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This Classic work is now copyright expired and therefore in the public domain. Cosmic Consciousness by Ali NomadX PAUL OF TARSUS
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Because "all these things shall pass away."
Love alone is imperishable.
Love alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act from motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.
Again says St. Paul:
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
"And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
"_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
"But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away."
It must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the prophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the community.
The ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews. St. Paul's exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has entered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his open avowal that there was a far greater power--a more exalted state of consciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of "knowing all mysteries;" that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order that they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the perfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no one truly who became "a new creature", as he characterized this change, ever exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or "superior," or "holy," in the sense the latter word had been used.
How, then, would they know when they had attained to this state of consciousness, of which he spoke, and which they but dimly understood?
How might they know when they had found this great love that was to make them "a new creature"?
First of all, they might know because:
_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is not provoked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things; endureth all things.
In fact, _LOVE NEVER FAILETH_. Love is always a safe guide. No matter what may be said to the contrary; no matter how much suffering it entails; no matter how seemingly fruitless the sacrifice; or how ungrateful the results, _love_ never faileth.
How can it fail when we "seek not our own," but only love for love's own sake, without regard to compensation or gratitude?
St. Paul, with all who have expressed in any considerable degree this cosmic realization, seems to have expected a time, when cosmic consciousness should become so general, as to bring the kingdom of love upon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been prophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the "signs of the times" that were to usher in The Dawn.
Moreover, the idea that there shall come a time when death shall be overcome, is a persistent part of every prophecy, and of every religious cult. In these days we find that science is speculating upon the probability of discovering a specific for senile death, as well as for the final elimination of death from disease and accidents.
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