n readily be proven from at least a half score of the early Church
Fathers (see page 70 _et seq._ of the author's "Mystic Masonry"), that the
early church practiced "Initiation," patterned after those of the
Gnostics, Therapeutia and the Mysteries of Egypt, and divided their
neophytes and postulants into three degrees, as in Blue Lodge Masonry
to-day.

While the great mass of mankind to-day are incapable of apprehending these
genuine mysteries of life, and of the individual soul of man, it is
doubtful if any civilization ever existed where so many were willing and
capable of understanding them as are found here in America to-day.

The reason for this and the growth of intelligence have already been
outlined.

A new race is slowly forming here, designated by the ancient Wisdom as the
"Fifth Race," and called the _Manasic_, the growth of Intelligence, or
"Mind."

It is above all things important that with this development of _Mind_
there should also develop that of _Buddhi_, or Loving Kindness, the
essential element in the Universal Brotherhood of Man; a thing largely
overlooked in the modern theory of Evolution, and ignored, or set at
naught by Romanism by its dogmas, anathemas, and persecutions. Instead of
the brotherhood of man, she has exhibited the cruelty and rapacity of
devils. (Establishment of Roman Catholic Caste.)

This all-around development of the whole man, as essential to human
evolution, is everywhere insisted upon by all the great Masters of
antiquity, and is illustrated and exemplified in the genuine Greater
Mysteries.

Hence, the saying in Kabala, "The wicked _obey_ the law through _fear_;
the wise _keep_ the law through _knowledge_." The Saviors all preached and
practiced the "Good Law," and obedience to legal mandates.

The explanation usually given of an Avatar by the ancient Masters, as "a
descent, embodiment, or incarnation of _Vishnu_," who is not only the
"Preserver," but the "Rejuvenator" of mankind, is rather a _blind_, and
was an interpretation given to the common people, or the "profane."

All things--even heaven and earth--pass away, and all things are renewed.

This renewal, or regeneration, through the constructive principle of
evolution, is "designed" to be continually on higher and still higher
planes.

It is not the range of experience, nor the growth of intelligence alone,
that elevates man, but the progressive and constructive growth of the
soul, from the physical toward t