High Mysticism by Emma Curtis Hopkins
Chapter 7 — Ministry
The Angel of His Presence accompanies every man. It is his kingly Self. Two are ever in the field; one shall be taken, the other left.
I will send an angel before thee, said the voice of God to Moses. Because Moses knew this, he daringly followed his leader. Once the angel led Moses into Marah where waters were bitter and the people complained that Moses was a deceiver. But the angel pushed him to a tree to cast into the waters, and its absorbent qualities picked up the bitter globules leaving the waters limpid-sweet; then led him on to Elim where there were twelve wells of water and three score and ten palm trees.
This high leadership is every man’s heritage. He need not fear dangerous days or vicious circumstances while he is aware that his angel goes before him, pleads his cause and defends him. High vision causes sense of nearness of the Highest. It is the closeness of the Ain Soph the Great Countenance of the Absolute, above thinking and above being, which the Hebrews called Angel of God, the Brahmins called Divine Self, or Stately Soul, the mythologists called }Esculapius, or Apollo, the Christians call Jesus Christ.
Some reality, or closeness of the Universal has always been the human insistence of mankind. To the earliest man The Angel of God was the happiest name for the closely near, ever ready Helper Whom man might throw his arms around and unto Whom he might cry, “I will not let thee go except thou bless me.” Jacob got what he cried for; Moses got what he cried for; Samuel got what he cried for; Abraham Lincoln got what he cried for. Many today are getting what they cry for, putting their heads against the close presence of the All-Competent One Who hath surely said, “He shall cry unto me . . . (and) I will make him . . . higher than the kings of the earth.”
“Who hath God so nigh unto them in all things .. . that we call upon him for?” asked Moses, who taught High Attention and the close Angel of the Presence to the Israelites, thousands of years ago.
Always the angel does wondrously, flies swiftly, mighty in strength, ministering life to the faint, help to the defeated, comfort to the despairing.
But we must notice the angel. Attention is the secret of the success of the combination. We combine with what we notice. We produce something worth while by combining with the Angel of God’s Presence.
There are some unitings or combinings even among mankind that produce success, victory, splendid achievements. The unassuming Cadijah made the greatness of Mahomet to out-shine himself. The unassuming Stier made the genius of Pavlowa to transcend herself. The unassuming John made the speech of Peter to stir living sparkles through dead nerves. Many a great man owes even his ability to make money to the unpretentious mother or wife or child who lives in his house.
There are occult combinations that win outward honors. The science of the future will unveil the combinations. The Hebrews knew that Raphael was the angel of healing. Gabriel was the angel of comforting, Michael was the angel of good overpowering evil, Uriel was the angel of convincing doctrine.
That is, they named the miracles by their angelic names, as the Greeks named the healing that worked in their bodies AEsculapius, the strength that roused up in their nerves Hercules, the sleep that rested their bodily frames Morpheus.
Sleep was to the Greeks an entity. So also was health. Strength was a god by itself. All these were callable, that is, they could come by being called. The Christians united all the gods into one God, all the angelic ministries into one ministry, viz., the Sonship presence of the Universal Redeemer whose close visibility staid longer than any god of Greece or Rome was ever reported to have remained visible.
The Christian dispensation gathered the multitude of gods into one Lordship, Saviour visible for three years, then Saviour invisible but blessedly near for the rest of time. “Lo, I am with you alway,” He said, which promise not one of the gods of mythology ever made, though forever and ever strength as a distant entity might be called near to stir the sinews, and health as a distant entity might be called near to charge the bodies of human beings.
These white gods had each his own ministry, but Christ Jesus had the combined ministry of all the gods. “All power is given unto me,” He said. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do it.”
All the gods with their several ministry were known to be representatives of some Universal Vast Vast. It was chrysolite stone of character to know how to be charged with the invigoration of some supernal deity and then, further, to cause the same invigoration to wake in one’s neighbor. It was the ministering power of only a mysterious few who were called priests of Zeus, or priests of AEsculapius, or priests of Apollo, according to what god quality they could best awaken. We read of a priest of the Egyptians goddess Neith whose beautiful daughter was married to Joseph the Hebrew. Also in The Acts of the Apostles we read of a priest of Jupiter in Lystra who brought garlands to honor Paul and Barnabas for having healed the feet of a lame man crippled from birth, whom he as priest of Jupiter had not helped.
Those who had been sprinkled by Chronos the god of time did great things even in their old age. Evidently they would have said that Titian had unwittingly been sprinkled by Chronos for he painted The Battle of Lepanto at ninety-eight years of age; also that Michelangelo must have been sprinkled by Chronos for he was still painting great canvasses at eighty-nine. Whatever characteristic one could inhale from the ethers, or be sprinkled with from the gods consciously or unconsciously he was privileged to cause to rise up to some extent in his neighbors. He could pass it on as the contagion of his aura, or atmosphere, consciously or unconsciously, as was reported the cure of a love for intoxicating drinks passed on to an inebriate while he sat near a lover of the Free God in a public meeting.
Give attention to the Effulgent One like Parmenides and radiate effulgence. Gaze toward the glory of the Highest and ray forth some new aspiration. Seek Him that turneth the shadow of death into morning and ray forth reviving ethers that spiritualize even injured backbones. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and ray forth peace and confidence in the midst of life’s hardships. Be in love with some Truth of the Self-Existent till the scent of its Rose Garden reaching thee, thy garments carry Balm of Gilead for pain. Is it not written, “I clothe My priests with salvation”? There is healing victory for every one in love with the Uplifting, Awakening Highest. His influence is irresistible. “Listen, 0 isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far — I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.”
Beresford writes that some people’s secret emanations or influences are very strong, so strong that they can be photographed. Let us note that only those who have been in love with Divine Rulership ray along divine influence, doing angelic ministries, mighty in strength, flying swiftly.
Calling unto the Name that smites the ethers into new activities creates new conditions. “Ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake.” “Therefore, turn yourselves and live ye — Turn others and live ye,” calling upon My Name.
There is a Miracle-Working Presence. It is man’s privilege and obligation to make identification with the Miracle-Working Presence, till he himself is a miracle- working presence, spilling over with new radiations as the opened flower spills over with new perfumes. All miracle workings are angelic ministerings.
It is well to notice what we are oftenest visioning toward, as it accounts for our personal conditions and our atmospheric influences. Tell the vivisectionist that his own bodily anguish hurries toward him, and that his subtle personal influence is pain breeding. Tell the worshipper of the High Redeemer that the liberty of the Sons of God hurries toward him undoing all sly contagions, and that his subtle atmosphere is pain-undoing.
Give the whole world the message, how that on his golden bed Solomon with eyes tightly closed gazing out over his unhappy subjects became so unhappy his groanings could be heard afar off; and how the greatest surgeon of Italy on his last bed of torture, with the instructions of another world touching his mind, declared that he must expect that to happen to himself which he had caused to happen to others.
The vision of man is persistent. It records. And it must formulate somewhere nolens volens. “Look unto Me and be ye saved.” “Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty — and the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick.”
Isaiah writes of priests and prophets who by erring in vision stumble in judgment. He deplores their covenanting with their own unprospering imaginations. He insists that in this way they cause their people to dwell in the paths of destruction. But the golden thread of a healing doctrine runs all the way through his denunciatory messages. He is teaching the Hebrew prophets the curative ministry of the high watch: “Behold, your God, He will come and save you.”
Notice how all inspired writers put the vision before the judgment; and the outward conditions of the people’s experiencing, as results following judgment: “Where there is no (saving) vision the people perish.”
Man’s inward visional direction creates his judgments, or mentals; mentals then translate into manifest affairs and manifest bodies. Mentals unvitalized by high vision are but compoundings with phenomena that never get anywhere. “Canst thou by (such) thinking make one hair white or black?”
It is the glory of Mystical Science that its fundamental and first instruction enjoins the exaltation of the inward visional sense, in order that exalted thoughts may formulate and immortal bodies and joyous affairs be made manifest.
David was teaching according to mystical law when, looking up, he talked to the Author of the Wooing Edict, “Look unto Me:” “Thine, 0 Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory and the victory, and the majesty . . . Thou art exalted as head above all .. . Both riches and honor come of thee . . . Keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people.”
The Greeks were clutching at higher things than their minds when they glanced up to AEsculapius the white god above them, who caught and held them tightly and performed even surgical operations as god of healing ever ready world without end, the sweet god’s envoy.
The new education that is coming slowly to the front, tells by one or another mode of impartment, that whatever is oftenest viewed with the inner eye reveals its secrets and hands out its gifts. On this principle a certain choir master taught his boys to remember how the notes looked on the staff, and it was remarkable with what accuracy the boys sang the notes when after some days they came to voice practice. The notes had handed out their best to their attentive onlookers. Mozart lifted his inward gaze again and again to the sky’s angelic choirs, and heavenly strains gave him mental musical ecstasy.
The Parsecs taught that every man has a rich boon destined for him, but that hardly ever any man receives his boon; he repels it, instead. Ostensibly the Parsee gives no hint of how a man may draw the boon destined for him; but going deeper into the secret doctrine threading its way through the Parsee, as through Hebrew writings, we find the sweet urging and the plain direction to set our vision high toward Him that turneth the shadow of death into morning: Every good and perfect boon cometh from above.
Some people- by untaught fixedness of inward attention have occult vitality in visioning. They hasten their objective points to be plainly extant in the world of nature at large and in the world of their own human experience. W. T. Stead described the shipwreck of a White Star liner on an iceberg at sea several years before he experienced it. This was not a very prompt arrival, but J. A. Bartlett’s vision of the Omnipresence of One Flawless Spirit caused a lame man sitting near by to suddenly throw down his crutches and walk with flawless freedom.
“I have said, Behold me, behold me . . . I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people,” saith the Lord by Isaiah. “They have turned their back unto me and not their face,” saith the Lord by Jeremiah.
Occult vitality, or swift formulating vigour is cultivated by steadfastness of attention to the High Helper, the Supernal Giver, who evermore is saying, “Look unto Me,” — “I restore” — “I help” — “I instruct.” — I there anything too hard for me?”
There are objective points to focus the attention toward that which Isaiah calls covenanting with death. Peter the hermit set his inner eye toward the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and with impassioned descriptions drew the steadfast attention of millions of men, women and children toward it as their rightful possession. They endured as seeing an invisible sepulchre and nearly all fell into sepulchres of their own while journeying toward the eloquently described far distant Sepulchre of Jerusalem. How wonderful would have been the hermit’s record had he used his hot eloquence to invite his people’s attention to the Lover above, ever calling to them, “Seek ye me, and ye shall live.” “Look unto me and live.” “The way of life is above to the wise.”
Why has no eloquence described the Countenance of the over-looking Father in Whose light we may breathe the light that infuses with the untellable life of the splendid Eternal?
The mother says, “You will catch cold.” She does not say, “You will catch health.” As the child has native identifying speed, he soon exhibits the objective of his mother’s errant vision with the threatening name cold. If the little Ludovico could tell what page in a book his mother was looking at, even when he was not near her, why could not a child catch his mother’s fears or her foolishness, why even could he not catch her fearlessness or her wisdom?
It was from persistent attention toward the All-Wise and Ever-Living Jesus Christ that Tertullian became the creator of Christian Latin literature, and was given to know the ministering assurance that “We shall all go on forever being the same persons we now are, and shall so continue forever clothed upon with the peculiar substance of immortality.”
It was by observing the disasters in the earth that the unministering Epicureans contended that “God is inert, and a non-entity in human affairs.”
Christianity came after Epicureanism, teaching that the kingdom of God cometh not by observation of earth’s disasters; that we must “Look up to the fields white for the harvest” — “To the God that giveth to all men liberally” — And God shall wipe away all tears.”
True mysticism in every age and every land calls the spreading appearances of earth mirage and delusion. What inspirations, what instructions, can possibly arrive as the results of much study of mirage and delusion? What noble cures, what divine immuneness from necessity for cure have arrived, or ever will arrive from the observations of men in the torture chambers of vivisection? On the contrary, is it not written that “He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword?”
True mysticism teaches a practice that results in cure for all its devotees, and exposes to them the immune offspring of Jehovah-All-Peace on every side. He that looketh toward Me doth everywhere behold Me. “I the Lord will hasten it.”
In the eighteenth psalm David proclaims that he called upon the Lord, and was delivered from his enemies and his wisdom candle was lighted. Solomon, his son, explains for us that David’s candle was the Spirit of the Lord shining upon him: “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.”
Job in his identification with affliction lamented the lost days when he had seen the candle of the Lord shining on his head, which candle he himself had hidden by much gazing toward suffering.
The secret of a man is his candle of lordship, his spirit of wisdom. Dr. Arnold of Rugby studied every class lesson faithfully in order that he might bring out the responsive intelligence — the candle of lordship common to the class — the Solitary that God had set in that little family. To his lasting honor, by addressing Responsive Intelligence, he brought forth leaders of men, statesmen, presidents.
An instructor must bring forth lordship of some sort or he has not accomplished anything. “He has gained nothing who has not gained the Soul,” proclaims the Vendidad, mystically teaching men how to rise free from the clutches of defeat as stalwart lords over evil by ofttime lifting up attention toward the High Redeemer, Whose way upon the earth is the saving health of the nations.
Soul, Spirit, Light, Wisdom, are all names of the Responsive Intelligence filling the universe, ready to break forth everywhere by recognition. “With right glance and right speech man may superintend the universe, animate and inanimate.”
“And the seventh day he (the Lord) called unto Moses.” He responded plainly to the speeches of praise Moses had made unto Him. And He taught Moses how to build an ark-symbol, which should to the Hebrews be sacrosanct testimony forever that the Lord Jehovah does dwell among men, their Leader, Defender, Provider, Inspirer.
Praise of the ever over-looking, ever-fronting Provider, Defender, always meets with response. Was it not promised of old that the sceptre should never depart from Judah? Judah means praise. Praise of earth’s bountiful productiveness has caused the earth to teem with plenty. Praise of gold has hurried gold in rich masses to show itself to praiseful gold seekers. Praise of labor has overrun the globe with laborers planning world conquest.
Recognition is a form of praise. Description is a form of praise. Even to describe what we do not like magnifies its importance and spreads forth its capabilities. “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord,” said David, and “my mouth shall not transgress.”
Did not Fechner discover that Responsive Intelligence looked upward toward him through the earth, as he called it “Angel Mother”? Did not Simon Magus experience earth’s levitating strength, when, by praising Responsive Intelligence as upward bearing strength he buoyantly rose high into the air? Did not lamblichus draw the distant eagles from their crags to come near to him, by speaking firmly and confidently to the Responsive Intelligence shining through the eagles? Does not Bjerregaard declare that the whole earth is awaiting orders to change its perpetual destructiveness?
“Let your speech be seasoned with salt,” said Paul, by which he meant stern confidence. We learn stern confidence by facing the Author of stern confidence, speaking praisefully to the High Original, Whose word changes not, Whose finished works, instinct with agreement that firm praise shall surely make manifest, endure forever and alter not. Concerning the work of My hands offer praise and thanksgiving. The sceptor shall never depart from praise.
“I send to you Epaphroditus,” writes Paul; “He was sick unto death; receive him therefore in the Lord, and hold such in reputation” (or, “honor such”) .
Paul may not have known how near he was bordering to Hinduism while saying they must receive such as Epaphroditus in the Lord and give them good descriptions; but the word of the mystic Hindu had for centuries before Paul’s time been, that, “He that beholdeth all creatures seated in Me, shall behold Me on all sides.”
“Behold Me, Behold Me,” this is the never-ceasing Heavenly Edict. “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me;” this is the law of magnifying by description.
“Let none of you imagine evil,” said Zechariah the prophet who had understanding in the seeing of God. Zechariah might have detailed the sickening imaginings of the mother, the death-dealing imaginings of Peter the hermit, the defeat-bringing imaginings of people like Cleopatra at Actium who, when in the midst of victory suddenly lowered her gaze and brought defeat. But Zechariah specified nothing in particular. He gathered all false imaginings against ourselves and our fellowmen under one head, and warned mankind forever to speak only truth to his neighbor: “Let every man speak truth to his neighbor, let none of you imagine evil in his heart against his neighbor.”
What is truth? High praise of the lordship, the shining wisdom, the divine wholeness of every man, woman, child, animal, tree, plant, stone, star, throughout all the near and far stretching expanses, visible and invisible — this is truth. For back of each visible is divine reality. In the Hindu Lanka Vetara we read, “What seems external exists not at all.”
What made the Christian Apostles so mighty in works? Their secret visional direction, forming right judgments quickly, making sudden outward demonstrations, being certain of a Countenance shining as the sun, raiment white as the light as the only ever facing Reality.
“I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ,” said Paul to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were famous for their strange diseases, but so long as the Lord Jesus Christ was standing up in the midst of them why should Paul set his eyes on strange diseases?
“After six days Jesus . . . was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light — And when they had lifted up their eyes they saw no man, save Jesus only.”
The time always was and is now that the divine Self, the shining Spirit, the Jesus Christ Lordship stands ever before us, but only by having had our eyes lighted by lifting them to the Ain Soph the great Countenance of the Absolute, can we see face to face who our neighbor is in the sight of the over-seeing Father, and give our neighbor the honor due him as shining Spirit, flawless Lordship.
This was the secret of the wonder-working early Christians. He who had said, “He that hath seen me bath seen the Father,” was the perpetual objective to their inner eye. He was to them the Angel of God’s Presence, identical in office and authority with the Father. His promise to be with all men to the end of the dispensation of lower imaginations was a reality to them, as it is now to all who believe His words, “Lo, I am with you alway.”
There always comes before us the Angel of God’s Presence whenever any man, woman or child appears. “l am the truth,” he is saying — “Judge not according to the appearance. lt requires that strength of character called the seventh stone to answer, “I will not judge according to appearance. Noticing only the Angel of the Presence I can firmly declare, “I know you as free, wise, immortal Christ Jesus here present; neither sin, sickness, nor death, can touch you.”
Once having started on this truth, the glory of truth so quickens our hearts that to us as to the upward visioned Apostles, there is no man save Jesus only, with face shining as the sun, and raiment white as the light. Nobody, even a Corinthian-plastered enemy, can resist the praise of his victorious free Spirit, his candle of Lordship, his Angel of God’s Presence, his own real Self. He has to drop all his delusions, his diseases, his griefs, his misfortunes, even his death. Two are ever in the field. Choose ye.
“Go, I pray thee, Joseph,” said Israel, “and see the peace of thy brethren.” And Joseph went out into the world seeing only peace, the Jehovah Shalom ever present, the Lord of peace, and speaking only peace to his eleven brethren. From the standpoint of the unenlightened eye the eleven brethren were liars, thieves, murderers, disease-threatened hypocrites. But Joseph on about his father’s business, saw peace, spoke peace, went forward toward the light of peace, till the eleven fell down before him transformed into lovers, friends, light bearers to the world.
The bringing forth of the Jesus Christ type, spiritually bold and executive, is the fruition toward which all religions and philosophies are bent.
The recognition, the acknowledgment of a Christ Jesus in the universe, focuses the inward attention to the greatest character-formulating objective the universe holds. It acts like heat on invisible ink. Mary had been with the inner eye looking steadfastly to her Lord as above in heaven, till He stood beside her, even while she with outward eyes beheld Him as the gardener. He called to her as He had called to Moses. Then with opened eyes she saw Him, and not the gardener. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant, to make them know it.”
Some later day philosophers tell of “The Soul, the Spirit, rising up in wrath against the natural order that denies its autonomy;” and of its “defying the principalities and powers that would brutalize it.” But the Hebrew sacred teachings declare that Soul, in calm majesty, defying nothing, cloth truly wait on God. “Nothing can injure the immortal principle of the Soul,” wrote the watchful illuminati among the far past Theophoroi.
He Who is the Strong Son of God, standing ever in our neighbor’s stead, manifests as health and strength in mankind, when glorious truth is spoken to Him as The Wonderful facing us everywhere. Nothing that we praise the Omnipotent Christ as being shall fail to manifest somewhere, somehow, among the sons of men. Why should we speak to Him, free Soul, free Spirit that He is, as rising up in wrath, or fighting with defiant zeal to hold His own among us?
Sometimes we read in writings of influential men, that God suffers at sight of our wickedness, and is distressed at our ignorance and stubbornness. For the moment the writers seem to be forgetting that “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” By such teachings concerning suffering and distress on high, they turn the eyes of their docile people to an inadequate and despairing Deity who needs help and encouragement from us. They must study again the written inspirations of men in their diviner visions, when, as the Greek high watcher averred, they are “above their proper wits,” unhypnotized by outward observations. There they will read of the High and Lofty One inhabiting Eternity, Who healeth the broken in heart, Who bindeth up their wounds, Who teacheth men what before they knew not, Who exalteth by His power, great in counsel and mighty to work, Who cannot look on evil.
“The Lord will raise up a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren; unto him shall ye hearken,” was the Mosaic prophecy. “And Philip findeth Nathaniel, and saith unto him, We have found him, of Whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write.”
“And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.” “And he shall show judgment to the Gentiles.” “Watch ye therefore — to stand before the Son of man.” lt is necessary to right accomplishment that we have a definite goal to reach, a character standard to emulate. Failing a unital standard of finished high achievement, whole colleges of men have gone on year after year without graduating a single man of high achievement.
lt is not from gaze toward the inchoate mass of men as brotherhood, or the mass of women as sisterhood, or the mass of labor as leaderhood, that we catch the sound of a distinct moral tone, or discover a pivotal health centre shedding forth resistless health. It is from gaze toward one victorious, indestructible Minister of the Almighty Original ever standing in our midst, saying, “Lo, I am with you alway,” that we catch the keynote to victorious ministry.
He has gained nothing who has not gained sight of the ministering Solitary Whom God hath set in the family of earth.
Joshua saw the Lord Jehovah standing up in Jericho; and moon-worshipping Jericho became a school of the prophets of Jehovah. “As the Lord God of lsrael liveth before whom I stand,” said Elijah, not noticing Ahab and Jezebel and their warrior-strengthened animosity; and Elijah was independent of the angry king and his army of haters.
“In a very little while Lebanon shall be a fruitful field,” wrote lsaiah with figurative profundity. Lebanon stands for the Soul type, the Jesus Christ standard, Strong Son of God, Everlasting Friend, always with us, asking only recognition by praiseful description to be promptly fruitful after His own pattern, till earth’s cities and plains are filled with men fulfilling untellable triumphs by new laws discoverable only through association with an altogether triumphant Prototype.
“I turned to see the voice: and being turned,” reports John the Revelator, “I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks One like unto the Son of man.”
Candlesticks are definite divine messages. To know the seven definite messages of Pure Mysticism in their straight line of revealment, as decipherable through the many insulating or mistaken injunctions of the Sacred Books of all time, is to come like John, face to face subjectively with One All-God, Whose objective reality makes haste as the fulfillment of inward certainty. For, except what we recognize subjectively, has its counterpart outwardly, we have not consummated our convictions. Inward conviction is not alive till it demonstrates on the human and manifest blackboard of daily experience.
Make a note of John’s final hardy exhibitions of what he saw on the Isle of Patmos, with inner vision unrelated to the harsh passing Patmos days: Men denied the truth on which his faith rested, and with railing and malignant temper disputed his authority; but Polycarp, Ignatius and Papias rose up ready for martyrdom for the truth of his preaching. Boiling oil had not power to hurt his Christ-imbued body; even robbers turned glad Christian healers at the sound of his confident word, “Thy Soul prospereth.” At Ephesus, where he had been maligned and denied, he was carried into the Christian assemblies bearing on his brow a plate of gold with the sacred Name engraved on it; and he was named “Apostle of Love,” not as a character feminine, yielding, softly benevolent, but as one who recognized the Lord Christ ever present as the only reality of every man everywhere.
Jacob saw the same Son of man, and called Him “Angel,” and “God,” and keeping his vision steadfastly set toward the Angel, he blessed with effectual blessing all his children and grandchildren to the present generation, and to all the mysterious generations hastening along. The Angel of His Presence saved them — in His love He redeemed them.
And the seventh foundation stone of character (the heavenly Jerusalem) is chrysolite. This was one of the symbolic visions of John toward the Son of man merging into manifestation. The chrysolite is the golden stone symbolic of right communication — the tongue of the wise that is health. Does not Solomon say that he that speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness, and that the lips of truth shall be established forever, and that the words of the pure are pleasant words, winning the Soul — the divine Selfhood, to show forth?
The divine Selfhood always accompanies every man. lt stands with him, back of him, or near him, instead of him, uncontaminated by his human mistakes; indestructible though he himself appears to be broken; omnipotent though outwardly he appears weak; poised, wise, joyous, though uncertainty, stupidity and grief are now his manifestations. Who is there determined not to judge according to appearance, but to judge according to the Selfhood of every child of earth, praising the ever present upright man whose right is dominion?
Those willing like Paul at Corinth to know no man save the Jesus Christ Self only, touch the seventh stone — the golden speech of right association. “Two shall be in the field,” said Jesus, “one shall be taken, the other left.”
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve” — by description. For all description, silent or audible. brings to outward exhibition; speedily, if the inward conviction is alive, slowly, if the inward conviction is not yet vivified by persistent attention. The downward watch calls for descriptions of death and defeat, disease and dementia, the shadow system, insubstantial, untrue, ever waiting the message of its own undoing.
True descriptions are the New Gospel. Praise the true Self, is the Right Message. Do not wail that little false notions, little errors are always creeping into your mind, though truly you want only God. Do not complain that your body is not sound, though you really love the Highest. Can you not see that your vision is on the terrifying errors creeping in, and on the body’s non-refreshment, rather than on the “bad man’s Deliverer,” “the Lord that healeth?” The Sacred Edict calls for looking away from error and from human brokenness.
What shining conversationalists and clever describers of human conditions are among us! What gospels of healing they might be turning their splendidly equipped tongues into, by praising the free, wise, immortal Son of God standing up Solitary and Glorious in the family of earth! Every listener would be enchanted with his own divinity and forget forever his low estate of ignorance and pain. But even if the learned and eloquent of today refuse their privilege of chrysolite speech, the “Desire of all Nations” shall surely come, as response to some voice of praise of Reality, as the prophet Haggai foresaw.
Though the people were tired of Aristides for talking so much about AEsculapius and Minerva, his undaunted speech brought Esculapius and Minerva into his own plain sight, with their ministry in his behalf, one to teach him statecraft for the people’s benefit, the other to bring him health to continue helping the people.
Though they were tired of Paul for teaching Christ Jesus, yet by persistent praise of the “Desire of all Nations” Paul raised their dead for them, saved their proud officials from drowning, and cured their people of life-long maladies.
“Thou . .. hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name — and I will make them to know that I have loved thee.”
“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished. And the angel said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” ln his tenth chapter John tells the whole story of the Universal Christ ever present for manifestation. To prophesy is to proclaim truth, the same today as yesterday, and the same tomorrow as today. The eternal verities have no tense.
The first six angels, or announcements, insist on our looking above to the High and Lofty One inhabiting Eternity, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The seventh angel declares that with the inbreath of the Victorious Name, the speaking tongue and the thinking speech are newly alive. The Victorious Name awakes vital breath and vital prophesies.
The old injunction of the magi to animate each particular life from the Universal Life is native activity to one who has caught the messages of John’s mystically heard six angels. The seventh angel’s voice telling us to preach the truth of the ever present Son of God coming before us whenever our neighbor faces us, is the call to us to speak to free Life till free Life shines forth.
Philip of Macedon kept a servitor near him whose business it was to be often saying in his ear, “Philip, remember thou art but mortal!” This worked so on the secret springs of Philip’s outward activities that he rushed downward into assassination at forty-six years of age. Israel of old kept Ezekiel often reiterating what Israel should experience in the distant future. Ezekiel told lsrael over and over that seeming national death should finally eventuate in upbuilding and regeneration. A captive himself on the banks of the Chebar, he proclaimed a far off future liberty for lsrael by a new Law, or Torah. Futurity worked so on the secret springs of the Israelites that they are still waiting regeneration by a new Torah.
So under the Jewish mesmeric descriptions of futurity were the early Christians, that Paul said they would not accept deliverance from martyrdom, hoping for a better resurrection later on. And Paul, under futurity’s spell, said that God Himself foresaw that the martyrs would not have been made perfect by suffering if they had not received the promises of futurity. Paul often forgot that “today is the day of salvation.”
He who has awakened his speech by the Holy Ghost that comes by the Mystic Name, talks only to the awakened. He sees the Master Spirit wherever he looks, and he describes Victorious Spirit with the bold tongue of unhushable conviction. He looks to the Christ Jesus Spirit of the man who hates, and comrades with the Lover only; then nobody can find that man of hate. He talks to the Christ Jesus Spirit of the man who offers to “die for the Right,” and he converses only with the Indestructible Master for the Right; then nobody forevermore can think of “dying for the Right.” lt is unthinkable. He thinks only that Right is Its own Life victoriously unkillable.
Right vision so regenerates judgment that the tongue and bodily activities regenerate in all directions. This is not more than Joseph did with seeing Peace, nor more than John did with seeing the Angel of the Presence, who told him not to do obeisance, but to know him as Mighty Brother, Master for Right, without hurting or being hurt.
As far as John went in his convictions born of his vision he demonstrated among men. As much as he visioned distinctly he proved. To him the seventh angel was the proclamation of the complete — the finished: “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air. And there came a great voice out of heaven, saying, lt is done.”
And the servants informed the nobleman: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So then the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus had said unto him, “Go thy way, thy son liveth.” The words of Jesus had been spoken to unfevered free Spirit, and outward conditions had tallied with unfevered free Spirit.
John prayed that his neighbors might prosper and be in health as he saw their soul prospering, and he declared that the greatest joy he had was hearing that his converts walked in truth, doing faithfully to their brethren and to strangers.
“ln the seventh place the Lord imparted them speech, an interpreter of the cognitions,” writes the Son of Sirach, in Ecciesiasticus 17:5. Seven is thus implied when we read that -The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord.” “And the Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.” “Zion” is man’s divinity-Self, the upright that hath dominion. And the greatest blessing we can bespeak Jerusalem (our neighbor) is his divine freedom, as all sacred lore and law insist:
“In that day shall thy mouth be opened to the free.” “In the seventh year he shall go out free.” “Ye had done right . . . in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor.” “That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, shew yourselves.”
Always high vision stirs right speech, silent or audible; and right speech, silent or audible, stirs right convictions, and the accomplishment of the seemingly impossible is the outcome.
The upward watch of Benezet the shepherd of Savoy stirred in him such vital conviction of the presence of a living Christ that the Christ spoke plainly to him, giving him orders to build a bridge across the river Rhone. The public monuments of Avignon attest that. Benezet did build the bridge which even Charlemagne would not undertake.
The upward watch of Dorothy of Brixton stirred in her such vital conviction that the same Lord Christ spoke plainly to her, telling her to rise off the bed of death and show herself strong, sound and sane. And she rose up strong, sound and sane. These both heard the same Responsive Power speaking to them that Moses heard “in the seventh day,” as we read, Exodus 24:16.
Everywhere majestic Divinity faces us. Speaking to majestic Divinity stirs celestial instinction. Celestial instinction is that secret spring to right conditions which all the world is seeking. lnstinction, vital conviction, is sometimes called the will. Has it not been declared that nothing ever really wins the will from its native bent? But high watch wins the will to work the kingly ministry of the flawless Deliverer standing up in the earth. “Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? Lo, I see four men, and the form of the fourth is like to the Son of God.” And seeing thus the Saving Other, the king found no hurt in the three men of the fiery furnace in the plain of Dura. ‘Was not that an exhibition of the worthwhileness of sighting the Son of God, the Radiant One ever present?
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh.” Enoch was mentioned of old as a type of perfected humanity. He was described as one living a prophetic life and having constant converse with the unseen world. He taught our true human existence in glory, and the resurrection of our body in beauty. The voice of early ecclesiastical tradition regarded Enoch as one of the two witnesses John mentions in Revelations, eleventh chapter, to whom should be given power to prophesy twelve hundred and sixty days in the midst of world-wide unbelief. Enoch was the Scriptural forerunner of all who look out over the earth toward the Angel of God’s Presence, the Christ Jesus of Mankind, harmonious, wise, immortal, and keep on describing the Saving One though war, ignorance and destruction throw their shadows across the shining majesty.
Out of John’s vision we gather the straight instruction that the word concerning the Lord’s presence among us shall prove itself to be the most mighty word, for He shall surely be seen taking to Himself His great power and reigning visibly among all the kingdoms of the world. Why not, since what we persist in praising must surely stand forth?
Ezekiel once had this mystic vision of the Son of Man, the Lord-Self among the seeming dry bones in the valley, as he prophesied divided Judah and Joseph as soon to be one great kingdom alive with the word. His speech to the dry bones has the vitality of some unseen ocean’s morning winds. He is a phonograph of the Voice of the Master Builder: “0 ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin; and put breath in you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.”
Benvenuto Cellini sent his inner eye out lowering down into distant space and caught the form of Charon. He painted the form and features of Charon on plaques and vases and shields, till he feared Charon as a dangerous entity. Martin Luther sent his lowering inner gaze into dread space and described Satan, till Satan became real to him — so real that at this very day an ink stain on a castle wall shows where Luther hurled an inkwell at the prince of darkness his mother had so often described.
And to this day other human beings are still setting their eyes toward menacings that do not menace, when, like Enoch and Ezekiel in their great moments, they might be viewing the ever present King in His beauty, to the transformation of human existence into glory, and the revival of the human form into beauty and vigour. For at the sounding of the seventh angel’s message, great voices shout that “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever,” transforming war into loving kindness, and anger into chants of praises of ransomed man.
To gloom or glory is the tend of the inner eye. And all human beings and all events of human existence are gloomed or glorified to us by the direction of our inner eye. Luther at one period saw Satan overshadowing everywhere. Every direction then became so gloomed to Luther that Catharine asked him if he thought God might be dead.
Choose not to set the inner eye toward menace. Choose to set it toward the prize of the Lord Christ’s healing face ever looking toward us — Strength of the nations, Joy of the world.
“Here eyes do regard you in eternity’s stillness;
Choose well, your choice is brief and yet endless.”“Let a man contend to the uttermost
For his life’s set prize, let be what it will.”
In one of lsaiah’s dreams, his tongue was touched with prophetic fire from off the altar, because his eyes had seen the King in His beauty. And all sorrow fled from before lsaiah’s face, and sighings he could not hear, for the songs of the unshadowed were in his ears, and the sight of the lame man leaping, and the weak hands strengthening, filled him altogether with joy.
If lsaiah with his will to concentrate all the energies of his being to the salvation of mankind from war and pain, had had the science of making visions immediately tangible, instead of always throwing them into futurity, lsrael and Judah would have made manifest the sons of peace and healing in all directions, as Isaiah’s delectable demonstrations of the radio in extenso of a finished vision firmly and sternly declared. “Believe his prophets, so shall you prosper,” counseled Jehoshaphat the reformer; and the Hebrews believed in the prophets of futurity and prospered. Let now the world believe in the prophets of what already is, in the already presence of One Who redeemeth all life from threatenings for the seer’s sake, that mankind may visibly prosper everywhere, and be in health, as Soul, the Only Reality of man, his Sonship to the Highest, already prospers.
“By the bright Soul’s law learn to live;
And if men thwart thee take no heed;
And if men slight thee have no care.
Sing thou thy song and do thy deed,
Hope thou thy hope and pray thy prayer,
And claim no crown this does not give.”
Every spiritual law calls for steadfastness. There is but One Edict but we must steadfastly maintain obedience thereunto. Thus only are the practices signified by the voices of the angels, our own spontaneous practices. But having scientifically learned the voices of the angels, it is scientific for us to maintain them day by day under all the circumstances of daily living whether or no they have as yet proved themselves. Strike the iron till it is hot. Is it not reasonable to speak often praisefully and with firmness to the upright, ever-present Lord of Cure, if by so doing the radiance of the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings shines forth, affecting all in our vicinity, as the wonderful Fourth affected Azariah, Mishael and Hananiah for the King of Babylon’s sake?
“Man has the enunciative reason; if he makes use of this for what he ought, he will be guided into the choir of God” prophesied thrice-wise Hermes. “Do thou thy work betimes, and He shall reward thee in His time.”
“My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation,” said David; “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” Could any enunciation be more calculated than positive praise of the Lord ever facing us, to guide us into the choir of God? Why should we not joyfully practice the seventh angel’s orders, “Prophesy again, before many peoples and nations, and tongues and kings.” For “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds… . His understanding is infinite.”
“I will praise thee among much people.” “On the harp will I praise thee.” “Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, 0 Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.” Let us take our eye off cheapness and incompetence, the wounded in life’s battles, and the defeats of strife, and look often to the Saving Other awaiting our praises.
“He shall deliver the island of the innocent; and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.” Hands are powers. No powers so pure as unqualified praise. But, notice, He shall deliver the island of the innocent. Some law as mysterious as that by which the trees leave forth, makes the unseen divinity of man, his island of innocence, kindle forth as health and newness of life, when the divinity is called Jesus Christ, the everlasting, ever- present, omnipotent Self, the Christ in you the hope of glory.
Note that David praises Him on the harp for the might of His name. We may never speak the name Jesus Christ. We may always speak the name Spirit, or God or Love, and describe Spirit, God, as Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscience, and do quite great things by such praise, but there will be some nameless flavor lacking in the health and strength that come forth thereby. As the actinic ray in the sun is the secret of the sweetness of the grape, so Jesus Christ Who stands up in the universe as the one man having demonstrated the fullness of the Godhead bodily, is the human touch to the divinity of man. And being recognized as the health of man, there is a vital kindling forth as health and happy vigour, fearless of death and misfortune, not translation but transfiguration for humanity.
“God hath given him a name which is above every name.” The preaching of the mysterious might of the Name and the healing Presence of the Jesus Christ is the risen doctrine. It is not the province of the risen doctrine to insist on a verbatim formula of praise of the far radiating Presence. The recognition, the acknowledgment of a pivotal character transcending all limitations, irresistibly acting as invigorating energy, causes right words silent or audible to formulate, sweeping their original meanings into the affairs of the world.
“Now therefore go,” said the voice of the Lord to Moses, “and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.” Moses was slow of speech, but he spoke and thought and wrote words that have caught the ears and hearts and actions of millions of strong men throughout many centuries. “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,” said David, “and his word was in my tongue.” And David’s words have been radiant with beauty and vitality since ever he thought and wrote them forth, kindled by the Spirit of God. For I “shall put my spirit in you . . . and ye shall know,” declared the Lord through Ezekiel.
“l will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist,” said the prophetic Christ to His first disciples. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which Stephen the miracle-worker spake.
The ever-present Jesus Christ is a resistless healing and strengthening centre. How can we help speaking the Name and describing Him as the burden bearer of the world — the one Almighty Substance upbearing our sick neighbor and his sickness — upbearing our unfortunate neighbor and his misfortune — upbearing our insane neighbor and his insanities — upbearing our wicked neighbor and his wickedness — upbearing our palsied neighbor and his palsy — upbearing our burdened neighbor and his burdens-upbearing us and our obligation to help our neighbor, till all the nations fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity the acknowledged Son of Light procures them, as Jeremiah foretold in his Chapter 33.
No address to our neighbor’s mental constitution (conscious or unconscious, so called) by the brave, bold insistence of mental suggestions of freedom, peace, strength, can equal the curative activity of the Son of God acknowledged as upbearer, order bringer and healing peace. “lt is he that giveth salvation to kings.” “He maketh doctrine to shine as the morning, and sendeth forth her light afar off — and leaveth it to all ages forevermore.”
lt is the nature of the rose to shed forth perfume. It has faced the sunshine that causes heavenly breaths to smile forth from unscented leaf capsules:
“How sweet the breath beneath the hills
Of Sharon’s dewy rose.”
It is the nature of wine to refresh and revive. The grape has faced the sunshine that wakes reviving wines. It is the nature of man who faces the Countenance that shineth as the sun in his strength to shed forth beautiful descriptions that fit only the ever present Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings. And he who is full to the brim of his being with silent descriptions of the Lord of Glory now looking toward us sheds healing perfume, curative breaths, reviving elixirs through even his garments. Did not Paul’s aprons and handkerchiefs cure the sick? Did not Peter’s shadow revive the faint? The Lord of life and health was their comrade. They kept high company. Not a new set of men and women came to them to show forth their unseen comradeship, but the same men and women came before them, clothed and in their right minds. “For thus saith the Lord, Behold I will extend peace … like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.” “And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake.”
“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence. . . . And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.”
The seal of man’s being first stirs to opening when he silently addresses the God that standeth in the congregation of the mighty, the shining One ever in our midst; and the seven trumpets are his when he boldly speaks aloud that the Jesus Christ of man is the only reality of man. The trumpets of God are the tongues of his prophets speaking in heaven-taught moments, when no complainings or denouncements caught from sights of evil spoil the music of their tones.
ln the days of the voice of the seventh angel John was told that the book he must eat, which was the Name that should teach him all things, would be sweet in his mouth but bitter in the vital centres of his being. lf John had not known by the third angel’s speaking, that the wormwood of mind cure was the blessed bitterness of the book, and that the seventh angel’s voice was only emphasizing the former prophecy, that his influence should be as a river of mind cure if he assimilated the Mystic Name; he could not have understood the glorious gospel reiterated by the seventh angel’s instructions.
But John understood that he was being told anew that his inward speech should relate him to the great Jesus Whose fame went throughout all Syria as healing the people, and throughout all Judea where the multitudes had only to touch the hem of His garment to stir with newness of life. John felt himself blessing countless generations by reason of comrading with the great central figure of cure and blessing. He felt the river of mind cure flowing forth from his own inward speech.
And the Son of Sirach prophesied, “Whoso feareth the Lord it shall go well with him.” To fear is to keep the eye single. “lf thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light” (wisdom) . “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
The Lord is the resistless Law of the High Deliverer making manifest among mankind as the result of upward watch. Looking to the High and Lofty One inhabiting Eternity we bring to pass a new order of outward appearance to represent our high vision. lt is always a masterful appearance. Nothing can hold opposition to it. If by our steadfast watch in obedience to the high mandate we suddenly see peace before our inward gaze, that peace will prove its lordship by quelling pain and discord. This is the lordship of peace. Jesus Christ ever standing before us is forever the Prince of Peace. His Name is the Mystic Name of the resistless lordship of peace. The Lord maketh it go well on all sides for them that recognize Jehovah Shalom.
“Who by this vision splendid
Is on his way attended,
Great peace shall mark his way.”
And the Son of Sirach further said that his right tongue, his new tongue, was his reward for praising the Lord, the Saviour with the Great Name. And this reward he called the time of the Seventh.
“And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.” And his friends were praying for him. Throughout all the mystic teachings of the divine law of cure, there is mention of prayer and praise in behalf of the brethren of the faith. Notice John’s instruction, “Do faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers.”
Jesus began by sending His disciples out among strangers by two and two. “Two did build the house of lsrael.” “Two did put ten thousand to flight.” “How should two put ten thousand to flight except the Lord had shut them up?” asks Moses, calling his people’s attention to the miracle-working Lord. “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them,” said Jesus; and, “It is also written in your law that the testimony of two witnesses is true.”
Happy in our own day is everyone who has. a comrade to go forth with him, keeping the high watch and praising the divine Self facing them, the Angel of God, the unweighted flawless Reality of every neighbor everywhere without respect of persons. They are surely like Peter and John at the Temple gate, speaking to the Jesus Christ Self of the impotent everywhere, to walk and praise their Lord. Zechariah, the seer of God, prophetically beheld two women with wings, bearing an ephah between them. And the wind of Divine Spirit was in their wings, and they bare the ephah to build for it an house in the land of Shinar, hostility.
Somewhere among the books earlier than Zechariah’s time, it reads that two women together bearing the same message or ephah, could bring all the world to their doctrine. But surely the doctrine must be divine truth to be strong to hold out in the land of hostility (Shinar) to the day of the world’s acceptance. Only divine truth can survive the Shinar hostility of downward visioned mankind. Two bearing the heavenly ephah of high vision and the praise that make up its ministry shall have speech with Responsive Intelligence, the Jesus Christ Self, standing free, wise, immortal, before them always. “Behold, He goeth before you,” said the angel to the two Marys.
Job was one, and his friends together made another. Peter in the prison praying for his friends made one; his friends in an upper chamber praying for him made another. The great quarternity of sorrows, the dark d’s of the downward looking of man’s inward eye, disease, death, demonism, darkness, like a four-thicknessed veil, dissolved always before the heaven-sent two, the two standing before the Lord of the whole earth. “Even the devils are subject to us,” reported astonished Peter.
The law of the way of the mighty miracle has never been abrogated. To all who read the words of the seventh angel, or the seventh chapter of the divine law of cure, all the miracles are free grace to the praiseful. Each reader makes the first of the two bearing right praises, the new ephah, the rest of those who love and agree with high praise of the Lord in the midst of us mighty to save make the other of the two bearing the ephah or the praise message.
It wakens a new and more spontaneous dealing with the flawless divinity of the distressed and ill, if we first look to the Divine One standing Solitary and Glorious in the midst of the people of the New Age, saying boldly to that Shining Presence: I see you transcending all human conditions, unweighted by matter, unshadowed by fear; free, flawless, triumphant. I look now to the Son of God, the Angel of God’s Presence, the cure and peace and strength of all mankind. I look to Everlasting Life, shedding forth the radiance of the Everlasting Kingdom. All are gathered into life ever renewing, into health ever restoring, into wisdom ever brightening and rejoicing — gathered and upborne in beauty and love and might by Thee, 0 Free Spirit, victorious Christ Jesus facing me, with face shining as the Sun and raiment white as the light, transfiguring the whole earth with living triumph!
To address Responsive Reality in this way is to come into ready praise of the victorious divinity, the Angel of his Presence of each claimant for our help. Praise of the ever present Son of God distills as wine for the faint in the wilderness, sweet friendships to the lonely, blessed restorations to hearts sick of earthly hardships, for there is ever a baptism from high praise. It falls like gentle healing rains on human beings. lt unites them to that which causes them to transcend themselves. Enduring as seeing the Invisible Solitary is greeting That which sees us, and the outcome is Health that rays forth Health.
“The healing of Thy seamless dress
Moves past the ways of men,
They feel Thee in life’s throng and press
And they are whole again.”
By practicing the high directions of this Eighth Study as concerning everybody everywhere, and concerning every thought and every thing, we bless them all by undeceiving them all.
E. C. H.