Very often we overestimate our strength. We think that we are willing to lay down our life for a friend or a loved one; but, only when the test comes, do we really know whether we have the strength to do so.

LESSON THIRTY-NINE

The Divine Law, which is of the Father, is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

St. John 14:1-14.

1. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

When we obey the Divine Law, which is the will of the Father, we need not be troubled; for all things will be well.

2. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place

for you.

Each Soul that has become Illuminated is a mansion. There are as many mansions as there are grades of Illumination. Not all souls have reached the same degree of Illumination; and therefore the Father cannot manifest equally in all temples. But, if the temple is prepared; if the Soul is Illuminated, even though there may still be a weakness, as was the case with Peter, it is nevertheless a mansion wherein God dwells.

3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

4. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

If we live the life that brings Illumination, then do we know where Christ goes, and we can go there also. All men who have found the Christ have become the Sons of God; and God dwells with each and every one. "Ye are the temples of the living God," is the divine dictum for those

who have transmuted the evil in their natures into goodness; and no man can gainsay it.

5. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

"I am the way," said Jesus. And there is no other way. Man finds the way in proportion as he gives up the desires of the limited, personal self. He must follow the Christ; and, in order to follow the Christ, it is necessary for him to do the works of the Christ.

This means that he must encourage and cultivate positive and constructive trends of thought. He must establish in his consciousness thoughts and desires and feelings that are in harmony with the Christ Ideal. He must direct his creative thought- and desire-forces into channels that tend to change the petty, domineering, exacting, selfish self into the Christ Self; into channels that tend to renew and to rebuild the cells of the body, causing it to become a fit representative of the Christ Temple. He must consecrate every attribute and faculty of his being to the sacred mission of fanning the divine spark within into an all-consuming Christ Flame of Love and Good-will toward all creatures. He must learn the sacred art of feeding the Christ Flame. He must learn how not only to make use of the invisible forces, but to use them consciously, intelligently, deliberately, conscientiously, in harmony with the Law of impartial, impersonal, Universal Love. All this he must do with the settled purpose in mind of nurturing the Divine Fire on the Altar, in order that he may be the better qualified to be of service and inspiration to others in the practical relations of life.

In doing this, eventually, he finds the Christ, who is "the way, the truth, and the life."

In the Christ are all things: wisdom, peace, love, graces of heart, guidance, light, inspiration and Illumination, Immortality and Life Eternal.

No amount of belief in Jesus as a personal, historic character can of itself bring man to conscious Oneness with the Father. Only through the living, eternal Christ, can man come to the Father. Only through doing the works of the Christ, both in one's own inner hidden world of thought and feeling and in the outer world of relations with men, can one know the Father which is in heaven. In the life and in the works of the Christ only, is there salvation.

7. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

When we have found the Christ, when the Christ dwells in the temple, then do we also know the Father; for the Father dwells in the same temple wherein dwells the Christ, and the Christ is the Son of the living God.

8. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you,

and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I

speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

To have found the Christ, necessitates that the Father dwells within; for it is evidence that we have become the temple of the living God. When God dwells in us, then do we dwell in the Father; for the twain are one.

Only the Illuminated, Individualized, Soul can know the Father. Only such a Soul is part of the Father, or one with Him. He is in such a Soul; and such Soul is in the Father. The purified, Illumined Soul is truly conscious of its Oneness with the Father; it is conscious of the Infinite. 11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

It is a common thing to hear it said that the time is passed when this teaching applies to man. This claim betrays ignorance of the Divine Law, and ignorance of the power that obedience to the Law gives man. Little recognition is given in the present age to divine authority-the authority that comes through living in harmony with the laws of the universe. General recognition is given to those who receive authority from men by setting seal to prescribed articles of faith or established creeds.

"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." To do his works is the natural and the inevitable result of true belief on him. Belief such as Jesus referred to, leads man to follow the principles of growth and training that Jesus had himself observed. Such growth and such training open up to man's consciousness the infinite resources of a Christly life. Such growth and such training make man master of his interior forces, and enable him to direct the invisible essences of the universe according to his will. Thus, through a correct understanding of the divine laws that Jesus made use of, and through a Godly character, man is enabled to do the things that Jesus did or even greater things.

But let no one think to attain such Mastership for the sake of power and fame. A motive such as this, mixed and impure, would lead but to self-injury and self-destruction. Power is safe in the hands only of him who has cleansed his heart of selfish purposes. The road to true Mastership is long, and narrow, and rugged, and steep. Self-effacement and self-abnegation and self-renunciation must precede and accompany the establishment of the Christ Self in one's character and consciousness. The depths of humility through which one must pass who attains the Christ Consciousness surpass even the imagination of the worldly

minded. To attain Mastership demands a total surrender of worldly conceits and worldly cravings. To establish the reign of Christliness in one's character demands a complete transmutation of carnal elements and carnal tendencies in thought and feeling as well as in act. Undue attachment to perishable things must be severed. As the massive rock in time registers indentations and markings through the constant flow of drops of water; so, the embedded debris and sediment of a selfish personal self must be melted by being subjected to the warmth of the Christ Flame, and must be transmuted into the qualities of intrinsic goodness.

To fear the doctrine that it is the privilege of all men to attain Mastership and to do the works of the Christ and to realize the Christ Consciousness of Oneness with the Father, is sure evidence that he who fears this doctrine has little conception of the depths of humility and suffering through which man must pass in order to establish the Christ Consciousness in his nature. He who fears this doctrine does not realize that power and true Mastership comes only to those who have laid at the foot of the cross all desire for personal power and temporal greatness; only to those who have freed themselves from the clutches of sin, error, and selfishness attendant upon the lower personality; only to those who have paid the full penalty for every violation of the Divine Law. Those who fear this doctrine give evidence by this very fear that they have no conception of the Gate man must enter, of the Path man must travel, before he is qualified to hear the still small voice of the Father within, "Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.

To ask in his name means to ask only of the Christ and the Father that are within us. Being within the temple, and asked by Him who is within the temple and dwells therein, it shall be granted. "I and the Father are one,"