54 SKETCHES OF GREAT TRUTHS

being on the road, and some walking on it but
unconscious of -whence they come or whither
they go. Christ gave us the command: " Be ye
therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven
is perfect." He said " I am the Way/' so the
Way He trod is the road to Perfection, and it is
on that road we have to go to climb the ladder
to the Goal. All Great Teachers have pointed
out the same Way, the same Goal.

Truly are there steps which lead up to that
Portal, and there are few which tread that narrow
way. The Gate is the Gate of Initiation, the
second birth, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of
Fire; the Way leads to the knowledge of God»
which is life in the Eternal.

In the different religious thoughts of the
West the Goal has been called by different
names. Illumination, Attainment, Union, Deifi-
cation and Salvation, and to pass the Portal is
a common phrase. In the West where in one
life only we are taught that salvation can be
gained, the Portal means the gate of purgatory
from whence heaven is gained or hell deter-
mined. In the East,

The Occultist—the Knower, or the Gnostic—
sees the steps in somewhat other fashion, and
divides the path into two great stages, the Proba-
tionary and the Path Proper ; the Probationary re-
presents the Purgation of the Mystic ; the Path itself
the Mystic's Illumination and Union. He further