from
United States of America
Martin Cecil July 4, 1976 a.m.
The focus of what is unfolding in the world is here on this continent, more particularly in the United States. There is representation present in the United States from all the nations of the world. The same is true in some measure with respect to Canada. The United States provided a setting for what is now occurring in the development of spiritual experience. Only in such a setting as there has been could the development have occurred that we have known in our own experience; and so we may consider profitably the value and the necessity of proper settings. Usually human beings get hung up in the settings, scarcely realizing that a setting becomes valuable and really beautiful only by reason of the jewel which may be present in that setting—we need to see here that there is something living. The setting is essential to allow the emergence of the jewel.
Perhaps we could use another analogy to better effect. The mother is essential if there is to be a child. Now, it is quite clear that the mother is not the child, but there would be no child if it wasn’t for the mother. So it is with respect to what has been unfolding on earth through the various settings that have been present in the world. These have been necessary to what is emerging of the true design of things. It might be said that the distorted and restricted setting which this world has become was not necessary in the first place, but the Lord is, of all things, a realist. He doesn’t fool Himself into imagining that things aren’t the way they are (even though human beings sometimes try to do this), and so He uses whatever is actually present to advantage. Some human beings have been inclined to think that the Lord is pretty cruel because He does use things to advantage, accepting circumstances as they are. The view might be that He should get in there and change the circumstances so that human beings didn’t have to experience the tribulation that they do. If He did step in and corrected the state of affairs arbitrarily in some fashion, there would then be no more need for human beings. The fact of the matter is that God is not willing that any should perish, so He is not willing arbitrarily to step in. In order that some flesh might be saved, might remain on earth, He realistically accepts the circumstance as it is and works with that, because the circumstance has human beings in it. They still exist in whatever the circumstance may be. This is the only place that they do exist. If the circumstance were arbitrarily changed, it wouldn’t be the circumstance of human beings and therefore human beings would cease to exist. So we may be very thankful that there has been no impatient attitude on the part of the Lord to step in and alter the circumstance. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” that is, allow the circumstances to be in the Lord’s hand.
We have shared a recognition that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” Many people lay claims to the earth. In this country, at the present time it seems that the native people are laying claims to much of Canada. It doesn’t belong to them, any more than it belongs to the white invaders. The earth is the Lord’s! Obviously, there is no possible solution to all these conflicting claims as long as human beings imagine that the earth belongs to them, but it can be clearly seen that if there were a recognition on the part of human beings that the earth belongs to the Lord, all land claims would be instantly resolved; and there is no other way by which it can happen. Now, the earth does not become evidently the Lord’s except through human beings, through their right stewardship in the recognition of the fact that the earth is the Lord’s. We ourselves have been concerned that our fields of responsibility in this regard should be seen in terms of the fact that the earth is the Lord’s. What comes under our stewardship becomes the Lord’s to the extent that we ourselves become the Lord’s, and that’s the only way it happens. If the earth could become the Lord’s in an effective sense without human beings becoming the Lord’s, then we can see clearly enough that there would be no need at all for human beings; and if there were no need for human beings, one might assume that there would be no human beings.
But we are here, together with some four billion others, and we have a responsibility to awaken to a clear awareness that because of us, and others, it may be made evident that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” It is the fact already, but how many know it? Anyone who lays any claims in an attitude of personal ownership evidently doesn’t know it. The earth, the land, has been divided by human beings for gain. This has absolutely nothing to do with the purpose of the earth or the reason for man’s existence, and yet human beings everywhere are all wrapped up in these things, completely ignoring the truth of the matter. But the Lord is very intelligent—very clever, we might say: He uses the unfortunate attitudes of human beings to advantage. There may be a recognition that in this regard the United States of America has been playing an important part, allowing for the birth of a new nation. This new nation, which is a spiritual nation, is not, certainly, limited to the United States, but there must always be a starting point.
God never tries to make something out of nothing. In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, when “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” “The deep”—whatever is referred to by that word was evidently present, because there was darkness upon the face of it. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” So there was something; and the fact of the matter is that there can be no true creative process, only something imaginary, if the endeavor is made to create something out of nothing. There must always be a starting point. The mother gives rise to the child; there would be no child without the mother.
All the starting points that are present on earth are used to advantage by the Lord. No matter what human beings think they’re doing, no matter what their particular efforts may be, everything is used to advantage in the true creative process. Everything that happens could be said to be the something out of which something is made. We are well aware that there is something already present in any creative process that might be necessary now. It obviously would be unnecessary to create the earth; it’s here. In this sense there is a different state of affairs to what it may have been before the earth was here, but nevertheless the principles hold true. There is the starting point of the earth. There is the starting point of human beings on the face of the earth. There is the starting point of the world which human beings have created on earth, and there are all the myriad details of that world. One of those details happens to be the United States of America, and it has provided a setting in which there might be a spiritual birth, of which we ourselves have become aware because we find ourselves a part of it. We find ourselves a part of it in our own experience; we know it’s there; we don’t have to imagine it. Canada shares something of the American condition, inhabiting this same North American continent; so this young country, in its development, has certainly been influenced by its guardian. There is something shared, and out of these two countries there is the birth of a spiritual nation. It certainly isn’t limited to the North American continent but is an event which is transpiring the world around. However, all things require a focus, and the focus is here present.
I suggested the analogy of a mother and a child. Out of the mother, out of the particular setting which is here on the North American continent by reason of the people who are here, comes the birth of the child, the child which is not the United States of America or Canada or any other of the nations of the world. It is something uniquely of itself, just as in the human sense the child is not the mother but is something uniquely itself. Now, we need to recognize the creative process at work here, the situation as it is being used to advantage by the Lord; but in our awareness of how it works on that particular scale, we may see the same principles in operation at every other level of experience. The creative process requires a setting, or a mother, out of which something uniquely itself may be born.
Human beings, in their approach to bringing forth in any area of human function, are usually aware that something needs to change, something needs to somehow be made new; but, generally speaking, they haven’t a clue as to how it may rightly happen. Nowadays there is rather a general recognition that there is need for something new—new music, for instance (new everything presumably)—and so it is anticipated hopefully that it will materialize out of thin air if the individual just waits for it. But the things that do seem to materialize out of thin air are not very inspiring; for the most part they’re a mess! On the other hand, there are those, who are perhaps deemed to be more practical, who take whatever is present and proceed to try to make it over, improve it, make it better. This is the practical approach, it is presumed; and so all we have then is something old warmed over; it isn’t really new at all. Neither of these two attitudes will permit the creative experience, will allow to be brought forth what really should be brought forth; because there is, certainly, something to be brought forth. Human beings were created in the design which is symbolized by the number six, six, six; six hundred, threescore and six. And six is the number symbol of bringing forth. As we have noted, it is rather like the word sex, isn’t it? And human beings have gotten themselves hung up in sex, sex, sex! Something is to be brought forth—this is the reason why human beings are here on earth—but not according to their own designs and purposes, not according to some vague inspiration which will produce something that is going to be pleasing to human beings, but according to the design of life itself. And the process of bringing forth always requires that there be a starting point, that there be something to start with.
In the description contained in that first chapter of Genesis, when the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, light was generated. If light is to be known as light, there must be something to reflect it. What might be termed “radiant light” is invisible. But evidently there is something coming to the earth about which we know, because the earth reflects it. So there must be substance if light is to be known. We are assembled here this morning in order to take a unified look at something and we discover that there is a certain amount of light. There must be some light present if we’re to see anything, and there cannot be light present unless there is the essential substance which will allow the reflection of it at the level that we need to see. Most of you have had some experience in the generation of this substance, so that the substance is present, and the proof of its presence is the fact that you begin to see something at another level. You have the opportunity of viewing something, because of that light, at a level that most people cannot see because there is no light for them. There is no light for them because the substance which would allow it to be present has not been generated adequately. We have been participating over many years in the generation of the required substance so that we might be able to see at the level where we need to see. We can see at the physical level, as long as we have physical eyes, the same as everybody else can see here at this level. How we translate in our own consciousness what we see may vary, but we all have the opportunity of observing the fact of reflected light. The same principle holds at all levels. In fact, mentally speaking, human beings say, “Oh, I see!” Well, they didn’t see with their physical eyes but they saw something mentally speaking at that level because there was some mental substance present which would reflect the light. But we need spiritual substance to be present to reflect the light if we are to see at that level.
If we see at the spiritual level, and we see at the mental level, and we see at the physical level, we’re beginning to be slightly more well rounded in our outlook. Those who merely see from the physical level are very distorted in their outlook, and even seeing from the physical and the mental level there is an incompleteness, a lack of vision, because the light is only at those levels. But there is the spiritual level to take into account, and when there begins to be the substance required to reflect the light at that level there begins to be the means by which we can see at that level. When we begin to see at that level there may be the generation of substance which will allow for the experience of what is seen at that level. You may recall that the waters were divided from the waters and the firmament appeared. “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” So there begins to be something seen by reason of the light at the spiritual level.
We might correlate this process with what occurred in the development of the United States of America, because the founding fathers had a certain vision. Their vision was not quite as complete as it might have been but presumably it was all that was possible at the time. They saw something because there was sufficient light, evidently, at the level at which they saw the something, and that level related to spirit. The Declaration of Independence, and all that followed in the way of developing the theme, was still in the heaven, wasn’t it? There was something that had to be proven out. Just to have a Declaration of Independence, or a Constitution, or whatever, doesn’t of itself achieve what is needed. It is an essential starting point. “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” so there must be some vision. And to have vision there must be light; and to have light there must be the substance which will reflect it, and the nature of that substance will determine what is reflected. Physical substance reflects light in a certain way, mental substance reflects light in a different way, spiritual substance reflects light in a still different way; and the range of understanding expands as light is reflected at all these different levels. So something can be seen which couldn’t be seen before because it was in the dark before. There are many things that human beings simply cannot see because there is no substance in their experience which would reflect the light at the level where the seeing would then be possible. Those who try to live on earth merely from a physical and mental standpoint have produced the state of affairs that we know in the world, because there was very limited vision—virtually no understanding at all, no balance. There cannot be balance until there is spiritual seeing. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and what is to be born originates spiritually.
So, in the United States, in the development of this country, there was some vision at a spiritual level because there was some light at that level. It was mixed somewhat with mental concepts, but still there was the evidence of some vision. So the country has taken form from that point of origination. Out of what has taken form it was possible for the conception of something more in the creative process—the country would then become the mother of a new, unique birth. And this which was being born would not be the mother: it would not be the United States of America, and, as I say, it would not be any other nation on earth.
There was something said in the Book of Revelation: “The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Out of the nations of the world, but more particularly out of this nation of the United States, which is the focus of all nations, is born the new nation. Now, we may see that the new nation, the spiritual nation, which is present with respect to all nations of the world, is not an end in itself. The new nation is a mother for something else. Here is the creative process, an eternal process.
There is some light reflected here this morning, so that we can begin to see what we are able to see now at a level of understanding that is not generally usual in the world of human beings. This substance essential to the reflection of light is generated because there are those who are willing to draw close to the Lord. It’s interesting how it has been discovered by people that they may search the world around for something that they hope to find, only to discover that it was always present at the point where they started. This delusion on the part of human beings is very deep-seated. It’s always assumed, apparently, that somewhere else one will find the answer. As long as you are subject to that delusion there is no answer for you. The place where one is, is where one should be—exactly there, nowhere else—and it is in the acceptance of what is present in the place where one is that the creative cycle can begin to work. Here is the something!
Human beings, generally speaking, reject what is present, as though it were not the something. They think the something is over there somewhere. They’re going here; they’re going there; they’re going to find the something. They never do, never, on that basis, because the something relates to the present circumstance. There it is; there is the starting point. And it is not a matter of sitting in the present circumstance hoping for better days or hoping that something will flutter down out of the sky and inspire one, on the one hand; or, on the other hand, of trying to change the circumstance around so that it becomes something supposedly better. The starting point is the something that is present in the circumstance at the moment, and there is no starting point for a person until that fact is acknowledged and the circumstance is accepted exactly the way it is as being the starting point. Usually people, even though they’re going to stay around in the circumstance for a while, anticipate that another one is going to come in and that will be the starting point. No! Whatever it is now is the starting point, always, and unless there is a willingness to accept that circumstance and let it be the starting point, there is not, and never will be, a starting point for any human being on the face of the earth.
You know, this book here, the Bible, is part of our circumstance; it’s part of the setting in which we find ourselves. Many people imagine that somehow or other this book is going to be salvation for them. No, it’s a starting point for something that needs to be created, emerging out of it. The setting doesn’t need to be made over; the setting is all right the way it is; but something should be born out of it, something which is unique to itself. It isn’t the setting; it isn’t the Bible. When something is born out of it, then the scriptures are fulfilled. One could say the mother is fulfilled by reason of the birth of the child; but there is no fulfilment for the mother until there is the birth of the child, and the fulfilment is in the child. So something needs to be born out of this. And there is example in this regard in all fields. The musical field, for instance. Out of music as we now know it something may be born in the creative process when the spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters. Then the whole sequence begins to unfold. And where is the spirit of God going to come from to move on the face of the waters? From some mysterious entity somewhere? No. If the spirit of God is to move on the face of your circumstances it is because of you, nobody else. The spirit of God is present in you because you are alive; that is part of the spirit of God, the fact of life. It is in the acceptance of present circumstance that there is a starting point in the creative process; otherwise there isn’t. If it’s a better circumstance that’s going to come tomorrow, there is no starting point. If it’s a made-over circumstance of today, there’s no starting point.
I said that the Lord is a realist. Let us be realists; then we’re in agreement with Him. And there has never been a moment, fortunately, where He has rejected the circumstances in which human beings find themselves. That would be the end! If He accepts things as they are and uses them to advantage, well, let us do the same thing. But if you’re wandering around in a fog, hopefully expecting that something is going to come sometime, somewhere, somehow, to enlighten you and to cause you to be what you know darn well you should be now, you’re just fooling yourself; you’re ignorant and stupid! Let’s be wise and accept the circumstance of the moment. It’s the only one we have; it’s the only real thing we have; it’s right there. And when we do this in our attitude—that’s the starting point, to have this attitude—then we may become aware of the manner in which the creative process unfolds. But if we reject the starting point, nothing unfolds. Let us participate in the process by which all things are made new.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
