The Master's Word: A Short Treatise on the Word, the Light and the Self (1913)

George Winslow Plummer (1876 – 1944) was Imperator and Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in America from 1909 to 1944. Under his auspices the organization was given its contemporary structure.

Winslow writes:
"FOR countless aeons that Word, which, we are told by the seer, had its primal association with the Great Architect of the Universe, has gone crashing through the boundless realms of infinitude, obediently fulfilling the Divine Mandate, "Let there be Light."

"Countless suns, systems, and universes have sprung into being, each continuing the work which was the purpose of its birth. If geological science fails us not, upwards of 350,000,000 years ago our own tiny planet gradually assumed shape, in order that it might deliver to its teeming inhabitants of future ages that wondrous message, which is not limited by the exigencies of language or the printer's art, nor written on the pages of any book prepared by mortal hands, but is spread upon the pages of the great book of creation. This message is interpreted through all the varying phases of life, organic and inorganic, so simply that its meaning is as accurately discerned by the ignorant savage, as by the most highly developed civilized intellect. "Let there be Light, and there WAS Light." The Word has gone forth; the message has been given. From innumerable universes, of which our own is one of the least, whirling and flashing with their attendant systems through illimitable oceans of ether, down to the most minute forms of organic life, the mandate has been reverently obeyed—with the homage due its deific source—except by man."

"And why not by him? Why has he, creation's greatest achievement, failed to grasp that great Idea, on which his own development, that of races and peoples yet unborn and, greater than these, the true knowledge of his own ego, depends?

"After the Alpha we are told "there WAS Light." Why, then, has it not been discerned? Has it altogether failed? Or is it possible that it WAS seen by our ancient fathers and is revealed today to those only who shall be enabled to brush away the obscurity of vision and part the veil of materialism which, like a pall, has shrouded the human mind for the past eighteen hundred years? "Seek and ye shall find" is the command of the last Great Expression of the Divine Idea. In compliance with this command will be found the only answer to the questions before us.

"Has that Light yet been sought? Have any yet found it? A short time after creation's dawn the Light became shrouded in darkness. The children of men were left to grope their way as best they could, a few of them now and then, perchance, catching a glimpse which they have vainly tried to reflect upon those who should come after them, in proportion to the illumination they received.

"We shall endeavor to sum up the factors of human achievement in all ages; to bring to bear the searchlight of science, the deductions of the philosophers, the teachings of the various creeds of organized religion, the prophecies in the scriptures of all races, the beliefs of the ancients, together with the inspired visions of poets and seers of modern times, to bear on these questions which are of such deep import to the human race, for its present and future welfare."

CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
The Voice of Science
The Voice of Philosophy
Searching the Scriptures
Life, Death and Regeneration
The Word. The Light. The Self

Originally published in 1913; may contain an occasional imperfection.