SECTION II
The Disciple,--Master, if Thou wouldst
make a special manifestation of Thyself to the world, men would no longer doubt
the existence of God and Thy own divinity, but all would believe and enter on
the path of righteousness.
The Master,--1. My son, the inner state of
every man I know well, and to each heart in accordance with its needs I make
Myself known; and for bringing men into the way of righteousness there is no
better means than the manifestation of Myself. For man I became man that he
might know God, not as someone terrible and foreign, but as full of love and
like to himself, for he is like Him and made in His image.
Man also has a natural desire that he should see
Him in whom he believes and who loves him. But the Father cannot be seen, for
He is by nature incomprehensible, and he who would comprehend Him must have the
same nature. But man is a comprehensible creature, and being so cannot see God.
Since, however, God is Love and He has given to man that same faculty of love,
therefore, in order that that craving for love might be satisfied, He adopted a
form of existence that man could comprehend. Thus He became man, and His
children with all the holy angels may see Him and enjoy Him (Col. i.15, ii.9).
Therefore I said that he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father (John
xiv.9-10). And although while in the form of man I am called the Son, I am the
eternal and everlasting Father (Isa. ix.6).
2. I and the Father and the Holy Spirit are One.
Just as in the sun there are both heat and light, but the light is not heat,
and the heat is not light, but both are one, though in their manifestation they
have different forms, so I and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father,
bring light and heat to the world. The Spirit, which is the baptismal fire,
burns to ashes in the hearts of believers all manner of sin and iniquity,
making them pure and holy. I who am the True Light (John i.9, viii.12),
dissipate all dark and evil desires, and leading them in the way of
righteousness bring them at last to their eternal home. Yet We are not three
but One, just as the sun is but one.
3. Whatever worth and power and high faculty God
has endowed man with must be brought into action, otherwise they gradually
decay and die. In this way faith, if it is not truly fixed on the living God,
is shattered by the shock of sin and transformed into doubt. Often one hears
something like this, "If this or that doubt of mine be removed I am ready to
believe." That is as though one with a broken limb should ask the doctor to
take away the pain before he sets the limb. Surely this is folly, for the pain
comes from the breaking of the limb, and when that is set the pain will of
itself pass away. Thus by the act of sin man's tie with God has been snapped,
and doubts, which are spiritual pains, have arisen. It needs must, therefore,
that the union with God be again renewed, then those doubts which have arisen
regarding My divinity and the existence of God will of themselves disappear.
Then in place of pain there will come that wonderful peace which the world
cannot give nor take away. Thus it was that I became flesh, that between God
and poor broken men there might be union, and they might be happy with Him in
heaven for evermore.
4. God is love, and in every living creature He
has set this faculty of love, but especially in man. It is therefore nothing
but right that the Lover who has given us life and reason and love itself
should receive His due tribute of love. His desire is to all He has created,
and if this love be not rightly used, and if we do not with all our heart and
soul and mind and strength love Him who has endowed us with love, then that
love falls from its high estate and becomes selfishness. Thus arises disaster
both for ourselves and for other creatures of God. Every selfish man, strangely
enough, becomes a self-slayer.
This also I have said, "Love thy neighbour as
thyself." Now although in a sense all men are neighbours one of another, yet
the reference is especially to those who habitually live near each other, for
it is an easy matter to live at peace with one who is near at hand for a few
days only, even though he be unfriendly; but in the case of one who has his
dwelling near you, and day by day is the cause of trouble to you, it is most
difficult to bear with him, and love him as yourself. But when you have
conquered in this great struggle it will be more easy to love all others as
yourself.
When man with all his heart, mind, and soul loves
God, and his neighbour as himself there will be no room for doubts, but in him
will be established that Kingdom of God of which there should be no end, and
he, melted and moulded in the fire of love, will be made into the image of his
heavenly Father, who at the first made him like Himself.
5. Also I manifest Myself by means of My Word
(the Bible) to those who seek Me with a sincere heart. Just as for the
salvation of men I took on a human body, so My Word also, which is Spirit and
Life (John vi.63) is written in the language of men, that is, there are
inspired and human elements united in it. But just as men do not understand Me,
so they do not understand My Word. To understand it a knowledge of the Hebrew
and Greek tongues is not a necessity, but what is necessary is the fellowship
of that Holy Spirit, abiding in whom the prophets and apostles wrote it.
Without doubt the language of this Word is spiritual, and he who is born of the
Spirit is alone able fully to understand it, whether he be acquainted with the
criticism of the world or be only a child, for that spiritual language is well
understood by him since it is his mother tongue. But remember that those whose
wisdom is only of this world cannot understand it, for they have no share in
the Holy Spirit.
6. In the book of nature, of which I also am the
Author, I freely manifest Myself. But for the reading of this book also
spiritual insight is needed, that men may find Me, otherwise there is a danger
lest instead of finding Me they go astray.
Thus the blind man uses the tips of his fingers
as eyes, and by means of touch alone reads a book, but by touch alone can form
no real estimate of its truth. The investigations of agnostics and sceptics
prove this, for in place of perfection they see only defects. Fault finding
critics ask, "If there is an Almighty Creator of the world why are there
defects in it, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, eclipses, pain, suffering,
death, and the like?" The folly of this criticism is similar to that of an
unlearned man who finds fault with an unfinished building or an incomplete
picture. After a time, when he sees them fully finished, he is ashamed of his
folly, and ends by singing their praises. Thus too, God did not in one day give
to this world its present form, nor will it in one day reach perfection. The
whole creation moves onward to perfection, and if it were possible for the man
of this world to see from afar with the eyes of God the perfect world in which
no defect appears, he too would bow in praise before Him and say, "All is very
good" (Gen. i.31).
7. The human spirit abides in the body very much
as the chicken in the shell. If it were possible for the bird within the shell
to be told that outside of it was a great widespread world, with all kinds of
fruit and flowers, with rivers and grand mountains, that its mother also was
there, and that it would see all this when set free from its shell, it could
not understand or believe it. Even if anyone told it that its feathers and
eyes, ready now for use, would enable it to see and to fly, it would not
believe it, nor would any proof be possible till it came out of its shell.
In the same way there are many who are uncertain
about the future life and the existence of God, because they cannot see beyond
this shell-like body of flesh, and their thoughts, like delicate wings, cannot
carry them beyond the narrow confines of the brain. Their weak eyes cannot
discover those eternal and unfading treasures which God has prepared for those
who love Him (Isa. lxiv.4, lxv.17). The necessary condition for attaining to
this eternal life is this, that while still in this body we should receive from
the Holy Spirit by faith that life-giving warmth which the chicken receives
from its mother, otherwise there is danger of death and eternal loss.
8. Again, many say that the thing, or the life,
that has a beginning must of necessity have an end. This is not true, for is
not the Almighty who is able at His will to make from naught a thing which is,
also able by the word of His power to confer immortality on that which He has
made? If not He cannot be called Almighty. Life in this world appears to be
liable to decay and destruction, because it is in subjection to those things
which are themselves the subject of change and decay. But if this life were set
free from these changeful and decaying influences, and brought under the care
of the eternal and unchanging God, who is the fountain and source of eternal
life, it would escape from the clutch of death and attain to eternity.
As for those who believe on Me, "I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of My hand" (John x.28). "I am the Lord God Almighty that is and was and is to
come" (Rev. i.8).