though the highest, to be known by him alone who utterly renounced the
world;[171] by that knowledge men became Christs for such "men are
myself, and I am these men," for Christ is that highest Mystery.[172]
Knowing that, men are "transformed into pure light and are brought into
the light."[173] And He performed for them the great ceremony of
Initiation, the baptism "which leadeth to the region of truth and into
the region of light," and bade them celebrate it for others who were
worthy: "But hide ye this mystery, give it not unto every man, but unto
him [only] who shall do all things which I have said unto you in my
commandments."[174]

Thereafter, being fully instructed, the apostles went forth to preach,
ever aided by their Master.

Moreover these same disciples and their earliest colleagues wrote down
from memory all the public sayings and parables of the Master that they
had heard, and collected with great eagerness any reports they could
find, writing down these also, and circulating them all among those who
gradually attached themselves to their small community. Various
collections were made, any member writing down what he himself
remembered, and adding selections from the accounts of others. The inner
teachings, given by the Christ to His chosen ones, were not written
down, but were taught orally to those deemed worthy to receive them, to
students who formed small communities for leading a retired life, and
remained in touch with the central body.

The historical Christ, then, is a glorious Being belonging to the great
spiritual hierarchy that guides the spiritual evolution of humanity, who
used for some three years the human body of the disciple Jesus; who
spent the last of these three years in public teaching throughout Judaea
and Samaria; who was a healer of diseases and performed other remarkable
occult works; who gathered round Him a small band of disciples whom He
instructed in the deeper truths of the spiritual life; who drew men to
Him by the singular love and tenderness and the rich wisdom that
breathed from His Person; and who was finally put to death for
blasphemy, for teaching the inherent Divinity of Himself and of all men.
He came to give a new impulse of spiritual life to the world; to
re-issue the inner teachings affecting spiritual life; to mark out again
the narrow ancient way; to proclaim the existence of the "Kingdom of
Heaven," of the Initiation which admits to that knowledge of God whi