| |
I am here St. James, Apostle of Jesus:
I come to write my message as Elias told you I would. Well, I desire to write on the subject of what is the great truth respecting the way that the destruction of the powers of temptation that arises from the perverted man may be restored to the condition of perfection which the first parents possessed before their fall.
You will understand that this does not involve any consideration of the operation of the Divine Love upon the soul, but exclusively the consideration of the method by which the soul may be so purified by the operations of the actions and the will power in conjunction with or influenced by the workings of the powers of the spirits who have been relieved of the sins and errors that followed the fall.
When man was created, as has been told you, he was created perfect, and every quality and function and attribute that was a part of him was so created that harmony, the most exact with the laws of God that governed his existence, became his, and no discord of any kind was in existence to mar that harmony. But as the spiritual nature of man became subordinated to the appetites and passions and fleshly desires, sin and error and inharmony appeared and increased until man became degraded, and desired only those things that would satisfy these sinful desires.
And so this degeneracy continued until man reached his lowest degradation, and the turning point came in his career, and then he commenced slowly and gradually to rise from this condition of depravity until at last, he arrived at the stage of his condition of inharmony with these laws of his creation that now exists; and his destiny is to a complete restoration to the perfection of his first estate.
This improvement and gradual restoration depend upon two causes--one, man himself by his own thoughts and reformation of the animal appetites and desires; and the other, the influence and guidance of spirits who, in the spirit world, have arrived at that perfection, or are progressing thereto, and are in a condition of harmony, with these laws, superior to that of mortals to whom they lend their influence and help.
Men, in their degeneracy or progression, are controlled very largely by their thoughts, and these thoughts are created by the operations of their desires, and which on the other hand, cause these desires to increase. But back of the thoughts are always these appetites and passions existing in their abnormal conditions, and they constitute the basic or moving cause of desire and thought and act. So that in order for men to become relieved of his abnormal desires and thoughts and acts, the cause thereof must be eradicated, and the seat or function of the cause be brought into harmony with laws of the creation of these functions or seats of emanation.
And strange as it may seem to you, and by a process that is contrary to the ordinary workings of the law of cause and effect, men must first deal with the effects in order to control the cause and thereby destroy the effects. This may seem to be an impossible operation and contrary to the laws that govern the material world and its ordinary functioning, but yet it is possible, and the only possible way in which the causes may be destroyed.
Notwithstanding the fact that the animal or material part of man has had the ascendency for all these centuries over the spiritual part of his nature, yet that spiritual part exists and has always existed and waiting to assert itself whenever the opportunity occurred, and this assertion was prevented or suppressed only by reason of the want of opportunity.
The spiritual may be said to be the natural state--I mean that in that state the animal is subordinate to the spiritual and is controlled by it, and man's true tendency is to exist and act in accord with that natural state. Then such being the fact, it may be asked why, or in what manner did this natural spiritual condition become, in the manifestation of what man's dominant qualities are supposed to be, subordinated to the control of the inordinate exercise of this animal side of his nature, which resulted in the sin and unhappiness that so many of the teachers and philosophers proclaim to be his natural condition?
Well tonight, I will not attempt to explain the manner in which this inversion or perversion of man's true nature took place, but will at some future time write on this subject.
The question now is, how can man obtain the restitution to his created perfection.
As I have said, this can only be accomplished by making the perfect adjustment of the two apparent conflicting sides of his nature.
And first, he must recognize that he has the spiritual nature as well as the animal, and that there is such a relationship and coordination between the two that the supremacy of the latter disturbs the harmony of his perfection as man. The spiritual having been subordinated, the remedy is to remove the subordination and restore the equality. The spiritual notwithstanding its condition, is always fighting to regain its place in the true adjustment and will always answer the call of man, to come to his rescue, and the only thing that has prevented that response is that man has not called for it to assert itself.
Well I am sorry, but we had better postpone until later. Try to get in greater rapport.
Good night.
Your brother in Christ,
- ST. JAMES.
Vol. II, p. 350
