The occult teachings inform us that during His sojourn abroad, Jesus was simply a teacher, with but a dim perception of His real mission.  But gradually He began to experience periods of Illumination in which He recognized His real nature and the difference between Himself and other men.  Then came to Him the conviction of the mighty work that lay before Him in the redemption of the race, and He began to see the necessity of entering into the Karmic circle of the race in order to carry out the plan.  This came gradually, by slow degrees, and the final sacrifice was made only in the Wilderness after His Baptism by John.

In the Wilderness, after His long fast and His days of meditation, the way opened up for Him to take upon Himself the burden of the Karma of the earth people.  In that scene of the most tremendous spiritual struggle that the earth has ever witnessed, Jesus deliberately bent His shoulders that the weight be placed upon His back.  From that moment the earth-souls received a blessing far beyond the comprehension of the mind of the ordinary man.  Into the Karma-bound circle came this mighty soul, animated by Pure Spirit, for the purpose of lifting a great portion of the burden, and of joining in the work of the actual unfoldment and redemption of the race.

For be it remembered that, being a free soul animated by Pure Spirit, Jesus was A GOD—­not a man, although inhabiting the fleshly garments of humanity.  His power was superior to that of many of the high intelligences scattered throughout the universe, and playing important parts in the cosmic processes.  Jesus was Pure Spirit incarnate in human form, with all the powers of a God.  Although of course subordinate in expression to the Absolute—­the Great Spirit of Spirit—­He was in His essential nature the same in substance.  Verily, as He Himself said, “I and the Father are One.”

His youthful mind was not able to grasp the truth of His real nature, but as that human instrument became perfected by age and training, He realized the Truth and perceived His own Divinity.

But even a God, such as he, could not raise up the world from its burden of Karma, by acting from the outside.  Under the Cosmic Laws, established by the Absolute, such work could be performed only from within the circle of earth-life.  And so Jesus saw that to raise up Man, He must become a Man.  That is, to help lift the earth’s Karma, He must enter into it, and place Himself within its Circle of Influence. And this He did.

We wonder if our readers can realize, even faintly, just what this sacrifice meant?  Think of a Pure Spirit—­a Free Soul—­so filled with the love for the race of men as to renounce deliberately, for aeons of time, total immunity from all mortal existence, and willingly to place itself under the burden of pain, woe, misery and sin which formed the earth-people’s Karma.  It was a thousand-fold greater sacrifice than would be that of a Man of the