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"Brothers and sisters, with joy in my heart I greet
you all for I know that many gathered in have been
drawn here by love of the Master Christ. A loving welcome
is sent forth from many disembodied souls, the bright
ones, who always gather close when the Master's work
is being done. So I ask you to lay aside the things
of the earth for just a little while and to think of
those things that are of the Spirit.
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"Many of you look back upon your own lives and you
can see the time of preparation. What were you being
prepared for? Was it for a career, was it to make a
home happy, was it to gain those things that are material,
was it to educate the mind? You look back upon the
discipline imposed, the curbing of the unwilling inclination
to study or to work hard when Nature called to you
to enjoy her beauty. Although these times of preparation
are taken as a matter of course in the education of
the young, still they have a spiritual significance
that goes very deep and that shows results when this
short stage of life has finished its course.
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"There are many who would say that having planned their
life along certain lines opportunity passed them by
and duty and circumstances intervened. They feel today
that all which had meant so much had to be laid aside.
Think of the farmer. Think of the toil put into the
land. Sometimes the storms of earth destroy the results
of all the labour. Do you consider that was time wasted?
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"The storms of earth have their part in the great scheme
of things. The balance of this planet, which you regard
as your own, represents a very delicate and technical
thing that can be grappled with only by the Creator.
Have you ever thought of the laws that govern the worlds
and the planets and how it is that life can be continued
upon the earth? Why is it that there are no great crashes
in the spheres between the different planets and different
worlds?
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"For the most part, man on earth takes these things
entirely as a matter of course. Sometimes, through
the law of attraction and those many unseen laws at
work within the universe, great storms are essential
for the restoration of the balance and the poise of
the worlds.
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"So when you look upon a field that has been wrecked,
you might call to mind that it might have been the
world itself that was wrecked had it not been for the
wise and wide provisions made by the Lord God.
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"The good gardener or the good farmer has endured many
disappointments and has had to train his character
to rise above them. Seeking to rectify what has gone
wrong he prepares his ground anew. For him that means
endless toil which perhaps to you seems unfair.
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"Remember that the good gardener or good farmer is
a spirit. He is encased in flesh for a very short span
of time. He has had many bodies in other worlds and
countless changes of bodies await him as he progresses
towards perfection.
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"It is of great value that he has withstood the discipline,
risen above his disappointments and that his will remains
firm to sow the good seed again. If he did not curb
his impatience then lie would be a bad farmer and the
land would not respond to his efforts.
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"Think about this because this is a parable of your
own life, especially relevant to those who think they
have missed the road to success, once so important
to them. If things had gone right from the physical
point of view then maybe they would not have gone right
from the soul's point of view.
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"What is the soul? The soul is the building up of the
next body and the character associated with it, the
body that you will occupy in the next state of being.
Time comes when through discipline of the circumstances
of daily life the soul gains a little.
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"Through the sorrows and the losses, through the pains
of the body, through the withstanding of treachery
of so-called friends, the soul is gaining what it longs
to possess. It longs to possess a spirit in co-operation
with itself and the only way that the soul can be in
co-operation with the spirit within is by the acquirement
of experience.
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"When you think of the sowers and of those who produce
the harvest, you see that they all have their part
in the great scheme of things. Without those trials
and tests of character, though the harvest might be
plentiful upon the earth, it would represent barren
ground for the one concerned in the next state of being.
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"The only way a human mind can be comforted is through
explanation. It is useless for a 'spirit' to come back
and use the body of a medium and give out a fanciful
teaching that cannot be tested by the experiences of
daily life, and that will not stand up to the reasoning
of the human mind, common sense and logical argument.
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"Your mind was given you to use in regard to religion
as well as to other great questions of daily life.
Remember the words in the Holy Book: 'Test the spirits
to see whether they are of God'. Take this point very
seriously because there are those in this great truth
or way of life who are not doing that which they should
to support it. Sadly, they are taken in by every message
given to them, and they do not stop to test the source
or to exercise their common sense as to the reasonableness
of that message.
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"The Bible has done a mighty work as an example of
mediumship. But what of the preparation? What of the
storms that beat upon those who were named prophets
and seers? Many of them passed out of the body seeing
nothing but barren fields. Yet they were justified
in their prophecies as the generations passed by. What
is so important is that directly physical death took
place, they saw a glorious harvest brought into being
by their suffering, their courage and their faith unto
their journey's end.
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"Here again is a parable teeming with truth for those
who have started a church and find that the difficulties
seem over great; for those whose good advice and wise
mediumship is spurned because it does not deal with
material things; for those who have chosen the steep
hillside rather than wallowing in the valley paths
where others like-minded would give them the treasures
of the earth.
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"So you can see there is a very broad spectrum to Harvest.
There is another important point that perhaps has not
been considered, and that is the changing moulds of
the seed that is planted in mother earth.
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"You have marvelled at the tiny seed that brings forth
strength and beauty. You have wondered as you placed
the seed in the ground whether it would be possible
for that which appears so insignificant to bring forth
fruit in due season and to have those changes occur
that would provide the food for the physical body.
It is a miracle of grace - every thoughtful man would
confess - and the changing moulds of the little seed
are very interesting to consider.
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"First, the tiny shoot breaking through the ground
and then tended by Mother Nature, the slow growth or
quick growth bringing reward for the one who has sown
the good seed in faith, desiring to do his or her part.
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"This brings us to another salient point. You hear
much today about 'payment by results'. There are many
views expressed about this point but according to Divine
Law every child of God is paid by results. It is a
wonderful thought. It breaks down barriers between
countries and creeds and religious sects. It breaks
down all those barriers erected by education and physical
and material conditions.
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"Each one has the seed of a pure heart and obedient
will, and payment by God comes from results. Yet, because
freewill is never interfered with there are those who
drop their seed upon stony ground; there are those
who bury them so deeply that they cannot make a showing
while physical life lasts; there are those who throw
away their seed for another which seems to them more
attractive and more beneficial to their physical minds.
-
"What a tremendous responsibility rests upon you all
and what a marvellous prospect. You are a child of
God and an inheritor of Eternal Life. You have within
- in the gift of Divinity - all the good gifts stored.
Only a few, in these coarse and dense conditions, have
the opportunity to give forth their life and beauty
and power as ordained by the Father. Remember the parable
of the talents.
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"Only you can ordain what you do with these wonderful
gifts housed in the Divinity. What are you doing? It
may seem that you are doing nothing worthwhile.
-
"I remind you that you are all mediums. But it depends
upon your own choice how you manifest your spiritual
gifts. There are wonderful mediums throughout this
earth that have no clear vision not do they hear spirit
voices. But they are doing the Master's work and building
up for themselves a wonderful harvest. No barren ground
for them! They are not asking for results while here
upon the earth - they are taking God at His word and
doing what they can and leaving it to the Father to
judge of their efforts and to give increase according
to His Will.
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"For such as these there is a marvellous future; payment
by results. That is what they will see and they will
find themselves surrounded by gifts of great utility
in the World of the Spirit. Without spiritual equipment,
life after physical death represents a great disappointment.
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"What is your spiritual equipment and how can you acquire
it? All these things come irrespective of education,
of the conditions of daily life, mental ability and
personality. Many men and women would seem to have
little personality from a material point of view. But
by their life of service, by cleaving to the road of
duty, they are developing individuality. Personality
is of the earth, earthy, but individuality is of the
Spirit, holy and charged with power. Therefore, as
you think of the changing appearance of seeds and the
many moulds expressed by the seeds, carry your thought
further with regard to your own life and to your own
gifts. You are the artist and it lies within your power
to mould your life here in the spiritual sense in preparation
for that wonderful life Hereafter.
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"You are given the clay of circumstances and asked
by the Creator of all life to do your best with it.
It does not matter if the clay seems shapeless. It
is your part to bring to the clay of daily life something
worthwhile, something of benefit to others, something
that shows you are a craftsman, or a craftsman in the
making.
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"Do not allow those talents that are unemployed in
your daily tasks to rust. See that part of your leisure
is devoted to the exercise of those talents for which
you are not paid in material coin. Always remember
that because you are an inheritor of Immortal Life
there will be payments by the results in that Immortal
Life. If you have not released those finer qualities
within you, you cannot claim spiritual equipment when
you are free from the flesh. Without spiritual equipment,
you are amongst the unemployed.
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"There is much talk upon the earth about those who
are unemployed. Be assured that the sorrows of this
world are as nothing to the sorrows of a soul in the
next state of being who stands unwanted amongst the
unemployed. While he had the opportunity he did not
exercise his spiritual gifts nor did he take the chains
off his creativity instincts in the God sense.
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"Whatever your life, whatever your circumstances, you
can stand second to none. All God's Laws make for equality.
If there are disadvantages in your life, then know
this adds immediately to spiritual gain. If you rise
from sorrow, if you conquer pain, you are evolving;
you are stronger from your experience. You will understand
through your personal experience what adversity is
like, what pain is like and what a broken heart is
like.
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"That will represent your spiritual equipment and the
Master of all good workmen can send you to do His work,
to raise the fallen, to comfort the mourners and to
give light to those who are inly blind. This is how
opportunity widens before you and how it transcends
material conditions. You stand equal to the cleverest
in every clime if you are making the fullest use of
that which you possess and that which has been released
for use upon the earth.
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"A harvest has to have a home. It must have those who
will take the trouble to bring it home where something
of safety can be afforded. The homing instinct is part
of your spiritual make-up. The treasures of the earth
are given to man for a reason. As you know they are
often abused. They are given to the individual to teach
him how to be a wise caretaker. He is as the farmer
harvesting his wheat. Although the farmer must have
material wherewithal to carry on his work, the wheat
feeds the bodies of many unknown to him.
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"As you consider your own life and circumstances, there
will spring to mind a desire that in due course all
that which you hoped and prayed for may find a home.
Be assured that there is not one sacred thought you
have had, not one instinct of sympathy, not one prayer
of compassion, that will not be beautifying your future
home. These things in themselves have a homing instinct.
They are drawn by the great law of attraction to that
portion of the Spirit World that is all your own -
built up by your life, your efforts and those things
that you have denied yourself while in the body.
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"Let comfort stream upon you like a cleansing flood,
and understanding to penetrate the physical mind. That
which you have been given is practical common sense.
You will have your harvest and the harvest produced
by you has the homing instinct. When you pass out of
the flesh, you will see that God pays by results.
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"Drawn in are the humble hearted, those of old who
had such hard lives and those of today who feel that
their burden is over great, and the message of the
Christ is one of entire reassurance. They may have
to struggle to make the best of a bad job, to endure
the beatings of the flesh, but the loving Christ holds
out payment by results for them. He waits to give His
beloved upon the earth those good gifts that they can
safeguard because they had the courage to work through
adverse experiences; they had the faith to believe
that God would be justified in the end.
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"Make this message your own. For those who perchance
forget, when the body is no more they will remember,
and what may seem as barren ground now shall in happier
time demonstrate to all that God is not mocked. The
tiny seeds of Truth sown upon the hard ground at last,
in a different vibration, are able to express life
and the promise that young life always expresses to
those who have spiritual perception and the will to
learn.
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"Bless the workers. Bless those who intend to carry
on the burden. For them comes not only commendation
but also the surety that in the degree that they do
their best, the harvest is assured. Hearts are gladdened,
the prisoners of self are set free and the missionary
work is extended as the Father has ordained.
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"Bless you all - workers in the vineyard. Make haste
for the time is slipping by and until there is more
dedication from the children of the earth, so the manifestations
of Divine Power - promised by God - are held back,
for the conditions forbid.
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"You who love the Shepherd will look for the straying
sheep and your tiny fold shall be enlarged. All this
is symbol and sign of the important work held for you
to do when this stage of limitation has been forgotten.
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"Peace be with you and may you take your way, re-dedicating
yourselves to God the Father and God the Son, and as
you pray for strength, indeed the strength will come."
