THE   HOLY   GRAIL

 THE       DIVINE    LOVE    OF    PUREST     JUSTIFICATION     ( JUSTICE )

                                                                                                             THE   HOLY   GRAIL.

Manifold are the interpretations of the legends which exist about the Holy Grail.

 The most serious scholars and investigators have occupied themselves with this mystery. 

Much of their work has high moral value, but it all shows one great fault - that they have only built from the earth upwards, while the essential thing, the ray of light from above, which alone could bring animation and enlightenment, is missing. 

All who strive from below upwards must come to a halt at the boundary line of the material sphere, even if they are granted to conceive the greatest possible heights! In most cases, however, even under the most favourable conditions, barely half this road can be covered. 

And how great is the distance from there to the real understanding of the Holy Grail! 

This feeling that it is so unattainable finally grows upon the investigators, with the result that they try to regard the Grail purely as the symbolic expression of an idea, so as to give it the high place they rightly feel is its proper due. 

But in so doing they actually go backwards, not forwards; downwards into some extent in the legends. 

These legends faintly reflect the truth, but only very faintly, because the lofty inspirations and visionary pictures of the poets were pressed into far too material a concept through the intervention of the intellect during the transmission. 

In their reproduction they portrayed what they received spiritually in pictures conforming to their worldly surroundings, with the object of making the meaning of the legends more readily understandable to men. 

In this, however, they failed because they themselves could not arrive at the essence of the truth.

 Thus from the very outset the subsequent research and investigation was founded upon an uncertain basis, and any success was bound to be very limited! Therefore it is not surprising that finally only the thought of something purely symbolic remained, and redemption through the Holy Grail was transferred to every man's inmost self.

 The existing interpretations are not without great ethical value, but they cannot claim to be an explanation of the legends, much less to approach the truth about the Holy Grail. 

Nor is the Holy Grail meant to be the cup which the Son of God used during His last meal with His Disciples at the end of His Ministry on earth, and in which His blood was afterwards caught when He was on the cross!

 This vessel is a sacred memento of the Son of God's sublime work of redemption, but it is not the Holy Grail of which the poets of the legends were mercifully granted to sing praises.

 These legends have been misinterpreted by mankind!

 They were meant to be promises from the Highest heights, the fulfilment of which mankind is to wait! Had they been interpreted as such, surely another way would have long since been found to take the investigations a little further.

 As it was, however, all their interpretations had finally to come to a dead stop because a full and complete solution could never be reached; owing to the false conceptions of the past, all the investigations started on a wrong basis from the very beginning! - - 

No human spirit, even if it has finally attained its greatest perfection and immortality, will ever be able to face the Holy Grail Itself! 

It is for this reason that, unless a Messenger is ''sent from there'', no detailed tidings about It can ever reach the World of Matter! 

Thus the Holy Grail will remain a mystery to the human spirit for all eternity! 

Man should keep to what he can grasp spiritually and, above all, he should try to fulfil what lies in his power and develop it to its most noble state of perfection!

 Unfortunately, however, he is always too anxious to reach out far beyond these limits without developing his essential abilities! 

Thereby he is guilty of a negligence which prevents him even from reaching what he otherwise could, whereas in any case he could never attain the goal of his desires. 

He thus deprives himself of the most beautiful and sublime part of his true being with the result that he completely fails to fulfil the purpose of his existence! - - -  

Parsifal is a great promise! 

The defects and errors which the poets have added to the legends through their too earthly way of thinking distort the true essence of this figure.

 Parsifal is identical with the Son of Man, Whose coming the Son of God Himself proclaimed.

 As a Divine Messenger with His spiritual sight blindfolded.

 He will have to go through the most bitter hardships on earth, outwardly a man among men. 

After a certain time, when His spiritual sight is restored, He will inevitably recognise His origin and therewith Himself, as well as clearly realising His mission. 

This mission will bring redemption to those who are seriously seeking, and goes hand in hand with a stern judgment. 

For this purpose not just anybody can be chosen, much less can the possible experiences of many people, or even of all people, be seen in it.

 On the contrary, it will only be a very definite and special Messenger! 

The immutable lawfulness of Divine Will decrees that everything, after it has completed its cycle of development and reached its highest state of perfection, may return to the  starting point of its original substance, but never beyond it. 

Thus also the human spirit!

 The human spirit originates as a spirit - germ in the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality, to which it may return as a conscious spirit embodied in a substantiate form if, after its course through the World of Matter, it has achieved its highest state of perfection and attained a living purity. 

No spirit belonging to this sphere, however sublime, pure and radiant, can cross the boundary line into the Divine Sphere! 

The boundary line here, and the impossibility of crossing it, as in the spheres or planes of material Creation, is in the nature of things simply a question of the difference between the species. 

The highest and the most sublime is God Himself in His Divine Unsubstantiality. 

Next,  and somewhat lower, comes Divine Substantiality.

 Both are eternal.

 Adjacent to this, going deeper and deeper, follows the work of Creation which, descending in planes or spheres, becomes denser and denser down to the World of Gross Matter, which is finally visible to mankind. 

The ethereal part within the World of Matter is what men call beyond, thus what lies beyond their earthly or physical capacity to see.

 Both, however, belong to the Work of Creation and are not eternal with regard to their form, but subject to change for the purpose of renewal and regeneration.

 At the summit of the eternal Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality stands the Castle of the Grail, spiritually visible and tangible, because it is still of the same species of spiritual substantiality.

 This Castle of the Grail contains a Sanctuary which lies on the outermost border adjacent to the Divine Sphere, and is thus of still finer consistency than the rest of spiritual substantiality.

 In this Sanctuary, as a pledge of the eternal Goodness of God the Father, as a symbol of His Purest Divine Love, and the point from which Divine Power issues, ''stands the Holy Grail!'' 

This is a chalice in which it bubbles and surges unceasingly like red blood without overflowing. 

Enveloped as it is in the most Luminous Light, it is granted only to the purest of all spirits in the Realm of Spiritual Substantiality to look into this Light! ''These'' are the Guardians of the Holy Grail! 

If it i stills said in the legends that the purest of men are destined to become Guardians of the Grail, this is a point about which the blessed poet has drawn all too earthly a picture, because he was unable to express himself differently! 

No human spirit can enter  this holy Sanctuary! 

Even in its most perfect state of spiritual substantiality, after having returned from its wanderings through the World of Matter, it is still not so fine that it could cross this threshold, i.e., the boundary line! Even in its highest state of perfection it is still too dense to do so! 

A still further etherisation would be equivalent to its complete disintegration or combustion, because the origin of its nature does not lend itself to assuming even greater radiance and luminosity, thus becoming still more etherised.

 It cannot bear it!

 The Guardians of the Grail are Eternal Primordial Spiritual Beings, who never were human beings. 

They are the highest of all in the Realm of Spiritual Substantiality.

 However, they are in need of Divine Unsubstantiate Power, are dependent upon It, as all else is dependent on Divine Unsubstantiality, the Source of all Power, God the Father!

 From time to time on the Day of the Holy Dove, the Dove appears above the Chalice as a renewed token of the unalterable Divine Love of the Father. 

It is the hour of communion which brings about the renewal of power.

 The Guardians of the Grail receive it in humble devotion and can then transmit this magic power.

 ''On this depends the existence of the whole Creation!'' 

It is the moment in which the Love of the Creator radiantly flows forth in the Temple of the Holy Grail, bringing new life and new urge to create, pulsating downwards and diffusing itself through all the Universe. 

A trembling and a holy awe, with forebodings of joy and great happiness, vibrate through all the spheres.

 Only the spirit of earthman still stand aside, without intuitively sensing what is happening particularly to him at that moment; or in what dull - witted manner he accepts such immeasurable gift, because the limitations he imposed upon himself through his intellect no longer permit him to grasp such greatness! 

''It is the moment when a new supply of vital energy is sent out into the entire Creation!'' 

It is necessary, ever - recurring ratification of the Covenant between the Creator and His Work!

 Should this supply ever be cut off, should it ever fail to come, inevitably all that exists would slowly dry up, grow old and disintegrate.

 The end of all days would then come, and only God Himself would remain, as it was in the very beginning, because He alone is Life! 

This process is related in the legend. 

How everything must grow old and decay if the Day of the Holy Dove, the ''uncovering'' of the Grail, does not recur is even hinted at in the description of the growing old of the Knights of the Grail, during the time in which Amfortas no longer uncovers the Grail till the hour in which Parsifal appears as King of the Grail. 

Man should cease to regard the Holy Grail as only something intangible, for It really exists! 

The human spirit, however, owing to his nature, can never behold It. 

But the blessing radiating forth from It, which can be and is being passed on by the Guardians of the Grail, can be absorbed and enjoyed by those human spirits who open themselves to it.

 In this sense some of the interpretations cannot be called wrong, as long as they do not try to draw the Holy Grail Itself into their explanations. 

They are correct, and yet again they are also not correct! 

The appearance of the Dove on the special Day of the Holy Dove indicates the sending of the Holy Spirit on each occasion, for this Dove stands in very close connection with the Holy Spirit.

 But this is something which the human spirit is only able to grasp figuratively, because by the very nature of things, even if he has attained the highest perfection, he can really only think, know and perceive intuitively up to the point from which he himself came, i.e., to the species ''homogeneous'' to the purest nature of his origin.

 This is the eternal Realm of Spiritual Substantiality. 

Even in his thoughts he will never be able to cross this boundary!

 Nor can he ever grasp anything beyond it. 

This is so self - evident, so logical and simple, that every human being can follow this train of thought! 

Whatever goes beyond this boundary will and must, for this reason, remain a perpetual mystery to mankind!

 Every man, therefore, who imagines that he bears within himself or that he is himself Divine, or can become so, lives under a foolish delusion.

 He bears ''spirituality'' within himself, but ''not'' Divinity! And therein lies an unbridgeable difference. 

He is a creature, not a part of the Creator, as so many try to make themselves believe. 

Man is and remain a ''work'' and can never become a master! 

Thus it is also wrong to say that the human spirit issues from God the Father Himself and return to Him. 

The origin of man lies in Realm of ''Spiritual Substantiality'', not in the Divinity Unsubstantiate.

 Therefore, even if he has attained perfection, he can only return to the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality.

 It is right to say that the human spirit originates from the ''Kingdom of God'' and therefore can, when it becomes perfect, return to the ''Kingdom'' of God, but not to God Himself. 

Later there will follow detailed lectures about the individual divisions of Creation, which are totally different in their fundamental nature. 

At the summit of each of these planes of Creation stands a Castle of the Grail as the necessary transition and power transmitting stage. 

Fashioned according to the nature of the sphere Creation concerned, this is always a reflection of the real highest Castle of the Grail situated at the summit of the whole of Creation which, through the radiations of Parsifal, constitutes the starting point of the entire Creation. 

Amfortas was priest and king in the ''lowest'' of these reflections of the Grail Castle, standing at the summit of the sphere of the human spirits who have developed from spirit - germs. It is the one closest to man on earth.    

                                                                                               THE    MYSTERY   OF   LUCIFER.

A GREY veil shrouds all that appertains to the figure of Lucifer, and it is as though everybody shrinks from lifting a corner of it. 

In truth this shrinking back is nothing but man's inability to penetrate into the realm of Darkness.

 Again this inability simply lies in the order of things, for here as elsewhere a limit is set upon the human spirit owing to its nature, which prevents it from penetrating so far.

 Just as it is unable to reach the Highest Heights, so also is it unable to penetrate to the deepest depths, nor will it ever be able to do so! 

Thus the imagination created substitutes for what was missing; it created a diversity of beings! 

People speak of the devil in the most adventurous forms, of the fallen and expelled archangel, of the embodiment of the evil principle, and all the rest of it. Nothing is understood of Lucifer's true nature, although the human spirit is often struck by him, and consequently thrown into a state of great inner conflict, which can be likened to a battle! 

Those who speak of a fallen archangel, as all those who speak of the embodiment of the evil principle, come closest to the truth.

 But here also a false attitude prevails, giving a false picture of everything. 

An embodiment of the evil principle makes one think of the summit, of the final goal, of all evil having been invested with life and body, thus the crowning, the complete culmination!

 On the contrary, however, Lucifer is the ''origin'', the ''starting point'' and the driving power of the wrong principle! 

One should really not call the principle he brings forth ''evil'' principle, but the ''wrong'' principle!

 The field of action of this wrong principle is the World of Matter.

 It is only here that the effects of the Light and the effects of Darkness, the two opposing principles, meet with one another, and constantly influence the human soul while it is developing on its journey through the World of Matter.

 Whichever of the two the human soul favours, in accordance with its own wishes, proves decisive for its ascent toward the Light or its descent toward Darkness.

 The gulf which lies between Light and Darkness is immense.

 It is filled by that part of Creation called the World of Matter, which is subject to the transient nature of the forms, that is, to the disintegration of the forms existing at the time and to a subsequent reconstruction. 

Since according to the Laws which the Will of God the Father has placed in Creation a cycle can only be considered completed and fulfilled when it ends up by returning to its origin, so also the cycle of a human spirit can only be considered fulfilled when it returns to the Spiritual Realm, because that is where its spirit - germ originated.

 If a human spirit permits itself to deviate towards Darkness, it runs the risk of being drawn beyond the outermost circle of its normal course towards a depth from which it can then no longer find its way back in order to ascend. 

Nor can it step even deeper over the extreme boundary of densest and deepest ethereal darkness and thus completely out of the World of Matter, as it could do in the upward direction into the Realm of Spiritual Substantiality, because the latter is its point of origin.

 And so it is constantly drawn along in the mighty cycle of material Creation until it is finally drawn into disintegration, because its ethereally dark and therefore dense and heavy garment, which is also called the ethereal body, holds it down. 

This disintegration then dissolves the spiritual personality it has acquired on its course through Creation, so that it suffers spiritual death and is dispersed to primordial spiritual seed.

 Lucifer himself stands ''outside'' material Creation and will therefore ''not'' be drawn into the disintegration which is the fate of the victims of his principle, because Lucifer is eternal. 

His origin lies in a part of the Sphere of Divine Substantiality. 

The dissension started after the creation of all matter had begun.

 Sent out to support Spiritual Substantiality and further its development in the World of Matter, he failed to carry out his mission in accordance with the Creative Will of God the Father but, through a volition which came to him while working in matter, he chose ways other than those ordained by this Creative Will.

 Misusing the power delegated to him, he introduced among other things the principle of temptation in place of the principle of supporting help, which is identical with serving love; serving love in the Divine sense, which has nothing in common with slavish servility, but only has the spiritual ascent and thereby the eternal happiness of his fellow man at heart and acts accordingly! 

The principle of temptation, however, is identical with setting of snares which cause creatures who are not sufficiently strong within themselves quickly to stumble, fall and become lost, whereas others, it is true, grow stronger and more alert so as to blossom forth powerfully towards spiritual heights. 

But all that is weak is irrevocably abandoned to destruction from the start. 

This principle knows of no goodness, no compassion; it is wanting in the love of God the Father, and therewith also in the mightiest power to ascend and in the strongest support available.

 The temptation in Paradise described in the Bible shows the effect produced by the application of the Lucifer principle. 

It depicts how, through temptation, it tries to test the strength or steadfastness of the human couple, only to thrust them pitilessly on the road to destruction at the least sign of wavering. 

Steadfastness would have been identical with a joyful adjustment to the Will of God which lies in the simple Laws of Nature or Laws of Creation. 

And this Will, the Divine Command, was well known to the human couple.

 Not to hesitate would have been the same as obeying these laws.

 Only through such obedience can man make proper and unlimited use of them and thus become truly ''a lord in Creation'', because he is ''in harmony with them''! 

If he does not put himself into opposition, all the powers will serve him and work automatically in his favour.

 This then holds the fulfilment of the Creator's commandments which have but one aim - to preserve and maintain undimmed and unhampered all the possibilities of development that lie in His wonderful work.

 The simple observance of this means in turn consciously to co - operate in the further sound development of Creation or the World of Matter. 

He who fails in this is an obstacle which must either be hewn into the right shape or left to be crushed in the wheels of the world's mechanism, that is, in the Laws of Creation.

 He who will not bend must break, as there can be no stagnation!

 Lucifer refuses to wait with kindness for man gradually to mature and become strong. 

He refuses to  be the loving gardener that he should be, caring for, supporting and tending the plants entrusted to him. 

With him ''the wolf'' literally ''came to mind the sheep''!

 HIs goal is destruction of all that is weak, and he works relentlessly towards that end.

 At the same time he despises the victims who succumb to his temptations an snares, and it is his wish that they should be destroyed in their weakness! 

He is also contemptuous of the baseness and means which these fallen victims show in the working out of his principle, for it is only men who turn it into the loathsome villainy which is so evident.

 Through this they only incense Lucifer the more to regard them as creatures who deserve nothing but destruction, not love and care!

 To achieve this destruction not a little is contributed by the principle of ''letting oneself go'', which follows as a natural consequence of the principle of temptation. 

This ''letting oneself go'' takes place in the lower regions of Darkness but, through so -  called psych - analysis, some practitioners have already accepted it on the assumption that here on earth also ''letting oneself go'' liberates and matures.

 But what dreadful misery must the practice of this principle cause here on earth! 

What mischief must it bring since, in contrast with the regions of Darkness where only homogeneous species are together, on earth both darker and lighter souls dwell side by side!

 In this respect you need only to think of sexual life and similar things. 

If such a principle was put into practice and let loose on mankind, it must ultimately create nothing but a Sodom and Gomorrah from which there would be no escape, and only the most abject terror could bring it to an end! 

Quite apart from this, however, one already sees numerous victims of similar therapies wandering about today without any hold on life, whose little bit of self - reliance and, on the whole, all their individual thinking have been completely picked to pieces and destroyed when they had confidently expected help. They are like people whose clothing has been systematically torn from their bodies so that they are then forced to put on new garments handed to them. However, in most cases these denuded ones unfortunately can no longer see why they should put on any new clothing at all!

 Through the systematic intrusion into their most intimate affairs and rights they have gradually lost the feeling of shame which is integral part of personal self - consciousness, a part of the personality, and without which there can be nothing individual. 

On such uprooted soil no new solid building can be erected. 

With few exceptions these people remain dependent and sometimes actually become helpless, because the small hold they formerly possessed has been taken from them. 

Both the principles of ''letting oneself go'' and of temptation are so closely connected that temptation must without doubt precede ''letting oneself go''.

 The latter is thus a direct following and spreading of the Lucifer principle. 

The true physician of the soul does not need to tear down. 

He recognises the slumbering good qualities, awaken them and then builds upon them. 

The true principle brings about a transformation of wrong desires through a spiritual understanding!  

The application of his loveless principle, however, quite naturally separated Lucifer more and more from the Loving Will of the Almighty Creator, causing him to be cut off and cast out from the Light.

 Consequently he fell ever deeper. 

Lucifer is one who severed himself from the Light, which is equivalent to having been cast out. 

This expulsion was also bound to occur according to the existing Primordial Laws, the irrevocable Holy Will of God the Father! 

It could not possibly happen otherwise! 

Since only the Will of God the Father, of the Creator of all things, is omnipotent, and also firmly anchored in material Creation and its development,

 Lucifer can quite well send his principle into the material sphere, but the resulting effects will always and only operate within the Primordial Laws ordained by God the Father and must form themselves accordingly! 

Thus, in pursuit of his erroneous principle, Lucifer can incite men to set out on a road dangerous to them, but he is u unable in any way to force men into something unless they themselves decide upon it voluntarily! 

In fact Lucifer can only lure!

 But man as such stands more firmly in material Creation than he does, therefore with much greater security and power than any influence of Lucifer could ever wield over him.

 Thus every man is so well protected that it is a tenfold shame upon him if he permits himself to be enticed by this power, which is a relatively weaker power than his! 

He should remember that Lucifer himself stands ''outside'' the material sphere, while he himself is firmly rooted in familiar soil! 

In order to apply his principle Lucifer is forced to make use of auxiliary troops, composed of human spirits who have succumbed to his temptations!

 The spirit of every man striving upwards is not only fully able to deal with them, but is far superior in strength. 

One single, serious volition suffices to make an of them vanish without trace, providing their enticements meet with no response or approval to which they can cling.

 Lucifer would indeed be quite powerless if mankind would make the effort to recognise and follow the Primordial Laws given by the Creator. 

Unfortunately, however, men increasingly support the wrong principle through their present behaviour, and the greater part of them will therefore have to perish! 

It is impossible for any human spirit to fight a battle against Lucifer himself for the simple reason that, owing to the difference in the nature of their species, it cannot penetrate to him.

 The human spirit can only come in contact with those who have fallen through the wrong principle because they are basically of the same species.

 The origin of Lucifer requires that only he who is of the same or of higher origin can personally approach and face him, and so none other can penetrate to him.

 It must be a Divine Envoy, armed with the sacred seriousness of His Mission and with perfect trust in the Source of All Power, in God the Father Himself! This task has been delegated to the prophesied Son of Man!

 The combat will be a personal one, face to face, not only a general symbolical one, as many investigators want to interpret from the prophesies.

 It is the fulfilment of the promise given in Parsifal.

 Lucifer has wrongly used the ''Holy Spear'', the Power, and through his principle inflicted a painful wound with it upon humanity and thus upon the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality. 

The spear will be wrested from him in this combat. 

Then, in the ''proper hands'', that is, by applying the true Grail principle of pure, severe love, it will heal the wound previously inflicted by it while in the wrong hand, that is, through its wrong use.

 Through the Lucifer principle, that is, through the wrong application of Divine Power, which is the same as the ''Holy Spear'' being wielded in the wrong hand, a wound ''that cannot heal'' has been inflicted upon the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality. 

In the legend this thought is portrayed in striking manner, for the happening does resemble an open wound that will not heal. 

It should be realised that the human spirits, as unconscious spirit - germs or sparks, leap or flow over the boundary of the lowest region of Spiritual Substantiality into material Creation! 

The expectation is that these outflowing particles, having been awakened and developed to personal consciousness during their wanderings in the World of Matter, will return thereafter to the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality in order to complete their cycles.

 This is similar to the circulation of the blood in the physical body. 

The Lucifer principle, however, diverts a large portion of this circulation spiritual stream. 

Thus the necessary cycle cannot be closed, the result being a weakening as from the continual ''draining'' of an open wound!

 When now the ''Holy Spear'', i.e., the Divine Power, is wielded in the ''proper'' hand, acting according to the Will of Creator and showing the right way to spiritual substance which constitutes an animating factor in Matter, thereby leading it upwards to its point of origin, to the luminous Kingdom of God the Father, the spiritual substance will no longer become lost, but will flow back to its origin as the blood does to the heart.

 As a result the exuding wound, which up till then weakened the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality, will be ''closed''! 

Thus the healing can only take place through the same Spear as inflicted the wound! 

To achieve this, however, the Spear must first be wrested from Lucifer and come into the proper hand, and this takes place in the ''personal'' combat between Parsifal and Lucifer!

 The further battles which extend into the Ethereal and Gross Material Worlds are but the after - effects of this one great combat, which must bring about the promised binding of Lucifer and herald the beginning of the Millennium! 

They mean the extermination of the consequences of the Lucifer principle! 

This principle is opposed to the origin of Divine Love, the blessings of which fall to man's share on his journey through the World of Matter. 

If men would simply strive after this Divine Love they would immediately become completely invulnerable to every temptation of Lucifer, and he would be robbed of all the terror the human spirit has woven around him. 

The monstrous and hideous forms which man erroneously tries to give to Lucifer are but the confused phantasies of the human brain! 

In truth, for the simple reason that there is a difference in species, no human eye was ever able to behold him, not even the eye which already during life on earth is often able to recognise the Ethereal World of the beyond!  

Contrary to all ideas Lucifer may be called proud and stately, of a supernatural beauty and sombre majesty, with large, clear blue eyes which, however, in their ice - cold expression bear witness to a lack of love! 

He is not only a conception, as he is generally represented when all other interpretations fail, but he is personal!

 Mankind should learn to understand that for them too, on account of their particular species, a limit is set which they can never cross, naturally not even in their thoughts, and that messages can only come to them from beyond this limit as an act of Grace.

 This cannot happen through mediums, who are unable to change their species even under supernatural conditions, and just as little through science. Indeed it is just science which by means of chemistry has the opportunity to discover that the difference of species can create insurmountable barriers! These laws, however, proceed from the Highest Source and are not merely to be found in the work of Creation!

                                                                        THE  REGIONS  OF  DARKNESS  AND   DAMNATION.

When one looks at pictures suppose to represent life in the so - called hell, one shrugs one's shoulders and dismisses them with half - ironical, half - contemptuous smile, thinking that only morbid imagination or fanatical blind faith can conjure up such scenes. 

Very rarely will anyone seek even for the slightest grain of truth in these pictures.

 And yet the most gruesome imagination can hardly contrive a picture that comes anywhere near depicting the torments of life in the dark regions! 

Poor deluded fools who imagine they can carelessly dismiss it with a mocking shrug of the shoulders!

 In the moment when the appalling truth dawns upon them such carelessness will revenge itself bitterly!

 It will be of no avail to struggle or turn aside; they will be drawn into the whirlpool  awaiting them, unless they can rid themselves in time of the deep - seated ignorance which always characterises the hollowness and narrow - mindedness of such people!

 The ethereal body will hardly have detached itself from the physical body before these souls receive their first great surprise by experiencing that this has not brought conscious being and life to an end. 

As a result they first of all become confused, and then follows an unexpected apprehension, which again often gives place to a state of dull resignation or dreadful despair.

 All resistance is vain; vain are their lamentations and even their pleading, for they must reap what they have sown during their life on earth!

 If they ridiculed the Word brought down to them from God, which points towards life after physical death and the consequent responsibility for every serious thought and action, the least that is awaiting them will be what they themselves willed - ''utter darkness''! 

Their ethereal eyes, ears and mouths are closed through their own volition. 

They are blind, deaf and dumb in their new surroundings! 

That is the most favourable thing that can happen to them! 

A guide and helper from the beyond cannot make himself understood because they keep themselves closed to such possibility. 

A sad condition indeed, which can only be gradually changed by the slow inner maturing of such a soul, which in turn can only come about through an increasing desperation! 

Thus with this ever - increasing longing for light, rising upwards like a perpetual cry for help from such an oppressed and tormented soul, lighter conditions will ultimately prevail around it, until in fact it may also learn to discern others in the same need of help!

 If such a one then feels a desire to help those souls still languishing in greater darkness towards lighter conditions, the exertion required by the effort to help will bring it increased strength, so that others still further advanced may in turn approach and help this soul onwards to more luminous regions. 

Thus these souls squat about objectively because their ethereal bodies have become too enfeebled to walk owing to their negative attitude. 

And if there is any movement at all, it is but a cumbersome and uncertain crawling along the ground! 

Others again grope about in this darkness, and stumble and fall, but quickly get up again, only to bump themselves against this and that, inevitably suffering painful injuries.

 Depending entirely on the nature of its own darkness, on its consequent density and weight, a human soul sinks into that region which exactly accords with its own ethereal gravity and which is thus of the same ethereal species.

 Its new environment will therefore be just as tangible, perceptible and impenetrable as is the gross material environment for a physical body.

 Every knock, every fall, or every injury will be just as painfully felt there as the physical body experienced during its life on the gross material earth.

 Such is the case in every region regardless of its depth or height!

 Everything of like substance has a like tangibleness and a like mutual impenetrability. 

But every higher region or, in other words, every lighter species of substance can penetrate the lower, denser species of substance unhindered; as , for instance, all ethereal substance can penetrate the different texture of the gross material substance.

 The case is different with those souls who, in addition, have to atone for some kind of injustice. 

This is a question which stands on its own, but it can be redeemed the moment the perpetrator can obtain full and genuine pardon from the person he has harmed.

 But what binds a human soul ''more firmly'' is a ''propensity'' or ''craving'' which is the mainspring to one or more deeds! 

This propensity lives on in human soul, even when the latter has passed into the beyond after severance from its physical body. 

As soon as the limitations of everything to do with gross matter fall away, the propensity will immediately become even more pronounced in the ethereal body, because then the intuitive perceptions work with much greater animation and less restraint.

 And again it is such a propensity which will define the density and thus the weight of the ethereal body!

 The result is that, after its liberation from the physical body, the ethereal body will immediately sink to that region which exactly corresponds to its weight and density. 

And there it will also find all those which indulge the same propensity. 

Through their radiations its propensity will be further nourished and intensified, causing it to rage madly while indulging it! 

All the others there will naturally do likewise!

 That such unrestrained raging must be a torment for the surroundings is not hard to understand.

 As in those regions this happens only on a mutual basis, however, every single soul will have to suffer bitterly from the others what in turn it is trying continuously to inflict upon them. 

Thus life there becomes hell, until such a human soul gradually tires of and intuitively feels disgusted by it! 

Then, after a long while, the desire will gradually awaken to get away from such an environment! 

This desire and disgust are the beginning of improvement. 

They will grow into a cry for help and finally into a prayer.

 Only then can a hand be stretched forth to help the soul ascend, but decades, centuries or sometimes even longer may often pass before this happens.

 It is thus the propensity of the human soul which weighs upon and encumbers it most! 

''Hence it follows that an unpremeditated deed can be much more easily and quickly atoned for than a propensity clinging to a human being, no matter whether it is expressed in a deed or not''!  

A person with an unclean propensity which he has never expressed in a deed because his earthly circumstances have favoured him will therefore have to make greater amends than a person who has inadvertently erred through one or more deeds without evil intent. 

The latter can be immediately forgiven his unpremeditated actions without developing evil karma, but a propensity can only be forgiven when it has been completely eradicated from a human being. 

And there are many kinds of propensities! 

 Be it greed and its cousin avarice, sordid sensuality, the urge to steal or murder, incendiarism, or merely fraud or careless negligence; no matter what it is, such a propensity will make the soul concerned sink or be dragged to the region where it will be among its own kind!

 It serves no purpose to give pictures of life in those regions. 

They are often so terrible that a human spirit on earth can hardly believe in their reality without seeing them. 

Even then he would still think they must only be the visions of a feverish and highly fanciful imagination! 

Thus he should be content intuitively to feel a moral shyness in regard to all such evils! 

This will liberate him from the bonds of all that is base so that there will no longer be any obstacle barring his ascent towards the Light. 

Such are the dark regions resulting from the principle Lucifer strives to introduce. 

The eternal cycle of Creation rotates and reaches the point where disintegration begins and all matter loses kits form and reverts to primordial seed which, in rotating further, brings a new blending and new forms with fresh and virgin soil.

 What until then could not detach itself from gross and ethereal matter to cross over the highest, finest and lightest boundary and enter the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality, thereby leaving all matter behind, will inevitably be drawn into the disintegration, whereby its form and whatever else is personal about it will be destroyed!

 And that alone is eternal damnation, the extinction of all conscious personality! 

                                                                          THE   REGIONS   OF   LIGHT   AND   PARADISE.

RADIANT light!

Dazzling purity!

A blissful feeling of lightness!

All this speak for itself so clearly that it is hardly necessary to go into details. 

The less the ethereal body, i.e., the cloak of the human spirit in the beyond, is burdened with some base propensity or with a desire for material things and pleasures, the less it will be attracted by them.

 In this case the ethereal body, which is formed according to its volition, will be less dense and consequently less heavy. 

Through its lightness it will all the more quickly be uplifted to the luminous regions which correspond to its lesser density. 

The less dense, the freer and finer this ethereal body becomes when it is cleansed of all base desires, the brighter and the more luminous it must appear; for then the core of the spiritual substantiality within the human soul, which as such is radiant by nature, will more and more shine forth from within as the ethereal body grows ever more transparent; whereas in the lower regions this radiant core is hidden through the greater density and gravity of the ethereal body and thus remained darkened! 

In the regions of Light every human soul will also meet other souls with ethereal bodies homogeneous to its own, those of a like nature.

 As only that which is truly noble and of genuine goodwill is able to strive upwards free from all base desires, such a human soul will only encounter other souls of equal nobility. 

It is also easy to understand that the dwellers in such a region has no torments to suffer, but only delights in the blessing of the nobleness radiating there, sharing in the joy of others which it also arouses by its own deeds.

 It can truly say that it is wandering in the fields of the blessed, where all is bliss. 

Thus encouraged, its joy for all that is pure and sublime grows ever stronger, lifting it higher and higher! 

Permeated by this intuitive feeling, its ethereal body will become ever finer and less dense, enabling the shining core of spiritual substance to break through ever more radiantly, and finally causing the last remnants of the ethereal body to fall away as if consumed by flames. 

Then the human spirit, having attained a complete and conscious personality by reason of its perfect spiritual nature, can cross the border  into the Realm of Spiritual Substantiality. 

''only then does it enter the Eternal Kingdom of God the Father, the everlasting Paradise!

 Just as it is impossible for a painter to portray the torments of real life in the dark regions, so is it equally impossible for him to depict the rapture which life holds in the light regions, even if these regions still belong to the transient World of Ethereal Matter before the boundary to the Eternal Kingdom of God has been crossed! 

Every painting and every attempt to portray this life in pictures would definitely mean belittling it, and therefore inevitably harm instead of benefit the soul of man!

                                                                                                                                                                                                 CHRISTMAS.

HOLY NIGHT!

 Exultant singing in jubilant gratitude once streamed through all the spheres of Creation when the Son of God Jesus was born in the stable in Bethlehem! And shepherds in the fields, from whose spiritual eyes the bandage was removed during this joyous upheaval of the Universe, so that they could bear witness to this immense happening and thus call people's attention to it, fell upon their knees ''apprehensively'' because they were overwhelmed by what was so new and incomprehensible to them. 

It was ''fear'' on the part of the shepherds, who for this purpose were temporarily made clairvoyant and also clairaudient. 

Fear of the greatness of the happening, of the Omnipotence of God thus made manifest! 

For this reason the herald from the Luminous Heights first spoke to them reassuringly; ''Be not afraid!'' 

Whenever a herald from the Luminous Heights speaks to human beings you will ever again find this words, for it is fear that earthmen always perceive first when seeing and hearing heralds from on high.

 This is called forth by the pressure of the power, to which they are also open a little in such moments. 

But only to the smallest part, for anything more would surely smother and burn them.

 And yet it should be joy, not fear, as soon as the spirit of man strives for the Luminous Heights! 

This did not become manifest to all mankind during the Holy Night! 

The Star became physically visible, but nobody on earth saw this luminous herald and the luminous hosts surrounding him. 

None saw and heard this but the few shepherds chosen for the purpose, who through their simplicity and close connection with Nature could be most easily opened to receive it.

 And such great revelations on earth can never take place other than through a few chosen for the purpose! 

Remember this always! 

For the lawfulness in Creation cannot be annulled on your account! 

Therefore do not build up any fanciful pictures about various happenings, which can never be ''as you'' imagine them to be! 

These are unspoken demands, which never emanate from genuine conviction, but they are a sign of hidden unbelief and spiritual indolence, which has not absorbed my Word of the Message ''in such a manner'' as it demands to enable it to come to life in the human spirit. 

In those days people ''believed'' the shepherds, at least for a short period! 

Today such people are only derided, considered eccentric, or even as impostors wishing to obtain earthly benefits thereby! 

For mankind has sunk far too deeply to be still able to accept calls from the Luminous Heights as genuine, especially when they themselves cannot hear or see anything. 

Do you really believe, men that on the account of your great downfall God will now set aside the perfect Laws in Creation just to serve you, to bridge over your faults Himself, and to balance your spiritual indolence? 

The Perfection of HIs Laws in Creation is and will always remain inviolable, immutable; for they bear the Holy Will of God!

 Thus the great revelations which you expect cannot possibly take place on earth except in that form which you have already known for a long time, and which you also ''acknowledge'' as long as they lie in the distant past. 

Without any hesitation a so - called good  Christian would designate as a blasphemer and see a great sinner ''that'' person who would dare to assert that the announcement to the shepherds of the birth of the Son of God Jesus is a fairy tale.

 Yet the same good Christian rejects with zealous indignation the announcements of the present time, although these are given ''in the same way'' through persons mercifully blessed to do so; and without further ado he calls the bearers blasphemers ''too'', or in the most favourable cases perhaps he calls them simply fantasts or sickly persons, often misguided ones! 

But reflect for yourselves - where is any healthy thinking to be found, where exact deduction, and where justice? 

These opinions of the strict believers - as they like to call themselves - are one - sided and abnormally limited. 

In most cases, however, it is indolence of their spirit and the human conceit always resulting from such indolence on the part of the spiritually weak, who find it difficult to remain clinging convulsively - at least for the sake of appearances - to what they once learned about some former happening, but never really ''experienced inwardly''. 

But they are quite incapable of making spiritual progress, and ''therefore'' reject all the new revelations. 

Who of all believers has yet obtained any idea of the Sublimity of God contained in the happening which took place quietly during that Holy Night through the birth of the Son of God! Who can begin to conceive the Grace which was thus granted as a gift to the earth! 

There was jubilation in the spheres at that time, today sorrow! 

Only on earth many a person seeks to give pleasure to ''himself'' or to others! 

But all this is not done as it ought to be done if the recognition or, for that matter, the true conception of God were astir within the human spirit. 

Could they but vaguely sense the reality all men would experience the same as did the shepherds! 

Indeed the very Greatness of the happening would not possibly permit kit to be otherwise - they would immediately fall upon their knees. . . . .''out of fear!''  For in beginning to perceive this, fear would first of all be bound to arise powerfully and force man down, because with this sensing of God the great guilt, with which man has burdened himself on earth also becomes evident, merely through the indifferent manner in which he accepts God's blessings without really doing anything in return in the service of God! 

How strange it is that every man who once in a while really and truly wishes to experience the Christmas Festival tries to recall childhood! 

This clearly enough indicates ''the fact'' that he is absolutely incapable of experiencing the Christmas Festival as ''a grown - up'' with his ''intuitive perception!'' 

It proves again that he has ''lost''  something he ''possessed'' as a child! 

Why does this not men think?

 Again it is spiritual indolence which prevents them from earnestly considering these matters. 

''This is for children'' they think, and grown - ups have no - time for it whatever! 

They have ''more serious matters'' to think about!

 More serious matters!

 By this they only mean the pursuit of earthly things, which is the work of the intellect! 

The intellect quickly subdues memories in order not to lose pre - eminence when the intuitive perception is given the chance to express itself for once! 

In all these apparently small facts the ''greatest'' things could be recognised if the intellect would only allow time for it. 

But it has the upper hand and fights to retain it with every form of cunning and malice. 

Actually it is not the intellect which fights but that which uses it as a tool and hides behind it - the Darkness! 

Darkness does not want the Light to be found through memories.

 And ''how'' the spirit longs to find the Light, to draw new strength from it, can be recognised from the fact that with memories of the Holy Nights of their childhood undefined, almost painful longing also awakens, which is able to move many persons to pathos for a brief while.

 If such a tender mood is used at once and with all one's powers it could become the best soil for an ''awakening''. 

But unfortunately this only sends adults into reveries whereby the rising power is wasted and lost. 

And through such reveries the opportunity passes by without being able to bring any benefit or having been used. 

Even if many persons sheds a few tears thereby he feels ashamed and tries to hide them, pulling himself together with a physical jerk which often  betrays unconscious defiance. How much could people learn from all this! 

It is not coincidence that a feeling of tender sadness weaves itself into the memories of childhood days.

 It is a subconscious sensing that they have lost something, leaving an emptiness, the inability still to perceive intuitively like a child! 

Surely you have often noticed how wonderful and refreshing is the mere quiet presence of every person from whose eyes there emanates now and then a ''childlike'' glow! 

The adults must not forget that childlike is not the same as childish. 

But you do not know why to be childlike has such an effect, what it really is, and why Jesus said: ''Become as little children!'' 

In order to fathom what it is you must realise that to be childlike is by no means confined to child itself. 

No doubt you know children who lack the trait of beautiful childlikeness. 

Thus there are children who are not childlike. 

A malicious child can never have a childlike effect, and just as little one who is ill - mannered, who is really not brought up properly. 

This clearly proves that childlikeness and the child are two things independent of each other.

 That which is called childlike on earth is part of the manifestation of ''purity!'' 

Purity in its higher sense, not merely in its earthly human sense! 

The human being who lives in the ray of Divine Purity, who makes room for the ray of purity within himself, has thereby also become childlike, be it while still a child or later as an adult. 

Childlikeness is the result of inner purity, or the sign that such a human being has submitted to purity and serves it.

 All these are merely different ways of expressing it, but in reality they always amount to the same thing. 

Thus only a child which is pure within itself, and an adult who cultivates purity within himself, can be childlike. 

That is why he has such a ''refreshing'' and vitalising effect, and also inspires confidence! 

And wherever there is true purity, genuine love can also enter, because Divine Love works in the Ray of Purity. 

The Ray of Purity is the path It treads. 

It could not possibly walk upon any other! 

The Ray of Divine Love can never find Its way to him who has not absorbed the Ray of Purity. 

Always remember this, and as a Christmas gifts for ''yourselves'' make the firm resolution to open yourselves to Purity, so that at the Festival of the Radiant Star, which is the Festival of the Rose in the Divine Love, the Ray of Love can penetrate to you on the Path of Purity!

 ''Then'' you will really have celebrated this Festival of Christmas as it should be celebrated according to the Will of God! 

Therewith you bring up true gratitude for God's incomprehensible Grace, which He gives ever again to the earth with the Holy Night!

 Many Divine services are held today to commemorate the birth of the Son of God. 

Hurry through the churches of all kinds in spirit or also in memory! 

Let your intuitive perceptions speak when doing so, and you will turn away resolutely from the gatherings called Divine Services! 

In the first moment man is astonished that I talk in this way, for he does not know what I wish to indicate thereby. But this is only because in the past he has never exerted himself to think about the expression ''Divine Service'', and then compared it with the proceedings called Divine Service.

 You simply accepted it like so many things which have existed for centuries as customary. 

And yet the expression ''Divine Service'' has only one meaning and simply ''cannot'' be applied in the wrong sense, unless man ever again ''indifferently'' and unhesitatingly accepts and perpetuates the custom of the centuries. 

What is at ''present'' called Divine Service is at best a prayer connected with human attempts at interpretation of those words which, taken as having been uttered by the Son of God, were only written down by human hands later. 

This fact cannot be altered, and no man can contradict such remarks if he wishes to remain honest with himself and honest about the actual happening! Above all, if he does not stay too indolent to ponder this thoroughly, and does not use empty catchwords obtained from others to excuse himself! 

And yet it is just the expression ''Divine Service'' which in its essence is so vital and which through itself speak ''so'' clearly to men, that with only a little intuitive perception it could hardly be used for the purpose for which it is still used today, although man on earth deems himself far advanced. 

Divine service must now become ''living'' if the Word is to rise to reality, with all that it contains! 

It must manifest itself in ''life''. 

 When I ask what you men understand by service, thus what it means ''to serve'', not a single person will answer otherwise than with the words: ''To work!''  This is already clearly implied in the word ''service'', and one cannot think of it as meaning anything else.

 Divine ''service'' on earth is also naturally nothing other than to ''work'' in the sense of the Laws of God here on earth, to swing actively in them terrestrially! To transform the Will of God into deeds on earth!

 And this is lacking everywhere! 

Who seeks to serve God in his earthly activity? 

Everyone only thinks of  himself, and partly of those who are near to him on earth. 

But he believes he is ''serving'' God when he prays to Him! 

Just think it over yourselves - where is there any real service to God in this? 

It is indeed anything but ''serving''! 

Such is the one part of today's so - called Divine Service, which comprises the ''prayer''. 

The other part, the interpretation of the Word written by human hands, can again only be looked upon as learning on the part of those who really exert themselves to obtain an understanding of it.

 The indifferent and superficial ones are of no importance anyway! 

It is quite justified when people speak of ''going to'' or ''attending'' a Divine Service. 

These are the ''proper'' expressions, which speak for themselves! However, man shall ''perform'' Divine ''service himself'' not stand apart from it! ''Petitioning'' is not serving, for when he petitions man usually wants something from God, that God shall do something for him, which after all is far removed from the conception of ''serving''! 

Thus petitioning and prayer have nothing to do with Divine ''service''! 

This will probably be easily understood by ''every'' person! 

Everything a person does on earth must have some meaning; he cannot misuse the language given to him as he pleases without causing himself harm. 

That he acquired no knowledge about the power also inherent in the human word will not protect him from it. 

It is ''his'' fault if he neglects this! 

He is often subject to the effects of a wrong application of words, which becomes a hindrance rather than a help to him.

 The independence weaving of all the Primordial Laws of Creation neither halts nor hesitates on account of men's neglect, but everything which has been established in Creation proceeds on its course with the most unswerving precision. 

This what men never think about and therefore, to their detriment, never observe. 

Even in the smallest and most insignificant things it always has a corresponding effect. 

The inherently wrong designation of the gatherings under the name of  ''Divine Service'' has also contributed a great deal to the fact that genuine Divine service was not accomplished by men, because everyone believed that he had already done enough by attending such a Divine Service, which has never been the genuine Divine ''service''. 

Call these meetings an hour of ''joint worship'' of God, which would at least come closer to its meaning, and to a certain degree also justify the institution of special hours for this purpose, although worship of God can also be expressed in every look, in all thinking and acting. 

Many persons will now probably think that this is not at all possible without appearing too artificial and too obvious. 

But this is not so! 

The more the true worship of God breaks through the more natural will man become in all he does, even in his most simple movements. 

He then swings in honest gratitude to his Creator and enjoys the blessings in the ''purest'' form. 

Today, for the Festival of Holy Night, go back to any one of the earthly Divine Services! 

Jubilant thanks, supreme bliss, should vibrate in every word for the Grace which God once bestowed upon mankind. 

In so far as this Grace can at all be valued among men; for the human spirit is incapable of grasping the real greatness of it in its ''entirety''! 

But for ''that'' you seek in vain everywhere.

 The joyful swinging upward to the Luminous Heights is lacking! 

There is no trace of jubilant gratitude! 

Even some pressure is frequently perceptible, originating in disappointment for which man has no explanation. 

Only one thing can be found everywhere, something which renders or characterises the nature of Divine Services in all confessions as if engraved with the sharpest chisel, or something which forces the nature of the Divine Services audibly to embody everything swinging therein - a woeful sound vibrating monotonously through all the voices of the preachers, which in its constant repetition produces a wearing effect and rests like grey veil over souls falling asleep. 

Yet it sometimes also sounds like a hidden lamenting over something which is lost! 

Or over something which has never been found! Go there yourselves and listen! 

You will find , this peculiar and striking characteristic everywhere!

 Men are not conscious of it but, to use the customary phrase, it just happen to be so! 

And herein lies truth!

 It happens without any intention on the part of the speaker, and plainly shows the nature in which the whole vibrates.

 There can be no question of a joyful upward swinging, nor of blazing fires bursting forth, but it is like a dull, subdued smouldering which cannot bring up the strength to penetrate freely upwards. 

Wherever the speaker does not allow himself to be ''upheld'' by the dull, weak vibration of these Divine Services, when he remains untouched by it which ( would be equivalent to a certain lukewarmness or to deliberately standing aloof ), there all words will seem ''unctuous'' and can be regarded in the same way as sounding brass - cold, without warmth, without conviction! 

In both cases the ardour of conviction is lacking, as well as the power of victorious knowledge, which wants to preach about it to all his fellow - men in jubilant exultation!

 When, as with the expression ""Divine Service'', a misleading designation is employed for something the contents of which are different from what the expression indicates, then this mistake takes effect. 

The power it could have is broken from the very outset by the employment of a false designation and no real and uniform swinging can arise, because through this designation another conception arose which is consequently not fulfilled. 

The holding of the Divine Service stands in contrast to that which arises as picture in the inmost intuitive perception of every human spirit with the word ''Divine Service''.

 Go out and learn and you will soon recognise where you are offered the true bread of life! 

Above all make use of the joint gatherings as ''hours for the solemn worship of God''. 

But do express Divine ''service'' in the entire activity of your being, in life itself; for it is ''with this''  that you shall serve your Creator, thankful and jubilant for the grace of being allowed to ''exist!'' 

 Make everything you think and you do into a ''service''  to God! 

Then it will bring you ''that'' peace which you long for. 

And even if people harass you severely, be it through envy, malice or base habits, you bear peace ''within'' yourselves forever, and this will finally help you to overcome all difficulties! 

                                                                     THE  RESURRECTION  OF   CHRIST'S   PHYSICAL   BODY.

PERFECT  is God the Lord! 

Perfect is His Will, which is in Him and which issues from Him in order to produce and maintain the Work of  Creation!

 Perfect, therefore, are also the laws that permeate Creation according to His Will! Perfection, however, excludes any changes from the very beginning. 

This is the fundamental fact which absolutely ''justifies'' doubts in so many assertions!  

Some doctrines contradict themselves in that although they quite rightly teach the Perfection of God, yet at the same time they make assertions exactly to the contrary, demanding belief in things which exclude the Perfection of God and of His Will which rests in the Laws of Creation! 

As a result there was implanted in many a doctrine the germ of disease which, boring like a worm from within, will one day cause the whole structure to collapse! 

This collapse is all the more inevitable wherever such contradictions are made the ''pillars'' of a doctrine, which not only drag into doubt the Perfection of God but directly deny it! 

This denial of the Perfection of God has even been made part of the qualified declaration of belief required for membership in some congregation! Thus we have to talk of the ''resurrection of the flesh, referring to the resurrection of the physical body of the Son of God! 

This is quite thoughtlessly accepted by most people without the faintest trace of an understanding being apparent in them. 

Others again accept this assertion although fully aware of their own ignorance, because they lacked a teacher who could give them the proper explanation for it. 

What a sad picture this presents to the calm and serious observer! 

How pitiable such a group appears in his eyes!

 When they exhibit their zeal by unhesitatingly looking down in ignorant presumption upon those of different opinion, as they quite often do, they even go so far as proudly to consider themselves zealots of their faith, strict believers, not realising that in so doing they give an infallible sign of their helpless stupidity! 

He who accepts important matters ''without question'' and professes them as his own conviction shows boundless indifference and no true belief!

 And it is in ''this'' light that such a person stands before Him Whom he customarily calls the Highest and the Holiness, Who should represent the purpose and the support of his whole being!

 As such he is not a live member of his religion who may expect ascent and redemption, rather he is but ''sounding brass'', only an empty ''tinkling cymbal'', one who neither understands the Laws of his Creator nor troubles to recognise them! 

For all who act thus it means standstill and retrogression on the road meant to lead them in their development and advancement through the World of Matter towards the Light of Truth! 

Like any other erroneous opinion, the wrong conception of the resurrection of the flesh is also an artificially constructed obstacle which they take over with them into the beyond, and before which they will then have to halt! 

They can make no further progress as they cannot get rid of it of their own accord, because a false belief tightly clings to and binds them in such a way that they are cut off from every independent view towards the Luminous Truth. 

They do not dare to think otherwise, and thus cannot advance! 

Through this the danger arises that these souls, who keep themselves thus fettered, miss the last opportunity of becoming free and cannot ascend to the Light in time. 

As a consequence they will have slide down into disintegration, with eternal damnation as their final goal! 

Eternal damnation is exclusion in perpetuity from the Light!

 It is the self - determined ''separation from'' the opportunity of being able to return to the Light as a fully conscious and mature personality, which would be brought about in the natural and logical course of events. 

This condition becomes effective through being drawn into the disintegration which not only disperses and dissolves the ethereal body, but also all the personal consciousness acquired spiritually. 

That, then, is the so - called ''spiritual death'', from which there can be no further ascent towards the Light for the conscious ''ego'' developed up to that point. 

On the other hand, where an ascent does take place, that particular ego not only remains intact but continues to mature till it reaches spiritual perfection! A man who has passed into the beyond with a wrongly or thoughtlessly accepted belief remains hampered until another conviction awakens him to life ''inwardly'' and sets him free, thus shattering the obstacle which through his own faith keeps him from striding forward along the right and true path! 

It requires an enormous exertion to conquer oneself and to develop the strength necessary to become free from such a false belief. 

The mere step towards indulging in such a thought calls for an immense spiritual effort! 

Thus millions keep themselves imprisoned and therefore cannot gain sufficient strength even to move a step, under the fatal delusion that they would be doing wrong thereby!

 They are a as if paralysed and would indeed be lost unless the Living Power of God Itself sought a way to them. 

But again this Power cannot intervene and help unless there rests in the human soul the spark of a volition which reaches out towards it! 

The condition of paralysis arising through this simple and natural happening is such that nothing could be more terrible and fatal, for here the blessing of free decision entrusted to man becomes a curse by being wrongly used! 

Each individual is always free to adhere or to exclude himself. 

But it is just when a man blindly embraces a doctrine without careful and serious examination that a terrible punishment will be exacted! 

Indolence in this matter may cost him his entire being!  

Man's worst enemy in purely earthly matters is indolence! 

Indolence in matters of faith however, will result in his spiritual death! 

Woe unto those who do not awaken soon, pull themselves together and submit all they call faith to the keenest scrutiny! 

Perdition indeed awaits those who cause such great misery, those false shepherds who lead their sheep into the desolate wilderness! 

Nothing can help them unless they lead their misguided sheep back onto the true path. 

The great question, however, is whether there will be time enough left for them to do so.

 Hence everyone should carefully examine himself before he attempts to teach his neighbour! 

To believe what is erroneous means delusion! 

This holds the human spirit closely and tightly bound here as well as in the beyond, and with such a strength that only the Living Power of the true Word of God can break it! 

Therefore when it hits home let all such men harken to its call! 

It is only meant for him who perceives it!

 Such a person should then examine, consider and free himself! 

He should not forget that ''only through his own resolution'' can he burst the fetters with which he had previously bound himself through a false belief! 

Just as he once resolved, out of sloth of indolence, blindly to embrace some doctrine he had not seriously examined in ''all its aspects'', or just as perhaps he tried to deny God because up till then he could not find a way to Him that satisfied his justifiable desire for logical completeness, so now it is again necessary that the ''first volition'' for an inflexible examination in all his seeking should issue ''from himself''! 

''Only then'' will he be able to raise the foot held so firmly down by his own will, and so to take the first step that will lead him to the Truth and thereby to freedom in the Light! 

It is always and only ''man himself''  who  ''can, shall''  and  ''must''  weigh these matters because he possesses the gift to do so. 

He himself must also shoulder all responsibility for everything he wills and does! 

Whatever it may be, it is all the same!

 ''This'' knowledge alone should impel him to the keenest scrutiny! 

It is just this responsibility which not only gives every man the unlimited right to carry out such an examination, but which even makes it an imperative necessity! 

May he regard it as a healthy instinct for self - preservation! 

This is not at all wrong! 

No doubt he would never sign any earthly contract burdening him with some responsibility without examining it carefully word by word, and considering whether he could comply with the conditions! 

Nor is it any different, but far more serious, in spiritual matters, such as the decision to devote himself to a particular belief! 

If men would only exercise a little more of the sound instinct for self - preservation in this respect it would not be a sin but a blessing! 

Resurrection of the flesh! 

How can flesh of gross material substance ascend to the Primordial Spiritual Realm of God the Father, gross material substance that cannot even enter the ethereal substance of the beyond?

 All gross matter, and even all ethereal matter, is subject to disintegration in accordance with the eternal Laws of Nature. 

There are no exceptions or deviations in this because the laws are perfect. 

Hence gross matter cannot ascend into the Kingdom of the Father after death has set in, nor even into the ethereal beyond, which is also subject to disintegration. 

Due to the perfection of the Divine Laws of Nature such deviations are simply an impossibility! 

All this can be quite distinctly observed in a small way in the laws of physics for these, too, demonstrate nothing but the immovable Laws of Creator, which also penetrate this field as they do everything else in the entire existence.

 ''All'' that exists is subject to the uniform Laws of Origin which clearly and distinctly carry within them the simple but inexorable Divine Will!

 Nothing can be exempted from them! 

Thus it is all the more regrettable if some teachings refuse to acknowledge the great magnitude of God revealing itself in these matters, which brings Him so manifestly close to the understanding of mankind! 

Quite correctly every doctrine points to the Perfection of God. 

If, however, the Origin or the Primordial Source as such is perfect it follows that all that issues from It cannot be otherwise than perfect. 

Consequently the occur Laws of Creation, resting as they do in the Acts of Will that have issued from the Primordial Source, must necessarily be perfect also! 

Quite naturally the one cannot be separated from the other. 

These perfect Laws of Creation, namely the Laws of Nature, penetrate and support all that has come into existence. 

Perfection, however, means immutability! 

Hence it follows that a change in these fundamental or natural laws is completely impossible. 

In other word: In no circumstances can there occur exceptions which are contrary to the naturalness of all the other events! 

Thus no resurrection of the flesh can take place because the flesh is gross material substance and remains absolutely bound to gross matter! 

As all the primordial laws have proceeded from Divine Perfection, no new manifestation of God's Will can take a form different from that which was laid down at the primordial beginning of Creation. 

If some teachings refuse to accept this self - evident fact, which is absolutely representative of God's Perfection, they prove thereby that their foundation is ''faulty'', that they are based upon the human intellect which is bound to space and time. 

Therefore such teachings may not lay claim to be a Message of God, because such a Message would be without gaps; It can only come from Perfection, from the Truth Itself, which is without flaw and also understandable in Its simple magnitude! 

In the first place it is ''natural'', because what man so often call Nature issued from Perfection of the Divine Will, and still maintains its vitality unchanged and therefore cannot be subject to any exceptions! 

Consequently when Christ came to this earth to proclaim God's Message of Truth He was obliged to make use of a physical body, i.e., a body of flesh. 

Every thinking man should recognise in this the immutability of the Laws of Nature, as also in His physical death which occurred through crucifixion!  

This gross material flesh could not, however, be the subject of any exception after death, but had to remain in the Gross Material World! 

It could ''not'' rise from the dead in order to enter another world!

 The immutable Divine or Natural Laws, through their Perfection which issued from the Divine Will, do not permit of such a thing. 

They cannot permit it, otherwise they would not be perfect, which in turn would also imply that the Will of God, His Power and He Himself are not perfect! Since this remains forever impossible, however, as any science in Creation can observe for itself, it follows that it is wrong and a doubt in God's Perfection if it should be asserted that this gross material flesh was resurrected and ascended into another world after forty days. 

If the flesh is really to come to life again, this can only be done if the soul, which for a time is still connected to the physical body by an ethereal cord, is called back into the body.

 In accordance with the Natural Laws this is only possible as long as this cord still exists. 

Once this cord is severed a raising from the dead, i.e., a recalling of the soul into its physical body, would be impossible! 

This also is strictly subject to the perfect Laws of Nature, and even God Himself could not do it because it would be against His Own Perfect Laws, against His Own Perfect Will which operates automatically in Nature! 

It is just on account of this very Perfection that there could never occur to Him such an imperfect thought, which would only be an arbitrary action! 

Here again God appears to be bound within the work of Creation through His flawless Perfection, which must be fulfilled in every case and which permits of no change; nor indeed is such a change intended or necessary. 

But this restraint is not real at all, it only ''appears so'' in some things because man is unable to overlook the ''entire'' happening. 

And this inability to overlook the ''whole'' is the cause of his expecting -  in all goodwill and respect - arbitrary acts from his God which, to the keen observer, must only belittle Divine Perfection! 

What a man thinks in all humility is good does not in this case become a looking forward in veneration, but merely a dragging down into the quite natural limitation of the human spirit! 

The strict observance of the Laws of the Divine Will or the Laws of Nature also became evident in the raising of Lazarus and of the youth of Nain. 

These could be raised because the cord connecting the body and the soul was still intact. 

At the Master's call the soul could re - unite with the body, which was then compelled to remain in the Gross Material World, according to the Laws of Nature, until a new separation between the gross material body and the ethereal body took place, i.e., until a new physical death occurred, permitting the ethereal body to enter the ethereal beyond. 

However, it is impossible for a gross material body to pass over into another world!

 If the Spirit of Christ had again returned into His gross material body, or had It perhaps not even left the body at all, He would have been forced to remain in gross matter till He died again, not otherwise! 

The resurrection of the flesh into another world is completely out of the question for men, as it was then for Christ! 

The physical body of the redeemer followed the same course as every other physical body has to follow in accordance with the Natural Laws of the Creator. ''Consequently Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, did not rise again in the flesh''!

 Yet in spite of all logic and the far greater reverence towards God expressed in this, there will still be many who, in the blindness and indolence of their erroneous faith, will not be willing to follow such simple paths of the Truth. 

There are also some who cannot do so because of their self - imposed limitations. 

Others again will purposely and furiously try to fight against it on account of their well - founded fear that their laboriously erected edifice of comfortable faith must collapse.

 It is of no avail to them to base their assertions on nothing but literal transmissions, for the disciples were also human beings.

 It is only human if at that time the disciples, who were greatly agitated by all the dreadful happenings, also wove some of their own thoughts into the accounts they gave from memory; thoughts which, through having witnessed miracles they themselves could still not explain, caused them to report some things differently from what they had been in reality! 

Their writings and stories were repeatedly based too strongly on their ''own'' human assumptions, which then later on became the basis for many an error, as for instance in the erroneous combining of the Son of God and the Son of Man into one person! 

Even though they were helped by the strongest spiritual inspiration, their own preconceived ideas nevertheless interfered strongly with their transmission and often dimmed the clearest and best meant picture!

 Jesus Himself, however, never wrote down anything, and thus nothing was left upon which one could absolutely and indisputably rely!

 He never would have said or written anything that was not wholly and fully in accord with the Laws of His Father, the Divine Laws of Nature or the Creative Will.

 For He said expressly :  ''I am come to fulfil the Laws of God!'' 

The Laws of God, however, are clearly evident in Nature which, indeed, extends further than the mere Gross material Sphere, yet remaining also ''natural'' everywhere, in the Ethereal as well as in the Animistic and Spiritual Worlds! 

Any man who thinks can surely find something in these important words of the Redeemer which goes beyond the confusing religious dogmas and shows a way to all who are really serious in their seeking! 

In addition, however, everybody can find important points about this in the Bible, for Jesus appeared to many - and what happened? 

 Mary did not recognise Him at first, Mary Magdalene did not recognise Him immediately, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus did not recognise Him for hours, although He walked and spoke with them. . . . 

What must be inferred from this? ''That it must have been another body'' they saw, otherwise they would all have recognised Him ''at once''! 

However, let him who does not wish to hear remain deaf, and let him who is too lazy to open his eyes remain blind! 

The general conception ''resurrection of the flesh'' finds its justification when applied to ''earthly'' births, which will never cease as long as there are men on earth! 

It is a great promise that repeated lives here on earth are possible, repeated incarnations for the purpose of a more rapid advance and a necessary redemption of the baser reciprocal actions, which is synonymous with the forgiveness of sins! 

A proof of the immeasurable Love of  the Creator Who graciously permits that departed souls, which have wholly or partly frittered away their time on earth and who were therefore still immature when they entered the beyond in order to ascend, are given another opportunity to clothe themselves in a new gross material body or cloak, whereby the flesh they laid aside celebrates a resurrection in the new flesh! 

The soul that had already passed over thereby celebrates a new resurrection in the flesh. 

The spirit of man, which cannot overlook all things, will only later on be able to grasp the blessing that rests in the constant recurrence of this high Grace!