The Most Famous Sermon Ever Preached
By The Greatest Minister
from Center of Truth
Uranda July 17, 1946
The simple Truth is always the most glorious Truth. These complicated human minds, with all of their attitudes and reactions and concepts, make it necessary, now and again, that we deal with the intricacies of the more or less complex structure of the form of Truth made manifest. But when the mind lets go, when the serenity of the spirit fills each heart, there is a willingness to pass by the complexities and intricacies and devote our attention, for a time at least, to the sweet essence that is the very Center of Truth. Always, in the simple expression of Truth, we have the most direct path to that Center. It is because of the very simplicity of Truth as expressed by the Master Teacher of us all that human beings in ages past have been inclined to jump to the conclusion that they understood that simple Truth, and to satisfy the complexities of their own questionings they have builded around that simple Truth a mixture of creeds and structures of thought which were supposed to be of great value. We have chosen to sweep aside these structures, not judging them to be good, bad or indifferent. We have chosen to go to that Center to find the simple expression of Truth, to relax into the sweet essences of its manifestation on earth, and to let the structures of Truth be builded out there by beginning at that Center, without regard to those human concepts and ideas which might arbitrarily force human architecture upon the structure being built by the spirit of the Living God. Too long has the human architect of the human mind insisted on designing the appearance of the structure for human beings. We would let the Lord Himself be the architect; we would let Him determine the design of the structure; and we would let that structure grow out of the very Center of that which He is.
As we relax into the sweet essences of that Central Truth, in the simple expression of Truth, we begin to find that what the human mind has so often thought it knew, is not easily fathomed in a moment, and even the most brilliant minds are inclined to overlook the abundance of that which the Lord has provided for all those who love and serve Him. We find that when we have plumbed the depths and scaled the heights and circumscribed the breadth of simple Truth, the complexities of these forms and manifestations will then appear to be simple to us. Let us remember that. Too often the human mind is side-tracked in trying to understand the complexities, the intricacies, of the detail in the form, without first comprehending the simple Center; but when we come to the Center and relax into that sweet essence of Being, the simplicity extends out throughout all the complexities and the baffling problems that have ceased to be problems and have become channels of expression of the creative power of God, by which His will is done on earth even as it is done in heaven.
It is from this standpoint that I always like to approach the words of the Master Teacher. It is in this recognition that I find His words to be always new, always alive. I venture to say that I have read His words over as many times as any of you. I have expressed on them in many sermons and before many groups, and you have heard me express upon them many times, but for me they have never grown old; to me they are always new. And I would not say that I had exhausted the possibilities with respect to the joy that one may have in considering those simple words. I emphasize these things for you tonight that as we approach a consideration of our Master's words there may not be the slightest hint of a feeling that you know them by heart. You may know the words by heart, but the spirit of those words, the essence of Truth that flows through them, that may be enjoyed by means of them, these things you do not yet know in fulness, and I do not promise that you ever will.
“And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain:
and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.”
We have looked out into the world and we have seen the multitudes, we have seen their need, we have felt the call to serve, we have longed to be able to alleviate suffering, to do our part toward bringing true peace into all the world. But, as we have seen the multitudes, instead of staying with them we have come up into a mountain. I find a picture painted there, of something that is alive to us tonight. You will notice that His disciples came unto Him. We are desirous of coming unto Him, that our Master Jesus Christ may, not just in theory but in practice, be the Primary Center of our unified response and attention.
“And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying”
No doubt many of you have felt, when you have considered the way in which He taught, how wonderful it would have been to have been there on that mountain that day, to have heard Him speak, to have listened to His voice, and to have responded to the love that vibrated in every Tone and expression. But we find, as we relax into His spirit, that through His wondrous gifts of grace and provision He has made it possible for us, as we let go in the Spirit of the Word, to hear tonight and to feel tonight what those who heard must have felt when He spoke those words ...
Sermon on the Mount
And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
What beautiful words! What simple, direct expression of the very essence of truth! Let us meditate upon them. Functioning tonight as One Body, unified in spirit and in truth, this One Body is in meditation, and the expression of that meditation of the Body as a whole I would express.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Here, in the opening words of the most famous sermon ever preached, by the Greatest Teacher, by the Greatest Minister who has ever walked the earth, we have a very significant expression: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” All those who have claimed to follow Jesus Christ have been interested in the kingdom of heaven. They have been concerned about getting into that kingdom; they have expected, by and large, to get into it; they hope they will, after they die, in some hereafter. But what does the King of the kingdom say? “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”—not will be; is, now, already established, already a realized fact. So, regardless of the meaning of the first part of this statement, we recognize that it contains the key for the fulfilment of the longing in the heart of every true Christian the world around, regardless of race or color or creed. Therefore it behooves us, and all who turn to Him, to find out what is the spirit and essence contained within the Word that establishes the condition which, when fulfilled, provides that, by decree of the King Himself, “their's is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” It is obvious that He was not talking about the holy spirit; in fact He did not begin to talk about the holy spirit until almost the end of His earthly ministry. Did you ever notice that? What spirit would He be talking about? Would He want people to be poor in the spirit of God? No. That is obvious, because He would not deny Himself and that expression of the Godhead of which He was the Branch in the world. So, what spirit was He talking about? The spirit of this world, the spirit of the prince of this world. We remember that, as His days of ministry on earth were drawing to a close, He said: “The prince of this world cometh, and he findeth nothing in me.” That was the spirit of which He was speaking. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”—those who do not have, or do not contain, the spirit of this world. And so, when we are poor in the spirit of this world, we become the possessors of the kingdom of heaven. Many other times He expressed words which conveyed the same truth, and He emphasized it so many times that it should become clear to all those who claim to follow Him, that, if the King of the kingdom, the Greatest Teacher of all time, emphasized some little point so often, in so many ways, it must contain a great and important key which should be studied, meditated upon, pondered upon, in love response to Him who spoke the word. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”—poor in the spirit of the prince of this world—“for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It is as simple as that, as direct, as concise, as real, as that. We cannot bargain with the Lord to get into the kingdom of heaven; we cannot, by going out and doing what the human mind might call good works, get into the kingdom of heaven; fear of hell, or of any other thing, will not get us into the kingdom of heaven. Here He says that we have to be poor in the spirit of this world, so poor that we just do not have any. For theirs is, not will be, is the kingdom of heaven here and now, even as He said at another time: “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And then He spoke these words: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Does that mean that we must go about with long faces, sad, with rivers of tears running down our cheeks? There may be tears of joy, of gratitude, but that is not what He was talking about. He said, “Blessed are they that mourn.” It is not that we have to mourn always. No. But until the individual reaches a point in this world where he is not satisfied with the world, until he begins to mourn for two things, for two reasons: to be sad because, from the human standpoint, it seems God is so far away, and consequently because human beings are so far away from Him. It seems to me that these are the things about which He was talking. “Blessed are they that mourn.” But He does not say that they must always keep on mourning all their lives, regretting this and fussing and fuming about that. He said that those who truly mourn, those who truly long for God, those who are truly ready to serve God and man, shall be comforted. Every one of you knows what it is to have gone through that stage, or you would not be here tonight. You have mourned because you sought the Way, because you saw the suffering, toil, greed and cruelty in the world. You have mourned because God seemed so far away. You wanted to seek Him and to find Him.
When the evening time came and you felt that loneliness that is inherently established in man, and has been since the fall, you began to consider something besides just a good time to fill that loneliness, something else besides just a picture show or some other form of amusement—not but what we may go to a picture show on occasion, but not just because we are trying to get away from loneliness in the cool of the day. When man was first created, God always came walking in the Garden to commune with man on earth. He was created to expect that; he was created with that instinct to wait for the coming of the Lord walking in the Garden in the cool of the day. So many have tried to drown that longing in doing things which they should not do. If you truly mourn you do not try to find something to cover it up. You begin to seek to know what will fill it, what will stop that loneliness, what will satisfy that longing. And lo, as you respond in love, you find that the Lord still comes walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, for those who have ears to hear, for those who are ready to receive Him in love; and instead of a sad time, a lonely time, it becomes the time of sweet communion, the time when human beings are comforted. Once they are comforted they cease to mourn. Sometimes human beings get into peculiar habits. I have known them, upon having been comforted once, to miss the point and start in all over again, so that they could get comforted all over again. But if one is truly comforted he goes on to the next step.
Do you notice what our Master Teacher does in this great sermon? He summarizes His whole sermon in His first statement: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Then He proceeds, in the remainder of the sermon, to tell you just where to start and how to move, the direction in which to go, in order to find the fulfilment of that first sentence. There is the summary of the entire Sermon on the Mount given in the Master's own words. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And then He proceeds to tell us how. First, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” That is the first step out of this old world spirit, so that we may begin to get rid of the riches of this world, that we may be poor in the spirit of this world.
So we have considered this first step, and we have been reminded of the fact that the Lord God comes walking in the Garden in the cool of the day for all those who truly mourn, for all those who are ready to let themselves be comforted. Of course some people find such soul-satisfying satisfaction in mourning that they would not let themselves be comforted for all the world, or the kingdom of heaven now or in the hereafter. They insist on hugging their troublesome causes of difficulty and self-pity to their bosoms and to their hearts, and they would not let the Lord Himself comfort them. But this is a twofold expression. “Blessed are they that mourn”—truly, rightly—“for they shall be comforted.” And once the individual is comforted, what next? He stops his crying. He stops making so much noise that he cannot hear the Lord. He begins to listen to the still, small voice.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” In the summary, the Master mentioned the kingdom of heaven, but that is the summary of His whole sermon. For those who have just stopped mourning, the kingdom of heaven is too far away, it is too big a leap. The next step is: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Right down here on earth the individual can begin to move in the right direction to inherit the earth. It is obvious that His first promise is that we are to be possessors of the kingdom of heaven. In order to start that fulfilment in actuality, when we have stopped making so much noise that we can begin to hear His Voice, the next step is to inherit the earth, that we may have the kingdom of heaven. That must surely make it plain enough, so that even the most complicated mind can see that the kingdom of heaven, according to the Master's word, is right here on earth; because if we are to inherit the earth, we must at the same time inherit the kingdom of heaven, and we cannot be in two places at the same time. But how are we to begin to get ready to inherit the earth?
“Blessed are the meek.” The human being who has had success formulas of every conceivable kind drummed into his consciousness from the time he stumbled into consciousness for the first time and got his diapers dirty teaches that man must be aggressive; he must use his willpower; he must determine the course in which he is to go; he has to be aggressive, get his way, right from the cradle. These human beings think that if they try hard enough and long enough they will get what they want, regardless of anyone else. So, right in the cradle, these habits begin to develop, and man thinks he has to go out and fight for everything that he thinks he wants. What happens to all that school of thought, all of these ideas, all of these concepts, when the Great Teacher speaks a few words—four words—“Blessed are the meek”? And then six words—“for they shall inherit the earth.” With ten words He sweeps the whole collection of human concepts out into the garbage can, where they belong. There is the absolute contradiction to the whole human form. Man says to use willpower: Fight for power and you will inherit the earth, or as much of it as you can grab anyway. The Master says: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” It is obvious that the human formula is all wrong. The conditions in the world prove it, because if man were being really successful playing around with his own ideas we would not have millions facing starvation, we would not have such misery and suffering all over the world.
Well, what is the Divine formula? What is it that the Great Master Teacher said? What is it that the King of the kingdom declared? That is what I am interested in. He spoke four words: “Blessed are the meek.” So simple that one is likely to read it over and say, “Well I guess so,” and go on. Is that right? What does it mean to be meek, I wonder. That could mean that we are to be spineless, to let ourselves be pushed around this way and that, and be doormats for other people to walk on whenever they feel inclined.
That does not sound like the Master. He was the One who stood up and tipped over the tables of the money changers, scattered their money all over the floors of the temple, and with whips which He snatched from somewhere or other He drove them out of the temple. Yes, He did that. And He said, “Blessed are the meek.” People talk about learning to know Jesus, coming to understand the Great Master, and I have heard them talk in such remarkable fashion, as if they were qualified to determine upon an instant's notice just what He would or would not have done in any given circumstance. Let us examine Jesus, the greatest example of meekness this world has ever seen. Let us see Him in action. First, He talks to His disciples: “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” And then He talks to some others:
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses,
and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte,
and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
“Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing;
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
“Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
“And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing;
but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
“Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
“Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
“And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
“And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy, and faith:
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
“Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter,
but within they are full of extortion and excess.
“Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter,
that the outside of them may be clean also.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
“Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
“And say, if we had been in the days of our fathers,
we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
“Therefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
“Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
The greatest example of meekness the world has ever seen spoke those words. What does it mean to be meek? It does not mean that we should bow before the unreal expression of the unreal world. It means that we should be meek and humble before God, that we serve one another, lovingly, willingly, never seeking to exalt ourselves, and that we be bold in doing the will of God on earth. I am not suggesting that you should try to imitate Jesus in such a scourging and tongue-lashing as He turned loose in those words which I have just read. I doubt if you could reach the height of sarcasm that He employed, and I doubt if you could bite as deep as His whiplash could bite. That is not the point. Most people have distorted and incorrect concepts of Jesus Christ. He did not show very much meekness in the face of the expression of the unreal—although, you may say, when it came to His trial He used different tactics. He did—but there His silence was as biting as His words had been before. But He was always meek before God, He always expressed the highest reverence for God. His whole attitude, as well as His words, carried the spirit of “I must be about my Father's business”; and whether it was serving the multitudes by the seashore or in the wilderness, or whether it was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said: “Father, Thy will, not mine, be done.”
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” What does it mean to be meek? It means that the human mind never lifts itself up into controversy with God. It means that the human being never undertakes to contend with the Angel of the Lord. It means that in meekness before God there is the strength to inherit the earth. It means that in meekness we find the key to that strength and that power, that ability, which permits us to exert a power greater than the greatest powers that man can develop in all of his self-active, selfish, greedy ways.
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” You have known something of what it is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and you know something of what it is to be filled. You know that that filling is not yet complete. Your gathering here proves that you still hunger and thirst for a deeper righteousness, a more all-inclusive righteousness, a fuller harmonization with God, than you have ever known before. And the promise is that to the degree that you thirst you shall be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” How often we find in this world that people are not merciful; they try to hurt someone at the slightest pretext. So often we see people who, if they think someone is down, that they are getting the worst of it, get a certain satanic satisfaction out of adding an extra kick. We have seen it so often in this world; at least I have.
And then we come to what has always been to me one of the most glorious and wonderful expressions that this great Master Teacher expressed: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” The implication of the statement is that when they are pure in heart they shall see God. According to the context it certainly did not mean sometime in the distant hereafter. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Of all the things to which a human being may aspire I cannot imagine anything greater than aspiring to see God. The Creator is greater than the creation. To see the Creator, to see God, is the highest aspiration possible to human beings. And the Master said: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Not just perhaps, or that we shall see a Being sitting on a throne somewhere, but we first begin to see God right here—to see the expression of God through the people around us, to see the beauty of God through the beauty of nature, to see God in expression on every hand, to recognize that which is of God in all that is noble and fine and true in all the human beings whom we contact along the way of life. But that is not the fulness of seeing God. That is a step.
The more we can see that is of God the nearer we can come to the time when we can see God, and when that is there is no use to speculate. But there is one provision. This is a conditional statement, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” What does it mean? Just that we have to be good according to human standards? No. Looking back along the way, you will find that, according to human concepts, almost every generation or two has provided a different standard, or a different concept, or a different view, of what it means to be good or pure in the eyes of men. So we are not talking about fulfilling all of the concepts of men. They may be good, they may be bad; we are not judging these things. All that we are interested in is that which is pleasing in the eyes of God. If that which is of the expression of man holds true to that which is of the expression of God, well and good.
“Blessed are the pure in heart." The heart is the symbol of the emotional realm, the feeling range of Being within yourself. That which is pure is that which is not mixed, not adulterated with something that it is not supposed to contain. Pure water is simply water without something in it that should not be there. Pure wheat is wheat without oats for instance, although oats may be fine of itself. And so on right down the line. That which is pure is that which is not mixed. And so the heart, the feeling nature, is to be pure; that is, our feelings are to be wholly, completely, focalized in Love Response to God, so that Divine Love flowing through us into the world may carry blessing to all who will receive. When we get feeling reactions this way and that, when we are subject to every kind of ill condition, easily hurt, quickly disturbed, desiring to retaliate if we feel something has gone wrong, and let all of these petty little human reactions bring us under subjection to the world and the ill things of the world, that is not being pure in heart. A pure heart is so filled with Love for God that it has not got time to be filled with all these petty human reactions that subject people to retaliations, to trying to get people to pity them or indulge in self-pity. You can go on and make a list as long as you wish. The pure in heart are those who let Love for God fill their hearts until there is no room for anything else. When we love God with all that we are, including all the feeling in the emotional realm of being, does that mean that we will be cut off from all of the good things in life, all the satisfaction? No, because He came that our joy might be full. We find that in the expression of His love through us everything delightful, beautiful, glorious, that we can imagine, begins to come into manifestation as we let it be so.
But sometimes we mix up that Love for God with love for self—shall we say, 75 percent love for God and 25 percent love for self. Do you think you could get by with that? But it says here: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” That does not include any percentage of love for self, or anything else to which human beings devote their lives. It means 100 percent pure in heart. That is an absolute promise, given on one condition. And when we fulfil that condition we will find the promise fulfilled. As we learn more and more to let our hearts be purified, so that our hearts are filled with Love for God first, last and always, we begin to see the beauties of God as never before, enjoy life as never before, feel that peace and satisfaction that can be known in no other way. We begin to know what it is to really enjoy life. Step by step, as we learn to fulfil that condition, the promise is fulfilled gloriously: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
Do you agree that the simple words that the Master spoke provide an open doorway to the very Center of the essence of Truth in all its beauty, where we can begin to feel and know and recognize the Center of things, and working out from there we can let the Lord be the architect, let Him mold and re-create, let that form which is of Him reappear? And we know that it will be beautiful. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” And again: “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”
© Emissaries of Divine Light
