As life goes on there is no need to point to what is highest; the saints, martyrs, and philosophers put to death, the teachers of human history and the Messiahs who have been crucified, illustrate the highest thought of human conquest, and each state that is less than that is still a state that ultimately tends toward it. When we are asked: Do yon declare, then, that it is necessary for all states of expression to be experienced by all Souls? we answer unqualifiedly, That which is necessary foe one Soul in its course of expression through matter is necessary. for all. It could not be made necessary for one unless for all. There would be moral chaos.

The feminine in all possible states of woman's life, the masculine in all possible states of man's life; and the true test of victory is in the fact that, not only is there no condemnation, but - like John Banyan, who, on seeing a convict being borne to the place of execution, said: "Bat for the grace of God there goes John Bunyan," or like Wilber-loree, who said he never saw a criminal but he thought it might have been himself, or like the highest prophets and teachers who endeavor to aid the unfortunate, and do not insist upon condemning them - there is a sort of knowledge that it might have been one's self. Do not think that the state of being without sin is not won.

It is not our province to declare in what state any human being is. Yon will see some lives that seem to illustrate the highestonoral growth today, and tomorrow they may be found under a cloud of human weakness and human censure; they fall, as it is termed, into temptation. There are no elementaries nor personal demons in the upper or lower air lurking around to tempt mankind. Temptation is the natural consequence of this involution in matter, and is the selfishness of man's human nature; the triumph over it is that which at last overcomes self.

The flaming sword suspended at the gateway of Eden, that Adam and Eve could not return, was the sword of conscience, the awakened conscience, which prevents the Soul from returning again into the Eden state, the state of innocence. That which each must do, having entered the pathway of experience and knowledge, is to find the heavenly state in the final victory, and that final victory is in self-conquest.

It must not be forgotten that in the general system of unfold* ment toward moral perfection in expression, there are false impressions and fictitious heights that are supposed to be real. There is no greater state of deformity than the state of supposed righteousness in the individual, we mean the, "I am holier than thou." What the physical giant is without intellectual and moral growth, what the intellectual giant is without goodness or virtue, so is the giant of self-righteousness, the typical scribe and Pharisee, the hypocrite, he who removes his garments lest they be contaminated by contact with the sinner; such is the self-righteous. Make no mistake, even that pride has its fall. Sometimes you witness that those who assume the greatest virtue are the soonest under a cloud. Sometimes those who hare a superficial consciousness of being good are put to the profoundest test, and their goodness is found to be only on the surface. True goodness is so simple, so humble, so childlike, so divine, so beyond all compare, that it is not aware, nor boastful. The true moral victor, who can not sin, avoids not the sinner, but uplifts and strengthens him who errs. Only in this triumph does moral perfection become complete, after all the stage of struggle and attainment, when the world is overcome, It will be well to remember that each separate state is conquered by knowing it, then by knowing it is not a real victory. The thesis might seem to be that the Soul conquers matter by yielding to it, the antithesis is that the Soul conquers matter by knowing that yielding to it is not the real victory.

But enough has been said in this lesson to show, that each Soul enters expression in human embodiments in the most infantile state possible on earth; for all states are experienced by all Souls; and that each Soul in dual existence, the masculine and feminine, is always expressing similar states at the same time. That there are three distinct general degrees of achievement: the physical, the mental, and the moral Each of these degrees has its seeming and its real victory.

The False

First: The false physical strength, accompanied by pride of physical conquest.

Second: Intellectual power and achievement as a finality.

Third: A fictitious moral strength, self-righteousness.

The weakness of physical strength, the fallacy of mere intellectual power, and the downfall of self-righteousness, are reactions.

The True

First: Victory over the physical.

Second: Conquest over the intellectual.

Third: True goodness, the ultimate moral triumph over the world.

For each of these degrees and states (as well as the reactions) many successive embodiments are necessary, until the final victory.

The next lesson will be a continuation of this subject: Embodiments in human life.