"THE GIFT OF CREATING"

"O most gracious One, in reverence and in love we draw near, and we ask Thee to so inspire us with something of the Christ-spirit that we may lay aside self in its many deceptive forms, and place ourselves entirely in Thy Hands for Thy work.

"O God, Thou who understandest all things, give us tonight the power to understand ourselves. O Christ, Thou who hast shown the way, let the Light which shines from Thee penetrate into our hearts and minds and illumine the path in front...

"As little children, we approach Thee and as little children we take up Thy many good gifts; but as children imbued with the wish to serve, inspired by the stronger self within, so we pray that we may be found suitable tools; that the things of the world, the things of the mind and the things of the heart may not come between us and the things of the Spirit.

"Father, remembering all Thy past goodness, calling to mind the many gifts which surround our lives at this stage, once more with grateful hearts we thank Thee and once more we pledge ourselves to Thy work - service to humanity. Make us ready to be used; show us that the difficulties and obstacles which lie in front can be overcome by faith and determination, and that we, held back no longer, may go forward spreading the Truth, consoling the sorrowful, raising the fallen, and uplifting those, once strong, who have fallen into temptation...

"Father, we thank Thee, and we ask Thee to give us tonight an individual message to the spirit within, a message that will be treasured for ever and for ever; for in thinking of it the consciousness shall come of Thy Love and Thy over-seeing care...

"...My children, it seemed to some that perhaps tonight the plans of God would be postponed. I use that word 'postponed' because my children, hearkening to the Voice of the Spirit, never allow the things of the world - even its work - to come between them and their sacred mission. But, it seemed that tonight, we could not meet together and so to my little secretary (Dorrie) I speak:

"Child, once more you have seen the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrated in your life - you have seen that from which you shrank taken from you; taken from you until the mind of the body was more willing to accept it... When the test comes anon, so, as a soldier, you will take up your knapsack and go on in faith and in confidence in your Father God...

"To the children who have been gathered in tonight by love (Mrs. Lamont and Mrs. Coltman) I give a few brief words:

"In the by and by, when the physical life is ended, lo, you shall look back and your hearts shall rejoice, for then - gifted with the sight which is sight indeed - something of the purpose, something of the plan will be revealed, and you will thank God that you contributed in love, in thought, and in the desire to serve. I speak not of my love for you, for you have proved that when you call so I answer - aye, and more than that - many times when you forgot to call still I answered to the need which lay around. This, as you know full well, is a gift from the Holy Master who allows me the privilege, the joy of helping those children of the earth who are linked to me by spiritual ties, aye, over the long past; and those ties shall remain for ever...

"But tonight, I must not pause unduly upon things which are personal, for there is that which I seek to unfold, that which has been entrusted to me; and these evenings, precious as they are, must be used to the uttermost if God's work is to be done.

"Tonight, my children, I wish to conserve the power as far as I am able, and thus it is I call upon you all to give out that which you possess yourselves; and this gift shall be counted among your possessions, for only that which we give remains with us; that which we seek to hold, by a spiritual law, passes soon beyond our vibrations and cannot be regained without much toil, much anguish of heart; regained so that it may be put to its rightful purpose - to pass on to the one who needs it most...

"Tonight, then, my little ones, directed by the Holy Master, I seek to make clear something of the wonder of: 'The Gift of Creating'.

"Yet, because time passes so quickly, only fragments can I bestow; yet those fragments of Truth shall put certain threads into your hands, and I ask you to pursue each one so far as the mind of the body, drawing from the mind of the spirit, is able to attain. And then in a little while to come, I will return to this same subject and take you another inch into that Wisdom which is unlimited.

"First of all, dear children, because you function in a physical world, I must touch on the physical aspect of creating; and my words are a necessity, for damage of so serious a nature has been done that the spiritual emancipation of the children of the world has been retarded, held back by ignorance concerning those things which touch them all.

"Children, the gift of creating is as a gigantic tree with innumerable branches, and each branch covered with countless leaves; but because man has turned from his God, so, long since, the mighty Truth represented by the trunk of that tree has been overlooked, and today he is satisfied with the few odd twigs which have fallen to the ground. The gift of creating has been so disregarded in its many forms that, for the most part, what is held by the individual is as a dead stalk - its life has gone.

"So, my children, I speak first of that 'creating' which arises so easily in the physical mind, and I want you, ere we part, to make a compact with yourselves: That henceforth, you will look at this wonderful gift in the God-way, and, more than that, you will accept the responsibility of knowledge and do your best to pass on that which I teach to others; aye, to the parents, and also the children when they have reached that stage of consciousness when they can understand.

"You see, dear children, the greatest gift given to mankind by God is the gift of creating life; and this gift is only a physical expression of a great and mighty spiritual Truth. As it were, it shows, in a limited manner, something of the wonderful power which lies within the province of the individual - the power to create life, in the sense that they themselves are used to build up the next body, the next casket, which every soaring soul desires to make its own, for only by the donning of that cloak of flesh can it obtain those experiences which are essential for its development...

"Oh, think you like this: Some there are, dear children, ah, many, many who have so misunderstood Love, so misunderstood the plans of God, so misunderstood the holy gift placed in their possession, that they have not only held back their own emancipation but, by their abuse of the gift, have implanted in the bodies of their children a predisposition to similar weakness in turn.

"Temptation: But have I not told you that to the strong temptation comes? But only those remain strong who fight against their weaker selves. Sometimes, dear children, the temptation seems too difficult to withstand; yet, to such as these, I throw out a strong beam of light - and I speak to thousands beyond your ken - I say to them: Maybe you cannot find the strength to fight for yourself, but for the sake of those you are bringing into the earthly plane, surely you can find within, the spiritual resource to overcome.

"You see, dear children, in God's sight, weakness - that which the world calls 'sin', that which the world condemns so hardly in the unprotected, but which it excuses in those who have the protection of the law - with God, these things are seen as they are; and because the children of the earth are the children of their Father and Mother God, the time must come when they too must face Reality, when they too must be strong enough to grapple with that mighty readjustment which must take place.

"Children, I am bound to speak frankly on this subject. The physical laws which govern the physical body can express purity as nearly as it is possible to approach purity on a material plane; but the majority, so untutored in the things of the Spirit, so ignorant of the spiritual aspect of the gift of creating, these have desecrated the gift, these have thwarted the plans of God, these have kept back their brothers and their sisters; aye, they themselves have been kept back by those who were before them; and they pass on to their children that terrible bar to progression, they pass on the same obstruction which one day must be overcome.

"The gift of creating is for a great and mighty purpose, and to those amongst my children, wherever they may be, whoever they are, and whatever their mental or physical capacities - to all my children I send out an entreaty to face this question in a spiritual way; to confuse not prudery with purity, and to seek not refuge in that silence which gives consent...

"Those who have eyes to see, those who have ears to hear, they look around on the world at large and they know that the lack of purity, the lack of self-restraint, has done its terrible work. They see - and I refer to those who have God in their hearts - they see that on vast numbers no shadow of shame is allowed to rest; but here and there on the individual less guilty in intent - aye, less guilty I say - on these the cross has been laid. Do they think, can anyone think that by an act of law, by a church observance, that that which they name 'immorality' is erased?

"Oh, think again. You are the children of the Most High, gifted with a precious gift, which, though changing its aspect as you pass through the evolutionary stages of progress, is held by you, purified, strengthened, until at last, claiming from God those gifts which were once in your possession, you create in the God-way, you create that which represents something of His own creation in a time long past...

"My children, in listening to my words I would disabuse your minds of any false impressions that may arise. You have been told before that there are countless souls waiting to take on the physical experience, who, but for the provision made by God, would be hindered in their progress because those on earth are unwilling to face their responsibilities - they have not either the courage or the endurance or the selflessness to give that physical life which the other so sorely needs.

"And the time comes when such as these pass hence, and on looking back, find to their horror that within their own grasp lay a gift so precious, a gift so wide in its import, a gift which was expressive of the creative faculty which belongs to God; but, blinded by the world, deafened by the cries of expediency, they went on their way, and that great gain which was their right was overlooked.

"And then, dear children, I speak of others, and I remind you of my previous words: That there are no childless people in any sphere, and there are no orphans in any condition, which could be thought of. For those who, during physical life, have suffered in this way, I have words of so much hope, so much cheer, so much promise that I long to pass them on. That desire of the heart to hold a child in your arms which you could claim as your own, that desire is God-given indeed; and in accepting certain physical restrictions and limitations in the body which you wear, you, by going without, have brought within your own vibrations a gift to create which shall stagger you when you are free...

"I speak to many men and women all over this little world, for sorrow has wrung their hearts over the withholding of the precious gift of parenthood. I say to them; Fear nothing, regret not at all, for lo, that for which you long has been made your own; and that which you could not have so far as the physical stage was concerned, that gift of creating has been so purified, so refined, so immeasurably strengthened, that when the body is no more, before you will lie a world of creating all your own.

"But, children, in regard to the physical facts of life, a terrible responsibility rests on the elders, aye, and most of all on the representatives of our Father and Mother God; for it lie's with these to teach the young, it lies with these to show that this gift, so desecrated by the majority, is spiritual in every sense there could be.

"Those whom you name the scientists, rebelling against the wall of silence erected between the young and the facts of life, these have sought to present them, so they think, in a way both safe and reassuring. But the young - those who have God in their hearts - have shrunk with horror from the biologist, for something within has told them that they are not as the animal, that they were created as the children of God. And between the two - that prudery which some love to think is the purity which counts so much - that prudery and the representation of the facts of life by the one who has not penetrated one inch over the threshold of Spirit - between these two the young have gone astray.

"Mark you this - and I would underline it - that many of these young ones have bodies which have a predisposition to weakness of this kind through lack of self-restraint by their parents, by their forefathers, by those from whom they came. For, dear children, though I have taught you that the spirit chooses its own experiences, yet the necessity for going through the physical stage is so great that it is forced to inhabit a body that presents, from the outset, temptations which, alas, so often prove too strong...

"Oh, are there not any in the world today who have the courage, who have sufficient of the Christ within to speak words of warning on this question, on that which brings an unending train of consequences to others? To the representatives of God I speak, and I ask them to consider their position. Have they, out of the stronger self within, ever presented these facts in their true spiritual light, or have not they rather hidden them under that inky cloud of silence, of reticence, and allowed the world to take its way?

"Children, I know that to some of you I have brought dismay. These things are not talked about amongst those upon earth. This fact, this great responsibility which is going on everywhere all over the physical world, which brings misery and anguish to countless born and unborn, this subject is taboo, this subject must not be discussed. Yet tonight, I ask you to emerge out of your lesser selves and to be not as the children of the earth but as children of the Most High; to face things as they are and to grapple with the task which lies in front...

"Children, the gain which comes to those who, inspired by love for them, bring little ones into the world - that gain cannot be over-estimated, nay, it cannot be explained in words. The care, the suffering entailed, the provision for the future, all the thoughts, all the hopes, all the prayers, ah, in miniature it is true, but I say by parenthood you are nearer to God - nearer to the Great Father and Mother aspect of God than anything else could bring you.

"But oh, beware of the enemies which would fall upon the young. Teach them to understand, show them that though these things are physical now, one time - and not so far ahead - one time that gift of creating will be seen for what it is; no longer dependent upon the physical body or upon those laws which govern the physical body, but the individual - out of her love, out of his love, will find it within her or his power to create, not only for those around, but to create for God.

"Children, one other point on the physical side I must touch upon, and this is so spiritual in its aspect that you will bear with me a little longer before I take you in thought out of planes of sense into the realms of true feeling where you love to dwell.

"There have been those - steeped in the things of the earth, blinded by the materialism of their age, who have come back to God, come back to purity in looking into the eyes of the child which they have created; by the innocency, by the intense spirituality which shines out of their baby's eyes, so the parents have been shamed, so the parents have awakened to a sense of responsibility.

"And in regard to all who love God I would point out a fact which no one can deny: In the first smile of recognition from the tiny form which lies in its parent's arms, in that first smile of recognition, a man or a woman reaches the highest point of happiness which this earth can give. The possessions of the world, the tools of the mind, ah, all those things which are coveted by the majority, these are as nothing in comparison with that wave of spiritual emotion which rushes over the true parent as he looks at his child - his child.

"And in that moment, dear children, the world as the world fades away, and, all unconsciously, man has been given a reflection as to how his Father God feels towards him when, after uncountable time, sufficient consciousness comes when he looks up with recognition to his God, and they are reunited in Spirit once more...

"Yes, dear children, 'details' so these things appear, but these details express a mighty truth, these details reflect something of the great Heart and Mind of God. For when the mother or the father catches the love-light in the eyes of the babe they have brought into the world, in that moment that mother or that father is sharing in the experiences of God...

"My children, I pass on now, just for a very brief space, to try and show you how, by thought, you can not only build for yourself, but you can put together that which the Lord God of all will use - because He is your Father - for the working out of His mighty plans.

"Think you to yourselves like this: In regard to the creation of a child, when love inspires, lo, the body and the mind of that child is nearer to perfection, is nearer to that which God intended.

"So, carrying on that thought, you get an indication of what lies beyond. For before you can create those things which death cannot touch, love must be your tool; before you can build anything resembling that perfection which God has put before man as an example - before you can create a tiny daisy, aye, or a blade of grass - you must have penetrated, in a measure, into Love as Love is.

"Those free from the body have come back to you and have told you, again and again, that love is the motive power, that without love they are helpless, almost useless. So think to yourselves in the by and by as well as today: 'Those things in my mind which I long to portray, to express in form and in melody - these things will be barred to me unless love, in its purer, finer, sweeter sense, is there'.

"Children, I tell you as an example - simply as an example of the over-powering influence of love - that if there was a woman upon the physical plane who was sufficiently free from self, sufficiently pure, sufficiently in touch with God, she - by her pure emotions, by her holy desire - could herself create a child and bring it into the world.

"But confuse not this with the one you name the Virgin Mary; for, as I have explained, it is well-nigh impossible for the individual to reach such heights. And this, in itself, is a protection, for the world - bound by self, blind to things of the Spirit - the world would hurl upon that woman the shame which it would consider she deserved...

"The child, Mary, does not come under this category. As you know full well, she was prepared over the ages, and when the appointed time arrived, through the power of the Holy Spirit the young Life was started. She was merely - and yet that word 'merely' includes a greatness which no other has attained - she was merely the instrument for the working out of God's purpose to live as Man amongst men.

"So, dear children, I must bring this little conversation to a close, only indicating tonight, because time presses, how within each one there are mighty gifts stored; that there is no limitation imposed on anyone in regard to creating that which their Father God has created Himself. For it is the Father's wish that His children should share His gifts, should have His power; but before this is possible they must have His purity and His love as well.

"Therein lies the secret of creating. You see it all around in your daily life. Some there are who seek to put together this and that; the construction is faulty, yet here and there this rings true, that seems worthy of the artist's intention... Grades of evolution, different stages of growth. And it applies to melody, to all that which you name the Fine Arts, aye, and even to the sweeping of a room. The artist, the one who has the creative faculty, must do that humble task to perfection. That indicates - not in so low a stage as you may think - that indicates, in itself, something of the great gift which has been held out to all through the ages, through the many evolutionary stages, held out to all but not grasped, for they failed to understand...

"Perfection: Few are privileged to know what this means; but as we strive for perfection, as we strive to put together that which represents harmony - true balance, good workmanship - so we are creating, so we are preparing ourselves for that expansion of the gift, not only when the little earth life is o'er, but throughout that 'growth' which goes on for ever; for as we strive so our conception of Perfection grows; as we create, so a larger area still of creating is opened out before us.

"Never forget that the Lord God, the Holder of all-Power, the Bestower of all gifts, only waits for His children to be ready, only waits for it to be safe to entrust them with that which means so much to them, to others, and to God Himself...

"And now, my children, I will leave you. Perforce I must return to this subject again and again; for, as you grow out of your childhood into maturity, so you will be able to grasp a little more of the gigantic truth as it was, as it is, and as it stands for all time. And now I go..."

"...I am afraid my presence tonight is unexpected, and perhaps it may cause a little disappointment to some. We quite understand these things, we are very human, and I know quite well that if I were expecting a dear friend of mine and I opened the door and found a stranger, it would be difficult to prevent the disappointment showing in my face.

"But in the Spirit we are old friends - I found that out when I laid the body aside, not so very long ago... It's Herkomer, and I've got my entry through two things curiously enough. One, I was able once to attract and hold the attention of the instrument I am allowed to use this evening; and the second is this, and those who remember my pictures may be amused to think that so slender a tie could avail me anything at all...

"You know, Mrs. Moyes, Art as Art is greatly misunderstood; and yet the development of the artistic side helps us enormously if we did our best to keep our creations clean. It helps us enormously when we are free, by the development of that sensitiveness, that capacity to, in degree, get inside the vibrations of other people and of things...

"But I commenced to tell you about the second link. During my career, I saw much that made my mind flinch - I was going to say, that made me sick at heart. Life is a struggle for the vast majority of those who wield the brush. Their inspiration very often is like a flickering candle, one moment burning brightly and the next blown out by some chance wind... That is the physical aspect, of course.

"Well, a measure of success came my way, and I took it with due reservation. I had seen success and I had seen failure, and I had seen that line of a hair's thickness which lay between the two. I had no delusions regarding public taste, and certainly none regarding the critical faculty of my brother artists.

"But the thing which helped me most - and which accounts for my being here tonight - was understanding the struggle to create, the sense of anguish over the inability to express in colours the beautiful thing in the mind - the muteness, the numbness. Ah, like inarticulate children, we strive to produce a reflection of what we have been permitted to grasp in our inner consciousness...

"You know an artist doesn't talk like that, but that's how he feels. He is for ever struggling with the two minds: The limitations of the one and the absence of limitation in the other. As a rule, it is a life and death struggle, and only when the artist is free does he understand either what he has been producing or the Source of his inspiration.

"I was sent tonight because there are a great many people in the world who over-rate these gifts. They envy us, in a perfectly nice way - they long, as they say: 'To do it too'. But all that doesn't count for much, and the thing which helped me most was my understanding of life, of the difficulties of the inexperienced artist, of his pangs and the agony of the growing pains. And it took me out many an evening when nothing else would have drawn me away from my fireside. I see now that those others who had passed on, who had not forgotten their struggling brothers, that their influence drew me out, and I took an enormous pleasure in climbing many stairs and finding a lonely worker at the top... Yes, and if I gave - taking away with me far more than it was in my power to pass on to him.

"That's why I'm here tonight, and if you'll forgive this rather halting message, I intended to add that those who are true artists, those who are artists instinctively, they cannot be artists in one thing alone. You cannot say that this one is a painter and that one is a musician and another is a poet. You can't distinguish between them in that way when you understand the gift of creating, and the way in which it has been bestowed upon us.

"I was thinking just now of a man of many parts - of Swinburne, of his greatness and his weakness, of his capacity and his incapacity.

"When we are free, our gifts are represented by a sheaf of corn, and we see that we took out one ear, and that the bundle with all the rest remained unused, untouched. We had only got the physical expression of all those gifts, which, remember, were there waiting for us to use...

"It amazes me now; and it is perfectly true to say that the expert on any subject becomes narrow, becomes conservative, that he allows the other tools of his mind to rust. Concentration, that of course is included, but if only I had known what that gift of mine represented, if only I had known, I see now I could have opened avenues of knowledge, unending sources for the employment of my gift... If only I had known what was behind that creative faculty which was mine.

"I'm just going, but there is one word more. You see, friends, thought with us is passed on into action, so we think. In our minds the vision arises - we struggle to portray it on canvas or to express it by an instrument; we are on the active plane. But when we are free, we find that there is another process still, and I am convinced that when I have mastered that process, I shall find that it leads me on to another.

"The next process from that presentation in the physical, is to translate the physical into the spiritual... It's difficult to explain. You see, from the creative faculty the accomplishment comes, but that accomplishment is so indescribably faulty, so untrue, such a distortion of the original, that we have to think out those vibrations which we thought in by the painting of our picture.

"You see, the physical - unless it's evil - doesn't matter. It's like a piece of pasteboard that you toss in the waste-paper basket; but the vibrations which have been, as it were, materialised by the expression of that idea on canvas, these have to be, practically, erased from the atmosphere...

"It is just as though an outline had been drawn on a slate for a child, and the child had put the muddle inside. You say: 'That's wrong', and carefully you wipe out all that confusion, leaving only the outline, which is the frame, and you start again and again and again.

"And, by this painful process of growth, in the end, so I'm told, that conception of yours is brought into spiritual life; but you can understand the processes that that creation has got to be subjected to before that conception is worthy of permanency.

"That's all. I shall come again, if I may. It seems as though I've got an enormous lot to tell you. I'm only in the early learning stages, but even trying to express this has helped me; I feel clearer, stronger, the poise is truer, and I am longing to get back to work again...

"Well, Goodnight, ladies, I'm sorry if I have seemed very impersonal; it is vitally personal, if you can understand - personal to me, personal to you, personal to every individual on earth - and in those conditions which are not so advanced as the earth. It is the Truth and it has got to be faced; the sense of responsibility has got to be tightened up, and before we can preach to others we've got to put our own house in order...

"...Well, my children, I have used up not only the strength of my child, but I've drawn upon you all to rather a great extent; yet is it necessary that I should remind you that by being used in this way you have been creating for God? Must I underline that by dedication to the sacred mission entrusted to your charge, you are building for tomorrow? You are calling into being a spiritual force, created by your desire to serve; you are bringing into the material world pure desire. And this strength, expanded and vitalised by God, shall be used not only for your own upliftment, but for the sustenance of others...

"Weak though the physical may be at this moment, I am determined to rise above the physical and to demonstrate God's Love in your midst. Tonight, there has been that which no language can portray. In your daily lives there is that unending power, that Source of Strength which never can be exhausted; for, linked to Christ, linked to All-Power, at your will you draw down to you that which your Father delights to bestow...

"And now, my children, I will leave you. Have no fears any of you, for nothing of the physical can intervene between you and God's plans. The future, so far as the instrument I use is concerned, has been sealed by God, and those in her vibrations shall gather to themselves many gifts, many priceless tools, for the blessing is bestowed on all... Like a shower of power, each one shall feel that which represents Spirit; like a shower of power, so that consciousness of Spirit shall be cast out on others, reviving and recharging; and this is God's work.

"My children, I bless you with courage. In the Father's Name I bequeath to you endurance - the capacity to endure a little now for the sake of the joy to come. To suffer, aye, because suffering brings so much gain; for only by suffering can you solace another, only by the withstanding of those many enemies directed against spiritual aspiration, can you inspire others to leave the depths and to climb the hill to God.

"In the Name of Christ I bless you with courage, with the strength to endure, and with that peace which passes the understanding of the mind of the body... Centred in the restfulness of God, so you shall pursue your way, so you shall make your own that rest of the Spirit which nothing can assail.

"And now, dear children, Goodnight. Remember that God's ways are best; remember too that Christ calls out from you - from that greater self within, the strength and the ability and the will to do His work on earth while the opportunity remains... Goodnight, my little ones..."

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