We have begun a series of meditations on the subject of the Magic of Creation. Tonight I suggest that we continue that basic theme, with special attention to its relationship to man, or mankind, and therefore its relationship to us tonight—from the 2nd chapter of Genesis, the 1st verse: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Outside of this reference, which is most significant, we hear nothing about keeping the Seventh Day, or the Sabbath, or having a particular day of rest, until the time when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness and the Ten Commandments were given at Mt. Sinai. In all this interval the subject is ignored, and yet during that interval there were many who were very closely related to God, as was Enoch, for instance: “He walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Yet here the point is emphasized: God rested from the work which He had made, on the Seventh Day.
The Seventh Day is the Seventh Cycle, or period, or step, in the outworking of the life of man. Now in the Divine State, reaching the Seventh Day would mean something quite different from our present circumstance. In the Divine State, when the seven cycles were completed, that meant that the individual had completed his purpose in life on earth for that particular incarnation. Whether it took seven hundred years or seven thousand years was beside the point; the cycles of outworking leading to ascension were seven in number, depending upon the individual and the pattern of being, the purpose on earth. We have recognized that in relationship to fallen man the seven cycles of the seven days, or seven periods, lead to the restoration of man to the Divine Estate of Oneness, that we may come to that place of consciousness where we may experience what the Master spoke of as Oneness. He pointed out that He and His Father were One, and in His closing expression of ministry He gave that great prayer—in the 17th chapter of John it is recorded—and He prayed “that they all might be one as we are”; that those who should follow Him and let His Body take form and have meaning on earth might truly be One, even as He and the Father were One. The attainment of that state of Oneness is that which we experience on the Seventh Day, when we cease all self-activity and come to rest in the Lord, so that from that time onward we are functioning on a basis of Oneness. God rested from the work which He had made, in the sense of His work without regard to the work of God being made manifest through man. The period of Oneness, of correlation between Creator and creation through Oneness with the Crowning Creation, was supposed to be the Sabbath rest.
Man has allowed his awareness of these basic principles of Being to degenerate into the idea of keeping a day; but the Sabbath in the true sense is not something that can be kept merely by setting aside one day a week to cease physical labors in the ordinary human sense and then go back to physical labors in a self-active pattern on Monday morning. No man or woman keeps the Sabbath—I care not what the religion, I care not what day the human being seeks to keep—no man or woman keeps the Sabbath until he or she has attained to the day of rest; which is to say Oneness with God on earth, so that from that time on self-activity ceases and the Divine Pattern of function is made manifest from there on, twenty-four hours a day, day in and day out without limit, keeping the Sabbath. For the true day of rest is the cessation of self-activity; rest in the Lord, Oneness that is attained when we truly follow our LORD and KING and let His prayer be answered so that His Kingdom comes in us, His control or dominion is established in us and through us, and we attain to that Oneness of which He spoke so many times. This then is the Sabbath rest for man in this present state of things. But once that Sabbath rest has been attained, a new week begins, a new cycle of outworking in the achievement of the purpose for which that human being came into the world—and in that new week he does not function self-actively; he lets the works of God be done so that man is doing God's work.
When God first created mankind, God ended His works in the direct sense of creative action so that man could begin the works of God. But this human beings have failed to recognize and realize. God's work was done in the sense of direct action on earth, but God's work was not done in the sense of the work of God which was supposed to appear through mankind. So we see how it is that since the fall of man there has been a failure to let that Seventh Day have any meaning, that day of rest. Man has failed for twenty thousand years to enter into the Sabbath rest. The Seventh Day has had no meaning—a symbol has no meaning the moment it is disassociated in consciousness from that which is symbolized. We have many symbols which we must use in the interval of transition and resurrection, but a symbol ceases to have meaning the very moment it is disassociated in consciousness from that which is symbolized. And that which is symbolized is the day of rest, when man ceases his self-activity and begins to let Divine Activity be made manifest on earth because man lives on earth. We have recognized something of the pattern of these cycles and their relationship to the Four Forces. When we reach a point of being with one accord in one place, in agreement on earth as touching all of these things, then something wonderful and beautiful is going to happen. How soon shall it be?
“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” It is interesting to note at this point that there was no rain on the face of the whole earth until the time that is spoken of … well there was the beginning of something more or less like rain after the submersion of Lemuria, the Motherland; but until the time of the flood, or the submersion of Atlantis, there was comparatively little rain, and none at all until the submersion of the Motherland. Why? The larger portion of the earth's surface was land; the water was nearer to the surface of the land underneath. In other words the water level was very high. During the day the sun's rays drew the moisture up into the atmosphere, and at night, the cool of the day, that condensed and came down again on the earth's surface as dew, and this action of the dew upon the face of the earth provided all the moisture that was necessary. There were some few clouds, but no heavy dark ones; there were lovely clouds, but they evaporated in the air itself with the fluctuations of the atmosphere. But no rain—no rain was needed. Actually rain as we know it is an unnatural thing, something that was not originally designed for this earth.
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” There is the 7th verse of the 2nd chapter of Genesis: “… and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.” Eden is the whole earth, and eastward in Eden is in the days of our tomorrows. That we might do what? “… and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
There is something else I wish to bring to your attention. “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” Notice the wording: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good … And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Of these four rivers there is only one on the face of the earth today that carries one of these names—the Euphrates. Four rivers. But there is one river that went out of Eden, out of the earth, to water the Garden; and this one river divides into four heads, so that there are four rivers. Now is this not the reverse of what we ordinarily think? The tributaries of a great river feed the river, so that whether it be four rivers coming together into one, or whatever other number—the various branches, brooks, larger streams, until finally the rivers—they all come together and form one river. But here is a river that, according to the wording in the allegory here, had one trunk as the source of it and divided into four rivers and went somewhere; these four branches extended into various parts of the earth. But notice that it came out of Eden to water the Garden. “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” As we think of these four rivers we must surely be reminded of the Four Forces—One River—and water is what? Truth. One Truth, which has a division into four primary patterns, four parts. And this river comes out of the earth to water the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden. This that was in the Garden eastward in Eden was formed, and then it was caused, or supposed to be caused, to manifest. At first it was—gradually it took form according to the patterns established in the Garden eastward in Eden. But this river came out of Eden to water the Garden. Water we know to be the symbol of Truth, and here we have the river, and it divides into four heads as it moves from its source. These four heads are the Four Forces of the creative cycles of Being.
Man has sought in times past to understand something of the creative processes of Being but he has failed to seek first the Kingdom, the realm of control, and the wisdom necessary to function in the Kingdom. He has tried to discover something of the laws and principles of creation so that he could apply them himself, for his own purposes, to satisfy his own desires; and he has discovered much. Being loosed in the bottomless pit of knowledge, he has discovered so much, but he still fails to comprehend the basic principles of the Creative Life, and the Magic of Creation by reason of which we may begin to know the Magic of Living. And here we have the Four Forces. We have recognized that these Four Forces divide up into particularized patterns, but when we speak of them in their segregated sense, what are we talking about? We are talking about the Truth—the Truth, which is the design factor plus the control factor. So one remains as it was, Water; the second was Air; the third, Earth; and the fourth, Fire. We will notice that Fire is the symbol of Love, as also is Gold. Gold is used throughout the Bible in a symbolical manner, and the first river is that which “compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good.”
Now these four rivers are pictured in relationship to four sections of the earth—which is a somewhat degenerate pattern—but in any case, in relationship to four lands or four spheres, four places for living; or we might say four sections of the earth. In relationship to what? In relationship to the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden. But the initial purpose indicated for this river is that it should water the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden. Now we know that no flowing river of water, as we think of a river, could water a Garden which remains yet in the invisible realm, in the days of our tomorrows. It could not be. But once we begin to comprehend the great significance of the beautiful symbolism here, it ceases to be merely a few words with little meaning, contained in an allegorical story. It begins to take on rich significance and tremendous value for us here tonight. The truth was supposed to flow out of the earth to water the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden, something which was yet to come into manifestation, something from the invisible realms. This is clearly indicated in the wording of the previous text which I read to you: “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.” That's what it says: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.”
And then the Lord God formed man. We have recognized that God formed all of these things in the Garden before He created man, but they were not yet in form as we know them today. It was not until after man himself was created that the things that God had created in the Garden were given form on earth. They were given form, they were created, from the standpoint of the Garden which God created eastward in Eden, that it might come on earth and take form. But that process of giving form to the grass of the field, every plant of the field and the herbs of the field, did not take place until after man was created.
The creative pattern was established in the Garden, and that was a creation just as surely as any creation can be a creation. The difference is that man has presumed that all of these things were established on earth just as we know them today, before man was created. God did create all of these things before He created man, but then in the process of creating man He established man on earth and used man as the focalization of a creative field established in the future, by reason of which all of these things that had been created in the Garden of Eden might be given form on earth. I grant you that there is not too much here in the record to specifically, in the ordinary sense, support that, but there are some peculiar wordings which, if they are to be conceived to have any significance, cause one to stop and think. This 5th verse in the 2nd chapter of Genesis: “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.” Now what does that mean? I know what it means, but I cannot give you a great deal of material here as evidence. You can draw your own conclusions. Then in the 7th verse we have the statement: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”
Everything that God had created up to that point was in the Garden of Eden, yet to be given form in the outer sense. The Lord Godfinished His work, and the work of Man in Oneness with Godbegan. And in relationship to this we have the Four Forces, which are manifestations, four distinct aspects of manifestation for the Truth of design and control. I have pointed to design and control as aspects of the Truth. Now you can begin to see the Four Forces as aspects of the Truth. They issue out of the Truth, the river which was designed to water the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden. This perhaps suggests to you that you do not yet know everything there is to know; that we need to take the next step and continue on, so that we can come to the Seventh Day. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2017/10/not-from-i-love-you-lord-martin-cecil.html]
In the days of the disciples, at the time of the Master, they let the first part, just the first dawn of the Fourth Day, come into manifestation and then they lost the cycle, they lost the pattern; they fell out of the design and the rest did not come into manifestation. They got to the dawn of the Fourth Day. We are in the dawn of theThird Day. Now this next day does not have to be very long, in this sense, for it to really begin to manifest and for us to come to the dawn of the Fourth Day. For remember what I told you: All Four Forces are always in operation, but in each cycle one is dominant. Do not imagine that you can divide any one of the four from the other three. You cannot. They are all part of One River. They are all part of one thing. They are the revelation of truth with respect to the Four Forces, or aspects of creative action.
We have in times past touched upon the point of wisdom. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.” We talk about desiring to receive something of the Lord, and yet man has ignored the processes divinely designed and ordained, by which man might receive something from the Lord. That which is to come from the Lord must come out of the Garden that is planted eastward in Eden. There is no other way. We either receive it out of the Garden eastward in Eden, through the days of our tomorrows, or we do not receive it. You cannot receive something of the Lord, in the sense of that which is to take form in Life in this moment, after the moment is here. The contact must be with the future pattern that is given form through you in the moment, but the contact cannot be just in the moment. You cannot in this present moment, without regard to the future, receive something from the Lord. You have to live in the present with your proper contact with the future, and let that which is of the future come into manifestation with the leading edgeof the present moment, so that it may take form on earth. That is the way by which man allowed as many of the things of God to come forth on earth as he did—the grass, the herbs of the field, the animals, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, all the rest. Remember that in the creative cycle, out of the water God created the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air. Water is the symbol of Truth, and all of this was still in the vibrational sphere, in the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden, after the creation of man. And God said, “Let us make man [or mankind] in our image, after our likeness.” And so God did: “Male and female created he them.”
Now the Four Forces are part of One River, the River of Truth. The Truth of Love itself—whether you think of it as the Gold of the land of Havilah, or the Fire that burns, or whatever other term you may wish to use; that which IS—cannot have meaning except as it is given form and a name. And how shall even God's Love have a means of manifestation, a name and a form, except by reason of the Truth? It is only as you gain an understanding of the Truth about Love that you can begin to truly know Love. “And he shall lead you into all truth.” “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” with respect to God's Love, with respect to all things whatsoever. How can we be free? By trying to change that which is already manifest? Or by remembering that the things that God created prior to the creation of man were all in the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden? The herbs of the field were not yet growing in the earth. “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.” It was through man, after man was created, that all of these things—the vegetable kingdom, birds and fish and animals and all the rest—were given form, coming out of the Garden which God planted eastward in Eden. And as that was allowed to have manifestation, by reason of man's function with God, that was established on earth in relationship to the patterns of life on earth.
Later it is mentioned that all of the creatures which God had made were caused to pass by man and man named them. Remember? Did it not ever seem to you to be a bit strange that God created all these creatures and presumably had them running everywhere on the face of the earth, and then, after God made man, man was caused to stand, as it were, in a certain place and all these creatures lined up and came by in single file and man named them? Isn't that a ridiculous picture, the way you might ordinarily think of it? What does it mean? How did man namethem? It was man's function that caused them to pass out of the Garden that God planted eastward in Eden, past man into the earth. They were given form by reason of man's sharing of God's creative action. Now later on, when man first fell, this power was still inherent in man; he had not completely separated himself from it. He was trying to get some of these things out of the Garden into the earth and he distorted them, and we have some creatures on earth that God did not intend to manifest as they do—man's failures in relationship to letting the things of God come out of the east, out of the Garden into manifest form. If we begin to see this, begin to comprehend something of it, we must begin to recognize that whether it be a flower, or whatever it was in the beginning of things, that took form on earth under man's hand, God created it and established it, but it was not yet in the earth. “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.”
So we see that it was man's business, having dominion on earth, the manifestation of God's power, it was through man that all of these things took form on earth, without any exception, no matter what it was. And this river went out from the earth to water the Garden. Now the Garden is eastward in Eden—man's function in relationship to the Truth. Man was doing something from the standpoint of the earth, in oneness with God of course, while God was doing something from the standpoint of the invisible. And it was at the point of contact, in relationship to visible and invisible, that the forming began to appear, so that that which was of the invisible could be established in the earth. All of this worked out on the basis of Four Forces, four aspects of Truth, from the standpoint of design and control; for the control and design aspect is present with respect to the Four Heads of the River of the Water of Truth. And once we begin to function in relationship to the Four Forces, we begin to have wisdom. Wisdom—the sense of the fitness of things. That is to say we begin to have an awareness of how things should fit together, what their cycles are, what their seasons are, and how they can manifest. So it is our part to let the creative work of God in the invisible realms have meaning in the visible realm on earth, to share that creative work of God now and forever.
To whatever degree we function correctly in relationship to the days of our tomorrows there is a healing, recreative process in the body. It does not appear after the moment has come; it is coming to us from out of the east, and if we have a sense of the fitness of things, wisdom, we begin to function correctly because we know the truth. We eat what we should, we breathe the air as we should, we have the exercise that we should. We do all the things that we should do in order to let this come out of the east into us and through us. Here we begin to have a little glimpse, if we will but receive it, of the creative principle, the true creative cycle, or the Magic of Creation. Once you begin to actually realize these things—you will not grasp it all in a moment—but the basic idea, the basic truth, the basic law and principle, you begin to be in position where you can the more readily let the waters be gathered into one place, let the divisions among you cease, so that you begin to have a true sense of the fitness of things on a unified basis; not conflict between each other but coordination with each other on a basis of that which is coming out of the east, if we will but receive it, so that that which is in the Garden may manifest on earth, and then the Garden will be on earth.
You will notice, “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,” etc. That is the 7th verse. Then the 8th verse: And the Lord God planted a Garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” And then the 9th verse: “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” The Lord God caused these things to be, but it is clearly indicated that it started coming out of the ground after the Lord God had formed man. The Lord God had created all these things up to man, prior to this, but they were in the Garden. “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.” Then, “The Lord God formed man.” And it was after that that the Lord God caused all of these things to grow out of the ground. “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree,” etc. That is what it says, and once you begin to get the idea you see that man is essential for the manifestation of any creation of God, and that man shared in the manifestation of every creation of God that has ever appeared on earth. If any creation of God is to ever appear on earth, then man must share it. Man shared it, even in the sense of himself, because he himself was thereby made manifest. But man was the first thing to take form on earth as such.
If these things mean anything to us we should see the vital importance of letting it become an actual reality, letting the petty differences and frictions and difficulties vanish away in the face of a unified acceptance of a high, a sacred and a noble goal. Are we sufficiently mature, sufficiently noble as men and women, to let this be an actual reality so that we can begin to share the creative work of God on earth?
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