Reproof—Antispirit Prevails Not

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Reproof — Antispirit  Prevails  Not

Martin Exeter   June 15, 1986  p.m.

"To speak with one voice is to let the King speak on earth."

Commitment—considering this in the light of various varieties of human-nature commitment, we do not wish to accept a fanatical attitude which tends to emerge when it is a matter of the human-nature commitment. While there may be an initial sense of commitment, in due course this dissolves because there is one present who becomes known in expression and, in fact, has no commitment at all. There is simply the participation in the creative process.

We need to be rather careful not to take an attitude of commitment to the creative process. Initially maybe we do, but if there is an approach based in commitment this relates to human nature. Human nature is committing itself to all kinds of causes, and finally has the satisfaction of committing itself to the cause of truth—ah, this is a real boost to the human ego! But it never is a matter of commitment by human nature to anything. Let human nature pass away, that there may be unveiled the natural, consistent, powerful expression of truth in living. This comes because there is space for that expression. As that emerges, the truth is known, and there is no necessity anymore to try to force anything to be so. If at any time you find yourself trying to compel yourself to do something that you feel is aligned with a commitment to the expression of truth, you may know that the human ego is in the saddle.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The way that is put, it doesn’t indicate there was any great effort or stress or strain. Just be willing to dwell in the secret place of the most High and consequently abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No big deal. Human nature tries to make it into a big deal in order to sustain its own presence and control; but all the approaches of human nature need to dissolve, so that what is left is simply the truth, and it is found to be a natural thing.

We abide in the heaven of spirit. If we actually do abide in the heaven of spirit, then we act, we do what needs to be done. We don't need to hype ourselves up to produce what human nature would think of as results. We know that this is needful if one is to become a super salesman. You have to hype yourself up and it helps if there is a group of people all hyping themselves up: “Go out and sell the product!” We don’t need to hype ourselves up. Just abide in the heaven of spirit.

If we do abide in the heaven of spirit, we are, at the same time, aware of the heaven of antispirit because it is the same place. Different elements are at work in the heaven of spirit to what are at work in the heaven of antispirit, but the work is being done in the heaven. I think this has been something of a mystery heretofore, and we haven’t particularly considered it, because there was the need to come to the point of abiding in the heaven of spirit without fussing about the heaven of antispirit. We would never come to abide in the heaven of spirit as long as we were contending with antispirit. This is why it has been so important to cease judgment, for instance, to cease the conflicts which are engendered by subjection to the machinations of antispirit. Let them go, that we may come into the heaven of spirit and abide there.

Probably in doing so we didn’t count on the fact that if we came into the heaven of spirit we would also be coming into the heaven of antispirit, because it is the same place. But we are able to do what we are here to do by reason of the fact that we are abiding in the heaven of spirit. We are here to do something with respect to antispirit. We noted that this was spoken of in the Book of Revelation as war in heaven. Well we need to be present in the heaven of spirit before there can be the acceptance of responsibility with respect to the presence of antispirit.

I trust we have reached a point where we are sufficiently aware of the heaven of spirit that we can abide there, and at the same time observe the machinations and the antics of antispirit in the heaven without being thrown off balance, without losing our polarity, without being caused to be ejected from the heaven of spirit. We need to be in the heaven of spirit and to abide there, but there is something to be done. The doing presently relates to the restoration of man. This requires the ejection of antispirit from the heaven.

I am sure we are all quite aware that antispirit still throws a bit of weight around in the heaven which we have come to know. There are occasions when it seems he takes over. We have had plenty of time, however, to learn to abide in the heaven of spirit regardless of anything that is going on insofar as antispirit is concerned. We are going to retain our centering; we are going to be on a firm foundation; we will be consistent and trustworthy; we trust the creative process in the heaven of spirit—it’s at work there. The antispirit substitutes a different working in that heaven and heretofore has had almost uncontested control in human existence throughout the body of mankind.

So we come into the heaven of spirit and abide there, and in doing so we become aware of antispirit, rightly so. Some were hopeful that if they came fully into the heaven of spirit they wouldn’t have any more truck with antispirit: “Ah, what a relief! Now we don’t need to concern ourselves anymore with antispirit.” Well we do need to concern ourselves with antispirit, but not in the way that was done before we came to abide in this heaven of spirit. Only when we abide in the heaven of spirit can we deal with antispirit.

The dealing with antispirit was described by the words, “The dragon and his angels prevailed not.” They were incapable of taking charge, taking charge of the one who abides in the heaven of spirit. They can’t be inveigled into allowing antispirit to prevail in one’s own personal experience; and our own personal experience is now wrapped up with experience of the body. So the machinations of antispirit are not allowed to govern at all in the body as a whole, because all abide in the heaven of spirit and have the consequent ability and power to deal with antispirit. But the basic factor of dealing with antispirit is that antispirit cannot prevail anymore, prevail in one’s own expression, or prevail in the expression of the body.

This isn’t a battle in the ordinary sense; it is simply a matter of withdrawing power from antispirit to take control in one’s own experience. Antispirit can only take control as life, the power of life, is given to antispirit to do so. Remove that power and antispirit is powerless. Antispirit only exists because human beings give antispirit power, the power of their own living, or of their own existence as it would then become, not living.

Something was recorded for us in the Gospel of John with respect to reproof. The way by which antispirit can no longer prevail is because antispirit is reproved. One must be in a position of strength, in the position of control, to reprove what needs to be reproved. If one is subject to what needs to be reproved, certainly one can't reprove it. One wouldn’t know what it was to reprove it anyway.

But there are these three matters relative to reproof: the matter of sin, the matter of righteousness, and the matter of judgment. Here are the three areas in which antispirit maintains primary control. We come at last to the specific points where this control is maintained in the body of humanity. These three points differentiate into a multitude of other points, and human beings are always fussing about this multitude of other points, so that the core of the control of antispirit is never even seen. The differentiation of antispirit provides a vast variety of points for contention in the body of mankind. If you start to try to deal with all the quirks of human nature that are present in yourself, you won’t live long enough to do it!

Let’s get to the core of the matter; and we can only come to the core of the matter when we come to the heaven of spirit, because here we are approaching the absolute focus of things. Where the focus of spirit is present, we may have defined that in terms of love, truth and life, which are merely words, but we cannot abide in the heaven of spirit without letting those words become a reality in our own experience of living. When they are a reality in our own experience of living we find that we don’t really need the words anymore. When there is alignment with the truth, all that is true finds expression and there is nothing present in one’s own internal nature, so to speak, which will contradict that.

All human-nature antics are based in conflict. Everyone has been sold a bill of goods on this: that you cannot know pleasure without pain, for instance. If there was merely pleasure and no pain, there would be no need for the word “pleasure” to describe it, would there? It would be the state of affairs. You would experience pleasure without knowing it, without knowing it as pleasure. All you would know it as, would be just the state of affairs. This relates to the experience of the creative process. As the creative process finds expression in one’s own living, that is what is known. It doesn’t require anything else to prove that it’s the creative process; it just is. That’s what is being experienced.

This matter of sin, righteousness and judgment all is indicative of the fact that human experience is separated from the creative process. The reproof of sin, it is said, was required because, as the Master put it, “they believe not on me.” What does that mean? Belief on Him may be seen as unification with the creative process. Belief is not a mental concept or an emotional feeling, at least not the way this word is used in the context which I have quoted. It simply indicates that there has been no experience, insofar as human beings are concerned, of unification with the creative process. It can easily be seen that the Master exemplified unification with the creative process. To experience unification with the creative process is describable as belief in Him, but that’s a very different thing to the usual mental concept or emotional feeling with respect to this.

There is unification with the creative process, and that is the reproof. It is the reproof of the state of separateness from the creative process. Accepting and experiencing unification with the creative process reproves the world of separateness from the creative process. That is exactly what the Master Himself did. But human beings got the evidence out of the way as soon as possible, so that they might not be reproved. So sin remains, separation from the creative process; that’s all it is. Anything that anyone does, any human being does, in the state of separation from the creative process, is describable as sin. It doesn’t matter whether somebody says it’s good or whether somebody says it’s bad, it’s still all sin. So to reprove the world of sin there must be present on earth the evidence, through human beings, of the unification with the creative process. Reproof is immediately there. And which do you think has the most power: unification with the creative process or separation from it? Of course there is no contest!

The same thing with righteousness—as the Master put it: “Because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more”—there is no external evidence anymore of unification with the creative process. Therefore all righteousness, as human beings think of it, is not righteousness at all. It is self-righteousness, insofar as the self of human nature is concerned. The world is full of self-righteous people who would be shocked to awaken to the fact that they were self-righteous. They think they know what is righteous, what is good, what should be done in this situation or that one—everybody is so sure of their righteousness, and yet none of it is righteousness at all.

Righteousness is only known when there is the experience of permitting the creative process to find expression in one’s own living. The Master is not on hand in human form as He was to reveal this, so one has to take the responsibility for revealing it oneself. There isn’t any other way; and there is reproof again with respect to righteousness. As long as human beings can be fooled into fiddling around with all the classifications of sin that have been foisted upon people, and as long as everyone can be assured of their own human righteousness, the antispirit is in absolute control. And human beings can be manipulated constantly, as they are!

And finally judgment, of course: this is the character of antispirit. This is what antispirit promotes, judgment: “Now if you are intelligent people you can see the situation, you see what’s right and what’s wrong.” And everybody falls for it! Probably also, “Well if you stop judging, there is no means of determining how you should go; you would be just a nothing! We have to have our opinions, we have to have our judgments, to go this way and that and prove that we are men and women of substance.” Oh, how the whole world is deceived!

Now, coming into the heaven of spirit we can see this. We begin to see what it is that is operating throughout humanity. We stop looking so much at the surface manifestations which human beings are now enjoined to judge. This surface play, which grabs human beings in their emotions and they get all hyped up about it, has nothing to do with what is really going on. What is really going on is the fact that antispirit has had control of humanity all down through the ages, and still has.

However, we see a little light at the end of the tunnel, to the extent that we begin to abide in the heaven of spirit. Then we see what is happening from the standpoint of spirit, and at the same time we see what is happening by reason of antispirit. We have an advantage over antispirit in this regard, because antispirit doesn’t know what is happening from the standpoint of spirit. It has become so fat in the land that it thinks it will sit a queen forever! Isn’t that what was said? Something along those lines. Fine, let it think that.

But here we are in the heaven of spirit, with a consciousness of the way the creative process works and a participation in that working as we give it expression in our own living. We no longer trust minds and emotions to direct us in the way we should go. We trust spirit; we trust the creative process and we let it work. The prince of this world, the antispirit, is judged; it establishes its own judgment. It’s very true, as the Master said, “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged”—much safer not to judge at all, because it’s going to come right back, and it does. Of course coming back, with most people, it makes them judge even more!

Finally we come to abide in the heaven of spirit, and we are not shocked to find out that as we abide in the heaven of spirit we become aware more vividly of antispirit. We understand what’s going on and we know how to participate in the creative process to bring reproof. In the creative process here is the truth, and antispirit is reproved. The prince of this world is judged. It doesn’t know it yet, but we know it first. And by reproof, the fact of being judged, self-judged, becomes apparent to antispirit. This causes a good deal of disturbance. The process is going on, it’s what is happening now, and there is increasing disturbance.

Let the dragon and his angels be cast out of the heaven, because Michael and his angels abide in the heaven. On this basis antispirit can never prevail. We experience strength and understanding, and we are quite willing to let the creative process work. It’s the work of our own living: and we participate in this process, which has been hidden from human understanding, but we come to an understanding, and behold, the world of mankind is reproved—no great battle. But that old serpent, the devil and satan, is cast out of the heaven. He then fiddles around in the earth in the experience of vast numbers of people, but as this matter of reproof is consistent and held steady there is a clarification. Heaven becomes a sea of glass, clear as crystal, and the design present in heaven is unveiled and takes form on earth as the first heaven and the first earth pass away. The two processes work together. The new heaven and the new earth emerge, and the first heaven and the first earth dis-emerge—a simple process when there are those who abide in the heaven of spirit!

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The  Astral  Realm

Uranda   October 27, 1937

Many people consider the astral realm and so-called experiences therein to be very real. No matter what anyone has said or written concerning the astral, the simple truth of the matter is that it is the emotional phase of the mental plane, and the mental plane is limited to the realm of human consciousness. There are no entities, either good or evil, in the astral realm; nor is there such a thing as an earthbound spirit. Psychics, who think that they contact astral beings, or earthbound spirits, are simply opening the emotional phase of their own human minds to thought forms which have been made by the thinking of human minds. These thought forms are not beings, or entities, in any sense of the word, any more than a phonograph record can be said to be the person who spoke or sang the words recorded thereon. Intense and habitual thinking in any one way produces a thought form which can be contacted by a mind reader, and whatever has been impressed on that thought form can be detected—but all that comes from the astral realm had its source in faulty human minds, and its value is literally less than nothing.

When a person who has had an intense thought and emotional life dies, the inner God Being ascends with all of the responsive portion of that person—that which ascends is completely beyond the reach of any psychic, or mind reader, or anyone else who thinks to contact the dead. The thought forms which that person created by his thought habits, whether good, bad, or both, are released into the mental plane, where they dissolve and disappear, unless they are attracted by some human being who is functioning on a vibration similar to that upon which the thought form was first made, in which case the thought form may become attached to the person who attracts it. If a sufficient number of such thought forms are attracted by any person, he begins to show signs of being unbalanced, and if he continues to be subject to such thought forms and to attract more of them, he will finally become what is called insane. However there is no entity of any kind involved in such a process, other than the living human being who attracts the thought forms.

Not long ago an earnest sister asked this question: “What will become of the astral realm and the evil, earthbound entities that are said to inhabit it?” My answer was: “The astral realm is in the mental plane, and all things therein are but thought forms which will be burned up in the transforming fire of love. The astral realm, so called, will be no more, and now there is no such thing as evil, earthbound entities, excepting ordinary human beings!”

Various questions recently asked might be combined like this: “Will a new planet be created for those who fail to respond and do not make the right-hand turn? Or will they be taken to some distant planet for further development? Or will they continue to incarnate here on this earth, as in the past, until they are able, finally, to make the right-hand turn? If not, what is their fate?” Time after time, in my writings, I have pointed out that the inner soul, or Lord, or Father, or God-Self is perfect in each and every human being. During physical life there is an ascension, or resurrection, or transition, of the human body into the divine inner body to the degree of the earnestness and sincerity and love that expressed through the human being; and all else, including that which remains at death as the corpse, is exactly the same as the refuse that is cast out of the body day by day through the bowels—it is no longer a part of that being, and insofar as that form, or person, is concerned, it is as if it had not been. That which ascends from any person, no matter how evil that person may have been on earth, is perfect, Divine, and holy, for all the evil is left behind as refuse. The refuse that is cast off day by day, and at the end of physical life as it is now known, simply returns to its natural mineral elements, to be picked up from the soil by vegetation and to be returned thereby into the cycle of life, wherein that substance is given another opportunity to ascend.

Understanding these facts, it becomes clear that after the great change into the new age, there will be no more incarnation of God Beings into evil or wayward human beings; for there will be no more evil beings of any kind. The Inner Beings of all people are now perfect. That which ascends, either at death or through experiencing the true transition into the new age without death, has been, is, and will be perfect. Insofar as the ascended being is concerned, there will be no difference whatsoever, whether the whole body ascends or whether a portion of the body, because of evil, is cast off as a corpse. The difference is with the human beings involved. Those who respond are those who ascend into oneness with their Lords. Those who refuse to respond and fail to make the right-hand turn are simply returned to the dust of the ground from which they came, and that substance will never again be drawn into the same form. So it is that that form, or human being, will be as if it had not been. Instead of ascending, such an one, speaking of the outer human, is returned to the dust, to be picked up in a thousand different forms of vegetation, and from thence to enter into a thousand different manifestations of the animal kingdom. It is easy to see that atoms that have been in human bodies are picked up by grass. A cow eats the grass, and a hundred different people eat the cow. So is the cycle of life in the outer world at the present time.

The point which so many people cannot yet get clear in their consciousness, because of the mass of false information that has been taught in the world, is that whatever ascends with the inner God Being is perfect in every last detail. In that which ascends there is not the slightest vibration of evil in any form, no matter from whom it ascends. Let us illustrate our point. There are gold nuggets which are almost pure gold and there is gold ore of all degrees of value. No matter how much dross per ton there may be in any gold ore the gold that is drawn from it is just as pure as the gold that is taken from higher-grade ore. The amount of the dross per ton does not change the quality of whatever gold is present therein, but it does determine whether or not such ore is pay dirt! The same thing exactly is true of human beings. Whatever ascends is gold, and whatever remains is dross, whether it be from a person who is mostly good, or high-grade ore, or from a person that is mostly bad, or low-grade ore. There is no such thing as an in-between state, other than the human state of physical life as it is now known.

There is no such thing as a young soul or an old soul, for all inner souls are eternal, not subject to age, without beginning and without end, and perfect in wisdom, knowledge and understanding, having no need of experience in human form to teach them anything. Those who attempt to find out about their past incarnations in the usual ways, or in any way, always develop a split consciousness, and if they persist in such things they will surely become more or less insane. Why? Because each person has billions of atoms in his body, each with an auric record of its experiences, and every one of those atoms has been in one or more different human bodies. You have the atoms from millions of other human bodies that have gone before you. In the psychic field all that can be touched is the atomic vibration, and there are so many of these, and they are so at variance, that it is a hopeless maze. Until a person has ascended into the consciousness of his or her own God-Self, and is abiding there, he cannot know of the past incarnations of his God-Self, and then such knowledge comes, if it be needed, without any trying to get it.

There are no evil entities other than human beings. When this fact is understood the rest is easy to comprehend. Those who wished to control people through fear have taught otherwise; but that which leaves the body at death is perfect, no matter what the body and its mind may have done contrary to the direction of the God-Self. There are no evil entities other than visible, physical, ordinary human beings as now known to mankind.

At this point the question always arises, “What, then, is the use of trying to be good? Why not just go out and do whatever I want to? For I don't care what happens to my body, if my soul is all right and ascends anyway.”

That is a perfectly human attitude, which springs from the fact that the person who asks such a question has not yet come to understand the true purpose of incarnation. The average human being has been taught to believe that, in his human consciousness and mind, he is something apart from his body. Many have taught that there is some sort of a soul between the human being, with his mind and body, and the Inner God Being. Such an idea is utterly false. The soul about which the Bible speaks is the human being. The human being, as the ordinary one knows himself, is simply a physical body with a conscious mind, and a vague idea that he has some sort of connection with what is vaguely called God. Some teach that the God-Self is outside of the body, while still others teach that the human being has no direct contact with God Being in any way. It may be argued that it makes no difference what a person thinks about the position of God Being in relationship to himself so long as he is earnest. It is true that the earnest one, if he wavers not, will carry through into a realization of the truth, but he must be willing to acknowledge the truth when he comes face to face with it, for otherwise he will repel himself from his one source of life.

The God Being incarnates into the human being for one purpose; namely, to bring eternal life and perfect function to that human being, if he will only respond and let it be so. The God Being does not come into the body to learn something or to gain experience. The awakened human being knows that it is in accordance with the divine plan that his physical body, with its mind, should ascend into the divine body and Christ mind of his God-Self, and he also knows that he can live now in the ascended consciousness state and live among men, taking care of that to which he is called in service in a perfectly natural manner, so that he does not look to death, nor to the end of physical life, for a time of ascension. Such a person could not ask a question like the one above.

If you feel like asking the above question, answer this question first: “Since you do not care what happens to your body, would you object if someone wished to cut off your hand, or foot, or some other portion of your body?” When you face the fact, you come to the realization that you do care, and care very much, what happens to your body. When you come face to face with yourself you will have to admit that you, as you know yourself, are your body and mind. You, then, are a human being who is mortal. The presence of your God Being in you allows you an opportunity to respond in the Christ love and be adopted by your God-Self. To the degree to which you are so resurrected, or that you so ascend, you will take part in eternal life, and you will continue on after what the world calls death. However, to the degree that you follow after your own carnal or human mind and refuse to respond to the love of your God-Self, you will be subject to death—and to that degree, death will be the end of you. Those who waste time playing with the astral realm and their experiences or dreams, thinking thereby to gain knowledge and make progress on the Way, are being deluded.

Those who are truly responding in love to their Lords do see many things, which may be called visions, and thereby is their consciousness caused to expand, but that is not of the astral realm; it is of the Christ radiance. The earnest one rejoices in each vision but he does not attach undue importance to it; he learns his lesson and carries on, always standing upon the rock of fact and truth. Such an one has no time for self-hypnosis or the passing fancies developed by human minds and released into the astral realm. Such an one knows that in this present Life he can experience full release into reality.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Setting The World On Fire

Setting  The  World  On  Fire

Martin Cecil   August 13, 1966

This proper experience of the external manifestation of something solid and sure relates to what we have spoken of as the third creative day, when the earth force is active; the dry land appears, something solid. But we need to remember that there were at least four more creative days to complete the cycle. Nevertheless human beings tend to flourish on this third day. Human beings become pleased with themselves. The fourth day related to the fourth creative force, namely fire.

Now these succeeding days follow in sequence, as we know. We can't skip anything. The solid state must be present on earth if the fire is to appear. It was described, rather poorly to my way of thinking, in the Bible, as “cloven tongues of fire which sat upon each of them.” I think somehow or other the translation is inadequate, of the original, or whoever wrote the original didn't know too well what was happening. It sounds rather a meek sort of experience, doesn't it?—nothing very exciting. It doesn't sound like a blazing fire, does it? And of course this is the thing, isn't it? Human beings tend to soft-pedal any real feeling experience as it relates to God and the things of God. Why? Partly, at least, because they are afraid of it. Of course there are some folk who indulge themselves a little bit in emotional experience. I am not suggesting that this is the way, because necessarily first comes this solid bit. There must be stability and balance and a proving out of these things, so that we are not going to be pushed around by emotionalism.

But at the same time we need to be careful that we don't get so fixed that nothing will move us except possibly a nuclear explosion, because this is one way that the fire can come, and momentarily we might know that it was coming, but not for long. This is the same fire, you know, basically, but appearing destructively. It is the fire of God's love appearing destructively. Why does it appear destructively? Obviously because human beings are not in position, are not willing to accept it on a creative basis. They are not interested particularly in divine purpose or the fulfilment of God's will, but in their own purposes and their own wills; consequently the only experience of the fire of God's love will inevitably be a destructive one on that basis. We know this. And there may have been occasions when we ourselves have placed ourselves athwart the fire of God's love and gotten burned. It was uncomfortable, unpleasant. If it was sufficiently so, perhaps we woke up and did something about it. If it goes too far, of course it is too late. And it could go too far one day for the whole world of mankind.

So we are certainly concerned to allow God's love, the fire of God's love, to work creatively. And what will it do? Wouldn't it set the world on fire? I think it would do much the same thing as the nuclear explosion insofar as fire was concerned, but it would be different; there would be a difference in the experience: the creative fire of God's love, which is capable of making all things new. Now how is it going to appear?

The nuclear kind appears through man's brilliant intellect. He has so much knowledge that he is able to do this—send the world up in flames. What an achievement—real progress! This can be seen as a symbol of something, a portrayal of something creative. The world needs to go up in flames, everyone in it needs to go up in flames, but not be destroyed in consequence. We need to rise up in the fire of God's love. And if that fire is to appear it must appear through those who are in position to let it appear on a creative basis rather than on a destructive basis. And this leads from the solid state of the third day to the fourth creative day, the day of fire. I think it was Peter, wasn't it, who said something about the earth being reserved unto fire? It is—no more flood!—fire this time. But what sort of fire? The fire that is going to burn everyone up to a cinder? Maybe. Maybe, if we are so dumb as to let it be that way. It could well be. Or on the other hand it could be the real fire in creative expression, which allows all things to be made new.

Now of course the vast majority of people on the earth would be most unwilling to let all things be made new. Isn't that right? Would we—all things? Or would we reserve a little? Would we hold out a little on one side and say, “Well this is all right. We'll take this along with us. This is good”? And people everywhere have their “good” things. There is obviously a tremendous unwillingness to let anything very much be made new; let's not delude ourselves. And it is this very unwillingness that is leading mankind into the experience of the destructive fire, where it will all be wiped out anyway. Why not be willing to let go of it before it is wiped out? because if it is wiped out we will be wiped out with it. Why not begin to reach a point where we really have the willingness to let it all go, all of it? We are not going to strike matches and set fire to things. It's not necessary.

Having the solid state, something that is stable and sure, that is not going off into emotional sprees, emotional drunks, as does occur with those who have not found sufficient stability, there is the necessity of letting this fire take hold, because if the fire of God's love is to appear it must appear through those who have a solid foundation. If they do not have a solid foundation, when it appears it will destroy them. It may be more or less comfortable to feel an acceptable member of society because one has proven out a balanced state—yes it's needed—but if we stop there, that's it. There isn't anything more. Nothing will be achieved, because there must be the fire, the fire of God's love.

And so this evening I point to this necessity. We remember the description of the day of Pentecost long ago. We are only interested in this to the extent that it reveals the principle of the thing. We are not trying to duplicate anything. Somehow we must come into position to set the world on fire. Well we can't do that unless we ourselves are capable of walking in the fire without getting burned up. It seems to me that something was said to the effect, with respect to the disciples long ago, that they were accused of setting the world on fire. Unfortunately they did not have the opportunity that we have had, the time that we have had, to establish this solid, balanced foundation upon which to stand, and so they got badly burned.

Our concern, then, is to allow something of this fire of God's love to so take hold of us, as we abide under control, in the true design, on the firm foundation, as to permit this power to start a blaze, a controlled blaze. And I think this may be what we are here for; not exactly kindling, but something that proves to be a little inflammable.

So tonight I thought I would talk along this line, that it may be in our collective consciousness as we move forward through these wonderful days which we are privileged to share in this wonderful place. It is so good to have this opportunity to be together, to enjoy each other, but we need to remember also that we are here for a very particular, a very definite purpose—to give glory to God in the highest—and I don't know how you would do that without a little fire.

© Emissaries of Divine Light