This morning I should bring to focus something more with respect to the Priesthood. We have to use words to describe something, but we need to approach an understanding without preconceptions. You have the opportunity of participating in what may be described as the Priesthood—the Government of God on earth made possible by reason of the True Priesthood. In the Divine Design church and state are not separate. It is understandable why in the human situation they have been separated, but we need to have a new understanding with respect to the Priesthood and the real nature of the Government of God.
When we speak of the Priesthood, two patterns of Priesthood may come into consciousness particularly—firstly the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, and secondly the priesthood which was made available by reason of the tribe of Levi. The Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek might be further defined as a Heavenly Priesthood, whereas the priesthood of the tribe of Levi was an Earthly Priesthood. With our present understanding we recognize that there is a need for both, but they should be two aspects of one thing. This was never the case insofar as the tribe of Levi was concerned. If we do consider the operation of the tribe of Levi, let us merely see this as an example of an earthly priesthood which became increasingly separate from the Heavenly Priesthood. By the same token there have been many other priesthoods in the world which suffered from the same disease. The priesthood of Christianity is of the same nature.
Our primary concern is to allow the Heavenly Priesthood—the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, as it was called in Old Testament times—to be reexperienced on earth. Being reexperienced on earth it would also at the same time be an earthly priesthood, but in such case it would have been restored into a state of oneness, just One Priesthood with two aspects. The first aspect, the Heavenly aspect, carries with it the responsibility of representing God to the people. This is the Heavenly Priesthood which comes to a particular focus in the High Priest. Melchizedek was the Priest of the Most High God [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/melchizedekking-of-salem.html] representing God on a particular occasion to Abraham.
The Levitical priesthood had the responsibility of representing the people to God and of course, through the High Priest, of playing their part in representing God to the people. They never did fulfil the latter requirement but to some extent they undertook to represent the people to God. This might be said as being true of other priesthoods, in whatever measure; but as the priesthood in the general sense did not know God they found some difficulty in representing the people to Him. So we have come again to a conscious recognition of the necessity for this dual role of a Priesthood, the means of connection between man and God. This is the initial approach—actually, man is properly the means of connection between God and His creation, but until man himself is restored to that state the first connection that is required is between God and mankind, between God and the people. So there is the matter of representing God to the people and representing the people to God. When this is being done in a balanced way the basic elements of connection are reestablished, the basic elements of the Heavenly Government are reestablished, and the dominion of God once more comes into the picture on earth.
The Heavenly Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek relates to our primary positive responsibility. This is the positive action of the One Law brought to focus through human beings who were designed to let it be so on earth. The Earthly Priesthood is the negative aspect of the One Law which represents the people to God. We find ourselves associated with the negative aspect of the Priesthood in our experience of what is called response—response to what is higher. We bring before the LORD an open yieldedness in representation of the elements in human beings which are of God. We don't rightly represent distortions and wrong things to God. This is what human beings have been inclined to do; they bring all their troubles to God and say, “Well now God, you settle this,” as though as a human being one had no responsibility in the matter, and one could just turn it over to God. But the way by which the clarification of the state of affairs on earth is achieved is not by bringing what is wrong to God but by bringing what is right to God. The whole human attitude is reversed as usual because most of human consideration is given to the things that are wrong or are deemed to be wrong.
We see this occurring in all the various conferences that the leaders of men set up. They are struggling with the things that are wrong, trying to make them less wrong. Nobody ever aspires to make them completely right but let's make them a little less wrong; let's have less armaments or whatever it is, less wrongness, less disease. Let us reduce the miseries of mankind. It could never be conceived that the state of affairs for mankind could be without misery. We have to have some after all; we wouldn't be human otherwise. Too bad. So most of human effort is given to modifying ill things. This is not the responsibility of the Priesthood. We are not interested in modifying ill things, which makes them more acceptable so that we can retain the ill things with less discomfort. We are interested in letting the ill things pass away. So in order to permit this to happen there must be a representation to God of what is right in human beings.
There is a need for those who will represent the people to God—you welcome people to come to you. “Come unto me,” you say in effect if you are representing God to the people, and they come unto you so that you can represent them to God. It is not a matter of fixing someone up so that they can get along with their ill condition to a more satisfactory extent, but a matter of providing people with something to identify with that does not include the ill condition, by letting the ill things go in favor of identification with what is true of a person. Our invitation is “Come out of her, my people.” Come unto me. “Rise up my love, my fair one and come away” from your troubles; leave them behind, don't bring them with you. We have to accept people as they are to start with. You are not really interested in their troubles at all; you are interested in the real person who is there, who may emerge from behind this veil of troubles. On this basis we can represent the people to the LORD, just to the extent that they relinquish their hold on that human nature state. So one aspect of the Priesthood's responsibility is representation of the people to the LORD. One can't do that unless he or she is capable of representing the LORD to the people. I come to the point of emphasizing the very exact nature of service. We don't serve just by wanting to serve. We need to see something of the operation of the creative process, and we could use another illustration to indicate this.
S = Spirit
H = Heaven
E = Earth
What is characteristic of God is [S] describable as the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God rightly is reflected in human form. This is why MAN was [E] created in the image and likeness of God, so as to make this possible. We have become aware of how this reflection takes place, how it emerges actually into expression through the connecting substance of Heaven. The primary triangle [S] is reflected in the secondary triangle [H] and then emerges again through the earth triangle [E] which is rightly an exact reproduction of the primary triangle. This all works as it should when all the elements that are contained in the picture are functioning correctly. In a general sense all the elements that are present in the universe are functioning correctly. Only when we come to this earth, and human beings on the face of this earth, do we find a . Everywhere else there is no resistance to the creative process.
The earth itself does not resist its proper association and movement and orbit with respect to the solar family, which includes the sun and all the other planets, as well as some comets and other elements. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/trailing-clouds-of-glory.html] There is no resistance here. It is only when it comes to man, or what should be MAN but is now some sort of a human creature, that resistance comes into the picture so that the creative compulsion of spirit is resisted as much as possible, and turned into ways which are not true to the design which would naturally reveal itself if there was no resistance. The fact of resistance makes it seem as though there is something to resist; there is something hostile, in other words. When you come right down to it, the thing that is hostile to human beings is God—that is the way it seems to human beings because they are resisting God. This is the situation in which human beings find themselves. Some may take that conscious attitude but with most it's an unconscious thing. The resistance is there nevertheless, and as long as there is resistance there is hell in one form or another in human experience and it seems that life is such a struggle.
The Master said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” The universe finds it so—it works quite easily but it is a struggle for human beings. This has become so habitual, so normal in human experience, that nothing else seems to be possible. In order to introduce another possibility there is the requirement of a Priesthood who are capable of handling the situation the way it is now. We may recognize that the situation the way it is now is not the situation the way it will be when the restoration is a fact, but we have to handle things the way they are now. In Old Testament days, with the children of Israel, there was a very great deal of warring and fighting and battles of various sorts. This was the state of affairs in the world at that time; everybody was that way. There was movement out of a state of consciousness that was prevalent at that time, and the methods that were used were compatible with the circumstances and the people of the time. This is an illustration of the way things must be handled in circumstances as they are, in order to come to the point of the restoration. One cannot pretend that one is at the point of the restoration if one isn't—it is most unwise to try to do that. We have to utilize whatever it is that is present now. There are those who endeavor to have a peaceful outlook, marching for peace or nonviolence. But we're not living in that sort of a world. We may have a recognition of the fact that in the restored state there is no conflict in the sense that there is now, but there is conflict now and you can't function as though it wasn't there; and it won't just go away because you say, “Well I am going to be peaceful now.” Very shortly a nonviolent demonstration is liable to become extremely violent, for instance. It wasn't the intention, but it is what happens because things are the way they are.
As the Priesthood we need to have a very clear view of the way things are and not fool ourselves and not try to fool other people. We know that there is violence in the world, and so we use violence to advantage. We recognize that the earthly state as it now is is in the process of destroying itself and it will use violence to do it. Quite all right. In our own vicinity we offer something which will allow a state of calm—a state of calm available for human experience regardless of what may be going on in the external sense. It is a state of internal calm. But we know that the positive action of the LORD, which we represent, is going to engender an intensification of resistance, and the resistance appears as violence in various ways. It is not seen what it is that is being resisted by people. It is interpreted on the basis of what is observable on the surface, so that human beings who feel this resistance hit out at whatever is handy and it is all rationalized to say that we are doing this for a very good cause. But really there is only one cause and that is the attitude of resistance that is present in human beings toward God. It is quite easy to rationalize and say that this person, that person, this group, that group, this nation, that nation, is to blame so we had better get into a battle with them, but it is not true. The problem is not that. That is a surface evidence of the fact that there is a problem. The problem is the resistance of human beings toward God.
So let us not fool ourselves into imagining that as there is an increase of the representation of God on earth there will be a lessening of violence—just the reverse. There will be a lessening of the sense of conflict in those who are capable of being represented to the LORD because they will begin to come in the right direction. “Come out of her my people,” come out of that state of resistance. The Master Himself said He didn't come to bring peace but a sword. This is the way it works. Violence destroys itself; the evil earthly state destroys itself. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/two-pyramids.html] We don't have to wade in there with a flaming sword and lop peoples' heads off. Whose heads we would lop off we would not know; people prove themselves out. There are those who come out and there are those who don't. Those who remain in the earthly state find that they participate with great enthusiasm, very often, in destroying themselves, imagining that they are destroying someone else for some apparently satisfactory human reason. So the Priesthood brings the Flaming Sword which keeps the way of the Tree of Life. And human beings who are unwilling to relinquish the attitude of resistance find themselves being forced more and more into the corner, and you get people piling up in a corner. They are going to struggle in there violently to survive. But in the end, as long as they stay in the corner they can't survive, because if the creative expression by reason of the Priesthood is present the corner will continually become smaller and smaller and smaller until there is no room for anyone in it. Therefore everyone is out of it one way or the other. This may be seen as requiring some extreme tribulation but is it not better to have that extreme tribulation for a brief period of time than to stretch out the tribulation that has been going on for millennia? The point of issue comes, to the extent that there begins to be the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, but on earth too—a Spiritual Heavenly Priesthood with capability in the Earth. There always has been a Spiritual Priesthood; unfortunately for a long time they have had no capability on earth, or very little.
Now that capability may begin to emerge on earth because there are some human souls available for the purpose, some of them here. And so there is this design which I have put on the board, and it is obviously a design. There are some specific requirements with respect to it. It is not just a matter of being some sort of a blazing sun in the middle of the board there, with rays going out all around. There is a design represented by this triangle here which we can look at from the standpoint of the creative process. The apex is always there, and there are two points of the base. We see this in terms of the spirit of God— Love, Truth, Life, always there. But the Heavenly Priesthood must emerge into the Earth—the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek must take form on Earth to be effective. So these two points are represented in various ways in the earthly sense—male and female, for instance.
Perhaps we may use this particular area to give focus to our consideration, recognizing that it is not limited to the male‑female pattern—positive and negative, yes, but not necessarily male‑female. We can have two men in agreement, we can have two women in agreement; there will be one rightly positive and the other negative in order to allow this design to emerge so that it becomes operable. There is a positive and a negative pole at the two points of the base of the triangle which is here. Only by reason of the fact that it is here and that we begin to assume our proper positions in it can anything begin to work. Perhaps we may have been assuming our proper positions in it to some extent unconsciously, but it had to be done either consciously or unconsciously if anything was to work at all.
Looking at it just for the moment from the standpoint of male [M] and female [F], a man is not totally male and a woman is not totally female. There are female elements in a man and male elements in a woman; if this were not so, a man and a woman could never get together; they would just come up against each other. But on this basis they can come together, they can blend. The point in the middle of the base might represent the point of union [+]. In the relationship between male and female, moving along this line, “M” is the point of dominant maleness and at the other end of the base “F" is the point of dominant femaleness. And as there is movement in toward the middle [+] it reaches a point where one might say it is fifty‑fifty; that is the point of balance and the point of union. Eve was formed out of the rib of Adam, not out of his head and not out of his foot, so that the balance is established on this horizontal line, M to F, which makes for the triangle and the correct representation of spirit.
As a balanced union on the right basis is established, that opens the door for what is represented by that line, which allows God to connect up with what is represented by that point at the apex of the secondary triangle. In this instance we might say that it allows God to connect up with the people. If we think of this provision as representing the Priesthood then we may see that God's connection with the people is established thereby.
There is the Heavenly Priesthood and the Earthly Priesthood—properly one. They are one in the individual whether male or female, but we also may recognize that in the Collective Body of the Priesthood there is representation just as may be seen with respect to male and female. There is the representation of the Heavenly Priesthood and there is the representation of the Earthly Priesthood. The dominant responsibility of some relates to the Heavenly Priesthood; the dominant responsibility of others relates to the Earthly Priesthood. When you put the whole Priesthood together there is just One Priesthood, established at the point of balance, the point of union. So we could say that the Heavenly Priesthood would be here at this point [M]and the Earthly Priesthood at that point [F]. However that does not mean that all the Heavenly Priesthood are men and all the Earthly Priesthood are women. There are men and women at each end of the design in this regard. But we may see with respect to male and female that at that point of union in the middle of the line [+] where there is an exact balance, there is the experience of—how would we describe it?—lightning coming out of the east and shining even unto the west, an instantaneous connection made by which the creative purposes of God are served.
I am presenting generalized principles relating to the correct function in this particular area we are considering now between male and female, so that there may be provided what is necessary to allow God and His people to come together, be brought together by reason of this line here. And you will note that here is a balanced cross [+], not a cross of crucifixion but a Cross of Christ, a Cross of Shekinah, the Cross of Life. And it stands upon the earth, the point which relates to [E] the people. Now, from the standpoint of the individual male‑female function, this point reaches into the people in a specific sense rightly. There is a point of contact, in other words; it is not just a generalized thing. A couple who is working correctly together will allow something to come to point in that regard, in the creative field of service. Something comes to point, and on the basis of union the connection is made between God and that point; the creative power of God is released; the outpouring of the spirit is established.
I am speaking at the moment in generalized terms because we are dealing with a very complex field, but we have to understand what it is that is taking place, become aware of the reality that is occurring, if we are to be of value in playing our parts in whatever it is that is right and proper in our field of service. You need to see it in its broader terms, not just try to narrow it down to the male‑female thing. Don't try to figure anything out, but see that this represents a great variety of combinations which all are essential if the restoration is to occur, the restoration which brings God and His people together. This can't be achieved without the Priesthood. And so you are participating in the process by which you may become aware of what the nature of the responsibility is that is held by the Priesthood.
As I was doing a little thinking earlier this morning, I wrote down these few words: “Events upon the earthly scene occur by reason of the sound of the heavenly trumpet behind the scene. The world trembles, either to obey that sound in awakening response or to collapse because of opposition. The sound of the trumpet intensifies on earth because of those who awaken to obey.” Human beings are inclined to imagine that they themselves originate their experiences. It certainly is true that human attitudes condition the nature of what is experienced, but human attitudes themselves result from their reaction to what is happening behind the worldly scene of events. We are gathered here this morning because it is our desire to continue to awaken to the sound of the trumpet behind the scene.
Awakening is not an instantaneous experience. We may open our eyes in a moment and survey the scene, but this does not mean that we understand what we see or that we are capable, as yet, of playing our parts in the scene. We should not imagine that the mere fact of new vision is sufficient. There have been all too many schools of thought in the world which have come into existence because someone had a new vision. They have come into existence regardless of whether the vision was accurate or not and regardless of whether that vision had engendered any actual experience or not. Experience should follow vision. If we just have vision, and assume that that is enough, our behavior remains very much the same and will be consequent upon a habitual and uncomprehending reaction to what is happening behind the scene.
I’m reminded of rather a familiar story out of the Bible, relating to an event in the life of Abraham. This is from the eighteenth chapter of Genesis: “And the Lord appeared unto him [that is, Abraham] in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground.”
Most people find themselves sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. When it is hot a person is inclined to be somewhat lethargic, and a siesta seems better than action. And so, the tent door is occupied, and what should be experienced in living is not. In this instance Abraham became aware of the approach of these three men, the approach of the Lord, in fact. He did not stay nodding in the tent door; he sprang immediately to his feet and ran to meet the Lord. He woke up, in other words, from his siesta and immediately assumed the responsibility of providing the necessary answer, by reason of the approach of the Lord.
We have seen how the usual human attitude is to try to get something from the Lord, whether a person is considering the Lord from a religious standpoint or whether he is considering the Lord from the standpoint of what he can get from one of his fellows. The idea of the Lord may never enter a person’s consciousness, but the usual human attitude is certainly one of trying to get something—out of life, perhaps, but this entails getting something out of other people or one’s environment in some fashion. If the approach is a religious one, then so-called prayer enters the picture and demands are liable to be made upon the Lord, whereas true prayer is just the reverse.
We hear the sound of the trumpet and we tremble to answer, to obey. The attitude of trembling, in this instance, indicates a certain alertness; not trembling because of fear, but trembling because we are alive and quick to obey. The very sounding of the trumpet is a welcome sound and the vibration of it is felt in our own beings, so that we tremble in response. That trumpet is sounding all the time everywhere; insofar as we individually are concerned it is sounding exactly where we are. There is fear and uncertainty in the hearts of human beings because of this sounding; and because of the fear various attitudes and actions are engendered. But if there is a delighted response something else occurs in the individual’s experience. Is there a delighted response in our hearts, in fact?
We can observe a considerable shaking going on in the world. Observing these effects all around us, near and far, does this produce any sense of fear or depression? Do these things bother us as we wonder at what is coming in the earth? Or is the trembling that we feel cause for a sense of delighted expectation? Which way is it with us? And not only in a general sense but when things come to point more specifically, day by day. So often the human reaction is, “Why does this have to happen to me?” Why do you think? Do you not have any responsibility in the matter? No, we get what’s coming to us—usually somewhat modified, most fortunately. How many of you, being really honest, would want to receive exactly what’s coming to you?
There is an influence of mercy at work, or I doubt if the human race would have continued to exist at all. I don’t think that we really have any cause for complaint. We get what we ask for, even though most of our asking may be of a nature that is unconscious to us. We ask on the basis of our habitual attitudes and we receive accordingly. Then, being illogical and uncomprehending, we complain about it.
When we sense the trembling within ourselves, how do we translate it? As fear, so that we feel under the necessity of striking out in word or action against what we conceive to be the enemy? Are we hemmed in and surrounded by the enemy? Do we tremble in consequence? Is this the way that we translate our trembling? We needn’t translate it that way, because if we suppose that we are besieged by the enemy we delude ourselves.
We can translate the trembling differently—a sense of excitement, indeed, which comes by reason of our response to the sound of the heavenly trumpet. Then the heavenly trumpet, the sound of it, is what might be described as the day of resurrection. Might not that be an exciting prospect?—for where the trembling inspires to obedience, salvation is at hand. When the trembling produces fear, perdition is at hand. But we are capable of making a choice; there is a trembling in the land, a trembling in human hearts—rightly so.
As the sound of the trumpet comes louder, the trembling increases as we sit in the tent door in the heat of the day. Do we awaken with excitement and delighted anticipation of the opportunity that is before us to run to meet the Lord, to run to meet the source of the sounding of the trumpet? What a delight this may indeed be, that we may come to life; no longer dozing in the tent door, no longer lethargic, subject to human patterns of behavior, expecting merely to retire into the tent eventually and vanish from the scene of things. Shall we live or die? We live when the sound of the trumpet, the trembling within our hearts, inspires excited and delighted response, so that we run forth from the tent door, leaving behind our lethargic habits and leaping once again in the true experience of life, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/05/let-my-beloved-come-into-his-garden.html] doing this because it is natural to us to answer the Lord, but not to try to get an answer from Him, whatever form we may think He takes.
There are certainly a variety of forms from which human beings anticipate getting answers. It is not a matter of trying to get answers; it is a matter of being the answer in response to the sounding of the trumpet, to rise up from our lethargy, from the state of what we have called living—which was really dying in the tent door—leaving behind that old state of lethargy and habit based in earthly heredity and offering ourselves to a new state of experience in living. We can’t have it both ways; we can’t maintain the old and know the new; and yet human beings seem to be enamored at least with certain aspects of their old state of living—which was really dying—so that they are extremely reluctant to let them go. Consequently they stay sitting in the tent door all the days of their existence on earth, until they fall backwards into the oblivion and the darkness of the tent. What is to be gained by sitting in the tent door? The tent door represents the state of human existence.
Sitting somnolent in the tent door, one may delude oneself that one is engaging in exciting activity in the dreams that occur, or one may be horrified by what goes on in the nightmares; but all this is part of what is known as long as a person sits in the tent door. The point of awakening would be the point where one stopped dreaming. One awakens to the sound of the trumpet and obeys, then one comes out of the tent door forward instead of backward. One may run to meet the Lord now. What do you see now? That’s the question!
Hearing the sound of the trumpet and trembling to obey, are you willing to rise up and run to meet the Lord? Running to meet the Lord is to allow the sound of the trumpet to inspire one’s living. So, in effect, you say to the Lord, “Here I am.” This is the truth of living. This is not what most people do, is it? They sit miserable in the tent door, dying, and demanding help from somewhere. The whole attitude in the tent door is one of demand. Everybody has their demands.
The Word of the Lord out of the whirlwind, out of the sound of the trumpet, is this: “I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” If you answer, then you live; if you refuse to answer, then you die; because the sound of the trumpet is in this sense the demand of the Lord. If you oppose that sound, trembling with fear and acting irrationally in your dreams, you will fall backwards into the tent. But if, hearing the sound of the trumpet, you do not translate it in terms of fear but rather in terms of a desire to obey, you will run to meet the Lord and you will discover what it means to live. Living is now or not at all; and living begins to be known when a person stirs out of his slumbers in the tent door, beholding the opportunity to spring up and run to meet the Lord.
When trembling is translated in these terms, then new vision appears; there is a new awareness. But if you stay sitting in the tent door, gazing out upon this new awareness of the Lord, the heat of the day will shortly lure you back into slumber. You must get up! How usual it is for human beings to remain seated in the tent door, just looking at the vision, unmoved to any action. They think they see something. They may say “Now I’m saved” or “Now I’ve arrived” or “Now I understand,” but it’s all still illusion, because until a person starts to move, to get up, he remains at least partially asleep and what he begins to see that is new is through the eyes of his dreaming.
We must awaken and stand up—not only stand up but begin to run with great enthusiasm toward the experience of what is seen. And when we begin to experience what is seen, our vision will change and we will discover that it is not what we first thought it to be. But if we accept what we first saw as though it were the truth, we will be stuck with an evil imagination. Only when we move, so that what we have seen is translated into action, do we approach the point where we may understand what we have seen.
Obviously, if you see something afar off and just stay sitting, squinting at what you think you see, you will not really know what it is. But if you actually get to your feet and move toward what you think you see, it will change as you approach. So the vision is renewed by reason of action, by reason of what is done. But one cannot move toward a comprehension of what is seen if one stays in the tent door, if one stays wedded to one’s old attitudes, one’s old habits, one’s old behavior. The new comes when we rise up out of the old, because we are willing to let it all go. Perhaps we do not let it all go in a moment but we must be willing ultimately to let it all go. If one is to awaken from the dream state, the dream state all must go—all of the dream, not just the most offensive parts of it. We can’t keep the choice elements of the dream and wake up at the same time. Let your dreams go and awake.
Run forward from the tent door into the experience and the expression of the newness of the vision. And behold, all things are indeed made new! Tremble to obey. Rise up and come forth at the sound of the trumpet, for I demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Lillian Cecil — Martin, it’s the sound of the trumpet and I rise up! I just can’t sit here physically anymore. I don’t know about anybody else. [All rose.] You keep saying “Stand up!” and I say, “Well, I’ve got to sit here; I’ve got to be polite.” Praise the Lord, Martin, because this is it! We’ve got to rise up to run to meet the Lord, and you can’t rise up when you’re sitting. You can’t run if you just sit there. You’ve got to rise up. This is the thing. To do what’s necessary in the very moment of now, not in half an hour from now, or some other time. It’s just right now, and I praise the Lord for the fact that the Lord is present through you.
Grace Van Duzen — And I praise the Lord too, and I shout Aumen. I think if there was room to run, Martin, we’d have run.
Martin Cecil — Well, perhaps you can resume your seats without falling backwards into the tent. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/i-am-come-into-my-garden-martin-cecil.html] I will demand of thee, and answer thou me—not only in this moment while we are together sharing the sound of the trumpet but because we are alert and aware to that sound in each moment of our living. And when we are, as the old behavior and the old habits seek to reassert themselves, to maintain our somnolent position in the door of the tent, we remember what we are about—to run into the new expression, into the new experience, to let our vision become the reality of our living, that the reality of our living may acquaint us with greater vision, and the greater vision, in turn, become the reality of our greater living. And so it goes, to the Glory of God, and to the blessing of all those who tremble to obey.
Out of the nowhere of the dimensionless state comes the differentiation of the sound of the trumpet in the dimensional state, in the now here of the dimensional state. That sound is generated first in the mouthpiece of the trumpet, and the vibration is taken up by the air contained in the whole trumpet and by the trumpet itself. This portrayal indicates a oneness, first of all between the trumpeter and the trumpet; and then the oneness between the air, the substance in the trumpet, the trumpet itself, and the sound that is being propagated—a total oneness initiated by the LORD and reproduced in the world of form. All of you here, I'm sure, recognize your responsibilities in these matters, and how what transpires is not just a little thing in a corner of the world but it is something that affects the whole world. Here we have the creative power of God once more in action in a specific, controlled sense, beginning to restore dominion, the dominion of God on earth.
We noted this morning the various levels of consciousness, or what have also been described as planes of being, in the dimensional realm. Reference was made to the six planes, the six levels of consciousness, composing what has been called heaven and earth—the Triune Heaven and the Triune Earth. The seventh level might be referred to as the Heaven of Heavens. It constitutes the connecting point between the dimensional world and the dimensionless world.
Insofar as this world is concerned, the One who stands at the apex we speak of as the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. He provides the point of focus in the Heaven of Heavens, both for the dimensional realm of this world and the dimensionless realm of this world. What exactly that means is not likely immediately to be understood, but something can be recognized in principle.
It has before been noted that while we speak of the dimensionless world it is only dimensionless from the standpoint of what we understand as dimensional. In this dimensional world we recognize dimensions. Those dimensions are limited to the world of space and time. Here may be seen a rather restricted state. However, from the standpoint of what from the dimensional world view is dimensionless, that dimensionless world to itself has dimension. It isn't at all comparable to a vague gaseous state. Utilizing the words Heaven of Heavens, we may see that this also refers to the dimensionless world. The seventh level of consciousness as it may be seen from the dimensional state also spills over, so to speak, into the dimensionless state; and whatever is contained in that world is related to the Heaven of Heavens.
There are many schools of thought and philosophical concepts which involve ideas about heavenly hierarchies, invisible masters. Sometimes they are so prolifically multiplied that the One who might be referred to as Jesus is pretty well lost in the shuffle. But the fact of the matter is that there is an apex point for this world. That apex point provides the focalization not only for the dimensional realm of this world but for the dimensionless realm of this world. We are concerned, obviously, with the dimensional realm of this world; so the only One in any possible hierarchy with whom there needs to be any concern is the One we refer to as the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings.
What occurs in the dimensionless state will take care of itself, no doubt; we can't do anything about it anyhow. But we are responsible in this dimensional realm of this world. If we are to consider any hierarchy, it would be in the dimensional world; in other words it would be apparent by reason of human beings. If there is involvement with supposed spiritual hierarchies, separate somehow from human beings, a person will become lost in a realm of imagination, because there is no means whatsoever by which there might be penetration into the dimensionless state. Our point of contact with the dimensionless state of this world is through the LORD of Lords, the only One with whom we need to be concerned. By the same token, the contact from the dimensionless state with the dimensional world is through Him also. So we can sweep out the cupboards, disposing of imaginary hierarchies. The Roman Catholic Church tended to become involved with such things, proliferating saints and such—the Virgin Mary and others—constituting a religious realm of imagination.
So we simply acknowledge the apex point by which Almighty God is brought to focus for this world in the LORD of Lords, being unconcerned for anyone else in some supposed invisible hierarchy. There may be an invisible hierarchy in the dimensionless state, but that at the moment is none of our business. Our business is here in the dimensional world, under the dominion of the LORD of Lords at the apex point of the Heaven of Heavens. We are indeed very much concerned with Him. Using our analogy of this morning, He is the Trumpeter. He sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. His angels are essential to the great sound of the trumpet. They're not separate from the great sound of the trumpet, as though in some distant heaven the trumpet was sounded and the angels marched forth. It is the coming of the angels, the differentiated expression of life in this dimensional world, that brings with it the sound of the trumpet. That sound originates in the LORD of Lords, but it becomes sound as we know it, differentiated into expression, by reason of the trumpet which He is quite capable of playing.
It is the sound that is differentiated in this dimensional world that has stirred that space in you which may be called sacred, so that the resonance began to be present in your hearts. To whatever degree this was so, you found yourselves impelled toward participation in the instrument in the hands of the Lord. I'm sure all of you have been made aware that you didn't move in that direction on the basis of your own conscious intention. It happened in spite of any conscious intentions you may have had. Wherever there is room within a person for the Vibratory Tone to be initiated there is a compulsion present, which may be overridden, it is true, and is by many people; but when it is sufficiently strong, because there was sufficient room for it to be so, the person is compelled to come to the LORD through the instrument of the LORD on earth. This has of course been happening. You are here to testify to the fact, and there are many more besides. In the sense of your conscious awareness you didn't come of your own volition. We may remember the word of the LORD spoken on earth: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” There are of course some who insist upon rejecting that choice, but if a person does come it is an indication that there is a yielding to the choice of the LORD.
The sound was, long ago in the record of the Old Testament, called a still small voice. It's something that occurs in the realm of stillness in the human heart. Because that realm is usually pretty small it seems like a pretty small voice. But as the instrument forms, so that this vibration is increasingly differentiated, coming into phase, the sound obviously increases and consequently is able to penetrate into areas where it was prevented before. There is the increased touching of human hearts therefore, everywhere. An increased experience of this compulsion begins to be known in human beings the world around. Geographical distance has no limiting effects upon the Tone, which is simply intensified as there is more air available and more instrument available to vibrate. Gabriel's Trump, it has been called. People have pictured in imagination an angel with a trumpet, blowing somewhere over there, wherever “there” might be, when of course we begin to see and know and experience that it is here. And if the sound is in one place on earth, it is in every place on earth.
This sound is indeed the Good News which has been called the Gospel. “And this gospel … shall be preached in all the world … and then shall the end come.” Those who have called themselves Christians have thought this meant that there should be those who sprang up on the soapbox and proceeded to tell a story based in human imagination. But the Gospel is real—it is this Tone. This is the Good News which stirs human hearts, stirs them to they know not what. It doesn't generate, rightly, any beliefs or cause a person to join this group or that. It is a still small voice which brings people into the instrument of God on earth, or to find a relationship to that instrument. All people do not compose the instrument.
We may see the trumpet as relating particularly to what we have referred to as the Priesthood. It includes more than that, but it is not intended to include all people on earth, although all people on earth must hear the Tone and respond to the Tone or perish. The dimensional state of mankind is of a very specific design, a design which is unknown to the mind of man and which cannot be grasped by the mind of man, but this design is naturally experienced by those who are drawn into phase with the Tone. Then there it is. No one had to make it be so; no one had to invent it; no one had to organize it. But it is found that there is what may well be described as organization. After all, our own physical bodies are organized. It's when they become disorganized that there is trouble. The world of mankind has been very much disorganized. It is because of this Tone that the organization may again be brought to pass. No human being is going to think it up or make it be, according to some human concept. It simply is, on the basis of the Tone.
Now this brings us back to the vital nature of this Tone—the Tone which is not consequent upon intellectual awareness of the principles of reality. The Tone is a reality and may engender an understanding of the principles of reality when the Tone activates the consciousness of the individual concerned. The Tone activates, rightly, the whole consciousness, not just a little limited space.
Human beings try to set up a design of their own making, with what was supposed to be spiritual relegated to a restricted space. This has been done very much in the religious pattern of things, particularly in Christianity, so that there was a space for spiritual things but the majority of the space was for material things, as though there was a distinction somehow. But the fact of the matter is that what are called material things are composed of the substance of consciousness just as surely as what are supposed to be spiritual things. The only distinction relates to the level of the substance of consciousness.
I have described those levels as extending from the very fine to the very coarse—different vibratory rates. And what appears in consequence of the vibratory rate is translated in consciousness to be thus and so, so that we may say, “Here is a chair.” But it actually is a structure in your consciousness, isn't it? You say that the chair is over there. Is it? Insofar as you are concerned it is in your consciousness, and you project it over there on the basis of your translation. There is no need to become all involved in obscure endeavors to understand. The point is that what you know and experience is contained in your consciousness and composes the world of your consciousness. This world is to be re-created, not in the sense that we anticipate turning this chair into something else. It's convenient as a chair; we'll leave it there.
You know, fairy stories often convey truths. In fairy stories people are changed into frogs, or what have you, and back again—a more or less simple undertaking if necessary—on the basis of the changes in consciousness. We are concerned with permitting changes in consciousness. These come because of what has been called Tone, the right Tone. Now the first evidence of that Tone emerges through the mouthpiece of the instrument. It is present already, obviously so, in the Trumpeter, in the LORD. He knows what He is going to generate. But what He knows in the dimensionless realm is unknown in the dimensional realm until it is generated there, and it is generated there through the consciousness of those who compose the essential instrument. And it is generated in a particular way.
In the world as we know it a trumpeter who wished to play the trumpet would need to have a trumpet of the required design, with all its parts, including the mouthpiece. He wouldn't, for instance, say, “I don't think I'm going to need a mouthpiece, so I'll just throw that into the wastepaper basket and play this trumpet without a mouthpiece.” He wouldn't anticipate that it could ever be played without a mouthpiece. That would be foolishness, wouldn't it? And yet this, it seems to me, has something to do with what is called focalization. There have been those who always want to throw away the mouthpiece, the means by which the Tone is set. If there is to be the right Tone in the trumpet, of which the individual may be a part, the mouthpiece must be in place. This is the only way that the Tone can be produced. The mouthpiece must be in place, connected to the rest of the trumpet. The mouthpiece is the link between the Trumpeter and the trumpet. The trumpet as a whole is a link between the Trumpeter and the audience. One can carry it further actually. If the audience is moved by the Tone of the trumpet then the trumpet and the audience are the connection between the Trumpeter and the rest of the world, however far that may extend.
The vibration is set in the mouthpiece. If there is a sour note in the mouthpiece, of course there will be a sour note in the trumpet. However, the responsibility for the note belongs to the Trumpeter, not to the trumpet. The particular Tone that is to be generated is to be generated by the Will of the Trumpeter. We speak about God's Will. “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” But whatever the Tone actually is in the mouthpiece, in its initial generation, must be picked up as it actually is by the substance of consciousness in the rest of the trumpet. Now we have a little different state of affairs insofar as this living instrument is concerned. A trumpet, in the ordinary way, has no choice but to produce what the trumpeter determines. However here is a living consciousness, a living trumpet, which may have other ideas. The necessity is to find that attunement with the original Tone which will allow that original Tone to be generated and regenerated throughout the whole trumpet, everything coming into phase accurately.
Obviously this requires that those concerned begin to neglect their own notes, their own noises, which have seemed to be so important and to be required to maintain individuality. Human individuality in the world the way it now is, is maintained by playing sour notes, clashing notes of some kind, without regard to any True Tone. And the individual is inclined to imagine that his importance is based in his continued strong maintenance of the particular sour note which composes his individuality, as he thinks of it. But that isn't individuality; that's just simply a sour note. And people trying to do their thing is exactly that—multiplication of sour notes. It seems that some nowadays think there is something new about trying to do one's thing, but everybody has been trying to do their thing for ages past; and the result has been chaotic noise. So there must be a willingness to relinquish one's thing in this sense. That thing, anyway, is the end result of heredity and environmental experience. There's nothing very new about it; there's nothing truly very individual about it. It's just a rehash of sour notes which have been played all down through the ages. And that sort of rackety sound becomes very boring, to say the least, very tiresome indeed. Of course many people just get used to it.
I suppose it's not surprising that there is tone deafness because of all the racket. There is physical deafness multiplying in the world today because of all the racket in the sense of physical noise. But this vibrational noise has certainly engendered deafness with respect to the True Tone. However there must be some space, even though it is very little, present in which the Tone may reverberate, if the individual is still alive. If it's too small, the sound is too small, the voice is too small, the individual never really hears it. Well we can correct that to some degree by intensifying the sound, by making the Tone louder. And then it can be heard even though the space is quite small, and something begins to happen in people who before completely ignored the presence of any Tone at all.
So we are very much concerned with intensifying the Tone because of this, but we need to know first what the Tone is. And we can't know what the Tone is if we are busy blowing our own trumpets, so to speak. That human ego, again, gets in the way. It wants to have its own way, and if it does give consideration to the possibility of a trumpet and a True Tone, it wants to be where it wants to be in the trumpet, for one thing, and it wants to adjust the Tone just a little so as to make sure that something of the old sour note is maintained—something of the old individuality, the self-important human ego.
All that can go without mourning as we respond to the True Tone because we are concerned to discover what that True Tone is. And as I say, we do not discover what that True Tone is merely by studying the principles of reality. This is the Tone of Life itself, a Tone which, when it begins to sound so that it can be clearly heard, will never allow a person to veer very far from that Tone, because immediately there is deviation the sour note becomes so apparent that the sole concern then is to get back in tune. But if a person doesn't really know what that Tone is he stumbles around producing more noise.
So the real concern in those who are to compose the instrument is to become increasingly aware of the nature of that Tone as it may be found in the mouthpiece. That's where it first is, and then it may be extended, through the mouthpiece, further afield so that it is easier for others to connect up with it—because, after all, everybody is not right up against the mouthpiece. The whole of the trumpet is not connected to the mouthpiece, just part of it—and the parts are connected to the parts are connected to the parts. But the Tone totally stems, absolutely stems, from the mouthpiece. There is no other way. This is the way it works. This is the way it works in an ordinary trumpet! This is the way it works in Gabriel's Trumpet. So we need to be alert to the nature of that Tone, so that we will become so familiar with it that anything that is off-key is immediately discerned. That Tone has to be clear in consciousness if this is to be so. If it's a blurred Tone, well we can wander around quite a bit and never know the difference. But those who are aware of the True Tone always know the difference.
Sometimes a person will want to have an explanation as to what's wrong in his own particular function. He's so sure that what he's doing is right. How could it be explained? The only way the individual could find out would be to allow the True Tone to be generated in his own experience. Then he knows. I'm sure that you, having made some progress toward the experience of the True Tone, can look back and see how gauche you were in times past. You may be even a little embarrassed by some of the things you did or said. Well that may deflate the ego a little, and that's all right, but remember that the same thing is true now at the level where you are. Don't imagine that you have yet found an entirely accurate attunement with the True Tone. That's yet to come, and it will come to the extent that you are interested that it should. If you're not interested that it should, because you are so concerned to continue in your own ways, without regard to the True Tone, then you'll never know it. And no explanation will bring it to you. It isn't a matter of explanation, ever. It's a matter of experience, to find again attunement with the True Tone.
Those who are concerned that this should be so will be those who find it. The seekers find, but they need to know what it is they should be seeking—the True Tone, the Tone which is made evident initially in the mouthpiece. And as it expands through the trumpet it becomes more and more apparent, more and more evident, more and more easily discerned, more and more understood, more and more experienced, and the opportunity is extended to others likewise. Then the blast finally becomes so great that it awakens those who may be awakened and disposes of those who cannot be awakened. All things are thereby made new.
In this our experience this evening there has been something of the essential Tone made evident. Now the Tone is not merely made evident through words. It is made evident, if it is made evident, through what is totally present. Words may be a part of it, but those words can mean very little unless the Tone is present by reason of living. If a Tone has been touched in this service this evening, it could not have been so if I'd only come up here and spoken words. If it is so, it is because what comes to focus in the words is gathered from the experience of living. This is what permits the Tone to be generated. We can bandy words, but it's another thing to live and to experience the true nature of the Tone consequently. That's the only way it can be found.
So in some measure the Tone has been present this evening and been touched, or has touched you, to the extent that there was space in you for the touching. And to that extent the sound has been intensified, and to that extent what we have sometimes called radiation has gone forth, gone forth into the consciousness wherever there was space in mankind. So to this extent we play a part in letting the Gospel be preached in all the world. Let us continue to move together in harmony with the True Tone.
