, and that is by doing every act as a
sacrifice, not for what it will bring to the doer but for what it will
bring to others, and, in the daily common life of small duties, petty
actions, narrow interests, by changing the motive and thus changing all.
Not one thing in the outer life need necessarily be varied; in any life
sacrifice may be offered, amid any surroundings God may be served.
Evolving spirituality is marked not by what a man does, but by how he
does it; not in the circumstances, but in the attitude of a man towards
them, lies the opportunity of growth. "And indeed this symbol of the
cross may be to us as a touchstone to distinguish the good from the evil
in many of the difficulties of life. 'Only those actions through which
shines the light of the cross are worthy of the life of the disciple,'
says one of the verses in a book of occult maxims; and it is interpreted
to mean that all that the aspirant does should be prompted by the
fervour of self-sacrificing love. The same thought appears in a later
verse: 'When one enters the path, he lays his heart upon the cross; when
the cross and the heart have become one, then hath he reached the goal.'
So, perchance, we may measure our progress by watching whether
selfishness or self-sacrifice is dominant in our lives."[238]

Every life which begins thus to shape itself is preparing the cave in
which the Child-Christ shall be born, and the life shall become a
constant at-one-ment, bringing the divine more and more into the human.
Every such life shall grow into the life of a "beloved Son," and shall
have in it the glory of the Christ. Every man may work in that direction
by making every act and power a sacrifice, until the gold is purged from
the dross, and only the pure ore remains.

CHAPTER VIII.

RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION

The doctrines of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ also form part
of the Lesser Mysteries, being integral portions of "The Solar Myth,"
and of the life-story of the Christ in man.

As regards Christ Himself they have their historical basis in the facts
of His continuing to teach His apostles after His physical death, and of
His appearance in the Greater Mysteries as Hierophant after His direct
instructions had ceased, until Jesus took His place. In the mythic tales
the resurrection of the hero and his glorification invariably formed the
conclusion of his death-story; and in the Mysteries, the body of the
candidate was always t