But when blood is shed, elemental spirits pour in to the spot, drawn there by the emanations arising from it, and they become important factors in this supposed “calling out of the blood from the ground.” Being strengthened by the human exhalations, they are a new force composed not only of the thoughts of the murdered, but also of the despair, hate and revenge of the slain. Science of course of this knows nothing, and cares less. She cannot tell how long this new force, thus compounded of elementals, blood, and the thought of slayer and his victim, will last. But the God of the Christians knew all about this. In Genesis, Ch. iv, Verse 10, He says to Cain: “What hast thou done? _the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand._” The blood furnishes the _occasion_, the thoughts of each give it _force_, and the elementals give it a _voice_ to call on God. S. B. J. THE CORNER STONE. Tradition relates that in the building of King Solomon’s temple there was a stone of such peculiar shape that the workmen could find no place for it, though it was regularly cut and with great care, and contained the _sign_ of the Master. When the temple was near completion a place was found for the stone which the builders had through ignorance rejected. It was the _Keystone_ of the _Royal Arch_. Those who have opened the halls of learning to this generation have given a foundation stone, and repeatedly declared that no other foundation can endure, that the floods of time and the storms of passion will surely sweep with the besom of destruction every superstructure not founded on this rock. And yet there are those who wear the garb of fellow-crafts, and claim the wages of workmen, who not only reject this stone but ridicule it, and laugh it to scorn. The result is manifest in the confusion of the workmen, and it will presently become manifest that those who thus reject the corner-stone of Theosophy are brothers of the shadow literally, rather than Sons of Light; they will find no designs on the tracing-board, and they will be accused of murdering the “widow’s son.” The time for wages will surely come, and even they who have come in at the ninth hour and labored faithfully in the vineyard will receive due wages.