The  Significance  of  This  Season  of  the  Year

from   Directions For The New Day #56

Uranda   January 1, 1947

Tonight I am inclined to think of the significance that was attached to this season of the year in ancient times, long before our Master came on earth. When man was beginning his journey up from that low estate to which he was plunged after the submersion of Atlantis there remained in the consciousness of survivors some of the principles that had been widely known, and opportunity to gain control of the remnant of the people through superstition was not overlooked. Among those things that remained in the world to speak of the Glory that had been, was the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. There were other evidences in other parts of the world, and to say that during that period there were no civilizations would hardly be true. There were surviving peoples who did have great civilizations which nevertheless passed away and were lost, but when we speak of a great civilization in that sense it is hardly comparable to what we think of today, using that term but, strangely, all these civilizations of antiquity had keys which, if they had been properly understood and properly utilized, would have provided humanity with the understanding necessary to return to God. When man fell he was told that the penalty of separating himself from God would be death. Those civilizations, as they are called, passed away. They paid the price for refusing to return to God. All of the great civilizations of the past, running down into recorded history—the empires that have been built—when they refused to return to God, all passed away. Nations died, civilizations died, just like the human beings who composed those manifestations of man's self-activity on earth. 

In ancient Egypt, while the covering of white limestone still remained on the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, the priesthood undertook, by means of superstition, to gain a complete hold upon the people and complete control over them. They built a temple somewhere around, I think, a little short of a hundred miles from that Great Pyramid, the limestone surface of which was slightly concave, and in the temple they placed a mirror. Each year, when the days began to shorten, the people were told that the sun god was going away, that soon there would be no more day—all would be night—unless the priests succeeded in interceding and preventing the going of the sun god. The people well knew that if the sun should never rise again they would soon perish. The thought of everlasting darkness was terrifying. Therefore, they did whatsoever was commanded them by the priesthood, and the people were told that if the priests succeeded in their intercession that they would be given a sign, so that the days shortened and they continued their ceremonies, and on the shortest day of the year, when it seemed to the people that their cause was almost hopeless, the tilt of the earth was such that the sun would shine on the limestone surface of the Great Pyramid and project that ray nearly a hundred miles to flash on the mirror in the temple. The people had no means of knowing about the reflection from the Great Pyramid. All they knew was that once again the priests had succeeded. The sign had been given and all was well, and as proof of the fulfilment of that intercessory work the days began to grow longer. There were the feasts and rejoicings and sacrifices, and wonder-working power of the priesthood was again firmly established in the minds of the people. 

Instead of using those keys to Reality which were at hand, to benefit humanity, instead of seeking to bring those who looked to them into a state of Spiritual liberty, the priests enslaved through fear, thinking to sustain their rule—and it was sustained through many centuries—but even though Egypt was a great nation for so long in the history of the world it, too, passed away, and the Egypt of today is of another nation. But the long line of the Egyptian kings came to an end, the power of the priesthood vanished away, another civilization died, and the glory of Egypt as it had been known, was gone. 

This season of the year, through one reason or another, has been recognized down through many thousands of years as being significant. By the time seven days after the sign had passed the lengthening of the days was sufficient for the people to begin to perceive that the days were getting longer. It meant the coming of Spring, another season, another harvest. Back there, thousands of years ago, even though these principles of Reality were used wrongly, the people recognized that without the sun they would perish, without the light and warmth that came each day life would soon cease, but the minds of the people were kept in darkness and so the people, of themselves, perished for the lack of that light for which they sold themselves into slavery under the priesthood of that time.

Our days are beginning to get longer. As we consider it aright we are reminded once more that only as we let an increased expression of the light and warmth of God's Love manifest through us can we have assurance of the time of harvest. In the darkness, without the sunlight, there can be no harvest, there can be no time of planting. As the days grow longer—and our New Year has begun—it seems to me that this phenomenon of nature that has been so significant down through untold generations should bring to us a realization of the importance of that to which we are called. First, because of man's refusal to turn to God, individuals died and passed away. Then, tribes came to an end, and finally nations. Civilizations rose and fell. In their growth they seemed indomitable. In their supremacy it appeared that their glory could not fade, and yet we know from history that they passed away. Great nations, great empires, great civilizations, came under the consequences of man's failure to obey the Laws of the Living God. 

When we stop and review these things does it seem strange, as the world has become smaller in the sense of the time element and transportation and communication, that we should recognize that unless man returns to God, that which has been true of individuals, true of tribes, of nations, of civilizations, and of empires, shall in the final analysis be true of the world of humanity? In those days distances seemed great. The time of travel from the Orient to the Mediterranean countries was long, for instance. That which we call the New World was unknown in recorded history until recently, comparatively speaking. Gradually the world has become a much smaller place, not in actual miles but in the time required to traverse those miles. The Laws of God have worked down through the ages, those nations that thought they could not be destroyed have passed away, those civilizations that thought they could rule the world forever have crumbled. Why?—because they neglected to return to God; they neglected to let themselves be removed from that curse which they brought upon themselves at the time of what we call the fall of man. 

God said that His Spirit would not always strive with man. At first, the fulfilment of God's Word was only with respect to the death of individuals. It began, according to the record, with the death of one man—a righteous man. Gradually the death penalty reached out until empires and civilizations and nations fell under it. Is the world of man so arrogant that it cannot see, or that it refuses to see, that now, with the world shrunk, as it were, into so small a space, the same inexorable Laws are at work with respect to the world of humanity? God has waited so long for humanity to return to Him. The whole record proves that His Word was true and that it is true. Otherwise, some nation, some civilization, some empire, that refused to return to God would have endured. But can we point to a single one? All the nations on earth at the present time that can be accounted powers in the world as far as their governments are concerned, are comparatively young, and yet already we see the signs of decrepitude creeping in. Already we see the results of the inexorable working of the Law. 

Surely, somewhere, somehow, through someone, there must be a return to God, or the human race stands in danger of passing away. To the skeptical, to those who mock, to those who consider themselves practical in the wisdom of this world, it might seem the height of presumption or arrogance or perhaps of foolishness, for anyone to seek to establish the precedent in the return to God that would give a basis of true hope for salvation to humanity. They say, "But people have always lived and died, nations and empires have risen and passed away, but humanity goes on always", but in that record of history, when was the world so united by means of transportation, communication, when did the whole human family blend together so completely, in fact, whether in harmony and cooperation or not? 

This, to my mind, is the background of that which we have undertaken. It gives an idea of the significance and of the importance of that to which we are called. It emphasizes the reason for our being here. It shows how necessary it is that the keys to Reality that are placed in our hands should be used, not to enslave but to assist, all who will respond, into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God. It emphasizes how very needful it is that someone, somewhere, somehow, should return to God. Our Great Master's influence on the world, through His short Life on earth, has profoundly moved the children of men down through these generations because He opened the Way for a return to God, because He, Himself, seen as a man in the world, returned to God. He instructed us to follow Him, which means that we, too, must arise and go unto our Father's House. We must return to God and it is only as human beings return to God that they can hope to change the monotonous course of history, for if it began with one man and continued through tribes and nations and cities, empires, civilizations, spreading ever outward, reaching to include all, and now when all are included, it looks to me like something of an ultimatum—return to God or humanity itself shall pass away.
 

If we were made in the Image and Likeness of God, regardless of the failures of the past, regardless of anything which may have happened in days gone by, regardless of the opposition that might be raised in the world or through the mass consciousness or anything else, if we are made in the Image and Likeness of God it must surely be possible for human beings to return to God without waiting till some vague hereafter, without accepting the penalty of disobedience as being the only means by which human beings can return to God. Millions of human beings expect to return to God after they die. Why should we not truly return to God while we live upon earth, for man was made in the Image and Likeness of God, and it is man, not just some vague soul, that needs to return to God, that in the light of the lengthening day he may have the promise of Life and that in the Springtime he may plant with confidence and in season come to the Harvest where he knows the joy of having returned, of being restored, of living in the light and the warmth of God's Love forever.

© Emissaries of Divine Light