III. 2.) Paul says: "Our Commonwealth

(not "conversation," as translated, the Greek word is "politeuma" ; polity, or com- monwealth, and is used by the apostle in reference to the "new heaven and earth"). Our Commonwealth is in heaven, whence also we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glori- ous body. (Phil. III. 20-21).
The body Christ used after Golgotha was also capable of entering a room with closed doors, for He thus appeared to His disciples and allowed Thomas to touch Him. Can
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 21
pseudo Christs in a physical body do that? I believe not.
That feat requires a vehicle more subtle than the physical, and no amount of sophis- tory can evade this argument that Christ will use a vehicle more subtle than the phy- sical, for the Bible teaches that Christ used such a subtle body after the resurrection, that He ascended to Heaven therein, that He is to return in that same body, and that we shall be changed to a state where we are like Him in that respect.
The final question then arises: Does the Bible then teach us definitely what that ve- hicle is, and is there any information where- by we may obtain full and definite knowledge concerning this new vehicle? For our answer we shall go to that inimitable 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians where Paul teaches the doctrine of rebirth by means of the seedatoms as clearly as the Western Wisdom Teaching of today.
In the English version the 45th verse reads: "There is a natural body and a spiritual body" ; but the New Testament was not written in English, and as the transla- tors knew nothing of the inner teachings they had no idea how to translate the Greek word in that case, to them it seemed sense- less, so they translated it as best they knew.
22 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
I will leave you, however, to translate it for yourselves, though you may not be Greek scholars. The word that is used there, and translated "natural body", is Soma Psuchi- con. Soma is a Greed word that everybody agrees is body, — there is no question about that — but Psuchicon — psuche — (psyche) — the soul, — a soul body ; they had never heard of that, it probably seemed foolish to them. It is true that Paul states in 1st Thessalon- ians, 5 :23, that man's whole being is spirit, soul and body, but most likely they regarded soul and spirit as synonymous but there is a vast difference however, as explained in the "Rosicrucian Mysteries," so they translated the word, "natural body/1 Now, that is the vehicle Paul refers to as the one in which we shall meet Him, it is composed of ether and therefore capable of levitation and passing walls as all dense matter is permeated with ether. Invisible Helpers use it today as Christ did.
At the first blush it seems very strange nevertheless, when it is said that we shall meet the Lord "in the air/ that this earth is to be left behind, but it is not strange, either, when we consider that the path of evolution has ever been from within outward; that there was a time in the Lemurian Epoch when this earth was a fiery state, and when
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
man lived on the crust that was forming close to the fiery core, in a body that was just beginning to encrust; that he lived, in the Atlantean Epoch, down in the dense mist which arose from the cooling earth as said in Genesis 2, in the basins of the earth, then he was called, as was said in the German folk story, "Nibelungen," — Nibel meaning mist, and Ungen children — Children of the Mist. We have the Bible story of how they were guided by their teachers, how gradu- ally this foggy atmosphere of the earth con- densed when the planet cooled, and finally the waters came down from Heaven in that which is termed 'the flood.' We then know that man left the low lands, which are sub- merged by the condensed mist which is the sea, and entered upon a new era of develop- ment under the present conditions, that he then saw for the first time, when the sun shone upon the clouds, the rainbow, and that it was told him that so long as that sign remained the succession of changes which we know as the seasons would continue, and so long as we have this atmospheric condi- tion, this era of alernations will naturally continue, slowly but surely, we are climbing towards the hilltops of the earth, we seek higher and higher levels. The higher the evolution of the races, the more they want to
24 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
go into the air, and gradually they are leav- ing the lowlands behind. As it was in the . days of Noah, the day will come when there will be a great cosmic change ; Christ refers to it in speaking of His coming, where he says: — "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man." People went about as they had always done, they married and they gave in marriage, they ate and drank and lived their worldly lives but suddenly the flood desended upon an- cient Atlantis, and the vehicles they had could no longer be of service to them; they needed vehicles in which they could accomo- date themselvs to the new atmospheric con- ditions, just as the baby when it is born, must accommodate itself to the instant change from a breathing under water to breathing in the air. Unless it can do that, it perishes, and it was the same in the case of the Atlanteans who were used to breathe in the watery mist atmosphere. Those who were not physiologically adjust- able drowned.
Christ said that a similiar condition will be found at His coming. Those who lived in Atlantis might not have noticed the phy- siological development which took place in some, and thus made them fit to change from breathing of water, to a breathing
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 25
of air directly, into the lungs; similarly there is a change going on in humanity that is not observable by those who have not cultivated spiritual sight, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that an auric atmosphere is surrounding every human being. We know that often we feel the presence of a person whom we do not see, who may be stand- ing behind us, but we feel it because there is this atmosphere outside of our dense bodies, and that is gradually changing, gradually it is becoming more and more golden in the West. The further we go with the sun, the more this golden color in- creases— the color of the Christ and of the Christlike: the saints whom painters have depicted with a halo, gradually we are be- coming more like Him, and this Soma Psuchicon or vital body is taking shape, is being made ready as our wedding garment. An increasing number of people are becom- ing capable of functioning that vehicle, and more and more are thus getting ready for the day of Christ. This change is not wrought, by any physical process, but by service, by love, by what we know in the Western world as altruism, which is per- meating society more and more. We are becoming more and more human, we are becoming more and more Christlike, though
26 HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST?
far from perfect, but though the day will not perhaps be in this century, or the next, or the next millenium, we nevertheless can see that spiritual change that is going on in mankind, and it depends upon us to hasten the day of Christ, for as He Himself has said, "That day knoweth no man." No man can tell when a sufficient number shall have evolved that soul — that Soma Psuchicon — to such a condition that we shall be able to do the work which He is now doing for us. We have come down into the sea of matter, and for our sake it has been necessary for the Christ to enter the earth to help us from within. For our sake He is now groaning and travailing there, waiting for the mani- festtion of the sons of God, and it depends upon us whether we will hasten or whether we will retard that day. Every act of ours has some effect in that respect — every single one of us has our work to do in this world, and the sooner we learn to do it the better it is for us. Not that we should go abroad to seek the Christ — He is not found there. He said Himself, "Go not out in the desert", do not seek in those places; the Christ is formed from within — that soul body that is gradually becoming capable of lifting itself above the hills, is struggling for recognition within each aspirant to the
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHRIST? 27
higher life ; as Faust says :
'Two souls, alas ! are housed within my breast ;
And struggle there for undivided reign. One to the earth, with passionate desire,
And closely clinging organs, still adheres ; Above the mists the other does aspire,
With sacred ardor, unto purer spheres."
Friends, in every one of us there is that struggle going on between the higher and the lower nature. Paul fought the battle, and every seeking soul must fight the battle, but do not think of going into the wide world to fight and to find. Sir Launf al went away from his home as a young man ; he spent a whole life seeking the grail, and then when he came back to his own castle, he found the same beggar that he had scornfully left at his departure, and when he did the right thing, when the spirit of Service entered him, then the Christ manifested. The cup that he filled at the streamlet's brink, and gave the leper to eat and drink — of that cup and that crust, the Savior, standing before him, said : "This is my body and this is my blood."
'The holy supper is kept indeed
In whatso we share with another's need."
It is not what we give, but what we share. Those who only give of abundance, of the things that they have no need of — the things that are really a burden to them — the things
28 HOW SHALL \VE KNOW CHRIST?
that they do not miss at all — they do not know what giving is. 'The gift without the giver is bare" — that is the point; unless we give ourselves our gifts are barren. "Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friend." That is not a single act of laying down the life for the friend, but it is the constant daily self-sacri- fice. "I was anhungered, and I was thirsty, and ye visited me." That is the only re- quisite. May we earn it, friends. Neither need we seek far; it is right here. We all know that little poem about letting our light shine just where we are. Everyone of us cannot be a star, — everyone of us cannot shine, everyone cannot be a leader, but every- one can do just the little bit, just light his own little bit of a candle, and let that dispell some of the darkness in his or her immediate environment. That is all we have to do, and if we do just that much, then we shall find that that candle will be as a blazing star to guide us to the Christ at His coming, and then we shall be sure to know Him, for we shall find the response from within. It is said, we shall know Him because we shall be
.••••••
• • •
• •• • •
HOW SHALL WE KNOW CHKIST? 29
like Him, and seeing that He has no physical body in which to come, we must evolve that vehicle of the soul, that Soma Psuchicon, so that when He appears, we may meet Him, and be clothed in that golden wedding garment.
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PARTIAL, LIST OF SUBJECTS.