The law of laws

Preface

In reponse to the requests of many members of my classes, I have prepared this revision of a work the earlier editions of which have been for some time out of print.

Much of it has been re-written and many important changes and additions have been made. This has been done to make it more suitable for the general reader, as well as more helpful as an outline aid to the study and understanding of the principles presented in detail in the lessons on the origin, nature and destiny of the soul, given each year at the summer school, and during the winter in courses of lectures in the different cities.

It is offered as a contribution to the thought of

that unnumbered fraternity of spirit whose members

are found wherever souls are sensitive to the impact

of the truth and feel another's burden as their own.

S. P. Wait,

School of Philosophy,

March 1st, 1893.

Fort Edward, N. Y.

Chapter I

God.— Origin and development of the idea of God.— The Law discovered which makes it possible for the nature and method of God to be clearly presented and understood.— The inner meaning of the Bible and its application to the present stage of mental development.— The roots of all Hebrew words define quality and action, state and condition, made known in the working of the Creative Power in obedience to natural laws.— Thus, in its highest sense, the Bible is in harmony with scientific truth.— Seed-sowing and the insertion of Shoots from a Higher Order of Existence into a prepared lower state, the Universal Method of Creation, the knowledge of which reveals the missing link in every line of development.— The nature of God as shown from the radical meaning of the Hebrew words Elohim, Jehovah, and El Shaddai. — The doctrine of the Trinity explained as symbolizing a philosophical and scientific truth, which is made plain by an analysis of the words. Father, Spirit, Son.— Creator, Creative Energy, Creation. .

Chapter II

Adam, the. Garde* of Eden, Eve.— Adam, not the name of an individual, but of a species, descriptive of the dual nature of man, also of the method of his gradual creation from a lower to a higher state.— The supposed perfection of the first man a prophecy of what was fulfilled in the Christ and is to be in all mankind.— The Garden of Eden, representative of the piepared animal soul and form, with all its faculties, functions and members, in association with which the soul of man was placed as a higher germ of existence. — The allegorical account of the making of woman from the rib of man describes a new state reached in his unfoldment.— Eve, Woman, Female, Help-meet, Wife, different terms used to designate and personify the receptive state of the soul of man, which makes it possible for him to be Overshadowed by a Higher

Power, and through which all increase in mentality has come.— Marriage as a sacrament, why its highest ideal, as typified in Adam and Eve, has not been realized, and how it is to be 33-51

Chapter III

Evil : its Origin, Nature, Purpose. — As shown in all departments of the universe and by the real significance of the words of Genesis in reference to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Serpent, and the Temptation and Fall of Man all of which are shown to refer to physiological and psychological processes and conditions through which the human soul is of necessity compelled to pass. — The driving of man from the Garden of Eden, a process of Evolution from the primitive animal condition.— The Cherubim and the Tree of Life interpreted 53-77

Chapter IV

The First Day op Creation.— The story of Cain and Abel shown to be a personification of the eternal conflict between spirit and matter, heaven and earth, the human and the animal.— It is representative of what transpires in every soul when the lower nature predominates over the higher and deprives it of its life and power.— The Line of Cain, and the Line of Seth, explained historically and psychologically.— The Genesiacal account of the First Day of Creation interpreted etymologically and shown to be descriptive of the unfoldment of the soul from the state of consciousness marked by Adam to that represented by Noah 78-86

Chapter V

The Second Day of Creation. — The repentance of Jehovah shown to be a creative action to bring about through Noah, a state reached by the soul, a Flood or downpouring of power to cause a change and advancement in human mentality.— Shem, Ham and Japhet represent the Spiritual, Physical and Intellectual natures of man, — The Ark, a symbol of the microcosm, the human mind, into which enters the essential nature of all things.— Babel represents the principle of race-mixture, which acts in conjunction with the Law of Overshadowing for the development of man.— Intei'pretation of the account of the second day of creation and its application to the cycle of the soul's unfoldment that is marked by Noah and his sons 87-96

TABLE OF CONTENTS 13

Chapter VI

The Third Day of Creation.— Faith, the typical characteristic of the Abrahamic era.— True faith is not emotion or belief, but an organic consciousness, perception and understanding, which unites the soul with the realm of causation. —It is the foundation of all growth into higher knowlege and power.— The life of Abraham is the record of the experience of every soul in the development of the faculty or attribute which he personified. — The Genesiacal account of the third day's creation shown to be descriptive of the soul's unfoldment in the Abrahamic age 97-104

Chapter VII

The Fourth Day of Creation.— Brain-structure, progressively created by the Overshadowing Power of God, is the body through which the soul makes known its powers.— Change in quality as well as size and shape of cerebral substance as man is developed in the orders of physical, intellectual and spiritual growth.— Jacob or Israel represents prophetically the perfected Mental Principle, as shown by the meaning of the names.— The twelve Sons of Jacob, or twelve Tribes of Israel, represent the twelve fundamental faculties of the mind, as demonstrated by the etymological signification of each.— The fourth day of creation interpreted.— The lights and stars placed as faculties in the firmament of the mind.— The constellations of the starry heavens archetypes of the localized luminaries of the mental world 105-118

Chapter VIII

The Fifth Day of Creation.— Significance of the Egyptian bondage of the Israelites.— The fifth day of creation, when the waters are caused to bring forth life, descriptive of the mental unfoldment in the age typed by Moses, whose name indicates a state of the soul drawn from the waters of transition to inspire the Law.— The travail of every soul pictured in the deliverance of the children of Israel from the rule of Pharaoh.— Law defined.— Interpretation of the one commandment which includes all others.— Typical import of the Jewish ceremonial.— Elucidation of the truth conveyed by the account of the stopping of the sun and moon in their course by the command of Joshua.— The fifth day of creation interpreted 119-132

Chapter IX

The Building of the Temple.— The Temple a type of Man Perfected. —Interpretation of its symbols.— David and Solomon the typical characters of this epoch in the Jewish Line.— The mission of the major and the minor prophets.— The story of Jonah interpreted. —Key-note to the book of Job 133-145

Chapter X

The Sixth Day of Creation.— The real temple finished in the typical human life. — The dispersion of the ten tribes and captivity of the two tribes, in obedience to the universal plan of unfoldment.— The purpose of the conquests by Cyrus, Darius and Alexander, as a preparation for the coming of Jesus —The typical expansion of the intellect in Greece the fulfillment of the prophecy, I will enlarge Japhet.— The work accomplished by the universal domination of the Roman Empire ; of what it was symbolic— Union of physical, intellectual and spiritual states preparatory to the Overshadowing of the Most High.— Joseph and Mary represent the physiological preparation that had been made for the begetting of Jesus.— His conception and birth took place in obedience to the Law of Laws, and all other laws.— The work of creation completed individually in Jesus as the type of the universal perfection of humanity.— Etymological and psychological interpretation of the sixth day of creation, in which man is finished in the image of God 146-161

Chapter XI

Jesus the Christ.— The New Testament of the same two-fold nature as the Old. — Interpretation of the subjective and objective import of the leading events in the life of Jesus.— Thirty years of preparation.— Fasting and temptation.— Sermon on the Mount.— The Lord's Prayer.— Choosing of the disciples.— Mental faculties represented by the twelve apostles.— Simon Peter, the rock of reason and understanding, the only foundation for the real church of Christ. — Orderly preparation in humanity for the second coming of Christ, in the souls of men.— The miracles, or signs of power; their real nature and highest significance 162-185

TABLE OF CONTENTS 15

CHAPTER XII Paget

The True Atonement.— Sacrifice, typical and real.— The shedding of blood, atonement, pardon, remission, and sin defined.— Sin shown to be lack of understanding of law and obedience to it, a failure to conform to type.— Atonement a creative process acting in obedience to the laws of life and mind.— Interpretation of the transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension 186-199

Chapter XIII

Law of Polarity.— The Law explained.— Its operation in the physical system.— Cause and cure of disease.— Healing through the mind.— Yital correspondence of mental faculties with bodily organs.— Physical regeneration.— The Christ defined as an order of consciousness whose ultimate is mental harmony and bodily health 200-216

CHAPTER XIY

Progressive Creation of Man.— The outlook over the world to-day. —Organic status of the wild tribes.— Degree of development reached by the Hindus and Chinese— Esoteric Buddhism and Theosophy.— Condition of Mohammedan countries, —Three stages in the unfoldment of Christianity, physical, intellectual, spiritual.— Its physical and intellectual degrees represented by Eoman Catholicism ancl Protestantism.— Its spirit and truth yet to be made known.— Signs and forms perfected.— Spirituality a felt necessity.— The abstract principles set forth in this work are to ■ be rendered concrete.— How, and by whom 217-

Chapter XV

Key to Revelation.— Persecution and its blessings. —Interpretation of the symbolisms of the Apocalypse —Hell and Heaven defined as states of consciousness.— Life after death.— Susceptibility of the soul to the influence of invisible intelligences. The orders of the unseen universe graded in development as are those of the seen. -Oncoming fulfillment of existing signs and types 229-239

Chapter XVI

The Sabbath Cycle.— Knowledge of Law brings about the Day of Judgment.— The New Birth a natural phenomenon.— Its organic processes. — Altruism the instinct of spiritual self-preservation.— New Testament days of creation.— Their esoteric truth as applied to every soul.— The Sabbath Day the ultimate 240-24<