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THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH
THE ZODIAC MESSAGES
"GETHSEMANE"
An address given by the celestial messenger 'Zodiac',
(the unnamed scribe of the Bible and a teacher in the
Temple of Jerusalem at the time of Christ), at the
Zodiac Circle on Monday, 25th October, 1926
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"Beloved of our Hearts, we come to Thee tonight
offering that which we possess, and we ask Thee to
strengthen our faith, to enrich our understanding and
to so establish our determination that nothing of the
earth may be strong enough to intervene.
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"O God Almighty, Ruler of all powers, we lay ourselves
before Thee asking that Thou wilt renew, that Thou
wilt recharge us with the gift of the Holy Spirit,
which shall show us now and always that we are Thy
children not only by inheritance but by our desire
to forward Thy plans.
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"O Tender Shepherd of mankind, Thou Who camest
to heal the sick of body, of mind and of soul, teach
us how to be used in this wise; teach us to reach out
for the highest and the best; teach us how to lay aside
self in its many delusive forms and to offer our real
selves for Thy service, holding nothing back.
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"Into Thy Hands we commend our Spirits and we
ask Thee to use us, each one, for the working out of
Thy holy purpose, for the raising up of others, and
for the comforting of those who hitherto have gone
mourning because they could not understand.
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"Father, we thank Thee and thank Thee again. Amen.
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"My little children, in this room there are those whom
you name the Bright Ones and I want you tonight, as
you prepare yourselves to listen to that which I pass
on from the Holy Master, I want you to banish the remembrance
of the greyness and the darkness associated with physical
life, and to step untrammelled by anything into the
Realms of Light, into those conditions of Love which
indeed are your own, although it seems to some that
real Love, Spirit-love, is far from them.
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"I have taught you ever that to those who seek,
so the Wisdom shall come; I have instructed you also
that the way into Wisdom is beset by much which seems
to you as dangerous, as bringing sorrow to the heart.
Yet it is as this: throughout the history of your little
world there have been the pioneers and those who followed
after. These early travellers penetrated into that
which was called the Unknown. Many of them laid down
the physical life and, so it seemed, their efforts
were wasted; that which had cost so much had brought
nothing in return. And when after a lapse of time another,
imbued with the spirit of adventure - yes, and something
more - when the second went forward so it appeared
that he too was attacked on every side.
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"Only a fragment of the experiences of the first
was available to him, for the one who had gone in front
had perished by the way. Yet, after the second there
was a third, after the third there was a fourth, and
these later ones, knowing what must be endured, consciously
took up their staff and opened out that which was closed
before.
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"My children, could you look back over the spiritual
history of your little world you would know that this
was worked out with a detail which held much pathos,
much that caused the heart to ache. Those early pilgrims,
where are they now? Not centred in bliss far from your
vibrations, not clinging to their gains, not holding
fast those treasures which they have rightly earned.
Nay, the servants of the Master have been trained to
look at Life, physical and spiritual life, in a way
far different from that.
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"They bring their brightness, they bring their
precious tools of service, they bring themselves into
the conditions of those who need them most; and in
your vibrations tonight there are those who suffered,
those who laid down their physical lives, those whose
determination grew and grew as the forces against them
strengthened and strengthened again. And the Saviour,
using them for His work, can pass on His sweet will
to them, confident that they will accomplish it as
He desires. What greater reward could anyone wish who
has seen God?
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"But, dear children, I wish to speak on a broader,
wider subject than that, yet it is linked with it,
part of it as you shall see. Tonight then for a little
while I turn your thoughts to that which you name Gethsemane,
and I ask you to go back in imagination - using that
word in its true sense - and, as it were, to draw up
from the deeper consciousness, remembrance of what
you have learnt while sleep has claimed you, what you
have learnt at the Master's Feet.
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"In that far off period when Christ walked amongst
men as Man, the conditions of those times were so far
removed from what obtains today that it difficult to
lead you back in thought and to fasten to you a true
conception of the lives, of the attitude of mind, of
the character and the temperament of those who surrounded
the Holy One.
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"Children, as I have told you before, that love
of power, that desire to rule, to coerce, to control
the masses, that desire (most destructive both to the
individual and the crowd) this had chief place in the
minds of those who held authority in their hands.
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"Today under that which you name Law, order has
been created out of what was once chaos, order as to
action, order as to conduct; but in those far off times
the Law, as it was constituted, was only brought into
force for those who were powerless to help themselves.
Those who knew, those who had the possessions of the
world, these had it within their capacity not only
to disregard the Law but to manipulate it so that the
Law acted entirely in their favour.
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"My children, I spoke as to the wonderful gift
of the Redeemer. Until spiritual sight is your own
you will be unable to gather in more than a fragment
of the value, of the wide scope, of the unlimited generosity
of the coming of Christ into the physical world. He
came to people obsessed by self, engulfed in that which
you name sin - a people dominated by cruelly in many
forms, by self in all forms, and diseased in mind to
an extent impossible for you to grasp.
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"Yes - in high places those controlled by evil
forces set the example to the rest, and had not Christ
come then to redeem, today, my little ones, you would
not be as you are. Nay, for the tendency was down,
down, down, and there was nothing to stop the deterioration.
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"Into those conditions came Perfect Purity, perfect
Love; and, dear children, by the offering up of His
physical life, and its wonderful influence, so the
tide was turned.
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"Think you to yourselves of that which I would
imply. If Christ had not come into the midst of men,
then today you would be far lower in development than
the beasts of the field. That point has been overlooked
by many. In speaking of the Redeemer they have forgotten
to take into consideration the trend of the times,
the tendencies of the individual, and, most of all,
the terrible characteristics shown by those who held
the reins of power, by those who so ruthlessly used
authority.
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"Children, not only the Beloved, not only individuals,
but countries go through that which you name Gethsemane;
but ere I speak of that I want to take you back, for
your comfort, to that time in the Garden when All-Love
faced His ordeal, when God as Man not only took upon
Himself the death of the garment He wore, but also
had to grapple with that volume of hate which surrounded
Him on every side except, again, for the few.
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"I have underlined before that when Christ came
into the physical world He limited Himself as you or
I are limited, or were limited. I told you that He
laid aside His power, that He laid aside that consciousness
of Spirit which you might think He would have been
justified in bringing with Him. As a child He lived,
unconscious of what He was, of what lay in front. Yet,
because that act must take place, because the preparation
had to be put in, so, as He emerged from childhood
into boyhood, the realisation came gradually that He
had to serve God.
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"So often it has been said that Christ, because
He was God, could of course do no wrong. Because He
was God He attracted to Him forces of evil that you,
my little ones, could never bear; that you will never
be asked to grapple with, for the protection is around.
But Christ, because He had come to demonstrate Love
and Purity and Faith, Christ met those enemies of the
darkest planes, and through His faith He overcame.
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"Oh, how intensely human is that narrative of
those hours spent in loneliness and prayer! How close
it brings the Master to each one! There in an isolation
impossible to be explained, He faced the future alone
with His sense of responsibility; alone with that terrible
knowledge that those He loved so well desired and intended
to destroy Him.
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"Alone in a way you cannot grasp; for, at that
time, so Spirit sight and Spirit consciousness were
His own, and He saw around Him armies, aye, countless
enemies; He saw on every side those He had come to
save spurning Him from them, and He saw that even the
little knot of followers would forsake Him. In that
Garden, so the realisation came as to His loneliness,
as to His solitary position and, most of all, came
the anguish of pouring out Love and receiving hate
in return.
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"Little children, in the dark hours of your life
you have felt that God has turned from you, yet you
have had the Holy Scriptures, you have had the personal
assurance that when sorrow approaches, so the Healer
of all sorrow draws nearer still - you have had that
wonderful thought that the Consoler understands; and
hidden from you, by the mercy of God, has been the
sight of those who would do you harm.
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"Oh, my children, do not underrate those hours
of trial and loneliness which came to Christ when the
time drew near for Him to be handed over, by one of
His own, to those who recognised neither God in His
life nor the Love which He held out with both hands.
That experience of the Master was for a great and mighty
purpose - it was a reassurance to us all; but never
forget that the physical anguish of the Cross was as
nothing in comparison to the agony of Love thrown back,
to that deepest pain of all, the giving of one's self
to those who wanted it not.
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"Some there are in the physical world who, on
miniature, have been through this experience. They
have given from themselves thoughts and prayers and
spiritual love, and the time has come when the object
of their affection has not only by action repudiated
their love, but has faced the bestower with hate in
their eyes. And the mother or the father, the wife
or the husband has felt indeed that their cup of bitterness
was full.
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"Yet, dear children, you can see the comparison,
you can enter, in a measure, into how much greater
was the test, how much greater was the anguish when
it was All-Love, All-Sensitiveness, All-Care; and those
who stood around Him represented the world He had come
to save.
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"But I would not dwell unduly upon the sad side,
for lo, we pass on from the story of Gethsemane, we
pass on from the gift on the Cross to the glorious
Resurrection, and here we find our answer, here we
find the solution of that which seems so complicated
in our daily life. Yet, my little ones, pause awhile.
Of what value would have been the Resurrection had
it not been for Gethsemane, had it not been for the
offering up of that which represented Himself. Here,
my little ones, you have your explanation; here you
have the solution of all those misgivings, all those
many conflicting desires and wishes which seem focused
on the physical mind. Only by the steps of persecution,
of the Garden, of the Cross can the Resurrection be
made our own.
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"I want you all, my children, in your dealings
with others to be very firm on this same point, and
I want you, in considering your own experience, to
be doubly firm, for the position must be faced. Here
and there, since the creation of man, there have been
the few who were willing to suffer a little for the
sake of the gain to come; here and there those with
the pioneer spirit have risen up, and even though their
hearts have quailed over the experiences of the ones
who went in front, they have steadied their wills,
they have hardened their determination and they have
gone on, and by their acts vast continents, once unknown,
have been opened up for others.
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"Yes, yes! But think of their Gethsemane, think
of their loneliness, think of their sense of isolation.
Oh, cannot you understand that sometimes the thought
came: 'Where is my God, I am forsaken!' Yet they went
on, and as the effort was made so the ministering angels
gathered around.
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"My little ones, during your hours of sleep you
have talked with such as these, and when they have
told you of their experiences, so simple the story
of your own physical life appears, so simple. And you
say to yourselves: 'It could not have been otherwise',
and have thanked God, yes, thanked God.
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"My children, in speaking of that Gethsemane which
comes to all, remember this: if not during the physical
experience, then when the body is laid aside, so that
Gethsemane must be faced and borne. I have told you
before that the valiant of heart take their hard experiences
while their eyes are bound. Yes, because the Spirit
within commands. Those whose Spirit is in shackles,
such a one puts off the dread day, postpones this,
evades that, but the time comes when each one must
face and endure Gethsemane, for until that has been
made their own, the Resurrection, the freeing of the
Spirit, that unlimited freedom cannot be their possession.
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"So, my little ones, in thinking over the story
of your lives, say to yourselves: 'God's ways are best.'
Though the physical mind complains at this stage the
Spirit within, which has seen God, rejoices in its
gifts; though the body and the mind wearies over the
tests, over the many trials of patience, over the enemies
which throng so close, lo! that which represents your
Self has joined hands with the pilgrims of the Light
and has gathered to itself a strength and an endurance
which shall never depart.
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"But oh, my little ones, take care of this: that
temptation which comes to all who wish to climb, the
temptation to say: 'I can bear no more!' Little ones,
the Spirit within is so courageous, is so in touch
with God that fear and apprehension are unknown; the
Spirit within has vision and so it would brush aside
the murmurings of the mind of the body, for it knows
that what represents loss now is gain and freedom for
the Self which lives after this little life is o'er.
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"I speak to many; I speak not only to my children
in many parts of your little world, but I speak to
countless numbers who have sought to evade their Gethsemane,
and thus have gathered to themselves a suffering and
a bondage not only treble in proportion, but of so
far-reaching an effect that it has not only hindered
their own development but has kept back the development
of others.
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"This is God's truth. That Gethsemane, which must
come to all, is not only fighting your battle but is
lending strength to others; it is not only overcoming
for Self, but it is enabling others to find the will
to enter into the Garden of loneliness in turn.
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"My children, I have told you that if the Beloved
had not come and suffered for mankind, this little
world of yours at this date would have been so involved
in weakness and in that which you name evil, that it
would bear no semblance to that which it represents
at this stage. In miniature this applies to the individual.
Had there not been those strong in the strength of
God who willingly - or if not willingly, courageously
- went through Gethsemane, then, my little ones, you
and I would not be conversing together in this sweet
way. Oh, remember that you, today, are preparing for
tomorrow - by your pangs, by that sense of spiritual
loneliness, of isolation from the material world, you
are preparing conditions which will enable others to
follow on and keep the way open, so that those weaker
may still may find the path to God.
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"And now I leave you for a little while.
(After others had spoken Zodiac returned and continued)
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"Well, my children, just a few words and then
we part in love and joy and that close unity which
only the Spirit can understand. As promised, I give
a few words to the child I have drawn in tonight.
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"Little one, remember this: that your Father and
Mother God has provided for every condition of your
life. You have passed through that which can be called
the wilderness of experience, yet tonight you have
found the spring of refreshment. In time to come, as
the Spirit within demands, so you will take another
portion of that which represents a desert, but, in
God's Name, I can promise you when the need arises
so you shall find in that barrenness that which will
bring renewal to your soul.
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"Never look back but always look forward. Say
not to yourself: - what is this? - but always: 'God's
ways are best'. And remember that only to the tried
soldier can be entrusted the work which counts.
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"And now to you all I speak, throwing over you
my love and understanding. I ask of you but one thing
- your faith in God's directing care.
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"My little ones, though doubts may have assailed
you in regard to yourselves, you have never doubted
this gift of God; and because you have struggled to
rise above the waters of physical life, so those misgivings,
connected entirely with physical and material things,
shall fade away; and you shall find yourselves anchored
to the rock which Christ represents. Oh, remember this:
though the waves may be strong, though the adverse
forces may seem too powerful to be overcome, centred
in Strength you are stronger than them all. Fettered
to Faith your faith shall not only frustrate their
intentions, but your faith shall turn those intentions
into something nearer to that which represents the
Light. Faith in God, confidence in His unfailing Love,
so equipped you can pass through your experiences undismayed;
and this is the Will of God.
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"In the Father's Name I bless you. Let no fears
advance and disturb your peace of mind, for the protection
is complete. Only be valiant of heart, only be firm
of purpose, and you shall see that that which God has
prepared for you surpasses all that which your imagination
could conjure up!
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"Goodnight, my little ones. Rest in peace.
©GWCSA
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