Like Moses, Jesus came to do away with the worn-out teachings and practices and the decadent conditions of the previous cycle in this case that of the Moses cycle of Aries the Ram. He came to formulate a philosophy adapted to the influences to be focused upon the earth during the reign of the new zodiacal ruler, Pisces the Fishes, and to lead all who would follow him into the opportunities of the new world period of 2,000 years.

Here again the experience of Jesus was similar to that of Moses, for he, too, found humanity tradition-fettered, especially those who were most thoroughly trained in the religious concepts and theology of the old cycle. While nothing is more certain than the Law of Change, yet the minds of most men are loath to accept new philosophic ideas. They cling to the past. The beliefs of their ancestors are good enough for them. For them God said His last word ages ago and must remain forever dumb.

But the zodiacal influences of a great cycle may be safely trusted to gradually lead the most spiritually advanced groups of humanity into a considerable degree of en rapport with the message of the Great Teacher of that cycle (in this instance, Jesus) while the less advanced groups waver around spurious leaders or cling to religious expressions adapted to a dead zodiacal cycle that they have not yet spiritually evolved beyond.

In a number of his thaumaturgical feats Jesus employed fishes, and indeed gave as his sign that of Jonas, who was swallowed by a fish. (Matthew 12:39.) Jesus could scarcely have hinted any more broadly his connection with the zodiacal sign Pisces the Fishes. Undoubtedly Jesus was the Pisces Avatar and last great racial Teacher.

That the teachings of Jesus were often deeply symbolical is clearly affirmed by the Bible. (Matthew 13:34.) Near the close of his ministry Jesus gave his followers a clue to the advent of the next great zodiacal cycle when he instructed them to look for a man carry

ing water at the time of the passover (into the succeeding cosmic cycle).

In 1912 the earth passed into the next cycle, that of Aquarius the Waterman, or the Sign of the Son of Man. That Aquarius follows Pisces the Fishes, and is a man carrying water, may be seen by any one who will consult an almanac.

Speaking of the close of the cycle of Pisces the Fishes, and "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," Jesus said: "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity. . . . And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (St. Luke 21:25, 27.) In this mystical language Jesus apparently refers to the coming of another Great Teacher (or his own return) when the earth entered the next great cycle that of Aquarius the Water-bearer.

Jesus also seems to have given another hint regarding the close of his Avataric period and the entrance into

new cycle of Aquarius when he said: "And then shall appear the sign (Aquarius) of the son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24: 30.)

Whatever may be our attitude toward Biblical prophecies, certain it is that Aquarius, the sign of the son of man, has appeared in the heavens to remain 2,000 years, and that war and mourning encompass the earth as never before in modern history. May we also expect the third condition to be fulfilled -the coming of a World Teacher?

It is, indeed, to be expected at the closing of a great zodiacal cycle in which

there has been so much intolerance, unbrotherliness, bloodshed and religious strife as during the last 2,000 years, that widespread turbulence and suffering would occur. We know that in the physical body discordant conditions or impurities that cannot be harmoniously adjusted or eliminated from the system are corrected or

sloughed off in a cataclysm of illness, through boils, measles, scarlet fever, eczema and other eliminative ailments. The body may be left weak and exhausted by the cleansing cataclysm but nature had no recourse but to correct the condition in a violent manner and at the price of much suffering on the part of the patient.

The same natural law that rules the individual rules the race. All the vast mass of inharmony, hatred and racial antagonism engendered during the Pisces cycle, that could not be harmoniously adjusted in international amity and fellowship, had to be precipitated in the form of a cleansing cataclysm-the Great War. Storms clear the air.

The Great War is a cruel healing crisis in the diseased body of humanity, but the healing cannot be permanent unless the underlying causes-all the fundamental sources of national infection and corruption-are utterly wiped out, which is most unlikely.

In other words, the Great Law, symbolized by Ezekiel and St. John as the four Great Beasts or Lords of Karma, requires that humanity clean off the slate of the old, dying cycle and submit to the sifting, trying and testing necessary to prove what lessons it has gleaned during the cycle of Pisces the Fishes and to what extent it can exemplify the teachings given out by Jesus, the Great Teacher for that period.

Like a class at school, humanity is called up for examinations in life and ethics that it may prove what has been learned during the preceding cycle or study period. From this viewpoint it does seem that humanity has made a muddle of it, yet who can calculate the flood of sympathy, devotion, selfsacrifice, fellowship and love poured out by the peoples of the warring nations? What of the growing yearning among the suffering nations for a greater knowledge of spiritual realities? What of the increasing interest in the

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problem of life after death as denoted by the phenomenal sale of Sir Oliver Lodge's book, Raymond, and by the recent notable articles on the subject in The Metropolitan, The Bookman, Current Literature, and other leading magazines?

The Great War, therefore, seems to be an expression of the Law of Karma -the universal Law of Adjustment, the law that what is sown, whether by individual or nation, must be reaped. And Europe is properly the chief focal point because it was there that the greater part of the inharmony of the last cycle was engendered through the terrible Dark Ages and by the wars and savage persecutions of religion that have in the past drenched European soil with blood.

There would seem to be but little doubt that the same fiery, cleansing catalcysm of war that has been sweeping the physical world must likewise sweep through the mental or intellectual world in a chaos of conflicting ideas and extremes of individualistic thought that will shake governments, religions, and social and labor systems to their foundations. Russia is perhaps an example of the intellectual anarchy that must soon engulf the world for a time. Winston Churchill has declared that France and England are sure to experience a tremendous social revolution when the Great War closes, if, indeed, the revolution can be kept in suspension until Germany is beaten.

But in the light of astrology and the Bible, the signs in the heavens now point to the dark hour when humanity must be purged, that those who are proven true and steadfast may stand ready for the New Day. The flail of the Great Garnerer falls fast and heavy. But who can say how long it may require to separate the chaff from the wheat, that the great World Teacher for the present incoming cycle of Aquarius, the Water-bearer, may appear to give out the religious philosophy for the New Age?

The certificate card forms are provided by the board of education and placed in the office of the secretary of the city Sunday School Association, where they may be obtained by the Sunday School authorities, or, by equest, they may be sent direct by the superintendent of schools.

The plan has many advantages. It encourages Sunday School attendance. tends to standardize Sunday School instruction, and reacts helpfully in the daily school work of the child. It coordinates the work of the Sunday School with that of the public school, and develops in the child and in the community, a consciousness of the unity of all educative processes, and emphasizes the fact that education should be

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integral and not fractional, no matter what agencies are involved. It gives equal recognition to all Sunday School instruction, no matter under what sectarian auspices it may be given, under the assumption that any religious instruction given the child is better than none at all. The public school does not assume to supervise the Sunday School work, or to pass on the character or extent of the instruction given. In this respect, the plan works in entire harmony with the principle of religious liberty. Its method is purely cooperative and experimental, and its operation thus far has proven to be entirely successful. The scheme is flexible and subject to such modifications as may be required by local conditions.

-Donald Fletcher, 32°.