"Know you not that you are the temple of the Living God? And whatsoever temple is defiled God will destroy that temple!"
Defiled temples have no value either to God or man. And not having fulfilled the purpose of their creation they are of necessity destroyed. If these defiled beings, filled with sin and error were permitted to clutter the earth too long it too would become so defiled it would have to be destroyed also.
The destruction the physical body, or temple, endures is death. Every body that is defiled and remains in that condition must be destroyed. This is the eternal law of the universe and is engraved upon the very souls of men. And men have been so satisfied with this inferior law, they have not even sought to comprehend the great flaming law of Life and overcoming that is engraved above it.
"It takes all kinds of people to make up a world," is a statement used to justify the evil and wickedness of mankind. And that statement is false! No world needs the ones who make no effort to better the planet they are privileged to inhabit. Each individual has a responsibility to not only make the world a better place for himself but for every human being upon it -- and for all the generations yet unborn.
These temples to be destroyed are the bodies of men that will be claimed by death. But death is not an inevitable condition, as all have supposed. It is always possible to rise up and drive the thieves out of the temple. These thieves are the evil, selfish, jealous, greed-filled, lustful, erroneous thoughts and feelings that have invaded the temple, completely defiling it. These robbers have, in most cases, securely bound and overcome the rightful heir to the kingdom, as they rule in riotous tyranny.
And always death is the destruction of the temple as the grave claims the physical remains. Any temple, or body, that is defiled will be destroyed. Death is the way of the flesh when it has remained unexalted by rejecting "The Light of Christ, which is given to abide in every man who cometh into the world." All men are under condemnation who have rejected this Light. And all who have rejected It are under the rule of defilement as they have permitted the thieves to bind and enslave them.
Death is the back door into the other world. It is not the door of honor and glory. Death is the torturous, round-about way of painful correction. It is the way for those who are not given a great welcome. It is the path of many delays, in which the erroneous ideas accumulated in life may be removed. It is the painful way of correcting the false beliefs and the false standards gathered along the road of life. It is the way of removing the seals that have been placed upon the mind through bigotry, evil, fleshly lusts, an inflated ego or an inferiority complex. Death is the way of nurturing immature, weak souls. It is the way of correction.
This book is written to reveal, to those who are ready, the beauty and magnificence of that front door. It is a book written out of the fires of eternity. It is your book. It is the map to your own soul, the diagram of you, temple of God. It will reveal the secret powers that will show you how to overcome the thieves and throw out the money-changers. It is the revelation of that wonderful person you were meant to be, with all your unspeakable powers released for growth and eternal happiness and supreme honor, now -- and forever more.
You are a creator though you have not known it. Your creative powers have more often been misused, abused, or unused as you have remained in subjection to your captors. Nevertheless you have these creative powers and they are yours. Yea, "All that the Father has, is yours."
You too are divine. But since you have not known it nor been aware of this inner divinity, you have gone through life acting as though you were but a grubby mortal.
You have created your own heaven and your own hell, both for eternity and right here on this earth. Your very now is as much a part of eternity as your vague future can possibly be. You are living in eternity.
"Truth is a knowledge of things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come!" Truth is a knowledge of the Light of Christ which is given to abide in you with all Its creative powers, a knowledge of how you have used that Light in the past, are using It in the present, and contains therefore a sure record of the future -- unless you change. The powers of this Divine Light are so potent within you they can glorify or destroy you and will most certainly do so according to the use you make of them.
Truth is a knowledge of the "Light of Christ that is given to abide in every man who cometh into the world." A knowledge of this Light of Christ is the power that can make you free. The knowledge of the Christ Light contains an understanding of your divine powers of creatorship. This record is to reveal how you have used these powers to bring forth the present from the past, your own past, and so will bring forth the future you are even now creating, unless you are freed by a knowledge of the great TRUTH, or Light of Christ.
By using the divine knowledge contained herein you can know the TRUTH and become free forever -- free from your hell, your great overwhelming misfortunes, or fortunes misdirected, or mis-acquired, or laws used amiss through your past ignorance.
Now, let us look within, at the mortal being of you and see what we find.
Every thought you think, and every act you perform, when you think no one is looking, is you, the you you have brought forth as you have obeyed the law of the robbers who have been permitted to take over your temple.
Know that you are not the person playing to the grandstand, nor the one praying to be heard of men. You are not the person who becomes good, interesting, wonderful, or a seemingly very talented individual as you play this outside role for guests or those you wish to impress. No. You are not that person at all. You are the person who deals with your family, your closest associates, the people who work under you. You are the person you have to associate with every living moment and hour of your life and throughout all eternity. You may be putting on an act for yourself and if you are, you are cheating yourself even more than you are cheating others.
Mark 12:38-40: "And he (Jesus) said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the market places; and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: which devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers: these shall receive the greater damnation." The above describes the hypocrite who is playing a game of base pretending, and is deceiving himself most of all.
It is quite possible to put on a very good act, like the small, timid boy in his game of make believe as he plays the heroic brave-man in his cowboy suit. Or one may be like the movie star who is vain and selfish, and cruel and viciously mean at heart, who plays the part of the Saint in his act of pretending to entertain a world, and by so doing actually begins to believe that he is, in some rare way, a superior person and can do no wrong. It is with such acting that one may deceive himself as well as his audience -- and the world.
It is not in the art of pretending that one becomes the hero or the knave. It is in the power of his thinking when he is alone with his thoughts. So you are not the person you try to impress people with, if that is your weakness. You are often someone quite different.
It is possible that you may be a very gentle person who thinks very little evil and who has no great hates nor dislikes but, unless you think good, with lots of love and concentrated power behind it you are still not the great, dynamic person you were intended to be.
Let us take a look inside at you, the you you have made yourself into. The careless, unworthy acts you perform when no one is looking, is you, the you you have permitted yourself to become. Watch those little acts and you will begin to mold yourself into something and someone quite superior to the ordinary, slothful person who is living just because he is alive.
As you begin to check the caliber of your thoughts and acts, you will come face to face with yourself for the first time, perhaps. You will see yourself for what you have made yourself into by thoughtlessness. However, the person you are does not concern me. I am only interested in the person you were meant to be.
It is the person you were meant to be whom I am also anxious for you to meet. And when you meet that person there will need be no pretense, no sham of make-believe for you will know the Truth and you will realize that you are that Truth.
In speaking of this real you we are not talking about your position, your possessions, your wealth, of your learning and worldly knowledge, nor even of what men think of you. These are not the true standards for measuring the man. These outer things are only a veil. They are not you. Nor are you them. They have nothing to do with you, really. They may be your stage props as you play a part that is not you at all.
Sometimes a street-cleaner is a king at heart. And a king may be an inferior sub-mortal in his bestial habits and desires.
No matter what part you play in life it is only the real you that we, or eternity, is really concerned with. And it is the real you that should be your own greatest concern.
So, my beautiful friend, come forth, and let us meet you -- the real you.
Are you proud of yourself because of your wisdom, your talents, abilities, or possessions? If you are then you are only proud of the part you are playing to impress a world. True greatness is never proud. It is always infinitely humble. Humility is one of the very first requisites of greatness.
Are you ashamed? Ashamed of the groveling part you are playing? Do you have an inferiority complex and hate yourself? Dear one, this is also a false attitude and as detrimental to the real, glorious you as the other.
However, if you have been playing a part so desperately you have deceived yourself, then you are enacting the greatest tragedy of all, though you may not have realized it. And you are that tragedy -- and that tragedy is you.
You have to live with yourself -- forever. And it isn't a pleasant thing to condemn yourself to the eternal companionship of an inferior being.
One prophet said: "Part of the punishment of hell is having to associate forever with the wicked." It will be yourself you will be associating with, you may be sure of that, and you make the selection yourself. Is it your wish to associate forever with an inferior person? One filled with hate? A sneak or cheat? A coward? A scandal-monger? A braggart? A sex pervert? A criminal? Or perhaps a thief who steals another's wealth, or mayhap only the credit for his ideas, which is the lowest type of thievery.
Or would you prefer the company of a king? A saint? A being superb, majestic and gifted with divine love? An immortal who is not only master over every situation but himself as well?
The choice is always yours. You alone can pre-design, or predestine what you will be. God never predestinated any child of His to any particular fate. Into your hands is given the power to make any pattern or design you can conceive for yourself -- and to fulfill it. You are a creator of ineffable powers held within your grasp. You are divine and there is enough Light contained within you that, if all the lights in the universe went out, you could re-kindle the sun and the moon and the stars.
It is to the revelation of these inner powers I would lead you that you might become beautifully glorious -- as glorious as the son of Light you were intended to be. My soul loves your soul, else I would not linger here to make that pattern known. You are as myself and all the love within my being is reaching out to enfold you no matter who or what you are. I would recall you from the path of death and open to your soul the higher way of Life -- and give you wings to travel it in ease and majesty.
This record is not written to give you a way of escape from yourself. You can never get away from yourself. Many have tried -- and failed.
No matter what method of escape one uses to get away from himself, whether it be parties, drinking, incessant association with noisy crowds, the movies, card games, television, novels, or even drugs, or what have you, he will always have to come back to himself.
Then, there are those who only find true peace and quiet and strength and renewal when they are alone with themselves. These are those who are near to keeping company with divinity. And angels attend them.
Dear one, it is always you who selects the kind of company you keep, good or bad. And it always will be yourself you will be walking with.
Form any ideal you can dream of for yourself, and live true to it and it will become you. Your ideal is you from the very beginning of your awakened desire to actually BE what you have sometimes pretended you are. It is as you desire to actually be the person you wish you were, and begin to put forth that required effort needed to create that divine, glorious person you were intended to be that brings it forth. It will come forth, in time, as perfect and beautiful and divinely pure as you can possibly imagine it to be. This love-filled, gracious, wonderful person IS you as you associate with it mentally, inviting it to take form. It will come forth as you live true to your ideal of it. For it is the real YOU. You were meant to be THAT.
This great person I am seeking to show you is not the one who fills the highest position on the earth, nor any particular position, for that matter. If you are seeing yourself holding some such high office then you are seeing only your little, mortal ego self exalted. And if that is your greatest desire even that can be brought forth. But it will be an inferior person, not the real you. Any ambition for worldly greatness is small change indeed when compared to the magnificent treasures held within your own soul if you will but comprehend them. These are the powers beyond any worldly anointing or appointment, any exalted position or office, which are but the stage props, the outer trappings and do not have too much meaning.
It is only the great, glorified you as you become clothed in Light and filled with power and goodness and love that we are trying to reveal to you.
Your thoughts are the real you. They are you expressing.
As you think, so you are, Or, as you change your thinking so will you become.
If your thoughts are hate-filled, then you are a hate-full person, for they are you. If your thoughts are evil, vile, groveling, craven thoughts of fear or lust, or of darkness, they are but yourself expressing you -- the you you have brought forth with your divine powers of creation misused.
If your thoughts are noble, compassionate, love-filled they are also you, and you will not only be like them, you will become them. Always your thoughts are you expressing yourself. They are the projection of what you have built into yourself as it is thrown out upon the screen of eternity.
What sort of person are you? I do not need to know. But you must. You must see clearly what you are, else I cannot reveal to you the great person you were meant to be, nor help you to become THAT.
Watch your thinking and your feeling habits and you will begin to know yourself. Watch, especially, your thoughts concerning your fellow men. How do you feel about the people who crowd against you in the market places, in buses, along the streets, in busy thoroughfare? What do you think of those in your community, neighborhood, church? Are they but pawns to be exploited? Are they miserable nuisances? Do you feel superior or inferior to them? And why? Do you love them as you love yourself? If not, are you willing to try? You may find a jewel of glory buried in every man's heart. And you may learn to share your jewels with them -- and your supply will increase. You are what you think of your fellowmen.
"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is only what he thinks."
Know this, gracious one, it is always within one's power to change himself by changing his way of thinking and the caliber of his thoughts. So it is that you can change yourself. This is but your divine gift of creatorship being used correctly and with infinite power.
Think only the most beautiful things possible and you will become as divinely beautiful as your thoughts. Formulate the thoughts of goodness and majesty and perfection and watch yourself grow into that ideal.
From the first moment you desire to be the great, noble individual God created you to be, from that moment the transformation begins and all the powers of the universe will stand beside you to help bring it forth. Step aside and watch yourself grow into it as you live true to it in thought, word and deed. For this divine one is the real you. It is the you God created. It is the you you were intended to be -- and can be.
In every human soul is a longing, a loneliness, a wistfulness that few have ever tried to analyze or comprehend. Yet, at times, that inner longing has become a sobbing cry of inner pain and searing desolation of almost unendurable anguish. Some have translated this cry as a desire for wealth, position, knowledge, or sought some other worldly answer. And when such goals are reached they are still empty and unsatisfying. Most of the wasted energy of this world has been a desperate effort to silence that soul hunger, or at least to deaden or escape it.
If but half the effort had been used to understand this inner call of the soul for recognition, instead of trying to silence it, the world, long ago, would have reached its glorified destiny. Men would be walking the earth, not as dissipated human derelicts, lost and alone, but as glorified masters with powers undreamed of by the present race of men.
If you will come with me, my noble, gracious friend, we will begin the great and exciting search for that divine and wonderful you.