372 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
lapses and much backsliding. We have in the Jewish Bible
good examples of how man forgot, and had to be patiently
and persistently “prodded” again and again by the Tribal
God. Only the visitations of a long-suffering Race-spirit
were potent, at times, in bringing him back to the law—that
law very few people have even yet learned to obey.
There are always pioneers, however, who require
something higher. When they become sufficiently
numerous, a new step in evolution is taken, so that several
gradations always exist. There came a time, nearly two
thousand years ago, when the most advanced of humanity
were ready to take another step forward, and learn the
religion of living a good life for the sake of future reward in
a state of existence in which they must have faith.
That was a long, hard step to take. It was comparatively
easy to take a sheep or a bullock t o the t emple and offer it as
a sacrifice. If a man brought the first-fruits of his granary,
his vineyards, or his flocks and herds, he still had more, and
he knew that the Tribal God would refill his stores and give
abundantly in return. But in this new departure, it was not a
question of sacrificing his goods. It was demanded that he
sacrificehimself. It was not even a sacrifice to be made by
one supreme effort of martyrdom; that also would have been
comparatively easy. Instead, it was demanded that day by
day, from morning until night, he must act mercifully toward
all. He must forego selfishness, andlove his neighbor, as he
had been used to loving himself. Moreover, he was not
promised any immediate and visible reward, but must have
faith in a future happiness.
Is it strange that people find it difficult to realize this
high ideal ofcontinued well-doing, made doubly hard by the
fact that self-interest is entirely ignored? Sacrifice is