Thank God For Loneliness
Martin Cecil June 9, 1974 a.m.
We might profitably give some further consideration to that graphic story contained in the 4th chapter of the Book of Genesis, the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, representing material man, was the first-born. This is the way it is when a human being is born into the world; there is first the little physical form. Later Abel, representing spiritual man, is born and both Cain and Abel then constitute, rightly, what man is. Man the living soul is a balanced combination of a spiritual aspect and a material aspect.
As we may easily recognize, Cain, the material aspect of man, has slain Abel, the spiritual aspect of man, so that what is called man in the world today is represented by Cain. Many people like to feel that there is at least a little Abel in them, but you will note that as this particular chapter continues there is indication of the offspring of Cain; there is a series of begats. Mankind, as we now know it, sprang from Cain; there is no indication that Abel had any progeny at all. This is the fact of the matter. We have a material world inhabited by material human beings; Abel has been absent. Let me read a few verses once again from the story, starting at the 9th verse, which comes immediately after Cain had slain Abel:
“And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?” (Maybe He's asking exactly that question of us in this moment.) “And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”
There has been some interest as to what the mark was that the Lord set upon Cain. Human beings may have looked at each other, seeking some sort of evidence in this regard; but the fact is that the mark was set upon Cain, who represented material man, and it is present with respect to every human being who has ever lived on the face of the earth since that original failure, so no matter at whom we look we may observe the mark of Cain.
The particular purpose for this mark was that Cain should be preserved, and this is the fact: material man still inhabits the earth. Individually speaking, of course, death has come to be looked upon as the natural experience, but man as a whole has remained. So we could say that this mark relates to the instinct of self-preservation, the urge to survive. That certainly emphasizes itself in human experience, and in spite of all the vicissitudes and cataclysmic events through which the human race has passed, it has survived. The mark of Cain is his determination to survive. There was, of course, a reason for this. Without Cain, Abel could not be a reality in human experience; material man is necessary if spiritual man is to be known.
Spiritual man has been slain. Because of this, there has been the endeavor on the part of material man—you and me—to provide substitutes for the brother who is absent. Every human being is aware of that absence. There is consequently a sense of varying degrees of emptiness, of void, because of the absence of Abel. But Abel had been slain, eliminated. All that remained was Cain, and we ourselves are the progeny of Cain. So there is this state of affairs: the experience of Cain with his mark (the endeavor to survive) and the absence of Abel, so that at the very best there is considerably less than half a person present. Material man is far less than half of man, man as he really is, man the living soul; material man is what remains, a dying soul. This has been so customary generation after generation that it is considered to be the normal course of events, that man should spend the days of his years dying. Man is not yet a dead soul, and he is not yet a dead soul because of the mark that was placed upon him, the urge of self-preservation. In relationship to this particular urge there are various other urges, of course: the urge to reproduce, for instance. That is part of the endeavor to survive. There are various classifications of instinct that philosophers and psychologists have devised but they all spring from this original mark of Cain, the instinct of self-preservation.
It is necessary in the outworking of things that Cain should be on hand, because without Cain, Abel could not reappear; and if Abel does not reappear, the reality of man could not again inhabit the earth. We begin to see here a very valid reason for the Lord, the creative expression of Being, to make sure that man has stayed around. Material man has been essential to the restored state to which the creative expression of Being looks. If material man is completely eliminated, then that's that; there is no possibility of the true state reappearing. When this is recognized, of course, it has to be admitted that what is now known is not the true state; it is a substitute condition produced by material man. The substitute necessarily must pass away if the reality is to appear. If we see some evidences of the passing of the substitute in these days it is not cause for sorrow. It is cause, rightly, for rejoicing. It is cause for rejoicing insofar as spiritual man is concerned.
Cain slew Abel, so that in the eyes of Cain, Abel has been dead, absent. This is not the truth of the matter; Abel is present, spiritual man is present; but from the standpoint of material man this is an unknown fact. Cain slew Abel; material man eliminated spiritual man; material man dominates on the face of the earth. In that state of the absence of his brother there has been a sense of loneliness. Now, this is the most outstanding characteristic of material man's experience—a sense of loneliness.
That is a right experience. It is not something to be gotten rid of by some material means, because it gives indication to material man of the essential nature of spiritual man. Here are two brothers composing what man really is: a spiritual aspect and a material aspect. If all that is present is a material aspect, in the experience of that material aspect there is a sense of loneliness, because the brother, Abel, is absent. This is the fact in human experience; there is loneliness. But material man has sought to assuage that loneliness by substitute methods which, if they were successful, would indicate that there was really no need for Abel; it would indicate that spiritual man was unnecessary. So material man, in various ways, has endeavored to satisfy himself sufficiently so that the loneliness would go away.
There are various methods that we have noted, that come under three primary headings: he has used religious methods to assuage his loneliness, he has used intellectual methods to assuage his loneliness, and he has used physical or material methods to assuage his loneliness. For a little while, on occasion, he may seem to himself, individually speaking, to be more or less successful; he finds a better state than he knew previously, by reason of the substitute which he has put in the place of his brother. We must recognize that the religious methods that have been used are endeavors by material man to have the experience of total man, to have the experience of true man, without his brother.
It was the attitude of Cain in the story, that he was condemned for- ever to be a vagabond and a wanderer in the earth, to experience this state of loneliness and unhappiness, misery and suffering; he had been condemned to this condition by the Lord. This was his view. In other words, there was no acknowledgment of the fact that it occurred consequent upon his own action. Because he had slain Abel, the results appeared, the results which are inevitable for material man divorced from spiritual man.
So he has this sense of loneliness and he has used these various methods to provide a substitute in place of his brother. Basically, the endeavor has come to point in his efforts to establish relationships with his fellows. The individual human being feels lonely; therefore he tries to assuage that loneliness by finding various patterns of relatedness with his fellows. The herd instinct in the experience of man is one aspect of this. They say that man is a gregarious creature; he flocks together because he is lonely. But the more he flocks together the more lonely he feels—one of the loneliest places in the world is a big city! So other methods are used in a more personal way. There is the endeavor to find friends, and in order to have that experience it seems necessary also to be one of the herd, one of the bunch. If one doesn't go along with the herd, one won't have any friends. Of course, if a person does go along with the herd and finds friends and imagines that his loneliness is thereby being assuaged so that there is no need for spiritual man, he is entering into a state of awful self-delusion; he is moving in the direction which ultimately must be fatal—fatal in the individual sense. No matter how much individual human beings have tried to survive, they never yet succeeded, even though the human race remains on earth. There are some who don't seem to be able to be one of the herd—praise the Lord!—however, they often tend to try to find some particular person to relate to, and if they are able to obtain such a particular person for themselves to relate to, here is their substitute, their substitute for the real thing.
The first necessity is never to try to relate to other human beings. This is an endeavor to escape from what is really required, but how human beings insist upon trying to escape, trying to stay away from the experience of letting Abel be resurrected, from coming again into the experience of the spiritual aspect of one's own being. Human beings try to stay away from that and they have these various methods of doing it, providing for themselves certain substitutes. Even within the scope of our own ministry here I have observed many glomming onto these substitutes. They felt lonely and they were self-centered, so their endeavor was to get rid of the sense of loneliness, when the sense of loneliness is human salvation. Rejoice in the sense of loneliness because it is an indication, when correctly interpreted, of an awareness of the absence of one's brother, the spiritual aspect of one's own being. Only the reality will fill that sense of loneliness. Substitutes only lead to self-delusion. With some, of course, they lead finally to the realization that none of them work, that they're worthless, that they're useless, that material man doesn't belong as though he was a complete entity in himself. His sense of loneliness is his awareness that he is not a complete entity in himself simply as material man. And isn't it wonderful that there is that sense of loneliness, then? because it opens the door for the resurrection of Abel.
Now, the resurrection of Abel does not mean that Abel is not al- ready present. It simply means that Abel has not been present in the experience of Cain, in the experience of material man. Therefore Abel needs to be resurrected into the experience of material man. This whole process was so graphically revealed in what occurred in the experience of Jesus nineteen centuries ago. He was spiritual man before the resurrection. He was present all the time but it only became apparent after the resurrection, to those material human beings who were open to comprehend it, those material human beings who had not deluded themselves so completely as to imagine that they were satisfying their loneliness by material means. That simply cannot be done and if a person tries to do it he is deluding himself.
Always the first necessity is to let that loneliness turn one's response toward the Lord, toward the creative reality of Being, that spiritual man may be resurrected into one's own experience, so that spiritual man becomes one's own true identity. To try to sustain the material man identity, as though that were worth something without the spiritual man identity, is foolishness. It is impossible, in actual fact. It can be done for a few short years of what are described as a human lifetime, but that's all; then material man is gone, his identity is gone. If there has not been the experience of spiritual man, what is there left? Simply a disintegrating corpse, that's all. But spiritual man is present, even though he has not been present in the consciousness of material man. Let spiritual man be resurrected into the consciousness of material man. That will never occur as long as a person imagines that his loneliness will be taken care of by his association with his fellows.
Boy seeks girl, girl seeks boy, because they delude themselves into imagining that when they find each other the loneliness will be gone. I am sure that there are many married couples present in this room in this moment, some of them of long standing, who know, if they are honest with themselves, that the fact of being married does not really take away the sense of loneliness. It doesn't; that's all foolery; it's all human nonsense. First things come first, and a person who doesn't put first things first may well be described as a fool. And the first thing is what is indicated by the word “God” or “Lord.”
What is so indicated is not found in any of material man's religious concepts. These are all substitutes, an endeavor to assuage the loneliness without letting Abel be resurrected. All this has something to do with the potential of Christianity, incidentally, because the resurrection of Jesus was a portrayal, a factual portrayal, of the resurrection of Abel in the experience of the individual. But who has let it occur? “Oh, it occurred for Jesus; but it's impossible for anybody else.” This is the usual “humble” Christian attitude. It's a cop-out! It's failure! It's an indication that the truth has not been accepted, and if it has not been accepted it has been rejected. Because it has been rejected the world is the way it is and human beings remain the way they are. There's no possibility of having a different world unless you have different human beings, is there? In spite of all the political promises that are being made these days the world is not going to be a different place as long as we have the same human beings inhabiting it. That should be obvious to anyone, but human beings love to delude themselves. “Oh, yes, oh, yes, at last we're going to have a change and things are going to be so much better.” Can any sensible person really believe that hogwash? The way requires the resurrection of Abel, and there isn't any other way!
So, loneliness. Loneliness was described using other words in one of the Beatitudes: hungering and thirsting. Loneliness—what a wonderful thing! Blessed are they who are lonely. And yet so much human effort is given to trying to find substitutes which will eliminate the loneliness. If a person ever succeeds in eliminating the loneliness in his own experience by such methods, he has committed the unpardonable sin; there's no hope for that person. But as long as there is loneliness, that loneliness may turn the individual toward the means by which his brother is restored. And it is spiritual man and material man together in oneness that constitute man—man, male and female, who then belong together; so that those who are of the male gender may find friends of the male gender, and those who are of the female gender may find friends of that gender, and men and women together may find friendship, friendship which is the basis of a unified experience. But first comes the resurrection of Abel; otherwise none of it is possible; it's all tomfoolery! (I don't know who Tom was, but it's all foolery anyway!)
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,” after the true experience of man, the reality of being; and this requires the spiritual aspect to be present. Spiritual man is not religious man. Spiritual man is a new state, an unknown state, insofar as material man is concerned. He doesn't know; he can't find out. All he can do is to be willing to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to let his loneliness be turned toward that point which permits the filling of it truly, so that spiritual identity may be restored; and that is what a person really is. True relationships are only possible between true people; false relationships are only possible between false people. The endeavor to try to make false relationships into true relationships is a most futile endeavor. First one must become a true person, and one can only become a true person when Abel is resurrected, when spiritual man is present once again.
So, if the human race has survived to this point, it was that there might be found those who would allow their loneliness to be a creative experience. There are some who, feeling lonely, imagine that they can assuage that loneliness by communing with nature. "Let's get back to nature and we won't feel lonely anymore. Let's get ourselves as a part of nature and then we will be fulfilled." Certainly not—never! Become true man and then the loneliness of nature may be assuaged. Nature is lonely, lonely for true man, but false man trying to commune with nature produces nothing but confusion; it doesn't work that way. Man communes with God, rightly, and when man experiences the reality of God, then nature can experience oneness with God because of man. But as long as man is absent, as he has been ever since Abel was absent, nature has no means of communing with God, and anyone who has any sensitivity at all is keenly aware of the loneliness of nature, the longing of nature for what would be fulfilling to nature, namely man.
This same loneliness is in material man. Let it be turned toward the Lord so that one doesn't try to be one of the herd and one doesn't try to find the fulfilment for one's loneliness in someone else. You won't! It can't be done! The fulfilment comes because there is the experience of wholeness in oneself; then one may experience a larger wholeness in relationship to someone else who is whole. That's the only way it can be done, and as long as human beings refuse to let themselves be made whole—which is healing, incidentally—as long as they refuse to let themselves be made whole, there cannot be any true, right relationships between human beings on earth. We have the vagabond state, the wanderer state, the state of Cain. This is the way it is. Human beings in that state try to make the best of it, try to get along as best they may, but at best it's rather a miserable condition, certainly a far cry from the true state of man. If there is this loneliness, this longing of the heart, it relates to the true state of man in one's own personal experience. Don't delude yourself or fool yourself that you can experience something that is worthwhile by being one of the herd, or communing with nature, or getting a wife or getting a husband or getting a friend; it does not work that way. That simply maintains the state of Cain, and Cain has just about as much as he can bear!
How easy the change may come, but it requires some honesty. It requires real willingness to let one's hungering and thirsting not be after friendship with someone else, not be after marriage, not be after a little isolated cell of companionship with somebody. Let all that nonsense go and allow the reality to begin to emerge, be resurrected into your consciousness, into your awareness, into your experience, so that there may be man on earth, male and female. And when there is man on earth, made in the image and likeness of God, a living soul, behold, all things are made new; there's a new world. But if man isn't present, there can't be a new world, just the same old disintegrating stuff, and if you let it go too far it's disintegrated. While we are still at least somewhat integrated, let us let the change come, so that there may be the experience of man on earth, real men and real women, who are capable of permitting the creative expression of God to bring forth what is true of His world. And, remember, it's His world, not material man's world. If what material man has established must pass away, let it pass away. Let it pass away.
When there are those who are willing in this regard, who rejoice to let the world of God appear without any human manipulations, without trying to make it satisfactory to one's own self-centered self, then the real thing can come, but not otherwise. As we have already noted, there is only one thing really wrong with human beings, and that is that they're self-centered.
Let Abel be resurrected, spiritual man be resurrected; and that brings fulfilment, that assuages the loneliness, that permits—because loneliness is no longer a factor in human experience—right experience. Everything works together to perfection, because human beings are not being driven by the mark of Cain. The mark of Cain is valuable only insofar as it brings man back to God. Then there's no longer that mark; it's gone—no more need to try to survive, no more need for loneliness.
But while loneliness is still present, give thanks for it; it's your only chance; it's the only chance that any human beings have. If you fool yourself finally into imagining that you are no longer lonely, you're done, you're finished; but if you rejoice in the loneliness, and hunger and thirst after righteousness, you will be filled in the right way and you will be man in experience, male or female. And being man, behold, by reason of your presence on earth all things are made new; the creative expression of being is there and all things are made new—not in the instant; there is a creative cycle, after all, to work out, but it will all work out on that basis, and on that basis alone.
O Lord, we are most deeply thankful that the way is wide open, that the veil is rent, that the union of spiritual and material man is immediately possible. And because we begin to recognize this honestly we recognize our responsibility. We accept the challenge and we let our loneliness be hungering and thirsting after righteousness, after the experience of man, true manhood, true womanhood, all to Thy glory on earth, that the right pattern of association and oneness may emerge in the fulfilment of divine purpose, to Thy glory, in the Christ. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
Where Your Treasure Is There Will Your Heart Be Also
YouTube Audio
excerpted from
"The Way Of The Master"
Martin Cecil April 28, 1974 p.m.
I read a passage from the Gospel of Matthew this morning. I'd like to read just a little further this evening:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
“But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
The light of the body is the eye. This is spelled “e-y-e,” but it might conceivably be spelled with the one letter “I”. If you have self-consciousness, whatever the nature of that self may seem to be, that is the light to which reference is made here. You are aware of yourself; you have consciousness of some of the things at least that are going on around you. There is that much light. If the “I” is single, if your identity is one with true identity, the identity that centers in the LORD, then your whole body is full of light; the Breath of Life is breathed into your body. You recall, speaking of the Word, that in Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men. If your identity is the true identity, you are a Living Soul. For your identity to be the true identity you must be attuned with the ascending aspect of the creative cycle. In other words your treasure must be in heaven, must be in Shekinah, in the quality, the character, of the Christ. If that is your treasure, nothing else is your treasure. When your treasure is in heaven, that's where it is. It isn't in the earth. However if it's in the earth it isn't in the heaven.
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
And where your heart is, there will your identity be also.
If your heart is in the earth, there your identity is. If your heart is in the earth, you are attuned to the descending aspect of the creative cycle and you are consequently a dying soul. That is the disintegrating aspect of the creative cycle. This is the “I” which is evil; the evil aspect of the creative cycle is the descending aspect. There's nothing wrong with it; it should be there. There's nothing wrong with evil in this sense. The good aspect of the creative cycle is the ascending aspect of it; and they both belong, they're both interdependent. You can't have one without the other. The only point is that human beings have no business being identified with the descending aspect of the creative cycle. If they are, then their “I” is evil, their identity is evil, and they know it to be so because they disintegrate. That's the way it works.
But if your heart is in heaven because your treasure is there, then you are identified with the ascending aspect of the creative cycle, which carries you into heaven. The descending aspect carries you into hell. Hell may be an experience for a while, but ultimately it's nothing. It relates to the grave, where there is complete disintegration insofar as that particular form is concerned. Of course people try to stop that nowadays too. They embalm bodies, try to preserve them; some people even freeze them. Of course the embalming trade is a very ancient one. But what is disintegrating should disintegrate. Let it disintegrate. That's what needs to happen; that's the descending aspect of the creative cycle. Human beings are always trying to stop it happening. Of course they feel it happening while they still have a little life left, and the endeavor then is to try to prevent it from happening. But if one is attuned to the descending aspect of the creative cycle, one should disintegrate! That's what should happen. There's nothing wrong with it. It's a painful process, a miserable process, an unfortunate process, but it's what should happen if human beings are attuned that way. Because this has been the state in human experience for as long as memory goes back, it is thought to be normal, or the only one that's possible. So try to restrain the grim reaper so that we can enjoy (?) a few more years of misery!
But apparently nobody ever thought that it might be profitable to let polarity be changed so that one was attuned with the ascending aspect of the creative cycle, which is just as surely there as the descending. Because human beings have been so insulated from it they have apparently thought it didn't exist; or if it did exist it only existed after they were dead, when in actual fact, by just looking around, particularly in the springtime, it is evident that there is an ascending aspect of the creative cycle. And somehow or other our bodies got built, and our minds, such as they are, developed, and the capacity of emotion appeared, and our ability to sense things in a spiritual sense is present. All this relates to the ascending aspect of the creative cycle.
But the key is in this passage here: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And where your heart is, there will your sense of self be. If your sense of self is in heaven — that is, in Shekinah; that is, in the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, the true identity — and if your heart is with this evidence, then your experience is of the true identity. It might be said that the true identity of MAN is something; the false identity of man is nothing. Man proceeds in his present condition from feeling that he must be something somehow, in the cycles of disintegration, to the point where he realizes he is nothing; and when he realizes that, he realizes nothing.
Let the “I” be single. When the experience of human identity is consequent upon attunement with the descending aspect of the creative cycle there is a scattering abroad, a disintegration. But when there is attunement with the ascending aspect of the creative cycle there is an integration. It leads into the increasing experience of integrity, singleness, oneness. Oneness is another way of saying Love. True identity centers in Love, because that is the centering of the Christ. The Fire that Burns, the symbol of Love, is the centering of Shekinah. Why would there be any question as to where we should lay up treasure? Human beings frantically try to lay up treasure in earth to give themselves a sense of meaning and a sense of security, but it doesn't produce it, does it? This is the promise of the devil, isn't it? “Just fall down and worship me and I'll give you all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them.” And human beings go after the carrot which is dangling from their own heads, but all they find is nothing.
Lift up your eyes that your treasure may be in heaven, that all that is right and true of the character of God, of the True Tone of Life, may be the treasure in one's own experience. Regardless of what's going on around, regardless of anything in the earth, let that be the treasure so that what is expressed is that. And as that is increasingly expressed, the Tone of Life increasingly sounds, the heart is purified, the expression intensifies, and behold, all things are made new, because there is no veil between heaven and earth anymore. And what is in heaven is reflected in the earth, and the treasure that was in heaven is revealed in the earth. But nobody is trying to lay up the treasure in earth. There's no need to. Once the treasure is accepted in heaven then the earth reflects it and man is once more a Living Soul instead of a dying one.
This is the Way, the Truth and the Life. I certainly didn't invent it. I don't have that kind of inventive genius. It didn't need inventing. It's already the truth, but most human beings have indicated that they were not too interested in the truth, at least if it interfered with what they wanted to do themselves. But finally there are those who are beginning to come clear of the prejudices and the traditions which hold human beings in the meaningless round which leads to the grave. And relinquishing the treasures of earth, accepting the treasures of heaven, there is participation once more with God in His creative purposes here in His world; for it is His world. It doesn't belong to this creature which has been calling himself man. Let us share in letting the creative process work as it should, because we are once again polarized in the LORD. Behold, all things are made new.
How greatly blessed we are to share an understanding of these things in a far greater measure than the disciples of the Master shared with Him when He was on earth. And of course an understanding that is far greater than was shared by those who were with Moses when he was on earth. Beginning to sense the Tone as we do, we sense the Victory also.
I suppose it might be said that we smell Victory — because there is no way by which it can't happen.
© emissaries of divine light
He Continued With Them Forty Days
"Easter Cycle of Pentecost"
Uranda March 28, 1948 Salinas, California
I will read first from the Book of Acts Chapter 1 Verses 1-16
“The former treatise have I made ... of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
“And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
“Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said … (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) men and brethren …
And now reading from the Book of Acts Chapter 2 Verses 1-3
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance …”
The closing hours of Easter Day in this year of our LORD one thousand nine hundred forty eight, and we gather in His Name to consider the Way, the Truth and the Life. We have, in our studies and considerations, been keenly cognizant of the necessity of living life in accordance with the Christ Spirit of Being. As we have considered the Way which is open, whereby we may let ourselves be resurrected from the tomb of this world into the Life of the Kingdom of God on earth, we have proven, individually and collectively, the Power of the Truth to set us free, and, beginning to be free, we begin to know the Reality of Resurrection, and we begin to live the Life. The Resurrection and the Life—today the world has commemorated the Reality of the Master's Victory over death, His coming forth from the tomb, little realizing the deeper significances to be found in these events, little realizing that man is privileged now to be resurrected from the tomb of this world into the Life of the Kingdom here on earth.
We touched on these things in our Morning Service, but I wish now to carry you forward somewhat in the Current to the events that followed. For forty days after His Resurrection, our Master continued on earth. We find the statement in the third verse of the first chapter of the Book of Acts where, speaking of Jesus, it is stated: “To whom also” (i.e., to the Apostles) “He showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days”, and the concluding portion of this verse is especially significant, although so little is recorded of it—“and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Here is a mystery. Our Master, having come forth victoriously from the tomb and the Resurrection, continued to be seen of the Apostles for forty days thereafter, having “showed himself alive” more than once, and speaking—of what did our Master speak?—“of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Yet the record of what He said in that period is contained in a few verses.
Do you suppose that all of the things that He said were recorded? I think not. If they were ever recorded they were deliberately set aside and ignored. The state of mind in the disciples themselves as a whole is revealed just prior to His Ascension, according to the record in the sixth verse of this same chapter: “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Even those whom we know as the Apostles were obsessed with an idea, which they did not let the Master Himself eradicate from their minds. Back along through the period of Ministry we find that, repeatedly, they assumed that He was going to set up an earthly kingdom. He told them otherwise, repeatedly, and yet the majority of the Apostles, or Disciples, failed completely to grasp His meaning and they were still under that obsession even when the moment of His final Ascension was at hand. Is it surprising then, that so little consideration is given to what He said when He was “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God”?
How truly were they earth-bound spirits, and yet in the hands of those earth-bound spirits rested the continuity of the Ministry begun by Jesus the Christ. The Master instructed them plainly to tarry in Jerusalem until they had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and He promised that they would be imbued with the Holy Spirit. His Promise was fulfilled, and yet even then, as they began to let themselves find inspiration in the Current of the Holy Spirit, they, as a body, allowed themselves to be swayed by impulsive Peter's rash self-active uses of the Holy Spirit. They failed to acknowledge and follow the Directing Head that the Lord had established for them, and impulsive Peter's personality became dominant, determining the course in a current of self-activity. It is not to be wondered at, when men who had walked in the Way with Jesus Christ and shared three and a half years of His Ministry, who had shared the hours of His trial and Crucifixion, and who had been convinced of His Resurrection, and who, at the moment of His Ascension could ask such a question: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” No. It is no wonder that they would follow such a pattern as they did, for in that question they proved their incapacity to comprehend the things He had been saying to them “pertaining to the kingdom of God”.
Even in this day, nearly two thousand years after, human beings are so materialistically minded, so imbued with the ideas of the self-active world, that any concept of the reality of the Christ Kingdom on earth is looked at askance, even by those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. They, like impulsive Peter, prefer to twist it around to suit their own fancies, to cause it to be what they think it ought to be, and so few are willing to listen to the Word of Truth which reveals the Pattern in Reality. Nevertheless, there is that which is of great significance to us in considering what is called the Day of Pentecost, a short time after the Master had Ascended; but first let us go back to Luke's record, here in the Acts, of what the Master said just before His Ascension: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
He said that when the Holy Spirit should come upon them they would receive Power. The action of that Power would have to be according to their perception of Truth. If they had learned to live according to His Word, if they had recognized the Reality of His instruction, then they would have been ready to use that Power to the Glory of God and to the Blessing of their brother man, but, immediately upon receiving greater Power they used it with the same shrivelled, warped state of consciousness that had dominated them before. Yes, they received Power, and forthwith they brought upon themselves persecutions and difficulties, and caused many ill and terrible things to come to pass because they were not willing to let the Voice of Truth determine the uses of that Power. Is it any wonder that, in the Third Sacred School, such great emphasis is placed upon the necessity for correct function in True Polarity, before the increase of Power is made manifest? The Master could not do other than He did. The fault rested, not with Him, but with the Disciples, and He could not tarry longer. He had given them all necessary instruction, and He had Ordained the Leadership which they should follow, but, coming to the last moment, they could ask such a question as that—“Wilt thou” now, “at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
When men could live and walk with, and listen to, our Great Master through three and a half years of Ministry, and pass through the events of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and listen to His Words speaking of the things “pertaining to the kingdom” during a period of forty days thereafter, and could come to the final moment and ask such a question and reveal themselves as being such shrivelled, wizened, warped souls of men as that, it is no wonder that the Dark Ages ensued. It is no wonder that there has been two thousand years of misery, sin, suffering, sorrow and death, of wars, turmoils and conflicts, until, in the beginning of a New Age, those threads could be gathered together once more and the Cycles opened in the Currents of Fulfillment.
But there was a Day of Pentecost. The Master kept His Promise nevertheless, and they received Power when the Holy Spirit came upon them—but the very moment they began to receive that Power, instead of holding steady and letting the Spirit bring a true understanding of the Word of Truth, they began to use the Power according to their own concepts, and failed. Nevertheless, the outworking of these events on the basis of the Master's Promise leave open the threads of that Current whereby those who are faithful and true in this day and in this hour, may share in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that they may, when the Holy Spirit is come upon them, receive Power.
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.” That is true for the Faithful Ones in this day, but what would be done with that increased Power? Are your thoughts, your words, your attitudes, your states of polarity, so established in Reality that you would be willing to take the responsibility for a truly increased Current of Power in manifestation through yourself into the world? What would happen? We have had many moments when we have shared a glorious outpouring of the Spirit, but never yet a moment that truly corresponds with that which was established on the Day of Pentecost. Why? Because the Unit is not yet ready. But, for this Unit of Faithful Ones, there is the Promise: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you”, and when, for this Unit, the Day of Pentecost shall fully come, there will be the beginning of the manifestation of the Works and the Greater Works.
Let me read from the second chapter of Acts, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”
Three verses—supposed to describe that event. The rest of it is with respect to what followed after. We look forward to our Day of Pentecost, but I do not mean a twenty-four hour day—a Day, a Cycle, a period of time of Ministry which shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, when the Unit, functioning according to the Voice of Truth shall receive Power and shall Minister in the world. This is that Ordination for the Unit as the One Christ Body, which shall yet be. How long shall it be until that Day? How long until we shall be with one accord in one place, in full alignment in Reality, focalized vibrationally according to the Law, with all restive emotions under control, with the heart fully purified, with the mind fully permeated with the Truth and the consciousness fully dedicated in reverent Love Response to the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, that, when the Unit shall receive Power it may act, not as a self-active body—there are enough such in the world—but rather, as the Body of the Christ on earth, in Oneness with the Father, letting the Father do the Works, letting the Father speak the Words in the Power that is not of this world?
My Ministry has had, through the years, as its first Goal in the Absolute sense, that Day when a Unit, well and truly formed, by those who let themselves be drawn from the East, the West, the North and the South, shaped and formed according to the Divine Pattern, with hearts purified, obedient to the Law, might know that Ordination that shall be not just a Day of Pentecost but a Cycle of Ministry and Being, which shall be filled with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that the Unit may receive Power according to the Promise, not Power to be used self-actively according to human concepts, but Power that shall be used in letting the Father do the Works and speak the Words.
This is that toward which we are moving; this is that to which you are dedicated as Members of that Unit on earth. In such function there is no place for the shrivelled souls of men, where the tempests of emotional upheaval continue, or for that filthiness of spirit and mind which must wallow ever in degradation. It is a place for those who are pure in heart; it is a place for those who are letting themselves be established in the fullness of that Nobility of Being, that Reality of Truth, that fullness of Divine Love, whereby our KING may cause again His Spirit to manifest on earth.
He spoke, just after His Resurrection, of “My Father and your Father, my God and your God”. His Word is recorded: “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” Individually, as they had been taught, they had an individual Father within, but as a Unit, as a continued manifestation of the Vine on earth, as the One Christ Body, they were to have the same Father, “My Father and your Father”—and according to this Plan He had taught them to pray: “Our Father which art in Heaven”. So, therefore, it is evident that this Unit, this Body, is to be a means by which our KING may manifest Himself in Spirit on earth, but that Unit is not to be a Unit of His Spirit only, but, according to the Commission which He gave, not only on the Cross, but just before He ascended also, and as is clearly revealed in His instruction prior to His Crucifixion—there shall also be the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Love and Truth, which shall allow the Unit, having been Resurrected, to be an expression of the Spirit of Life on earth.
Has the world ever had greater need that these things should be? Would it be wise for us to say within ourselves, “The need of the world is not yet great enough; we will tarry a little; we will delay ourselves until the need of the world is greater and then we shall let these things be”? Nay, let it not be so, but, rather, let the Unit be, in its consciousness and in its mind and in its attitude, as that Unit should have been when they saw that our LORD had truly come forth from the tomb. He continued with them forty days, “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” You have been taught much longer than forty days concerning “the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God”, and you have had all things that He said brought to your remembrance, that you might have all the advantages, all the privileges of realization and understanding which were granted to those who walked with Him in that day. Forty days after the Resurrection, after that first Easter, He Ascended, and then a few days later they had what is called the Day of Pentecost, and they received Power, after that the Holy Spirit had come upon them.
Year after year, I have looked forward to the Easter Season, trusting that surely the Unit should have reached a point where it might begin to truly realize these things. Is this the Easter Season, the Easter Day, the Day of Resurrection, which shall be followed shortly by a Day of Pentecost for the Unit, or must we wait until 1949 or 1950 that such things might be? Has the Word of Truth been withheld, given only in part? Has the Spirit of Divine Love been so little manifest that the Unit cannot yet comprehend it? Has the Reality of the Resurrection been but a vague dream? Has the Word concerning “the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” been too ambiguous to let a true realization yet manifest? What more is needed? What more is required that the Unit may let its Day of Resurrection truly manifest, and, having come forth from the tomb, may let the Day of Pentecost truly come? Surely, there have been delays enough, and we need delay no longer! “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Let us come together, with one accord in one place, where the purified heart, the serene and tranquil emotional realm, and the consciousness transformed into that Mind that was in Christ Jesus, may let our LORD continue His Work on earth through His Unit Body, that the Branches of the Vine may truly bring forth fruit—much fruit.
O LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, I thank Thee for these Blessed Ones and for all who are with us in Spirit, for all who are letting themselves be blended into Thy Body on earth, that this Unit may, being purified and made whole as Thy Body, come truly to that Day of Pentecost when it shall receive the Holy Spirit, and Thy Power shall be made manifest, not to restore the kingdom to Israel, but to bring forth into manifestation on earth the Kingdom of God, that the Christ Kingdom may be a Reality on earth, and that it may grow and fill the whole earth, that every knee may be caused to bow before Thee, and that every lip may be caused to acknowledge Thee, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, for IN the Christ it is so established, and shall be accomplished. Aum-en. The Spirit of our LORD and KING be with thee always, even as it shall be as thou shalt abide in Him, and let Him abide in thee.
© emissaries of divine light
