less he had lived in a previous incarnation? And
the answer of Jesus simply states that the man was born blind neither
from the sins of a past life, nor from those of his parents, but from
a third cause. Had the idea of re-incarnation been repugnant to the
teachings, would not He have denounced it to His disciples? Does not
the fact that His disciples asked Him the question show that they were
in the habit of discoursing the problems of Re-birth and Karma with
Him, and receiving instructions and answers to questions propounded to
Him along these lines?

There are many other passages of the New Testament which go to prove
the familiarity of the disciples and followers of Jesus with the
doctrine of Re-birth, but we prefer to pass on to a consideration of
the writings of the Early Christian Fathers in order to show what they
thought and taught regarding the matter of Re-birth and Karma.

Among the great authorities and writers in the Early Church, Origen
stands out pre-eminently as a great light. Let us quote from a leading
writer, regarding this man and his teachings:

"In Origen's writings we have a mine of information as to
the teachings of the early Christians. Origen held a
splendid and grandiose view of the whole of the evolution of
our system. I put it to you briefly. You can read it in all
its carefully, logically-worked-out arguments, if you will
have the patience to read his treatise for yourselves. His
view, then, was the evolutionary view. He taught that forth
from God came all Spirits that exist, all being dowered with
free-will; that some of these refused to turn aside from the
path of righteousness, and, as a reward, took the place
which we speak of as that of the angels; that then there
came others who, in the exercise of their free-will, turned
aside from the path of deity, and then passed into the human
race to recover, by righteous and noble living, the angel
condition which they had not been able to preserve; that
others, still in the exercise of their free-will, descended
still deeper into evil and became evil spirits or devils. So
that all these Spirits were originally good; but good by
innocence, not by knowledge. And he points out also that
angels may become men, and even the evil ones themselves may
climb up once more, and become men and angels again. Some of
you will remember that one