In One Generation

In  One  Generation

Martin Cecil   June 23, 1974 a.m.

Recently, on a Sunday morning, I spoke of loneliness. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/thank-god-for-lonliness.html] This service was subsequently entitled “Thank God for Loneliness!” The videotape went to Sunrise Ranch and the transcript went to various other places, so that I have received a number of letters of response from far and wide. One of these I would like to read to you this morning. It was written by a lady, whose identity is not important at the moment, but it outlines something very beautiful on the basis of clear, open response and brings to point what I wish to touch upon this morning later, in connection with what is essential for the experience of restoration, or what we have recently been calling the resurrection of Abel. Here is the letter:

“Dear Martin, Yes, thank God for loneliness! It is a most moving and driving compulsion. It will bring one, depending upon the depth and strength of it, to the depths of hell, or to the heights of glory if it is turned in the right direction. And I have had abundant experience, all relating to the little word ‘loneliness,’ and I surely do thank God for it all. There is such a strong and prevalent pattern in these days in both material men and women to seek relationships to assuage the emptiness and loneliness gnawing at the heart. Actually, these patterns often are established when one is very young; this society encourages such entanglements as a natural and accepted coverup, although everyone really knows that nothing is ever covered up. But beginning at such a young and tender age, these things are well established in the subconscious and the tuggings and pullings are accepted as part of oneself, something that pushes and pulls you around by the nose at the control and will of the devil. It is a hideous and vile state of affairs, established by the devil at the very core of one's being; and because it is accepted as being part of oneself, it cannot be seen. Thank God that these things don't assuage that loneliness; if anything, they intensify it but one still can't see what it is. The only way of purification, of coming to see what really is and of experiencing what really is is to turn to God, Spiritual Man—a point of orientation in form—and let the fires of purification burn the tares and allow the reality, I Am, to be gathered into the Father's barn. And there is no greater joy or fulfilment. In this experience, one realizes that I Am Spiritual Man. In these patterns of fallen manhood and womanhood, those involved—and there are few indeed who aren't—seize relationships and sex and a multitude of distortions in these areas and make them into gods and pour all their lonely energies into worship of these falsities. It is a vile trap and regardless of the longings and loneliness present in one's heart to serve God and move in His way, the person so involved is absolutely untrustworthy and unstable to hold anything of a consistent vibrational pattern when he is at the mercy of the devil. Praise the Lord that the Lord sees these things and is not fooled by them but draws and enfolds until one comes to the point of seeing. How wonderful that loneliness is when it is turned to God, for certainly in time turning the loneliness is filled and there is fulness to overflowing. I suppose there is no one now serving the Lord who hasn't known great and deep loneliness for Abel, for what he knows inherently he should be. I know I have known this; and I greatly rejoice in the experience that this loneliness compelled me to. I know that telling you that now I am trustworthy is not worth a great deal, because the Lord looketh not upon words spoken through the lips or written on paper, but He looketh upon the consistent differentiation of the Tone which always reflects, as a mirror, that which is truly worshiped. And in the Tone and its consistent differentiation the cleansing takes place and spiritual man is revealed through this material capacity which has been freed from bondage. I certainly give deep thanks to see what I was involved in, to see what I accepted as me and to leave it all behind in ashes. And I know as never before the blessings of wholeness, not just in my own individual experience but the fact that this victory opens the way for the Tone to be sounded ever more clearly in this body, specifically relating to the false patterns of relationships and sex. And I also recognize that for full and uttermost service to be extended through these material capacities, all the unreal must be burned and cleansed, so I do not take the attitude that it has all been done and that ‘I have arrived somewhere!’ No. I vividly recognize where every moment and every aspect of my attention needs to be: in absolute and utter devotion to God and the things of God, and surely this comes to focus in one who so perfectly represents Him. Martin, how I praise God for what has taken place in my experience. It feels so good to come clean. How I love and appreciate the great and glorious privilege of serving Him in greater wholeness and fulness with you in these great days of His fulfilment on earth.”

I thank God for what has been the experience of this particular person and for the willingness and ability to convey something of that experience through the spirit of these words. She speaks of a trap, a trap into which human beings of every generation have initially rushed with great enthusiasm, and then they're caught. Though there may be the longing of the heart subsequently to clear out of that trap, as many can testify, it is easier said than done. Clearly, then, it would be better not to go into the trap in the first place. What has happened is that each generation as it came along imagined that it had to prove things out for itself. The inevitable result of this was virtually no progress. Each generation starts at the same place, goes into the same trap, finds itself trapped and doesn't have any time left to emerge out of the trap. So it has been a meaningless circle, a vicious circle, because those who entered the trap usually did it with great enthusiasm and high expectations and it wasn't until later that they found out that it was a trap.

In our recent meditations we have recognized that there were successive steps in what has been called the fall of man. He went down the steps into the cellar. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-stairs.html] Landing up in the cellar, he has continued to exist there ever since he got there, so that it has been customary, in his view, to do what may be possible to enjoy the cellar condition. It has been so long known that now it is thought of as being the inevitable and natural state, and while there is a great deal of unpleasantness in the cellar of human existence, at the same time I am always impressed, and I am sure that you have been too, with the tremendous beauty of the earth. If one can exclude human miseries from consciousness for a moment and observe what is called nature round about, what immense variety there is and what tremendous beauty. What could the state of affairs have been, what could the beauty have been, when man was at the top of the stairs? It is beyond human imagining.

There are endeavors these days to attempt to preserve some of the loveliness of the earth in various ways because it all seems to be finally slipping away; but it isn't really a matter of preserving the remnants but of allowing the restoration to occur. Now, of course, the restoration of man is essential to the restoration of the earth, so first things have to be put first, and it isn't really a matter of trying to preserve the beauties of the earth but of letting the beauties of Spiritual Man be restored, and then the beauties of the earth will take care of themselves. But as we have noted, each generation has exhibited an unwillingness to allow movement to occur up the stairs, right from the very beginning.

We have touched upon the Ministry of Seth, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-ministry-of-seth.html] as we have called it, which is essentially that ministry portrayed by the words, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” There has been provision in this regard all down through the ages. A very great deal of it went unrecognized because human beings, generation after generation, wanted to have their own way, do their own thing, imagining that they were wiser than previous generations and would succeed where others had failed. It never yet happened! But there has been the provision of Seth and subsequent generations springing from him.

We may recognize particularly, of course, something with respect to Elijah in this regard, or Elias, as he was called in the New Testament record. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” the messenger of the Lord, the one who knows the way, when human beings at the foot of the stairs don't, but won't admit it, won't admit that they don't. Of course, admitting that one doesn't know is what is called repentance. Admitting that one doesn't know and therefore one needs guidance, one needs to learn something, one needs to be shown what the way is, is indeed repentance, and without repentance the fact that the kingdom of heaven is at hand remains unknown.

There is a sense in which the world is in the hands of young people. Of course the older generation are inclined to take this attitude: The youngsters will have to do a better job than we did if anything worthwhile is to happen. But that is not the way in which anything worthwhile will happen, trying to do a better job than somebody else. The way it works is for young people to move under the direction of Seth, so that they do not go into the trap.

All of us went into the trap. It may be said we didn't know any better; it seemed the only way to go. But you know now that it isn't the only way to go. I can recall in my own earlier experience in life there was a point when I was really open to receive something but there was nobody on hand to give it. Now, I am sure that many of you have had the same experience, but that's not true anymore. There is somebody on hand to give it, so we can't use that excuse again. I can recall being bitterly disappointed. There was a very likable minister with whom I was associated at the time, and he was a good fellow, but he didn't know anything! He was preparing me for what is called confirmation and he gave me a bunch of stuff, dry as dust, and it didn't make any sense, because the Way is the Way of Life and it isn't the way of knowledge. Human beings have tried to make it into the way of knowledge. Some of that knowledge they call experience; they're going to learn from experience. Well, human beings have been having experience, presumably, for millennia, but did anyone ever learn anything from it? Apparently not, because each generation goes back into the same trap.

Now, we who have been in the trap, many rather thoroughly indoctrinated, may long to be out of it, but, as I say, it seems to be easier to talk about than to do. Even though there may be a recognition of many things and a desire to repent, the patterns seem to have been so firmly set in human consciousness that in spite of ourselves we tend to think and behave along the lines established by the trap. Well, obviously, it would be a lot easier for a young person who hadn't yet been swallowed up by the trap to begin to move in the right way before the crystallizations were set; and I thank God that there are some who are not too much embedded in the old state and who have begun to move somewhat, those of more tender years; but all too many think that they have to go through the same old rigmarole again. They may say, “Well, it's customary; everybody does it and if I didn't do it I would be so lonely.” Oh ... thank God for loneliness! Without it you're finished. If you can delude yourself that your loneliness has been satisfied, you're sunk; you have committed the unpardonable sin. You can't repent, and if one doesn't repent he can't be forgiven, and if one isn't forgiven he never lives.

Now, there are two ways here for those who are desirous of repenting. One can put it off. One may perhaps move tentatively toward repentance, but then the provision that is made, the Seth or the Elijah provision that is made, may be lost; the person may put it off so that the one who could make the experience of forgiveness possible finally dies, isn't on hand anymore. So one can put it off that way, or one can put it off for oneself so that you are the one who dies, sitting on the bottom step, the bottom step which is a hint that there is a staircase, the bottom step which relates to repentance, amongst other things. “Well, it is possible to repent, therefore I am going to sit down on the bottom step; I'm not actually going to repent, mind you, but there is a possibility here.” How much easier it is for a young person to be guided, exhibit a willingness to be guided, before the crystallizations have set in. Now, as I say, young people have a tendency to rush with enthusiasm into the trap, imagining that if they didn't they would lose something most valuable. The fact of the matter is that they lose everything that is of value if they go into the trap, but they don't usually find that out until it's too late.

Now the ministry of Seth or Elijah is only necessary because human beings are in the cellar. There is a whole flight of stairs to ascend. It’s not much use only going part way up, because whatever has been experienced by a person, until he comes to the top of the stairs, will inevitably be eliminated with that person from the scene of things, and when that person has gone, no matter what his experience of going up the stairs has been, it is lost. That's right, isn't it? You can't convey it to somebody else. A person has to go up the stairs for himself.

One generation can’t hand it to the next

This is why it has always been said that whatever must to be achieved must be achieved in one generation or it never will be! Where it has had to be carried forward to subsequent generations it has always been lost. That's right. Look around you. Where there are crystallized states in people so that they have the hablt of cellar existence, then the prospect of going up the stairs seems too much. How often I have heard someone say, “Oh, well, I'm too old to change.” It's probably true for that person because that is the individual's attitude and because he has accepted the crystallizations as permanent. If one accepts those things as permanent, well, that's permanent, and the really permanent thing in this regard is what is called death. In saying that it is obviously easier for young people I am not at the same time saying that it is impossible for older ones, but those of you who are older know that there has been a certain amount of drag; you haven't risen instantly to the mountaintop or to the top of the stairs.

There are steps to be taken individually speaking, very specific steps, and you can't miss any of them. But nobody is going to take those steps without a willingness to do it. Collectively speaking, in the world as it now is, we find ourselves at a point where somebody is going to have in take those steps, or good-bye, and if a person can't see that coming...! It has been coming for quite a while in an inexorable way, every year a little more, a little more of the disintegrative condition. And one doesn't have to look very far back to see a vast contrast between what is happening in the world today and what was occurring then; so it is not as slow as some people imagine. We have spoken of the exponential curve before: things intensify and speed up. It's important to come clear, to take the essential steps without dragging one's feet: “Well, I'll feel more like it tomorrow, perhaps when I've enjoyed what I'm enjoying now, then I'll think about it.”

There have been many suggestions as to behavior, philosophically speaking or religiously speaking, which haven't appealed to human beings very much, but this is merely adjustment in the cellar condition, a changed cellar experience in whatever degree this seems to be possible. It is quite different thing to start up the stairs. The only way a person can start up the stairs is because Seth is on hand—it's the only way it can be done. Now Seth, even the original one, didn't refer merely to one person, any more than Cain and Abel were just two people, or even Adam and Eve. The reference is to human beings, and while the principles are at work individually speaking, we can't avoid being a part of the body of mankind; we can't exclude ourselves from it, at least we can't exclude ourselves from it and remain in existence.

Now, of course, it is this sense of being a part of the whole that has been the apparent compulsion that has driven human beings into the herd pattern. They feel they should be a part of what's going on, and this is translated in human consciousness to refer to the peer group, or the social pattern, whatever it may be. But it doesn't refer to that at all; it refers to Man, the true state of Man at the top of the stairs. So the compulsions which would bring human beings to the top of the stairs have been perverted to hold human beings in the trap at the bottom of the stairs: We've got to be one of the boys, or one of the girls, one of the herd, one of the mass, the mass of fallen man, and to do this we have to behave in certain ways. So we behave in those certain ways and they become a habit and we're stuck, we're in the trap.

Now, the lady who wrote this letter referred to “the devil,” and I am sure you know what she was talking about. She wasn't talking about that fellow with the horns and the tail. She was talking about these compulsions which keep people at the foot of the stairs and make them feel justified to be there, and make them imagine, for a little while perhaps, that they are going to be fulfilled there, and that what they are deciding upon, being compelled in this pattern, is going to be really something. Oh, it isn't; believe me, it isn't; and a lot of you older people can testify to this fact. But why wait until one can testify to the fact to let something happen?

Of course, as I say, there are those who are beginning to move, those who are of more tender years, and I thank God for that; but most of them have at least got one foot in the trap, and that's enough, isn't it? The rabbit only has to put one foot in the trap and he's trapped. There is a way to emerge out of the trap and there is a way by which a person need never really go into it, but if one is never to go into it he must find that way while he's still young. But then human beings see everybody else going into the trap and they say, “Well, this must be the way.” Broad is the way that leads to destruction! That's right! Everybody goes down that way, and at the moment the other way still seems to be a bit narrow because so few people go down it. If everybody went down it it would be just as broad as the other now is.

There is a lot of common sense wrapped up in that little word repent. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Don't keep going in the broad way. That's repentance—stop it! “Oh, but I like it.” Oh, how nice! You do? Lots of people do! Very fortunately the cosmos isn't governed by what human beings like, and if human likes are the controlling element in human experience, that is what is called sin, and “The wages of sin”—so somebody said; Paul, I think—"is death.” Right? Stay at the bottom of the cellar and be buried there, or come up the stairs. But no one will ever come up the stairs without being shown how, and if one is to be shown how, there must be someone on hand to show how. And one must presumably pay attention to the “how”—the “how” as opposed to the “like.” Now, I don't know that it really should be put that way because one can like the “how,” and many of you could testify to this fact. But the devil is rather subtle, and lurks around the corner titivating the likes in you that maintain the cellar condition, and if you pay attention to that and insist upon paying attention to that, well, you belong in the cellar and you'll never know that there was anything else.

As I say, after twenty thousand years, how beautiful the earth still is! Isn't it amazing, after twenty thousand years of rotten human behavior in the cellar the earth still stays so beautiful? What would it be if the experience was at the top of the stairs? Unimaginable. Because this is the fact of the matter, it is always amazing to the Lord that human beings insist upon cellar existence.

Now, you have presumably seen something of these things and are generating some enthusiasm to walk up the steps. One can be enthusiastic about that, you know, rather than going into the trap. When I do see young people putting their heads in the trap, it may be said that it grieves me at my heart. Those who know better, or have the opportunity of knowing better, may rise up so easily and come to the wonder that unfolds as there is movement up the steps. When a person is young and resilient, it is found to be so easy to experience once more the beauty of the truth, the beauty of life, the Glory of Life, consequent upon the restoration, the resurrection, of Abel, Spiritual Man, spiritual identity in material form. And when that is the experience, that is life, indescribable life. Life is only known by the experience of it; life can never be known by the experience of the cellar state, never! What is known there is the process of dying. Yes, it's customary, we would have to admit that. It's been customary in every generation as long as human memory goes back, quite customary, but quite unnecessary and nothing is gained by it. It's absolutely useless.

In times past particularly, ministers have talked about hellfire and have gone after their congregations on this basis. Well, they were right, but they didn't recognize why they were right, they didn't recognize what it was they were talking about. They were talking about human experience, that's all—not some future state; the present state. But the present state apparently has nothing to be compared to, so human beings settle for this. Yet you have begun to sense something else, even though you do not yet know what it is. How could one know what it is without reaching the top step? All you know is that it is something different to the cellar. It's a different state to be on the stairs. But that isn't the true state; it is an interim experience which permits the true state to come. But if you never go up the stairs, you never find the true state. Human beings have found all kinds of excuses for not going up the stairs and they have insisted that the joys were really in the cellar. That is a vile state; I think vile is a very good word to describe it. Of course, human beings don't think so, but it is so. It is corruption; it is filthy, no matter how it may be dressed up in human imagination. The cellar state is a filthy state. “Oh, but this is so natural.” No, not natural, just familiar. The true state, the state of wonder and glory, of Man, male and female, is at the head of the stairs. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

O Lord, Thou who art indeed nearer than breathing and closer than hands and feet to each one, we thank Thee for the enfoldment of Thy love; we thank Thee for the open way up the stairs; we thank Thee for direction, instruction, assistance, all that is necessary to come up out of the cellar state, out of what was described in the Book of Revelation as a Babylonian condition. Thy Word is spoken. Come out of her, my people! We thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast made available all that makes possible the easy movement in the experience of life. And so, enfolded in Thy love, knowing the truth to be present, the design and the control to be here, we may indeed, to the extent of repentance, live, to Thy glory, in the Christ. Aumen.

Reluctance is rather a common human trait, at least with respect to the truth. As we noted, enthusiasm is usually reserved for the cellar. “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” Let the zeal and enthusiasm be in the right direction so that it is withdrawn from the wrong direction. A person can only make that choice for himself rightly, but if he doesn't make it he's stuck in the trap, which, if he doesn't recognize it now, he will recognize it later and perhaps find himself repenting at leisure, when it's not so easy to repent. Do it now. Do it now. While my words were spoken this morning to young people certainly, they were also spoken to everybody else, because the way is open for all. I thank God for those of younger years who are zealous in making sure that what they represent is the truth, but no matter what a person's age may be, we all need to be sure that what we represent is the truth. There is no circumstance possible at any time anywhere which could prevent the representation of the truth.

The Trumpet: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-trumpet.html

The True Tone: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-true-tone.html

In Three Days: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2024/11/in-three-days.html

This Is The Day: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2024/11/in-three-days.html

Delivered From Evil: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/01/delivered-from-evil.html

Represent The Truth: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/04/represent-truth.html

The Third And Last Call: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-third-and-last-call.html

The Way Of The Master: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-way-of-master.html

Where Your Treasure Is There Will Your Heart Be Also: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/04/where-your-treasure-is-there-will-your.html

The Seed: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-seed.html

The Reason: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-reason.html

The Lamb: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-lamb.html

Evening Meditation: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/06/evening-meditation.html

Material Man And Spiritual Man: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/08/material-man-and-spiritual-man.html

Be Spiritual Man: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/08/be-spiritual-man.html

Birth Into The Forth Sacred School From Out Of The Womb Of The Third: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/11/birth-into-fourth-sacred-school-from.html

Into The Presence Of The Lord: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2025/12/into-presence-of-lord.html

Thank God For Loneliness: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/04/thank-god-for-lonliness.html

The Ministry Of Seth: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-ministry-of-seth.html

The Angel Of The Lord: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-angel-of-lord.html

The Stairs: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-stairs.html

In One Generation: greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2026/06/in-one-generation.html

© emissaries of divine light