The Magians found the Christ-child in a manger outside the Inn in the little city of Bethlehem. It was truly a lowly place in which to be born and cradled. But the Master was not born and cradled there in any mere literal sense. Yet there is meaning in it of deep import for all who are seeking to find the Christ. He is not born out of and amidst conditions whose use is to minister unto the sense-life. He is not born where luxury and sense-gratification are sought, but in the pure and lowly life. He is not born where earthly ambitions prevail, but in the meek mind and gentle heart. He is not born where the proud oppressive spirit rules, nor where the life of the creatures is hurt and taken from them. He is born rather where mercy and truth meet each other, and righteousness imparts the kiss of Divine Peace.

The life of that one in whom the Christ-child is born must be a friend of the creatures. It could not be otherwise. The ox in the stall, the ass in the stable, the sheep in the byre, the dove in its cote, and all creatures in their several degrees of unfoldment, are related to such a life by indissoluble ties, even that of the Oneness of all true life, and by the fact that the gentle creatures have been the venues through which the Soul has passed upwards in its true evolution before the Divine Love. To be born in the stable or byre, and cradled in a manger, therefore, means very much more than to be born amid lowly conditions. For the Soul truly was cradled amongst the creatures. And when the Christ-child is about to be born within the Soul, the life awakens to the consciousness of its relationship to all the creatures, its duty unto them, and the service it must perform in making manifest the Divine Love then awakening within the Soul.

Of course all this implies the Redeemed Life for the individual. It presupposes a very genuine sympathy with all the creatures, a sympathy so rich and full in manifestation that it could not hurt the creatures for its own pleasure, nor cause them to be wounded, afflicted and killed on any pretext whatsoever. It shows how the Soul will look upon the creatures when once the Christ-child is born within; how it will spread over them the mantle of true pity, and protect them; how it will recognize them to be, not only the venues by means of which souls came up on to the Human Kingdom, but members of the Father's Household. It teaches us how impossible it will be for those who are born into the Jesus-Life to have the creatures killed for food, clothing, purposes of pleasure or healing.

What a profound meaning is to be found in the picture of the birth of the Christ-child within the refuge for the creatures, and His cradling in the Manger! Great is the depth of meaning that may be found in this story which makes the birth of the Master and His cradling to have taken place amongst them! When we know its inner spiritual significance, the literal story is changed into a veritable treasure-house full of invaluable riches. In the Advent the creatures were concerned as well as the Human Races. In the birth of the Christ-child and the full Manifestation of Christhood lay the hope of the groaning Creation. Unto this end was the story told; unto this end is it now interpreted.

Excerpts from The Master: His Life and Teachings (pp. 135-137) by John Todd Ferrier.
© The Order of the Cross

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