Nay, to the Christian it should come with special force, with special significance, for it was the name that Christ the Teacher chose as best expressing His own relationship to those who believed on Him, to those who followed Him.

"Neither be ye called masters," He said; "for one is your Master, even Christ." And so again you may remember that, in speaking to His disciples, He said: "Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am." So that to the Christian heart the name Master should be above all other names sacred and beloved, since it was the chosen name of their own Teacher, the name that He claimed from His disciples, that name that He used as representing His relation to them.

So this idea of a Master in religion certainly should be one which comes with no alien sound, no foreign significance, among those who look up to the Master Christ.

And exactly the same idea is that of a Master in any great religion; it is a common idea--it signifies the Founder, the Teacher, divine and yet human.

To that point I will return later.
Let us study the central idea of these Masters a little more closely, and see what are the special characteristics which mark Them in the religions of the past.