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"Saviour Christ, into Thy hands I commend the
spirit of this Thy child...
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"I have often underlined the great privilege of
Spirit Communion and still there are those who use
the gift and forget its sacred source. But you have
been rightly taught and I know that your hearts and
minds are set upon holy things. Maybe there are times
when you fall from that high altitude of spiritual
achievement, but, sorrow fills your heart and you climb
back, by the Grace of God. You pray earnestly that
His love will fetter you to better things. In this
wise, so travellers are turned into pilgrims and pilgrims
into servants of the Most High.
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"So it has been ordained that I speak to you for
a while upon 'The Battle Between Reason and Instinct'.
If it seems to you that this subject hardly touches
on that which you love so well, then I ask that you
have patience while we think together of our equipment
and while we stretch out to grasp that glorious future
prepared for us by the One who loves us best.
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"It is commonly understood that reason is given
full place and although we realise that the earthly
mind is a precious tool it is wise to analyse the kind
of reasoning which is favoured by the majority. There
are those relying solely upon the literature of the
past and of their own time, who unless the things which
are presented from a spiritual aspect coincide with
the reasoning of the requirements of this generation,
hesitate and often neglect to take up the staff that
would allow them to travel into unknown lands.
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"You may question your powers of reasoning. I
remind you that you were meant by God to exercise the
mind of the body to the fullest extent. But the great
mistake made over the past and in the present is that
mans' reasoning seems to be fettered to material things
and to a physical representation of Reality.
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"St Paul underlined the relative importance of
things which are seen with mortal eyes and the things
which could not be seen. I want you to dwell upon this
point and exercise your reasoning faculties, not on
the material plane but as children of God and inheritors
of Eternal Life.
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"Amongst all forms of life is the precious gift
of
instinct
and as the scale is climbed so that faculty becomes
more released. Beauty and power are added to it. The
time comes when from instinct there develops
intuition
and from intuition there springs a wonderful capacity
to understand the things which are of God. It is that
Spirit Consciousness
which makes you superior to the material thought of
this material plane. Through the Divine within, it
allows you to contact the truth and to express it for
the betterment and the upraising of others.
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"Shall we then, not think about the powers of
reasoning and how man reasons about his life, how through
reason he rejects the thought of life after physical
death, and through that same desire to bring everything
down to that which can be seen, touched or contacted?
He not only gives forth a gospel of despair, but by
his attitude of mind he rules out God and His many
worlds and states beyond the physical. He ignores entirely
the
fundamental
fact that man has had life over the past ages in innumerable
worlds with changing bodies and with increased or belittled
faculties, according to the striving put forth.
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"The moment you start to pit earthly reasoning
against
Divine Truth
you find that for the most part the knowledge available
upon this plane is not only restricted but is relegated
to the infant stages of development. Yet, inspite of
material thought, inspite of the denial by certain
men and women of Divine Law operating moment by moment
in their physical lives - inspite of all this - by
the power of the Holy Spirit man is growing. Man is
extricating himself from the bondage of the past and
exercising his imagination. As his imagination is set
free from the bondage of material things, he finds
to his joy that Spirit Consciousness is not only possible
but is the next step to imagination. With true Spirit
Consciousness he is able to contact Gods' realm of
life and its multitude of miracles set into being for
man to use when he is ready and prepared to hold and
not to abuse.
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"Today you find there are those willing to make
full surrender for the faith that is within them. If
you analyse that faith you find it has many aspects,
some nobler than others, but all demonstrating the
inherent instinct
for nobility. It is
the instinct
that wages war against the thoughts impinged upon the
physical mind which would tell man that it is all waste,
that man must take and hold that which is available,
lest he lose it all.
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"Your minds are understood only in part. The little
instrument which you use seems at times to be a very
willing servant; then there are times when the mind
refuses to obey the dictates of the material self.
Through that expansion not only are heroes made but
the whole condition of the physical plane is raised
and those yet to be born upon it will be able to gather
up many spiritual flowers from once barren ground.
Through the gathering of those spiritual flowers they
will desire to sow the good seed for those who are
yet to come.
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"Consider these simple words of mine. Exercise
your powers of reasoning and realise that because God
is within you you are
not
bound by earthly circumference of thought. You are
free through the Christ within you to contact the higher
forces, to borrow by the experience gained in the sleep
state some understanding of the wonders prepared for
Gods' children as they develop. They must, by sacrifice
and service present the
true
instrument which must be there.
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"What then of the battle! It is wise to exercise
all the common sense you possess. I have underlined
again and again that common sense as shown upon the
physical plane is a pale representation of the
common sense
which must be released before you can become trusted
servants of the Most High. Here (on earth) you are
swayed by condition, by the emotions which are concerned
with the physical make-up alone. When those lesser
emotions take possession of you then you are instructed
to exercise all the common sense you can conjure and
to realise that you must become master of your emotions
and that you are here to learn to control them. Why?
Not because God demands it. But because the Christ
within is fettered in the degree to which the emotions
are allowed to dominate the good that you can accomplish.
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"Then we come to the expression of those instincts
which makes a man or woman desire the companions which
bring to him or her a sense of freedom from self. You
know that there are those who amuse your physical minds
and there are those who minister to your need. Sometimes
you are caught up in the conditions by the thoughts
cast so freely upon this plane from astral sources
and you turn with relief to those who merely amuse.
Yet as time passes, you grow impatient with yourself.
There comes an urge to be stronger, to do better.
Instinct
is instructing you that it is wise with such companions,
not to forsake them, but to exercise your own influence,
so that they may grow perchance instead of allowing
them to dwarf your own growth.
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"You are here to play your part in life which
represents co-operation in a measure hidden from the
physical consciousness now. That co-operation means
that those with the higher instincts, those with the
greatest conception of service must be leaders. All
this surely is on the lines of common sense, of reasoning that is the basis of spiritual instinct.
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"There is no war here. There is a linking up with
the power and force as intended by God the Father,
Creator of all things. But in the war between
reason
and instinct, how easily men fall into temptation. They would not
sin against the Ten Commandments, their principles,
their instincts, would abhor such a thought. Yet, by
subtle means the destructive forces are able to stem
the highest good they could accomplish. Again and again,
in miniature form you have examples of the temptations
in the willingness, the subtle reasoning voice which
suggests to an individual that by sacrifice of so little,
so much could be attained. Not necessarily for themselves,
but often for that which they cherish most, it may
be their family, for humanity, or even for Gods' work.
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"So be on your guard against reasoning voices
of subtle forces. Wage war with them by instinct, realising
that your instinct is your protection. Indeed, it is
as the ante-room leading into Spirit Consciousness
when you can no longer be deceived. Having keyed yourself
to truth you vibrate
by instinct
only to truth.
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"I may outline, but it is for you to exercise
your mental and physical faculties to fill the picture.
Do not apply what I have said only to one thing, one
person, one country or one world. But see it as a general
application and make it so much a part of your own
spiritual equipment that it becomes a habit.
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"As you take your daily way, you will find that
those wars between reason and instinct are changing
in character. Instead of reason challenging instinct
it will be that instinct will become the master of
reason. This does not mean that you should throw away
your powers of reasoning, you are learning to use them
as you must when in the Spirit conditions. Use your
reasoning powers to show the link between the subject
under consideration and that portrayed by the Master
Christ. Hold up the torch of the physical mind against
the torch shown by the Saints and martyrs. As the two
lights appear together you will realise, with great
sorrow, that your light, the light of reason, has yet
to be fed by the Power of the Holy Spirit to become
a light that shall lighten the darkened world.
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"I have come into your presence to train you for
higher things. There is not one of you who cannot develop
upon spiritual lines so effectively that when this
short physical span is over you can be found a useful
servant in those finer conditions where the work is
of a far more complicated character. There, your reasoning
has indeed to be developed to such an extent that you
are not betrayed by appearance, by words, by pictures,
by beauty.
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"In the hells of mans' own making there are those
with psychic forces who have the power to portray certain
kinds of beauty. But those with reasoning powers, released
through service upon the earth plane are not deceived.
The life of that beauty is of short duration. As they
analyse the kind of beauty it represents they will
know that it is but a manifestation of desire, mans'
desire to have. It is the craving for physical beauty,
for the soft garments that charm, for the ameliorations
which shall ease the body, craving in all distorted
forms of beauty as understood by the mind of the body.
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"So, I urge you to prepare now. So long as ever
you try to do your best your future happiness is assured.
But the moment you allow personal feelings to creep
in and mar the pattern, directly you put self in any
of its subtle forms before the Masters' work, although
you may think that you are doing your best, you will
find that your reasoning powers are faulty. When you
are in conditions of truth, reality is on either side.
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"I plead with you to do all you can to control
the physical, to manifest that
Power of Spirit
which shows that you can become master now. Not only
will you be scattering strength as you take Your daily
way, but when you are free from the flesh you will
find, to your infinite relief, that no longer does
the battle take place between reason and instinct.
You are approaching Spiritual Consciousness where miracles
can be performed by you by the Grace of God and through
His power.
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"Spread the truth far and wide. Warn those who
scatter the power on material things or material desire.
The gift of Spirit Communion is always raised higher
and still higher when your heel is placed upon the
self, then you shall experience a joy and a power and
a peace which shall express that spiritual emancipation,
at last, has been made your own.
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"In the Name of the Loving Christ I bless you
all, workers in the vineyard, tillers of the soil of
human hearts and minds."
