Edgar Cayce A Seer Out of Season. Harmon Hartzell Bro

of self-will and self-indulgence must someday, in some lifetime, be extinguished on the altar of love. Each person could expect what amounted to an ultimate crucifixion, not as punishment but as fulfillment of the very nature of existence, where self-centeredness had finally to yield to God-centeredness. Each could discover in the temple of the body, by turning within to meet the Author of life, when such sacrifice was appointed and could be met without fear. It would not be a call to extinction, though it might involve humiliation and suffering. For Cayce quoted often the biblical promises as sure: “God hath not willed that any soul should perish, but hath with every temptation provided a means of escape.”³⁸

      The entranced man did not counsel self-mortification or needless martyrdom. It was not identity that required sacrificing, but only those preoccupations that were outworn, to be left behind. There might be a different kind of sacrifice, too, of privilege, in order to learn through the soul’s choice of hardship, pain, or lowly estate just what others were in fact enduring and how to be filled with longing to be helpful. As Cayce spoke about the suffering and crucifixion of Christ, he affirmed that it had entailed real pain, not sham. But he also disclosed (in what seemed a daring extension of his counseling vision) what was the spirit of Jesus that enabled him to choose faithfulness, even to the cross. Cayce reported as the inner prayer often in the Galilean’s thoughts: “Others, Lord, others.” Choosing to live by the same spirit, none could expect to avoid the crucifying of self-will.