-
"Comrades and workers for the Cross, how gladly I greet
you once again, and I bring reassurance to one and
all, because through days of test and strain there
was firmness, determination and the will to carry out
the work of Christ. If at times it seems to you that
those you depend upon fail you, that things beyond
your own province go wrong, then remember these are
merely tests so that you can show to others that you
are firm enough in faith to ignore them; you can rise
above them and be a witness to the spiritual freedom
which you have made your own.
-
"I am sent into your presence to speak to you upon
'The Warrior Spirit in Religion'. I know you all dread
war; many of you have experienced two dreadful wars
during your physical lifetime and the strain was great.
You have suffered yourselves and seen those you love
suffer too, and the limits of endurance were taxed
to the uttermost. So you dread the thought of war.
-
"But I want to remind you that war in its true sense
is the only method by which growth can be attained.
You cannot evolve without war, you cannot gain understanding
without going to battle with the inexperience which
is within. I want you to take the true view of war,
to realize that war with material weapons is but one
aspect.
-
"Try to imagine this world of yours in the far past
when ignorance held the mind of man. He was then at
the mercy of the wild beasts; he had no weapons with
which to defend himself and the warfare that took place
between him and those beasts which he tried to secure
to maintain life in the body, was terrible to behold.
-
"But through suffering man learnt in a measure how
to find simple and crude methods of defence. You remember
the catapult, and the darts made from certain trees?
Man had to use his ingenuity in many forms to try to
defend himself and to gain that nourishment upon which
he depended for life.
-
"There was no cultivation of the fields; there were
not those legitimate forms of food to which so many
today are turning, gladly replacing them for the animal
food to which the body has grown accustomed.
-
"So I want you to realize that primitive man had to
go to war and through the effort he made so, by his
suffering and seeking to fight suffering, he learnt
a little and his children benefited.
-
"With progression human intelligence expanded and there
were brought within man's province many forms of help.
Today they would seem childish, crude in their mechanism
and elementary in their ideas, but they were wonderful
in their time, just as wonderful as your aeroplanes
are today. It is wise, beloved, to go back upon those
early times and clear one's vision.
-
"But as time went on and man gained more aids, there
was a certain decline of effort. There were only certain
classes who had to do the work, who had to go to war
against Nature and pit their puny strength against
the insects as well as other forms of terror that sought
to cut off the life of man.
-
"And we will pay a tribute to those of old, the men
and women, the victims of authority, who toiled for
others as well as for themselves. They were warriors,
pioneers in the true sense; they went to war not for
their own gain but for the benefit of others, and their
names are enshrined in the Book of Life. Today they
are amongst those chosen by the Master to go hither
and thither and do His holy work.
-
"As time went on the body was abused, the appetites
grew apace, all that was available was taken and so
retribution set in, for man's body is keyed to health
and the only way to maintain health over the generations
was the following of the Christ Law, the Christ Law
of Necessity, to take for the body only that which
the body demanded to keep the blood pure, keep the
strength circulating, to aid the mind and replenish
the memory.
-
"But all the rich food, all the heavy drink was as
deadly poison to man, and through the abuse of free-will,
the greediness that has held his heart and mind, so
was set into being a train of consequences, and the
children that followed after and their children bear
in their bodies the consequences of man's selfishness
and greed, man's denial of the God within.
-
"Today science is making much progress and your two
wars have brought to pass great revelation in regard
to surgery and the treatment of the human body from
a medical point of view. So you see, there had to be
victims, but those victims passed into honour and glory
and they found that the strength of the next body not
only made them forget the past, but was a compensation
beyond all earthly thought in regard to what they had
to endure.
-
"So today we come to another stride forward. We know
that medical science is blessed, that all those who
are striving so hard to restore the body - desecrated
and abused by the free-will of those in the body over
the past - are blessed and strengthened by God.
-
"We in the Spirit World are leading them - and this
too is your great part - we are leading the scientists
to recognise another factor still, and that is the
power of prayer.
-
"I want you to take upon yourselves an added responsibility,
to regard yourselves as spiritual warriors, that you
are going to war against the sickness that torments
the flesh, against the grief that torments the human
mind when those they love pass into another state of
being; you are going to war against the seeming injustices
of physical life and against the despair that has overwhelmed
the blind and the lame, those who are still young and
feel that they have a right to some joy in the physical
life.
-
"As I speak I am shown a vista of the future that is
opening before you. You are warriors! But more are
wanted to join the ranks, there have to be recruits,
there must be those to come forward with willing hearts
and minds to make full surrender; there must be the
men and women in their own homes giving up themselves,
as they do their mundane toil, to the Master's work.
Their hands may be busy but their mind is free.
-
"This one and that stand in dire need of help. Go forth
to war as a comrade of the Cross! Whatever your conditions,
whatever your environment, you can be a true and strong
warrior. Your weapon is faith, your staff is trust,
your impetus is consciousness of God, that He, through
you, desires to work out His most holy purpose.
-
"I speak to you in the churches, you who are leaders
or sub-leaders, and to the congregations too. Is there
a slackness, is there an apathy, is one here and there
growing weary of well-doing? Is there one desiring
first place where another is more suitable for leadership?
-
"There again is your battlefield and as warriors of
Christ go forth to war amongst your own conditions.
When there is one fearful of doing this, afraid of
daring for Christ and His work, hesitating, waiting
for another to come forward and lead the way, remember
my words. There is your battle and you must go to war
until victory has been made your own. So much depends
upon it.
-
"We have no time for waiting, no time to allow the
days and hours to slip by; life is passing swiftly,
no one knows when the call will come, but what they
do know is this: that they must face their record when
the Veil is parted and they are in conditions of Reality.
-
"Did they stand back when another asked for help? Did
they fail in co-operation when another tried to make
a big effort to spread God's truth? Did they want to
rest when there was so much work to be done?
-
"You have been tried and tested; you have perhaps reluctantly
taken upon yourselves the chains of office, you have
gone to war against the apathy of those who listen,
against those who desire only signs and wonders and
are not interested in the development of a spiritual
outlook. To you, beloved, the call has come, you are
in charge of your flock and you must see that not one
lamb strays out of the true Fold seeking another.
-
"We are with you to strengthen your will, to steady
your faith, when you ask if God has forgotten you.
We are there to turn your eyes from the easy path,
to draw you by the magic power of love step by step
up the hillside, for although you know it not you are
cutting a path for others by your effort, by your will
to endure you are showing the way for those who are
less spiritually awakened than you are, and in time
to come they will claim you as a friend and leader,
as rescuer, and the power that you will gain from this
act of unconscious service will fill your heart and
mind with joy for evermore.
-
"So my last words are these: The warrior spirit in
religion! - against apathy, against standing back and
waiting for others, against fear and every device that
may be used by the enemy to stem your efforts.
-
"You are warriors of the Lord, you hold the shield
before you on which is emblazoned the Cross. Behind
it your heart may quake, but with your shield and with
the holy ones unseen by you throwing back the power,
you can climb, you can go to war with the enemies which
are on either side and you can win!
-
"So the message has been given. In our religion anything
of an inactive nature must be ruled out; we are on
the active plane, we venture because we know that God
loves venturers for Him, for that is the pioneer spirit.
So we go forth, not waiting for the promises but depending
on the power of God, and knowing that as we strive
so the Grace will be given, and as we venture so our
imagination will expand and our will shall harden.
-
"At last, united together - groups here, groups there,
churches banded together in loyalty and love - you
will represent an unbroken army of warriors, bearing
upon your brow the golden Cross of Jesus Christ, invincible
because you have confidence in the One who loves you
best.
-
"I bless the workers and I say that the way is opening
before them. Shadows may cross their path; they are
but tests! The golden sunshine of God's love shall
draw them on and as each fresh venture is made they
shall find that courage wins, for God loves a cheerful
giver! Farewell, beloved, farewell!"
