rtation.

THE DRAMA OF FAITH

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_And so the Quest goes on. And the Quest, as it may be, ends in
attainment--we know not where and when: so long as we can conceive
of our separate existence, the quest goes on--an attainment
continued henceforward. And ever shall the study of the ways which
have been followed by those who have passed in front be a help on
our own path._

_It is well, it is of all things beautiful and perfect, holy and
high of all, to be conscious of the path which does in fine lead
thither where we seek to go, namely, the goal which is in God.
Taking nothing with us which does not belong to ourselves, leaving
nothing behind us that is of our real selves, we shall find in the
great attainment that the companions of our toil are with us. And
the place is the Valley of Peace._

--ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, _The Secret Tradition_
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CHAPTER III

_The Drama of Faith_

Man does not live by bread alone; he lives by Faith, Hope, and Love,
and the first of these was Faith. Nothing in the human story is more
striking than the persistent, passionate, profound protest of man
against death. Even in the earliest time we see him daring to stand
erect at the gates of the grave, disputing its verdict, refusing to
let it have the last word, and making argument in behalf of his soul.
For Emerson, as for Addison, that fact alone was proof enough of
immortality, as revealing a universal intuition of eternal life.
Others may not be so easily convinced, but no man who has the heart of
a man can fail to be impressed by the ancient, heroic faith of his
race.

Nowhere has this faith ever been more vivid or victorious than among
the old Egyptians.[35] In the ancient _Book of the Dead_--which is,
indeed, a Book of Resurrection--occur the words: "The soul to heaven;
the body to earth;" and that first faith is our faith today. Of King
Unas, who lived in the third millennium, it is written: "Behold, thou
hast not gone as one dead, but as one living." Nor has any one in our
day set forth this faith with more simple eloquence than the Hymn to
Osiris, in the Papyrus of Hunefer. So in the Pyramid Texts the dead
are spoken of as Those Who Ascend, the Imperishable Ones who shine as
stars, and the gods are invoked to witness the death of the King
"Dawning as a Soul." There is deep prophecy, albeit touched with
poignant pathos, in these broken exclamations written on the pyramid
walls: