Gleanings of a Mystic
by Max Heindel
(Part 4)
X. The Coming Age
   When we speak of the "Coming Age,"  of the "New Heaven and the New Earth"
mentioned in the Bible, and also of the "Aquarian Age,"  the differences may
not be quite clear in the minds of our students.   Confusion of terms is one of
the most fertile seed grounds of fallacy,  and the Rosicrucian  teachings aim
to avoid it by a particularly definite nomenclature.  Sometimes an extra effort
seems  necessary to disperse the haze engendered by  current  cloudy
conceptions of others as sincere as the present writer, but not so fortunate in
having access to the incomparable Western Wisdom Teachings.
   It has been taught in our literature that four great epochs of unfoldment
preceded the present order of things; that the destiny of the earth, its
atmospheric conditions, and the laws of nature prevailing in one epoch were as
different  from  those  of  the  other  epochs  as  was  the   corresponding
physiological  constitution of mankind in one epoch different from those  in he
others.
   The  bodies  of Adm (the name means red earth),  the  humanity  of
fiery Lemuria,  were formed of the "dust of the ground,"  the red,  hot,
volcanic mud,  and were just suited to their environment.  Flesh and blood
would have shriveled up in the terrible heat of that day,  and though suited to
present conditions,  Paul tells us that they cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
It is therefore manifest that before a new order of things can be  inaugurated,
the physiological constitution of mankind must be radically changed to  say
nothing of the spiritual attitude.   Aeons will be required to regenerate  the
whole human race and fit them to live in ethereal bodies.
   On the other hand,  neither does a new environment come into existence in a
moment,  but land and people are evolved together from the  smallest  and most
primitive beginnings.   When the mists of Atlantis commenced to settle, some of
our forbears had grown embryonic lungs and were forced to  highlands ages
before their compeers.  They wandered in "the wilderness"  while "the promised
land"  was emerging from the lighter fogs,  and at the  same  time
their growing lungs were fitting them to live under present atmospheric
conditions.
   Two  more races were born in the basins of the earth before a  succession of
floods drove them to the highlands; the last flood took place at the time when
the sun entered the watery sign Cancer, about ten thousand years ago as told
Plato by the Egyptian priests.  Thus  we  see there is no sudden
change of constitution or environment for the whole human race when a new epoch
is ushered  in,  but an overlapping of conditions which makes it  possible  for
most  of the race by gradual adjustment to enter the new  condition,  though
the change may seem sudden to the individual when the preparatory change has
been  accomplished  unconsciously.   The metamorphosis of a tadpole  from  a
denizen  of  the watery element to one of the airy gives an analogy  of  the
past,  and the transformation of the caterpillar to a butterfly  soaring  in
the air is an apt simile of the coming age.   When the heavenly time  marker
came into Aries by precession, a new cycle commenced, and the "glad tidings"
were  preached by Christ.   He said by implication that the new  heaven  and
earth were not ready then when He told His disciples:  Whither I go you cannot
now follow,  but you shall follow afterwards.   I go to prepare a
place for you and will come again and receive you.
   Later John saw in a vision the new Jerusalem descending from heaven,  and
Paul taught the Thessalonians "by the word of the Lord"  that those
who  are Christ's at His coming shall be caught up in the air to meet
Him and be with Him for the age.
   But  during this change there are pioneers who enter the kingdom  of  God
before their brethren.   Christ, in Matt. 11:12, said that "the kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."  This is not a
correct translation.  It ought to be:  The  kingdom  of the heavens has been
invaded (biaxetai),  and invaders seize on her.   Men and women have
already learned  through  holy,  helpful lives to lay aside the body  of  flesh
and blood,  either  intermittently or permanently,  and to walk the  skies
with winged feet,  intent upon the business of their Lord,  clad in the
ethereal "wedding garment"  of the new dispensation.  This change may be
accomplished through  a  life of simple helpfulness and prayer as  practiced
by  devoted Christians,  no matter with what church they affiliate,  as well as
by  the specific  exercises given in the Rosicrucian Teachings.   The  latter
will prove  barren of results,  unless accompanied by constant acts of
love for love will be the keynote of the coming age as Law is
of the present order. The  intense expression of the former quality increases
the phosphorescent luminosity and density of the ethers in our vital bodies,
the fiery streams sever the tie to the mortal coil,  and the man,  once
born of water upon his emergence from Atlantis,  is now born of
the spirit into the kingdom of God. The dynamic force of his love has
opened a way to the land of love,  and indescribable is the rejoicing among
those already there when new invaders arrive,  for each new arrival hastens the
coming of the Lord and the definite establishment of the Kingdom.
   Among  the religiously inclined there is a definite unceasing  cry:   How
long,  O Lord;  how long?  And despite the emphatic statement of Christ that
the day and hour are unknown, even to Himself,  prophets  continue  to  gain
credence when they predict His coming on a certain day,  though each is
discomfited  when the day passes without development.   The question  has  also
been  mooted among our students,  and the present section is an  attempt  to
show the fallacy of looking for the Second Advent in a year or fifty or five
hundred.   The Elder Brothers decline to commit themselves further  than  to
point out what must first be accomplished.
   At the time of Christ the sun was in about seven degrees of Aries.   Five
hundred years were required to bring the precession to the thirtieth  degree of
Pisces.   During that time the new church lived through a stage of offensive
and defensive violence well justifying the words of Christ:   "I came not to
bring peace but a sword."   Fourteen hundred years more have  elapsed under the
negative influence of Pisces, which has fostered the power of the
church and bound the people by creed and dogma.
   In the middle of the last century the sun came within orb of influence of
the scientific sign Aquarius, and although it will take about seven
hundred years  before the Aquarian Age commences, it is highly instructive  to
note what  changes the mere touch has wrought in the world.   Our  limited
space precludes enumeration of the wonderful advances made since then;  but it
is not  too much to say that science,  invention,  and resultant industry  have
completely changed the world, its social life, and economic conditions.  The
great  strides made in means of communication have done much to  break  down
barriers of race prejudice and prepare us for conditions of Universal
Brotherhood.   Engines of destruction have been made so fearfully efficient
that the  militant  nations will be forced ere long to "beat  their  swords
into plowshares  and  their spears into pruning hooks."   The sword has
had its reign during the Piscean Age, but science will rule in
the Aquarian Age.
   In the land of the setting sun we may expect to first see the ideal
conditions of the Aquarian Age:  A blending of religion and science,  forming a
religious science and a scientific religion,  which will promote the health,
happiness and the enjoyment of life in abundant measure.
Sugar for Alcohol
   In  the  section elucidating the Law of
Assimilation in  The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, we stated
that minerals cannot be assimilated because they lack a vital body, which lack
makes it impossible for man to raise their vibratory  rate  to  his  own
pitch.    Plants  have  a  vital  body  and  no self-consciousness,  hence are
most easily assimilated and remain  with  man longer than cells of animal
flesh, which is permeated by a desire body.  The vibratory  rate  of the latter
is high, and much energy is required  in assimilation;  its  cells also quickly
escape and make it  necessary  for  the flesh eater to forage often.
   We are aware that alcohol is a "foreign spirit"  and a "spirit of  decay"
because it is generated by fermentation outside the consumer's system.
Being "spirit,"  it vibrates with such intense rapidity that the human  spirit
is incapable of tuning it down and controlling it as food must be, hence
metabolism is out of the question.  Nay, more,  as we cannot reduce its
vibratory  rate to that of our bodies,  this foreign spirit may accelerate
their vibratory  pitch  and control us as happens in the  state  of
intoxication. Thus  alcohol  is a great danger to mankind and one from which we
must  be emancipated ere we can realize our divine nature.
   A  stimulant  spirit  is necessary while we live on a diet of flesh
or progress  would stop,  and a food has been provided for the
pioneers of  the West that answers all requirements; its name is "sugar."
From sugar the ego itself  generates  alcohol inside the system by the
very processes  of metabolism.   This  product is therefore both food  and
stimulant,  perfectly keyed to the vibratory pitch of the body.   It has all
the good qualities of alcohol in enhanced measure and none of its drawbacks. To
perceive properly the effect of this food, consider the peoples of eastern
Europe where little sugar is consumed.   They are slavish;  they speak of
themselves in terms of depreciation; the pronoun "I" is always spelled with
small letters but "you" with a capital.  England consumes five times as  much
sugar  per  capita as Russia.   In  the former we meet a different spirit,  the
big  "I"  and  the little "you."   In America the candy store becomes a most
dangerous rival of the  saloon,  for the man who eats sweets will not
drink, and there  is  no surer  cure  for  alcoholism than to induce the
sufferer to eat  freely  of sweets.   The drunkard abhors sugar,  however,
while his system is under the sway of the "foreign spirit."
   The  temperance movement was begun in the land where most sugar  is
consumed, and has generated "the spirit of self-respect."
XI. Meat and Drink as
Factors in Evolution
   In previous sections we saw how infant humanity was cared for by superhuman
guardians, provided with appropriate food, led out of danger's way,  and
sheltered in all respects until grown to human stature and fit to enter  the
school  of experience to learn the lessons of life in the phenomenal  world. We
saw also how the rainbow points to natural laws peculiar to the  present age,
how man was given free will under these laws,  and how the  spirit  of wine was
given to cheer and to stimulate his own timid,  fearful spirit,  to nerve it
for the war of the world.
   In  an  analogous  manner the irresponsible little  child  who  has  been
brought  under the waters of baptism by its natural guardians is  cared  for
through  the years of childhood while its various vehicles are  being
organized.   When  the parental blood stored in the thymus gland  has  been
exhausted and the child thus emancipated from the parents, it awakens to
individuality,  to  the  feeling  of  "I am."  It  has then been prepared with
a knowledge  of good and evil with which to fight the battle of life;  and  at
that  time the youth is taken to the church and given the bread and wine  to
nerve and nourish him spiritually,  also as a symbol that henceforth he is a
free  agent,  only responsible to the laws of God.   A blessing or a  curse,
this freedom, according to the way it is used.
   In early Atlantis mankind was a universal brotherhood of submissive children
with no incentive to war or strife.   Later they were segregated  into nations,
and wars inculcated loyalty to kin and country.  Each sovereign was an absolute
autocrat with power over life and limb of his subjects, who were numbered  in
hundreds of millions,  and who yielded ungrudging  and  slavish submission, an
attitude maintained to the present day among millions of Asiatics, who are
vegetarians and consequently need no alcohol.
   As flesh eating came into vogue,  wine became a more and more common
beverage.   In consequence of flesh eating much material progress was made
immediately  preceding  the advent of Christ, and because of the  practice  of
drinking  wine an increasing number of men asserted themselves  as  leaders,
with  the  result that instead of a few large nations such as  people  Asia,
many  small  nations were formed in the southwestern portion of  Europe  and
Asia Minor.
   But though the great mass of people who formed these various nations were
ahead of their Asiatic brethren as craftsmen,  they  continued submissive to
their  rulers  and  lived as much in their traditions  as  did  the  latter.
Christ upbraided them because they gloried in being Abraham's seed.  He told
them that "before Abraham was, I am," that is, the ego has always existed.
   It is His mission to emancipate humanity from Law and lead it to love, to
destroy "the kingdoms of men" with all their antagonism to one another,  and to
build upon their ruins " the kingdom of God."   An illustration will make the
method clear:
   If we have a number of brick buildings and desire to amalgamate them into
one large structure,  it is necessary to break them down first and free each
brick  from the mortar which binds it.   Likewise each human being  must  be
freed from the fetters of family, hence Christ taught, "Unless a man leaves
his father and mother he cannot be my disciple."   He must outgrow religious
partisanship and patriotism and learn to say with the much misunderstood and
maligned Thomas Paine:  "The world is my country, and to do good is my
religion."
   Christ  did not mean that we are to forsake those who have a claim  upon
our help and support,  but that we are not to permit the suppression of  our
individuality out of deference to family traditions and beliefs.
   Consequently He came "not to bring peace, but a sword;"  and whereas the
eastern religions discourage the use of wine,  Christ's first miracle was
to change  water  to  wine.  The  sword  and  the wine cup are signatures
of the Christian religion,  for by them nations have been broken to pieces and
the individual emancipated.  Government by the people, for the people, is a
fact in northwestern Europe, the rulers being that principally in name only.
   But the fostering of the martial spirit as prevails in Europe was only  a
means to an end.   The segregation which it has caused must give place to  a
regime of brotherhood such as professed by Paine.   A new step was necessary to
bring  this about;  a new food must be found which would  act  upon
the spirit in such a way as to foster individuality through assertion  of
self without oppression  of others and without loss of  self-respect.   We
have enunciated it as a law that only spirit can act upon spirit,  and
therefore that food must be a spirit but differing in other respects from
intoxicants.
   Before  describing this let us see what flesh has done for the  evolution of
the world.
   We  have noted previously that during the Polarian Epoch man had  only  a
dense body;  he was like the present minerals in this respect, and by nature he
was inert and passive.
   By absorbing the crystalloids prepared by plants he evolved a vital  body
during the Hyperborean Epoch and became plant-like both in constitution  and by
nature, for he lived without exertion and as unconsciously as the plants.
   Later  he  extracted  milk  from the then stationary animals.  Desire for
this more readily digestible food spurred him on to exertion,  and gradually
his  desire nature was evolved during the Lemurian Epoch.   Thus  he  became
constituted like the present day Herbivora. Though possessed of a
passional nature,  he was docile and could not be induced to fight save to
defend himself,  his mate, and family.  Hunger alone had the power to make him
aggressive.
   Therefore,  when animals began to move and sought to elude this  ruthless
parasite,  increasing difficulty of obtaining the coveted food  aroused  his
craving  to such an extent that when he had hunted and caught an animal,  he
was no longer content to suck its udders dry but commenced to feed upon  its
blood and flesh.  Thus he became as ferocious as our present day
Carnivora.
   Digestion  of flesh food requires much more powerful chemical action  and
speedy  elimination of the waste than that of a vegetable diet as proved  by
chemical analysis of the gastric juices from animals,  and by the fact  that
the  intestines  of  Herbivora are many times longer than those  of  a
carnivorous animal of even size.   Carnivora easily become drowsy and averse to
exertion.
   When prodded by the pangs of hunger the ferocious wolf does indeed pursue
its prey with unwavering perseverance,  and the spring of the crouching king of
beasts overmatches the speed of the wing-footed deer.   By ambush the feline
family foil the fleetest in their attempts to escape.  The  cunning  of the
fox is proverbial,  and the slinking nocturnal habits of the hyena  and kindred
scavengers illustrate the depth of depravity resulting from a  diet of decayed
flesh.
   The  vices generated by flesh eating may be said to be lassitude,  ferocity,
low cunning,  and depravity.   We may tame the herbivorous ox and  elephant.
Their diet makes them docile and stores enormous power which  they obediently
use in our service to perform prolonged and arduous labor.   The flesh  food
required by the constitutional peculiarities of Carnivora  makes them dangerous
and incapable of thorough domestication.   A cat may  scratch at any moment,
and the muzzling ordinances of large cities are ample  proof of the danger of
dogs.   Besides,  energy contained in the diet of Carnivora is  so largely
expended in digestion that they are drowsy and  unfitted  for sustained labor
like the horse or elephant.
   The  drowsiness following a heavy meal of meat is too well known  to
require  argument,  and the custom of taking stimulants with food is an
outgrowth of the desire to counteract the deadening effect of dead flesh.   The
intensified  effect of feasting upon flesh in an advanced state of
decay is well illustrated in "society," where banquets of game that is
"high" are accompanied by orgies of the wildest nature and followed by
indulgence of  the vilest instincts.
   The Westerner who can live upon a clean,  sweet,  wholesome diet of
vegetables, cereals and fruit, does not become drowsy from his food;  he  needs
no stimulant.   There are no vegetarian drunkards.   The soothing
effects of vegetable food manifest as finer feelings,  which replace the
ferocity fostered  by flesh food.   Many need the mixed diet yet,  for the
practice  of flesh eating has furthered the progress of the world as nothing
else  except perhaps its companion vice — drunkenness;  and though we cannot say
that they have  been a blessing in disguise,  they have at least not been
unmitigated curses,  for in the Father's kingdom all seeming evil nevertheless
works for good  in some respect,  though it may not be apparent upon the
surface.   We shall see how presently.
   A private corporation, the East India Company,  commenced and practically
achieved the subjugation of India with her three hundred million people, for
the  English are voracious flesh eaters, while the Hindu's diet fosters
docility.   But when England fought the flesh eating Boers,  Greek met  Greek,
and  the  valor  displayed by both sides is a matter  of  brilliant  record.
Courage, physical as well as moral, is a virtue and cowardice a vice.  Flesh
has fostered self-assertion and helped us to develop backbone, though
unfortunately  often at the expense of others who still retain the wishbone.
It has done more as will be illustrated:
   As  said previously,  the crouching cat is forced to employ  strategy  to
save strength when procuring its prey,  so that it may retain sufficient energy
to  digest  the  victim.  Thus  brain  becomes  the ally of brawn.  In ancient
Atlantis desire for flesh developed the ingenuity of primitive  man and led
him to trap the elusive denizens of field and forest.   The hunter's snare
was among the first labor-saving devices — which mark the beginning  of the
evolution of mind, and of the uncompromising, unflagging struggle of the meat
fed mind for supremacy over matter.
   We say "the meat fed mind," and we reiterate it,  because we wish
to emphasize  that  it is by the nations which have adopted flesh food  that
the most noteworthy progress has been made.   The further west we travel,  the
more the consumption  of meat increases as does the disinclination for  bodily
exercise, and consequently the activity of the mind is increased to a higher
and higher  pitch  in  the  invention of  labor-saving  devices.   The
American agriculturists' acres are counted by thousands, and they harvest large
crops with  less labor.  The meat fed, progressive Westerner turns power-driven implements into his  fertile fields and sits down in a comfortable seat to watch them  work.
   Thus  the indomitable courage and energy which have transformed the  face of
the  Western World are virtues directly traceable to flesh  food,  which also
fosters love of ease and invention of labor-saving devices; while alcohol
stimulates enterprise in execution of schemes thus hatched  to  procure the
maximum of comfort with a minimum of labor.
   But  the spirit of alcohol is obtained by a process of fermentation.   It is
a spirit of decay, altogether different from the spirit of
life in man. This counterfeit spirit lures man on and on,  always holding
before his vision the dreams of future grandeur,  and goading him to
strenuous efforts of body and mind in order to attain and obtain.   Then when
he has achieved and attained, he awakens to the utter worthlessness of his
prize. Possession soon shatters  illusion as to the worth of whatever he may
have acquired; nothing the world has to give can finally satisfy.
Then again the lethal draught drowns  disappointment,  and the mind conjures up
a  new illusion. This he pursues with fresh zeal and high hopes, to meet
disappointment again and again,  for lives and lives,  until at last he learns
that "wine is a mocker," and that "all is vanity but to serve God and to do
His will."
XII. A Living Sacrifice
    Volumes, or rather libraries, have been written to explain the nature of
God,  but  it is probably a universal experience that the more  we  read  of
other people's explanations,  the less we understand.  There is one
description, given by the inspired apostle John when he wrote "God is
Light," which is  as  illuminating as the others are befogging to the
mind.   Anyone who takes this passage for meditation occasionally will find a
rich reward waiting,  for no matter how many times we take up this subject, our
own development  in the passing years assures us each time a fuller and  better
understanding.   Each  time we sink ourselves in these three words we lave  in
a spiritual fountain of inexhaustible depth, and each succeeding time we sound
more  thoroughly  the divine depths and draw more closely to our  Father  in
heaven.
   To get in touch with our subject, let us go back in time to get our bearing
and the direction of our future line of progress.
   The  first  time  our consciousness was directed towards  the  Light  was
shortly  after  we had become endowed with mind and had  entered  definitely
upon our evolution as human beings in Atlantis,  the land of the mist,  deep
down in the basins of the earth,  where the warm mist emitted from the cooling
earth hung like a dense fog over the land.   Then the starry heights  of the
universe were never seen,  nor could the silvery light of the moon  penetrate
the dense, foggy atmosphere which hung over that ancient land.   Even the fiery
splendor of the sun was almost totally extinguished,  for when  we look in the
Memory of Nature pertaining to that time,  it appears very  much as an arc lamp
on a high pole looks to us when it is foggy.   It was exceedingly dim, and had
an aura of various colors, very similar to those which we observe around an arc
light.
   But this light had a fascination.  The ancient Atlanteans were taught  by
the divine Hierarchs who walked among them, to aspire to the light,  and  as
the  spiritual sight was then already on the wane (even the  messengers,  or
Elohim,  being perceived with difficulty by the majority),  they aspired all
the  more ardently to the new light, for they feared the darkness  of  which
they had become conscious through the gift of mind.
   Then  came the inevitable flood when the mist cooled and condensed.   The
atmosphere  cleared,  and  the  "chosen  people" were saved.  Those
who had worked within themselves and learned to build the necessary organs
required to breathe in an atmosphere such as we have today,  survived and came
to the light.   It was not an arbitrary choice; the work of the past
consisted of body  building.  Those who had only gill clefts,  such as the
fetus  still uses  in its prenatal development,  were unfit physiologically to
enter  the new era as the fetus would be to be born were it to neglect to
build lungs. It would die as those ancient people died when the rare atmosphere
made gill clefts useless.
   Since  the day when we came out of ancient Atlantis our bodies have  been
practically complete,  that is to say, no new vehicles are to be added;  but
from  that  time  and from now on those who wish to follow  the  light
must strive for soul growth. The bodies which we have crystallized about
us must be dissolved,  and the quintessence of experience extracted, which as
"soul" may be  amalgamated  with the spirit to nourish it from  impotence  to
omnipotence.  Therefore, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was given to the
ancients, and the light of God descended upon the Altar of Sacrifice.
This is of great significance:  The ego had just descended into its tabernacle,
the body.   We all know the tendency of the primitive instinct towards
selfishness, and if we have studied the higher ethics we also know how
subversive of good the indulgence of the egotistic tendency is; therefore,  God
immediately placed before mankind the Divine Light upon the Altar of Sacrifice.
   Upon  this altar they were forced by dire necessity to offer their
cherished possessions for every transgression,  God appearing to them as a
hard taskmaster whose displeasure it was dangerous to incur.  But still the
Light drew them.   They knew then that it was futile to attempt to escape from
the hand of God.   They had never heard the words of John, "God is Light,"
but they  had already learned from the heavens in a measure the meaning  of
infinitude,  as  measured by the realm of light,  for we hear  David  exclaim:
"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?  or whither shall I flee from thy
presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in
hell, thou art there.   If I take the wings of the morning,  and dwell in the
uttermost  part of the sea,  even there shall thy hand lead me and  thy right
hand shall hold me.  If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me,  even the
night shall be light about me.  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee,  but
the night shineth as the day,  for the darkness and the light are both alike to
thee."
   With  every  year that passes,  with the aid of the  greatest  telescopes
which the ingenuity and mechanical skill of man have been able to  construct to
pierce the depths of space,  it becomes more evident that the  infinitude of
light teaches us the infinitude of God.   When we hear that  "men  loved
darkness  rather  than  Light because their deed were evil," that also rings
true to what we unfortunately know as present day facts,  and illumines  the
nature of God for us;  for is it not true that we always feel endangered  in
the dark, but that the light gives us a sense of safety which is akin to the
feeling of a child who feels the protecting hand of its father?
   To  render  permanent this condition of being in the Light was  the  next
step in God's work with us, which culminated in the birth of Christ,  who as
the bodily presence of the Father, bore about in Himself that Light, for the
Light came into the world that whosoever should believe in Christ should not
perish,  but have everlasting life.  He said, "I am the Light of the World."
The  altar in the Tabernacle had illustrated the principle of  sacrifice  as
the medium of regeneration,  so Christ said to His disciples:  Greater  love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.  Ye are my
friends.  And forthwith He commenced a sacrifice, which, contrary to the
accepted orthodox opinion was not consummated in a few hours of physical
suffering  upon a material cross,  but is as perpetual as were  the  sacrifices
made upon the altar of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness,  for it entails  an
annual  descent  into the earth and an endurance of all  that  the  cramping
earth conditions must mean to such a great spirit.
   This must continue till a sufficient number have evolved who can bear the
burden of this dense lump  of  darkness which  we call the earth, and
which hangs  as a millstone about the neck of humanity,  an impediment to
further spiritual growth.   Until we learn to follow "in His steps,"  we can
rise no higher towards the Light.
   It is related that when Leonardo da Vinci had completed his famous painting
"The Last Supper,"  he asked a friend to look at it and tell him what he
thought of it.
   The friend looked at it critically for a few minutes and then said:
   "I  think you have made a mistake in painting the goblets from which  the
apostles  drink so ornamental and to resemble gold.   People in their
positions would not drink from such expensive vessels."
   Da Vinci then drew his brush through the entire set of vessels which  had
drawn  the  criticism  of his friend,  but he was heartbroken,  for  he  had
painted  that picture with his soul rather than with his hands,  and he  had
prayed over it that it might speak a message to the world.   He had put  all
the  greatness  of his art and the whole-hearted devotion of his  soul  into
that effort to paint a Christ who should speak the word that would lead  men to
emulate His deeds.
   Can you see Him as He sits there at that festive board, the Embodiment of Light,  and speaks those wonderful, mystic words:  This is my body,  this
is my blood, given for you —  a living sacrifice.
   In  the  past period of our spiritual career we have been looking  for  a
Light exterior to ourselves,  but now we have arrived at the point
where  we must look for the Christ light within and emulate Him by making of
ourselves "living sacrifices" as He is doing.  Let us remember that when the
sacrifice which  lies before our door seems pleasant and to our liking,  when
we  seem able to pick and choose our work in His vineyard and do what pleases
us,  we are  not making a real sacrifice as He did,  nor are we when we are
seen  of men and applauded for our benevolence.   But when we are ready to
follow Him from that festive board where He was the honored one among friends,
into the garden of Gethsemane where He was alone and wrestled with the
great problem before Him while His friends slept, then are we making a living
sacrifice.
   When  we  are  content  to  follow  "in  His  steps"  to  that  point  of
self-sacrifice  where we can say from the bottom of our hearts,  "Thy will,
not mine," then we have surely the light within, and there will
never henceforth be for us that which we feel as darkness.  We shall walk
in the light.
   This is our glorious privilege,  and the meditation upon the words of the
apostle,  "God is Light," will help us to realize this ideal provided we add to
our faith,  works, and say by our deeds as did the Christ of da Vinci,
"This is my body and this is my blood," a living sacrifice upon the
altar of humanity.
Reference: Gleanings of a Mystic, by Max Heindel (1865-1919)
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