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 little children, this evening once more I come into your presence with a message from the Master and I ask you to ponder within, to call out the greater self and once more to re-dedicate yourselves to this mission, to this great task of unfolding truth, as truth is, to the children upon the earth plane who have been led away by false shepherds, by those who have deceived themselves and have sought to deceive others.
"I say to you, instructed by the Master, that you are called upon in His Name to spread the truth as you know the truth to be, to listen not to one here, one there who challenges your authority, who would say to you: 'The evidence you have is incomplete,' but to treat such as these as the enemies of the Spirit they represent. For lo, in time past as the prophets arose, as the teachers sought to instruct the people, so there were those wise in their own conceit, who went to the teacher and the preacher and challenged the message he had to deliver.
"Think you like this. Is it possible that those of old had no doubts, that they did not ask themselves: 'Am I not taking upon myself more than God intends?' These thoughts, dear children, are the essential tests. If there were full consciousness, then the vast majority would come forth out of the tent of self and spread the good news to others. But no, they feel that within that tent, although its walls hem them in and hold them fast, that there they are safe. Oh foolish ones, how quickly they forget. I say, instructed by God Himself, that the wind of the Spirit shall blow across the plains of physical consciousness and those same tents of self shall be flattened to the earth, and those within must wait for others - who have the courage - to extricate them from their plight.
"So, my children, I speak to you in tones imperative for this reason and this alone: You are as the ones whom I love so well, and I would save you from that which lies in front if at this stage you hesitate, if at this stage you wait for further guidance and help from those upon the earth plane who know not God as God is. For I say unto you that the preachers and the teachers who will not follow the Christ in the literal sense, they know not God as God is, otherwise the sense of responsibility would warn them as to their fate. I charge you solemnly to listen not to those around who bid you take care or else suffering, or loss, or persecution will come upon you. Many spake thus to the Master Himself and to His followers: 'Take care, beware, you will suffer!' but those with the faithful hearts answered, although fear was within: 'Yet I must go on!'
"And now, having gathered in your thoughts, I would speak to you upon that which I name: 'A Continuing City' (Hebrews 13:14). Think you as to this: Go back over the history of your little earth and there, narrated, you will find that nations arose from small and paltry things. They had their day, but for the most part they abused their power, and that day was no more - they fell from their high estate. Go back upon the history of the so-called great men of the past. How many, when the true facts of their inward life were revealed, remained great in the estimation of the spiritually-minded? Go back over the past to those who were despised, to those who were laughed at, to those who were named mad-men, and you will find that when the heart was true, when the motive was sincere, these men passed on into a city glorious, and left a record of greatness behind.
"Oh, think you! What of this little planet, this speck in the great, great universe - can it be called a continuing city? Think of the individual life of the man or the woman who rises from humble things and gathers or snatches the possessions of the earth. For how long do they hold their toys? Is their hold a continuing hold? What of those who make a god of the physical tabernacle, who sacrifice the God within to pander to the flesh, to preserve the health of that which in time must pass away? Is their garment a continuing garment? Man prides himself upon his physique, upon his strength, upon his mental abilities; but the soul-body - the next garment - is ignored. He builds upon sand, and lo, the tide of retribution sweeps in and his little house of clay or sand is no more; but the garment, the continuing garment, is marred, and for time unthinkable this one wanders in twilight as one deformed.
"Little ones, again I bring you back to a right and true valuation. Around you there are men and women who would place their all upon the things which must pass away, whose thoughts and desires are earthbound; yet if they probe but one inch beneath the surface of unreality, so they discover that this planet is not as a continuing city, and more than that, that the little house of flesh has life but for a short swift stage. O foolish ones and bound. What of their gifts, what of their intellect, what of their creative faculties? When the heart and mind is arraigned against the Christ, so that which they build is indeed against the true self within, and when they pass out of these conditions of sense, these conditions built up in a measure out of the follies of the past, so the next stage is worse than the last.
"What of those who have within their power the government of countries, what of those who have control of the toilers, what of those who have charge of the young? Oh, cannot you see that as the teacher is bound, as the teacher is blind, so the bondage and blindness are passed on to the pupil, and suffering must come. What of the father, what of the guardian who turns to the growing boy and bids him fix his eyes upon the god of ambition? And the one so pliable seeks to mould himself into that desired, but he finds that he has fettered himself to a city which has no life beyond today; and when today is o'er, rudderless, anchorless he wanders in a strange and horrible land.
"What of the mother who trains the tiny child according to those false laws of self-preservation? The little one takes what she can and as the years speed on, so she is fastening to herself the chains which cut and wound; and when disease strikes her, within there is no strength, no hope to carry her through, no continuing city - for the city to which she belongs is built by earthly hands, and the laws of God, working with precision, scatter this and push aside that; and the woman who has made a god of self and physical beauty finds even in the city that she so loved, that one is there - a thing of horror - and that is herself.
"Yet, little ones, it is not mine to cast sadness over your hearts and minds. I do but force these things upon your physical consciousness because, alas, the mind of the body forgets so soon; but I say to you, because you have tried, because you desire to rise, day by day, that through the heartaches, through the rising above disappointments, so indeed you have contributed to that continuing city which, as time goes on, shall increase in beauty, shall demonstrate more power and still more power.
"So I come back to your mission, to the trust imposed upon you by the God within, and I say once more: Seek to hold the values of God and cast aside the false values of those bound by the earth. What is the condition, what are the circumstances of the pilgrim on the long, long journey home to God? Oh, the pilgrim travels light, the pilgrim remembers his Master Christ. He says not to himself: 'I must take this and I must have that.' No, no; the pilgrim lays aside and gives away, and with the staff of faith, with the sandals of effort and with the cross upon his forehead, goes forth in response to the call of God. He passes out of the city of desire, he leaves the wood of mental misunderstanding and false values and, weary, perhaps a little spent, he finds himself upon the strait and narrow way. And then he thanks his Father that he had the strength to leave behind the unessentials, the useless trappings, and to travel light.
"Ah, in his thoughts so truth slowly and surely is being born, born by pangs - the only way to pass out of one condition into another. By suffering so a little more of truth is made his own, and though he is in the world and bound in a measure by the laws and restrictions of the earth, he sees it for what it is - no continuing city; his eyes and his thoughts and his heart are upon his Father's home.
"Oh think you, my children, and be wise in time, for what you build today, what you cleave to today, that must be your portion tomorrow. So, then, take thought for the morrow - not what you should have but what you should be free and strong enough to do without. Take no thought of material things for the morrow, but travel light and trust your God. Remember that the garment that you wear, the friends that you love so well, the home which, perchance, causes satisfaction to the lesser side by the adornment that is within - all these things continue only for a span. Those you love may have other work to do, you are divided from them by conditions or by circumstances. Perhaps the wind of adversity reaches you, and those things which you prize so much - the things of the earth - no longer can you hold them. Or again, the hand of God is placed upon your shoulder, and the garment of flesh withers and dies. No continuing city!
"But through the grace of God, through the action and the love of the Christ, we have a continuing city which no one and nothing can wrest from us, but it is not built by earthly hands. No; the home which calls the pilgrim on is put together by that which he denies himself day by day, by the loneliness, by the turning of those who should be as his friends, by the cold looks, by the criticism, by the scorn, by the persecution. Ah, these are the bricks, as it were, of the city which shall not pass away, built not by earthly hands but by that torn forth from the true self within - the suffering, the weariness, the exile.
"So, my little ones, I come into your presence and I say not to you: 'All is well.' Rather do I force upon your attention that all is not well. The teachers and the preachers are called to high and holy things. They are called to travel light, for only those who travel light have sufficient strength to scale the heights, and only those who scale the heights can have the gift of revelation. For this the earth waits today - revelation as to God as God is, revelation as to the conditions that are around the individual, the opportunities, the traps, the enemies and the helpers. Oh think you, children, is it not worth a little sacrifice in the city that continues not, to have sweet liberty when you reach that city - the celestial city - which shall not pass away? Is it not worth the scorn, the opposition of those who deceive themselves that all is well, that God intends them to have and to hold that which has no life beyond this little stage?
"Ah, my children, I must warn and warn again. There are those using this sacred gift (NB: Spirit Communion) - the power of the Holy Spirit - to deceive. If you ask me: 'How can I discriminate!', then I say that if those come to you who name themselves the messengers of God (NB: whether mediums or souls speaking through mediums), and say that all is well, and point not to the hard road, the steep road, the way that the Master took Himself and called to His children to follow after, then those who use this holy gift are desecrating holiness itself; and God is not mocked.
"I impress upon each one that you are disciples, and disciples follow the Master. There is no other way, no other course than that taken, followed, and held by Christ; and in the degree that you can separate yourselves from the false and cleave to the true, so, my children, when this earth - with its half-beauties, half-light and little wisdom - is left behind, you shall find yourselves amongst true beauty, real wisdom and the light which shines from God. Therefore the path is clear in front. In the measure that you hesitate over expediency, over misgivings, over reluctance; in the measure that the child I use allows the shrinking to keep her from the task entrusted to her by Christ Himself, so anguish must assail her when the earth-life is no more.
"But I remind you that the misgivings, the reluctance and hesitation, all that is part of the road. Few escape, but out of the pangs, out of the resistance against these subtle enemies so the battle is won; and forget not that no battle is fought and won for yourself alone. Were that possible, although it seems a contradiction, I say it would be a failure. No; we fight for others. Temptation assails us; we hope to be strong but perchance we are only half-strong and half-weak; but if the desire is maintained to be fully strong, so God will send His power, and the strength shall come.
"Again, through the coming of the strength, so another who found it possible only to be strong in one degree alone, gains the strength in turn to be half-strong and only half-weak; and in time spiritual ambition is aroused, and he says within himself: 'Oh, make me strong', and the strength comes down from God. This goes on with humanity in all planes, all conditions; and thus the individual passes out of the city that continues not and finds himself in one not built by earthly hands or by earthly desires; a city built by suffering, built by striving, built by the desire to do a little better, to be a little nobler and to think on those lines laid down by Christ.
"So, my children, lay upon your heart and mind that you have been called, that your life at this stage is for some set purpose. It is a glorious opportunity, but you build not for that which is to remain upon the earth. Out of earthly things, out of that which is your actual environment today, you create your spiritual condition for tomorrow, and so the things of the world are regarded in their true perspective; they are there for God's purpose, but nought in them has the power to hold. Your eyes, your thoughts are upon the City that is of God, and there you shall find the consummation of your spiritual desires, if as a pilgrim you continue your way.
"Out of things seeming, into something of reality; out of reality into true wisdom; and when centred in true wisdom, then finding yourselves an emblem of love. And so in that home prepared by the God within, you take up your gifts, take up your powers and, above all, your mighty possession of true love, and you do the Master's work in the Master's way; you seek for the lost and you rest not until they are found. Out of the city of self, out of the city of desire for the things that pass away, you lead them by your love across the threshold of temptation, placing their feet upon the narrow way; and then with joy seek for another and another until the last one is found. Ponder within, for the words which come from me through the instrument I use, and the thoughts expressed, are according to the will of the Christ.
"I speak to you as matured souls, and I wish you to depart with a sense of the seriousness and the responsibility of the mission which you have undertaken, in Spirit. I would not tell you that because you have responded, so around you only the bright ones can gather close; but I tell you, because it is God's truth, that you represent a light to those wandering in darkness, and it is your part and privilege and honour to hold up the torch so that the wanderers may pass out of danger into a measure of safety. Oh, around each one indeed are the bright ones, the ones with the strength, but they seek to use you as their instruments, to take their strength and their brightness to those who have it not.
"Ah, little ones, can you not see that beyond today yesterday shall be forgotten, and tomorrow is fair beyond all words to portray. Out of the prison house of self into the Summerland with its many temptations, and then on, up the steep hill, ever drawing to you the glories of the Spirit, the music of the realms of bliss, the courage of the Christ, the peace of the Holy Spirit; yes, out of the city of make-believe into the home of God which even now awaits you.
"Yet the only way to emerge out of the Summerland of temptation, the only way to climb the hill of attainment is by seeking for others and warning them; defying your own little world and claiming the Spirit World which is around humanity, unseen, unthought of, for the most part. Again, by passing among the ignorant and the spiritually blind and warning them as to their companions, as to their allegiance, as to their love of the things which pass away.
"So, my children, again I say ponder on the words of Christ. Push aside the views and the theories of the earthbound. In the Sacred Record you have that which shall take you to the heights, and those who love their God are not content with the second best. Those who love the Christ - ah, one smile from Love not only compensates but wipes out the memory of the past - one smile from Christ.
"So then, my little ones, in faith believe that the Master is casting the radiance of His smile over you all. Therefore, fear has no root, sorrow no life; joy only finds place in the heart and mind. You are of Him; He has gifted to you that which is of Himself. Then praise God from Whom all blessings flow, and in reverence claim your gifts, and, above all, the right to be with Christ.
"And so I bless you and I send you on, in the Name of God. I point to the Cross of protection. There, above the earth, the next stage and the next and the next, shines the Cross - joy, pure joy! And as you climb so its radiance, so its beauty, shall become more apparent, and you shall taste of the bliss of sacrifice for Christ's sake.
"I bless you with courage in the Name of God our Father and Mother. Farewell!"
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