LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ©1^ §apiiiti\{ ]|o. Shelf.'BSssO G^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS BY URSULA N. GESTEFELD "TxR^ OP CO,v NEW YORK UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY SUCCESSORS TO JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 150 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE \^\n-s^v Copyright, i8gi, BY UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. INTRODUCTION. True individualism tends to the truest universalism. Ordinary personalism tends to exclusiveness in favor of the one concerned. In the former position one sees that the inevitable sequence of cause and effect which is bearing him along with it to the fulfilling of his destiny, is bearing all mankind to the same end as well. In the other, one believes himself to be approaching a desired consummation which is impos- sible for others. The latter view tends to separation in thought, purpose and action ; the former, to unity of these, mak- ing of mankind a veritable brotherhood, each member of which finds and holds his own place. He recognizes his relation to his brethren the while, holds his own views consequent upon his individual view of that which is abstract for all, yet knows that the individual views of others are the necessity for them, as are his for him, and that all, as one body, are march- ing along the King's highway, the royal road to self- knowledge. In this last decade of the nineteenth century uni- versalism is overcoming sectarianism, and mankind as a whole, is being lifted higher in consequence, and this, not through increase of church membership, but 8 INTRODUCTION, through recognition of universal principles and their IS universal application which is drawing all races into a unity of thought. This recognition and appli- cation is drawing them as inhabitants of a thought- world in which the old barriers have no place, and where men and women meet as equals, clasp hands and look fearlessly into each other's eyes, because of that unity which can have its origin and sustenance only in such a world. In this uiiiversalism, which is consequent upon true individualism, men and women can be fearless, honest and free. In sectarianism they can not. Hence the thought- world, which receives its vivifying influx from the above, must lie outside of those bound- aries ; while the continual leavening which sectarian- ism receives from that world is fast disssolving it to its final disappearance. The question to-day, is not " What church do you belong to ? " but "Where is your level in the thought- world ? " And because mind, not creed, " is the meas- ure of the man." So the true teacher of or minister unto the people is he who offers them the fruits of that world in which he dwells, instead of handing on the " traditions of the elders." Yet this is heresy. And heresy is something to be shunned, say we? Nay; rather something to be welcomed and crowned as a victor, for it is the con- queror which has brought in its train all the progress mankind has known. A heretic is a redeemer. A part of the world's work has been done by these from the least to the INTRODUCTION, 9 greatest, and by these only will it be finished. So as a helper in that work which alone has or will up- lift humanity, " I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers." A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, " The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. And caused' me pass by them round about : and, behold, there were very many in the open valley ; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me. Prophesy upon those bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord .... So I prophesied as I was commanded : and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone .... Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy. Son of man, and say to the wind, Thus said the Lord God ; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." — Ezekiel, xxxvii. 12 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. THE SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRES- SION. ROMAJfS, V. 14-21. Nevertneless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgres- sion, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, lohick is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded imto many. And not as it ivas by one that sinned, so is the gift : for the judg- ment ivas by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one ; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of right- eousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one. judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound : That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 9 In this chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans, he sharply contrasts the nature of one person with that of another, the Adam with the Jesus ; contrasts the SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TBAN8GBESSI0N. 13 consequence of the nature of each, and points out that they are types of and for ourselves ; the one, the Adam unconsciously conformed to, the other to be conformed to consciously through recognition of its nature and office. His statements here would seem to substantiate the theological doctrine of original sin, in which we are all partakers, and its accompanying necessity of atonement ; that as we are partakers in the sin of the one man, we are equally partakers in the atone- ment of the other one if we choose so to be. This original sin or transgression of Adam has been held over us all, great and small, from our baby- hood up and over our fathers before us as something of which we are all guilty from the moment of our birth, because that one man did what he did so many centuries ago in the garden of Eden. It has been of no use for us to plead non-liability, innocence of all intent to sin, unconsciousness of the fact that we have sinned ; and equally useless to declare that we do not see how we are guilty because Adam did what he did any more than we are guilty of theft because some one else has stolen something. All our protest has availed nothing ; and we have been told that whether it seems right or not, we are guilty, and have incurred the wrath of God, the only escape from which is the atonement offered by Jesus Christ, which we must accept to be saved from that wrath ; and this acceptance must be prefaced by the acknowledgment that we are miserable sinners, whether we can see how we are so or not. Many have found it difficult to accept this doctrine 14 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. as truth, and have been impelled by this consequence to seek for one that shall embody more of justice — shall, by its rationality, commend itself where this repels. There are those to-day who believe that they have found this better doctrine, one that explains why we are partakers in Adam's sin, that shows the nature and origin of this original sin, and follows on to the explanation of what atonement for it is, and why we are equally partakers in that. The doctrine which they offer in place of the old theological dogma, which is the backbone of all creeds, commends itself to the unprejudiced investigator in that it presents no gaps which have to be gotten over by faith, no interruptions in statement because of inability to give a reason. It presents, instead, an unbroken logical sequence which calls for no undue strain upon any one of our faculties at the expense of non-exercise of another. It meets and satisfies our whole nature instead of a part of it, and enables us to prove its truth through practical demonstration to-day instead of waiting till after we have died to find out whether it is true or not. The theological dogma of original sin is founded upon the record of Genesis as literal fact ; upon Adam's experience in the garden of Eden as something which transpired many centuries ago, and so a his- torical occurrence. The new doctrine is based upon the perception that this account is figurative, illus- trative of the experience which has been individual from all time, and which will continue so to be to the end of time ; and that because this is so we are all par- takers of Adam's sin in that all must have the experi- SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. 15 ence through which they find out what sin is and forsake it. Looking upon Adam as a type of mankind which is both individual and universal, we see that we are all Adams naturally. Looking upon Jesus as the type of mankind when it has progressed or grown to its highest possibilities, this type also both individual and universal, we see that we become what the Jesus typifies, as naturally. And in this process which begins with the Adam and ends with the Jesus is the redemption from sin through atonement, the sin originating with Ada ... We see how, by one man, death entered into our world, and how all men have so sinned because all are, individually, this one Adam. Then we see that we are not sinners because Adam did sin in the past but because we are Adams. The new interpretation makes this remote past our present. It shows this record of Genesis to mean this present day or present state of consciousness which we call living now. It removes all our specu- lation over what happened all these long years ago in the garden of Eden, all our wondering if that which is recorded did really happen, and shows us that the Adam state there typified is our present con- sciousness and its name is Adam. The confounding of the Adam of the second chap- ter of Genesis with the man of the first chapter is the mistake which underlies the old theological dogma. Discrimination between the two underlies the new interpretation. To follow the statement which shall make plain the nature of the Adam, the growth which 16 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. brings the Jesus, the experience between the two, we must see at the outset that the man of the first chapter of Genesis is not a person but the ideal which person represents. The image of God is the ideal or idea of mind ; is individual identity itself. It is my individual identity and your individual identity. This image of God is back of and is represented by every person we see in the world, according to the degree of person which ranges from the first to the last, from the least to the greatest, from the Adam to the Jesus. This image of God, this ideal which is ever intact and perfect as such, is the imperishable, individual identity which remains ever the same, which is im- mortal in nature, which begins with God and ends with God, and which has in consequence neither beginning nor ending, God being the self-existent principle, the Primal Being which ever sustains it. It is untouched and unchanged by all that goes on upon the plane of persons which is below it. It is, by nature, forever one with that self-existent God which is One and Indivisible, but is differently defined by different peoples. It possesses all power over all less than it, consequently does over the representative person. It is over all and above all, eternal and un- changeable ; it is both the first and the last. But the Adam is not it. The Adam is only the first person who represents it; onli/ the first, by no means the last. He has his day, and comes to his end. The last person who represents the eternal individual identity is the Jesus who equally has His day and comes to his end because there is no more need for SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TBANSGBESSION. 17 person. And between these two are many persons or personalities following each other in regular succes- sion like notes in the scale. Adam is the original sinner, and is the father of the human race, meaning by this term the race of persons ; or is its first parent only as the first or primal person from which comes all persons as a sequence. He is the father of the rest as the child is father of the man, as we say, and this whole sequence of persons or personalities, beginning with its first parent or Adam and ending with its ultimate or Jesus, simply makes visible, because it represents, the nature of the eternal, unchangeable, individual identity which, as the im- mortal ideal of mind, is the image of God, and one with the self-existent God, whatever that is, forever. Adam, the first person, the original sinner, simply makes visible the possible consequence of a degree, a part, of the nature of man, because of the limitations of that degree or part ; a consequence overcome by the rest of the nature. He is the visible person who embodies a state of consciousness which constitutes this person's soul ; this state being a degree or part of the nature of the individual identity. And back of this soul, this degree or part of its nature, is tnis identity itself, unchangeable, immortal, intact and perfect. This is illustrated by what we see as, and pronounce to be, an infant. What we see is the person. The soul of this infant person is a state of consciousness or infancy. This state as the soul, the visible infant as the body, together constitute the personality which has soul and body. Back of these and it is 2 18 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. the individual identity which, eternal and unchange- able in itself, has its nature represented in a degree, and that the least, by this infant person, which, as the first or least, is its Adam. Sin originates with Adam because the Adam-soul is the first sinner. The individual identity which is the man of the first chapter of Genesis is not the sinner, hence does not fall and never can fall from what it is in itself, or from its high estate. It is above and beyond both the sinner and the sin. The first, or the sinner, is a state of consciousness, the second, or the sin, is its conclusion which is natural to itself, originating in itself and having no other existence ; hence coming to an end inevitably as the state comes to its own end through growth into a higher. The sins of a child are the mistaken conclusions of the child soul or state of consciousness. These will be atoned for through growth, and the manhood which is the product will not know them, for the manhood soul or state of consciousness will know better than the child soul possibly could, because it was the child soul. When we can see that the individual identity is the ideal, and therefore the real because spiritual man ; and that the nature of this one identity, and only real man, because the one ideal of the one mind, must be manifested or visible to make that ideal the actual or acting, we shall be able to see that this first person, Adam, and last person, Jesus, with all the persons between these, but make visible or are the visibility of . the process by which the nature of the individual identity is manifested. SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. 19 And the souls of all these persons are none of them the soul of the individual identity ; for that soul is its sustaining cause, God ; but they are the parts of its nature, and this is the thread upon which they are strung as beads, following each other in regular order and succession from least to greatest, each part having its visible representative or person. Then we shall see that the spiritual man, the in- dividual identity whose soul or substance is God, does not sin ; see that sin is but the mistake or wrong conclusion of a state of consciousness ; of that far less than this identity ; and that the sin or error origi- nates in this state, belongs to it only, has no exist- ence out of it, though its effects may be continuous in other states. This least part of the nature of man, with the possi- bility to it because of its limitations as the very least, is what is made visible by the Adam and the acts of the Adam who is the person at the beginning of the process which makes so much the nature of the in- dividual identity manifest ; and as such he is the first parent of all such persons who are so partakers in bis sin. In other words, we are all Adams as this present consciousness which, speaking and declaring itself, says " I." Back of this personal I or soul, these per- sonal " we's " ; back of every Adam is the one individ- ual identity which images God and is God-like in nature and in being. It is sinless, the Adam-soul is the sinner. And as the Adam-soul or state is com- mon to us all, we are all alike miserable sinners who must be redeemed from sin. 20 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. And this redemption is for all according to the one law which is both individual and universal as the Adam is individual and universal. Through the ex- perience which begins with the Adam-soul, and which is my experience and your experience, the first sense of self and of all things is outgrown and passed beyond. This is redemption from sin, for it is this first or natural sense which prompts the sin or the erroneous conclusion. As it is outgrown, as a higher sense takes its place, the original sin is outgrown and a higher person is the redeemed from sin, this higher person represent- ing or embodying a liigher degree of the nature of man, which higher rules over the lower or lesser. But be- tween the original sin and the redemption from it is the atoning which brings the redemption. This atoning is the meeting and overcoming every consequence of the original sin, of the erroneous con- clusion consequent upon the first or natural and lim- ited sense of self and of all things; and through bringing into action a higher sense than it, one belonging to a larger degree of the nature of the in- dividual identity. The nature of Adam, of the Adam-soul or state of consciousness which causes it to make mistakes, and these natural, is clearly defined in the second chap- ter of Genesis. All things were brought to Adam " to see what he would call them." All things are brought to the little child who is just old enough to " take notice," in the same way and for the same reason. And with the little child whatever it calls that which it notices, the several things which meet SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. 21 its vision, so these are to it, though the child will not pronounce upon them truthfully, according to we older ones, who look on and know better than the child does or possibly can. It will call a cat a dog, and a dog a cat; and if it pronounce upon the dog as the cat, the dog will be a cat to it. So with the Adam—" and whatsoever he called every living thing, that was the name thereof." As the Adam state of consciousness or soul pro^ nounces upon all visible to it, so it is to that Adam- soul ; and this decision will be contrary to the truth of what it sees, naturally, because all that is the visible to the Adam is the representation of invisible things, is what we call the world. It will take the representative for the thing itself because the representative is all it can see, being all that is visible to that state of consciousness which Adam is. This mistake is natural and is the original sin. Included in it, inevitably, is the self seeing as well as the rest. As the visible person or body is one of the representatives, one of those so-called living things, it, as part of the visible, is seen because looked out upon by the Adam-soul or state, as all the visible is looked out upon ; and the natural mistake, the original sin, is taking it to be what it is not^ " This is man " the Adam-soul pronounces ; and as it is not man, sin or error has entered in to be put out again farther along when the child has grown old enough to know better. This original sin of the Adam of Genesis, of our first parent, is shared in by every one of us because 22 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. this Adam is the type of ourselves and of what is natural to us. Yet he is the figure of him that is to come as the little child is the figure of the full-grown man who is to come, who will know far better than the child possibly could, and who will have those childish errors under his feet through his higher knowledge. So Adam is the figure of that Jesus who is to come as he is grown to, and by whom we are free from the law of sin and death which rules witli the Adam. The Adam sin or error is the boasted knowledge of to-day. The visible is all we can know anything about, it is said. Whether there is anything more than what is visible to us as the seen, it is impossi- ble to know, because we cannot know what we can- not see. We see mankind or person and we say, this is man. We see the world and we say, this is all the place we know of or can know, and we had better make the most of it. So we are Adams, all of us, living in the Adam-sense of things and declaring, '' This is all." Atonement is inevitable for every one of us, for it is the only way of redemption, and redemption from this sin or error must come. The never ceasing, eternal First Cause is working to that end. God works for us whether we know it or not. So long as we are satisfied with these Adam con- clusions, so long do we live in sin, and death is '* passed upon" us all; and death reigns from Adam to Moses. Or that condition which is living to the Adam-soul, with all that this includes, lasts as the all of living which ends in death, till the Moses or spiritual perception becomes the sense which pro- SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. 23 nounces for us and for which we listen instead of the Adam or mortal sense. It is through and by means of the Moses or spir- itual perception, when this is accepted as our de- liverer from the natural sense which, seeing the vis- ible or representative, believes it to be all, that we are led into the atoning for our original or natural sin ; and this is our going forth from the Egypt of sense- consciousness, the only real, to the Adam-soul and entering into the wilderness which lies between this Egypt and the promised land of a higher conscious- ness where we establish a redemption from sin ; and this through growth out of and away from the Adam- sense as the controlling sense, for it is that which makes the mistakes and these are the sins. It is natural sense of the natural man, the carnal mind which is at enmity with God or contrary to the truth of things. Spiritual perception crosses or contradicts natural or Adam-sense. That says, " The visible is the real." The other says, " No, it is not." That says, " The visi- ble is the all." The other says, "No, it is not." That says, " This visible person is man." The other, " No, it is not." That says, " every visible thing we see is a living thing." The other, " No, it is not. It only stands for the living thing which we cannot see." That says, "the living thing dies." The other, " No, it does not, for it cannot because of its nature. The visible representative which you see disappears when it is no longer needed. This is what you call death, but there is no death as you believe death to be." 24 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Here is where our atonement for the sin of Adam begins, and with spiritual perception of the Moses who is our deliverer from it if he is followed ; for he sees and speaks the truth which is the word of the Lord, and which the Adam-sense can neither see nor hear. But our atonement is completed only in and with the redeemed one, which shall come after and according to the figure of Adam or as another person through this atoning process which produces him ; for redemption is only through atonement. This is the experience recorded as the journey of the children of Israel. Experience has to prove to us that the Adam is wrong and the Moses is right ; or that the natural sense, that which sees the visible and pro- nounces upon it as the real and the all, commits sin or forms erroneous conclusions which, to it, become law because these are what it believes ; and that the truth which conquers or overcomes the sin, the error, which kills this law, can do this work only through spiritual perception, for that is the sense which can see and hear the truth. Following on after the Moses into the wilderness, this leader furnishes us with proof after proof that we are on the way to redemption because we are in the way of atoning for the sin of Adam. And only through this experience, with its accompanying rev- elation, come those kings of whom is born that one which proves redemption from the original sin attained ; is born that redeemed one who is of the house of David, the king, and who is our example equally with Adam, this first parent being the type of what we are in this present state of consciousness, the SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. 25 Jesus or the redeemed one being the type of what we become when we change leaders ; change the Adam- sense, the natural sense, for spiritual perception. " For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." When we can see that this first parent Adam is not an historical personage, but is instead the type of what we are now ; that his sin is but the natural error which is ours now ; that the Eden from which it shuts him out is not a past locality now lost sight of, but is that recognition of our own harmonious being and nature as allied to that great whole of which person is a part, and consequently is that Eden which we must all find and enter, we shall not encounter the dif- ficulty which was ours with the old view when we could not see how we could possibly be responsible for what some one else did and of which we had no knowledge. With this ability to see meanings back of words, we shall discover that we are truly partakers of the Adam sin, of that which came by one man, and have the right to be equally partakers of the righteousness which comes by one man also. " Therefore as b}^ the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to con- demnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men iinto justification of life." If the Adam of Genesis is the figure of him that is to come, if the Jesus of the New Testament, the Sav- iour of mankind, is that one come, if these are the examples foi us by which we ma}'- see what we are and what we shall be as persons, the whole matter of 26 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. original sin, atonement for it and redemption from it, stands outside of the theological dogma and upon a rational basis which removes it from the field of specu- lation occupied by that large body of people who can- not believe and accept ecclesiastical teachings. And so standing, it is capable of proof, for the appli- cation of the principle involved brings its own demon- stration. If the Adam, as the child knowing no better, thinks naturally that which is not true because of the promptings of the child or Adam-sense, it has com- mitted sin or error, and there was no sin till this Adam made it for itself. Experience belongs to Adam or the child, and it grows through it to see what it could not at first ; grows to see that it has made a mistake or committed sin. It sees this truth with a higher than its natural or child sense, and with this higher sees the way out of the consequences of its sin or error. As through its thinking the sin came, in the same way, through the same channel, must the righteousness come, and the last will displace and put out the first. Thinking with and according to spiritual percep- tion through set purpose instead of with and accord- ing to natural sense — the sense which first rules the world, and the easiest, by far, to use because the nat- ural — we bring forth the visible proof or demonstra- tions which prove that what we so think is true, for its truth is clearly and plainly manifested. So we overcome the results of the original sin, which are sickness, suffering, and death. We think them out of their existence in and to sense. Individual sin or error, atonement for it and redemp- SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION, 27 tion from it and its many consequences, is proven to be, when this course is followed, not a religious belief merely, but a scientific fact, because it is proven knowl- edge. This view removes the Bible itself from both of these positions it has so long occupied, the adoration based upon the "traditions of the elders" equally with the skepticism which denies it any special value. It shows us this book as a text-book which has to be individually studied like any other text-book to find what it is and what it is meant to teach ; shows us that every one is to individually " search the Scrip- tures " instead of accepting the decisions of self-con- stituted authority as to their meaning. Shows us tliat we are to " prove all things," even the religious teachings which are sanctified by time, and " hold fast that which is good," letting go all which proves itself not so, however venerated may be the names and dates attached to these. Paul's statement, "death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," would seem to imply, to a superficial examination, that there were some who were exempt from Adam's sin ; but it refers to those who are not yet conscious of sin ; not yet aware of what sin is ; of the nature of the Adam or of the transgression. But these are bound by the law just the same ; the law that sin or error must be atoned for and redemption from it secured ; for this, being inevitable, applies equally to those who naturally err or to all Adams, whether they have yet found out that they have sinned or not, because every error brings 28 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. its own consequences. And as " the wages of sin is death," it reigns over those who do not yet know its cause and meaning because they are partakers in the original sin. When we see that we are our own redeemers, that we can do that work day by day which atones for our former ignorance and its consequences, we shall, if we are wise, turn from the Adam to the Moses and follow that leader, because it is the deliverer from the consequences of the Adam sin. It can see the way through and out of these and bring us to that prom- ised land, promised from before the foundation of the world, where " sin hath no longer dominion over us." THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT, 29 THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT ; OR, JOHN THE BAPTIST AND JESUS. Luke i. 5-17; 57-64. Theke was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zaeharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife loas of the daugliters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren ; and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass, that, while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course. According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zaeharias saw Mm^ he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him. Fear not, Zaeharias : for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness ; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to 30 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circum- cise the child ; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so ; but he shall be called John. And they said unto her. There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying. His name is John. And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God. In all ages of the world the letter and the spirit of truth : of Divine Law or the Law of God — that God which is Impersonal Principle and so does not act from and according to choice but from necessity according to the nature of that which is God — have been present therein together ; yet only in a degree according to the period in that process which this world represents. The truth of being has ever been in the world by its letter and by its spirit ; but only the perfect or full letter and its corresponding spirit are there when the John and the Jesus are there ; and these two are ever together. The record of John and of Jesus as this perfect letter and perfect spirit are given more completely THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 31 in the Gospel according to Luke than in the others. It begins with the conception of both, and in the un- derstanding of these conceptions lies the revelation of the nature of the births therefrom. The more one studies this marvelous book, the Bible, the more one wonders at the infinite wisdom and self-evident truth concealed therein ; concealed from the natural sense but revealed to spiritual sense ; and only as we grow to think and see with this sense do its mighty revelations flash forth upon us till, like Paul, we are blinded by this light from heaven ; blinded to the former interpretations which were the product of mortal sense, the natural sense of the natural man, and so seeing them no more because illuminated from that above of this sense which is opened to us through spiritual perception. " What fellowship hath light with darkness ? " In the imagery of this wonderful book we find the perfect letter of God's manifestation, for which imagery historical events have been used so as to fit the method and perfectly carry out the plan of the book. To the eye and to the sense which can penetrate this letter is given the equally perfect spirit which is veiled by it ; and so the manifestation of God, which includes the manifestation of Man, is the result to the individual student of this Word of God, who seeks it with the only sense which can gain it. The corruption of the letter through reading this book with mortal sense is what has produced the various creeds, which, hardening into dogma, have not only not made the one and only true God mani- 32 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. fest, but have prevented that manifestation to those who have accepted them as the truth which must be maintained at the expense of reason and justice. But because of that moving Law which operates through the world, Httle by little has come about a deeper penetration which touches and brings forth from the tomb of ecclesiasticism, as a veritable resurrection from the dead, a new, yet ever true and so old, meaning to this Word upon which all our creeds are founded ; and which is compelling a re- adjustment of them, a process whose beginning com- pelled, must inevitably go on to the beheading or extinguishing of the letter in the realization of the spirit of the Law. Those foreseeing this result, standing already upon its threshold, are members now of a new yet old church the invisible church, or the church of the Spirit ; are members of that one body ; a church whose membership is ever increasing and whose head is the universal living Christ instead of the crucified Jesus. It is ruled by that love which is inseparable from justice, instead of by fear and injustice ; it is built upon understanding instead of upon emotion, and so will stand forever. To see John the Baptist as the true letter, or the letter in accordance with abstract truth which can alone prepare the Avay for the Spirit of truth, is to see his nature as the forerunner of that which is to come ; is to see that this same conception and birth must take place in the world to-day as the preparation for the spirit which- follows. His father was a priest, and his mother was " of the TBE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 33 daughters of Aaron," who, with his sons, was set apart as priests, " to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office." Here is shown that the letter of the law is in the keeping of the priesthood ; its members are its legiti- mate teachers ; it is their rightful office to minister unto the Lord by ministering unto the people to whom they can offer the letter which must, of itself, point the way to the spirit. Zacharias and Elisabeth " were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child because that Elisabeth was barren." The whole line of the priesthood is barren of the higher result because barren of the lesser. It does not yet present the spirit of the law because it does not yet have the true letter. Till it can produce this it cannot open the way for the first ; yet strict honesty of purpose, living up to, acting and teaching from the highest perception possessed is the way to get a higher. " They were both well stricken in years." Though years upon years has a narrow contracted presentation of the letter, one shrunken and shriveled, because the Love which is God has been left out of it, been the offering of the priests to the people till it seems as if the time had well-nigh gone by when a birth from them to and for those ministered unto by them were possible. The husk without the kernel has been offered to the people as divine truth ; and those who have offered it have grown old in that service ; some content with 3 34 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. the results of their work, deeming the One God served thereby ; others questioning within themselves if there might not possibly be more and higher revela- tions than are shown in their creeds ; if there might not be, possibly, progress in the perception of the nature of God which would bring, inevitably, prog- ress in all formulations about God and His law. To those occupying the latter position only can be born that forerunner of the Spirit which proclaims, " He that cometh after me is greater than I." They alone can have that revelation which, brought to birth from them, makes " ready a people prepared for the Lord ; " makes ready or helps forward those pre- pared to see and follow beyond the beaten track of conservatism, to the finding of man and of God. Not so many years ago the trial of a clergyman, of one executing " the priest's office before God in the order of his course," for heresy, shocked the whole Christian world. He was universally looked upon as one " fallen from grace," a backslider whom good Christians must beware of. To-day such an occurrence shows that the offender is no offender in the eyes of a large number of those whose names are upon church rolls ; shows that he has the sympathy, more or less openly expressed, of a large body of people who, within themselves, are in the same position he occupied before being pro- nounced a heretic because he spoke out. They are not satisfied with the teachings given forth as authoritative and are seeking for something better ; and those portions of these teachings which make God a vengeful being, unjust to mankind for THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 35 the furtherance and maintenance of His own glory, they feel compelled to give up and turn from ; and this must and will be heresy to those so bound by the letter of modern Christianity that they are imper- vious to its true spirit. But only to this priest is that revelation which re- sults in his son or a higher order of priest ; one who presents and preserves the true letter, that which is conformed to the spirit instead of contrary to it. Such a one goes into the temple of the Lord alone while the multitude of the people are praying with- out together. He goes for himself, with singleness of purpose, into that inner sanctuary where only we are alone ; turns from ecclesiastical authority to the Infinite above whence cometh our help, and through that honest, earnest desire to receive from on high that he may truly minister to that praying multitude without, comes face to face with the angel of the Lord who stands only " on the right side of the altar ; " on the inside, in the sanctuary, not in the without; and whose message cannot be received except the priest leave the outside and come in unto him. " And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord stand- ing on the right side of the altar of incense." How many clergymen of the present day burn 36 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. that incense unto the Lord, and how many burn it unto the people ? How many speak the highest truth they are able to perceive, honestly and fearlessly, and how many speak less than that because it better suits the people ? Only those who burn the incense unto the Lord as it is the true office of the priest to do see the angel at the altar, hear his voice, receive his revela- tion. " And when Zacharias saw him he was troubled, and fear fell upon him." It is natural at first for this priest to feel troubled and somewhat fearful when he stands face to face with a higher truth than that which he has been presenting to the people ; when he sees where the letter of the Law entrusted to his keeping is at fault, and perceives that it is his duty eis?i priest unto the Lord to speak according to this revealed spirit instead of according to the faulty letter. Yet strength and courage come to him as he hears the message which is for him only as a minister unto the people. " But the angel said unto him. Fear not, Zacharias : for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall . . . make ready a people prepared for the Lord." THE LETTER AND TBE SPIRIT. 37 That prayer of Zacharias which is so heard and answered is that constant unceasing aspiration for Divine Wisdom which ascends from creeds and their formulaters to the source of all knowledge ; which seeks to receive from thence that truth which is the eternally existing outside of forms, and, so receiving, bring it to birth for the world that his fellowmen, who are also praying without, may receive their answer to their own prayer. This priest who so receives has " joy and gladness " for himself and many rejoice at the birth of what he brings forth; for only this priest can present the true letter or that which is conformed to the Spirit of truth, instead of contrary to it, for the one who burns his incense before his congregation instead of before the 'Lord cannot receive it. This son, so brought forth, verily makes ready those who are prepared for the truth. He goes before it and turns the true seekers to it, for he points it out and the way to it as well. Only that people is prepared for the Lord who are prepared to give up whatever they have accepted from the teachings of others when a better, a truer, self-evident as such, is shown them, and to take the truer in its place ; and this never contradicts the truth in what they have formerly held to ; never ! Only that letter which was not in conformity to that truth. This people will rejoice at this priest's son who will not be great or powerful in the eyes of the world ; will be great only "in the sight of the Lord " ; be- cause only these few will be able to recognize his 38 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. true greatness and power which come not from " wine or strong drink " ; not from without, the exterior, from that which would so feed and sustain it , for it is sustained from its birth by that which brought it forth ; by that with which it is allied , by the Holy Ghost ; by that spirit to which it is perfectly con- formed as the perfect letter. That priest who through his own aspiration toward the Spirit of truth, caring more for it than for the form entrusted to his keeping, receives the message which comes to him only from the right side of the altar is made dumb thereby ; he cannot speak as he did before. He cannot utter to his people that which he no longer believes himself , which he sees to be untrue in the light of his revelation ; and he must remain so dumb till he can give voice to that truth revealed , till his son is born whom he names according to the message ; for whose name he has a higher authority than the opinions of men who would call the child after his father : who would see it only as the con- tinuance of what they already had; who are not ready to see its nature till it shall do its own work for them. " And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child ; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said. Not so ; but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name." Truly no member of the priesthood after the order of Aaron has or can bear a new name ! They but THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 39 hand down to the next generation what they have been entrusted with as its guardians who have no business with revelations or new departures. No John was ever born out of ecclesiastical conservatism. " And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immedi- ately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God." How many who bow before that altar whereon they have- laid their all, by caring more for the truth, and that it ^lould be made manifest to and estab- lished in the world, than for the fulfillment of their own personal desire — and who are so truly minis- ters unto the people who are praying for it every- where, the world over — have made their first declara- tion in accordance with the message received beside that altar, on " a writing table " ; who have so passed on that message to the people which has caused them to marvel because it was not in accordance with that handed down from generation to generation intact ! Truly " the pen is mightier than the sword," for where that cuts down opponents the pen raised up those who do royal and bloodless battle for impersonal truth ; and its work lies and makes its own way to the hearts and understanding of the people when the one who sat at the writing table has passed into the invisible. The true letter or statement has to win recognition for itself. That is accorded without evidence only 40 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. by those who give it birth and who have received their own evidence which is not seen of men. In this account of the two conceptions — of Elisa- beth and Mary — the messenger is the same : showing the Unity between them. With John the angel Gabriel announces it to the father, and with Jesus, to the mother. Here also is a grand meaning which can be only briefly alluded to within the limits of one lesson. The letter or form through which the way is prepared for the spirit, is the legitimate birth from the rational nature ; the product which it brings forth as its share of the joint work which makes the Christ — not the doctrinal but the individual and universal Christ — manifest ; and the spirit which is the presence of the Christ in the world because the presence of the per- fect figure of the Christ, is the equally legitimate birth or product from the woman or intuitional nature. It is this father and mother which ensure first the forerunner, and then the one for whom the way is thus prepared . Those of you who are familiar with the meaning of Genesis will perceive the significance of the " sixth month" in which the angel was sent unto Mary; will see that Jesus as the seventh day of the seventh day, the seventh and highest type, is the last in that process from mortality to immortality which marks it finished. Mary's visit to Elisabeth after the Annunciation, the leaping of the babe at her salutation, portrays the quickening of the letter by the spirit. It it not a dead letter which shall be brought forth as the result THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 41 of revelation ; not a husk without the kernel ; but one vivified by the eternal truth and which speaks truly when it says " one mightier than I cometh." It is the spirit which alone giveth life to every creed,- every doctrine, every formulation which is for the guidance of mankind. Non-perception of this spirit kills or prevents the result otherwise possible. John the Baptist, the forerunner, the perfect letter which reveals, uncovers the spirit for those prepared for it instead of obstructing the sight of it; which points to that spirit and says " Behold it, not me, and receive its baptism as higher than mine, " is truly "the prophet of the Highest" as declared by his father who has found voice through his birth. "And thou shalt be called the prophet of the Highest : for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways ; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people ... to give light to them which sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. " O Bible students of to-day! Do you recognize and realize the meaning of these words ? Do you see that the letter of that book is but " the prophet of the Highest " and not that Highest? That it but points to that which cometh after itself and so truly goes before the face of the true Man to prepare his way ? To give knowledge of salvation from mortal sense and its pains and penalties, from ignorance and its consequence unto the Lord's people ; unto those who are prepared for the revelation of their true selves and of the one God from whom that Self is in- separable ? To so give light to those who sit in the 42 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. darkness of materiality, surrounded on every hand by the shadow of its death ? To guide the feet of those who are ready to walk, into that way — that only way of peace because it leads ever to a higher and higher consciousness of ourselves and of all things, which knows how to " choose the good and refuse the evil, " so making and maintaining that peace, in the midst of all contrary to it, which is better and more to be desired than mere happiness ; that peace that little by little grows into the everlasting peace which is yours and mine when we have won it through mastery of all less than it ? In this record John grows to manhood in the wilderness or " till the day of his showing unto Israel," which is a symbolical presentation of the growth of this letter which is one with the spirit to where it can stand against tradition successfully — tradition being represented by the high priests Annas and Caiaphas — and declare the truth, which con- tradicts tradition, unto the people. So it is truly " the voice of one crying in the wilder- ness " of dogma, of perversion of the letter of the law, of beliefs and opinions about the invisible side of ourselves and of the truth of being which governs there ; the voice which cries " Prepare ye the way of the Lord " — the way for the true Man to come to you — " make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see tlie salvation of God." O the grand meaning of this passage ! This THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 43 declaration of what shall come when the letter and the spirit are fully together in the world ! All the seeming contradictions shall disappear ; the superi- ority of this creed over that one ; the greater measure of holiness with this sect than with that one; the " we alone are right and you are all wrong." All these shall then vanish, for " every valley shall be filled " and " every mountain and hill " so " brought low," making instead of the toilsome climbing of the mountain erected by human ignorance and weary descent into the valley of darkness which such mountains make, a straight and even road into the kingdom of God. Those rough ways which cut and wound the tired feet of the always journeying pilgrims, so made smooth for them that they may continue on in the way to that kingdom ; may enter in and take posses- sion and none of them be barred out ; not one weary, footsore traveler missing his way without again find- ing it, and so reaching that which waits at its end for every one of God's children who share alike in their inheritance as such ; not one of them disowned or disinherited. So shall all find at last that the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, is not a special God for a special people, but the Universal Father for a uni- versal brotherhood, in which is neither Jew nor Gen- tile but only brothers. The demonstrations which prove the truth of the letter, the works which are the fruit by which the tree is known, belong to the Jesus instead of to the John, or to the spirit, not the letter. It is that 44 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. which produces them ; they are the accompaniment of it only. Where John is recorded as sending to Jesus to know if He is the one who is to come, the one whose forerunner he is, the reply, " Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard ; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me." Wherever the Spirit of truth is, there too will be its demonstrations, the works which prove their source, the fruits which proclaim the tree that bears them good ; and blessed indeed is that one who shall not be offended with the one through whom they are done, because his former views, his education, the declarations of his teachers and lawgivers, religious and secular, declare them impossible ; who is able to look beyond them and their decisions to that which is ever made known to us individually when we" follow the advice which proves itself true, " Seek, and ye shall find ! " As the works of the Jesus were denounced and condemned in the day they were performed ; as they were but the natural result of the understanding of the nature of Man in his relation to the First Cause of all, so will they be the result to-day and in aU days when the same understanding opens the way for them. They will be the equally natural products which will be pronounced supernatural by those who are more superstitious than rational, as frauds by those who believe that their present knowledge 1 THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 45 covers the whole ground of the possible; and as diabolical by the high priests of tradition. ,Tn the 7th chapter of Luke it is said : "And all the people that heard him " — Jesus in reference to John — " and the publicans, justified God, being bap- tized with the baptism of John. But the Phari- sees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." Only those baptized with the baptism of John, or those who see the true nature of the letter of the law, as only the pointer-out of the true way hut not that way ; who can ever distinguish between the letter and the spirit, knowing that the power is with the latter and only seemingly with the former through their unity, will " justify God " ; or recognize that the Almighty and Omnipotent Truth is back of both letter and spirit, and is reached only through such use of the letter as make% its user one with its spirit ; and those reject the counsel of God who turn from a new letter with no effort to find its spirit because it does not accord with their old one. Truly Wisdom is justified of her children, even as superstition and error are justified of theirs. " By their fruits shall ye know them." In these records of the Four Gospels, John is de- clared to be beheaded in prison, but not till the so- called miracles of Jesus have been performed. The presence of the Spirit of truth in the world, the works which testify of its presence, necessarily con- fine the letter to its own field of operation. Its work cannot exceed its own limitations, and those limitations cast it into prison or prevent it from accomplishing the work of the Spirit. 46 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Those who perceive and receive the spirit need no longer the letter, which has done its part for them in pointing out the spirit and preparing the way for it. The spirit's activity, the works which prove that it is active, render needless the letter for those who re- ceive them ; and in this way John is beheaded. All who have received his baptism need him no longer ; all who have not, would not yet. His work is done when the Jesus manifests the Christ to the world. My friends ! let us value the letter of that which has been named Christianity, truly ; but let us be careful that over-valuation does not behead its spirit for us. Recognize that letter for what it is ; truly the voice of one crying in the wilderness of ecclesias- ticism, rationalism, materialism, andsupernaturalism ; but it is not the truth ; it points the way to that as coming after itself to the one who can receive, first, its baptism, which is the lower, knowing that the higher baptism, that of the spirit, must follow for the mighty works to be done which prove the Christ, or man's divine nature, in the world. Let the letter be beheaded for us through our recognition of its limitations. Let us never accept the John as the Jesus, never attempt to put him in that place, but cast him into prison through our un- derstanding that the spirit must follow for us and work with us to its own manifestation. So shall that beheading, which is inevitable for the letter of the law, which so manifests its bondage, leave the spirit free to manifest the freedom of the sons of God ; the freedom from all bondage which belongs to us as our divine inheritance. TS:E IMMAUULAIM VOMUJilFTlOIf. 47 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Luke i. 26-35. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David : And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man ? And the angel answered and said unto her. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over- shadow thee : therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Matt. i. 18-25. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 48 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife : And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son : and he called his name Jesus. , Among the many stumbling-blocks in the way of those who desire to accept and hold to the faith of their fathers, is the " Immaculate Conception " as it is presented in church dogma. No other of them, plentiful as they are, seems so hard to get over as this one ; not even the Trinity or "three persons in one." Many who can accept the Trinity halt at this decla- ration and give it only half-hearted allegiance at best, because, try as they will to believe it, they are unable to do that violence to their own natures; and so they put it aside as one of those things which life in the next world is going to make plain to them and which only that life can. Others declare that they believe it on the basis that all things are possible with God. The simple faith which accepts the impossible as truth too sacred to be explainable may be admirable and commendable from certain points of view. From THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 49 others, it may be seen as a bar to progress which can only truly go on when no limits are placed to its advances by misconceptions about what constitutes sacredness. Can anything be more sacred and holy than truth? Can anything be truly sacred or holy to us till we see its truth ? Does not that truth, perceived, con- stitute its sanctity ? Can another's declaration that this or that is true, sacred and holy, make it so for us ? Must not its truth and so its sacredness be percep- tible to ourselves ? And does not this perception on our part mark the line between superstition and reverence ? We revere all sacred and holy things, but this reverence is due to our perception of why they are so. Allegiance given on any other basis tends to super- stitious belief; tends in the contrary direction from understanding, which, according to Solomon, is more to be desired than all this world seems to contain. The superstitious awe in which the Bible is held prevents the understanding of its true nature which would reveal the interior significance of this same immaculate conception which is there recorded. The bloodless battle which is being waged to-day as in times past, though not then bloodless, is between superstition and truth, between the powers of dark- ness and the hosts of light ; and this has ever re- sulted and will ever result in the survival of the fittest. That thing or statement which is truer than another, which manifests more of truth than another, will survive that other, and both will be left behind by a 50 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. still higher ; for truth alone is indestructible, and so eternally triumphant, while its manifestation is ever in the ascending scale ; and that feeling which is true reverence, because the consequence of per- ception, will survive that superstitious awe which is the open confession of ignorance. When we remember that books containing the language and incidents recorded in the Bible would be condemned and kept out of the way of the young if not destroyed by universal consent, needing no Anthony Comstock to that end ; remember that every father and mother in the land would be horrified at the thought of such a book in the hands of their children, we can measure somewhat the strength of that superstitious feeling about the Bible which is mistaken for reverence ; especially when we see these same fathers and mothers impress its reading upon their children as a duty. What an outcry would arise all over the land if it were sought to place a parallel book in the public schools ! And yet how conscientious and sincere are those who desire to bring this about with the Bible. Where the reading of this book is followed in fam- ilies as a duty, the questions of the children in regard to it invariably fail to elicit satisfactory answers : for children are usually far more logical than their elders till they too have been educated into the beliefs of superstition. When the true nature of the Bible is seen, these attempts to urge it upon children will cease ; for then it will also be seen that it requires the eye developed by growth and experience to read it, and that it is THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 51 a sealed book to the other eye which can only see its letter. To that higher eye alone can be revealed its spirit. We would not think of giving an arithmetic to the child who can only read his primer, because it is some- thing he ought to be familiar with ! We should see the folly of giving something requiring complicated mental operations to one incapable of them ! And we should see this because we discerned the nature of the arithmetic and knew that it was beyond the mental range of the child who was yet on the plane of form, of visible signs, of letters, and could but feebly perceive and by no means grasp the meaning back of them. Yet this is the course which has been pursued with the Bible, the highest common text book we have of Spiritual science, because it covers that science in its range from lowest to highest problems. Those who are still struggling with visible forms or with the alphabet, depending upon a teacher to tell them if A is A and Z is Z, must master that al- phabet before they can go farther, just as the child must master his primer and grow, through his mas- tery, to where he can truly read higher books : and this reading does not consist in the repetition of their surface, but in the grasping of that which lies below it and making that his own. Not till the Bible is read in this way will the mis- takes and fallacies embodied in the religions founded upon its surface be seen ; not till then will the Immac- ulate Conception be known for what it truly is, and so seen to be the logical sequence of the law involved 52 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, instead of an operation outside of law by which a per^ sonal Deity may the better manifest his own mag- nanimity which, to sinners, looks amazingly like in- justice ; for to bring a son into the world purposely to destroy him bears this aspect to the unre- generated. Amid all the contention for and against the truth of what is included in religious dogma as the Immac- ulate Conception " may be seen and followed a thread which, like the one in the labyrinth, will bring its finder and follower through the maze ; will enable him to see for himself both the truth and the untruth in what is presented to us all and which we must plunge into and work through or turn aside from to seek a way on higher by going around it. This thread must be grasped at the very beginning of the Bible at its first book. If it is so grasped and followed where it leads, it brings us to the Immaculate Conception through logical sequence and reveals it as a logical necessity instead of a glaring impossibility. If we read the first chapter of Genesis conceiving the God there spoken of as a personal being making a literal heaven and earth or two places, localities with all contained in them, out of nothing, we shall not find this thread ; and more, we shall never find the true significance of the Bible till we abandon that position. To come out right, we must start right. An error in our beginning makes error in our conclusions inev- itable. If we begin to read with the conception of God as impersonal instead of personal, as Mind, in- telligence itself instead of an intelligent Being with a THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 53 mind, and this Mind the only one, the One God which is Self-existent, Indivisible and Eternal, this premise followed out to its own condusion, will bring us to the Immaculate Conception as one of them, and show us that it must inevitably take place with every one of us; show us that while there is but one such, that one is for all of us ; show us that while it is emphatically individual, it is also universal or for all mankind. To the one who can see this book, as a whole and in all its parts as being the record of individual existence from a Self -existent Cause* it is the record of his own life. He finds that every event there re- corded is but part of his own individual experience ; that every character there described is in him ; that he, the reader, is the entity of them, their experiences the entity of his own ; finds that all of them are in or belonging to that something which is more than flesh end blood and bone and which is ever struggling to know itself, therefore which must, before it can know itself, conceive immaculately or truly of itself. Beginning with the Self-existent God — the one Mind which always was and ever will be, we start with the eternal Abstract which finds expression in its idea or image. This Mind and its expression or idea, which is the Concrete, bear the relation to each other or Father and Son or Cause and Effect. These are the God of the first Chapter of Genesis and the Lord God of the second Chapter, this Lord God being individualized God as consequent upon or product of the Abstract God — the One Mind — through " the world " which is the " God said " — the 54 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. creative power through which the Abstract produces the Concrete. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — the primal Trin~ ity in Unity are God, the Lord God, and the "God said" which are the ever-existing and so are the foundation of Creation. The finishing of Creation or the manifes- tation of what God is, is the secondary Trinity in Unity — the Lord Jesus Christ. Between this founda- tion and this finishing lies the process which brings the last, and this process, made visible, is the world which is the means through which that manifestation of God which completes Creation comes. The world, with its person, lies between the image or expression of God — the individual identity, and the manifestation of God, between the Lord and the Christ, and the person is the representative of both. Person is first declared in the second chapter of Genesis as that which is formed by the Lord God and is called Adam. It is mankind or a kind after man and the product of the nature of man ; for this Lord God who forms it is man the " image " of the first chapter — is the individual identity which expresses God and the power of God or the " God said " ; is the idea of the One Mind which has, as its nature, the forming or thinking power and which, in conse- quence, forms its own idea. Man as the idea of the One Mind produced through " the Word " or the " God said "—Thought—is the Son of God. Person as the idea of man produced through the thinking power is the Son of man. These two must be like each other, the perfect like- ness holding them in unity and holding this unity in THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 55 oneness with the eternal Abstract, the One God, the One I Am. This One I Am is expressed in the Lord — the individual identity, represented in the Jesus — the per- fect person, manifested in the Christ — the Self of that Lord ; and these three — this trinity in unity — stand to each other as Idea of God, idea of man, and per- fect likeness between the two, therefore also between these and God, the One I Am. We find the immaculate conception at the Abraham and Sarah stage in Genesis and its birth or visibility in the world in the New Testament. The conception of the thinking being, man — this always taking place in the woman-half of his nature — must be immaculate ; or the idea of man, his conception of himself, must be true, exactly in accordance with what he is as the Idea of Mind — the Son of God. The form or person which is the product of the forming power is passive as such, is no living thing ; but as it is acted upon by the nature of man this nature, is manifest through it — is made visible by means of it. Through person — this thought — ^projection from man as he is and ever will be, is manifested, first, the sense-nature because that first acts upon it; therefore the conceptions of the sense-nature are the first in order. It and these are what is called the Adam ; and the results of the conceptions of the sense-nature are the experiences of the Adam ; therefore this Adam can not be the perfect representative of the full nature 56 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. of man, as only a degree of that nature is manifest through him. It requires the second Adam as that perfect rep- resentative ; and this second Adam cannot appear except a higher than the sense-nature has and holds its conception, manifesting it through person which, in itself, for what it is as such, is the same from .beginning to end of this process — from the first to the second Adam. The understanding and realizing nature of man alone will conceive truly of what man is, alone can have that immaculate or true conception impossible to the sense-nature whose conception is necessarily first in that process of manifestation which ends in the Christ and which is the corrupt or untrue. The understanding-nature is above the sense- nature ; its conception will be from the above instead of from the below. Hence the words of Jesus who is this conception visible in the world — "I am from above, ye are from below." The conception of the understanding-nature and the recognition that this alone is the true while the otlier is untrue, is Sarah's conception fi*om the Lord — from the above of the sense-nature instead of from below it, that lower or corrupt conception being washed clean in the flood which is the Noah-stage or stage of understanding. It is this conception of the understanding-nature that has supplanted the conception of the sense-nature which is brought to birth by the virgin because con- ceived in virgin purity — conceived independent of and contrary to the sense-nature. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 57 This conception is the true idea of man or man's true idea of himself — of what he is, and is the product of his understanding and recognizing nature instead of his sense-nature. It is the product of the Female in him — the ever-Virgin — is born out of her, fathered by her husband — the Male in him — and is the product of this duality which shows their unity. This immaculate conception or true idea of man — of what man is, is manifested through person, which is the same in itself all the way from the first Adam through whom is manifested the conception of the sense-nature, and the manifestation reaches from the first to the last, for person, being for the purpose of manifesting the nature of man, comes to its own end when this manifestation is complete ; when the Christ — the perfect likeness, has been truly shown forth. This is the difference between the first and the last Adam — the first and the last person. The differ- ence lies entirely in what is manifested through the person, not in that, for it is the same from bginning to end. With the first it is the untrue, the impure conception because the product of the seAse-nature. With the last it is the pure, the immaculate, because the true and the product of the higher nature which alone is able to conceive immaculately and because the female part of it is freed from subjection to sense through understanding. Sarah is the free woman in place of Eve, the woman in subjection ; and Mary is but the continuity from Sarah directly, while also the continuity from Eve indirectly, because this is through the Sarah. The whole process, from the Adam and Eve of Gene- 58 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. sis to the Mary and Joseph of the New Testament, is consecutive and mathematically exact, as a whole and in every part, according to the law declared in the first chapter of Genesis. That which is brought forth by the Mary is exactly like that brought forth by the Eve. It is person, in its first and last stage. As person, there is no dif- ference between the Cain and the Jesus. But in the natures manifested through these there is all the difference possible. Through the first the sense-nature of man alone is manifested and the mistakes of this nature, with their consequences, contain all the " sin, sickness and death" of the Bible. Through the last, the full and true nature of man, as the Son of God, is manifested and therefore do- minion over the sin, sickness and death consequent upon the other as well for dominion over all things, even the limited sense of self, belongs to the nature of man, and when manifested, proves the Christ ; proves that the son of God is in the world through the per- son which represents him. The view of Jesus' birth— of the Virgin's child which is held and tauglit by the church, when accepted as authoritative, shuts out its true meaning as shown by the Bible when its statement is followed. The New Testament gives the genealogy of Jesus twice. Mat- thew gives it from Abraham only, while Luke gives it from Adam; and there is a logical reason for this difference, for the one gives the genealogy of the person only, while the other gives the genealogy of the nature which was manifested through the person. The person — Jesus — is traced from Adam, for he THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 59 is but the continuity of person which begins with Adam ; and person is only that which is formed by the Lord God — that which has its day and dies in its own day for it belongs to no other. It belongs to the seventh day of Creation and ends with it ; for that is the Lord's day, the day of manifes- tation ; and when the manifestation is complete when the Christ is fully manifested, person comes to its natural end, for it is but the representative figure upon and through which the nature of man acts and so produces its own manifestation. But the nature operating upon and through the Jesus is advisedly traced from Abraham, for this is the point of immaculate or pure and true conception of what man is. It is " the seed of Abraham " which comes forth as it is promised. The Adam-nature, the sense conception of what man is, comes to an end through the flood of under- standing, and after that only is the true conception possible — the conception of the higher nature freed from its subjection to the lower. In that sense Abra- ham is the father of the " chosen people *' or those who alone can bring forth the immaculate one. It is the lower or sense-nature which is manifested through the Adam ; it is the higher nature which, freed from subjection to the lower, rules it and its consequences and is manifested through the Jesus ; while that person is flesh and blood like any other person and is born the same way ; born from the unity of husband and wife in the world ; born of Joseph as well as Mary ; yet it is the immaculate conception which is so born, for that alone is made manifest ; and 60 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. it is the child which was with Mary before she came together with her husband. His office was to help her bring it forth through its representative person. This person or Jesus was born of Mary and Joseph. The Christ was born from Mary because with her to be born or brought forth. She brought forth her child in the Christ. She brought forth Joseph's child in the Jesus. The sense-nature with its consequences are with this person under foot ; hence he is the " Master " in the world for this mastery which is the dominion over all things inherent in the nature of man, is at last made manifest. Belonging to Christ, it is man- ifested — is visible when the Christ is visible. The Christ manifested the divine nature of man proven. Jesus readies his end, for this is the office of person which ends on the seventh day That seen after his death is the Christ only ; the spiritual reality, for the representative figure has reached its own lim- itations. Through the process which is the life-worK recorded of the Jesus person, or the veil of the temple is rent in twain ; and that temple of the living God, tne eternal spiritual being, is so uncovered to those who have eyes with which to see it and who can stand in the place where it is visible. The disciples had to go to the place Jesus told them of to see their risen Lord; and this was a mountain, a position or elvation way above the level of sense which sees only person. Those not accustomed to thinking in the abstract will not readily see this meaning to the Immaculate Conception ; but if the desire for light, for knowledge THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 61 of truth, be strong enough to lead them into such thinking ; into the search within which such thinking is, they will find that, little by little, its meaning will grow clearer, and that in this way they will get the revelation of their own selves ; in this way they will come face to face with their selves, or attain self- knowledge, the highest wisdom. If there is any one thing which impels the would- be helper of mankind to " cry aloud and spare not " it is the evident disinclination, with so many people, to think ; and the accompanying inclination to accept statements on others' self-claimed authority instead of using their own divine power to see what is claimed be true. How can people sit quietly down and listen to the same statements poured into their ears year after year without a mental effort at examination on their own part ? Probably because they believe what they are told, that they have no right of private judgment. For many years the black American of the south had no right of private judgment. That was not only denied him by his master whose property he was, but by the government, which recognized him only as property as well ; but all these years that the right was denied, the divine judgment, which ever reverses the decision of self-claimed and constituted autho- rity when it is against justice and right, was roll- ing up till its volume, as an overwhelming flood, swept through the south and carried with it, never more to return, the human-made law which was con- trary to and in defiance of the law of God. 62 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Individual freedom and individual responsibility because of that freedom is the divine right of every member of the human brotherhood, black or white, and not till this mental freedom is claimed and declared for ; this responsibility recognized and maintained through the maintenance of this freedom, will the grandest and most glorious of all emancipations come for us ; the recognized and conceded right and duty to do our own thinking. The power to think is divine ; it is of God, not of the brain. It belongs to the individual identity, to the " I " which, through its use only, can conceive of itself ; and when you and I abrogate our divine right to use this divine power to this divine end, we throw away our birth-right, for this is that right which is ours because of our birth or our individual existence from the Self-existent Spirit. Remember the lesson taught b}^ the Moses and the burning bush ! When he asks what God is, the reply comes " I am that I am " ; or " find out for yourself what I am ! " When that question is asked to-day, the only satisfactory answer must be found by the individual consciousness for itself. It is an- swered within, not without ; and only the inner ear hears it; only the individual consciousness knows its truth. What is man ? is the question inseparable from the other, for the answer to one will give the answer to the other; and not till, little by little, through the exercise of this power comes the revelation of the nature of man, can he be conceived immaculately by us and then brought forth to prove his own di- THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. QS vinity by the virgin or purity in us ; making thereby, and only in that way, the One God manifest to the world. The results of this wonderful power are but little understood to day, and so the "Immaculate Concep- tion " is a mystery. It produces for us always ; it must bring forth fruit, and these fruits must be according to their seed. What we think we create for ourselves ; that pro- duct may be either " corrupt before God " or immacu- late ; meaning that it may be contrary to truth or in perfect accord with it. So long as there is the least vestige of phe untrue in what we think about ourselves, so long is our con- ception not immaculate; and so long must we ex- perience the consequences which show us the nature of our conception ; for till we see its non-likeness to truth, we will not abandon it. All of us are passing through those experiences which precede the immaculate conception of ourselves as they are recorded in this book, the Bible. We are so working out our salvation from all conceptions which are *' corrupt " or not true of ourselves. Step by step we are working our way from the Adam stage to the Jesus stage ; covering that whole process from mortality to immortality. Only the immaculate conception can be immortal, because it only is in accord with and sustained by indestructible truth ; every other conception or every mortal self must die ; must come to its own legitimate end because of its own limitation. Only that one which is immaculate, or co-extensive 64 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. with that which is conceived of — with the " I " the individual identity and so immortal, survives. This immaculate conception is of the " Holy- Ghost " ; from spiritual, not the Adam-sense ; its birth is that which is so born of the Spirit and that alone enters into immortality. The Holy Ghost, the divine breath, the Creative power overshadows us all; as the Highest power or the power of that Mind which is God, it comes upon the woman or pure intuitional nature in us and brings forth, through her, its product who is so the son of the Highest instead of the lowest power and who proves his nature. • How many of us are yet conscious of this over- shadowing? Are ready to conceive of that which we may later give birth to as this son of the Highest ? How many of us like Cain, continually slay this possi- bility for ourselves by recognizing and obeying the lower sense as .master? This same Holy Ghost will come to all of us when the Mary in us is ready to receive it, when the Sarah has first been visited by the Lord; the result of which visitation is the seed whose fruit is the Jesus. When that creative power works through us with- out hindrance through our " letting there be ", its product will be immaculate ; and so will our several selves be redeemed from that sense which would ignorantly corrupt them, and be made sons of light. Do not let us look upon this birth from the virgin Mary as it is presented in religious dogma, and so blind ourselves to its true significance ! Do not let us feel that there is anything too holy THJB IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 65 to be looked at and through, in all sincerity, to know the truth ! The Bible speaks to us individually ; it is one individual process that is recorded there, and it is yours and mine. 5 66 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. THE TEMFTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. Matthew rv. 1 — 11. " Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said. If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketb him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. And saith unto him. If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down : for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee : and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him. It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Then saith Jesus unto him. Get thee hence, Satan ; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and mia- stered unto him. I THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILBEBNESS, 67 The experience of Jesus of Nazareth recorded in the Gospels under this head, has a grand and signif- icant meaning when the true nature of this Jesus of Nazareth is discerned. When he is seen as the perfected mortal, the last stage in that " mortal passage from sense to soul " whose end waits immortality ; that last stage or type which glides or grows into the eternal that lies be- yond it as naturally as these stages or types have grown into each other all the way through the pro- cess — we shall also see what evangelicism has never revealed to us ; see that this temptation in the wilder- ness which succeeds the descent of the Holy Ghost, is a part of our own experience ; and because we find through this perception of Jesus as the typeman for the race, that what he is and all that is recorded of him, belongs to every one of us individually. We see as we never have before, the force of his declaration, " I am the way — no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Only in and by this way, whose name is Jesus, do we come unto the one Father of us all or " return unto the Lord." From its first step to its last, we too follow on ; just as when we walk after another along a road un- known to us, we plant our feet in his footprints, so making progress because the one we follow knows the way, and is ever ahead of us in consequence. These Four Gospels are records of this way with its footprints ; the one which leads us over the line between a part and the whole ; leads us out of the limitations of the part into the unlimited eternal All, where we " sit down at the right hand of the 68 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, Father ; " for travel we must till we have passed over this way to its end, and ascended from it to that which always has been and always will be above it, beneath it, and enclosing it. We cannot sit down till this journey is made and we reach its end. These several footprints are clearly outlined in these records ; so clearly that " he who runs may read " if he but look with his eye, and not through spectacles that distort. It is a direct and easily fol- lowed sequence from the first appearance of Jesus as disputing with the doctors in the temple to the final one as the chief personage on Calvary's top, where he is lifted by the cross beyond the vision of those who placed him there. These records of these foot-prints of one who goes before us through mortality into immortality, are truly " a lamp to our feet and a guide to our path " ; for by their help we can see where to plant our feet, can see the end from the beginning ; can know that at whatever point in this way we now are, the rest is open before us, and no man, no church, no dogma, no worldly power can keep us from going on, if we will ; can place any " thus far and no farther " across our path through self-claimed and constituted author- ity. Through Jesus all mankind shall be saved ; and this salvation is not a concession because of individ- ual favor, but an eternal law that could not be other- wise ; for he is the way of salvation ; is that pictured truth which shows • us how to be saved from a con- sciousness of any and all things which is not eternal ; is not the real and desirable ; saved from a mortal, limited THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. 69 sense about all things, ourselves, our God or Cause, our relation to that God and future destiny ; and by following in this way, by growing out of these limita- tions — gaining the proof of this outgrowing in our own consciousness ; the proof that demonstrates itself — we are followers of Jesus in the true sense, and not followers of the traditions about Jesus ; because we are so led by the same spirit which is one for all of us. This is an all-important distinction for us to make. Are we true followers of the true Jesus or are we fol- lowers of the traditional Jesus, the latter a course which, according to this very book, the Bible, will make the " commandment of God " or the truth, of no effect with us ? Not tiU that sense, spiritual perception, which can see beyond the limitations of mortal or personal sense, is developed with us sufficiently to enable us to see through and beyond the traditional Jesus, or the Jesus of mortal sense, will we see him truly as that way in which we must walk ; see him truly as the leader whom we must follow because his footprints must receive our own feet. Not till we see the Jesus scientifically, or as a logical necessity, instead of traditionally, will we be truly Christians in the highest sense ; or be of those who follow truth as authority instead of authority for truth. Where this is the position held, all factional divisions will disappear, and as one body with many members we shall be led by the one Spirit to that end of mortality which is assured from the foundation of the world, 70 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. and SO enter into that eternal spiritual consciousness which is prepared for all ready for it. This temptation in the wilderness is preceded by the descent of the " Holy Ghost " as Luke records it, and the " Spirit of God " according to Matthew ; and . this temptation is possible only as its sequence. The " Devil " or the tempter, is mortal sense which is so personified and localized, or made objective like everything else in this book ; and this temptation is that process, that phase of self-consciousness in which the mortal or natural sense suggests, or tempts, and the immortal or spiritual sense determines ; or the devil is resisted and so his power overcome. There cannot be this conflict between the devil and Jesus, between mortal sense and spiritual sense, in which the latter is victorious because the more potent of the two, till that sense has descended into the consciousness. This sense is not the first or natural to a mortal; it is with its kind, the immortal or spiritual ; and hence must come to or descend to the mortal for him to use it, and so resist, overpower the natural sense of the natural man ; for him to withstand the temp- tation of the devil or the suggestions Of mortal sense, and come off victor. How emphatically is here taught the lesson that "all our help cometh from on high" not from the plane of mortality. There is nothing belonging to that which can either lead or lift us above it and away from it. All progress toward the immortal which is only jf growth away from mortality, can be ours only as we t THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. 71 think and act with the Spirit of God after its descent upon us ; and this is the direct consequence of the opening of the heavens upon us. This record in Matthew does not read as if those who saw the baptism of Jesus by John also saw the heavens opened, although it is frequently so under- stood. According to the 16th verse of , the 3d chapter "And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him : and lo a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The heavens opened for him ; the descent was for and upon him ; the voice was for him only ; or this is the record of an individual experience which is the preparation for the temptation in the wilderness ; that an individual experience as well. The next chapter^-for these words close the third — begins with " Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," showing by the first word " then " the immediate connection between this descent of the Spirit and this temptation in the wilderness, which is also shown to be of a far higher order than any experience which has preceded it ; for he was led " up " of the Spirit into the wilderness. This wilderness is a plane of self -consciousness which is " up " or above preceding planes, and this descent of the Spirit makes it so ; for here is the ability to recognize the nature of the tempter, which does not belong at first to the natural sense of the natural man. 72 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. This temptation in the wilderness is higher, more subtle and more delusive by far than the tempting of Eve by the serpent as it is recorded in Genesis. That is the tempting of mortal sense by appearance ; this is the temptation of spiritual sense by mortal sense ; one which lies farther along in this journey from mortal consciousness to immortal consciousness; is at the point where spiritual sense becomes active and strives with mortal sense ; where the limitations of mortal sense are recognized and spiritual sense enables us to look beyond them so that we are confronted with this wilderness which is the consequence of this pro- gress ; for by seeing with a higher sense than we have before been conscious of, we see anew, and, bewildered, we try to reconcile the new with the. old, to make the two harmonize ; and only through this experience do we find that they do not mingle and that what we say must be yea ! yea ! and nay ! nay ! It is temptation in and to a far higher state of self- consciousness than our natural one ; a temptation which is resisted and overcome only by and through this spirit of God which has descended into that con- sciousness and become one with it. It is this Spirit of God which descended upon Jesus that answers all the propositions of the devil ; that speaks in and through the Jesus, giving reply to every suggestion, every prompting, every desire of mortal or personal sense. It is the word of God, the " God said," the truth of being, that, through spiritual sense, gives reply to mortal sense and puts out of the individual conscious- ness all of its allurements, because, when desire for THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. 73 these is less than the desire for the beyond of them, they do not attract and hold the attention ; that is fixed on the mark of the mortal's high calling. With every one of us, the mortal, the natural sense, believes the visible to it to be the real of living and of being ; and through experience that higher sense is developed which shows us otherwise. But temptation is not overcome, the suggestions of mortal sense are not passed beyond because of this development. Yet the power to turn from them through seeing them for what they are and to pro- nounce truly upon them, is ours in consequence ; for the higher sense shows us the real, the true, because it looks through the visible, pierces its limitations and discerns the beyond. This temptation in the wilderness is the contrast yet the sequence to the tempting of Eve and of Adam through her. The first temptation finds no sense able to see its nature. The yielding of Eve and of Adam to what is called the allurements of the serpent is the natural consequence of their innocence which is igno- rance. In Genesis we read that all things were brought to Adam " to see what he would call them ; and what- soever Adam called them that was the name thereof." Here is the mortal sense which sees only the visible representatives and can see no farther ; which pro- nounces as it sees and consequently falls short of the truth of things. The experience of Adam and Eve is the inevitable result of this position ; their fall is the fall into ex- perience and so into more knowledge, the continu- 74 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. ation of which brings revelation of the invisible truth ; and so, at last, as the fruit of both experience and revelation, the Jesus as the upgrowth from Adam and Eve who is tempted also ; but, who can pronounce upon every declaration of mortal sense according to the truth of being, giving the answer at all points which is the answer of positive truth to perverted truth ; for this Jesus is the mortal who knows in place of the mortal who believes ; the one who sees with spiritual instead of mortal sense ; who under- stands that which the Adam and Eve were naturally blind to, and who declares the truth visible to him in consequence. Step by step has the process between the Adam and the Jesus brought about this result ; enabled the one "full of the Holy Ghost" to be "led of the Spirit " into this wilderness which is the preparation for the mighty works recorded as taking place after- ward. Not until resistance instead of yielding to every temptation of the devil, to that mortal sense which is here personified as the devil ; not till truthful answers to every one of its suggestions and declarations are forthcoming, can these works which make manifest the divine nature of man, be unfailingly performed. Out from the wilderness where the only guide and sustain er is spiritual consciousness through spiritual sense, must come the successful demonstrator of the nature of the Christ. Only the one who comes out from thence as victor over that devil can make the Christ manifest in, by, and through his works ; for the Christ as the divin- THE TEMPTATION IN TEE WILDEBNESS. 75 ity of Man and so the likeness of God — the Divine personality — can be wholly manifested only through that mortal who is one in consciousness with the divinity and so acts in harmony with it. Victory in the wilderness is all essential to victory out of it ; victory for ourselves in our own within, to victory demonstrated to others in the without. We read in Luke that when the temptation had ended " Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee ; " and there the work which is the con- sequence of the victory in the wilderness begins with a new interpretation of what is old with the people ; for He read to them from the book of Esais, and gave them a different meaning from the one they were accustomed to ; and why ? Because He spake with the tongue and power of the Spirit which had descended upon Him through spiritual perception ; that power which ever pierces the visible, the letter, and discerns and brings forth the waiting truth back of it. He came out of the wilderness with this power, so to speak, because of the victory in it. As spiritual sense there answered every prompting of mortal sense and destroyed the power of that sense to rule, so it answered the demand of the people for knowl- edge of the truth, for that knowledge which is wisdom ; for it alone could impart it. They were " in the synagogue on the Sabbath day ; " were there for instruction, for that help which should be theirs from their leaders and instructors ; and out of the same book from which these teachers instructed them, came a new revelation, a higher 76 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, statement of the true than their old one, because the " power of the Spirit " brought it forth. And what was the consequence ? " They rose up and thrust Him out of the city." A parallel to our own times, is it not ? When any one to-day, because '^led by the Spirit," speaks in the " power of the Spirit," and so contra- dicts tradition, the people who are ruled by it like- wise rise up against him and thrust him out from the midst of them, because " Is not this Joseph the carpenter's son ? " Is not this one whom we have always known ? How can he presume to contradict our teachers and teach us ? But now, as then, such an one will pass through them and escape out of their hands, because " led of the Spirit " instead of by what leads them ; because ruled and sustained by it, to its own manifesta- tion. In this wilderness which precedes demonstration of truth, precedes the manifestation of man's nature, and so makes him visible to the only sense which can see him — the spiritual sense — we are all " an hungered ; " hungry for more and more of that bread which Cometh down from heaven ; a hunger which the stones of mortality cannot satisfy ; a hunger which mortal sense is powerless to appease ; whose cravings cease only through ministrations of angels ; through more and more realization of the divine invisible truth of our own being beside which this mortal sense of being, with its allurements, is as naught. This hunger is the consequence of seeing truly that '* man shall not live by bread alone, but by every THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. 77 word of God " ; seeing that man in eternal unity with the one Creator is forever sustained in all he is and all he does by that Creator ; that his life, his sus- tenance cannot be cut off ; that every " word " or every " God said " goes to make up man who, as the result, is inseparable from that which has produced him ; and the necessity for consciousness, for knowl- edge of his own nature and for the demonstration of it, is expressed in this answer of Jesus and in the one given to the suggestion to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. The last and strongest temptation of all which must be overcome in this wilderness before we can come forth from it able to do the works which are its sequence, unfailingly, is what may be called, as a general term, ambition ; — the very opposite of aspira- tion. " And the devil, taking him up into an high moun- tain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee and the glory of them : for that is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." Ambition is the most subtle tempter that we have to strive against ; the one to which we turn the most willing ear ; the one surest to cause us disappoint- ment and defeat when we listen to its beguiling with- out resistance and rejection. It assails those who have made progress beyond the visible plane as the real of being, more than those who are still there ; whispers its enticing words into 78 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. their ears which catch them far sooner than those that are closed to aught but the grossest. It is a tempter which springs up full grown " in a moment of time," and shows the one to whom he comes " all the kingdoms of the world " as most desi- rable possessions which can be gained and held by a compromise with the devil ; a compromise with mortal sense by and through which the power will be his to have and hold them to himself. For this devil — mortal, personal sense — says truly, " All this power will I give thee and the glory of them ; for that is delivered unto me ; and to whom- soever I will I give it." To mortal sense only belongs this kind of power ; to it only are these possessions desirable. It only would stand as a ruler among men to whom all should bow down and do reverence as demanded by the Haman of old. It would have them look up to it as all potent and all powerful, and its rewards as the most to be coveted. Ah ! The one who listens and yields to this temptation in the wilderness but builds that gallows on which he is himself hung ; upon which his ambition and vanity are brought to an end, wliile his coveted power goes to the obscure and looked-down upon ; to one of the chosen people who refuses to give this demanded homage because led by a higher than mortal sense. To him only can true, because lasting, power be- long ; the higher sense alone commands it, and it is not of this world. How many of us to-day are listening and yielding T^E TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. 79 to this temptation in the wilderness ? Only such as recognize and to a degree use the higher sense, spirit- ual perception, can be so tempted ; for unconscious, ignorant following of the suggestions of mortal sense is no temptation ; there must be the ability to perceive the nature of and the power to resist the temptation, to make it such ; the unconscious following brings with it needed experience which shows or reveals what has been done. But those who have progressed far enough in the perception of the natureof the world and of mankind to see what it truly is are where they are approached by this tempter, brought face to face with this temp- tation. What the world calls honor, power, glory, wealth, and happiness are surely theirs if they follow mortal sense ; are surely not theirs if they follow spiritual sense. That following will bring them only what the world does not recognize ; the power to minister to the broken-hearted, to liberate the captive, to bind up the wounds of the suffering, to console the afflicted, to preach the gospel proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom of heaven, and to throw open its door for others to see the way in ; bring the power to for- get one's self ; the power to manifest the Christ in word and work. Again, some understanding of mental forces are far more potent than those denominated physical, brings with it the temptation to use them for personal pro- fit and glory ; for reputation, power, influence, and possessions that belong to the world only, because worldly in their nature ; impels the one having this 80 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, understanding to seek personal recognition, demand personal homage, acquire a personal following which shall cause admiring throngs to cry out, " Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the truth delighteth to honor." And even if no desire for what is distinctively called worldly popularity is consciously felt, a subtler ambition may cause such a one to proclaim : " There is but one God and I am His prophet " ; and it may tempt this one to use these hidden powers to impress this belief upon the people as truth, cheating himself meanwhile with the like belief that truth is served, that God is glorified thereby. Let us remember the grand lesson taught by Shake- spear in the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey, who through his ambition and his efforts to gratify its cravings is brought to where he exclaims, " I have touched the highest point of all my greatness ; and from that full meridian of all my glory, I haste now to my setting; I shall fall like a bright exhalation in the evening, and no man see me more." Ambition ! That all-potent and dominating in- fluence on the plane of mortal sense I How many victims does it number? How many who reach the meridian, the highest point of worldly glory, only to fall out of sight ; to learn needed lessons after that fall which aspiration, in place of ambition, would have saved them from ! Learn them in that solitude which forgetfalness on the part of those who formerly applauded makes more bitter and painful ; learn there that the true meridian of glory is not in this world but beyond it; THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS. 81 is not in mortal, but in immortal, consciousness ; and that from it there is no fall. Let us take Wolsey's charge to Cromwell home to ourselves ; let us " fling away ambition, for by that sin fell the angels : how can man, then, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it ? Love thyself last ; cherish those hearts that hate thee. Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, to silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not : let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy country's, thy God's, and truth's." How truly does this devil in the wilderness say, "The glory of the kingdoms of the world is delivered unto me ; and to whomsoever I will, I give it." Yet it is as true that this devil, this keeper and be- stower of worldly honors and possessions, must be worshipped, or recognized and followed, for them to be bestowed. " If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." Are they worth the price? Are they worth this concession to and alliance with mortal sense, to the sure exclusion, little by little, of the eternal glories revealed to and gained through spiritual sense ? It is possible for every one of us to give the answer to this tempter and temptation given by Jesus in the wilderness — " Get thee behind me, Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve." Every one of us can resist and put behind us, or out of sight, this temptation ; and we surely will when our desire for things heavenly is stronger than 6 82 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. our desire for things worldly ; when the eternal truth of our being attracts us more than this sense of our being; when the allurements of this fall on ears dulled to them because strained to catch the heavenly- harmonies which are unceasing ; whose strains are sounding forever in higher states of consciousness, and whose echoes we can catch now, if we listen. Till this answer is given, this temptation put from us instead of embraced, our word cannot be " with power," our works cannot be those which are " mighty," because they manifest the Christ, or our divine nature. Worship only the truth ! Aspire ever to the Lord th}^ God ! To the true Man who ever reflects and so reveals God, though hid in the invisible. Stop at nothing short of this; accept nothing less; do not be content with or even pause to look at "the king- doms of the world " and their glory. What does it matter who stands foremost in the world to-day, receiving the most recognition and admiration ? Wliat does it matter that this one is well known and has a large following, and that one is unknown and has none ? That this one is applauded and that one condemned ? When we recognize that to "serve the Lord thy God " — to " wait on the Lord " is to keep the eye fixed on the immutable and unchangeable truth of being, on man as the image of God, and, giving allegi- ance to nothing less, to grow steadily day by day into the consciousness of that truth ; into that spirit- ual consciousness which is immortality, and in which the kingdoms of the world and their glory have no THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS, 83 place, we shall give this answer ; and only so can we experience its consequence — receive the ministrations of angels; for they cannot be with and minister- unto us while the devil is unresisted and not put from us. Only when he leaves us through our command to get behind us — and here is shown the power over mortal sense which unity with spiritual sense through the descent of the Spirit of God gives us — do they come with those messages of peace and love which are the sustenance we need for the continuance of this journey from darkness to light ; for the doing of those .mighty works which must be done before we too can say, "It is finished." And this end comes only to those who can say, " ^'ot my will but thine be done ! " Not the will of limited mortal sense which insists upon the true to it, instead of the true in itself; but that unchanging will which is a constant, never-ceasing unfoldment of infinity. Through this temptation in the wilderness, this re- sistance and overcoming of the devil — for a season — this ministration of the angels, the coming into our consciousness of the thoughts of the one Mind as our food which the stones of the wilderness cannot supply, we go forth from it armed for the final vic- tory ; equipped for all that lies between this stage and the " I have overcome." 84 A CatCAQO BIBLE CLASS. THE TRANSFIGURATION. Matthew xvii. 1-9. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And was transfigured before them : and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them ; and behold a voice out of the cloud, wliich said. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. And as they came down from the moimtain , Jesus charged them, saying. Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. In the three gospels which record the transfigu- ration of Jesus, Matthew's, Mark's and Luke's, the account is preceded, in all of them, by another which has an important bearing upon this transfiguration as aiding to reveal its meaning. THE TBANSFIGUBATION, 85 These three records all declare the transfiguration of Jesus, not Christ ; although the headlines of the chapters in which the record is found state this fact in but one instance. The 9th chapter of Mark is prefaced by the headline " Jesus is transfigured " ; the 17th chapter of Matthew and the 9th chapter of Luke have " The transfiguration of Christ." The true significance of what is called " the trans- figuration " hinges upon the distinction between the Jesus and the Christ ; and this cannot be recognized unless the like distinction between the Son of Man and the Son of God is equally plain. It is the ac- count preceding that of the transfiguration — Jesus' questioning of His disciples as to whom He is — which emphasizes and illustrates this fact ; but the inter- dependence of the two will be clear, probably, only to that student of the Bible who searches instead of reads it, who seeks for its meaning, penetrating its exterior for the purpose. The transfiguration is the experience consequent upon the ability to see truly the nature of the Jesus or the mortal ; and it comes as the natural result in the fulfilling of the Law. The question asked by Jesus of His disciples elicits two answers of different nature ; and only by and through that perception and understanding which gives the second one can come the transfiguration recorded as following. Only by seeing clearly the inter-relation of the Old and New Testaments, by so tracing the Jesus of the New from His beginnings in the Old, can that second answer be given and the transfiguration 86 4 CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. follow; for, as is constantly .revealed in a search of the Scriptures, this Jesus of the Gospels and of Paul is something more than a historical character merely. He is the fruit of that process which is stated in the Old Testament and followed to its conclusion in the New ; a process applicable to every one of us, which must be seen and consciously followed by every one of us, and we must bring forth as its prod- uct, through our conscious co-operation, this same fruit through which only the full manifestation of man's divine nature can come ; or every one of us must bring forth the Jesus as the medium or perfect person through which the Christ is wholly revealed. How to bring forth the Jesus and so make manifest the Christ, together with the signs by and through ■ which the Christ is recognized, is what is taught in the Bible for our individual guidance ; and^in this process of fulfilling the Law we come inevitably to the point where we are confronted by the question, " What am I ? " and upon the answer we are able to give to this question depends our own transfiguration ; which is the transfiguration or transformation of the son of man or the mortal through perception of its unity with the Son of God or the immortal. This transfiofuration or transformation has its coun- terpart in the Old Testament: for the record of \ each gospel, which is reiterated by the others, is an i epitome of the whole process outlined in the Old \ Testament ; and this counterpart is the Noah stage | therein, where old things pass away and all things ; become new. ' The son of man or the mortal, beginning with the ' i THE TRANSFIGURATION . 87 Adam and ending with the Jesus, looks to others as these others do to themselves ; this son of man or person is the visible to mortal sense who is trans- formed when seen with spiritual sense ; hence this ti-ansfiguration cannot come till spiritual sense begins to take the place of mortal sense, or till we perceive instead of see ; perceive the invisible though seeing the visible, and understand that the invisible is more real or lasting than the visible. This is what is portrayed in the questioning of the disciples by Jesus. " He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am ? And they said. Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias ; and others, Jeremias or one of the prophets." This question asks the verdict of mortal sense, the natural sense, upon the mortal, upon person or the Son of man, as Jesus declares himself to be. This verdict is always the answer of belief ; for mortal sense cannot understand the nature of the Son of man ; it is too limited to compass it. Incap- able of this understanding which can alone give the true answer, it answers according to its own belief, and inevitably falls short of the truth, as any answer which is not from the unity of perception and understand- ing, must do. So Jesus asks first of His disciples " Whom do men say that I am ? Not you who have been instructed in My true nature so far as you have been able to receive that instruction; but others, all men who have not received this help, and who in consequence, hold the opinions which are the result of their mortal 88 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. sense about Me ; " the result of seeing only the visible, discerning nothing of that invisible which is back of it and in unity with it. And the reply is the reply of opinion, of belief; con- sequently it varies; some believe one thing, some another and there is disagreement between them in consequence ; each will think he alone is right and all the others wrong. One says Jesus is John the Baptist, another that he is Elias, and so on. This result is repeated to-day. One denomination declares Him to be God in human form, another to be a man just as we are, only a good deal better, etc., etc., through all the many and differ- ing sects which make up Christendom. These are the answers of mortal sense only ; of be- liefs about Jesus which will have their day and come to an end ; for after them will come the true answer which shall supplant these, and then the last shall be first and the first shall be last. In this whole process from sense to soul, or from limited consciousness to all consciousness, mortal or limited sense pronounces first upon all in it ; the de- cision of perception and understanding comes after it and ever reverses its decision, because the invisible to mortal sense gradually becomes the only visible, shutting out the former visible through the overcom- ing of the only sense which sees it. As mortal or personal sense is overcome or grown beyond, all that we call mortal and material will disappear, for it will be swallowed up in transformation. Looking upon Simon Peter as the type of united perception and understanding, a capacity way be- THE TRANSFIGURATION, 89 yond the range of mortal sense — for all the disciples of Jesus are types who are at one with Him as the chief, being those who have followed Him in the re- generation — we can see the significance of his answer and the equal significance of the question put by Jesus. It is not like the former " Whom do men say that J, the Son of Man, am ? but Whom say ye that 1 amr' It is not addressed to mortal sense to elicit its re- sponse, but to those faculties which are beyond this ; to that sense which can see where the other is blind ; to that which can pierce the visible and discern the invisible ; to that for which visible and invisible are transposed, the visible to mortal sense being the invisible to it, while the invisible to mortal sense is its visible ; and the answer is one, not many ; it is the abstract truth, not beliefs about it. According to Matthew the answer is, " Thou art the Christ the son of the living God " ; to Mark, " Thou art the Christ " ; and to Luke, " The Christ of God." Compare this answer of Peter's with the others ; there is no room for doubt here ; no possibility of wrong decision. It is the answer of that knowledge which is wisdom instead of that worldly knowledge or belief which is foolishness with God, or incompat- ible with truth. It is this knowledge which establishes the true Church,' the Church of the Spirit, and upon this rock of united perception and understanding which gives it an eternal and unchanging foundation from which it cannot be moved. Any attempt to shift it to an- 90 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. other ever has and ever will result in failure, in the downfall of that which it was sought to upbuild. And the keys of the kingdom of heaven are held in the keeping of this united perception and under- standing, not by mortal sense, which not only does not possess them but does not even know where to look for them, and contents itself with its own belief about what they are. This ability to discern the immortal back of the mortal, the invisible back of the visible, opens the way for the transfiguration or the transformation of the mortal to the immortal; but as an accomplished fact, it is the result of a process which leads to it. The records read — "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bring- eth them up into an high mountain apart." Taken literally, this statement would seem to show a preference for these three disciples above the others; a species of favoritism inconsistent with the nature of that teacher and leader who declared one Father for all ; but, interpreted according to the one ruling principle of this book, the Bible, it shows that He took the only three who could ascend this mountain — or Peter as the type of united perception and under- standing, James as the type of realization, and John his brother, the type of impersonal love, without which realization cannot be. These, through higher development or increase under the leadership of the Jesus ; through growing nearer to Him or widening out to include more and more the truth of being, our eternal spiritual verity, so go with him into " an high mountain apart " from i THE TBANSFIGUBATION. 91 lesser states of consciousness, and upon or in which the visible to mortal sense is lost and the visible to spiritual sense is found ;or the true nature of the son of man is seen or visible ; and this nature is spiritual because at one with the Son of God. This result, possible only to these, to the Peter, James, and John, because of the " six days " or degrees of progress to this possibility, point also to the reason why only these disciples were with Jesus at the raising of Jairus' daughter. He suffered no other man to follow him, because none less than these can do what they can as assistants in the manifestation of the Christ. Tracing the process which brings the Jesus or the perfected person, the Son of man, forth from its be- ginnings with the Adam, we follow it through Enos to the Noah stage where, by means of what is called the flood, the old is washed away and a new appears. All that was before the flood goes into the Ark with Noah and comes forth afterward, showing the pres- ervation of the kind on the earth." Everything which was before it is preserved by means of the Ark, so that after the flood the same kind is upon the earth as was there before ; proving that the kind was not evil, bad, wicked, for that which was so was washed away, while the kind con- tinued. Only a sense about this kind was destroyed by this flood which bore up the Ark and preserved all it con- tained ; that was the evil, the wrong, the wickedness that was destroyed. It was only the " imagination of man's heart " or belief consequent upon limited 92 A CHICAGO BiBLE CLASS. sense that was done away with, and supplanted by understanding ; and this process always works a transformation in things seen because the sense which sees them is transformed. In this process from mortality to immortality the mortal is and must be transformed or transfigured ; and it is brought about only through the transforma- tion in the sense which sees it, this transformation coming just as Paul declares it, through a renewing. " And be ye therefore transformed through the re- newing of your mind." As mortal sense, the Adam-sense which sees only the mortal, the representative, the forms which are acted upon by that which is back of them, becomes transformed through renewing with spiritual sense — the sense which can discern the invisible that acts upon and through the representative — these forms of this kind is seen anew ; and it is transfigured through this transformation in the sense about it ; for when this comes, the kind is seen in the light instead of in the darkness, and its true nature which shows it to be in itself, senseless and inanimate, subject not ruler, and used only as a means to an end and that end divine is understood. Then the one who sees and understands knows that no more shall a flood destroy, for there is then nothing to be destroyed. The kind stands, but the wrong sense about it which made it seem what it was not, is gone. That only is destructible and has reached its end. The complement of this stage in Genesis, the transfiguration in the Gospels, portrays the same THE TBANSFIGUMATION. 93 result. Through a renewing in sense which is pro- gressive, the disciples reach the transformation stage where the Jesus, the Son of man, is transfigured to them because seen with a higher sense ; seen on a mountain apart ; and this transfiguration of one includes the same of others ; includes transfiguration of all in this process from Adam to Jesus. The seeing him in accordance with what he rep- resents, instead of with mortal sense, includes the like seeing of all that precedes him and shows the continuity between them. Moses and Elias are seen also in this mountain apart ; or a new perception, un- derstanding and realization of what Moses and Elias are and what their relation to the son of man and the Son of God is the accompaniment of the trans- figuration of this son of man so that the Son of God is the only seen. Moses as the law-giver, the one who holds the rod of God in his hand by means of which the works are done, and Elias the restorer, who comes at this stage of transformation or transfiguration to restore all things or preserve the kind though the former sense about it disappears, have their place here and are in- cluded in what is seen by the Peter, James and John ; and the three tabernacles are but the reappearing or the transfiguration of the covenant made between God and Noah " for perpetual generations " ; that everlasting covenant that no more shall there be destruction, for there is no more to destroy. This transfiguration of the kind, of person, or of Jesus the Son of man, opens the ears to the voice of God. " A bright cloud overshadowed them : and 94 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him." The unity instead of opposition between the mortal or person and God — unity through the immortal or Son of God, the only truly living being, is made manifest in this process of manifestation and is the accompaniment of transformation ; for when the mortal is seen to be in harmony with the One God and mortal sense is seen to be the only enmity between them, this is the place of transfiguration in which the kind is preserved because one with the immortal, the spiritual, the Son of God ; for " when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no man save Jesus only." The kind of which Jesus is the highest type or a kind after and according to Man, has its place in that universe which is Creation or is from the One Creator, as necessarily and lawfully as has Man or the spiritual ; for it is according to the spiritual so that this is made manifest through it. Were it not so, the spiritual would be without a medium for manifestation. Without the Jesus, the Christ could not be fully manifested ; and the unity and harmony between the spiritual and the representative of it or between that which is direct from Spirit — God and the kind according to it, is eternal ; so it is preserved through all the destroying which goes on in this process of manifestation ; for all that is destroyed are the im- pediments to such manifestation which is necessary to complete Creation ; and these impediments are THE TRANSFIGURATION. 95 the errors of mortal sense and the consequent evils to it, destroyed because destructible in their nature ; while the kind, the representative, is not destruct- ible, because there are no mistakes, no errors, no evils in Creation ; in that Universe which is the work of the One God through Man. ''And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged tliem, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead." This transfiguration of the representative, the visible, or person, which comes in the process from expression of God to the manifestation, is an ex- perience in consciousness and so is individual ; hence it cannot be told, for it cannot be expressed in words ; neither can it be understood except it be accompanied by proof; and the proof must be the accompaniment of the capacity to get and hold it. The transformation of the Son of man to the Peter, James, and John individual to us, is a vision or an individual consciousness only ; and it takes the unity of these three to receive the vision while to these it is only " in an high mountain apart" ; or a conscious- ness mountain high, and as such distinct from that mortal sense consciousness, the natural state of the natural man which is as a valley — the valley of the shadow of death; — and away from which growth according to Law takes place. This growth is the passing through that valley and up the high mountain apart where all seen in the valley is transfigured. To say to others that there is 96 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. no mortal man ; that the person seen to-day which we call man is but a figure which, in a degree, represents the true and real hidden by it, is useless ; for only the Peter, James, and John can see that truth ; to them only is the visible transfigured ; and for the majority, proof of what is called a life after death is demanded and alone can show them that the disappearance of the visible does not mean an end to living but is only a step in that process of transformation from glory to glory till transfiguration is complete and the Son of man is gone, the Son of God only remaining. This vision is no exceptional occurrence, native only to the days of Jesus and his disciples as historical per- sonages ; for the power of such visions, the capacity to see clearly, see through and beyond the veil of mortal sense, is inherent in us all, but unknown and undeveloped as yet in the mass. It becomes active only in those who are followers of Jesus in the regeneration ; in those for whom the actualities of mortal sense have lost seductiveness, and who with heart, soul, and mind turn to the Lord ; to the true Self which is in heaven, and so, turning, experience that transformation in consciousness which lifts them to that Self or transfigures them. Those for whom the mount of transfiguration begins to appear dimly in the distance are those who are open to receive the vision belonging to it, who are on the way to the finding of Christ through the growing recognition and realization that He is the Divine Nature individual to every one of us which is repre- sented by and manifested through, person. For those travelling in this way the Son of man, THE TBANSFIGUBATION, 97 the mortal person, is transfigured because the bright- ness of the Christ shines through and beyond it. For them the veil of the temple is rent asunder and the immortal, deathless self stands forth. For them there are no evils, no errors in the great and grand universe of the eternal God. They will see that the mortal or person holds his own place therein equally with the immortal and that transfig- uration is his destiny. O ! you who do not stand in this position to-day, who do not yet see that you are gradually approach- ing this mount of transfiguration because it is hidden in the distance, do not see that you must ascend it ! Wait a little ! Your feet will yet reach its base. Allow the possibility that the clouds which now bound your horizon may be pushed farther away ; for the approach to this mountain is upward and as we go the horizon grows broader. All that now seems evil, error, a lie, will become so transformed in the light which shines ever on this mountain, however dark it be in the valley, as to be transfigured : and the voice of the One God will be heard out of the bright cloud which rests there, de- claring the divine nature of all that the limited sense would destroy as having no place in the divine whole. There the face of the mortal, of the son of man, shall shine as the sun and his raiment be white as the light ; for the darkness of mortal sense has passed from before him little by little ; and so he has been transformed, lifted higher till he has ascended above it to the light of God in which his divine nature is revealed as the all and the only. 98 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. STILLING THE TEMPEST. Maek IV. 35-41. And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow : and they awake him, and say imto him. Master, carest thou not that we perish ? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful ? how is it that ye have no faith ? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him ? Power is what mankind covets. In all countries, with all classes of people, in the several fields wherein these labor, power is sought after as the desirable, for which all sacrifices are made, every energy is bent. It is rarely a person is met, young or old, who is not ambitious ; and to whom the attainment of what he is striving after does not mean power. Possession of it and opportunity for wielding it are dear to every individual member of mankind whether they have grown to the recognition of the fact or not. STILLING THE TEMPEST. 99 We see this in the merest child equally with the full grown man. It is the manifestation of the same instinct, whether it be the child's impetuous effort to have its own way and conquer all that opposes it, or the nature man's strife for that place and position which shall enable him to hold others subject to himself and it, and in which he crushes whatever he cannot sweep to one side. It is a struggle for this result everywhere ; one that is individual and universal; and being so it must have a meaning ; for there is nothing made visible to us by means of humanity which has not a meaning and a reason for being. Why is there this universal instinct in mankind and toward what does it tend ? In this connection let us consider the experience of Jesus and his disciples recorded in the gospels as the " Stilling of the Tempest." Remembering that Jesus is the teacher; the instructor for those less than he ; the mediator between their ignorance and that knowledge which is wisdom ; through whom that ignorance is displaced by the wisdom in pro- portion as they are able to receive it, because he knows and they are but on the way to the knowing, we shall find a grand lesson which is applicable to ourselves individually. The power of mastery, or dominion over all things, belongs to man because it is a part of his nature. Because of what he is all things are subject to him in that he is greater than they, and the greater, by right, rules over the lesser. In man's development, this dominion or mastery, which is his by right of his 100 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. being, becomes the conscious fact through attainment. We read in the first chapter of Genesis that God made man in his own image and said, " Let them have dominion " over all things ; and further, that man was to " subdue the earth." Seeing that generic man, as the image of God, or the infinite idea of the One Infinite Mind, is to become the actual man through development, we see that this power belonging to generic man must develop till it becomes the actual, the acting power ; and that the attainment of the self-consciousness which belongs to man, to that in- finite idea, reached through the developing process, must contain within it consciousness of this dominion, this mastery of all, through demonstration. This being a process from the least to the greatest, this conquest of all is in the ascending scale, from a little to more and from more to all. At first there is subjection to other things through ignorance of the inherent power to overcome and rule them ; and this state is typified by the Adam of Genesis. The consequent experience develop the power, and beyond the Adam stage it is coming more and more into the consciousness as an actual instead of the potential fact With us, as we see ourselves natu- rally to-day, with mankind, there is this instinct which impels us to gain power, and it is God implanted. It is the consequence of the nature of man as imaging or reflecting Omnipotence or All-power. But when we follow it blindly, led by our natural sense of things, it becomes a whip to scourge us with, for we reap the consequences of such following. Sooner or later we become dissatisfied with what we STILLING THE TEMPEST, 101 have worked hard to win, because our work has been all in the visible and all for the visible. We have striven to gain that which seems outside of ourselves, and to enrich ourselves by such gaining. We have been governed by personal ambition, by the selfish desire to get and hold to ourselves that power which should enable us to make and keep others sub- ject to us. And there comes a time in this process by which the human consciousness is overruled by the divine ; when we must pass over unto the other side ; must work in and for the invisible instead of the visible to truly attain this dominioH over all things ; for it is not a dominion over all things ; without ourselves, merely ; it is a dominion over all within ourselves ; is a self-mastery which must be reached before we can know ourselves as God-like. " And the same day, when the even was come, he said unto them. Let us pass over unto the other side." We, naturally, in this state of self-consciousness as Adams, believe ourselves to be subject to disease, to suffering both mental and physical, to unhappiness, grief and death. We are servants to whom we yield ourselves servants to obey ; and all the while we are so subject, this power of dominion over what we seem subject to, is ours to use if we only knew it. But we have to pass over to the other side to find it, for it does not lie in the without ; only in the with- in. So we must go there for it, find and use it, in order to demonstrate the fact that we have it ; in order to prove to ourselves that within the nature 102 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. of man is the power to subdue all things unto itself. So long as we look to externals for the means of overcoming that which seemingly causes our suffering, so long we look in vain, for as that cause is within ourselves the means is there also. Believing disease, sorrow, and death to be some- thing entirely separate from ourselves, believing that they come to us and we are powerless to resist them, we look around us for the means of overcoming and destroying them ; and expect to find these means as being visible and tangible like the things we seek to destroy. Not till we have sought in vain, not till we have tried this and tried that, which, being external to and so seemingly separate from ourselves, appears to have an inherent virtue and power, do we give it all up, discouraged by our failures to accomplish what we are after and, almost in despair, pass over to the other side. When we are first told that these things which we fear and shrink from, which we seek to be rid of, can never disappear for us till we let go our hold upon them, because they are nothing but the out-pictur- ing of our own sense of things, we are amazed and say, " Why, what can I do ? " And when we are told " Find yourself ! Find your true being, know your own power and use it to the destruction of this vou fear and that you need not fear for you are greater than it ! " we are first amazed. But when spiritual perception is awakened in us, when we begin to see with it instead of with the nat- STILLING THE TEMPEST. 103 ural sense, we see that this must be so, whether it is the fact to our consciousness or not. And when we so see we are ready to take ship for the other side and ready and glad to carry the divine teacher, who so only is known to us, with us. This teacher, this higher consciousness than our present one, this knower of the truth of being who is unrec- ognized and condemned by this natural sense of be- ing, and who always speaks that truth to us, is ready and waiting to go with us. And many others who like ourselves cannot find what they seek, seeing our example, will bear us company. ''And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships." When we take ship to go to the other side of this we see around us, when we turn away from the visible and seek to penetrate the invisible, seek to find and bring forth from it that truth which we have as yet failed to find, we are apt to encounter storms which only this teacher, this master, can quiet and control. But he is in the ship with us and will never fail us. " And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full." Do we not find that to declare a thing as true, is to bring upon us the necessity of proving it so ? " According to thy word be it unto thee." When through spiritual perception we see that what we have feared is not what we have believed it to be ; when we so see that we are not what we have believed ourselves to be, are not subjects by nature 104 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. but rulers, we declare this truth. We declare against our former views, our beliefs, and put them from us by taking ship and leaving them. By so declaring we have left the land we formerly had under our feet, left that which was solid as long as we staid by it, and are on that which moves under us as we move over it on our way to find that rock which is immovable and from which we cannot be moved; the rock of proof through demonstration, that what we declare is true. Between these two points is the storm, the winds and waves, the tempest which it is hard to make our way through ; and our ship fills in the tumult and threatens to carry us below instead of over to the farther shore. Before we have gained the proof through demonstration, is the dangerous time for us. After we have gained it, we cannot be moved. De- claring the truth, the next step is to prove it ; and between these two is the period when we fear, we know not what, even though we have declared that there is nothing to fear. When our ship is full, when we can bear no more and can no longer see our way, we call upon this teacher which spiritual perception reveals to us, this one who knows, this higher self or consciousness which is calm and serene, knowing nothing of the storm which rages below his abiding place. Recognizing him as " Master " we call upon him as such and he displaces and puts out the storm and tempest with his own calm and peace. " And he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep upon a pillow ; and they awakened him and say unto STILLING THE TEMPEST. 106 him, Master, carest thou not that we perish ? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea. Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." This storm and tempest lies between our effort to establish dominion in the without as that which is separate and apart from ourselves, and our failure to do so, and the successful effort to establish it through self-dominion ; through mastery of ourselves first, and so mastery of all we see or are conscious of as outside ourselves. It portrays the change from sense-consciousness to soul-consciousness through making the passage between the two. The only way to overcome sin, sick- ness, and death, with all that these include, is to turn from them, turn our backs upon them and set our faces toward the other side, work our way to that farther shore. The tempest we encounter on the way is appalling for us, we are seemingly in danger of shipwreck. On every side something springs up to oppose us, winds blow from all the four quarters at once ; and while we feel that we cannot put back to the land we have turned away from in order to pass over to the other side, and while we desire most earnestly to reach that toward which we have set our faces, it seems, when this tempest rages around us, as if we should die, should be overcome before we can reach it. But the master is in the same boat with us, who careth that not one of these little ones should perish. Is in the hinder part of the boat, out of sight and unnoticed, till our needs impel us to call upon him ; 106 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. but then he answers, proves himself the present help in time of trouble and all that we could not still, is quiet at his word because it is the word of command, the word of power spoken with authority. At first we forget all about the Master ; forget he is with us even unto the end. And we try to do for ourselves what we cannot accomplish because of our fear. It is human to fear; it is divine to rule all that the human fears. And this whole process is the ex- perience of the human consciousness on its way to control by the divine consciousness. And this divine is ever with us, as it is ever master of the human. Power in the world, power over men and things, that which men are ambitious for and strive to gain, from what are called the lowest to the highest walks of life, must sometime be seen as worthless, not worth striving for beside that other power, that self-mastery which must be won for man to prove his own God- nature. The whole aim and end of creation being the manifestation of the One God through man by means of man's self-consciousness, the divine Omnipotence or All-power can only so be manifest. And man being the sum of creation, the whole which contains all the parts, ruling over himself, ruling over what he is, is ruling over all things. Dominion over all is self-dominion, and this is the power which belongs to man as God's representative ; is the power which proves the nature of Omnipotence. But the mighty power and its result, this self-do- minion through self-mastery, which makes all things STILLING THE TEMPEST. 107 subject unto us, has little value to the worldly sense which strives ever after the other, through ignorance of the fact that only through one's self, only through mastery established there, can there be mastery of the without. We look with admiration and envy at the man who has conquered a place in the world, and who is known far and wide through his achievements, be these financial, historical or scientific. The one who is quietly working for self -conquest, for rulership over every impulse and prompting of the human conscious- ness that he may see and know and make manifest the divine nature of man and its inherent power over the human to raise that to itself, is unseen and un- known, receives none of that applause and admiration lavished upon the others. He treads his lonely way unnoticed, his only re- ward the growing conscious divinity within him, its voice the only encouraging tone he hears, its " well done ! " the only thing he strives for, stepping one side and allowing those who are pressing forward after worldly honors and recognition to go by him without a pang. Worldly ambition must and only can be gratified in this three score years and ten. Self-dominion is for eternity. Those who work for the first, push and jostle each other, each striving for himself alone regardless of the rest, using them as stepping-stones for climbing higher, even if they are crushed and ground to powder under the foot placed upon them. Those who seek to attain the other, help their fel- 108 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. low men to the same end ; are never too intent upon their own achievements to pass them by when a help- ing hand and a kindly word will cheer them on in the same journey. For such realize that we are all in the same boat, that all mankind is in the same ship bound for the other side of this sense- world with its empty honors, and that we owe each other recognition and brotherly love. There is nothing like perception of the necessity of passing over to the other side and of the fact that all mankind as well as ourselves must make this pas- sage, to make us kind and helpful instead of selfishly bent upon attaining our own individual ends. While working out our own salvation from the sense which governs human consciousness till the divine sense is awakened and active, working to the overcoming of the consequences of that sense as leader, we can point out this way of salvation to others and help them to the same victory both by word and example. When we realize that the master is ever with us, when through becoming disciples of this master we take him with us, even as he is, without waiting to know him better, we are never without help in time of need. Consciousness of our true nature and being is ever the master of our sense of being, and rebuker of the fears which belong to it ; that knows that there is nothing to fear ; that man by divine right or inherit- ance is above all less than he, and that dominion over all belongs to him. The New Testament is full of instructions as to how to take ship for the other side as well as em- STILLING THE TEMPEST. 109 phatic in the declaration of its necessity. " The king- dom of God is within you, and he who will may enter in." The kingdom of the world is what we see as with- out us, and it is there that we first strive for power. Well indeed is it for us that what we so gain proves unsatisfactory. Only as we grow, rise through expe- rience, do we too say " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." To rule in the world according to the natural sense of power is to be the veriest servant, because servants to our fears and beliefs, in bondage to them and so to the suffering consequent upon them. So, we seek to lay up our treasures in the world because our hearts are there, and so we are constantly robbed and left the poorest of the poor. But when we turn to that other kingdom, the eternal which fadeth not away ; when we seek to lay up our treasures there and to so enter into it that we may rule from thence over all that before we seemed subject to, we gain those victories which prove our right to enter in and to rule ; prove our ability so to do as well. Our old belief that we have got to die before experi- encing better conditions and being able to manifest man's right to rule over all things, is destroyed by the perception and understanding that living is con- tinuous, and that as we have, some time or other, to enter into this kingdom of God and reign therein, have to establish that self-mastery which is dominion over all things, we might as well begin to do it now ; might as well take ship at once for this other side. And plenty of opportunity is ready to our hand. We shall have all we can do to restrain and conquer 110 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. our own selfish impulses and desires, our own fears and weaknesses, which accompany the mortal sense of ourselves and things. And when we resolve to do this, it seems as if these piled themselves mountain high before us ; as if the winds and the waves would swamp us and we should never get to land. It is comparatively easy to conquer some things in the world. It is not so easy to master something in ourselves ; and yet it can be done. It is not only the possible but the imperative for every one of us. " He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." We often hear it said, "Control yourself or you are not fit to control others." If we excuse ourselves by saying " I know I ought not to think or do so and so, but I cannot help it ; " how can we righteously condemn others who urge the same excuse when they do something which we would not do ? They cannot help what they do and we cannot help what we do, and neither one is a whit above the other though the deeds done be different. But when we see that all that we call sin, sickness and death, sorrow and misery in the world, will last for us till we overcome in ourselves that sense which includes these as its consequences, then, if we are wise, we shall set ourselves to the overcoming of this sense; to the growing beyond it and its results. This also is taking boat for the other side because it is working in the consciousness instead of in and with the things we are conscious of ; working in the within instead of the without. It is dealing with the invisible cause instead of with the visible effect; and no matter what we encounter STILLING THE TEMPEST. Ill in this effort and work, we shall h^ successful if we persist, because there is ever that with us which helps us to victory. So long as we have a sense of suffering so long we suffer. So long as we believe ourselves subject to suffering instead of ruler over it, so long will we ex- perience the results of our subjection. The power of mastery over these, which is asleep with us, must be awakened, and it will then do its own work. And it is awakened through knowledge ; through gaining a higher sense of ourselves, of what we are and the relation of what we see to ourselves ; a knowl- edge which is understanding that our individual be- ing is ever governed by its principle and that in con- sequence all power is ours in heaven and on earth if only we can see, grasp and use it to its own ends, so proving what we are. Nothing can arise which cannot be conquered. No storm so violent but that it can be allayed by the word of conscious power. No tempest which will not yield to the " Peace, be still," spoken with authority. Only those alive to this necessity ; only those who are striving for the right kind of power, know what this "great calm "is which follows the command. It is that silence after the storm in which our strength for further victories is renewed while the incense of the soul rises on high in thankfulness for what has been attained. In this silence, this great calm, we know whereof we speak. Within our own consciousness, are those revelations which are an opening of the heavens unto 112 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. US, which are for ourselves alone and which raise us above the world into that atmosphere which is not of the world, where we are quickened by the spirit which dwells there to the doing of more of the Father's work. We are so helped thereto, till it is finished and also can say " I have overcome the world." Ah ! Not power in, but power over the world through self-mastery is what the disciple strives after. And striving he attains. Attains little by little so that those who know nothing of this indwelling power to so achieve, seeing him and his conquered calm after the storm which is common to us all, say " What manner of man is this ? " For such a one is not conformed to this world. He is one alone, but mighty in his loneliness. Whoever can conquer himself, can conquer the world. Nothing in or of it can successfully oppose him. Victory over all sense of sin, sickness, and death, is the victory over them. And this is the work done while crossing to the other side. Every step in it but brings out the master more and more, putting out the servant the while. Mastery over our own sense of ourselves and of all things so that it shall be ever in conscious accord with their truth, is that work which, when finished, brings us face to face with that which is Godlike only, all human likeness being left behind on the way. Then is fulfilled for us the prophecy of the serpent in the garden, the declaration of that wisdom which is endless and unceasing, " Ye shall be as gods, know- ing all." STILLING THE TEMPEST: 113 Through holding this ultimate as our ideal, con- tent with nothing less, pressing forward to it un- ceasingly, letting go worldly ambition and strife for power that we may work for tliat which is above them, that which is eternal where they are temporal, we may dwell ever in the calm though around us rages the storm, even as Jesus in the boat was unconscious of the wind and waves which so frightened those with him. We make our own world and dwell in it. We can have as ours the great calm while those beside us have the wind and the storm. And better yet, we can show them how to have the calm for them- selves by speaking with authority and rebuking that which they fear, if our work has brought us to that conscious power which so speaks the all-powerful word. All things obey us when we obey the teachings of the master within ; and when these teachings are audible to us through the opening of our ears to hear them, when we listen to and are governed by that higher consciousness than this mortal state, we so, little by little, leave this, with the evils it seems to contain, and rise to that higher ; dwelling therein as in a great calm which those winds and waves raging below are powerless to affect. Do we so draw upon us the unfavorable comment of that sense which condemns because it cannot understand ? The sense which is of the world, worldly? What of it? It is not so much as a peb- ble in our pathway unless we make it more. It can- not hinder our advance for one instant unless we 8 114 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, allow it to. " He that denyeth not himself and taketh up his cross daily and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." We are not worthy of this mastery, this all-power, if we are not ready and willing to pay its price counting it all nothing, whatever it may be, so that we at last attain ; so that we, on the way, help others who are battling with the winds and waves and cry- ing out for help, bringing for them also some of that great calm in which we repose as in the arms of the Infinite. Paying the price gladly, willingly; helping our fellow-men as gladly, as willingly, we, some time, shall say, " I have overcome. And now, O Father, glorify thou me." THE PASSOVEB, 115 THE PASSOVER OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. EXODUS XI. 3-13; 35-36. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to tliem every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house : And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year : ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats : And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread ; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire ; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall bum with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand ; ye shall eat it in haste : it is the Lord's passover. For I will pass though the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment : I am the Lord And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses 116 A cmCAGO BIBLE CLASS. where ye are : and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. . . . And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses ; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment : And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required : and they spoiled the Egyptians. In the book of Exodus we find recorded, as a part of the experience of the children of Israel in Egypt, what is called the Lord's passover. We find refer- ence to it throughout the old Testament, and all four of the Gospels record the keeping of the feast of the passover at Jerusalem. There must be a special and great significance to this rite above and beyond its traditional value as a commemorative custom of the Jews ; a significance found only through perception of the spirit of the Bible as the Book of Testimony ; one not seen by those who read only its letter. The observance of the rite, as recorded of Jesus and his disciples, means something far beyond conformity to a custom. It has a meaning as the fulfillment of prophecy, a meaning in accord with the nature of the Jesus, a significance which reveals the higher meaning of the death, resurrection and ascension recorded of him ; a higher than the one usually attributed to these. If we can perceive that there is perfect harmony be- tween the Old and New Testaments in their essential natures ; that these Old and New Testaments are in perfect accord the one with the other, as the letter THE PASSOVER. 117 and the spirit ever are if taken together instead of being divorced from each other, we must admit that the significance of the passover is a unity between its meaning in the Old and its meaning in the New Testaments. Though a custom among the Jews to this day, there must be an underlying meaning which prompted and has preserved the custom. To get this meaning it is necessary to find the underlying principle of the Bible and follow it in all attempts at interpreta- tion. This found, and it is outlined in Genesis, it reveals the meaning of the book of Exodus and the following books ascribed to Moses as an illustration of the experiences of mankind from the time when its members become the children of Israel instead of the children of Adam ; when we are capable of being led by spiritual perception instead of by the mortal sense natural to us, which so makes us the chosen people. This marks the period when deliverance is possible for us ; deliverance from the errors and evils con- sequent upon the limitations of that sense, possible because of the seeing through its actualities to their nature and meaning, this perception being developed through experience and so becoming the deliverer from its bondage, or the Moses who leads us out of Egypt. This Egypt of Exodus is the type of the natural condition of the natural man ; of the children of Adam or of the state of consciousness which is named Adam ; and its Pharaoh is the mortal or limited sense 118 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. which rules in that state of consciousness naturally ; or in Egypt. The children of Israel are those who have cried out by reason of their bondage ; who have grown to perceive that the government of our consciousness by that sense is bondage ; and that deliverance from it must come through deliverance from that mortal sense, or from Pharaoh. This perception is the leader who, followed, shall lead them out of Egypt, out of the state of con- sciousness which is Egypt and beyond the power of its Pharaoh to enslave ; is the Moses thus sent unto them who leads them into that wilderness which lies between this mortal-sense state of consciousness and the higher state of understanding the truth of our being, understanding its reality to be the invisible instead of the visible, who leads them successfully through it, through all the dangers and temptations encountered there, to where the promised land or this higher consciousness is in sight ; and from which point the Joshua or understanding must lead them to take possession of it. All this experience recorded of the children of Israel in Egypt is typical of our own experience, individu- ally and collectively, by and through which we wake up to the fact of our divine inheritance ; to the per- ception that the sufferings, the hard tasks, the bond- age which is our portion as subjects of the Pharaoh or mortal sense, need not be indefinitely continued because there is a way out ; a way which is the nat- ural and sure result of the Cause of our being ; one in accordance with the nature of God and of Man THE PASSOVEB. 119 which only needs to be found and followed to bring us to freedom from such experience ; which freedom belongs to us as our inheritance or because of what we are by nature. The slavery is the consequence of what we seem ; the freedom the result of what we are ; and we have to leave the one to have the other ; for we cannot be in a condition of servitude and be free from it at the same time ; so there must be an exodus, a going out of the one to possess the other ; to enter the land flowing with the milk and honey of freedom from servitude or slavery under mortal sense. Our own cry for deliverance, wrung from us by our pangs and pains, brings our Moses or deliverer to us, the truly sent of God or messenger of that truth which leads us out and on to possession of the knowledge of it. Our experience under Pharaoh de- velopes that spiritual perception which makes us the people chosen to know the truth which makes free ; and we gain this freedom only by following this leader where he leads, however much our not yet overcome mortal sense — though we have repudiated its author- ity to rule — fails to see the need or the way. While still in Egypt there is a dividing line between the children of Israel and the subjects of Pharaoh ; between those led by spiritual perception and those ruled by mortal sense without it, as is shown in the later plagues which come upon Pharaoh's subjects only, the children of Israel being passed over by them. As the text reads, " I will put a division between my people and thy people ; to-morrow shall this sign be." 120 A CHICAGO BIBLi: CLASS. Our growth through our experience — the servitude in Egypt to where we begin to see its nature and mean- ing; to where our higher nature and the necessity for its realization and so its manifestation opens to us, makes a dividing line between this position and the old one ; between those declaring against the bond- age of Pharaoh and those still passively subject to it ; and in consequence, while both have experience or both are yet dwellers in the land, that belonging to those on the farther side of this dividing line is not what it is to those who have not yet reached it. It is a plague to those who are yet subject to Pha- raoh, to mortal sense ; who are ruled by it ; but the others, the children of Israel, are free from the plague, or from the plaguing, the painful element in experi- ence which is the consequence of passive submission to Pharaoh ; because in proportion to their perception of its nature do they perceive its powerlessness to dominate them and their own inherent ability to rule over it. Hence, though the plagues come upon the land, to this portion of the dwellers in the land there is no plague ; no suffering ; but that which is suffering to the subjects of Pharaoh is the means for deliverance of the children of Israel from the land ; the means of their coming out of it under the guidance of Moses — spiritual perception ; the means of their being sent out of it in great haste. All the discontent and pain, the disappointment and suffering which is part of our experience in Egypt in this state of consciousness where mortal sense is the natural ruler, is a means of driving us out of it THE PASSOVEB. 121 and out of the reach of that bondage which can only be maintained in it ; and when we have experienced enough our Moses will be with us to show us the way through that wilderness which lies between the state of bondage and established freedom from it. Every one of us is driven out of Egypt with a strong hand, yet another is held out to point the new way and lead us on in it. We are always led as well as driven ; led while we are being driven. Experience is the strong hand which drives us out of our slavery ; but the hand of the Lord is over us all the while and leads us on. The being driven is only the preparation for our being led ; and the time is sure to come when we see that our driving out of Egypt with a strong hand even though it were into a wilderness where he could not see our way, was only that leading of the Lord; only that manifestation of the nature of man which shows his natural power of dominion over all and which has brought us to perception of and desire to reach and hold that dominion. This dividing line between the two classes of dwellers in Egypt — those yet belonging to it and those ready to go out of it, — causes those who are ready to be passed over by the destroying angel who destroys only for the Egyptians. If we destroy for ourselves we need no destroying angel to do it for us. Our ignorance of what we are and what we are des- tined to become must be destroyed, even to the tak- ing from us all that is dearest and the most closely held to. Our mortal sense of all things without exception, 122 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. even of ourselves, must be displaced by the true sense of them or with perception of the nature of all instead of merely the appearance ; and this change is brought about by the destruction of whatever pre- vents us from so seeing, even to our first-born ; for the first-born to every one of us is the product of mortal or the natural sense, and so has to be de- stroyed ; for as that sense cannot discern the things of the Spirit and as those only are eternal, its deci- sions, its products or results, must be brought to an end, and the beyond of them seen and accepted instead. The first-born of the Egyptians being the natural product, the conception or son of mortal sense, it must be slain by the destroying angel ; but the first born or the conception of the children of Israel, even to their cattle and all belonging to them, is saved from this destruction through their willing following of spiritual perception and revolt from the dominion of mortal sense ; because as the result of perception instead of sense, it is true. When we truly perceive instead of mortally see, all things are saved from destruction ; for truth is the universal Saviour ; and all that is true stands, passed over by that destroying angel which removes all not fitted by its nature to survive. Whatever is true is eternal ; whatever is contrary to truth is destructible ; and the natural mortal-sense conception about ourselves and all things contrary to the truth of ourselves and of all things, or con- trary to the nature of them : consequently it must go ; must come to an end ; while the conception of spirit- THE PASSOVER. 123 ual perception being in accord with that nature, with the abstract truth, though but in the least degree, is safe and secure; the destroying angel passing over it, because it is eternal, sustained by that with which it is in harmony. The children of Israel slay this mortal first-born for themselves ; the Egyptians must have it slain for them. Through their own slaying they have a first-born which cannot be slain ; which is indestructible and so by its nature compels the passing over it by the an- gel which destroys for the Egyptians. Whatever we hold to-day which is contrary to abstract truth must come to an end for us ; and it will be in one of two ways ; slain for us by the destroying angel of expe- rience — for there will not be a house in which there is not one dead — or slain by and for ourselves through obedience to the command of the Lord through Moses, through our perception of that abstract truth which demands this sacrifice of all that is not in ac- cordance with itself. As the Egyptian we suffer ; as the child of Israel we triumph. The children of Israel offer proof of what they have done by the blood upon the door-post. They slay " a lamb which is without blemish, a male of the first year " ; " the whole assembly of the congre- gation of Israel " kill it. Here we have the counterpart of the sacrifice to the Lord or the truth of being, offered by Abel in Genesis which was " a firstling of the flock " and which was acceptable unto the Lord, or in accord with truth ; and the whole congregation or all the children of Israel, without exception, must make 124 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. this sacrifice to be passed over by that which causes the Egyptians to suffer. The first-born of mortal sense being contrary to the truth of being as the natural mistake or error consequent upon limitations of that sense, it is sus- tained by belief only, not by truth. Belief that it is true but not the truth itself is the life or blood thereof ; and consequently as this first-born must be slain one way or the other, by the children of Israel for themselves or for the Egyptians by the destroying angel, this blood which is its life must be shed. The belief in it as the truth must be given up ; and this is shedding the blood of the lamb offered for sacrifice ; and the proof that the children of Israel have slain their first-born is shown by the blood upon the door-post ; so the destroying angel passes them by, for his work is already done with them ; but where there is not this mark of blood, he slays. " Without the shedding of blood there is no remis- sion of sins " the Bible declares ; and how clearly this truth is seen when we see what this first-born is and why it must be slain ; for till its blood is shed, till that belief in it and about it which is its life is given up, it cannot make way for that which is eternal to take its place ; for that which is in accord with truth and so is a perception of truth. Till mere belief is given up to make room for some- thing higher, the children of Israel cannot be delivered out of the bondage of mortal sense ; or there can be no remission of sins ; no escape from the consequences of belief which are the harder and harder tasks imposed upon them by the task-masters ; no escape THE PA880VEB. 125 from the mistakes and errors which result from the rulership of mortal sense and which have to be worked out through suffering till this first-born is slain. This is the blood atonement which begins to be made at this stage of the process that leads to com- plete and perfect self-consciousness, and which must be full before that process is finished. It is through this constant shedding of the blood of belief, that those who offer this sacrifice are passed over by that which afflicts the others who do not ; through this act on their own part their sins are taken from them, or remitted unto them, through their own putting them from them. All the errors con- sequent upon the nature of mortal sense; all the results of natural ignorance which that sense can never conquer, are but from us as children of Israel in this journey from what we seem to what we are, through our own shedding of blood without which there can be no remission of these sins ; without which they accompany us till they are destroyed through suffering or by the destroying angel. The door of a house is the way out of it ; if one would leave the house he goes out through the door, hence the command to the children of Israel to mark the two side posts and the upper door-post of their houses with this blood. This mark is all around the door or the way out of the house, yet would not be there did they not obey the command to slay and put it there. It is the mark of what they have done, the proof of obedience to spiritual perception instead of mortal sense ; the sign that the destroying angel has no work to do for them as its work is already 126 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. done and they know their way out of bondage. To leave the land of Egypt they must leave their houses or dwelling places in it ; must go out of the door ; and when their doors are so marked, they go out to freedom through blood ; through this blood so shed for the remission of their sins by which they make atonement for those sins or errors and take up their journey to the promised land as a chosen people, so chosen from out those who are not yet ready to travel the same road, and are led by the Moses to that which is for them, when they have reached it, in accordance with the promise of God, to Abraham ; in accordance with the nature of God whicii is unchange- able and sure, and which is ever coming forth to manifestation when we travel in the way of manifestation instead of in the road contrary to it. Perception and recognition of this unchangeable nature of God and of the surety of its manifestation is the covenant between God and mankind which will be kept. When we go forward in that straight and narrow way recognizing that our leader, our Moses, is instructed by the Lord instead of by mortal sense ; taught by the truth of being itself through perception of and communion with it, instead of by Pharaoh, and who so withstands Pharaoh and his commands, he leads us safely into and through the wilderness ; through all the bewilderment consequent upon this change of rulers. " When I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." How many are proving THE PASSOVER. 127 the truth symbolically expressed in this statement, to-day ? It is capable of proof, but it must be in- dividually gained. It is possible for every one of us to prove that that which plagues the Egyptians does not plague us ; that that which causes those held in bondage of mortal sense to suffer does not have that effect upon us ; that where they submit to suffering ignorantly through their ignorance and fear, we can so rule our con- sciousness through repudiating that slavery as to determine what experience, in what we call this world shall be to us ; and so can cause it to lose that element of suffering through domination of it. My neighbor may lose all his possessions and suffer in consequence from his loss ; I may lose all mine and not suffer a moment because I have no sense of loss, having a consciousness of far richer possessions which cannot be taken away ; and this is the difference between an Egyptian and a child of Israel. The one is subject to experience, feels all its thorns and thistles and suffers accordingly ; the other rules over it, consequently over the suffering which it holds for the other ; therefore plucks out the thorns which rankle till they are so plucked out. Experience opens the way of salvation for mankind, but every individual member of mankind has to find this out when this way is discerned. A lamb for every house must be offered up ; its blood must be upon all the doors tlirough which pass out those who would escape from bondage to freedom. And its flesh must be eaten with unleavened bread, 128 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. and even with bitter herbs. It must be consumed;! there must be nothing of it left ; the sacrifice must be complete and entire. This first born of mortal sense which the children of Israel slay for themselves must be entirely done away with ; no part of it can remain ; it must be entirely overcome, put out of the consciousness as the truth of our being, and this eating of its flesh, consum-j ing it entirely is the only way we can be saved; forj that mortal-sense conception must disappear utterly. So this lamb slain by the children of Israel, through their eating it, is the necessary food for the beginning of their journey, sustaining them in their flight out of Egypt, when eaten with unleavened bread. It is the necessary preparation for what is before them. Leavened bread would have Egyptian leaven in it ; have that belonging to the land, and the children of Israel cannot carry forth such ; can take with them only their own, not that which is like Egypt in its nature. So they must eat this lamb, make the sacri- fice complete or leave none of it in Egypt, and eat it with unleavened instead of leavened bread. At first thought it might seem that the borrowing of the ornaments of the Egyptians was contrary to this fact or necessity ; but gold and silver are not made in Egypt are not the leaven of Egj-pt, are not made at all, being by their nature imperishable ; and what is of this nature will go out of the darkness into the light ; go out of Egypt, being only an ornament therein, when carried out by those who are escaping from its bondage ; and so the children of Israel will spoil the Egyptians because such ornaments will find THE PASSOVEB. 129 their way to those who can understand them and to be carried out of the land of darkness. These, as representatives of all that is true and good in Egypt — in this state of consciousness which is Egypt — will be redeemed from the bondage of Egypt ; from the ignorance of their true nature ; and by means of those who are coming out from it and who bring these with them. The exodus from Egypt is the exodus of all not having the Egyptian nature ; and all which so comes out of bondage will find its way to that freedom which makes such servitude impossible. This sacrifice is eaten or consumed with unleavened bread and bitter herbs — for there is a certain bitterness attending this exodus from all we have formerly recognized and held to ; a bitterness which is not lost till we find that tree in the wilderness which thrown into the water from which we drink, sweetens it ; that tree of life which cannot be seen or found in Egypt, but which is for the healing of the nations ; whose leaves remove all bitterness and swedten our experiences in the wilderness when we have travelled far enough under the guidance of Moses to find it. The lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs must be eaten with the loins girded, shoes on the feet, and staff in hand ; eaten with haste, for it is the Lord's passover. The children of Israel so pass out from Egypt, pass through the wilderness and pass into the promised land. They must be ready for this journey, commenced as soon as they have made and consumed their 9 130 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, sacrifice, their loins girded with that moral courage which makes their steps firm and unfaltering; their feet protected with the shoes which prevent pain and soreness from the constant travel, or the thoughts consequent upon spiritual perception instead of the old habit of mortal sense. These ward off and prevent the weariness, other- wise the result of travelling when the staff is also in the hand ; when reliance upon the never failing truth to protect, to lead, to support, to comfort, to guide in- to its possession is unceasing ; when it is never let go for one moment through all these preparations for the journey into and through the wilderness which must be undertaken if we would enter in that kingdom promised to us because of what we are ; the chosen people ; chosen to possess it as an inheritance through our birth ; for we are the Lord's own ; led by him to his Self; and He, through us, brings forth His Christ. By our passing through the wilderness and into our inheritance which is not of the world but beyond it, He passes over it and manifests Himself at the end of the world as that Christ born of every one of us through our redemption from the world, through our coming out of Egypt and taking possession of our inheritance. Truly this is the Lord's passover ; for the whole process beginning with the Adam and ending with the Jesus, in which is this exodus, must be passed through and over, that the works of God may be made mani- fest ; through by us, over by the Lord, by the true THE PASSOVER. 131 Man, that the Law may be fulfilled ; that Creation may be completed. By means of it, judgment is executed against all the gods of Egypt ; against all the conceptions about the one God which are the result of mortal sense only, and so belong to Egypt ; are Egypt's gods ; for by this passover every one of these is slain and the One and Only true God is passed over to, through this executing of judgment. All mankind shall event- ually recognize and obey the One ; but this result must be reached through this executing of judgment against all less than that I am. 132 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. THE PASSOVER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Luke, xxn, 7-16. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passovermust be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare ? And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher 'of water ; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee. Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples ? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished : there make ready. And they went and found as he had said unto them : and they made ready the passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer : For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of Grod." And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said. Take this, and divide it among yourselves : For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave un- to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. THE PASSOVEB. 133 Remembering the significance of the book of Exo- dus, as the account of the going out from Egypt, from the land of darkness, of the children of Israel ; the chosen people who , having light even in that darkness, can be led out of it by the deliverer, spir- itual perception or Moses, and not forgetting that all the afflictions of bondage while in that land but lead to the coming of this deliverer when those who realize the bondage cry out for him ; that the plagues which can come upon the land because of its nature, trouble only those who have not light in their dwell- ings ; those who know only that darkness which is so dense it can be felt ; that the people who have this light slay for themselves the first-born of mortal sense, because this command is given them from the Lord through their Moses; because spiritual percep- tion sees its nature ; sees that it is not in accord with the true Man or the Lord, so must be put away from them ; that the children of Israel, so slaying for themselves, are passed over by that destroying angel who destroys or slays it for the Egyptians ; that these children of the Lord by this act of their own which is complete and entire, for what they slay is consumed, are so ready to go out of the land of darkness and forward into that wilderness which lies between it and the promised land : between the darkness of mortal sense and the light of spiritual understanding ; the leader from the one to the other being sent of the Lord as the deliverer from the one and shower of the way to the other — we are ready to see the fulfil- ment of this passover ; to find its product or fruit which is forthcoming as its sequence in accordance 134 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. with unchangeable law, as is shown in the 6th verse of the 27th Chapter of Isaiah. " He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." Whenever seed is planted, a process begins which ends in the fruit from the seed ; the fruit which is potential with it in the beginning, and like unto the seed ; or is the manifestation of the nature of the seed. The seed of wheat brings forth wheat ; the seed of corn brings forth corn ; and this fruit of the seed is the harvest which is gathered. After the planting of the seed, between this and the fruit or harvest, are all the intermediate stages of growth. There must be the budding and blossoming before there can be any fruit. Each of these inter- mediary stages must have its own day or time and only the coUectiveness of these days, the fullness of the time, brings the fruit which can be harvested or kept; all preceding and less than that fullness being done away with ; ending with its day or time. The harvest is manifold ; many bushels from a few seeds. What is planted is returned in the har- vest an hundred-fold and more ; and this harvest is but the perfected potentialities of the seed brought forth from it, in accordance with the immutable law of cause and effect. In all that constitutes living, what we sow is re- turned to us in the harvest following the sowing ; returned in full measure ; pressed down and running over ; and this consequence is the Will of God or THE PASSOVER. 135 the nature of God in operation, which so brings forth its own manifestation. The sowing of the seed results in the rooting of that which shall bud and blossom and bring forth fruit, and this rooting holds fast all that grows out and up from the seed till the harvest is gathered ; gathered by severing this fruit from its root. The exodus of the children of Israel, which is pre- ceded by and attended with those experiences which make it a success, is the sowing of the seed which so takes root. "^He shall cause them which come of Jacob to take root." Here the meaning of Genesis must be seen to perceive how it is only those who come of Jacob who so take root and grow to the fullness of the harvest. The children of Israel are they who come of Jacob ; yet Jacob is the legitimate sequence, through growth, from Adam ; so these are from Adam through Jacob. So they differ from the Egyptians because Jacob is their father ; while the Egyptians are the immediate children of Adam ; or are those who are in the mortal- sense consciousness lacking the perception of anything beyond it, or of its true nature ; to whom it and all as seen in it, is the real, the true and the only ; who experience the results of this sense of themselves and all visible, from which the children of Israel come out through their perception which pierces the visi- ble and so finds it the seeming ; which sees that there is a beyond which must be sought and found. Jacob, in Genesis, wrestles till daybreak and over- comes that with which he wrestles ; he wrestles with the seeming of Self till he overcomes it or comes over 136 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. it to the sight of the true Self ; labors in the darkness till the light comes ; and it is the Jacob seed which shall take root, bud and blossom and fill the face of the earth with fruit. The Adam-seed brings that fruit which is death ; that is reaped after the sowing. The wages of sin, the inevitable result of the mistakes or errors, the sins of the mortal or Adam sense, is death ; they come to an end having no life in themselves, while the fruit or harvest from the Jacob-seed is life eternal ; each harvest being strictly in accordance with the seed sown ; being only the manifestation of its nature. So these children of Israel, this chosen people, chosen of the Lord as his own because on the way to knowledge of the Lord, to the finding of the true, the highest Self, are the Jacob-seed which takes root through their coming out of Egypt ; the result of the sowing of this seed and their future progress are but the intermediate stages between the seed sowing and the reaping of the fruit or harvest. Having so taken root, there must be the budding and the blossoming. This whole process must be passed over and is made possible through first passing out. The rest of the Old Testament is a record of the process after this seed sowing ; in the New Testa- ment we find the fruit so brought forth ; find what this passing through and over of all the intermediary stages has produced ; find that which fills the face of the world with fruit, or that Jesus who, as our ex- ample, makes possible like fruit all over the world if followed after. There is a likeness at every point between the ex- 1 THE PASSOVEB. 137 perience of the children of Israel in Egypt, their ex- odus from it through those experiences which cul- minate in their slaying of the passover lamb ; their progress into and through the wilderness, their over- coming of all that hindered their full possession of the promised land, and the experience recorded of the Jesus of Nazareth ; for this passover, there begun, is here finished ; the law is fulfilled ; the fruit is in accordance with the seed ; and it must be gathered as the harvest at the end of the world or end of this process which produces the fruit. The passing over necessitates the passing through ; the two are equal. In exact proportion to the pass- ing through all the stages of growth from the planting of the seed is the passing over that process which brings the harvest. The passing through produces the Jesus — the fruit ; the passing over produces the harvest — the Christ. The fruit is cut from its root in the reaping of the harvest ; and so this fruit, the Jesus, passes over to the Christ. The grand meaning of this passover as recorded in both the Old and the New Testaments, if discerned, reveals the passing through which is individual to every one of us and by means of which we keep the passover. Born into sense-consciousness as Adams, we have to pass through that state till we make our exodus from it, through spiritual perception so pass- ing over to the next state in this world-process which brings us, when finished, to our true Self ; to that which is the full Self of Man as the Image of God ; to the God-like, so becoming as God. We do not make this exodus till our experiences 138 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. drive us out ; till our task-masters in that state of sense-consciousness, make our burdens too heavy to be borne ; then we murmur against them and turn to the Lord — to the truth of our being to deliver us from this sense of being ; to the eternal fact of what we are, to release us from what we seem ; and under the guidance of our God-sent deliverer we go out of this Egypt, driven out by the strong hand of ex- perience into that which adjoins it and through which we have got to work our way. Passing through the wilderness is progressing through all that lies between this Egypt of sense-con- sciousness or the darkness of this state which we now call living, into its higher phase, or where it is illumined by spiritual understanding, so passing into that promised land ; for that condition is sure for those who will, with set purpose, make their exodus from Egypt. And this is the budding as the sequence of the planting of the seed which takes root and grows, governed by the law of growth, which is the law of God, to this stage. This passing through the wilderness is the passing over from darkness to light, but not by any means the end of the process; yet further progress can be made in the light, or consciously and knowingly in- stead of not understanding the meaning of experience and groping about blindly to find our way out of it. The work done in the promised land which puts us finally into undisturbed possession of it; the growth which produces a line of kings and conquerors from whom comes at last the long promised one, oi THE PASSOVEB. 139 the fruit of the seed planted, is the progress which brings the blossoming after the budding. The bud of understanding unfolds through real- ization of the truth perceived and understood as un- deviating principle to disclose more and more of the beauties of wisdom hidden within it. The bud is the turning point between the planted seed and the fruit. It contains within it all that is so far developed from the seed in accordance with its nature. It is the promise of the fruit but it must blossom to bear it. It must open and expand, then drop the needless part to produce the fruit. Realization, consequent upon spiritual understanding is this flower or blossom which drops its petals, or former consciousness of the mistakes and errors of sense, to possess only the en- during, the true sense of being which does not include these and which is embodied in the fruit following the blossom ; and which is but the potentialities of the seed manifested or brought forth. All these stages are passed through to bring the fruit ; none of them could be left out. The bud, blossom, and fruit are upon that stalk upgrown from the root ; and the root is where the seed was planted. The bud is not the blossom and the blossom is not the fruit ; yet the last is not possible except as pre- ceded by the others ; and the root upholds them all. This process which is a whole, a unity of its several stages which makes it a unit, makes possible a harvest. No one of its stages, neither the bud nor the blossom is that harvest ; the fruit is for the harvest which is not till it is gathered ; till it is cut from the root up 140 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. from which it has grown and which holds it to itself till it is so cut. The passing through all these stages from the planting of the Jacob seed through the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt is at the same time the passing over from the seed to the fruit, and so to the gathering of the harvest which is the finishing of it all. This fruit is the Jesus, the all-knowing man in the world, the product of spiritual perception, understand- ing and realization of the truth or principle of being as opposed to the mortal sense of being ; the second born not the first ; the embodiment of soul-conscious- ness instead of sense-consciousness ; of Jacob instead of Adam, yet of Adam through Jacob ; the fruit of that which comes out of Egypt into wisdom ; the product of light not of darkness ; the incarnated result of wrestling with all contrary to the spiritual verity till it be overcome, and through this overcom- ing made manifest ; the visibility of the heretofore invisible ; the visibility of all the hidden potentialities of the seed ; the Word made flesh ; the God-Man in the world through that personality which is in perfect unity with him, because in perfect accord with the natures both of God and of Man. We find in all the Gospels of the New Testament that Jesus's disciples kept the passover with him ; that they ate it by themselves. They went up to Jerusalem for the purpose in common with the rest of the Jews but they observed this rite "in a large upper room, furnished and prepared." This separation of Jesus and his disciples from the THE PASSOVEB. 141 multitude shows this higher significance of the pass- over which was and is beyond the perception of the mass who follow a custom according to the traditions concerning it without effort for individual under- standing. Mankind is passing through that regenerative pro- cess by means of which it passes from mortality to immortality ; passes through it wholly till that which is at either end becomes united ; and the keeping of this passover whole or entire, not a bone of its body broken and wholly consumed, means the redemption of mankind from the bondage of ignorance and the sufferings which are its consequences ; means its worked-for and won salvation from it all and posses- sion of that freedom which is its inheritance, secured through the understanding and application of eternal principles in place of the former blind acceptance of traditions. This upper room or higher possibility where the Jesus and his disciples eat the passover has been furnished and prepared by the growth to the Jesus stage ; but the passing through and over of all that leads to the gathering of the harvest ; to that last supper or consuming which is last because the fruit is ripe and the harvest will end the process ; it must be cut from its root for all to be completed. Only those can eat the passover with Jesus who are akin to the Jesus nature ; who are led by spiritual perception, understanding and realization instead of by tradition embodied in the priesthood of the letter of the lavr. Only those can eat that last supper before the pass- 142 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. ing over is completed, for only these can be with the Jesus and witness the fulfilling of the Law, yet not wholly seeing this fulfilling till it is made visible to them later on ; for this Jesus as the representative of this process in its entirety, of the passing through and passing over which are equal, is the lamb which must be offered up for many ; the shedding of whose blood is for the remission of sins; the lamb whose innocence atones for the sins or errors which are so remitted ; that lamb whose blood so shed marks the door through which mankind goes forth from bondage to freedom, for its sins are the results of its ignorance which in itself, is natural or innocent ; and through true knowledge is it redeemed. This all-knowledge typified in the Jesus, this fruit from the seed, is the redemption for the world. The shedding of blood that is portrayed of him is the blood atonement for mankind as a whole by which it is lifted up to him ; lifted up to that same level as a unit, as one body, not a bone broken on the way, not a member of which is left out ; for this atonement and redemption like the passover is universal as well as individual. This final stage in the passing through wliich makes possible the final passing over, is the last supper, the last eating or consuming ; for none of this lamb so slain must remain in the world wliicli it passes out of through being consumed or eaten. So it is said " Take, eat ; this is my body ; drink ; this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for manv. I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine THE PASSOVER. 143 until that day that I drink it new in the Kingdom of God." The fruit is ripe for the harvest ; the time of reap- ing is at hand ; and so for this Jesus there is no more in the world ; no more in this process which is about to be completed through the reaping of the har- vest ; no more of the fruit of the vine ; no more for him for he is the all of it, and his next eating and drinking is in the Kingdom of God, or in conscious and inseparable unity with God through the Christ ; for he passes over and into the Christ and so drinks it new. It is this very night, according to the record, that Jesus is betrayed and carried before Pilate ; it is the next morning that he is crucified and the visible part of the process is finished. As the planted seed is in darkness till that which comes forth from it is rooted and so pushes itself above the darkness of the ground into the light which is above it ; as the growth above the ground helped on by the continued strengthening at the root is in the light ; as the bud and blossom form and unfold, then bringing the fruit which is their sequence, so the harvest is reaped there also. In the morning the fruit is cut from its stalk leaving it and all belonging to it that it may feed many through being gathered. So this fruit, the Jesus, must be cut from that stalk where his disciples or those coming after him to the same fruitage are ; taken from them to fulfil his nature as that which feeds the hungry, saves them from suffering, heals them of their afflictions, saves them from death, redeems them with his blood when 144 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. they eat his body and drink his blood ; this eating and drinking made possible only through this reap- ing of the harvest, this cutting of the fruit from the stalk. The death of Jesus through crucifixion, his resur- rection and ascension are only this final passing over and so into that which is one with God ; into the complete and perfected Self-consciousness which belongs to Man because of what he is ; into the Christ which was hid in the bosom of the Father from the beginning, and which, having been found, is joined to so completely through growth that there are no longer two but one ; no longer Jesus and the Christ, but Jesus Christ. As the children of Israel in the book of Exodus were saved through the shedding of blood, so are we to-day, children of Israel also if we will, saved through a Hke shedding. As they slew their lamb themselves so making that atonement through the mark of blood which caused the destroying angel to pass them by, so may we to-day be passed by though the land in which we dwell be visited by him. But to save ourselves this visitation we must do this work ourselves. We must slay our first-born, our mortal-sense conception ; for that sense being natural to mankind in its beginnings, its conception is the first-born to us ; and it must be put out of the way for the higher, the true, to be with us and guide us to oneness with itself, through growing up to and into it. The truth of man, the Christ, must be conceived by us and be grown to and into ; the nature of Man, TBE PASSOVEB. 145 which is like the nature of God, must be our model in place of our limited sense of both ; must be that ideal which we constantly aspire to become, con- stantly reach out and up to from the limitations of this sense-consciousness, so growing little by little toward it, or becoming it ; a progress which is sure and by means of which our becoming ends and we are it. All of us must so pass over from sense-conscious- ness to soul-consciousness ; from what we seem in the world to what we are independent of the world ; all of us must keep this passover in every one of its stages; and all of us will be ready to slay our lamb when we see that its bloodshed marks our way out of bondage into freedom ; for the mortal-sense conception as the legitimate consequence of mortal sense, that natural to mankind in its infancy is innocent, is a lamb. There is no wilful error there ; it is the conse- quence of natural ignorance. It cannot be other- wise than that mankind's infancy is ignorance of its manhood, and has to grow from and out of that ignorance through knowledge, so reaching that man- hood. This lamb, innocent in itself, belongs at the foundation of the world — of this process which is the world ; and so must be slain from this foun- dation, and is. The culmination of this slaying there begun is the sacrifice of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world ; for it is constant from its begin- ning at the foundation or root till it is completed at the reaping of the fruit, the gathering of the harvest. 10 146 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. So, only, are our sios, our errors taken away be- cause so we put them away ; so through this atone- ment which we make, do we come to our selves ; so is the face of the world filled with this fruit ; for every individual member of mankind through keeping this passover shall come to that fruit-bearing stage which so fills the face of the world. Not one shall be left out, but " in the fullness of the time " all shall know and stand ready to be gathered into that Christ which is one body with many mem- bers ; for then the Lord of the harvest cometh and gathers this ripened fruit from off the face of the world ; gathers his own at the end of time and gath- ers it for eternity. THE LAST SUPPEB. 147 THE LAST SUPPER. Mark xiv. 22-25. And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them : and tliey all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. A FAVORITE subject with old-time painters and poets is this " Last Supper " which we find recorded in the four Gospels of the New Testament. Preceding as it did the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus, it seems peculiarly pathetic and appeals strongly to that sympathy which dwells more or less witliin us all, ready to well up and overflow when the different incidents in the life of this man of sorrows make demand upon it. It would seem, as we trace the life of Jesus in the Gospels, as if joy and pleasure were unknown to him ; as if only trial and tribulation, grief and sorrow were the portion of this Divine worker for mankind ; as if even the common happiness of the human race were denied him who spake as never man spake, who unfailingly lifted, cheered, encouraged, taught and 148 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. healed others, himself without one friend, in the world save the disciples who followed after him and who at the last forsook him and fled, leaving him, according to the worldly sense, utterly alone. This lonely, patient, wandering figure in Biblical history calls out all our admiration for the quiet heroism, our loving allegiance for the noble example it affords us ; and we feel an impulse for higher endeavor, for more unselfish effort in behalf of our fellows after a perusal of the narratives in which he is the central figure. Helpful as this perusal of the Gospels may be, this reading as historical narrative ; however much newly pledged loyalty and devotion to the cause of Christ may result from it, a higher view and result is possible from the gaining of a grander significance than the historical, the traditional one ; and this result, as the sequence of this higher significance not only wins but compels the following of the example afforded by the Nazarene, even to the experiencing of every incident in his career as incidents in our own ; even to the willing acceptance because seen as the outworkings of law, of his life as a whole with all its pains, its griefs, its unrecog- nized and unrequited work, its scourging and its crucifixion as our own which must be lived out to the same glorifying at its end. When this interior meaning of the Gospels, which is but the harmonious continuity of the meaning in the Old Testament, is seen, it breaks down the partition walls between the different races of mankind and unites them all, Jew and Gentile, Greek, and THE LAST SUPPER. 149 barbarian alike, in the undying bond of universal brotherhood; and shows us that our Jesus, the Jesus of Christendom, is also the Jesus for the Jew, the Gentile, the Greek, and the barbarian ; is for them also the one way, the one truth and the one life as there mediator through which is manifest the uni- versal Christ ; the personality or visibility of that one I Am, that one God who is no respecter of persons, but who is the same for every one that calls upon his name. This higher significance which uses history but is not used by it ; which molds tradition but is not molded by it, shows a meaning to every recorded incident in the life of which is a part or a section of the continuous meaning ; and reveals all of them as manifestations of law instead of the happenings of a people and a time; manifestations which have to come to and for every one of us before we too can know that the hour is come when we can and shall depart out of this world unto the Father. This last supper is possible only as the last of many which must precede it ; is but the last eating and drinking which has been first before it could be last ; and is last only for those who have followed Jesus in the regecieration ; not for those who have not so followed, but are still in the kind of generation which must cease before they can be disciples. To find the grand meaning of this last supper, this last eating of the passover which is completed in the passing over of the Jesus to the Christ, the passing out of the world over to or unto the Father with which the Christ is one, we must find the beginning 150 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. of the passover and the first eating thereof ; find the statement of the law to see and understand its fulfilling ; follow it from its first stages through the intermediate ones to the last ; to the glorifying or putting on of that Self which is for mankind ; which is one with the Father of mankind and which waits there till we go to and claim it, reaching and receiving it through the eating or consuming of the old self, the self of the world with its many parts ; eating supper after supper, drinking the fruit of the vine as we grow along the vine, till reaching that we have so grown to, we eat and drink our last in the world and receive all new in the kingdom of God. We must go back to Genesis, to generation, in order to find and follow the regeneration which brings to us this last supper, through many preceding ones. If we are able to perceive the distinction between the man of the first chapter of Genesis and the Adam of the second chapter we shall see the first as the generated and the second as the regenerated ; or the first as the created, the produced, and the second as the recreated or reproduced. In other words we shall see the man of the first chapter, the image of God, as the effect of First Cause which acts as Cause for that which follows it. Being the created or produced, it acts as producer in turn ; hence reproducer and its product is repro- duction ; while it, as effect of First Cause or God, is production or the generated ; what comes from it is necessarily the regenerated ; and this regeneration is an image of it as it is the image of its Cause. That Creation may be completed or that all that God THE LAST SUPPER. 151 is may be manifested as well as expressed, this re- generation must be equal to the generation ; the reproduction equal to the production. The image of man must be as complete, as such, as man is com- plete as the image of God; for the Likeness of God must be forthcoming after the image of God ; what God is actively is as essential to that manifestation which completes Creation as what God is passively ; and all manifestation of that which is beyond form is through form ; the nature of the formless is revealed only through that form which is its image. Hence that the works of God, that all the sequences of that nature of God which are the works, may be made manifest, the reproduction, the regeneration is es- sential as form or image of that form or image which includes those ; or if man is the image of God, the entity of all images or expressions of God, his own as complete image is essential to the manifestation of God ; for the Likeness or the activity of God is yet to become visible and through the means thus afforded for the visibility. When we can see that man's image has its place in Creation as assuredly as has God's image, and that the Likeness of the one to the other, of the re- generated to the generated is all important to the manifestation of the nature of God and of man — for the medium for manifestation must be perfect, as such, that the manifestation may be perfect — we shall see that a perfect image of man alone affords a perfect manifestation of man ; and that a perfect mani- festation of man is a like manifestation of God, Man being the image of God. 152 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Therefore Producer, Production and Reproduction, or Generator, Generated and Regenerated stand in harmonious relation to each other ; and the product or sequence of this unity in which each has its own place is the Likeness of the first two, made possibly by the medium through which it comes. This full likeness is the Christ which is the like- ness of God and of Man equally ; of the Generator and the Generated ; and is through the Regenerated, or image which is its medium. So this likeness or the Christ is one with God in what it is ; but as the visible Christ is the product of regeneration which opens the way for this visi- bility, and which is through form or through the Jesus, the regenerated, the son of Man, as man the generated is the Son of God. The end of the world is the full manifestation of the Christ ; hence Jesus is the end of the world as the image or figure through which the Christ is visi- ble; is the end of regeneration for its purpose is accomplished. As this end of regeneration every one of us must follow after him in the way of regeneration. Jesus speaks of his disciples as " Ye which have followed me in the regeneration." Adam is the first image of g^ man or the first of mankind ; Jesus is the last image of man or the last and highest of mankind ; and this process of regeneration from first to last must bel followed for the end of the world to come. [ Seeing the image of Man, the son of man or person ;. passively, is to see only that figure which represents Man or the Son of God. Seeing the action through. THE LAST SUPPER. 153 the son of man is to see Man or the Son of God act- ing through him ; and to understand this action as such is to see the Christ, the Likeness of God ; for Man in what he is and can do, is the Likeness of his Cause. Beginning with Adam as a son of man, one mem- ber of that body which is the son of man or Jesus, the manifestation of the Christ, the Likeness of God which is visible through this figure is but the very least; and there is ascension in these manifestations from the least to the greatest as the figures through which it comes ascend, from the least to the greatest ; for all manifestation must be in proportion to the capacity of the medium for it. The least possible degree of what Man is, therefore of his likeness to God or the Christ, is manifest through the Adam ; for that capacity is the least. A higher degree is manifest through the Enos ; still higher through the Noah ; higher yet, in orderly suc- cession, through the Abraham, the Isaac and the Jacob; and the highest, the full manifestation is through the Jesus, the perfect one or person as the son of man^ so perfect medium for complete manifestation of what Man is ; and this complete manifestation of what Man is, is equally the manifestation of God, Man being like God; and this perfect likeness, so made manifest, is the Christ which has ever been in the world according to the opportunity ; least with the Adam, greater and greater with his successors, the greatest with the Jesus or at the end of the world. These figures or persons in the world are, passively, the product of generation from Man ; the action with 154 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. and through them, is regeneration in Man. By this action, one disappears for the next to take its place, for a higher than the visible one is always being generated. Man regenerates or brings forth his Self ; brings forth his own potentialities as the image of God ; and these brought forth are in their entity the like- ness of God or the Christ, the Divine Nature. Con- sequently every one of these figures which are mediums for the manifestation of the nature of Man and so of his likeness to God, are personalities, or the visible parts of selfs which are less than the one com- plete Self yet to come. Therefore they must make way for each other ; the first and least must disappear for the next and liigher to take its place ; and so on through the whole scale. The first must be consumed and is, for the very process which produces it, produces its suc- cessor, and produces that successor through consum- ing it the first. Watch the growth from infancy for an illustration of this fact. The very law which has produced the infant will produce its successor, tlie child, because it works without ceasing. But as the child is pro- duced the infant is consumed ; and through this cease- less working the boy is produced to succeed the child it being consumed therefore ; and so on till the whole scale is run ; and when what we call death comes, it is but the last consuming or last supper which cause the successor of this visible to appear. But that, by its nature, being invisible to the sense which has its predecessors, to that sense there is no THE LAST SUPPER. 155 successor. When a person dies, we say that is the end because we do not see the next stage in the world process which is not yet at an end. As that which has produced the infant produces the child, the boy, the youth, the man and old age in orderly succession, so the Adam and his successors up to the Jesus follow each other, the first being con- sumed or eaten that the next may come for this food is necessary to a successor ; and the second is eaten for the third, the third for the fourth and so on till the last supper has come. As the dying of old age is called a natural death, it being only what has occurred constantly from infancy to that point, only the same consuming which has been carried on from the beginning, natural as all the preceding deaths have been natural and but one of them, so the death of the Jesus is but the con- tinuance of the dying which began with Adam and by means of which Adam's successor appeared ; a dying which must be constant all through the world, for Enos must make way for the Noah, the Noah for the Abraham, the Abraham for the Isaac, the Isaac for the Jacob, and the Jacob for the Jesus, and the Jesus for the Christ. The death from old age, the natural death as we call it, but represents the death of the Jesus of man- kind ; it is natural, not forced, the working out of the law, not the transgression of law; only its fulfilling. That old age has its successor ; but because we do not see it, we wonder if there can be more ; yet we shall see it when the time has come for that seeing. So the Jesus disappears — he is the last supper — his 156 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. body and blood must be consumed, eaten and drank that his successor may appear. He is the last mortal or the last of mortality, and his successor, which has all the while acted through him, is then the all ; for the Jesus is in this successor or the Christ through this consuming, just as all the predecessors of the Jesus are in him through the same eating. With him the scale has reached its height ; the highest note has been sounded; the harmony heard through the note remains, for it is eternal. This consuming of the body is through the con- suming of the soul of the body. The Adam soul or self must be consumed for its visibility or the person to disappear. Subjective and objective are a unity and this unity must go for a successor higher than it to appear. These selfs are generated from Man or the Lord and must be constantly regenerated ; con- stantly destroyed for new and higher ones to come. Every self beginning with the least Adam, is what may be called a soul and its body ; the soul being the subjective and the body the objective of that unity, the self. This soul must die or come to an end, and its ceasing is the cessation of the body be- longing to it; just as infancy must cease, and so its body ceases as well. But that which operates upon this soul and produces its successor, bringing it to its legitimate and necessary end the while, overcomes that self by this very process and goes on to the next which is overcome in its turn in the same way. Man produces these selfs beginning with Adam and ending with Jesus ; operates upon and through each one, constantly, overcoming them in their order, THE LAST SUPPER. 157 consuming soul and body till the perfected soul and body stands forth at last as the highest Self ; highest because manifesting the full nature of Man as like God ; showing what he is as the God-like. This consuming is regeneration ; a generating from lowest to highest till the regenerated stands forth ; and the active power by which it is accomplished is the thinking power. It belongs to Man as the think- ing being who expresses the One Mind ; belongs to that entity which Man is, therefore belongs propor- tionately to every degree or part of Man ; and this power, active in every part because active in and with that whole possessing it, forms or generates the self of the part; the soul of the self being the self- consciousness which belongs to a degree of Man, and the body being but the objectivity of that subjective. Therefore there must be many selfs, each degree of man having its own, and these will range from least to greatest. Their entity or sum will be the Self of Man. The Soul of this self will be the com- plete self-consciousness belonging to Man, and the body will be objective of that subjective, or the spirit- ual body. In this continuous process which is from the think- ing being, Man, each soul has to be lost to be found ; or every degree of self-consciousness has to be recog- nized as a degree only which is not existent in it- self, separate from others, but as existing in the whole of which it is only a part. Just as the self-consciousness of infancy must be lost or come to an end for a higher, that of childhood to come or be, and just as the first is in the second 158 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. as the lesser is in the greater, so every self or every degree of self-consciousness must cease as the seem- ing all and be found in that which is greater than it. As there is something which precedes and succeeds what we see as the infant and its old age, so Man and the self-consciousness of Man as the entity or whole precedes and succeeds all these selfs which Man constitute mankind, soul and body ; all these from Adam to Jesus ; and they are generated in their order through regeneration ; the nature of Man producing and acting upon all of them, till through them that nature is fully manifested ; and so God is made mani- fest, it being the Likeness of God. The generations from Man, from the Lord to the Christ, begin with Adam and end with the Jesus ; yet each of them is the regeneration of its predecessor. They are all lost and all found again. They are all eaten or consumed ; and not till the last supper or last consuming, the last losing and finding does the final product of regeneration stand forth as the all, the eternal, all else having made way for it. This Christ which so stands forth, not being of the world or not one of these selves which together con- stitute the world, is not visible to the sense belong- ing to the world, or to these selfs which are self-seeing only, and cannot see the entity in which they belong. At the end of this generating and regenerating process is the eating and drinking new in the king- dom of God, outside of the world, the world being overcome ; outside of or beyond the limitations of the mortal sense. It is the conscious conjoining to Infinity through finding or reachmg the Infinite THE LAST SUPPEB. 159 Self-consciousness ; and the only way to this finding is through eating the body and drinking the blood of all selfs less than the highest. Through this eating and drinking is the generating of a higher than we now know, and it is the regen- erating which must be constant. Right use of the thinking power regenerates what we seem to be, bring- ing a self-consciousness which is higher than our old one. Continued right use brings a higher and a higher till we outgrow the limitations of mortal sense and stand revealed " in his likeness." It is the power through whose action the works of God are made manifest ; for Man, as the entity of all which is from God, is made manifest through it. Mankind is formed by it, is regenerated through it till it wholly, entirely represents Man and so God, for Man is like God ; and through that which is so formed, the Cause of all is made known. What is mankind and where does it come from ? Mankind is the scale which is played upon from its lowest to its highest note, that the harmony which is in, of, and between all things in Creation and between it and its Cause may be sounded ; that what God is, and what Man is may be manifested. This universal harmony is the voice of God in Creation which shall be heard in the uttermost parts ; and the divine music of this scale is the music of the spheres for every note in it is a sphere, a whole dis- tmct from the others yet not separate from them, round and full in itself. Mankind is the link between one half of Creation 160 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. and the other; as tones are the link between music in itself and music out of itself or sounded ; for music is in the silence, dwells there. It is called forth when it speaks through the medium for that speech, sound ; and sound needs and has tones for harmony. Except harmony be expressed there is no music ; monotony is not music. This scale from Adam to Jesus is the medium through which that divine harmony is sounded which is revealing God and Man in their eternal oneness. Every tone in it must be struck to utilize all its pos- sibilities ; and struck with the master-hand, no dis- cord results ; nothing but the sweetest and the grand- est music ; sweeter and grander as the mastery of the scale rises higher and higher till it includes entire dominion over it. Upon it is played the Song of Life ; through it is heard only that Song by the ear attuned to the har- mony and listening for it. Though there be minor chords they but help to swell the volume of sound which is music only ; and by their contrast, new beauties and higher possibilties are revealed. Who of us is learning to recognize the master-hand which plays upon this scale ? To see that every chord, glad or sorrowful as such, is but an essential part of the grand whole brought forth through it? To sing this song in unison with this harmony, gladly, joj^fully, willingly giving utterance to it in the world, knowing that it is not of the world but of and from that which precedes and succeeds the world, eternal and everlasting? Living in all that it is from its lowest to its high- "^HE LAST SUPPEB. 161 est range or possibility is the " song celestial " which is uttered by all that speaks through mankind. In this divine harmony we all have place ; listening we catch its first faint strains ; still listening we hear them swell louder and louder till we hear naught but the harmony, all else consumed by it ; and the glad pean of victory at its end is for us, is with us, is sung by us, for we have entered into the joy of our Lord. 11 162 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. CROWN OF THORNS. John, xix. 1-5. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. And said. Hail, King of the Jews ! and they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto him. Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith imto them, Behold the man ! Only as we become able to trace the continuity of the underlying significance of the Bible, beginning with its first book, Genesis, are we able to gain the true meaning of this chief character of tlie New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth, and the equally true meaning of the several events with which he is con- nected, and which form a continuous narrative pictori- ally illustrative of his nature. His crucifixion, which follows his teachings and his works as their inevitable sequence, is preceded by the crown of thorns wliich is worn by him and is accompanied by scourging. In the teachings known as modern Christianity, this crown of thorns has no especial significance. It is pointed out as one of the means used by the Jews CROWN OF THOBNS. 163 who crucified Jesus to humiliate and cause him suffer- ing ; and our emotions are appealed to, our sympa- thies are aroused by this presentation, while he is put forward as the one above all others entitled to our utmost love and loyalty. In the pictures of the suffering Jesus we see this crown upon his head, its sharp •thorns piercing his flesh and causing the blood-drops to flow ; while these are pictured as faithfully as the rest. It is a very literal, material, physical Jesus that is so presented to us, and his crown is one of ignominy and punishment ; not of royalty. Because this Jesus of the Gospels is not under- stood for what he is, the different features of this narrative are so much dead letter yet every one of them is full of a living, pulsating, vivifying meaning and is connected with every other one so as to make a harmonious whole. This crown of thorns stands forth as a grand and mighty proof of the nature of its wearer. Jesus could not be crucified till he had been possessor of it ; till he had been crowned with it as the recognition of his royalty. It is one of those links in the chain of sequence from Genesis which is all essential to the result of that sequence ; to the disappearance of the Jesus whose work is finished only through the wearing of this crown ; and his disappearance or death on the cross, is the natural, not the forced and unnatural result of what he is. To understand the meaning of this crown of thorns, we must go back to Genesis and find its_ cause, its 164 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. beginning; or rather the beginning of the thorns composing it. The first mention of thorns which we find there, is in the 18th verse of the 3d chapter. Beginning with the preceding verse we read : — '' Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake : in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." A brief explanation of the one to whom these words are addressed, is necessary to further explana- tion. This Adam has always been confounded with the man of the first Chapter of Genesis, who is there described as made in the image of God, by the teachers of the letter of the Bible ; by the conservators and handers-down of tradition. They say, man was created pure and perfect ; but that he fell from his high estate through the sin of disobedience to the command of God. This statement is not warranted even by the letter of Genesis. What is called the command of God is the command of the Lord God instead, and the two are not synonymous. The mistake of considering them so is the fundamental error in modern Christianity. It is the Lord God, not God ; not tlie God of the first chapter who says to Adam " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." CROWN OF THORNS. 165 And this is not a command which should have been obeyed ; but a statement of what the legitimate con- sequences will be, if a certain thing is done ; and it is not addressed to the man of the first chapter of Genesis ; to the pure and perfect being created by God as there portrayed, but to that far less than he : to that whicli is not the image of God, and which is not stated so to be. This man who is this image of the first chapter, and the one formed of the dust of the ground by the Lord God or the Adam of the second chapter, are not identical, any more than their creators or makers are identical. They are two distinct products of two distinct yet inseparable producers ; and only through perception of this fact can the contradictions, absurdities, which are the result of making them identical be met and overthrown ; because this perception, with what it includes, followed out to its own conclusions will give a rational and satisfactory explanation of what is called the fall of man and the necessity for his redemption which is met by theological vicarious atonement. The Lord God of the second chapter is the man, the being pure and perfect in his nature who is de- scribed in the first chapter as the image of God. This is the effect of God or First Cause, acting as cause in turn ; or Man is the Son of God as the effect of that Cause which is God ; and as such has that productive nature which causes him to have his effect, or to bring forth his son. The first chapter is the record of the production of 166 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. the Son of God, or Man ; the second is the beginning of the record of the production of the son of man ; and these two records are not antagonistic to each other but are in perfect harmony, as are these two sons likewise. The Son of God and the son of man, their relation to each other and to their Cause, is the underlying basis of the whole of this book, the Bible, which, as a whole explains these. The Adam of the second chapter is not the per- fected, the complete son of man, only his beginnings. The fruit of this beginning is the true or whole Son of Man, and this is the Jesus of the New Testament. It is the process between the Adam and the Jesus, between the beginning and the end, which is illustrated in the Bible through persons, places, and things ; which is so objectively presented"; and this process begins with eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This eating, which has been called disobedience to the command of God, but which is not, in the true sense, is the legitimate and necessary consequence of the nature of the Adam ; is the beginning of that process which alone can bring forth the Jesus. It is not a fall from perfection and purity through disobedience. The statement that the perfect can become imperfect through its own act is illogical to begin with ; for whatever can change its own nature is greater than the cause which has produced it ; and if man can change his nature through his own act, he is greater than that God which has produced his nature. It is the same as to say that effect can sup- CBOWN OF THORNS. 167 plant and supersede cause ; can take from cause its nature ; its power to act in harmony with itself. What is called the fall of man, but which is not, because man cannot fall or change from what he is as man, is the change from that innocence which is ignorance to knowledge — a fall up instead of down. It is the sequence of the nature of the Adam who is the personification of a state of consciousness or of a degree of the self-consciousness belonging to man, the image of God ; is a fraction of a unit ; and each fraction of this unit, Man, or each degree has to gain its own knowledge, having as a help thereto that gained by all the previous degrees. The ignorance or innocence of all after the Adam is comparative, as the second has the knowledge gained by the Adam and so is ignorant or innocent of only what lies beyond itself. The Adam, as the first, is entirely innocent or ignorant and consequently " falls," which is the term used in consequence of non-perception of the nature of the Adam, and of the meaning of the temptation of the serpent. We have an old proverb, " A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ; " and its truth is illustrated right here in the third chapter of Genesis ; for after eating of the tree of knowledge Adam and Eve, of course, knew something where before they knew nothing , they began to do that which would bring them the knowledge which is power, bring them conscious strength, dominion and peace only by its continuance to higher and higher planes ; and between this be- ginning and these highest lies experience, which 168 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. contains what is here called good and evil ; here lies this ground which is cursed for his sake or cursed to him ; meaning, painful for him through the experience which is inevitable as the consequence of a little knowledge and through which the knowledge that is power is gained. The pains and pangs of experience are what are here called the thorns and thistles which the ground brings forth to him. Mark this wording well ! It is not said that this ground is an accursed thing in itself ; is an evil or bad thing to cultivate or to know ; the thorns and thistles are not part of the ground it- self ; they are only what it brings forth to the Adam; they are the legitimate accompaniments of experience only, which, in its continuance, reaches a point where they are mastered, where the ground brings forth wheat instead. This truth maybe illustrated by the experience which lies between childhood and manhood. The childhood is the Adam and the manhood is the Jesus ; back of both the childhood and the manhood, of both the Adam and the Jesus, lies that which is developing its nature ; and this development is made objective through this progress from childhood. The experience which lies between the two con- tains thorns and thistles for the child, necessarily ; but the child's thorns and thistles are nothing to the full-grown man. It will suffer inevitably because of its natural or child sense of things; and learn through its suffering that that was only the accompaniment of its child- hood. CROWN OF THORNS. 169 How well do we remember the thorns and thistles which childhood brought forth for us ! How clearly do we see now that they belonged there, and it could not have been otherwise ! How clearly can we see to-day that we learned needed lessons through them ; lessons which we had to learn in order to grow ! How clearly we see that growth was the consequence of experience ! Where, to-day, is the suffering which was ours then because we were denied what we wanted; because we could not do many things which we wished to do ? Where the intense pain and sorrow when authority, in the shape of our elders, thwarted our childish schemes and hedged our way about so that we could not always carry out the wishes and designs of our cliild sense ? Where is that sense ? Why, it be- longed to childhood, and all these pangs and pains belonged there too, as its consequence ; and we became strong men and women only as we plucked out these sharp thorns from our consciousness one by one, and outgrew their sting. How many times were we told by those who knew because they had travelled over the same road, passed through the same experience, " Do not feel so badly! There is no need for it ! You do not understand now because you are a child ; one of these days you will know better!" And how many times have we tried manfully and womanfully to bear these burdens, so great and heavy to us, so little and insignificant to those elders who were wise where we were ignorant ! Looking back over all this we see that this ex- perience, this process was necessary to what is called 170 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. the building of character ; and what is this but the developing, the bringing forth to visibility of hidden potentialities in us ? We were inherently able to stand against this suffering : to pluck out the sharp thorns so that they should sting no more ; to exercise dominion over them, that dominion potentially belonging to us and which had to be developed by experience, and so we grew day by day toward manhood and woman- hood ; grew day by day, stronger, grander, gaining little by little that knowledge which is power. Looking back over it all do we not see that it had to be ? That it was a means to an end ? That we could not have known what we were capable of reaching and holding, otherwise ? Can we not see that it was all, oh, so real to us ! while we were conscious of it, but that, the conscious- ness outgrown, it has passed as the mist of the morn- ing in the sunlight ? All the while we were children feeling the sting of the thorns which the ground of childhood brought forth to us, there was some one who knew better than we did and who told us the truth about what we were experiencing ; yet we had to learn our own lessons in order to know for ourselves. Just so is it with us as Adams to-day. The ground which lies between the childhood and manhood or perfect and complete self-consciousness brings forth thorns to us because of our sense about ourselves and it. We must grow, to know better ; to see that these thorns can sting and hurt only the one who lets them do so ; who does not pluck them out with CROWN OF THORNS. 171 a strong hana ; and to see that this strong hand is developed through growth ; through growing nat- urally and legitimately from Adam childhood to Jesus manhood. Pain of every kind ; sorrow from its least to its highest form ; everything which our child or mortal sense calls evil, bad, bitter, unbearable ; all these are the thorns which this ground — this passage from mortality to immortality, from partial to complete self-consciousness, brings forth to us ; are part of our experience therein ; and all are left behind when the passage is made, the development completed. Yet they are carried through to its end ; but O ! how differently at the end from the beginning I Then it is with groans and outcries and bitter pains ; but afterwards in silence with strength, with power, with dominion over them ; dominion over their power to wound because they are plucked out of the flesh and carried in the strong hand of the master. So long as they are allowed to rankle in the flesh, so long will suffering and evil be the reality of exist- ence to us ; or so long as we believe our ills to origi- nate in the body and our woes in other things or circumstances independent of ourselves, so long will these conditions be the real to us, to the exclusion of all else. Not till they are plucked from thence through that knowledge which is power because that knowl- edge which is wisdom ; through knowing that the truth of being is eternal and immutable, and that only a sense of being or existing holds to itself all suffering, will they be overcome or come over ; be 172 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. dominated or made subject in place of ruling ; be mastered, and so be the royal crown of the one who thus has the right to wear it ; that crown which pro- claims the royalty or the divine nature of its wearer, and shows him master of the world because master of all the sin, sickness, sorrow, and death ; of all the evil and suffering which seem a part of it. This master, so crowned, is the fruit of that which has brought him forth. The complete self-consciousness which belongs to manhood, the son of God, is made manifest through this ripened mortal, this perfected son of Man who is one with his Father through this link between them ; for this self-consciousness, which has been de- veloped by degree to fullness, has its fullness repres- ented in this Jesus — this full-grown son of Man who, as making manifest that dominion over all things which belongs to his Father, is master over all on his own line ; and this mastery has been grown to step by step as the self-consciousness of the only Man has developed by degrees, or according to the law of Creation which is the Law of God. Whatever we to-day pronounce to be evil; what- ever we believe ourselves to be subject to ; whatever we are afraid of ; whatever we declare to be unbear- able ; whatever we say makes us to suffer and to die, must be overcome by us before we can wear this crown ; and wear it we must if we would also sit down at the right hand of the Father in the kingdom. Every one of these thorns in the flesh — which is an expression meaning the pangs and pains in our self-consciousness — must be plucked out before it CBOWN OF THORNS. 173 can be made ; for it is composed of them and so it cannot be complete, cannot be that whole or circle which makes it a crown while any one of them is lacking because still in the flesh. Paul's thorn in the flesh for which he besought the Lord that it might depart from him, was not so re- moved. They cannot depart of themselves, from our consciousness ; and all our imploring to that end, prompted by our still incomplete perception of what we have to accomplish, receives the only answer pos- sible ; yet which seems so unsatisfactory to our mor- tal sense, for the reply, " My grace is sufficient unto thee," sliows us that no imploring for their removal will avail; it is our personal, mortal sense which so implores because of lack of understanding of the nature of the thorns. That answer shows us that we must pluck them out for ourselves, and that power to do this, power to gather them one by one together, through this plucking out, so that we finally leave them behind as testimony to our progress higher, is ours because we are always in unity with our Father which is in Heaven ; and from that source, ever open to us, comes all the strength we need for this plucking out ; all we can use. This royal diadem proclaims a pure self-conscious- ness or one in accord with men's spiritual nature ; one containing none of the actualities of mortal per- sonal sense ; one purified from them, and knowing only the unchanging, immortal truth of being. These penalties of mortality rule the mortal gov- erned by mortal sense ; he writhes and cries out un- 174 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. der their sting, not yet seeing that the power is his to pluck them out when he knows enough to discern their true nature and his own ; but little by little, because of the knowledge gained by experience, he begins to see, and rouses himself to the putting forth of the strong hand which makes them change place ; makes them subjects instead of rulers. He plucks them out and holds them with a firm grasp, carrying them to the end ; but not as he did at first ; carry- ing them as their master instead of their servant, who has so proved his right to sit down at the right hand of the Father; to have no consciousness contrary to that which belongs to the immortal Son of God, because he has proved himself victor over all less than it. It is the difference between subjection and mastery. The Adam is subject, the Jesus is master ; and be- tween these two points lie all the several stages which are ever in the ascending scale from first to last. It is one thorn after another uprooted from that ground which brings it forth, plucked out of that flesh which quivers at its presence, till all are uprooted, till all are plucked out ; till every so-called sorrow and pain has lost its power to wound ; till we liave out- grown the liability so to suffer, and thus stand at last master over every one of them because master of mortality with all that it includes ; and so conscious possessor of immortality which has ever been our inheritance. So long as we fear and shrink from these things which are real to the mortal sense of them, so long are we subject to them ; not till we begin to perceive CROWN OF THORNS. 175 their nature through using a higher than mortal sense, do we begin to pluck them out ; because not till then do we know that we can do so ; but when we see and know this, all depends upon ourselves ; upon drawing out with our own hand these rankling thorns, and holding them fast with a strong grip till all are with- drawn till our work, which merits and receives the " Well done ! good and faithful servant ! " weaves them into that encircling crown which marks its weaver the royal son of the Son ; which proves him victor over the world, over all the things of the world and so makes him done with the world because his work is finished. O ! my friends ! Will you go forth to day with renewed determination to win and wear this crown, undeterred by the scourging at the hand of sense which is its inevitable accompaniment ? That sense, the one which governs others in their judgments of us, will scourge us every step of the way to the end, because it is too limited in its range to see either the meaning of that end or the beyond of it. By church and state, by both ecclesiastical and civil law will this scourging be meted out to us ; at the hands of the high priest and the soldiers must we receive and bear it ; but beyond the end of this process which is progress, beyond the wearing of this royal crown they cannot go. This scourging ceases there ; and the one to whom it is given not only bears it without murmuring be- cause he knows from whence it comes and its power- lessness over him, but he also passes out of their 176 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. hands and beyond their power forever through the very means they use to defeat and destroy him. Can you see that no higher recognition of the nature of the work you are doing while plucking out these thorns ; of the position you occupy as the future wearer of the crown so made, is possible, than the non-recognition, by both church and state, of the work and its consequences ? Grander tribute could not be paid than this scourg- ing at their hands who think thus to stop and turn back omnipotent Law ; who think thus to destroy those who are working with it to its own ends ; its own mani- festation O ! look to this crown as the crown of the victor, that which none that this world can offer, but is far less than one of its many thorns ! Look to this scourging as the proclamation of your right to weave and wear it ! As your passport to that infinite beyond — the freedom of the sons of God, beside which the boasted freedom of the world is as naught, for it belies its name and scourges those who outgrow its prerogatives and so offer no testimony in their own behalf, but pass on higher. THE CMUVIFIJCIOM. Ill THE CRUCIFIXION. Matthew xxvii. 33-50. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull. They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall : and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots ; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vestm-e did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there : And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with him ; one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads. And saying, Thou that destroy est the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said. He saved others ; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will be- lieve him. He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, if he will have him : for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying 12 178 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Eli, Eli, lama sabaclithani ? that is to say. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. The great lesson taught by what is called the Crucifixion comprises far more than is made mani- fest through what seems to be the all of it, the deatli upon the cross of Jesus of Nazareth, who thereby makes expiation for our sins and enables us to enter that heaven which would otherwise be closed to us. Looking upon this as an event which took place at a certain time and in a certain country, all verifiable as true or in accord with the Christian belief about them, we fall far short of its highest significance. While this crucifixion of this Nazarene may be true historically like many of the events portrayed in the Bible, it and they are used as a means to an end ; and it is this end we are to seek to understand and to know ; to recognize as the all essential for ourselves, not stopping on the way thereto by mis- taking any of these means used for a purpose, for that end. The true aim of the Bible is not to show us the necessity of accepting and worshipping Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God who proved himself such by his resurrection after his crucifixion , it is rather to show us that that end to which these were the THE CRUCIFIXION. 179 last stepping-stones is what we are also to aspire to. It does not teach us to love Jesus, but rather to love what he loved. It does not teach us to follow him as an ultimate, but to follow what he followed and so come after him to the same result. It does not teach us the necessity of believing in Jesus as others interpret him to us, but rather of knowing him as he declares himself. He points us ever to a beyond ; the Bible teaches us to follow on in the way he points out, not stopping to adore him thinking our work done thereby. This error of mistaking a means for an end, cloth- ing the means with all the attributes and prerogatives of the end, is what precludes higher revelations in and through orthodox Christianity, which is handed down from generation to generation with no higher significations than it had years and years ago, and so does not meet the need and the demand of people to- day who are on higher mental planes. The lack in this regard is what is producing another interpretation and teaching, for demand ever produces supply ; and, by the same law, this supply which is forthcoming to-day is only to meet the de- mand ; is only for those who feel a need for more than is given them in ecclesiastical teachings ; is not for those who are satisfied there^vith. It is only those who hunger that can be filled. Without dwelling, therefore, upon the historical accuracy of these accounts of the chief personage in the Four Gospels, admitting even if desired that they are historically true and provable as such, it is main- tained that the true nature of such a being as is por- 180 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. trayed under the name, Jesus, and the co-relative nature of the several events in which he is concerned, are in nowise affected either by proof or by lack of proof corroborative of the claim of historical accuracy; and that no teaching founded upon this claim does or can reveal them. The universality of the Bible extends to every character in it, even to the Jesus of the New Testa- ment ; and because of this universality they are, in their true significance, impersonal types which be- come personal with us only through our own develop- ment or evolution through the stages of self-con- sciousness. Given this perception of their meaning, of the meaning of that account or process in whicli the}^ have place, and we have a hold upon the Bible, and it one on us, which places it and ourselves in relation to it, upon a very different plane than the one tradi- tion has marked out for it and us. Studied in this way, from this point of view, new and ever new, higher and ever higher significations to its statements, to its characters and events open to us, leading deeper and deeper into its mysteries which unravel as we go and which point us as with fingers of light to the at-one-ment between its records and our own experiences ; between the end toward which they all tend and that which is the result of these experiences. What the Christian world observe as Good Friday, all the services in commemoration of the death of our Lord as it is phrased, are in consequence of and in accordance with views about an historical event ; just THE CRUCIFIXION. 181 the same as is our celebration of the Fourth of July, only that one is religious and the other secular, and this observance of Good Friday or the day of Cruci- fixion is as wide of the higher significance of that event as is possible. When we consider the true, the universal imper- sonal in place of the historical, ecclesiastical Jesus, we see that his crucifixion begins long before what is recorded as such in the Gospels ; before his arraign- ment in the judgment hall of Pilate and execution on Calvary ; see that this is only its culmination its conclusion. He is crucified from the beginning ; but only then is crucifixion finished. The beginning of the son of man is also the beginning of his crucifixion ; of that process in through which he disappears that the Son of God may stand forth as the only begotten. Crucifixion is the dividing experience between mortality and immortality. Contrary in their nature, antagonistic to each other, these can never mingle and amalgamate, and this dividing line is the cross which stands between the tAvo ; the cross upon which the mortal must be crucified before he can pass from the one to the other ; from mortality to immortality ; from the power of mortal sense to the supremacy of im- mortal sense. If we trace the process from Adam to Jesus, the progress of the mortal from the Adam stage to the Jesus stage which finishes the process, and through which he is ripened for immortality, we find that he reaches it only by way of the cross ; find that he is brought to that cross by mortal sense, the natural 182 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. sense and the natural man, that at this point he takes it up and bears it consciously and knowingly up the mount to its top, finishing there the work he is given to do ; and when we understand the crucifixion as it is recorded in the Gospels or in it in this higher sense, we shall see it is but an epitome of this process and its sequence. So seeing we shall find nothing to mourn over, but rather much for rejoicing ; for we shall see this final scene in the crucifixion which has been going on previous to the Jesus stage, as but the stage of victory for the mortal, for the son of man, not defeat; for he thus goes as it is written of him, and all the woe, all the sorrow is for them by whom he goes ; he triumphs over all. Beginning with the Adam stage, with the state of consciousness which is naturally governed by mortal sense, we find that consequent experience brings forth its thorns and thistles to this state of conscious- ness, to the Adam, necessarily ; and that these pains and pangs, these labors in the sweat of his brow are his portion because of what he is, not because of any change in him through his disobedience. Experience for him develops legitimately a higher than he, just as experience or what we call living de- velops the boy from the little child because the potential boy is with the child, waiting to be de- veloped. This higher than he is Enos, who is the type man in this process between the Lord and the Christ, be- tween Man as he is and his manifestation, who may be called the boyhood which sees more than the child TBE CRUCIFIXION. 183 or the Adam sees ; who perceives or sees through what the child-Adam only looks at; who penetrates the real to the Adam and discerns the unchanging reality, the causative realm back of the changing experience which seems the only real to the child. Just as the child's world is its own in which it lives to the exclusion of a potential higher beyond, so the Adam is that childhood of the mortal where all things are to it as they seem ; and just as the boy begins to look beyond his boyhood to a larger world than his boy world, even as it is far larger than the child's world, so the boyhood of the mortal or the Enos begins to discern what was non-existent to the Adam ; a mean- ing to and cause for the experience which is living to him ; and his successor is the Noah, a still higher type which may be called the young-manhood ; the stage of majority, or the age where the mortal, by reason of growth, is able to understand and to begin to govern his own experiences ; begin to rule them instead of continuing subject to their thorns, their pains and penalities, as formerly. Just as a child is subject to all while a child, bu^Js released from his subjection when he is twenty-one, so the mortal grown to legal age, or the stage of re- sponsibility, must stand and act for himself, taking the consequences of all his deeds himself, understanding that those to whom he was formerly subject hold him so no longer because of his own growth beyond their right to keep him so. This Noah period is the stage of understanding in this process which is wlmt we now call living ; and the consequent responsibility is the cross therein 184 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. which, when grown to, has to be taken up and carried to the end ; and crucifixion from this point is constant, continuing to the end of this process between mor- tality and immortality, which end is the final cruci- fixion. When a little child does that which its elders say is wrong, it is excused because it does not know any better. Its acts are the legitimate consequences of its natural impulses ; there is no intent to do wrong till it knows what wrong is ; hence it does no wrong. Acting naturally as a child, it is not a thief if it takes what belongs to some one else: it sees the article, likes it, desires it and takes it, and does not commit a sin because it knows no better; it is acting out its nature as a child. But the young man of twenty-one doing exactly the same thing, taking that which belongs to another because he likes it and wants it, does what the child is not guilty of ; he does wrong, commits a sin be- cause he understands what the child is ignorant of because he is a child ; and he understands because he is not a child ; because he has grown from childhood to the age of understanding, and consequently has responsibility where the child has none. Just as the child is not a thief because he is a child, acting according to his nature, the young man is a thief because he is not a child, but one who, through growth, has reached the stage where he is responsible for his acts ; and must receive and bear not only their consequences, but the consequences of his not doing as well as he knows ; for responsibility entails THE CRUCIFIXION. 185 far more upon him than the acts of the child entail upon the child. Desire has not ceased with the young man of twenty-one because he is twenty-one ; the same desire belonging to the child is his, but greater and stronger ; he desires more than the child, more ardently than the child ; he has impulses just the same as the child ; but having what the child has not, the understanding of twenty-one, he knows that instead of yielding to these as the child does, he must control them because he is not a child ; because of the responsibility which is his because of what ho is, and which does not de- volve upon the child because of what the child is. The child experiences the penalty of ignorance, only ; of yielding to natural impulses because know- ing no better ; but he will experience, not only the penalty of yielding to his desires but the added one which understanding and consequently responsibility imposes upon him. This is the difference between the Adam and Noah stages in this process from mortality to immortality ; from this state of consciousness which we call living now, to purely spiritual consciousness. This is where the flood comes that washes away the old and makes the bringing forth anew possible. Such a flood can come no more, never again, for " the imagination of man's heart," as the Bible phrases it, " was evil from youth " ; only because the youth, the childhood, is in ignorance and knows no better ; the Noah, the young manhood, the age of understanding, does see and know better : hence must accept and carry responsibility to the end of that 186 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. process which ends mortality ; ends what we call living. Seeing the Jesus as the ultimate of this process, we can see the grand significance of His declaration : " If any man will come after Me ; let him deny him- self and take up his cross and follow after Me. See how the understanding of Genesis opens up every statement recorded as having been made by the Nazarene ! No mortal can reach the Jesus stage at the end of this process which we call living, except he first deny himself, take up the cross of self-denial and responsibility, and follow after him till he gets to him ; and reaching him he must still follow after him, by the way of the cross, to the infinite, beyond. The primal necessity for the Jesus stage or state is self-denial; and this is first possible as a conscious, intentional act with a kuowledge of its significance and consequence, only to the Noah stage of the mortal ; to that understanding which sees and accepts the accompanying responsibility. The mortal must then deny himself the thinking and acting from natural impulse or according to the natural, the mor- tal sense, and must consciously and intentionally think and act according to spiritual sense instead, through understanding it as the true, the never mis- leading and the lasting. In other words, he must put off the old man and put on the new ; put off all that is mortal to put on the immortal. He must deny that which he sees and calls his self as the true self which belongs to man, because he understands it as the person representative THE CRUCIFIXION. 187 of that ; and only through this denial can he follow after that true self till he finds it ; for so long as that which is seen as the self is believed to be the only and the true one, there can be no conscious, inten- tional following after another ; there is no incentive to do so. This self-denial — this denial of the sense-self through understanding and the spiritual self, which confronts the mortal when he has reached the age of responsibility through growth to the stage of under- standing, compels a turning from that which has been the only real to him up to that point, and facing squarely the other way or toward the immortal, the spiritual, following after it as the most desired. The only way to reach it and become consciously united with it, is the one pointed out in this declara- tion of the Nazarene, " Take up the cross and follow after me " to immortality. Every one of us must carry his own cross, the one upon which we must be crucified if we would go higher, when we have reached the stage of under- standing which enables us to see and take it up ; and it is the perception of our individual responsibility which enables us to take it up ; to voluntarily raise and bear it, knowing what is before us in conse- quence. Upon this cross of self-denial the old man, or what we have seemed and believed ourselves to be, must be crucified daily. All his carnal tendencies and desires, the results of ignorance, must be crucified and put to death; and so the mortal, the son of man, progresses along the 1«8 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. way which leads to immortality, crucifying his self or putting it to death as he goes, and experiencing a constant resurrection from the death in a new and higher self ; one more in accord with the divinity of Man than those that have been crucified. This young manhood must grow into mature man- hood ; the mortal ripening for immortality, into the ripened; and this ripening process is through the intermediate degrees ; the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob stages ; those of realization of the spiritual, immortal truth of being as opposed to the sense of being, which are stronger and more potent than the natural sense ; and which, in consequence, bring the mortal away from it and into that spiritual consciousness which belongs to the Son of God and which is immortality ; is the true living, or existence. He is brought there through this crucifixion, for realization of the truth of being demands destruction of the mortal sense of being ; and the increase of the one is in exact proportion to the lessening of the other. Through the bearing of this cross of self-denial only, is the one put out and the other put on ; and this journey, from the time we take up this cross, is up a mount ; is a climbing higher and higher till we reach the transfiguration waiting for us there ; reach that point where, through this putting off of the old and putting on of the new, we stand transfigured to ourselves ; no longer the natural but the spiritual ; no longer what we seem, but what we are ; no longer seeing ourselves through the veil of mortality but in the clear light of truth which reveals our THE CRUCIFIXION, 189 divinity and illumines every remaining step of the way we have yet to tread. Which show us that final crucifixion and even its beyond ; shows us that it is but the lawful, the legiti- mate sequence to the taking up and bearing of this cross which, when so taken and borne, leads us ever up, nearer and nearer to the One I Am. Shows us that it is but a door opened that we may pass through ; the door which waits at the end of this mortal from the visible to the invisible and which ever opens at the knock of tlie cross-bearer who thus proves his right to enter in. He lays it down at the threshold, and passing through, receives his crown; that which is his in exchange for the one he has worn with the cross, and which is left with it ; receives the crown of immortality in place of the crown of thorns ; the reward which has waited from before the foundation of the world for its conqueror; for the one who through overcom- ing the snares and delusions which the world or mortal sense confronted him with, has come over it to that which is, and ever has been, above the world. The seed of Abraham produces the Christ ; for of the realization of the truth of being, of the true na- ture of Man and his Source which comes after the understanding of what they must be, is born that true, that perfected son of Man, that ripened mortal through whom alone the Christ or Man's divin- ity, and so the manifestation of God, can be shown to the world ; for as that divinity or Christ is the only begotten, the only Son of God, nothing contrary to the nature of God being in or belonging to him, so 190 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. that perfected mortal in whom and for whom is noth- ing contrary to the nature of the Son of God, is the only begotten likewise ; is the sole product of this process which has brought him forth, all else having been destroyed on the way : and this perfect unity between the Son of God and the son of Man makes possible the Immanuel, or Grod with us^ in the world ; makes God' s nature, which is Man's divinity and so the Christ, present to the world. But alas ! its inhabitants know it not ! For dark- ness is over all the land where the cross with its bearer are ; shrouds even that mount on whose top they have changed places ; where the one who has borne the cross up, is up-borne by it in tui-n ; lifted by it away from that sense which is darkness into that eternal light unseen by those who can only see forms ; see only the cross and that which is left with it. This land of forms is dark to the natural senseof the natural man ; dark to that mortal sense which can- not penetrate what seems the only tangible. And so this cross with its bearer and the so-called death upon it, are equally dark. It can see only the seeming ; and so it sees the wearer of the crown of thorns only as the victim ; his true nature as the victor, this crucifixion as triumph, not defeat, are in darkness ; or unseen by those who see with that sense, for these are visible only to spiritual perception. This is the end foreseen and foreknown from the beginning prophesied by those who can see with the higher than mortal sense ; and the mortal while carry- THE GBUGIFIXION. 191 ing on that work which is given him to do, that work by the doing of which he works out his own redemp- tion from that sense which includes sin, sickness, suf- fering, sorrow, and death, can see before him this final result of taking up his cross and following after that which is beyond the mortal. Can see that " the son of Man goeth as it is written of him," and that the only woe belongs to them by whom he goes, not to him ; he is no sufferer, no victim. He is the royal victor over all that is not in accord with the divinity of Man. He "goeth to the Father " and through that unity the Father and son are one and that one is the Son of God. No wonder that the cross is the Christian emblem ; yet is it not rather the Christ emblem ? The symbol of that which proceedeth from the Father to the Son crossed by that which proceededi from the Son to the Father? And so the figure which symbolizes the whole work, the All of the Universe ? So is the cross in the circle. Are we as worshippers in spirit, not in form, fol- lowers of the Cross ? If we truly are, we are followers after its meaning; after what it represents ; and the true follower must inevitably be a cross-bearer for only so can he find what he follows after. Do we worship a dying Jesus upon the cross ? No ! a thousand times no ! We worship that truth which is so represented, and as such worshippers we will- ingly, joyfully bear our own cross up the same mount, lay ourselves thereon, stretch forth our hands to receive the same nails, willing sacrifices that the glory of God may be made manifest ; for only through 192 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. the manifestation of our own divinity cometh that glory. We too must give up the ghost upon this same cross; we too, before giving it up, may cry out as the last utterance of mortal sense, " My God I My God ! why hast thou forsaken me ! " for the pangs through which come redemption may declare themselves thus ; but when that sense has made its last effort, given forth its last cry, this ghost of living — this semblance of life will pass ; for the work done through it is then finished. So we rise from the cross, unseen by those who are in the darkness which is over all the land ; for we are above and beyond it, glorified. And thus is that prayer of Jesus answered — "And now, O Father, glorify thou me thi7ie own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." So we also put on the Godlike self which has ever waited for us. THE RESUBBEGTION AND ASCENSION, 193 THE RESURRECTION AND THE ASCENSION. John xx. 2-10. The first day of the week cometh Mary Madgalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sep- ulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie. And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. Acts I. 9—11. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up ; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel ; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 13 194 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Among the doctrinal teachings of past generations, the resurrection of the dead, as it has been called, holds important place, and it is one of the most difficult declarations to settle satisfactorily, leaving much to the faith which is ever the accompaniment of evangelical Christianity. Many say "I can see how my soul survives the body at death, but I cannot see how that body is to be resurrected when it has gone back to the earth of which it is but a form ; when it is resolved back to its composite elements." And this is the aspect of that declaration which ever confronts the most devout believer in the resur- rection of the body. Resurrection is defined by Webster as " the rising again from the dead ; the resumption of life." To understand the true nature of resurrection we have to decide one question ; is it something which belongs at and to the experience which we call death, the time when what we call the soul leaves the body so that the latter returns to its native dust, or is it part of a process which is continuous ? Is the resurrection after what we call death but a part of that resurrection which has been going on before death ? The definition given by Webster would point to this latter view as the true one; he says "The rising again from the dead," again, means repetition ; so if this definition is correct, resurrection after death is but repetition of former resurrection, and so it is not confined to that one experience which we, with our educated views of ourselves and the hereafter, call death. THE BESUBEECTION^NB ASCENSION. 195 Acceptance of this view of the nature of resurrection necessitates a like view of death ; showing it to be, not merely an event at the end of Avhat we call life in this world, but that which is repeated or a process ; and further analysis from the basis of man's spiritual instead of material nature shows us that death and resurrection are inseparable; that one is ever the accompaniment of the other, and that they are attended by a third or Ascension ; shows that these three are a trinity in unity, and that that unity is the one process by which the spiritual nature of man, his divinity, is brought to light. This process, which is the unity of death, resur- rection, and ascension, is for the son of man, by means of which he outgrows mortality and enters into immortality ; it is illustrated in the Bible by means of its chief personages and events. These illustrations and accompanying teachings show us that this process is individual; that we individually pass through it, through all its several stages, growing out of and away from that which is limited and hence come to its end ; to that which is unlimited and endless. We can understand the death, resurrection, and ascension of the Jesus of the New Testament truly, only when we see him as the fruit of this process, and His death, resurrection, and ascension as its culmina- tion. Looking at Him as an exceptional individual, removed far from us by a divinity which is not ours or for us, we can never come near to Him or to His experiences through following him as an example ; for 196 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. that divinity which was for Him only and not for us, puts successful emulation of Him out of our power ; and this being a theological result of the difference in our natures, the difference between that of Jesus and our own, how can we be justly condemned for falling short of that example in what we are, and equally short of His life and deeds. Why exert ourselves to come up to this level when we are debarred by our natures from reaching it ? But when we see this Jesus of the New Testament as the sequence of the Adam of the Old Testament ; when we are able to trace this process which begins with the Adam through all its intervening stages to the Jesus, we have the revelation of the events re- corded as those in which he is chiefly concerned, which shows us our own nature, what we are, what we mean, whither we are tending and what is beyond. It shows that we too can say as He did, " I came forth from the Father and am come into the world: again I leave the world and go to trie Father." This coming into the world and going forth from it, is but the progress of the individual identity to self-consciousness or self-knowledge ; to the knowing of all which makes it consciously one with the All- Knowing Mind of God ; and this process, which is ever progress, proves that only that which is fitted by its nature to survive alone does survive it, all else coming to its own legitimate end on the way ; and this survival of the fittest is the individual iden- tity which is eternal and indestructible because the image, the reflection, the individualization of the One Ego, the One I Am. THE BBSUBRECTION AND ASCENSION. 197 This process is represented in this world of repre- sentation as a part of it, in birth and in death and in what lies between the two. An infant is born into the world, we say; but most of us acknowledge that that which is born, which is visible to us, is not the all ; that there is something or other with, or pertain- ing to that infant, which we do not see ; that it has its invisible side as well as the visible ; that this in- visible side came from a source above and beyond the human father and mother ; and that in this infant there is a unity of the invisible and the visible ; of that which is from beyond the world and that belonging to the world ; of that which is above the human father and mother and that which is of them. This infant, as such, is not senseless, yet it is in- sensible ; it is not without consciousness and yet it is unconscious. It has the capacity for self -conscious- ness because of what it is, for it is a perfect child we say; it is intelligent and capable of attainment. Its consciousness as an infant is unconsciousness of its future manhood ; it must reach that through development for which it has the capacity ; so the infant grows, as we say, but do we see it grow ? Its growth is the development of the invisible side, and what w^see is the visible registration of that develop- ment. It grows from infancy to childhood, from child- hood to boyhood, from boyhood to youth and from youth to manhood ; but all these were potential with it at birth ; they all belong to the invisible side of that which we see and call the infant, and because they were there at birth, before its coming into the 198 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. world, they in turn come into the world through this growth which is their development or progress from the invisible to the visible. What is the growth of the infant but a continual death, resurrection, and as- cension, this death, resurrection, and ascension belong- ing to the visible side, to what we see, because the registration of the development of the invisible side ? The infancy dies or comes to an end ; has to do so for the childhood to appear, and the childhood is the resurrection from the dead infancy and the as- cension from it ; and this death, resurrection, and as- cension shows progress ; shows an increase of living, if that phrase is allowable, instead of a cessation ; for it is only infancy that is dead ; that which used the infancy for its own development and progress is not dead but more living or living more than ever because having developed a larger capacity for living. This larger capacity belonging to childhood is the resurrection from the dead and the ascension from that which was before the resurrection. Childhood is the ascension from infancy through death ; and is only the development of the invisible, reaching nat- ural limitations in its progress and passing beyond them. And this trinity in unity is repeated again and again all along the way from childhood to old age ; that process is a constant death, resurrection, and as- cension ; for the childhood in its turn dies and the boyhood is the resurrection and ascension from it, while the invisible, through this death, is enlarging, growing, ascending constantly along the line of self- IE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. 199 consciousness ; for the boy has far more of it than the infant. This growth from infancy to boyhood has been a constant increase of self-consciousness, because a constant development of the capacity for it ; and a higher and higher self-consciousness, a higher and higher seif-knowing, is the result of continued death, resurrection, and ascension ; for these but mark the passing limitations on the way to the highest. • These are in the world that is passed through by that which is invisible and whose progress is made visible because re[)]esented by the infancy, the cliild- hood, the boyhood, and the manhood ; or by what we call the infant, the child, the boy, the youth, and the man. When the full manhood is reached, it is the consequence of the deaths, resurrections, and ascen- sions on the way to it; it could not be except as their sequence ; except the infancy, the childhood, the boyhood, and the youthhood have died, each in its own day, and the death has brought the corre- sponding day of resurrection and ascension. These have been the successive steps by which it has come forth, and stands as possessor of that which was impossible to the infant ; of the higher self-consciousness, self-knowledge, with power to demonstrate it in the words and works which this progress from infancy has made possible ; and it is the natural accompaniment of manhood because it is the fruit of the seed of infancy. Has there been any loss of anything worth sav- ing on the way to this manhood ? Nothing is lost 200 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. but the limitations which are passed to reach it. There has been no loss through death, for the accom- panying resurrection and ascension was compensation therefor, and only through death, only through all that death is, could the higher than that which pre- ceded it come. Now applying this illustration to what we find in the Bible as its teaching concerning the world, death, resurrection, and ascension, we begin with Adam as the infancy which must die, and see that there must be the accompanying resurrection from that death and the ascension above it ; and we see that this is the law for the son of man which must be fufilled or filled full ; see that he is so lifted up ; see tliat every death, every resurrection and ascension which lies between the unconsciousness of divinity and the consciousness of it, must be met, passed through and beyond ; and that only through this progress is the final ascension, that " to the Father," possible. We see this as the meaning of Jesus' declaration : " I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; now I leave the world and return to the Father." For back of this Adam and Jesus ; back of all the intervening stages, is the individual iden- tity which, as the expression or individualization of the One I Am, has capacity for that all knowledge which is Divine Wisdom ; and through this evolution of self-consciousness or knowing of the Self, this development step by step, this capacity is filled, and through the round of states of consciousness it finds its Self at one with the Only I Am because its likeness. THE RESUBBECTION AND ASCENSION. ^01 Just as there is the invisible side to what we call the infant, the child, the boy, and man, there is the invisible side to the Adam, the Enos, the Noah, the Abraham, the Isaac, the Jacob, and to the Jesus. Just as the development of this invisible is regis- tered by what is visible to us as the child, the boy, the youth, and the man, so is the development of the Infiuite Idea Man, registered by the Adam- infancy ; the En OS-boyhood ; the Noah- young-man- hood ; and so on, till this process of evolution having brought forth this Highest Self, this Like- ness of God, of the One I Am, it, as the Christ, is the invisible side of the Jesus which is made manifest through that visible ; the Christ is made manifest through the Jesus, and this completed manifestation links those two names in an eternal unity as Jesus Christ, the visible and invisible in one. The Jesus being the register of the highest devel- opment, the whole process from Adam having brought him forth, he has to go as it is written of him, for as the son of man, he is to be glorified that God may be glorified in him ; or the death, resurrection, and ascension which has been constant from the be- ginning of the world, from the Adam-infancy, must continue till the son of man is lost through it in the Son of God ; or till this unity, Jesus Christ, the togetherativeness of the visible and invisible, is seen as the all that is from God through the son ; till the eternal fact that there is no separation between God, the One I Am, the only Ego, and the Son of God or Man, and between them and the Son of Man ; till they are seen as an everlasting trinity in unity, 202 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. that unity comprising the All of Creation, Creative Power and Creator. Therefore there is still death, resurrection, and as- cension for the Jesus ; he must ascend to the Father ; or the manifestation of the everlasting unity between the Son of God and the son of man must be forthcom- ing ; for the Jesus must be glorified with that Self which belongs to the Son of God; hence the words of this all-knowing man in the world before this last and highest death, resurrection, and ascension — " I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, which I had with thee before the world was," or which is for the son of man when he has grown to consciousness of his unity with the Father, the Son of God ; this growth being the registration of the development of the nature of man, the Evolution of Self-consciousness which belongs to the image of God. This final death, resurrection, and ascension for the mortal or the Son of Man, and which is but the con- tinuity of 'death, resurrection, and ascension from Adam, is conscious or sensible fact with Jesus, with the ripened mortal ; not an insensible or unconscious one as with his predecessors. The passage from infancy to childhood, from child- hood to youth and so on, is not sensed by that which is growing or developing. It is an unconscious cross- ing of an invisible line between two states which so merge into one. The infant does not cease to be an infant on a certain day and begin to be a child on THE RESUBBECTION AND ASCENSION. 203 the next day. The infancy and childhood, though distinct as states, are not separate. There is no separation between the differing stages from infancy to old age ; they are but degrees in one state. So there is no separation, between the Adam-infancy and the Enos-childhood or between these and the following states, including the Jesus. They are but degrees of one state or process ; and just as infancy merges into childhood, that into boy- hood and so on, the Adam state merges into the Enos and so on to the Jesus or last stage through the constant death, resurrection, and ascension ; these three being ever together throughout the whole pro- cess and closing it also. But as the passage from infancy to childhood and from that to boyhood and so on is insensible, though a fact, so the passage from Adam to Enos and to Noah and so on is insensible though a fact which proves itself in the Jesus, the product of this con- tinuity ; but with him is this difference ; he can say " I know whence I came, and whither I go " and he will die, be resurrected and ascend consciously, sensibly. For him there is no unknown and mysterious here- after; with open eyes, knowingly, consciously, he gives up this ghost of life, this mortal semblance of living, and enters into the real living, the real exist- ence which has ever been, which he knows has always been when he declares " From before Abraham I am." Yet this death, resurrection and ascension is but the continuity of what has preceded it, natural or according to law as such. 204 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. It is the death, resurrection, and ascension which stands by itself as the only one of its kind, because it is the conscious, the sensible, the known and under- stood one which can come only to the perfected, the ripened mortal, not to those less than he, for all be- low him have continuous deaths, resurrections, and ascensions through which they reach this last one. So says Jesus truly, " I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again." This conscious death, resurrection and ascension which belongs only to the mortal who finishes the work he is given to do, is what is portrayed to us through the Jesus of the Gospels ; and the observance of its meaning would be a far different procedure than the ecclesiastical observance of its letter ; for this observance is the living in accordance with it, being led of the Spirit to this same triumphant death, resurrection, and ascension ; growing in spiritual consciousness through growing out of mortal sense and its bondage till we, too, can say, No man and no thing taketh this life from me ; I la}^ it down of my- self only to take up the true and only life again. To truly follow after Jesus is to grow from this Adam-infancy through the states beyond it up and into that Jesus-consciousness — that manhood which knows what the infant-Adam could not ; which knows that there is no death or cessation to living ; that it is only a kind that ceases, that must cease for it has beginning ; but that the eternal, that which has neither beginning nor end, has preceded this kind, THE BESUBBECTION ANU ASCENSION. 205 and will succeed it when the work belonging in this passage between is done ; when the work of finding the waiting immortality is finished. Truly following after him will show us that this last death, resurrection, and ascension, which looks like defeat and punishment to that sense too limited to see its nature, is really the triumphal entry of the Son of man into the kingdom prepared for him before the foundation of the world ; and which is fore- shadowed by the entry into Jerusalem. This is why Jesus is laid " in a new sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid." Such a death has never before been ; all previous deaths have had as their hereafter a higher mortal or continued mortality. This one has, as its hereafter, the immortal. This resurrection is the resurrection of the immortal from the dead or from overcome mortality ; of that which has passed through the world phase of existence and so ascends to its own, for it was never of the world though in it. This new sepulchre is hewn out of the solid rock. That is work, is it not? The work that must be done ; that is begun at the Adam stage and finished at this one, and so prepares this new sepulchre in which man was never before laid ; for it is the one that is ready only at the end of this work and so cannot be used before. It is so hewn out of the solid rock of actuality, the twin brother of reality ; out of all this which confronts the mortal on his journey to immortality, and which is the real and true to him because of his natural 206 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. sense about it ; hewn out of that experience which is for him, a hard, undesirable can't-get-away-from fact, and which holds for him the pains and penalties belonging to it, through and because of which he has the needed impetus to carry him farther on the way to where he shall find this so-made sepulchre ; for every pang we have ever felt, every sorrow and grief we have ever suffered are but so many spurs to send us on our way toward that consciousness of our own divine nature which is immortality. And the overcoming of them, the rising above them to a higher plane of consciousness than that which lies this side of them, are so many strong blows upon this solid rock which, little by little, is so hewn away, making an opening in the hitherto impossible so that we can find our way in and through it to the ineffable beyond. This new sepulchre is for us all, my friends ! Are we doing that work which hews it out of the rock ? Are we so travelling toward it, knowing full well that it is the entrance to immortality ? That it is in the way, at the end of the way which leads to that Self which is one with the Father? And that only by passing through it we can be glorified with it ? In that new sepulchre we leave all, that has no place in that Self which waits on the other side. Only those coverings hiding that which goes higher will meet the gaze of those who are unable to see far enough to find that Self with which we are then glorified. Can we look forward to this finishing of our work unfalteringly and press on with quickened footsteps THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION. 207 as that sepulchre at the end of the way grows more visible to us through this mortal mist ? Or do we allow what mortal sense calls suffering — the heart griefs which to it are agony, to cause us to continually look back instead of forward and so to strike but aimless and feeble blows upon that rock from which it must be hewn ? Do we allow a past which of itself is dead because of its nature, to dwell with us as our present through our fond clinging to it? So we roll a stone to the door of the sepulchre which can be removed only through resurrection. Let the dead past bury its own dead, that we may rise higher. O ! You who have suffered ! Who have felt the keenest agony mortal sense can endure ! Felt it till what seemed love, hope and peace were blasted and dead ; consumed till only the cold gray ashes remained ! Thank the Omnipotent and Eternal One that you have so suffered, and let those dead aslies bury their own dead; while you, resurrected from that dead suffering self, ascend higher and higher from it, nearer and nearer to that Divine Self which waits on the other side of that sepulchre ; and which will come fortli, a living, visible, reality, when the stone is rolled from the door. 208 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, THE SON OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN. Matthew xvi. 27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels. Matthew xviii. 11. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. Luke ix. 22, 44. The Son of man must suffer many things, and he rejected of the elders and chief priests. The Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. John vni. 28. When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself. John xii. 34. How sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up ? who is this Son of man ? A CAREFUL study of the New Testament reveals the fact that Jesus of Nazareth calls himself the " Son of man " repeatedly, far more frequently than the '' Son of God." Examination of these appellations from the basis of the principle outlined in Genesis shows the distinction without separation between them ; shows the distinctness yet unity between the Jesus and the Christ. Doctrinal theology has ever confounded the two, THE SON OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN. 209 claiming for the Jesus what belongs to the Christ ; and the intensely rational men and women who have been unable to accept such teachings have gone to the other extreme and given the Jesus far less than his due. The underlying meaning of the Bible declares the natures of these two — the Son of God and the son of man — and also the nature of their unity. This is its significance from its first chapter to its last. If it be found and followed it will clear all myster}^ out of the way and give to each its own place showing the unchanging and eternal harmony between God, the Son of God and the Son of man, this trinity in unity being the all of creation, which, in its two halves, comprise the expression and the manifestation of God. A perception of the difference between the terms " expression " and " manifestation " is essential ; for this difference opens the way to an explanation. These are not synonymous in meaning and hence should not be used synonymously. They are not identical in meaning, yet are commonly so used. Expression is first or primal ; manifestation is its sequence and is secondary. For illustration suppose that a man with an inven- tive turn of mind, as we say, invents a machine for a certain purpose. The starting point of his invention is the capacity for it. He must have the ability and power to invent or there could never be an invention. Again that power must be active, not a passive possibility, or there could not be an invention. 14 210 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, Given this ability and power in operation or active, the natural consequence will be the invention which is the product or idea of the inventor through his inventive ability. The idea is the invention and is the expression of the inventor and of his ability and power. It expresses all equally. It is the complete result of these so far as expression goes ; that is complete. But although the invention, the idea, the expres- sion of the inventor and his inventive power, is com- plete and perfect, it alone is not enough ; for it is in and with him, in and with the inventor, and so is invisible. It must become visible to be known ; it must be manifested — manifested as a whole and in every part before the inventor's work is finished ; and the second half of it is just as important as the first ; for that first was only the creating ; good and perfect as far as it went, but not going clear through to the end. That which was created must be finished or made ; made manifest as the completion of the inventor's work. There must be shown what his invention is good for ; what it will do or what its nature is : and this is possible only through its manifestation. His invention must be seen in operation, must be visible, before his work is done and can be declared good and perfect all the way through. The inven- tion without this manifestation of it would be worth- less, would be a nonentity. This nmking after the creating, this finishing of the work, is the proof of the nature of the invention. THE SON OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN 211 When what it can do is made manifest, it is mani- fested, and not before. Till that is done it is simply the ideal, having no practical value. After that is done the ideal has become the actual and has all value. For this manifestation to be possible, for it to come as the natural sequence to the idea, to the expression, something else is necessary ; something which stands between the two and is not either ; is neither the ex- pression, the idea, the invention, nor the manifes- tation of it. And it is as necessary as either, for it is the means by which the invisible is made visible. It is the model of the invention; that figure which represents it; which must perfectly represent it as a whole and in every part in order that what the invention is may be made manifest. But this model must be active ; the nature of the invention cannot be made manifest through a pas- sive model. It must act to show what the invention can do. It must act to show the nature and meaning of the inventor's idea. It must act to one definite end, yet one that is complex ; for when the model is a perfect one, is the perfect expression and representative of the idea, not that idea only will be made manifest or visible but the inventor as well, in that his nature through what he can and does do, is made manifest. When the model is perfect and is perfectly acted upon, its perfect action reveals or makes manifest the idea or invention both passively and actively. 212 A CHICAGO BIBL:E CLASS. It shows what it is by showing what it can do, and it shows what it can do by showing its nature ; and when it manifests the nature of the invention it makes manifest what an inventor is as mind and what the inventive faculty or power is. So that this manifestation, which is one or whole, and which is the finishing of the work begun by the inventor, has its parts, one as important and as necessary as the other. And this whole with all its parts has come through that which is neither the inventor, nor the inventive power, nor the idea or invention ; something which is the sequence of these three and essential to the finishing of the work. The model is not the idea of the inventor ; it is only the expression of it ; is only its representative, perfect as such and therefore capable of being the medium for the perfect and complete manifestation when it is acted upon. It could not be left out of the whole without in- completeness instead of completeness ; and yet the expression and the manifestation are, either of them, more than it, complete in themselves as potentiali- ties without it. But the potential or possible manifestation could never be the actual, never become the fact without it ; and the visibility of the invisible, of the inventor, the inventive power and the invention or idea could not be forthcoming because of the nature of the invisible. Now let us apply this illustration and see what it shows us. We start with God as Principle — Mind, the One Creator, the One Inventor. The idea of THE SON OF GOB AND THE SON OF MAN. 213 that Mind is Man, hence Man is the invention or expression of Mind and is the product of the power of Mind ; of the Creative power of God. As such Man is the full, complete, perfect, unchange- able and entire expression not only of God, Principle, Mind, but of the power of God ; of the creative power. Man as the image or reflection, expression of God, reflects or expresses all that God as Principle, as the One and only First Cause is. As such he is the idea of Mind through Thought, the creative power. As such he is the invention of the Almighty Mind. This idea being the expression of God is invisible. Manifestation must follow expression as its sequence. That God and man are, is the fact in itself. What they are, is the demonstrated fact through manifesta- tion. And this is the meaning of the answer given to Moses when he asks for the name of God, " I Am that I Am." The abstract truth becomes the actual truth only through manifestation of that abstract ; through the visibility of the invisible. Perception of this fact, of this meaning, opens the way for the understanding of these perplexing questions which so many are asking to-day. The image of God or Man, being the expression of God, is the created ; and the created is the idea. But this idea must be manifested ; or the created must be made finished ; and this finishing, which is as essential as the creating, is the end and aim of creation. 214 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. The visible perfection of his invention is the aim of the inventor whose work is not done till this has been achieved. Between the idea of God — Mind, which is the created, the invention, and is generic man, and the visibility of this invisible or the manifestation of the expression, must be the model which is the means through which the manifestation is made ; through which it comes ; the means by which the invisible is made visible ; and this model is not, cannot be, either the idea of God or Mind, the expression, or the manifestation. Cannot be generic man, the invisible or the visibil- ity, the manifestation. It is distinct from either and both ; yet is essential to both. As the inventor needs the model, not for his invention or idea to make that what otherwise was not in itself, but only as the means through which that which is complete and perfect in itself as the idea is made visible, its perfectness made visible, so this model of generic man is needed as the means by and through which man's nature is made visible. The model must be as complete in itself as that idea or expression, the created, is complete in itself. Must be as perfect as the model as that is perfect as the idea. It must be a perfect representative of it, for the visible perfectness of the idea to be forthcoming. Any lack in the model of the inventor's idea, would prevent the manifestation of it ; would bar the way for the visibility of its perfectness and completeness ; would make impossible the visibility of its nature ; th:e son of god anb the son of man. 215 yet it would remain as complete and perfect in itself; remain the unchangeable potential fact whatever the imperfection of the model. Just as there must be perfect accord or unity be- tween the idea and the model of it, so there must be perfect accord between that idea of Infinite Mind which generic man is, and the model of him which makes his visibility or manifestation possible. And just as given the perfect model of the inventor's idea the perfect manifestation or complete visibility of that idea is possible, is the natural sequence, so the perfect model of man, who is the idea of Infinite Man, has as its natural sequence, the complete mani- festation or visibility of God's idea. And just as the perfect manifestation of the in- ventor's idea through the perfect model includes the manifestation of the power of which it is the product of the inventive power, and of the source of the power or of the inventor, so the perfect and complete man- ifestation of generic man through his perfect model includes the manifestation of the power of which he is the product and the source of that power or God. All there is as the abstract reality. Creator, creative power and the product of both, is equally made visible or manifest through the perfect model. Has it not, then, its own place in the whole though not identical or interchangeable with any other part? It is not either the inventor, the inventive power, the invention or its visibility. It is distinct from each and from all of these, occupying its own place ; but it is inseparable from all of them. 216 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. So the son of man or person as the model of generic man through which he is made visible or manifest, is neither man, nor the manifestation of man ; only the means through which the latter comes. Through application of this illustration we find God to be the inventor. Mind, generic man, to be the invention or idea through the inventive or creative power, Thought; the son of man to be the perfect model which is in as perfect accord or unity with the idea ; and the Christ to be that manifestation which comes through the perfect model and which is also complete and perfect because the visibility of that which is complete and perfect in itself. This Christ or manifestation, the visibility of the invisible, makes all that is invisible, visible ; makes God the Creator, the creative power, and man the creation, all visible. It is the likeness of each and all which completes the work, which proclaims it finished. It is the likeness of God ; it is the likeness of the power of God ; it is the likeness of the Son of God ; and these three are in unity as The Christ. Beginning again at our starting-point, God is entirely expressed in man, we say. Man is the Son of God. Then the Son of God is the representative of God and the son of man is equally the represent- ative of man. The representative is not and cannot be identical with that which is represented. The Sou of God or man is not God, neither can the son of man be man. The second is the representative of the fii'st in both THE SON OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN. 217 instances ; and there is perfect accord between them of necessity. If man, the son of God, expresses or represents God, the son of man or the model equally expresses or represents man ; and through this accord or unity, the First Cause back of both becomes visible, and is found to be all in all. The Jesus of the New Testament calls himself again and again the son of man, and this is what the Jesus is ; the perfect model which is in perfect accord with that which it represents ; with the Son of God or generic man ; and as such is the means of or medium for the equally perfect manifestation of man, of the Son of God, and of God the Father; that manifestation which is the Christ. The question may be asked " Where do we get our authority for the statements made and illustrated by the inventor, his invention and their consequence ? " and the answer is by the authority of logical deduc- tion from our premise. That rule is the one which must be followed to answer satisfactorily the many questions sure to be raised by the presentation of the underlying meaning of the Bible. To give as answer to any question, any person's statement without showing that it must be true be- cause in accord with the principle involved, is to give no answer at all in the true sense of the word ; and is to substitute personal authority for the principle of things which alone can and must interpret them. The basic statement, " God as God is Principle, not person, though personal to us ; is the Source of 218 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. all that is, and man is his image and likeness forever," followed out to its own conclusions through logical deduction will give this explanation of the son of man ; one surely needed to-day and especially by those who have believed because they have been taught that there is no difference between the Son of God and the Son of man ; no distinction between the Jesus and the Christ. The necessity of a working model of generic man, the Son of God, through which his nature and con- sequently he can be seen because so made visible, has been overlooked : hence all the condemnation of the Adam who is but the beginning of this working model. Perceiving God as Creator brings the perception that action or creating is inseparable from the Actor or Creator ; and that the created which expresses or images that of and through which it is, must as such expression," be also active. If generic man be the image or expression of God there must be action on the part of man which is the expression of God's action ; of the creative power. And there must be consequence to this. Man must be the image of his Maker in deed or in action as well as in being. Then man acts or does deeds and his action expresses ^or images God's ac- tion ; while the result of man's action and of God's through man declares " the Father worketh and I work," showing two works and two workers, yet but one in result, because of the unity between them. " God without the image and likeness of Himself in man would be a nonentity." If we accept this THE SON OF GOB AND THE SON OF MAN. 219 statement as truth, why can we not see that it applies to man as well? Generic man without the image and likeness of himself would be equally a non- entity. These are necessary for his entity ; and " entity " signifies the particular nature of being ; hence these are as necessary for man's being or for man's actuality as they are for God's. The creative power of God, as Mind, is Thought, and generic man is the product of Thought and is Idea. This power of which he is the result is ex- pressed or reflected in him ; and that reflection or expression is his power, is his thinking power which, active, because expressing the activity of Thought, produces from him that which images him as he images God. Man's Son represents him, he producing that representative which establishes his entity, as God's son represents Him, God producing that repre- sentative which establishes His entity. And the likeness of the one to the other, for the likeness can only be after the image or expression is manifested through the son of man or th-e last representative. Through him is shown that man is like God, that man's power is like God's power, that the product of man's power is like the product of God's power ; and through the relation of one to the other and their common likeness is proven that God is all in all ; that God or Principle is Author of all and that all lives and moves in Him ; that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 220 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, The son of man, the working model through which man is manifest, is the perfected personality which belongs to the world as a part of it. The son of man is the visible personality of man ; the Christ which is back of and in unity with that, is the personality of God and both are distinctly traceable from that one Principle which is God. God reproduces His own personality. Note that in this statement the personality of God is a reproduc- tion ; or something which is after or second to a pro- duction. Then that personality of God is preceded by some- thing else which is of God but which is not per- sonality. First production or expression ; then reproduction through the production or through the expression. Generic man being the production, the Christ is the reproduction by God through man ; but the Jesus or the Son of man is the reproduction from or of man ; and the two are in unity because of the unity of the two back of them; and this unity between the personality of man and the personality of God is the Jesus Christ; a unity in which the lesser is lost in the higher because of their like- ness to each other. The Christ is brought forth through man but the Jesus is the highest product of the forming power of the Lord God, the last and highest person as Adam is the first or lowest person. The son of man is mortal in that as the working model through which manifestation comes, he is for a purpose. He begins with the need for such model THE SON OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN. 221 and ends when the need is met or when manifesta- tion is complete. Adam is the son of man equally with Jesus ; but Jesus is the Son of man perfected. As a part in the whole he has beginning and end ; but that whole in which he is as a part has neither, and is eternal. " The Son of man goeth as it is written of him," says the Nazarene. So the son of man is mortal or for time. And again "• I came to bear witness of the truth." Here the office of the son of man, of the mortal, is clearly stated ; " to bear witness of the truth." Is not that what is done by the working model of the inventions ? Does it not bear witness to "the truth of the invention, of the inventive power and of the inventor ? And does not Jesus bear witness to the truth, bear witness to the nature of man and his own nature when he says, " The Son doeth what he seeth the Father do " ? Does he not bear witness to the truth and declare the nature of the Jesus, of the mortal, when he says " The things concerning me have an end " ? And how true when he says '' The Son of man must sufEer many things and be set at naught." And how has the son of man been set at naught in these later days of higher revelation through believing the relative truth revealed, the absolute I He has been as despised, as rejected as he was nine- teen hundred years ago ; has been crucified afresh on all sides by those who condemn personality and who should acknowledge him for what he is. 222 A CmCAGO BIBLE CLASS. To-day is declared a higher meaning to the Bible ; a meaning which is mathematically exact, and to-day its Jesus has come unto his own. He is delivered into their hands only to meet the fate which is their decree for him till understanding has supplanted ignorance. Luke says, " All things which are written of the Son of man shall be accomplished." And verily we are proving this to-day. The son of man or the mor- tal who is for time because for a purpose is forced into the place of the immortal and worshipped as such by some, by others is despised, rejected, crucified afresh by that ignorance and misconception which is all the more fatal because accompanied by that zeal which believes itself active in the cause of truth, even as it was when at the command of the high priest it de- stroyed that which pointed out the way of eternal life. The truth of being is invisible. The true inven- tion or idea is invisible ; it must become visible or manifested ; must be proven. Hence the necessity for that representative of it which shall bear witness to it, to its truth, to its nature, by its own truth. And just as the perfect working model or represen- tative is the true witness of the invention or the idea, both in what it is and what it can do, so the Son of man, the perfect working model, the representative of man, is the true witness for man, for w^hat he is and what he can do, or for his person and for his nature. Jesus declared what he was, the purpose which he THE SON OF GOB AND THE SON OF MAN. 223 met and filled when he said, " I came forth from the Father and am come into the world : again I leave the world and go to the Father." The human personality which comes forth from the expression of God, generic man, and so is the medium for the manifestation of man and of God, continues till that manifestation is complete ; or is in the world for that purpose. When it is complete, when the divine personality or the Christ is wholly manifested through it, its work is done ; it has finished the work given it to do and disappears ; because through the perfect accord and unity between the perfected human personality and the divine personality, that unity is the All and is the Holy One of God. The things concerning the human personality, the mortal, the son of man, have an end ; but it ends in the divine. It goes to the Father. The question may be asked, " If Jesus as the Son of man is the human personality, what is the differ- ence between him or it and this personality which I am conscious of to-day?" It is the difference between a part and a whole ; between the perfected and the not yet perfect ; for perfectness is the aim of creation, and every part must be as perfect in its own wholeness as the great All is perfect. The first working model which alone fully repre- sents the idea which is the invention, and so makes the perfect manifestation possible, has to be made part by part ; and each part must be as perfect in itself as the whole is. 224 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. The whole model cannot be, and so the whole manifestation be possible, till every portion of it is produced and is in its right place ; is where it belongs in its relation to the other portions ; for the whole model is one model with many members. Every wheel and screw and bar which is essential to the whole model must be as whole in itself and in its proper place. This personality which we are conscious of to-da}^ is only that which stops short of the perfect whole ; is the incomplete model, is not the whole, though good and right as far as it goes. It is the human personality which is on the upward way ; which is growing toward wholeness as the per- fect model for perfect manifestation of the divinity of man, or the Christ. As that which is not yet perfect, it can afford only imperfect or incomplete manifestation ; and it is our work to-day to recognize its true nature, and through this recognition consciously work for and toward its perfection ; our work to lift it up away from that level whereon our natural sense of things — the sense of a part which must be limited as compa'red with tlie sense belonging to the whole — has placed and held it. It is understanding which is the God-established partition between the true and false sense of person ality. Till we understand it for what it is, we do not lift it up. Our mortal sense about personality contains all the evil, all the error, all the not good. The true sense of it baptizes it, and it rises from the covering waters of understanding with the benediction, " This is my THE SON OF GOD AND THE SON OF MAN. 225 beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him!" For it speaks with its own voice to him who hath ears to hear. Our present personality is only a step on the Jacob's ladder by means of which we climb higher ; and as we climb higher we leave it behind ; yet per- sonality itself goes with us till at last it is on the topmost round. Our untrue sense about it is left below ; it cannot climb ; we climb only by getting above that sense. With our eye fixed upon the mark of our high call- ing we press forward. That mark of our high call- ing, that figure which stands as the representative of man's divinity, is the perfected personality, the Son of man, the Jesus which, as our example, we follow on after till this personality becomes or grows into that, and that into the divine. Our high calling is the manifestation of generic man's divinity. The mark of our high calling is the expression of generic man's humanity ; and these two, the divine and the human, the personality of God and the personality of man, the Christ and the Jesus, stand at the end of the world or at the end of that process which has brought them forth, in perfect accord with each other or in unity ; and that unity is the Holy One of God which is the All. " When the Son of man cometh in the glory of his Father," when the personality bodies forth the beliefs and errors of mortal sense no longer, but presents instead the perfect representation or model of man's true being, then shall creation be accomplished. Then shall the personality which is man's humanity 15 226 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. be glorified with his divinity; and the Son of "man, that which came down from heaven, shall ascend up into heaven and reign on the right hand of the Father ; for man's divinity and man's humanity belong together, and what God has joined together let no man put asunder. DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHBIST. 227 THE DIVINITY, HUMANITY, AND OFFICE OF JESUS CHRIST. John xn. 44-50. Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not : for I am not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself ; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should And I know that his commandment is life everlasting ; what- soever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. John xvii. 5. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. In the previous lecture it was endeavored to show what the Son of man is that is mentioned so often in the New Testament; why Jesus so called himself — According to the record — and the place in the whole which is from God as Principle or Self-existent Cause, of this perfect model of Man, the Son of God. Recognizing the necessity of a perfect working 228 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. model of the invisible Idea which man is, in order that what he is as such, as the idea of Infinite Mind, may be manifest or visible, in order that his nature may be demonstrated, we can see that the Jesus of the New Testament fills this position, as the perfected person. See that as this perfect model he is our example ; the example of what we have to attain to through growth ; growth from the incomplete to the complete. But the question naturally arises whence comes this perfect model ? and this we will try to discover. The Idea which is the created is the product of that Mind which is God; tlie effect of that Principle vhich is the All-Cause. This Idea, or invention of ^the Inventor, Mind, which is generic man, is created through the " Word" — the " God said " — the creative power of God or Thought. The created of God, the product of Mind through the power of Mind or through Thought, is the Idea, generic man, invisible because of its nature ; for it, as the expression of God, is like God in nature ; and we recognize that God without the image and like- ness of Himself in man would be a non-entity. If this necessity of entity belongs to the nature of God, it must belong equally to that which expresses and so represents God ; and this fact, the necessity of entity, must obtain throughout all that is from God as the One Principle ; or throughout creation as a Trhole. Hence, generic man, the invention of the inventor, the Idea of Infinite Man, must have entity. DIVINITY ANT) HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 229 Complete as Idea, that alone is not enough. God is complete as God abstractly ; but that is not enough. There must be entity. According to Webster, " entity " means " the real being whether in thought or in fact." So Man as the image of God, the idea of Infinite Mind, is the real being in thought which is to be the real being in fact through his own entity. If " entity signifies the particular nature of being," we have here the key, not only to the model of man, but to the method of its production. This one word "particular" is the clue. Beginning with God — Principle — Mind, this is, in itself, general and is non-entity. It must be expressed for entity, and in expression is particular. In other words that which is in itself general is made individual or particular in man ; this entity of God in man showing the particular or individual nature of God, as man, the whole which has this nature, shows the general nature of God ; and man's entity must show his particular or individual nature. Let us try to see for a moment the distinction between the two sides or parts of that which is one ; the generality and the individuality. God and the nature of God, the general and the particular are both expressed in man and so in man God has entity ; and man, this expression, must be, in consequence, both general and particular ; or must be first generic and then individual. Man, in being, must express God generally ; in the nature of his being must express God individually or particularly. 230 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Now if entity signifies the particular nature of being, and if entity is necessary as distinguishing the particular from the general, this fact must apply to man as well as to God ; and man must be expressed in the same manner and for the same reason that God must be expressed ; for without the image and like- ness of himself he would be non-entity ; and this expression must in turn be both general and par- ticular. Man must have his general and his particular or individual entity as must God. Therefore man's expression will be both general and particular or universal and individual. The entity will signify the particular or individual nature of man. Not losing sight of this point will enable us to see the rest. If God would be non-entity without expression of himself, equally so would man be non-entity without expression of himself. And if the expression of God constitutes the en- tity of God, equally so must the expression of man constitute the entity of man. And if God is made manifest only through man, that manifestation is impossible except man be ex- pressed ; for otherwise man would be non-entity, and God could not be manifest through non-entity. It is the relation to each other of the abstract and the concrete. While the concrete is not necessary to the abstract fact, as such, it is necessary for the manifested fact, for that is but the abstract fact made visible : and the concrete stands between the invisible and the visible to this end. DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 231 So the entity of God the abstract, in man the con- crete, makes this concrete the medium for the mani- festation of both the general and the particular nature of God ; makes man the necessity to God's visibility ; and to this end man's entity or expression, which signifies the particular nature of his being, is all essential. Now as man, expressing God, and so of necessity what God is or the nature of God, is both general and particular, or generic and individual, so his expression, which by the same necessity must express what he is or his nature, is both general and particular; and the manifestation of tlie abstract or God will come through this expression of man's in both the general and the particular. Hence this outcome of it all, or the manifestation, will be general and particular, and will be the uni- versal and the individual Christ. The idea of Infinite Mind, generic man, has that nature which expresses God's nature. This idea is the entity of expression which has its two parts. It, as the expression of Being, is one part ; its nature, as such a being, is the other. As the expression of Being, of God, it is general or generic ; as the expression of the nature of Being or God, it is particular or individual. This idea, man, is inseparable from God as the in- ventor's invention which is his idea is inseparable from him ; and as the invention, because of this fact, because it lives and moves and has its being in the inventor, must be represented to show or prove its 232 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. nature, so must man, the idea of Infinite Mind, be represented to show his nature. And just as the representative or model must be constructed part for part and as a whole according to the nature of the idea or the invention, for that to be made manifest through it, just so must the rep- resentative or model of man be constructed part for part and as a whole according to the nature of man for that to be manifested through it. And this model which is constructed according to the nature of man will be particular or individual be- cause that is particular or individual. Idea is in itself generic ; in its nature it is particu- lar ; therefore the expression of its nature must be also particular or individual. The idea of Infinite Mind, man, is generic ; the nature of man is particular or individual ; hence the manifestation of man will be the manifestation of his nature ; and this will be individual, coming through the individual expression of that nature ; while the general ever includes the particular. If this is recognized the individual Jesus will be seen to be the representative of the nature of man, through which that nature is visible ; or that figure which as person is the son of man, and back of which is that nature which is the son of God ; that nature of man which expresses the nature of God, and which is the Christ, or the Likeness. And the particular or individual is in the univer- sal, the general, the whole ; and this whole, this general, can and will be seen or be visible only- through the individual. DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHBIST. 233 Now to trace from our starting-point the dual nature of generic man which must become visible. Man as the reflection or expression of God is not and cannot be Deity or God ; is one remove from God, or is human. His humanity is his distinctiveness from Deity ; yet as the expression of Deity or God he is divine. He is the divine idea of that Deity which is mind, and as such idea is human. This dual nature of man's, the divine and the human, will be manifested when he is manifested; for the divinity and humanity of generic man must both be visible. If man must be demonstrated to be the actual fact, though as generic he is the potential fact, his nature must become visible ; and that nature must have its representative as the medium for that vis- ibility ; and this representative must express both the divinity and the humanity which together con- stitute the nature of man. This representative, is the Jesus, the Son of man, who, as the entity of expression from man, is both divine and human, in that representing both the divinity and the humanity of generic man these are both manifested through him. This divinity and humanity being ever in unity and constituting the nature of man, there must be like unity in the expression of man or in the son of man ; and so the complete manifestation of man is possible through this unity of expression ; through this perfect model, Jesus. The humanity of man is less than his divinity ; 234 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS, his divinity is ruler over his humanity, for that is only his distinctiveness from God ; while his divinity is the expression of God's nature and is the All-pow- erful. So we have in the model of man, the person, Jesus, the expression of both man's humanity and his divinity ; but the last is ruler over the first. Therefore we see in this perfect model of man the continued victory by the divinity over the humanity, and this is the meaning of all the works recorded of Jesus even to his final resurrection and ascension ; works possible to every one of us as those who are approaching the Jesus perfection through growth, becoming perfect even as he is perfect, in proportion to our progress in this direction; the progress de- pending upon the ruling of our humanity by our divinity at the point where we are ; or in our pres- ent state of consciousness. " In Jesus experience, the human element was ex- panded and absorbed into the divine." In our ex- perience the human element is being expanded and absorbed into the divine ; and this is the difference between us and Jesus. We are on the way to what he was, or is, and reaching that perfectness, his experience will be ours in the final passing over from human sense to divine sense only ; from human consciousness to divine con- sciousness only. And this is the final at-one-ment by which we are as God. The human consciousness is by comparison a limited consciousness, because man's humanity is his limitation. DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 235 He is less than God as effect is less than cause. Infinite mind is beyond Infinite idea; and this lessness of man's — to coin a word — is his humanity. But man, the Infinite Idea, is in Infinite Mind; lives, moves, and has his being in it ; so his humanity which makes him distinct from God, is in or sur- rounded by that divinity which expresses God ; the human consciousness is in and surrounded by the divine consciousness ; and the greater must and will rule the lesser. If man reflects the creative power, the power which belongs to him and is active in him, is the reflection of the creative power, but not it. It must be distinct from the creative power of God or mind, yet inseparable from it because expressing it. There is the same distinctiveness between it and the creative power that there is between man and God. Therefore its product must be distinct from the product of God's power, the product of the creative power, for this distinctiveness must run all the way through creation, and here we have the origin of the son of man, the mortal, the model of man which expresses him and through which his manifestation or visibility must come. Man is the product of God's power ; of the creative power. Man's son, that which expresses him, is the product of his power; and this son of man, this ex- pression, this model, is brought forth by him through his power step by step, or stage by stage, by degrees to fullness just as the Son of God is brought forth. Just as the Son of God is the product of the 236 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Thought of God, the sou of man is the product of the thought of man. The Son ot God is the Idea of God ; the son of man is the idea of man. And when the idea of man is the perfect image of him, is his counterpart, it will be the perfect corre- spondent of the idea of God and in perfect unity wiih it through its likeness. As the son of man is the product of man's power and man's power is produced and sustained by God and God's power, the son of man is produced and sustained indirectly by God and God's power ; and hence is the deflection of Being, as man is the reflection of Being, because deflection is through reflection, the last being the deflecting medium. This last, that which is visible to us now, is some- thing that has to be rightly viewed or understood. And only through such right view or understanding, is the perception of what it represents possible. When the model of an invention is taken to be the invention itself, that is the error ; and this error does not change in the least what the model is in itself ; it only prevents the understanding of it. God's — Mind's thought produces that idea which is the Son of God, and is God's image. Man's thought produces that idea which is the son of man, and is man's image. When man's thought is the same as God's thought, when the tivo are like^ the products of each, or the ideas are like ; and so this son of man is like the Son of God. Through their likeness to each other they are in DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 237 unity, the unity being the Holy One of God, God being the cause or source of all product, direct and indirect. God — Mind is the knower and man is the being who may know through his own power. He has the thinking power for his own ; it is the expression of the creative power. Through it he thinks thoughts and produces in consequence ideas. Thinking the thought of Infinite Mind he is acting in unison with that mind, and his production or idea will be the perfect counterpart, inevitably, of God's idea. Every idea of man's which precedes and is less than the highest is but the image of a part or degree of man ; as every idea of the one mind which precedes and is less than man is not the image of the All of God, but only of a part or degree of God. If " man is the sum of creation," man is the sum of the ideas of the Infinite mind ; the one or whole which includes them all. And so the Son of man is the sum of man's ideas, the one or whole which in- cludes them all. . Hence we do not, any of us, see to-day the Son of man ; only a son or an idea which is less than he ; a mortal, not the mortal ; a person, not the highest or perfected person. Just as when the perfect model of the invention is constructed, the work is done part by part ; all parts going to make up, going into the complete model. As man, the Son of God, is the entity of God's ideas, is more than any one of them, so the son of 238 -4 CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. man is the entity of man's ideas, more than any one of them. He is the complete product of the thinking being in its progress from the least to the highest idea of itself. When the highest is reached, the perfect model or perfect visible representative is the result, because the entity of his ideas is then at one with the entity of God's ideas. " Man is the infinite idea forever developing himself." When man has developed the true and perfect idea of himself through the true and perfect thought of himself, he has brought forth the likeness of God and God has reproduced his own personality through him. Then God is made manifest, for then is man con- sciously as God, and his humanity is swallowed up in his divinity which is eternal. Jesus is the divine human made visible, the human being the seen and the divine the perceived, because operating through the human. The perfect model of that one being, man, who, though one in being is dual in nature, had and will have, as his office, the revelation or manifestation of generic man and of his cause or source. Hence he represented and will represent both the divinity and the humanity of generic man. Hence, through his operations as the working model he afforded proof that the divinity is higher than the humanity and is master over it. By means of him, when he comes, for he is in the future for all of us, this fact will be demonstrated in its fullness. DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 239 Till then, between the now and the then, it must be demonstrated so far as we have the capacity so to do ; a demonstration which can increase, can rise higher and higher only as now Ave allow our divinity to rule our humanity. Our human nature is the least ; is what we must stand upon as under our feet. Our divine nature is what we must, so standing, constantly reach up to. Jesus' whole history as recorded in the New Tes- tament proves this. The history of the disciples, those following him as their example, proves it also. The' history of the apostles, those who grew out of following the visible or the human as example, and followed the invisible or the divine for the same purpose instead, proves it likewise. And all that we see around us, all the commotion in the world, all the tearing down and building up, all the overthrowing and the substitution but represents the struggle between humanity and divinity ; for there must and will "be turning and overturning till he whose right it is to rule shall reign." Till the divine nature rules the human nature, strife will continue. When its reign is established, peace will prevail and not before. And through this process the nature of the Infinite idea is being mani- fested. Many movements to-day are efforts to this end ; efforts which, though often misdirected and mis- governed, are yet, in tlieir aim, in the highest pos- sible direction : and some of them are of the greatest practical value ; for they point out how, consciously and immediately, to set to work to let the divine rule the human. 240 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. That IS best which teaches, not belief in creeds, but the necessity of understanding from the basis of principle. This understanding in proportion as we gain it, will bring us to do what is demanded of us ; bring us to lift up the Son of man instead of degrade and reject him. We are crucifying him, crucifying the mortal afresh every day through our ignorance of his true nature. When we see that the model is essential as a part of the whole, see that it is and does or acts in perfect ac- cord with that which it represents, we shall see a new meaning to the words recorded of Jesus addressed to those who did not understand him — " I am from above ; ye are from beneath." " He that sent me is true ; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him." " When ye have lifted up the Son of man then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself ; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." When we have lifted up our present personalities through our understanding of their true nature instead of degrading them through our ignorance, then we shall know the true nature of the Jesus as that perfect human personality which does nothing of itself but is acted upon by that divine personality which is back of and beyond it. And through this perfect divine human, through this unity wliich makes it possible, the truth which frees from all ignorance and its consequences comes; that truth which is then possible to be known by us and we then able to taste of this freedom. DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 24A Jesus speaks of " when the son of man cometh in the glory of his Father." When we gain the true idea of the Son of man, when we understand him for what he is, then h^ comes to us in tlie glory of that which he represents, not as having any of his own ; for the Son of God whose model and representative he is shines through him in his own glory. When we so truly behold him, we shall behold his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. To-day we see in a mortal, those errors and evils which are the consequence of that sense belonging only to human consciousness ; and because the divine does not yet rule the human. When we understand the son of man, the mortal, we shall see him as pure and as perfect as that which he represents. We shall see none of those errors or evils in him because with him the divine does rule the human ; and the human sense from which they all sprang as a consequence is lost in the divine sense and they are not. To this end must we press forward, dying daily to the human sense of ourselves, rising daily to the divine sense of ourselves. Through this constant resurrection from the dead we too shall ascend to the Father ; that Father in heaven which is the true, the divine self with which we shall consciously become one. 16 242 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. THE ATONEMENT. Ephesians II. 13-22. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down tlie middle wall of partition between us : Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of com- mandments contained in ordinances ; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace ; And that he might reconcile both imto Grod in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord : In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The doctrine of vicarious atonement, which is one of the essential foundation stones in modern Chris- tianity, is one of the difficulties in the way of those rational, well-intentioned, and unprejudiced persons who are honestly desirous of accepting this Chris- tianity as the highest and best possible religion to live THE ATONEMENT. 243 and die by ; as the teaching which emoodies the high- est truth, and so the safest guide to the, as yet, un- discerned beyond. The declaration that one person can suffer the penalty due another on account of that other's acts, and which is the legitimate consequence of those acts, seems hardly reasonable or just to those who look at it impartially. Our civil law is based upon, and is intended to carry out, the principle that the guilty alone shall suffer ; and we claim that this is justice, that it is unjust for any one to experience the penalty of violation of law who has not violated the law. With all the shortcomings and mistakes in the carrying out of our governmental laws, we recognize the abstract justice upon which they are based, see that what is right for one is right for all, that what is wrong for one is wrong for all, so far as acts are in conformity to or in violation of that law which is for the equal good of all. If we, as a people, rightfully expect and demand justice from the all for the all, how much more shall we expect it from that Divine Power which cannot miscarry in its dealings with mankind as does that which is the product of mankind! If, within us, there is an inborn and ever-abiding demand for and recognition of justice as the underlying basis for all that shall endure, how can we help expecting, nay, demanding, as an unalienable right, that equity which must be ours from a God who is no respecter of persons. It is only for those who are ruled by their emotions that vicarious atonement is satisfactory, for they do 244 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. not use reason. Their feelings are stronger tnan any sense of justice, and because of those feelings they accept the doctrine and do not allow themselves to examine it outside of or apart from them. But for those who are not so ruled, who want the right only, whether to their own profit or loss, this sense im- periously demands satisfaction and will not down at the bidding of ecclesiasticism. According to our civil law, if a man commits a theft, he is the one to suffer the penalty of the law he has violated ; one enacted by the people for their own protection. While another might be willing to take upon himself this penalty if the thief might escape it thereb}', the law would not so be satisfied ; for this law is not merely that punishment shall follow theft, but that the thief is the one who shall experience it. So, the atonement pioffered by another who is will- ing to suffer in that thief's place could not possibly meet and fulfill this law ; so it would be perverted, and would also be a respecter of persons if it accepted the suffering of one who had not violated the law in place of that of the one who had. Any one can see the pernicious results which would follow such an application of our civil law : see that it would be perverted instead of fulfilled ; that the unselfish would always be stepping forward to take the place of the guilty, who would thus only be encouraged to continue in their violation of the law. Is to save a man from the just consequences of his own acts, the way to redeem him from the desire and intent to commit them ? Would it not rather en- THE ATONEMENT. 245 courage him to continue them ? Must not his desire and intent be overcome and can redemption from legitimate consequences come any other way ? If this law represents the unchanging and immutable sequence of cause and effect, can it be fulfilled if perverted ? The law punishes theft ; it cannot punish the inno- cent as it represents the consequence of an action for those who so act, and the protection for those who do not. It works both ways is for those who do evil — as it is called — and those who do not. It visits upon all the inherent consequences of their own deeds or manner of living ; ensures peace and pro- tection to those who do well, and painful experience to those who do evil ; and because of its nature, it cannot respect persons, for this would imply the power of choice, and law has no such power. It can- not select those whom it will punish and those whom it will screen. It is impersonal and hence must work impersonally. Is the law of God less than the law of mankind ? According to doctrinal teaching it is. It is the will of a personal being, who satisfied his own anger by putting the innocent to death for the guilty, and this view of God and of the law of God in operation, puts Him and it upon the plane of despotism purely, and as despotism in the world has ever led to revolt from it through the rousing of the sense of justice in those tyrannized over, so, sooner or later, this Godly despotism will in turn be revolted from, and mankind will work its own way to freedom from it. God as a despot can never be loved, and the attempt 246 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASSr to reconcile these opposite aspects, the despotism and the Fatherhood of God, makes ecclesiastical Christi- anity a piece of patchwork in which the several parts are forcibly joined together and so are plainly seen, instead of the seamless garment where no joinings are visible and which is ever the accompaniment of truth. The feeling, largely predominant, with those who believe in vicarious atonement, is gratitude ; a high and noble feeling which, when it is intense, shuts out a sense of equity. This feeling of gratitude experi- enced by the othodox Christian because of the self- sacrifice and abnegation of Jesus who laid down his life for his sake that he might be saved from eternal suffering, blinds him to the injustice manifest in such an act. He sees only the suffering Jesus hanging upon the cross, enduring the pain which should be his because Adam disobeyed the command of God, dying to save him from perdition, and his whole soul rises up in gratitude and goes out in worshipping adoration toward this being who could make this stupendous self-sacrifice. " While this feeling is praiseworthy and by no means to be condemned, it is experience because the emotional nature only is touched and the rational has no share in it ; and sooner or later this will assert its claims and demand satisfaction also. When it does it questions, " Why should I be condemned, judged guilty for what some one else has done ! What have I to do with Adam's disobedience ? Does not its consequence belong to him justly ? Why should it be visited upon me? While I have shortcomings enough of my own, I do not see why I should suffer THE ATONEMENT. 247 for that with which I never had anything to do." But ecclesiasticism says : " You must not question ; You can be saved from damnation only through this atonement ; and except you believe in it you throw away your only chance of salvation." And in obedi- ence to this authoritative declaration the rational nature is throttled so that it shall not cry out again, and our emotions carry us toward that heaven where it has no place, for it could never occupy itself with carrying palm branches and crying " Alleluiah," or be satisfied with a white robe and a golden crown. This doctrine of the Atonement is the accompani- ment of the literal rendering of the Bible which makes the Adam of the second chapter of Genesis the first man, a literal man living in a literal garden of Eden, from which he and his wife are expelled because they did something they were told not to do, and this literal disobedience must have as literal an atonement , and so, however we may revolt from the view that we are condemned because of what he did, we must accept the beginning to share in the ending. The spirit of the Bible, however, teaches the Law of God as something very different from this ; some- thing which meets and satisfies equally the rational and the emotional natures, which points out a logical process from cause to effect, and shows the outwork- ing of the impersonal God to manifestation instead of the anger and satisfied desire for vengeance of a personal one. There is this difference between the teachings of ecclesiastical Christianity and those of the Bible : the one appeals to and plays upon one side of ouj 248 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. nature only, leaving the other to get along as best it can. The other satisfies both, for it gives both that full occupation through which only can come satisfaction. Reason alone will never compass and comprehend the truth of the Christ ; realization or consciousness will. The intuitional nature knows and feels ; reason supports this knowing and feeling through its own work, for it finds and gives answer to every " Why?" ; and it is through this at-one-ment, or marriage, this conscious unity of the intuitional and the rational natures, that the higher birth comes. The perception of this spirit of the Bible, as underlying its letter, shows us the Adam of the second chapter of Genesis as the type of mankind in its beginnings; as the product of Man or the Lord God after or according to his kind ; and this begin- ning must grow or increase to fullness, must ripen through development till, reaching its fullness in the Jesus, the at-one-ment is thereby made with the true man, the Son of God ; and so the fullness of the God- head is made visible, for mankind is the medium for this visibilit5^ The man of the first chapter, tlie image, is the direct product of the One Creator and the One Creative Power ; the effect of that cause through its self-existent power to produce or create. The Adam or dust-man of the second chapter is peraon and is the product of the reproducing power belonging to Man ; and it is the nature and office of this Divine Image of God to produce the perfect likeness of his kind, or that which accords with what he is, through THE ATONEMENT, 249 and by means of the reproducing power which be- longs to him because of what he is ; because of his nature ; and this reproducing power is the forming power of the Lord God as declared in the second chapter of Genesis. It produces this likeness by degrees, the first degree being the Adam ; and this process must go on till, step by step, this complete likeness is forth- coming ; or till there is perfect at-one-ment between the Son of God and the son of man ; between the product of God and the product of Man ; between the result of the Creative Power and the result of the reproducing or forming power. And the reason why this is so is because the One God, the One 1 Am, is thereby made manifest, this full manifestation or the Christ being the aim and end of Creation which is not finished till it is forthcoming; and it cannot come forth till the work is done which produces it ; till the perfect person through whom the Christ is manifested is completed. Atonement, or at-one-ment, is a process which finds its culmination only with the Jesus as this perfect person. It is what is stated by Paul in this second chapter of Ephesians. The atonement made for us by Jesus is declared in the 14th, 15th and 16th verses : " For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of parti- tion between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances ; for to make in himself of twain, one new man, so making peace ; and that he might reconcile 250 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." This middle wall of partition which must be broken down is the seeming contradictoriness between the offspring of God and the offspring of Man. They are not opposed to each other in nature, but are similar ; and this seeming contrariness and opposi- tion between the spiritual and the personal is the "enmity" which must be abolished to make peace between them, which can be established only by making of these two " one new man," of Jesus Christ. The abolishing of this " enmity " is the work done in the process from Adam to Jesus ; and the Jesus is the fruit of this atoning process w^ho as such completes the last stage in it ; makes the final at-one-ment " by the cross." This atonement, or at-one-ment, the latter word giving the higher signification, is the place " where two ways meet," and which is spoken of in the Gospels as the place where the colt "upon which never man sat " was tied and which bore Jesus into Jerusalem prior to the crucifixion. The two ways, the creating way and the forming way, the one from God and the other from Man; the two products, the one from the Creative Power and the other from the reproducing power ; the image of God and the image of man meet here and become one ; and through this at-one-ment, the one new man who is made the twain is the manifestation of God; or the likeness of God, and the likeness of man are made one likeness as the Christ. THE ATONEMENT. 251 To follow this process from its beginning with Adam through the atoning which is done on the way to its culmination in Jesus with the final at-one-ment, is to see the seeming enmity between the immortal and the mortal, between the spiritual and the personal, abolished ; for only through its abolishment can one new man be made of these two and both be recon- ciled to or made in conformity to God by one body. This one body in and by which both the immortal and the mortal are at one with God, can come only by the slaying, the overcoming of the seeming en- mity or iinlikeness between them, which is done by the overcoming of mortal sense, the natural sense of the lesser self-consciousness, which alone sees and holds this unlikeness, and atoning for its errors through experience. And this is the atoning process which accompanies every step of the way from Adam to Jesus ; and the final at-one-ment of the Jesus with the Christ brings immortality to light because that enmity and its sura, mortality, is slain by way of the cross ; for through that cross the personal or natural body which, with the Jesus, is at its highest point, is consumed by the spiritual or Christ body, that only being the visible after the resurrection. This brief and therefore necessarily only outline statement of atonement, as taught by the Bible in- stead of by ecclesiasticism, will be found to yield, as it is studied from the basis given, far richer and fuller, more satisfactory results than the dogma which has been taught us in times past. So, we are able to see the outworking of impersonal, abstract truth to manifestation, instead of the will of a 252 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. personal God which visits the penalty due to guilt upon the innocent. We can see that justice, which is always and forever impersonal, and is therefore represented as blind because not seeing it as a per- son sees, and hence not influenced or actuated by feeling, a justice which is entirely lacking in the other presentation. We see from this basis that every one of us must make our own atonement through our own recognition of its necessity. Every one of us must make of twain, one new man. Seeing our- selves as Adam, we see that his mortal sense, the natural sense of the natural man, is at enmity with the sense which belongs to Man, the image of God because of its limitations. It cannot see far enough to see the truth of being or 'the abstract reality. It can see only the visible to it, which is what we call the world ; and this visible is not only the real to it because the actual, but the only real as well. This sense, therefore,. sees person as man. The mistakes of mortal sense, which are the only errors, and their consequences, which are the only evils, have to be atoned for before the kingdom of heaven, or that harmonious consciousness which is the inheritance of the son of man or the mortal, can be entered into ; and it is entered only by way of the cross of self-denial — denying person as man — which, at a certain point in this process, is taken up and carried to its end. The successor of the Adam, Enos, a higher type of the natural man reached through development, this development coming through both experience and THE ATONEMENT. 253 revelation, atones for the errors of and evils to mortal sense so far as his capacity as the higher type permits ; and his successor, the Noah, a still higher type reached through the continuity of this devel- opment and of the means by which it comes, atones for the shortcomings of his predecessors. And this process of atonement continues to the Jesus through the intervening stages typified by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, each of these atoning also ; while he, as the last, atones for all of them or for the sins of the world. He finishes the work given to the mortal to do, which is the working out of its own salvation from the errors and evils of mortal sense, which, collect- ively, constitute mortality. In the Jesus, the highest type-man and person- type of mankind as both individual and collective, and of a redeemed humanity, all the previous types, or those less than he, are at one. He is the second Adam through their at-one-ment in him ; but this at-one- ment has come only through the casting out of devils on the way ; through the casting out of the errors and evils which are the legitimate fruit of mortal sense. And this casting out is the means by which the mortal climbs higher or develops to the ripening point; climbs by overcoming them, and overcoming them through a higher perception, a sense beyond the limitations of mortal sense ; a sense which leads to understanding, consequently to realization ; and through these to the knowing of all things. Seven devils are cast out on the way and one atoned for, each devil being the coUectiveness of the 254 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. errors and evils at each degree of this process or with each type-man ; even Jesus, as the seventh, having the last to cast out, or the Judas before, by way of the cross, he could enter entirely, body and all, into that kingdom prepared from before the foundation of the world ; or into that heaven which is the expres- sion of the One God as the abstract reality before this process which leads to consciousness of it, begins. Peace, harmony — peaceful, harmonious conscious- ness — is found in this process which begins with the Adam, only through the casting out of the devils, and so making atonement for their previous harbor- ing, by constantly making atonement fo?- the sins and errors of mortal sense through higher endeavor and more earnest following after the invisible reality till it becomes the actual to us in place of what is now such ; and the final peace which passeth or is beyond understanding, only so becomes established. This whole process, which is individual to every one of us, is the work which makes of twain, one new man, through the slaying of the enmity between them ; for there is no real enmity between the im- mortal and the mortal; between the Son of God and the Son of Man, between the spiritual individuality and the representative person. Mortal sense holds all the enmity or unlikeness in and to itself ; and this sense overcome, the enmity is slain or brought to an end. So it is the work of atonement which brings them together ; and their unity is the new man who, as the at-one-ment of the likeness of God and the likeness of man, is the Christ who is made manifest through the Jesus, the highest type ; for THE ATONEMENT. 255 the work being done which brings forth this product there are no more types. The degrees have reached unity i the law is fulfilled, and the ascension out of sight follows. Are we, my friends, now making this true atone- ment for the sins of the Adam ? For the shortcom- ings and consequent mistakes of mortal sense, the natural sense of the natural man ? Are we endeav- oring to so break down the middle wall of partition between the immortal and the mortal ? To abolish in the flesh or body the enmity seemingly between them? So only can we bring forth the immortal body, the flesh and bones separated from blood which belong to the Christ in place of that bleeding body which belongs to mortal sense. The immortal and mortal must both be reconciled to God by one body ; or seen to be in conformity to immortal and unchanging truth ; to all that God is, and so brought together in one ; and the body of this at-one-ment is eternal. On the way to it there is warring in our members because the enmity between these two must be slam or overcome. We are experiencing this warring among the members to-day. The good that we would, we do not, and the evil we woul(3 not, that we do ; and it is because the sense of the spiritual man is striving with the sense of the natural man * a strife which will be kept up till they are brought together in one through the perception, understand- ing and realization which is possible for every one of us through our connection with the spiritual, and which comes to us through the door opened 256 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. within w-.en we begin to see that the mortal is not necessarily at enmity with the immortal ; see that the two are in perfect harmony in what they are ; that it is only necessary for us to see, understand, realize, and know that they are so, to make that final at-one-ment of them which brings forth the new man ; making it by degrees to fulness ; bringing forth the Christ little by little, till we stand revealed in His likeness, satisfied. Does the shadow of the cross, which covers the whole of this way by which the middle wall or par- tition between the immortal and the mortal is broken down, appal you ? If so, turn not aside, but remem- ber that strength to bear that cross up the mount is developed through this atoning process, which finishes upon it ! That the peace which is oh ! so much better than what mortal sense calls happiness, is waiting for us there. Is it worth striving after ? Is it worth stretching forth the hands from which drop the joys of the world, the prizes for which mortal sense runs its race, because ttie fingers loose their hold through desire for that which is so much above and beyond them — stretching them forth assift-edly, knowing that they shall receive when they bear the marks of the nails that have held them outstretched ? But they cannot bear these marks when we hold in them something dearer than the final at-one-ment and that which lies beyond it. Let go the delights of mortal sense, and stretch them wide that they may receive these marks which prove the ransomed Son of Man heir to and partaker of that glory which is above and beyond the world. THE MAN B OBN BLIND. 257 THE MAN BORN BLIND. John ix. 1-7. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind ? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day : the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he haa thus spoken, he spat upon the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. In the many cases of healing recorded in the Gos- pels as wrought by Jesus of Nazareth, all of which have a significance above their physical aspect, the restoring of sight to one born blind seems to have special interest for many who study these in the light of the new interpretation. All of them, while instances of divine or true heal- ing of physical ills or imperfections, are also sym- bolical illustrations of the like healing which has to take place with the inner man before its externaliza- tion upon the body is possible. 17 258 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. All of them have this inner and outer meaning, the esoteric and exoteric significance ; and while the consideration which is based upon their physical aspect is good as far as it goes, the Kmitations of this view will prevent perception of the higher truth revealed in them if it is not sought to pass beyond this. Disease and pain, physical infirmities and defects fastened upon one from birth or acquired later through the many ways for such, according to our mortal sense of things, are so common, so universally the experience of all men, that removal of any one of these by any other means than the generally recog- nized ones, especially if the method followed differs so markedly from them as to seemingly amount to nothing, produces general astonishment and quick inquiry as to how it was done. We are so accustomed to think that the orthodox, in any direction, is the only reliable, and the het- erodox dangerous, that we feel security only when standing by the orthodox, forgetting that " the non- sense of to-day is the sense of the future " as history has ever proven. All heterodox methods, then, those not in accord with commonly accepted standards, will surely be condemned before they are accepted, and will not be accepted till evidence is forthcoming which compels such acceptance, which will, of necessity, be partial before it is complete. Many instances of healing in these days have pro- duced the astonishment, the incredulity and even the condemnation which ever fall to the lot of the hetero- THE MAN BOBN BLIND. 259 dox ; and where there is recognition of the results because such is compelled by evidence, acceptance stops right there if there is no understanding of the law by which they have been forthcoming. And all claims in regard to them are denied also, while the same benefits for others are likely to be re- jected because they cannot be accounted for accord- ing to orthodox views. But little by little, year by year, is coming more and more the perception to mankind that bodily conditions are determined by interior or mental condi- tions ; and that, this being so, the best way to reach them is through the mental directly ; that all other methods are simply through the mental indirectly ; and as this is seen it will also be seen that that which acts upon the physical through the mental must lie the other side of it, not this ; that the healing power in nature acts from the within out, not from the without to the within. Considering the case of this man born blind merely in its physical aspect, the giving him sight would be an impossibility according to what is designated natural law, and consequently a miracle to those who understand no other law. It is because of these impossibilities to our natural and educated sense of things that these records of healing are considered miracles or as acts taking place outside of and contrary to natural law ; and because of our blindness to the over-ruling law we — some of us — accept them as marks of a special divin- ity in and with the one who performed them which makes them hopeless of attainment with any one else. 260 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. " The day of miracles is past," say many, when incidents as really miraculous or wonderful are con- stantly transpiring all around us, proving that the impossible of yesterday is the possible of to-day. The healing of all disease and imperfection in mankind is the natural result of its development of inherent possibilities, of its progression to higher planes ; and it is sure to come when the development has reached the stage where it is possible, for the only truly governing law of the world and all belong- ing to it, is spiritual law, and this works ever silently but all potently to this consummation. Mankind is to be perfected ; is to put on the like- ness of God through putting on the likeness of the image of God, perfect Man. In its infancy only, its early stages, does what is called disease and. evil per- tain to it as conditions possible only because of its infancy and growth ; its progress away from these conditions through overcoming them. They mean something and will remain with -man- kind till their meaning is found ; for there only is the way open to deliverance from them through understanding their nature and the nature of the mankind that is to be delivered from them. The accounts of the so-called miracles in the Gos- pels are nothing but true statements of individual and collective possibilities for mankind according to law, not favor, wlien the eyes are ready to be opened; when the true healing power, which is the redeeming because regenerative power is approached in the upward progress of the human race. This very power which heals diseases as made TBE MAN BORN BLIND. 261 manifest through the Jesus of Nazareth, heals or removes evils, casts out devils; and the plague spots upon the body politic, which the various liberal movements of the day are seeking to abolish, will disappear when the diseases of mankind disappear, and not before. The overcoming of one will be the overcoming of the other, for they are twin born and the length of days of the one is the lengtli of days of the other. What do all these efforts which are being made under the designations of Nationalism, Socialism, etc., mean, if they are not the working forth more and more from the invisible to the visible of the true nature of God and of Man, so displacing the old conceptions of both which have been our heritage from our fathers, been the handing down of tradition which custom has made law ? All these efforts mean far more than their distinct- ive appellations reveal to the casual observer ; only the true lover and student of his kind will see their deeper nature and wider outcome. Would these efforts, which to-day are general the world over, as our newspapers inform us, seem to show that mankind, which is born blind, is at last ready to have its eyes opened to its true nature and destiny ? And that this giving of sight is to come from the few who have perceived what the mass has been blind to and who are so, the channel through which the lacking sight is to come ? That only one who sees truly or according to the principle of things instead of according to the natural 262 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. or self-sense of them can help others to the same seeing ? There seems to be this higher meaning in the record of the man born blind ; a meaning above its physical aspect as one of the miracles wrought by the historical Jesus, and one which we shall do well to consider ; for, according to the teachings of the Bible, all disease and imperfection in us is the result of sin, while in this recorded instance neither this man nor his parents had sinned. " And as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind ? And Jesus answered. Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents ; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." O my friends ! Look away from the narrow and dogmatic letter of this great truth as it is to-day so often stated, to the broad and uplifting meaning contained in these few words. Let us see that there is a mankind as well as Man, and that it has its place in the universal whole as much as has the Son of God ; and this m^ankind is sinless, is as pure in nature as that one and only Man, the image of God, who by means of this man- kind is to be made manifest. But it is born blind ; as the infant it is naturally and inevitably blind to its own nature and possibil- ities, a blindness which remains till by reason of growth its eyes are opened to see them. Mankind as a whole and every individual member THE MAN BORN BLIND. 263 of it is born blind to the individual and general nature and destiny ; and this through no fault, no sin, but strictly in accordance with the nature of God and of Man. Because God and Man are what they are, mankind is born blind, that the works of God may be made manifest. If we can accept the fundamental proposition that God is the One I Am and Man is its one or whole ex- pression as the individual identity which must develop and hold its own self-consciousness, we can see that there must be a process between this individual identity and its perfected self-consciousness through which that is gained ; and so we can see a reason and a place for mankind or for something which is neither one of the two between which is this process, but which, in its nature, is like that which it starts from and so is the medium through which the works of God are made manifest ; the medium through which comes the manifestation of Man's nature, of Creation and even the nature of God, for the nature of the works reveal the nature of the worker; and this manifestation, in its fullness, or at the Qudof this pro- cess in which and belonging to which is mankind is the developed Self of Man, the likeness of God. Mankind is the medium through which the Christ is brought forth and the Christ is the likeness of God, this Self of Man the image of God ; is the divine nature of Man, visible, and so God made visible. Every individual member of mankind is to bring forth this Christ, is to help take the works of God manifest ; and every one of us is born to this Avork, but born blind ; or seeing it not; and every one of 264 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. US has to get our eyes open to this necessity and to the way to accomplish this work. Seeing mankind for what it is ; seeing it as the link between the Lord and the Christ or between the individual identity which is the overshadowing Most High, the Lord of all, and the Self belonging to the Lord, we can see that the beginning of mankind or its infancy is blind to its manhood or highest point; just as an infant born into the world, is blind to what lies before it as well as to the world into which it is born ; and we can see that this beginning or state is sinless and natural, necessary to that which is to come. It is the primal innocence of Adam and Eve, the lamb which must be offered up as a sacrifice to the Lord, for this infant blindness must go ; the eyes of mankind must be opened that it may see what it is, what it means, and what it is for. And the eyes of mankind are opened to see truly only when it is of age. " Is this your son, who ye say was born blind ? How then doth he now see ? His parents answered them and said. We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind ; but by what means he now seeth, we know not ; or who hath opened his eyes we know not ; he is of age ; ask him : he shall speak for him- self." How can one see principles till they have developed the capacity to see them through growth ? Mankind in its infancy is inevitably blind to them and must come of age to truly see, or see with understanding instead of with sense ; and when this period is reached, THE MAN BORN BLIND. 265 when the capacity to see is developed through growth, there will be the means which opens the eyes, ready at hand. Each individual member of mankind as he ap- proaches the stage of responsibility, or comes of age, so reaches the point where understanding of all things begins to be possible ; and he must assist thereto by washing away that which he has allowed to keep him in blindness ; he must rid himself of his old sense of things which is the sense of the blind if he would have instead the sense of the one who sees ; he must wash away the clay from his eyes, clear away from his vision this obstructing materiality. If we follow this world process, in which is man- kind, from its beginnings with Adam, we shall see that what is called the natural sense of the natural man is the sense with which we see ourselves and all things. But seeing with this sense is the blindness natural to mankind's infancy ; and the experience which is ours in this blindness brings us at last to that point in this universal process which is the com- ing of age, or growing to where we are ready to have our eyes opened ; ready to exchange our natural or Adam-sense of things for the higher sense of them or for that one which can see their true nature. We are ready to understand instead of believe ; ready to judge righteous judgment instead of accord- ing to appearances ; ready to receive that higher knowledge which is Wisdom in place of the sense knowledge ; ready to see no evil through knowing that all is good because of principles discerned, in- stead of believing that evil is an entity and a power 266 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. in itself ; ready to see the world as but a working model, a unity of passive forms acted upon, good in themselves, not evil, and so seeing all things anew ; ready to experience the flood of Genesis, and its counterpart in this chapter of John ; ready to have our old sense oi things washed away ; ready to, our- selves, wash the clay from our eyes that we may see. This clay or ground, what we call matter or the ma- terial and which hides from us spiritual verities when we see it with that natural sense which is blindness to its true nature, becomes a help instead of a hin- drance in the hands of understanding as represented by Jesus' use of it ; for when its true nature is so seen it is washed away from before our eyes through the removing of our old sense and the seeing it and all pertaining to it through the understanding that All is Mind, and there is nothing, not even what we call matter, that is separate from it. " He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing." As individual members of mankind we must all have the experience here recorded: and through this individual experience mankind will slowly but surely wake up from its natural blindness to see its own God-likeness and bring it forth ; see that that Will of God which is the eternal and immu- table law of Cause and Effect is steadily working to this production ; see that the turning point in the progress of the race is this change from natural blindness to as natural because divine, seeing ; is the work which is inevitably done in the Lord's day ; that seventh day of Creation in which the Christ is brought forth ; see that this change is preparing the way for the THE MAN BORN BLIND. 267 Christ who is born to us through understanding of principles, not through beliefs in traditions. " And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Phar- isees asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Phar- isees, This man is not of God because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said. How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles ? And there was a division among them." The holiness of the Sabbath or seventh day which must be kept is not seen when the view held of that day is a part of the blindness which must be removed. The followers of the letter of the law as represented by the Pharisees, ignorantly put their own traditions in place of the truth, making it of none effect for them. They do not see that this seventh day is whole and that every part of it must be kept ; see that it is that day between the Lord and the Christ, between the individual identity which is Lord over all and the Self belonging to it which Creation is to bring forth; and that so it is the Lord's day, every stage in which must be met and passed through in successive order, keeping it whole through missing none of them ; and through so keeping this day wholly, doing the Lord's work on that day ; for as this work is the pro- duction of the true Self which belongs to Man and which is the end and aim of Creation, the opening the eyes of those born blind to that Self and to the work, which brings it forth is that legitimate work ; for it is the necessary beginning to the conscious bringing 268 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. forth of the Christ, working to that end in the liglit instead of in darkness. But those who have had the clay placed upon their eyes by the Jesus that they might see its true nature and have done their own work as well, have gone as they were sent to wash it away ; who testify to this opening of their vision on the Sabbath day so that they see its true holiness and its outcome as that day in and through whose works God is made mani- fest because Man is made manifest, will be cast out by those who are disciples of Moses, by those who cherish wliat has been handed down from generation to generation as truth, and which is truth to them because it has been so handed down. These will deny the possibility of individual under- standing as coming into the world in accordance with that eternal law which overrules human law ; and so it will be cast out from their midst till for them also comes, at last, through further experience, that which sends them also to the same pool where they too wash and are made able to see. The day of judgment is in the world and sooner or later every one of us must meet it. None of us are done with the world till we have judged of it right- eously or truthfully and worked out our salvation from our former sense of it ; till we have judged our- selves righteously or truthfully and worked out our salvation from our former sense of ourselves ; and to this end does the Jesus come into the world or into our consciousness as the type of the true man to which we must conform. " And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into THE MAN BORN BLIND. 2G9 this world, that they which see not might see ; and that they which see might be made blind." Man, according to the natural sense or our Adam- sense of ourselves, is a poor substitute for what he truly is as seen through understanding ; and as what he truly is, is to be made manifest, this day of judg- ment or stage of understanding is that period where the sheep are separated from the goats ; where those who understand are separated from those who only believe ; where those who have seen not, see, and those who see are made blind ; where the former en- ter into the joy of their Lord and the latter depart into that further experience which shall at last show them that their boasted seeing has been but blindness ; for Man as he is ever was, and ever will be, cannot be made manifest through a misconception of him. There must be a conception which is a likeness of him, or like unto instead of contrary to him, before he can be made manifest as the Christ. And for this judgment does the Jesus come into the world, does this immaculate or pure and true conception of Man come to us to be compared with the old sense concep- tion of him ; and we are to judge between the two ; the one is for life eternal ; the other is for destruc- tion. The one is Man as he appears to one born blind, as he seems in the darkness of mortal sense ; the other is Man as he is in the light of understanding. And this pure and true son of man, this pure and true conception of man born in us must finally be born from us. We must bring him forth in the 270 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. world where he proves his nature, or the truth, to those who can see. We must become what we conceive Man to be through understanding what he must be as the Son of God ; as that divine being who is eternal. We must become the Jesus io fully bring forth the Christ ; we must grow after and according to this true conception of Man instead of continuing to be like the old mortal or misconception of him ; we must continually put that off to put the other on ; and it is through this constant putting off and putting on that the Jesus stands at last in the world, Master of it and of all belonging to it, demonstrating the divin- ity of Man by putting all things under his feet. O my friends I Let us cease to look after a dead and gone Jesus ! Let us rather look forward to that living Jesus which every one of us must and will con- ceive and bring to birth through our purity, through our ridding ourselves of that old conception " born in sin and conceived in iniquity " as it has been termed, but which is only the sense or conception natural to one born blind — born not seeing the truth which so has to come to him — and sure to disappear as the darkness of blindness or ignorance is ex- changed for understanding. So purifying ourselves through purifying our sense and our consciousness, we are capable of immaculate conception or of conceiving truly the nature of man ; and that which is conceived in purity is brought forth by that virgin to the world, to be rejected of it, per- haps ? Yes ; to be crucified even because they which say they see, are really blind ; so their sin remain eth. THE MAN BORN BLIND, 271 But, for ourselves, this pure son of man, which, because of what he is lifts all mankind up to himself, is the highest type of the Son of God, and so is truly for us the way of salvation ; the way to the Father ; the way by which we find and know Him ; the way by which we finally dwell with Him ; the way of at- one-ment so made for us and which, if we accept and follow, brings us to the end of the world, the end of the limitations which are the world and opens for us the door of the limitness through which we see that infinite beyond which is oneness with Infinity Itself. So we approach this door ; so we pass through it ; so is this world at an end for us and we know only eternity. So has the Lion of strength and courage lain down with the Lamb of primal innocence, and both have been led by this little child, born within us, to that Infinite Source of all things from which all comes and to which all goes. 272 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. THE LAME MAN AT THE GATE OF THE TEMPLE. Acts ni. 1-8. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple ; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said. Look on us. And he gave heed imto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none ; but such as I have give I thee : In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and im- mediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. The instances of healing recorded of Jesus in the Gospels and termed " miracles," if considered possible to him only, afforded no explanation of like healing by the apostles. If Jesas alone had power to heal because of his divine nature, the question arises how did the apostles, who were unlearned and ignorant men, heal the man lame from his birth ? TUB LAME MAN A T THE TEMPLE GA TE. 273 How did Peter heal him bedridden of the palsy for eight years and raise Tabitha from the dead ? And how did Paul, who was not one of Jesus' disciples, becoming with them an apostle, but was from the first an apostle, called of God so to be through His own individual revelation, heal the man a cripple from his birth, who had never walked, and restore to life the young man who fell from the window and was picked up dead ? These records of the New Testament show con- clusively that healing of disease and raising of the dead were not confined to Jesus alone ; neither that it was possible to others only when under the con- stant teaching of the visible Jesus, for these instances recorded of Peter and Paul were occurrences after the ascension of Jesus. And Paul had never seen or been with him ; had never been taught the mysteries of the kingdom of God by him as had the disciples. How then did he heal, performing works not only identical with those of Peter, but with those of Jesus also ? For those who hold to a special divinity on the part of Jesus impossible to others of mankind, there would seem to be no explanation possible except it be the assumption that a special power to heal was imparted to the apostles and Paul by Jesus ; but this would be contrary to his own statements, for he at all times declared that he had no power of his own and did nothing of himself. If he possessed no power to heal he could impart none ; he could not give his disciples or others what he had not to give ; therefore these instances of heal- 18 274 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. ing by Peter and Paul could not be the result of any power given them by JesuSc The fact that works identical with those recorded of Jesus were performed by others, should show us that they are possible to mankind ; that Jesus was not the only worker of miracles, as these were called, and hence that they were not the result of what he was to the exclusion of a like nature for others ; that all that he was, others may be, and may demonstrate that they are so like by like deeds. If Jesus is the example for mankind, " the first- born among many brethren," all mankind, and so every individual member of it, is to conform to him, or become like him, and this not by favor, but by law. If Jesus is our elder brother, we as his brothers have liis nature as our own, for we are sprung from the same source, have common parenthood. The brothers of one family are entitled alike to that which is the father's and mother's ; have equal inheritance as brothers ; but the elder brother will the soonest attain his majority and enter into possession of his inheritance, showing that he has it by using it. If we can take this of the Jesus, see that he is the type of mankind's highest possibilities, the first-born into that knowledge which constitutes Divine Wis- dom, and so is the self-knowledge which brings out these possibilities ; so the example for us which, if followed, causes us to grow according to what he is till we become what he was, is, and ever will be, be- cause we have the capacity for this growth as broth- ers in one family, we shall be able to see that all THE LAME MAN AT THE TEMPLE GA TE. 21 iy recorded of him is potentially possible with us ; a possibility brought to the actual fact in the propor- tion of our growth. If we can see that this one family, mankind, as that familj^ of which we individually are members, therefore brothers, is the medium through which the works of God are to be made manifest, we shall see that the logical sequence makes every one of us a medium for such manifestation ; and that if this manifestation is the consequence of the nature of God, therefore sure and certain as the inevitable re- lation of Cause and Effect, it will come through every one of us as we are open to and for it : as the way is prepared through our removal of impediments. This view will enable us to see that the works of the apostles were not more wonderful than natural ; natural as the result of this growth in likeness to the Jesus, wonderful only to those having no perception of their meaning through having no understanding of the change in those through whom they came ; a change which is only the removal of that which has hitherto prevented such demonstrations. The key to the understanding of these so-called miracles is the understanding of the nature of the Jesus. So long as he is believed to be other than he is, so long will these be believed impossible in any other day or time ; and so the declaration " Whatso- ever ye shall ask in my name ye shall receive " will remain of none effect, for there is great difference between asking Jesus and asking " in his name " for what we desire or need. When we ask him, the way for manifestation of 276 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. the works of God is blocked. If he could do nothing of himself how can he do for us ? When we ask in his name, this way is open, for in the first instance we look to Jesus and unavailingly ; in the other we look through him and with sure returns ; for all that he is, or was, is of the Father and comes from thence to us. This is the position of the apostle and why he heals, for the works of God can be made manifest through him because of his looking through the Jesus to the one Source whence cometh all that transforms man- kind ; for the apostle of Cbiist is beyond the disciple of Jesus. Apostleship is the growth from the former position ; is the seeing and laying hold of the invis- ible, so bringing it forth to manifestation, instead of holding to the visible only, which is for time and comes to an end with it. The works of Peter as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, are counterparts of the works of Jesus; and such is the case with Paul also , while a curious fact, which must surely have a meaning, is that the first healing recorded of both of them is that of a man born lame ; and one of the most extensively dwelt upon cases recorded of Jesus is that of a man born blind. That which is done with all of these, is the removal of something natural to the one healed ; something not acquired in childhood or manhood or at any time, in any way after birth, but belonging to that one at birth; and here these cases of healing differ from the others recorded, for those were from ac- quired disease. The significance wliich all the heal- J THE LAME MAN A T THE TEMPLE GA TE. 277 ings have above their mere physical aspect, is more clearly shown in these where the defect or lack is the accompaniment of birth than in those where something acquired is removed, because what one has brought upon himself through sin or error is shown in the last, while a need for help, which is not so brought about, is shown by the others. The man born blind and restored to sight by Jesus ; the man born lame and made to walk by Peter and John ; the man " impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother's womb," and made to stand and walk by Paul, are all illustrations of the nature of mankind individually and collectively and of the work needed to be done for it by those capable of the doing, through which the works of God and the nature of man are made manifest. Mankind is the link between that unity, God and Man, and the manifestation or visibility of both, which is equally a unity. In proportion as the nature of man, in its range from lowest to highest possi- bilities, is revealed, in like proportion is God from the lowest to highest aspect revealed ; for Man being God- like in nature, being in what he is, the image of God, the manifestation of man is equally the manifestation of God ; the revelation of the nature of Man is also the revelation of the nature of God. All manifestation is through something, and that something will be the necessary link between what is to be manifest and that result. And here is where mankind belongs in the great whole or in that unit, the universe. The nature of man forms mankind; the repro- 278 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. ducing power belonging to Man as the image of the Creator produces the manifold forms or shapes which together constitute the passive world. The continued action of this power and that One Mind which is God and which works in it produces the molding, the changing which is the active world. The thinking power is this reproducing power be- longing to Man ; his ideas are the shapes formed by it and are passive in themselves having no life in them ; but tlie continued action of this thinking power is the activity seen in and with these shapes and causes what we call change in the world, which change is only the visible action of the invisible power, and through this change, which is but registration of development with the possessor of the power, his full nature becomes fully manifested, and so the nature of his cause or God is manifested as well ; for the Author or Cause of Man working in and through him, in and through his power — ^for the thinking power is sustained by the One Mind — produces the manifes- tation which comes through what Man does; and what Man does is seen in the ever changing aspect of mankind, a change which is in ascension from lowest • to highest stages, from the least to the greatest type. Mankind is the temple of the Lord which is so built from its foundation stone to its pinnacle ; and the way into it is through the gate of self-knowledge which is the gate Beautiful. In our self-ignorance we lie at this gate as beggars, asking alms of those who come that way, and who bestow upon us accord- ing to what they have. The natural ignorance of mankind at its beginning, THE LAME MAN A T THE TEMPLE GA TE. 279 the blindness to its nature, meaning and destiny, causes the lameness at birth ; the inability to walk knowingly ; and because of this we lie at this gate looking upon those who can pass through it and ask- ing of them the help we need. The help given is good as far as it goes, but it does not remove our impotency and enable us to walk through the gate also till the Peter and the John come to us while lying there ; till the perception and understanding which are together and which are ac- companied by that love which is not for self, but self- less or impersonal, come to us and we look upon them in answer to their call. Then we are raised to our feet ; and through this raising up we receive the strength we were formerly unconscious of; and we walk, and leap, and praise God, for we so perceive that unfailing Soui-ce from whence we have all we need. Oh ! this gate Beautiful. This way into the temple where is the holy of holies ! How many lame ones are carried to it by their experience unconsciously and are lying at its threshold, not knowing that their own feet must carry them tlirough it ! That gate of Self-knowledge which opens to the dwelling-place of Wisdom and makes him who passes through it, seeing as he goes, its possessor, is indeed Beautiful ; but this is not its aspect to the one who lies without, feeling and knowing only his own limita- tions. Not till, in the lameness of this sense-consciousness, we are looked upon by the Peter and the John ; not till we in turn look upon them in answer to their call, is our lameness removed, and we find and use the feet 280 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. we have all aloug possessed, yet were as if we had none. If we trace the process of Creation and the Law governing it as they are stated in the book of Genesis, we find that development of the nature of Man is made visible by, because represented in, what we call the world and its inhabitants or mankind. When we see the necessity of Self-consciousness as existing with that being having the capacity for it, we shall see the equal necejsity that this Self-consciousness must be like in nature to the nature of the being pos- sessing this capacity. If man be infinite in nature because the expression of Infinity, his Self-consciousness must be infinite or unlimited, as must also be the capacity for it, belong- ing to what he is and through wliich he gains it. Man then, a being of infinite possibilities because of his nature, must have for his completeness that infinite Self-consciousness which alone accords with his nature ; or that Self-knowledge which is Divine Wisdom, and which binds Man in eternal conscious oneness with God, the All-knowing Mind, as he is already in unity with his Cause by his nature. In what Man is, he is at one with or in unity with God, passively. When he knows what he is, he is consciously one with God or in unity with all that God is actively ; and the active is the sequence of the passive. Creation as a whole containing both ; for the passive is manifested through the active ; the abstract fact is made visible through the action which brings it forth. The gaining of the Self-consciousness which be* THE LA ME MAN A T THE TEMPLE GA TE. 281 longs to Man because of his nature, being the orderly sequence from what he is, or the latter half of Crea- tion, it is by degrees to fullness ; from the least to the all ; and what we see as the world and mankind, together with all that goes on in the one and with the other, represents this process and progress from no Self-consciousness to the all of it. There will necessarily be a self-consciousness which is limited, another less limited and still another including more than these ; for the full Self-con- sciousness belonging to the nature of Man ; that which fills his capacity, is reached according to the underly- ing law of Creation which is by degrees or days to completeness. Every degree of Self-consciousness then, has its place in the whole, yet is not that which is the measure of Man; for that is the fullness or entity of all degrees. Every stage in this process or every degree of self- consciousness, has its type in the world ranging from least to greatest, according to progress. The type belongs to the world ; that which is made manifest through the type belongs to the nature of Man. The type is p issive ; it is acted upon and through this action the manifestation of that which is back of it comes. These main types or personalities are given in Genesis with the exception of the last and highest which is the Jesus of the New Testament ; but all the various ramifications of this process which com- pletes Creation, together with the multiplicity and variety in the nature of Man, have their types as well; and the inter-relations of all these must be 282 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. seen to find and follow the higher significance of the Bible ; to grasp and hold that meaning which makes it the book of books for all Christendom. Mankind is a whole which begins with the nature of Man and ends with its manifestation ; begins with the need for Self-consciousness and ends with its fullness or completeness. It is the temple of the Lord whose foundation stone is Adam and whose pinnacle is Jesus. " The Lord is in his holy temple ; let all the earth keep silence before him." Worshippers in this temple seek after the Lord ; the truth of being or the true being which is one with God ; they do not worship the temple, do not deify its pinnacle but use it to its own end. As such worshippers they enter it at the hour of prayer or when seeking truth for its own sake, they so truly worship ; and through the Gate Beautiful, the Gate of Self-knowledge so finding what it holds for them. For every one of us who desire to truly worship in this temple, will come, at this hour, the Peter and the John who enable us, lame from birth, to enter it for that purpose ; for they are the spiritual perception and understanding together with love for truth for its own sake that are always ready for us when we are ready for them ; but we must give heed to them, expecting to receive something from them, if we would walk through instead of lie helplessly by it. "And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said. Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none ; but such as I hare THE LAME MAN AT THE TEMPLE GATE. 283 give I thee : In the name of Jesus Christ of Naza- reth, rise up and walk." We are all, as members of mankind, lying at the gate of Self-knowledge, prevented from worshipping in the temple to which it opens, because we do not enter in through it. Everyone of us is carried to its threshold by our experiences and there we will remain till perception and understanding come to us, as they surely will some time or other if we have desire for them. These alone, can give us what we most need ; and that is not what ministers to our natural sense, not the silver and gold of the world, for these but encourage us to continue lying at the gate. We need to know that our feet, helpless in themselves, can be so acted upon through perception of the principle of our nature and being which gives us the understanding that the Omnipotent strength is ours to draw upon as we need, ours to carry us through that gate and into the temple where we praise God in declaring what that perception and understanding have done for us, and proving our words by what we show forth to others in the change made in us. But we must look to these for our help if we would receive that which is above all heretofore given us ; must depend on these alone for the time being, in order to have that proof of the nature of the help so received which renews us ; which enables us to achieve that hitherto impossible for us ; not because we had no feet, but because we did not know how to use them. Every one of us has feet or the capacity to understand our own being; but of what avail is it 284 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. SO long as it is not used ? What mankind most needs to-day and in all days, is more knowledge : not more of the kind it already has ; not more sense- knowledge whicli is the substance of tradition and dogma, but of that higher kind which is wisdom ; knowledge of the inyisible truth, that bread of life which Cometh down from heaven into our conscious- ness, and which is so our saviour from the limitations of that sense-knowledge which keeps us passive when our own conscious activity is all essential to prog- ress. Throughout the New Testament this necessity is declared, and a meaning of all the miracles recorded of Jesus, as well as of Peter and John, and later, Paul, is the wonderful result of helping mankind to help itself; of helping its members to help themselves through showing them the way ; showing them how to stand upon their own feet. Jesus truly came to save them that are lost ; or all who do not yet know this way how to save them- selves ; for it is one way only — the Father's ; that in accord with the natures of God and of Man ; and tliere is no other way under heaven by which we can be saved from the consequences of ignorance ; no other way by which we, having been born blind, can see ; no other way by which we, having been born lame, can walk ; no other way by which we, being at first beggars for truth, for true knowledge of our- selves can enter the Gate Beautiful and prove that we have received it. According to principle, not sense, must we walk ; and when we are ready to walk in this wise we find THE LAME MAN AT THE TEMPLE GATE. 285 our feet; have that which was hitherto impotent, filled with strength ; have the capacity to achieve that Self-consciousness which must be won, filled with the strength needed for that work. Regeneration is a necessity for mankind ; and all those instances of healing are, in their higher aspects, illustrations of it. Before any one member of man- kind can be lifted up to equality with Man he must be regenerated. Before mankind as a whole can be lifted up to the same level, it must be regenerated ; and this wholeness of regeneration comes only through the individual as the first; and regeneration for any individual is the type and promise of the universal. Jesus is the type of the fruit of individual regen- eration first, and of universal last ; as that type he shall fill the face of the whole world with fruit ; or what the Jesus is, every member of mankind, and so mankind as a whole, shall become. This regeneration means the change from sense- consciousness to Soul-consciousness and the proof of it; the change within us from our Adam state or natural state of innocent ignorance to the knowing of what we are, and which is bodied forth in place of the Adam personality. What we see and call the person, has to be regen- erated, but it must be from the within ; for all regen- eration is subjective, and the change in the without of the person is nothing but the visibility of the change in the consciousness. As that is regenerated, our bodies are regenerated and no faster. Every degree of regeneration in con- sciousness will show forth in a renewed body ; and 286 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. not till it is complete will the personality be the per- fected one, perfected through regeneration. When the Peter and the John come to us and we look on them expecting to receive, we have that result which enables us to show forth that hitherto impos- sible, because it takes the Peter and the John to rouse and bring out the dormant possibility. It is by their help that we are so regenerated ; yet it is not they who regenerate. "Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk ? " It is the hitherto undiscerned truth of our being which through what the Peter and the John are, regenerates us ; for so it comes into and works in our consciousness, changing and renewing till the old is entirely put off and the newly discerned is entirely put on ; and we so stand forth in the likeness of Man through con- scious unity with Man, making God manifest through that likeness. The power and holiness does not belong to the per- sonality through which it is made manifest, but to that truth working in and through the personality to its own manifestation. It regenerates when we open the way for regeneration through our willingness to re- ceive from the Peter and John; and in its own time it stands forth embodied in the world through this regeneration so made possible. Tlie completion of Creation — the making after the creating, is surely necessary to Avholeness, and the whole is Man. Man is the sum or entity of Creation, and Creation includes the Lord, the Jesus and the THE LAME MAN AT THE TEMPLE GATE. 287 Christ. These three are a trinity in unity and that unity is Man. The Christ is the personality of God, generated through the Lord. The Jesus is the personality of Man, generated from the Lord ; and these two per- sonalities are in unity as the subjective and objective ; or, with the visible first and invisible last, as Jesus Christ. This objective personality, or the Jesus, is the vis- ible to sense-consciousness ; to mortal sense ; but its nature, its subjective, or the Christ, is invisible to that sense ; consequently their unity is invisible as well. This objective personality, or the Jesus, is what is generated from the Lord la^, not first ; is the regen- eration after Adam ; is the fruit of tliat process of continued generation from the Lord which makes it, as that fruit, the regenerated one which alone can be the pure or immaculate personality which is the figure of the Christ; of the personality of God. So the Lord, which is the individaal " I " that images or expresses God ; the Christ which is the Self of that I and the Likeness or personality of God; the Jesus which is the likeness or personality of Man who is the unity of the Lord and the Christ, are the trinity in that Unity which is the All ; the Universe which is a unit while God is its Soul. And through regeneration in consciousness is the All finally made manifest. How do we find Christ? Through finding ourselves. How is Christ in the world? Through us in the proportion that we find and manifest him. How is God manifest in the flesh ? By our regenerated flesh ; or by that bod)^ which is 288 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. generated according to the truth of being — according to that principle which is God, instead of according to sense. God is in the world through that person- ality which is " the Word made flesh," and which is in unity with the Christ ; therefore is the medium for the manifestation of the Christ and so of God. Jesus speaks of " Ye that have followed me in the regeneration." Let us ask ourselves, Are we so following ? LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. 289 LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. Romans vni. 5 — 14. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of sin ; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Shall we not do well to ask ourselves, " How am I living ? What is the guiding, the impelling motive of my life?" The self-examination necessary to answer this 290 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. question will profit us all alike, whatever our con- victions as to what constitutes living, whatever our view of what constitutes religion. This present state of consciousness which is com- monly termed " life in this world," is what we at present know and, in the opinion of many, is all that we are sure of. What it is ; what it means ; has any- thing preceded it for us, and will anything succeed it, are questions with which many are yet unsatisfac- torily wrestling. For others they are answered ; but for all alike, whether a hereafter is recognized or not, the use we are making of the present, its meaning to us, is a subject demanding careful attention. As we look about us, " Let us eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow we die ! " would seem to be the guiding motive of many, and the consequence of believing that this life, as it is called, is all there is. " I am living to-day," these say, " have the capa- city for enjoyment, but do not know how soon I may lose it through loss of health or the ability to satisfy it through loss of means. Why should I not take all I can get or whatever I enjoy as I go along ? Whether there is anything after this life is more than I know, or more than any one can prove to me, and if one does not take care of himself in this world no one is going to do it for him." To look out for number one, get and enjoy all you can, regardless of whether others enjoy or suffer and whether it is in your power to help them to the one and out of the other, is a course of conduct consistent with this view of things, rational to those who hold LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. 291 it, unworthy to those who have higher views and the convictions which are their consequence. Then there is another class which believes that there is a hereafter, that this life is temporary and that is everlasting. That from living in this world, as a place or locality, they go to another world which is also a place or locality, and their happiness there is ensured only by what they believe here and the way of living which their beliefs entail upon them. These naturally try to shape and mold all they do with reference to the happiness which they hope to receive in the hereafter, and are often inclined to think that the more miserable they are here the greater chance they have then. Whatever misfortune seems to come to them they bear it with resignation as a duty, considering the ills they experience as sent upon them by their heavenly Father for their good, the period for which these shall endure being confined to this life only, and death the open door to that heavenly abode where they cannot enter and where shall be enjoyed the reward of the good deeds done in the body. This position is the working for a reward possible in the future world, impossible in the present one, and seems, to some, to have as a motive the doing right for what one will get for it sometime, and by no means the doing right for right's sake whatever comes from it. While these two positions quoted seem perhaps widely apart, there is a similarity between the mo- tives of which they are the product, that show them near of kin. In the first, all one can enjoy in the 292 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. present is aimed for ; in the second, all one can en- joy in the future at the expense of foregoing it in the present. The underlying desire is the same ; the difference is in the time and place of gratification and in the things which afford it. What is ordinarily called " living for the other world," and which is impressed upon us as a necessity by the common religious teachings, when brought down to its impelling motive, is seen to be more or less selfish, startling as that conclusion may seem to be to many who imagine themselves to be living lives of the greatest self-denial. There is a higher position than either of these, consequent upon a higher view both of the here and the possible hereafter ; one for which efforts in so many directions are being made under different names. All endeavors to gain a higher perception of our- selves and of the world than is afforded us by either science or religion, when these are considered as op- posites and contradictory, will bear fruit sooner or later in views which show a reconciliation of these two in their higher aspects ; and that body of people who are to-day gaining these views and the ability, for themselves, of sifting the conclusions on either side and arriving at the wheat in each, are also be- ginning to regulate daily living according to a higher ideal than those we have considered. A great revolution in thought takes place with these, a revolution which transfers the possibilities of the reliofionist's hereafter to the here, and effaces LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. 293 both the motive and the desire of the sensualist, who lives for the moment only. Such ones see that living is continuous, is an un- broken sequence from self-existent cause, see that that which uses the body as a means of expression is not dependent upon it for its own existence or being ; and hence that the death of the body, as it is called, puts an end only to the expression, not to that which has used it for that purpose. When it is clearly seen that the invisible some- thing which has been called the soul, is what is con- nected with what we call the body, only as the user of that, and that the body is only the means by which what it thinks and desires is made visible ; and that the ceasing to use it is no proof that the user is not in itself just what it has been all the while, it is also clearly seen that consciousness, sensibility, belongs to the soul and not to the body ; belongs to the user and not to the thing used ; and that, this being so, the death of the body cannot affect the conscious- ness, the sensibility, or cause it to cease. An immense advantage is gained, which is of prac- tical use in all the circumstances of daily life, when we can see that the plane of the body, that plane on which are all the correspondences of the body, is not the plane on which we exist or are now, but only the one on which we, as souls, look out. Using the term " soul " as the individuality of a state of consciousness, not as the individual identity which directly expresses the Infinite I Am, or That I Am, we see that the expression " we are souls " con- veys a clearer and truer meaning than the one " we 294 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. have souls " ; and if the soul only uses and operates through the body, the power of action and the action being with it and not with the body, the only differ- ence with the soul which loss of body can make is loss of means and opportunity for making its desires and acts visible to the sense which can see only the body and its comrades, only the visible objects which make up the objective world, and of which the body is one. If this soul is the possessor of all that goes to make it up ; if to it belong the powers which we attribute to ourselves, the power to think, to will, to feel, to do ; the power of reason, judgment, memory, etc., these remain the same, as their possessor remains the same, when the body, which is only the means by ' which they are shown to exist through their opera- tion upon and manifestation by means of it, is gone from sight. And therefore now, while the body is visible and seemingly the all because the only object, the plane of the soul is the plane of the living, or we are living now as souls and not as bodies ; hence the three- score years and ten which constitute the term of bodily existence is not and can by no means be the limitation of the soul's existence. It is only the time for the expression of the soul on this objective plane; it is the limitation of the expression, not of the soul which has so acted for that period of time. The mistake, natural in the infancy of mankind, of considering the seventy years of expression on the objective plane, the limit of living, of our life LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. 295 before death claims us, has borne, as one of its liar- vest of consequences, the belief that we cease to live, and begin over again in another place, and so incited us to prepare as favorable conditions for ourselves when we get there to live, as we can. But when we see that the plane on which we are livinsf now is the one we continue on then till we outgrow it ; see that what we look out upon from where we live or are is what we call this world and this life, we shall see that our hereafter is but the continuity of our here, our future but the continuance of our pi-esent, with the single exception that this objective which we now look out upon by means of that body which belongs to it, is no longer the world, to us. And those whom we leave behind, as it is phrased, seeing no longer the expression on and through the body, say we have gone to the next world, to the future life, when we are where we have been all the while. That soul which speaks for and declares itself when it says " I " ; which declares itself or speaks through and by means of the body, is heard by others when it so declares itself ; is unheard when it does not, when there is no objective body such as meets our vision on all sides. The body being the visible to us and the soul the invisible, all that belongs to the soul is equally invisi- ble except as it expresses itself through the body. Then it is the expression we see, not that which is expressed : and that must continue on its own plane by its nature. 296 A CniCAGO BIBLE CLASS. For those of us who can see this possibility, nay, the necessity because of the principle involved, a consequence at once arises. Seeing that the three score and ten is only the time in which we look out upon what now we call living, that that which looks out lives on, its con- sciousness, sensibility and experiences continuing, we see the importance of realizing now, and not waiting till the three score and ten years are con- cluded, that living is continuous. That we are not going into eternity, but are in it already. That we are not going to live after we die, but are not going to die. That we are now living right along from day to day into all the hereafter there is ; that hereafter which is only the continuance of the here ; that to- morrow which ever joins the to-day in unbroken sequence. When we see that this is all that life after death, as it has been called, is ; when we realize this truth, we begin to live in the eternal instead of in time. We cease to live in and for that three score years and ten, and live in and for eternity. We cease to measure all things by this life, this seventy years ; cease to regulate our acts, our desires and our aims according to its limitations, and adjust them instead to that eternal and unchangeable prin- ciple wliich begins to be dimly manifest to us. We cease to hold as not only unworthy, but false and misleading, the view " Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die." LIVE IN THE ETEBNAL, NOT IN TIME. 297 We cease looking forward to heaven as a place which we shall go to when we have put off the body and know instead that the only heaven is in us and to be found only by looking within instead of without and beyond ourselves ; to be dwelt in in the here, if we will have it so, instead of that hereafter which always remains the hereafter because it is always now with us. In just the proportion that we cease to be what Paul calls " carnally minded " and become instead " spiritually minded," we cease to live in time and live in the eternal ; and this change from time to eternity which is possible for us now is through a change in our sense of all things including ourselves ; is from seeing ourselves and all things according to their principle instead of according to their appear- ance. We are carnally minded when we take what the soul looks out upon for the real and the all, and when all our desires and acts are based upon this belief. We become spiritually minded when we see the falsity and deceptiveness of this view and recognize that what is looked out upon now is temporal and, valuable only according to the use made of it ; while the soul, outlasting what it in ignorance sees, must go on climbing higher and higher till it stands as con- queror of all the sense beliefs and desires. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, Paul says. : To believe that what we, by means of the body, look out upon, is what we are ; to have as our impelling motive the desire to get all the enjoyment and satis- 298 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. faction on that plane that we can, as we go along, is to look upon death, which is really only a part of that which is looked out upon, as the inevitable end of it all and an enemy from whose grasp we must try to be saved by every possible stratagem. But to perceive and understand that the looker-on, who is self-deceived when this view prompts its action, continues, gaining new experience upon the plane where it is, where it has been all the while, no more invisible than it was before death, the only difference being that its expression is not seen, what it says and does and feels not known to the sense which sees body because no longer so expressed, is to become spiritually minded, when the why and wherefore of this is also perceived as the result of that law which brings the spiritual to manifestation as the all, when it is fulfilled. To be spiritually minded, to live in the eternal in- stead of in time, is life and peace. Can we not readily see that tliis change in the looker- on turns him from death to life ? Gives in place of the old sense of things which includes death as an inevitable sequence, a new sense of living, of that living which is not under the power of death and puts him at peace with all. No more wonderment over a mysterious hereafter, and whether we shall be happy or unhappy if not put an end to altogether ; but a serenity instead which none of the mortal dream fancies can overthrow. It is not easy for us to at once live consciously in the eternal instead of in time. The force of old habit is strong and the endeavors to establish new LIVE IN THE ETEBNAL, NOT IN TIME. 299 ones are at first weak ; but as we persist, as we stead- fastly regulate our thoughts and acts according to what we now see and know must be true instead of according to what we, in common with others, have formerly believed, we bring the hereafter into the here, in that we have and experience now much that we had thought could only be ours then. We prove that now is the accepted time, that now is the day of salvation from the results of carnal mindedness, and that it is through spiritual minded- ness. We find that we are saved now from much that we had believed only death could free us from. We find that it is possible now to exchange joy for mourning, strength for weakness, health for sickness, courage for fear, and happiness for pain. We prove that tlie fruits of salvation are ours now ; that we do not have to wait till then, for them ; and because we are in eternity now as much as we ever shall be. So we pass from death unto life without dying according to the common view of death. So we are conscious of eternity, more conscious of it than of time ; and are content to take each day as it comes without looking with longing eyes for a hereafter, knowing that days pass by us one after another and that we are no part of them. Knowing that all we have to do is to act faithfully according to our growing spiritual sense, and so through this spiritual mindedness come nearer and nearer to that consciousness which is our inheritance, which includes no sense of what we have formerly 300 ^ CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. turned from, but which is too pure to even behold it. Paul says again, " Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you." What is ordinarily termed " this life " is what is also called " living in the flesh " ; and we say, " How can I help thinking and doing so and so as long as I am in the flesh? " And believing that the actor, the thinker and doer of the deed is in the flesh or body as an integral part of it, we have believed that we could not help much that we have been subject to through this very belief. Paul is here addressing the living as we call them, those who have not yet died and so gotten rid of the flesh or body ; and lie says, " Ye are not in the flesh if the Spirit is dwelling in you." Wlien what we have called the soul, which looks out upon the objective world by means of that attach- ment which is the fleshly body, believes that body to be itself, then it is in the flesh to its own sense of itself. But when instead of this sense it is prompted by the spiritual perception and understanding of its own nature and the nature of that which it looks out upon, in all it thinks and does, it does not live to the flesli, but after the Spirit ; and so has passed from death unto life. Those who " are in the flesh cannot please God." Those who are living to and for the flesh, the body, through that sense of it, cannot think and act in accordance with the truth of their being, so making LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. 301 that truth manifest ; cannot make what Man is, mani- fest in the world. They live, inevitably, contrary to that truth and serve the bod}^ instead of the soul ; live for corrup- tion instead of incorruption. When we declare that we will no longer serve our natural sense of things, the sense which takes ap- pearance for reality, no longer be bound under that servitude, but will live for and to the truth which that sense cannot see but which we can feel, we begin to live in the eternal and time begins to disappear for us. When we begin to cease living to and for the flesh, then we begin to live to and for the Spirit, and that period can just as well be for us to-day as after we have died ; for this is the death inevitable for all mankind ; is the turning point in its experience whereby it passes from death unto life. When we repudiate the beliefs of our fellow-men as laws binding upon us under which we must serve whether we will or no, we begin to live instead of die. Bound by these, yoke-fellows with them, we are dying all the time. Freed from tliese through our throwing off, and holding instead to that great eternal principle which changes not, making it our rule of living, we live more and more every da}', grow more and more living till we outgrow all bonds and stand as masters over them. There is a help and a strength from the perception and the conviction that we are in eternity now in- stead of in the temporal only, which only those know who have and hold these. 302 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. Such give a very different kind of thought to the to-day, and recognize the necessity of right use of this, as the only preparation for the hereafter. They recognize that each one determines the nature and quality of his individual hereafter by what the to-day is to him ; and seeing this with understand- ing, they purposely and consciously die daily to their old sense of it and of all, so passing into eternity even while in what others call, here. When we can see that to live in the eternal instead of in time, for the everlasting instead of for the temporal, is a result which must come for every one of us sooner or later ; that we do not necessarily have to experience what is ordinarily understood by " death " in order to gain it ; that to-day it is as possible for us as after we are no longer seen by mortal sense ; that this change is all the death there is and that through it we overcome and conquer the old sense of death, we shall live to the Spirit and not to the flesh in the to-day ; and so living, we shall reap its fruits, fruits which prove the tree they grow upon, good. When this change comes to us, when we are established in it, whether it be in what others call the here or the hereafter, we put forth our hand and take from the tree of life and live forever. When this comes to us or is attained by us, in the now and here, we know what it is to be in the world but not of it ; for all our endeavor is to live after the Spirit and not after the flesh. Knowing that this is what must be accomplished sometime, why not make the effort now ? LIVE IN THE ETERNAL, NOT IN TIME. 303 Knowing that our sense of time must *be displaced by the sense of the eternal, why not begin to cultivate it now ? The tree of knowledge of good and evil is for time ; the tree of life is for eternity. We have all fed of the fruit of the former ; sooner or later we must know how to choose the good and refuse the evil ; and then, putting forth our hand to take of the tree of life, we find that its leaves are for the healing of the nations ; that its fruit so satisfied that there is no more hunger for aught else ; that as we feed upon it we grow more and more into that God-likeness which alone satisfies ; above which can be no higher ideal to reach forward to, for it is the All. So, then, tlie righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us ; the rightness of that law by which we have grown out of sense-consciousness into soul-conscious- ness, and whose fulfillment brings that Christ to the world which has dominion over it and all belonging to it ; dominion over all sickness and pain, over all sin and death, over all erroneous self-sense, over body and its correspondences, and manifests the divinity and the power which can put and keep these under foot. If we live in the eternal instead of in time through this change in our sense about time and eternity, what we are to others and what they are to us is determined upon a new and a higher basis. All things change for us through this one change. Then we do not fear that dear ones will be taken from us by death, for they cannot be taken out of 304 A CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. that eternity in which they now are, equally with ourselves ; and they are to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them as are we. Nothing that is ours can be taken from us. We can suffer no loss, for in the eternal all that belongs to it is sure. It is only that which belongs to time, to the tem- poral, that has its day and is no more. Then, having done all, stand. No one of us is required to do, to feel, to be more to-day than he is capable of ; but all that we are capable of is required of us to the utmost. The unceasing effort to live in the eternal instead of in time will increase our capability to clioose the good and refuse the evil ; increase our opportunity and ability to pluck and eat from the tree of life ; and nourished with this food we grow little by little to fulfill all righteousness or rightness. First a little, then more, and more and more till all is overcome ; and we see that the law under which this has been done has been but the schoolmaster which has brought us to Christ ; brought us to and into till we are Christ's. Many of us can see these truths, but most of us do not find it easy to stand. We even find it easier to do that which is hard than to stand after we have done all that we are capable of. Yet to stand in the eternal, strong and steadfast, is the essential step before we can have what eternity contains revealed to us ; have it become our conscious present. Many of us can see heights in consciousness to-day LIVE IN THE ETEHNAL, NOT IN TIME. 305 which a few years ago did not exist for us because we were blind to them ; and as we make a little advance up these heights, it is only to see still higher beyond. Yet, having done all, stand. Let us not be dis- mayed by what we see by means of the flesh. Back of that is the unchanging, and if we are steadfast and unwavering it will become our own. " Stand fast in the eternal ways, and what is yours will come to you." We are not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh ; through that Spirit that quickens we are debt- ors to that which is God to live as the Sons of God. This Spirit helps our infirmities when we stand with and by it, depending no more on the arm of flesh, but on that which alone delivers. This Spirit, the deliverer within, can alone lead us along those eternal ways where what is ours is found. The Spirit of truth leads us into all truth when we are able to stand firmly by and for it, unswayed by all that seems to oppose. Not till we are able to so stand can we comprehend and feel the conviction of Paul's as our own also ; for not till then are we too persuaded ''that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." CARLYLE S COMPLETE WORKS. 10 vols. i2mo. cloth, gilt, - $n-5o lo vols. i2mo. half calf, marbled edges, - - • 20.00 10 vols. i2mo. half crushed levant, gilt top, - - - 20.00 This is an entirely new edition of the complete works of Thomas Carlyle, uniformly printed, from new plates, in large, clear type, and is the only complete and desirable edition printed in this country at a moderate price. These editions are printed at the famous University Press of Messrs. John Wilson & Son. A finer library edition is also published in extra cloth, gilt top, and extra half calf. I. SARTOR RESARTUS. II. FRENCH REVOLUTION. III. FREDERICK THE GREAT, I. & IL IV. FREDERICK THE GREAT, III. & IV. V. FREDERICK THE GREAT, V. & VI. VI. FREDERICK THE GREAT, VII. & VIII. VII. MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS, I. VIIL MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS, II. IX. CROMWELL, I. X. CROMWELL, II. CARLYLE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION By THOMAS CARLYLE. 2 vols. i2mo. extra cloth, gilt, .... ^2.00 2 vols. i2mo. half calf, marbled edges, .... 3.00 2 vols. i2mo. half crushed levant, gilt top, - - - 3.00 Uniform in size and style, with Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, and printed from the electrotype plates of the complete set, by the famous University Press, Cambridge. UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. PUBLISHERS. N. Y. CARLYLE'S FREDERICK THE GREAT. 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