"THE BATTLE BETWEEN REASON AND INSTINCT"

"I have often underlined the great privilege of Spirit Communion and still there are those who use the gift and forget its sacred source. But you have been rightly taught and I know that your hearts and minds are set upon holy things. Maybe there are times when you fall from that high altitude of spiritual achievement, but, sorrow fills your heart and you climb back, by the Grace of God. You pray earnestly that His love will fetter you to better things. In this wise, so travellers are turned into pilgrims and pilgrims into servants of the Most High.

"So it has been ordained that I speak to you for a while upon: 'The Battle Between Reason and Instinct'. If it seems to you that this subject hardly touches on that which you love so well, then I ask that you have patience while we think together of our equipment and while we stretch out to grasp that glorious future prepared for us by the One who loves us best.

"It is commonly understood that reason is given full place and although we realise that the earthly mind is a precious tool it is wise to analyse the kind of reasoning which is favoured by the majority. There are those relying solely upon the literature of the past and of their own time, who unless the things which are presented from a spiritual aspect coincide with the reasoning of the requirements of this generation, hesitate and often neglect to take up the staff that would allow them to travel into unknown lands.

"You may question your powers of reasoning. I remind you that you were meant by God to exercise the mind of the body to the fullest extent. But the great mistake made over the past and in the present is that man's reasoning seems to be fettered to material things and to a physical representation of Reality.

"Paul underlined the relative importance of things which are seen with mortal eyes and the things which could not be seen. I want you to dwell upon this point and exercise your reasoning faculties, not on the material plane but as children of God and inheritors of Eternal Life.

"Amongst all forms of life is the precious gift of instinct and as the scale is climbed so that faculty becomes more released. Beauty and power are added to it. The time comes when from instinct there develops intuition and from intuition there springs a wonderful capacity to understand the things which are of God. It is that Spirit Consciousness which makes you superior to the material thought of this material plane. Through the Divine within, it allows you to contact the truth and to express it for the betterment and the upraising of others.

"Shall we then not think about the powers of reasoning and how man reasons about his life, how through reason he rejects the thought of life after physical death, and through that same desire to bring everything down to that which can be seen, touched or contacted? He not only gives forth a gospel of despair, but by his attitude of mind he rules out God and His many worlds and states beyond the physical. He ignores entirely the fundamental fact that man has had life over the past ages in innumerable worlds with changing bodies and with increased or belittled faculties, according to the striving put forth.

"The moment you start to pit earthly reasoning against Divine Truth you find that for the most part the knowledge available upon this plane is not only restricted but is relegated to the infant stages of development. Yet, inspite of material thought, inspite of the denial by certain men and women of Divine Law operating moment by moment in their physical lives - inspite of all this - by the power of the Holy Spirit man is growing. Man is extricating himself from the bondage of the past and exercising his imagination. As his imagination is set free from the bondage of material things, he finds to his joy that Spirit Consciousness is not only possible but is the next step to imagination. With true Spirit Consciousness he is able to contact God's realm of life and its multitude of miracles set into being for man to use when he is ready and prepared to hold and not to abuse.

"Today you find there are those willing to make full surrender for the faith that is within them. If you analyse that faith you find it has many aspects, some nobler than others, but all demonstrating the inherent instinct for nobility. It is the instinct that wages war against the thoughts impinged upon the physical mind which would tell man that it is all waste, that man must take and hold that which is available, lest he lose it all. Your minds are understood only in part. The little instrument which you use seems at times to be a very willing servant; then there are times when the mind refuses to obey the dictates of the material self. Through that expansion not only are heroes made but the whole condition of the physical plane is raised and those yet to be born upon it will be able to gather up many spiritual flowers from once barren ground. Through the gathering of those spiritual flowers they will desire to sow the good seed for those who are yet to come.

"Consider these simple words of mine. Exercise your powers of reasoning and realise that because God is within you you are not bound by earthly circumference of thought. You are free through the Christ within you to contact the higher forces, to borrow by the experience gained in the sleep state some understanding of the wonders prepared for God's children as they develop. They must, by sacrifice and service, present the true instrument which must be there.

"What then of the battle! It is wise to exercise all the common sense you possess. I have underlined again and again that common sense as shown upon the physical plane is a pale representation of the common sense which must be released before you can become trusted servants of the Most High. Here (on earth) you are swayed by condition, by the emotions which are concerned with the physical make-up alone. When those lesser emotions take possession of you then you are instructed to exercise all the common sense you can conjure and to realise that you must become master of your emotions and that you are here to learn to control them. Why? Not because God demands it. But because the Christ within is fettered in the degree to which the emotions are allowed to dominate the good that you can accomplish.

"Then we come to the expression of those instincts which makes a man or woman desire the companions which bring to him or her a sense of freedom from self. You know that there are those who amuse your physical minds and there are those who minister to your need. Sometimes you are caught up in the conditions by the thoughts cast so freely upon this plane from astral sources and you turn with relief to those who merely amuse. Yet as time passes, you grow impatient with yourself. There comes an urge to be stronger, to do better. Instinct is instructing you that it is wise with such companions, not to forsake them, but to exercise your own influence, so that they may grow perchance instead of allowing them to dwarf your own growth.

"You are here to play your part in life which represents co-operation in a measure hidden from the physical consciousness now. That co-operation means that those with the higher instincts, those with the greatest conception of service must be leaders. All this surely is on the lines of common sense, of reasoning that is the basis of spiritual instinct.

"There is no war here. There is a linking up with the power and force as intended by God the Father, Creator of all things. But in the war between reason and instinct, how easily men fall into temptation. They would not sin against the Ten Commandments, their principles, their instincts, would abhor such a thought. Yet, by subtle means the destructive forces are able to stem the highest good they could accomplish. Again and again, in miniature form you have examples of the temptations in the willingness, the subtle reasoning voice which suggests to an individual that by sacrifice of so little, so much could be attained. Not necessarily for themselves, but often for that which they cherish most, it may be their family, for humanity, or even for God's work.

"So be on your guard against reasoning voices of subtle forces. Wage war with them by instinct, realising that your instinct is your protection. Indeed, it is as the ante-room leading into Spirit Consciousness when you can no longer be deceived. Having keyed yourself to truth you vibrate by instinct only to truth.

"I may outline, but it is for you to exercise your mental and physical faculties to fill the picture. Do not apply what I have said only to one thing, one person, one country or one world. But see it as a general application and make it so much a part of your own spiritual equipment that it becomes a habit.

"As you take your daily way, you will find that those wars between reason and instinct are changing in character. Instead of reason challenging instinct it will be that instinct will become the master of reason. This does not mean that you should throw away your powers of reasoning, you are learning to use them as you must when in the Spirit conditions. Use your reasoning powers to show the link between the subject under consideration and that portrayed by the Master Christ. Hold up the torch of the physical mind against the torch shown by the Saints and martyrs. As the two lights appear together you will realise, with great sorrow, that your light, the light of reason, has yet to be fed by the Power of the Holy Spirit to become a light that shall lighten the darkened world.

"I have come into your presence to train you for higher things. There is not one of you who cannot develop upon spiritual lines so effectively that when this short physical span is over you can be found a useful servant in those finer conditions where the work is of a far more complicated character. There, your reasoning has indeed to be developed to such an extent that you are not betrayed by appearance, by words, by pictures, by beauty.

"In the hells of man's own making there are those with psychic forces who have the power to portray certain kinds of beauty. But those with reasoning powers, released through service upon the earth plane are not deceived. The life of that beauty is of short duration. As they analyse the kind of beauty it represents they will know that it is but a manifestation of desire, man's desire to have. It is the craving for physical beauty, for the soft garments that charm, for the ameliorations which shall ease the body, craving in all distorted forms of beauty as understood by the mind of the body.

"So, I urge you to prepare now. So long as ever you try to do your best your future happiness is assured. But the moment you allow personal feelings to creep in and mar the pattern, directly you put self in any of its subtle forms before the Master's work, although you may think that you are doing your best, you will find that your reasoning powers are faulty. When you are in conditions of truth, reality is on either side.

"I plead with you to do all you can to control the physical, to manifest that power of Spirit which shows that you can become master now. Not only will you be scattering strength as you take your daily way, but when you are free from the flesh you will find, to your infinite relief, that no longer does the battle take place between reason and instinct; you are approaching Spiritual Consciousness where miracles can be performed by you by the Grace of God and through His power.

"Spread the truth far and wide. Warn those who scatter the power on material things or material desire. The gift of Spirit Communion is always raised higher and still higher when your heel is placed upon the self, then you shall experience a joy and a power and a peace which shall express that spiritual emancipation, at last, has been made your own.

"In the Name of the Loving Christ I bless you all, workers in the vineyard, tillers of the soil of human hearts and minds."

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