Let  My  Beloved  Come  Into  His  Garden

Martin Cecil  August 7, 1977  am

“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” Here is a portrayal of what should rightly be your attitude and experience this morning. “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south.” Here is an acknowledgment of the working of the Law—positive action, negative reaction—with which you must be directly associated if your presence here this morning is to have any real meaning. So there is an acknowledgment of the Law. “Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” Only as your living is a revelation of the working of the Law do you know the reality of your garden. Are you aware of the sacred place in which you dwell and which you would never violate? By reason of your living in harmony with the Law the winds of the spirit blow upon your garden and the spices thereof flow forth. Here is the evidence of the generation of spiritual substance. It is only possible as you have a garden in which you dwell because your life gives evidence of the working of the Law.

The first great commandment brings to point something with respect to the working of the Law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all… And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Most people spend their lives condemning their neighbors, evidencing little love, understanding, enfoldment, little blessing, which of course gives abundant evidence of a failure to keep the first great commandment. Living the Law, the garden is known. It seems that most live in rather barren and desolate places—no garden, no association with the Law, no living, merely dying—but here these words portray the attitude and the experience of those whose lives are of such quality that spiritual substance is constantly being generated and flowing forth. It is only as this is so that a genuine invitation may be offered: “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” There are many people who in fancy invite the Lord to be with them, but for the most part there is little real substance available for this fulfilment to be known. Response, the generation of substance, is essential if the reality of the positive radiation phase of the One Law is to be experienced. The positive radiation phase of the One Law is the coming of the Lord. Those who have called themselves Christians look hopefully for the day when this will happen, failing to recognize that it is their responsibility if it is to happen. Without response and the substance of response the fact of radiation cannot be known. There may be some fancy in the consciousness of people, some imagination, but the fact remains unknown.

There always has been radiation. There would be no universe if it were not for the fact of eternal radiation, to which there is response or the universe wouldn't exist—an easy, natural response which allows all things of creation to move according to the design inherent in the radiation. But insofar as human beings are concerned they have the ability to contend with the Lord. That contention of course has put in an appearance on the basis of the endeavor by human beings to determine what shall happen here on earth, and that endeavor is brought to point on the basis of the human intellect, that so wise creature which assumes that it is in position to be as God. That assumption has brought some terrible things into the experience not only of mankind on the surface of this planet but of all living things that are present here also.

Only to the extent that there is genuine response with a consequent quality of living which permits the generation of spiritual substance can the reality of the radiation be known, the radiation which is the source and the sustaining power of all things in the dimensional world, of which human beings are aware and of which they are not aware. Incidentally there is far more of which they are not aware than of which they are aware. In spite of delving so extensively in the bottomless pit of knowledge, what human beings know or think they know is almost entirely make-believe. Nowadays such things have the confirming tag of science placed upon the knowing. This is supposed to make it valid, but the truth which is inherent in this radiation of the One Law can only be known as there is response in living, so that the quality of life experienced permits the generation of spiritual substance.

The extent of spiritual substance that you have brought this morning into the Chapel will determine exactly the extent of radiation that you will experience. There is no limit, there is no restriction to the radiation, but it only has meaning to human beings to the extent that there is spiritual substance to give it meaning, and the spiritual substance is the responsibility of the individual to generate. That generation comes on the basis of a quality of living, so it isn't just a momentary thing in the Chapel now. You brought something in with you. I wonder how much. It is possible that there may be a further generation while you are here, but what happens when you leave?

In this particular verse which I read to you there is, as I say, a portrayal of what is properly and naturally true of you in this particular setting at this particular time. The next verse, which is at the beginning of another chapter, is an indication of what is properly true of me: “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.”

Where there is the substance, the spiritual substance of response, there is the abundant experience of what is available by reason of radiation. You this morning in this setting are responsible for the response aspect of the unit which we together form, and I am responsible for the radiation aspect. You cannot have one without the other in experience. You cannot know the radiation without the response, and it isn't just a matter of mental agreement; it is a matter of living; it is a matter of fact. What is the actual fact in your own experience moment by moment, day by day? What is the quality of your living? If that quality gives evidence of true spiritual expression, of the fulfilment of the One Law in you, then there is the generation of spiritual substance and there is the experience of whatever arises by reason of the radiation in the moment. Yesterday evening Grace spoke to those who were present here in the Chapel. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/05/melchizedek-increase-grace-van-duzen.html] Her words and the spirit of them were indeed most exquisitely beautiful, and I am sure that those who were present with any substance of response were touched by her spirit. Something flowed forth from you to her. According to that flowing forth, so was her expression, so was the radiation which she offered. Consequently there was a certain intensification in the experience of all concerned.

Subsequently, as seems to be customary in Emissary circles, snacks were served in the dining room and most of those who had been at the service were present there no doubt, but at least to start with we were not. When we arrived we came into the room and were met with a roar of sound—people talking. This is supposed to be quite natural for people; they do it all the time. The very level of noise that was present was an indication of the fact of what had occurred in the Chapel. There had been an intensification but then it was channeled back into the usual and customary human structures of expression and it came out loud and raucous. Lillian said something about it and it calmed down a bit. I draw attention to this not in condemnation of anyone but merely to indicate what tends to happen. If there begins to be something of experienced radiation in a service there is an intensification insofar as all present are concerned which, unless the quality of living is right and has become habitual, will subsequently be mistranslated in the factual experience of those concerned and the substance that was present, that had been generated, will thereby be dissipated, and the radiation will tend to vanish. Where did it go? What happened? The individual finds himself right back where he was before.

There are these two aspects, both of which are essential: the positive and the negative aspects, the response aspect and the radiation aspect. Now these must be brought to point in experience, human experience, on earth if they are to have any meaning to human beings. They may be operative, and are—the Law is operative everywhere in the universe but not presently in the experience of human beings. They do not consciously know what is happening, what they are doing, why they are here, or anything else. They try to make meaning for themselves in various ways because of this yawning chasm in their experience, this emptiness, this lack; and people rush hither and yon trying to fill it. This happens in the physical world, doesn't it, with respect to the disposition of the garbage: Find a chasm somewhere and fill it up with garbage and it will make a good building site. The way this is handled is very much the same as the way human beings handle the holes in themselves. They fill them up with garbage and then neatly cover the garbage over with a little surface appearance of something worthwhile. Negative response is the essential element that has been lacking insofar as human beings are concerned, that they might experience the truth inherent in the radiation of which I have been speaking. Positive and negative aspects—sometimes this is thought of in terms of male and female.

In the field which we have just been examining there is a tendency on the part of people, in their attitude and approach to the Lord, to try to play hard to get. “Well if you really want me, Lord, come after me.” This has been the general approach for a long time in human experience; but they have never tempted the Lord to the point where He came after them. You either offer the response or you go away empty. The Law works. It's absolute. It is the quality and nature of God; and human beings, no matter how hard they try, can't change it. There has been a lot of weeping and wailing on the part of human beings about their sad, miserable lot. What a cruel God to have things this way: Please, God, change things around to suit me so that I'm happy! And while that was endeavoring to tempt God, God was never tempted; He never fell for it. If human beings want their misery they can have it as long as they last. It is entirely a matter of human choice. The alternative has always been present, the radiation has always been there, but virtually no response, and human beings have been trying to get God to come after them. It doesn't work that way.

We see the same sort of thing in this matter of the male-female relationship too, don't we? I am speaking of it in a general sense; perhaps it's not true of you individually; but the idea is that the woman goes after her man, maybe quite subtly, but she plays hard to get. This has cast the male of the species in the role of the hunter. He has to chase her; otherwise he's not going to get her. But when he gets her he finds she's got him! And the male of the species has fallen for this. In fact it's become so habitual that very often manhood is equated in these terms, when it is exactly the opposite of manhood. Insofar as the male is concerned the first great commandment applies: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all.” It doesn't say, “Thou shalt love a female with all; worship her; set her up on a pedestal; try to please her.” Not at all. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” That's the truth, because only so can there be generated the substance which will permit the experience of what real manhood is. If there is no spiritual substance there's no manhood; there can't be; just a pretense, just a counterfeit. Manhood is not experienced by the male of the species because of the female; it is experienced because of God. And when there is a man around maybe that will inspire a woman somewhere to stop playing these childish games. Nowadays it seems that because men have not been men women are trying to be men—a woman can only be a woman and a man can only be a man, but neither one has known what this would mean for a long, long time.

“I am come into my garden.” To what extent is this true this morning? Of course first of all there must be a garden here to come into. There must be the substance which makes it possible. We can fool ourselves; we can jump around with evangelical fervor and generate a good deal of emotion, but it means absolutely nothing. It probably dissipates any substance there might have been to start with. I am come into my garden to the extent that you are willing to let me. “Let my beloved come into his garden.” The only way you can let me is because the spices of the garden are flowing out, are flowing to me. Then we are connected up; then there is substance in which the beautiful expression of the spirit of the living God may be known by all of us. This has been called the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but there have been some very limited concepts in this regard. It is a real experience, not a fanciful one. Human beings have for so long been content with their imagination, excluding the reality. But we have parts to play; there is a design. Things work the way they work and they don't work any other way. Human beings have been trying to make them work all kinds of ways for millennia, but they won't. They only work the way they work, and the way they work includes an aspect of creation that is called man—at least insofar as this planet is concerned—but man has been absent for a long time, absent without leave. He's been on the run. That's right, isn't it?

Long ago something happened, and the story is portrayed in the Book of Genesis. There was a moment when the Lord God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and there was no one around, no one there. So the question was asked, “Where art thou?” And the answer came which indicated that those who should have been man were experiencing something that was not the evidence of real manhood and womanhood. They were ashamed and afraid—shame and fear are two very prominent experiences insofar as human beings are concerned, yourselves included. This is not the experience of man. This is not the experience in the garden. This is the experience in the state which has become habitual to human beings, but it's not the true state. At the point when the question was asked, “Where art thou?”—here is an analogy, but there was an actual happening—when that question was asked there was the opportunity for those who were present to say, “Here am I.” Obviously that opportunity wasn't taken. They were all wrapped up in their shames and their fears, as though they had somehow been imposed upon them, and that is the attitude most people take, isn't it? “I didn't ask to be born. All my miseries and troubles have been imposed on me and I can tell you specifically who some of the people are that have imposed these things on me.” Amongst them of course are our forebears; “original sin” they call it. Poppycock! There may be something there to which human beings have insisted upon being subject but that's their own choice, the choice that is made by each individual for him- or herself. There is no necessity. We can respond and allow our quality of life to generate some spiritual substance, which would cause us to be aware increasingly of the truth of ourselves instead of this shameful, fearful creature which a lot of people have the temerity to call man.

So the Lord God came walking in the garden, and that opportunity was rejected. So the way things worked out, the garden vanished from the experience of human beings. There is nothing to say that the garden was dissolved; in fact a cherubim with a flaming sword was put there to keep the way of the tree of life which was in the midst of the garden, so it's still around; but if there was a rejection of that nature at that point there must be in the returning cycle an acknowledgment of the truth when that point is reached. The truth. There have been those down through the ages who brought to specific focus a point of representation in this regard at the level where human beings are. One of them was mentioned yesterday evening in the person of Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness, Prince of Peace, a positive expression of radiation which Abraham recognized. Apparently very few others did. He was the Priest of the Most High God, a point of radiation not understood, not understood even to this day. Why? Because there wasn't adequate spiritual substance to make it understandable. It's not a matter of wanting to understand: “Oh I wish I could understand. O God let me understand.” He will let you understand if your quality of living will generate the required substance which makes understanding possible. He's not holding out. How many people have blamed God for the condition in which they find themselves: “It's His fault!” No, it's one's own fault, in concert with about four billion other people.

The only way by which the truth can be brought to human beings is through human beings. We have taken note of one in the person of Melchizedek. Another obvious one I suppose is Moses, and more recently the one called Jesus. He wasn't understood—He isn't understood because to all intents and purposes there has been no spiritual substance which would make that understanding possible. There has been a lot of imagination. There have been a lot of concepts developed, a lot of beliefs, a lot of ideas; but the truth, what's that? There is no way of knowing it, certainly not on the basis of belief; that's not the truth. Belief is always in a human concept about something. What of the truth of the something about which there is a concept? That truth can never be found by conceptualizing it. It only becomes known by living it, and one will live it to the extent that there is a generation of the essential substance which connects one with the truth. Then you know it; otherwise you don't; and no amount of human effort will produce anything except more confusion.

Let us extend the invitation to the Lord, which He will not hesitate to accept. Let's make Him an offer that He cannot refuse, that He will not refuse, because it is the offer He has been waiting for, the offer of the essential spiritual substance generated by our living. “Let my beloved come into his garden,” because I have made that coming possible. Now in this particular setting together here we have the opportunity of exemplifying something, because all these requirements remain theoretical until they are accepted into the situation here and now. As long as we keep them out there somewhere—Jesus is coming one day—it's all nonsense. He will never come one day on that basis, because He will have no means of coming. There are the essential clouds of heaven in which He comes, but human beings are responsible for the clouds of heaven, to provide the facility for His coming. He came as an individual certainly, exemplified something as an individual, and there were those who were willing to make that coming possible. He was born into the world just as all the rest of us are.

Now we have this situation, together here this morning, where you are extending some sort of an invitation to me, or you wouldn't be sitting there. I must have some sort of a place in your hearts. “Let my beloved come into his garden.” Is that what you are saying? Well make sure that your garden isn't a counterfeit, make sure that it's the real thing, because if what I offer is the real thing I can't come into a counterfeit, only the real thing; and I can come in to the extent that that real thing is there. Then I may say, “I am come into my garden,” and I have something to offer, and we all become aware of what that is because we have substance which allows understanding. If we don't have the substance we don't have the understanding. Simple. In effect I say, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved, my sister, my spouse.” That's the way it is in this particular situation.

The truth, the reality, can only come through human beings. That's the only way it comes. People may hopefully gaze into the sky, looking for the coming of something or other. If they gaze long enough they may see signs, but no coming. We only experience the truth, the reality, to the extent that we are in position to do it; and that isn't by fancy; it's by participating in the actual design. I am come into my garden to whatever extent there is a garden here this morning, and to that extent I have offered something to eat and to drink, that there might be the increased experience of the real nature and quality of life, that that nature and quality of life might be carried with us. Then when we leave the Chapel we do not revert immediately into the old state again, the old conventions, because if we do that we are saying in effect to the Lord, “Come get me. Come get me, next Sunday maybe”—playing hard to get.

The Lord always provides what He does in radiation. It's always there, but a person only knows it to the extent that he maintains and sustains and generates the connecting substance in his momentary living; but he won't sink back into the same old state again. That same old state usually involves a lot of running off at the mouth in momentary living, idle words which fall to the ground, idle words which if they are expressed by someone in the descending aspect of the cycle carry the individual down with them. Down he goes, down, down, down. Every word proceeding out of the mouth of God, which should be the word falling from the lips of man made in the image and likeness of God, lifts up, up, up. Ascension. There are two ways to go: up or down; and each person makes the choice for him- or herself. Nobody else can or does do it for you. You can never blame somebody else.

You can make a right choice exactly the way things are. Let's not fool ourselves. Let's not deceive ourselves anymore. How much self-deception there has been in the world. It's obvious everywhere. Everyone is blaming everybody else. Nobody has the manhood or the womanhood to stand up and say, “It's me! It's my responsibility, nobody else's responsibility. I'm not going to try to palm it off on somebody else.” What wishy-washy people there are in the world. Let's grow up. Let's experience the reality of maturity in the current of the spirit of the living God as we move in harmony with the working of the Law and as the expression of our living exemplifies the beauty of the angelic character which is the truth for each one.

© emissaries of divine light