"THE HOLY ORDER OF PARENTHOOD"

"MY CHILDREN, you who have gathered here have made your choice. The blue skies and the sunshine may have called you, but there was a greater call still of Spirit; and I want you to realise that because you have denied the body and turned to those things that should come first, you have reaped a blessing, and the power shall be shown around you in time to come.

"It is wise for us to go hither and thither and to stir up feelings of gratitude in those in the body, for many do not understand the great privilege which has come to them by their knowledge of Spirit Communion. Some, alas, who do know this truth are not seeking the way of peace but rather that the mind of the body should be entertained, but very often they go away disappointed because the experiment has not been a success.

"Back in the past it was necessary for various kinds of material phenomena to take place. The people knew so little and they had to be given something to arrest their attention. But you will find that as the years go on, the attraction of physical and material phenomena will die down still more and the mediums will be keyed to a higher vibration.

"I have said before that the power entailed to bring about those things which attract the physical eye and mind, that the same power could be raised so that the ones concerned could become healers.

"You must remember that it is all one power; but there are many expressions of the power, and it depends upon the individual the kind of expression that power has through them, and free-will cannot be interfered with. But we who are free from the flesh thank God that there are so many who are turning to spiritual things, who have weighed in the balance the value of those which are material, and they are disillusioned over them; and, so having made their decision, they lay them aside to follow the path laid down by God.

"But today, my children, I have been directed to speak to you upon: 'The Holy Order of Parenthood'. Now this is another expression of Divine power, of those gifts which should be released in each and everyone. There may be some here who would say to me: 'I am not a parent; therefore I am left out.' But I answer that the Holy Order of Parenthood is upon each and everyone; and, moreover, it stretches beyond the human throughout Nature, for you must remember that all Life is sacred to God. Man in the body may despise this, or he may think that that is given entirely for his own benefit; but that is not Divine Law.

"Some may ask: 'Are you referring to the pests, to the reptiles, and to those forms of life which are a torture to man?' And I answer: Yes! But you must remember that every form of life when created by God was perfect. If there are those terrible guises which are not only a plague to man, but a plague to Nature too, then you must blame the conditions set up by humanity upon the earth plane. From the Mind of God Perfection only can come; and every form of life in due course must return to that guise of perfection in its own degree, as ordained by the Creator.

"But this subject of Parenthood is a very wide one, and I want you to think perhaps more of parenthood in other states than upon the earth plane. You see today examples of good parenthood, of careless parenthood, and of cruel parenthood. Some of you are deeply shocked by what is going on, by the falling of the moral code, by the callousness and the selfishness shown by some parents towards their offspring.

"But all this is common talk, and I want to lift your minds to parenthood in the Spirit World; and you must learn about it sooner or later, for you are a parent of so many things beyond human life. You are a parent to Nature, to the Little People, yes, to the gnomes and fairies; you are a 'parent' also to wayward souls, to those who perhaps have imprisoned themselves in the dark planes. You must remember, too, that you are a parent to your gifts and talents; and what you see of the Arts in this same stage is but one guise, one mould, of something which will be shown to you in a finer form in a more etherialized state, or in a more bonded form in those planes which have been ruled by self.

"So let us think for a moment or two about the wonderful gift which is all your own wherever you may be, or whatever your development, you have within you that finest gift of all - the capacity to become a parent.

"Now in regard to your own homes, as you know, character is shown in a home. There may be two people living side by side in identical houses, but how different is the aspect of those two homes. In other words, a home represents an experiment with human nature.

"It is not a question of the furniture, or of material means; it is a question of personality. There are those who may have a very humble home and very little means to spend upon it; but when you enter, you are pleased with its appearance. You feel that something of the higher self of the inhabitants has been expressed there; and that is true. You may go into a large mansion, but it brings no comfort at all; it might be a warehouse or an exhibition. There is love missing.

"Always remember this: that life and love are one, and there is no creative faculty which can be released in the human mind or make-up that is not governed in its strength by love.

"For instance: you have art, music and oratory, and all those other gifts which seem to be at the disposal of certain favoured people. But, as I have said, these gifts will be shown to you in a totally different guise as you progress through the spheres. Here you are dependent upon an instrument for music; but within you there is music. Here you are dependent upon a certain amount of training to release the voice from the vocal chords; but within you there is the gift of song. And what does that represent? Harmony, dear children, and in the Divinity within you there is harmony; and the reason why upon the earth plane there is so much disharmony is because the God within mankind is not allowed to function.

"Then let us turn to another humble illustration. You are all parents in some form or another to Nature. You may not have a garden but you are given flowers or you buy flowers. Are you a good parent to those little blooms? Are you kind to the flowers, or do you regard them as something merely to give you a passing pleasure and then to be forgotten? I want you to think of those people who study the Laws of Nature in regard to plant and flower life. It is a most arresting study. Sometimes they have found in their experiments with Nature they have gone a little too far; they have concentrated upon colour and form and they produced what they desired; but there is no fragrance left in the flower, the sweet fragrance associated with flower-life is absent, and they know that somewhere, somehow, a grave mistake has been made.

"It is the same with education. There are those today who have very big ideas regarding education. They take young life and place before it certain forms of study. Sometimes all goes well, but sometimes certain things go wrong. In training the mind they have, as it were, stifled the dictates of the heart and the soul.

"You see, my children, these experiments with human nature relate to the body, to the mind, and to the soul, and there are those foolish in their time who think that they can grapple with the soul by scientific methods. And many have crashed from a nervous point of view because of such a training; their careers have been ruined by over-education, by concentrating upon the mind, without taking into account the make-up of the child, the youth or the girl.

"It is not everyone who is attuned to mental knowledge as shown upon the earth plane. There are some who are keyed to a finer vibration; they are sensitives. They respond to Nature, to the beauty of the skies, to the loving fingers of a little child, to the kindness in the hearts of others, to friendship, and to love in its higher form. And sometimes these people are not good subjects for too much mental education.

"Those in charge of young life are as 'parents,' but they are not necessarily wise parents; in fact they may have stifled the real self of the one concerned because of the uniformity of the rules laid down. Human life is something over which you cannot lay down hard and fast rules or this one and that; each one has to be approached according to the stock from which they come, their environment, their physical parents, and the spiritual or unspiritual influence they have exercised.

"You see, I am bringing you a little nearer to the Holy Order of Parenthood. Again I take you back to the Arts. There are those who take the rough clay and, by skill and training, bring into being something that fills your heart with delight, maybe some great bowl (vase) upon which is painted that which represents what is most beautiful in Nature, and as you stand before it, you praise the skill of human effort.

"Here we have another little simile. In creating that which they hoped to bring into being, they have not only shown skill and training, but they have given love; and without love there is no form of Art which can reach a high standard.

"You may contradict me on this point, but I am speaking of Art in its true sense, not the travesties of Art, not those many canvases which portray the basest in human nature, not the songs which desecrate, or the music which rouses the passions in the human make-up. I speak of Art as God intended it to be.

"I want you to follow the avenue of thought which I have suggested this day, by the Will of Christ, for when you pass Hence, if you have struggled during the earthly life, you will find around you many little children of your mind. Ah, you have forgotten that idea which you had when you were young. It was not possible to do anything about it and it has gone from your remembrance. But that little child of your mind, because it sprang from life and love, is still alive, waiting for you to bring it on. And all your ideas which had something of idealism in them, they are there for you to stimulate their growth, to improve their design, because when you are free from the body you will understand so much more, and you will see far more clearly then those little children of your mind waiting for your parenthand.

"Is it not a wonderful thought, and does it not open for you a vast area of effort and of opportunity and of grace, and will you not feel grateful to God because He has made all these things possible? Why did He do so? Because you are His child! Why have you the gift of parenthood within you? Because you are part of the Great Parent, and all that is in God, in miniature, is in us.

"So you see, dear children, you have not only to think of Nature in her physical guise, you have to think of Nature in her wider scope - all that unseen life about which you know so little, far beyond the fairies and the gnomes; those many forms of life which are trying to act as parents to the life within the seas, to the life that is too fine to be seen in the atmosphere; yes, not only to the trees and the flowers, not only to the wild beasts and the tame domestic pets, for the scheme, according to the Divine Plan, is universal parenthood.

"But the point is this: what are you doing now to release that wonderful gift within you? You may say to me: 'I do not think I have any gifts!' And I answer: you are not the one to judge. You are a child of God, a son or daughter of the King of kings, how then can you claim that you have no gifts?

"You see, children, what a wonderful vista opens before you and how you can become second to none in your endeavours, in spite of your conditions, in spite of your lack of opportunity, in spite of not knowing very much about the subject.

"What is the way? It is that simple way of service, trying to keep your mind up when things apparently are going wrong; looking with a kindly eye upon others; endeavouring to keep back the word of criticism.

"But you are not meant to endorse what is wrong, and sometimes it is wise to find the courage to tell the truth to the one who is making grave mistakes through vanity or self-will, through claiming to be a law unto himself. You must remember that when Our Lord saw those who were hypocrites, He felt it was His bounden duty to warn them that the unseen enemies had been seeking to fasten their claws upon them and drag them down into a misery that was profound. But in regard to criticism, it has to be wise criticism. You have to bring in the parent-spirit, not the scolding, thrashing spirit, but the spirit of the one who is willing to sacrifice personal feelings to raise the consciousness of the erring soul. You may not be thanked for it, just the reverse, but never mind! When you are both free in the Spirit World that one will come to you, filled with shame, saying: 'What a fool I was; but I thank you for trying to open my eyes!'

"Children, you see how much you can do? As you pass out through the growing fields, try to link up with the tiny expressions of life which are there; they have their guides and helpers just the same as you have. They are struggling to express themselves, but because this mundane plane is held back in its evolution, they can only show a little expression of their real self.

"I wish I could open your eyes and show you what a little harebell looks like when freed from the bondage of this physical plane, what the simple daisy is able to give out to human nature, and to do in the way of 'bringing on' little children. Have you not seen the children mourn over the destruction of the daisies, and does that not express the parenthood in the child, the desire to protect sweet life? But you know that that which has to be destroyed upon earth has a future, a very much better future than could be held out to it upon this mundane plane.

"So I ask you to think not only of Art, not only of those things which you would like to create, to bring into being, but to realise that all those things which are a distortion of beauty and power, they must be brought up to standard sooner or later. There is nothing wrong with anything in earthly life; it is only the wrong way it is used; there is nothing evil in God's wide design of things; but all Nature groaneth together because man has lost dominion over himself. Man was given dominion over all forms of life, and when he can control himself and show something of his angelhood that gift will be restored unto him.

"Have I helped any of you here? You with your churches and circles, you may say to me: 'It is disappointment all along the line!' I know that perhaps from a material point of view it is, but by striving to help others to understand something of truth, are you not acting as a parent to those souls? Yes, you are struggling now, in spite of gigantic difficulties, to release the Divine instincts within them, and God is blessing your efforts. Never mind when others betray you, never mind if those materially-minded do not support your Services as they should. They are the losers. But always remember that thousands of unseen souls are drawn into gatherings such as this to listen and to learn, and to start anew, knowing that God's Law is always 'another chance'; and as they seek to do what they can, the power comes to do more and still more.

"Now, I would come among you in spite of the weakness of the instrument, because it is the Will of the Father that we seek to battle against the physical, allowing the Spirit to be in command, but I ask that no one should touch the instrument while the power is around her, for that would be unsafe for you.

"Yes, by faith as we go up and down the countryside, we tread the physical path. It is a symbol of seeking to overcome the obstacles erected between the earth plane and the World of Spirit. And you who strive to overcome the weakness of the flesh, who refuse to be daunted in your spiritual endeavours when at times you feel ill, cannot you see that you are doing much to sweeten the conditions of the earth plane? And what is more, you are literally building up strength from which those who are weaker still can draw: and that, again, is a little illustration of the parent-spirit.

"It is good to meet together. The links have been made in the past and we come again to strengthen them, and I would that you could see what I am seeing. As it were, certain conditions of bonded life have been opened, and not only are all the seats filled but the whole atmosphere as well. We are encompassed by a vast host of witnesses. To what do they witness? To the folly of their own past, or to the struggle they put up against adversity, when they become witnesses to the Divine Light. And if we have a little Light, we allow others to borrow from that Light, and in so doing our Light becomes stronger still. That is another law of God.

"If you love wisely and well, the capacity to love increases as the days go by. Some may say: 'My love has been spurned, my friends have failed me! What of my lot?' Does not that make a stronger link with the Master? You have taken on those experiences because you want to learn, and the only way to learn is to take up the cup of sorrow and find the strength to drink it to the dregs, and in the dregs there is power. And when there comes to the individual the courage and determination to drink of the cup, so comes the release of those many gifts which have been in bondage over the past. Such as these are demonstrations of free men and free women in training for those higher forms of work, not only in the next stage but in many stages to come, when limitations are no more, when the individual can feel not only the link by love and mercy with the Father, but something of the release of the same qualities within them as in the Godhead, only we are the fragment and He is the glorious Whole.

"So I bless you all, bless you with the spirit of thankfulness that God has made possible so much, that you in your lives now, bound or limited by circumstance, that you are free agents; and because of the Divinity that is within you, you can be stronger than your circumstances, master of your own fate.

"I pray to God that in this short time of holy communion there may be many comforted, reassured, recharged with power, strength and determination, and with a persistent attitude of mind that from now onwards it shall be Christ's work, and the raising up of humanity in the degree that is possible upon the earth plane.

"Indeed I bless the healers and those who minister to the old and to the sick. I bless the mothers, and the mothers can be blessed in a mighty measure over the mundane tasks, for curbing the sense of irritation that so much has to be done again and again when they want to do big things, perchance for God. They are doing bigger things than they understand. So I bless the fathers and mothers, and the little children; and to all those who have tried so hard in their own way to understand truth, I say: pursue the path, widen your imagination, let not the thoughts of this material plane hold you any longer. They have held you too long in the past. Be an independent unit, develop your personality, remind yourselves for ever that you are a child of God and that there is that spark of Divinity within you, your own, to be developed. And you shall grow, yes, as with the beauty of the flowers, and not only become finer in form and in pattern, but the sweet fragrance of the Spirit shall pour from you, and others will thank God because you passed their way.

"I bless the workers here, all those who have come so far, and all those who mean to do their work in spite of the many sacrifices entailed. Be not discouraged, you are workers in the Vineyard, and the Hand of God is over all that you seek to do and over all those you would bring into this spiritual work.

"We thank the Father that once again the power has been given; and under the rays of the radiant Christ surely we pledge ourselves anew for His work while the earthly daytime is our own.

"And remember that I work with you upon the earth plane, I know your difficulties, your sorrows and your pains; and thus it is my honour to include myself in the daytime of this world. Presently you shall pass into the sunshine of Everlasting Day, when gratitude will well from your heart and mind that you listened to the guides and helpers, that you extricated yourselves from mundane thoughts and material desires, that you took the spiritual hill and climbed it in spite of pain and discouragement. Then you will find that you are well on your journey, and that angels walk with you until the lessons have been learnt.

"Peace be with you all, but when sleep holds the body this night many of us will meet again, and you shall see for yourselves something of the wonder of the Royal Order of Parenthood held out by God to each and everyone. Farewell!"

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