An address given by the Christ messenger Zodiac through the deep trance mediumship of Miss Winifred Moyes in the earlier part of the twentieth century.
(Note: This message was edited for a more general readership)
"MY children all, you have separated yourselves from the sunshine of the earth to come here and listen for a short time to that which indeed shall bring the light of the spirit into earth conditions. I want you to realise, in part, what you are attempting to do, for forget not that those with the power, those with knowledge of things eternal, they are for ever searching for instruments, for those whom they can use to further the purpose and the plan.
And I say, instructed by the Saviour of the world, that you by your willingness to ignore a measure of physical discomfort, are bringing to yourselves, your real selves, comfort from the great Source. Aye, you have, as it were, made the link by your holy desire, by your actions, by the laying aside of the toils of the physical mind, and coming with humbleness of heart to listen to that which I am instructed to pass on by the One who loves us best.
"I have been directed to speak this evening on: 'God in the cities, God in the towns'; and I want you to come with me in thought while I try to portray to you something of reality, some of those facts which take place hour by hour and which, for the most part are ignored by man.
Oh children, think of that narrated in the Holy Record, when God talked to man and His children could hear the Divine Voice, the Voice of Love. Cast not aside the parable which you name the story of the Garden of Eden, but glean from that laid out for the instruction of others, something of truth, something which is and shall be for ever.
"In time long past so the children of God could speak to their Father and could hear His Voice, but lo, self intervened and because - oh, forget not this - because the Voice of God went against the inclinations of the lesser self, so the individual hearkened not to the Voice of God, but followed only the voice of inclination; and thus it was that as time went on so this most precious gift, this priceless protection gradually faded away. Not God's will but man's desire. Between the Voice of God and man came the clamour of self, and the clamour of self - and this is, as you would say, scientific fact - the clamour of self has the power to build up obstacles, densities in the conditions, and, alas and alas! the time comes when the ears of men are trained only to physical sound and spiritual guidance is lost.
"Yes, but remember this: That what has been, though it may pass away for a space of time, must return, for that is the law of God. The children of the earth, for a space they take their own way, they turn from the light and the twilight swallows them up, but those with the light, the missionaries of the Most High, they follow them into the darkness, and with something of the strength of God, at last draw them out of bondage into a measure of freedom and peace once more.
"I want you to remember that the parable of the Garden of Eden is indeed an indication of what happened to you and what happened to me in time long past. Oh, little ones, try to visualise yourselves as sons and daughters of the Most High in the spiritual sense - built, framed in the likeness of God Himself; and then hold in your mind the coming of temptation, the resisting of temptation and then the yielding to temptation.
And in the measure that the second best and the third best were chosen in place of the highest and sweetest, so we lost resemblance to the perfection which was ours by gift of God. And as that which was our gift was cast away by ourselves, so, my children, the gifts of God - the wisdom, the powers, the creative force - slowly this was lost as well, and the time came when, bound in garments not only of the physical but less evolved than that, you and I passed amongst our fellows and we knew not God, or if we knew of God, then we regarded that high and mighty One as a Being removed from us, with no link, no love, between.
"So over the ages, even as concerns this little planet, man out of his ignorance and bondage, out of his pride and limitation, has cried to others: 'There is no God! That intelligence - if there be an intelligence behind earthly creation - that intelligence is not concerned with you or with me.' And so the thought of God in the cities and in the towns has been rejected and only the few at this same date are conscious of God in their daily life.
"There are those, many of them, who, when they pass among the beauties of nature, when they feel around them the sweetness and the fragrance of the flowers, when they look into the heavens and the bright stars shine down upon them, many who feel that God might be there; yes, God might be there. But in the narrow streets, in the crowded mart, among the hurrying throng, many by their attitude of mind are ruling God out of their daily life. Other gods there may be, there must be, but a God of love - the tender, patient Father - they want Him not, for they fear that one so perfect might expect a little more from them.
"Ah, all around we find the careless, the bound and the foolish. Many turn in their suffering to distractions; others, out of that which their life holds - the many uncongenial tasks - in their blindness and foolishness they cry: 'Let me forget!' and that which is pleasure, so called, saps their energies and binds them to a wheel that for ever works, yet throws out no power for the use of others or for the replenishment of themselves.
" - 'God in the cities, in the towns, where shall I find God?' - and I answer: Oh, look not on the outside, on that which is presented to you day by day, but probe beneath as you go your way among the toilers, among the travellers. Think you like this: One here, one there has known the sting of sorrow; one here, one there understands the agony which the physical garment can contain. A brother, a sister, has lost the one they loved so well; and, again, a father or a mother spend anxious days and sleepless nights over the problems of daily life, over, perchance, the weakness of one of those under their care.
"Little ones, I want you to take these words in their most serious sense, for one day each one will come back into these conditions and then you will see life as it is. No longer can you look upon the outward and not the inward; and you will be aghast at the tales of sorrow, of endurance, of hope and of fear, illustrated in the lives of your brothers and sisters.
One day with sight and with something of release you will walk the streets of this little city, you will travel over other countries than your own, and by choice - oh, forget it not, by choice - you will live with others their days, enduring their burdens, carrying their cross. For the only way to gain the gift of experience - and experience we must have - is by understanding what life in its wider sense represents, what the days upon the earth plane can work in for God.
"Yes, my children, I feel as I speak that there are some who comprehend and others who comprehend only in part. For all my love goes forth, and I am drawing in many beyond your comprehension now, those who in the past went with the stream, took what life had to give and forgot that the road to God is steep and difficult, that the road which the Master trod must be taken by all in time and in turn.
"Little ones, if the Master in His simple garment, coming from His humble home, passed through the city streets, bringing with Him nought but those same gifts which in the past changed the whole trend of spiritual history, oh think you, if the Master came today, who would recognise Love Itself? Nay, there would be few, alas, there would be few! Twelve - eleven, the Master found with sufficient strength, sufficient endurance to ally themselves to Him. Oh, face this fact: If the Master came today in His poverty and from so humble a home, would there be eleven willing to die for Him, willing to renounce the world and all it holds?
"The voice of the prophet over the years has grown fainter and fainter, the gifts of the Spirit have been allowed to drift farther and farther away, and that which is named civilisation has been used by the evil forces to do that which is against the Father's will, to build up around the individual a hedge of materialism which almost completely blocks the passage of the sweet, quiet Voice of the Spirit.
"Yet the Voice goes on. Over the ages God has spoken to man, and if man turns against his Maker, still God calls to His children, for God has that infinite patience and love which knows not defeat, which recognises not failure or loss. The quiet, sweet Voice of the Spirit calls and calls, and only the few who will listen can gain that wisdom which is not of the world, that wisdom which instructs one here, one there, to arise and lay aside the things which hold and grasp the Cross and cling to the Cross. Oh, forget not, God still walks the cities and the towns.
"Little ones, I find it impossible to portray the urgency under my words, but have I not said that time is fleeting, that there are great things planned which must come to pass? Oh, think of it and your responsibility. Ask yourselves if the Master came to you at your work or your play, and in simple words addressed you thus: 'Leave all and follow me,' oh, ask yourselves what would be your answer. Would you be sufficiently released, would you be sufficiently awakened, to say: 'Lord, I come'?
Yet, over the past, so many years to you, this took place. The Master, in poverty of attire, with nothing of the world that was His own, He passed among the simple people - those, forget it not, who were sufficiently released to listen to the words of John - and, as it were, He placed a hand upon them, limited and bound as they were, and they, after a little struggle, left all and followed Him. And over the years those you name the saints, the martyrs, through the choice of these simple men, have gloried in laying down the things of the world for their God, aye, gloried in the privilege of suffering for Christ.
"And you today, literally climbing on the stones they placed on the pathway of life, have the opportunity, the priceless opportunity, of taking your stand by them and giving that which is your self for the raising up of mankind.
Oh, my little ones, think not that in the beauties of nature, in the cool groves, in those forests whose spaces and strength seemed to raise you out of your littleness into something of greatness, oh, think not that God walks only where beauty and harmony abound. Nay, the Christ - the Christ who is God - chose that which represented the harder, uglier side of physical life, and Christ is the same for ever. In the factories, in the workshops, aye, where all the strife and the bitterness go on, in those great places where man has forgotten the bond which holds him to man, where the strong force the weak, and the weak suffer under the strong, there the Saviour walks; for through the pangs and through the anguish His children are linked to Him.
Christ - that most loveable aspect of the great God, the Creator of all life - Christ walks the city streets, and that which you name vice or evil or the mire of human desires, nothing of this is strong enough to banish the Christ. Where the enemies abound, so the Saviour fights and rests not; where weakness is, so Strength scatters His strength; where vileness is, there Purity pours its sweet stream to arouse and refresh His little ones caught in the ways of self.
Christ walks along the hardest road where discomfort is most apparent: in and out of the little houses where humanity, herded together, shames that which you name the civilisation of the day; Christ walks amongst those who sin against themselves and against others; and one day Love shall triumph over all and God's will on earth shall be done.
"But forget not that which I name responsibility, forget not that even God Himself cannot interfere with man's freewill, forget not that if the individual desires not God, then, though the Mighty One seeks to protect, by freewill man destroys that which will keep him safe and sound. These things must be faced. There are those with half wisdom, half sight, half hearing, and they cry to the people: 'Repent!' but they know not what the individual is building up; they give not explanation, for, alas, fear holds them, and though the gates of illumination and Divine revelation are open wide, that which they call self-preservation chains them to the earth, and their charges, when they question, receive naught in reply. Responsibility too great, too awful to be portrayed in words.
Oh, I appeal to the teachers and the preachers. I appeal to them in the Name of Love to prepare the minds of those under their charge, to forsake that built up by the world, to give up all, and follow Christ. And then, then the sweet Voice of the Spirit shall pierce the density in between and those who come to them with their questions, with their wonderings and their doubts, shall have explanation - that for which the children of the earth have been waiting over the centuries and still wait for today - explanation of the consequence of what they are building day by day, explanation of those spiritual laws which control their lives and are building up that 'next place' into which they pass, explanation of the mighty protection which is all around, the unbounded, illimitable love of God.
And when explanation has been given, the children of the earth, aroused from coma - that spiritual sleep which has held them throughout the past - will become conscious that they are indeed sons and daughters of the Most High, with gifts, with powers, glorious yet dangerous; glorious when God is recognised, dangerous when the valley is sought because the climb exacts too much.
"Oh, listen and learn, little children, you who have been called to higher, sweeter, nobler things. What of the pangs, what of the strain, what of the discomforts, what of the forbidding of the desires of the physical mind? This earth life compared to the gift of life which is your own, is as a second. Be practical in the God sense and use this second so that eternity may represent freedom, joy and peace and the power which is of God. For you were created in God's own image, and God waits and works until you turn to Him and claim Him as your Father and Mother God. Never forget that where the battle is hardest, where the suffering is greatest, there walks Christ.
"Again I bring you back: If Christ passed among you in poverty of attire, coming from so humble a home, would you recognise the Master, would God pass through your home unbidden to rest awhile within that home? Would you be one of eleven to work for Him, to share His lot? Oh think you! Time may pass but these tests go on hour by hour, day by day, for indeed Christ walks the cities and the towns, seeking, ever seeking for one here, one there, willing to give up all and follow Him.
Ah, you know, my little ones, you know so well! How many in your own surroundings are willing to give up all and follow the Master who blesses us as I speak? Blesses us, for Perfect Love delights to gather where there are those who desire to learn; Perfect Love showers upon His children the priceless gifts of wisdom and peace; but the individual must take, and the only way to take that which is eternal, that which is of God Himself, is by service to others, by the laying aside of inclination and saying to God: 'Take me and use me as Thou wilt.'
"Hidden from your sight, perchance, but nevertheless there in reality, is the Christ, seeking for helpers, seeking for those who would take up their cross and follow Him. If not today then tomorrow, if not to morrow then in some time to come, the real self - the Christ within - must take up its cross and follow the One who has gone to prepare for us a place where Love reigns supreme.
Aye, the Master took the hardest road of all; not only when He lived upon the earth plane but ever since life was commenced the hardest road has been taken by God. He goes to prepare and protect, and He calls to His children: 'Follow Me out of the darkness into the twilight, out of the twilight into the light which never fades' - ah, into the joy which has no end, into the peace which remains for ever and for ever.
"Oh, again I say: Probe beneath the surface; let the real self dominate and control. Make your choice; let the holy compact with yourself be this: If Christ passes calling to me 'Follow!' then I leave all and follow Him where'er He may lead and whate'er the future may hold.
"Cannot you see what an honour this is? Cannot you understand that amongst thousands and tens of thousands the Voice of the Spirit cannot be heard? But you in a measure are free, free to listen and to learn, free to choose the highest and the best, free to pass into wisdom and to draw to you something of revelation. Then, my children, commune within and make your choice through the grace of God, for great things are held in the balance and the call has come for volunteers who will not shirk or shrink.
So I bless you with courage; in the name of the Beloved and through the power of the Holy Spirit I bless you with the courage to do, with the courage to come out of that which holds you and announce yourselves to your little world not only as followers of the Christ, but fighters in His great army; for the spiritual warfare has commenced and must go on until the will of God on earth is done by man.
"I bless you with courage in the name of Christ. Farewell!"
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