in the effort to
reconcile contradictions and irreconcilable paradoxes, under the
designation--Mystery, Miracle, and Faith. Few theologians would admit that
it is desirable, even if possible, that the mystery and miracle should
disappear, and that wisdom and understanding should take their place. In
other words, that Jesus should be proved an evolution under both natural
and divine law, as the result of "Living the Life."

Bear in mind that we are dealing with _Interpretations_ only, and with the
opinions of men; and that there is nothing "sacred" or "holy" about these
opinions, no matter how they may be hedged about by dogma, or ecclesiastic
authority. The Immaculate Conception; the Virgin Birth; the Resurrection
of the physical body, and the Vicarious Atonement, are each and all
Dogmas; the opinions of men, in _interpreting_ the mystery, and miracle,
they have assigned to the nature of Jesus, in what they call the "plan,"
or the "Scheme of Salvation."

If the nature of Jesus were radically and essentially different from ours;
if he differed from us in _kind_, instead of in _degree_; if he were "very
God," instead of a perfected man, as the result of "Living the Life"; then
he can have little in common with us; and, so far as "like natures,"
"common temptations," and human sympathies, and destinies, are concerned,
he might as well have been born on the planet Mars.

But suppose that psychic and spiritual science could so define the
faculties, capacities, and powers of man, and the nature and laws of the
human soul, as to demonstrate the fact that Jesus became _Christos_
through "living the life," and "doing the will of the Father," in strict
conformity to both Natural and Divine Law, thus revealing the fact that
these _potencies_ are _latent_ in every human soul: that it does not
depend so much upon what we _believe_, as upon what we _do_; not so much
upon what we _profess_, as upon what we _are_; not so much upon what Jesus
did for us, as upon what we do for ourselves and for others, in strict
analogy with the life and the teachings of Jesus. Would not Jesus become,
indeed and in truth, a _Living Example_, in place of a "Blood Offering"?

Theology ignores and sophisticates _Personal Responsibility_, which
everything else, and every experience in life, justifies and enforces as
the basis of Morals.

On the other hand, so-called Psychic Science misapprehends, belittles, and
sophisticates the Human Will, the prime M