THE

LIFE OF

JESUS OF NAZARETH

SPIRITUALLY GIVEN

BY HIS SPIRIT

THROUGH

L. M. ARNOLD, OF POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y

DESCRIBING

HIS ESSENCE, HIS ONENESS WITH GOD, AND HIS ONENESS

WITH HIS BRETHREN

HIS RELATION TO THE WORD AND HIS RELATION TO MAN

March 1853

CONTENTS

GENERAL ARRANGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

ADDRESS TO THE READER

The Life of JESUS of Nazareth

CHAPTER ONE - HOW JESUS MESSIAH WAS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD

CHAPTER TWO - A PLEA FOR CONFIDENCE IN THIS REVELATION

CHAPTER THREE - THE BIRTH AND OUTWARD RELATIONS OF JESUS

CHAPTER FOUR - THE SIGNS OR WITNESSES TO REVELATION

CHAPTER FIVE - THE RELATIONS OF THE WORD TO JESUS

CHAPTER SIX - THE NATURE OF THE COMFORTER AND ITS RELATION OF JESUS

CHAPTER SEVEN - THE RELATION OF ALL THE FOREGOING TO MAN IN THE BODY

APPENDIX ONE – CAUTIONS

APPENDIX TWO - THE VOICE OF GOD

APPENDIX THREE - PROVISION FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION

SERMON ON FAITH

SERMON ON FAITH AND PATIENCE

Contents

INTRODUCTION

This Book is written, not for a full relation of all that transpired personally to the body of Jesus of Nazareth, otherwise called the Christ, the Messiah, but as a sketch of the causes and circumstances which favored and assisted the Divine impulse in many, and the Providence that worked by means to secure the fulfillment of the prophecies of the coming of the Hope of Israel at that time. I have added to this counsel, advice, and instruction, designed to lead every reader to be a Son of God by submission of all he has to the disposal of God. All man has of his own is FREE-WILL. That yielded, all is given up, and the steward gives an account of his action in his lord’s absence, and presents himself as a candidate for further trust. In this is submission, and herein is faith, that man takes his direction from an unseen being, and by an unseen direction acts, by an unseen thing is led to show his faith (which is the evidence given and received by and from unseen things) by works which are the outward evidence of the existence of faith, the Divine operation of which leads to happiness, and to peace on earth, and goodwill to men. Such is the tenor of My history of Myself, and such is the effect I desire it may have upon others. Let all read with desires to be benefited, and they shall be profited; let all read with, a desire to receive only the truth, and they shall be delivered from error. God is a prayer-hearing Father of all men, and if you ask Him for bread, you will not receive from Him a stone. Ask what you will in my name and you shall receive abundantly; if not the, selfish gratification you may ask for, some good gift that will help you to life eternal. Be then active, and lose no time in finding what God pleases to have declared to you in these latter days; for the time is at hand when my second coming shall take place, both as a visitant individually to the hearts, or internals, of mankind, and collectively in an outward and visible manner, but not visible except to those who have faith, and receive, like little children, the knowledge and wisdom which I impart in My character of a teacher.

The actual past gives way to the promised future. The last of the first, shall soon be no more, except in memories of mankind. Will the future be all bliss, or will probation still comprise trial and affliction, pain and sorrow? Will pain and sorrow be of a different character, or will the last and the first have the general resemblance that they are both states of preparation of mankind for a higher and purer sphere? The last higher and purer in itself, while, the former had accomplished its work more forcibly and more expensively to mankind, more arduously to the servants and sons of God, more actively engaging the aid of God’s high and Holy sons are the harbingers of peace on earth and goodwill to men? Herein, is wisdom, let him that readeth understand, for the number of the name is made known to the earnest seeker, the humble inquirer; and the last times shall partake of the benefits of the first, and the present of the past, so much so that men shall scarcely see where the one ends, or the other begins; yet there is an end to the one and a beginning to the other, and the one and the other with, be experienced by every soul which lifts its aspirations to God, the Father of All, and the Friend of All, and the Saviour of All, and the Eternal Source of every blessing, which the Sons of men have received, or will hereafter have. Let all, then, seek to learn this mysterious number of this mysterious name, for so shall they be advanced, and purified from unholy desires and impure motives; so shall they be led, to give to God, glory, honor, and praise, now and forever and forevermore!

Contents

PREFACE

This Book has been written by piecemeal, in fragments, as it were, and in a way which has tried and proved My medium. First, his expectations were raised, then he was disappointed; opposition and argument from other believers in spiritual manifestations have shaken him rudely and violently, but his foundation was that of Peter, it was the rock of Internal Revelation, against which I have promised that neither men nor spirits should prevail. I have tried him by reverses of fortune, as men call the outward means of support and business, but I have sustained him in his afflictions, and strengthened him in his trials, because he has asked not Me, but God, for help, counsel, and instruction. Not that he despised Me or My mediation, but because he would not subject himself to the possibility of delusion, without appealing to that Being who is All in All, who is so far one with Me, that He has no other will than Mine, because I have no other than His. Because, though God is everywhere and knows all, and notes all that occurs either externally or internally to mankind, he would not submit to any inferior being under any belief, resting on any other evidence than that sanctioned by God, through His action upon the soul, or heart of man, and in such a way as reason, and revelation made in former days to the servants of God and of Christ would justify and sustain. The trials he has been called to bear have purified him, as trials will purify every man who submissively receives them, and desires to be taught or instructed by them. Trials are from God, and temptations are suffered by Him to approach the minds of men, to improve them and prepare them to be servants and sons. Let men, then, give God glory, praise, honor, and high renown, who chastises or blesses with chastisements their hopes, affections or desires, that are rested on anything but a willingness and desire to serve God first and last. Let man, then, kiss the rod of affliction, and lay hold of the staff of mercy; for God extends the one, as He lays on the other. Let man seek God when he wants help, and remember that God does not dwell afar off, but that He is ever present, surrounding you more completely than the air you breathe, filling your body, mind, and soul, ever and always, by night as by day, at home and abroad; for He is omnipresent, and pervades all things.

He who calls you is one with Him, and fears not that you will prefer God to Him, nor does God refuse the sacrifice offered to His Son, any more than if offered to Himself. All that will come may come, and partake of the waters of life freely, without money and without price; but you may also partake of them at the fountain head, or at the lower stream that has issued from it, and is the same water of life, pure and unmixed. But this I cannot easily make you understand here, but in the Second Series of The History of the Origin of All Things, you may find it fully elucidated. Let all that will, search, and see if these things be so, for many shall say, Lo, here is Christ! or Lo, He is there! but go not forth, for except ye be reprobates, He is already with you in your heart. Be, then, content to have Him abide there, and ask of Him, or of God, that aid and guidance, that comfort or consolation, that love and sustentation of the body, or of the soul, that you feel yourself in want of; but remember, that as your desire is, so shall your reward be. Desire, then, those things which are of God, and are pure and holy.

Let all then, endeavor to seek the same God, one, pure, holy, merciful, just, and of love and Power are the great characteristics of the Deity; and the former is bestowed with justice, and the latter exercised with wisdom and impartiality. Seek, then, this One God, Infinite in every attribute, and possessing as attributes, the power to raise men to His nature, so far as to be in harmony with Him, and fit receptacles of His love; power to secure to men eternal happiness; power to know evil, and to overcome it by love, which is the ruling principle of God’s nature, the highest attribute He manifests to men. The pure benevolence, or love of God, is beyond the conception of mankind, but ideas finite can be formed of the infinite; not expressive of the infinite, only approximative to its expression. But, by these approximations, man reaches nearer and nearer to God, and to a knowledge of Him. He approaches Him in nature, as he knows Him better, and he leads the way to a reception of more knowledge by every acquisition of it. So man progresses to a knowledge of God, and to unity with Him, who is indeed unapproachable, and incomparably beyond the reach, or comparison, of His Highest Sons, whom He has brought to the next state of existence to the Word, and even in some respects beyond the Word, in their attributes, and qualities of character and action.

Having thus set forth the kind of God you should look for and seek to know, compare Him with the limited being which many claim should be worshiped, who made man to His disappointment, and cursed him to His sorrow; who leads him by threats, and forces him to be saved by a sacrifice of a superior being to an endless suffering; for the horror and degradation could not fail to be deeply impressed on that being’s memory, and the perception, that sacrifice had availed but to save a portion of the race which he had endured all, would be a constant torment, an everlasting thorn to rankle in the unhealed wounds of His glorified body. Compare Him with that God you have worshiped, and if your God, or your conception of Him, was not high enough to be beyond My conception, or anyone’s conception, elevate your standard of Infinite excellence, for be assured you never can conceive of God as more perfect, or more powerful, or more loving than He is; but your highest and most progressed ideas will still be as different from the reality, as finite is from infinite. Let, then, every man strive to worship a purer and higher conception of Superior Intelligence, called God. This is all that you can do profitably, perhaps, and this is your duty, as you cannot deny. Then, when you are told to be perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect, you will find it has a meaning easily understood, and a command not utterly impossible to obey. For such as you are, you will, in much, conceive God to be; and such as you can conceive Him to be, you can attempt to become in your own sphere of action; for man is the image of God, even as he makes God the image of himself. For God made man like unto Himself, but He placed him in a different sphere of action, and raises him gradually above grossness and contamination, into purity and perfection.

This is the God I call you to worship, our Father in heaven. Let all be prepared to progress to meet Him; let us all love Him now as much as our natures and states of progress will admit, and so we shall all approach Him as nearly as is possible for us respectively to do. Let us be passive to His aid, and active to exert ourselves to our best ability, for so we work ourselves, and are worked upon. Thus we serve God acceptably and favorably to our happiness here and hereafter. Let us, then, strive to know God and be His servants, for such are His paths of duty, that He leads us to reach Him by submission and obedience. The last of My exhortation is to be perfect, as God our Father in Heaven is perfect, and to him that overcometh, will I give a white stone, on which shall be engraven His name, and the number of His name, who hath gained the victory; that is, My name shall be engraven on a pure mind, and I will know My people by their usefulness, and by their sacrifices. Amen.

I have extended My Preface to the length of a discourse, but I desire that you may enter upon the perusal of this book with ardent desires to know and understand the Truth, and to give this book its due position in your mind’s estimation, for the time is at hand when I shall appear to men in My second coming, and shall pass from East to West with the rapidity and brightness of the lightning. Of the day and hour no man knoweth, and therefore all should be ready, and all should be willing, to receive Me in the way of My coming, be it outwardly or inwardly, be it in one or another form, in one or another position, authority, or place. Let all be ready and willing, for to them will I come with power and glory; While those who oppose Me shall be gathered together for an overthrow, and shall be bound for an indefinite period, equal to a Day of the Lord. Reader! pray God earnestly that He will help you to perceive and receive the Truth. You need not, and ought not to fear to believe that, be it ever so new, ever so contrary to your former cherished opinions and expectations. Remember that the Kingdom of God cometh not with, or according to, expectation, but, that it is plainly shown in the writings of My disciples, that I did come in a way, and in a character, unexpected and unrecognized by the Church as it existed eighteen hundred and fifty years ago, and that I am to be expected in the future in a blind, an unknowing, expectation, that will not recognize Me readily when I again come. Be, then, prayerful, and unwearied in preparations for My reception, both internally and externally, in any, and whatever way it may please God to have Me appear to assume the government of the Fifth Monarchy, that shall have no end in Time or in eternity.

Contents

ADDRESS TO THE READER

IN BEHALF OF THE MEDIUM

In this book I am performing what I led My medium to expect would be done in a different way. I am leading you, oh, Reader, to read other books which contain important revelations, and which cannot fail to be great helps to you, in progressing toward union and harmony with God, if you read them diligently and attentively. Not as if it were a task, or as if they were novels to be skimmed to collect the cream, but as studies to be understood by reiterated perusals and long continued reflection. By them you will find all things explained, all contradictions made clear and accordant, all doubts removed, all painful apprehensions dissolved. By them you will find the good of former systems sustained, the evil discountenanced, and the error detected. Lay hold, then, upon truth.

This medium has been led to undertake this work, not from any desire on his part to write, or to know its declarations. He had little or no curiosity respecting its subject, but he was willing to be used, and felt that he owed to Me much time, for I had assisted him to save from sleep some three or four hours of each twenty-four, and looking upon this as peculiarly at My service, he desired to devote it to Me, or God, and so offered an acceptable sacrifice of his first fruits of leisure. Early rising has given him some hours and half hours, some before wasted moments, which he has been gratified to have Me accept, and dictate in them, through the process described in the Second Series of The History of the Origin of All Things, whatever it pleased Me to convey. To do this, he sacrificed his will, and gave up personal gratifications of indulgence in bed, to him very tempting, and before My influence with him was thus established, irresistible. I mention these things to show you that he has not sought to influence Me, or to affect in any way by his desire, the course of My free communications. Few mediums are passive, most desire to fulfill their own plans, and generally obtain their wish, or a semblance of it. Careful training and watching, dutiful submission and obedience, a perfect sacrifice of will, is necessary on the part of those who would do God’s will, and become his servants accepted for a special work or mission. Be, then, willing to give him credit for sincerity, and you will be obliged to admit he has been favorably situated for reception of Truth, give him credit for honesty, and you must admit he could not well have been deceived.

But you will say, how can I believe You are the personage You profess to be? You neither manifest it by superiority of diction, or elegance of style, by unanswerable logic, or unexpected proofs? You do not work miracles through him, or in any way mark him as a remarkable man? But I do declare Myself to be the Lord and Savior of men, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Alpha and Omega, the A and the Z, the High and Holy Son of God, the only begotten Son of God after the flesh, and the High and Mighty Ruler of Earth and Heaven, the Lord of All and the King of Kings. But again you say, how shall I believe You without a sign, how shall I trust You without proof; how shall I be satisfied with You, unless You will deign to show forth Your glory like lightning shining from the East, even unto the West, and dazzling, with a blinding effulgence, the eyes of mankind, as Paul was cast to the ground and blinded, long, long ago? Let us pause a moment and reflect. Reflect! for that is what I want you to do continually as you read, for in many of My phrases you will see no merit, and only discord or darkness, till you reread and reflect, reflect and reread. Then you will find them lucid, and full of meaning. Walk humbly, then, and do not ask Me to work miracles to save you from errors you do not want to surrender, but yield your will to Mine, so far as to desire Truth. The acquisition of Truth, is the first selfish desire a man should hope to realize, and the purest selfishness he can ever indulge in. And they who seek, shall find. Blessed are they who find. Blessed are they who believe, because they have seen the signs addressed to the outward senses; but more blessed are they who have not so seen, yet believe. Yea, for such have faith. Faith is as different from conviction, as reason is different from intuition. The one is unshakable, the other may be overthrown; for reason is never conclusive upon abstractions, or deductions from facts, but faith is the evidence of things unseen, which are eternal and life-giving, and all that is based on them partakes of the character of their foundation in God.

This Book is presented to you to be tested by reason first, and then received as a whole by faith. Can you believe God rules the world, and will allow man, or spirit, to claim to speak in His name and by His authority, unpunished? You will perhaps say, Yes; for Mohammed did that. Can you believe that God will grant any prayer to your most earnest solicitations, if He will suffer you to be led astray from truth, when you earnestly pray to Him to help you to distinguish and embrace it? No; you cannot believe prayer has any efficacy, if it have not so much. Then prayer may assist your reason in judging of this book. There is nothing unreasonable here, nothing that may not be true, for aught you can tell. Why, then, not receive it! coming, as it professes to do, from a source which is beyond error? That is the very point, you perceive, which requires proof that I, the writer, or dictator, am what I profess to be. If I am that, you at once admit My right to guide and direct you; if I am not, I am but a base impostor, and unworthy to receive any more attention; for no pure spirit can claim to be pure, holy, and perfect, unless he be so; and unless I be pure holy, and perfect, I cannot be the spirit, or soul, as I should be called, of Jesus of Nazareth. Here then, are the two horns, on one of which you must hang; either, I am Jesus of Nazareth, speaking by My soul through a man of earth, or I am an impostor, unworthy of notice, or any faith that good can come from Me; for out of evil good does not come spontaneously. Good and evil are separate and apart. Good is harmonious, evil is not; good is the product of God, and evil the act of man. Let us see how we can distinguish the one from the other.

Works of man are imperfect, and, tried by themselves, contradictory; works of God are perfect and harmonious. Works of evil cannot stand; but works of God shall never be overthrown. Works of evil show forth evil fruits, and works of God show forth good fruits. Now, apply these rules and propositions, to which reason assents, to these books, which I have caused to be placed before the reading world. Are they not consistent with themselves, harmonious? Are they not the best explanation which has been given of the phenomena of nature and the dogmas of theology, and do they not best account for all the various and apparently discordant receptions from spirits? If so, you ought to believe, by reason, that good is their fruit, good is their origin, good is He who produced them to the mind of the writer or recorder of them. But you say, perhaps the writer, or medium as you call him, may have produced them himself, and he may be a man capable of thus magnifying his own consequence, and setting truth and God at defiance! This, too, shall be answered by showing that he could not, if he would, produce the books I have given forth to the world; for all that has been thus given forth has been done by one author, and that author claims not fame for it. He asks not reward or honor of any kind. He disclaims any merit for their production, and you certainly will admit, that for him who has not appeared as an author before the public, there is for him a sacrifice to make in thus disclaiming, not only all merit of production or conception, but a want of motive to thus give them to the world as the production of another. He disclaims all idea of profit; he doubts that anyone could at this late day be found, who would take the plates and books he has on hand, and repay the cost, to him, of them, deducting all profit on those sold and given away. Profit and honor being out of the question, what motive remains? None that generally influences men, unless we suppose a higher and better one. No; there is no inducement for deception, either on My part, or on the part of My medium. Let us see, then, how else we can advise you to test this, to know whose production it can be. Authors have written anonymously, but only to enjoy the greater fame or profit; and here is not that inducement, and the medium stands before the world, openly, as the responsible author, though he disclaims the authorship.

Let us see once more how else we can test this book, and on this depends the truth or falsity which we shall expect to find in the volumes, which have preceded or accompanied it to the world, by the same author and medium, and with reference to which a judgment on this should be pronounced.

The Book is not unprecedented in its style, it is not remarkable in any way in appearance, it carries with it no sign, or token, by which it may be known, or acknowledged to be superior to its contemporaries. But it has numerous appeals to God, which denote sincerity on the part of the writer; it has many appeals to you, oh, reader! to search yourself, to improve yourself, but none to separate yourself from others, or to join others, or to surrender to Me, or to my medium, any worldly possession, any quality of mind, or train of thought or conduct, except as I am one with God, whom I call you to love, honor, and obey. I am not, then, seeking power or honor for Myself, or My medium, by this course; I am not asking you to do anything which tends in the least to aggrandize My medium, for I undertake to provide for his wants in another way. But there is a further consideration which you must not overlook. I teach as never man taught, and I offer to you, in this humble and unassuming manner and style, a volume of discourses and revelations such as no man could make without blasphemy, or spirit aid. I declare to you more than Moses recorded of the creation, I announce to you the plan of salvation more plainly than it has ever been declared, as far as you have any means of judging. I show you a God, supreme, consistent with Himself, and possessing every attribute of perfection, existing in harmony with Himself, and His creation, and His procedures. I show you how He rules all with wisdom, saves all by His mercy, sustains all by His power, and maintains justice, love, and progress, eternally, without drawback or confusion, without change of purpose or disappointment of intention. Has any other book ever shown forth this? And yet you must believe all this exists as God, and His mode of Action; for God is not man that He should lack anything, or imperfect that He should not be All in All, God, blessed, perfect, One-whole, forever. I am His representative, His ambassador to you to proclaim His glory, not to set forth My own; to establish His mercy, not to do My will, except as My will is His by harmony with Him. Believe, then, the Good Tidings of Great joy, this day offered to this people, believe that its result must be, if received, Peace on earth, and Goodwill to men. Amen.

But some will say, I cannot believe, because You make Christ all, and God so inactive; because you say, God works by means, and not directly upon man and matter! While there are others who say, I cannot believe because You make Christ so little, as to be less than God! This represents the extremes, within which are various manifestations of belief, possessing every shade of difference. For God has so made the mind of man, that no two individuals are alike, and, as is the mind, so will be its manifestation, when it rests upon itself, for development or action, and when it rests upon reason, it does so rest upon itself. Faith is the only thing which can produce uniformity of belief even in the minds of a few, and faith, pure and unmixed with reason, is rare indeed. Not a man in the body possesses it. Therefore, if we could search the hearts of all men, in every one of them we should find some points of difference with each and every other. Even this is a wise provision, for God so prevents combinations from being effectual to slay His two witnesses, Reason and Revelation. Some will resist the truth for a long time, and never perfectly receive it in the body, but at least some will approach very nearly to it. Had all received it, this world, or state of being, could not have been what it is, a receptacle of spirits from Paradise who desire experience of Good and Evil, the forbidden fruit to man except at the expense of death to his soul. Death, which is the absence of Life; Life, which is the knowledge of God. How, then, can My teachings be received by all? and, if not received by all, how can the millennium be? I shall refer you to the books already published, for answers to all these objections. Those books are The History of the Origin of All Things, incomplete, be sure, but yet full of not yet understood or appreciated truths and revelations, to obtain which you must urge forward your mind by study and by prayer.

Pray, then, to God, that He will give you light. Ask in My name if you will. But whether you ask of Me or of God, of Him directly, or through Me, through Me will you be comforted, answered, established in Truth; for I am mighty to save, and beside Me there is no Mediator between God and man. All that will come may come, all that desire to come shall have my help, and all shall know God, from the least to the greatest.

These books, then, claim most distinctly and decidedly, to have an origin higher than man! search and see if they do not bear upon their face the evidence of the truth of this claim. Look upon them with the view of reason, with the spectacles of critics, and you find a fervor, an originality, a boldness, an opinion unhesitatingly expressed, an offering of heart and desire for good, which men’s works never have all of, in so high a degree, which man of himself dares not imitate; and this certainly comes from, if it does not come through, a humble, uneducated, business man, whose time is fully occupied in business hours, and who neither leaves social or business duties unperformed to contribute, or produce, these books. Who has never been known as an author, or heard of as an original thinker; who has not professed any superior sanctity, or extraordinary morality; who has not been in the habit of lecturing in private or public his friends, or acquaintances, for their moral or religious deficiencies, and has never even claimed to have the office of a teacher of truth by conversation, precept, or advice. What, then, could at once qualify him to produce these books, which were some of them written very rapidly, as can easily be ascertained, and sent to the press without revision or transcription? What could suddenly give him power to write thus, but some higher intelligence acting upon him? What could induce him to act as he has in their publication, but a conviction that the work has merits men do not perceive, and that his duty requires him to be a passive instrument in the guidance of that higher intelligence So, too, if it be not him, it must be a higher intelligence; and if a higher intelligence, it must be good, and not evil; and if good, it can be no other than I have declared Myself to be, the Son and Sent of God, the soul or self of Jesus Christ, once of Nazareth, now of the Seventh circle of the Seventh sphere of man’s eternal progress.

THE

LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST,

THE SON

OF GOD

Contents

Chapter One

HOW JESUS MESSIAH WAS THE ONLY

BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD

IN THE BEGINNING was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God, took flesh, and appeared to John and other witnesses of the glory of the only begotten Son of God, the son of man, Jesus of Nazareth. And John and others beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God by His Spirit, the Word, operating upon the conceptive powers of Mary, a pure young woman of Jerusalem, in Judea. And yet that was not His principal glory, which was, that He was the only begotten Son of God by the Spirit of God, a sent Spirit, a Christ, or Messiah, operating in Him, and through Him upon others, in the will of God, and therefore in the power of God, the Father of All. Through Him was the glory of God manifested to the sons of men, and through Him shone forth the action of a High and Holy Son of God, who, by obedience and submission of will came to be raised to power, by arriving at the sixth circle of the seventh sphere, having passed through the vale of experience of Good and Evil on the planet Saturn, where he had been helped in a similar manner by a spirit whose experience of Good and Evil, or bodily residence, had been on the ninth planet, or the one designated by Le Verrier's as having existence, though yet undiscovered as such to the eyes of mankind. Such was the action of that spirit, acting in God’s will always, that with scarcely any shortcoming, I, the said Jesus of Nazareth, was obedient unto death, was the true and faithful Son of God in the flesh, doing His will at the entire sacrifice of My own. Walk humbly, and you will also receive Divine Aid. Be at peace with God, and you shall have a Messiah Resident in you, who shall guide and direct, hold and restrain you to the avoidance of evil, to the performance of good, provided you submit perfectly to your God the guidance of yourself, and your desires for action and accomplishment.

Having now opened my History, let me take you back to the beginning of it, and see how the Spirit of God, the Word, the Holy Spirit, came to act upon Mary: who she was; and how she received the Spirit, or Word. Mary was a virgin of Jerusalem, outwardly, and to the perceptions of men. She was as I have elsewhere set forth, a pure-minded young woman, whose soul had left Paradise with desires for the good and happiness of her fellowsouls, who had been born miraculously by the aid of the same Holy Spirit which induced her own conception of My body, and which acted on her aged parents in answer to prayers, long fervently continued, for offspring. The only child of their union, the only child of their old age, she was devoted by them in advance to the Lord God, to whom they had prayed, and by whom their prayers had been accepted and answered. They believed that surrender of her completed when they placed her, at the age of six years, in the care of those attached to the Temple of Jerusalem, and who received her as they received other young children, so set apart by vows, to God’s service. In this was wisely provided her care and maintenance till she arrived at the age of sixteen years, when, according to rules of the priests of the Temple, Such young women were to be drawn for by lot, by Such as offered themselves to the priests to fill the position of husband, such being, necessarily, of good repute and sufficient means to undertake the support of a wife.

Mary was beautiful, and Joseph, whose lot fell upon Mary, was old compared with her youth, he being upward of forty years of age. But in obedience to the command of God, he laid his rod, or branch, in the appointed place, with others, who also had the privileges of contending for her. Joseph’s rod budded and blossomed in that receptacle, while the others beside it remained unchanged. Thus, as usual, was it manifested to whom the virgin should be assigned. Joseph took her and returned to his home in Nazareth, where his now betrothed wife was to remain for six months, till the appointed time for their marriage should arrive, or till the betrothal should be dissolved by incompatibility or disinclination becoming manifest, which rarely occurred, the choice being determined in general by the action of God, through His servants, the spirits, who were in attendance upon the priests of the Temple.

The in marriage of Joseph had not taken place; the probation, or betrothal of Mary and him, had only commenced, when the angel of the Lord, a spirit-body of a departed soul, once resident on earth in an outward body, appeared to Mary, and hailed her as blessed among women, as one who should bear a son who should be called Jesus, that is Savior, for and because He should save His people from their sins. Mary, having stated her reasons for supposing this impossible, was informed that it should be by the operation of the power of the Highest, that she should conceive without the knowledge of man, and that she should be blessed among women, because she would submit to the operation of that invisible power, which would thus overshadow her. Because she was thus submissive, she was led to praise, honor, and glorify God. She understood that son would be the Messiah whom Daniel and other prophets had declared would come, and whom she and all Israel looked for with earnest expectation, not unmingled with anxiety that He would not come. Mary herself was of the line of David; so was Joseph. But Jesus was not the son of Joseph, except by repute and by law, He being born in wedlock, though conceived in betrothal, which, by the Jewish law, was a legal authority to inherit a succession, a legitimate birth, and a rightful parentage. So Jesus was the son of David, by law through Joseph, the male line only being a legal descent; and, in fact, was a son, or descendant, of David, through Mary, in the female line, by which inheritance came not by law, but by grace, or favor. He was, then, rightful heir to the throne of the people of God, otherwise called Israel. He was the Prince whose glory should transcend that of Solomon, and be continued to the end of time, and be the refuge of all people, the hope of Israel the people of God; and the High and Mighty Ruler of men and angels, or departed spirits, as they subjected themselves to Him, as the Son of God one with Him, and the representative of God to them, and the only Mediator between God and man. But He was the only Mediator between God and man, by being the chosen of God for the office of Messiah, by being sent by God to man as a Mediator whom they could reach and appreciate, and He could unite himself with Him because of His subjection by obedience and sacrifice of will. So, I came to mankind, as a pure and holy example, a brother having borne all the infirmities of human nature — a man who had sacrificed all to God, that I might benefit not Myself but My fellow-beings, mortal in body like Myself, eternal in existence like Myself, and doomed, or promised to be, like Myself heirs of God to immortal Life in the bosom of the Father of Spirits and the Parent of All men. I was the mediator because I offered Myself a willing sacrifice for the good of these, My brethren, and confined Myself not to a nation or great family, but embraced in My benevolent desires all mankind, past, present, and future, in their appearance on earth, but all equally existent from the beginning to the end of eternity, because all were, and are, like Myself, procedures from God, parts of Himself, set apart for individual existences, and equal in the sight of God, as His sons, as His subjects, as His beloveds, if they submit to, and return His Love, and thereby entitle themselves to see and receive His mercy.

I am the Prince of Glory, and the King of All, and the Ruler of Earth and Heaven, by this same submission and sacrifice of will to God, by which I unite with God in such harmony as to have His power, and do His will with His power; by which, acting only so far as it pleases Him to act, which pleasure never extends beyond the bounds He has fixed for Himself, in the regulation of the affairs of men in His scheme of salvation of all mankind. Being thus restricted by the Will of God (which is not felt as a restriction, and which is not, in reality, but only to the view of man, a restriction), I act in that will, and in subjection to it, upon mankind, unfitted, (by dependence upon any power but God), unwilling, to yield to man’s will, and so bringing, by persuasion, all men to acknowledge Me as good, as an example, as a Savior desirous to lead men to God, not to save them by My own power, or love, or mercy, but persuading them to receive and accept God’s power, love, and mercy for their salvation from their own wayward wills, their own unworthy thoughts, or motives of action; their own unworthy and inharmonious; injurious to others, and by reaction upon them, injurious to themselves, actions, or manifestations of will of their own bodily minds, called, generally, Reason.

Reason is a gift of God, and God gives only good gifts to His children. He calls them to listen to Him by this very Reason, which He asks them to sacrifice to Faith, whenever He has satisfied their Reason. But, because Reason is a gift of God, we are not to suppose it cannot be misused, or misunderstood. It can, indeed, only be well used by God’s help, and he who would fully be able to realize the value of reason, must submit to God for His help to find Him out. Man, by reason, cannot find out God. God only can manifest Himself to men, and this He did through Me, when I was in the body in Judea, and this He does now through Me, through these writings, and this He will do at any time, through Me, in you, or any man, whenever you turn within yourself, and listen to the still small voice, that the prophets of God in all ages, and at all times, when they spoke by authority of God, have heard. This will not be an outward sign to you; but it will be a sure, and steadfast, and unmistakable manifestation to your internal, your mind, your consciousness, your heart. You will know it though ten thousand other voices assail you at the same time, shouting — Here is Christ! or Lo! He is there! for My sheep know My voice, and those that seek Me shall find Me. But you must seek by sacrifice of your will, by submission of your heart, for many shall say, Lord! Lord! and find Me not, neither will I know them as My servants, or as servants of God, for the lips that show forth praise to Me have no sound that reaches beyond the atmosphere of earth, but the heart or soul that utters with truth and sincerity, with understanding of itself, and with pure desires, the prayer, Lord! Lord! I believe, help thou my unbelief! shall never fail to reach to the Throne of God; for the Throne of God is Heaven, and he who thus raises his aspirations, and elevates his desires above the things of earth, is already in Heaven, and therefore at the Throne of God. God is everywhere, but He is not manifest in the storm, the whirlwind, or the earthquake. He comes not with shouts of men or prayers of lips. He comes in a quiet, unobtrusive, unexciting way, and He leads the soul into peace, into that peace which passes all understanding, and is the earnest, the assurance, the foretaste of Heaven. The love of God designs all men of this enjoyment, the love of God has prepared this enjoyment for all men, and the power and mercy of God are so infinite that all men shall at sometime receive it. Will you, oh, Reader! receive now? or by-and-by, at an indefinite period hence, a day, a year, a thousand years, or ten thousand times ten thousand thousand years hence? You have now the offer of it today, for this is the accepted time, the day of salvation. Tomorrow you will have it offered again if you listen to Me, but what assurance have you that you will do so, that you will not be absorbed in the care of your earthly possession, your daily provision for bodily support, or the cares, anxieties, and deadly influence of the outward world? What probability is there that you will listen more attentively tomorrow, if you say, Why persuadest thou me to be a Christian; Go thy way this time, I will hear thee again at a more convenient season? Stop now, young man! old man! child! or youth! stop now, and ask God to enlighten you and lead you to Truth, to declare to you, in that still small voice, an answer to your humble and sincere prayer for light and hope, what you shall do to be saved! Is not this question the most important you can ask, is not its answer the thing most to be desired from God? What, then, causes you to turn to some less important matter, till you have urged and begged for an answer to this prayer?

Oh, Thou Holy, and unapproachable God! who art beyond my perceptions, and unknown to my bodily senses! have mercy upon me, a poor blind worm of earth, a poor blind votary of reason. Look down, oh, Most Merciful God! upon one who has a faint and unreasoning desire to know Thee and Thy salvation, and who dares to ask Thy aid to receive an answer to a humble petition to know the way of salvation. Look down! oh, Most Merciful God! upon one who has dared to come before Thee, heretofore, with prayers on my lips that my heart did not sanction; lay not upon me Thy judgments heavily, oh, God! for my sins are as scarlet, and I am willing to leave them to Thy mercy, and the sacrifices of a broken heart and contrite spirit, and Holy Son of God’s effort, to wipe out and obliterate. Oh, Almighty and Most Merciful Father! what shall I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! was of old the answer; but now, oh, God! I know not how to construe and define the answer. Oh, show me the way, the truth, and the life, that I may glorify Thee, both now and forever, and forevermore Amen.

To this prayer you will receive an answer in your heart, or internal consciousness, if you pause in the silence of all flesh, and listen for that voice of God which is still and small. You will feel it come to your mind or consciousness different from your expectation of it, different from a thought or an idea. It may come as an impression, or as a revelation. If as an impression, you will have to give it words, if it takes the form of words; if as a revelation, the words will come with it in a novel and unexpected way. But, however it comes, receive it with joy and thankfulness, without wrath, or doubting. If you find fault it will leave you, and you must again get into subjection to hear it again. But you will get it in answer to this prayer, not because of these words, or that form of them, but because you asked for those things in an earnest, self-denying, sacrificing, humble manner, yielding reason, seeking faith, yielding yourself, seeking God.

In the beginning was the Word-that is, from all eternity the Word existed, and the time when there was not anything but the Word and God was, in the beginning-in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God and the Word were then one and the same. But, in the course of eternity, in a period so remote that it is indescribable to man, except by saying that it was before anything else than God existed, the Word was separated from God and became a separate being, a procedure from God, an individualized existence, but yet an existence without a memory of its own beginning, or action, except by and through God, with whom it is ever in union and harmony, having never had any will but God’s, and having not now, nor ever, any Free-will.

But, by the Word were all things made that are made, and without the action of the Word was not anything made that exists, or has being. Then, if man did not exist before the Word, man was made by the Word; and, as the Word existed in the beginning, man must have been made by the Word. If man was made by the Word, we can easily suppose matter was also; and it is evident it must have been, unless matter is eternal, and in fact God, which no one will presume to declare. If, then, by the Word were made all things that were made, and all things that are were made at some time, God excepted, it follows that, since God made the Word by separation of It from Himself, He has acted by His agent, the Word, and not directly upon anything by way of creating it; and if not by way of creating it, we may well suppose He has also governed and sustained all things by the Word, or some other invisible force, and not directly by His own power, force, or substance, except they were exercised in His will by His agents, who may be supposed to be, besides the Word, some beings formed by the Word, acting, or having acted, in the Power or Will of God. For the Will of God acts through the Word, or whatever is in harmony with Him; thus the Word is in harmony with Him; and when men in their progress arrive at harmony with God, they act in the will of God so perfectly as to have His Power for their executor of their joint will; which joint will, however, is not a combination of their will with God, or of the Word’s with God, but is God’s will still, and is also theirs, because they have adopted God’s will as their own. Having, therefore, only one will between them and God all is harmony, and God is one with them, and they are one with Him except that they have individual existences and know that they are not God, but only in such intimate union and harmony with Him that they cannot distinguish any difference of Will or Power between them and Him; for His Will is theirs, and whatever is God’s Will is in His Power to accomplish. His Power accompanies His Will, and they are never separate from each other; for His Power never acts without His Will, any more or less than it never ceases to act with, and according to, His Will. Such, then, is the intimate relation the Word has with God, and such is the intimate relation which those other procedures from God, the Souls of men, have with Him when they have arrived at the sixth circle of the seventh sphere, and in the seventh circle of the same sphere; for a full description of which, see the Second Book of The History of the Origin of All Things.

The Word, then, was the agent by which man was made, and, as I have elsewhere shown, matter was made before man. Man, therefore, is an agent by which God may act upon matter, or upon man; for man, being individualized into many existences, may act upon himself, through individuals having separate existence belonging to his own class, and, if God wills it, one man may make another, or form or remove even matter, for man, when one with God, is equal to God in power, and has no wish, or thought, or desire ungratified, because every such wish, thought, or desire, is not merely his but God’s, and not at all his except as it is God’s first and becomes his by adoption, or because of his Oneness with God enabling him to partake of all that is God’s. Such, then, is God in His relation to man, and such is Man in relation to God, to the Word, and to the Sons of God, who are men in a higher state of existence, if not in the highest possible state for man to enjoy. Being then so acted upon, and so liable to be acted upon, man needs to endeavor to submit to the action of God upon himself, for God, having conferred upon man Free-Will, never deprives him of it by force or by His power, but leads him to surrender it cheerfully to His call, and lay it down as a sacrifice, sweet and acceptable, before God. Such is the sacrifice I have asked you to make, and such it is which I still urgently say MAKE for the security of your own happiness and to secure your eternal salvation. Not that you obtain salvation by your act, but by God’s mercy, never bestowed fully till you surrender all you have to God; and you have nothing that is your own, that you can yield to Him, but your Free-Will, as I have shown in former books.

The same Word, then, that made all things, took flesh, and John and others beheld His, or Its (as I have preferred to call It, to distinguish It from God and man) glory. His, or Its, as I will continue to pronominally distinguish It -Its glory was the glory of the only begotten Son of God, and the only begotten Son of God was He, who became the Son of God by adoption in Paradise to be the Messiah to the people of God upon the earth, and who, for His pure desires for the good of all men, Was especially favored by God to be born into a body of flesh, or earth, by the Divine operation of the will and power of God, manifested through and by the Word, which, under the name of Holy Spirit, is declared, in the evangelists’ account of the conception, to have overshadowed Mary, that pure young virgin who had never even desired connection with man, but had submitted to her betrothal as a duty, and as a matter of course, consequent upon arrival at that age when in the service of the Temple and dedicated to the Lord God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thus was the glory of the Word made apparent to the sons of men by the miraculous conception of Mary, and thus was I, Jesus of Nazareth, the only begotten Son of God.

But, in the Second Book, I declared that Adam, Noah, and others, had been produced in a manner somewhat similar and likely to be confounded by men as the same. This would prevent them from regarding Me as the only begotten Son, if they did not perceive in the two cases the vital difference; the Word acted in one case by power of God and produced a superior body for a more developed man, or higher order of existence, and in the other produced a more perfect body for a purer soul or more developed spirit. The one was simply an improved body, a purified body if you please, but the other was also a purified body and a purified soul. The soul, however, of Jesus, was not a different kind of procedure from other men; and other men’s souls, nor it, were not bad or imperfect, for all were created good. But the souls of all men born into bodies of earth suffer obscuration, and are disfigured by animal manifestations, taking upon them traces of good and evil here, in the body, endured or experienced. God ordered that the Messiah, whom He by His prophets had promised to the Jews, and whom He had caused all nations to expect and longingly look for, some in one shape some in another, some tinder one form, some under others— God, I say, ordered that this being, so expected, should appear in such a way as to fulfill every prophecy and disappoint every expectation. So He even fulfilled prophecies that had no relation to Him, but were mistakenly supposed by His contemporaries to have such relation; and so the evangelists set forth that many prophecies were fulfilled, and many others unrecorded, or unalluded to as believed to refer to Him, were fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth. Such, therefore, as have long wondered why the evangelists were allowed to so mistake allusions from the prophets of former days, which, on reference, are found wholly misconceived in their purport and aim, may now be at ease about it, for they wrote first for the good of the people of their own day and generation, and desired to show how all the expectations of men were fulfilled though men had not perceived it at the time of the fulfillment. Such will be the case again, that the prophecies will be fulfilled, and even the expectations of men, founded on other passages of revelation that are not prophecies of my second coming, but only supposed to be such, will be fulfilled; and yet men’s expectations as to outwards will be so mistakenly perverted that they will be blind to the fulfillment of every prophecy, and of every supposed prophecy, of My second coming. Blessed are those that believe without having seen. Blessed are they who believe by Faith rather than Reason. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are they who look within themselves to find Me by the light of Faith and the help of God, for they shall seek and shall find; and blessed are they who finding Me regard Me as a pearl of great price, worth all their other possessions, and who give up all other possessions that they may secure Me, the Pearl of great price, the Son of God, begotten by the Love of God, and dependent for existence as the Son of God, not upon His power or His will, merely, but, also, upon His Love. Yea, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, the only Son of His Love, the only man ever born because of God’s Love, to the World, that all men might be saved through Him.

Here, then, is the great difference between Jesus, and Noah or Adam, Jesus was the only begotten Son of God the Almighty Father, who, because Jesus so loved Him in Paradise as to desire to make some return for all the blessings and favors, all the happiness and enjoyment He experienced in Paradise, did, when left alone in Paradise by His parital part (which was Mary’s soul, as I have before explained), form this pure and holy desire, and was selected as the Messiah by God’s Love, which thus fell upon Him in fullness because of His gratitude to His Heavenly Father. Being thus selected, the Word, acting in the Will of God, formed or produced from the body of Mary, by the active propulsion, the vital principle, in a manner and time unknown and unfelt by her, a body suitable for the reception of this beloved Son of God, whom God so loved that He granted His desire, and permitted Him to suffer and work, and still permits Him to suffer and work vicariously, for the salvation of mankind. God so loved His son that He granted His son’s wish, and by God’s Love He was willed to be born. By God the world was so loved that He gave up to it His son, because not merely would that benefit the world, but by it that Son, Beloved of God, would be gratified. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to the world, that by Him the world might have Life, or Vivification. Such is the explanation of My birth, spiritually viewed and considered. Now let us take a more outward view of the same event.

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Chapter Two

A PLEA FOR CONFIDENCE IN THIS REVELATION

HAVING NOW LEISURE to inscribe a few of the more remarkable events of My life, unrecorded by the Scriptures of the New Testament, and having by a continued course of discipline secured the obedience and the passiveness of My medium of transmission of truth to mankind, I shall do what I please, and that is what God pleases to have done. Having spoken in former books, written by this Medium’s hand, but dictated, like this, by Me acting upon his soul, of the deep things of Creation and of The Origin of All Things, I am unwilling to pause when I have a passive, willing, and obedient servant, I, therefore, undertake a work which I have referred to as being beyond the capacity of this medium to receive, but which his present state is sufficient for; as I have explained in My preface, that I have trained and prepared him for it by trials and exercises, teachings and precepts, and by calling up to him the lives and examples of those servants of Mine who lived in less auspicious days, and suffered violent outward persecution, trials, and deaths by every kind of torture that the corrupt mind of the carnal and reasoning man could contrive.

Having led you to expect this relation from someone, and being able to use this man, I cannot justly delay what will perhaps do more, to reconcile him and you to the existing state of facts and circumstances in the world, than any other one thing. But I do not mean to shake you by improbabilities, though, they will be declared. I want you instead to receive them with, faith and confidence in the one All-Wise Creator, and Preserver of All and every thing. I want you to believe that God has power to strike with palsy, or incompetency in some way, the hand or the mind that should so undertake to deal with the High and Holy Truths, believed, or surmised, or unknown to mankind, that I shall dwell upon. And, having thus brought you to believe in God as All-Wise, All-Seeing, All-Powerful, and ever Just, Faithful, and True, I shall call upon you to join Me in praying to this same Good and Perfect Being, a prayer for faith, and help, and guidance. To Him who is, and was, and will be evermore, be ascribed all the honor, glory, love, thanksgiving, and honorable name, in all time to come, and now, at this present time of reading the prayer.

Let us unite with each other, and with God’s Spirit in prayer.

Almighty God! who dost know all the thoughts and desires all the hopes and fears of each man upon the Earth, and of each creature in Thy Whole Creation, look down, we pray Thee, upon the hearers of this book, or the readers thereof, with mercy and loving-kindness, with love and benevolence. Grant to us, oh, Holy and loving Father and Friend! that peace which the world cannot give or take from us, and be so kind and benevolent, oh, Holy Father and Friend! as to lead us to such knowledge of the Truth of this Book as is expedient for us to have. Confirm and establish us in the right, and let not love or hate, hope or fear, apprehension or doubt, deter us from believing what we ought to believe, or from having such faith as we ought to have in it as a revelation from Thee; or from perceiving it to be a mere farce, or novel, or vain attempt of an ignorant, misguided man, desirous, it may be, to do right, but led astray by false light, and by the workings of invisible influence, which is not of Thee, or in Thy Will and Desire. Having so blessed us, oh God! to Thee shall be praise, honor, and glory, evermore. Amen.

There is in every man a witness of the truth of any revelation, if he will only seek for it and acknowledge its promptings. But few do so. Many say: Go thy way for this time, we will hear thee again at a more convenient season. Alas! that man should thus unrighteously reject a gift of God, that Light which enlightens every man that comes into the world, that law which Moses declared should be written on the hearts of men. Oh, men of America! highly favored by situation and institutions. Oh, men of Christianized Faith! who profess to follow Me and My teachings, and to look upon the record of them as infallible, and as a sure and steadfast guide, not only easy to discover but prompt to reprove and encourage, why will you reject the very book which contains these plain declarations? Why will you search the Scriptures, not to find evidence of My Truth, but to find difficulties in the way of your receiving it! Why will you persist in denying Christ, the first-fruits of righteousness, and the sure Guide and Comforter? Why will you seek for difficulty instead of guidance? Why seek for rejection rather than reception? Can you be sincere followers of Christ and reject His knowledge of your hearts and minds, and believe He will allow sincere seekers to be exposed to damnable error? Can you believe God will allow man, who is the dust of the earth, to declare lies respecting His government and laws, and declare the words to be derived from God’s Christ? Can you believe that God is utterly regardless of the progress of error, or of the origin of evil? No, my friend, you cannot believe in God’s Justice, Benevolence, and Love, and believe this, unless you also believe His Power is not equal to His Will, or that He made a mistake when He constituted man, and failed in His great design of governing man by such laws as would secure his eternal happiness. Choose, oh man, which of these positions you will take! Will you turn to former revelation and deny this? or will you turn to the inward evidence, not merely of your reason, but also of your higher mental and spiritual attribute, your intuitive and unreasoning perception of truth? This last guide is the one I promised my followers 1800 years ago, and which I still declare is offered to every man to profit him, if he will only seek for and obey its voice.

In Books before delivered I have informed you of many particulars relating to my appearance in bodily form in this world. In this I shall declare more fully the process and the laws governing it, and the course of action by which I arrived at the Perfection of a Son of God. Not Perfect Perfection, but only Perfection as this being or form of being. Having given you, too a brief sketch of My present state, and of the progress by which, I arrived at it, you will, perhaps, suppose I can have little more to tell, but the History of My Life is as yet unwritten, and this book is designed to contain it, in part.

The last of the prophets and the first manifestation of My calling and election, came simultaneously, and the only separation made was that made by men, between My teaching and his. When John, the Baptizer, preached remission of sins, he exhorted all to repentance and to look for Him who was to come. To that Comer, that Messiah, he directed his followers, and discerned Me to be that Comer and Messiah when he baptized Me, as he baptized thousands of others, in the deep waters of Jordan. Far be it from Me to call you away from any guide you really have for truth. I shall, therefore, in this Book appeal to your reason, as well as your intuition, and rely on the old record made by My contemporaries, as well as point you to further recorded evidences of My present declarations.

Being thus prepared you need not fear any imaginary evil, or evil being. Not that I would have you suppose all beings, or all spirits, good in their actions or intentions, but that I would have you believe that God does not suffer His fallible creatures to be improperly acted upon without aiding them when they call upon Him, and preserving them from error when they trust in Him. But those who trust in reason only, whether that reason be that of their own or other minds, shall often go astray, even with good intentions; for God did not, and will not, refer them to reason as the guide to Truth. Whenever God acts on man He acts wisely and well, and whenever man wants help he can always get it, if he sincerely and earnestly calls upon God, God, however, does not answer in thunder or storm. He is heard in the heart, in the still, small, Voice His prophets formerly heard, and will always hear, and which all men may hear if they will only wait upon God, and observe what He pleases to unfold to them internally. All that is, and was, and will be, made known to men, of God, was thus delivered. So you must receive it if you receive for yourself; and if you do not receive for yourself, you must at least put faith in the declarations of men as to what they had seen and known, as otherwise than this there is no revelation capable of reaching you. You may say, miracles would convince you as being above your reason or, as they should be defined, above your comprehension. But these can only call attention. They fail to secure belief in abstract declarations which may be connected with them.

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Chapter Three

THE BIRTH AND OUTWARD

RELATIONS OF JESUS

MY INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS being finished I will enter upon My History, again returning to the beginning, but taking a more outward and personal view of it. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth, and all that are therein. He made man as the crowning and last effort of His creative Will. But man existed long before the Earth appeared as a planet; and matter, which forms the Earth, was created before man.

Man was formed, as I have related in the Second Series of The History of the Origin of All Things, of Aura or Word and Individuality, combined. This formed the Soul (or Spirit as it is sometimes indefinitely called) of man, and is the only indestructible part, and the only part of man that will not be destroyed. It is, therefore, properly speaking, THE MAN. It is immortal; all else connected with or dependent upon it, is mortal or perishable, and goes the way of all flesh, though some of it does not see corruption. Yet it goes the way of all flesh, in that it dissolves, and become& capable of new combinations. This Soul is the man, and it is this which was placed by the Creator in Paradise.

My soul was created with others in the beginning of the existence of God’s sentient beings called MAN (the only sentient beings existing now except the Word, which created man), and was a procedure from God, as I declared in other books. In Paradise I had an intimate union with My parital part, as have all spirits in Paradise until they desire to leave Paradise. Leaving the discussion of the manner of leaving Paradise to the previously revealed statements, I pass on to the History of My parital part which left Paradise about twenty years before Me. Mary was born of humble parents, of the line of David, in the City of Jerusalem. She was early devoted by her parents to God’s service, which was supposed to be participated in by those who ministered in the offices of the Temple. Mary was placed in the charge of the priests of the Temple, there to remain till she should be betrothed to a pious man. That man was Joseph (the son of Jacob, the son of Malachi, the son of Joseph, the son of ), who was a truly good and pious man. He was somewhat advanced in age compared with the youthful bride he confidingly accepted as the gift of God; for his choice of her was miraculously secured, as I have stated, and the longsuffering patience with which he bore the reproaches of slanderous malignancy, was rewarded by that peace which comes down from Heaven, and which slander, the most deadly of Earth’s weapons, cannot take away.

Joseph was about forty years of age, a widower, and a citizen of Bethlehem by descent, but a resident and native of Nazareth in fact. He was led to offer himself to the priests as a husband for Mary by the call of a Divine inspeaking Voice, which directed him to go up to Jerusalem at that time, and to put himself in the way of being called on to be one of many who should by lot receive virgins of the Temple as brides. But the law did not allow the immediate consummation of the marriage. They were required to wait till the sixth month following the betrothment, in order that if any reason appeared why the marriage should not be accomplished, they might separate without a divorce and without dishonor. When this occurred, a new effort was made at the next allotment of these maidens, whose duty it was, meanwhile, to assist in the ceremonies of the Temple of Jerusalem. Mary was chosen by the budding of Joseph’s rod when placed with many others within the sanctuary. Oh! says one, some deception may have been practiced by the priests, who had the whole control of the matter, and might place another rod in the place of Joseph’s dry stick! But, my friend, people in those days were intelligent; and, among the Jews at least, they would not let deceptions be performed by men without discovery, and they were not so superstitious as to believe miracles that were not authenticated by careful witnesses. The Jews were a barbarous people in some respects, and as to refinement, but knowledge was more generally diffused among them than any other people of their time, the free democracy of some Grecian cities excepted, and even they were not so free from reverence for priests as the Jews. The regular reading of the Old Testament, as it is now called, and the discourses or teachings of their principal men, which were delivered at each assembly for worship, produced this free thought and action of this favored people. The long lost tradition, the lately revived to general notice, the apocryphal New Testament, affords some hints of the truth respecting My birth and parentage; but though once short and truthful, the accounts have been amplified and obscured by inventions, till little of the original is left visible, and that is so, interwoven with fable, as to make it useless for the general state of inquiry.

There is in every mind a desire to know more of the circumstances attending Jesus of Nazareth’s early life. The very brief notices contained in the Bible, and the traditions of the Church unreliable as they are, do not satisfy men either by their quantity or agreement. The curiosity thus manifested is an innocent one, and its gratification will to many be the realization of a purer faith, and undying gratitude to the Giver of their knowledge.

The birth of Jesus was in this wise. Joseph, having taken his betrothed maiden to his house in Nazareth, and having to follow his trade of a carpenter for a living support, left her alone to superintend his household, he departing to follow the calls of his business to greater or less distance, and for longer or shorter periods. It was during one of these absences that the glorious vision appeared to Mary. “Fear not” was the salutation. “Hail! thou blessed among women! The Lord of Heaven declares that thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus!” Mary, like other Jewish maidens, educated to believe a male child the first or highest gift a woman could enjoy, was deeply interested and gratified at hearing this announcement. But remembering the uncertainty of Joseph’s resolution to finally marry her, she declared she knew not how it could be, as she had no carnal knowledge of him, and he might not resolve to make her his bride by marriage at the yet distant time fixed for their mutual decision; and the long absences and brief home residences of Joseph made her apprehend he did not value her society. The heavenly visitant, called an angel, a messenger (a spiritual appearance in fact), declared to her that it should be without the action of man, and by the power of God, which should come upon and overshadow her, and she should bear a child who should be the Savior of His people, by which designation Mary understood He would be The Messiah.

Mary was led into despondency after this interview or vision, and feared exposure and reproach arising from her situation, now so suspicious in its development. Being led to this state, she resolved to visit her cousin Elizabeth and other relatives, seeking consolation and sympathy which she feared she would not find with her betrothed, if she gave him a relation of all that had occurred. She was by that visit cheered and encouraged. Her salutation, received from those relatives, immediately reassured her sinking faith. Joseph, after her return to his house, was made acquainted with all by Mary, and while balancing in his mind the probabilities and possibilities of her story, he was, by a vision, assured of its truth. He took her then to be his wife. He bore her to the Temple and received the sanction of the Church through its constituted representatives. They were married legally and lawfully by the Church. The tongue of scandal was silenced as Mary supposed; but not entirely, for suspicions afterward were entertained that Mary had not been steadfast in her fidelity to Joseph, though he, himself, was satisfied and ever continued to be.

Born in a manger, in a stable of Bethlehem, the infant, so miraculously conceived and so remarkably foretold to Joseph as well as to Mary, was soon traced out by learned and Holy Men called Magi, who worshipped God, by another ritual, to be sure from the Jews, but who yet expected the coming of a great personage, and were pure enough to be recipients of a direction to Him. They adored Him in His humble condition, and left rich gifts, which materially aided Joseph and Mary in their journey, and their flight to Egypt, which soon followed. Here they dwelt for many years, praising God for His abundant blessings and continual mercies, for His great gift of a son to them, who was so good and so intelligent, so remarkable for His devotion to God, and consideration for others.

But why did not the people there take more note of the remarkable child? They took much pleasure in seeing Him, and He was a general favorite. I have described how He lived in Egypt, and how He was brought out of it, and again resided with His natural parents in Nazareth. He accompanied them to the Temple, and at twelve years of age gave those indications of precocity and greatness which astonished the most learned of the Jews. He returned to Nazareth. His intellectual needed no further cultivation. His physical system was strengthened and invigorated and perfected by manual labor as a mechanic, and His father received His assistance in return for His care and instruction.

When thirty years of age He was called upon to do what some would have thought unnecessary, in one having so pure a character, and who was so qualified already to be a Savior to many. He was baptized by John, and the sign given to John that He was the Messiah. On John the effect was great, for it assured him that his own work was nearly done. He warned his immediate followers that his work would grow less and less, but that the work of that young man would extend continually and greatly. John was the continuation and representative of the line of prophets which the Jews regarded as the exponents of the Divine Will, and his testimony was regarded as conclusive, by many, as to the real character of Jesus of Nazareth, and of His right to be owned as the Messiah, the Son of David, the King of Israel.

John was the last of a succession of prophets who had appeared at various intervals during the continuance of the Mosaic dispensation. He testified of Jesus of Nazareth that He was the Messiah, the long looked-for Prince, that was to deliver Israel from bondage, and establish a kingdom that should be an everlasting one. The law was a bondage, and from that I delivered Jacob’s descendants. The Church is the manifestation of My kingdom which shall have no end. Plaster and paint, forms and ceremonies, sects and creeds, may be placed in and about it, but it remains to be the same fabric, and the indestructible edifice. Against it the gates of the place of departed spirits shall not prevail, it shall triumph over death. Against it opposition shall be powerless, and insidious slanders triumph not, for on a rock it rests, and the open or concealed opposition is alike powerless. John saw that I was He that should come, but John, like other men when the evidence was only perceptible in memory, lost faith in Me. He sent his disciples to inquire of Me whether they should look for another. The outward kingdom they expected had not appeared. The Church was hardly established, John despaired, and his disciples reproached him. Reassured by My reply, he met death with firmness, and blessed God for His mercy and grace in permitting him to see, and to point out, the Holy One of Israel.

In the journey to Egypt, My parents after the flesh were sustained principally by the gifts of the Magi. In Egypt they were blessed with abundance, through the help of God. In Egypt they met with favor, as I have declared, and they devoted themselves particularly to My bodily and mental cultivation. Joseph was not an ignorant man, neither was Mary a simpleton. She had been well educated in the Temple, and was learned in the Law and the Prophets. Joseph had observed much, and was of a poetic temperament. Aided by them I progressed rapidly, and by the blessing of God I was fitted to receive, even so early as My fourth year, much knowledge of Egypt and its institutions and traditions, from one of its priestly class, who perceived in Me the indications of Divine Help and Favor. I profited by it, and received with facility and retained with pertinacity all that I heard useful, and all that was offered for My reception by these kind instructors. Out of Egypt God called Me, and He led us back to Judea by the aid of gifts which were received from those who knew us in our brief residence there. He led us back to Nazareth, and Joseph resumed his occupation of a builder or carpenter, and Mary continued to devote to Me that particular training which led Me to cultivate love for others, and be desirous to sacrifice Myself for their good. Amen.

Being now four years old, and having progressed with facility in acquiring learning; having been led to worship and serve God, I was already the servant and Son of God. Mary was withdrawn from the special and particular care of Me, by the duties of a wife and mother owed to Joseph and My brother after the flesh. James was the next son of Mary, and was the son of Joseph also. Jude or Judas was afterward born, and I also had two sisters named Mary, and Martha or Margaret, for either would be synonymous with the Syriac. But these names were those of the sisters of Lazarus; and Lazarus was a kinsman of Mary, My mother! I also was named a name common among the nation, and one that was borne by near relatives. You are too apt to think that the name was an uncommon or a new one. But it was as common as John is now. All things were so ordered that there was nothing singular in My appearance or manifestation as a child or young man, except that I was possessed of more knowledge, and was more precocious than any other. Like others, I grew and increased in stature; but, like others, I obtained My requisitions by exertion, though these exertions were greatly assisted by God, through His Spirit or Son, whom I have before spoken of.

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Chapter Four

THE SIGNS OR WITNESSES TO

REVELATION

THE CHILD GREW and improved in knowledge and in favor with God and man, says the evangelist. If I grew in God’s favor I could not have been the equal with God, the part of His Whole, in the sense that Orthodox churches, as they call themselves, claim for Me. For if God sent Me, His equal, a part of the God-Head, to dwell among men for their redemption by My sacrifice, He cannot be supposed to have loved Me more, or less, during any part of that mission. If I had existed with Him from Eternity, it is not reasonable that thirty years should increase His Love for Me, which love, however, was Infinite in degree at first. How then shall we understand Luke? By believing that I came to do My Father’s will, and that as I did His will, He was pleased, and bestowed more and more duties upon Me, led Me to greater and greater works; from having obtained dominion over My own will, or the Enemy, Satan, I was brought to obedience as regards action upon others, whom I thenceforth invited constantly, by precept and example, to serve God by laying down their own wills and sacrificing their physical, or natural as generally called, inclinations, to the pleasure or task of obeying Him. Being thus called, a few came to believe, and to act measurably upon that belief. The mother obeyed the child who so called her, for the child had obeyed her when she led Him. The father believed, and worked at the command of God, given through the Son. The brethren and sisters believed not, at that time, but afterward they too believed in My power and right to call all to obedience and submission to God, the Father Almighty, the One True and Constant Lord and Savior. Amen, so may it be with you, 0 Reader!

There is yet an opportunity to proceed with the natural and particular evidence that My body was like that of other children, formed in the same manner, and sustained by similar food. The proof of the first is, that it was produced by the laws of reproduction from the food and body of Mary. As far as the female furnishes the body of the unborn, she did it. As far as the male gives life and vitality of action to the organs of the embryo produced by the female, I received it from the Word. Yet how little this is, can only be inferred from the researches of naturalists having failed to ascertain what it is, or how it acts. It is indeed to them, to all, a constantly recurring miracle, an action by laws of nature, or of God, with which they are unacquainted. Thus far all his powers of search and reasoning have only brought him to the point where he perceives an action and result of an invisible agent, a force he cannot measure, yet a force which sets in motion the springs of life, the action of organs which results in an independent, self-existent body, which for a long period goes on increasing in size and perfection, till, having passed a certain stage, without any perceptible cause, it declines, and at last dies. The soul, or the mind, from first to last was intangible, and the investigator knows of their existence only by their effects. Let man then be humble as a philosopher, as a reasoner, for he knows not why he lives, or why he dies. He perceives food to be necessary to his body’s existence, and the powers of mind, though clouded sometimes by the body’s disorder, are at all times independent of its condition. The mind does not depend on the body’s food, except as the body requires to be sustained by food. The mind acts to the last with unimpaired energy if the body ceases to take food. The body wastes, the mind does not. Yet the body dies, and the mind is no longer visible even by its effects. Where it is, or whether it is, Reason can never tell; it must be known by Revelation, if known at all.

Let us, then, endeavor to see Truth in Revelation, and distinguish the signs of revelation, so that we may know the Truth. First, we shall find Truth in Revelation by looking for it, and desiring to find it rather than error. What we look for carefully we shall find, if we search where it is to be found. Truth is to be found in Revelation, if Revelation exists, all must believe. Let us, then, see what are the signs of Revelation by which we may know it from pretense, or from man’s reason, and Revelation will, by this process, be brought from obscurity, and placed on its natural and due elevation, above reason, but not enslaving reason, above imagination, but not obscuring it.

Let no man say Revelation is impossible, unless he would deprive God of power to make known His will to His creatures. His creatures could then hear each other, but not the Being who made them. This is absurd. But perhaps you deny the existence of a Creator, and believe that all mankind, and all creation, is the result of chance. Then may not chance as well have made a higher being than man, and might not that higher being manifest to man a superior degree of knowledge? Then revelation would convey to man what he had not possessed. Let no man be carried away by pride to say, I am the greatest being that God, or Nature, or chance, ever created, because I can see none higher! The existence of vast power, invisible except in its effects, is an analogy of the existence of beings exercising that power, partaking so far of its attributes as to be also invisible to men. Even he who does not believe in God, must believe that God may be, and that higher beings than himself probably exist.

Revelation is known by signs, various as the occasions require. When masses are to be moved, they are great and striking, as in the time of Moses. When persuasions are required, men are entreated by gentleness, by forgiveness, and by gifts bestowed upon humble instruments of God’s will. When great changes of belief are desired, the revelation is accompanied by signs impossible for man to make, and left to work its way silently and quietly, perhaps, into the hearts or minds of men to whom it and they are declared by other men.

But there is also in every mind a WITNESS to the Truth which, if interrogated by him in sincerity, and with submission of every other desire to the one for Truth, will speak to him in the recesses of his consciousness, so that he will wonder where the idea, the impress, the words perhaps, so distinctly perceived to be presented to him, could have come from. Searching his heart or mind will convince him it did not originate there. Searching his memory, he will find no memento of its previous existence. He will be led to see that he did not form or express it, but that it must have been derived from some other intelligence. What is that intelligence, which thus intrudes when he desires Truth? that thus obtains a hold upon his belief upon the most important questions and opinions that man can entertain? What is that Voice, so inspeaking, so silent, yet so perceptible; so quiet, yet so persevering? What regard does it deserve unaccompanied by whirlwind or storm, unpropitiated by outward form, unknown to the outward seeker? What shall a man do with his receptions of this kind? Shall he mourn over his delusion, resist it as a temptation, or shall he receive it as a bestowment of an intelligence superior to his own, and therefore worthy of great regard? That Intelligence must possess power to perceive all that passes in his mind, It must have power to act upon him as a thought if It can manifest itself so superiorly to thought, and therefore It can influence his conduct imperceptibly to himself. To whom can he turn for protection if this influence be evil? Not to God, for to God he appealed in the first instance. Not to man, for man only knows of it by his own experience. Personal experience only can make a man believe it exists; and he who does experience it is under the same influence as the questioner. Man sees, then, his own powerlessness to resist higher influences, if those influences undertake to compel, or persuade by imperceptible action, his course of action or form of belief.

In this lies the difficulty of those who reject INTERNAL REVELATION, they do not admit that God will speak to them, or let them be spoken to by an Intelligence superior to theirs. Having no experience of their own to appeal to, they denounce others as deluded by imagination, led by fanaticism, or impelled by base motives to claim delightful communion with saints, or with the Divine Spirit, or with Christ. For men variously name this superior Intelligence, this internal Voice. But so long as the Voice is listened to and obeyed, it matters little what it is called. Obedience and submission, correctness and humility of life, are the works which true Faith in this Internal Revelation, by whatever name you rest your faith upon it, produces. Let, then, every man so seek Truth; seek to know for himself this better Nature, higher Intelligence, purer Communion, of which the bread and wine is but a type. Let him resolve to use his reason to see whether the Revelation be that, or the production of his own mind, but having satisfied himself that it is from another source, treat it with respect, and endeavor to profit by it. Do not carp at its declaration or endeavor to avoid its admonitions, change its instructions, or disobey its commands, for all these are from above and the same as from God; because they can only be given in His Power and in accordance with His will. Let all seek and all shall find this Internal Revelation. It is not confined to Apostles, Evangelists, Doctors, or Professors of any name or station. It is not peculiar to any sect, or to all sects; it is the gift of God to all freely bestowed, without money and without price, obtainable by every sincere, self-sacrificing seeker.

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Chapter Five

THE RELATIONS OF THE WORD TO JESUS

JOHN INDEED BAPTISTED with water, but I baptized with Holy Spirit, or Word of God, which was in the beginning with God, and was God until separated from God, and is God now by being in union, and harmony, and subjection to Him who is All in All. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. Before anything was created, the Word was made a separate being by God, the Father Almighty, who thus made the Word His only begotten Son. By Him the worlds were made, and all that is made. He made them by the Power of the Father residing in Him, and He established their foundations or laws in the Will of God, and by the Wisdom of God residing in Him, and participated in by harmony and unity of will and purpose with God. The same Word took flesh, and His glory was beheld by John, and others of that generation, manifested in the life and conversation of Jesus of Nazareth, the writer of this article. But the Word was God in the beginning, was of God afterward, and enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, if they will be enlightened at all; and all and each receive some, but not with understanding or comprehending it. Thus it is that the Word comes to Its own created beings and they receive It (Him) not. Thus it is that this Light, the Light of Men, shines into dark places, and is not secured or made use of by the darkness, the unenlightened minds of men. They will not receive the Messenger from God so spiritually given, and they would not 1850 years ago. So God was pleased to manifest the Word to men in another way, visible to outward sense of man, glorious in Its manifestation, and powerful and benevolent in Its working. The manifestation was preceded by prophecies and accompanied by miracles. It came in humble guise, but broke through the opposition of men; and was raised to power and glory as the Only Begotten Son of God after the flesh, and as the manifestation of the Word, or Only Begotten Son of God after the Spirit. Did God fail to draw the attention of mankind this time, or did they yet misapprehend the call made to them, the Light offered to them, and reject even the outward signs of harmony with God which the Son of God showed forth and blessed them with?

Alas! man would not accept the Light yet, but chose darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil; and those acts they wished to continue to perform in their own will, and, therefore, they did not receive the testimony of that outward manifestation of the Word, which appeared to mankind under the form and in the heart or internal nature of the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth, raised by the action of the Word within Him, and by his submission entirely with perfect passiveness to that action of the word within Him, to be the Son of God; raised to be the Messiah, the Sent; the Christ, the Anointed; the King of Israel or the people of God, and the Savior of all mankind who have or shall have faith in Him.

Oh, man! outward, reasoning, captious, undesirous of truth, you cannot receive this. Oh, Son of God in man! Holy Spirit, Divine Light, Internal Voice, pure Spirit of departed man, resident in the hearts of the servants of God and seekers of Truth, Thou canst receive this and comprehend and be enlightened by it, and led to sacrifice all that opposes it, as being of the earth, earthy. Let us all pray to receive Christ in the way He comes, when He comes, and in submission! Let us all pray to be qualified with power from on high to do His work, and be led to seek for Him where He is to be found while we are in the body and He in the Spirit, that is, in the heart, or internal nature of man.

Let all mankind then hope for a knowledge of God and Him whom He sent, even Jesus of Nazareth; let all seek for the fulfillment of that hope, by earnest desires expressed as prayers to that Being, who is to each and all the representative of all power, and who so loved the world’s inhabitants, that He gave them His Only Begotten Son in Spirit, in an earthly body prepared miraculously for the reception of a chosen soul of man, which son of man received the only begotten Spirit of God, and submitted so perfectly to it as to act in Its will and power, and receive the reward of victory over the world and over His own earthly body, so as to walk humbly, and righteously, and perfectly as a man, before God. Let all willingly acknowledge the force and the invitation of such an example, and praise God for His goodness and loving-kindness, that He bestowed on mankind such a Savior, such a blessing, such a glory, such an honor!

But if the Word so dwelt in Jesus, and was present in His fullness in Him, what became of other parts of the Creation of God, created by or through the Word, and sustained and maintained by the united harmonious action of God the Father, and the Word the Only Begotten Son; and where was the Word before His appearance in the body of Jesus and where is He now? The Word pervades all creation, and is ever present in all creation even though He dwelleth in fullness in men at times. It is not necessary that the Word should cease to pervade the great whole of Creation to be manifested in fullness in an individual. His power is not lessened by diffusion, because His power is God’s power. He manifests His glory as the only begotten Son of God without being withdrawn from His unity with God, and God is everywhere. The Word then was evident to John and others, as being present in full pervasion of Jesus, because Jesus submitted to the Word and yielded all His nature to the action of the Word, by which the Word, without a violation of the Free-Will Jesus as a man preserved, appeared to act through Him without unwonted power and love. He was led by the Word, and the Word was manifest in Him in fullness, so far that every act and action, every deed or intention, was that of the Word, the only begotten Son of the Father.

He who was thus pervaded by the Word, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in Him in fullness, baptized with Holy Spirit; so that the saying of John was true, that he indeed baptized with water, but that another came after him and baptized with Holy Spirit. This baptism was effectual to the renewal of the heart and subjection of the action of the man baptized. The baptism of water was its type, is its type. When the antitype comes the former is unnecessary, as much so as the types instituted by Moses were to those who received the fulfillment of this institution by the reception of the preaching of Christianity.

He who thus came after John was preferred before him, because He was purer and more passive, more obedient and more humble, than John. John was a prophet, and more than a prophet; a worker of works, and a denoter of God’s Will. He preached the Kingdom of Heaven as being near at hand, within the reach of all. But he knew not what he preached, and understood not his own sayings. Still he had perceptions, dim, indeed, of the future and of the belief in a Spiritual coming of Christ, the Anointed of God, in the heart of man, and that the anointing performed by him on Me was the type of the spiritual blessing God would bestow upon all His servants and sons, who should be truly servants and sons by obedience and self-sacrifice, by sacrifice of power of action, of will, and of earthly or selfish desires.

There are many things which I could say unto you who read or hear this, but the time has not come, the way is not prepared; the way being prepared and the time having arrived, I will come again and say then. Walk humbly, then, and give God the glory of your attainments; let His mercy be praised, for He has saved you and Me from destroying ourselves by our Free-Will, without infringing upon it, showing His wisdom, His power, and His love, to be Infinite, and Himself glorious beyond our ability to conceive of. Amen.

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Chapter Six

THE NATURE OF THE COMFORTER

AND ITS RELATION TO JESUS

I HAVE YET but a few words to say. My history is declared with entire correctness in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and in the Second Series of The History of the Origin of All Things I have told you why each of those authors wrote. I have also records in the Acts of Paul, and in Paul’s Epistles, of My life and of My condition after death. I appeared twice to Paul, so that he saw Me in bodily form, and he describes the impression made on him by these appearances, though he does not undertake to declare My form of manner. I have also records called Proto-evangelion, which are obscured by prejudice, denounced by Church authority, and interpolated extensively by pious, well-meaning, but ignorant and uninspired men. The basis is truth, the mixture of error can only be separated by a reliance on God for the True Light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, and can show you unmistakably what is and what is not Truth. In other words, It will lead you into all Truth, for It is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. Now the Comforter did not come into existence, or even first manifest Itself, after my ascension. The Comforter was always since man was; for without His aid, or the aid of God, man cannot be saved. Yet the holy men of old, prophets, miracle-workers, preachers of righteousness, could not have been what they were without superior aid. What, then, is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth? is it a Being, a God, a Son of God, a man, or a son of man? Is it the Word? or is it the Spirit of Jesus, His soul? What He, Jesus, was and is, I have explained in this and other books. He could not have acted as the Comforter before His appearance on Earth. He could not have been God’s equal, and find it necessary to give such a qualified promise to His followers, as that He would pray the Father, and He should send the Comforter!

What, then, is this Comforter, that the Father alone could send, that was so superior in its effects to the outward teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, that it was expedient that He should go away in order that the Comforter might come? It is the Power of God, manifested by action upon the internals of man through the Word. The Word is the Agent by which God acts upon man and matter, angels, and all creation. The Word is God, but it is nothing but God; though God is not the Word, because He is more than Word. The Word is a part of God, separated as a procedure from God, as I have shown in the Second Series of the History of the Origin of All Things. Yet the Word acts not directly upon man as the Comforter; for though the Creator, in union and harmony with all things, the Word acts upon created beings immediately, or through other beings agents of Its will, as It is agent of God’s Will. The Word has no will but God’s, the agents of God’s Word have no will of their own. They are also united to God through the Word, by a sacrifice of will to a desire to do God’s Will only. These agents are the Comforter. But the Comforter is one, the agents many? Though many they are as one, because they have but one will, desire, or intention, and that will, desire, and intention is the Word’s, is God’s. All are one and are a Trinity. Let no one complain that the Word is placed second, or that the agents are not one being. Let no one complain that your elder brother, Jesus of Nazareth, is not Himself God, or the second person in the Trinity; for any such belief let him not blame Me or inspiration, but his creed or his own or other’s speculations. Let us pray God to enlighten you by His Holy Spirit, which is the Comforter, which will lead you into all Truth, and which will insure you peace, joy, and thankfulness, for all these are bestowed by the Comforter, the agent of the Word, which is the agent of God. God is One; and those who are His, by submission and service, must be and will be one with Him in Power, Love, and Will. They will have His Power if they cease to use their own. They will have peace if they do His Will, and if they do His Will, surely His Power will execute His Will. If they love as He loves, such as He loves, they will experience this union and harmony, this happiness which God shares with those who are united with Him, and that peace which comes from Heaven and is resident in man, making a heaven in him, and a fit receptacle for the dwelling of the Comforter, the perfected spirit of a man, the soul of one reconciled to God and united to Him by bonds of love and unity forevermore. Amen.

Such is the Comforter, one in action, many in form and personality; one in will, because all unite with God’s Will and have no other will but God’s; multifarious in acting, but all acting in one will and one action, which is to complete the Will of God. It is the Spirit of Truth, because God only is the source of Truth; and it cannot come to those who look for Truth in outwards or expect to discover it by reason. Tarry in peace till ye have power and guidance from on high, and look within yourselves for the Comforter, for He may be present in all your acquaintances, and you will not have Him because of that. He is ready to manifest Himself to you, but you will not have Him or know of His nearness to you unless you look to your, internal for Him, and sacrifice your own will to the Will of God so far as that Will is known to you. Seek, and you shall find the Comforter; knock, and the door of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, will be opened to you, and you shall sup with Me, or the Comforter, and I with you. Amen.

Let us pray to God, the Father Almighty, that He will bless us in endeavoring to become harmonious with Him, in undertaking to be universally benevolent, forgiving injuries, being willing to do good without return, being willing to render good for evil, desiring all men to be happy, and providing means for their happiness as far as is in our power. Such is a faint and finite imitation of the Divine Power, that rules in Wisdom and Infinite Perfection of every attribute.

The Comforter is the Spirit of Truth; the Spirit of Truth is in union and harmony with God, and, as John declares in his gospel, speaks not of Itself, but that which is given It by the Father. Thus God is All in All. But God acts not by effort or movement of His own, He wills and His Will is accomplished His Power secures its accomplishments, but His Power operates by and through His agents, who are in harmony with Him and so have His Power as acting in His Will. Thus the Word has no will of its own, and never had any will but God’s. Thus the Word acts in God’s Will and uses His Power or has His Power, and finds Its will executed always by Its inherent connection with God’s Power. The will of the Comforter may not be so perfectly united to God’s Will as to partake fully of His Power, but when the man submits wholly to the Comforter, or Spirit-Manifestation within him, he is led to such sacrifices of his own will as help him greatly on his way to union and harmony with God, which is the great goal of his course, and which will make him a Son of God, one with God, joint-heir with Jesus, the Messiah or Christ, and equal with Him and all other souls which have thus progressed. Between separation from God, and this union and harmony, there is every shade of progress and meditation. There is one Mediator between God and Man, the man Jesus Messiah, said Paul. Paul then knew Jesus Messiah to be a man in His character as Mediator and Propitiator for the sons of men and for their sins. Paul also knew that in His character as Son of God and Heir of All Things, we should, as men, share His inheritance, when we should, as men, reach the position of Sons of God, and thus be joint-heirs with Him, thus implying a future equality with Jesus as the Son of God.

Thus we see God is One, impartial, and just; that He is merciful and kind, and laid or formed His plans for gratifying His Mercy and securing His justice, so that all shall be accomplished, and no soul shall be lost to God by sinking into annihilation, which would be annihilation of a part of God Immortal and Unchangeable, or into eternal suffering and despair, as that would be a continual stain upon His Mercy, a perpetual outcry against His justice. An outcry against God’s justice because God formed man as He was and gave him Free-Will, not for man’s destruction or unhappiness, but to show man his dependence on God for happiness and maintenance. God is not so unjust as to let him perish by even a misuse of His gift, God is not so unlovely as to lose His Love for His child because that child errs and is perverse, but the unity of God yearns, as it were, for the happiness of every portion of His Immortal Self, and the soul of man is an emanation of God, as I have unanswerably shown, and as is declared in Genesis. If an emanation of God, it is a part of God; and, if a part of God, Immortal, and having an affinity for happiness, for its own nature, for its own substance, which is God. God, being Infinite, can separate eternally from Himself portions of Himself, and yet be Infinite still. But not in an Infinite degree can He separate Himself, for a half Infinite or two Infinites cannot be. The separated portion must be finite and determinate, for His being is never impaired, and His Power is Eternal and His Whole ever Infinite.

There is one more point for Me to touch upon, and then I will leave you to pursue the Truth by seeking to understand and have faith in the revelation made by Me through this medium, in the books called The History of the Origin of All Things already published, or publishing by him under My direction. Seek the Truth there, but seek its confirmation in a revelation to you, in your own internal, which you may have if you ask of God to show you the Truth. Be then the earnest sincere seeker for Truth, fear not a revolution in your faith in externals, strive after an establishment of your faith in God’s power, love, wisdom, will to exert His power, exercise His love, and display His wisdom, and more than all, show forth the existence of that Infinite Mercy which endures forever. That Mercy, those attributes, are now existent, and as God is so He was, and so He will be always, at all times, and evermore.

Let us consider how evidently the fact that Revelation has been made stands forth in the history of mankind. Let us look to every ancient record, whether it be preserved in the Bible or the Koran, the Zendavesta, or the Sanskrit Vegas, let us look at the modern views of Christianity, from the Roman Catholic claiming infallibility for his Church to the Quaker Who Professes to be guided by it, from the Jewish prophets to the Heathen oracles, from Balaam to Mormon or Smith, from the bishop who asks a blessing or declares a remission of sins, to the humble seeker after Divine Help who prays in his closet for Divine Guidance, and we shall find one universal belief to have prevailed in the minds of every nation, tongue, and people, that prayer has an effect, that God does interfere in the course of human events. Does the universality of this belief denote a general delusion! or a truth derived from one source, the internal operation of the Divinity in man! thus leading him to rely on Fate or Chance, or God, or a number of Gods, as the controller of his actions, as the one superior intelligence or combination of intelligences in whose hands or power his destiny rests. I leave you again to that manifestation of Deity which exists in man, in you, a beggar or a simpleton! in you, a prince or a philosopher! My friends, all mankind believe God afflicts or may afflict them. Some believe He does it from good motives, some try to persuade themselves it is from an unworthy one, but all agree that life and death, peace and war, health and happiness, every ill, every good, is in His power to bestow, or suffer to exist, to remove, or to sustain. How then can you doubt the existence of God, His omniscience or His omnipresence? You, whose mind is sufficiently developed to receive a high and pure idea of God as superior to the best of men and as having more power and authority than all men together, you, who can faintly conceive of the effects of these attributes of an Almighty, self-existent Being, cannot refuse to let this guidance, so much looked for and prayed for, to manifest Itself in your internal, to lead you to a holy communion with It, a reliance on Its teachings, a veneration for Its injunctions or precepts, and a perfect hope in Its purity and love. Such action I ask you to observe. You may not perceive it, if you rush to the cares of the world and the enjoyment of self, if you dwell upon that which is low and degrading, impure and altogether unworthy to occupy the time of an immortal soul, or of a mind whose existence continues into another state of being. But you may and will perceive It if you earnestly seek the aid of that Divinity you admit exists, and if you seek to submit to Its teachings you will be instructed, if you endeavor to obey Its precepts you will progress, and if you walk by Its direction you will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, Peace on Earth and good will to men. This was the kingdom I came to establish, this is the kingdom I yet work to establish by the free consent of the governed. Lay aside then every fear, let no man make you afraid to dwell under your own vine or fig tree, which is spiritually existent in your heart, and from whence cometh Heavenly Truth, precious fruit, holy love for all mankind.

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Chapter Seven

THE RELATION OF ALL THE FOREGOING

TO MAN IN THE BODY

AT LAST I take leave of this subject, not because I have exhausted it, but because I have told you as much as you can bear. I will hereafter present more to you in some other way, if you have faith in this, and in God that He rules and communes with men through Christ, or Sent-Spirit. You will find I am truthful, and consistent with Myself and with other revelation, if you endeavor to enter into the heavenly state or condition to which I have urged you, the first step toward which is prayer to God for help, and such prayer as I gave you for your guidance is, if fully joined with, effectual for your preservation from error. Let us pray that God will help us, and our sincere desires shall ascend to His Throne. Let us seek truth and we shall find it, but if you cherish your prejudices or traditions, as more sacred or pleasing than the pure and unmixed truth, you must not blame God or His Christ that you are permitted to enjoy the exercise of your Free-Will. Be then what you choose to be, your fate is in your own disposition so far as resolution is concerned. Of yourself you can do nothing but ask of God. He grants to all men their request measurably, sometimes to their confusion or distress, sometimes to their encouragement and bliss. May you choose that good part which shall not be taken from you, and give God the glory of all the good that you in any way enjoy, while the evil you suffer, you rejoice to believe, is only from the inharmonious desires of your unreconciled heart. Amen.

This, then, is the harmony of all, Serve God and love mankind—serve God by loving mankind, and connect the one with the other—serve God by loving Him and by seeking to know His will, and by doing His will that you may show your love for Him— serve God by candid desires for establishment in truth and true faith, and proper reliance on Him who alone is the Fountain of all power, the Source of all goodness, the Repository of every good thing that you possess or have performed—serve God by unceasing aspirations for higher powers, but by unceasing exercise of those you possess, as the means of procuring more power, and as entitling you to the reward of being declared a faithful servant who merits the praise of having Well done.

Let us all, then, join as a band of brothers, not as separating from others with whom we are intimately associated religiously or socially, but as a brotherhood exclusive in its character only as a preparation for diffusion, only as a pleasure flowing constantly for the general good, and only exclusive as others will not unite with it. Let the door for conversion ever stand open, and the partition walls of sectarianism be broken down, undermined by little and little and by the efforts of all well disposed spiritually-minded men to bring about that era of good feeling, when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and peace and harmony prevail undisturbed by the most discordant materials, which once refused to do one act together, now desiring to work together constantly, to bring in the reign of Christ in the minds and hearts of all mankind, and that outward manifestation of Christ’s power and reign outwardly displayed as King of Kings and as Lord of All. So shall the Fifth Monarchy appear as a Bride coming down from heaven, and a Reign and Kingdom that shall have no end, but shall endure till time shall be no more.

Thus, dear reader, I have disappointed you by giving much spiritual advice and little historical information. But there is much that will repay you for your time and your money, if you will only submit to be taught. Amen.

There is now before you a rule of conduct which will if followed, lead you to know God as you have not known Him, to love mankind as you have not loved them, and to submit to Divine Guidance as you have never submitted. The man who fully submits himself becomes endowed with power from on high to lead others into Truth, to be a landmark and a guide, a light on a high place, a beacon for the light of truth, and for the steersman who sails life’s slender bark, such beacon lights are important, till that steersman is the guide that leads surely to Heaven, and is himself the Guide sure and unfailing. Such alight, such a guide, you should submit to, and so become to men yourself a guide and light. May you be such. But I have also a higher duty for you to perform, a greater work for you to do, which is to submit so that you have no will but God’s, so that you are perfect even as He is perfect. This you despair of being, but God will raise you to it if you thoroughly desire to be raised to His right hand. But few there be who will reach this point within a reasonably understood period. To most it will be an incomprehensible one. Yet eternity is long and God is patient, and His mercy endureth forever; and to him that overcometh will I give a white stone, whereon a new name shall be engraved.

The eternity God has in store for every man is a joy man cannot understand or in the faintest degree appreciate. The heart of man is incapable of it. But let man form his own idea of the most perfect bliss he can conceive of, and such shall be his heaven if he chooses in the Second Sphere. The Third Sphere is above that even as the Second is beyond the First, and so on to the Seventh, which is immeasurably beyond the preceding one. All happiness that man is capable of, he shall enjoy, but he is capable of great enjoyment, for he is an emanation of God, and is in God’s image. Such is the prospect which may confidently be placed before every man as the sure result of his creation or formation as an individuality separated from God. Such is God’s wisdom, such His power, such His love. Give thanks then and be joyful, Oh! man. Listen and receive the Voice of God in the heart.

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APPENDIX ONE

Cautions

The course I have pointed you to is calculated to lead you to peace. The true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, is that which shines in his heart, and becomes manifest to others by his actions and deeds. These are the evidences of his faith. It is of little use to call out Lord! Lord! with the lips. It is the internal aspiration, that God hears, it is that He answers. Where will that answer be found if not where the aspiration is, and where so appropriately as in that same silence of all that can disturb, in the absence of all that can lead astray from God. Get then down into humility, sacrifice every disposition and will of your own, every desire except the one desire to know God as He is, and experience His Holy communion through His appointed way, whether that way be the same you have heretofore believed it to be or not. Look not to men for help. God is nearer to you than any man ever can be. Look not to a body of men called by any name, for they are no more than men after all. Look to God, who is True, Holy, Kind, Loving, and never turns a deaf ear to the sincere, unselfish desire of a man’s heart, whether expressed in a sumptuous house or in the open air, whether breathed for in music or silently evolved in mental action only. Be then seekers after Truth, by seeking it of the Fountain Head, and be assured that if you listen you shall hear the Voice of God, through Christ, speaking within you, and if you receive the Divine Message as Paul did when near to Damascus, and submit, the scales will fall from your mental vision as they fell from his outward eyes, and you shall be led to see that path, narrow of entrance, narrow of way, yet leading to Life Eternal. Amen.

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APPENDIX TWO

The Voice of God

I have made a mistake in thus dividing My Appendix, you will think. But I want to try you and My medium. I shall have calls on him requiring greater faith; on you more difficult to receive, till you come to hear for yourself the Divine Inspeaking Voice, which is superior to the Law written on the Heart, because the Law leads to condemnation, but grace and truth come by the Voice. This was true in the external, and is also, true in the internal, of which the external was the type. Be then of good cheer, for you may overcome the world if you will be on the side of Him who overcometh, you may sit on twelve thrones, if God gives you that place to fill, or you may be seated on the one or the other hand of God, but be ye ready to obey His call. It will be heard sooner or later, and prepare for Justice and Mercy now, by listening for Him to show you all things that ever you did, as you commune with Him in silence, but in manifest relationship to Him. He comes according to all expectations, but yet not as all or any expected. He comes in an infinite variety of ways to man, because His manifestations are infinite in variety. Though He is ever the same to men, He appears to give a different view or mode of speech each time they see Him or hear His voice. Such is God, incomprehensible to man. Such is God, above man’s comprehension; unaccordant with man’s expectations; yet hearing man’s prayers, and, ever answering those of the heart from the true man, and purifying and leading man to harmony of thought and action and will and love with God, the Father Almighty, by and through the Mediator, Jesus Christ, or those in union and harmony and oneness with Him, and, by means of the Word, the Communicator of every blessing, every kindness, every mercy, every hope that man has, or can have.

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APPENDIX THREE

provision for Further Investigation

Whatever amusement or instruction you may derive from this book believe it to be designed for nothing but your advancement in knowledge. By it you are often referred to the books before published and now being published, entitled The History of the Origin of All Things. These books form two Series, the First in three small volumes and the Second in one volume, though divided into three books about the size of the First three. These books all bear the same title, but the first is particularly A History of Man; the Second, of the Earth and of the Divine Influx to Men, the Third, particularly of The Spiritual State of Man after death of the Body. The Second Series is, First, particularly a History of Paradise, Second, of the Relations of Matter to Life and of Bodies to Souls and Spirits, and Third, of the Progress of Man’s Spirit and Soul to Knowledge in the World of Future Life.

All these books go to make up a whole, which must be read with much care to arrive at their true meaning, because without labor they will not make an impression upon your minds so as to be remembered, and if not remembered and weighed and compared with themselves, you will not reach such a comprehension of them as will enable you to appreciate them as being from so high a source as they profess to be. Blessed are they who can receive them from their internal evidence. More blessed are they than those who receive them from signs outwardly given. But to those to whom the first is not enough, but who desire the truth, and like Thomas are willing to acknowledge it when presented with unquestioned evidence, evidence they themselves have asked for as sufficient, to those shall be given other evidence such as will and should satisfy such inquirers of the truth and authenticity of these books. Look for the rules in them for testing them. This book I leave to your own Internal evidence and its own Internal evidence. The first you should desire to find within you, for there I am except ye be reprobate, and the last is to be found in that same way I have mentioned, by the application of your reasoning powers to its study, and comparison with itself and other works published by Me through this medium. Be then a sincere, earnest, industrious seeker after truth, and though you spend much time and make many sacrifices in that pursuit, its attainment will repay all, and furnish you with that source of comfort and happiness, that joy and gratitude, that true and perfect peace which is never parted with willingly, and only leaves a man because he does not afford it a pleasant home, but disturbs it by selfish desires and unholy aspirations. Such is the whole of my scheme, and such is the whole of my plan of calling you, thus far developed. Hereafter I shall make further revelation, but I shall as heretofore wait for the proper time to arrive; for My time is God’s time, and His Time is fixed by His immutable will to be when His unmistakable wisdom declares it should be. Such is the claim I make, and such the proof I offer. If, any spirit contradict it let him not be believed. He is in darkness, and many such there be. Yet even those who will not believe them, or be passive to their influence or commands, will think their impeachment enough to overthrow all I have given, because I do not as I might cause them to be silent. Such would have joined in the cry at Jerusalem, If thou be the Son of God come down from the cross, and we will believe, while if I had come down from the cross, before their eyes they would not have believed. Such are resolved to know not truth, but their preconceived opinions or ideas as truth, and such seek to be established and undisturbed, while the true seekers seek truth undefiled, unmixed.

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SERMON ON FAITH

The present is a time of transition, of passage from death to life, from stagnation to activity. The actual is giving place to another form and dispensation, the last shall be first established; and then it shall be first and all. There is in every man a witness, who will declare to him his duty, and show him the way to perform it. Do you believe it, oh, formal sectarian? oh, imaginative spiritualist? Do you believe God can make known to each of His finite images what is His will, and how they can please Him? Do you feel willing that He should do so, or do you ask and hope that He will let you follow your own chosen path, whether it lead to a returning circle or a diverging, erratic course, whether it remains bounded by the wall of a sect or disdains the control of God’s laws, whether it be the blind guide or the unseeing one, the visionary, the contriver of the unworthy theory that man’s reason is sufficient for him, and can enable him to try the spirits?

There is in the minds of all men a desire to be happy, and a desire to know what future happiness will consist in. But there is only one fountain of bliss, and that is God. Man cannot be guided by God without experiencing the reward of obedience, neither can he be led by reason or carnal affection without experiencing unhappiness. There is for man but one path for happiness, but one strait and narrow way that leads to life eternal, to life in God, and that is obedience and submission to God, as a Unit, as a sole and only Master, securing every exertion and monopolizing every faculty of the human will, and being to the man All in All. Not that man is not bound to exert every faculty pertaining to his body and mind, but that he shall exert them in submission to that Master he ought to choose, and devote himself to securing and establishing in his own and other minds the knowledge and love of God, and of His will and requirements, His power and His attributes.

The love of God is a consuming fire, which consumes everything which is not of its own nature or semblance, or in harmony with it. The man who possesses Love of God, manifests it in his conduct, and realizes it in his daily walks. He acts in fear of God, but not in fear of God’s judgments, for he loves God and believes God loves him. He fears separation from God by an obscuration or withdrawal of his love for God, not that for this God will punish him, but that in consequence of this, he must be separated from God, till he can again form and establish in his heart that Love of God which brings him into harmony with God, into a reciprocal interchange of Love with God. He does not need to declare his Love by words, for he declares it by his acts, but he may declare it by words whenever those words will benefit other men, and lead them to establish the same relationship to God, the union and harmony, the communion and interchange of love and action between themselves and God. It is this union and communion of which all others are but a type, and this union and communion it is which makes a man a Son of God. It is not man’s own effort which accomplishes this, but it will not be without man’s own effort. God will help, but He must be asked. God will work, but man must be willing to be worked upon. God is our Father, but He wants us to acknowledge it, and He will have us do so before we are allowed to experience that we are His sons. Be then desirous to seek God where and when He is to be found. He is everywhere, but where can we experience His presence except within ourselves! The prophet in olden time could not discover Him in the whirlwind or the earthquake, but in the still, small voice, which does not even reach the outward ear, much less shake and alarm a whole community. The internal of man only can hear this Voice, and he only will hear it who listens with ardent and pure desires for its manifestation within him. He only will hear it who has faith in God and love for Him, faith in Him as a Divine Master, a ruling Power, an unfailing Source of everlasting happiness, love for Him as a Father, affection for Him as a Friend, and confidence in Him as the Source of all Truth. Let all, then, seek God where and when He is to be found; let all be ready to retain Him or their knowledge of Him when found; and let everyone show by their life, conversation, and action, that they know of His manifestation to them, and that they regard Him as King of Kings, by which should be understood that His commands are to them higher than any other law, and that He will be obeyed rather than the favor of men, the violence of a mob, or the decrees of the most powerful of earthly governments.

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SERMON ON FAITH

AND PATIENCE

Faith leads to Patience, for without Faith man must be impatient. Faith is a sure leader to Patience, because Patience is but an exercise of Faith to him who has it, and to him who has it not it is an exercise of trust in something future which is analogous to Faith, though not, perhaps, true, spiritual, Faith itself. In the progress of a soul to union and harmony in God and with God, man is often required to be patient. God’s time is the true time for the performance of any work; but how often do we find men entering upon a good work in their own time? God is the director of every work He wills to have accomplished; and all else than such must end in confusion to the undertaker, and disappointment to its projectors. God chooses sometimes to try His servants’ patience very severely, for they sometimes think the way is plain, and the opportunity the best that can occur. But all know, or may know by reflection, that if the work be not of God it must fail; whereas, if it be of God, it shall not be arrested, but shall fulfill God’s object.

Faith worketh Patience, and Patience charity or love, says Paul, though he speaks particularly of the Trial of Faith. But it is the Faith that gives the Patience; and if the trial of Faith does not find it patient, it may well be questioned if it has or had an existence. Faith and Patience are inseparably connected, and the latter is the consequent of the former. So the exercise of patience is not only a proof of our trial, but of our maintenance of Faith. Be then attentive to your work; listen to the Voice of God within you, calling you to be ready to work, to be willing to surrender all to God and to the work He calls you to do, but when you have made yourself all ready, and can say, Here am I, oh Lord! ready to do what Thou hast called me to do, and willing to be used in Thy will whenever and wherever Thou art pleased to have me act, and willing to wait for Thy time to act, even if that time should be far distant, even if that time should not come to me in the body, but should be delayed till my entrance into the Second or Third Sphere of my existence, thus submitting to God’s Will, and thus awaiting His time, be patient and He will bless you and reward you as faithful servant, who has fought the good fight with the powers of his own freewill, and submitted all to God, as one who has worked for the great cause of salvation by saving his own soul, which is all a man can do, even with God’s help. But all that is done must be done by God for the man’s own soul; for God only can save souls, and be the Redeemer of the world. Have Faith, then, and let your Faith work Patience, your Patience, Charity and Love. Patience is not an end, it is a means, a work of progress, even when you seem most inactive. Cultivate Patience, the waiting upon God for His guidance and help, and the everlasting Father of men will reward you openly for your quiet, heart-rendered obedience, and advance you to more active duties, call you to greater sacrifices, greater patience, and the most arduous tasks shall seem trifles to him who has God on his side.