s than the physical. As
for the very small number of the supermen who take physical bodies to
better do their special work, they can best accomplish it from secluded
places; and if they sometimes have reason to come out into the seething
vibrations of our modern civilization it is easy to understand that they
would not be conspicuously different from other men, to the ordinary
observer.

It is from the spiritual hierarchy that come all the religions of the
world. There the question may arise, "Then why do they differ so
greatly?" Because the peoples to whom they are given differ greatly. The
difference of temperament and viewpoint between the Orient and the
Occident is enormous. We are evolving along the outer, the objective,
and our civilization represents the material conquest of nature. They
are evolving the inner, the subjective. In the Orient the common trend
of conversation is philosophical, just as in the Occident it is
commercial. Such different types of mind require somewhat different
statements of ethics, but the fundamental principles of all religions
are identical.

When a new era in human evolution begins a World Teacher comes into
voluntary incarnation and founds a religion that is suited to the
requirements of the new era. Humanity is never left to grope along
alone. All that it can comprehend and utilize is taught it in the
various religions. World Teachers, the Christs and saviours of the race,
have been appearing at propitious times since humanity began existence.

Most readers will probably agree that a World Teacher known as the
Christ did come and found a religion nearly two thousand years ago. Why
do they think so? They reply that God so loved the world that he sent
his Son, the Christ, to bring it light and life. If that is true how can
we avoid the conclusion that He, or his predecessors, must have come
many a time before? The belief that He came but once is consistent only
with the erroneous notion that Genesis is history instead of allegory,
and that the earth is about six thousand years old! Science has not
determined its age but we know that it is very old, indeed. Many eminent
scientists have made rough estimates, taking into consideration all that
we have learned from astronomy, geology and archeology. Phillips, the
geologist, basing his calculations upon the time required for the
depositions of the stratified rocks, put the minimum age at thirty-eight
million years and the maximum age a