It is written that the disciples questioned Jesus, the Nazarene: "What shall be the sign of thy coming?"

The Master-Teacher answered: "Let no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying; I am the Christ; and shall deceive the many."

This question and the answer given must be confusing to intellectual theologians, to all those who have attempted, and those who continue to attempt, to make of Christ-ianity an exoteric science instead of accepting it for what it is, a mystic esotericism, something that must be born and become manifest from the innermost self of the spiritually awakened man.

"What shall be the sign of thy [the Christ's] coming?"

He, the Nazarene, was with them.

What should cause them to question Him concerning the coming? The question can only be answered by one of His own inculcations, namely, that there was one teaching, an inner, for His disciples, and one for those not belonging to this small number, i.e., "Unto you [my select few] it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without [not in the secret - not of My chosen few], all these things are done in parables: that seeing they may see and not perceive [cannot comprehend]; and hearing they may hear, and not understand..." Mark 4:11-12.

When they asked this question they had in mind the coming of the Christos, that is, when should Soul Consciousness - their own Illumination - take place? What was to be the sign of its coming upon them?

His answer is clear; the Christos is not a person, but a state of Consciousness. It is the second coming. It is the arriving or coming of the Spiritual self to manifest instead of the carnal self. Therefore, anyone, whoever it might be, claiming to be a Christ or the Christ would be the deceiver; there being no such PERSON; it being a state of being or attainment.

The question and its answer further indicate that the Nazarene had not come to act as the bearer of humanity's burdens, nor as the forgiver of their sins, since this would be a gross injustice. He came as an exemplar, as a "shower of the way," pointing out to mankind what they must do to be saved, i.e., save themselves. To Him had been given the task of Himself living the Regenerative life, so as to portray the results, and to teach humanity how they must live if they would become like Him. To Him was allotted the task of transmuting the gross, carnal physical self into the glorious temple worthy as an abiding place for the Christ.

Even during the short life of the Nazarene His followers were spreading the idea that He had come to be a temporal ruler of the Jews who were then considered as God's chosen people and as the forgiver of the sins of these people, taking upon Himself their evils through a vicarious atonement. The fact that they were ready and anxious to believe this is a clear indication of their lack of attainment. No honest man ever asks or permits another to pay his honest debts. The fact that millions are still anxious that they should be forgiven of all their grievous wrongs by an act of another and be "washed white as snow" shows all too clearly that much of humanity has not advanced very far since that day of centuries ago.

"Many of them shall come saying: I am the Christ."

Regrettably but truly this prophecy has been amply and many times fulfilled. This has become possible because of a misinterpretation of the teachings of the Nazarene by churchmen themselves. They are much to blame for the impostors who have led millions astray.

Leaders of the Occult and Mystic have on numerous occasions in the past ages predicted that as the world (the people collectively) attained to various degrees of growth, or passed through certain experiences or degradations, a Messiah or great Teacher would come forth to show them a way to freedom and to teach them to demonstrate the truth and the Christ. This must of necessity be so lest the people lose courage and the desire to proceed and progress. This has also offered an opportunity for self-appointed leaders of this and other ages who, wholly unprepared for such a mission, nevertheless palmed themselves off as saviors to their own profit and benefit and the loss and degradation of the mass who followed them. In other instances they selected someone who would be no more than a "tool" in their hands, prepared him for such imposition, and, in many instances, degraded him by unspeakable practices (as has occurred in America and India within the past late years), and then palmed him off on a gullible people as the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, aye, even as the Christ; of He who had demonstrated Conscious Individuality and Immortalization. Truly and correctly did the Nazarene foresee that: "Many of them shall come [or be proclaimed], I am the Christ."

Such fraud and pretense would seem to be utterly impossible in an advanced, enlightened and a so-called civilized age. The fact that millions have actually permitted themselves to be deluded and duped by the claims and pretensions of men and women who actually confessed their unworthiness, not to say vileness of mind and body, by Soul destroying vices, clearly indicates how anxious are the people of this worldly plane for someone to come and lift from their shoulders individual responsibility and to set aside the Law of Compensation for their especial benefit and the detriment and loss of others not in their group. It shows dishonesty of heart and Soul and indicates the degree of darkness in which their Souls still exist.

The Christ, that is, the enlightener, the bringer of Light, comes to all men just as soon as they begin to live the enlightened, regenerative life, as a result of their own inner desires. He comes without claim and without pretension. He comes even as a "thief in the night" when help is least expected, but only to those imbued with a willingness to bear the burdens and accept the responsibilities of their every thought and desire, and for every act resulting from their ignorance or wilfulness.

Christ is the Light that must come to every Soul if it is to be "saved." Christ is the Fire from heaven. Christ is within every man, though possibly buried deep down in the pile of rubbish, accumulated through eons of time. In order to find this Christos man must be willing to "roll away the stone" wherein He (the Christ) is buried, and permit Him to arise and come forth.

The Christ is made flesh every time a mortal is born or reincarnated on earth. With each succeeding day of life a heavier load and a greater burden is placed upon the "grave," the place wherein the Soul dwells, and by the time a man or woman attains to advanced years, the pile of rubbish or debris is so large and heavy that it is almost impossible for the Soul to be resurrected - the Christ to come forth.

Creation is of the mind and is conceived by the Soul. The Soul is the womb. It is receptive to the acts of the mind. The Soul receives, cannot refuse, all the ideas, desires and thoughts born in the mind. The Soul is the "Christ nailed on the Cross" because it is in the body (on the Cross) and is "nailed" thereon, retained and restrained during life. Life for the Soul or the Christ begins (the Immaculate Conception takes place) the moment man awakens to the futility of the carnal, gross life and there is born within him a desire to be free, and attain, to willingly undertake the task of achieving Conscious Individuality.

The truths taught and demonstrated by the Nazarene were not new ideas He Himself had discovered, nor did He ever claim them as His own by Divine Right. All that was taught by Him was as old as conscious humanity. Is it not written: "Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God [the Light] moved upon the face of the waters." To this should be added: "And this Light dispelled the darkness."

And again: "Before Abraham was, I am." That is, God, or the Light, existed before all else, and through it was born all that is. The Soul was created, it existed before there ever was a place for a body to exist in which it might consciously function. It was of the same "Souls," one of which incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth and attained to and demonstrated Individual Consciousness as a pattern for all men to work by, thereby empowering each Soul to "make manifest" the everlasting truths that enable men to discontinue a life of carnality and death, and follow the Path leading to Immortalization.

Reading sacred literature understandingly, we must conclude that the Nazarene had not attained perfect poise and spiritual evolution in His former incarnations. There was yet a stage or degree of development that was necessary for Him to complete the Soul's destiny, and it was for this purpose He elected to return for another incarnation so as to accomplish this and fulfill His destiny, and at the same time act as a teacher, a guide, a leader and an examplar to other Souls seeking the Path of Life and the means to Conscious Individuality and Immortalization.

Not unlike other seekers of His age or time, He was taught by and proceeded in His training and development under the Master-Teachers of His period. He became learned in all the Laws and an able exponent of them. He also was tempted and tested as are other men and in no wise was the Path made easier for Him than it was for others of His fellow travelers.

His last words while upon the Cross, "It is finished," would seem to indicate that He felt that now He had finally overcome the weaknesses and desires of the flesh and had "paid unto the last farthing." He had succeeded in purifying the body and its desires to a point where it was a fit dwelling place for the Illuminated, Conscious Soul. The Soul had been so perfected and cleansed by the exaltation of His thoughts and desires, that through the medium of His material body He was enabled to demonstrate the power developed during this period and process.

Our bodies likewise reflect the Soul within. If the body is maimed or halt or deficient in one way or another, it reveals one of two things: the manner of a former life or of this, sometimes both, but whatever it is, it is temporal and we may make of it whatever we wish if we are willing to make the effort and come within the Law that governs health and strength, spirit and Soul.

The Christ was not a person. In this erroneous belief the multitude fall into serious and Soul-benumbing error and retard their own progress in failing to grasp the real meaning of the term "Christ." Christ is the Soul that has become Illuminated, that has become Cosmic Conscious and Individualized. The Christos is in the embryonic Soul or the Divine Spark resident within every man waiting to be brought into being. It is this Spark of the Divinity that it is the destiny of all of us to awaken and bring into manifestation and into a knowledge of its relationship with God who is the Father, not as a matter of faith or creed, but in actual knowledge and full understanding. Jesus the Nazarene, the man or personality, was born of woman as are all men. He was an earthly incarnation even as you and I who write this. The only difference is that He so lived as to enable Him to first develop and bring into existence, and then demonstrate the power, the perfection and the
certainty of His knowledge of His relationship with the Creator of all humanity - the Father.

Always there have been great Souls who returned to earth during periods of stress and need who had attained Conscious Individualization in past incarnations. After their earthly mission and final transition to the Empyrean spheres we designate these Souls as the Christs, Messiahs, Masters and Initiates. These do not come with much noise, blare of trumpets or low-class commercialized advertising proclaiming their powers or greatness; nor are they heralded into the world by vice-steeped, self-appointed leaders as blind as the people whom they mislead. More often than not, they are for long years lonely, shunned, much-maligned while they are trying their best to help the mass of humanity help itself. Their knowledge and attainment does not permit them to claim either greatness or Divinity for themselves and it is only after long years of unselfish service that they become recognized because of the attainment of a personality and an individuality that has shown itself proof against all gossip, all hatred, all malice, all persecutions and every attempt to bring them to ruin.

These are Souls who have become Christic; who have permitted no power, force or individual to interfere or hinder them in attaining Soul Illumination through their labors and exalted ideals. They did not permit the opinions of others to bring them sorrows, or persecutions, petty and otherwise, to embitter or sway them. Despite everything that could be done by man to cause them to do differently they continued on the Path dictated by their inner consciousness - the Cosmic Consciousness, and as a result, the Soul attained its Divinity.

The Nazarene of holy writ who attained to Christhood was, as a result, enabled to teach and minister to the multitudes, and through His efforts had made Himself receptive to and been baptized by the Holy Ghost, the Fires from heaven so frequently spoken of in all sacred writings. In like manner may all be surrounded by the halo of Divine Light - symbolic of the attainment of Soul Consciousness - if they possess the strength and the courage to rend the veil of the temple; that is to say, if they will so live as to purify the body that the Divine Light within may manifest through it, the veil that hides this Light being the mortal body.

What is the Christ?

The Soul that has become Christic - the Christos, is truly the Son of God. It is likewise the Consciousness of the spiritual mind possessing a Soul. It is, moreover, the absolute knowledge that the Soul has attained Immortality. It is the consummation of the labors that made a success of finding the Soul's Center within; the Altar whereon all worship takes place, the central Light with which the Cosmic Light blends. It is the ability to at any moment retire to the within to that Center and to be one with this Light which is from God - is God.

John made the positive statement that God is Love. This being true as conceived by one who knew God, then the Soul of God, the Universal Christ, is love both personified and transfused throughout humanity, and as we, all men, develop the Christos, we fold back the screen of matter and love stands revealed.

Through the accumulation of good, meaning by that term all that is constructive, elevating and beneficial; by thinking only of that which is good, desiring all that is good, and trying to do only good, we gradually become as at-One with God, and therefore a part of Him in Sonship with Him and His co-worker. It is much as if in the material-business world we deposited money in a bank and continued to do so until our accumulations in that bank became equal with or greater than that of the heaviest depositors and then gained equal voice with them in the bank's management. In all of life, true power resides in the becoming. That alone is real possession.

It is written that one of the Nazarene's frequent suggestions to His followers was: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall deceive many.

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

"Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth; behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not."

"For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

He who makes pretension to being the Christ, or a Christ, be it man or woman; he who says: I am, is a deceiver. In this egomaniac and manomaniac age there are many, and there will be many more, who will lay claim to "I am he" and as a result of their marked ability to lead and mislead men, even as does Satan himself, millions will follow them to destruction.

Christ, it cannot be too often repeated, is not a person; the true leader of the people is not appointed, he becomes. The Christ does not appear to man accompanied by great signs and wonders; but as lightning comes from out of the East - the spirit; and shines unto - through - the mortal; because Christ, God, is Light; it is the Illumination; the Holy Ghost descending as a, or in Fire.

As the lightning of the storm flashes across the darkened, storm-swept skies and illuminates the vast darkness with positive force and light, so cometh the Illumination of the Soul when the mind has been purified of its evil, carnal desires and has developed the Christic principles within the Soul-sphere; and none but those who have accomplished this Great Work can know God or become His Son; that is, Baptized by the Holy Ghost. We repeat, is it not written: "Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God"?

Nineteen centuries ago the Nazarene told His followers that "hypocrites look for a sign." The Son of God, the Christ, cometh not with, or in, phenomena; nor in wonders which the physical eye can behold, but as cometh "the lightning" by the Illumination of the darkened mind and heart of man. It is also very simple, so easily understood by "the humble" in heart, that not even "a fool need err therein."

Lightning indicates Illumination; to have light is to be able to see.

There can be no resultant lightning unless there is an intensity and accumulation of body. In the body there are forces of power and there is darkness; when these forces are purified and raised and accumulate, Illumination will be the result.

What is it to see, or to enter, the kingdom of heaven?

Heaven is an attitude within the self. It is a state of mind.

It is an ennobled, raised up, at peace state of being within the self and with the world; it is a condition, first of mentality, then of Soul.

In this age of deception and betrayal, there are many who pretend knowledge of a Messiah now preparing to demonstrate his Sonship with God to the world. Some say he is in the desert of Arabia; some in Persia; others in India, and a greater number that he is in Tibet. All of these appear to be wholly ignorant of the fact that these countries had their God-given time and that all of them failed to manifest God in both their personal lives and their relationship with others and are now not on the way to greater achievement and spiritual glory, but decidedly decadent, and that Messiahs can only make their appearance in those countries that have not as yet been tried and found wanting.

To contradict all of these pretensions, it is written that the Nazarene said that the Christ is the Illumination of the darkened interior of man, as He is of a darkened world; that only after the heavens become darkened and the world is without light; when even the pure in heart are enveloped by the darkness and shaken by false beliefs, Christs and prophets, then "shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven."

"Then shall all the tribes of earth mourn." All that is of the earth, the earthly loves and desires; the longings of the flesh, the lusts of the self; all these will mourn because they will know that as a result of the Light that cometh, by the Illumination of dark places, all lustful desires will be destroyed, all that is evil will be swept aside, and then we "shall see the Son of man [the Soul in the body - in darkened places] coming in the clouds of heaven with power [to destroy evil] and great glory."

"And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet." The understanding and acceptance of truth is here symbolized. The trumpet is the urge or "Voice" of the Light. Angels are the awakening of ideas, thoughts, ideals and desires of things that belong to the Soul. These always come as would the sound of a trumpet - with a shock, because they are foreign to the physical or self-man. There are no signs and wonders after the Illumination; with Illumination comes peace, an eternal quietness. Nothing of the Christic or Soul is manifest to the physical or material. With the Illumination comes the Christ, for the Light IS Christ; it is the Consciousness of Immortalization. This must come to all alike not in the external or to the external, but in the innermost being; to the spirit that is the Soul.

No one may be aware when the Soul of man is awakened; it comes as does lightning in the night, or during a storm. Only the prepared Soul will be receptive; others it will pass by.

"Heaven and earth [mind and flesh] shall pass away, but my words [the awakened, Christ Conscious Soul] shall not pass away.

"Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.

"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come."

We must purify the mind, exalt its ideals; we must prepare the Soul for the reception of the Divinity. Cleanse the mind so that it will think only ennobling thoughts, hold exalted ideals and plan the works for the benefit of all. In this manner is Soul structure built. Be prepared at all times for none may know when the Soul's baptism will occur; when the Holy Ghost descending from above will bring the Fires that will confer Immortality upon the striving Soul.

All things of the earth will pass away; these things are temporal and continually changing and though we may accumulate much of these things they are as worthless tinsel at the time when we need the real and lasting things most - at that moment when the Soul must take its flight from its earthly home and sail into the Beyond and Unknown. It is at that moment when man realizes how foolish he was to believe that material substances and temporal powers were real and lasting and that there was plenty of time to obtain and attain to the spiritual. Only that which belongs to the Soul, the "Word" is real, lasting and a passport into the Soul World, and though we have a duty to Caesar (the world and humanity) we have a greater duty to that within us which is part of God, the Soul.

"Be ready." Have your house in order. How few of the earth's teeming millions actually have their house in order? How few are really prepared to leave if the call comes without notice? Our house should be in order, our earthly affairs so arranged that injustice be done to none.

As in material affairs, so with the spiritual. The mind should always be prepared, the Soul ready so that when the Light, the Holy Ghost, descends it will find the altar within prepared and ready to receive it.

In the beginning of time all Souls were with God and were purely spiritual. They were unembodied and without knowledge of good or evil. When desire to know took possession of these Souls and they took upon themselves bodies, they no longer remained purely spiritual or all good, because they took upon themselves the desires and weaknesses of the body. As a consequence, men, or more properly speaking, the Souls of men, must work upward to the perfection that was theirs before the "Word" took on flesh - the Souls fell into flesh.

But this Soul, though now steeped in carnality, and almost buried by the rubbish of carnality, feels a lack; is aware there is something missing and is unable to find happiness or peace. Consciously or unconsciously it is in search of that which it lost when it moved into the house of clay.

The desires of man are also the "Word"; this may be good or it may be evil. The "Word" is a thought. The Word of God was the thought of creation held by Him. This thought of God became flesh. God is the Light of the world and the Soul of man; this Soul accumulates all that the mind - creator - thinks. Our bodies, the thought or desire of the Soul, are the reflection of that which the Soul is. We are the images of the Soul - of God. A desire is a vitalized thought. Thoughts build Souls. The thought of God is the Word; the Word becomes desire; desire creates the Soul.

The flesh cannot feel the spirit, therefore the flesh cannot recognize the Soul and is antagonistic to it. The flesh cannot know God or the Soul until it is overshadowed by it and is commanded into obedience. No man is in any secret place, in any monastery or in the desert preparing to become the Christ, but there are many men in all known places, preparing to receive the Christ and once more become as they were before they left "heaven" to fall into flesh, though now having a knowledge of good and evil. This preparation may be undertaken anywhere, in any place. The servant in the kitchen, the soldier on the field of battle, the King on his throne; all these are "good" places in which to prepare. When the preparation has progressed sufficiently, then the Holy Ghost descends and the servant becomes a King indeed, a ruler greater than any earthly King ever born, an Emperor ruling from the Throne within over a realm of many peoples - innumerable passions that, controlled, become a mighty power.

This is the coming of Christ; of the bearer of peace within and of good Will to all men.

We may not see God (the Soul within) at any time unless and until we are begotten (born again - reborn or regenerated) of God. Development of the Soul - the Soul being part of God - enables us to become conscious of God and to know and see Him through the medium of the Light, which God Himself said was part of Himself. When Illumination and Conscious Individualization takes place, then this Light comes upon us and we see it and in it, God.

John, the representative or forerunner of the Nazarene, is the symbolization of the builder who must precede the creation or that which is built. The builder, the mind, conveys an idea and an ideal to the Soul; the Soul accepts and builds accordingly just as does the carpenter accept the plans prepared by the architect. For this reason the Nazarene was called a carpenter. The idea of the mind is transmuted into substance and this substance becomes a part of the Soul.

The first thought of and desire for truth or something tangible and beyond the vague or superstitious is the Annunciation of that which is to come; this is followed by a desire to investigate, to know and to become and is the conception. In this manner we are awakened (born) to the truth that the precepts of mortal man and his regulation of life is seldom based on truths, because it is conceived not from the spirit but in the self; and that there is a truth or a philosophy based in spiritual science, in the truth of being, in the spirit of revelation and the light of being and it is this last that must be sought and found if the mortal is to free himself from the realm of the limited and be able to enter the sphere of the eternal.

Conception is the reception of the seed of truth as it concerns the spiritual or eternal. When conception occurs, the germ of life, or of a new life, either in the material or the spiritual, is sown and received by the earth (or the body). In the operation of the Great Work, the Soul is the receiver and in it must begin the building of a new creature, a spiritual being; a vessel for the Light which is God.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, gave unto the world a son conceived and born in the knowledge and power of the Holy Ghost, not because of any peculiarity of the method of conception, but due solely to the fact that she had been prepared for a mission.

Jesus was conceived and born as are all others; but Mary understood the mystery which is hidden from most, but may be understood by all. Her knowledge and obedience to the Law gave her son the opportunity and desire to commence the Great Work in youth and without being forced to pass through many of the undesirable experiences that are usually the common lot of youth. All sons may be similarly fortunate if mothers-to-be are willing to obey the Law as Mary did.
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