PAPER 155
FLEEING THROUGH NORTHERN GALILEE
155:0.1 SOON after landing near Kheresa on this
eventful Sunday, Jesus and the twenty-four went a little way to the north,
where they spent the night in a beautiful park south of Bethsaida-Julias. They
were familiar with this camping place, having stopped there in days gone by.
Before retiring for the night, the Master called his followers around him and
discussed with them the plans for their projected tour through Batanea and
northern Galilee to the Phoenician coast.
1. WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE?
155:1.1 Said Jesus: "You should all recall how the
Psalmist spoke of these times, saying, `Why do the heathen rage and the
peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers of
the people take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed,
saying, Let us break the bonds of mercy asunder and let us cast away the cords
of love.'
155:1.2 "Today you see this fulfilled before your
eyes. But you shall not see the remainder of the Psalmist's prophecy
fulfilled, for he entertained erroneous ideas about the Son of Man and his
mission on earth. My kingdom is founded on love, proclaimed in mercy, and
established by unselfish service. My Father does not sit in heaven laughing in
derision at the heathen. He is not wrathful in his great displeasure. True is
the promise that the Son shall have these so-called heathen (in reality his
ignorant and untaught brethren) for an inheritance. And I will receive these
gentiles with open arms of mercy and affection. All this loving-kindness shall
be shown the so-called heathen, notwithstanding the unfortunate declaration of
the record which intimates that the triumphant Son `shall break them with a
rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.' The Psalmist
exhorted you to `serve the Lord with fear' -- I bid you enter into the exalted
privileges of divine sonship by faith; he commands you to rejoice with
trembling; I bid you rejoice with assurance. He says, `Kiss the Son, lest he
be angry, and you perish when his wrath is kindled.' But you who have lived
with me well know that anger and wrath are not a part of the establishment of
the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men. But the Psalmist did glimpse the
true light when, in finishing this exhortation, he said: `Blessed are they who
put their trust in this Son.'"
155:1.3 Jesus continued to teach the twenty-four,
saying: "The heathen are not without excuse when they rage at us. Because
their outlook is small and narrow, they are able to concentrate their energies
enthusiastically. Their goal is near and more or less visible; wherefore do
they strive with valiant and effective execution. You who have professed
entrance into the kingdom of heaven are altogether too vacillating and
indefinite in your teaching conduct. The heathen strike directly for their
objectives; you are guilty of too much chronic yearning. If you desire to
enter the kingdom, why do you not take it by spiritual assault even as the
heathen take a city they lay siege to? You are hardly worthy of the kingdom
when your service consists so largely in an attitude of regretting the past,
whining over the present, and vainly hoping for the future. Why do the heathen
rage? Because they know not the truth. Why do you languish in futile yearning?
Because you obey not the truth. Cease your useless yearning and go
forth bravely doing that which concerns the establishment of the
kingdom.
155:1.4 "In all that you do, become not one-sided
and overspecialized. The Pharisees who seek our destruction verily think they
are doing God's service. They have become so narrowed by tradition that they
are blinded by prejudice and hardened by fear. Consider the Greeks, who have a
science without religion, while the Jews have a religion without science. And
when men become thus misled into accepting a narrow and confused
disintegration of truth, their only hope of salvation is to become
truth-co-ordinated -- converted.
155:1.5 "Let me emphatically state this eternal
truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this
beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you
that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure wherewith truth
seekers are drawn to you represents the measure of your truth endowment, your
righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the
people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or
righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life."
155:1.6 And many other things the Master taught his
apostles and the evangelists before they bade him good night and sought rest
upon their pillows.
2. THE EVANGELISTS IN
CHORAZIN
155:2.1 On Monday morning, May 23, Jesus directed
Peter to go over to Chorazin with the twelve evangelists while he, with the
eleven, departed for Caesarea-Philippi, going by way of the Jordan to the
Damascus-Capernaum road, thence northeast to the junction with the road to
Caesarea-Philippi, and then on into that city, where they tarried and taught
for two weeks. They arrived during the afternoon of Tuesday, May
24.
155:2.2 Peter and the evangelists sojourned in
Chorazin for two weeks, preaching the gospel of the kingdom to a small but
earnest company of believers. But they were not able to win many new converts.
No city of all Galilee yielded so few souls for the kingdom as Chorazin. In
accordance with Peter's instructions the twelve evangelists had less to say
about healing -- things physical -- while they preached and taught with
increased vigor the spiritual truths of the heavenly kingdom. These two weeks
at Chorazin constituted a veritable baptism of adversity for the twelve
evangelists in that it was the most difficult and unproductive period in their
careers up to this time. Being thus deprived of the satisfaction of winning
souls for the kingdom, each of them the more earnestly and honestly took stock
of his own soul and its progress in the spiritual paths of the new
life.
155:2.3 When it appeared that no more people were
minded to seek entrance into the kingdom, Peter, on Tuesday, June 7, called
his associates together and departed for Caesarea-Philippi to join Jesus and
the apostles. They arrived about noontime on Wednesday and spent the entire
evening in rehearsing their experiences among the unbelievers of Chorazin.
During the discussions of this evening Jesus made further reference to the
parable of the sower and taught them much about the meaning of the apparent
failure of life undertakings.
3. AT CAESAREA-PHILIPPI
155:3.1 Although Jesus did no public work during
this two weeks' sojourn near Caesarea-Philippi, the apostles held numerous
quiet evening meetings in the city, and many of the believers came out to the
camp to talk with the Master. Very few were added to the group of believers as
a result of this visit. Jesus talked with the apostles each day, and they more
clearly discerned that a new phase of the work of preaching the kingdom of
heaven was now beginning. They were commencing to comprehend that the "kingdom
of heaven is not meat and drink but the realization of the spiritual joy of
the acceptance of divine sonship."
155:3.2 The sojourn at Caesarea-Philippi was a real
test to the eleven apostles; it was a difficult two weeks for them to live
through. They were well-nigh depressed, and they missed the periodic
stimulation of Peter's enthusiastic personality. In these times it was truly a
great and testing adventure to believe in Jesus and go forth to follow after
him. Though they made few converts during these two weeks, they did learn much
that was highly profitable from their daily conferences with the
Master.
155:3.3 The apostles learned that the Jews were
spiritually stagnant and dying because they had crystallized truth into a
creed; that when truth becomes formulated as a boundary line of self-righteous
exclusiveness instead of serving as signposts of spiritual guidance and
progress, such teachings lose their creative and life-giving power and
ultimately become merely preservative and fossilizing.
155:3.4 Increasingly they learned from Jesus to look
upon human personalities in terms of their possibilities in time and in
eternity. They learned that many souls can best be led to love the unseen God
by being first taught to love their brethren whom they can see. And it was in
this connection that new meaning became attached to the Master's pronouncement
concerning unselfish service for one's fellows: "Inasmuch as you did it to one
of the least of my brethren, you did it to me."
155:3.5 One of the great lessons of this sojourn at
Caesarea had to do with the origin of religious traditions, with the grave
danger of allowing a sense of sacredness to become attached to nonsacred
things, common ideas, or everyday events. From one conference they emerged
with the teaching that true religion was man's heartfelt loyalty to his
highest and truest convictions.
155:3.6 Jesus warned his believers that, if their
religious longings were only material, increasing knowledge of nature would,
by progressive displacement of the supposed supernatural origin of things,
ultimately deprive them of their faith in God. But that, if their religion
were spiritual, never could the progress of physical science disturb their
faith in eternal realities and divine values.
155:3.7 They learned that, when religion is wholly
spiritual in motive, it makes all life more worth while, filling it with high
purposes, dignifying it with transcendent values, inspiring it with superb
motives, all the while comforting the human soul with a sublime and sustaining
hope. True religion is designed to lessen the strain of existence; it releases
faith and courage for daily living and unselfish serving. Faith promotes
spiritual vitality and righteous fruitfulness.
155:3.8 Jesus repeatedly taught his apostles that no
civilization could long survive the loss of the best in its religion. And he
never grew weary of pointing out to the twelve the great danger of accepting
religious symbols and ceremonies in the place of religious experience. His
whole earth life was consistently devoted to the mission of thawing out the
frozen forms of religion into the liquid liberties of enlightened
sonship.
4. ON THE WAY TO PHOENICIA
155:4.1 On Thursday morning, June 9, after receiving
word regarding the progress of the kingdom brought by the messengers of David
from Bethsaida, this group of twenty-five teachers of truth left
Caesarea-Philippi to begin their journey to the Phoenician coast. They passed
around the marsh country, by way of Luz, to the point of junction with the
Magdala-Mount Lebanon trail road, thence to the crossing with the road leading
to Sidon, arriving there Friday afternoon.
155:4.2 While pausing for lunch under the shadow of
an overhanging ledge of rock, near Luz, Jesus delivered one of the most
remarkable addresses which his apostles ever listened to throughout all their
years of association with him. No sooner had they seated themselves to break
bread than Simon Peter asked Jesus: "Master, since the Father in heaven knows
all things, and since his spirit is our support in the establishment of the
kingdom of heaven on earth, why is it that we flee from the threats of our
enemies? Why do we refuse to confront the foes of truth?" But before Jesus had
begun to answer Peter's question, Thomas broke in, asking: "Master, I should
really like to know just what is wrong with the religion of our enemies at
Jerusalem. What is the real difference between their religion and ours? Why is
it we are at such diversity of belief when we all profess to serve the same
God?" And when Thomas had finished, Jesus said: "While I would not ignore
Peter's question, knowing full well how easy it would be to misunderstand my
reasons for avoiding an open clash with the rulers of the Jews at just this
time, still it will prove more helpful to all of you if I choose rather to
answer Thomas's question. And that I will proceed to do when you have finished
your lunch."
5. THE DISCOURSE ON TRUE
RELIGION
155:5.1 This memorable discourse on religion,
summarized and restated in modern phraseology, gave expression to the
following truths:
155:5.2 While the religions of the world have a
double origin -- natural and revelatory -- at any one time and among any one
people there are to be found three distinct forms of religious devotion. And
these three manifestations of the religious urge are:
155:5.3 1. Primitive religion. The
seminatural and instinctive urge to fear mysterious energies and worship
superior forces, chiefly a religion of the physical nature, the religion of
fear.
155:5.4 2. The religion of civilization. The
advancing religious concepts and practices of the civilizing races -- the
religion of the mind -- the intellectual theology of the authority of
established religious tradition.
155:5.5 3. True religion -- the religion of
revelation. The revelation of supernatural values, a partial insight into
eternal realities, a glimpse of the goodness and beauty of the infinite
character of the Father in heaven -- the religion of the spirit as
demonstrated in human experience.
155:5.6 The religion of the physical senses and the
superstitious fears of natural man, the Master refused to belittle, though he
deplored the fact that so much of this primitive form of worship should
persist in the religious forms of the more intelligent races of mankind. Jesus
made it clear that the great difference between the religion of the mind and
the religion of the spirit is that, while the former is upheld by
ecclesiastical authority, the latter is wholly based on human
experience.
155:5.7 And then the Master, in his hour of
teaching, went on to make clear these truths:
155:5.8 Until the races become highly intelligent
and more fully civilized, there will persist many of those childlike and
superstitious ceremonies which are so characteristic of the evolutionary
religious practices of primitive and backward peoples. Until the human race
progresses to the level of a higher and more general recognition of the
realities of spiritual experience, large numbers of men and women will
continue to show a personal preference for those religions of authority which
require only intellectual assent, in contrast to the religion of the spirit,
which entails active participation of mind and soul in the faith adventure of
grappling with the rigorous realities of progressive human
experience.
155:5.9 The acceptance of the traditional religions
of authority presents the easy way out for man's urge to seek satisfaction for
the longings of his spiritual nature. The settled, crystallized, and
established religions of authority afford a ready refuge to which the
distracted and distraught soul of man may flee when harassed by fear and
tormented by uncertainty. Such a religion requires of its devotees, as the
price to be paid for its satisfactions and assurances, only a passive and
purely intellectual assent.
155:5.10 And for a long time there will live on
earth those timid, fearful, and hesitant individuals who will prefer thus to
secure their religious consolations, even though, in so casting their lot with
the religions of authority, they compromise the sovereignty of personality,
debase the dignity of self-respect, and utterly surrender the right to
participate in that most thrilling and inspiring of all possible human
experiences: the personal quest for truth, the exhilaration of facing the
perils of intellectual discovery, the determination to explore the realities
of personal religious experience, the supreme satisfaction of experiencing the
personal triumph of the actual realization of the victory of spiritual faith
over intellectual doubt as it is honestly won in the supreme adventure of all
human existence -- man seeking God, for himself and as himself, and finding
him.
155:5.11 The religion of the spirit means effort,
struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress. The
religion of the mind -- the theology of authority -- requires little or none
of these exertions from its formal believers. Tradition is a safe refuge and
an easy path for those fearful and halfhearted souls who instinctively shun
the spirit struggles and mental uncertainties associated with those faith
voyages of daring adventure out upon the high seas of unexplored truth in
search for the farther shores of spiritual realities as they may be discovered
by the progressive human mind and experienced by the evolving human
soul.
155:5.12 And Jesus went on to say: "At Jerusalem the
religious leaders have formulated the various doctrines of their traditional
teachers and the prophets of other days into an established system of
intellectual beliefs, a religion of authority. The appeal of all such
religions is largely to the mind. And now are we about to enter upon a deadly
conflict with such a religion since we will so shortly begin the bold
proclamation of a new religion -- a religion which is not a religion in the
present-day meaning of that word, a religion that makes its chief appeal to
the divine spirit of my Father which resides in the mind of man; a religion
which shall derive its authority from the fruits of its acceptance that will
so certainly appear in the personal experience of all who really and truly
become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion."
155:5.13 Pointing out each of the twenty-four and
calling them by name, Jesus said: "And now, which one of you would prefer to
take this easy path of conformity to an established and fossilized religion,
as defended by the Pharisees at Jerusalem, rather than to suffer the
difficulties and persecutions attendant upon the mission of proclaiming a
better way of salvation to men while you realize the satisfaction of
discovering for yourselves the beauties of the realities of a living and
personal experience in the eternal truths and supreme grandeurs of the kingdom
of heaven? Are you fearful, soft, and ease-seeking? Are you afraid to trust
your future in the hands of the God of truth, whose sons you are? Are you
distrustful of the Father, whose children you are? Will you go back to the
easy path of the certainty and intellectual settledness of the religion of
traditional authority, or will you gird yourselves to go forward with me into
that uncertain and troublous future of proclaiming the new truths of the
religion of the spirit, the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of
men?"
155:5.14 All twenty-four of his hearers rose to
their feet, intending to signify their united and loyal response to this, one
of the few emotional appeals which Jesus ever made to them, but he raised his
hand and stopped them, saying: "Go now apart by yourselves, each man alone
with the Father, and there find the unemotional answer to my question, and
having found such a true and sincere attitude of soul, speak that answer
freely and boldly to my Father and your Father, whose infinite life of love is
the very spirit of the religion we proclaim."
155:5.15 The evangelists and apostles went apart by
themselves for a short time. Their spirits were uplifted, their minds were
inspired, and their emotions mightily stirred by what Jesus had said. But when
Andrew called them together, the Master said only: "Let us resume our journey.
We go into Phoenicia to tarry for a season, and all of you should pray the
Father to transform your emotions of mind and body into the higher loyalties
of mind and the more satisfying experiences of the spirit."
155:5.16 As they journeyed on down the road, the
twenty-four were silent, but presently they began to talk one with another,
and by three o'clock that afternoon they could not go farther; they came to a
halt, and Peter, going up to Jesus, said: "Master, you have spoken to us the
words of life and truth. We would hear more; we beseech you to speak to us
further concerning these matters."
6. THE SECOND DISCOURSE ON
RELIGION
155:6.1 And so, while they paused in the shade of
the hillside, Jesus continued to teach them regarding the religion of the
spirit, in substance saying:
155:6.2 You have come out from among those of your
fellows who choose to remain satisfied with a religion of mind, who crave
security and prefer conformity. You have elected to exchange your feelings of
authoritative certainty for the assurances of the spirit of adventurous and
progressive faith. You have dared to protest against the grueling bondage of
institutional religion and to reject the authority of the traditions of record
which are now regarded as the word of God. Our Father did indeed speak through
Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea, but he did not cease to minister words
of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their
utterances. My Father is no respecter of races or generations in that the word
of truth is vouchsafed one age and withheld from another. Commit not the folly
of calling that divine which is wholly human, and fail not to discern the
words of truth which come not through the traditional oracles of supposed
inspiration.
155:6.3 I have called upon you to be born again, to
be born of the spirit. I have called you out of the darkness of authority and
the lethargy of tradition into the transcendent light of the realization of
the possibility of making for yourselves the greatest discovery possible for
the human soul to make -- the supernal experience of finding God for yourself,
in yourself, and of yourself, and of doing all this as a fact in your own
personal experience. And so may you pass from death to life, from the
authority of tradition to the experience of knowing God; thus will you pass
from darkness to light, from a racial faith inherited to a personal faith
achieved by actual experience; and thereby will you progress from a theology
of mind handed down by your ancestors to a true religion of spirit which shall
be built up in your souls as an eternal endowment.
155:6.4 Your religion shall change from the mere
intellectual belief in traditional authority to the actual experience of that
living faith which is able to grasp the reality of God and all that relates to
the divine spirit of the Father. The religion of the mind ties you hopelessly
to the past; the religion of the spirit consists in progressive revelation and
ever beckons you on toward higher and holier achievements in spiritual ideals
and eternal realities.
155:6.5 While the religion of authority may impart a
present feeling of settled security, you pay for such a transient satisfaction
the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom and religious liberty. My
Father does not require of you as the price of entering the kingdom of heaven
that you should force yourself to subscribe to a belief in things which are
spiritually repugnant, unholy, and untruthful. It is not required of you that
your own sense of mercy, justice, and truth should be outraged by submission
to an outworn system of religious forms and ceremonies. The religion of the
spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of
the spirit may take you. And who can judge -- perhaps this spirit may have
something to impart to this generation which other generations have refused to
hear?
155:6.6 Shame on those false religious teachers who
would drag hungry souls back into the dim and distant past and there leave
them! And so are these unfortunate persons doomed to become frightened by
every new discovery, while they are discomfited by every new revelation of
truth. The prophet who said, "He will be kept in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on God," was not a mere intellectual believer in authoritative
theology. This truth-knowing human had discovered God; he was not merely
talking about God.
155:6.7 I admonish you to give up the practice of
always quoting the prophets of old and praising the heroes of Israel, and
instead aspire to become living prophets of the Most High and spiritual heroes
of the coming kingdom. To honor the God-knowing leaders of the past may indeed
be worth while, but why, in so doing, should you sacrifice the supreme
experience of human existence: finding God for yourselves and knowing him in
your own souls?
155:6.8 Every race of mankind has its own mental
outlook upon human existence; therefore must the religion of the mind ever run
true to these various racial viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority
come to unification. Human unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only
by and through the superendowment of the religion of the spirit. Racial minds
may differ, but all mankind is indwelt by the same divine and eternal spirit.
The hope of human brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent
mind religions of authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the
unifying and ennobling religion of the spirit -- the religion of personal
spiritual experience.
155:6.9 The religions of authority can only divide
men and set them in conscientious array against each other; the religion of
the spirit will progressively draw men together and cause them to become
understandingly sympathetic with one another. The religions of authority
require of men uniformity in belief, but this is impossible of realization in
the present state of the world. The religion of the spirit requires only unity
of experience -- uniformity of destiny -- making full allowance for diversity
of belief. The religion of the spirit requires only uniformity of insight, not
uniformity of viewpoint and outlook. The religion of the spirit does not
demand uniformity of intellectual views, only unity of spirit feeling. The
religions of authority crystallize into lifeless creeds; the religion of the
spirit grows into the increasing joy and liberty of ennobling deeds of loving
service and merciful ministration.
155:6.10 But watch, lest any of you look with
disdain upon the children of Abraham because they have fallen on these evil
days of traditional barrenness. Our forefathers gave themselves up to the
persistent and passionate search for God, and they found him as no other whole
race of men have ever known him since the times of Adam, who knew much of this
as he was himself a Son of God. My Father has not failed to mark the long and
untiring struggle of Israel, ever since the days of Moses, to find God and to
know God. For weary generations the Jews have not ceased to toil, sweat,
groan, travail, and endure the sufferings and experience the sorrows of a
misunderstood and despised people, all in order that they might come a little
nearer the discovery of the truth about God. And, notwithstanding all the
failures and falterings of Israel, our fathers progressively, from Moses to
the times of Amos and Hosea, did reveal increasingly to the whole world an
ever clearer and more truthful picture of the eternal God. And so was the way
prepared for the still greater revelation of the Father which you have been
called to share.
155:6.11 Never forget there is only one adventure
which is more satisfying and thrilling than the attempt to discover the will
of the living God, and that is the supreme experience of honestly trying to do
that divine will. And fail not to remember that the will of God can be done in
any earthly occupation. Some callings are not holy and others secular. All
things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led; that is,
subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, dominated by mercy, and restrained by
fairness -- justice. The spirit which my Father and I shall send into the
world is not only the Spirit of Truth but also the spirit of idealistic
beauty.
155:6.12 You must cease to seek for the word of God
only on the pages of the olden records of theologic authority. Those who are
born of the spirit of God shall henceforth discern the word of God regardless
of whence it appears to take origin. Divine truth must not be discounted
because the channel of its bestowal is apparently human. Many of your brethren
have minds which accept the theory of God while they spiritually fail to
realize the presence of God. And that is just the reason why I have so often
taught you that the kingdom of heaven can best be realized by acquiring the
spiritual attitude of a sincere child. It is not the mental immaturity of the
child that I commend to you but rather the spiritual simplicity of such
an easy-believing and fully-trusting little one. It is not so important that
you should know about the fact of God as that you should increasingly grow in
the ability to feel the presence of God.
155:6.13 When you once begin to find God in your
soul, presently you will begin to discover him in other men's souls and
eventually in all the creatures and creations of a mighty universe. But what
chance does the Father have to appear as a God of supreme loyalties and divine
ideals in the souls of men who give little or no time to the thoughtful
contemplation of such eternal realities? While the mind is not the seat of the
spiritual nature, it is indeed the gateway thereto.
155:6.14 But do not make the mistake of trying to
prove to other men that you have found God; you cannot consciously produce
such valid proof, albeit there are two positive and powerful demonstrations of
the fact that you are God-knowing, and they are:
155:6.15 1. The fruits of the spirit of God showing
forth in your daily routine life.
155:6.16 2. The fact that your entire life plan
furnishes positive proof that you have unreservedly risked everything you are
and have on the adventure of survival after death in the pursuit of the hope
of finding the God of eternity, whose presence you have foretasted in
time.
155:6.17 Now, mistake not, my Father will ever
respond to the faintest flicker of faith. He takes note of the physical and
superstitious emotions of the primitive man. And with those honest but fearful
souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts to little more than an
intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent to religions of
authority, the Father is ever alert to honor and foster even all such feeble
attempts to reach out for him. But you who have been called out of darkness
into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith shall
dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and spirit.
155:6.18 You are my apostles, and to you religion
shall not become a theologic shelter to which you may flee in fear of facing
the rugged realities of spiritual progress and idealistic adventure; but
rather shall your religion become the fact of real experience which testifies
that God has found you, idealized, ennobled, and spiritualized you, and that
you have enlisted in the eternal adventure of finding the God who has thus
found and sonshipped you.
155:6.19 And when Jesus had finished speaking, he
beckoned to Andrew and, pointing to the west toward Phoenicia, said: "Let us
be on our way."
