Filename: RC4012.TXT

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                   ROSICRUCIAN CHRISTIANITY BIBLE COURSE:

               "THE BIBLE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE WESTERN WORLD
              BY THE RECORDING ANGELS, WHO GIVE TO EACH AND ALL
               EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT."
                                                  --Max Heindel

                                LESSON NO. 24:

                  MISCELLANEOUS INTERPRETATIONS (continued):

     CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION; THE VALUE OF RITUAL; "I CAME NOT TO SEND
                            PEACE, BUT A SWORD.":

REFERENCES:   Matthew 10:32-33; I John 1:9; Romans 14:11; 15:9;  James 5:16;
Revelation 3:5; Matthew 10:34.

   CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION.--If one thinks of confession and absolution as
practised  in the Catholic Church,  it may be stated that the  priest,  cer-
tainly,  has no power to forgive the sins of the penitent,  and the practice
of  confession  BY  ORDER  OF A CHURCH is usually but  an  outward  show  of
penitence,  putting one in mind of the prayer of the Pharisee who went  into
the temple that he might be seen of men.

   If,  on the other hand, confession is made in the spirit of the publican,
which is the spirit of true pentience, then there is a certain value, for as
a little child who has committed a wrong feels consciencesmitten and  sorry,
so may we feel extremely penitent for our sins of omission and commission.

   It  is a fact often noticed by kind parents that penitence in silence  is
sometimes  insufficient  to the child which feels the need of going  to  the
parent and CONFESSING ITS SIN.   When the forgiveness of the parent has been
obtained its conscience is at rest.  So also with the child of God.   We sin
and we are sorry for our sins; we determine not to commit this or that wrong
again but if we confess to someone in whom we have faith, and get their sym-
pathy  and assurance that this wrong will not be held against us,  we  shall
feel easier in conscience.

   That  was  the principle underlying command of the Bible,  "Confess  your
sins to one another."   The one to whom we confess will,  of course,  be   a
person  for  whom we have a profound respect and love,  and he or  she  will
stand  toward  us  at that moment as the representative of God  in  our  own
higher nature,  and we shall feel very much relieved at having received  his
sympathy.   But we shall feel also that the pact we have made with ourselves
not to commit the sin in question again has been strengthened by having  him
as a witness.  If confession is made thus, and absolution so obtained,  then
it has undoubtedly a very beneficial effect.

   THE VALUE OF RITUAL.--At the present time all humanity has evolved so far
that  they are above law in some effects.   Most people obey the law,  "Thou
shalt not steal," for instance.

   Law is a curb on the desire nature,  but where occult or rather spiritual
advancement  is  contemplated,  the  spiritualization of the vital body must

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also be accomplished.  And that is attained by means of art and religion, IN
OFF-REPEATED IMPACTS, for the keynote of the vital body is REPETITION, as we
can  see by looking at the plants which have only a dense body and  a  vital
body.  There stem and leaf follow each other in upward succession; the plant
keeps  on growing them alternately.   If was the vital body that  built  the
vertebrae of the human spine one after another by constant repetition.   And
memory,  for instance,  which is one of the faculties of the vital body,  is
strengthened and developed by constant iteration and reiteration.

   When the Protestants left the Catholic Church they truly left many of the
abuses behind,  but they also left almost everything of value.   They  aban-
doned  the ritual which everyone may know and understand regardless of  poor
enunciation upon the part of the preacher.   Knowing the ritual,  the  laity
could send their thoughts in the same direction as the thought of the priest
who was reading,  and thus an enormous volume of identical spiritual thought
was massed together and projected upon the community for good or evil.

   Nowadays the congregation in a Protestant Church listens to the  extempo-
raneous  prayer or sermon of their minister,  who usually does not think  so
much of the spiritual work before him as he does of how he may turn out  the
most euphonious phrases to tickle the ears of his congregation.   They often
forget  what he has said before they leave the church.   Those who go  to  a
Catholic church understanding the ritual are still today able to unite their
thoughts  in spiritual conclave and keep within memory that which  has  been
gone through.  Thus they are every time adding a little to the spiritualiza-
tion  of their vital bodies,  while the Protestant church members have  been
affected  only  in their emotional natures, and that effect is  soon  thrown
out.  The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing, and many have scoffed say-
ing  that  if God is omniscent,  He knows whereof we have need  without  our
prayer,  and  if  He is not,  He can hardly be  omnipotent.   Therefore  our
prayers are not granted,  and it is useless to pray.   But that command  was
indicated from a knowledge of the nature of the vital body, which needs that
repetition in order that it may be spiritualized.

   As to the use of the Latin language, it is stated in the first chapter of
John that in the beginning was the word. .  .and without it was nothing made
that was made.   Word is sound.   If we take sand or plant spores and  place
them  upon  a  brass or a glass plate, then take a violin bow  and  draw  it
across the edges,  we shall produce sound.  That sound will cause the spores
or grains of sand to arrange themselves in geometrical figures,  similar  to
the crystals of which all things are composed.   EVERY SOUND PRODUCES A DIF-
FERENT FORMATION.   Thus, if a certain sound produces a certain effect which
we wish to produce, WE CANNOT CHANGE THE SOUND WITHOUT ALSO CHANGING THE EF-
FECT.   If we emit a certain sound and say "Deum",  then translate DEUM  and
say "God,"  the sound is very different,  as the sound produces certain  ef-
fects  upon  our invisible bodies,  the effects that were  produced  by  the
original  Latin  ritual have been lost  to  the  Protestant  churches  which

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changed it into English or dropped it altogether.

   "I CAME NOT TO SEND PEACE BUT A SWORD."--It is said that the "law and the
prophets were until Christ," and there are four steps whereby man lifts him-
self to God.   At first,  when he awakens to a consciousness in the physical
world and is in the savage state, he finds himself surrounded by other  men,
who  by the very stress of circumstances are forced to fight for  life,  men
among whom "might is right": here he learns to rely upon his own strength to
save  him from the onslaughts of wild animals and other men.   But  he  per-
ceives around him the nature powers, and of them he is afraid,  for he knows
their ability to kill and his own impotence to cope with them.  He therefore
begins to worship, seeking to PROPITIATE THE GOD HE FEARS,  BY BLOODY SACRI-
FICE.

   Then comes the time when he begins to look to GOD AS THE GIVER OF THINGS,
who will reward him here and now for obedience to His law and punish him in-
stantly for disobedience.  This God is a mighty ally against his (man's) en-
emies  but also a powerful enemy,  therefore He is much to be  feared.   Man
thus worships and SACRIFICES ANIMALS THROUGH FEAR AND AVARICE.

   Then  comes the stage when he is taught to worship A GOD OF LOVE  AND  TO
SACRIFICE HIMSELF from day to day, through his whole life, for a reward in a
future  state  which  he is to believe in by faith and  which  is  not  even
clearly outlined.

   Finally man will reach a stage when he will recognize his divinity and DO
RIGHT BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT without thought of fear or bribe.

   The  Jews had reached the second of these stages and were under the  law.
The Christian religion is gradually working through the third stage,  though
not yet freed from the second.  All of us are yet under laws made by God and
by  man  in  order  to curb our desire bodies by FEAR,  but  to  advance  us
spiritually from now on we must sensitize our vital body,  which is amenable
to love, while not at all cognizant of law which governs the desire nature.

   In  order to prepare this coming state,  the priests,  who were more  ad-
vanced than the ordinary people, kept separate and apart from them.  We hear
in the East that only a certain caste,  the Brahmins,  were allowed to enter
the  temples  and perform the temple services.   Among the  Jews,  only  the
Levites were allowed to approach the holy place,  and among other nations it
was the same.   The priests were always a distinct class,  who were not  al-
lowed to marry among ordinary people.  They were separate and apart in every
respect.

   That was because the leaders of humanity could use only the strain  where
there  existed a certain laxity between the vital body and the  dense  body.
And so they bred these priests and herded them around the temples,  regulat-
ing their life in every respect.   But at the time when Christ was liberated
from  the body of Jesus and diffused His Being throughout the  whole  earth,
the  veil was rent,  as a symbol of the fact that the need for  any  special
condition had passed away.  From that time on the ether has been changing in
the  earth.  An  increasingly  higher  rate  of  vibration  allows  for  the

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expression  of altruistic qualities.   It was the starting of that  enormous
vibration  which caused the darkness said to have attended the  crucifixion.
That was not darkness at all,  but an intense light which blinded people for
the  time being until the vibrations slowed down by immersion in the  dense,
physical earth.   A few hours later the radiant Christ Spirit had drawn into
the  earth  sufficiently to restore normal conditions.   But  gradually  the
power from within is gaining ascendancy, and the etheric vibrations are  be-
ing accelerated,  increasing altruism and spiritual growth.  Thus the condi-
tions are now such that no special or privileged class need exist,  but EACH
AND EVERY ONE MAY ASPIRE TO ENTER THE PATH OF INITIATION.

   Old  conditions  die hard,  however.   Under the regime of  Jehovah,  the
Spirit of the Moon,  humanity had been broken up into nations,  and in order
that  He might guide them it was necessary that He should at times  use  one
nation  to punish another,  for humanity was not then amenable  to  love--it
would obey only under the lash of fear.  Before the great Universal Brother-
hood of Love can be inaugurated it is necessary to break up these nations on
the same principle that if we have a number of buildings composed of  bricks
and we wish to build them into one grand structure, it is necessary first to
break them to pieces so that the individual bricks will be available for use
in the larger building.   Therefore,  the Christ said,  "I came not to  send
peace, but a sword."

   We  must OUTGROW PATRIOTISM and learn to say as that great  soul,  Thomas
Paine,  "The world is my country,  and to do good is my religion."   On  the
holy night when the Christ child was born, the angels sang a song, "Peace on
Earth and Good Will among Men."  Later, the child grew up and said,  "I came
not  to send peace,  but a sword." and the Christian religion has  been  the
bloodiest of all religions of humanity.  It has carried desolation and  sor-
row with it wherever it has gone, but out of all that travail there will yet
come the day when the song of the angels will become a fact and the words of
the Christ uttered at other times concerning love to one's neighbor will  be
lived.   When the sword has done its work it will be beaten into plowshares,
and there will be no more nations.

                         QUESTIONS ON LESSON NO. 24:

1. In what spirit must confession, to be of value, be made?
2. Describe the exercise which is better than confession.
3. Explain the principle underlying the value of ritual.
4. What are the four steps by which man lifts himself to God?
5. Through which of these stages is the Christian religion working?
6. Explain the statement:  "The veil was rent."
7. Why must nations be abolished?

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              "THE BIBLE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE WESTERN WORLD
               BY THE RECORDING ANGELS, WHO GIVE TO EACH AND
               ALL EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT."
                                                    --MAX HEINDEL

                               LESSON NO. 25:

                 MISCELLANEOUS INTERPRETATIONS (CONTINUED):

REFERENCES:   Luke 23:9-43;  Matthew 27:38; John 10:1-18;  Mark 10:15;  Luke
18:17.

    "TODAY THOU SHALT BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."--The New Testament was  writ-
ten in Greek, a language in which no punctuation marks are used.   The punc-
tuation  marks in our Bible have been inserted by our later  Bible  transla-
tors,  and  punctuation  often  very radically  changes  the  meaning  of  a
sentence, as the following story will illustrate:

    In  a prayer meeting some one handed in a request which the pastor  read
thus:   "A sailor going to sea, his mother-in-law desires the prayers of the
congregation  for his safe return to wife and child."   The request was  not
punctuated  at all,  but would imply that the young man's mother-in-law  was
very  solicitous to have him return safely to his wife and child and  there-
fore desired the prayers of the congregation.   Had the pastor read it with-
out  the  comma,  it would have implied that the sailor,  going to  see  his
mother-in-law desired the prayers of the congregation for his safe return to
wife and child, and one would naturally think that the lady in question must
be  a Tartar when it was necessary for the young man to ask the  prayers  of
the congregation before facing her.

    In this case,  if the words of the Christ are read thus:   Verily I  say
unto thee today,  thou shalt be with me in paradises," they would imply that
the thief would be with Christ at some future time not defined.   But  where
the commas is placed before the word TODAY,  as in the Bible,  it gives  the
idea ordinarily held by people.

    That  this  idea is absolutely wrong can be seen by the  remark  of  the
Christ just after His resurrection,  when He said to the woman:   "Touch  me
not,  for I have not yet ascended to my Father."   If He promised the  thief
that  he  should be with Him in Paradise on the day of the  crucifixion  and
three days later declared that He had not yet been there,  the Christ  would
have been guilty of contradiction,  which is,  of course,  an impossibility.
Placing  of the comma as suggested fully reconciles the meaning of  the  two
passages;  and besides,  Peter tells us that in the interval He worked  with
the spirits in Purgatory.

    THE TWO CRUCIFIED THIEVES.--Contrary to the ordinarily accepted opinion,
the  four  Gospels  are not merely the biography of Jesus, the Christ.  They

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are formulae of initiation of four different Mystery Schools,  and in  order
to veil their esoteric meaning,  the life and ministry of the Christ is also
intermingled.   That  could be done easily as all  initiates,  being  cosmic
characters, have similar experiences.  It is truly said that unto the multi-
tude the Christ spoke in parables,  but the hidden meaning was given to  His
disciples in private.   Paul also gave the milk to the weak and the meat  to
the strong ones.   It was never intended at any time to give the hidden sym-
bols  to  ordinary people,  or to make the bible "an open book of  God,"  as
people nowadays believe.

    When  reading in the memory of nature,  we find that at the time of  the
crucifixion, there were not only two, but a number, who were crucified.  The
people  at the time meted out capital punishment for the slightest  offenses
and there were always plenty to suffer those barbarous deaths.  Thus,  those
who wanted to veil the hidden meaning of the Gospels were at no loss to find
something  wherewith to fill out the tale and obscure the points  which  are
really  vital  in the crucifixion.   The part of the story relating  to  the
thieves,  is therefore,  a true incident, without having anything to do with
the esoteric meaning at all.

    "ALL  WHO CAM BEFORE ME WERE THIEVES AND ROBBERS.--When man  first  came
upon this earth the dense body was built in the POLARIAN EPOCH,  and was vi-
talized  by the interpenetration of a vital body in the  HYPERBOREAN  EPOCH.
At that time man was like the Angels, male-female, a complete creative unit,
able to create from himself by projecting his whole creative force--which is
love.

    Later it became necessary for man to evolve a brain, and in order to ac-
complish that object one-half of his creative force was turned inward in or-
der to build the necessary organs.  From that time on, man must seek the co-
operation  of some one having the other half of the sex force available  for
propagation.  Now he loves selfishly to obtain the cooperation of another in
propagation;  the  other half of the creative force wherewith he  build  hie
brain and larynx he also uses selfishly to think,  because he desires to ob-
tain knowledge.

    Previously  man had projected his whole creative force without  reserve,
unselfishly.   Since the division of the sex force man has eventually become
selfish and therefore by attraction a prey to others of like nature.

    The Angels were the humanity of the Moon Period and have since  attained
to their present high development,  but as in every great company there  are
stragglers,  so also in the case of the Angels there were some who  did  not
attain--a  class of beings which were behind the Angels but above  humanity.
They were in a sad state,  for they could not follow the present development
of  the Angels and neither could they sink as low into matter as man.   They
could not,  as the angels, dispense with a brain, yet they were incapable of
building one for themselves,  so when humanity evolved the brain and  spinal
cord  they saw an opportunity in woman,  who expresses the negative pole  of
the creative  force,  IMAGINATION, the  faculty which enables her to build a

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body in the womb.   In order to gain access to her consciousness this intel-
ligence took advantage of a perplexity then disturbing the woman on  account
of her exercise of the imaginative faculty.

    At  that  time the eyes of humanity had not yet been opened;  they  were
spiritual beings,  not quite conscious of the possession of a physical body.
The woman was the first to observe dimly that she and others possessed  such
an  instrument,  and  she had observed that at certain  times  some  of  her
friends who she had previously perceived as having this physical  appendage,
had lost it,  so she was troubled.   From the Angels she could obtain no in-
formation,  but this intelligence which appeared within herself in the  ser-
pentine spinal cord,  enlightened her, and "the serpent said unto the woman,
'Hath God said, ye shall not eat of every Tree in the Garden?'" to which she
answered that they had been forbidden to "eat of the Tree of Knowledge"  un-
der penalty of death.  But the serpent said"  "Ye shall not surely die,  for
God knows that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and
ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

    The  woman secured the cooperation of the man according to the  instruc-
tions  of  LUCIFER,  THE LIGHT GIVER,  and since then their eyes  have  been
opened,  they have known good and evil.  But prior to that time man had been
unconscious  of the possession of his body; it had fallen away from  him  at
times,  as  the leaf falls from the tree,  without  inconveniencing  him  or
disturbing  him,  for his consciousness had been focused  in  the  Spiritual
World  at all times.   But the Lucifer Spirits desired a power over  him,  a
foothold  in his brain and spinal cord. They incited him to break away  from
the  yoke of the Angels and take the creative function into his  own  hands.
By the oft repeated and ignorant abuse of that faculty the consciousness  of
man  was  withdrawn from the Spiritual Worlds and focused  in  the  Physical
World  Then came death in all its present terrible aspects,  for man now re-
gards this earth as the only real life.  When that ends, he enters an exist-
ence of which he knows nothing and which he consequently fears.

    Thus, on account of listening to Lucifer, THE FALSE LIGHT GIVER, man has
become subject to sorrow,  pain,  and death.  He has been robbed of his  in-
nocence  and peace.   The Christ came into the world to save  humanity  from
sin, sorrow, and death.  Therefore He called Himself the TRUE LIGHT, and the
others,  who came before,  He characterized as thieves and robbers for  they
had robbed man of the spiritual sight though they had enlightened him in the
physical sense.

    "WHOSOEVER SHALL NOT RECEIVE THE KINGDOM OF GOD AS A LITTLE CHILD  SHALL
NOT ENTER THEREIN."--In the world around us we wee the kingdom of men, where
everyone  is endeavoring to maintain his own position and depends  upon  his
own ideas and his own self-assertion to hold that position against all com-
ers.   When anything new is presented to him, his mental attitude is usually
tinged with skepticism.  He fears to be deceived.

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    The  attitude of a little child with regard to what it sees or hears  is
exactly the reverse of the position of its elders.   The little child has no
overwhelming  sense of its own superior knowledge,  but is frankly  ignorant
and therefore eminently teachable,  and it was to this trait that the Savior
referred in the passage quoted.

    When we enter the higher life,  we must first forget everything that  we
knew in the world.   We must commence to look at things in an entirely  dif-
ferent way, and WHEN A NEW TEACHING IS BROUGHT BEFORE US WE MUST ENDEAVOR TO
RECEIVE IT REGARDLESS OF OTHER FACTS PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED.   This is in order
that we may be perfectly unbiased.   Of course,  we are not supposed to  be-
lieve  offhand that "black is white," but if someone seriously asserts  that
an object which we have hitherto regarded as black is really white, our mind
should be sufficiently open to prevent us from passing judgment at once  and
saying,  "Why,  I know that an object is black."   We should be  willing  to
re-examine the object to see if there may not be a point of view whence that
thing  which we have thought black appears to be white.   Only when we  have
made thorough examination and have found that the thing is really black from
whatever point of view may we return to our previous opinion.

    There is nothing so remarkable about a child as the flexible attitude of
its mind which renders it so teachable, and the pupil who endeavors to  live
the  higher life should always aim to keep his mind in that  fluidic  state,
for as soon as our ideas have become SET and incapable of being changed, our
progress ceases.   That was the great truth which the Christ was endeavoring
to present to His hearers when He made the remark mentioned.

                         QUESTIONS ON LESSON NO. 25:

1.--Give the correct interpretation of the Christ's promise to the thief
    that he would be with Him in Paradise.
2.--What confirmation do we have of this interpretation?
3.--What is the significance of the two crucified thieves?
4.--What knowledge did the Lucifers impart to man?
5.--What was their object in so doing?
6.--Sum up the esoteric meaning of Christ's statement:  "All who came before
    Me were thieves and robbers."
7.--Explain in your own words what the Christ meant when He said:  Whosoever
    shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter
    therein."

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            "THE BIBLE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE WESTERN WORLD
             BY THE RECORDING ANGELS, WHO GIVE TO EACH AND ALL
             EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT."
                                                 --MAX HEINDEL

                               LESSON NO. 26:

                 MISCELLANEOUS INTERPRETATIONS (CONTINUED):

    REFERENCES:    Luke  24:36-43;  Matthew  14:15-21;  John  6:1-13;   Luke
15:11-24; Matthew 9;24; John 11:11; Acts 9:36-42.

    "AND THEY GAVE HIM A PIECE OF BROILED FISH, AND OF A HONEYCOMB."   After
the  Resurrection the Christ at one time appeared among His disciples  while
they were in a locked room.   They did not recognize Him at one and did  not
believe that His was a material body.  But the vehicle in which He  appeared
was the vital body of Jesus, and it was possible for Him, as for anyone else
capable of functioning in that vehicle,  to draw matter of the chemical  re-
gion around Himself and build a perfectly tangible,  dense body in a moment.
In  order to convince them that He was as usual,  He asked for something  to
eat and was given a piece of honeycomb and some fish.  It was stated that He
ate,  but  not that He ate the fish, and one who had been brought  up  among
strict  vegetarians like the Essenes would not have eaten the fish any  more
then he would have eaten flesh if it had been set before him.

    It is also related of the Buddha that he died after gorging himself upon
boar's flesh,  which is highly ridiculous to anyone are of the fact that  he
taught his disciples the simple and harmless life--to sustain the body  upon
the  purest  and best foods as they come directly from the  ground--and  was
moved  to the greatest pity at the sight of suffering on the part of man  or
beast.   The esoteric student understands that in olden times the boar was a
symbol  of esoteric knowledge.   One ay give of his knowledge;  the more  we
give the more we have--at least, the same amount of knowledge remains.   The
Buddha is his earth life had gorged himself upon this sacred knowledge,  and
when he died he was full thereof.

    Not everyone should be a vegetarian AT ONCE.  The vegetarian diet gener-
ates an abundance of energy, much more than flesh foods.  This energy is not
only physical but spiritual,  so that if a man leads a sedentary life and is
of a material disposition, engaged, perhaps, in sordid business transactions
or in other lines of strictly material endeavor,  this spiritual energy  can
find no vent and is apt to cause systemic disturbances.  Only those who live
an active, outdoor life, where the abundance of energy generated by the veg-
etarian food can be thrown off,  or who transmute that energy into spiritual
endeavor, can thrive on the vegetarian diet.  Besides, we recognize that the
heredity of many generations has made man partly carnivorous, so that in the
case of most people the change from a mixed  diet  to  vegetables  should be

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gradual.   The diet which suits one man is not fitted for another,  as indi-
cated  in the old proverb that "one man's eat is another man's poison,"  and
no  hard  and fast rules can be laid down which will apply  equally  to  all
people.   Therefore,  everything that we eat as well as everything else con-
nected with our personality should be determined by ourselves individually.

    The Bible says truly that it is not that which goeth into the mouth that
defileth us.   If we crave and support ourselves upon loathsome food,  IT IS
THE CRAVING THAT IS THE SIN and not the food itself.  If a man is in a place
where he cannot obtain the pure foods which he desires and craves,  he ought
to take the food which is obtainable, even flesh food, just as thankfully as
he takest the pure food.   It will not defile him because of his attitude of
mind.

    "AND WHEN HE HAD TAKEN THE FIVE LOAVES AND THE TWO FISHES,  HE LOOKED UP
TO HEAVEN, AND BLESSED, AND BRAKE THE LOAVES, AND GAVE THEM TO HIS DISCIPLES
TO SET BEFORE THE; AND THE TWO FISHES DIVIDED HE AMONG THEM ALL."--It is the
nature of a beast of prey to eat any animal that comes in its path,  and its
organs are such that it must have that kind of a diet to exist,  but  EVERY-
THING IS IN A STAGE OF BECOMING; it is always changing to something  higher.
Man,  in his earlier stages of unfoldment, was also like the beasts of  prey
in  certain respects.   However,  he is to become Godlike and thus  he  must
cease to destroy at some time in order that he may commence to create.

    We  have been taught that there is no life in the universe but the  life
of  God,  that  "in  Him we live and move and have  our  being."   His  life
animates  everything that is and therefore we naturally understand  that  as
soon  as  we  take  LIFE we are destroying the FORM built  by  God  for  His
manifestation.   The  lower  animals are evolving spirits  and  have  sensi-
bilities  It is their desire for experience that causes them to build  their
various forms,  and when we take their forms away from them we deprive  them
of their opportunity for gaining experience.   We hinder their evolution in-
stead of helping them.   It is excusable in the cannibal,  who knows no bet-
ter,  when he eats his fellow men.   We now regard cannibalism with  horror,
and the day will also come when we shall feel a like disgust at the  thought
of  making  our  stomachs the burying ground of the  carcasses  of  murdered
animals.

    It  is  natural that we should desire the very best of food,  but  every
animal body has in it the poisons of decay.  The venous blood is filled with
carbon dioxide and other noxious products on their way to the kidneys or the
pores of the skin to be expelled as urine or perspiration.   These loathsome
substances  are in every part of the flesh and when we eat such food we  are
filling our own bodies with toxic poisons.  Much sickness is due to our  use
of flesh foods.

    In a great many places where the bible speaks of "meat" it is very plain
that  flesh food is not meant.   The chapter in Genesis where man's food  is
first allotted to him says that he should eat of every tree and herb bearing
seed, " and to you it shall be for MEAT."  The most  evolved  people  at all

[PAGE 221]

times have abstained from flesh foods.  We see,  for instance,  Daniel,  who
was a holy man and a wise man,  beg that he might not be forced to eat meat,
but  that he and his companions be given pulse.   The children of Israel  in
the wilderness are spoken of as "LUSTING after flesh" and their God is angry
with them in consequence.

    There is an esoteric meaning to the feeding of the multitude where  fish
was  used as food,  but looking to the purely material aspect we may sum  up
the  points  made by reiterating that we shall some time outgrow  flesh  and
fish eating as we have risen above cannibalism.   Whatever license may  have
been  given  in the barbaric past will disappear in the  altruistic  future,
when more refined sensibilities shall have awakened us to a fuller sense  of
the horrors involved in the gratification of a carnivorous taste.

    "AND  HE SAID,  A CERTAIN MAN HAD TWO SONS."--The story of the  prodigal
son  was a parable whereby the Christ intended to teach a lesson and not  an
actual fact.   It is a story which tells of the spirit's pilgrimage  through
matter.   There are different classes of spirits.  Some,  but not all,  have
gone  into the school of experience, the world.   They have  descended  from
their  high estate in the World of God gradually deeper and deeper into  the
sea of matter which blinds them.   At last they find themselves enmeshed  in
the  dense matter of the Physical World.   That is the turning  point  where
they  wake  up;  where  the  unconscious  path  of  involution  ends;  where
self-consciousness  is attained plus a consciousness of the  world  without.
But the spirit within is not content to remain in this world.  Reawakened to
a sense of its inherent divinity it feels drawn anew to its highest spheres,
and says "I will arise and got to my Father."

    Then  comes the toil of stripping off the various vehicles in  which  it
has  become enmeshed and of raising itself once more to the  conscious  com-
munion with God.   While engaged in this arduous task "the Father meets it a
long way off"; the still small voice from within begins to speak and tell of
heavenly  glories and,  at last,  when either the evolution of humanity  has
been  completed or the single spirit has taken THE SHORT CUT  OF  IMITATION,
there is a reunion with God and the other brothers who have not yet gone out
into the school of experience.   Naturally there is more rejoicing over  the
return  of one who has fought the good fight and has come back to his  heav-
enly home,  than over the one who has not yet sought to improve his opportu-
nities.

    RAISING THE DEAD.--Peter did not raise Doreas from the dead, neither did
the Christ raise Lazarus or anyone else,  nor did He so claim.   He said "He
is not dead,he sleepeth."

    In order that this matter may be understood,  we will explain what takes
place at death and wherein death is different from the state of trance,  for
the persons mentioned were entranced at the time that supposed miracles took
place.

    During the waking state,  when the Ego is functioning consciously in the
Physical  World,  its various vehicles are concentric--they occupy the  same
space--but at night, when the body is laid down to sleep, a separation takes

[PAGE 222]

place.  The Ego, clothed in the mind and desire body, extricates itself from
the dense body and the vital body, which are left upon the bed.   The higher
vehicles hover above or near.   They are connected to the denser vehicles by
the SILVER CORD,  a thing listening thread which takes the shape of two fig-
ure  sixes,  one end being attached to the seed atom in the  heart  and  the
other to the central vortex of the desire body.

    At the moment of death,  this thread is ruptured at the seed atom in the
heart  and  the  forces of this atom pass  along  the  pneumogastric  nerve,
through the third ventricle of the brain, and thence outward through the su-
ture between the occipital and parietal bones of the skull, along the silver
cord  and into the higher vehicles.   Simultaneously with this rupture,  the
vital body is also disengaged and joins the higher vehicles which are hover-
ing  above the dead body.   There it remains from about three  and  one-half
days.   Then the higher vehicles disengage themselves from the  vital  body,
which disintegrates synchronously with the dense body, in ordinary cases.

    At the time of this last separation, the silver cord also breaks in  the
middle, and the Ego is freed from contact with the material world.

    During sleep the Ego also withdraws from the dense body,  but the  vital
body remains with the dense body and the silver cord is left intact.

    It sometimes happens that the Ego does not enter the body in the morning
to waken it as usual,  but remains outside for a time varying from one to an
indefinite  number  of  days.   Then we say that the body is  in  a  natural
trance. But the silver cord is not ruptured in either of the two places men-
tioned.   Where these ruptures have once taken place no restoration is  pos-
sible.   The Christ and the apostle were clairvoyants; they saw that no rup-
ture had taken place in the cases mentioned,  hence the saying,  "He is  not
dead, he sleepeth."  They also possessed the power to force the Ego into its
body  and restore the normal condition.   Thus so-called miracles were  per-
formed by them.

                        QUESTIONS ON LESSON NO. 26:

1.--Explain the implication that the Christ ate fish.
2.--What are the important facts to remember in regard to a vegetarian diet?
3.--What in the nature of flesh foods makes them particularly undesireable?
4.--What is the meaning of "meat" as used generally in the Bible?
5.--Explain the parable of the Prodigal Son.
6.--Describe what takes place at death.
7.--Just what did the Christ and His disciples do when they seemed to "raise
    the dead"?

[PAGE 223]

               "THE BIBLE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE WESTERN WORLD
              BY THE RECORDING ANGELS, WHO GIVE TO EACH AND ALL
               EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT."
                                                  --Max Heindel

                               LESSON NO. 27:

                  MISCELLANEOUS INTERPRETATIONS (CONCLUDED):

REFERENCES:  I Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 6:20; 7:1-28; 11:28; Job 19:26; Mark
16:15.

   THE  CHRISTIAN  FEASTS.--The feasts of the year have a very  deep  occult
significance.   From the material point of view, the planets are but so many
masses  of matter revolving in their orbits in obedience to so-called  blind
laws,  but to the occultist they appear as Great Spirits,  moving  about  in
space as we move in the world.

   When a man is seen gesticulating, we attach a certain significance to his
gestures.   If he shakes his head,  we know that he is negativing a  certain
proposition, but if he nods, we infer that he agrees.  If he beckons, having
the palms of his hands turned toward him,  we know that he is motioning  for
someone  to come to him,  but if he turns the palms outward,  we  understand
that  he is warning someone to stay away.   In the case of the universe,  we
usually do not think that there is any significance to the altered  position
of  the planets,  but to the occultist there is the very deepest meaning  in
all the varied phenomena of the heavens.  They correspond to the gestures of
man.

   KRISHNA means anointed,  and anyone who had a special mission to  perform
was so anointed in olden times.  When, in the winter time,  the sun is below
the equator at the nadir point of its travel, the spiritual impulses are the
greatest in the world.  For our material welfare,  however,  it is necessary
that the sun should come again into the northern hemisphere, and so we speak
of the time when the sun starts upon its journey northward as Christmas, the
birthday of the Savior,  anointed to save us from the famine and cold  which
would ensue if he were to stay at the nadir point always.

   As the sun passes toward the equator,  it goes through the sign Aquarius,
the water-man, at that time the earth is deluged with rain,  symbolizing the
baptism of the Savior.   Then comes the passage of the sun through the  sign
Pisces, the fishes, in the month of March.  The stores of the past year have
been all consumed, and the food of man is scant, hence we have the long fast
of Lent, where the eating of fish symbolizes this feature of the solar jour-
ney.  Then comes the Passover, when the sun passes over  the  equator.  This

[PAGE 224]

is the time of Easter, when the sun is at his eastern node,  and this cross-
ing  of the equator is symbolized by the crossification or  crucifixion,  so
called,  of the Savior;  the sun then goes into the sign of Aries,  the Ram,
and becomes the Lamb of God,  which is given for the salvation of the  world
at  the time when the plants begin to sprout.   In order that the  sacrifice
may be of benefit to man, however, he (the sun) must ascend into the heavens
where  his rays will have power to ripen the grape and the corn,  and so  we
have the feast of Whit-Sunday and the Ascension of the Savior to the  Throne
of the Father,  which is at the summer solstice in June.   There the sun re-
mains for three days, when the saying "Thence he shall return"  takes effect
as the sun commences his passage towards the western node.  Thence he passes
into the sign Leo,  the Lion of Judah, and we have the feast of the  ASSUMP-
TION,  on August 15, in Leo.  Next he traverses the sign Virgo,  the Virgin,
THE NATIVITY of the virgin, who seems, as it were, to be born from the sun.

   The  Jewish  Feast of Tabernacles occurred at the time when the  sun  was
crossing the equator on its passage into the winter months,  and this  feast
was accompanied by the weighing in of the corn and the harvest of the  wine,
which were the gifts of the solar God to his human worshipers.  Thus all the
feasts  of  the  year are connected with the motions of  the  stars  through
space.

   MELCHIZEDEK.--We  are told that Melchizedek was king of Salem and also  a
high priest.   We are told that his priesthood was far above that of  Aaron,
for it was unchangeable,  while that of Aaron and the Levites was subject to
frequent change.

   During  the times of which we have record in history,  there  has  always
been  a division of the temporal and the ecclesiastical powers.   Moses  was
the  temporal  ruler and leader of the Jewish people,  while Aaron  was  the
priest who looked after their spiritual welfare.   Down the ages this  divi-
sion  of the church and the state has ever been apparent,  at times  causing
great  strife and bloodshed,  for their interests seem ever to be  diametri-
cally opposite.   However,  at the time of this Melchizedek,  king of Salem,
which interpreted means "peace," there was no such division, the two offices
were combined in one individual.  The story of Melchizedek,  a being without
earthly pedigree,  refers, of course, to the time in early Atlantis when hu-
manity  had not yet been divided into warring nations,  but were  one  vast,
peaceful brotherhood, and the leaders of the people were Divine Beings,  who
were both kings and priests.

   The  alter  division  of the church and state has been one  of  the  most
fruitful sources of enmity and war among humanity,  for each of these powers
has striven for supremacy over the other,  while in reality there should  be
no prejudice, for no one who is not as spiritual as a priest should be is

[PAGE 225]

fit  to  rule as a king,  and no one who is not as wise and just as  a  king
should  be is fit to have the spiritual guidance of humanity as the  priests
have.   When these qualities are combined in one leader again,  the reign of
universal  peace and brotherhood will become a fact.   The Christ  has  been
heralded as such a leader,  capable of uniting church and state as king  and
priest  after the order of Melchizedek.   His Second Coming inaugurates  the
millenium, the age of peace and joy, where the symbolical New Jerusalem, the
city  of peace (for Jerusalem means "there shall be peace") reigns over  the
nations of the earth, united into one universal brotherhood.

   THE  APOSTLES'  CREED AND THE RESURRECTION OF  THE  BODY.--The  Apostles'
Creed was not composed until centuries after they had passed away,  and then
it was taken to embody what they had believed.   Neither they nor the  bible
teach the resurrection of the body.   That phrase is not to be found in  the
Good Book at all.   In King James' version we read (Job 19:26) that  "though
after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God"; and
this  passage is the chief reliance of those who endeavor to establish  that
absurd doctrine.  however, the translators appointed by King James were poor
Hebrew scholars, and most of them died before the translation was completed.
In the Revised Version you will find another interpretation as follows:

   "And after my skin,  even this body, is destroyed;  then without my flesh
shall I see God."  Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; there-
fore  what  in the world would be the use of having a body such as  we  have
now?  Furthermore, this body must be perpetuated at the present time, and we
hear that in the resurrection there shall neither be marrying nor giving  in
marriage,  another  argument that shows that a vehicle of a  different  kind
from the flesh will be used.  Besides, it is a well-known,  well-established
scientific  fact that the atoms in our bodies are constantly coming and  go-
ing.   Now, if there is to be a resurrection of the body, which set of atoms
is  to be that which shall come forth in this resurrection?   Or,  if  every
atom  that  ever  was  in our body from birth to death  is  to  be  in  that
resurrection body, would it not be an enormous conglomeration, for we should
then have immense bodies composed of layers; in fact,  it would be a  scien-
tific conundrum.  Now, as Paul says, the SEED is put in the ground each time
to gather a new body.  (I Cor. 15.)

   "GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY  CREATURE."--The
meaning of the Christ's words obviously rests upon the interpretation of the
word  "world."   If by that word we understand the whole earth,  it  may  be
right to send missionaries to foreign countries; but the Bible tells us that
THE  DISCIPLES  TO WHOM THE COMMAND WAS GIVEN returned after  having  accom-
plished  their  mission,  showing that word of command could not  have  been
meant  to  include  the whole earth.  In this connection  the  word  "world"
should rather have been given the interpretation "polity," which will also

[PAGE 226]

be found in some of our dictionaries as another meaning for the word.

   At the time of Christ people did not know the whole world.   We find even
to this day the westernmost cape of Spain called Finisterre--THE END OF  THE
EARTH.   Therefore this term at the time when Christ spoke His command could
not  have included the whole earth as we know it today.   The statement  is,
therefore,  not contrary to Bible teachings.  It is wrong to send missionar-
ies  out to the people we call "heathen,"  for their development is  as  yet
such  that  they cannot understand a religion which preaches LOVE  to  one's
neighbor,  a religion which even we have not yet learned to  practice.   Be-
sides,  if the great Recording Angels who have charge of man's evolution are
capable of judging our needs,  and placing each one in the environment where
he will find the influences most conducive to progression,  we must also be-
lieve that they have given to each nation the religion most salutary to  its
unfoldment.   Therefore,  when a man has been placed in a country where  the
Christian religion is taught,  that religion holds the ideal which he should
strive for, but to try to force it upon other people who have been placed in
a different sphere is to set our judgment up as greater than the judgment of
God  and His ministers,  the Recording Angels.  It is safest to rest in  the
religion of our country,  to study and practice that,  leaving to other  na-
tions the privilege of doing the same in respect to their own religions.

                         QUESTIONS ON LESSON NO. 27:

1. What is the true nature of the planets?
2. Explain the occult significance of the Christian feasts.
3. To whom did the Bible historians refer when using the term "Melchizedek"?
4. Describe the conditions which will exist when another "king and priest
   after the order of Melchizedek" comes.
5. Explain how it is impossible for the physical bodies of the dead to be
   "resurrected."
6. What has been the Bible reference used by advocates of foreign
   missionaries as a basis for their attitude?
7. What is the correct attitude toward foreign missionary work?  Why?

[PAGE 227]

               "THE BIBLE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE WESTERN WORLD
              BY THE RECORDING ANGELS, WHO GIVE TO EACH AND ALL
               EXACTLY WHAT THEY NEED FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT."
                                                  --Max Heindel

                               LESSON NO. 28:

                        BABYLON AND THE NEW JERUSALEM:

REFERENCES:    Genesis   11:1-9;   Isaiah  14;   I  Corinthians   15:50;   I
Thessalonians, 4:17; Revelation 17, 21.

   As stated in previous lessons, the Lucifers are a class of Beings who at-
tained  to a stage of evolution far beyond that of humanity in the Moon  Pe-
riod,  but fell short of the development of the Angels.   They are demigods,
and could not take a dense body like man.  But neither could they gather ex-
perience as the Angels are doing.  They needed a brain and spinal cord,  and
so,  when  man had built such an instrument,  it was to their  advantage  to
prompt him in the use of it.

   At that time the opening consciousness of man was turned INWARDS,  and he
saw  his inner organs and built them with the same force that he  now  turns
OUTWARDS  to build houses and ships,  etc.,  and the outside muscles of  his
body;  so the woman, who was most advanced in that direction because of hav-
ing her Imagination trained, saw the intelligence embodied in her serpentine
spinal cord,  and at a later stage, when man came to record this experience,
the serpent appealed to him as the nearest likeness to that which he  wanted
to tell about.

   This idea is carried out right through the Bible.  in Isaiah 14 he called
Lucifer (day-star),  king of Babel-On (gate of the sun), a city located upon
seven hills,  and having dominion over the world.   There mankind ceased  to
act  in unison and became separated into warring nations.   it is  the  seed
ground of all the ills imaginable,  and is called a "harlot"  in Revelation,
where her fall is described.

   In supreme antithesis we hear of another "Light of the World,"  a "bright
and morning star,"  a true light,  who shall arise after the fall of Babylon
and  reign  forever in a city of peace:   Jer-u-salem,  that is  called  the
"bride."   It comes down from heaven,  and has twelve gates,  but  they  are
never  closed,  although the precious tree of life is within.   There is  no
outside illumination.  The light is within and there is no night.

   Truly  a wonderful city,  and the greatest imaginable antithesis  to  the
other.  As literal interpretation is out of the question in both cases, What
does it mean?   Allowing that a city of Babylon has existed, it was not LIT-
ERALLY as described,  and the future "New Jerusalem" is contrary to all laws
of nature as we know them.  These two cities must therefore be symbols.

[PAGE 228]

   In  order to unravel the meaning,  let us consider that these cities  are
located  upon seven hills or mountains,  a position offering special  advan-
tages  for  observation.   Moses  went "into the  mountain"  and  "saw"  and
"heard,"  so  did those on "the mount"  of transfiguration.   Daniel  likens
Babylon  to the HEAD of the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream (Daniel  2),
and on the human head there are seven places of observation:  two eyes,  two
ears,  two nostrils,  and a mouth.  Man is also tenfold,  having a threefold
spirit, a threefold soul, and a threefold body, linked together by the mind.
Upon these sits the brain, where the "Light-giver," REASON, rules the little
world, the microcosm, as the Great Light-giver, God, rules the macrocosm.

   Reason is the product of selfishness.   It is generated by the mind given
by the "Powers of Darkness"  (The Lords of Mind),  in a brain built by self-
ishly  keeping  half the sex force, and prompted by  the  selfish  Lucifers,
hence  it is "the seed of the serpent,"  and although transmuted  to  WISDOM
through pain and sorrow,  it must give way to something higher:   INTUITION,
which  means  TEACHING FROM WITHIN.   That is a spiritual  faculty,  equally
present  in all spirits,  whether functioning for the time being as  man  or
woman, but it expresses itself most prominently in those incarnated in a fe-
male  organism,  for  there the counterpart of the  life  spirit--the  vital
body--is male, positive, and INTUITION, the faculty of the life spirit,  may
therefore properly be called "the woman's seed,"  whence all altruistic ten-
dencies  spring,  and whereby all nations are being slowly but surely  drawn
together  in a Universal Brotherhood of LOVE,  regardless of race,  sex,  or
color.

   This brain of ours is not a homogeneous whole,  however.   it is  divided
into  two halves,  and it is a fact well known to physiologists that we  use
principally but one of these cerebral hemispheres--THE LEFT.  The right half
of our brain is only partially active.   The heart also is on THE LEFT  SIDE
of  our  body,  but is beginning to move towards  "the  right"  place.   The
"right" brain, which is ruled by Mercury, will also become more and more ac-
tive,  and  in consequence of these two physiological  changes  man's  whole
character will appear different.  The LEFT SIDE is under the sway of the Lu-
cifers and is given over to selfishness, but the Ego will gain more and more
control  as THE RIGHT SIDE of the brain is invested with power to  act  upon
the body as RIGHT judgment.

   That there is a change going on in the heart which makes it an anomaly, a
puzzle,  is not news to physiologists.  We have two sets of muscles, one set
under the control of the will, as, for instance,  the muscles of the arm and
hand.   They  are striped both lengthwise and  crosswise.   The  involuntary
muscles which cannot be moved by DESIRE,  are striped lengthwise only.   THE
HEART IS THE ONLY EXCEPTION.  It is not under the control of desire, AND YET
IT IS BEGINNING TO SHOW CROSS-STRIPES LIKE A VOLUNTARY MUSCLE.

   In time those cross-stripes will develop fully and the heart will be  un-
der our control.   When that time comes we will be able to direct the  blood
where we will to send it.   Then we may refuse to send it to the left brain,
and BABYLON, THE CITY OF LUCIFER, WILL FALL.

[PAGE 229]

   When the blood is sent into the right brain we shall be building the  New
Jerusalem,  and  we  are  now  preparing  for  that  time  by  building  the
cross-stripes of the heart by altruistic ideals, or,  in the case of the pu-
pil of a Mystery School,  by sending the sex current through the  RIGHT-HAND
PATH of the heart.

   We remember that the Cherubim awakened the life spirit,  the seat of  di-
vine love,  whose shadow is the vital body,  the medium of propagation,  and
when man was exiled from the Etheric Region,  the Garden of Eden,  with  its
four streams of ether,  for the misuse of the sex force,  the Cherubim  were
placed  before  it  with a flaming sword.  The right use of  the  sex  force
builds an organ which will give man the key to the inner worlds and help him
to create by thought.  This organ is the new wine cup, the ideal for the fu-
ture epoch,  the New Galilee, or New Jerusalem, and is built within the head
and throat.   To the spiritual sight it appears as the stem of a flower  as-
cending from the lower part of the trunk.  This calyx, or seed-cup, is truly
a creative organ, capable of speaking the word of life and power,  to infuse
vitality in substances that were hitherto inert.   Service is also an impor-
tant factor in building this organ,  and when it is built,  sorrow and  pain
will cease and we will have entered the path to the city of peace,  the  New
Jerusalem.

   Lemuria perished by fire;  terrible cataclysms destroyed the greater part
of  the  Lemurian continent and in its stead rose the  Atlantean  continent,
where the Atlantic Ocean now is.   In time that was buried beneath the waves
and gave way to Aryana,  the earth as we see it at present in the Aryan  Ep-
och, but that is soon past.  The salamanders are beginning to stir the fires
in  the  forge  to make "a new heaven and a new earth,"  which  the  Western
School of Occultism calls the "New Galilee."

   In the New Galilee humanity will have a much finer and more ethereal body
than now,  the Earth will be transparent also,  and as a result those bodies
will be more easily responsive to the spiritual impacts of INTUITION.  While
we  lived in ancient Atlantis in the basins of the earth,  pressure  of  the
moisture-laden mist was very heavy.  This hardened the dense body,  and as a
further  result the vibrations of the interpenetrating finer  vehicles  were
considerably slowed down.  This was especially true of the vital body, which
is made of ether, a grade of matter belonging to the physical world and sub-
ject  to some of the physical laws.  The solar force did not  penetrate  the
dense  mist in the same abundance as is present in the clear  atmosphere  of
today.   Add to this the fact that the vital bodies of that day were  almost
entirely  composed of the two lower ethers,  which further assimilation  and
reproduction,  and we shall understand that progress was very slow.  Man led
mainly  a vegetative existence,  and his main exertions were devoted to  the
purpose of obtaining food and reproducing his kind.

   Had  such a man been removed to our atmospheric conditions,  the lack  of
exterior  pressure would have resulted in the outflowing of the  vital  body
which  means  death.   Gradually the physical body grew less dense  and  the
amount of the two higher ethers increased, so that man became fitted to live
in  a  clear  atmosphere  under a decreased pressure such as we have enjoyed

[PAGE 230]

since  the  historical event known as the "Flood"  when the  mist  condensed
(when  the  Sun by precession entered the watery sign of  Cancer  about  ten
thousand years ago, as told Plato by the Egyptian Priests).  Since that time
we  have  also been able to specialize more of the solar  life  force.   The
larger proportion of the two higher ethers now found in our vital bodies en-
ables us to express the higher human attributes appropriate to the  develop-
ment of this age.

   Let it now be remembered that the qualifications necessary for our  eman-
cipation from the conditions prevailing in Atlantis were partly  physiologi-
cal;  we had to evolve lungs to breathe the pure air in which we are now im-
mersed and which allows the vital body to vibrate at a more rapid rate  than
did the heavy moisture.  With this in mind we shall readily see that further
advancement  lies in freeing the vital body from the trammels of  the  dense
body and letting it vibrate in pure air.

   Such bodies will not get tired either, HENCE THERE IS NO NIGHT,  and  the
twelve cranial nerves which are the gates to the set of consciousness,  then
as now,  are consequently never closed.  Besides, New Galilee will be formed
of  luminous  ether  and transmit sunlight.  It will  be  like  unto  "clear
glass."   Everywhere the pure and beautiful symbol of transparency has  been
given to designate the power of purity.   We remember the Temple of  Solomon
that was "built without sound of hammer."  The most beautiful ornament there
was THE MOLTEN SEA.  Hiram Abiff, the master workman,  AS HIS FINAL ACHIEVE-
MENT,  succeeded  in smelting all the metals of the earth into an  alloy  as
TRANSPARENT  AS GLASS.   This is of course the luminous soul body  which  we
have already described,  and which everyone will have to possess to function
in the New Jerusalem.

   The  present  Christianity is not even a shadow of the true  religion  of
Christ.  That will remain in abeyance until all race feeling shall have been
overcome.   In the Sixth Epoch, or new Galilee, there will be but on Univer-
sal Brotherhood,  under the leadership of the RETURNED CHRIST.  Love will be
unselfish and Reason will approve its dictates.  Each will work for the good
of all, because self-seeking will be a thing of the past.   Universal Broth-
erhood will bind all beings of all the Earth together in Love.  There can be
no  death,  for the tree of life, the faculty of generating vital force,  is
made possible by means of the ethereal organ in the head already  mentioned,
which will be evolved in those who are even now being taken out as forebears
for the humanity of that coming epoch.   "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom"  (I Cor.  15:50) for it would interfere with the spiritual progress
of that day; so when Christ appears we must be prepared with a soul body and
thus  be ready to part from our dense body to be "caught up and meet Him  in
the air."  (I Thess. 4:17.)

   "When  shall  these  things be?"  asked the  disciples.   If  we  believe
Christ's words:   "My kingdom is not of this world" (KOSMOS,  the Greek word
used  for "world,"  meaning "order of things,"  rather than our planet,  the
earth, which is called GEE) we shall know better than to look for Christ to-
day.   When  the heavenly time marker came into Aries by precession,  a  new
cycle commenced,

[PAGE 231]

and the "glad tidings" were preached by Christ.  He said by implication that
the  new heaven and earth were not ready then,  when He told His  disciples:
"Whither I go you cannot NOW follow, but you shall follow afterwards.   I go
to prepare a place for you and will come again and receive you."  It is per-
haps  presumptuous to even guess at the approximate time of the  Second  Ad-
vent,  but as the precessional cycles, so far as they are connected with the
evolution of man,  seem to commence with the Sun's entrance into  Capricorn,
there may be a development at that time.

   It  is said that the Lord will appear with a mighty sound like the  voice
of an Archangel.   We read of thunders and the blasts of trumpets in connec-
tion with the event.   A sound is an atmospheric disturbance,  and since the
passage  of a projectile made by man can lift the vital bodies  of  soldiers
out  of their dense bodies (as was observed in the World War),  it needs  no
argument  to  prove that the shout of a super-human voice  could  accomplish
similar results more efficiently--"in the twinkling of an eye."

   In  the Day of Christ when His voice sounds the Call,  as the  Atlanteans
whose  lungs  were undeveloped in the flood, so will also the new  age  find
some without the "wedding garment" and therefore not fit to enter until they
shall  have qualified at a later time;  others will find themselves  with  a
properly organized soul body,  able to ascend above the discarded dense bod-
ies, to meet Him and be with Him FOR THE AGE.  Paul speaks of this advent as
the "Christ being formed in you,"  and until Christ has been formed in us we
are not yet ready for the Second Coming.  As Angelus Silesius tells us:

         Thought Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
         And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
         The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain,
         Unless within thyself it be set up again.

                         QUESTIONS ON LESSON NO. 28:

1. What does the city of Babylon symbolize?
2. What are the seven mountains upon which "the woman sitteth"?
3. To what do the ten horns of the beast refer?
4. State the symbology of the New Jerusalem.
5. Of what are the twelve gates the symbol?
6. What is to cause the fall of "Babylon" and the establishment of the New
   Jerusalem?
7. Describe the "City of Peace."

Continued with file "RC4013.TXT"

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