"THE TEMPTATION OF PAIN"

"O Heavenly Father, send down Thy peace - Thy peace and the balm of Thy Love. Heal up the wounds in the hearts and minds of Thy children, and make it possible that these may be so closed that the world, with its strain and its trials, may be powerless to open them again.

"O Tender Father, we hand ourselves over into Thy care, knowing that Thou will do so much more than we can ask, and that Thou will give all those things which escape our imagination - even when we allow it to roam to the furtherest extent in connection with Thy Love - we know that that is limited indeed where Thou art concerned, and so once more we gather together, wishful to serve, and we ask Thee to lift us up from sadness and the memory of pain, and to give us freedom from the physical for these short hours when we meet together.

"O Gracious Spirit, let the light come - bid the power of darkness retreat for evermore, and let the light shine in, illuminating the way that Thy children have chosen to tread, so that they may realise what the past has bought and what the future has in store. Give unto Thy little ones patience and again patience, but let that patience be transformed by certainty that all is well - all is well, not only in a spiritual sense, but in regard to those things which take so big a toll during physical life; grant that the realisation may come that all is wonderfully well, because Thou art in command.

"...My children, tonight perhaps you feel a little chilled. There is chill in the air outside, and to some of you there has been that which is far worse - that most penetrating chill which defies, apparently, all the armour that you have tried so hard to gather unto yourselves - the chill on heart and mind, which I would remind you at once, is nearly always due to a physical condition; and that is where my children so often go astray, they jump to the conclusion that the cold hand has been so stretched out that it has clutched their very soul as well as their suffering body. But that is not so.

"I do want you to try and put a very distinct dividing line between the physical and the spiritual. Of course, so far as the individual is concerned, they seem so closely attached that what strikes one apparently strikes the other, in a way which cannot be over-looked. But that is only the attitude of the mind of the body.

"I do want you to get this matter right. It does not concern one - it concerns you all here, and, indeed, the vast majority of my children who read these messages. Unfortunately, the conditions of life and the power given to evil during past generations, make it very difficult for us to protect those who wish to serve from the constant onslaughts on the physical by those who are out to wreck.

"Now, in mind you have a very dear friend who illustrates my point exactly - I speak of Mrs. Savill. Strong and courageous although her spirit has shown itself, at this period she is beset by that form of temptation which comes to all as they climb - the temptation of pain.

"This may sound rather a curious rendering of what I have already admitted to be caused by conditions and the past. But, my children, you must all face it - that sooner or later, in the upward climb, you have got to meet and wrestle with pain, and it is not an easy enemy to overcome. I do not mean the weakness itself, but the effect which that weakness leaves on the physical mind.

"I put in this personal word about my child who is absent tonight - absent in body but not in thought - I put in this personal word because I want her to know that she has voluntarily taken on this temptation, in order to prove that her spirit is strong enough to bear it.

"It seems hard to you, and indeed it is very hard for us, because with all our love and with all the power given to us by God, we cannot take from the spirit that which it has undertaken to carry. That is the explanation in a nutshell.

"Faith can lift you out of your pain in a spiritual sense, and it can halve that pain in a physical sense, but the spirit holds on to the rest and nothing can intervene.

"There are many people who think, and think rightly, that the disabilities of the body depend largely upon the attitude of the mind of the sufferer. Don't think for one moment that I wish to take out a single brick of the substantial erection that has been put together by the efforts and the thoughts of a large section. I am on their side entirely, so far as the outward is concerned, and if I differ on the spiritual side, then it is entirely because I have been allowed to see the inner working of God's plans, and also the ultimate end of the individual soul.

"I want you to get this matter as clear as possible. At the moment I am hampered by the condition of my child here, but by the grace of God and with your help, you shall find that what now is absent shall be brought together, and that we shall have constructed something of value before the evening is over.

"I revert to my subject, and Dorrie, here is a word for you: Do not think, my child, that anyone on this side ever mistakes the weariness of your body for the sluggishness of your soul. As I have said, at times great toll is taken from the body, and endurance - in a physical sense - is stretched almost to breaking point, but that does not apply to the endurance of the spirit within.

"Keep that clear in your minds. The spirit of anyone who wishes, even dimly, to do as God would have them do - that spirit is unconscious of weakness or of shrinking. It is a bold statement to make, but I do so accepting full responsibility for it, and I say to my children who have been struck again and again on the physical side, I say to them: Make no mistake - the endurance and the courage and the determination is there, and all the tears, the regret, and the wishing that it might be different, does not affect that spirit one iota... but hereafter that extra suffering shall be added on the gain and not on the loss side, as the devil would have you think again and again.

"And then I go back again, just a pace or two, in order to say a few words in regard to those who believe that illness of any kind is the result of wrong thinking or, if you like to put it in another way, that illness can be swept out of existence by right thinking.

"In that theory, they have come to the edge of a very great and important truth. By attuning yourselves to the spiritual, by trying to keep in touch with your Father, you are giving us over here unlimited opportunities of rectifying that which is rectifiable. It is a most important point that has been forced upon the attention of thousands of men and women today, and it has done much to raise the sorrowful, to heal the maimed in mind, and to give in place of the crutch of despair, the strong, outstretched, never-failing Hand of Christ. All honour to those who have done so much for us, and have persevered on the way they have found, with never a look behind.

"But that is not all. You have got to get back to fundamentals, and in this case the fundamental thing is this: That certain souls imbued with spiritual ambition, have elected to climb the steepest, sharpest side of the hill which leads to God; and this being so, while Christ suffers with them in a way impossible for you to imagine, and while on His strength we are allowed to do, what one day will seem to you, an enormous lot to mitigate their anguish, still the thing itself remains.

"I do want you to think in a spiritual way upon this because pain, during the earth's experience, does play so large a part, and it seems to the outside that, in many cases, it is the last straw, and the end is not only a broken back, but what is far worse, a broken heart as well.

"Pain in itself, dear children, is so closely allied to the suffering Christ that very few who are privileged to take on a physical body - very few are so little developed that they do not choose, anyhow, a certain proportion of that which links them to the Crucified, who suffered so much but never inflicted one pang upon another, and not one pang reaches you, my little ones, that is not borne in three parts by Christ Himself.

"I speak to those who have given so much thought to this subject, because now and again they are conscious of a feeling that, in a measure, they have either betrayed the faith they professed or that that faith has betrayed them. This brings about great sadness - it destroys immediately the harmony that should be within, and without which even a meagre form of happiness is impossible.

"It is those I want to comfort tonight. I want them to be quite sure that nothing has gone wrong, that all their prayers and self-discipline has been building up against the shadows that would attack, and I want them to know too that long, long ago, before they entered into this world at all, they were shown pain in all its terribleness, its multitude of ramifications and subterranean channels. In fact, nothing in connection with pain - either with the strain on the body or the still worse strain upon the nerves and the mind - nothing was kept from them. And they, having spiritual sight, saw beyond the black blot of suffering the Light which shines from God, and they chose pain - pain as one of their weapons. I use the word deliberately - pain as one of their weapons to help them on the journey of the Spirit.

"Oh, my children, never think that I do not understand, or that I withdraw from you and watch the enemy approach, and then waking up to a sense of my duty, seek too late to beat it back. Sometimes it looks like that, and sometimes, alas, to those so bound and blinded by the darkness of the earth, even Christ Himself seems to act in that same way, and when that thought comes it is anguish indeed.

"I want you to reconstruct in your minds the position of pain - not to regard it as some terrible thing which has crept in unawares while the guard was sleeping. Not to imagine, on the other hand, that God sent it or that it is His will that you should be tortured by the imperfections of the garment you are wearing. No. Both of these are wrong and both cause added suffering to yourselves.

"Try and get it clear in your minds somehow in this way: That you, loving God far better than you know, have taken on this burden, and although your Heavenly Father allowed it to be so because of the joy He could bestow in return, don't think that apart from that, it is His will or that it is His way of beating down that which is imperfect in the child He has created.

"As you know, suffering is perhaps, of all things, the most cleansing, because it is the most devastating, and that is why those who are out to climb have, to their physical minds, taken on a great deal more than they are fit to carry.

"I suppose there is not one who has watched by the side of another who is soon to be laid aside, and in watching has not thought deep, deep thoughts, and sometimes very terrible ones as well, regarding the anguish with which the helpless victim is assailed. It is a dreadful thing to see, but even the looker-on is conscious of a drastic sweeping out of their own mind.

"The contemplation of pain in another forces self - for the time being - outside the boundaries of thought. You see, even there it has its uses in building up something for the soul, and I mention this because next time you hear of this one or of that who is hard-set by the ravages of disease - when this happens, do not think to yourself: 'How can God allow it?' but just: 'What joy is in store for them for evermore!'

"Christ's side is to heal, and the moment the body is discarded, that process of healing sets in, and could you have one moment's vision of even the first stages, you would indeed realise, dear children, that after all, great though the price, greater still the result.

"Before I go I will just revert to the point I made in regard to pain being temptation, and it is only necessary for me to remind you of the illustration you have in the Bible regarding one who is called Job.

"It is remarkable to some, that after having endured so much, the evil was allowed to fall upon his body and to endeavour, literally, to tear mind, and soul asunder. Yes, it was as great as that, and that illustration has been passed down to man so that he might understand that, in many cases, is the last test - the last test of all - and this should give you hope.

"Follow his career and remember that after the pain God's gifts descended upon him, and that which was imperfect was made sound again, and that which was intended to bring about his spiritual destruction, placed him on high for ever more.

"I leave this last thought with you, and I want those who suffer - and some of my children suffer greatly - I want them to know that in God's sight such afflictions of the body are counted as gifts direct to Him, because of the love of the greater self within - that all-seeing, all-wise self - which is able to look beyond the present and to see in the Great Hereafter what it has brought in the way of holiness.

"And now I leave you. Help those who come as they will need it. You have been told that we cannot work against the physical, but I have said that, by God's grace and with your help, that which is missing shall be made good...

"...Well, my children, we cannot prolong this evening, although, as I think you will agree, we have done far better than the conditions promised at the beginning.

"There is a terrible lot to oversee, one way and another - I am sure you can follow me in that, but what I want you to grasp especially tonight, is this: That if that 'terrible lot' were magnified a million, million times over, we should do it. There is nothing over here that expresses, what, in your world, is called: 'Can't' - Nothing. But sometimes we have to wait a little while in order to weave in the necessary strands here and there to make the finished article stand the strain when completed. And that's why it is that I am rather hampered before the strength is built up.

"It is difficult to explain to you what happens. I am fully in control, just in the same way as when my child is unfatigued, but it is like this: You must remember that in speaking through the body of another, in addition to the spiritual tools lent by God, we are bound to use the physical ones which are supplied by the medium through whom we speak. And when the blood runs slowly, as it does when the body is overtired, that same slowness affects the mind; and although I can use the mind - still the necessary fuel is missing.

"It is just the same as it would be with an engine if there was insufficient fuel, and if by spiritual power I forced the engine of the physical mind beyond the capacity provided by the physical body, I might do very serious damage indeed. You cannot work against nature to that extent without doing damage. It could be done, of course, and it has been done by many in the past, with sad results on the one who has been generous enough to put her body at the use of those who have passed over - and who abused their responsibility.

"You see my point? In taking control, I am not here to rob, but to give, and that is the thing in a nutshell. It takes time to replenish that which is absent - but by slow means, working through the channels provided by God, I can bring strength to that which was weak, precisely in the same way as your old friend (Lonsdale) told you he was able to pass on to his patients the strength which came from God.

"These points sometimes cause confusion in the physical mind and I like to get things clear, because to some it would seem a sin against nature to hold these evenings when the vitality of the body had already been called upon to a serious extent. Make no mistake - those who want to love God and not themselves always bring to the instrument they use, and do not take away.

"It is the test that all should have to pass. Eager though we may be to speak to you direct, good in the long run cannot come from that which was tainted by self in the beginning. God does not work on those lines as you do not need me to tell you. He protects you far, far more comprehensively than you could imagine protection could be.

"So tonight I think I will close on those words: That whatever may betide, the Protector is there. The Great Comforter is never absent from His children, either in days of storm or during those periods when the sun shines bright. It makes no difference. You are gathered in - gathered into a 'Love and a Care and an Understanding' which changes in the physical or the material never touches at all.

"Keep that thought close and be certain - certain as you are that in a few hours dawn will follow night. Be certain that the Dawn is here, and once the first signs have appeared soon the Day must be ushered in. And in that Day you will see on either side the result of the handiwork, of the bringing together, of the building in ignorance - you will see it all, and know that the promises have not been in vain. And what is more, that even as you look, the unfoldment of new promises will be taking place.

"God's Peace is with you - it has descended upon you and gathered you in. Likewise will His Joy be there, and this is but an introduction to that which we all covet most - the illumination and the revelation, which starting from small beginnings, expands and grows and unravels its glorious petals, until at last we are able to look into the Centre - the Life within, and that is God... That is God, and that is what we are all working for, striving for, and certain of attaining in the by and by.

"Rest in peace, my children - peace and security. The Cross, not as a sign of sorrow, but of triumph over sorrow. Pain, not as a symbol of the body, but of the spirit within - the spirit which seeing all, understands all, and taketh on all for its at-one-ment with the God who made it...

All rights are reserved and may not be used or reproduced, neither in whole nor in part thereof, in or on any form of media, including the Internet. The providing of direct hyperlinks to Greater World website copyright material is welcomed, thereby fulfilling any intended aspirations for anyone concerned whilst maintaining the integrity of the well-intentioned, deeply-considered and long-standing ideals of the Greater World.

The Greater World has sole copyright for the Zodiac Messages and came into existence as the Greater World Christian Spiritualist League in 1931 (U.K. Registered Charity No. 212369). The Greater World was originally established purely because of the Zodiac Messages and their introduction into earthly life by the Christ Messenger Zodiac and the further revelations of the Christ Mission expounded therein. The inception of the Greater World was for the preservation, as received, of the Zodiac Messages and the prudent dissemination of the spiritual philosophy, consequently perpetuating the incorruptibility, distinctiveness and uniqueness of the Zodiac Messages and the teachings contained therein.

Download 9 chronologically-ordered digital books of earlier Zodiac Circle sittings (1923-1928)