Such is the wonderful beauty and perfection of this manifestation that, as the dual Soul goes on and on in the various degrees of descent, there is gradually less and less of the glory according to the need. Might it not be this that has been referred to, in past time, when Lucifer, the "Light-Bearer," the "Son of the Morning," was said to have disappeared from the skiea? Is not this same light-bearer the Soul, that becomes willing to suffer eclipse by the shadow of the material day; for who can declare the earthly day to be bright if the brightness of the Soul has been considered? Is it not the glory of the earthly sun that eclipses the morning star, the namesake of Lucifer, the light-bearer of the ancients? Is it not into this earthly night that the Soul by gradual involution descends?

Through this long line of involution the Soul is making ready to experience a voluntary blindness of the celestial state, to experience voluntary forgetfulneas. As a man preparing to descend into the water equips himself, shutting out the light of day, shutting out the wondrous sunshine and air, to the intent that he may find the pearl that is beneath the wave, so in putting on this outside armor of for getfulness of the Angel, descending into the outward waters of the great sea of time, in being thus engulfed, the Soul is not only, as Soul, aware, but voluntarily puts aside the celestial state for the expression that is to be given through matter.

Since expression is the intent of God as manifested in the universe, so expression is the intent of the Soul in accordance with its finite resemblance to God All Souls become divided in expression as Chrrubim and Seraphim. All Souls pass through the same degrees of involution in their approach toward expression in matter.

The Soul, thus divided, approaches matter. As two, who may be one at the fountain head, mingling there their prayers and tears, may pass on either side of the fountain, and find the rivulet become a brook, and the brook grow into a stream, the stream gradually dividing them until they can no longer clasp hands across it, no longer see one another, no longer understand the voice correctly, thus, by the gradually approaching waters of time, the Soul is divided in expression, and in that divided state seeks recognition through matter.

This descent toward matter is that which takes away, in a certain measure, the oneness and possession of the unit, without revealing the power of the dual life.

Since the Cherub and Seraph must express that which is nearest to God, the intermediate states, until there is approach to and expression in matter, have no name. The reason no other degrees can be named is because the impulsion begins with the Seraph and Cherub, and does not take any form of expression until there is organic life. All that precedes this expression in matter must be hidden, as well as the unclouded state of the Soul, the pure whiteness of Soul life in the presence of God. Such states have been named the states of mystery that precede the mortal birth, only known through inspiration and recorded in the mystic and wonderful revelations of past time, when the knowledge of pre-existence was veiled in such profound secrecy; so veiled because but few could understand its meaning.

The knowledge of the dual nature of the Soul was soon swallowed up in external worship, and amid the darkness of the intervening ages was lost sight of, until the words Cherub and Seraph, or Cherubim and Seraphim, came to have no meaning except as images in the temples of Jehovah of Angels nearest to the Throne of God.

As said before, those states that precede the earthly genesis are not states of activity, only states of preparation, therefore between the Cherubim and Seraphim, and the expression in matter there are long gradations of consciousness in descent. This dual life thus descending through the spheres of preparation toward material existence, - of which angels and archangels, in various degrees, are aware, as they have passed through all experiences in worlds, systems, and Buns, - in each step of descent is in charge of a less mighty angel; i. e., those who have charge of the Cherubim and Seraphim are the archangels, and then there are appointed angels of the solar system, and then angels of the earth, or any given planet, prepared to receive the first expression of Soul in matter.

Inspiration has revealed the pre-existent state to man: all Scriptures declare it; all religions reveal it; seers and sages of every age have perceived and taught it; poets, breathing the inspiration of the gods, have sung of this surpassing theme. Wordsworth, in his beautiful "Ode on Immortality," gives hints and statements of this pre-existence which you would do well to revive by reading, since he refers to the Soul and its 'trailing clouds of glory," - lines of light from the celestial kingdom that accompanied it into mortal existence - and to the line of reminiscence that does not seem so far off in childhood, but is gradually overgrown and eclipsed with the external life.

In the philosophies of Germany, in many of the modern systems of thought, these ideas are very clearly outwrought, though not traced to their original and absolute source. It is confessed by all, that the heretofore, (we mean the absolute heretofore,) the heretofore of the Soul, has in some way conveyed itself to the comprehension of man.

Science asks you to follow the evolution of the physical form from the atom through the various changes up to worlds; from the primordial cell up to the highest orders of created organic existence. Or as yon follow the growth of the germ within the sod; its expansion, its quickening, which you can not Bee, but you know that there are certain chemical processes going on all the time which are veiled, to your senses, until the results appear. So your teachers invite you to contemplate the involution of the Soul, from the absolute state of its being and its relation to God, through the gradations of descent of the twofold or dual expression until it reaches the generic life of earth; in this involution the attributes of the Soul are becoming ready to be enshrouded in matter. The point of meeting matter, were it not for the results, (the glory in the universe, veiled by the God of the Heavens in the shadow,) would be most depressing; for who can think of or comprehend Souls preparing thus to express themselves in the shadow of material things without supposing that other angels and archangels are in Heaven? And they should have some reason for not expressing themselves; either have had previous expression or axe awaiting other expression. May not these gaze on Souls about to seek expression as one might gaze on friends departing to a distant land, or as one might gaze on those who go down into what is called the "valley of the shadow of death"? Yet those who go into the shadow of death go unto life, those who go into the shadow of birth go unto death, Thus passing from the kingdom of the Soul to the kingdom of matter, from the kingdom of life to the kingdom of death, from that which is absolute to that which is relative, from that which is all perception to that which is only dim reflection, or expression, from all knowledge unto the struggle to obtain knowledge, from all possession into the poverty of external life, there is a proportionate loss - if the word may be employed - of the Soul-state as there is gain of outward expression; so that when the expression approaches what is called birth the less is the consciousness aware of the absolute state of Soul. Nor is it until there is preparation for such a condition as to be almost like forgetfulness that Souls are ready for expression in matter. Yet ever in God's encompassing love, that which becomes death in the celestial kingdom becomes birth in the kingdoms beneath it; and that which draws a veil between the consciousness of the Soul and God, is that which awakens the consciousness of the Soul toward expression; and there is no other way for the Son! to have this expression than to pass through the division and by mortality regain consciousness of immortality; the veil is woven of lines of light with which mortals, eventually, trace their existence back unto the Soul.

Is not time the Lethean stream, and are not the waters of sense the waters of oblivion? But all this is not only by consent, it is by active impulsion from within the Soul. The impelling power that causes Deity to express the life of the universe in twofold and manifold ways, is in the Soul repeated in a finite degree, and this impelling power causes the Soul to seek expression. The Soul is divine and eternal in itself, perfect in its uttermost possession, but it seeks expression, and that expression can only be attained in one way. The law of the universe shows that anything less than Deity or less than the Soul, must express that which the Soul and Deity possess, and as God is manifested in the twofold nature of Being by expression, so the Soul is manifested in its twofold nature by expression. This expression, therefore, constitutes the animating purpose of the departure from the unitary to the dual state, and for that the Angel gives onto the dual life the consciousness that is within the life of the unit, when it is a unit. Deity we know has Being without expression, and the Soul has being without expression, in the state that is absolute, that pertains to God and the Soul.