Through all succeeding ages, that which the nations of Earth have witnessed of Power since the kingdom of Ahasuerus expresses but the receding wave, its perversion. The "serpent of setfseeking" which enters the Garden of Eden at each shadowed stage of human progress, perverts the Knowledge and the Power which were intended to vanquish the Earth; and for a while this serpent vanquishes the race, because the power and knowledge are misapplied.

As the four stages of victory came, there came such perversion, such abuse, such misapplication of this power, such kindling of all ambition that was unlawful, that the races finally declined before the complete Dispensation closed, and instead of a race of giants there were dwarfs and pigmies upon the Earth.

You have knowledge that at some periods in the Earth's history, there have been giants and dwarfs, you do not know why races of giants are succeeded by races of dwarfs. When gigantic size and power are most complete there is a lapse, because of abuses of this power; then as a reaction there comes feebleness of body and, perhaps, of mind, to show how little the body can do without the mind; and gradually the receding waves bring feebleness both of mind and body. As there is no race upon the Earth today to illustrate the physical size and intellectual power of that Ahasuerian period, so there is no race to illustrate the absolute recession from that greatness, although personal instances may exist. You think the General powerful who commands vast armies, and one not versed in military tactics thinks that it is impossible to mobilize them. The Napoleonic nature is an illustration of great mental power, accompanied by great weakness in other ways.

There are instances all through human history to show that some portion of this dispensation is left upon the Earth, to show the pathway that nations and people must tread and have trod. When you think of nations molded by a nation, all of whom had Napoleonic love of power, all of whom had physical strength to carry it out, all of whom had perfect command of their physical and mental resources, you will not wonder then that one continent could not retain such a race, that whatever territory there was upon the Earth, was sought by them to be dominated and ruled; you will also not wonder, that when through ambition, love of power, and personal pride, there came striving, jealousy, and warring, as with the receding wave, step by step, the pernicious influence of Selfish seeking caused ambition to fail, and from failure to end in disgrace, and that those giants of power gradually became pygmies.

You will not wonder that another spirit, born of a preceding race of the Hermetic nations, whose influence upon the Earth was well-nigh closed, came to fill the interval, and that the over-lapping dispensations, making ready for another, brought the comparative products of both to the Earth; Power and Knowledge not in their supreme estates, but as the result of the ebbing and flowing of the receding waves of the two Dispensations.

Let us take a backward glance as step by step the Dispensation of Power reached its height. You can imagine that it was not so much their inclination to make permanent and secure their possessions, for power does not fear declination. It was not a race or people or an age of great permanent construction; whatever was built was built without enduring strength or security, and not intended to last "forever"; for these people supposed they could rebuild, they could have whatever they desired at command, it was not needed that they should make things to endure; besides, the climatic conditions were rather fitted for their physical strength and power to exist in transient ways, in ways that are not permanent, but whatever was needed for protection against the sun's rays, whatever was afterwards needed for protection in battle, whatever was required for physical might and prowess, was certainly theirs. Through tradition much of this was incorporated in subsequent history; and we shall hereafter find occasion to refer to each primal Dispensation when we shall gather up these various lines of expression. So some portion of this lion race, and some portions of the race of Knowledge, and some portion of each of these angelic kingdoms have, through the intervening lesser Messiahs, pervaded the whole human race.

Meanwhile the forming of a continent towards the northern zone upon the Earth's surface was progressing, while these Southern continents were fulfilling this Dispensation. We bear you quickly on from one to another; but you have only to contemplate in this one lesson that the earth in its then inhabitable state constituted in its extent of territory a very small portion of what is now the habitable globe; that those who existed upon the Earth's surface were concentrated into two continents of much less dimension than the continents of which you are now aware; that the people were brought closer together and came into more immediate contact with one another; consequently there was greater friction and greater instances of the striking individuality of these typical races; these instances formed the beginning of the Typical Unrest. As this Dispensation illustrated more than any other the condition and disposition of men to conquer the Earth, so you cannot imagine in the receding wave of any Dispensation any more abjectly helpless race than that which was the result of the recession from the condition of great Power. Instances of intellectual infacility are scattered all over the world; there are also illustrations of some such expression of power; and through the ages such lives as have had expression in great potency, or triumph, or victory, or pride of power and strength, may now be found in the creeping and helpless things that you sometimes meet and sometimes pity, on your daily pathway I Who knows but that overleaping the centuries, some of those souls may be found now experiencing their reaction; at least it might be true of those whose lives have illustrated in another Dispensation a similar state of expression; for you remember we have said that each Dispensation repeats the primal principle of preceding dispensations; as, for instance, the First Dispensation of Knowledge; the second Dispensation begins with Knowledge, culminates in Power, and whatever the third, when we have stated it, it begins with Knowledge and Power and culminates in the next degree. Thus each dispensation takes up the thread of the preceding one, and carries it forward until it is incorporated with that which the then existing dispensation means. Yet to neither of these primal races or dispensations with their many subsequent races, came that which will finally solve the whole. Primarily, as previously stated, the race expressing physical knowledge (excepting, of course, the Angels who first gave birth to the human race), were devoid of spiritual perception. We stated that the spirit of Knowledge belonged primarily to the race expressing knowledge in all the departments of human life, physically and mentally, whether in the affections, the intellect, or even in that which was their form of worship So in this Dispensation of Power there was no perception of the spirit, or Soul; for the God of those who followed after Ahasuerus was a God of might, and nowhere was there any race expressing any more spirituality or any divine attribute; and no such attributes or expressions were known in the being, worshiped by those who were followers of Hermes, for theirs was a God of Knowledge; cold as the clear glittering intellect and soulless as a being made of ice; and, adding Power to Knowledge, this strong and glittering image was made the King of Might, the dominating "Power over all the Earth." That it was which taught receding nations fear; for, born with the reaction from the love of power and victory, came the knowledge of fear. And this is the reaction from all primal states of worship; especially the fragments of religion that you gather from the tribes and remnants of races that are receding; there is more expression of fear than any other element. It was the "Mighty One" of the Universe that was formerly worshiped, the Intelligence and the Power of the Universe, the Dominion of the infinite with no loftier attributes; and when the phrases "King of Kings," the "Lord of Lords," was introduced into the ancient worship, it was the worship of Power and Might. And those attributes are not lost even in the time of the beginning of the Christian Religion; how else, then, should these primal nations worship except to praise the Angel who gave them Power and Dominion over others; and under this Power and Dominion to praise as the Most High the Angel or being with all the attributes of knowledge, with all the seeming ability to control the outward Universe, such as expressed, as the highest attributes, the Power of Dominion?

Yahova Is Veiled In Our Being

The Infinite dual life is concealed,

Veiled in all forms of existence here; From within the soul it is revealed With knowledge and with power most clear, For the Being that is veiled within Knows the victory it shall win;

Yet through spaces the cycles have met.

Through the countless vistas of the past, Through wondrous gleams of light 'tis set. The unveiling of the glory at last Reveals the image of the Life Divine That in Love and Wisdom alone can shine:

And all the glittering suns of light.

All the majesty of knowledge given, And all the power to reach the height Of victory that is less than Heaven, Must melt and fade before the Day That reveals the Being Divine alway,