of time, he was able to bring up the
earthworm Group Soul to the level of Man. Think of this, and then
realize what a sacrifice Jesus made of Himself.

In the Wilderness, when Jesus took the final steps of renunciation and
sacrifice, He at once passed within the circle of the Race Karma and
laid Himself open to all the pain, misery, temptations and limitations
of a Man. His power, of course, remained with Him, but He was no
longer a God outside of the world-life, but an imprisoned God working
from within the race, using His mighty power, but bound by the Karmic
Law. He became open to influences from which previously He had been
immune. For instance when He was "tempted" by the Devil of Personal
Attainment, and urged to seek worldly glory and renown, He was tempted
only because He had taken on the world's Karma and was subject to its
laws. As a God, He would not have felt the temptation any more than a
man would feel the temptation of the earthworm. But as a man He was
subject to the desires and ambitions that perplex and "devil" the
race. And according to the rule that the greater the mental
development the greater the power of such temptation toward
self-aggrandizement (because of the mind being able to see more
clearly the opportunities), Jesus was subjected to a test that would
have been impossible to an ordinary man.

Jesus, knowing full well that He had in His possession the power to
manifest the things with which He was tempted, was compelled to fight
off the temptation to place Himself at the head of the race as its
ruler--as the King of the World. He was shown this picture to compare
with the other whose last scene was Calvary--and He was called upon to
feel the desire of the race for such things, even unto its highest
degree. Imagine the desire for personal aggrandizement of all the
world thought beating upon His mind demanding the expression which
could be had through Him alone. And then imagine the struggle
required to defeat this opposing power. Think of what the ordinary
man has to meet and overcome to conquer the desire for Personal
Aggrandizement--and then think of what the Master had to fight, with
the focussed desire of the entire Race-Thought striving to express
itself through Him! Truly the Sins of the World bore down upon Him
with their mighty weight. And yet He knew that He had taken upon
Himself this affliction by entering upon the Life of Man. And He met
it like a Man of Men.

It was only by