolution in the affairs of men, and the inauguration of a new dispensa tion. This happened when it passed into Pisces nine teen hundred 3'ears ago. Wo had then the Piscatorial (fish) or Christian age of the world. The movement of fifty seconds of a degree every year has brought the sign now into itsculmination in theconstellation Pisces, and the time has come for its transition into Aquarins, the water-carrier.
With the passage of Aries into Aquarins will follow physical upheavals of a remarkable character, marked by extreme physical phenomena, startling'tTT^wru-ld^ given over , to the love and accumulation of money.
The time has come wherein is to be fulfilled the Scrip tural enunciation: “ Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.” Corresponding to the change in the physical heav ens there is to be a special scientist who will present to the world an entirely new system of science, so revolu tionary and startling as to be ignored by the scientific world in general until there is an actual fulfilment of the predictions involved in this new presentation of sci entific fact and phenomena. This, of course, is K oresii.
The Sign of the comingof the Son of man will spring from the highest mixture of ethnic infiltration, and for this reason his corning will be in the United States and from the midst of the people. He will come as an American citizen, born as an American, and, after per forming his preparatory functions, will enter into his throne, fulfiling the great law of keeping the way of the Tree of Lives by its perpetuation through the planting of its seed- God will begin his conquest of the world by the establishment of his kingdom in the United States of America.
All the social, industrial, and financial evils that now afflict this country, K oresii lays to the competitive system. “ The people,” he says, “ have not yet been de prived of their constitutional liberties, so far as the franchise is concerned, but beyond that they have lost their industrial, commercial, and executive powers through the machinations of thecominercial pirates who fortify themselves behind the intrenchmeuts of preda tory and accumulated wealth. If we are under the heel of a monopolistic oligarchy we have no one to
blame for it but ourselves; for we live under, indorse, and support a competitive system which enriches the unscrupulous through that commercial superiority whose brilliancy and dishonesty combined enable the exploiters of industry to apply its proceeds to self-ag grandizement, and encourages what all honest men de nounce, engenderingclass hatred, which must ultimately reach a climax in its own overthrow.
“If we should call the President of the United States a mountebank we should condemn that to which we have contributed support by our vote and by our rati fication of the industrial and commercial system uni versally in vogue; and we would not oidy insult the Ex ecutive whom the nation has placed in office, but a multimillion of the voters of the United States.
“ We regard President Roosevelt and Mr. Rockefeller as two of the best products and best living exponents of the competitive system; the one the power behind the throne, the other attempting to sway the balance of power between the classes and the masses. Roth believe in the competitive system because they know no other. In this peculiar epoch in the progress of a sor did commercialism wherein men are imbued with the love of monoy above every impulse of the human soul, no better man than Roosevelt could be found for Presi dent. He is the best man for the present competitive system.
However, we condemn the sj’stem as anti- christian, unsocial and flagrantly uneconomical.” There is a large printing office wins ? both secular and religious periodicals are published. The making of concrete has assumed an importance proportionate to the uses it cau be put to in building and in ornament ing the grounds. Art has a high place in the scheme of the colonists, and there are evidences of this in the sculptures and paintings which are to be found. The stage, too, is an important factor. Plays are frequently given in Art Hall; music being furnished by a well trained band. It is held that the theatre is to be the pul pit of the fut ure, and the plans of the colonists include one for the laying out of the largest and finest out-door theatre in the world. A t present they are getting ready to give an elaborate presentation of the dramatic Rib- lical story of “ Joseph.” There are a large machine shop and a pattern-mak ing and wood-turning shop, and of course, such useful institutions as a bakery, a laundry and the like. Com paratively little has been done in the way of agricul ture, but as the Colony has developed an excellent sys tem of river and coasting navigation, it is feasible to exchange service of that kind for such produce as may have to be obtained from outsiders.
There are no city taxes in Estero, and there is no servant problem. Small wonder that the Colonists call it a paradise. In addition to the property in Florida the Koreslums own land at Rristol, Tennessee, with au extensive wood-working plant, and have a contract under way for a concession covering nearly 200,000 acres of laud from thegovernmentof Honduras. There it is proposed to establish colonies for the development of agriculture, lumbering, cattle-raising, and the pro-'
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 22, No. 2 · Feb 15, 1908 · PDF pp. 14-15