THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

THE ZODIAC MESSAGES

"GETHSEMANE"

An address given by the celestial messenger 'Zodiac', (the unnamed scribe of the Bible and a teacher in the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of Christ), at the Zodiac Circle on Monday, 25th October, 1926

1. "Beloved of our Hearts, we come to Thee tonight offering that which we possess, and we ask Thee to strengthen our faith, to enrich our understanding and to so establish our determination that nothing of the earth may be strong enough to intervene.

2. "O God Almighty, Ruler of all powers, we lay ourselves before Thee asking that Thou wilt renew, that Thou wilt recharge us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, which shall show us now and always that we are Thy children not only by inheritance but by our desire to forward Thy plans.

3. "O Tender Shepherd of mankind, Thou Who camest to heal the sick of body, of mind and of soul, teach us how to be used in this wise; teach us to reach out for the highest and the best; teach us how to lay aside self in its many delusive forms and to offer our real selves for Thy service, holding nothing back.

4. "Into Thy Hands we commend our Spirits and we ask Thee to use us, each one, for the working out of Thy holy purpose, for the raising up of others, and for the comforting of those who hitherto have gone mourning because they could not understand.

5. "Father, we thank Thee and thank Thee again. Amen.

6. "My little children, in this room there are those whom you name the Bright Ones and I want you tonight, as you prepare yourselves to listen to that which I pass on from the Holy Master, I want you to banish the remembrance of the greyness and the darkness associated with physical life, and to step untrammelled by anything into the Realms of Light, into those conditions of Love which indeed are your own, although it seems to some that real Love, Spirit-love, is far from them.

7. "I have taught you ever that to those who seek, so the Wisdom shall come; I have instructed you also that the way into Wisdom is beset by much which seems to you as dangerous, as bringing sorrow to the heart. Yet it is as this: throughout the history of your little world there have been the pioneers and those who followed after. These early travellers penetrated into that which was called the Unknown. Many of them laid down the physical life and, so it seemed, their efforts were wasted; that which had cost so much had brought nothing in return. And when after a lapse of time another, imbued with the spirit of adventure - yes, and something more - when the second went forward so it appeared that he too was attacked on every side.

8. "Only a fragment of the experiences of the first was available to him, for the one who had gone in front had perished by the way. Yet, after the second there was a third, after the third there was a fourth, and these later ones, knowing what must be endured, consciously took up their staff and opened out that which was closed before.

9. "My children, could you look back over the spiritual history of your little world you would know that this was worked out with a detail which held much pathos, much that caused the heart to ache. Those early pilgrims, where are they now? Not centred in bliss far from your vibrations, not clinging to their gains, not holding fast those treasures which they have rightly earned. Nay, the servants of the Master have been trained to look at Life, physical and spiritual life, in a way far different from that.

10. "They bring their brightness, they bring their precious tools of service, they bring themselves into the conditions of those who need them most; and in your vibrations tonight there are those who suffered, those who laid down their physical lives, those whose determination grew and grew as the forces against them strengthened and strengthened again. And the Saviour, using them for His work, can pass on His sweet will to them, confident that they will accomplish it as He desires. What greater reward could anyone wish who has seen God?

11. "But, dear children, I wish to speak on a broader, wider subject than that, yet it is linked with it, part of it as you shall see. Tonight then for a little while I turn your thoughts to that which you name Gethsemane, and I ask you to go back in imagination - using that word in its true sense - and, as it were, to draw up from the deeper consciousness, remembrance of what you have learnt while sleep has claimed you, what you have learnt at the Master's Feet.

12. "In that far off period when Christ walked amongst men as Man, the conditions of those times were so far removed from what obtains today that it difficult to lead you back in thought and to fasten to you a true conception of the lives, of the attitude of mind, of the character and the temperament of those who surrounded the Holy One.

13. "Children, as I have told you before, that love of power, that desire to rule, to coerce, to control the masses, that desire (most destructive both to the individual and the crowd) this had chief place in the minds of those who held authority in their hands.

14. "Today under that which you name Law, order has been created out of what was once chaos, order as to action, order as to conduct; but in those far off times the Law, as it was constituted, was only brought into force for those who were powerless to help themselves. Those who knew, those who had the possessions of the world, these had it within their capacity not only to disregard the Law but to manipulate it so that the Law acted entirely in their favour.

15. "My children, I spoke as to the wonderful gift of the Redeemer. Until spiritual sight is your own you will be unable to gather in more than a fragment of the value, of the wide scope, of the unlimited generosity of the coming of Christ into the physical world. He came to people obsessed by self, engulfed in that which you name sin - a people dominated by cruelly in many forms, by self in all forms, and diseased in mind to an extent impossible for you to grasp.

16. "Yes - in high places those controlled by evil forces set the example to the rest, and had not Christ come then to redeem, today, my little ones, you would not be as you are. Nay, for the tendency was down, down, down, and there was nothing to stop the deterioration.

17. "Into those conditions came Perfect Purity, perfect Love; and, dear children, by the offering up of His physical life, and its wonderful influence, so the tide was turned.

18. "Think you to yourselves of that which I would imply. If Christ had not come into the midst of men, then today you would be far lower in development than the beasts of the field. That point has been overlooked by many. In speaking of the Redeemer they have forgotten to take into consideration the trend of the times, the tendencies of the individual, and, most of all, the terrible characteristics shown by those who held the reins of power, by those who so ruthlessly used authority.

19. "Children, not only the Beloved, not only individuals, but countries go through that which you name Gethsemane; but ere I speak of that I want to take you back, for your comfort, to that time in the Garden when All-Love faced His ordeal, when God as Man not only took upon Himself the death of the garment He wore, but also had to grapple with that volume of hate which surrounded Him on every side except, again, for the few.

20. "I have underlined before that when Christ came into the physical world He limited Himself as you or I are limited, or were limited. I told you that He laid aside His power, that He laid aside that consciousness of Spirit which you might think He would have been justified in bringing with Him. As a child He lived, unconscious of what He was, of what lay in front. Yet, because that act must take place, because the preparation had to be put in, so, as He emerged from childhood into boyhood, the realisation came gradually that He had to serve God.

21. "So often it has been said that Christ, because He was God, could of course do no wrong. Because He was God He attracted to Him forces of evil that you, my little ones, could never bear; that you will never be asked to grapple with, for the protection is around. But Christ, because He had come to demonstrate Love and Purity and Faith, Christ met those enemies of the darkest planes, and through His faith He overcame.

22. "Oh, how intensely human is that narrative of those hours spent in loneliness and prayer! How close it brings the Master to each one! There in an isolation impossible to be explained, He faced the future alone with His sense of responsibility; alone with that terrible knowledge that those He loved so well desired and intended to destroy Him.

23. "Alone in a way you cannot grasp; for, at that time, so Spirit sight and Spirit consciousness were His own, and He saw around Him armies, aye, countless enemies; He saw on every side those He had come to save spurning Him from them, and He saw that even the little knot of followers would forsake Him. In that Garden, so the realisation came as to His loneliness, as to His solitary position and, most of all, came the anguish of pouring out Love and receiving hate in return.

24. "Little children, in the dark hours of your life you have felt that God has turned from you, yet you have had the Holy Scriptures, you have had the personal assurance that when sorrow approaches, so the Healer of all sorrow draws nearer still - you have had that wonderful thought that the Consoler understands; and hidden from you, by the mercy of God, has been the sight of those who would do you harm.

25. "Oh, my children, do not underrate those hours of trial and loneliness which came to Christ when the time drew near for Him to be handed over, by one of His own, to those who recognised neither God in His life nor the Love which He held out with both hands. That experience of the Master was for a great and mighty purpose - it was a reassurance to us all; but never forget that the physical anguish of the Cross was as nothing in comparison to the agony of Love thrown back, to that deepest pain of all, the giving of one's self to those who wanted it not.

26. "Some there are in the physical world who, on miniature, have been through this experience. They have given from themselves thoughts and prayers and spiritual love, and the time has come when the object of their affection has not only by action repudiated their love, but has faced the bestower with hate in their eyes. And the mother or the father, the wife or the husband has felt indeed that their cup of bitterness was full.

27. "Yet, dear children, you can see the comparison, you can enter, in a measure, into how much greater was the test, how much greater was the anguish when it was All-Love, All-Sensitiveness, All-Care; and those who stood around Him represented the world He had come to save.

28. "But I would not dwell unduly upon the sad side, for lo, we pass on from the story of Gethsemane, we pass on from the gift on the Cross to the glorious Resurrection, and here we find our answer, here we find the solution of that which seems so complicated in our daily life. Yet, my little ones, pause awhile. Of what value would have been the Resurrection had it not been for Gethsemane, had it not been for the offering up of that which represented Himself. Here, my little ones, you have your explanation; here you have the solution of all those misgivings, all those many conflicting desires and wishes which seem focused on the physical mind. Only by the steps of persecution, of the Garden, of the Cross can the Resurrection be made our own.

29. "I want you all, my children, in your dealings with others to be very firm on this same point, and I want you, in considering your own experience, to be doubly firm, for the position must be faced. Here and there, since the creation of man, there have been the few who were willing to suffer a little for the sake of the gain to come; here and there those with the pioneer spirit have risen up, and even though their hearts have quailed over the experiences of the ones who went in front, they have steadied their wills, they have hardened their determination and they have gone on, and by their acts vast continents, once unknown, have been opened up for others.

30. "Yes, yes! But think of their Gethsemane, think of their loneliness, think of their sense of isolation. Oh, cannot you understand that sometimes the thought came: 'Where is my God, I am forsaken!' Yet they went on, and as the effort was made so the ministering angels gathered around.

31. "My little ones, during your hours of sleep you have talked with such as these, and when they have told you of their experiences, so simple the story of your own physical life appears, so simple. And you say to yourselves: 'It could not have been otherwise', and have thanked God, yes, thanked God.

32. "My children, in speaking of that Gethsemane which comes to all, remember this: if not during the physical experience, then when the body is laid aside, so that Gethsemane must be faced and borne. I have told you before that the valiant of heart take their hard experiences while their eyes are bound. Yes, because the Spirit within commands. Those whose Spirit is in shackles, such a one puts off the dread day, postpones this, evades that, but the time comes when each one must face and endure Gethsemane, for until that has been made their own, the Resurrection, the freeing of the Spirit, that unlimited freedom cannot be their possession.

33. "So, my little ones, in thinking over the story of your lives, say to yourselves: 'God's ways are best.' Though the physical mind complains at this stage the Spirit within, which has seen God, rejoices in its gifts; though the body and the mind wearies over the tests, over the many trials of patience, over the enemies which throng so close, lo! that which represents your Self has joined hands with the pilgrims of the Light and has gathered to itself a strength and an endurance which shall never depart.

34. "But oh, my little ones, take care of this: that temptation which comes to all who wish to climb, the temptation to say: 'I can bear no more!' Little ones, the Spirit within is so courageous, is so in touch with God that fear and apprehension are unknown; the Spirit within has vision and so it would brush aside the murmurings of the mind of the body, for it knows that what represents loss now is gain and freedom for the Self which lives after this little life is o'er.

35. "I speak to many; I speak not only to my children in many parts of your little world, but I speak to countless numbers who have sought to evade their Gethsemane, and thus have gathered to themselves a suffering and a bondage not only treble in proportion, but of so far-reaching an effect that it has not only hindered their own development but has kept back the development of others.

36. "This is God's truth. That Gethsemane, which must come to all, is not only fighting your battle but is lending strength to others; it is not only overcoming for Self, but it is enabling others to find the will to enter into the Garden of loneliness in turn.

37. "My children, I have told you that if the Beloved had not come and suffered for mankind, this little world of yours at this date would have been so involved in weakness and in that which you name evil, that it would bear no semblance to that which it represents at this stage. In miniature this applies to the individual. Had there not been those strong in the strength of God who willingly - or if not willingly, courageously - went through Gethsemane, then, my little ones, you and I would not be conversing together in this sweet way. Oh, remember that you, today, are preparing for tomorrow - by your pangs, by that sense of spiritual loneliness, of isolation from the material world, you are preparing conditions which will enable others to follow on and keep the way open, so that those weaker may still may find the path to God.

38. "And now I leave you for a little while.

(After others had spoken Zodiac returned and continued)

39. "Well, my children, just a few words and then we part in love and joy and that close unity which only the Spirit can understand. As promised, I give a few words to the child I have drawn in tonight.

40. "Little one, remember this: that your Father and Mother God has provided for every condition of your life. You have passed through that which can be called the wilderness of experience, yet tonight you have found the spring of refreshment. In time to come, as the Spirit within demands, so you will take another portion of that which represents a desert, but, in God's Name, I can promise you when the need arises so you shall find in that barrenness that which will bring renewal to your soul.

41. "Never look back but always look forward. Say not to yourself: - what is this? - but always: 'God's ways are best'. And remember that only to the tried soldier can be entrusted the work which counts.

42. "And now to you all I speak, throwing over you my love and understanding. I ask of you but one thing - your faith in God's directing care.

43. "My little ones, though doubts may have assailed you in regard to yourselves, you have never doubted this gift of God; and because you have struggled to rise above the waters of physical life, so those misgivings, connected entirely with physical and material things, shall fade away; and you shall find yourselves anchored to the rock which Christ represents. Oh, remember this: though the waves may be strong, though the adverse forces may seem too powerful to be overcome, centred in Strength you are stronger than them all. Fettered to Faith your faith shall not only frustrate their intentions, but your faith shall turn those intentions into something nearer to that which represents the Light. Faith in God, confidence in His unfailing Love, so equipped you can pass through your experiences undismayed; and this is the Will of God.

44. "In the Father's Name I bless you. Let no fears advance and disturb your peace of mind, for the protection is complete. Only be valiant of heart, only be firm of purpose, and you shall see that that which God has prepared for you surpasses all that which your imagination could conjure up!

45. "Goodnight, my little ones. Rest in peace.