I  Stir  Up  Your  Pure  Minds

Uranda   July 23, 1946

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” That should mean more to you today than it ever has in the past. Unless, as Members of the One Christ Body, we are obedient to that Word, it will be as nothing. And that has to be done in really living the Christ Life — not just seething inside with resentment; not just by saying, “I am looking for good things to think about.” But isn't that just about as sensible as the human being is sometimes? It has to be real. Remember, folks, I always know the difference between the real and the counterfeit, whether I make the test right in front of you and show it up or not. And remember that I am not interested in anything that is counterfeit — it does not impress me; it does not help; it is utterly valueless; and, sooner or later, I will see that it is tossed out into the garbage.

There is just one type of thing that can be used, and that is the genuine article; unless it is genuine, it cannot be used very well, and whatever is counterfeit has to be removed. We shall remove it ever so gently, and be sure that it is filled with the Real, if you will let me perform the operation the way I want to do it, but if you insist on trying to work it out according to some concept of yours, you are liable to find on one bright day that with one clean sweep the Sword is likely to lay it right apart, and you can take it or leave it. Unless it is genuine, it is absolutely no good at any time. I tolerate some counterfeit, so that we may not be under the necessity of making spectacles of things, so that we can let these things change gradually and as painlessly as possible, but sooner or later that Sword will operate if you insist on trying to do it your way, and that is that.

We remember that comment in one of the letters which I read this morning — the realization that in my function I have drawn the lovely out of each one of you; everything that is fine and real in you I have been drawing out as rapidly as I could, so that it might be on top. But when there is something unreal inside, even though you may try to hide it from me, I may let you think you are getting by with it a little while, but you will learn, sooner or later, that when I look I am not looking with human vision that can be easily deluded. I think you know that already. I have proven it too many times. That does not mean that I am going to arbitrarily reach inside of your heart and yank this or that out. No, I have consistently worked to draw from within you that which is lovely, fine, true, real and noble, that it may manifest effectively; but in that process you find that, willingly or unwillingly, as long as you stay within the range of my responsibility and authority, sooner or later I insist that the unlovely corners be opened up and that you take a look at them. You may think that you have something tucked away so far and so deep that I shall not know that it is there, or that I cannot find it. A few of you could testify that there is no such place to be found.

I have accepted this One Christ Body, in which I have the fullest of love, faith and trust, on the level of its function. I have unified with it as its Head, and I do not think that my love or my faith could be made manifest any more than it has been. But that One Body has a lot of growing to do, and those Members who are in it will have to be, sooner or later, fully purified. Any walls that remain will have to be broken down; anything hidden in the depths will have to be brought to the light. It can be done in the light between you and me before God, without the others looking on, if you will let it be so — but if you do not, one bright day I will rip it off where everybody can take a look at it, and I don't mean maybe.

I cannot make you do anything, and I am not interested in making you do anything. The only thing that is any good in this One Christ Body is Love Response, and what you do in Love Response of your own volition, because you want to do that more than anything else in the world. Anything that you do under a feeling of compulsion, or because you think I require it, is counterfeit. Many times I have seemed to accept it for the time, because I wanted to give you every opportunity to grow, but anything that is counterfeit is utterly no good. Only what you do that is right for the pure joy of doing right, without compulsion, because it is what you want to do more than anything else in the world — only that done in Love Response is any good.

There is one sure thing — remember this. This Body of which I am a Member is made up of many Members. I will not let any Member jeopardize the whole. Our responsibility is not just for the Members of this Body, but for the world body of Responding Ones, and as the One Christ Body — while there is a training period, and while I deal with every matter with all the Love that I can, and you know it — there is that which requires that we follow the groove, that we hew to the line, that we let the work be performed according to the Plan — the Blueprint, if you please — and it will be done that way by this Body as long as I am its Head. You know that, but with respect to the necessities of outworking in this Body, it is necessary that I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, so that you function in that realization. “Behold, I make all things new” — inside and out, up and down and all around, every whit whole.

These are considerations with respect to the work to which we are called, and things with respect to our function in the doing of that work. It is the greatest work on earth. It is the most important thing in all the world. Thousands and millions of lives depend on it. I have not seen any sign that anyone else was too seriously considering doing the job. To depend on someone else, in my estimation, would be the sheerest folly. I am not taking the attitude that there are not any other people in the world who could do the work if they would. Do you see what I mean? We are not the only good people in the world, not by a long shot. I suspect that, if we looked around, we might find a group of people who might be called even better, who never heard of the Third Sacred School. We do not have any cause for self-righteousness, nor human pride — and pride goeth before a fall. We do not like falls. We had one thousands of years ago, a pretty big tumble; and there have been several since; there have been so many of them that it seems to me that we ought somehow to stop making them. The world is cluttered up with them; the world needs something else; the world needs something that it has not got. So, instead of making another fall, we would rather have that open Gateway that lets Heaven come down from God into the earth, that all things may truly for all people be made new.

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Have you heard that Voice? The Tabernacle of God is the One Christ Body on earth, in which He dwells, lives, moves and has His Being, and functions to the degree that we let it be purified and made every whit whole. That is the description in Revelation 21:3 of the manifestation of the One Christ Body on earth.

© Emissaries of Divine Light