And so downwards through all the degrees of ruler, in proportion to the power and its expansion, so in proportion the weight and the responsibility.
They passed away from earth as humanity grew out of its infant stage.
My phrase is too strong--I should not have said: "They passed away from earth." They passed away into silence, not from earth; thereon many of Them still remain.

But They drew back from the outer position, from outer power, and became the great company of Elder Brothers of humanity, only some of whom remained in close touch with the race.
And that is the next point in the idea of the Master.

Those who founded a religion were bound to remain wearing the body of man, fixed to the earth, bound to the outward semblance of humanity, so long as the religion lived upon earth which They had given to it.

That was the rule: no liberation for the Man who founded a religion until all who belonged to that religion had themselves passed out of it, into liberation, or into another faith, and the religion was dead.

The death of a religion is the liberation from all bondage of the Master who gave it to the world.