How Shall We Know
Christ At His Coming?
by Max Heindel
The Rosicrucian Teachings
An Aquarian Movement
There was a time, even as late as Greece, when
Religion, Art and Science were taught unitedly in the Mystery temples. But
it was necessary for the better development of each that they should separate
for a time.
Religion held sole sway in the so-called "dark ages."
During that time it bound both Science and Art hand and foot. Then came
the period of the Renaissance, and Art came to the fore in all its
branches. Religion was strong as yet, however, and Art was only too often
prostituted in the Service of Religion. Last came the wave of modern
Science, and with iron hand it has subjugated Religion.
It was a detriment to the world when Religion shackled
Science. Ignorance and Superstition caused untold woe. Nevertheless man
cherished a lofty spiritual ideal then; he hoped for a higher and better
life. It is indefinitely more disastrous that Science is killing Religion,
for now even hope, the only gift of the gods left in Pandora's box, may vanish
before Materialism and Agnosticism.
Such a state cannot continue. Reaction must set in.
If it does not, anarchy will rend the cosmos. To avert such a calamity
religion, science, and art must reunite in a higher expression of the good,
the true, and the beautiful than obtained before the separation.
Coming events cast their shadows before and when the
Great Leaders of humanity saw the tendency toward ultra-materialism which is
now rampant in the Western World, they took certain steps to counteract and
transmute it at the auspicious time. They did not wish to kill the budding
Science as the latter had strangled Religion, for they saw the ultimate good
which will result when an advanced Science has again become a co-worker with
Religion.
A spiritual Religion, however, cannot blend with
materialistic Science any more than oil can mix with water. Therefore
steps were taken to spiritualize Science and make Religion scientific.
In the thirteenth century a high spiritual teacher,
having the symbolical name Christian Rosenkruez — Christian Rose-Cross —
appeared in Europe to commence this work. He founded the mysterious
Order of Rosicrucians with the object of throwing esoteric light upon the
misunderstood Christian Religion and to explain the mystery of Life and Being
from the scientific standpoint in harmony with Religion.
In the past centuries the Rosicrucians have worked in
secret, but now the time has come for giving out a definite, logical, and
sequential teaching concerning the origin, showing both the spiritual and
the scientific aspects: a teaching which makes no statements that are not
supported by reason and logic.
How shall We Know
Christ At His Coming?
Stenographic Report of a Lecture Delivered Before The Los Angeles Study Center, Rx., F., May 18th, 1913, by Max Heindel
There is a picture in my mind; it has rested there for years; off and on
when I have time from the busy work of the day to turn inwards and look into
that storehouse, this picture appears. Let me paint it for you.
Follow me backwards in time about two thousand years. The scene is in
Palestine, the hills are bare; a little group of men, and every face in that
group is sad. They are mourning for One who, they thought, had come to do
great things, but One who has been taken from them by ruthless hands. One
whose life has seemingly been destroyed, and they as themselves: Is this to
be the end? This was a subject that was very close to their hearts. He had
called them friends. He had said, "Ye are my friends," and they mourned Him
as a friend. He had also said to then, "If I go away, I will come again."
and they were anxiously discussing when that advent would take place.
That was the beginning, but ever since that time it has been a subject of
interest among those who call themselves, by His grace, friends of Christ.
It has been a theme of keen and vital interest among them: When will He
come again, and how shall we know Him at His coming?
He had told His followers in Palestine that many would come to deceive;
that if they were told to go into the desert or into this place or that
place to look for Him, they should not go. He had told them that the angels
in heaven did not know the day when He would return; that even the Son did
not know but only the Father. As said, they were anxiously discussing the
approximate time of the advent and particularly how they might positively
know Him at His appearance.
Pretenders — there have been many since that day — have claimed to be
Christ; some deceive themselves and others into believing that they are that
high and exalted Teacher. There are others who deliberately and maliciously
seek to usurp His place. Therefore the subject, How shall we know Him?
has perennial interest.
A year ago there appeared in an English magazine an article entitled,
"Occult Heralds." In it synopses of the Western Mystery Teaching, as given
in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, and of Eastern Esotericism, represented
by a society promulgating that doctrine, were given. The leaders of the two
societies and their works were compared. Similarities were found but the
writer also noted with remarkable penetration what superficial students of
the Western Wisdom Teaching have failed to perceive, namely, the vital and
irreconcilable difference in the two teachings regarding Christ and His
coming. It was shown that according to the Eastern teaching both Christ
and Buddha were men in ordinary life, while in the Western mystery teaching
it is said just as emphatically that the Christ is a Divine Hierarch not of our evolution, "who for us men came down." and that having once shed the dense body. He will never appear in a physical vehicle again.
As this is one of the cardinal differences between the Wisdom of the West
and the Eastern Teaching regarding one of the greatest problems of the day,
it seems vital that all students of the Western Wisdom Teaching should
thoroughly understand the matter.
To systematize our discourse, we will divide it into four parts, each
devoted to consideration of a question which has a definite bearing upon our
subject:
Who is Christ?
Why did He come in the first place?
Why must He come again?
How shall we know Him at His appearing?
This will make it easier for those who have not studied the Western Wisdom Teaching to grasp the idea.
I. Who is Christ?
The first point which we must settle is the identity of Christ as taught
in the Western Mystery School. According to the chart, "The Seven Days of Creation," man has gone through a period of involution comprising the Saturn, Sun, and Moon Periods; also one-half of the Earth Period. In
this pilgrimage through matter he has gathered the vehicles he today
possesses.
During the Saturn Period, when we were mineral-like, some beings were human
as we are today, but they were of a different wave of evolution. they have
since advanced and have become the Lords of Mind. The highest Initiate of
that evolution — of the life wave that was then in the human stage — is
called in esotericism, the Father.
The highest Initiate of the Sun Period, when those beings who are now
Archangels were human, is called the Son, otherwise the Christ.
The present day angels were human in the Moon Period, and the highest
Initiate whom we now call Jehovah is also called the Holy Spirit.
Here we have the status of the three great beings most active as leaders of evolution.
The humanity of the Sun Period could not descend any further into the sea
of matter than the Desire World (see the chart), therefore their lowest
vehicle was the desire body, and as it is a cosmic law that no being can
create a vehicle which it has not learned to build during its evolution, it
was impossible for the Christ Spirit to be Born into a physical body. He
could not form such a vehicle. Neither could He form the vital body, made
of ether. He also lacked the ability to function in the latter substance,
because He had ever acquired it in His evolution. To supply the needed
vehicles for Christ, Jesus, a man of our evolution — a man born of a father and
a mother, both high Initiates who made the creative act a sacrifice and
achieved the immaculate conception without passion — gave up his dense and
vital bodies at the Baptism to the Sun Spirit, Christ, who then entered the
material world and became mediator, having all the vehicles necessary to
function between God and man. Christ Jesus is therefore absolutely unique,
and the Bible tells us that there is no other name whereby we must be saved, but by the name of Christ Jesus; this is the only authoritative Christian Creed.
Having explained the identity of Christ and Jesus as stated in the Western
Wisdom Teachings, our next problem is:
II. Why Did Christ Come
Here In the First Place?
On Golgotha, the physical body of Jesus was destroyed amid certain
phenomena recorded in the Bible, and the Christ Spirit drew into the earth.
Up to that time the earth had been worked upon from without. As the
group spirits guide animals from without, so the earth had been guided in its
orbit and mankind had been led on the path of evolution almost entirely by
Jehovah, but from that time the Christ became our indwelling Earth Spirit. He
now guides our planet in its orbit, and is endeavoring to replace the regime of war inaugurated by Jehovah, on the one hand, and the Martial Lucifer spirits, on the other, by a regime of altruism, a reign of Universal Friendship. We hear much about Universal Brotherhood, but it is not
necessary to form societies to proclaim that we are brothers; everyone knows
this; there is not need of calling attention to this fact. Brothers and
sisters are not always harmonious, but they must be harmonious if they are
to be friends, and therefore Christ instituted a much higher ideal when He
called His disciples friends:"Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I have
commanded you."
III. Why Must He
Come Again?
While we have the emphatic promise of Christ's return, there are many
Christians who do not believe in the Second Advent, so it may be well to see
if there is any reason compelling His return.
To elucidate this point, let us take an illuminative incident from
"Faust." Though written by Goethe, this drama was not a figment of his
fancy, for the legend of Faust is older than history; it is one of the myths
which express in fanciful, pictorial terms the story of the soul's search
for light. These tables were given to infant humanity that they might
subconsciously imbibe the ideals which in later epochs they were to live. As
a matter of fact, we use the same method of instruction when we give our
children picture books to inculcate ideas which they are too young to grasp
intellectually.
Faust has studied books all his life and gradually realizes that we know
only what we live — that apart from practical application in daily life, book
learning is of no value. When the soul awakes to this fact, it stands at
the portal of true knowledge, looking towards the Light. But the road
forks: one path is smooth and easy; all along the way are guides, servile
and smiling, ready to encourage the traveler and assist him in any way he
desires, while at the end stands Lucifer, the light-bringer, ready to give
worldly honors to those who worship at this shrine. The other path is
rough, rugged, and dangerous; sometimes it is very dark; many a weak heart
is upon it, and often one may hear the cry of anguish: "How long, O Lord!
how long?" But though the soul struggles seemingly alone, it hears always a
voice within, still, small, and soundless, yet unmistakably clear: "Come ye
that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest," and occasionally
the "True Light," Christ, the goal of the soul's search, is seen through a
rift in the storm clouds which must be passed to reach the summit of
attainment, and from the beatific vision the seeking soul gathers new
strength.
On the black path Lucifer panders to every appetite without restraint or
reservation. While the soul drifts with the current, all seems easy, and
pleasure seems to wait at every turn, but when at length it has come to the
end of the river of life, instead of soaring aloft to its proper goal, it is
drawn down by the base appetites which cling to it as the flesh of unripe
fruit clings to the kernel, and it experiences with a thousandfold intensity
the pain incidental to tearing itself away from the fetters welded by sin.
Thomas A. Kempis remarks upon the desire of the majority to live a long life, and how few are concerned to live a good life. I might paraphrase
this by exclaiming, "Oh, how many are desirous of attaining spiritual
powers, but how few strive to cultivate spirituality!" The story of
Faust gives us an insight into what might happen should we exclaim with all
the intensity of our whole being, as did he:
"Oh, are there spirits in the air,
Who float 'twixt heaven and earth, dominion wielding?
Stoop hither from your golden atmosphere,
Take me to scenes new life and fuller yielding.
A magic mantle did I but possess,
A broad to waft me as on viewless wings,
I'd prize it more than any earthly dress,
Nor change it for the royal robes of kings."
By this impatience and desire to get something for nothing, to reap where
he has not sown, he attracts to himself a spirit of an undesirable nature,
for the inhabitants of the invisible worlds are in nowise different from
people here. A philanthropist is not found at every turn in this world,
neither do we meet angels on every hand the moment we step across the
border, and the only safeguard is to strive to be worthy of consciously entering those realms. When we have attained the requisite character, we shall not have to wait.
We need not here concern ourselves with what bargain was proposed to
Faust by Lucifer, who had followed his prospective victim into the former's
study but when he turns toward the door and is about to leave, he sees with
dismay a five-pointed star with two points turned towards the door and one
point facing him. This he asks Faust to remove, but upon being closely
questioned and invited to leave by the window or chimney, he at last
confesses:
"For ghostly spirits 'tis a law,
Where they came in they must withdraw."
This is a most important point, for as Lucifer entered the study of Faust by
the door and is forced to leave by the same way, so, as Christ entered the
earth by way of the vital body of Jesus, He must leave by that same way upon
His return from the redeemed earth to the sun, His heavenly home; no other vehicle will do.
But there is much more in that situation between Faust and Lucifer of
interest in this connection. The door is open, so why should the five-pointed
star bar the exit of Lucifer, especially as he had passed over it on entering
the study?
The five-pointed star is the emblem of man with limbs apart and arms
outstretched; one point is then at the top, representing the head, which is
the natural gate of the spirit. There it enters its future body about
eighteen days after the conception, thence it leaves when the body sleeps,
and it re-enters by that same gate in the morning. For the Invisible
Helpers this is also the exit and entrance. Finally, when death comes, the
spirit withdraws by way of the head.
For this reason the five-pointed star with one point up as represented in the emblem of the Rosicrucian Teachings is the symbol of white magic, which
works by natural means in harmony with the law of evolution.
The pupil of a Mystery School learns to draw the creative force upward to
the brain and transmute it to soul power by a life of chastity and
self-sacrifice. This soul power he uses to project himself into the higher
spheres by way of the head. The black magician, incapable of
self-sacrifice, obtains the needed power by perverted use of the life force
of his victims, which projects him downward by way of the feet, and he must re-enter the same way. The silver cord then protrudes through the lower organ. Therefore the five-pointed star with two horns pointing up and one down is the symbol of black magic. It was easy for Lucifer to enter the study of Faust as the two horns of the star were pointed towards the entrance, but when he wished to leave and was confronted by the one point of the symbol, his black soul was repelled by the emblem of purity and love.
We have, of course, no legal proof that Christ entered the earth and is
there partially confined as we are confined in our dense bodies, but there
is plenty of mystic evidence, and by the law of analogy it is also plainly
indicated that Christ spends His year-days partly within and partly without
the earth.
Cancer, ruled by the Moon, is the sign ruling conception. The Egyptians
pictured it as a beetle, and the scarab was their symbol of the soul. When
the Light of the World, the Sun, enters Cancer in June, the creative power
of the last cycle which gave life to the earth has been spent, and in order
to renew this life, which would otherwise wane, the Sun must again descend.
At the fall equinox in Libra scales tip and the germinative force enters our
earth, reaching the center at Christmas when the sun is at its lowest point
of declination, the winter solstice. Thence the germinative force, the
Christ ray, radiates to fructify matter anew and reaches the periphery of
the earth at the time the sun crosses the celestial equator at the vernal
equinox in Aries. Then the Savior, the Lamb of God, dies to the world, but
becomes alive to the higher spheres.
Thus we are confined in our dense bodies from morning till night through
the activity of the day, so the Christ is confined in the earth from the
fall to the vernal equinox, which is the period when physical activities are
largely in abeyance but spiritual efforts bring best results. And as we are
released from our bodies at night and enter the invisible worlds to recuperate
from the (to the spirit) cramping conditions of physical existence, so also
the Christ is temporarily released from the earth at the cross
(ifixion) when we see the sun "passover" the celestial equator and soar into
the high heavens. This therefore is the time when we feel the spiritual
impulse waning and devote our energy to physical activities of tilling the
soil and making two blades of grass grow where there grew but one.
According to the common view of the matter, Christ completed the
Sacrifice of Golgotha, but as a matter of fact that was only the beginning.
He is still "groaning and travailing, waiting for the manifestation of the
Sons of God," which means ourselves. When a sufficient number have
experienced the birth of the Christ within so that they can bear their
brother's burden and give their life as Christ is now giving His, then will
the hour of liberation strike and Christ may permanently return to the sun.
But as He entered at the periphery of the earth when ether came, so under the
law just explained must He again return to the surface of the earth, and
this in itself constitutes the Second Coming.
There is no warning in the Bible more emphatic than that given by Christ
against claimants to Christhood. He declared that some would work signs and
wonders which might deceive the very elect, and we cannot do better than
bring His words to mind as we start consideration of our last question.
IV. How Shall We Know
Christ At His Appearing?
Christ said: Take heed lest any man deceive you; for many shall come in
my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And if any man shall
say to you, lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not. for
false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and
wonders to seduce, if it were possible, the very elect . . . . then shall
they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory . . . . He shall send His angels and gather together His elect from the four winds . . . . But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
From these passages we see how careful we must be not to be lured away by
deceivers, but there is plenty of light also to guide us right, and certain
signs are indicated whereby we may surely know Christ from imitators. The
most conclusive sign of impostors is that no matter how clever their plea,
they come clothed in a physical body. There are good reason why —
Christ Will Not Come
In a Physical Body
No such vehicle could endure the tremendous vibration of so great a
spirit. You will remember from the scriptures that Christ frequently
absented Himself from His disciples. On these occasions He was wont to take
Jesus' body to the Essenes, who were men of our evolution and expert
esoteric physicians, skilled in the care of the body. They restored the
tone, and thus held the body together for three years. From Golgotha the
body was taken to the grave, and as the cohesive influence was withdrawn,
the atoms simply scattered to the four winds, and when the tomb was opened,
only the clothing was found.
To obtain another physical vehicle for the Second Coming in the same manner
as the first was provided would be difficult, but could, of course, be
accomplished. Under the law that a spirit must leave where it enters, only
that one body of Jesus would avail, and as that has been destroyed it is impossible that Christ should appear in a physical vehicle. Therefore, as said, possession of such a body marks the pretender and impostor.
But supposing that this "law" is only a figment of the writer's fancy and
that the law of analogy quoted in support is only coincidence, our
contention is still supported by the Bible regardless of all other
evidence. Christ said: "If they shall say unto you: Behold, He is in the
desert: go not forth. Behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it
not." Thus Christ is not to be found in any physical place. Paul also
declares emphatically that "flesh and blood" cannot inherit the kingdom. If
we are to be "clothed with a house from heaven," why should the leader of the
New Dispensation have a physical vehicle?
But the Bible does not leave the matter by telling us where not to look
for Christ. He said emphatically: "The Son of Man shall come in the clouds." When He finally left His disciples, "He was taken up, and a cloud
received Him out of their sight. And while they looked up steadfastly
toward heaven as He went up, two men stood by them in white apparel which
also said: He shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into
heaven." (Acts 1, 10-11). Paul says: "The Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven . . . . then we . . . . shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air." (I. Thes. IV. 16-17) John saw the first heaven and earth
pass away — the sea dried up, and a holy city descend from Heaven, of which
Christ was regent. These things are manifestly physical impossibilities. A
body of flesh and blood cannot ascend into the air, and Paul emphatically
asserts that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." If we cannot enter in that garment, howin a universe of law can Christ, the leader, use a physical body?
If we can now find out what kind of a vehicle He used, we shall know how
we may recognize Him, and also how we shall be constituted, for, "we shall
be like Him" according to John: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." (I. John, III. 2.) Paul says: "Our commonwealth (not conversation, as translated; the Greek word
is 'politeuma' — polity or commonwealth, and is used by the apostle in
reference to the 'new heaven and earth') is in heaven, whence also we are
expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, `who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." (Phil, III, 20-21)
The body Christ used after the event of Golgotha was also capable of
entering a room with closed doors, for He thus appeared to His disciples and
allowed Thomas to touch Him. Can pseudo Christs in a physical body do that? I believe not.
That feat requires a vehicle more subtle than the physical, and no amount
of sophistry can evade this argument that Christ will use a vehicle more
subtle than the physical. The Bible teaches that Christ used such a subtle
body after the resurrection, that He ascended to Heaven therein, that He is
to return in that same body, and that we shall be changed to a state where
we are like Him in that respect.
The final question now arises: Does the Bible then teach us definitely
what that vehicle is, and is there any information whereby we may obtain
full and definite knowledge concerning this new vehicle? For our answer we
shall go the inimitable 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians where Paul teaches
the doctrine of rebirth by means of the seed atoms as clearly as the Western
Wisdom Teaching of today.
In the English version, the 44th verse reads: "There is a natural body
and there is a spiritual body"; but the New Testament was not written in
English, and as the translators knew nothing of inner teachings, they had no
idea how to translate the Greek word in this case; to them it seemed
senseless, so they translated it as they understood it. I will leave you,
however, to translate it for yourselves, though you may not be Greek
scholars. The word that is used there and translated "natural body,"
is soma psuchicon.Soma is a Greek word that everyone agrees is body — there
is no question about that. But Psuchicon — psuche — (psyche) — the soul — a
soul body, they had never heard of that; it probably seemed foolish to them,
so they translated the word, "natural body." It is true that Paul states
in 1st Thessalonians, 5:23, that Man's whole being is Spirit, Soul, and Body, but probably they regarded soul and spirit as synonymous. There is a
vast difference however, as explained in The Rosicrucian Mysteries:
This soul body is the vehicle Paul refers to as the one in which we shall
meet Christ. It is composed of ether and therefore capable of levitation
and passing through walls as all dense matter is permeated with ether.
Invisible Helpers use it today as Christ did.
At first thought it seems very strange that we shall meet the Lord "in the air," that this earth is to be left behind. But it is not strange when
we consider that the path of evolution has ever been from within outward;
that there was a time in the Lemurian Epoch when this earth was in a fiery
state and when man lived on the crust that was forming close to the fiery
core, in a body that was just beginning to encrust: that he lived in the
Atlantean Epoch, in the basins of the earth down in the dense mist which
arose from the cooling earth as said in Genesis 2. Then mankind were
called, as said in the German folk story "Niebelungen," — Niebel meaning
mist, and Ungen children: Children of the Mist. We have the Bible story of
how they were guided by their teachers, how gradually this foggy atmosphere
of the earth condense when the planet cooled, and finally how the waters
came down from Heaven in that which is termed "the flood."
We know that man then left the lowlands, which were submerged by the
condensed mist, the sea, and entered upon a new era of development under
the present conditions; that he then saw the rainbow for the first time,
when the sun shone upon the clouds, and that it was told him that so long as
that sign remained, the succession of changes which we know as the seasons
would continue. So long as we have present atmospheric conditions, this era
of alternations will naturally continue. Slowly but surely we are climbing
towards the hilltops of the earth; we seek higher and higher levels.
The higher the evolution of the races goes, the more they want to rise
into the air, and gradually they are leaving the lowlands behind. As it was
in the days of Noah, the day will come when there will be a great cosmic
change; Christ refers to it in speaking of His coming where He says: "As it
was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man."
People went about as they had always done. They married, and they gave in
marriage; they ate and drank and lived their worldly lives. But suddenly
the flood descended upon ancient Atlantis, and the vehicles they had could
no longer be of service to them; they needed vehicles in which they could
accommodate themselves to the new atmospheric conditions, just as the baby
when born must instantly accommodate itself from breathing under water to
breathing the watery, misty atmosphere. Those who were not physiologically
adjustable drowned.
Christ said that a similar condition will be found at His coming. Those
who lived in Atlantis might not have noticed the physiological development
which took place in some, which made them fit to change from breathing water
to breathing air directly into the lungs. Similarly there is a change going
on in humanity that is not observable by those who have not cultivated
spiritual sight. It is a fact that an auric atmosphere surrounds every human
being. We know that often we feel the presence of a person whom we do not
see, and we feel it because there is this atmosphere outside of our dense
bodies. This is gradually changing; gradually it is becoming more and more
golden in the West. The further we go with the sun, the more this golden
color increases — the color of the Christ and of the Christlike, the saints
whom painters have depicted with a halo. Gradually we are becoming more
like Him, and this Soma Psuchicon or soul body is taking shape, is being made
ready as our "wedding garment."
An increasing number of people are becoming capable of functioning in
this vehicle, and more and more are thus getting ready for the day of
Christ. This change is not wrought by any physical process but by service,
by love, by what we know in the Western World as altruism, which is permeating
society more and more. We are becoming more and more humane; we are becoming
more and more Christlike, though far from perfect. Though the day of Christ's
coming will perhaps not be in this century or the next nor the next millenium,
we nevertheless can see a spiritual change going on in mankind, and it
depends upon us to hasten the day of Christ, for as He Himself has said,
"That day no man knoweth." No man can tell when a sufficient number will
have evolved the Soma Psuchicon to such a condition that we shall be able to
do the work which He is now doing for us.
We have come down into the vale of matter, and for our sake it has been
necessary for the Christ to enter the earth to help us from within. For our
sake He is now groaning and travailing there, waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God, and it depends upon us whether we will hasten or retard
that day. Every act of ours has some effect in this respect — every single
one of us has his work to do in this world, and the sooner we learn to do
it, the better it is for us. We should not go abroad to seek the Christ — He
is not found there. He Himself said, "Go not out in the desert." Do not
seek in such places; the Christ is formed from within.. That soul body
which is gradually becoming capable of lifting itself above the hills is
struggling for recognition within each aspirant to the higher life. As
Faust says:
"Two souls, alas! are housed within my breast;
And struggle, there for undivided reign.
One to earth, with passionate desire,
And closely clinging organs, still adheres;
Above the mists the other does aspire,
With sacred ardor, unto purer spheres."
Friends, in every one of us there is that struggle going on between the
higher and the lower nature. Paul fought the battle, and every seeking soul
must fight it. But do not think of going into the wide-world to fight and
to find. Sir Launful went away from his home as a young man; he spent a
whole life seeking Grail. When he came back to his own castle, he found the
same beggar that he had scornfully left at his departure, and when he did
the right thing, when the spirit of service entered him, then the Christ
manifested.
"He parted in twain his single crust.
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
And gave the leper to eat and drink."
The Savior, standing before him, said: "This is my body and this is my blood."
"The holy supper is kept indeed
In whatso we share with another's need."
It is not what we give but what we share that counts. Those who give
only of abundance, of the things that they have no need of — the things that
are really a burden to them, the things that they do not miss at all — do not
know what giving is. "The gift without the giver is bare." That is the
point: unless we give ourselves, our gifts are barren. "Greater love hath
no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." This is not a
single act of laying down the life for a friend, but it is constant daily
self-sacrifice. "I was hungry and ye gave me to ear' I was thirsty and ye
gave me to drink . . . I was sick and ye visited me." That is the only
requisite. May we learn it, friends. Neither need we seek far: it is
right here.
We know that little poem about letting our light shine just where we are.
Everyone of us cannot be a star, everyone of us cannot shine, everyone cannot
be a leader, but everyone can do just a little bit, just light his own
little candle and let that dispel some of the darkness in his or her immediate
vicinity. That is all we have to do, and if we do just that much, then we
shall find that that candle will be as a blazing star to guide us to the
Christ at His coming; and then we shall be sure to know Him, for we shall
find the response from within. It is said we shall know Him because we
shall be like Him, and as He has no physical body in which to come, we must
evolve that vehicle of soul, the Soma Psuchicon, so that when He appears we
may meet Him and be clothed in that golden "wedding garment."
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