Home
His Temple On Earth
December 15, 1948
Tonight, in this
Christmas Season, the word, “Home,” contains a Spirit of fullness and
significance which we might well meditate upon. First, I am reminded that many
years ago our KING'S Home was divided. His Home originally was—and it was
supposed to be—Heaven and earth; that which we speak of as the Whole Holy
World. Perhaps you have sometimes thought of Heaven as being His Home, and it
has been, although it has been an incomplete Home for Him through all these
thousands of years.
I am reminded
that only a little under two thousand years ago He left one part of His Home
and came to visit the other part, the part that was supposed to complete His
Home. He was born into the world a Babe—into the most humble of surroundings.
He, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, when He came into this half of His
Home, found no place awaiting Him. He was born in a manger in a stable because
there was no room for Him in the inn. The people of the world were too busy following
their own fancies and looking after their own puny affairs to pay any attention
to the fact that the LORD of the world had come. He lived in this world, and
grew to manhood, and He began His Ministry.
He began to
tell the people how this world might become that beautiful other half of the
Heavenly Home, and He assured them that that which was of the Heavenly Home was
not far away. He made clear the Plan by which the two halves might be reunited;
He made clear that the separation between the two did not have to continue: but
the people of the world, instead of welcoming the LORD of the world, crucified
Him. Nevertheless, on the third day He came forth victoriously from the tomb,
and returned to that other half of His Home, where He has been waiting for
nearly two thousand years, waiting for human beings to wake up, waiting for
human beings to put into practice His instruction, to follow His Plan, so that
He might have the privilege of coming again to this part of His Home.
Human beings,
through their self-activity, selfishness and self-centeredness, have kept Him
out of His Home, this portion of His Home, these thousands of years. These
usurpers who prevent His free use of His rightful Home will not be tolerated
forever. Sooner or later, in His own good season, He will return; but it is His
longing, His great desire that springs from His wonderful Heart of Love, that
when He comes again to this part of His Home it shall not be to drive out all
who are living here. He does not want to return to this part of His Home and
find nothing but empty rooms echoing with the deeds of evil. His Heart desires
that those who are living here now should let themselves be so transformed and
so prepared that they may remain here when He comes, that they will not have to
be cast out, and that this part of His Home will not be found to be empty.
He
wants to come to this part of His Home and find those He loves, and those who
love Him. He wants that coming to be a family reunion between those who live in
this part and those who live in that part of His Home, that the Whole Holy
World may again be what it ought to be—His Home, where all the Members of His
Family live in their appointed places, in joy, in peace, in happiness.
This world,
this part of His Home, must be cleansed and purified, the debris must be swept
out; the mean and shameful furnishings that man has put into it must be cast
out and burned; it must be cleansed, and the Sunlight of Love must shine into
every room, and those who dwell here must let themselves be changed, so that
they will not be uncomfortable in His Presence, so that they will not be
annihilated when they come before His Face, so that they will find joy in
beholding Him, and so that they may rejoice greatly, without fear, in the holy
privilege of welcoming Him back to this part of His rightful Home.
Until we, in
our Home here, begin to let the Spirit of His Home manifest,
we will not be doing very much toward preparing the way for the Union, for the
reuniting, of Heaven and earth. We have made progress, it is true. Something of
His Spirit of Love is manifest, or you would not be here; and you have
recognized something of the vision of the beauty of the Pattern of Truth, or
you would not be here; but those old patterns of the world have no meaning
here. Here the Spirit of the Home of our KING must manifest, so that when He
comes again He will be at Home, and we will be at Home with Him.
We want to feel
at Home with Him when He comes, and when He comes we want Him to find His Home
ready and waiting for Him, worthy of Him, with the Spirit of His Home made
already manifest. That is our purpose here, and when we remember the true
significance of Home, and the wonderful privilege and sacred responsibility
that is ours in helping to prepare this part of His Home for Him, surely such a
realization must have meaning by the very force and weight of it, by the very
glory and wonder of it, through every thought and word and deed, through every
hour of every day. We are here for that purpose, so that when He comes He shall
find His Home in the condition that it ought to be.
If He were to
come and stand among us tonight, in a manner that you might see Him as He is,
do you think you would be ready to say, "LORD, Thy Home is prepared; we
welcome Thee, and find joy and complete peace in Thy coming"?
Let us, then,
be about our Father's business, that we may be ready whenever He deems it wise
and proper that He should come. Let us remember always
the meaning of Home, and, in this Christmas Season, be re-dedicated through the
Spirit of His Love to that Plan and Program whereby He shall nevermore have to
come and be received in a stable or a manger, and whereby, when He shall come,
in His Power and His Glory, it will not be to wipe out and remove all who dwell
here, but that there may be those who shall await Him with joy, and welcome Him
in Holy Love, ready to serve Him and make Him feel at Home in this part of His Home,
from which He has been so long separated.
O LORD of Lords
and KING of Kings, we thank Thee, we thank Thee, that here tonight there is, as
never before, a realization of the weight of that responsibility and of the
wonder of that holy privilege which rests upon us, that we may, in all things
and at all times, be diligent about our Father's business, preparing the way
for that glorious day when Thou shalt come again to receive Thine own unto
Thyself, and to be received by Thine own. We remember that, in the hour of Thy
birth, the Angels sang, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men". We remember that it was in that Spirit Thou didst come,
and that the world rejected Thee, and yet that, nevertheless, Thou didst prepare
the Way, and make it possible for all who would enter in, to share in making
this Thy Home restored. We marvel at Thy wondrous Love, Thy patience, Thy
willingness to wait 'until indolent human beings should awake to the glorious
opportunity that awaits, that we may let that One Vine manifest, that we may
let Thy Body be on earth, that we may let Thy Temple, the Temple not made with
hands, be established, that Thy dwelling place may be with men and that all who
will may share in that glorious fulfillment, IN the Christ. Aum-en.
I feel that you
have all come to a deeper realization and understanding of many things tonight.
Everything worthwhile is contained within the true meaning of the word,
"Home". We all love to be at home, but so does our KING; and how can
we hope, anywhere, under any circumstance, to be at home until we can be at
Home with Him, and He can be at Home with us?
Praising God
for your response and prayerful meditation, and for the spirit of realization
flowing through you, I must remind myself that it is needful that we go our
several ways to find rest for the morrow. A time is coming when, as a Unit, we
will let ourselves be so engulfed, with one accord in one place, in the Spirit
of our KING, that the passage of time will have less meaning than it does now.
Day by day each one is learning more of what it means to hold the vibration, to
stay centered in the Central Current of Being; and when we can rest in that
Current without letting it break, or without causing it to break, in its
relationship to ourselves, we will be ready for something that cannot be
described, and I feel that that day is coming. Constancy and consistency in our
worship of the One God in Spirit and in Truth, according to the One Law, surely
opens the Way, it opens the door, so that, for us now the floodgates of Heaven
may be opened, and the Spirit of our KING'S Presence may be made manifest in
and through us, that we may become, in Oneness, so accustomed to the Spirit of
His Presence, in the full wonder of His Glory, that we will be able, and know
how, to welcome Him Home.
That which the
world calls home, or the people of the world call home, has meaning to me only
to the degree that it helps toward preparing this world for the return Home of
our KING. Anything that human beings call home, or imagine to be home, that
does not do that, is meaningless, a waste of time and a futility. Here we have
the privilege of proving the Reality of Home on earth, but I cannot conceive of
any place or any circumstance that could be called home, or that could be of
any satisfaction, or of any meaning, if our KING be excluded therefrom.
So, in these
realizations, we are privileged to rest this night because we are nearer Home
than ever before, and because the Day is nearer than ever before when we can
have that Blessed Privilege of welcoming our KING into His Temple on earth,
that Temple not made with hands.
© emissaries of divine light
