The sun of our solar system symbolizes the true Father. It has been said that there were sun-worshippers in the past, and I guess there are a few around in the present. Perchance more than the physical sun was being recognized—here is the Father-symbol. And the earth—the Mother-symbol. By reason of the earth, in combination with the sun, birth was given to the body of mankind. These symbols may be very instructive, because certainly mankind has taken the attitude that the earth, the Mother, belongs to him.
We have the story of old concerning Oedipus: the son who marries his mother, taking the mother away from the father—which is exactly what mankind has done. The Mother has been raped by the Son—mankind. Here is a picture available to be seen by anyone; precious few ever look at it. But it is revealing of exactly what has happened. What is necessary is that the Mother should be restored to the Father, that the sun of the solar system might possess the earth, with the Son—mankind—no longer playing the part of the thief and the adulterer, allow this to happen, so that what rightly may be brought forth by reason of the presence of the Son, by reason of the presence of mankind, may appear through the union of Father and Mother.
No more judgment is required on the part of mankind as to what it is that should happen. The creative process is perfect and brings forth what should be brought forth when mankind not only does not interfere in the process but plays a creative part, with an attitude of love and reverence toward both Father and Mother: “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” There has been a very restricted view as to the meaning of these words, but we may see their application now in this present circumstance.
The Son of God is become the son of perdition, so we are concerned with letting a restoration come, so that the rape of the Mother may cease and the Mother may be returned to the Father. Some may look at that merely from the physical standpoint and see how human beings are upsetting the ecology, destroying the forests, ripping minerals out of the earth, and polluting the atmosphere and water; therefore one should get on one’s white charger and take issue with all these bad people who are doing this. With much practice over the millennia human beings have no difficulty in finding these bad people, but they seldom, if ever, look in the mirror; because there is the one person with respect to whom something can be done. We have seen this necessity from our own standpoint—the requirement of looking into the jadestone, that something might begin to happen. However, this relates to the first experience of children, who require a little discipline and who require a little direction and who require a certain control, that they may begin to mature. It isn’t as though these things could be imposed on children and kept there forever, so that they merely become slaves, but that they might mature. We have seen this with respect to human beings in general, who are very immature, because maturity requires a balanced experience, including the spiritual component. The spiritual component is not necessarily, and seldom actually is, a religious component.
Someone mentioned something about the first flush of feeling that occurs when a person awakens to what is being offered through this ministry—and there is a great blaze of light. The awakening one is delighted to experience this, but then it seems as though it begins to fade. Why? In the initial instance, the experience of awakening is so vivid that all the judgmental attitudes that are inherent in anyone are simply blotted out for the moment. But a little later they begin to come into the picture again, and the individual looks at the visible evidences and says, “Well it shouldn't be that way.” And doubts and fears and uncertainties come into the experience, simply because of the attitude that the individual is taking, not because anything has changed insofar as the blaze of light is concerned. It’s still there but now it’s being covered over with the ideas, the concepts, the beliefs, the attitudes that were previously dominant in the individual experience and now are reasserting themselves. So the visible form begins to be judged and covered with layers of judgment. Obviously the light begins to fade for that person; not because the light isn’t there to be enjoyed, to be associated with, but because judgment entered into the picture, judgment based in all the background of heredity and human nature experience that a person brings along with him- or herself. With some the initial impact of the light was so remarkable that it never gets entirely obscured. With some it does; it’s blotted out, and so such a person goes drifting off into the darkness again. But there are those, and I trust you among them, who have not only maintained an awareness of the reality of that light but have come to know it increasingly because of your own assumption of responsibility for letting it shine. As we do that, well there you are—you don’t need to judge anyone or anything; the light is shining.
So here, in the picture of the rape of the Mother and the denial of the Father, we have the reason for all the wreckage that we see on every hand within the range of human activity. It’s a horrible thing. This morning we were very much aware of the Temple of God having been made into a den of thieves by human beings—there's no one else around, really, to do it. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2018/09/from-visible-god-martin-cecil-may-29.html] The Mother has been stolen and forced to submit to human intentions. You can see that in terms of sexual rape—this is what has been happening. And everybody has participated in it, everyone on the face of the earth! Having seen something of the horror of such a state, why would anyone have anything more to do with it? It’s always rather amazing, isn’t it, or should be, that having stepped, partially at least, out of the hog trough, one should dive back in again.
There is an alternative to the den of thieves: the House of Prayer, it was called. I don’t think that has had too much meaning for most people, any more than the injunction to “pray without ceasing” has, because the concept of what prayer is is a total distortion. Mind you, you can look the word up in the dictionary and you can find definitions there that indicate what human beings have decided it should mean; which is: pleading and, insofar as God is concerned, trying to get Him to supply what the individual imagines he wants—as though God was so dumb and so uninterested that He wouldn’t have already made the provision, which of course He has. Prayer has nothing to do with that, nothing to do with trying to wheedle something out of God, or wheedle something out of anyone, for that matter: “Pray give me what I want. I’m in a miserable state. Pray give me what I imagine I need. Brother, can you spare a dime?”
Prayer relates to this matter of communion with God. The effect of communion with God is the experience of being part of the Body. Communion: the House of Prayer. Communion with God and communion with each other in the Body of God: here is the natural experience for human beings, the way by which the creative processes may work as they should. We all have had our excuses for not letting this happen. The point is: the House of Prayer, communion with the One whose House it is, that there may not only be an initial awakening to the beauty and the wonder and the glory of that One but to allow that beauty and wonder and glory to intensify in one’s own experience and expression of living. When it does, the Tone of Life sounds so loudly that all this stuff in the hog trough—what does it mean anymore? You don’t have to fiddle with it; you don’t have to talk about it; you don’t have to try to get someone to get rid of it for you. It just simply is dissolved, once there is that strong awareness of the creative sounding of the Tone of Life: this beautiful, wonderful, glorious outpouring of spirit.
Then if some memory out of the past is triggered, so that something comes up, it just simply doesn’t fit with your character, your nature; you couldn’t accept it; it just drains away. You don’t have to fight with it—perfect love casts out fear. That's true when there is the experience of the outpouring of that spirit in living. We’re not going to sit around in the Chapel waiting for something to come and outpour here. We let it happen in our daily movement, in our living; and that is so strong, so brilliant, so powerful, that these ridiculous human aberrations simply carry no weight whatsoever. They only hang around as long as we give them weight.
There are those who might say, “Well I’m stuck with my earthly heredity.” Who isn’t? Jesus had just as much earthly heredity as anybody else. We all have it, but why make such a big deal out of it? Why take the whining, ridiculous attitude that one cannot help but be subject to these things? We know something about this as it relates to these appalling childhoods that we had. I think it’s about time that everyone started to give thanks for whatever happened—everything!—because it brought us to this moment. And who can say that if something had been left out we would be here in this moment and capable and ready to let the light shine, to dissolve all that nonsensical murk? It has no weight except the weight that we ourselves give it. There’s only one thing that makes a difference, and that is to let the light shine. Then that becomes so strong, one’s own character and nature is of that quality, that any miserable elements of human nature putting in an appearance simply ... well ... “Who’s that? Not me. It has nothing to do with me. Get thee hence, satan.” Human nature, remember? “Get thee hence, human nature.” One may have to take a forthright attitude in that way on occasion, but for the most part these factors out of the past are simply obliterated by reason of the radiation of the present moment.
If you are totally occupied with allowing the sun to shine, that’s what you know: the shining of the sun. The sun of our solar system has been busy shining for quite a while; they say it will go on for a while yet. This happens regardless of the fact that nowadays, at least in many places, there are a lot of clouds around on earth. If you are looking at things from the perspective of the sun, I doubt if you would even notice that there were clouds around on the earth. When you look at Venus you may now, being so well educated, know that there are some clouds related to Venus and Mercury and so on, but you don’t notice them: “There's a planet shining.” Well these human nature elements that have hung around for so long are scarcely noticeable, really, yet human beings make such a big deal of it. Forget it! Let it go! Let it go because you let the light shine, and so it dissolves.
We don’t have to try to correct earthly heredity, or our own human nature—make it over somehow. We don't need it! Let it dissolve because we are so wedded to what may well be called angelic nature that human nature no longer amounts to a row of beans. When anything out of that messy old pot comes up it has no relationship to us at all. It’s gone insofar as we are concerned—no more weight.
The beauty, the wonder and the glory of the radiance of the Father is offered to the Mother. We are concerned to respect the Mother, to protect her. This doesn’t mean that we become rabidly ecologically minded. That will take care of itself when we stop interfering, and we will discover, in the radiant stance, what needs to be done. But the first thing that needs to be done is to let mankind come back into place. Until that happens there isn't anything else much that can be done. All this effort that is being put into trying to correct things on earth may have the advantage that human beings will be able to live on earth a little longer. But why should they? Only so that they may awaken to the light and let the light shine. That’s the only reason. Well let's prove that that is the only reason by what we ourselves do, now and in the days to come.
I questioned in my own mind as to what would be the most useful tonight. What could we do, or what could I say, that would have the greatest possible meaning in this hour? I felt that it was not so much the expounding of new visions of Truth that is now needful, nor even, for this hour at least, the reviewing of words already spoken, and when I considered the Bible and all of its beautiful passages, it seemed that even the Bible did not provide what was most needful for this hour, at least not in the sense of just reading some verses and talking about them. As I have considered these things it seems to me that this hour, carrying forward the focalized realizations of the days gone by, needed an expression that would, by the fact of its beauty, give a consciousness of the Pattern of Reality that is superimposed upon all things, and an expression that should carry the currents of Divine Love whereby there might be a vivid awareness of the directionalizing, controlling Supreme Intelligence, by reason of which the power which we have felt and sensed in varying ways shall be caused to accomplish all things essential to the fulfilment of the Cosmic Plan. And I wonder by what means, through what words, this need might be best fulfilled, that the manifest form might reveal the Pattern of things to be. It is not needful that I should undertake to convince you that there is power—you know it—neither is it needful that I should undertake to convince you of the Pattern of Truth, for you carry in your hearts and minds a conviction of the reality thereof; nevertheless, having carried forward to this point on a higher level of consciousness and feeling and recognition, there is need for a deeper sense of At-Homeness therein, so that, as you walk in the Borderland of this Promised Land, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-work-is-not-finishedborderland.html] you shall not be as strangers therein, but, rather, as those who abide in the Land of our KING.
If I were to speak as a Sage in this matter, I would perhaps simply say, “When you have lived in this Land long enough to let your roots penetrate deeply into the soil of the Kingdom, you will feel At Home. Let, therefore, the At-Homeness come through living here.” And the word so spoken would be true. If I were to speak as a Guide, showing newcomers to the Land, that they might begin to gain a sense of At-Homeness, I would perhaps speak thus: “Here, in the Land of Light, in the Land of Love, and in the Land of Life, the innermost recesses of your hearts, being opened, will reveal the fact that this is the Home for which you have longed through these many years, for though you may have thought that you were finding a home, or making a home, or building a home, as you came along the Way you found that, no matter what you built, no matter how you worked, no matter what devotion you gave, the homes that you thought to make did not fulfil the Allness that is necessary, and the spirit of such homes as you have known did not reach to these innermost recesses of your heart, where, in the secret chambers, there has been locked the treasure chest of the awareness of your true and lasting Home. And it is well, for otherwise you would have been self-satisfied, content to linger in the way-stations, and you would never have reached this Land—the Land of the Living, the Land of the Loving, and the Land of the Enlightened. So, therefore, though it may be true, as the Sage has said, that living here will truly bring you a deeper awareness of At-Homeness, nevertheless, the Spirit of At-Homeness is in your hearts even now, as you look upon this Land, and, though it is vast, there is no reason for feeling as if you were back on earth, alone in a desert place; and, though there is so much to see, there is no need to feel a conviction as if back on earth you were at the busiest intersection of the world’s greatest city.
Behold, in the timelessness of this Land there is Eternity in which to view, and the vastness of this Land gives promise that, no matter how great your expression of Life may be, no matter how penetrating your vision may become, no matter how wonderful the accomplishments which may manifest through you, you will never outgrow this Land—the Land of the Living, the Land of the Loving, and the Land of the Enlightened Ones. Seek not, therefore, to find that sense of At-Homeness that you may have known back along the way, as if you had encompassed your homes and fully comprehended them, controlling them, and causing them to be according to some arbitrary plan or purpose. In this Land the sense of At-Homeness springs not from having encompassed the fulness thereof, and having contained it within yourselves, but, rather, in the awareness that the At-Homeness that is in your hearts will find a place to abide, a place to express, a place to share, no matter where you may rightly move within the Borders of this Fair Land. The At-Homeness here is not because you possess the Land, but because you are a part of the Land—in its Spirit, its formation and its manifestation, which, in one sense, is beyond possession because it is limitless, and yet that limitless fulness, that unmeasured bounty, that unconfined beauty, finds true focus, control and coordination in our KING.
Here you do not possess the Land, and neither does the Land possess you. Here you do not try to utilize all the manifestations of the Kingdom for your own purposes, as is so common out in the world. Here you let your expression of Being find relationship to the ALL, that it may be a part of the ALL, and that the ALL may find fulfilment in presentation to our KING. Here you labor not for yourselves, nor do you seek to get, nor do you undertake to establish, in self-centeredness, any confinement of the beauty and the wonder of this Land, for each finds his fulfilment in the sharing of the doing that brings forth that which we may, all in Oneness, present to our KING. Therefore, we are ever giving unto Him, but He receives not as unto Himself, for He serves not Himself, neither does He, as our KING, possess either the Land, or we who dwell in this Land, for it is not to possess us that He is KING, and His Joy is in giving unto us through that service which He renders each and all. The At-Homeness, then, is in the Spirit of this Land, not seeking to establish limitations here or there, not seeking to set boundaries or take possession, nor yet in being possessed, but in the Spirit of this Land, which is a Spirit of Living and of Loving and of the Shining of the Light—and he who lets the Light shine, he who truly Loves and surely Lives is he who truly Gives.
Here the power works, and the power is not because some human being takes hold upon it here or there to make it be thus and so, but because each and all abide in the realization of the working of the Law, knowing that the Law truly works in Heaven and on earth. Therefore, as you gain that sense of At-Homeness here, abiding harmoniously within the Law, there is no special sense of power which you may command for this or that purpose, according to some whim or fancy, but an abiding, whereby you let the power work according to the Law—and, being thus At Home, you Live, that the Land of the Living, the Land of the Loving, and the Land of the Enlightened may manifest through you on earth for all who have eyes to see. And so, in this you rest, and, being truly At Home, you find what it means to Rest in the Lord, to abide in peace and to know the wonder-working power of our God.
Home —His Temple On Earth
Uranda December 15, 1948
Tonight, the word “home,” contains a Spirit of fullness and significance which we might well meditate upon. First, I am reminded that many years ago our KING'S Home was divided. His Home originally was—and it was supposed to be—Heaven and Earth; that which we speak of as the Whole Holy World. Perhaps you have sometimes thought of Heaven as being His Home, and it has been, although it has been an incomplete Home for Him through all these thousands of years.
I am reminded that only a little under two thousand years ago He left one part of His Home and came to visit the other part, the part that was supposed to complete His Home. He was born into the world a babe—into the most humble of surroundings. He, the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, when He came into this half of His Home, found no place awaiting Him. He was born in a manger in a stable because there was no room for Him in the inn. The people of the world were too busy following their own fancies and looking after their own puny affairs to pay any attention to the fact that the LORD of the world had come. He lived in this world, and grew to manhood, and He began His Ministry.
He began to tell the people how this world might become that beautiful other half of the Heavenly Home, and He assured them that that which was of the Heavenly Home was not far away. He made clear the Plan by which the two halves might be reunited; He made clear that the separation between the two did not have to continue: but the people of the world, instead of welcoming the LORD of the world, crucified Him. Nevertheless, on the third day He came forth victoriously from the tomb, and returned to that other half of His Home, where He has been waiting for nearly two thousand years, waiting for human beings to wake up, waiting for human beings to put into practice His instruction, to follow His Plan, so that He might have the privilege of coming again to this part of His Home.
Human beings, through their self-activity, selfishness and self-centeredness, have kept Him out of His Home, this portion of His Home, these thousands of years. These usurpers who prevent His free use of His rightful Home will not be tolerated forever. Sooner or later, in His own good season, He will return; but it is His longing, His great desire that springs from His wonderful Heart of Love, that when He comes again to this part of His Home it shall not be to drive out all who are living here. He does not want to return to this part of His Home and find nothing but empty rooms echoing with the deeds of evil. His Heart desires that those who are living here now should let themselves be so transformed and so prepared that they may remain here when He comes, that they will not have to be cast out, and that this part of His Home will not be found to be empty.
He wants to come to this part of His Home and find those He loves, and those who love Him. He wants that coming to be a family reunion between those who live in this part and those who live in that part of His Home, that the Whole Holy World may again be what it ought to be—His Home, where all the Members of His Family live in their appointed places, in joy, in peace, in happiness.
This world, this part of His Home, must be cleansed and purified, the debris must be swept out; the mean and shameful furnishings that man has put into it must be cast out and burned; it must be cleansed, and the Sunlight of Love must shine into every room, and those who dwell here must let themselves be changed, so that they will not be uncomfortable in His Presence, so that they will not be annihilated when they come before His Face, so that they will find joy in beholding Him, and so that they may rejoice greatly, without fear, in the holy privilege of welcoming Him back to this part of His rightful Home.
Until we, in our home here, begin to let the Spirit of His Home manifest, we will not be doing very much toward preparing the way for the union, for the reuniting, of Heaven and Earth. We have made progress, it is true. Something of His Spirit of Love is manifest, or you would not be here; and you have recognized something of the vision of the beauty of the Pattern of Truth, or you would not be here; but those old patterns of the world have no meaning here. Here the Spirit of the Home of our KING must manifest, so that when He comes again He will be at Home, and we will be at Home with Him.
We want to feel at Home with Him when He comes, and when He comes we want Him to find His Home ready and waiting for Him, worthy of Him, with the Spirit of His Home made already manifest. That is our purpose here, and when we remember the true significance of Home, and the wonderful privilege and sacred responsibility that is ours in helping to prepare this part of His Home for Him, surely such a realization must have meaning by the very force and weight of it, by the very glory and wonder of it, through every thought and word and deed, through every hour of every day. We are here for that purpose, so that when He comes He shall find His Home in the condition that it ought to be.
If He were to come and stand among us tonight, in a manner that you might see Him as He is, do you think you would be ready to say, “LORD, Thy Home is prepared; we welcome Thee, and find joy and complete peace in Thy coming”?
Let us, then, be about our Father's business, that we may be ready whenever He deems it wise and proper that He should come. Let us remember always the meaning of Home and be re-dedicated through the Spirit of His Love to that Plan and Program whereby He shall nevermore have to come and be received in a stable or a manger, and whereby, when He shall come, in His Power and His Glory, it will not be to wipe out and remove all who dwell here, but that there may be those who shall await Him with joy, and welcome Him in Holy Love, ready to serve Him and make Him feel at Home in this part of His Home, from which He has been so long separated.
If we have been exiles from the Kingdom of Heaven, so also has our KING been an exile from this world; for, as much as we need that which is there, so does He need that which is here, that His Kingdom may be complete, and that all of His Children, all of His Subjects, in the Whole Holy Word, may know that glorious world which is according to His Will.
I feel that you have all come to a deeper realization and understanding of many things tonight. Everything worthwhile is contained within the true meaning of the word, “home”. We all love to be at home, but so does our KING; and how can we hope, anywhere, under any circumstance, to be at home until we can be at Home with Him, and He can be at Home with us?
Praising God for your response and prayerful meditation, and for the spirit of realization flowing through you, I must remind myself that it is needful that we go our several ways to find rest for the morrow. A time is coming when, as a Unit, we will let ourselves be so engulfed, with one accord in one place, in the Spirit of our KING, that the passage of time will have less meaning than it does now. Day by day each one is learning more of what it means to hold the vibration, to stay centered in the Central Current of Being; and when we can rest in that Current without letting it break, or without causing it to break, in its relationship to ourselves, we will be ready for something that cannot be described, and I feel that that day is coming. Constancy and consistency in our worship of the One God in Spirit and in Truth, according to the One Law, surely opens the Way, it opens the door, so that, for us now the floodgates of Heaven may be opened, and the Spirit of our KING’s Presence may be made manifest in and through us, that we may become, in Oneness, so accustomed to the Spirit of His Presence, in the full wonder of His Glory, that we will be able, and know how, to welcome Him Home.
That which the world calls home, or the people of the world call home, has meaning to me only to the degree that it helps toward preparing this world for the return Home of our KING. Anything that human beings call home, or imagine to be home, that does not do that, is meaningless, a waste of time and a futility. Here we have the privilege of proving the Reality of Home on earth, but I cannot conceive of any place or any circumstance that could be called home, or that could be of any satisfaction, or of any meaning, if our KING be excluded therefrom.
So, in these realizations, we are privileged to rest this night because we are nearer Home than ever before, and because the Day is nearer than ever before when we can have that Blessed Privilege of welcoming our KING into His Temple on earth, that Temple not made with hands.
O LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, we thank Thee, we thank Thee, that here tonight there is, as never before, a realization of the weight of that responsibility and of the wonder of that holy privilege which rests upon us, that we may, in all things and at all times, be diligent about our Father's business, preparing the way for that glorious day when Thou shalt come again to receive Thine own unto Thyself, and to be received by Thine own. We remember that, in the hour of Thy birth, the Angels sang, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”. We remember that it was in that Spirit Thou didst come, and that the world rejected Thee, and yet that, nevertheless, Thou didst prepare the Way, and make it possible for all who would enter in, to share in making this Thy Home restored. We marvel at Thy wondrous Love, Thy patience, Thy willingness to wait until indolent human beings should awake to the glorious opportunity that awaits, that we may let that One Vine manifest, that we may let Thy Body be on earth, that we may let Thy Temple, the Temple not made with hands, be established, that Thy dwelling place may be with men and that all who will may share in that glorious fulfillment, IN the Christ. Aum-en.
On this morning of August 24th, 1953 we are scheduled to have our little preliminary business meeting, in conjunction with our convention, and we begin with meditation upon that Divine Formula which has been of such tremendous worth to us and to many others.
The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall not want. He maketh us to lie down in green pastures. He leadth us beside the still waters. He restoreth our soul. He leadth us in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake. Yeah though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for the Lord our Shepherd is with us. His Rod and His Staff they comfort us. He prepareth a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He anoints our heads with the Oil of His Love, and the Cup of Life runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. So let it be in the Holy Name of our LORD and KING, to whom we acknowledge the Ownership of the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever.
As we have allowed ourselves to come to a basic pattern of dedication, where we cease wanting for ourselves, where all of our desires and longings and purposes are dedicated to the service of our KING, and the blessing of all those who shall respond, all those who are responding now, we can, being gathered together with one accord in one place, consider the matters before for us in the spirit of wisdom, the sense of the fitness of things, and with the understanding essential to wise action. These matters which I would present to you briefly are essentially one, and yet they divide into two parts—first, the matter of the meaning of Commencement, that which occurs with the completion of this Class; the acknowledgement of you, and your acknowledgement of something. Of what?
Your acknowledgement that you are a part of a Service which is dedicated to the basic principles by which the world can be restored to the Kingdom of our KING. An acceptance of the reality of selflessness, and a recognition that we cannot, in any moment, begin to serve ourselves individually without betraying the pattern of our Loyalty to our KING. We recognize that while there may not be any outer person, in a physical sense, watching or recognizing at the moment, if in any moment we are traitor to the trust, there will be a price to pay; there'll be a distortion in the pattern of our field, our creative field, and those whom we serve will be denied the adequate manifestation of blessing, as well as the devastating effects that appear in the life of the individual. We do not call such things to mind to try to compel remembrance through fear, but merely to face the facts, so that we can with intelligence move forward in that to which we are dedicated.
And in this dedication we recognize that we have the three as aspects of the Spirit of God, and that our Loyalty must be in agreement with these three aspects if we are to be in agreement with our KING. There must be the agreement, in the sense of centering, in God's Love, and we cannot violate that agreement without breaking the whole pattern—the fulfillment of the One Law, of the Two Great Commandments, and if in any moment we betray that centering we betray all. Likewise in the pattern of agreement we must have the agreement with the Spirit of Truth, not only the Spirit of Love but the Spirit of Truth, wherein we find the elements of design and control. We recognize we cannot betray our agreement in relationship to the Spirit of Truth without making whatever centering we have in God's Love to be of no effect, for any violation of that agreement is the acceptance of falsity in the pattern, and that acceptance causes an instantaneous movement from the Shekinah Pattern of Magic to the realm of the unreal in the pattern of black magic. And thirdly, we have the agreement with Life, which is to say we have no agreement with those things which bring an end to Life, a cessation to Life.
And so our pattern of agreement recognizes these three things, and we cannot be in agreement with our KING except as we are in agreement with these three aspects of the One Spirit; and if by reason of any reactionary pattern in ourselves, our own individual attunements in and to and with the Spirit are disturbed, then we do not have true agreement with these three aspects of Spirit.
The serenity, the tranquility, or the crystal clear pattern of our contact with Spirit, which is subject to the emotional patterns of the heart, must be kept clear or our talk about agreement with the Spirit becomes so much talk, so many words, meaningless. And it is because of this point primarily that the power which the Master promised has not appeared. He said, “And ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you”—and that is the only means by which any can have or know real power. So we have the reality of agreement—and that agreement is something greater and more important than any one of us individually, more important than anything on earth, so important that no matter what the loss seems to be, which may appear to arise because we are true to that agreement, we let the loss come. We know that any seeming gain which might appear by the development of some pattern of violation or betrayal, any traitorous conduct in any way, shape or form, would be a false game.
As we near the end of this Class term, those who have been in the Class, and those of you who are here from the field, who might wish to receive a Certificate in recognition of your function in training and service heretofore, come face to face with the necessity of signing something, something which cannot be signed lightly, something which accepts the reality of the dedication to selfless service.
Now, recognizing this, recognizing the High Tone of our determination and the Nobility of our Calling, I think we should give serious consideration to the fact that there has been a tendency—which we might assume to be quite natural, and I am not in any sense finding fault, but pointing to something essential to all of us. There's been a tendency to tend to let our pattern of service conform somewhat to that which is present in the world—we might say in the healing arts of various kinds; it doesn't make any difference which branch of the healing arts. The idea that a person can go to school, learn certain things, pass such and such an examination, and then go out—he may be a member of an organization, a chiropractic association, or a medical association, or an osteopathic association, or something—and while he's a member of the organization he's more or less on his own, as long as he doesn't go too far in violating the pattern of ethics; and he has his own office, he has his own practice, and he is living his own life for whatever goals he may have, and the money he takes in is his in a personal sense, to do with as he pleases, and so on.
Now, we have recognized the basic factor of not charging for our services. That is one element; it is an important element. But if we simply go that far, let each one contribute as he or she may in relationship to our service, and yet in other factors tend to say, “Now, I'm going to establish my service center here, open my office, render my service, and proceed on the pattern that is more or less natural to the world, we have not established a very clear or right pattern of function—at least not in my estimation. If there is, for instance, in recognition of this dedication to Ministry and service, the reality of Ordination, the reality of accepting the responsibilities and privileges of selfless service, then you do not belong to yourself anymore, and you cannot properly go out and establish your Service Center, or do anything else, after the pattern of the world.
My point is that the proper conclusion of this period of training leads—as was indicated—leads to the point of Ordination, what we have classified as “Initial Ordination”, that you become a minister in actual fact, in this outworking, as it is anticipated. You become a minister, not someone who can go out as members of other professions do, merely to live as a member of an organization; that is, on a more or less independent basis. You are not your own. And you have come to the point of recognizing and acknowledging that. If you are not your own, then you belong to God, you belong to the Body by which God is beginning to have the privilege of manifestation, of meaning, of function, of action on earth. And in that pattern of devotion, dedication, if you accept the reality of Ordination, it cannot be done lightly. It is something which is a more sacred bond in acknowledgment, if such a thing can be, than the vows of marriage, for instance. That is sacred. I am not detracting from that, but while the vows of marriage are primarily before God and man, between two human beings, this vow is between yourself and God, and becomes the very center of your life and function forever after.
If you be married—I do not mean just in the sense of what some minister said, the legal aspects of it—but if following the reality of the technical legal aspects, marriage becomes a reality to you, you become married, or joined together by God, then is something which profoundly affects and influences everything in life from there on out. You can't think a thought, speak a word, do anything as if that were not the fact. You are that. It has produced a profound change in you, and in the pattern of your life expression, on a permanent basis; not something that is just for a week, a month, a year, or a few years. It is a permanent thing. Then, if we recognize the reality of this situation, where marriage has become a reality under God, then the same, only more so, is true with respect to this pattern of relationship that is established and acknowledged between you and God.
Just as what the minister may say, at the time of the legal ceremony, simply gives you an opportunity to become married within the scope of our social order, we may say that the Ordination Service, of itself, gives you the opportunity to become, in the absolute sense, what you ought to be as a server, as a minister. And so it too is something that will grow; it too is something that will enlarge, and become more and more meaningful as the days go by. And you live in the pattern of that experience and relationship.
As the man and the woman choose to move together in life, and are joined together legally under the social code, they begin to live twenty-four hours a day under a new pattern, a new relationship, a new situation, and the fact of that situation is something that grows, and increases constantly. It is something that gains momentum. It has its pressure points. It has its various factors that will put the individual to the test, to see whether or no this basic dedication has real meaning. There will be the opportunities to say and do those things which would tend to shatter the vibrational factors. With the man and the woman there will be the opportunities of disagreement and quarrelsomeness, etc. And if they go to sleep, as it were, on their quarrel, they've started the road to ruin. Now, they can turn back, but if they go to sleep on their quarrel they've started on the road to the dissolution of their true relationship. They may live together physically speaking, but they'll never live together in true marriage, unless they change that pattern.
Now, it is understood that in all likelihood there will be some stress patterns; some factors appear which will tend to test your metal, and to see what kind of a man or a woman you may be, how honest, how deep your integrity. But in that pattern, if living in harmony with the reality of that vow, that dedication, that devotion, is the primary thing, in and with and for you, then that always comes first. No matter what else may have to go by the board, even though it might appear to someone else that you are, well, shall we say neglecting your responsibility in some sphere for the moment, first things must come first. And this pattern of relatedness as a member of the Body of God on earth is something which increases with the passage of time, the outworking of experience, and the meeting of these tests with respect to dedication. And he who remains faithful and true—his name shall be called Faithful and True. There's the point!
You know the truth. There will be people who come to you, or write to you, or do a thousand and one things; they'll try to say something to disrupt, or do something to disrupt the pattern, to disturb your belief, your confidence; to upset you in some fashion—all kinds of things people will say and do. And I've seen human beings have the opportunity to know the truth, and then someone comes along with some contemptible lie, and they so respond to it, they're so bothered about it, that they tend to push the truth aside and say, “I'm going to believe this lie.” That is not being faithful and true. When we reach a point where we are faithful and true to the Spirit of Love, faithful and true to the Spirit of Truth, faithful and true to the Spirit of Life, we will be faithful and true to our KING. But you cannot be faithful and true to our KING if you violate the pattern of agreement of being faithful and true to any aspect of any of these three spirits—and that's that! Then this pattern of union, of relatedness, grows and increases and becomes more meaningful with the passage of time, through experience, and you finally know Oneness—as the man and the woman finally begin to know Oneness.
We've recognized that, in relationship to marriage, if the pattern is right and moving toward Oneness, it is exceedingly rare—even if the individuals have full dedication and appreciation, and true love, and all the rest—it's exceedingly rare that they reach a point of union, or what we might call heavenly marriage, under five years. Five to seven years that man and woman must live together before they can expect to begin to know what marriage is, and if that five to seven years is lived on a basis of tending to dissolve the relationship, they'll never get there. Oh, there are millions of legally married couples, but they're not married at all; they don't have any union, they don't have any Oneness. They’re living together physically speaking, for convenience or habit or something. But if there is an absolute pattern of dedication, of real love, and of mutuality of seeking to make that marriage really mean something, it will take five to seven years under the best conditions, before they can begin to know real union, real Oneness. And many couples, in fact most, who live together longer than that still haven't found it. Just the passage of time won't bring it. Correct function under the pattern brings it.
So we begin to see that the same thing applies here—Oneness in this sense with God. Oneness in the Body is not something that manifests by magic in a moment. It is something that appears over a cycle of time, as we remain true to the agreement, faithful and true. And as rapidly as the name Faithful and True can be applied to you, you will begin to find the reality of that Oneness. But if the name Faithful and True cannot be applied to you, you'll never know it. Now there is a key, something to remember, and every time there is a temptation to violate the agreement with respect to one of these three aspects of Spirit, you can remember your marriage vow in relationship to God, our KING. That comes first, above all things else, without any exception—that marriage vow of relatedness to God, first in all things. And as you abide and live, then pass through the experience of the reality of that relatedness, you begin to know what Oneness with the Father means. The marriage ceremony, the Ordination Ceremony on Commencement Day, does not produce the reality of that Oneness. It establishes the opportunity for the development of that Oneness—and the rest depends upon you.
And since this is true, remember that regardless of anything else, if any distortion pattern, any false idea, concept, belief, or anything else that you run into in the world, anything of the unreal which can make you violate that pattern of agreement and relationship with God, so that you are not in that moment faithful and true, so that you begin to flirt with the adversary, so to speak—“Oh I won't have, I won't have union with the adversary; I won't go to bed with him, but I'll just have a little fun with him—it's still a violation. It's still violation. Faithful and True. And so this begins to give you a little idea of what it means to accept Ordination. And unless you accept it in this Spirit and attitude—and if you did try to accept it you would make a lie of the thing to start with, and absolutely establish failure for yourself, and tend to bring your service into disrepute.
So, recognizing the reality of this, as I see it,, and as I anticipate that you will acknowledge it and share it, we have a basis of understanding what we might call the “business aspects” of our problem, or of our pattern of life, service and conduct. We must be about our Father's Business, and anything that pertains to the Father's Business is important to us. We took note a little while ago of the tendency for servers to feel that they can establish a Service Center, like a young doctor after his internship can go out and establish an office—it'll be his.
Now, that is not my view. And the thing that I want to find out this morning, in this preliminary meeting, is to what your view is. I want to present my view, and then find out whether you are in agreement with me. Because to my view, a Service Center—I don't care where it is, or who serves in it—a Service Center does not belong to the person who serves there. The money that comes in does not belong to the person who serves there. The service center belongs to the Service as a Whole, in the recognition of the reality of the Body of God. All of the income belongs, not to the server, but to the Service—and the server there is a steward, a steward in relationship to the uses of that money. Some of it will be used to take care of his or her personal needs, yes; to be used in various ways. But to my mind that Service Center is a part of the Service of our KING. We might say a part of the church—I don't want to put it in the ordinary sense as a part of the church, no—but the Service of our KING, and every penny that comes in there belongs, not to you as a server but to the KING, and you are a steward, to determine how that money should be used, in what relationship. And faithfulness, faithfulness in stewardship, is one of the vital factors.
Now, from the standpoint of the actual facts as they are and should be, in connection with the pattern of our Ministry, and in relationship to our problems of function in the world, if this Ordination is to mean anything, the pattern of our dedication is to mean anything, then it seems to me that there should be a recognition that the Central Agency of Service should be recognized. And that all income, a record of all income at any Service Center, every penny of it, should be reported to that Central Agency. The expenditures—and that every server should be held strictly accountable to the Central Agency of the Service with respect to the uses of those funds. That isn't to say that he won't have some flexibility in those uses, but that it should be reported. If it is a personal income thing to you, out there, and you are doing something that is on the basis of a personal service, say to the sick, then it's one thing. But if you are an Ordained Minister serving God in a Service Center that does not belong to you—you are a representative of the Body of Service, and if the income there does not belong to you, it's not yours—you use certain amount of it, but you report every penny of it to the Central Agency; and it is for the use in the Lord's Service according to that pattern which is according to our dedication and purpose. Then we have an altogether different thing. To my mind that would be a true pattern in the Father's Business in relationship to our dedication, and that anything else, patterned after the ways of the world, violates our dedication and establishes that which is contrary to the thing for which we stand.
Now, these are the things which I wish to bring before you, for your attention. If there is to be any official action with respect to such things at the coming business meeting of the directors and the trustees of the GPC organization, then they will have to act on the official basis. But as I said when I call this meeting, this is something that has meaning to everyone who is a server, everyone who is graduating from this Class.
Is this a matter upon which we have agreement?
And whether you are in position to vote later on or not, I think your attitude, what you feel about it, should be given an opportunity for recognition before we come to that point of official action. But this is the picture as I see it. Now, how do you see it? Is there anyone here that would like to speak on the subject—only class members or servers. George, if you would like to come up here.
George Shears — Friends, I think this is a blessed opportunity for me to say things that have been on my heart for a long time. This is a great challenge, that has been thrown or offered to us this morning. And most of us probably do not, at this moment, begin to realize the importance of this situation. The whole welfare of mankind depends upon this very thing that Uranda has outlined. That's exactly what's been wrong with the world. Mankind thinks that things of the world belong to him—and they never have. So as far as I'm concerned, personally, I accept this challenge one hundred percent. There isn't anything that we have which belongs to us, and I have felt that way for a long, long time. There isn't anything in the world which belongs to anyone in fact, and the only way the New Heaven and the New Earth can ever come is for some group somewhere to accept that and live up to it. It has to start somewhere, and I think it ought to be obvious to us by now that that group has already been formed on earth, to start that process. So I want to wholeheartedly accept this challenge which has been presented to us this morning.
Uranda — Thank you George. Is there anyone else that would like to speak?
Albert Ackerley — I am glad that George spoke first, because I feel that if George can do it we all can do it. If anyone in this room here had any reason to, shall we say, shy at such a proposition, it would be George Shears. He has been in this Service the longest; he has perhaps the nicest Service Center of any others; and it's also revealed that he has as great a Spirit as any others. And I thank God that George spoke first, and set of pattern, reducing this to a simple proposition. It seems to me that if we are to function in the Kingdom, then our job in that Kingdom is to fulfill the One Law, is it not; and it is to attract into that Kingdom that which belongs to God—and that means not only human beings but material things as well. So, anything that comes into that Kingdom belongs to the KING and let us let Him have it.
Uranda — Thank you Albert. Would you like to indicate your agreement—the acceptance of responsibility and privilege—your agreement with that which has been presented, by raising your right hand. I thank God for the hands raised, indicating your acceptance of the reality of the privilege, the opportunity in service.
God Bless you and keep you, that in the acceptance of our vow of relatedness to our KING we may, of the truth, now and forever, Glorify Him and be a Blessing to the children of men; that because you love and serve Him, in actual fact, because you love and serve Him, all things may work out to perfection in and through and for you, to the Glory of God and the blessing of the children of men; that even though some things may not immediately be evident in their nature, as to how they shall be a Blessing, or how they shall Glorify God, that you will remain Faithful and True to your vow and your dedication, to the end that God may cause all things, in the outworkings of the cycles of time, that God the Creator may cause all things without exception, to work together to perfection in and through and for you, now and forever. So let it be. And God bless you.
Heavenly Father, I thank Thee for these Faithful Servants of Thine who have come before Thy Throne in this hour, yielding to the working of Thy Will on earth, even as Thy Will is done in heaven, to this end, that Thy Business on earth may be activated according to Thy Principles and Laws and Desires, according to Thy Purposes. And that these here gathered, upon showing by their lives in service that they are indeed Faithful and True, as servants, may in season be received into that Sacred Pattern of Ordination where they are acknowledged as Friends of the KING—that each may become Thy Friend, and so live on earth that the reality of that friendship may be made evident to the children of men. And I thank Thee for the realization in the heart of each and every one, that as this pattern of service as a Servant is accepted in this hour, that each may be ordained as a Servant, each may know that being Faithful and True, he or she shall be in season acknowledged as a Friend, to Thy Glory and to the Blessing of all who will receive. For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. in the Christ. Aumen.
And as you rest in meditation upon this Sacred Step and Holy Vow which is to be consummated on Commencement Day, I suggest that you give voice to that which is in your heart by joining in the Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost
Aumen Aumen Aumen
So be it, in you and through you, to the Glory of God and the Blessing of the children of men, now and always.
