“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Human beings all too often fail to recognize the great significance contained in these basic statements of the Master. They are inclined to put the Kingdom of Heaven off till some hereafter, till after they are dead and gone, or until after some great and monumental change shall come in the future, imposed arbitrarily upon human beings. They forget that the Master said, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; that is, at hand; that is, here on earth, within reach and available to each and every one of us. And then, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Human beings who give attention to religious or spiritual things sometimes seem to imagine that they are not supposed to inherit the earth, they are not supposed to have any of the material things whereby they may have their meaningfulness as men and women increase. If we, as human beings, have the potentiality of meaning, we recognize that there are two things vitally necessary to us: first, the human beings with whom we live and serve and work. We cannot have meaning alone. Meaningfulness depends upon our relatedness to others. And secondly, if the expression of our lives is to have meaning, we must have something of the earth, that is of the material aspect of being, if we are to have the forms through which to work in order to allow that which is in us to have meaning. Our meaning depends upon our relatedness to others and, in the sense of maintaining dominion, upon our relatedness to material things.
The Master specifically recognized this, but few have noticed the great import of His words. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Now He did not say that we would have to go out and buy the earth. He did not say that we would have to go out and fight to win it, to gain control of it. He did not say that we would have to go out and labor for a few thousand years to get it. He stated that there was a process by which we might inherit. We recognize that all things, regardless of appearance, regardless of present circumstance, regardless of misuse or abuse, all things, in fact, belong to God. And if God is our Father in Heaven, and if His Name is hallowed to us so that we do not violate our position in relationship to Him as true children, as men and women in Christ, we begin to see that it is not a matter of establishing ownership with respect to the earth or material things. Any such questions are of minor import. Ownership is vested in God already, regardless of what human beings may think about it. Ownership belongs to God, now, and if we function correctly in relationship to God we inherit, or receive, into the range of our use and control those things which are necessary to the effectiveness of our lives on earth.
The responsibility in the field of stewardship is something which human beings only dimly recognize, the opportunity of allowing our lives to so function that we may inherit that which God owns on earth. If our uses of that which is on earth are no more important, no more right, no different in nature and character from the uses to which these things are already being put by others, then on the basis of this we have no right to them.
In the world as it is we have what we might call, according to the human concept, a necessary evil, the medium of exchange, and many people imagine that money is the root of all evil. But there is no factual or authoritative statement to that effect. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil, the love of money, or the symbol, the medium of exchange, by which the human being thinks to get power, by reason of which he thinks to gain possessions, or to establish his own meaningfulness, or gain his own desires—a selfish, self-centered process in which most human beings are engaged. There is nothing wrong with money or any other material thing, as such. Material things are not evil, although they may be put to evil uses by ignorant or evil human beings. Once we begin to see that the medium of exchange from the Divine standpoint depends, not upon the stability of human governments but upon the stability of the manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth, the reality of good citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, we can begin to see how it is that material things yield naturally, easily, to the Spirit of God, if they are set free from slavery to the spirits of self-centeredness, greed, selfishness of every sort, misuse, and abuse.
The memory of the purpose for which God created us in the beginning is important here; for God created man, “in the image of God created he them, male and female,” to have dominion over the earth and all the things that are therein. Man has so forgotten his Divine Purpose that he imagines that physical things, material things, the things of the earth, are constantly trying to escape from him. When man functions in self-activity this is true. Material things are constantly trying to escape from you if you are misusing them, if you are not functioning according to the Divine Design. But once you begin to provide the spirit and atmosphere, the Pattern of Divine Dominion which God intended for material things, you begin to find that material things love to come to you. They may be prevented from doing so by self-centered and self-active human beings, but that does not alter the fact that material things of every sort love to come under the Divine Pattern of Dominion.
Material things are not trying to escape from you when you function according to the Divine Design, but, rather, those material things are seeking you. Those material things are so established in the vibrational realm that they love to yield to you, just as the substance that is being drawn into a growing plant loves to yield to the sun, the warmth of the sun, the air, and the water—the elements of Divine Control. Growing things love to grow. They enjoy it, and find satisfaction in it. Material substance, the earth itself and all the things contained therein—animals, birds, everything that God made—love to yield to the True Pattern of Dominion, and only because man has violated that Pattern of Dominion and tried to establish substitute controls do the things of the physical realm try to escape from man.
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Here is a vital distinction with respect to a basic attitude. If your attitude is based upon the pattern of abuse and misuse, so that consciously or subconsciously you imagine that material things are trying to escape from you and you have to use some peculiar means of force to get them and to force them to remain in your control, you are then, by that very attitude, guilty of the same thing which we find in relationship to the tyranny of Red Russia. It is carried to its extreme there, and they have extended the same attitude toward human beings, refusing to recognize the dignity of man, refusing to acknowledge the reality of moral responsibility, but let us be sure that we are not supporting that attitude, which manifests in such tyranny, by our attitude with respect to material things, that material things are trying to escape from you and that you must get them and imprison them and hold them by some arbitrary means, then your attitude is supporting that attitude of tyranny. Whether you have ever recognized it or not, it is true. Material things are not trying to get away from you except to the degree that you may be functioning in self-centeredness, trying to impose a false pattern of government or dominion upon them.
The basic matter in this point is clearly established in the Master's word: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his right-useness,” His right patterns of action and living, correct function, “and all of these things shall be added unto you”—the things of Heaven, yes, but how shall the things of Heaven appear if not through the form of physical substance? They can only appear by physical means in this world. Nothing can appear except by reason of form. Spirit has no meaning except by reason of form. Mind has no meaning except by reason of form in the physical realm of things. And until we begin to actually recognize that, we cannot have the correct attitude toward physical things.
We, being centered in God, must partake of the Nature of God and the Power of God in order to begin to let the Divine Pattern of Dominion manifest, and then physical things, material things, love to come under our dominion. Just as you, in your right pattern, find it a joy to respond to God, so do material things, including the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, love to respond to you. As there is a mineral kingdom, as there is a vegetable kingdom, and as there is an animal kingdom, there is supposed to be a vibrational, or Heavenly, Kingdom on earth in relationship to all material things. Here we have the statement, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
The things of the earth will be seeking to escape from those who abuse them, and they will be seeking to respond to those who correctly use them—the meek. Who are the meek? Moses was spoken of as a very meek man, and he was one of the greatest leaders of all time, one of the most stable of all the men who ever lived, one of the strongest. Meekness does not mean weakness. There is a vast difference between being meek and being weak. The individual who is weak is inclined to arrogance to cover up his weakness but those who are strong can afford to be meek. Only strength of character, based upon the Principles of Reality, can permit one to begin to be truly meek. When we begin to consider meekness, without the false concepts of weakness, we can begin to sense the reality of nobility, the nobility of character, the nobility of men and women who allow a pattern of dominion to manifest, without the arbitrary misuses and abuses which appear through those who are weak.
When we see such a structure as is made manifest in Red Russia, and we see the abuses of power, we see there the evidence of weakness. Now I am not suggesting that we, as a nation, should close our eyes to the danger, because those who are most dangerous, whether as criminals at large, in the sense of individuals, or nations, are those who are basically weak. Those who are strong, in a true sense, are never dangerous. But the weak, while they may have a certain physical strength, do not have moral and mental, or intellectual, strength with which to govern on a safe and sane basis. So, meekness signifies strength of character and nobility, and only as there is the reality of that strength of character can there be meekness.
A little illustration might be in point here. When boys are beginning to move into the pattern of manhood they begin to have a great deal of interest and concern in physical strength and they are inclined to go about shoving one another, pushing, wrestling, perhaps a little fighting, in order to do what? In order to demonstrate as to whether or not they are strong. After they become men, and become aware of the fact of their physical strength, they are not always trying to push somebody around; they are not always trying to pick a fight. Anyone who is trying to pick a fight, and push someone around, is thereby demonstrating weakness and his own personal conviction of weakness; otherwise he would have no subconscious need to try to convince others of his strength.
This weakness is present in Soviet Russia, and it is made evident, manifest, in hundreds of different ways. So, we begin to realize then, basically, that if we maintain that moral integrity, that basic strength of character, we may have to be alert with respect to dangers but there is no real cause to be fearful. We may have to constrain a maniac, but if we have intelligence we are not actually afraid of the maniac. We may have to use strategy, but let us remember that meekness is not weakness but, rather, the basic symbol of strength—strength of character, strength of mind, strength of purpose, nobility. So, the Master said, “Blessed are the meek,” those who are so strong, in actual fact, that they do not have to try to demonstrate their strength by arbitrary means, wherein they attempt to force themselves upon others or convince others of their strength.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Here we have an opportunity to exercise the process of meditation wherein one is alert to true significance, and, recognizing that significance, proceeds on a logical, reasonable basis to comprehend the factors involved. Let us note here: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” If the meek are going to inherit the earth it is obvious that someone else is going to lose control over the earth. Inheritance is a process by which control of some thing passes from one person to another, is it not? Inheritance is a process by which control over something passes from one person to another. If the meek are going to inherit the earth, then those who are not meek are going to lose control of the earth. The statement reveals that point just as surely as if it were put in so many words. Those who are not meek are going to lose control of the earth.
Our basic approach, then, is not an effort to get control of the earth, or material things, but to become truly meek; that is, truly strong, revealing the nobility of Divine Manhood and Divine Womanhood. If the meek are going to inherit the earth—and the Master said that is the case—it would appear that there have not been very many meek people on earth—and history reveals that. Most human beings have been so subject to environment, prejudice, human desires of various kinds, all the wrong reactions that appear out of self-centeredness, that they have been fundamentally weak; and by reason of that weakness they have been full of contention. There have been manifestations of resentments and hates, there has been conflict between persons, groups and nations—war. A cessation of armed conflict is not peace, not peace as we think of it. Merely because there are no bullets flying between two armies we cannot properly say there is peace, because the conflicts between human beings, individually and as groups, as well as nations, all signify processes of war, and as long as those conflicts exist the process of war is bound to erupt into armed conflict on occasion. Our great concern is that human beings should become strong, and being strong they will be meek, and being meek they will inherit the earth.
One of the things we need very much to remember, as a nation, is that having a strong army, having a strong navy, or having a strong air force, does not necessarily signify that we, as a nation, are strong. We need these things in the world as the world now is. I would not care to have our armies and navies and air force power suddenly removed from the picture. We need such things now because they are substitutes for true strength, but we, as Americans, or Canadians, or members or citizens of the free world, need to recognize that the strength of armed might can be of real value to us only as a substitute, so that having that substitute we have a semblance of peace, an opportunity wherein we may begin to grow strong in fact, as men and women, wherein we may begin to be meek in the sense of Divine Nobility; for once we are strong in the true sense, strong as men and women, we will not need to have the substitute forms of strength, at least not to such a degree; and ultimately, with all men and women becoming strong in the sense of true nobility, there would be utterly no need for armies, for military protection. But we do need armies as police factors in the world, as surely as we need police protection within the nation, as long as human beings are given to wrong patterns of function and given to violence, for they have no moral integrity.
So, all of these things which tend to destroy and disrupt the pattern of our living on earth are signs of weakness, and if we would do our part toward correcting these conditions in the world we must first give our attention to developing moral courage and strength, that we may be truly meek—and then we will inherit the earth, we will inherit the right, the privilege, of living peacefully on earth, inherit, not in the sense of selfish possessions, inherit in the sense of sharing, in living, that all the children of men, without regard to racial origins or color, without regard to the dividing lines of creeds and concepts, may begin to live in peace.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” That is a positive statement. They shall. Then our concern is not with getting the earth or the things of the earth; our concern is with becoming meek, so that the reality of God’s Dominion may be reestablished on earth in and through us, and through all who will share in such an opportunity.
We have, in this brief statement the Master made, a focalization of Truth, of basic principle, which bears much more meditation than we have given it at this time. The subject is not in any sense exhausted. And I wonder what would be the result if you, for seven days, kept this one basic statement before your consciousness all the time, so that you consider everything that you do in relationship to it, so that you watch yourself—not to set yourself up as a judge or a spy over someone else—so that you watch yourself in relationship to this attitude which is essential to being.
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Is this not a better way than the way of aggressive conflict which the world, or a large part of the world, is trying to use, dominating other nations? Conflicts—that is not inheriting the earth. It is trying to take it by force, and it cannot be done; it cannot be successfully done. Some of our own problems, right here in the United States of America, spring out of the vibrational factors involved in the manner in which we took certain parts of this earth by force from the Indians who lived here before the white man came. Certain of our vibratory patterns are distorted and must be cleared, somehow, sooner or later. The earth cannot be successfully taken by force, no part of it. We may, while human beings are as they are, have to use force to protect ourselves as a nation from aggression, but we need to see, in relationship to our daily living—personally, individually—the tremendous significance of this Truth: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
If you would, then, inherit the earth, and have the earth love to be under your dominion, that portion of it which is rightly yours, then let us, one and all, learn what it is to live in the nobility of true meekness, for it is the only pattern that allows for strength, true strength, the manifestation of the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, of God on earth.
