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NOW, when the sages were refreshed they opened up the Book of Life and read.

They read the story of the life of man; of all his struggles, losses, gains; and in the light of past events and needs,

they saw what would be best for him in coming years.

They knew the kind of laws and precepts suited best to his estate; they saw the highest God-ideal that the race could comprehend.

Upon the seven postulates these sages were to formulate, the great philosophy of life and worship of the coming age must rest.

Now Meng-ste was the oldest sage; he took the chair of chief, and said,

Man is not far enough advanced to live by faith; he cannot comprehend the things his eyes see not.

He yet is child, and during all the coming age he must be taught by pictures, symbols, rites and forms.

His God must be a human God; he cannot see a God by faith.

And then he cannot rule himself; the king must rule; the man must serve.

The age that follows this will be the age of man, the age of faith.

In that blest age the human race will see without the aid of carnal eyes; will hear the soundless sound; will know the Spirit-God.

The age we enter is the Preparation age, and all the schools and governments and worship rites must be designed

in simple way that men may comprehend.

And man cannot originate; he builds by patterns that he sees; so in this council we must carve out pattern for the coming age.

And we must formulate the gnosis of the Empire of the soul, which rests on seven postulates.

Each sage in turn shall form a postulate; and these shall be the basis of the creeds of men until the perfect age shall come.

Then Meng-ste wrote the first:

All things are thought; all life is thought activity. The multitude of beings are but phases of the one great thought made manifest.

Lo, God is Thought, and Thought is God.

Then Vidyapati wrote the second postulate:

Eternal Thought is one; in essence it is two–Intelligence and Force; and when they breathe a child is born; this child is Love.

And thus the Triune God stands forth, whom men call Father-Mother-Child.

This Triune God is one; but like the one of light, in essence he is seven.

And when the Triune God breathes forth, lo, seven Spirits stand before his face; these are creative attributes.

Men call them lesser gods, and in their image they made man.

And Kaspar wrote the third:

Man was a thought of God, formed in the image of the Septonate, clothed in the substances of soul.

And his desires were strong; he sought to manifest on every plane of life, and for himself he made a body of the ethers

of the earthly forms, and so descended to the plane of earth.

In this descent he lost his birthright; lost his harmony with God, and made discordant all the notes of life.

Inharmony and evil are the same; so evil is the handiwork of man.

Ashbina wrote the fourth:

Seeds do not germinate in light; they do not grow until they find the soil, and hide themselves away from light.

Man was evolved a seed of everlasting life; but in the ethers of the Triune God the light was far too great for seeds to grow;

And so man sought the soil of carnal life, and in the darksomeness of earth he found a place where he could germinate and grow.

The seed has taken root and grown full well.

The tree of human life is rising from the soil of earthy things, and, under natural law, is reaching up to perfect form.

There are no supernatural acts of God to lift a man from carnal life to spirit blessedness; he grows as grows the plant,

and in due time is perfected.

The quality of soul that makes it possible for man to rise to spirit life is purity.

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