beings.

It is a humility born of the desire to make every one know and feel a sense
of kinship with him; he hesitates to reveal all that has been revealed to
him, lest those who hear his words may think he is either "speaking
foolishly," through egotism, or else that they may look upon him as a being
superior, more exalted, than themselves. And a divine compassion and love
for his fellow being characterizes the Illumined. Again, Paul wishes to
make clear the fact that he is still living in the physical body; living
the life of a body, and until liberated from the conditions that influence
the external world, he is himself subject to the lesser consciousness, and
he does not want them to expect more of the personal self, than that
personal self is capable of, under the conditions in which he lives.

He desires no personal exaltation, or praise, therefore he hesitates to
speak fully of his own revelations, but prefers to teach by reference to
the experiences of others.

Nevertheless, he tries to make clear the fact that he is not merely
preaching a "belief," which he has embraced because of doubt or fear, or
because it is a creed. Indeed, he is free from the "law" and is, therefore,
not merely following a system, neither the old one which he has abandoned,
nor a new one which he has accepted. He speaks from the "Lord," which is no
other than the highest authority that man may know--namely, the authority
that comes from the realization of his own imperishable godhood--the effect
of cosmic consciousness.

He says:

"For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel as preached by
me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor
was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Christ.

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. But before faith came, we
were kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ.
For with freedom did Christ set us free."

This we take to refer to his former adherence to, and belief in, the system
of worship taught by the Jews, as a necessary and probably the only "way of
salvation" acceptable to God. He wishes his hearers to understand that he
is not bound by adherence to any creed; neither the old one, nor yet the
new one, but that what he preached came from the light of cosmic
consciousness, in which there is no law, nor sense of law. Cosmic
consciousness g