Stand In The Holy Place
Uranda September 21, 1943
Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada
And now we come to a text that should mean a very great deal to every Emissary, to every individual in the Third Sacred School. It is a text that stands as the keynote of the proper function now. It reveals the way of meeting the situations in this present time. It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of this statement. It stands close to being the most marvellous thing that Jesus said while He walked the earth.
"When ye therefore shall
see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in
the Holy Place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)" Where else in the
expression does He pause to give a parenthetical explanation? "Whoso
readeth, let him understand." That is the only place. He knew He was
giving one of the most important statements He could ever give to man. He knew
there was a possibility of it being overlooked, so He paused to give a parenthetical
statement. Do not overlook this statement because here I give you a key that is
of utmost value. Since we recognize that He Himself drew attention to the value
of this statement, let us see wherein its value may be.
First, He placed something as to
time. "The abomination of desolation..." spoken of by Daniel, the
prophet. What is the cause of desolation? Why the abomination of desolation in
the hearts today? Because the hearts and lives of men and women are desolate of
the love and understanding of the things of God. If it were not so, the desolation
could not manifest so abundantly out here in the world. And it is all the
miserable things of a miserable, suffering world. And so as we consider the
importance from the standpoint of this text, it is obvious that He is talking
about the present day in which we live, because we are in the days of
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
While the abomination of
desolation is in the world, we immediately recognize that it behooves us to be
certain that the abomination of desolation must not be in our hearts and minds
and lives. Our lives must not be desolate, but rather filled with the good news
of the Kingdom—our lives radiant with the glad tidings. And then what does He
say? He gives five words of instruction. First, He places it, and then gives
five words of instruction. Isn't that a remarkable thing? "Whoso readeth
let him understand." The value of the text depends on the value of these five
words of instruction.
What does He say? Stand in the Holy Place! In the temple as in the tabernacle
there is the Holy Place. Does that mean just to be sure that you keep your life
righteous, or to be good, or something? It means far more than that. The
spiritual expression was the third plane—the Holy Place. Approach the problems
of the life of that day from the standpoint of the spiritual expression plane,
from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School. It is here, in this text that
Jesus prophesied the manifestation of the Third Sacred School. Approach to an understanding
of life, solution of problems and to the victory in that day.
The Third Sacred School is based
on that fundamental principle. There have been two other Schools, as you know.
We have the temple symbol, the human body, the physical body, and the approach
in the First Sacred School was in this physical plane, and was under
Melchizedek. Then we have the outer court, the mental plane, which was the
approach in the Second Sacred School and this was under our Great Master. Now we
have the Third Sacred School which is the Holy Place approach or spiritual
expression approach. They all inter-blend. You cannot divide them, but it is
the dominant note that I am speaking of. We have the Master's words that the
Third Sacred School should manifest in the earth in this text.
It is only as we stand in the Holy
Place, which means to function from the spiritual expression plane, or to function
in the Third Sacred School, that we should be able to experience the victory and
to accomplish that for which we are sent on the earth. Any other approach, although
it may accomplish much good, will prove more or less futile in the end. Jesus
told us on what basis we should function in that day and only as we function on
that basis shall we carry through as we should. Let the inspiration of God come
forth in your spiritual natures and govern your mind and body, that the Will of
God may be in you and that the service of God may be rendered through you.
Do you agree that this is a
wonderful text? It gives a marvellous key and a key that all must use if they are
to be able to endure unto the end—to stand in the Holy Place, to live and serve
and function from the standpoint of the spiritual expression plane, the third
plane.
The Third Sacred School is the
term simply signifying the School where the individual learns to function from
the standpoint of the third or spiritual expression plane. How many of you find
something new and something very encouraging in this text? When the strain may
seem a little too great, remember that the Master gave some instruction for you
for this day, pointing out the only way to function in this time. Stand in the
Holy Place. Let that be your key to understanding—your motto of life. Let it be
your victory song.
If you really realize the importance
of this text, if you feel it going home in your hearts and minds the way it should,
and if you let it take hold of you and stay with you in the days to come, so
that you obey its injunction, there is one sure thing. No matter what troubles or
difficulties appear, you are prepared. It will not be a matter of too little or
too late. You are already prepared for anything and everything that the days
can possibly bring. There in that one text we have the sum and substance of
what the Third Sacred School stands for, of its purpose in individual lives.
"Then let them which be in
Judea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down
to take anything out of his house." What mountains? The mountains of
consciousness, not some geographical place. He dwelleth close to God. We have
instruction that the Angel gave Lot and his wife at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Angel said, "Do not look back but keep going." Here the
instruction is that if you are on the housetop, that is on the spiritual plane,
do not come down out of your spiritual state of being and give way to that
which is below you. "And woe unto them that are with child, and to them
that give suck in those days." There may, of course, he exceptions to this
rule and any child that is coming into the world should be welcomed in love and
understanding. It cannot be expected that all young people find it pleasing or
possible to avoid bringing children into the world at this time, and so let us
remember that although it is a difficult time and a time when uncertainties may
bring added suffering, let no Emissary ever be guilty of making any prospective
parent feel that a child be unwanted. Any child that is coming must certainly
be welcomed in all love and understanding.
"For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no,
nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened."
We are in the beginning of these sorrows and that tribulation—the greatest the
world has ever known. But the Master says that those days shall be shortened.
What does that mean? How can a day be shortened—changed from twenty-four hours
to twenty? No. It is a matter of speeding things up.
We look back over the last
thirty years, at the time of the turn of the century and see how things have been
intensified, see how things have been speeded up, time shortened, distances shortened.
A few years ago it took quite a while to cross the Atlantic. In fact, it was only
early in this century that the Wright Brothers were able to fly a couple of
blocks, and thought it was wonderful. You could not say that in two or three centuries
as much has been accomplished as in the last forty years. We have not yet reached
the limit of our speed.
Intensification of things,
shortening of the days, speeds up the destruction of evil so that the whole thing
is intensified. It places a strain on those who respond to the Lord, but
sufficient unto the day is the strength of the Lord for those who serve Him. If
we stand steadfast enough, there will be strength enough to with stand the
intensification of the days. People are so sure that suffering, sickness,
sorrow and death are going to last as long as things exist. But here we have an
intensification of the vibrations of every phase of life, of good things and of
bad, constructive and destructive. Only that which has a foundation upon the Rock
of Reality will stand. That which is built upon the sands, to which man clings
so tenaciously, must surely crumble away, fall and be done. And so we have
there a wonderful promise, another indication of the fact that Jesus was
talking about our time, because He said that the days would be shortened, and
we can see how the days have been shortened by the process of speeding things up.
The days are shortened, whether you cut some of it off or whether you fill it full
of things more than previously.
"Then if any man shall say
unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise
false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders;
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
One of the most remarkable things that I have experienced in my ministry is the
fact that so many so-called Christian people, when they come into contact with
this Church, begin to say: "Show me great signs and wonders and I will
believe. If you will promise me great things I will believe." And yet when
Jesus was warning against this time, He warned against the false prophets, people
who were trying to establish their authenticity through signs and wonders. "Behold
I have told you before."
It applies to the false prophets
and it applies just as much to the 15th verse of the 24th Chapter of Matthew,
which means so much to us. "So shall the coming of the Son of man
be." There have been so many ideas, concepts and teachings concerning the
second coming of Jesus, and all of these ideas have been built up by placing
certain more or less fantastic interpretations on the texts of the Bible, Here,
Jesus spoke of the coming of the Son of man. He very often spoke about Himself
as the Son of man, so we have no objection to considering that as having
reference to Himself.
"For as the lightning
cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be." Time does not permit going into it
extensively. I shall present a brief picture. Jesus spoke earlier in this
passage about the Kingdom that should be preached in all the world and that then
the end of evil should come, and after the end of evil His manifestation before
the world can be anticipated. We have to remember the various confusing
concepts that have been built up in this connection by reason of various ideas
about the so-called millenium. The general idea seems to be that some day there
is going to be a sound of a trumpet in the sky, Jesus will appear in a cloud somewhere,
and the righteous dead will pop up out of the ground, the living righteous will
go floating up into the air, and they will disappear into the sky and so on.
That is far enough to go for the moment. They think that the millenium is yet to
come, that it is still something ahead of us. And how it is connected up with the
thousand years of peace is a little difficult to tell. One wonders just exactly
how the concept developed.
This is the only place in the
Bible where it talks about the thousand years. (Reading from the 20th chapter
of Revelation): "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key
of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set
a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand
years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them:
and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and
for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived
not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the First
Resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection;
on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years
are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to
deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth; Gog and Magog,
to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the
sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of
the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven,
and devoured them."
There is no statement of a
thousand years peace. It is just an arbitrary process of taking some text from some
other part of the Bible and putting it with that. This text does not say a thing
about a thousand years of peace on the earth. People study the Bible and they preach
about the Bible for years and they do not even see what it says. This thousand
years was over about 1300 A.D. This thousand years is past and for centuries, up
to the beginning of this century, there was a gradual speeding up of things
until now we are living in the time when the days shall be shortened. Satan is
certainly loosed out of his prison and he is going places fast, "And he
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the
earth."
At that time the whole known
earth did not include the American continents. But here He talks about the
whole earth. How many years ago could you say that the whole earth was bound together?
What was the then known world? Transportation and communication have brought
things closer together—the world has become bound as one unit. The text says
that he went out to deceive the nations of the four corners of the earth. He has
succeeded. I have often thought if people would apply themselves just as diligently
as Satan does, they could learn a lesson from him.
"And fire came down from
God out of heaven, and devoured them." In such a statement as that, we
have to look for the symbolical, don't we? The fire that comes down is the Fire
of God's Love, intensifying things, speeding things up, making possible this
outer mind activity that man prides himself on. And so the outpouring of God's
Love into the earth does what? It devours them. We find it a pleasure to let
God's Love devour us. We are perfectly willing to let God's power devour us,
absorb us and receive us into the function of the Divine Estate. So we have no
concern about this Fire coming down into the earth and devouring it. That is
what we are praying for.
But what about the other
individual? The statement includes all people. How about those who are afraid of
God and fight against Him? What happens? Their evil tendencies are intensified and
they are also devoured but not in the same way, because in the destruction of
evil by itself, they are simply eliminated from the face of the earth. Now in
considering such a matter like this, I would like to pause and point out this
important fact, should the matter arise sometime when I am not here.
All of us have loved ones in the
various far flung fronts of the earth. We have, as a family, and you have. We
know that some of those boys are not coming back. To the degree that they
respond to the blessing of the Lord, and we stay with them in prayer and
radiation, they will surely be protected but in any case where one does not
come back, no one must jump to the conclusion that it is in any way necessarily
a reflection against that individual. It should not be any additional cause for
sorrow or heartache by those who are left behind. I mean that fact in relationship
to what I am talking about here. We understand the matter of death. The loved
one would certainly be missed but we know about that and we sorrow not.
When I am talking about the
world as a whole, do not arbitrarily try to pin it down to one individual. We
are talking about the world as a unit and we have to remember to consider it
that way. Consider it as a mass because whether that young man waits at home or
goes on the field of battle, we know that the God Being is safe and is perfect
and according to his response there is ascension. That Soul cannot be slain or
hurt or killed. That which was left, in such a case, was received by the Lord and
was taken by Him just the same. The important thing for us to remember is that by
this process evil by evil is being destroyed.
So often we hear the question asked:
"If God is a God of Love, why does He let innocent people suffer? "It
is not a matter of complete innocence. It is comparative. Comparatively
innocent people have been suffering for a long time. If comparatively innocent
people have to suffer, it is paying a pretty small price. Would you quite agree
that there should be intensification of the suffering of comparatively innocent
people, so that evil should be taken from the face of the earth? It is not that
we do not sympathize with those people and do all we can to alleviate their suffering,
but we refuse to be blinded by the things as they are.
We recognize that God's way is
the best way, and we do not resent it. Jesus died on the cross. Let us remember
what we stand for. So if we, men, women and children, have to suffer a bit in this
process of this world being shaken up, evil being eliminated, we should be
willing to let it be so and there should be no fussing about it. It is for us
to be tranquil and serene and render what service we can and stand in the Holy
Place. If we do that, we will find that after all of this evil is destroyed
from the face of the earth—not necessarily completely, that is, it will be in
the process of finishing up—then our Beloved Lord and Master will manifest to
the world.
He will not be borne again in the
form of a babe or something but will manifest when the world is thrown back
into its true polarity. After that, the harmonization of this outer world with
the Inner World will be such that the veil between the two will be rent in twain
as the veil in the Temple. It will not be a matter of Jesus coming; it will be
seeing things as they exist. It is perfectly simple, no necessity of stretching
your imagination or figuring out how Jesus is going to ride on a cloud. And so,
recognizing that that is something which is going to come quite a while from
now, our business is to serve where we are and Stand
in the Holy Place.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
