Filename: RC1020.TXT
Source: "How Shall we Know Christ at His Coming" by Max Heindel

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   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 Ser-
vice 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.   IGNO-
RANCE  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 MA-
TERIALISM and AGNOSTICISM.

   Such a state cannot continue.  Reaction must set in.  If it does not, an-
archy 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 BEAU-
TIFUL than obtained before the separation.

   Coming events cast their shadows before and when the Great Leaders of hu-
manity 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 lat-
ter 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 occult light upon the misunderstood Christian  Reli-
gion and to explain the mystery of Life and Being from the scientific stand-
point 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  as-
pects:   a teaching which makes no statements that are not supported by rea-
son and logic.

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                 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST AT HIS COMING?:

Stenographic Report of a Lecture Delivered Before The Los Angeles Study Cen-
ter, 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;

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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 Occultism, 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 com-
ing.   It was shown that according to the Eastern teaching both  Christ  and
Buddha were man 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.

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   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 thor-
oughly understand the matter.

   To systematize our discourse, we will divide it into four parts, each de-
voted  to consideration of a question which has a definite bearing upon  our
subject:

   1. WHO IS CHRIST?
   2. WHY DID HE COME IN THE FIRST PLACE?
   3. WHY MUST HE COME AGAIN?
   4. HOW SHALL WE KNOW HIM AT HIS APPEARING?

   This will make it easier for those who have not studied the Western  Wis-
dom Teaching to grasp the idea.

                             1. 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  Sat-
urn,  Sun,  and Moon Periods;  also one-half of the Earth Period.   In  this
pilgramage through matter he has gathered the vehicles he today possesses.

   During the Saturn Period, when we were mineral-like, some beings were hu-
man 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

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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 ve-
hicle was the desire body,  and as it is a cosmic law that no being can cre-
ate 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,  be-
cause  He had ever acquired it in His evolution.   To supply the needed  ve-
hicles 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 NOT 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  West-
ern Wisdom Teachings, our next problem is:

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              2.  WHY DID CHRIST COME HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?:

   On Golgotha,  the physical body of Jesus was destroyed amid certain  phe-
nomena 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 or-
bit and mankind had been led on the path of evolution almost entirely by Je-
hovah, 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 FRIEND-
SHIP.   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  dis-
ciples friends:"Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you."

                        3. 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

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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 sub-
consciously 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 chil-
dren picture books to inculcate ideas which they are too young to grasp  in-
tellectually.

   Faust has studies 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 aquish:   "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

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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 pow-
ers,  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  bor-
der,  and the only safeguard is to STRIVE TO BE WORTHY of consciously enter-
ing 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

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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  con-
fesses:

         "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 in-
terest 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 enter-
ing the study?

   The five-pointed star is the emblem of man with limbs apart and arms out-
stretched; 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 with-
draws by way of the head.

   For this reason the five-pointed star with one point up as represented in
the emblem of the Rosicrucian Fellowship is the symbol of white magic, which
works by NATURAL means in harmony with the law of evolution.

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   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 or-
gan.   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  en-
trance,  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

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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 recuper-
ate  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 im-
pulse  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  Sacri-
fice 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 lib-
eration strike and Christ may permanently return to the sun.   But as He en-
tered 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 it-
self constitutes the Second Coming.

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   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.

               4. 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  won-
ders 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

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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 man-
ner 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 IM-
POSSIBLE  that  Christ should appear in a physical vehicle.   Therefore,  as
said, possession of such a body marks the pretender and imposter.

   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  conten-
tion  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  em-
phatically 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 Dis-
pensation 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

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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,  HOW in 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 com-
monwealth   (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  en-
tering 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

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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 En-
glish,  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 sense-
less,  so they translated it as they understood it.  I will leave you,  how-
ever,  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

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meet  Christ.   It is composed of ether and therefore capable of  levitation
and passing through walls as all dense matter is permeated with ether.   In-
visible 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 con-
densed 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 to-
wards 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

[PAGE 658]

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 go-
ing  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 hu-
man 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

[PAGE 659]

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 be-
ing 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 permeat-
ing society more and more.  We are becoming more and more humane; we are be-
coming 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

[PAGE 660]

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
 
[PAGE 661]

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 req-
uisite.   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 can-
not 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 immedi-
ate 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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