those who are not yet fit to stand where he
stands. This is no arbitrary decision, made by
any master or teacher or any such person, however
divine. It is a law of that life which the
disciple has entered upon.

Therefore was it written in the inner doorway
of the lodges of the old Egyptian Brotherhood,
"the laborer is worthy of his hire." "Ask
and ye shall have," sounds like something too
easy and simple to be credible. But the disciple
cannot "ask" in the mystic sense in which the
word is used in this scripture until he has
attained the power of helping others.

Why is this? Has the statement too dogmatic
a sound?

Is it too dogmatic to say that a man must
have foothold before he can spring? The position
is the same. If help is given, if work is
done, then there is an actual claim--not what
we call personal claim of payment, but the
claim of co-nature. The divine give, they
demand that you also shall give before you
can be of their kin.

This law is discovered as soon as the disciple
endeavors to speak. For speech is a gift
which comes only to the disciple of power and
knowledge. The spiritualist enters the psychic-astral
world, but he does not find there any
certain speech, unless he at once claims it and
continues to do so. If he is interested in "phenomena,"
or the mere circumstance and accident
of astral life, then he enters no direct ray
of thought or purpose, he merely exists and
amuses himself in the astral life as he has
existed and amused himself in the physical life.
Certainly there are one or two simple lessons
which the psychic-astral can teach him, just
as there are simple lessons which material and
intellectual life teach him. And these lessons
have to be learned; the man who proposes to
enter upon the life of the disciple without having
learned the early and simple lessons must
always suffer from his ignorance. They are
vital, and have to be studied in a vital manner;
experienced through and through, over and
over again, so that each part of the nature has
been penetrated by them.

To return. In claiming the power of speech,
as it is called, the Neophyte cries out to the
Great One who stands foremost in the ray of
knowledge on which he has entered, to give
him guidance. When he does this, his voice is
hurled back by the power he has approached,
and echoes down to the deep recesses of human
ignorance. In some confused and blurred manner
the news that there is knowledge and a
ben