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| The Externalization of the Hierarchy - Section III - Forces behind the Evolutionary Process |
| In every race and nation, in every climate and part of the
world, and throughout the endless reaches of time itself, back into the limitless past,
men have found the Path to God; they have trodden it and accepted its conditions, endured
its disciplines, rested back in confidence upon its realities, received its rewards and
found their goal. Arrived there, they have "entered into the joy of the Lord,"
participated in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, dwelt in the glory of the divine
Presence, and then returned to the ways of men, to serve. The testimony to the existence
of this Path is the priceless treasure of all the great religions and its witnesses are
those who have transcended all forms and all theologies, and have penetrated into the
world of meaning which all symbols veil. These truths are part of all that the past gives to man. They are our eternal heritage, and connected with them there is no new revelation but only participation and understanding. These are the facts which the World Teachers have brought to us, suited to our need and capacity at any given time. They are the inner structure of the One Truth upon which all the world theologies have been built, including the Christian doctrines and dogmas built around the Person of Christ and His teaching. Dimly sensed by the evolving human consciousness hovers another emerging truth of a larger nature - larger [406] because related to the Whole and not just to individual man and his personal salvation. It is an extension of the individual approach to truth. Let us call it the truth of the Great Cyclic Approaches of the divine to the human of which all world Teachers and Saviors were the symbol and the guarantee. At certain great moments, down the ages, God drew nearer to His people and humanity (blindly and unconscious of their objective) at the same time made great efforts to draw near to God. On the part of God, this was intentional, conscious and deliberate; on the part of man, it was largely unconscious, forced upon him by the tragedy of circumstance, by desperate need and by the driving urge of the collective soul. These Great Approaches can be traced down the centuries, and each time one took place it meant a clearer understanding of divine purpose, a new and fresh revelation, the institution of some form of a new religion and the sounding of a note which produced a new civilization and culture, or a fresh recognition of relationship between God and man or man and his brother. A new definition of God was given us when the Buddha taught that God was Light and showed us the way of illumination, and when Christ revealed to us that God was Love through His life and service on earth. Today the knowledge aspect of illumination is being comprehended, but the inner meaning of love is only now dimly sensed. Yet light and love have been revealed to the world by two great Sons of God in two Approaches. A new Approach is on the Way, bringing us the next needed truth. We ask ourselves: What will it be? For it, the knowers and lovers of God and of their fellowmen are prepared; for it, the masses of men wait. Some of these Approaches have been of a major nature, affecting humanity as a whole, and some of them are of less importance affecting only a relatively small part of mankind - a nation or a group. Those Who come as the Revealers of the love of God come from that Spiritual center to which the Christ gave the name "the Kingdom of God." Here dwell the "spirits of just men made perfect"; here [407] the spiritual Guides of the race are to be found and here the spiritual Executives of God's plans live and work and oversee human and planetary affairs. It is called by many names by many people. It is spoken of as the Spiritual Hierarchy, as the Abode of Light, as the center where the Masters of the Wisdom are to be found, as the Great White Lodge. From it come those who act as Messengers of the Wisdom of God, Custodians of the truth as it is in Christ, and Those Whose task it is to save the world, to impart the next revelation and to demonstrate divinity. All the world Scriptures bear witness to the existence of this center of spiritual energy. This spiritual Hierarchy has been steadily drawing nearer to humanity as men have become more conscious of divinity and more fitted for contact with the divine. |
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