Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/110

 and relational, but not yet in the absolute, but was capable of being developed in that sphere by induction. Man is therefore a microcosm. He has all those conditions which pertain to the universe. He is its fruit. There are three stages in the development of man: first, form; second, individuality; third, personality—to which Jesus made allusion in speaking of the development of fruit, saying that there was first the blade, next the ear, and after that the full corn. Man, standing at the head of the development, is the fruit of the universe. He is the grand ultimate of all preceding action. He is the footings-up of all that is and all that has been. There is no condition of being not a condition of relation in the wide universe which man does not contain in some department of his being; and just as he unfolds in his conscious nature, does he represent different spheres in the Spiritual world. If in self-lust, he registers his name in that department of the Spiritual universe called Gehenna, if in charity, he records his name in the sphere Paradise; and if in divine love—if the divine is so developed in him that it is a ruling love—he is registered in heaven; and then it is he perceives God. If he is developed like the Man of Nazareth, so that his Father's will is his will, so that he can bow submissively to it, whether it be to inflict pain and death or life and prosperity, he is born into the absolute or divine. This, then, is the simple law of unfolding. Man becomes in the Spirit-world what he is in himself. When you determine where his ruling love is, you have determined his sphere; and if he is to manifest to this world, he will manifest according to the sphere he is in. He advances by the