helping the powers he would not put forth for his own needs, and he who
would not turn one stone to bread for the stilling of his own cravings
feeds "five thousand men, besides women and children," with a few
loaves.

Into his life of ceaseless service comes another brief period of glory,
when he ascends "a high mountain apart"--the sacred Mount of Initiation.
There he is transfigured and there meets some of his great Forerunners,
the Mighty Ones of old who trod where he now is treading. He passes thus
the third great Initiation, and then the shadow of his coming Passion
falls on him, and he steadfastly sets his face to go to
Jerusalem--repelling the tempting words of one of his
disciples--Jerusalem, where awaits him the baptism of the Holy Ghost and
of Fire. After the Birth, the attack by Herod; after the Baptism, the
temptation in the wilderness; after the Transfiguration, the setting
forth towards the last stage of the Way of the Cross. Thus is triumph
ever followed by ordeal, until the goal is reached.

Still grows the life of love, ever fuller and more perfect, the Son of
Man shining forth more clearly as the Son of God, until the time draws
near for his final battle; and the fourth great Initiation leads him in
triumph into Jerusalem, into sight of Gethsemane and Calvary. He is now
the Christ ready to be offered, ready for the sacrifice on the cross. He
is now to face the bitter agony in the Garden, where even his chosen
ones sleep while he wrestles with his mortal anguish, and for a moment
prays that the cup may pass from his lips; but the strong will triumphs
and he stretches out his hand to take and drink, and in his loneliness
an angel comes to him and strengthens him, as angels are wont to do when
they see a Son of Man bending beneath his load of agony. The drinking of
the bitter cup of betrayal, of desertion, of denial, meets him as he
goes forth, and alone amid his jeering foes he passes to his last fierce
trial. Scourged by physical pain, pierced by cruel thorns of suspicion,
stripped of his fair garments of purity in the eyes of the world, left
in the hands of his foes, deserted apparently by God and man, he endures
patiently all that befalls him, wistfully looking in his last extremity
for aid. Left still to suffer, crucified, to die to the life of form,
to surrender all life that belongs to the lower world, surrounded by
triumphant foes who mock him, the last horror of great darkness
envelopes him, and