The Holy Language contains a rich variety of stories about fish and fisherman. We read of miraculous draughts of fishes where the nets tear from the great load or of equally miraculous great draughts· where the nets do not tear. At times people are not only given bread to eat but also fish and there are many, especially among the disciples, whose trade is that of fisherman. The disciples are called while they are busy fishing, or working at repairing their nets.
With the twelve stanzas of the epic of the crucifixion the pupil ends his journey through the fields of dialectics, on the way to the house of the father. The morning of the resurrection has come and we will now devote our attention to what this glorieus victory in the Gnostic sense signifies for us. We must have a complete survey of what and who rises from the tomb and what the tomb is to grasp all that transpires during the course of the resurrection.
In geographical Jerusalem there is a building called the Continue reading →
One day as he was bringing forth the tools for work he said, these tools remind me of the ones we handle in the workshop of the mind where things were made of thought and where we build up character.
We use the square to measure all our lines, to straighten out the crooked places of the way, and make the corners of our conduct square. We use the compass to draw circles round our passions and desires to keep them in the bounds of righteousness. We use the axe to cut away the knotty, useless and ungainly parts and make the character symmetrical. We use the hammer to drive home the truth, and pound it in until it is a part of every part. We use the plane to smooth the rough, uneven surfaces of joint, and block, and board that go to build the temple for the truth.
The chisel, line, the plummet and the saw all have their uses in the workshop of the mind. And then this ladder with its trinity of steps, faith, hope and love; on it we climb up to the dome of purity in life. And on the twelve-step ladder we ascend until we reach the pinnacle of that which life is spent to build: the temple of perfected man.
