Mystic Ways Books

by Arch­bishop Charles Web­ster Lead­beater, co-founder of the Lib­eral Catholic Church

Writ­ten by one of the fore­most author­i­ties on eso­teric Chris­tian­ity, HIDDEN SIDE takes you on a jour­ney beneath the pop­u­lar sur­face mean­ing of the major events in the church’s year. It was writ­ten a few months after World War One, and that still is a strong mem­ory to the author. Arch­bishop Lead­beater (1854–1934) was the sec­ond Pre­sid­ing Bishop of the Lib­eral Rite of the church catholic. He was one of the most well-known authors on eso­teric Chris­tian­ity of the twen­ti­eth century.

“Chris­tian­ity is one of the great paths up the moun­tain of light at the sum­mit of, which sits God Him­self. It is one of the paths, but only one, and if we have a num­ber of peo­ple all round the base of the moun­tain, the short­est path to the top for each man is the path, which opens before him. It would be fool­ish to have the idea that we must go and drag a man all round the base of the moun­tain in order to make him walk up our par­tic­u­lar path.

“Our efforts to con­vert peo­ple from other reli­gions and modes of wor­ship are unnec­es­sary and pre­sump­tu­ous. The effort to bring to the knowl­edge of God peo­ple who are igno­rant of His ways is a grand and noble action; that we should by deed as well as by word preach our belief that there is a God, and that to live as He would have men live is the only sure way to com­fort and peace — that is a noble work; but to try to con­vert a man who is already good along his own line in order to make him good along ours is not a sen­si­ble thing to do.”

Abp. Charles W. Lead­beater from “The Epiphany”