"Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honor me, but HAVE REMOVED THEIR HEARTS FAR FROM ME: and their fear (or love) toward me is TAUGHT BY THE PRECEPTS OF MEN * * *" Etc. (Isaiah 29:26).
The above scripture is most startling. "The precepts of men" are the teachings of the creeds and churches and the various denominations of Christendom that exist upon this earth today.
How do we know that this prophecy of Isaiah was for this day? Because there is no prophecy in the scripture that does not give a key to the time of its fulfilling. This scripture from the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, contains its own complete key. In verses seventeen to twenty-one it reveals the time element. It is to be when "Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field and the fruitfield shall be esteemed as a forest -- when the deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."
The land of Israel, cursed and barren and uninhabited by her natural sons for centuries is now being turned into a fruitful field. Thirty-five years ago a man could not make a living on sixty acres for a wife and one child. Now, on two acres he can produce an abundance for himself and a family. The ancient curse is indeed being lifted from the land and it is turning into a fruitful field. And the great miracle of the other promises and the essence of the time involved is already at our doors. The deaf are being given small, electronic devices with which to hear. The blind are being able to read Braille that they can see out of obscurity.
There is no question as to the time.
And it is the precepts of men or the teachings of the orthodoxed groups and churches that have been responsible for powerless lip service as their members draw near to HIM with their mouths and honor HIM with their lips, WHILE THEIR HEARTS have remained cold and barren and unawakened. This is because none of the creeds or denominations or churches have comprehended or known how to fulfill those TWO GREAT COMMANDMENTS OF LOVE. Neither have they lived by such teachings. Their love toward God has indeed been taught by the precepts of men, which hold forth the idea of attendance at church meetings, paying of contributions or tithes and offerings and the filling of a seat in the assembly as they give lip service as their show of devotion.
That First and Great Commandment has never been taught! Nor the second one in a manner that would make it a privilege and a living power of divine glory. These divine, holy Commandments of Love have never been fully accepted. Congregations have nodded their heads in a weak acclaim and that is as far as it has ever gone. These divine laws of LOVE have never been made a living issue or a divine privilege of everlasting glory and power. While many believe their own little pet road to heaven is paved with their individual selected passages of scripture, unlived and unfulfilled. The necessity or the method of LOVING GOD WITH ALL THE HEART, SOUL, MIND AND STRENGTH has never been considered.
"God is in the midst of all things!" He is in the center of every atom, the living nucleus in every infinitesimal, tiny organism. It is God's living intelligence and power around which the atom is formed and consists. And as one learns to LOVE God with his entire being those spiritual centers, "In the midst of every living cell and fibre of his own body "begin to be quickened" and expanded into a knowing or a recollection of their true, divine functioning. This quickening or awakening is the most glorious experience possible to realize as one holds his mind in a control of singing splendor and radiant majesty. With this accomplishment the power of LOVE will begin to be released throughout that individual's entire being. And this very LOVE will renovate those physical cells into a renewed vigor and awareness of LIFE --YES! "LIFE MORE ABUNDANT!"
"It is given to abide in you the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; and hath all power."
As this LOVE FOR GOD is comprehended the cells and atoms will begin to yield up their dead component parts and the entire being of man will turn from its half-dead, mortal functioning of being but a repository of dying materials, or the sepulcher of them, into living tissues as they become filled with Light and Life. In this process the Christ Light will be released from its tomb, right within man, into a radiant existence of complete fulfillment as it fills one full with its own fulfilling glory.
Then it is that the Light or Spirit, centered in every atom will be glorified and will unite and become ONE. And in that spiritual renewing of the individual cells and atoms one is prepared to "BE BORN OF THE SPIRIT and henceforth will have the power to come and go as the wind, and no one will know from whence he came or whither he goeth" as he gives his strength and intelligence in a joy of service beyond all mortal men to comprehend. This is joy beyond understanding. This is fulfillment!
"Without vision the people perish!" Vision is an awakening, or an alerting of the soul as one's understanding expands. With this visioning desires and yearnings unfold to reveal new and living possibilities. And it is true, that without vision or HOPE one is already trudging that pathway of death or destruction.
A man is but a seed in which the living life germ of divinity is dormant and unfulfilled until awakened. So is every atom of the body but an unfulfilled glory, waiting to 'BECOME -- GLORIOUS!" A man or an atom, for that matter, can remain like a seed, a mere kernel of grain, unawakened and inactive and insignificant, just filling some infinitesimal place, some unimportant niche as it continues in a dead state of existence. Or the atoms and cells and man himself can, with the right conditions, and with his own choosing and intense desiring, or awakening vision quicken that life germ within as he begins to envision the glory of perfection and the fulfilling of the PROMISES OF ALMIGHTY GOD in his life.
As that inner germ is awakened, through visioning, it begins to reach toward heaven. The very desiring that is expanded by a new awareness generates the heat of its own germinating as it begins to evolve toward its own divine fulfillment. Thus it is within the power of every individual to fulfill all things! -- To "BECOME PERFECT EVEN AS THE FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT!" And each atom and cell will in like manner begin to generate the Spirit Light of their primal existence and to fulfill the full measure of their divine quickening until the Spirit within each minute fibre and tissue is renovated, transformed and prepared to "BE BORN OF THE SPIRIT." In this fulfilling is contained the full measure of man and every PROMISE EVER GIVEN!"
One cannot possibly LOVE GOD with all his mind without developing a mind single to the glory of God. And in doing this he will become filled with Light. With the awakening of that spiritual intelligence and life within the very atoms and cells of his entire being they will be alerted and quickened as they begin to fulfill their own glorious functioning. Then the individual will complete his inborn assignment, whatever it may be. He will not only "be filled with Light but will COMPREHEND ALL THINGS!" FOR THIS IS ACCORDING TO GOD'S OWN PROMISE!
Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself has said,
I am a son, a child of God?
I can from grubby earth arise
And tread the Pathway of the Skies!
Within me is the seed of God
And I can tread where He has trod!
This inner purification of the HEART, through LOVE, as it is cleansed from all unrighteousness and evils is truly the divine "ROAD TO ZION," of which Isaiah spoke in his thirty-fifth chapter. "ZION IS THE REALM OR ABODE OF THE PURE IN HEART!"
And as the heart is purified and cleansed so is the entire body and the cells and the atoms thereof spiritualized and exalted as they are transformed into their true spiritual counterparts. And this is "THE LIFE MORE ABUNDANT" which Christ came to give. And it is awaiting each individual's acceptance of it. In this divine process, which is the OVERCOMING, every cell and atom and tissue puts off the darkness of mortality and vibrates in a newness of quickened, glorious, radiant LIFE. This is Christ's gift to the world. It is for everyone who desires it, and who will prepare themselves to receive it.
Christ never once spoke of death nor sought to prepare man to accept it. Christ spoke always of LIFE! "LIFE MORE ABUNDANT!" Or LIFE ETERNAL, in which a man need never die!
And those who profess to be followers of Christ, and yet accept not of His teachings are professing in vain.
And it is along that "ROAD TO ZION" or the complete purification of the heart, that one has the power to "cross over" the bridge from mortality into immortality. Again, we shall quote from that most sacred twenty-third Ode of Solomon, who told of this work in detail, starting with verse ten, as follows: "But a wheel (which means the power of God in action), received the great volume (see verse 19), and came over it;
"And there was with it a sign of the Kingdom and of the Government (of God);
"And it gathered the multitude of adversaries, and BRIDGED THE RIVERS AND CROSSED OVER AND ROOTED UP MANY FORESTS AND MADE A BROAD PATH.
"The head went down to the feet (the authorities descended below the laymen), for down to the feet ran the wheel and that which was a sign upon it."
This glorious, ancient record of that venerable, inspired Saint, goes on to tell that Christ is the HEAD of this work and that none can stop it, even those who make it their business to restrain waters." (See 6th Ode).
This power to "CROSS OVER" is the ability to cross over from mortality into immortality, without dying.
This is verified in the ancient record of Enoch, who overcame death and was translated. It is as follows: "Write the works of Enoch as a prophet, priest and seer; write of his life of purity and love, and how he changed his carnal flesh to flesh divine without descending through the gates of death." Yes, write the works of Enoch upon the fibres of your own soul. And know that whatever Enoch accomplished you too can accomplish. There are no monopolies in the realms of our Almighty Creator.
Then we have this glorious record in II. Peter 1:3-4: "According as His (Christ's) divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto LIFE and Godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.
"WHEREBY ARE GIVEN UNTO US EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES, THAT BY THESE YE MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HAVING ESCAPED CORRUPTION, THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUSTS!"
The only possible meaning of the foregoing quotation is the promise to escape death. Corruption is death! Death is corruption! And nothing else could express it so completely and so fully in so few words.
This power or ability to bridge the rivers and cross over is the Straight and Narrow Path that leads to LIFE ETERNAL -- which is reached THROUGH THE PURIFICATION OF THE HEART. And this condition of perfection can only be accomplished through the transcendent excellence of LOVE! This very "BRIDGING OF THE RIVERS" is the method by which that glorious ROAD TO ZION is traveled.
Christ never spoke of death. He did however, speak of the Broad Open Way that leads to DESTRUCTION. DEATH was always expressed as DESTRUCTION, by Jesus. While His message was always of LIFE. And any individual who has that "LIFE MORE ABUNDANT" is a vivacious person, alive, exuberant, vital, not a mere clod, unanimated, dull or a deadly bore.
The sacred writer of those inspired Odes of Solomon explained it thus: "And I put off darkness and clothed myself in Light and acquired a body free from sorrow or affliction or pain."
Such a person is one who has put off mortality and in so doing has OVERCOME DEATH -- THE LAST ENEMY.
This Road to Zion, in which a fool need not err therein, but over which the wicked can never cross, according to Isaiah, is that Straight and Narrow Path in which one "Evolves from the man Kingdom into the God Kingdom." He passes from mortality into immortality without descending through the gates of death, by living a life of PURITY AND LOVE, by which his carnal flesh is changed to flesh divine. It is the point where one can fulfill Christ's most beloved teachings as He gave them to Nicodemus that night he conversed with him. "And he who is born of the Spirit can come and go as the wind and no one will know from whence he came or whither he goeth; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit," or who spiritualizes himself through the perfecting of LOVE right within himself.
This Straight and Narrow Path does most assuredly lead literally INTO LIFE ETERNAL. It is the Straight and Narrow Path which Christ endeavored to reveal, in "WHICH A MAN NEED NEVER DIE!" It is the "Road to Zion!" It is the Way of the complete purification of the heart in which one evolves from grubby mortality into that divine, holy, exquisite realm of the OVERCOMERS. It is the Road which Enoch traveled, and which all who desire to do so are invited to follow. And the way of its glory is fulfilled in the LIVING OF THAT FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT OF LOVE, not as it is taught by the precepts of men, but by Christ Himself.
Love is a vibration of infinite power. Love is a force that surmounts all obstacles. Love removes all negation. Love casts out all fear. Love is energy in its highest, purest, spiritual essence of renewing, invigorating, exalted, healing power. Pure love is completely freed from selfishness or self-seeking. "It seeketh not its own." Love flows ever outward, from those who possess it, in a giving glory of benediction. Love is the spirit of sharing. Love never turns inward to hold, to clutch, to grab or to seek for credits and rewards. Love is never self-indulgent. It never demands. It is not possessive. Love gives! Love blesses! Love sacrifices as it rejoices in the great privilege of sacrificing.
This LOVE is divine and it is the bridge across the chasm or gulf between mortality and that realm of immortality. And "through it one changes his carnal flesh to flesh divine without descending through the gates of death."
And there is one more point I am instructed to clarify here. When Christ warned of "The dogs that would return to their vomit" he was speaking of those who would receive these more glorious teachings, then looking back to the false teachings that required no self-discipline or effort, would return again to their old pattern of effortless acceptance -- or vomit. There are so many who are unwilling to exert themselves in the least to fulfill or PROVE the Promises of God. And so they quite willingly accept the defiled food offered to them -- the teaching declaring they need do nothing at all, but that Christ is to come and He will lift them into the highest degree of glory. And they are being fed the filth of Devil Doctrine! And it is a lie! Christ informed all that only as they DID WHAT HE SAID, could they be saved. And "IF YE BELIEVE ON ME THE WORKS THAT I DO SHALL YOU DO ALSO, AND GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL YE DO!" There is nothing in the scriptures to indicate that any soul will be exalted without effort and the exercising of faith. The command is to "ASK, TO SEEK AND TO KNOCK!" And this requires effort and must be followed through until the answer is received.
And without the attribute of LOVE being developed all is but sounding brass and clanging cymbals. To develop love requires the exerted effort of casting out the negations, the fears, the doubts and the evils of one's life as FAITH is exercised and perfected.
The "vomit" mentioned is first given in Isaiah. And vomit is but undigested, unassimilated food that is spewed out without the individual preacher having fulfilled the things he teaches or having received the value of its divine nourishment. This is VOMIT. Those who preach without having fulfilled first the things of which they speak are but "spewing out vomit to defile the banquet tables of the Lord!"
And so, the dogs are the ones to whom Christ referred who will return to such vomit, being unwilling to make any effort to change themselves, but who adhere to the devil-doctrine of waiting for Christ to come and to exalt them into glory. They forget that when he comes "WE ARE TO BE PURIFIED EVEN AS HE IS PURE!" And that 'WE ARE TO PURIFY OURSELVES!" "WE ARE TO SANCTIFY OURSELVES!"
The "Swine that will return to their wallow" are those who, having received these precious, glorious truths of enlightenment, and had the Pathway of OVERCOMING revealed, will be drawn back into the darkness of their fears and doubting and negation and will wallow in the mud of their encouraged self-pity and despairing despondency. This is for those who love the darkness more than they love the Light. They will make no effort to OVERCOME THE DARKNESS, the self-pity or the unbelief which they permit to blot out their goal. Wallowing in their encouraged negation and doubting they are henceforth designated as "Swine that returned to their wallow!"
This "STRAIGHT AND NARROW WAY," this Pathway of the Patriarchs is truly the Pathway of OVERCOMING in a glory of praise and love and joyous gratitude. This Pathway is for the strong! And any who persistently travel it will become strong and mighty and glorious. "I GAVE MEN WEAKNESS THAT THEY MIGHT BECOME STRONG" in the glory of OVERCOMING. The very overcoming of any weakness contains the elements of which strength is generated and perfected.
Any who undertake to travel this Straight and Narrow Path, and look back, "Is not fit for the Kingdom." But the power to look ahead and to fulfill is within every man's reach, for this is the gift Christ came to give -- LIFE! LIFE MORE ABUNDANT! LIFE ETERNAL! Life without descending through the gates of death.
Daniel 12:9-10 is as follows: "And he (the angel) said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
"Many shall be purified and made white and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand."
Then in Daniel 12:3-4 is given this wonderful Promise: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
Pray that your understanding will be fully opened to comprehend the glory of the above scripture, for it is yours.