The great pyramid passages and chambers

able to walk erect. But their path is not an easy one. Owing to the weakness of the flesh, they find it difficult and fatiguing to advance. Their rate of progress depends on the degree of their faith and zeal, because it is not by their own strength but by the strength of the Lord that they are enabled to conquer the difficulties of the way, and this strength they can have only as a result of faith. Again and again they find themselves prone to slip, but the grace of God, symbolized by the Ramps, enables them to make upward progress in righteousness in spite of the many difficulties, and the more progress they make, the nearer they come to God, just as the Grand Gallery leads one upward and nearer to the King’s Chamber, symbolical of the Holy of Holies, heaven itself.

186 Of those visitors to the Great Pyramid who reach the Grand Gallery, the few who make the laborious ascent as far as the great Step at the top, and so come toa position where they can see the low entrance to the Ante-Chamber, find that their labour is not at an end. If they desire to make further progress they will require to surmount the Step, and then after a short pause on its level upper surface, during which they can look back along the way they have trod and then down at the low entrance to the AnteChamber, they will require to decide whether they will return, or else bow down submissively and creep through the low passage, only three and a half feet high, into the Ante-Chamber—Plate XX. The surmounting of the Step is specially difficult owing to its height of 36 inches, and to the fact that the feet are resting on the inclined and slippery floor of the Gallery; but by placing one foot on the Ramp, and then putting forth a vigorous effort, the difficulty can be overcome.

187 In this we have a picture of the condition of those who have advanced through faith to the end of this portion of their journey. Perseverance in following the path of faith-justification by the help of the grace of God has led them to the point where they can see the further step of consecration or sanctification, just as perseverance in climbing the Grand Gallery by the help of the Ramp leads the traveller to the point where he can see the low entrance into the Ante-Chamber. They have now to decide whether or not they will proceed further. The Step symbolizes the natural dislike of the human mind to entertain earnestly and sincerely the thought of self-denial and self-sacrifice, for “no man ever yet hated his own flesh’”—Eph. 5:29. With the help of the grace of God, however, some are enabled by an effort to surmount this difficulty. When they do so, they find that more than half the battle of decision has been won. They are now, for a shorter or longer period, on the halting-place symbolized by the level upper surface of the Step, and can examine more closely the narrow way which lies open before them into the condition of sanctification, and thence to joint-heirship with Christ.

188 If they will look back and consider the wonderful love of God in sending his Son into the world to die for them while they were yet sinners, they will reason that if, when they were enemies, they were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, they will be saved by his life; and not only so, but they will also rejoice in God through the Lord Jesus Christ—Rom. 5: 8-11. Further, if they consider how much they have already been enabled to accomplish along the pathway of faith-justification, not in their own strength, but in the strength of the Lord, they will not hesitate long in coming to a decision, Doubts evidence lack of faith, and tend to obscure the judgment. The sooner we get rid of them, the more pleasing we shall be