| Previous Next Table of Contents |
 |
| The Externalization of the Hierarchy - Section II - The General World Picture |
| And, is not this in a faint and dim manner, the present
keynote of human effort? In spite of a real inability to think truly, effectively and
intuitively, the mass of men in all lands are responding clearly and definitely to this
note of sacrifice. Leaders of the great nations everywhere are using this note and call to
sacrifice in their appeals at this time to [167] their peoples. Men in Germany were called
to battle by their leaders with the challenge of sacrifice and told that they must give
their lives in order that Germany may live. A study of the speeches by the German leaders
will be found to contain this note. The other group, whom you call the Allies (because
they stand more specifically for the good of the whole and not for the good of the
separated nation or unit) are also calling the masses of their people to fight for the
good of civilization and for the preservation of those values which are next upon the
evolutionary scale and essential to the general good. The wording of these calls and the
objectives expressed may differ in formulation but the theme is the same and the effect is
to call forth the spirit of sacrifice in the nations. Though the motives behind such a
call may be mixed and the leaders guided as much by expediency and selfish, national
interests as by the general good, yet they know that the note which will evoke an
immediate response from the unit and the individual is fundamentally the good of the
larger unit (the nation or the group of nations). Therefore, forgiveness or sacrifice in
order to save others is increasingly the recognized needed keynote at this time and in
this recognition lies much to justify the sorry story of past evolutionary processes and
methods. When it is recognized that the "giving-for" involves right living upon
the physical plane and not (as is so often thought) the dying of the physical body
then we shall see a revitalized world. It is the living Christ (the living world
Savior) Who saves humanity. It is the sacrifice, day by day, in the process of daily
living which can save the world of men - the sacrifice of selfish personal interests for
the good of the whole and the giving up of one's practical life to the salvage of the
world. It is living in order that others too may live which is the theme of the New
Testament. When, therefore, the mode of sacrifice enters into the realm of the subtler and
subjective values and the true meaning of forgiveness is intellectually, practically and
spiritually comprehended, the New Age will be abundantly realized with its truly human
civilization and a culture which will embody [168] the realities of the esoteric teaching,
as well as the best of the externalized past. Then and only then will the new esotericism
be revealed to a race of men who have made aspiration a fact in their outer experience.
The attitude of the masses in the present conflict is the guarantee of this and the proof
also of the success of Christ's mission. The result of what is happening today must, sooner or later, produce an at-one-ment between all nations and peoples. At-one-ment is ever (under evolutionary law) the consequence of sacrifice. Of this, Christ's sacrifice was the symbol and the guarantee, impulsed as His life and activities were by the Spirit of Peace. As He made "of twain, one new man, so making peace" (Ephesians 2:15) so today out of the duality of soul and body, humanity is achieving the same ends and the result of this final stage of the Piscean Age will be the fusion in consciousness of soul and body. The Aquarian Age will demonstrate an increasing expression of this at-one-ment, wrought out in the crucifixion of humanity at the present time. The difference between this coming stage and that of the past is that, in the past, the soul has sought this development and at-one-ment and (from the angle of evolution) it has been slowly and gradually attained, but in the future, it will be consciously sought, achieved and recognized by man upon the physical plane as a result of the present period of "giving-for" the whole, of the best which the individual can give. |
|
| Previous Next Table of Contents |