eficent power which teaches is carried to
as many men as will listen to it. No disciple
can cross the threshold without communicating
this news, and placing it on record in some
fashion or other.

He stands horror-struck at the imperfect
and unprepared manner in which he has done
this; and then comes the desire to do it well,
and with the desire thus to help others comes
the power. For it is a pure desire, this which
comes upon him; he can gain no credit, no
glory, no personal reward by fulfilling it. And
therefore he obtains the power to fulfil it.

The history of the whole past, so far as we
can trace it, shows very plainly that there is
neither credit, glory, nor reward to be gained
by this first task which is given to the Neophyte.
Mystics have always been sneered at,
and seers disbelieved; those who have had the
added power of intellect have left for posterity
their written record, which to most men appears
unmeaning and visionary, even when the
authors have the advantage of speaking from a
far-off past. The disciple who undertakes the
task, secretly hoping for fame or success, to
appear as a teacher and apostle before the
world, fails even before his task is attempted,
and his hidden hypocrisy poisons his own soul,
and the souls of those he touches. He is
secretly worshiping himself, and this idolatrous
practice must bring its own reward.

The disciple who has the power of entrance,
and is strong enough to pass each barrier, will,
when the divine message comes to his spirit,
forget himself utterly in the new consciousness
which falls on him. If this lofty contact can
really rouse him, he becomes as one of the
divine in his desire to give rather than to take,
in his wish to help rather than be helped, in
his resolution to feed the hungry rather than
take manna from Heaven himself. His nature
is transformed, and the selfishness which
prompts men's actions in ordinary life suddenly
deserts him.

IV

"BEFORE THE VOICE CAN SPEAK IN THE
PRESENCE OF THE MASTERS, IT MUST HAVE
LOST THE POWER TO WOUND."

Those who give merely passing and superficial
attention to the subject of occultism--and
their name is Legion--constantly inquire
why, if adepts in life exist, they do not appear
in the world and show their power. That the
chief body of these wise ones should be understood
to dwell beyond the fastnesses of the
Himalayas, appears to be a sufficient proof that
they are only figures of straw. O