42-2015 -Volume 1-Lesson 7, Chapter 4 - THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST continued.

We have seen that the doctrine of great Appearances and of the coming of Avatars or World Teachers or Saviors underlies all the world religions.  Through Them, the continuity of revelation is implemented and humanity is enabled, each successive age, to take its next step forward along the Path of Evolution closer to God and that divine Center in which the will of the One "in whom we live and move and have our being" (as St. Paul expressed it in Acts XVII.28) is focussed, understood and directed. We have touched upon the mission of two of these Avatars - the Buddha, the Messenger of Light for the East

"The Point of Light  Within the Mind of God

Embodying in Himself the Wisdom of God"

And the Christ, the Messenger of Love for the West

Avatar of Love

"Two aspects, light and love, received full expression"

and their  work for the entire world; we have also considered the unique opportunity with which Christ is today faced and the response He made in 1945 when He signified His intention to reappear and gave the "Great Invocation" to us as an aid in the preparatory work with which we are immediately confronted.  It would seem appropriate at this point to consider the nature of the work He will do and also the teaching which He will probably give.  The fact of the continuity of the revelation and teaching given down the ages  entitles us to a wise consideration and spiritual speculation upon the probable lines which His work will take.

Over the years, much has been given out from many sources, schools of thought and churches about the Christ, the situation which He faces and the probabilities as to His reappearance. Disciples, aspirants, and men of goodwill have done much already to prepare the world for His so-called return.  Today, the East and the West stand equally expectant.  As we approach the theme of His work, it is essential that we remember that the Eastern Teacher embodied in Himself the Wisdom of God, of which human intelligence (the third aspect, ray of divinity) is an expression; that through Christ, the second divine aspect was revealed in its perfection; and to Him two aspects, the light and love, received full expression. It remains now for the highest of the divine aspects, the Will of God, to receive embodiment and for this the Christ is preparing. The continuity of revelation may not stop; and upon what other expressions of the divine nature may still later be revealed it is needless for us to speculate.

The uniqueness of the impending mission of the Christ and the uniqueness of His opportunity consist in the fact that the usable-in Himself-to give expression to two divine energies:  The energy of love (3rd Ray) and the energy of Will (1st Ray), the magnetic potency of love and the dynamic effectiveness of the divine will.  Never before in the long, long history of humanity, has such a revelation been possible.

The work and the teaching of the Christ will be hard for the Christian world to accept, though easier for assimilation in the East. Nevertheless, some hard blow or some difficult presentation of the truth is badly needed if the Christian world is to be reawakened, and if Christian people are to recognize their place within a worldwide divine relation and see Christ as representing all the faiths and taking His rightful place as World Teacher.  He is the World Teacher and not a Christian teacher.  He Himself told us that He had other folds and to them He has meant as much as He has meant to the orthodox Christian.  They may not call Him Christ, but they have their own name for Him and follow Him as truly and faithfully as their Western brethren.

Let us look for a moment at the erroneous interpretations given to the Gospel story - an ancient story - presentation often presented down the ages, prior to the coming of the Christ in Palestine - has been twisted and distorted by theologians until the crystalline purity of the early teaching and the unique simplicity of the Christ have disappeared in a travesty of errors and in a mummery of ritual, money and human ambitions.  Christ is pictured today as having been born in an unnatural manner, as having taught and preached for three years and then as having been crucified and eventually resurrected, leaving humanity in order to "sit on the right hand of God," in austere and distant pomp.  Likewise, all the other approaches to God by any other people at any time and in any country, are regarded by the orthodox Christian as wrong approaches, as being practiced by so-called "heathen," and as requiring Christian interference.  Every possible effort has been made to force orthodox Christianity on those who accept the inspiration and the teachings of the Buddha or others who have been responsible for pressuring the divine continuity of revelation.  The emphasis has been, as we all well know, upon the "blood sacrifice of the Christ" upon the Cross and upon a salvation dependent upon the recognition and acceptance of that sacrifice.  The vicarious at-one-ment has been substituted for the reliance which Christ Himself enjoined us to place upon our own divinity; the Church of Christ has made itself famous and futile (as the world war proved) for its narrow creed, its wrong emphases, its clerical pomp, its spurious authority, its material riches and its presentation of a dead Christ.  His resurrection is accepted, but the major appeal of the churches has been upon His death.

Christ has been for two thousand years a silent, passive Figure, hidden behind multitude of words written by a multitude of men (commentators and preachers).  The church has pointed us to the dying Christ upon the Cross and not to the living, working, active, present Christ Who has been with us in bodily Presence (according to His promise) for twenty centuries.

Let us, therefore, endeavor to get a truer picture of Christ's activities and life and - consequently - of our future hope.  Let us try and realize the ever-present yet divine Person, laying His plans for the future helping of humanity, assessing His resources, influencing His disciples and organizing the details which will attend His reappearance.  We need to awaken faith in the factual nature of divine relation, and galvanize the church of Christ into a truer appreciation of Him and of His work.  It is the living, acting, thinking Christ with whom we must deal, remembering always that the gospel story is eternally true and only needs re-interpreting in the light of its place in the long succession of divine revelations.  His Mission on earth two thousand years ago is a part of that continuity and is not an extraordinary story, having no relation to the past, emphasizing a period of only 33 years and presenting no clear hope for the future.

What is the hope held out today by the orthodox and unimaginative theologians?  That at some distant date, known only to the inscrutable will of God the Father, Christ will issue forth from His seat at the right hand of God, and (followed by His angels and by the Church invisible) descending upon clouds of Heaven, to the sound  of trumpets, He will make an appearance in Jerusalem.  The battle raging at that time will then end, and He will enter the city of Jerusalem to rule for one thousand years.  During this millennium, Satan or the principle of evil will be bound or imprisoned, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Further than that, we are told nothing; humanity hopes for so much more that the picture presented does not intrigue them.

Behind this portrayal, if rightly interpreted, stands the human, the loving and the divine Presence of Christ, embodying divine love and wielding divine power, directing His Church and establishing the Kingdom of God on Earth.  What is this church of Christ?  It is constituted of the sum total of all those in whom the life of Christ or the Christ-consciousness is to be bound or is in process of finding expression; it is the aggregation of all who love their fellowmen, because to love one's fellowmen is the divine faculty which makes us full members of Christ's community.  It is not the accepting of any historical fact or theological creed which places us en rapport with Christ.  The citizens of the Kingdom of God are all those who are deliberately seeking the light and attempting (through self-imposed discipline) to stand before the One Initiator; this worldwide group (whether in the body or out of it) accepts the etching that "the sons of men are one"; they know that divine revelation is continuous and ever new, and that the divine Plan is working itself out on Earth.

There are those today on Earth who know that through the instrumentality, the inspiration and the instruction of those sons of men who have wrought out their divinity in the crucible of daily human living the Kingdom of God will come into being; these Knowers now work actively, under the direct impression of the Christ, in leading humanity from darkness to light and from death to immortality.

These are the great underlying truths which are distinctive of the Christ, of the Buddha, and of the Church of God, as it expresses itself in the East and in the West; these are the only truths which matter.  In the future, the eyes of humanity will be fixed upon Christ and not upon any such manmade institutions as the Church and its dignitaries; Christ will be seen as He is in reality, working through His disciple, through the Masters of the Wisdom and through His followers who toil unseen (and usually unrecognized) behind world affairs.  The sphere of His activity will be known to be the human heart and also the crowded market places of the world, but not some stone edifice and not the pomp and ceremony of any ecclesiastical headquarters.

Out study of the future work of the christ is necessarily based upon three assumptions:
1.  That the reappearance of the Christ is inevitable and assured.
2.  That He is today and has been actively working - through the medium of the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, of which He is the Head - for the welfare of humanity.
3.  That certain teachings will be given and certain  energies will be released by Him in the routine of His work and coming.  People are apt to forget that the coming of the Christ necessitates a period of intensive preparation by Him, He too, works under law and is subject to control from various sources-just as are all human beings, but in a much lesser degree.

His reappearance is conditioned and determined by the reaction of humanity itself; by that reaction He must abide.  His work is subject also to certain phases of spiritual and cyclic timing and to impressions from sources to be found on higher levels than those upon which He normally works.  Just as human affairs have effects upon His action, so great "determinations" and 'Profound settlements within the will of God' also have their effects.  The human side of nature of the Christ, perfected and sensitive, responds to the invocation and to the appeal of men; His divine side of nature is equally responsive to the impact of energies, issuing from "the center where the will of God is known."  Between these two, He has to make adjustment and bring about right timing.  The bringing of good out of human so-called evil is no easy task; the vision of the Christ is so vast and His grasp of the Law of Cause and Effect, of Action and Reaction is such that the arriving at right decision as to activity and time is no simple one.  Human beings are apt to look at all that happens, or that could happen, from the purely human and immediate angle; they have little understanding of the problems, decisions and implications with which Christ is today faced.  In these, His pledged disciples share.  Their  task is to develop "the mind that is in Christ" and as they do so, they will help make clear the way for "the coming of His feet," as the Bible puts it (Heb. XII.13).  Seeing life and events in the light of the spiritual values, as He does, will facilitate at the giving out of the new teaching and will provide the skeleton structure of the new world religion, thus giving us a fresh view of divine intention and a living insight into the minds of Those Who implement the divine will and are the engineers of humanity's future.  Let us, therefore, try and appreciate not only the opportunity which Christ has to help us (which is the usual presentation), but let us look also at the crises and problems with which He is confronted as He faces the work which He must do.

1. The Crises of the Christ
In the life of every disciples, particularly of those who face certain great expansions of consciousness, a point of crisis will come about.  In that point of crisis, decisions are voluntarily or involuntarily made; having made them, the disciple then stands at a point of tension,with the decision behind him and the next step to be taken becoming clearer to his mental perception, and influencing his attitude to the future.  When the work is done in the period of tension, then there comes what we might call the point of emergence.  This is both an emergence from and also an emergence into a field of experience.

The Christ Himself is no exception to this threefold experience and-in order that we may understand more fully-let us apply these three phrases (inappropriate as they basically are) to the actions and the reactions of the Christ.  There is no crisis for Him in the sense that crises exist for us; there is no train or stress attached to His point of tension;  the parallel is, however, good enough to convey something to you of what has transpired within that state of awareness which distinguishes the spiritual Hierarchy; to this state of consciousness we can tie the name of "spiritual perception," in contradistinction to the mental perception which is the human counterpart.  It must be  remembered that the point of crisis, producing the point of tension to which the Christ may be regarded as voluntarily subjecting Himself is a hierarchical matter or event, because the entire Hierarchy is involved in the crisis.  The reason for this is simple; the Christ and His workers know only the experience of group consciousness.  A separative participation and attitude is unknown to Them. for Their state of awareness is inclusive and in no way exclusive.

Using, therefore, human terminology in order to interpret the divine reactions of the Christ and His disciples, it must be realized that the point of crisis which is responsible for hierarchical tension and for the eventual appearance or the emergence of the Christ, lies behind the Christ; it is in the field of long past experiences.  The consequent point of tension is now controlling the affairs of the spiritual Hierarchy and its many groups of workers.  The "point of decision," as it is called in all hierarchical circles, was reached during the period between the Full Moon of June 1936, and the Full Moon of June, 1945.  The point of decision covered, therefore, nine years ( a relatively brief time); it resulted in the decision arrived at by the Christ to re-appear or return to visible Presence on Earth as soon as possible, and considerably earlier than had been planned.

This decision was necessarily made in consultation with the Lord of the World, the "Ancient of Days" (Sanat Kumara, our Planetary Logos) of the Old Testament, and the "One in Whom we live and move and have our being" (meaning we live within this Universe which is a hologram of HIS the Planetary Logos or "The Ancient of Days" body and we, mankind, His children, are the cells within that body - mf).  in the New Testament.  He is the Custodian of the Will of God.  It was also made with the full understanding and cooperation of the Masters and the senior initiates.  This was inevitably so, because Their participation and help were imperative.  They also necessarily had to be with Him in thought, and cooperating mentally, because His reappearance connotes a great hierarchical approach to humanity and a great spiritual event.

The decision was, nevertheless, the decision of the Christ and marked not only a point of crisis in His experience but a point of climax in His expression of divinity.  With all reverence and within the bounds of our human understanding, it must be remembered that there is nothing static in the entire evolutionary process of our planet or of the cosmos; there is naught but process and progress, a moving on, an increasing attainment and a mounting achievement. To this great law of the universe, even the Christ Himself is subject.  In all reverence again, let it here be pointed out that He too has moved on in His experience of divinity and is (if it may be so expressed) closer to the Father and to the One Universal Life than even before.  His comprehension and His apprehension of the Will of God is deeper and His fulfillment of that Will is more in line with the divine Purpose that it was in Palestine two thousand years ago.  There has necessarily been (on the part of Christ) a growing perception of the intention of the divine Mind, as it is embodied in that identity to Whom we give the name of God.

No longer need Christ, in agony say "Father, not my will but Thine be done"; He has today no personal will but only the will of His Father animates Him and the ability to make decisions which are a full expression of that divine Will.  It is difficult to express His achievement in other words.  Commentators have sought to explain away and gloss over the Gethsemane experience of the Christ, and to attribute what appears as weakness to an upsurging of Christ's humanity and, consequently, to a temporary submergence of His divine nature.  They have been forced into this position because of the prevalent theological dictum as to Christ's divine perfection - an absolute, sovereign and ultimate perfection to which He Himself never made the slightest claim.  He is today nearer than perfection than He ever was when before on Earth.  It was this divine unfoldment which made it possible or Him to make right choice, not only for Himself; but also for the spiritual Hierarchy, during the years of decision, prior to  June, 1945.

Under the divine will, He had to reappear on Earth in visible Presence.  He had to preside over the materialization of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and He had to re-institute the Mysteries of Initiation in such a form that they would prove the basis of the new world religion.  Above all, He had to reveal the nature of the will of God. That will is often regarded as a power by means of which things are done, situations are brought about, activities are instituted and plans are worked out, and often ruthlessly worked out.  This general definition is the easiest for men to formulate, because it is understood by them in terms of their own self-will, the will to individual self-betterment.  This type of will is selfish and misunderstood at first, but tends eventually to selflessness, as evolution tries out its beneficent task.  Then the will is interpreted in terms of the hierarchical plan and the effort of the individual man becomes that of negating his original self-will, and seeking then to merge his will with that of the group-the group being itself an aspect of hierarchical effort.  This is a great step onward in orientation and will lead eventually to a change in consciousness.

It is at this stage that most aspirants today find themselves.  However, the will is in reality something very different to these expressions of it which exist in the human consciousness as men attempt to interpret the divine Will in terms of their present point in evolution.  The clue to understanding is to be found in the words, "blotting out all form."  When the lure of substance is overcome and desire dies, then the attractive power of the soul becomes dominant, and the emphasis (so long laid upon the individual form and individual living and activity) gives place to group form and group purpose. Then the attractive power of the Hierarchy and of the Masters' groups of disciples supersedes the lower attractions and the lesser focal points of interest.  When these then assume their rightful place in consciousness, then the dynamic pull of the Will Aspect of divinity can be felt-entirely unrelated to form or forms, or to groups or a group.
 In the light of the Will of God, Christ made certain basic decisions and determined to carry them out in the relatively immediate future-the exact date of His coming being known only to Him and a few of His senior workers; yet all of these future events lie hid in a certain fundamental decision of humanity itself.  This decision is being arrived at through certain new trends in human thinking, and will be the result of a subjective human relation to the decision already arrived at by the Christ and the spiritual Hierarchy, the Church invisible.

The motivation for this reappearance is complete and settled.  It is clearly perceived by the Christ.  The work initiated by Him two thousand years ago must be completed; the new world religion must be inaugurated; the needs of a demanding, invocative humanity cannot be ignored; those steps which precede a stupendous hierarchical initiation in which the Christ is the leading Participant must be taken; the events which are symptomatic of the "time of the end" may not be delayed. 

If one may venture to speak in such terms (reverent and symbolical) the reward accorded to the Christ, as He announced His decision as final and irrevocable, was the permission or rather the right to use a certain great invocation - never before granted-and to use it in two ways.
1.  As a hierarchical invocation, directed towards the "center where the will of God is known."
2.  As a world prayer,  expressed in such phraseology that all humanity could intelligently use it.

The right to use certain great Words of Power of "Stanzas of Direction" is never lightly accorded. The decision of Christ to appear again among men, bringing His disciples with Him, drew forth this permission from the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, Sanat Kumara.

After this climaxing point of spiritual crisis and its consequent decision, a point of tension was reached and it is in this state of spiritual tension that the Church invisible is now working and planning, swinging the disciples of the Christ, active on Earth, into the same condition of spiritual tension.  The success of Christ's return to visible Presence, as well as other factors (related to His reappearance), are dependent upon happenings and contacts which are now  taking place within this period of tension. In any point of tension-no matter what at the time factor may be-energy is being generated, held for future use, and focussed in such a manner or condition that its force can be directed wherever needed and whenever called for.  This is necessarily a  statement hard to understand.  A point of tension is, symbolically, a storehouse of power.  Today the energies which will be uniquely distinctive of the Kingdom of God are gathering momentum and assuming direction through the agency of the Masters of the Wisdom, in cooperation with the will of Christ.

Whilst this energy has been accumulating or mounting in potency ever since the Full Moon of June 1945, three events of great moment in the living experience of Christ ( and, therefore, of the Hierarchy) have taken place and their effects are in process of consolidation. I can only make reference to them, for it is not possible to prove the factual nature of what is here said; only possibility probability and the Law of Correspondences can indicate the rightness of these events.  Their effects will be noted, especially after the moment of emergence.  These three events can be described as follows:

The Spirit of Peace and/or

Holy Spirit or Dove

1.  The Spirit of Peace descended upon Christ.  The New Testament bears witness to a somewhat similar event when, at the Baptism, we read that "he saw the Spirit of God,descending like a dove and alighting upon Him."  (St. Matt. III.16.)  This Spirit is a Being of tremendous cosmic potency and is today overshadowing the Christ in much the same manner as Christ (two thousand years ago) overshadowed or worked through the Master Jesus.  This Spirit of Peace is not a sum total of an emotional and static calm, bringing to an end the turmoil on the Earth and instituting an area of peace.  He is , in a mysterious sense, the Spirit of Equilibrium; He works with the Law of Action and Reaction and the inevitability of His activity will be recognized.  His work will demonstrate in two ways - fully when the Christ appears among men and slowly and gradually until that time:
  a.  The chaos, turmoil, emotional disturbance and mental unbalance found in the world today will be (under this Law) balanced by a corresponding cycle of calm, emotional quiet and mental poise, thus releasing humanity into a new phase and experience of freedom.  The adjusted peace will be commensurate to the experienced disturbance.

  b.  The hate which is so dominant in the world today will-through the life of the Spirit of Peace, working through the Christ, the Embodiment of the love of God-be balanced by an expressed goodwill.  The guarantee of the appearance of that goodwill is the excessive expression of hate p a hate which has been slowly mounting in the minds of men since the beginning of the 19th century, and which is reaching a new high at this time.  A proportionate measure of the energy of love will demonstrate later as the result of the activity of the Spirit of Peace, working through the Prince of Peace, as Christ has sometimes been called (IS.IX.6)  This spiritual Being will not descend from the high place whereon He works and from whence His energy is directed, but the Christ will act and serve as the channel for His directed potency.  The inflow of His divine energy (extra-planetary energy) is destined to bring peace eventually upon Earth, through the expression of goodwill.  This goodwill will bring about right human relations.  Humanity registered (unconsciously, of course) the first impact of this energy in May, 1936, and again in June, 1945.

2.  The evolutionary fore to which we give the name "the Christ consciousness" (a term largely used by the metaphysical groups in the world today) focussed itself in the person of the Christ in a manner hitherto unknown.  This is the potency, latent in every human heart which was described by St. Paul as "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col.1.27) and is that which under evolutionary law, brings a man eventually into the Kingdom of God and "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. IV.13)  Of this potency and glory, Christ has ever been the symbol.  During the present period of hierarchical tension and as a result of His decision to reappear, Christ became the Embodiment of this energy and thus entered into a closer relation to humanity.  Other great Sons of God are channels for this energy in relation to the subhuman kingdoms, but the Christ holds a unique place in relation to humanity.  To express the idea symbolically, this energy creates a living bridge from the human kingdom to the Kingdom of God, from the fourth kingdom in nature to the fifth.  The Christ is the custodian of this energy, but only temporarily an for the period of this human crisis.  He can, because of this, stimulate the responsive gator in the hearts of men, enabling them to recognize and know Him for Who and what He is, when He reappears.  This channelling of energy began at the close of the world war and is still going on; it is responsible for the trend towards betterment everywhere to be sensed, for the growth of the principle of sharing, and for the undeniable soundness of men's hearts and thinking today-the soundness of the masses (when informed), far more than of their leaders.

3.  As you are well aware, human history has been essentially the history of great spiritual Messengers Who-from time to time, in the hours of human crisis-have come forth from the secret place of the Most High to aid, inspire, reveal, lead and direct. It is the history of the presentation of ideas, brought to the attention of humanity and gradually developed into civilizations and cultures.  Such is the urgency of human need at this time, and such is the opportunity, that one such Son of God is - during this cycle of tension-seeking to cooperate with the Christ.

As a result of Christ's decision and His "spiritual fusion" with the Will of God, the Avatar of Synthesis has become, for the time being, His close Associate.  This is an event of supreme and planetary importance.  His relationship and planned help date from the time of the pronouncing of the great Invocation and its use by men everywhere.  Owing to the stupendous task confronting Christ, the Avatar of Synthesis will be buttressed by this "Silent Avatar" Who (to speak symbolically) will "keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath Him and His heart in unison with His."

This Being is closely related to the Will Aspect of divinity, and His cooperation has been made possible through Christ's Own attainment  along the line of the highest, spiritual will.  He works under the great natural Law of Synthesis, producing at-one-ment, unification and fusion.  His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate spiritual will in humanity the will-to-good.  His potency works in three fields of activity at this time:
a.  Within the spiritual Hierarchy itself, revealing the nature of the divine will-to-good which the Kingdom of God must express, and the nature of divine Purpose.
b.  Within the Assembly of the United Nations, though not within the Security Council; He is there generating a slowly growing will-to-unity.
c.  Within the masses of men everywhere, fostering the urge to a general betterment.

His activity if necessarily a mass activity, for He can only channel His energies through the mass consciousness or through a group conscious entity, such as the Hierarchy, the United Nations or Humanity.  The focal point of His effort and the Agent through which distribution of His energy can be made is the New group of World Servers; this group is uniquely related to this Avatar of Synthesis.  The bringing together of all the agents of goodwill (who are responsive to the energy of the divine will-to-good) constitutes the major objective of theNew Group of World Servers and always has been.  Their work can now be constructively and creatively intensified  through the association of the Avatar of Synthesis with the Christ.  Their task is to usher in the New Age, in that New Age, the five  Kingdoms in Nature will begin to function as one creative whole.   Their work falls into the following parts, functions or activities:
a.  The production of a human synthesis or unity which will lead to an universal recognition of the one humanity, brought about through right human relations.
b.  The establishing of right relations with the subhuman kingdoms in nature, leading to the universal recognition that there is One World.
c.  The anchoring of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, in open expression on Earth, thus leading to the universal recognition that thee sons of men are one.

These objectives the Avatar of Synthesis will foster and aid and for this purpose He has associated Himself with the Christ, working through the Hierarchy, under instruction from the "center where the will of God is known."  These three related events and distributing points of energy have all come into activity during the point of tension in which Christ and the Hierarchy are at this time h eld.  They all serve to re-direct and focus energy in relation to humanity, for all are the result of the decision made by Christ after His point of crisis, and are all connected with the hierarchical preparation for Christ's reappearance.

II. Christ as the Forerunner of the Aquarian Age.
People are very apt to overlook the fact that though Christ recognized His function as Teacher and spiritual Leader of humanity during the age which is so rapidly drawing to a close, He also recognized the work which He would do when that age came to an end and the new astronomical cycle came into existence.
The average Christian is singularly unaware of the times and cycles through which our planet passes, under influence of solar progression.  The at present dubious science of astrology has sidetracked the legitimate interest of humanity in the astronomical teaching and its spiritual interpretation of the passage of the Sun through the signs of the zodiac.  Yet, in the New Testament, that recognition is clearly revealed and colors the presentation of the entire gospel story.  It is found also in The Old Testament.  What was the sin of the Children of Israel in the desert but a reversion to the old Mithraic worship which distinguished the time when the sun was "in the sign of Taurus, the Bull," as it is technically called.  They fell down and worshipped the golden calf and forgot the new teaching of the age of Aries, the Ram, into whig they were entering, the teaching of the Scapegoat which colors Jewish history. 

To be Continued:  End of Lesson 7, Vol.  1 Chapter 4 will continue
9/28/15

41-2015 -Vol 1, Lesson Six -The Reappearance of the Christ - Continuing Chapter 3- July 25, 2015

From the Father's House (the "center where the will of God is known" or Shamballa of the esotericist) the fiat has gone forth:  The hour has come.  From the Kingdom of God where reigns the Christ, the answer has been flung back:  "Father, Thy will be done."  Down in our struggling, bewildered, unhappy world of men, the cry is ceaselessly rising:  "May Christ return to Earth."  For the three great spiritual centers:  the Father's House, the Kingdom of God, and awakening Humanity, there is but one purpose, one idea and one united expectancy.

It is essential that today there should be a measure of fuller knowledge concerning the "center where the will of God is known."  The public should possess some understanding of this highest spiritual center to which - if we believe the Gospel story - Christ himself was always attentive.  Frequently we read in The New Testament  that "the Father spoke to Him" or that "He heard a Voice," unheard by others, or that the words are heard, "this is my beloved Son." Several times, we read, the seal of affirmation (as it is spiritually called)  was given to Him.  Only the Father, the planetary Logos, the "One in Whom we live and move and have our being" ** (Acts XVII.28) the Lord of the World - 
     (Daniel VII.9) 
     9."I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ANCIENT OF DAYS did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool, his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
    10. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him, thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set, and the books were opened.
    13.  I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before Him.

   14.  And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve Him, His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."  

** NOTE:  The Ancient of Days,  Sanat Kumara is one of the 7 Original Sons of God,  the Holy Kumaras, three of these Holy Sons are also known as the Three Divine Contemplators - three residing between the "White Lodge" of Our Father/Mother God in Deep Space - the GREAT I AM THAT I AM and the Great Central Sun, where Alpha and Omega reside in the center of the Plieades.  The second Three Divine Contemplators reside between the Great Central Sun and the physical Sun of our System, ruled by Helios and Vesta.  Sanat Kumara is the Planetary Logos, which means that He hangs upon the Cosmic Cross and is going through similar initiations as the Children of Light.  He is connected to our entire system of worlds, all of our planets are enclosed within His body and we, the children of Light are the cells within His body as He continually pulls us through the various planes until we reach the Logoic Plane which will complete our journey during this Manvantara - M.F.)

The Ancient of Days  can speak this final affirmative word. There are, as well we know, five crises or initiations which concern the Master Jesus 
    - the Birth at Bethlehem,
    - the Baptism
   -  the Transfiguration,
   -  the Crucifixion
   -  The Resurrection 
But - lying behind this obvious and practical teaching, lies an undercurrent or thought of something much higher and of greater importance - the affirmative Voice of the Father, recognizing that which the Christ has done.

When Christ completes the work during the next two thousands years which He inaugurated two thousand years ago, that affirmative Voice will surely again be heard and divine recognition of His coming will be accorded.  Then the Christ will take that stupendous initiation of which we know nothing except that two divine aspects will blend and fuse in Him (love-wisdom in full manifestation*, motivated by divine will or power).  Then the Buddha and the Christ will together pass before the Father, the Lord of the World, will together see the glory of the Lord and eventually pass to higher service of a nature  and a caliber unknown to us. 

NOTE:  Love-Wisdom is the Second Ray, this is one of the Three Great Rays that make up the Triune Light of the Heart of the GREAT I AM THAT I  AM, Our Father/Mother God - it is this same triune light that resides within our Heart Center - that light that raises us above all other forms of life - as we are truly made in the "image of God".  And the other aspect that Christ will infuse within himself is that of Divine Will or Power - First Ray - here again, He will be working with another of the Great Triune Rays of the I AM THAT I AM.  Please note, that all of mankind at this time are working on the Second Ray, Love/Wisdom motivated by divine Will or Power - First Ray -  FYI - the Third Ray making up the triune Heart flame of the Father/Mother God as well as ourselves is that of Active Intelligence -  mf)

I write here in no fanatical or adventist spirit; I speak not as a speculative theologian or an exponent of one phase of religious, wishful thinking.  I speak because many know that the time is ripe and that the appeal of simple, faithful hearts has penetrated to the highest spiritual sphere and set in motion energies and forces which cannot now be stopped.  The invocative cry of distressed humanity is today of such a volume and sound that - united to the wisdom and the knowledge of the Spiritual hierarchy - it has given rise to certain activities in the Father's House.  These will result in the glory of God, in the transformation of the divine will-to-good into human goodwill, and resultant peace on Earth.

A new chapter in the great book of spiritual living is about to be written; a new expansion of consciousness is an imminent happening; a fresh recognition of divine attentiveness is now possible to humanity and a revealing expectancy will prove the accuracy of the Biblical statement "every eye shall see Him."  (Rev. 1.7.)  The religious livingness or spiritual history of mankind can be summarized for us by a series of recognitions - recognition of Those Who, down the ages, have constituted the Apostolic Succession, culminating for us in the great religious leaders who have come out among us since 700 B.C. and founded the great modern world faiths, and-above all else - in the Christ Himself Who embodied the perfection of God Immanent, plus awareness of God Transcendent; recognition of those major spiritual concepts of love, life and relationship which have hovered ever in the background of man's thinking and which are now on the verge of right expression; recognition of the true brotherhood of man, based on the one divine life, working through the one soul and expressing itself through the one humanity; recognition, therefore, of relationship both to the divine life throughout the world and to mankind itself.  It is this developing spiritual attitude which will lead to right human relations and eventual world peace.  Today, another recognition is becoming possible, it is the recognition everywhere of the imminent return of Christ (if such a phrase can be true of someone Who has never left us!) and of the new spiritual opportunities which this event will make possible.

The basis for this recognition lies in the deep-seated conviction, innate in the human consciousness, that some great Teacher, some Saviour, Revealer, Lawgiver or divine Representative MUST come forth from the world of spiritual realities, because of human need and human demand.  Always down the centuries, at the hour of man's greatest need and in response to his voiced demand, a divine Son of God has come forth and under many different names. Then the Christ came and apparently left us, with His work unfinished and His vision for mankind not yet consummated.  For two thousand years it has seemed as if all His work had been blocked frustrated, and of no avail, for the growth of the churches during the centuries is no guarantee of the spiritual success at which He aimed.  It needed more than theological interpretations and the numerical growth of the world religions (including Christianity and Buddhism) to prove His world mission successfully carried forward.  It all seemed impossible, necessitating three conditions; under these a test of His work could be attempted; today these three conditions are proven facts.
First:  as we have seen, a general planetary condition which has unfortunately (owing to man's selfishness) proved to be so catastrophic in nature that humanity has been forced to recognize the cause and source of the disaster; (atomic bomb)
Secondly:  a spiritual awakening which would have its impulse in the deepest depths of man's consciousness and such is the case today as a result of the World War (1914-1945)
Thirdly: a steadily mounting invocative cry, prayer or demand directed toward high spiritual sources, no matter by what name such sources may be called.

Today, these three conditions have been fulfilled and humanity faces renewed opportunity.  The disaster which has overtaken mankind is universal and widespread; no one has escaped and all men are involved in some way or another - physically, economically or socially.  The spiritual awakening of men everywhere (within or without the world faiths, and largely  outside of them) is general and complete and a turning to God is to be seen on every hand. Finally these two causes have aroused - as never before - the invocative cry of humanity; it is clearer, purer and more selfless than at any other time in human history because it is based on clear thinking and a common distress.  True religion is again emerging in the hearts of men in every land; this recognition of a divine hope and background may possibly take people back into the church and into the world faiths, but it will most certainly take them back to God.

Religion is the name, surely which we give to the invocative appeal of humanity which leads to the evocative response of the Spirit of God.  This Spirit works in every human heart and in all groups.  It works also through the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet.  It impels the Head of Hierarchy, the Christ, to take action and the action which He is taking will lead to His return with His disciples.

The idea of the return of Christ is a most familiar one, and the concept of the Son of God returning in response to human need has its place in the teaching of the majority of the world faiths.  Ever since He apparently departed to the sphere where the faithful have put Him, little groups of these people have reasoned themselves into the belief that on such and such a date He will come back, and ever their prophecies and expectancies have been doomed to failure.  He has not come.  Such people have been laughed at by the crowd and rebuked by the intelligent.  Their eyes have not seen Him and there has been no tangible indication of His Presence.  Today, thousands know that He will come; that plans for His coming are already set on foot, but they set no date or hour.  The time is known only to the two or three, but "in such an hour as ye think not, He will come." (Matt. XXV.44)

A truth hard for the orthodox thinker of any faith to accept is the fact that Christ cannot return because He has always been here upon our Earth, watching over the spiritual destiny of humanity; He has never left us but, in physical body and securely concealed (though not hidden), He has guided the affairs of the Spiritual Hierarchy, of His disciples and workers Who are unitedly pledged with Him to Earth service.  He can only reappear.  It is a spiritual fact that those who have passed from the cave of the tomb into the fullness of the resurrection life can be seen and at the same time evade the vision of the believer. Seeing and recognition are two very different things, and one of the great recognitions of mankind in the near future is the recognition that always He has been with us, sharing with us the familiar usefulness and peculiar characteristics of our civilization and its many gifts to man.

The early signs of His approach with His disciples can already be discerned by those who note and rightly interpret the signs of the times.  There is (among these signs)  the coming together spiritually of those who love their fellowmen.  This is in reality the organizing of the outer physical army of the Lord - and army which has no weapons but those of love, of right speech and right human relations.  This unknown organization has proceeded with phenomenal speed during the aftermath of war, because humanity is sick of hate and controversy.

The general staff of the Christ is already active in the form of the New Group of World Servers; they are as potent a abode of forerunners as has ever preceded a great world Figure into the arena of mankind's living.   Their work and influence is already seen and felt in every land, and nothing can destroy that which they have accomplished.   The spiritual and organizing effect of expressed and voiced invocation has been also attempted since 1935, and the energy of the invocative cry of humanity has been directed into those channels which reach from Earth to the High Place where dwells the Christ.  From there, it has been transmitted to those still higher spheres where the attention of the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days the Father of all, plus the Creative Energies and Living Beings Who dwell there with Him, can be focussed on humanity and those steps can be taken which will embody more rapidly the Purposes of God. 

 (Note:  Invocation means decreeing or mantras calling for the love and will of God to fill the earth and all thereon with His Divine Love - acting as a group merging of souls together with one purpose, the preparation for the Reappearance of the Christ - this is what the World Service is all about - MF)

For the first time in human history, the demand of the people of the Earth is so potent and so in line with divine direction, in time and space, that the end is inevitably sure; the looked-for spiritual Representative must come forth; this time He will not come alone but will be accompanied by Those Whose lives and words will evoke recognition in every department of human thinking.  The symbolic prophecies found in all the world Scriptures anent this imminent event will prove their veracity; their symbolism will nevertheless elicit reinterpretation; circumstances and happenings will not necessarily by exactly as the Scriptures would appear to indicate.  For instance, He will come indeed in the "clouds of the air" (Matt. XXVI.64) as the Christian Scriptures say, but of what great interest is that when millions come and go in the clouds each hour of the day and of the night?  I mention this as one of the outstanding prophecies and one of the most familiar; it is, however, one which means little in our modern civilization. The fact of importance is that He will come.

The Wesak Festival has been held down the centuries in the well-known valley in the Himalayas (if the faithful would only believe it) in order:
   1.  To substantiate the fact of Christ's physical existence among us ever since
        His so-called departure.
   2.  To prove (on the physical plane) the factual solidarity of the Eastern and
       Western approaches to God.  Both the Christ and the Buddha are present.
   3. To form a rallying-point and a meeting-place for those who annually-in 
        synthesis and symbolically-link up and represent the Father's House, the 
        Kingdom of God and Humanity.
   4.  To demonstrate the nature of the work of Christ as the great and chosen
        Intermediary, standing as the Representative of the Spiritual Hierarchy and
        as the Leader of the New Group of World Servers.  In His Person, He voices
        their demand for the recognition of the fatal  existence of the Kingdom of 
        God here and now.

Perhaps one of the major messages for all of us  who read these words is this great truth and fact of the physical Presence on Earth at this time of the Christ,
of His group of disciples and executives, of Their representative activities on behalf of mankind and of Their close relationship  This relationship comes out at certain of the great spiritual festivals where the relationship demonstrated includes onto only the Kingdom of God but also the Father and the Father's Home. There is the Festival of Easter   the Festival of the Buddha Who is physical Presence expresses the spiritual solidarity of our planet, and the Festival in June, peculiarly the Festival of the Christ, when He - as leader of the New Group of World Servers - employs the new Invocation on behalf of all men of goodwill in all lands; at the same time, He gathers up the inchoate and unexpressed demands of those masses who seek a new and better way of life.  They want love in daily living, right human relations and an underlying Plan. 

It is these physical happenings which are of moment and not the vague hopes and promises of the  theological faiths.  It is the physical Presence upon our planet of such recognized spiritual figures as the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days; the seven Spirits Who are before the throne of God; the Buddha, the spiritual leader of the East, and the Christ, the spiritual leader of the West - all of Whom are brought at this climaxing time to our attention.  The vague belief in Their existence, the dreamy speculations as to Their work and Their interest in human welfare, and the unconvinced, yet  hopeful, wishful thinking of believers (and also unbelievers), will soon give pale to certain knowledge, to visual recognition, to provable signs of executive work and to the reorganization (by men of unusual potency) of the political, religious, economic and social life of humanity.  

All this will NOT come as the result of some proclamation or some stupendous planetary event which will force human beings everywhere to say: "Lo; He is there! Lo:  Here are the signs of His divinity!"  for that would evoke only antagonism and laughter, resistance or fanatical credulity.

It will come as a recognition of potency in leadership, through dynamic but logical changes in world affairs, and through action taken by the masses of the people from the depths of their own consciousness.

Many years ago, I (Master Djwal Khual) indicated that at the Christ would come in three ways, or rather, that the fact of His Presence could be proved in three distinctive phases.

It was pointed out then that the first move which the Christ would make would be the stimulation of the spiritual consciousness in man, the evocation of humanity's spiritual demands on a large scale and the nurturing - on a worldwide scale - of the Christ consciousness in the human heart.  This has already been done and with most effective results.  Of the factual nature of this process, the vociferous demands of men of goodwill, of welfare workers and of those pledged to international cooperation, to the relief of the world distress and to the establishment of right human relations, are the undeniable expression.  That phase of the preparatory work which is indicative of His coming has now reached a stage where nothing can arrest its progress or slow down its momentum.  In spite of appearances  this uprising of the Christ consciousness has been successful and what may appear as reverse activity is of no importance in the long run, but is only of a temporary nature.  The second indicated move of the Hierarchy would be the impressing of the minds of enlightened men everywhere by spiritual ideas embodying the new truths, by the "descent" (if I may so call it) of the new concepts which will govern human living and by the overshadowing of all world disciples and the New Group of World Servers by the Christ Himself.  This planned move of the Hierarchy is progressing well; men and women everywhere and in every department of life are enunciating those new truths which should in the future guide human living; they are building those new organizations, movements and groups - large or small - which will familiarize the mass of men with the reality of the need and the mode of meeting it.  This they are doing because they are driven thereto by the warmth of their hearts and by their loving response to human distress; without formulating it thus to themselves, they are, nevertheless, working to bring into visibility the Kingdom of God on Earth.  No denial of these facts is possible,in view of the multiplicity of organizations, books and speeches.

Thirdly we are told that Christ might come in Person and walk among men as He did before.  This has not yet taken place but plans are being laid which will enable Him to do so.  Those plans do not involve the birth of some nice child in some nice home on Earth; they will not produce the wild claims and the credulous recognition of the well-meaning and the unintelligent as is so frequently the case today, nor will someone appear and say: "This is the Christ.  He is here or He is there."  I would point out to you, however, that the widespread appearance of such tales and claims, though undesirable, misleading and wrong, nevertheless demonstrates human expectant of the imminence of His coming. Belief in His coming is basic in the human consciousness.  How He will come and in what manner is not yet stated.  The exact moment has not yet arrived nor has the method of His appearance been determined.  The factual nature of the two earlier and preparatory moves, already made by the Hierarchy under His direction, are the guarantee that He will come and that when He does, mankind will be ready.

Let us summarize certain aspects of the work He set in motion two thousands years ago, because they hold the clue to His future work.  Some of it is well known to you, for it has been emphasized by the world faiths and particularly by teachers of the Christian faith.  But all of them have made His work appear difficult for man to grasp, and the undue emphasis laid upon His divinity (an emphasis which He Himself never made) has made it appear that He and He only and no one else could possibly do the same works.  Theologians have forgotten that He Himself stated that "greater things shall ye do because I go unto my Father." (John XIV.12) He here indicates that this passing to the Father's House would result in such an inflow of spiritual strength, insight and creative accomplishment for man, that their deeds would surpass His; because of the distortion of his teaching and its remote relation to man, we have not yet done those "GREATER THINGS."  SOME DAY, WE ASSUREDLY WILL AND - ALONG CERTAIN LINES - WE ALREADY HAVE.  Let me relate some of the things He did which we can do, and which He will aid.

1.  For the first time in human history, the love of God was embodied in a man and Christ inaugurated the era of love.  That expression of divine love is still in the making; the world is not yet full of love and few there are who understand the true meaning of the word.  But-speaking symbolically-when the United Nations has emerged into factual and actual power, the welfare of the world will then be assured.  What is that welfare but love in action?  What is international cooperation but love on a world scale?  Those are the things which the love of God in Christ expressed and those are the things which we are working here today to bring into being.  We are attempting to do it on a vast scale and this in spite of opposition - an opposition which can only temporarily succeed, such is the potency of the awakened spirit of man.  These are the things which the Hierarchy, in its already successful procedures, is aiding and will continue to aid.

2.  Christ taught also that the Kingdom of God was on Earth and told us to seek that Kingdom first and let all things be of secondary importance for its sake.  That Kingdom has ever been with us, composed of all those who down the ages, have sought spiritual goals, liberated themselves from the limitations of the physical body, emotional controls and the obstructive mind. Its citizens are those  who today (known to the majority) live in physical bodies, work for the welfare of humanity, use love instead of emotion as their general technique, and compose  that great body of "illumined Minds' which guides the destiny of the world.  The Kingdom of God is not something which will descend on Earth when man is good enough! It is something which is functioning efficiently today and demanding recognition.  It is an organized body which is already evoking recognition from those people who do seek first the Kingdom of God, and discover thereby that the Kingdom  they seek is already here.  Christ as well as His disciples are known by many to be physically present on Earth and the Kingdom which They rule, with its laws and modes of activity, is familiar  to many and has been throughout the centuries.

Christ is the world Healer and Savior.  He works because He is the embodied soul of all Reality.  He works today, as He worked in Palestine two thousand years ago, through groups.  There He worked  through the  three beloved disciples, through the twelve apostles, through the chosen seventy, and the interested five hundred....Now He works through His Masters and Their groups, and thereby greatly intensifies His efforts.  He can and will work through all groups just insofar as they fit themselves for planned service, for the distribution of love, and come into conscious alignment with the great potency of the inner groups.

Those groups who have always proclaimed the physical Presence of the Christ have so distorted the teaching by dogmatic assertions on unimportant details and by  ridiculous claims that they have evoked little recognition of the underlying truth, nor have they portrayed a kingdom which is attractive.  That Kingdom exists but is not a place of disciplines or golden harps, peopled by unintelligent fanatics, but a field of service and a place where every man has gull scope for the exercise of his divinity in human service.

3.  At the Transfiguration, Christ revealed the glory which is innate in all men.  The triple lower nature - physical, emotional and mental - is there shown as prostrate before the glory which was revealed.  In that moment, wherein Christ Immanent was in incarnation, wherein humanity was represented by the three apostles 

(Note, these three apostles went to the mountain with Christ as witnesses to His Transfiguration - He had witnesses from heaven as well as earth when He actually took on the persona of the Cosmic Christ - mf).  a voice came from the Father's Home in recognition of the revealed divinity and the Sonship of the Transfigured Christ.  On this innate divinity, upon this recognized Sonship, is the brotherhood of all men based - one life, one glory which shall be revealed, and one divine relationship.  Today, on a large scale (even when by-passing the implications of divinity), the glory of man and his fundamental relationships are already a fact in the human consciousness.  Accompanying those characteristics which as yet remain deplorable and which would appear to negate all claims to divinity, is the wonder of man's achievement, of his triumph over nature.  The glory of scientific attainment and the magnificent evidence of creative art - both modern and ancient - leave no room to question man's divinity.  Here then are the "greater things" of which Christ spoke and here again is the triumph of the Christ within the human heart.

Why this triumph of the Christ consciousness must always be spoken of in terms of religion, of church-going and of orthodox belief is one of the incredible triumphs of the forces of evil.  To be a citizen of the Kingdom of God does not mean that one must necessarily be a member of some one of the orthodox churches.  The divine Christ in the human heart can be expressed in many different departments of human living - in politics, in the arts, in economic expression and in true social living, in science and in religion.  It might be wise here to remember that the only time it is recorded that Christ (as an adult) visited the Temple of the Jews, He created a disturbance!  Humanity is passing from glory to glory and, in the long panorama of history, this is strikingly observable.  That glory is today revealed in every department of human activity, and the Transfiguration of those who are on the crest of the human wave of civilization is very close at hand.

4.  Finally, in the triumph of the Crucifixion or (as it is more accurately called in the East) the Great Renunciation, Christ, for the first time, anchored on Earth a tenuous thread of the divine Will as it issued from the Father's House (Shamballa), passed into the understanding custody of the kingdom of God, and,  through the medium of the Christ, was brought to the attention of mankind.   Through  the instrumentality of certain great Sons of God, the three divine aspects or characteristics of the divine Trinity -  WILL, LOVE and INTELLIGENCE have become a part of human thinking and aspiration.  Christians are apt to forget that the crisis in the final hours of the Christ was not that spent upon the Cross, but those spent in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Then His will - in agony and almost despair was submerged in that of the Father.   "Father" He said, "not My will but Thine be done."  (Luke XXII.42). 

Something new, yet planned for from the very depth of time, happened then in that quiet garden; Christ, representing mankind, anchored or established the Father's Will on Earth and made it possible for intelligent humanity to carry it out.  Hitherto, that Will had been known in the Father's house; it had been recognized and adapted to world need by the Spiritual Hierarchy, working under the Christ, and thus took shape as the divine Plan.  Today, because of what Christ did in His moment of crisis hundreds of years ago, humanity can add its efforts to the working out of that Plan.  The will-to-good of the Father's House can become the goodwill of the Kingdom of God and be transformed into right human relations by intelligent humanity.  Thus the direct line or thread of God's will reaches now from the highest place to the lowest point, and can in due time become a cable of ascension for the sons of men and of descent for the loving, living spirit of God.

Let us forget distance, remoteness and vagueness and realize that we are talking of exact and literal happenings on our planet.  We are dealing with recognitions and occurrences and with factual events which are the conscious possession of many.  The Christ of history and the Christ in the human heart are planetry facts. 

There is one aspect of this return of the Christ which is never touched upon and to which no reference is ever made.  It is the factor of what this coming out again among men, this return to outer everyday activity will mean to the Christ as He faces it  How will He feel when the hour of His appearance arrives?  There is  a great initiation spoken of in The New Testament  to which we have given the name of the Ascension.  Of it we know nothing. Only a few items of information are brought to us in the Gospel story; the fact of the mountain top, of attendant watchers, and of the words of Christ, assuring them that He was not leaving them.  Then a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1.9.)  There were  none present who could go further with Him.  Their consciousness could not penetrate to the place where He had chosen to go; they even misinterpreted His words and only in a vague and mystical sense has humanity ever understood His disappearance, or the significance of His persistent but unobserved Presence.  The watchers were assured by  two of the Knowers of God Who were also present that He would come again in like manner.  He ascended.  The cloud received Him; today the clouds which cover our planet are waiting to reveal Him.

He is now waiting to descend.  This descent into our unhappy world of men can present Him with no alluring picture.  From the quiet mountain retreat where He has waited, guided and watched over humanity and where He has trained His disciples, initiates and the New Group of World Servers, He must come forth and take His place prominently on the world stage; take His part in the great drama which is there being played.  This time, He will play His part, not in obscurity as He previously did but before the eyes of the entire world.  Because of the smallness of our little planet, and because of the prevalence of the radio, of television and the rapidity of communication, His part will be watched by all and the prospect must surely, for Him, hold certain horror, must present its tests and major adjustments, plus painful and unavoidable experience.  He does not come as the omnipotent God of man's ignorant creation, but as the Christ, the Founder of the Kingdom of God on Earth, to complete the work He started, and again to demonstrate divinity in far more difficult circumstances.

The Christ suffers, however, far more from those in His Own household than from those in the outer world; His work is more impeded by the advanced aspirant than by the intelligent thinker.  It was not the cruelty of the outer world of men which caused the depths of sorrow to the Christ; it was His Own disciples, plus the massed sorrow - spread over the entire cycle of living - past, present and future - of humanity.

He comes to correct the mistakes and the misrepresentations of those who have dared to interpret His simple words in terms of their own ignorance, and to recognize those whose faithful service has made His return possible.  He too is facing a major test, preparatory to a great initiation and when He has passed the test and fulfilled His task, He will pass to a still more exalted position in the Father's House or to some distant place of service where only  the most exalted can follow Him;  His present position will then be taken by the One Whom He has prepared and trained.

But before all this can happen, He must again enter the public arena, play His part in world affairs, and prove the scope of His mission.  He will gather round Him, in the flesh, His chosen associates and advisors; these will not be the ones who gathered around in those earlier simpler days but those members of our human family who today recognize Him and are preparing to work with Him as far as in them lies.  It is a different world to which He is now planning to return and this is largely due to the intellectual development of the mass of men.  This presents Him with stupendous difficulties, for the intellects of men must now be reached and not just their hearts (as in the earlier days) if the Will of God is to be intelligently carried out on Earth.  His major task is surely the establishing of right human relations in every department of human living.  I would ask you to use your imagination and endeavor to think out what must be the implications of the task which confronts Him; I would ask you to ponder on the difficulties which He must inevitably face - the difficulty, above all, of mass intellectual wrong emphasis. - D. K. 

He, the Representative of the love of God, is asked to work again in the world arena wherein His earlier message has been negated, forgotten or misinterpreted for two thousand years and wherein hate and separativeness have distinguished all men everywhere.  This will plunge Him into a foreign atmosphere and into a situation wherein all His divine resources will be needed, and will have to be tried out to the uttermost.  The generally accepted idea that He will return as a triumphant warrior, omnipotent and irresistible, has surely no basis in fact.   That He will ultimately lead His people, humanity into Jerusalem is a fact, founded on a secure foundation, but it will not be into a Jewish city called Jerusalem but into "the place of peace" (as the world "Jerusalem" means).  A careful consideration of the world situation today and a dedicated use of the imagination will reveal to the sincere thinker how appalling is the task which He has undertaken.  But He has again "set His face to go to Jerusalem."  (Luke IX.51).  He will re-appear and guide mankind into a civilization and a state of consciousness in which right human relations and worldwide cooperation for the good of all will be the universal keynote.  He will - through the New Group of World Servers and the men of goodwill - complete His association with the Will of God (His Father's business) in such a manner that the eternal will-to-good will retranslated by humanity into goodwill and right relations.  Then His task will be done; He will be free again to leave us, but this time not to return but to leave the world of men in the hands of that great spiritual Server Who will be the new Head of the Hierarchy, the Church Invisible.

The question now arises:  In what way can we be of service?  How can we aid during this preparatory stage?

What the members of the Spiritual Hierarchy are doing is much indeed;  those disciples who are in conscious touch with the Masters of the Wisdom - or, if you prefer  the term, with the senior disciples of the Christ - are working day and night in order to establish such confidence, correct attitudes and an understanding of the divine spiritual "pouch" or enterprise that His way will be made easier.  They and their groups of lesser disciples, aspirants and students of the realities stand unitedly behind the Christ and can thus enable Him to accomplish His purpose.  Their major realization is that of a cyclic crisis in the spiritual life of our planet; it is one which has been anticipated in the Father's House (Shamballa)  for thousands of years.  They have registered the fact that, for the first time in human history, all the three spiritual centers or groups through which God works are unitedlyl focussed on the same objective.  Shamballa, the Spiritual Hierarchy and Humanity (the Father's House, the Kingdom of God and the World of Men) are all striving in one vast movement for an intensification of the Light of the World.  This Light will irradiate (in a fashion unknown before) not only the Father's House, which is the source of all our planetary light but also the spiritual center from which have come all those Teachers and World Saviors Who have stood before men and said, as did Hermes, the Buddha and the Christ:  "I am the Light of the World."  This light will now flood the world of men, bringing illumination to men's minds and light into the dark places of human living.

It is light and - above all else - "Life more abundantly"  which Christ will bring, and until He brings it we know not what is signifies; we cannot realize the revelation which this will entail and the new possibilities which will open up before us.  But through Him, light and life are on their way, to be  interpreted and applied in terms of goodwill and of right human relations.  For this the Spiritual Hierarchy is preparing.  This time the Christ will not come alone for His co-workers will come with Him.  His experience and Theirs will be the reverse of the previous one, for this time every eye will see Him, every ear will hear Him and every mind will pass judgment upon Him.

We can freely aid in the reconstruction work which the Christ proposes, if we will familiarize ourselves and all men whom we can contact with the following facts:

1.  That the reappearance of Christ is imminent.

2.  That the Christ, immanent in every human heart, can be evoked in recognition of His appearance.

3.  That circumstances of His return are only symbolically related in the world Scriptures; this may produce a vital change in the preconceived ideas of humanity. 

4.  That the major required preparation is a world at peace; however, that peace must be based on an educated goodwill, which will lead inevitably to right human relations, and therefore, to the establishment (figuratively speaking) of lines of light between nation and nation, religion and religion, group and group and man and man.

If we can succeed in presenting these four ideas to the world at large, and thus in overcoming the intelligent criticism that all that is said is too vague, prophetic, and visionary, we shall have done much.  It is possible surely that the ancient truism that "the mind is the slayer of the real" may be fundamentally true where the mass of humanity is concerned and that the purely intellectual approach (which rejects the vision and refuses to accept the unprovable) may be far more at fault than the anticipation of the Knowers of God and the expectant multitude.

The intelligence of divinity is vested in the Spiritual Hierarchy, and that Hierarchy is today composed of Those Who have united in Themselves both the intellect and the intuition,  the practical and the apparently impractical, the factual way of life and way of the man who sees a vision.  There are also people who must be found in the market place of daily life, these are the people who must be trained in the divine recognitions which are essentially physical plane responses to the newer expansions of consciousness.  The Christ Who will return will not be like the Christ Who (apparently) departed.  he will not be a "man of sorrows"; He will be the enunciator of spiritual statements which will not necessitate interpretation and receive the wrong interpretation, because He will be present to indicate the true meaning. He has been for two thousand years the supreme Head of the Church Invisible, the Spiritual Hierarchy, composed of disciples of all faiths.  He recognizes and loves those who are not Christian but who retain their allegiance to Their Founders - the Buddha, Mohammed and others.  He cares not what the faith is if the objective is love of God and of humanity.  If men look for the Christ Who left His disciples centuries ago, they will fail to recognize the Christ Who is in process of returning.  The Christ has no religious barriers in His consciousness.  It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call himself.

The Son of God is on His way and He cometh not alone. His advance guard is already here and the Plan which they must follow is already made and clear.  Let recognition be the aim.

End of Lesson Six, Chapter Three = The Reappearance of the Christ
7//25/15