Do we not see, in the commonly accepted teachings of the day, the Christ Principle mingled with the teachings of John the Baptist? or, rather, Are not the last eighteen centuries but the footsteps of Truth, being baptized of John, and coming up straightway out of the ceremonial (or ritualistic) waters, to receive the benediction of an honored Father, and afterwards to go up into the wilderness, in order to overcome mortal sense, before it shall go forth into all the cities and towns of Judea, or see many of the people from beyond Jordan? Now if all this be a fair or correct view of this question, why does not John hear this voice, or see the dove; or has not Truth yet reached the shore? .
Every individual character that is like the individual John must hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness. In the desolation of human understanding, the voice of Truth utters the divine verities of Being, which deliver mortals out of the depths of ignorance and vice. This is the Father's benediction. It giveth lessons to human life, guides the understanding, peoples the mind, reconstructs and gives life to the Judean religion, and reveals God and man as the Principle and idea of Divine Science.
The understanding of this Science of Mind brings the peace symbolized by a dove, and this peace floweth as a river into a shoreless eternity, "whose breath doth wrap us round." He who knew the foretelling Truth saw the forthcoming Truth, as it came up out of the baptism of Spirit, to enlighten and redeem mortals. Such Christians as John hear and see the symbols of God, reach the sure foundations of time, stand upon the shore of eternity, and grasp and gather in all glory from him, the latchet of whose shoes they are unworthy to unloose.
