Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
— Matt. 7:13-14.
To the general reader these words of Christ Jesus may sound
rather ominous,and their terrifying aspect has been used freely by orthodox
ministers, still acting under the impulse of the Jehovistic regime of fear, in
attempting to frighten their congregations into a more religious life.
However, as interpreted in the revealing light of the Western Wisdom
Teachings, they indicate the verities and beauties of the spiritual Way - the
life "more abundant" in which all the latent faculties of the Spirit
unfold into a beautiful flowering. True, life lived in accord with the
spiritual laws governing man and the universe requires the sacrifice of things
appealing to the senses, but it also brings a changing perception which
establishes a keener appreciation and enjoyment of the real things of
life. Gradually, "a sane mind, a soft heart, and a sound body" work
in perfect unison to bring increasing peace and satisfaction.
Living as he does in the midst of countless sense
attractions, modern man may find it easier to follow the line of least
resistance and cater to the senses. However, the time must come when distaste,
ill health, and suffering bring him to a reckoning, and to a desire to know
the joys of spiritual living. He begins to forsake the way of the sense life
and learns to think, speak, and act in accordance with the Higher Will which
governs all.
When He invited all to enter the strait gate, Christ Jesus
was calling to the higher self in man, the part of the human being which ever
aims at the stars, ever aspires toward the heights, as symbolized by the sign
Sagittarius. Only at temporary periods can the voice of this inner man be
stilled, for deep within the coats of materiality, the Ego yearns tor its
original home with its Father, God. There is thus ever an inner urge toward a
more spiritual way of living.
As Spirits differentiated within God, we are
immortal, passing countless times through the cycle which leads from the
heaven worlds into materiality, and from the material world back again into
the higher realms. Eventually a new Evolutionary Day comes and some of
humanity go forward, while others, not having made the grade, are placed in
other environments to take up their retarded work.
Those who have their faces set toward the Light recognize
the mighty power of the Spirit, and admit no defeat on the Path. When once the
spiritual self is thoroughly aroused and active, the lower self is doomed. The
sense life loses its attractions, and the Path whereon one sacrifices the
personality for the eternal glory of God becomes ever brighter and more
alluring. Each day of love and service given brings a certain advance toward
the Kingdom of "Life," the blessed life of activity and progress in
the great Garden of God.
— Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, September, 1975, page 404
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