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This Classic work is now copyright expired and therefore in the public domain. The Rosicrucian Mysteries by Max HeindelIII. THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD
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In this place we are dealing with worlds in particular, and will therefore defer comment upon the remainder of the first 5 verses of St. John’s gospel:
“_And Life became Light in man,_
5) _and Light shines in Darkness._”
We have now seen that the earth is composed of three worlds which interpenetrate one another so that it is perfectly true when Christ said that “heaven is within you” or, the translation should rather have been _among you_. We have also seen that of these three realms two are subdivided. It has also been explained that each division serves a great purpose in the unfoldment of various forms of life which dwell in each of these worlds, and we may note in conclusion, that the lower regions of the Desire World constitute what the Catholic religion calls _Purgatory_, a place where the evil of a past life is transmuted to good, usable by the spirit as conscience in later lives. The higher regions of the Desire World are the _first Heaven_ where all the good a man has done is assimilated by the spirit as _soul_ power. The Region of concrete Thought is the _second Heaven_, where, as already said, the spirit prepares its future environment on earth, and the Region of abstract Thought is the _third Heaven_, but as Paul said, it is scarcely lawful to speak about that.
Some will ask: is there then no hell?—No! _The mercy of God_ tends as greatly towards the principle of GOOD as “_the inhumanity of man_” towards cruelty, so that he would consign his brother men to flames of hell during eternity for the puerile mistakes committed during a few years, or perhaps for a slight difference in belief. The writer has heard of a minister who wished to impress his “flock” with the reality of an eternity of hell flames, and to demonstrate the fallacy of a heretical notion entertained by some of his parishioners that when sinners come to hell they burn to ashes and that is the end.
He took with him an alcohol lamp and some asbestos into the pulpit and told his audience that God would turn their souls into a substance resembling asbestos. He showed them that though the asbestos were heated red hot it did not decompose into ashes. Fortunately the day of the hell preacher has gone by, and if we believe the Bible which says that “in God we live and move and have our being,” we can readily understand that _a lost soul would be an impossibility_, for were one single soul lost, then logically a part of God Himself would be lost. No matter what our color, our race or our creed, we are all equally the children of God and in our various ways we shall obtain satisfaction. Let us therefore rather look to Christ and forget Creed.
_Creed or Christ?_
No man loves God who hates his kind,
Who tramples on his Brother’s heart and soul.
Who seeks to shackle, cloud or fog the mind
By fears of Hell has not perceived our goal.
God-sent are all religions blest;
And Christ, the Way, the Truth and Life,
To give the heavy-laden rest,
And peace from Sorrow, Sin and Strife.
At his request the Universal Spirit came
_To all the churches_, not to one alone.
On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame
Round _each_ apostle as a halo shone.
Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed,
We oft have battled for an empty name,
And sought by Dogma, Edict, Creed,
To send each other to the flame.
Is Christ then divided? Was Cephas or Paul
Nailed to the deathly tree?
If not—then why these divisions at all?
Christ’s love doth embrace you and me.
His pure sweet love is not confined
By creeds which segregate and raise a wall;
His love enfolds, embraces _Humankind_
No matter what ourselves or Him we call.
Then why not take Him at His word?
Why hold to creeds which tear apart?
But one thing matters, be it heard,
That brother-love fill every heart.
There is but one thing that the world has need to know;
There is but one balm for all our human woe
There is but one way that leads to heaven above;
That way is human sympathy and love.
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