-
"O TENDER Father of us all, grant tonight that
indeed we may contact with the things of the Spirit;
grant that the world and all it represents may be laid
aside - not because the things of the world are evil,
but because they seek to come in between Thee and Thy
little children.
-
"O most understanding Mind of Love, guide us and
direct us and keep us from all harm. Grant that the
greater vision may come and that we, acting under direction,
may lead others out of the twilight into the full Light
of revelation - of that glorious revelation of Love
unlimited - Love, Love, Love!
-
"Most tender Saviour, give to each one tonight
just what they need - Thy grace, Thy help, Thy benediction
- and grant that we, strengthened and recharged by
the power of the Spirit, may go on and conquer all
those forces which seek to hold us back.
-
"Into Thy Hands once more we commend ourselves;
and we know that Thou art able to bring us through,
because faith and trust are here tonight. Father, we
thank Thee - thank Thee with grateful, humble hearts
that Thou hast permitted this gift to be used so freely
in the honouring of Thy Name. Amen.
-
"MY little children, all of you here, be heartened
- all the dear ones who have been gathered into my
love take comfort, for the dawn is at hand. Take comfort
in the thought that you have listened to the Voice
of the Spirit; that you have been asked to take the
rough hill path so that others may follow on, may emancipate
their real selves, may be free from the earth and all
it represents...My children, rejoice - rejoice that
God is able to use you; rejoice that the Father is
able to use the minds and bodies of His little children.
-
"Tonight, meeting together in this sweet way,
there is much to talk over, and I want you all to concentrate
on the object which we have in view - that is the breaking
down of the barriers between the world of the flesh
and the world of the Spirit. I want you to lay aside
desire - those natural wishes in regard to your dear
ones - and to offer up your hearts and minds as a contribution
to this most important task of pushing aside that which
intervenes between you and what is your right: communion
with God and those gathered together under His Love;
those who are working - it is true, under slightly
different conditions - but working with you and you
with them to proclaim God's Love to a blinded world,
to a world immersed in its own pursuits, chained by
its possessions, imprisoned by the many destructive
desires of the flesh.
-
"Oh, my children, thank God indeed that you can
put these things in their place; thank God that that
most terrible awakening, when free from the body, shall
be taken from you - that the remorse which burns and
burns will be, in great measure, saved you when you
walk in the Gardens of the Lord.
-
"Tonight, dear children, I want to speak to you
about POWER - power in its physical sense, and that
great and mighty power which is a gift direct from
the Most High.
-
"In your little world physical manifestations
of power are on every side. Machinery, you think, has
come into its own. All those many inventions of the
mind of man stagger the majority by their scope and
their conception. Yes, dear children, but have you
not thought of this: That in regard to motive power,
as man learns more so he lays aside the cumbersome
parts; that as the inventive side - the inspirational
side - of the physical mind gains its freedom so man
sees that the greatest results can be brought about
by the simplest mechanism.
-
"Is there not a lesson in this? Go back on the
history of the past. Each invention was greeted as
astonishing evidence of the power of physical thought;
yes, and with apprehension too, for man saw - or thought
he saw - danger lying side by side with that which
he had brought into being.
-
"And then the next stage - the getting used to
what was marvellous once on a time; and then the mind
of man seeking fresh fields to conquer, striving and
struggling to express something of the knowledge cabined
within that which you call the 'sub-conscious' mind.
-
"Yes! all around you are evidences of this. Daily
fresh news comes - may be from afar, may be close at
hand - of the domination, of the controlling power
of the mind of man.
-
"Ah! dear children, in this simple illustration
lies a tremendous lesson for us all. It symbolises
in detail the spiritual processes of man; and I want
you to come with me in thought while I attempt to show
the parallel.
-
"Is it not true that those who gather unto themselves
the tools of the mind pass through many stages, adding
and adding to their knowledge; and when they have drawn
in all that the world can teach then the Spirit within
wakes up and takes control? If this does not happen
during the physical stages it must take place when
that obstructing body is laid aside. Think of it how
you may, the man who seeks but to make his own the
knowledge of the world, irrespective of the wisdom
of the Spirit, in time must retrace his steps, throwing
off this, casting aside that, until he comes back again
to simple things and simple faith.
-
"Yes! in illustration today you have it worked
out in a crude form. The more man knows the more he
finds he can dispense with; and sometimes he is staggered
by the simplicity of the greatest inventions of all.
-
"That is the lesson which all must learn. Just
as I described to you that 'Evolution' was based on
'Involution' so indeed, dear children, you will find
with the journey of the Spirit that much furniture,
much that impeded was gathered as it went through its
varied experiences; but as it learnt, as it got free,
as it responded to its God, so this and that was laid
aside. And you can tell the experienced soul by its
simplicity - yes, by its faith and trust in God as
its Father.
-
"The knowledge of the world, good as it may be
- and I have told you often that it plays its part
in the training and in the disciplining of the physical
will - good as it may be there is something which is
infinitely better: the wisdom of the Spirit which brings
peace, which brings not only knowledge but revelation
of the purpose of your lives.
-
"Oh! my children, be not deceived. Power there
may be in the physical world of a kind which is stupendous
to the mind of man; but in that same physical world
there are resources untouched, there are gifts, there
are powers waiting to be used in the service of mankind.
And, dear children, only those who are faithful and
true, only those who are humble and pure, only those
who put others first and self last can be trusted with
the things which are of God.
-
"Yes! indeed these gifts have mighty power, and
because this power is so great the shadows, playing
on the physical mind of those who would make them their
own, seek to induce them to put them to a use God never
intended and suffering comes inevitably as a result
during the earth life and greater suffering when the
soul is free - when the soul stands by its Christ and
sees what has been done.
-
"My children, the highest only is for you. Those
gifts which even daily are being made more nearly your
own - these gifts must be guarded as holy indeed. That
which surrounds them is as straw to be thrown aside;
that which can protect them comes from within and not
from without.
-
"Hearken you then to my words of warning, given
with love, with a complete understanding of your lives,
of your aims and your desires - listen to my words
of warning: Keep to the simple path, keep to the straight
clean path which leads to God. Never mind the intellectualities
of physical life. In God's sight these are as nothing;
and when you are free you will find indeed that they
but burlesqued the knowledge which was made your own
as you followed the Voice of God and found Him.
-
"The warning is two-fold, and the warning is for
now and all time: Keep free from everything which comes
between you and Christ. Remember that in Christ there
is power, there is opportunity, there is a revelation
which can never be fathomed. Yea! I go farther than
that - I say that in the Name of Christ alone there
is a power which can dominate and control the fiercest
forces of darkness there may be. Pride - that consciousness
of self and of mental advancement - all these are the
subtle temptations of those who are out to destroy;
and, dear children, must be faced as such.
-
"Ponder o'er my words. Without Christ you would
not have the power to raise your hand; without Christ
no thought could flit through your mind. Think of the
world's conception of power and then remember that
without Christ this little world could not be. Until
man knows his Source, until those governed by their
physical minds can realise to Whom they belong, so
the road goes on and on, so dissatisfaction and sadness
keep step with them, so they wander round the mountain
and the heights are never reached.
-
"Cannot you see how I long for my children - how
I long for all those bound by physical thinking - to
be free? Waste, waste, waste! - seeking for what can
never be attained, they turn their back on the Promise
and so - although God's Love never changes and never
fails - they shut themselves off from the brightness
which is their own.
-
"Yes! think of the power of the Spirit; the power
of the Name of Christ; the power of the protecting
care of The Father. In the simple narrative which His
disciples - those who loved Him put together with much
care and thought - in that simple narrative you have
all you require to reach the highest: 'Let not your
hearts be troubled for I will send you a Comforter'.
Those words ring out again and again: 'I will send
you a Comforter' - the Comforter which shall give you
all knowledge, all joy, all peace; and the power of
the Comforter is in your presence tonight. Gather unto
yourselves that which is so freely offered, and thank
God that as little children - children in simplicity
- you can come, you can ask and you can receive.
-
"Remember there will be others who will try and
lead you into complicated paths of thought, but tonight
I tell you for your guidance that the words of God,
given in those days of old: 'Love God and your neighbour',
are all that is necessary to give you your hearts desire
when the body is laid aside and you receive, consciously,
the blessing of Christ.
-
"Keep this thought fixed firmly in your mind -
humility, simplicity, faith and trust in God.
-
"And now, my children, I will leave you for a
little while; but there is one who would speak - a
stranger to you all - yet one whose memory has been
loved for many a long day and year, and it is God's
will that tonight he should push aside the centuries
and address you as brother and friend.
-
"Keep the peace, hold on to holiness and indeed
God's blessing on this evening, shall be shown to you
all..."...
(Stephen then speaks)...
-
..."Dear friends and comrades in Christ, indeed
only by the grace of God could I demonstrate my presence
here tonight and the influence I have been allowed
to have upon your lives.
-
"Speaking of those ancient records
(Bible)
brings in my name, for there - so lovingly narrated
- my little part, so short, so brief, is enshrined
in a setting of which it was altogether unworthy. They
called me Stephen, and many a young heart has thrilled
at the story of the boy who was honoured in dying for
his Master.
-
"Tonight I want to speak to you about that marvellous
privilege which was my own. Young as I was, the protection
which was all around me was amazing in its completeness;
and truth to tell, dear friends, I did but little -
everything was given to me; and during that last incident
which has been held up as heroic, well! there was nothing
heroic in it at all. My love for Him who gave me so
much - the joy and the peace and the happiness which
filled my soul - ah! that was a million times stronger
than any pangs of the physical could be. I saw Christ!
I saw that which was worth ten thousand deaths to reach;
I saw - in miniature, it is true - the reflected glory
of God, and then was centred in the Light which never
fades.
-
"Oh! my dear friends and comrades, never think
again that Stephen was great, that Stephen did aught
but the merest to express his love; and as a lesson
to all I would tell you that it was far easier to 'die'
for my blessed Master than it was to live for Him after
that physical death had taken place. Then my struggles
began, then I realised the inner truth of that saying:
'Live for Christ - live and demonstrate your love for
Him.'
-
"You who know that 'death' does not divide, you
who know that the physical experience is not interfered
with - you can enter into the meaning underlying my
words: that I found it far harder to live for Christ
than to die for Him in those days of old.
-
"I want you all to think of me with love, but
for ever to turn your mind from that trivial incident;
to try instead to enter into my thoughts and feelings
as I watched others - bound by the body, surrounded
by enemies, hemmed in on every side - as I watched
and worked with them through their long experiences
which they, out of greater love, had taken on in their
Master's Name.
-
"You see, dear friends, the spiritual view! Yet
I would not underestimate the value of the little story
as narrated by those who loved me. Again and again
it has inspired the young, it has been used as the
turning point when danger lay close at hand. Again
and again the story of the boy has enthused not only
the young but the old, and because of this it has done
its part. But to live for Christ is the test, and that
is the message I have been asked to give tonight: to
turn your thoughts ever from the dramatic to the prosaic;
to influence you to see things as they are - that the
life of work, of laying aside self in its many deceptive
forms - that the life of effort and of consecration
is indeed the Christ life, indeed it expresses the
ideal. And, thank God - after my body was laid aside
- so He permitted me, so He helped me, so He helps
me now to live the life which expresses something of
the Christ Ideal.
-
"This is my message to the world - one day to
be given out broadcast, one day to be read, one day
to be listened to as Truth: That though to die for
Christ may be sweet, to live for Him is His desire;
though to demonstrate in definite action your faith
by so-called martyrdom has its part in influencing
the minds of others, it is the life which is the test;
it was the life of The Master that has held Him in
the hearts of His children and will for ever and for
ever...Live for Christ, dear friends and comrades,
live for Christ.
-
"And now, Farewell!"
