The moral
interval between the two is within what I have called, following
Swedenborg, the "continuous degree." And perhaps the distinction can be
still better expressed by another reference to that Book which we
theosophical students do not less regard, because we are disposed to
protest against all exclusive pretensions of religious systems.
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* Of the higher religious teachings of Mohammedanism I know next to
nothing, and therefore cannot say if it should be excepted from the
statement.
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The good man who has, however, not yet attained his "son-ship of God" is
"under the law"--that moral law which is educational and preparatory,
"the schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ," our own Divine spirit, or
higher personality. To conceive the difference between these two states
is to apprehend exactly what is here meant by the false, temporal, and
the true, eternal personality, and the sense in which the word
personality is here intended to be understood. We do not know whether,
when that great change has come over us, when that great work* of our
lives has been accomplished--here or hereafter--we shall or shall not
retain a sense of identity with our past, and forever discarded selves.
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