earthly mission of Christ. The Apostles were secretly informed of it by Mary, and only proclaimed it to the world when it could be made known at a fitting opportunity, and with good results, under the inspiration of the superior spirits who aided and directed them in the accomplishment of their mission.

The successive revelations of Moses and the prophets, who announced the advent of the Messiah, and thus laid the foundation of his mission; and the subsequent revelation made by the angel to Mary and Joseph; the work of the earthly mission of Jesus, which was recorded by the Evangelists under the inspiration of superior spirits; and, lastly, the earthly mission of the Apostles, were thus designed to uproot the old polytheism entirely, but by gradual stages, among the more civilized nations, who were destined to make known the truth to those who were less advanced. Thus men were to be brought to a knowledge of the One God, the Father; of Jesus Christ, who is not God, but a spirit of perfect purity; and of the Holy Spirit, who is not God, but figuratively represents the sacred phalanx of the good spirits of the Lord, who are the ministers of his will, providence and goodness, and maintain universal life and harmony on your planet, under the direction of Jesus, your protector, ruler, and master, who is the representative of God, the Father of each and of all.

Thus, too, men were led to know the nature and origin of Christ and of all created spirits, and were led on to the new era of the Christianity of Christ, which will bring you by successive revelations to the predicted time when you shall have arrived at perfection, and Christ will reappear among you, clothed in his full spiritual glory.

In order to give the men of that age, and following generations, what they were able to bear, it was necessary for Jesus to veil his nature and spiritual origin by the letter, as had likewise been done in the case of the previous revelations, to provide for the period of transition, and to lay the foundations of the future revelation of the Spirit of Truth. In order to be understood and listened to, he was obliged

to appropriate his language and actions to the intelligence and prejudices of the period, as well as to the traditions of the prophets of the old law, and the aspirations of the people, or his mission would have been unfruitful. But this gave rise to transitory opinions, by which he was first regarded by men as a man like themselves, and after the commencement of his public mission, as a prophet. Afterwards men ascribed divinity to him, and regarded him as both God and man, thus making the finite body of a man contain the Infinite, and representing the One Eternal God as subject to life and death in a mortal and perishable body; that God who is, has been, and will be, throughout eternity, and who has alone possessed immortality from everlasting o everlasting.

All the aspirations and opinions of which you now perceive the necessity and object, were transitory and preparatory to the advent of the Spirit. All have been useful in the course of time; and the efforts which have been made to pierce the darkness of the letter, have caused sparks to leap forth from the hidden depths of the Spirit, and have thus prepared the way for the Spirit of Truth to raise the veil from the letter, and to strip the shell from mystery and miracle, to manifest the light and truth within.

During the course of ages, and the ripening of human intelligence, these aspirations and opinions have led you on to the new era of the Christianity of Christ, and to the promised Revelation of the Spirit of Truth, who descends to you by the will of the Father, to tell you what Jesus could not tell during his earthly mission, and to teach you the truth which you are now prepared to support, by freeing the Spirit from the letter.

Jesus taught men to distrust the letter by saying, “It is the Spirit which giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life” (John vi. 64).

It was the Apostle John who was chosen to record these words of the Divine Model, his beloved Master, under medianimic inspiration; and the Apostle Paul, applying the

same words to human interpretations, says: killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. iii. 6).

"The letter

Interpretation according to the letter is death; or, in other words, leads to error; whereas interpretation according to the Spirit, is life; that is, it leads to truth. But the kingdom of the letter is transitory in its nature, and preparatory to the advent of the Spirit. Still it was necessary at first, for the letter is for primitive nations, and for the infancy, childhood and youth of humanity, and the Spirit is for nations who have arrived at such a degree of intellectual development that they wish to understand what they should believe, and then blind faith under the veil of the letter is no longer sufficient, but produces only doubt or incredulity. That letter is then of no further use, but leaves faith without support. Such nations require the daily bread of intelligence according to their faculties and necessities. Thus the words of Jesus and Paul, which we have just quoted, were words of the future, and were only to be accomplished in the course of ages.

Jesus, having regard to the Hebrew and angelic revelations, arranged everything, both by words, actions, and events, to be useful for the present, and to prepare the future for the Christian era, under the veil of the letter, and at the same time to prepare for, and to sanction the New Revelation, which should free the Spirit from the letter, at the time of the Spiritual era, under the Empire of the Spirit.

The Apostles were inspired by the spirits of the Lord, who assisted and directed them in their mission, that everything necessary should be said and done; and they followed the paths which Jesus had traced out. Jesus spoke words which were designed to arrest the attention of the people, and to be interpreted literally according to the intelligence of that and subsequent ages, and also pronounced words which were not to be much regarded until they could be explained in spirit and in truth by a new Revelation which had become necessary, and which should at the same time correct the erroneous interpretations which had served as the basis of the opinions which arose, according to the letter, in the

infancy of humanity. Even so, the Apostles John and Paul, following in the steps of Jesus, spoke words which were to attract the attention of men immediately, and to be interpreted literally; and others, of which they did not. understand the exact meaning, and which men would only dwell upon, when they were explained in spirit and in truth, by the new Revelation, under the Empire of the Spirit.

It was the mission of the Apostles, and especially of Paul, to prepare the way for the Christian era under the dominion of the letter, and also to speak words of which the Spirit was to be purposely veiled by the letter, but which were to serve as the foundation, and anticipated sanction of the future Revelation.

The Apostles John and Paul obeyed the will of the Lord, like the other Apostles, and thus served the present, and prepared for the future. Each acted within the limits of his earthly mission, and under the conditions which the wise foresight of Jesus had arranged. You should not reject any of the words of John or Paul relative to the spiritual nature and origin of Jesus, for they must all be understood and explained according to the Spirit which giveth life; and therefore in spirit and in truth.

The words of John (i. 1-3, 14 and 18), should not be isolated from those spoken by Jesus himself, and recorded by the four Evangelists, nor from those which the Apostle Paul addressed, both to the Jews and Gentiles, to which we will refer you before explaining the former.

When the words of Jesus are illuminated by the Spirit which giveth life, they exclude all idea of the divinity attributed to him by men. They proclaim his inferiority to the Father, whom he declares to be the One True God, and whose messenger and servant he is; while, though veiled by the letter, they reveal his extra-human nature and origin. They refer to his appearance among men, to accomplish his superior mission as the Messiah. Beneath the veil of the letter, too, they disclose his position, as the formative, protecting and ruling Spirit of your globe, who is in direct communion with the Father, and who is alone entrusted

with the development and progress of your earth and its humanity, which he is to lead to perfection.

Jesus is never called God. Not only is it impossible to quote any of his words which would permit of its being said, or even imagined; but, on the contrary, they exclude the divinity which men have ascribed to him.

He said to his disciples, "Verily, verily I say unto you, he who believeth in me shall himself do the works which I do, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father," and if he himself was God, or equal to God, how could man ever succeed in equalling and surpassing the actions of Jesus?

When the rich young man called him "Good Master," he answered, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one; that is God" (Matth. xix. 16; Mark x. 17; Luke xviii. 18, 19). Consequently he is not God; otherwise, the attribute of "good" would have belonged to him, who was so supremely good among all men; but his words were an indirect and veiled protest against the divinity that he knew would be afterwards attributed to him.

When the scribe asked what was the first of all the commandments, Jesus replied, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord; thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment." The scribe answered and said, "Master, thou hast spoken truly, for there is none other but God, and there is none but he." And Jesus, seeing that he had answered wisely, said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark xii. 28, 29, 32, 34).

By thus quoting Deuteronomy (vi. 4, 5), and sanctioning with his approbation the answer of the Scribe, Jesus proclaimed the God of Israel to be the One, Sole, Eternal God; the Only True God, and that there is none other than he. He thus proscribed beforehand, in the name of the Hebrew Monetheism, the divinity which he foresaw would be attributed to him by men.

When the Jews wished to stone Jesus for saying, “I and * See the explanation of John xiv. 12.

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