The ordinary “sinner” may yet possess an “average” of all the virtues, and the ordinary “saint” an “average” of all the vices. Concerning these it was said, “I would have you either hot or cold, but because ye are neither hot nor cold, I have spewed you out of my mouth.” No lukewarm soul ever entered the Kingdom of Heaven.
But a time at last comes when the soul of man, enmeshed in the “lusts of the flesh and the deceitfulness of riches,” must make his choice. He realizes that he can no longer “serve two masters.” He will make his choice knowingly, deliberately, and voluntarily. Happy and blessed will be he if with his whole soul, and with every impulse of his being, he declares, “I know not what others may do, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
If there are real Masters (and there are), they have to work under both Natural and Divine Law, and in strict harmony with the higher evolution of the whole human race.
It is only a low, feeble, and undeveloped intelligence that finds God and Nature at cross-purposes.
He who has found “the place of peace,” harmonized his own nature, purified his own life, and elevated all his desires and aspirations, has discerned the “harmony of the morning stars,” and caught the symphony of the heavenly hosts. In other words, he is already functioning on the Spiritual Plane.
This would seem to make clear the ethical problem raised, the stress placed upon it, and how it is met and answered by every genuine Initiate throughout the ages.
It has to be solved first in each individual case. Only “he who lives the life shall know the doctrine,” or advance to power.