religions, the Mussulman, the religion of Islam, that again is traced
backward to a Prophet, the Prophet Muhammad, the great Prophet of
Arabia. Universally this is true, that the religion traces itself back
to a single mighty figure, whom some call a "God-man," a man too divine
to be regarded as wholly like those amongst whom he lived and moved and
taught; above them and yet of them, closely bound to them by a common
humanity, although raised above them by a manifestation of the God
within, mightier, more complete, more compelling, than the manifestation
in the ordinary men and women around Him. So with all religions, and in
that thought of the divine figure, the Founder of every faith, you have
the fullest, the truest, the most perfect conception of that which we
Theosophists call the ideal of the Master. All such mighty beings by the
Theosophist would be given the name of Master. And not by the
Theosophist alone, for that word in other religions has been applied to
the Founder, the Chief of the faith. Nay, to the Christian it should
come with special force, with special significance, for it was the name
that Christ the Teacher chose as best expressing His own relationship to
those who believed on Him, to those who followed Him. "Neither be ye
called masters," He said; "for one is your Master, even Christ." And so
again you may remember that, in speaking to His disciples, He said: "Ye
call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am." So that to the
Christian heart the name Master should be above all other names sacred
and beloved, since it was the chosen name of their own Teacher, the name
that He claimed from His disciples, that name that He used as
representing His relation to them. So this idea of a Master in religion
certainly should be one which comes with no alien sound, no foreign
significance, among those who look up to the Master Christ. And exactly
the same idea is that of a Master in any great religion; it is a common
idea--it signifies the Founder, the Teacher, divine and yet human. To
that point I will return later.

Let us study the central idea of these Masters a little more closely,
and see what are the special characteristics which mark Them in the
religions of the past. If you go back very, very far, you will always
find that the Master wears a double character: ruler, law-giver, on the
one side; teacher upon the other. In all the old civilisations this is
characteristic; for in those days the