Chapter 14 (part 12)

Certainly, from the point of view of the divine spirit, all forms are merely illusive, and as long as man is rooted within that spirit he may recognise them as such; but for the godless they are horrible realities, as real as the images of the terrestrial world appear to us. 297:1 The word "eternally" does not mean a succession of periods of time without any end, but a state in which there exists no conception of time. 298:1 To the child of God, God is not anything objective, but exists within His own centre. Terrestrial man, in search of God or salvation, ultimately arrives, through disappointment and suffering, at the realisation that God, the true life and the truth, can be found for him not anywhere excepting within his own divine self. He then seeks for God within himself, and in finding Him he becomes identified with Him and is God. Likewise the godless soul, seeking for relief and comfort in external things or beings, ultimately returns within her own self, and finding no good within her, she necessarily identifies herself with her own evil will, and becomes a devil. 302:1 This "forgiving of sin" has a meaning very different from that which is commonly accepted. Nobody can forgive the sins of another man; the sinner himself must free himself of his sins. "Sin is like a shell, out of which the new man grows, and he then throws the shell away. This is called 'forgiveness,' because God (in man) gives that which is sinful away." ( Menschwerdung , xi. 10.) "Nobody can forgive sins except Christ in man. Whenever Christ lives in man, there is the absolution." ( Grace , xiii. 11.) 305:1 If there is nobody living to-day able to perform a miracle by the power of faith, this does not disprove that the true living faith is a spiritual power, capable of manifesting all the qualities that are claimed for it, but it is, rather, suggestive of the degraded state of the present generation. 307:1 Such souls are called " sutratma's " (thread souls) in Eastern books. 310:1 The bond that connects the soul with the divine state is the power of spiritual love. If at the time of death there is only a thread of that power strong enough to attract the soul to the Divinity, then will the soul tear herself loose from her sinful self and enter into heaven; and therefore it is written that the sins of the woman (the soul) were forgiven, because she had loved much. An ignorant man, having the love of God in his heart, will gain eternal life according to the degree of his love and enlightenment; but he who has much enlightenment, but without any love, is a child of the devil. "The ways of God are different from the ways of man. That which man loves, therein God hides Himself." ( Myster. Magn. , lvii, 17.)