assing softness. Thus he lived
through nine-and-twenty years of mortal life, growing from grace to
grace.

This superhuman purity and devotion fitted the man Jesus, the disciple,
to become the temple of a loftier Power, of a mighty, indwelling
Presence. The time had come for one of those Divine manifestations which
from age to age are made for the helping of humanity, when a new impulse
is needed to quicken the spiritual evolution of mankind, when a new
civilisation is about to dawn. The world of the West was then in the
womb of time, ready for the birth, and the Teutonic sub-race was to
catch the sceptre of empire falling from the failing hands of Rome. Ere
it started on its journey a World-Saviour must appear, to stand in
blessing beside the cradle of the infant Hercules.

A mighty "Son of God" was to take flesh upon earth, a supreme Teacher,
"full of grace and truth"--[161] One in whom the Divine Wisdom abode in
fullest measure, who was verily "the Word" incarnate, Light and Life in
outpouring richness, a very Fountain of the Waters of Life. Lord of
Compassion and of Wisdom--such was His name--and from His dwelling in
the Secret Places He came forth into the world of men.

For Him was needed an earthly tabernacle, a human form, the body of a
man, and who so fit to yield his body in glad and willing service to One
before whom Angels and men bow down in lowliest reverence, as this
Hebrew of the Hebrews, this purest and noblest of "the Perfect," whose
spotless body and stainless mind offered the best that humanity could
bring? The man Jesus yielded himself a willing sacrifice, "offered
himself without spot" to the Lord of Love, who took unto Himself that
pure form as tabernacle, and dwelt therein for three years of mortal
life.

This epoch is marked in the traditions embodied in the Gospels as that
of the Baptism of Jesus, when the Spirit was seen "descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him,"[162] and a celestial voice
proclaimed Him as the beloved Son, to whom men should give ear. Truly
was He the beloved Son in whom the Father was well-pleased,[163] and
from that time forward "Jesus began to preach,"[164] and was that
wondrous mystery, "God manifest in the flesh"[165]--not unique in that
He was God, for: "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods? If
he called them Gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture
cannot be broken; say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified and
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