from
The Holy Place
Martin Cecil December 24, 1972
There is a Holy Place for the world and there is a Holy Place available to the experience
of each individual. Individually speaking, to be a part of this Great Nation,
that Holy Place must be known by those who compose it in the individual sense.
There is a Holy Place for the world into which all do not enter. Those who
might be called the Priesthood rightly enter and minister in and from the Holy Place, but the great mass of the true nation do not come in. All that is
needful insofar as they are concerned is to know the Holy Place within
themselves, individually speaking, and share in the ministry of the Priesthood
who represent God to them and them to God.
Mention has
been made of the mountain peak. From this mountain peak the true ministry
extends; the Glory of the Lord fills the Tabernacle and shines round about. It
extends into the whole nation, into the whole earth. But the means by which it
appears, the means by which the atmosphere of holiness is known on earth, is
through the very specific design which was established in the beginning and
still remains to this day. But to be meaningful this design must be activated
within the experience of mankind, and it is only activated by people. There is
no other means on the face of the earth by which the spirit of God may be active in this very specific creative sense. It is not activated by people who
arrive from outer space in flying saucers; it is not activated by some
invisible, unknown angels in heaven somewhere—it is activated through man. If
there are no men and women on earth to let it be activated on earth, it is not
activated within the experience of human beings and within the experience of
the realm for which they carry responsibility.
An essential
element in the design is the Holy Place. We mentioned the Outer Court and the Encampment; all these are necessarily present. There is a physical form to
mankind and that physical form includes a consciousness, a capacity for
something. To allow the fulfilling of that capacity the gate must be opened to
the Holy Place, because out of the Holy Place come the essential qualities
which fill the consciousness of man, shining through his physical form round
about. The requirement in relationship to that consciousness, if the gate is to
be opened, is the attitude of praise and thanksgiving—without that the door is
shut. When this essential requirement is present the gate begins to swing wide
so that what is inherent in the spirit of God, the character of God, may begin
to fill the capacity for character in man. Most of that capacity for character
is empty in human beings in the general sense. But when praise and thanksgiving
are present in the consciousness of the individual, then it is natural to
accept and rejoice in the true qualities and characteristics of being: the spirit
of God.
These are
found in the Holy Place; consequently there must be a Holy Place if they are to
be found. There must be a Holy Place in the individual if he is to find himself
in the truth of his own being—and that Holy Place cannot be discovered by any
external means. What is required is to make available the right setting—to be
born of water—so that the setting of praise and thanksgiving and openness of
response, and, above all, of integrity, may be available for the outpouring of
the spirit, the outpouring of the individuals' own character. This is the
discovery to be made.
He can't find it by shopping around in the external
sense. Most people seek here, seek there, looking for what is already present
within themselves but unknown, imagining that it may be found by various
external means. So people waste their lives in this foolishness; life runs out
before they have visited all the shops. Only those who turn away from the shops
because their integrity impels them to do so may come again into the Outer Court which surrounds the Tabernacle—the Tabernacle that is with men—and,
coming there, become aware of the Tabernacle itself, of the fact that there is
a door through which entrance may be made—all this because of the attitude of
praise and thanksgiving. The awareness begins to permeate the consciousness
that there is something present now with oneself, with each individual, that is
not discernible in an external sense but which nevertheless is known to be of
supreme value. The pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field—all
these have reference to what is present because of the Holy Place.
The Holy Place does not originate what is present in it, but what is present in the Holy Place would not be present without the Holy Place. The attitude of holiness
must be present in a person, maintained there because he has integrity, a place
in himself that he would never allow to be violated under any circumstances. It
is a place into which others, in the general sense, may not enter, just as in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle in the overall sense, only the Priesthood minister
there. It is the place of purity, the place from which springs all that is
beautiful, all that is creative, all that is worthwhile.
The Holy Place adjoins
what was called the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, another place behind the veil. That is the place from which springs the treasure to be found when there
is a Holy Place in the individual's experience and when there is a place kept
holy because there is a true Priesthood, a place kept holy for the world. The true Holy Place has been long absent from the face of the earth. There has been
an endeavor to substitute a distorted Outer Court for the Holy Place—the
consciousness of man. It was thought that this could be developed, increased in
capacity, made to be supremely meaningful, to rule the world. All it has done
has been to bring chaos and tragedy to the children of men, and yet human
beings everywhere continue to wonder after the beast.
We are
concerned to come again to the Holy Place, that there may be a Holy Place for
the world. Without it, what is there? A very bleak future, to say the least.
But through the Holy Place may spring forth the creative power of God—God in
action on earth, Jehovah, the Son of God. Those who begin to become conscious
of these things—and we must necessarily speak of them in parables or in symbols—have
the responsibility of maintaining the reality on earth. The Holy Place cannot
be here in any meaningful sense until there is a Priesthood to administer what
springs forth by reason of the Holy Place. It could spring forth forever
without effect if there was nobody on hand to administer it.
So here we
are, knowing where the Lord is to be found—through the Holy Place, presenting
ourselves to the Lord that we may, with others, play our part in the service of
the Holy Place, bringing again the vessels which have long been in disuse or
been subject to misuse, that the true service may be rendered through them once
more. As we all surely know, those vessels are thoughts and words and deeds,
the vessels which become meaningful when they are filled with the oil of Love,
the Truth of Love, the Creative Fire.
How recklessly human beings allow
thoughts and words and deeds to find expression. They are mostly used, of
course, for self-benefit, self-aggrandizement, in one way or another. They have
been stolen from the Holy Place and taken into the place of defilement for
misuse. Is it any wonder that the beautiful world of God has been wrecked? Yet
the creative power of God is present; the Holy Place is available the very
moment that there is a Priesthood to enter in. They enter in through the gate
of praise and thanksgiving, bearing the vessels of the Tabernacle for use in
the Holy Place. If you come into the Holy Place you bring with you your thought
processes, your ability to speak and to act. Fortunately the Holy Place is
self-cleansing, so that those who bring defilement with them are shortly
ejected by their own attitudes and actions. There have been many who have
approached the Holy Place only to find themselves ejected. All down through the
ages it has been done, so that it has remained empty, unknown, insofar as the
world is concerned. It only becomes known when there is a Priesthood who
represent God to the people and the people to God, when the holiness of the Holy Place is made evident through the Priesthood. That holiness is made
evident by reason of thought, word and act.
If we
approach the Holy Place, let us remember that we come bearing these vessels of
the Temple, and let us remember that we have heretofore been receivers of
stolen goods. We have thought to use these things for ourselves, to do with
them as we pleased, to achieve our own purposes for our own benefit. The
vessels of the temple are for the Lord's use, filled solely with His spirit,
with His character, with the qualities of His being, and consequently under His
control and brought forth in the true design. When this is so, the Shekinah fills the Tabernacle and shines round about. Here is the creative power of God
once again present and working through man on earth—not through all mankind,
certainly, but through those who represent God to the people, that the people
may rejoice and themselves partake of the character of God and live. Those who
refuse, die. What all this means in the experience of the world remains to be
seen and to be experienced, which occurs as there is the Priesthood ministering
in the Holy Place.
In the atmosphere of holiness we may share the
thoughts and the words and the actions which are fitting in the Holy Place,
coming into position to allow what is present in the Holy of Holies to shine
forth unhindered because it may be received into the Holy Place—there is
someone present to receive it. To the extent that there is a Holy Place
occupied by the Priesthood, then the apex experience may come as it relates to
the Holy of Holies, not that there is an entering into the Holy of Holies but
that what is present by reason of the Holy of Holies may be the experience in the Holy Place. It is so as there are those with integrity, filled with praise and
thanksgiving to the Lord, bringing the openness of yielded response and the
clarity of thought, word and act in living into the Holy Place. Glory to God in
the highest!
© emissaries of divine kight
