Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Secret Doctrine.
17S
only so far as it symbolizes and illustrates, and
thereby makes clear the inward change. The ceremony
instructs, but it cannot transform. To transform
means to regenerate; and this comes by trial,
by effort, by self-conquest, by sorrow, disappointment,
failure; and a daily renewal of the conflict.
It is thus that man must "work out his own salvation."
The consummation of initiation is the Perfect
Master, the Christos, for these are the same. They
are the goal, the perfect consummation of human
evolution.
Now, with this idea of human evolution, and in
the Hght of modern science, what is it to be a
Master? Not a mythical Master, not one so holy,
so Divine, so incomprehensible as to be the object
of blind worship alone, and impossible to be imitated,
an Idol, a Fetish, but one indeed to reverence,
to love, and, above all, to approach and imitate ;
an
Elder Brother, a Compassionate Teacher, a Helper
of the Human Race.
By constant struggle and daily conflict the Master
has conquered self. Life after life he has gathered
experience. Truly hath he been a "man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief." He has assailed
all problems; studied all sciences; exhausted all
litanies; apprehended all philosophies; practiced all