A hermit in the Himalayas

A HERMIT IN THE HIMALAYAS

The extraordinary quality about Christ is his power of conversion-
He walks by the sea of Galilee, finds two fishermen engaged in their
daily work, throws out a few words, and straightway induces them
to cast a different kind of net amongst men.. . . The son goes out to
look for his father's herd of asses, meets the Master, and is changed:
henceforth he too shall go out to look for a diviner herd. . . . Saul,
journeying along the road to Damascus, is met by the invisible Christ,
and falls to the ground at his feet....

Yet even this power of Jesus was not a miraculous one, was not
universal. He could not convert the Pharisees; he has not converted
them yet—those hard, stifl-necked, formal, overprudent creatures
who have existed through all ages and in all lands, not merely
among the Jews but among all other races too.

For Jesus could only convert his own. Indeed, he did not seek
to do more than that. He had come for them, his children. No man
of God can do more than that. Such is the marvellous gift of freedom
which God has bestowed on us all—no man's mysterious freedom
of will shall be disturbed. We are to turn Homewards of our own
accord, not by any pressure or interference.

The Masters of Light, as in Jesus* day, seek those alone who are
already seeking them, who in their conscious or unconscious minds
are eager to return Home. They know that grapes cannot be
gathered off thistles.

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