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THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH
THE ZODIAC MESSAGES
"WORKING OUT OUR OWN SALVATION"
An address 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 Saturday, 16th October, 1926
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"Most understanding Saviour, we thank Thee that
we can come to Thee whatever the past, whatever the
present, and in coming receive not only Thy blessing,
but that Love which nothing can quell.
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"O Christ, remembering the earthly way, Thou canst
enter into all our fears, all our apprehensions, all
that conflicting war of doubt which surges against
the human mind. Because Thou hast worn a body of flesh,
Thou understandest the little children the way seems
complicated and the lessons hard to learn; so tonight
we ask Thee to give us that greatest blessing of all
- comprehension of the journey in front, realization
that the present is but building up for the future,
that the little tasks we do today are preparing us
for that work which Thou hast reserved for us in the
sweet by-and-by when illumination is all around.
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"O Christ, help us to learn our lessons and, above
all, teach us how to come to Thee, our most loving
Instructor, and to take from Thee not only the strength
to learn, but the balm which shall wipe out the remembrance
of the pain entailed.
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"Father, we thank Thee, and we ask Thee to use
us once again to bring comfort and revelation to others,
and to prepare the way for all that mighty manifestation
of Spirit which Thou art waiting to bestow.
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"Father, we thank Thee.
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"My children all, tonight we meet together in
love, in sympathy, and in the desire to so combine
our forces that we shall provide for the Creator that
which He will use again and again.
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"Perhaps to some it sounds rather an audacious
thing to say - that His little children can provide
anything for the Lord God of all; but oh! if you could
once grasp how your Father regards you, so you would
see that He delights in your efforts, He delights when
you, out of the greater consciousness within, set into
being that power which is Spirit force.
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"And tonight, in this little room, by your fellowship,
by your wish to aid each other, so could you see it,
you would find that something resembling a golden cloud,
aye, touched with rose, was flowing out beyond these
walls; and it will be caught in those realms where
Light is scarcely known. A little illustration of power.
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"You cannot grasp how, within, there is the capacity
to create for God; but out of the gift which is of
Himself you can give back to the generous Bestower;
and render Him aid in that missionary work which must
go on until every straying sheep has been gathered
back into the fold of Love.
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"Tonight, my little ones, it has been ordained
that I speak to you on that which you would call: 'WORKING
OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION', and to that I bracket the
statement that 'whatsoever a man soweth that must he
reap'; yet, my little ones, no consternation should
be caused in your minds by the seeming sternness of
those decrees.
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"You and I have been introduced to God as He is,
in that measure that we can understand, and we have
learnt that the Creator, the Lord God of all, is our
Father and Mother combined, is the One Who never misunderstands
us however much we may misunderstand Him. So, my children,
keeping the Love-aspect of God in the forefront of
your mind, so we will talk together for a brief space
on that which each one must face, if not in this world
of sense then in other conditions, some, alas, less
favourable to development than your little earth
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"I have underlined - and especially when last
we met together - I have underlined that the 'Redeemer'
side of God has scarce been grasped by man. That from
the beginning, when those of His children turned from
Him to that which was the second best, so from that
moment the work of redemption was commenced. Yet, because
the Lord God gifted mankind with freewill, so also
He cannot interfere with man's inclinations, with his
many desires, with his folly and his confidence in
himself.
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"And then I bring you back to your own lives,
in the sense that I would use a little illustration
common to all to indicate, in miniature, how your Father
God is placed in regard to His children.
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"You see, my little ones, that with your own children
the time comes when they must go to school, and sometimes
it happens when perhaps the previous training has been
resisted, that the learning processes come very hard
indeed. The will is difficult to curb, aye! a thousand
things distract the attention, and the parent grieves
over the tears which the learning of the lessons provoke;
and because love dictates, so the mother draws her
child to her and she goes over the points seeking to
make the difficulties clear, hoping by her sympathy
as well as her desire to help, that that which seems
so obscure may be made the possession of the little
one she loves so well.
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"But, my children, no parent, however great the
affection may be, can learn any lesson for their child.
They can instruct, they can explain, they can reason
and they can help, but the time comes when the child
is forced to have those facts embedded in the physical
mind. Without them it cannot get on; without them its
progress is barred.
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"So, my children, transfer your thoughts from
yourselves and the other mothers whom you know, and
think of the Great Parent, how, over the centuries,
He has instructed, directed and guided, and again and
again reasoned with His children so that the difficult
processes of the acquirement of experience may not
only be shortened but may be sweetened as they go.
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"I have told you ever that the journey of the
spirit of necessity must be long, that the hill to
God, again of necessity, must be steep, but have I
not added as well that there are countless helpers
all around, and the hardness and the steepness can
be ignored if you will take Christ into your confidence
and learn of Him.
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"That which man calls the Atonement has raised
many difficulties on every side. Reason argues: How
could one, even God, atone for the sins of the whole
world? And there are others who, while holding in their
minds that whatsoever a man sows that must he reap,
still affirm that Christ on the Cross 'atoned' for
the sins of humanity.
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"Children, consider! What does that word mean?
To atone suggests not only a sacrifice but also that
there is a Being of power who demands that sacrifice;
that there is one to be propitiated, one whose wrath
must be assuaged. Atonement - think you again! Is there
anyone who can atone for another? They can suffer for
them, ah yes, and they suffer in a measure far greater
than perhaps the culprit realized until too late. If
by that word 'Atonement' suffering is meant, then I
say to all, that Christ suffers for us in a way impossible
to be grasped.
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"That He forgives us our weaknesses and our failures
is taken for granted, for where Love is, unforgiveness
or forgiveness are unknown. Where love is, even among
the primitive children of the earth, unforgiveness
can find no place, for love being Love, brooks no rival.
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"That word Atonement has mislead so many. Your
Father and Mother God would gladly learn your lessons
for you if that were possible, but in so doing He would
be depriving you of your greatest gain. Sweet it is
to have gifts from those we love, yes, but they are
gifts and the soaring soul longs to give some little
thing in return. All-Wisdom has the traversed the path,
that journey of the spirit with His children each one.
He has shared their sorrows, He has born their griefs;
but if those sorrows and if those griefs had been absent
from their lives, so, little ones, the wonderful experience
which they bring could not be their own.
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"You cannot take of another's experience unless
you too have suffered; you cannot get that illumination
of the Spirit, that higher, purer wisdom, unless you
have been willing to work through the earlier stages,
to make your own the knowledge of this and the knowledge
of that; for lo, though the Light might be gifted it
would but shine on darkness, and that darkness would
be too resisting to give it place.
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"So simple is God's Truth, but man has complicated
that simplicity, and in so doing has lost the greatest
gift of all - that close contact with Love, that link
with the Holy Spirit which God meant should be within
the scope of all.
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"Children, in those days when the Holy One trod
the earthly way, power in a way unimaginable by you
held first place in the thoughts of man. It is not
easy to take your minds back to those early days when
there were so many restrictions and barriers between
the masses and those in authority. Life was cheap;
the only law which was recognized as unanswerable was
the law of property, of possession. Justice, if you
can call it thus, was meted out chained by a thousand
traditions, suffocated by a million desires, and those
who held the power wielded that power in a way terrible
to behold.
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"And in regard to that which you name Religion,
fear played a very great part. The attitude of the
individual towards his God was that of conciliation,
that of the presenting of gifts, that of turning the
wrath of the Most High by the offering up of the spoils
and the treasure which they had brought to themselves
by methods which were against the Light.
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"I find it difficult to present a true picture
of that time, but that which you call disease was rampant,
and the disease was of the mind as well as of the body.
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"Those who were in authority not only wrested
from their victims that which they thought was their
rightful due, but through fear and by the force which
lay behind the fear, so tyranny in every form was the
order of the day.
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"And this, dear children, relates in a measure
greater than you can grasp to those who named themselves
the representatives of the Most High. I have told you
before that here and there was a pure heart, a faithful
heart, but these were so sadly in the minority that
their voices were never heard.
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"It was necessary to build up in your minds some
picture of those times, so far away to you yet even
as yesterday to myself. Those who loved the Master
had been trained from babyhood in that attitude towards
God which held fear instead of love, conciliation instead
of confidence.
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"My children, those whom you love who have spoken
to you direct have gathered here tonight to give me
of their strength, and they entreat me to underline
so that all may read, that, obsessed by traditional thought and the habit of regarding
God, it came naturally to them that the Master was
the living sacrifice offered up to propitiate that
great and awesome Being who ruled all worlds.
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"Yes, though His disciples loved Him with a love
which penetrated heart and mind, they understood Him
but little. The love-aspect of God in Christ was so
hard to grasp. As a man, ah yes, they could understand
love between man and man, but love between God and
man was something entirely beyond their comprehension.
Jehovah, the Lord God of all, the Ruler - He issued
His instructions and He laid down His laws, and His
children in disobeying opened themselves to a punishment
greater and more frightful than the human mind could
conceive. That was the general aspect of the Creator: fear held
the place of love and fright instead of confidence
in His promises.
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"Oh, my children, let not your hearts be sad over
that far-off time and the gigantic difficulties which
those who loved the Master encountered on every side,
for lo, the comforters were around, helpers in plenty,
and though they suffered, yet the consciousness remained
that that suffering was their greatest gift of all.
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"And then I bring you back to that statement which,
as it were, lies side by side with the thought of the
Beloved as the propitiation for sin: 'Whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap', and this great
revelation which came to the one you love so well,
this indeed is true in many aspects not yet considered
by the mind of man.
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"Why is it that so often these statements are
used entirely to express censure and so seldom to express
encouragement? You have it plainly stated that whatsoever
a man soweth that shall he reap; and think you of the
million little seeds put in by the individual - a kind
thought here, a compassionate desire there, the wish
to do better, the craving to help on that cause and
this for the succouring of humanity. Tiny seeds perhaps,
ah yes, but I say that there are countless thousands
who after they have passed out of physical life look
back over the field which represented their earthly
experience and see, with joy, that although the weeds
grew up yet there were flowers too; that though tares
appeared amongst the wheat still the wheat stood firm,
and by God's overseeing care they reaped that which
they had sown in ignorance, they gathered in the flowers
and the good grain. And these, having created for themselves,
have the gift of recreating for others those possessions
which remain for aye.
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"My children, you are entreated by the One Who
loves you best to work out your own salvation; for
the Saviour is a Saviour in very truth, and what you
have overlooked perchance, or have allowed to slip
aside, lo, because He is your Redeemer He has made
it possible - by a little sorrow here, by a little
anguish there - to make that omission as though it
had never been.
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"That is the secret to your life, that is the
clue to your troubles, that is the explanation why
to the soaring soul that which represents grief comes
so close. So simple are the ways of God, so saving,
so redeeming, so inexpressibly like Love. And you,
when you look around amongst your friends and see this
one hard beset and that one harassed by much which
frets, say to her, say to him: 'All is well! You are
greater than you understand; you are stronger than
you would dare to hope. You are working out your own
salvation, yet let it not be with fear and trembling
but with faith and trust in God!'
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"Ah, my children, you see again how traditional
thought comes out in that sentence: 'Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling' (Phil. 2:12). The mark of authority, of the Ruler, the Judge and
the Condemner! Now those, once bound, are free; those
who had the half-light have the full illumination;
and they are pouring down upon you tonight their gifts,
hoping thereby to still further release the Divine
within, so that you too may go out to that which represents
your little world and spread the message of God's Love.
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"Oh cannot you understand that the Saviour would
learn your lessons for you if He could, but He knows
that in order to make anything our own it must be learnt
ourselves. Yet, dear children, think not of Him as
standing aside criticizing your feeble efforts, but
rather remember that which He said to Peter: 'I have
prayed for you' (Luke 22:32). Prayed for you so that strength may take the place
of weakness, determination that of a shrinking will.
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"I bring in that phrase tonight because the children
of the earth know not what lies within that word 'Prayer'.
To the majority it represents a petition for this or
an entreaty to be spared from that; but when you are
free you will find that prayer in its true aspect is
Power, it is creating that which you call Power in
its highest form - which beating upon the spirit within
is able, in a measure, to link up with it and to so
strengthen the individual that the sorrow is borne
leaving no hampering marks behind.
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"Yes, Christ prays for us in the true aspect of
prayer. When His little ones are sore beset so then
if spiritual sight was your own, you would see your
Redeemer, by His thought, by His compassion, by His
Love, bringing into being that power, that Spirit force
which has enabled countless thousands to pass through
their troubles and to express amazement that so much
help could have been provided, that the pangs could
have been so lessened when the grief or the pain itself
was so great.
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"Children, in the sweet by and by - and with some
not so far ahead - you will change your form of praying
and aim at that which is prayer indeed. And when you
reach that point so, my little ones, you will be sowing
that which you will reap with joy when you are in that
Home which is rightly your own. Your prayers for others
will enable them to work out their salvation, and because
your own salvation loomed not so large upon the horizon
as that of another, so you shall see that you have
redeemed and restored to yourself for ever that which
you will never have to lay aside, for it will be of
the Spirit, and the Spirit is of God.
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"There are many aspects of the redemption of the
world by our Lord Jesus Christ, of that most precious
gift which He bestowed for all time - many aspects,
and tonight I have covered but one or two.
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"In the future I must return to this subject and
I will show you then that the coming of the Messiah,
of the Lord God of all, not only saved humanity but
contributed to the redemption of all those who has
passed out of physical life, of the millions yet to
be born, and of a myriad of other beings of which as
yet you are ignorant. Christ came to earth to remind
man of his Father God, and that reminder - paid for
so dearly, so it seems to some - that reminder has
had a deep effect in conditions which have never yet
been considered by the human mind.
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"Well, my children, we close tonight on the note
of peace and understanding. I commend you to the Father's
care. I entreat you to hold fast to simple faith; to
let the complicated thinking of the physical mind fade
away and in its place put childlike trust - the child's
trust in the mother she adores. Yes, and your Father
and Mother God, leading, guiding, directing, so He
will bring you out of that which perchance represents
twilight into the full light of day, and that day means
revelation. Revelation not only of God's Love but the
realization that with Him the past and the present
and the future are secure.
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"Realization of God!...that in the Master's Name
I bequeath to you - realization of the Love of God.
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"Goodnight, my little ones, and remember that
when sleep claims you that you are mingling with those
you love so well; free from the physical, enjoying
that freedom which one day will be your own, when,
with those who love you, you shall enter into that
peace and joy which passeth all understanding, because
it is of God.
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"Goodnight".
©GWCSA
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