|
THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH
THE ZODIAC MESSAGES
" CHARITY "
-
"FATHER, we commend ourselves to Thee tonight,
and we ask Thee to so draw in all Thy little children,
that they may feel the effect of the world and its
disharmony no more.
-
"Father of Love, we are indeed in want of Thy
most tender consideration - of that understanding and
uplifting power which Thou ever pourest out upon those
who stand in need. And we ask Thee to give tonight
- over and above that which Thou hast given always,
so willingly and so graciously, to this little gathering
- to those who are seeking to pierce beyond the shadows
of the earth-life, and to enter into something of the
Light of the Spirit.
-
"O God, we know that Thou judgest not; we know
the realisation is Thine own - that to those who have
sought to undertake the task of entering into the Great
Beyond - that Thou knowest the way is difficult, that
many enemies beset the path. But even as Thou hast
promised, to all pilgrims who would seek and find Thee
the protection is complete - complete in that far-reaching
way which neither we, nor those on earth, can fully
comprehend. Yet, Saviour Christ, we see on all sides
Thy infinite Love, Thy over-seeing care, Thy unlimited
patience which never fails and never changes.
-
"Help us tonight to go one step forward; help
us also to forget the past, to allow the old wounds
to heal up, to endeavour - yes, and with Thy aid to
accomplish that which Thou hast entreated; to live
under the Light of Thy countenance; when darkness,
and all the real and imaginary horrors it holds, will
be forgotten banished from memory for evermore.
-
"Tonight then, once again we hand ourselves over
into Thy charge; just as little children approaching
a loved and most loving Father; and we are certain
that Thou wilt help us, will strengthen us and will
give us that vision - the absence of which makes so
terrible a difference to those who wish to climb, who
wish to see the Glory which is Beyond.
-
"Thanking Thee, O Father, we commence our work
- thanking Thee that Thou hast made this possible,
and that this good gift shall not be taken away, because
the price has been paid in full. Amen.
-
"Well, my children, I am very happy to be here
again with you, and if some of you think that I have
inclination to scold then I would banish that thought
at once.
-
"You see, my little ones, you are my children
and your sorrows are my sorrows, your sadnesses my
sadnesses too, and so if I begin to scold, then, I
must scold myself as well.
-
"My dear children, the whole trouble has come
about because you understand so little about love;
indeed, on going back on your lives, love is represented
to you as something closely connected with disillusionment
and disappointment and, in some cases, anguish too
deep for words. Love has not been presented to any
of you as it is God's will.
-
"It is a very terrible thing to us - who see on
all sides such evidence of gigantic love - to realize
that those who are indeed of our heart have never been
permitted, during their physical existence, to see
even the outer garments of that which is glorious within.
Therefore, dear ones, how can I blame you, how can
I scold you because you fail to grasp my love, and,
worst of all, that perfect love which the Father has
given to each one and which never, under any circumstances
whatever, will be taken from you!
-
"I know, dear children, it is like talking to
you in an unknown language to dilate upon the Father's
love for you, individually. Theoretically, you know
it and admit it, but the facts of your physical experiences
seem to show the other side of the shield so plainly
that the imagination fails in the task of realizing
that that shield is bright and clear and shining if
you had but the strength to turn it.
-
"I want to get this quite clear; I want you to
understand God's side as much as you can, and I want
you to be able to speak to others, who have chosen
the hard and rough road, with certainty and with conviction.
-
"Love, dear children, is a very beautiful thing.
It has so much power and strength and vitality in it.
And those who have only been confronted with selfish
love - I use that phrase in the earth sense but, of
course, that word 'love' is desecrated by such a connection
- but those who have come only into touch with that
twisted, malformed, hideous misrepresentation of love
are to be pitied indeed - pitied with that complete
understanding which turns the pity into the sympathy
which is Divine.
-
"My children, there is so much to be brought in
in connection with love - of the brightening of life,
of the sunshine and the flowers which are all allied
to that condition - but I refrain. You have first to
grasp this one important fact: That love knows no change,
that it changes not when others alter, it retreats
not one step when those who would come in between have
been successful - in the sense that they have blocked
out the memory of the love which is your own.
-
"I feel, dear children, that in speaking thus
perhaps I have overdrawn the picture. What has happened
is simply this: That the enemies of the body, working
on the mind, have, as it were, built up a little wall
around some of the children, and this being of a resisting
nature, unfortunately, kept out some of the love and
comfort which we were endeavouring to get through to
them. Yes, it is nothing more than that, and now I
have dispelled that wall I can say, with so much happiness,
that the only damage has been to that unity between
mind and spirit, which is absolutely essential if happiness
- relative happiness - is to be your own. I am glad
we have worked through thus far, and I want you to
understand this glorious fact: That because you are
my children (Zodiac Circle), because we have worked and suffered together for
so long, there is nothing strong enough to do more
then erect a temporary barrier between our love and
understanding; and this love and understanding is going
to expand, is going to assume such proportions that,
in the near future, these enemies will retreat, knowing
that we are stronger than them all.
-
"My children, I have taken up a little time over
the explanation, but, indirectly, it is part and parcel
of the subject I wish to discuss with you this evening
- which is in regard to the acquirement of that greatest
gift of all which, for the want of a better name, has
been given as 'Charity'.
-
"If you turn to your Scriptures you will find
that charity, or love - it matters not what you call
it - you will find that this quality holds chief place.
Other gifts are enumerated but they are all classed
as secondary to that great gift of charity.
-
"You will recollect that one inspired by God said
in a most decisive way, that if he had all knowledge,
all faith and yet had not charity he was nothing. And
that statement and its immense implication has caused
considerable thought in the minds of students of the
Holy Word, and so tonight I think I will give you in
miniature, the spiritual view and the interpretation
which I ask you to put upon these words in future.
-
"From the outside it would seem unjust that the
acquirement of so much, so many gifts and qualities
- all denoting effort and concentration - that these
should be swept aside, should be powerless to stand
alone in the absence of that thing called 'charity'.
And I can understand that, to the reader, the thought
must come that there is some discrepancy, some miscarriage
of that perfect justice which all like to associate
with the things which are of God.
-
"Yet dear children, looked at with the eyes of
the Spirit it is absolutely clear, perfectly reasonable
and, once the Life Beyond is understood, the only thing
that could be.
-
"I take you back to this: There have been many
who have travelled far and wide, in a physical sense,
exploring this little world of yours; and also, to
a greater extent, there are those who have roamed from
the east to the west and from the north to the south,
mentally. I do not say 'imagination' because in this
connection it is somewhat out of place, remembering
the explanation I gave you of imagination a little
while ago.
-
"Children, in these travels much can be acquired,
many useful tools, much that is gain both to themselves
and to others. It is agreed that to travel is an education
in itself; and whether that travelling is of the mind
alone, or of the mind and body, it does not alter the
truth of the statement that to travel is an education
in itself.
-
"Yet I must say this: That there is the education
of the mind and there is the education of the soul,
and they do not always march hand in hand. You see,
dear children, when the body is laid aside, sympathy
- that capacity for putting yourself in the place of
another, of, as it were, being able to get inside the
vibrations of their life and of their thought - this
is essential before you can be used to work for God
in a way which will count.
-
"Do you understand? Cannot you see what he who
loved God was trying to convey? And I would like to
add here that those who speak under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit are not able, always, to take in
the full meaning of what they prophecy or teach. The
physical mind is the barrier. The Spirit of God, using
the instrument of the physical mind for the time being,
is able to push aside its borders and barriers and
to get through that which dawns upon the speaker but
gradually in the days to come. You will find this has
been worked out in a very comprehensive way in regard
to these sacred evenings - to the Message which I am
trying to give; to the Light of God which I am trying
to reflect to those who will pause and heed.
-
"But let me get back. You see, when Paul said:
'...Though I have the gift of prophecy...all knowledge...all
faith, and have not charity, I am nothing', he was
referring to love - that love which understands; that
sympathy without which love is but half itself; that
ability to place oneself in the position of others
and, by that wide charity, not to judge but to help
them.
-
"You have been told that the physical mind is
laid aside with the physical body; and some of those
who have acquired much learning during their earthly
sojourn are appalled when they come here to see the
knowledge which must be their own before they too can
be used by God to help and to raise.
-
"Dear children, it has been said by some that
'life is what you make it', and I should like to say
that this is true in a far greater sense than the mind
of man can grasp; but, on the other hand, it is a very
dangerous thing for anyone to say who is without that
precious protection of sympathy.
-
"In the first place, life is indeed what each
one has made it. It is the spirit's choice; it is the
deep consideration of that bigger, nobler self within,
who lays down the path which must be trodden during
the time the body is worn. And here, dear children,
I should like to tell you what is so common a thing,
and what you will find it rather hard to understand...During
the day many are hard-pressed by physical conditions,
and the weariness grows so great that they pray God
that their burdens may be taken from them; yet the
weeks go on and, apparently, their prayers are unanswered.
-
"Children, do you know what happens during the
sleep state? I tell it to you because it applies to
you as well as to those harassed ones...The spirit,
being imbued with love for God, seeing the future -
the glorious possibilities of that future - that spirit,
free from the body which would retard, implores us
and implores God that the burden should not be removed.
My little children, if you could hear yourselves it
would silence those questions of the physical mind
for ever. It is as this: Free from the body, you limit
us as to the help we are to give in the day to follow;
and, as I have told you before, we dare not interfere
with free-will, with the quest of the spirit, with
its aspirations to that which is of God.
-
"This, dear children, is not fancy, it is fact:
that not only are we commanded by you to stand aside,
but also the Saviour, the Compassionate Father is asked
to do so as well. Yet, dear children, I must add this:
Because the Father is Love, Divine, unlimited, unceasing,
there are times when He says to the strong spirit:
'This is enough', and He protects, He lifts out, ignoring
- yes, sometimes, dear children, ignoring the bravery
of that which is Divine within His children. The Father's
Heart is unable to watch them suffer so and, just as
you would with your own, He takes on the burden Himself
so that that which is so weak, and yet so strong, may
take a well-earned rest.
-
"That is one side of the statement that 'life
is what you make it', and it is a beautiful thought
- a thought which should hearten you in contemplating
the sorrows of others - but only to the extent that
you know the spirit within will not be gainsayed, that
the spirit within defies suffering, sorrow and the
blows of physical life, because it's love for God dominates
it through and through.
-
"Then, dear children, I turn to the earth aspect,
which is unlovely, in many cases, because self obtrudes
in a definite manner.
-
"There are those who are well-placed - so far
as material conditions are concerned - who are apt
to dismiss, in a very careless way indeed, the troubles,
the perplexities and the anxieties of others. The phrase
comes up again and again: 'Life is what you make it',
and the inference is that these misfortunes are their
own fault - are the result of something which is lacking
in themselves.
-
"And while, dear children, I have to admit that
many misfortunes are self-inflicted - inflicted by
that lesser self - yet I should be denying the working
of the Spirit of God amongst humanity if I allowed
you to think for one second that those who are in dire
trouble, those who are experiencing the bitter pangs
of want - if I allowed you to think that this is the
result of their own weakness when I know it is the
direct result of their strength.
-
"That is a point I want to drive home: Say not
lightly - I speak to all - that this or that one's
lot is self-created, in the sense that it is the harvest
of the sowing of mistakes. It is a terrible thought
to us that there should be quite a number who throw
off responsibility, both of thought and of action,
in this way.
-
"This is what awaits them: When they come here
they will have ample opportunity of proving the truth
of the statement that life is what you make it because,
as I have tried to explain before, the long road of
experience is not escaped by any, and those who have
never worked until the body was aching and breaking,
those who have not gone through the sharp pangs of
physical suffering, those who have evaded those destructive
enemies of poverty and partial starvation - these,
when the body is laid aside, will have to come back
(as a spirit and accompany those in the flesh) and go through, with thoroughness indeed, each pang
which these experiences bring. It is the only way of
teaching the self-centred. It is not that earth-born
craving to 'let others go through what you have suffered
yourself', but it is the necessary preparation for
progress, the only means for providing those essential
tools of service, without which joy in the Spirit is
incomplete indeed.
-
"I want you to get this quite clear. In regard
to sympathy, it should be developed with determination
and concentration. The mere fact that, instinctively,
you feel sympathetic over a certain case means, dear
children, that before you took on the physical body
you had passed through that same experience and now
you know what it is like - the physical mind, to a
certain extent, blurring the remembrance, it is true.
-
"On the other hand, those who are unable to enter
into the lives of others shows quite clearly that these
particular experiences have not yet been made their
own, and they lie in front.
-
"We have got a little away from Charity, you may
think, but in order to express my meaning I had to
show you that, after all, we have come back to the
point from which we started.
-
"It is summed up in this: That 'exclusiveness'
has got to go, either in this world or in the many
worlds beyond - that sense of exclusiveness has got
to be lost - has got to be fought and killed.
-
"You see, dear children, as you have been told
before, in order to construct, in order to help, you
must first be able to get inside the vibrations of
the object. This applies, more than anything else,
to the lives of your brothers and sisters who are going
through their physical experiences; bound to the earth
in many ways, yet the spirit functioning always in
the place where it belongs.
-
" -
Though I have all knowledge and have not charity I
am nothing
- and when the body is laid aside this is worked out
down to the last degree. In the measure that you have
understanding and sympathy for others, so is your rate
of progress; but if you have not that charity - that
love - then indeed, in a spiritual sense, you are without
anything with which to work.
-
"I want you to promise yourselves that, in addition
to those deep feelings of sympathy which go out so
readily to those who are in sore distress, you will
try and extend that sympathy in regard to the opinions,
the attitude of mind of those who are not quite in
agreement with you.
-
"This is my point - and when you are free it will
seem so clear and simple: Children, there are many
in your world who love God and who work for Christ;
and because the human mind functions in different ways,
so you get an enormous number of what you call 'sects',
and each work for God in their own particular way;
and, sad to say, amongst these sects the element of
charity is, sometimes, missing in a very noticeable
way.
-
"Once you have seen the workings of God's Mind,
as portrayed in the beauty of the spiritual conditions
which are around you all, you will marvel that anything
so trivial as a slight divergence of opinion could
ever have been strong enough to erect barriers between
children of the same Father, workers for the same Christ.
-
"And yet it is so, and much sadness comes as a
result, and the destructive forces of disharmony strike
to the right and to the left.
-
"I want you, dear children, to endeavour, in regard
to this great Truth, to over-ride any little coldness
or feelings of reserve which has sprung up between
you and those others who have not yet been able to
make this truth their own. It is difficult, I know.
One's very loyalty - the remembrance of the effort,
of the piecing together of the tiny fragments until
a very respectable machine has been set into working
order - all these thoughts are hard to fight against
when, as it seems to you, others are disinclined to
make very much effort even to find out whether your
treasure is true or false.
-
"Still, dear children, it is God's Will - it is
His most loving injunction that you should be united
in your wish to serve, if not entirely united in the
way in which you regard His truth.
-
"You were told that exclusiveness in regard to
faith has the effect of erecting formidable barriers,
even when the body was laid aside, and I would remind
you of the little incident of the worshippers who had,
in the Spirit, built up a wall - even as of Babylonia
- around them, shutting out their fellow creatures
who also had passed out of physical life.
-
"As you know, these were quite happy in their
little centre of interest on earth; they were certain
they were the only ones to the 'saved', and when they
passed out, still holding tenaciously to the conviction
that God had revealed Himself only to them, so they
were prisoners indeed; prisoners in a pleasant land
because of their wish to do the right thing, but prisoners,
shut off from the countless thousands who had long
since left the plain and who were mounting and mounting
towards the glories which have no end.
-
"I bring in this little incident as a warning
to all who are exclusive in their attitude, be it towards
their fellow creatures on earth who are less favourably
placed than themselves, or be it in regard to their
worship - their attitude towards God.
-
"Over here, dear children, exclusiveness is unknown.
In this happy land of freedom there is neither 'mine'
nor 'thine' - it is 'ours', and ours is God's; and
we see so plainly that only by unity, only by the closest
comradeship that could be conceived, is it possible
to rout and despatch the destroying forces that would
attack.
-
"Oh, I beg all who read these records to take
to heart my simple words; to be certain that in God's
sight the wish to know Him, the wish to serve Him is
all He ever asks from anyone; and if they allow barriers
or obstacles or divisions to be reared up between themselves
and those other children of the Father, in that measure
they are denying the Love which they wish to proclaim.
-
"There is no getting away from facts. Underneath
what I have said is the strong desire to impress upon
all the absolute necessity of trying to understand
the lives and points up view of others - literally
to put themselves, mentally, in the place of the other
- to consider their physical conditions, their burdens
and responsibilities, and to say to themselves: 'How
should I act if my life was the same?' If that question
is put and answered fairly, then condemnation would
be withered down to its roots.
-
" -
Though I have all knowledge and have not charity, I
am nothing
- When the body is laid aside the revelation will come
of something of the gigantic meaning which charity
represents - something of the love, something of that
compassionate understanding - and with the tool of
charity you shall work for God for evermore.
-
"Now, dear children, I will leave you. I have
spoken at length tonight because it was urgent that
this particular statement should go out as soon as
possible, in order to put the children of the earth
a little more on their guard, in order to show them
something of God's way and of that immutable rule which
is in the Spirit - of cooperation, of comradeship,
of fellowship one with the other... 'And the greatest
of these is love' - that love which some call charity,
but which means just the same to those who have God
in their hearts. And now I leave you."
©GWCSA
GIFT
Instead of having to connect to the Internet to read
the wonderfully revealing
Zodiac Messages
on this site, it is possible to have them on your computer.
A setup file installs the Messages in a folder of your
choice, and can be
given as a gift
simply by clicking
HERE. Then a message can be read at anytime giving immense
inspiration, guidance, reassurance
and
spiritual renewal.
|
|