The Gospel of Israel

By Duncan Greenlees (1899 - 1966).

438 Pages | World Gospel Series: First Edition 1955, first reprint 1987, second edition 1991 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170591384.

The Gospel of Israel is at the same time like and unlike every other. It is the story of a great love, changeless through the ages and filled with a noble purpose of universal good. It tells how the infinite and eternal God, a most loving and lovable Personality, created the universe solely that He might share that love which is His inmost nature with created beings and give them the infinite satisfaction of directing that love to Himself, its only worthy object.

This is the story of the infinite Lover's great love for a people representing all humanity, and for every individual who identifies himself with its great ideal. But as love can only thrive in an atmosphere of good will, it is also the story of the highest ethics. As we treat others, so will God's laws treat us; and if we would enjoy His love, we must reflect it on all with whom we come in contact.

Duncan Greenlees was educated in England and spent much of his life in India. He was associated with Dr. Annie Besant in her educational work for India and served as Principal of one of the many theosophical high schools she founded. He participated in the Indian national struggle for freedom, was associated with Gandhi, and drafted the Indian National Education Policy. Later, withdrawing from all worldly and political activities, he made a study of the religious scriptures of the world. His detailed expositions of the underlying philosophy of the religions are published as the World Gospel Series.

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From Chapter 6 - 'Human Life' (p. 199):

" No nation has suffered like Israel, or the Jews, though few have clung more closely to their code of ethics or their God; so the problem of undeserved suffering has always haunted the Jewish mind. All alike know sorrow, but that sorrow can be found sweet by the righteous, because God uses it to purify and teach him, and then rescues him from the affliction. Though he prosper not in things of the world, happier is the poverty of the righteous man contented with his little than the excessive luxury of those, who do not look to God. "