7rcTIX1xP

A Series of Lessons in Mystic Christianity1028
proportions. But now that they had managed to wean away His public
from Him they pressed Him harder and harder with their persecutions
and complaints. And so at last they had managed to render Him almost
an unpopular outcast. They forced Him away from the larger towns, and
now He was wandering among the less populous regions of the country,
and even there the spies and agents of the authorities hunted Him down,
seeking to further entrap and compromise Him.
About this time Jesus revealed to His apostles the facts of His Divine origin
which was now plain to Him. He also told them of the fate which awaited
Him, and which He had willingly chosen. He told them not to expect the
fruits of His work at this time, for He was but sowing the seeds of the fruit
which would not grow and bear fruit for many centuries. He gave them the
Mystic secret of the nature of His work, which is taught to the Initiates of the
Occult Brotherhoods even unto this day. But even these chosen men scarcely
grasped the true import of His teachings, and once He was rendered almost
broken hearted at over-hearing a discussion among them regarding high
offices which they hoped to acquire.
Jesus now felt that the time had come for Him to move on to Jerusalem
to meet there the crowning act of His strange career. And, knowing full well
that such a course would be virtually thrusting His head into the very jaws of
the lion of ecclesiastical and temporal authority, He set His feet firmly on the
road which led to Jerusalem, the capital city, and the center of ecclesiastical
influence. And that road was a hard one to travel, for, as He neared the
capital, His enemies increased in number and the opposition to Him grew
stronger. At one village He had been denied the right of shelter, an indignity
almost unknown in Oriental lands. In another place a large rock was hurled
at Him and wounded Him severely. The mob had turned against Him and
was repaying His kind services with abuse and personal violence. And this
is ever the lot of the teacher of the Truth who scatters the sacred pearls of
Truth before the swine of the unworthy multitude of people. Over and over
again has this fact been brought home to those who would labor for the