We talk, in our self-righteousness (conceit) of having come to the ascension, before we have not only not borne, but have not been nailed to the cross. We talk of bearing the cross before we have been on the mount of transfiguration. We talk of our transfiguration before we have been tempted in all things and remained without sin. We boast of temptations overcome, as He overcame, before we have been baptized of John, and ourselves have heard the "Voice of God" saying: "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." We tell of our baptism before, as a youth, we perceive that we must be about "our Father's business:" and we "dispute with the doctors," and claim that the brooding Mother-love, that is God, comes and calls us back to the shelter of our infancy, before we have been "conceived of the Holy Ghost," or brought forth of the Virgin (purity), and named for our mission.
The subtlest snare that besets the path of the "remnant of her seed" to-day, is the belief that unconsciously takes possession of us, that we can jump to the Mount of Ascension in a day, or a year, or five, or ten years, by just hearing, assenting to (which we call accepting) and declaring "All is Good", "All is Mind", "We now do, consciously(?) reflect Divine Principle", "We are now Christ's," etc., etc., when, if we would stop in our crazy self-exaltation and think that it was thirty years from the manger to the baptism; three years from the baptism to the crucifixion; and many days from the crucifixion to the ascension; that in spite of the immutable Truth, which must be perceived before even conception could take place, eternity is, hence time is not.
When we have been walking out of sense for thirty years, with their minutia of days, and have heard clearly the confirmation of our baptism above the sound of many waters (mortal thoughts), then will we be ready to enter upon our true mission, as anointed ones, — anointed with the "oil of gladness above our fellows," and not before.
