CHAPTER 104.

Jesus teaches the multitudes. Attends a feast in Simon’s house. A wealthy courtesan anoints him with precious balm. Simon rebukes him and he preaches a sermon on false respectability.

AndJesus looked upon the multitudes who pressed about for selfish gain.

2The men of learning and of wealth, of reputation and of power, were there; but they knew not the Christ.

3Their eyes were blinded by the tinseled glitter of their selfish selves; they could not see the king.

4And though they walked within the light, they groped about in dark—a darkness like the night of death.

5And Jesus cast his eyes to heaven and said,

6I thank thee, Holy One of heaven and earth, that while the light is hidden from the wise and great, it is revealed to babes.

7Then turning to the multitudes he said, I come to you not in the name of man, nor in a strength my own;

8The wisdom and the virtue that I bring to you are from above; they are the wisdom and the virtue of the God whom we adore.

9The words I speak are not my words; I give to you what I receive.

10Come unto me all you who labor and pull heavy loads and I will give you aid.

11Put on the yoke of Christwith me; it does not chafe; it is an easy yoke.

12Together we will pull the load of life with ease; and so rejoice.

13A Pharisee, whose name was Simon, made a feast, and Jesus was the honored guest.

14And as they sat about the board, a courtesan who had been cured of her desire to sin by what she had received and seen in Jesus’ ministry, came uninvited to the feast.

15She brought an alabaster box of costly balm and as the guests reclined she came to Jesus in her joy, because she had been freed from sin,

16Her tears fell fast, she kissed his feet, and dried them with her hair, and she anointed them with balm.

17And Simon thought, he did not speak aloud, This man is not a prophet or he would know the kind of woman that approaches him, and would drive her away.

18But Jesus knew his thoughts, and said to him, My host, I have a word to say to you.

19And Simon said, Say on.

20And Jesus said, Sin is a monster of iniquity; it may be small; it may be large; it may be something done; it may be something left undone.

21Behold, one person leads a life of sin and is at last redeemed; another, in a careless mood, forgets to do the things he ought to do; but he reforms and is forgiven. Now, which of these has merited the higher praise?

22And Simon said, The one who overcame the errors of a life.

23And Jesus said, You speak the truth.

24Behold, this woman who has bathed my feet with tears and dried them with her hair and covered them with balm!

25For years she led a life of sin, but when she heard the words of life she sought forgiveness and she found.

26But when I came into your house as guest you gave me not a bowl of water that I might wash my hands and feet, which every loyal Jew must do before he feasts.

27Now, tell me, Simon, which of these, this woman or yourself, is worthy of most praise?

28But Simon answered not.

29Then to the woman Jesus said, Your sins are all forgiven; your faith has saved you; go in peace.

30And then the guests who sat around the board, began to say within themselves, What manner of a man is this who says, Thy sins are all forgiven?

Under the patronage of a number of wealthy women, the Christines make a grand missionary tour. In his teaching Jesus lauds sincerity and rebukes hypocrisy. He speaks concerning the sin against the Holy Breath.

Now,many women who possessed much wealth, and who abode in other towns of Galilee, implored that Jesus and the twelve, together with the masters from the foreign lands, would thither go and preach and heal.

2Among these anxious ones were Mary Magdalene, who was obsessed by seven homeless spirits of the air, which had been driven out by the Omnific Word which Jesus spoke;

3Susanna, who owned vast estates at Cæsarea-Philippi;

4Johanna, wife of Chuza, one of Herod’s court;

5And Rachel from the coast of Tyre;

6And others from beyond the Jordan and the sea of Galilee.

7And they provided ample means and three times seven men went forth.

8They preached the gospel of the Christ, and they baptized the multitudes who made confession of their faith; they healed the sick and raised the dead.

9And Jesus wrought and taught from early morn until the day had gone, and then into the night; he did not stop to eat.

10His friends became alarmed lest he should fail from loss of strength, and they laid hold of him and would, by force, have taken him away to place of rest.

11But he rebuked them not; he said, Have you not read that God will give his angels charge concerning me?

12That they would hold me fast and suffer not that I should come to want?

13I tell you, men, while I am giving out my strength unto these anxious, waiting throngs I find myself at rest within the arms of God,

14Whose blessed messengers bring down to me the bread of life.

15There is a tide just once in human life.

16These people now are willing to receive the truth; their opportunity is now: our opportunity is now.

17And if we do not teach them while we may, the tide will ebb;

18They may not care again to hear the truth; then tell me, Who will bear the guilt?

19And so he taught and healed.

20Among the multitudes were men of every shade of thought. They were divided in their views concerning everything that Jesus said.

21Some saw in him a God, and would have worshipped him; and others saw in him a devil of the nether world and would have cast him in a pit.

22And some were trying hard to lead a double life; like little lions of the ground that take upon themselves the color of the thing they rest upon.

23These people without anchorage of any sort, are friends or foes as seemed to serve them best.

24And Jesus said, No man can serve two masters at a time. No man can be a friend and foe at once.

25All men are rising up, or sinking down; are building up, or tearing down.

26If you are gathering not the precious grain, then you are throwing it away.

27He is a coward who would feign to be a friend, or foe, to please another man.

28You men, do not deceive yourselves in thought; your hearts are known;

29Hypocrisy will blight a soul as surely as the breath of Beelzebul. An honest evil man is more esteemed by guardians of the soul than a dishonest pious man.

30If you would curse the son of man, just curse him out aloud.

31A curse is poison to the inner man, and if you hold and swallow down a curse it never will digest; lo, it will poison every atom of your soul.

32And if you sin against a son of man, you may be pardoned and your guilt be cleansed by acts of kindness and of love;

33But if you sin against the Holy Breath by disregarding herwhen she would open up the doors of life for you;

34By closing up the windows of the soul when she would pour the light of love into your hearts, and cleanse them with the fires of God;

35Your guilt shall not be blotted out in this, nor in the life to come.

36An opportunity has gone to come no more, and you must wait until the ages roll again.

37Then will the Holy Breath again breathe on your fires of life, and fan them to a living flame.

38Then she will open up the doors again, and you may let her in to sup with you forevermore, or you may slight her once again, and then again.

39You men of Israel, your opportunity is now.

40Your tree of life is an illusive tree; it has a generous crop of leaves; its boughs hang low with fruit.

41Behold, your words are leaves; your deeds the fruit.

42Behold, for men have plucked the apples of your tree of life, and found them full of bitterness; and worms have eaten to the core.

43Behold that fig tree by the way so full of leaves and worthless fruit!

44Then Jesus spoke a word that nature spirits know, and lo, the fig tree stood a mass of withered leaves.

45And then he spoke again, Behold, for God will speak the Word, and you will stand a withered fig tree in the setting sun.

46You men of Galilee, send forth and call the pruner in before it is too late, and let him prune away your worthless branches and illusive leaves, and let the sunshine in.

47The sun is life, and it can change your worthlessness to worth.

48Your tree of life is good; but you have nurtured it so long with dews of self, and mists of carnal things that you have shut the sunshine out.

49I tell you, men, that you must give account to God for every idle word you speak and every evil deed you do.

The Christines are in Magdala. Jesus heals a man who was blind, dumb and obsessed. He teaches the people. While he speaks his mother, brothers and Miriam come to him. He teaches a lesson on family relationship. He introduces Miriam to the people and she sings her songs of victory.

Magdalais beside the sea, and here the teachers taught.

2A man obsessed, and who was blind and dumb was brought, and Jesus spoke the Word, and lo, the evil spirits went away; the man spoke out, his eyes were opened and he saw.

3This was the greatest work that men had seen the master do, and they were all amazed.

4The Pharisees were there, and they were full of jealous rage; they sought a cause whereby they might condemn.

5They said, Yes, it is true that Jesus does a multitude of mighty works; but men should know that he is leagued with Beelzebul.

6He is a sorcerer, a black magician of the Simon Cerus type; he works as Jannes and as Jambres did in Moses’ day.

7For Satan, prince of evil spirits, is his stay by night and day, and in the name of Satan he casts the demons out, and in his name heheals the sick and raises up the dead.

8But Jesus knew their thoughts; he said to them, You men are masters, and you know the law; whatever is arrayed against itself must fall; a house divided cannot stand;

9A kingdom warring with itself is brought to naught.

10If Satan casts the devil out, how can his kingdom stand?

11If I, by Beelzebul, cast devils out, by whom do you cast devils out?

12But if I, in the holy name of God, cast devils out, and make the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, has not God’s kingdom come to you?

13The Pharisees were dumb; they answered not.

14As Jesus spoke a messenger approached and said to him, Your mother and your brothers wish to speak with you.

15And Jesus said, Who is my mother? and my brothers, who are they?

16And then he spoke a word aside unto the foreign masters and the twelve; he said,

17Behold, men recognize their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers here in flesh; but when the veil is rent and men walk in the realms of soul,

18The tender lines of love that bind the groups of fleshy kin in families will fade away.

19Not that the love for anyone will be the less; but men will see in all the motherhood, the fatherhood, the sisterhood, the brotherhood of man.

20The family groups of earth will all be lost in universal love and fellowship divine.

21Then to the multitudes he said, Whoever lives the life and does the will of God is child of God and is my mother, father, sister, friend.

22And then he went aside to speak to mother and his other kindred in the flesh.

23But he saw more than these. The maiden who once thrilled his very soul with love, a love beyond the love of any fleshly kin;

24Who was the sorest tempter in the temple Heliopolis beside the Nile, who sung for him the sacred songs, was there.

25The recognition was of kindred souls, and Jesus said,

26Behold, for God has brought to us a power men cannot comprehend, a power of purity and love;

27To make more light the burdens of the hour, to be a balm for wounded souls;

28To win the multitude to better ways by sacred song and holy life.

29Behold, for Miriam who stood beside the sea and sung the song of victory when Moses led the way, will sing again.

30And all the choirs of heaven will join and sing the glad refrain:

31Peace, peace on earth; good will to men!

32And Miriam stood before the waiting throngs and sung again the songs of victory, and all the people said, Amen.

A Pharisee demands of Jesus signs of his messiahship. Jesus rebukes him, because he does not recognize the signs that are being continually given. Jesus exhorts the people to receive the light that they may become the light.

APharisee elated with himself stood forth among the multitudes and said to Jesus,

2Sir, we would have you demonstrate. If you are truly Christ who was to come, then you can surely do what black magicians cannot do.

3Lo, they can talk, and hold the multitudes with words of power; and they can heal the sick and drive the demons out of those obsessed;

4They can control the storms; and fire and earth and air will hear and answer when they speak.

5Now, if you will ascend and from that tower fly across the sea, we will believe that you are sent from God.

6And Jesus said, No black magician ever lived a holy life; you have a demonstration of the Christ-life every day.

7But lo, you evil and adulterous scribes and Pharisees, you cannot see a spirit-sign, because your spirit eyes are full of carnal self.

8You seek a sign to please your curiosity. You walk the very lowest planes of carnal life and cry, Phenomena! show us a sign and then we will believe.

9I was not sent to earth to buy up faith as men buy fish and fruit and rubbish in the streets.

10Men seem to think it quite a favor done to me when they confess their faith in me and in the holy Christ.

11What does it matter unto me as man if you believe or disbelieve?

12Faith is not something you can buy with coin; it is not something you can sell for gold.

13Once Mart, a beggar, followed me and cried, Give me a silver piece; then I will believe in you.

14And you are like this beggar man; you offer to exchange your faith for signs.

15But I will give to all the world one sign as surety that the Christ abides with me.

16You all have read the parable of Jonah and the fish, wherein it is recorded that the prophet spent three days and nights within the stomach of the mighty fish, and then came forth.

17The son of man will spend three days and nights within the heart of earth and then come forth again, and men will see and know.

18Behold, the light may be so bright that men cannot see anything.

19The Spirit light has shown so brightly over Galilee that you who hear me now are blind.

20You may have read the words of prophet Azrael; he said, The light shall shine out brightly in the darkness of the night, and men shall comprehend it not.

21That time has come; the light shines forth; you see it not.

22The Queen of Sheba sat in darkest night and still she yearned for light.

23She came to hear the words of wisdom from the lips of Solomon, and she believed;

24And she became a living torch, and when she reached her home, lo, all Arabia was filled with light.

25A greater far than Solomon is here; the Christ is here; the Day Star has arisen, and you reject the light.

26And you remember Nineveh, the wicked city of Assyria, which God had marked to be destroyed by shock and flame unless the people turned and walked in ways of right.

27And Jonah raised his voice and said, In forty days shall Nineveh be razed, and all her wealth shall be destroyed.

28The people heard and they believed; and they reformed and turned to ways of right, and lo, their city was not razed; was not destroyed.

29You men of Galilee, I tell you that Arabia and Nineveh will testify against you in the judgment day.

30Behold, for every one to whom I speak has in him all the fires of God; but they are lying dead.

31The will is bridled by the flesh desires, and it brings not the ethers of the fires to vibrate into light.

32Look, therefore, to your soul and note, Is not the light within you dark as night?

33There is no breath but Holy Breath that e’er can fan your fires of life into a living flame and make them light.

34And Holy Breath can raise the ethers of the fires to light in none but hearts of purity and love.

35Hear, then, you men of Galilee, Make pure the heart, admit the Holy Breath, and then your bodies will be full of light,

36And like a city on a hill, your light will shine afar, and thus your light may light the way for other men.

Jesus rebukes the people for selfishness. The Christines attend a feast and Jesus is censured by the Pharisee because he washed not before he eat. Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of the ruling classes and pronounces upon them many woes.

Themultitudes were wild with selfish thought; none recognized the rights and needs of any other one.

2The stronger pushed the weak aside, and trampled on them in their haste to be the first to get a blessing for himself.

3And Jesus said, Behold the cage of beasts untamed; a den of stinging vipers, maddened by their fiendish greed of selfish gain!

4I tell you, men, the benefits that come to men who see no further than themselves are baubles in the morning light;

5They are unreal; they pass away. The selfish soul is fed today; the food does not assimilate; the soul grows not, and then it must be fed again, and then again.

6Behold, a selfish man obsessed by just one spirit of the air; by the Omnific Word the spirit is cast out;

7It wanders through dry places, seeking rest and finding none.

8And then it comes again; the selfish man has failed to close and lock the door;

9The unclean spirit finds the house all swept and cleaned; it enters in and takes with it full seven other spirits more unclean than is itself; and there they dwell.

10The last state of the man is more than sevenfold more wretched than the first.

11And so it is with you who snatch the blessings that belong to other men.

12While Jesus spoke a certain woman who stood near exclaimed, Most blessed is the mother of this man of God!

13And Jesus said, Yes, blest is she; but doubly blest are they who hear, receive and live the word of God.

14A Pharisee of wealth prepared a feast, and Jesus and the twelve, together with the masters from afar, were guests.

15And Jesus did not wash his hands according to the strictest Pharisaic rules, before he ate; when this the Pharisee observed he marveled much.

16And Jesus said, My host, why do you marvel that I did not wash my hands?

17The Pharisees wash well their hands and feet; they cleanse the body every day when, lo, within is every form of filth.

18Their hearts are full of wickedness, extortions and deceit.

19Did not the God who made the outside of the body make the inside, too?

20And then he said, Woe unto you, you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue, and every herb, and pass by judgment and the love of God.

21Woe unto you, you Pharisees! you love the highest seats in synagogues and courts, and bid for salutations in the market place.

22Woe unto you, you tinseled gentry of the land! no man would ever think you servants of the Lord of hosts by what you do.

23A lawyer sitting near remarked, Rabboni, your words are harsh, and then in what you say you censure us; and why?

24And Jesus said, Woe unto you, you masters of the law! you heap great burdens on the sons of men, yea, loads by far too great for them to bear, and you will never help to bear a feather’s weight yourselves.

25Woe unto you! you build the tombs of prophets and of seers; they whom your fathers killed; and you are parties to the crimes.

26And now behold, for God has sent again to you his holy men-apostles, prophets, seers; and you are persecuting them.

27The time is near when you will plead against them in the courts; will spurn them on the streets; will cast them into prison cells, and kill them with a fiend’s delight.

28I tell you, men, the blood of all the holy men of God that has been shed from righteous Abel down to that of Zacharias, father of the holy John,

29Who was struck down beside the altar in the HolyPlace—

30The blood of all these holy men has made more red the hands of this ungodly generation.

31Woe unto you, you masters of the law! you snatch the keys of knowledge from the hands of men;

32You close the doors; you enter not yourselves, and suffer not the willing ones to enter in.

33His words provoked the Pharisees, the lawyers and the scribes, and they, resenting, poured upon him torrents of abuse.

34The truths he spoke came like a thunderbolt from heaven; the rulers counseled how they might ensnare him by his words; they sought a legal way to shed his blood.

The Christines go to a place apart to pray. Jesus warns them against the leaven of the Pharisees and reveals the fact that all thoughts and deeds are recorded in God’s Book of Remembrance. Man’s responsibility and God’s care.

Now,when the feast was finished Jesus with the foreign masters and the twelve, with Mary, Miriam and a band of loyal women who believed in Christ, went to a place apart to pray.

2And when their silence ended Jesus said, Be on your guard; theleaven of the Pharisees is being thrown in every measure of the meal of life.

3It is a poison that will taint whatever it may touch; and it will blight the soul as sure as fumes of the Diabolos; it is hypocrisy.

4The Pharisees seem fair in speech, but they are diabolical in heart.

5And then they seem to think that thought is something they can lock within themselves.

6They do not seem to know that every thought and wish is photographed and then preserved within the Book of Life to be revealed at any time the masters will.

7That which is thought, or wished, or done in darkest night shall be proclaimed in brightest day;

8That which is whispered in the ear within the secret place shall be made known upon the streets.

9And in the judgment day when all the books are opened up, these men, and every other man, shall be a-judged, not by what they’ve said or done,

10But by the way in which they used the thoughts of God, and how the ethers of eternal love were made to serve;

11For men may make these ethers serve the carnal self, or serve the holy self within.

12Behold, these men may kill the body of this flesh; but what of that? the flesh is but a transitory thing, and soon, by natural law, will pass;

13Their slaughter only hastens nature’s work a little time.

14And when they kill the flesh they reach their bounds of power; they cannot kill the soul.

15But nature is the keeper of the soul as of the flesh, and in the harvest time of soul, the trees of life are all inspected by the judge;

16And every tree that bears no fruit of good is plucked up by the roots and cast into the flames.

17Who then shall you regard? Not him who has the power to kill the flesh, and nothing more.

18Regard the mighty one who has the power to dissolve both soul and body in the flames of nature’s fire.

19But man is king; he may direct his thoughts, his loves, his life, and gain the prize of everlasting life.

20And you are not abandoned in your struggle for the crown of life. Your Father lives, and you shall live.

21God has a care for every living thing. He numbers stars, and suns, and moons;

22He numbers angels, men, and every thing below; the birds, the flowers, the trees;

23The very petals of the rose he knows by name, and every one is numbered in his Book of Life;

24And every hair upon your head, and every drop of blood within your veins, he knows by number and by rythm.

25He hears the birdling’s call, the cricket’s chirp, the glow worm’s song; and not a sparrow falls to earth without his knowledge and consent.

26A sparrow seems a thing of little worth; yea, five of them are worth two farthings in the market place, and yet God cares for every one of them.

27Will he not care much more for you who bear his image in your soul?

28Fear not to make confession of the Christ before the sons of men, and God will own you as his sonsand daughters in the presence of the host of heaven.

29If you deny the Christ before the sons of men, then God will not receive you as his own before the hosts of heaven.

30And more I say, Fear not when men shall bring you up before the rulers of the land to answer for your faith.

31Behold, the Holy Breath shall teach you in your hour of need what you should say, and what is best to leave unsaid.

32And then the Christines went again to teach the multitudes.

Miriam sings a song of victory. The song. Jesus reveals the symbolic character of the journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan.

AndMiriam stood before the surging crowd, and casting up her eyes to heaven she sung anew the song of victory:

2Bring forth the harp, the vina and the lyre; bring forth the highest sounding cymbal, all ye choirs of heaven. Join in the song, the new, new song.

3The Lord of hosts has stooped to hear the cries of men, and lo, the citadel of Beelzebul is shaking as a leaf before the wind.

4The sword of Gideon is again unsheathed.

5The Lord, with his own hand has pulled far back the curtains of the night; the sun of truth is flooding heaven and earth;

6The demons of the dark, of ignorance and death, are fleeing fast; are disappearing as the dew beneath the morning sun.

7God is our strength and song; is our salvation and our hope, and we will build anew a house for him;

8Will cleanse our hearts, and purify their chambers, every one. We are the temple of the Holy Breath.

9We need no more a tent within the wilderness; no more a temple built with hands.

10We do not seek the Holy Land, nor yet Jerusalem.

11We are the tent of God; we are his temple built without the sound of edged tools.

12We are the Holy Land; we are the New Jerusalem; Allelujah, praise the Lord!

13And when the song was done the multitudes exclaimed, Praise God.

14And Jesus said, Behold the way!

15The sons of men have groped for ages in the darkness of Egyptian night.

16The Pharaohs of sense have bound them with their chains.

17But God has whispered through the mists of time and told them of a land of liberty and love.

18And he has sent his Logos forth to light the way.

19The Red Sea rolls between the promised land and Egypt’s sands.

20The Red Sea is the carnal mind.

21Behold, the Logos reaches out his hand; the sea divides; the carnal mind is reft in twain; the sons of men walk through dry shod.

22The Pharaohs of sense would stay them in their flight; the waters of the sea return; the Pharaohs of sense are lost and men are free.

23For just a little while men tread the wilderness of Sin; the Logos leads the way;

24And when at last men stand upon the Jordan’s brink, thesewaters stay, and men step forth into their own.

Jesus teaches. A man requests him to compel his brother to deal justly. Jesus reveals the divine law, the power of truth and the universality of possessions. Relates the parable of the rich man and his abundant harvest.

AndJesus taught the multitudes; and while he spoke a man stood forth and said,

2Rabboni, hear my plea: My father died and left a large estate; my brother seized it all, and now refuses me my share.

3I pray that you will bid him do the right, and give me what is mine.

4And Jesus said, I am not come to be a judge in such affairs; I am no henchman of the court.

5God sent me not to force a man to do the right.

6In every man there is a sense of right; but many men regard it not.

7The fumes that rise from selfishness have formed a crust about their sense of right that veils their inner light, so that they cannot comprehend nor recognize the rights of other men.

8This veil you cannot tear away by force of arms, and there is naught that can dissolve this crust but knowledge and the love of God.

9While men are in the mire, the skies seem far away; when men are on the mountain top, the skies are near, and they can almost touch the stars.

10Then Jesus turned and to the twelve he said, Behold the many in the mire of carnal life!

11The leaven of truth will change the miry clay to solid rock, and men can walk and find the path that leads up to the mountain top.

12You cannot haste; but you can scatter forth this leaven with a generous hand.

13When men have learned the truth that bears upon its face the law of right, then they will haste to give to every man his dues.

14Then to the people Jesus said, Take heed, and covet not. The wealth of men does not consist in what they seem to have—in lands, in silver and in gold.

15These things are only borrowed wealth. No man can corner up the gifts of God.

16The things of nature are the things of God, and what is God’s belongs to every man alike.

17The wealth of soul lies in the purity of life, and in the wisdom that descends from heaven.

18Behold, a rich man’s ground brought forth abundantly; his barns were far too small to hold his grain, and to himself he said,

19What shall I do? I must not give my grain away; I must not let it go to waste; and then he said,

20This will I do; I will tear down these little barns and build up larger ones; there I will store away my grain and I will say,

21My soul take now your ease; you have enough for many years; eat, drink and fill yourself and be content.

22But God looked down and saw the man; he saw his selfish heart and said,

23You foolish man, this night your soul will quit its house of flesh; then who will have your garnered wealth?

24You men of Galilee, lay not up treasures in the vaults of earth;accumulated wealth will blight your soul.

25God does not give men wealth to hoard away in secret vaults. Men are but stewards of God’s wealth, and they must use it for the common good.

26To every steward who is true to self, to other men, to every thing that is, the Lord will say, Well done.

The Christines in the home of Mary of Magdala. Jesus calls his disciples, “Little Flock,” and charges them to place their affections on divine things. He teaches them regarding the inner life.

AndJesus left the multitudes and went with his disciples up to Mary’s home; and as they sat about the board to dine he said,

2My little flock, fear not; it is your Father’s will that you shall rule the kingdom of the soul.

3A ruler in the house of God is servant of the Lord of hosts, and man cannot serve God except by serving men.

4A servant in the house of God cannot be servant in the house of wealth; nor in the synagogue of sense.

5If you are tied to lands, or bonds, or wealth of earth, your hearts are knit to things of earth; for where your treasures are there are your hearts.

6Dispose of all your wealth, distribute it among the poor, and put your trust in God, and you nor yours will ever come to want.

7This is a test of faith, and God will not accept the service of the faithless one.

8The time is ripe; your Master comes upon the clouds; the eastern sky is glowing with his presence now.

9Put on reception robes; gird up your loins; trim up your lamps and fill them well with oil, and be prepared to meet your Lord; when you are ready, he will come.

10Thrice blessed are the servants who are ready to receive their Lord.

11Behold, for he will gird himself, and will prepare a sumptuous feast for every one, and he himself will serve.

12It matters not when he shall come; it may be at the second watch; it may be at the third; but blessed are the servants who are ready to receive.

13You cannot leave your door ajar and go to sleep, and wait in blissful ignorance of the fleeting time;

14For thieves will surely come and take away your goods and bind and carry you away to robbers’ dens.

15And if you are not carried forth, the Master when he comes will not regard a sleeping guard as friend, but as a foe.

16Beloved, these are times when every man must be awake and at his post, for none can tell the hour nor the day when man shall be revealed.

17And Peter said, Lord is this parable for us, or for the multitudes?

18And Jesus said, Why need you ask? God is not man that he should show respect for one and cast another off.

19Whoever will may come and gird himself, and trim his lamp, and find a turret in the tower of life where he may watch, and be prepared to meet the Lord.

20But you, as children of the light, have come, and you have learned the language of the court, and may stand forth and lead the way.

21But you may wait, and think that you are ready to receive the Lord, and still he does not come.

22And you may grow impatient and begin to long for carnal ways again, and may begin to exercise your rule;

23To beat, and otherwise maltreat the servants of the house, and fill yourselves with wine and meat.

24And what will say the Lord when he shall come?

25Behold, for he will cast the faithless servant from his house; and many years will come and go before he can be cleansed, and be thought worthy to receive his Lord.

26The servant who has come into the light, who knows the Master’s will and does it not; the trusted guard who goes to sleep within the turret of the tower of life,

27Shall feel the lash of justice many times, while he who does not know his Master’s will and does it not, will not receive the graver punishment.

28The man who comes and stands before the open door of opportunity and does not enter in, but goes his way,

29Will come again and find the door made fast, and when he calls, the door will open not,

30The guard will say, you had the pass-word once, but you threw it away and now the Master knows you not; depart.

31And verily I say to you, To whom much has been given, much is required; to whom a little has been given, a little only is required.

In answer to a question of Lamaas Jesus teaches a lesson on the reign of peace and the way to it through antagonisms. The signs of the times. Guidance of the Holy Breath. The Christines go to Bethsaida.

Now,after they had dined, the guests and Jesus all were in a spacious hall in Mary’s home.

2And then Lamaas said, Pray, tell us Lord, is this the dawn of peace?

3Have we come forth unto the time when men will war no more?

4Are you, indeed, the Prince of Peace that holy men have said would come?

5And Jesus said, Peace reigns today; it is the peace of death.

6A stagnant pool abides in peace. When waters cease to move they soon are ladened with the seeds of death; corruption dwells in every drop.

7The living waters always leap and skip about like lambs in spring.

8The nations are corrupt; they sleep within the arms of death and they must be aroused before it is too late.

9In life we find antagonists at work. God sent me here to stir unto its depths the waters of the sea of life.

10Peace follows strife; I come to slay this peace of death. The prince of peace must first be prince of strife.

11This leaven of truth which I have brought to men will stir the demons up, and nations, cities, families will be at war within themselves.

12The five that have been dwelling in a home of peace will bedivided now, and two shall war with three;

13The son will stand against his sire; the mother and the daughter will contend; yea, strife will reign in every home.

14The self and greed and doubt will rage into a fever heat, and then, because of me, the earth will be baptized in human blood.

15But right is king; and when the smoke is cleared away the nations will learn war no more; the Prince of Peace will come to reign.

16Behold, the signs of what I say are in the sky; but men can see them not.

17When men behold a cloud rise in the west they say, A shower of rain will come and so it does; and when the wind blows from the south they say, The weather will be hot; and it is so.

18Lo, men can read the signs of earth and sky, but they cannot discern the signs of Holy Breath; but you shall know.

19The storm of wrath comes on; the carnal man will seek a cause to hale you into court, and cast you into prison cells.

20And when these times shall come let wisdom guide; do not resent. Resentment makes more strong the wrath of evil men.

21There is a little sense of justice and of mercy in the vilest men of earth.

22By taking heed to what you do and say and trusting in the guidance of the Holy Breath, you may inspire this sense to grow.

23You thus may make the wrath of men to praise the Lord.

24The Christines went their way, and came unto Bethsaida and taught.

A great storm on the sea destroys many lives. Jesus makes an appeal for aid, and the people give with a generous hand. In answer to a lawyer’s question, Jesus gives the philosophy of disasters.

AsJesus taught, a man stood forth and said, Rabboni, may I speak?

2And Jesus said, Say on. And then the man spoke out and said,

3A storm upon the sea last night wrecked many fishing boats, and scores of men went down to death, and, lo, their wives and children are in need;

4What can be done to help them in their sore distress?

5And Jesus said, A worthy plea. You men of Galilee, take heed. We may not bring again to live these men, but we can succor those who looked to them for daily bread.

6You stewards of the wealth of God, an opportunity has come; unlock your vaults; bring forth your hoarded gold; bestow it with a lavish hand.

7This wealth was laid aside for just such times as these; when it was needed not, lo, it was yours to guard;

8But now it is not yours, for it belongs to those who are in want, and if you give it not you simply bring upon your heads the wrath of God.

9It is not charity to give to those who need; it is but honesty; it is but giving men their own.

10Then Jesus turned to Judas, one of the twelve, who was the treasurer of the band, and said,

11Bring forth our treasure box; the money is not ours now; turnevery farthing to the help of those in such distress.

12Now, Judas did not wish to give the money all to those in want, and so he talked with Peter, James and John.

13He said, Lo, I will save a certain part and give the rest; that surely is enough for us, for we are strangers to the ones in want; we do not even know their names.

14But Peter said, Why, Judas, man, how do you dare to think to trifle with the strength of right.

15The Lord has spoken true; this wealth does not belong to us in face of this distress, and to refuse to give it is to steal.

16You need not fear; we will not come to want.

17Then Judas opened up the treasure box and gave the money all.

18And there was gold and silver, food, and raiment in abundance for the needs of the bereaved.

19A lawyer said, Rabboni, if God rules the worlds and all that in them is, did he not bring about this storm? did he not slay these men?

20Has he not brought this sore distress upon these people here? and was it done to punish them for crimes?

21And we remember well when once a band of earnest Jews from Galilee were in Jerusalem, and at a feast and were, for fancied crimes against the Roman law,

22Cut down within the very temple court by Pontius Pilate; and their blood became their sacrifice.

23Did God bring on this slaughter all because these men were doubly vile?

24And then we bring to mind that once a tower called Siloam, graced the defences of Jerusalem, and, seemingly, without a cause it tottered and it fell to earth and eighteen men were killed.

25Were these men vile? and were they slain as punishment for some great crime?

26And Jesus said, We cannot look upon a single span of life and judge of anything.

27There is a law that men must recognize: Result depends on cause.

28Men are not motes to float about within the air of one short life, and then be lost in nothingness.

29They are undying parts of the eternal whole that come and go, lo, many times into the air of earth and of the great beyond, just to unfold the God-like self.

30A cause may be a part of one brief life; results may not be noted till another life.

31The cause of your results cannot be found within my life, nor can the cause of my results be found in yours.

32I cannot reap except I sow and I must reap what e’er I sow,

33The law of all eternities is known to master minds:

34Whatever men do unto other men the judge and executioner will do to them.

35We do not note the execution of this law among the sons of men.

36We note the weak dishonored, trampled on and slain by those men call the strong.

37We note that men with wood-like heads are seated in the chairs of state;

38Are kings and judges, senators and priests, while men with giant intellects are scavengers about the streets.

39We note that women with a moiety of common sense, and not awhit of any other kind, are painted up and dressed as queens,

40Becoming ladies of the courts of puppet kings, because they have the form of something beautiful; while God’s own daughters are their slaves, or serve as common laborers in the field.

41The sense of justice cries aloud: This is a travesty on right.

42So when men see no further than one little span of life it is no wonder that they say, There is no God, or if there is a God he is a tyrant and should die.

43If you would judge aright of human life, you must arise and stand upon the crest of time and note the thoughts and deeds of men as they have come up through the ages past;

44For we must know that man is not a creature made of clay to turn again to clay and disappear.

45He is a part of the eternal whole. There never was a time when he was not; a time will never come when he will not exist.

46And now we look; the men who now are slaves were tyrants once; the men who now are tyrants have been slaves.

47The men who suffer now, once stood aloft and shouted with a fiend’s delight while others suffered at their hands.

48And men are sick, and halt, and lame, and blind because they once transgressed the laws of perfect life, and every law of God must be fulfilled.

49Man may escape the punishment that seems but due for his misdoings in this life; but every deed and word and thought has its own metes and bounds,

50Is cause, and has its own results, and if a wrong be done, the doer of the wrong must make it right.

51And when the wrongs have all been righted then will man arise and be at one with God.

Jesus teaches by the sea. He relates the parable of the sower. Tells why he teaches in parables. Explains the parable of the sower. Relates the parable of the wheat and tares.

AndJesus stood beside the sea and taught; the multitudes pressed close upon him and he went into a boat that was near by and put a little ways from shore, and then he spoke in parables; he said,

2Behold, a sower took his seed and went into his field to sow.

3With lavish hand he scattered forth the seed and some fell in the hardened paths that men had made,

4And soon were crushed beneath the feet of other men; and birds came down and carried all the seed away.

5Some seed fell on rocky ground where there was little soil; they grew and soon the blades appeared and promised much;

6But then there was no depth of soil, no chance for nourishment, and in the heat of noonday sun they withered up and died.

7Some seed fell where thistles grew, and found no earth in which to grow and they were lost;

8But other seed found lodgment in the rich and tender soil and grew apace, and in the harvest it was found that some brought forth a hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.

9They who have ears to hearmay hear; they who have hearts to understand may know.

10Now, his disciples were beside him in the boat, and Thomas asked, Why do you speak in parables?

11And Jesus said, My words, like every master’s words, are dual in their sense.

12To you who know the language of the soul, my words have meanings far too deep for other men to comprehend.

13The other sense of what I say is all the multitude can understand; these words are food for them; the inner thoughts are food for you.

14Let every one reach forth and take the food that he is ready to receive.

15And then he spoke that all might hear; he said, Hear you the meaning of the parable:

16Men hear my words and understand them not, and then the carnal self purloins the seed, and not a sign of spirit life appears.

17This is the seed that fell within the beaten paths of men.

18And others hear the words of life, and with a fiery zeal receive them all; they seem to comprehend the truth and promise well;

19But troubles come; discouragements arise; there is no depth of thought; their good intentions wither up and die.

20These are the seeds that fell in stony ground.

21And others hear the words of truth and seem to know their worth; but love of pleasure, reputation, wealth and fame fill all the soil; the seeds are nourished not and they are lost.

22These are the seeds that fell among the thistles and the thorns.

23But others hear the words of truth and comprehend them well; they sink down deep into their souls; they live the holy life and all the world is blest.

24These are the seeds that fell in fertile soil, that brought forth fruit abundantly.

25You men of Galilee, take heed to how you hear and how you cultivate your fields; for if you slight the offers of this day, the sower may not come to you again in this or in the age to come.

26Then Jesus spoke another parable; he said:

27The kingdom I may liken to a field in which a man sowed precious seed;

28But while he slept an evil one went forth and sowed a measure full of darnel seed; then went his way.

29The soil was good, and so the wheat and darnel grew; and when the servants saw the tares among the wheat, they found the owner of the field and said,

30You surely sowed good seed; from whence these tares?

31The owner said, Some evil one has sown the seed of tares.

32The servants said, Shall we go out and pull up by the roots the tares and burn them in the fire?

33The owner said, No, that would not be well. The wheat and tares grow close together in the soil, and while you pull the tares you would destroy the wheat.

34So we will let them grow together till the harvest time. Then to the reapers I will say,

35Go forth and gather up the tares and bind them up and burn them in the fire, and gather all the wheat into my barns.

36When he had spoken thus, he left the boat and went up to thehouse, and his disciples followed him.

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