human
is another well-recognised term for Initiation; even now in India the higher castes are called
gpt
and the ceremony that makes them twice-born is a ceremony of Initiation--mere husk truly, in these modern days, but the
human
[57] When Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, He states that
gpt
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and this birth is spoken of as that
human
[58] this is the first Initiation; a later one is that of
gpt
[59] the baptism of the Initiate in his manhood, as the first is that of birth, which welcomes him as
human
entering the Kingdom.[60] How thoroughly this imagery was familiar among the mystic of the Jews is shown by the surprise evinced by Jesus when Nicodemus stumbled over His mystic phraseology:
gpt
Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
human
to his followers is:
gpt
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. [62] The ordinary Christian knows that he cannot possibly obey this command; full of ordinary human frailties and weaknesses, how can he become perfect as God is perfect? Seeing the impossibility of the achievement set before him, he quietly puts it aside, and thinks no more about it. But seen as the crowning effort of many lives of steady improvement, as the triumph of the God within us over the lower nature, it comes within calculable distance, and we recall the words of Porphyry, how the man who achieves