s brethren, not by a
vicarious substitution, but by the unity of a common life. Is any
sinful? he is sinful in them, that his purity may purge them. Is any
sorrowful? in them he is the man of sorrows; every broken heart breaks
his, in every pierced heart his heart is pierced. Is any glad? in them
he is joyous, and pours out his bliss. Is any craving? in them he is
feeling want that he may fill them with his utter satisfaction. He has
everything, and because it is his it is theirs. He is perfect; then they
are perfect with him. He is strong; who then can be weak, since he is in
them? He climbed to his high place that he might pour out to all below
him, and he lives in order that all may share his life. He lifts the
whole world with him as he rises, the path is easier for all men,
because he has trodden it.

"Every son of man may become such a manifested Son of God, such a
Saviour of the world. In each such Son is 'God manifest in the
flesh,'[236] the atonement that aids all mankind, the living power that
makes all things new. Only one thing is needed to bring that power into
manifested activity in any individual soul; the soul must open the door
and let Him in. Even He, all-permeating, cannot force His way against
His brother's will; the human will can hold its own alike against God
and man, and by the law of evolution it must voluntarily associate
itself with divine action, and not be broken into sullen submission. Let
the will throw open the door, and the life will flood the soul. While
the door is closed it will only gently breathe through it its
unutterable fragrance, that the sweetness of that fragrance may win,
where the barrier may not be forced by strength.

"This it is, in part, to be a Christ; but how can mortal pen mirror the
immortal, or mortal words tell of that which is beyond the power of
speech? Tongue may not utter, the unillumined mind may not grasp, that
mystery of the Son who has become one with the Father, carrying in His
bosom the sons of men."[237]

Those who would prepare to rise to such a life in the future must begin
even now to tread in the lower life the path of the Shadow of the Cross.
Nor should they doubt their power to rise, for to do so is to doubt the
God within them. "Have faith in yourself," is one of the lessons that
comes from the higher view of man, for that faith is really in the God
within. There is a way by which the shadow of the Christ-life may fall
on the common life of man