his
back.

Let it not be thought that we mean to infer that God is partial to poverty,
and that the rich man will be excluded from the attainment of the kingdom,
merely because of his riches; but if riches be any man's aim, then
assuredly he cannot "serve two masters" and it will not be possible for him
to become illumined while in pursuit of worldly goods.

Jesus said:

"It is easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

It is now thoroughly established that the "Needle's Eye" was the name given
to a certain narrow and difficult pass through which camels bearing heavy
burdens, could not find room to pass, and Jesus sought to convey to his
hearers the truth that persons bearing in their mental desires the load
of many possessions, would hardly find room for the one supreme desire
which would bring them into the kingdom (the possession of cosmic
consciousness).

But the most significant of the utterances of the illumined Nazarene is the
one in which he said:

"Except ye become as little children, ye can in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven."

The possession of cosmic consciousness brings with it, invariably, the
simplicity, the faith and _innocence_ of a little child. The child is
pleased with natural pleasures, and does not know the worldly standard of
valuation. And above all, the soul, while still attached to the physical
body, is like a little child.

The attainment of cosmic consciousness is possible only to one who has
first "got acquainted with his soul"; when we are really soul-conscious we
possess the innocence (not ignorance), of a little child, and we also
possess a child's wisdom. We are, in other words, "as wise as the serpent
and as harmless as the dove." Wisdom brings with it harmlessness. The truly
wise person would not wilfully harm any living thing; wisdom knows no
revenge; no "eye for an eye" philosophy; makes no demands.

And what may be considered the second most significant remark of the Master
_is_ this:

"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say Lo,
here; or Lo, there, for Lo, the kingdom of heaven is within you."

Jesus, although forced by the conventions of the time in which he taught to
conform to the laws laid down by the scribes and Pharisees, influenced by
the strict views of the Israelites, who honored the law laid down by Moses
and the prophets, still possessed cosmic consciousness to