h nearer than any other to the
understanding of the nature of love, and consequently of the nature
of "the immortals," that the idea of the incarnation--that beautiful
concession to the weakness of the flesh--emanated with an almost
inevitable naturalness from their association. Jesus himself felt in
his own soul the presence of the invisible companions; although he
was led, by reason of his peculiar religious bent, and by reason of
the influences that surrounded him, to speak of these companions
as a "heavenly father."

But the words of Jesus which carry with them the very magic of
truth are not the words in which he speaks of his "father," but the
words in which he speaks of himself as if he were the very
incarnation of Love itself. There is no doubt that the sons of the
universe found in Jesus a soul so uniquely harmonious with
their own that there existed between them a sympathy and an
understanding without parallel in the history of humanity.

It is this sympathy which is the origin of those unequalled words
used by the son of Mary in which he speaks as if he were himself
in very truth an incarnation of the vision of the immortals. The
whole situation is one which need have little mystery for those
who understand the nature of love. In moment after moment of
supreme ecstasy Jesus felt himself so given up to the will of the
invisible companions that this own identity became lost. In
speaking for himself he spoke for them; in suffering for himself he
suffered for them, and in the great hours of his tragic wayfaring he
felt himself so close to them that, by reason of his love, he knew
himself able to speak of the secret of life even as the immortals
themselves would speak.

We are permitted indeed in reading the divine narrative to
distinguish between two moods in the soul of Jesus. In one of
these moods he refers to his "father" as if his father were distinct
and separate from him and even very distant. In the other mood he
speaks as if he himself were in very truth a god; and were able,
without any appeal to any other authority, to heal the wounds of
the world and to reveal to mankind the infinite pity of the love
which is beyond analysis.

It is towards the words and gestures of the son of Mary, when he
spoke of himself rather than of his "father" that we are inevitably
drawn, in our search for an adequate symbol for the eternal vision.
It is when he speaks with authority as if he himself were an
immortal go