evolution of humanity, and who have preserved these truths unimpaired; from time to time, as necessity arose, reasserting them in the ears of men. From other worlds, from earlier humanities the first Great Ones came to help the child man on our planet, but gradually they have been reinforced by the flower of our own people, until, one by one, the visitors have withdrawn, and we are told that now there is but one of them left, and the work is being done by our own Initiates. So today, the Masters still teach eager pupils, showing the path, and guiding the disciple's steps; still they may be reached by all who seek them bearing the sacrificial fuel of love in their hearts, full of devotion, and unselfish longing to serve; still they carry out the ancient discipline, still unveil the ancient Mysteries. The two pillars of their Lodge gateway are established in strength, for they are Love and Wisdom, and through the straight portal may pass only those from whose shoulders have fallen the burden of selfish desire, in response to the deep-seated devotion to the high ideal.

If all these things be true, a heavy task lies before us: the climb from physical man to the God Man. No wonder the ancients thought many lives in the flesh necessary to give the time needed for the accomplishment of so herculean a task. But what said Christ? "Is it not written in your law, I said ye are Gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the Scriptures cannot be broken) say ye of Him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest because I said, I am the Son of God?" John x, 34-35-36.

CHAPTER III.

THE METAPHYSICAL IDEAS OF THE ANCIENT HEBREW.

What were the metaphysical ideas of the ancient Hebrew? That question seems to be one upon which there is a diversity of opinion. Even in the days of Christ in His last incarnation, there were several sects all of whom took their teachings from the Old Testament, and one of them did not believe in the immortality of the soul. The reason for all this ignorance is shown by Christ's question to Nicodemus, "Art thou a Master in Israel and knoweth not these things?" In other words, art thou a Master in Israel, and have not even been born again, in spite of the Mosaic law, that only one who has taken the second Great Initiation shall be a teacher? They had let their Mystery teaching lapse, just as our church today is doing, and, just as it will be with us, they knew not the Lord when He came.

But let us see what we can find to guide us to some sort of a conclusion, for, taking the Bible by itself we do not get a perfect metaphysical scheme of philosophy. There seems to be much taken for granted, probably because the rest was given in the oral Mystery work, and the Great Ones knew that by the time the Scriptures became the property of the masses, that the other world Scriptures would be at their command also. The destiny of the Aryan race is to be so different from the destiny of the races that preceded it, that somewhat different methods must be used to develop the mentality that is to be its crowning acquisition. This race is to develop the intuition also, after the mental is sufficiently developed, so the Mysteries could be hidden under a deeper symbolism, for that faculty will enable the race to find them when the time is ripe. The old race was to learn to obey, the new race is to learn to command. The old race were children, the Aryan race is to attain the manhood of the race. The old race looked to its leaders for everything, the new race is to

learn to take care of itself. The old race might be fearful, the new race must be courageous. Fatalism bound the old race, the new race must hear nothing of that. It must be enabled to find that it can conquer all things by its intellectual comprehension of law. The Mysteries must be reserved for it, but must be hidden until it has gained the confidence that comes from experience, and the character that comes from struggle with difficulties, so that the Mystery work may be an assistance, not a drawback.

Ephanius Wilson, A. M., tells us in "Hebrew Literature": "From the very beginning of their history the Hebrews were a deeply poetic race. They were fully alive to the beauties of external nature, and no national poetry contains more vivid descriptions of the sea, sky, and the panorama of the forest, stream, and mountain, peopled by the varied activities of animated nature. The songs of Zion glow with poetic enthusiasm, but their principal characteristic is their intense earnestness. Yet this religious fervor becomes the basis of sublimity, pathos, and picturesqueness, such as can seldom be approached even by the finest productions of the Attic muse. But the Hebrews were also philosophers, and if they never attained to what we might call the netteté et clarté of the Greek metaphysician, they excelled the other thinkers in the boldness and profound spirituality of their philosophical mysticism. In proof of this association we may point to the "Kabbalah."

The word "Kabbalah” means doctrine received by oral tradition, and is applied to these remains to distinguish them from the canonical Hebrew Scriptures. Hebrew speculation attempts in the "Kabbalah" to give a philosophic or theosophistic basis to the Hebrew belief, while at the same time it supplements the doctrines of the Old Testament. The immortality of the soul in the "Kabbalah" is taken for granted, and a complete and consistent psychology is propounded in which is included the Oriental theory of reincarnation. This account of the human soul, as distinct from the human body, treats of the origin and eternal destiny of man's immortal part."

These doctrines are supposed to have been given to Moses on the Mount, and were by him given to Joshua, orally, who in the same manner taught them to the chosen forty who were called receivers. These, in turn, were supposed to give them to such of

the people as qualified themselves for the higher knowledge. They were a part of the true Mystery teaching of the Hebrew Religion. Some writers claim that these teachings came from Adam and were handed down to the race by the Divine teachers that instructed infant humanity, and that Moses got his information from Egypt, who had in turn been instructed by Abraham long before. Some claim it started with Abraham, and still others point to the fact that Ezra is admitted to have copied the Books of the Law after the siege of Jerusalem, and they attribute the whole thing to the Babylonian influence upon him. Some think that Ezra wrote only what he remembered of the Law, not changing anything in the least, and the Books of Moses are now just what they were when the Great Leader wrote them, when fresh from the Mount. The Smith Peloubet "Bible Dictionary" says under “Ezra": "The principal works ascribed to Ezra by the Jews are: 1. The institution of the great synagogue; 2. The settling of the Canon of the Scripture, and restoring, correcting, and editing the whole sacred volume; 3. The introduction of the Chaldee character instead of the old Hebrew or Samaritan; 4. The authorship of the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and some add Esther; and, many of the Jews say, also, of the books of Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve prophets.' Now, how many books have we left in the Old Testament? Only sevenIsaiah, Eccles., Jer., Job, Psalms, Prov., Song of Solomon are all that some one has not attributed to Ezra.

This is very significant if we consider that Ezra lived while the Buddha was teaching in India, and stirring the country to its center, and that he was one of a band of wise men who lived in Babylon on the Cross Roads between India and the Great Sea. Then when we study the symbolism we find the names of Zerubbable (he who was born at the gate of God), Jeshua (Jesus), Noahdiah (Noah beloved of God), who H. P. B. says was Vaivasvatti Manu, also Moses in one incarnation; and Eleazar, who greatly resembles the one whom the Theosophists call Master K. H.; and Meremoth (exalted ones), from the mystical significance of the letters they may be a band of understudies of the Manus, or the Manus of the sub-races. We know that the Great One the Hindoos call the Bodhissattva, and whom we call the Christ, was in incarnation when the Buddha was.

These, with Daniel and his other Initiates, made quite a band of wise men to compile the Sacred Book for the new race.

Ezra v. 2, says "Zerubbable and Jeshua (Jesus) began to build the house of God and with him were the prophets of God helping them.

Jeshua, Eleazar, and Meremoth (plural) looked after the furnishing of the temple (religion). The furnishing of a religion would be its Scriptures, of course. The furnishings were to be of Copper and Brass (judgment), Silver (regeneration), and Gold (God's righteousness and wisdom). The Scriptures were to deal with judgment for sin, man's regeneration, and God's wisdom and righteousness.

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The Rev. C. D. Ginsburg, LL. D., says in an article entitled "Kabbalah" in the Britannica: 'Kabbalah,' as now used is a technical name for the system of Theosophy which developed among the Jews in the middle ages. In the older Jewish literature the name is applied to the whole body of received religious doctrine with the exception of the Pentateuch, thus including the Prophets and Hagiography as well as the oral traditions, ultimately embodied in the 'Mishna.' It is only since the eleventh and twelfth centuries that the 'Kabbalah' has become the exclusive appellation of the renowned system of Theosophy which claims to have been transmitted uninterruptedly by the mouths of the patriarchs and prophets since the creation of the first man."

Because of the similarities between the doctrines of the "Kabbalah" and those of the "New Testament" many Kabbalists of the highest position in the Synagogue have at different times embraced the Christian faith, and have written elaborate books to bring their Jewish brethren into the Christian Church.

To quote Dr. Wilson exactly, again, for the ideas of the last paragraph are mainly his: "There can be no doubt that the 'Kabbalah' contains the ripest fruit of spiritual and mystical speculation which the Jewish world produced on subjects which had hitherto been obscured by the gross anthropomorphism of such men as Maimonides and his school. We can understand the revolt of devout Hebrews from traditions which represented Jehovah as wearing a phylactery, and as descending to the earth for the purpose of taking a razor and shaving the head of Sennacherib. The theory of the Sephiroth was at least a noble and