the necessity of a physical body at all, in the future life?  Do the angels have physical bodies?  If not, why should souls require them on higher planes?  Think over these questions and then realize how materialistic is the current Christian conception, when compared with that of Mystic Christianity, which teaches spiritual evolution from lower to higher planes of being, and on to planes of being beyond even the faintest conception of men of the present day.

* * * * *

The occult traditions teach that during the forty days of Jesus’ appearance in the Astral Body, He imparted many of the Higher Truths to His disciples.  They state that He even took some of them out of their bodies and showed them the higher Astral Planes of Being.  He also informed them regarding the real nature of His mission which He now clearly saw with His spiritual mind, the cloud of His mortal mind being now removed.

He told them that the real work of His followers was the sowing of the seed of the Truth, without regard to immediate results.  He told them that the real fruition would not come for many centuries—­yea, not until the passing of over two thousand years or more.  He told them that the passage of the centuries would be like the preparing of the soil for the great work of the Truth, and that afar in the distance would be the real fruit season.

He taught them regarding the Second Coming of Christ, when the real Truth of His teachings should become apparent to mankind and the true Life of the Spirit should be lived by the race.  He taught them that their work was to keep alight the Flame of the Spirit and to pass it on to worthy followers.

This and many other things He told them, before He passed on.

And the mystics teach that He still lives in the world, diffused among all the living souls on earth, striving ever to lead them to a recognition of the Real Self—­the Spirit Within.  He is with us ever as an Abiding Spirit, a Comforter, a Helper, an Elder Brother.

He is not gone from us!  He is here with us now and forever, in Actual Spirit Communion!

The Lord hath indeed Risen—­Risen from Mortal Form to Immortal Spiritual Existence!

THE NINTH LESSON.

THE INNER TEACHINGS.

The first and main phase of the Inner Teachings of Mystic Christianity is that connected with the Mystery of the Life of Jesus.  The outer teachings give but an imperfect view of the real life and nature of the Master, and theologians have built up an edifice of dogmatic theory around the same.  The Mystery of the Life of Jesus forms the subject of some important Inner Teachings of the Mystic Fraternities and Occult Brotherhoods, and is considered by them to be the foundation of the other teachings.  And so we shall consider this phase of the subject at this point.