e. In still another we acquire patience
and balance. In all of these incarnations we steadily evolve intellect
and strengthen all previously acquired virtues. In each life we find
the new conditions that are necessary for the exercise of our added
abilities and, ultimately, with the powers, the spiritual insight and
the ripened wisdom of the gods themselves, we move forward to higher
fields of evolution.

FOOTNOTES:

[J] "Life and Matter," Lodge, p. 119, 120.

[K] Life and Matter.--Lodge, p. 121.

CHAPTER X.

REBIRTH: ITS JUSTICE

No matter how much we may differ in our view of the relationship between
God and man there is general agreement about the attributes of the
Supreme Being. All ascribe to him unlimited power, wisdom, love and, of
course, the perfection of all those desirable qualities we see in human
beings. The theosophical view is that all we know in man of power,
wisdom, love, justice, beauty, harmony, et cetera, are faint but actual
manifestations of the attributes of the deity. All who are not
materialists, denying the existence of a Supreme Being, will agree that
the wisdom and justice of God must be perfect. It would be illogical and
inconsistent to limit or qualify His attributes. Either He is all-wise
and absolutely just, or else the materialist is right. We cannot have a
deity at all unless He represents perfect justice.

Another point on which all but the materialists must agree is that
creation is so ordered that the common welfare of humanity is best
served by just the conditions of life that surround us. Nothing is
different from what it should be unless it is because of man's failure
to do what he should do for his own welfare. If it were otherwise what
would become of the argument that an omniscient God has ordered it as it
is? If, then, things are as they should be in the truest interests of
man, and we find things in life that, according to our views of
creation, are not right and just, it necessarily follows that the views
we hold are erroneous.

The popular belief is that human beings constitute a special creation;
that whenever a baby is born God creates a soul or consciousness for
that body and that after a life of many years, or a few days, or a few
minutes, as the case may be, the body dies and the consciousness goes to
dwell in remote regions for ever and ever. If the person lived a good
life and also believed in the current religion he will be "saved" and
will be e