An address given by the Christ messenger Zodiac through the deep trance mediumship of Miss Winifred Moyes,
at the Zodiac Circle, 15 Nightingale Square, London, SW12, on Saturday, 3rd July, 1926.
"O Christ the Saviour of mankind, we thank Thee for Thy wonderful gift of Love, and we ask Thee to teach us how to love in turn. We ask Thee to so inspire us with love for others that we, in miniature, may reveal something of the mighty Love which Thou hast for all...
"O God, loosen the chains of the physical mind, and grant that Thy little children may be able to perceive beyond today, may be able to look into the future and see what yesterday has wrought... Oh, give us consciousness of the great purpose which underlies the discipline of physical life; grant that we may learn our lessons - not reluctantly, not with doubt and misgiving, but with certainty that what is is best, and that out of our pangs we shall arise renewed, remade; for Love has called us to take the steep path and Love protects us each step of the way...
"O Christ, cleanse us, imbue us with a sense of responsibility toward our greater selves, and grant that as Thy children in faith we may approach Thee for healing and find the comfort which Thou holdest out to all...
"Father, we thank Thee, thank Thee that we can come and get this reassurance, which makes the past so clear and which reveals the glory of the days to come... Father, we thank Thee... Amen...
"...My little children, tonight it has been laid down that I speak to you upon a subject which is closely allied to your own lives, that I should teach you just that little portion of Truth which will enable you to say within yourselves: 'God's way is Love, God's way is Light'.
"My children, when that which is of God within, takes upon itself any experience which holds pain, you may be certain that the spirit, in a measure, is free. Those in your own lives whose path appears smooth, they represent to the blinded eyes of man, success - something to be envied, something which it is desirable to possess. But we who are free - and those many who love you who have laid aside the garment of flesh - we look at things from an aspect totally opposite to that presented by the earth...
"Oh, think you to yourselves: Is it not reasonable that those who have so much, that those who fly to this and that distraction, who fill their lives with non-essentials, with the encumbrances which keep the true self, as it were, in sleep - that these, holding in their hands so much of that which is of the earth, earthy, they have no room for the things which are of God.
"Confuse not my meaning. The things of the world, the gifts of the world - they can be used to demonstrate Christ in the world, but not by retaining, not by harvesting for self, but by showing the love which lies within by giving out of that which is your own to others...
"My children, is it not reasonable that the Christ who suffered so much, who laid aside all those things which seem so desirable to the un-evolved soul, is it not reasonable that Christ gives of Himself to those who desire to follow in His steps? Sorrow, suffering, the betrayal by friends, aye, and the pains of the body, the deep anguish of the spirit within - these things were the Christ portion, this was the lot chosen by the Holder of all...
"So it is, my little ones, that in your troubles, in your griefs, ah, there you contact with the Beloved, with the One who understands you best. And because your Father and Mother God comprehends that, to little children, the way sometimes seems over-hard, your Father and Mother God has bid me give you that explanation which will, for the time being, make the past seem clearer, the present more understandable, and the future full of promise and hope...
"Children, I speak tonight on: 'Self-Preservation' - and I want you to consider, with me, that which you regard as the preservation of self.
"Even from the world's point of view, much lies in that word which is good, and, again, much that seems even as the wilderness of self in its lowest sense. Those who are thrifty, those who look forward to the coming of that which they name a 'rainy day', if their resources allow they try to make provision; they say within themselves: 'Youth will pass, and old age will overtake me; I must take care lest in that far time I am left in straits which are hard.
"And so they do without this and they decide to reserve that; and that in itself, because it shows forethought, is good, but only in the degree that it represents forethought for others. They wish to be not a burden on the one they love, they look around and they see those in their vibrations who have burdens of their own, and they would not add to them, they would not be the last straw which breaks the back of the one who wishes to do his best...
"That, dear children, is the world's view, and then we get a little higher up. There are the parents who not only anticipate the day of want for themselves, but they are troubled lest perchance trouble o'ertake the ones they love so well. And these, parents in spirit as well as in name, think to themselves: 'While I can, I will make provision, so that my child can face the future with an untroubled mind'...
"You see, dear children, that their sense of self-preservation has got a little nearer to the spirit of the Christ, who taught us so much...
"And then the third stage is this: Young or old, they commune with themselves, drawing from the wisdom that is stored within, and they say: 'Yes, I have provided for the material needs of my child, but how about their character? How about food for the hungry spirit? Can I provide the Bread of Life? Am I fit to pass on to them that which I have myself? Does the future hold for them protection from the ills of the world, but a heart and mind easily assailed by temptation, when all my thoughts for their material needs are swamped by the lack of the peace of God which should be within?'...
"Ah, my children, you see that, in this, the spirit within the parent is awake indeed; you see that the one gifted with a child - the most precious possession that anyone can have - is, in miniature, trying to copy His Father God, trying to minister to that which must feed or starve, to provide strength for that which must fight or be conquered, to give to the individual the treasure which shall never be taken from them - or to erect in their path obstacles between them and their God which it will take uncountable years, long after the body is forgotten, to cast away...
"And then, dear children, we will get away from the earth side, from the weakness and the strength, from the courage and the shrinking, and we look at God's side, as it were free from the body, free from that most distorted vision thrust upon the children of the earth by those who are chained themselves; and we stand and from within look out over our lives, over the saddening experiences, and what do we see? Oh children, a hope so glorious, a promise radiant with the love of God.
"Think you to yourselves like this: 'Self-preservation' - what meaning lies beneath those words? Oh, it must appeal to all. Not to provide a week of happiness, of freedom from obligation and responsibility, and then, when those brief days are o'er, to find yourself in a wilderness where love and service have no place. Is this self-preservation? Nay, the most extravagant folly, even looked at from the lowest material point of view. It is the act of the speculator, of the gambler, not of the one of judgment, not of the one who can be relied upon to provide for themselves and those others in their care.
"Yet, this is what takes place, and that is what the children of the earth envy, out of their ignorance of things as they are. Children, this physical life of yours is shorter than a week, is shorter than a day, compared to the Life which has no end. The experiences, the blows, the pangs, yes, severe they may be; but if this was presented to you - if you were asked to endure a night of pain for the sake of the freedom from anguish during the long days to come, would you not say it were madness to refuse, would you not say that only the foolish could be so short-sighted when so much lay at stake?...
"This then is the Christ view, and this is as physical life will seem to you even a few short months after the body is no more. Then you will stand, gifted with the sight of the spirit, able to penetrate into the past, able to view that portion of the future which you can bear, and my words will come back to you: 'Even as the short night of pain was life to this little earth, even as the short night of pain'...
"My children, when the spirit within you chose its experiences, chose its sorrows, oh, that was self-preservation in the Christ way, self-preservation as the God within you saw and understood. What was it fighting for? Ah, for that which shall never pass away. What had it in view? That nearness to the Saviour, to the One who endured so much, that fragment of understanding without which you are powerless to work when all that which is your real self cries out to do, to construct.
"This then is the teaching of the Holy Master. To the many who have found the hill to God so steep, I speak: I tell them that the spirit within took the long view and forced the mind of the body to acquiesce. Oh my children, can you not grasp the value of experience, can you not see God's Hand at work? Think you in your daily life: To whom do you go in your difficulties, in your trials, with those secret griefs? Ah, to the one who can understand. Not to the one who has the possessions of physical life, which, so often, bring selfishness of heart; not to the one who is immersed in probing the secrets of science and of the things of the earth, for such a one, as yet, has not penetrated into the wisdom of the Spirit; not to the one whose life is level and care-free, because they cannot understand...
"Yes, when grief folds its grey garment around you, when the heart seems as though it were nigh unto breaking, then that which is strong within first thinks of Christ; and then, because you are in a physical world and you feel the need of physical sympathy, of one like-placed as yourself and restricted by the narrow view. So in your mind, you go over those you know. Is the Christ-spirit within this one? Ah no, they could not understand. Is the Christ-spirit within that one? They are as children in experience, they know nothing of the deeper anguishes which assail the heart. Then, at last, perhaps you find one, just one on earth, to whom you can take your sorrow and be certain of that sympathy which indeed expresses the Beloved of us all...
"This is the physical stage - and I speak most solemnly - I say it is God's will that the children of the earth should be able to go to their own kind and receive - not criticism, but compassion and understanding. And woe unto those who have shut themselves in the prison-house of self, who can look on the troubles of others and say: 'It must be through some fault of their own'. Woe unto them, for they have not yet left the valley, and freedom is far from them.
"Oh, my children, the value of experience, the gifts it brings. Each time your heart is wounded, why, is it not preparation, is it not giving you that understanding which will enable you to soothe another? And when the body is no more, those realms which are Spirit are barred from you if you have not, in your hands, the tool of sympathy, the weapon of love, the most precious possession of understanding.
"So, my little ones, you see what God's Love works out of the evil which has struck you, out of the very blows which have fallen upon you from those who are bound and maimed by the physical mind. Cannot you see how God has taken the wish, the desire to strike, and brought you gain, given into your hands the key which will open the door into realms of happiness totally beyond your comprehension now?...
"This is the Christ view, this is the true view; and when you hear from one and the other that coldness has been given in place of sympathy, when others pass you by on the other side and ministered not to your wounds, oh, pray for them, for they have much to learn. And thank God for those wounds, thank God for pain, thank God for the laying aside of the toys of the earth, thank God that the spirit within you was sufficiently awakened to fight for the preservation of self; for though you mourn during the short night, joy cometh in the morning, and the blessing of the Most High not only awaits you, but surrounds you now - you are centred in the Love which never fails...
"This is the only view of self-preservation which has truth in it, which will remain after the earth stage has been forgotten. And I entreat you - because I fight for that which is of God within - I entreat you to open the shutters of your mind and to let the sunshine of understanding shine in, when you will be able to place your troubles where they belong, when you will rejoice because, though the mind of the body complained, the spirit held on; though things went so hard, self - the real self - was preserved...
"Yes, my children, we see things so differently when we are free, and we see that it is not God's will that His little children should tread the steep path without this knowledge, without this explanation. And those who have faltered on the threshold of Wisdom, who have found themselves silenced by the grief of a mother, a mother whose child, so she thinks, has been taken from her - when the representatives of Love have no explanation, no hope with which to soothe the tortured heart, those - aye, and there are many - those who could have known and faltered upon the threshold, these must suffer when illumination comes...
"Christ upon earth sought to prepare His children for this great Truth - for this further revelation of the Love of God - but they could not understand. They could not understand until sorrow had gripped them, and then because of the love within, seeking here and there for the Beloved who had gone from them, so out of their anguish the Light - some portion of the Light - was able to find a lodgement within the mind of the body; and that Light they gave to others...
"But, children, the door between them and revelation was the same - so ominous it appeared, so high, so dark, so impenetrable. And that door is sorrow, but the key is within your hands. By faith all things are overcome, by trust you have not to hack down that barrier but in your hands lies the little jewel which turns the lock, and the glory of God lies beyond...
"Yet, there are many, who, weeping sore over that which has taken place, find themselves too weak, too ignorant spiritually to arise and ask how to pass through, how to get free from that which thwarts. Here is your work and here is our work. Because we know and because we have seen, because faith has been present though doubts assailed, so we can go to the weak, the frail, the broken-hearted, the ones who have stumbled by the way - and by our personal experiences, yes, out of the very suffering which has torn our hearts, we can raise them, teach them, strengthen and inspire them, so that they too may pass within and sorrow is no more...
"That is the Christ work, that is the work to which you are called. The things of the world, aye, though they bear a semblance to the things of the Spirit, they are the second-best; and they are snatched up by those who have not found within the strength to seek and to find, who wish to go forward on the efforts of others, who are unwilling to take the laborious steep hillside. They come to the door - the selfsame door, so they think - and a door is there, but it is not the door of sorrow; it is that which has been built by those out to deceive, who say to this one and that: 'A shorter way is here - this also leads into the glory of the beyond'. And lo, because of that which is missing within themselves, they go forward and are enchanted by what they see.
"But, my children, it is but the beauty of the Summerland which lies before them - the temptation - that great temptation, which, because they wanted the easy way, they have entered into, and know not how to find a way out...
"Oh, think you not that I judge anyone, think you not that I condemn, but the way to Christ is ever the same. Doors there may be in plenty, but only by the door of sorrow can you step into those conditions which are pure, which are Spirit through and through.
"And so, my children, in going back over the past, say not to yourselves: 'I have lost this, I have laid that aside; here an enemy struck me sore, there a friend betrayed'. But look at Christ and thank Him, thank Him for the gift - the gift of sorrow - which He has turned into unlimited gain; for lo, that which seems so hideous to you now, bound by the flesh, will, when you are free, put into your hands the power to do that work which then will seem all important, which then will represent the spirit's sole desire...
"The earth view and the Spirit view, so strangely different - but it was not God's will that the children of the earth should have been deceived so long. Here and there a strong man, a strong woman, rose up, and by faith penetrated into understanding, and taught others that which they had learnt themselves. But the majority, like sheep, followed after a shepherd who knew not the land, a shepherd who, because of that ignorance - and because of his fear to put faith to the test - led them along the valley, and failed to find the freedom of the hillside.
"Oh, my children, the responsibility upon these teachers, these expounders of the Word of God: Pure though their hearts may be, anxious though they are to serve - and this is treasure held for them in the days to come - yet, that will not stop the deep reproach of the Divine within because they failed to take God at His word, because they clove to the old familiar paths, which, though they led not down to the precipice, yet indeed took not the flock out of the valley up the steep road which all must climb...
"And then there is this: Children, steepness and roughness are entirely the result of misunderstanding; they have the power to torture the mind of the body solely because the meaning of Life has not been revealed. Oh, think you to yourselves this: Would you not willingly, gladly, joyfully, take that which was difficult, if you knew that a span in front lay your heart's desire? Is there a mother - nay, there is no mother - who would flinch if, by undertaking that which took toll of the body, she could reach the child she loved so well.
"Her child - ah, from the child, think of Christ, for though love may fill your being for the little one you have brought into physical existence, I say that, in comparison, you know not love until Christ has been seen, has been felt; but out of the love you give to the child - out of that love - you have gained a fragment of understanding of the Love of God...
"So, my children, in reviewing your lives, thinking in the Christ way, so comfort will come. Say not to yourselves: 'How unfortunate I have been' - but: 'How wonderful are the ways of God that He has allowed me to take on this and that for a little space, so that in the Great Hereafter, I may have the joy which nothing can quench'...
"Self-preservation - how wide a word is this and how little understood! Self-preservation - preserving your real self, that which is of God within; preserving it from the enemies which would maim; preserving it so that when the garment of flesh is cast from you, you may be free from the memories of the earth, from the bondage which it represents; aye, and from the spiritual ignorance which it stands for to so many...
"And then there is this which must be put into words tonight, and swerving a little from my custom, I speak to the one you name Alys (Mrs. Hornstead): Instructed by my Master I tell her this:
"Child, in the past there was one to whom you gave much, and that one - understanding not, as it were, a prisoner in the dungeon of self - that one failed even the little which might have been expected; and there were times when the mind and heart questioned why, questioned why...
"Tonight, I speak to you in explanation: Had it not been for your love, had it not been for your forgiveness, that man, for many an age, would have been in a wilderness which was twilight indeed. This then is what has been wrought by pain, wrought by those sufferings which cannot be voiced in words. Using the very pangs within you, Christ, the Healer of all, redeemed His child and brought him into the Light. But without that which you gave and what you have given since, it would have been impossible until many a year had passed.
"Think you to yourself like this: 'I may have suffered, yet what is my suffering compared to ages of suffering and of isolation for another human soul?' Using your love and forgiveness, the one who had forgotten to preserve the self within, has awakened to his responsibilities and all is well... Tonight, shaken, it is true; weak, it must be so; but tonight, in this room, that man is present; he has come to receive his baptism, and though he cannot speak to you direct, I pass on to you his gratitude, his gratitude to the one he used so ill...
"Mighty is the Mind of God; infinite are His ways of mercy. Oh, the tools that are used, the thoughts, the desires, the holiness which is culled from one and the other... If there is a child on earth who can be sure of having saved one other, great is their reward. If there is one who, by suffering, yes, by the suffering which real love brings, has brought consciousness of Love to another who understood it not, will not they say: 'God's ways are best. God's Mind is Love itself'.
"Oh, on little things we build, because we know that it is in the little things that the courage so often fails. Out of the little acts, out of the little attentions, out of the thoughts - those thoughts which are prayers - so the one who had condemned himself to that which represented loneliness indeed, has been brought back, and henceforth will serve his Master and thus redeem that which he threw away...
"Most solemnly I speak, and there are others present to whom this personal message equally applies; I bid them take heart, I bid them get the Christ view, and I bid them count their treasures - for that which represents loss has been transformed into a gain no words can express...
"Now, my children, I will leave you, I want to underline that tonight is essentially a night of work. Those whom you love came to you on another occasion; my children here, they expect not either this one or that, I underline that tonight is a night of work - work upon the spirit - and though the mind of the body retains but a fragment, the spirit within has learnt and learnt... And now I go..."
(After others had spoken, Zodiac returned and continued...)
"...Well, my children, I bring this sweet communion to a close with the thought of the bountiful gifts of God - how the Father, ever mindful of the individual needs, pushes aside that which would seem to you as 'best', and in its place puts that which is the highest of all...
"Tonight, dear children, there has been wrought that which you know not; tonight, we have met together in Spirit, physical restrictions for a space having been laid aside; I have treated you as disciples of the Holy Master, as those willing to work for Him, willing to give, willing that those natural desires should be set aside...
"Yes, the highest and the purest and the sweetest - to that you are called by God Himself; for in the following of the steep path, so those entanglements - built up by the world and held together by the doubts of mankind - so those entanglements are thrown from you, and you as pilgrims pass on.
"Yet, in passing on - and oh, remember this - in passing on, send back your power, your strength to retrieve others. Literally on the pangs you have borne and the sorrow which has filled your heart and mind - literally on this, you climbed the hill to God, and it has built steps for others - steps out of the physical desire for ease, out of the cloying pleasures of the world, out of ministration to the lower self, into the preservation of the self which lasts for ever...
"And now, my children, I will leave you. I have used up the physical strength of my child, but the strength and the power of the Spirit of God dominates all things.
"In His Name I ask you to rise and fight for the very best - to put aside everything which comes between you and that lofty ambition; for the spirit within is strong and the spirit within is sure, and in these days there are those wanted, who, with all reverence and in true worship of God, will say: 'From henceforth my life is dedicated to Christ, dedicated to the God who created me, to the Divine purpose, to that most compassionate plan - the freeing of the bound, the opening of the prison-house for those who have condemned themselves therein, the encouragement of the weak, and the purification of all'...
"Oh, remember that the heart and the mind of the individual can be purified only by the Love for Christ which is within, and that that love can only be demonstrated by your efforts in regard to others. Therefore, the path in front is self-preservation in the Christ sense - the preservation of that Holy gift which God Himself bestowed.
"And now, my children, I will go... Rest in peace, and let the consciousness of the Christ Presence linger after I have left you in this way - the consciousness of the Christ Presence. Let your thoughts and let your speech be of those things which last for ever...
"Goodnight, my little ones..."
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