Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

Love is not complete until it is 58 THROUGH THE GATE OF GOOD lived by man; until it is fully understood by him and manifested in his conduct. A man can only consciously ally himself to the Vine of Love by deserting all strife, and hatred, and condemnation, and im- purity, and pride, and self-seeking, and by thinking only loving thoughts and doing loving deeds.

By so doing, he awakens within him the divine nature which he has heretofore been crucifying and deny- ing. Every time a man gives way to anger, impatience, greed, pride, vanity, or any form of personal selfishness, he denies the Christ, he shuts himself out from Love.

And thus only is Christ denied, and not by refusing to adopt a formulated creed. Christ is only known to him who by constant striving has con- verted himself from a sinful to a pure being, who by noble, moral effort has succeeded in relinquishing that perishable self which is the source of all suffering and sorrow and unrest, and has become rational, gentle, peaceful, loving, and pure.

Man’s only refuge from sin is sinless Love, flying to and dwelling in which, and 59 THROUGH THE GATE ОЕ GOOD abandoning all else as evanescent, unreal, and worthless, daily practising love towards all in heart and mind and deed, harbouring no injurious or impure thoughts — he discovers the imperishable Principles of his being, enters fully into the knowledge of his oneness with eternal Life, and receives the never-ending Rest. 60 УТ SALVATION THIS DAY This day is salvation come to this house.—Jrsus TO ZACCH US.

Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.— JESUS. ters, that the Teaching of Jesus is based en- یم‎ tirely on the perfection E of conduct, and can be € Y) summed up in the one word Goodness. Jesus manifested this Goodness in his life, and his Teaching is vitally powerful because it is rooted in his life, his conduct.

His command, “ Follow me,” is literal and actual, not in the sense of a slavish imitation of the external details of his life, but in scaling (as he scaled) the heights of Goodness 61 z | THROUGH THE GATE OF GOOD and Pity and Love by the conquest of self.

The glory of his Teaching is em- bodied in his precepts, as the splendour of his life is wrapped up in them; and he who adopts those precepts as the guides of his life will so perfect his conduct by purifying the inward springs of thought and action as to become a spiritualized and sinless being, fulfilling the whole duty of life and the purpose of existence.

Herein also is contained complete salva- tion, namely, freedom from sin. The word salvation is only mentioned by Jesus twice, and only one of these utterances (that to Zaccheus) can be said to have any vital significance for us; yet in that one brief statement we are fully enlightened as to its meaning by virtue of its pointed application to the altered conduct of Zaccheeus.

This man, we infer, had hitherto been hard, exact- ing, and grasping, but though he had not yet seen in person the new Teacher, his message had reached his ears, and he had opened his heart to the Good News that man can and should repent, and abandon selfish and sinful practices 62 THROUGH THE GATE ОЕ GOOD for good and sinless conduct.

And this he had done, and, having proved its blessedness, no wonder that when Jesus came to his house he “received him joyfully,” and told him how he had abandoned wrong-doing for right-doing; evil for good; the selfish for the unself- ish life.