CHAPTER XIII.

BACK TO THE BIBLE.

IN our age the missionary spirit is strong. The West-
ern churches are sending missionaries all over the
world to convert the people of every nation to a belief
in their creeds; nor are they alone in their proselyting
efforts. The East has commenced a strong invasion of
Western fields, and many Christians who have become
dissatisfied with the creeds and dogmas taught by the
clergy and impelled to search for truth to satisfy the de-
mands of the intellect for an adequate explanation of the
problems of life, have familiarized themselves with, and
in many cases accepted, the Eastern teachings of Bud-
dhism, Hinduism, etc.

From an occult point of view, this missionary effort,
whether from East to West or vice versa, is not desirable,
because it is contrary to the trend of evolution. The great
Leaders of humanity Who are in charge of our develop-
ment give us every aid necessary to that end. Religion
is one of these aids, and there are excellent reasons why
the Bible, containing not only the one, but both the
Jewish and Christian religions, should have been given
to the West. If we earnestly seek for light we shall see
the Supreme Wisdom which has given us this double
religion and how no other religion of the present day is
suitable to our peculiar needs. To this end we will in this

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chapter touch again upon certain points previously
brought out in various places and connections.

In the Polarian, Hyperborean and Lemurian Epochs
the task of leading humanity was a comparatively easy one,
for man was then without mind, but when that disturbing
element came in during the first part of the Atlantean
Epoch, he developed Cunning, which is the product of the
mind unchecked by the spirit. Cunning acts as an aid
to desire, regardless of whether the desire is good or bad,
whether it will bring joy or sorrow.

In the middle of the Atlantean Epoch the spirit had
drawn completely into its vehicles and commenced to work
in the mind to produce Thought and Reason: the ability
to trace a given cause to its inevitable effect, and to
deduce from a given effect the cause which produced it.
This faculty of Eeasoning or Logic was to become more
fully developed in the Aryan Epoch, and therefore the
Original Semites (the fifth race of the Atlantean Epoch)
were a "chosen people," to bring out that germinal faculty
to such a ripeness that -it would be impregnated into the
very fibre of their descendants, who would thus become the
New Race.

To transmute Cunning into Reason proved no easy task.
The earlier changes in man's nature had been easily
brought about. He could then be led without difficulty
because he had no conscious desires, nor mind to guide
him, but by the time of the Original Semites he had
become cunning enough to resent limitations of his liberty
and to circumvent repeatedly the measures taken to hold
him in line. The task of guiding him was all the more
difficult because it was necessary he should have some lib-
erty of choice, that he might in time learn self-govern-
ment. Therefore a law was enacted which decreed imrne-

310 BOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

diate rewards for obedience and instant punishment for
disregard of its provisions. Thus was man taught, coaxed
and coerced into reasoning in a limited manner that "the
way of the transgressor is hard/' and that he must "fear
God," or the Leader Who guided him.

Out of all who were chosen as "seed" for the new Race,
but few remained faithful. Most of them were rebellious
and, so far as they were concerned, entirely frustrated the
purpose of the Leader by intermarrying with the other
Atlantean Races, thus bringing inferior blood into their
descendants. That is what is meant in the Bible where
the fact is recorded that the sons of God married the
daughters of men. For that act of disobedience were they
abandoned and "lost." Even the faithful died, according
to the body, in the Desert of Gobi (the "Wilderness") in
Central Asia, the cradle of our present Race. They rein-
carnated, as their own descendants of course, and thus
inherited the "Promised Land," the Earth as it is now.
They are the Aryan Races, in whom Reason is being
evolved to perfection.

The rebellious ones who were abandoned are the Jews,
of whom the great majority are still governed more by the
Atlantean faculty of Cunning than by Reason. In them
the race-feeling is so strong that they distinguish only
two classes of people : Jews and Gentiles. They despise the
other nations and are in turn despised by them for their
cunning, selfishness and avarice. It is not denied that
they give to charity, but it is principally, if not exclusively,
among their own people and rarely internationally, as
was done in the case of the earthquake disaster in Italy,
where barriers of creed, race and nationality were for-
gotten in the human feeling of sympathy.

In such cases as that and the San Francisco disaster, the

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inner spiritual nature of man becomes more in evidence
than under any other circumstances, and the close observer
may then discern the trend of evolution. The fact then
becomes manifest that though in the stress of ordinary life
our actions may deny it, nevertheless at heart we know and
acknowledge the great truth that we are brothers and the
hurt of one is really felt by all. Such incidents, therefore,
point out the direction of evolution. The control of man
by Reason must be succeeded by that of Love, which at
present acts independent of and sometimes even contrary
to the dictates of Reason. This anomaly arises from
the fact that Love, at present, is rarely quite unselfish
and our Reason is not always true. In the "New Galilee,"
the coming Sixth Epoch, Love will become unselfish and
Reason will approve its dictates. Universal Brotherhood
shall then be fully realized, each working for the good of
all, because self-seeking will be a thing of the past.

That this much-to-be-desired end may be attained, it
will be necessary to select another "chosen people" from
the present stock to serve as a nucleus from which the
new Race shall spring. This choosing is not to be done
contrary to the will of the chosen. Each man must choose
for himself; he must willingly enter the ranks.

Races are but an evanescent feature of evolution. Be-
fore the end of the Lemurian Epoch there was a "chosen
people," different from the ordinary humanity of that
time, who became the ancestors of the Atlantean Races.
From the fifth race of those another "chosen people" was
drawn, from which the Aryan Races descended, of which
there have been five and will be two more. Before a new
Epoch is ushered in, however, there must be "a new heaven
'and a new earth"; the physical features of the Earth will
be changed and its density decreased. There will be one

312 EOSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

Kace at the beginning of the next Epoch, but after that
every thought and feeling of Kace will disappear. Human-
ity will again constitute one vast Fellowship, regardless of
all distinctions. Eaces are simply steps in evolution which
must be taken, otherwise there will be no progress for the
spirits incarnating in them. But, though necessary steps,
they are also extremely dangerous ones, and are therefore
the cause of grave concern to the Leaders of mankind.
They call these sixteen Eaces "the sixteen paths to destruc-
tion" because, while in previous Epochs the changes came
after such enormous intervals that it was easier to get
the majority of the entities in line for promotion, it is
different with the Eaces. They are comparatively eva-
nescent; therefore extra care must be taken that as few of
the spirits as possible become enmeshed in the fetters of
Eace.

This is exactly what happened to the spirits incarnated
in the Jewish Eace-bodies. They attached themselves so
firmly to the Eace that they are drawn back into it in
successive incarnations. "Once a Jew, always a Jew" is
their slogan. They have entirely forgotten their spiritual
nature and glory in the material fact of being "Abraham's
seed." Therefore they are neither "fish nor flesh." They
have no part in the advancing Aryan Eace and yet they
are beyond those remnants of the Lemurian and Atlantean
peoples which are still with us. They have become a people
without a country, an anomaly among mankind.

Because of their bondage to the Eace-idea, their one-
time Leader was forced to abandon them, and they became
"lost." That they might cease to regard themselves as
separate from other peoples, other nations were stirred up
against them at various times by the Leaders of humanity
and they were led captive from the country where they had

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settled, but in vain. They stubbornly refused to amalga-
mate with others. Again and again they returned in a
body to their arid land. Prophets of their own Race were
raised up who mercilessly rebuked them and predicted dire
disaster, but without avail.

As a final effort to persuade them to cast off the fetters
of Race, we have the seeming anomaly that the Leader
of the coming Race, the Great Teacher Christ, appeared
among the Jews. This still further shows the compassion
and Wisdom of the great Beings Who guide evolution.
Among all the Races of the Earth, none other was "lost"
in the same sense as the Jews; none other so sorely needed
help. To send them a stranger, not one of their own Race,
would have been manifestly useless. It was a foregone
conclusion that they would have rejected him. As the
great spirit known as Booker T. Washington incarnated
among the negroes, to be received by them as one of them-
selves, and thus enabled to enlighten them as no white man
could, so the great Leaders hoped that the appearance of
Christ among the Jews as one of their own might bring
them to accept Him and His teachings and thus draw them
out of the meshes of the Race-bodies. But sad it is
to see how human prejudice can prevail. ."He came unto
His own and" they chose Barabbas. He did not glory
in Abraham, nor any other of their ancient traditions.
He spoke of "another world/' of a new earth, of Love and
Forgiveness, and repudiated the doctrine of "an eye for
and eye." He did not call them to arms against Caesar;
had He done so, they would have hailed Him as a deliverer.
In that respect He was misunderstood even by His dis-
ciples, who mourned as greatly over their vanished hope
of an earthly kingdom as over the Friend slain by Roman
hands.

314 EOSICBUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION

The rejection of Christ by the Jews was the supreme
proof of their thralldom to Eace. Thenceforth all efforts
to save them as a whole by giving them special prophets
and teachers, were abandoned and, as the futility of exiling
them in a body had been proven, they were, as a last
expedient, scattered among all the nations of the earth.
Despite all, however, the extreme tenacity of this people
has prevailed even to the present day, the majority being
yet orthodox. In America, however, there is now a slight
falling away. The younger generation is commencing to
marry outside the Eace. In time, an increasing number
of bodies, with fewer and fewer of the Eace characteristics,
will thus be provided for the incarnating spirits of the
Jews of the past. In this manner will they be saved in
spite of themselves. They became "lost" by marrying into
inferior Eaces; they will be saved by amalgamating with
those more advanced.

As the present Aryan Baces are reasoning human beings,
capable of profiting by past experience, the logical means
of helping them is by telling them of past stages of growth
and the fate that overtook the disobedient Jews. Those
rebels had a written record of how their Leaders had dealt
with them. It set forth how they had been chosen and
rebelled ; were punished ; but were yet hopeful of ultimate
redemption. That record may be profitably used by us,
that we may learn how not to act. It is immaterial that,
in the course of ages, it has become mutilated, and that the
Jews of today are still under the delusion of being a
"chosen people"; the lesson that may be drawn from their
experience is none the less valid. We may learn how a
"chosen people" may harass their Leader, frustrate His
plans, and become bound' to a Bace for ages. Their ex-
perience should be a warning to any future "chosen peo-

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pie." This Paul points out in unmistakable terms (Heb.
ii : 3-4) ; "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation?" and Paul was speaking to Christians,
for the Hebrews to whom he wrote this were converted, had
accepted Christ and were people whom he expected would,
in some future incarnation, be among the new "chosen
people," who would willingly follow a Leader and evolve
the faculty of Love and spiritual perception, the intuition
which shall succeed self-seeking and Reason.

The Christian teaching of the New Testament belongs
particularly to the pioneer Races of the Western World.
It is being specially implanted among the people of the
United States, for as the object of the new Race of
the Sixth Epoch will be the unification of all the Races, the
United States is becoming the "melting-pot" where all
the nations of the earth are being amalgamated, and from
this amalgamation will the next "chosen people," the
nucleus, be chiefly derived.

Those spirits, from all countries of the earth, who have
striven to follow the teachings of the Christ, consciously
or otherwise, will be incarnated here, for the purpose of
giving them conditions suitable for that development.
Hence the American-born Jew is different from the Jew
of other countries. The very fact that he has incarnated
in the Western World shows that he is becoming emanci-
pated from the Race-spirit, and is consequently in advance
of the crystallized Old World orthodox Jew, as were his
parents, or they would not have conceived the idea of sever-
ing the old ties and moving to America. Therefore the
American-born Jew is the pioneer who will prepare
the path which his compatriots will follow later.

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Thus we can see that the Bible contains the teaching
peculiarly needed by the Western peoples, that they may be
taught a lesson by the awful example of the Jewish Race
as recorded in the Old Testament, and learn to live by
the teachings of the Christ in the New, willingly offering
up their bodies as a living sacrifice upon the altar of Fel-
lowship and Love.