The gospel of hope

Front matter

Glass.

Book.

Cfje Gospel of Hope

Chapter I

Now it came to pass just nineteen hundred and eleven years after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that the world was again torn by dissension and rent by discord and oppressed by injustice. For the rich had become richer and the poor had become poorer, and everywhere the cries of widows and orphans and of the weak and the distressed arose as they cried aloud in their agony: How long, O Lord, how long? And they turned one to the other questioning and there came no answer. The Leaders looked to the People and the People looked to the Leaders and they saw not the way.

Now since the people wished again to believe on the Lord and because they were earnest and sincere albeit sometimes vague and blind in the utterance of their prayers, the Lord heard and saw and had pity upon them. Therefore He sent a messenger unto them, saying: "Ye must be honest. Ye must render justice one to the other whether ye be rich or poor. All thy business dealings must be based on fairness and justice or else this nation or any other nation cannot permanently endure." Although this man sent by the Lord was a politician yet he preached in the Temples and was invited into the Churches and the People heard him gladly and when he had spoken they turned one to the other saying: — There is a man!

So they elected him to the second office in the state. His enemies helped to do this because they hoped thus to be rid of him.

Since for a hundred years no Vice-President, for that was the name of the office, had ever been subsequently chosen to be President. Thus there had grown up a superstition among the People that to be Vice-President of the nation was to be laid upon the shelf as the saying was and debarred from all future preferment. So he was elected by his enemies in hopes that this superstition alone might debar him from all future honors at the hands of the People. Now since this mighty Hunter had been selected by the Lord to do His will and to serve His people, the hand of vengeance descended from on high and the first ruler was stricken down by the hand of an assassin soon after his election.

The first ruler was personally a good man but weak and not altogether clear of blame in his political record. For he had compromised and had associated with and been the friend of dishonest and unworthy and designing men. Therefore was he stricken down in the fullness of his years and honors

Now straightway the second ruler whom the Lord selected for his work became the First Ruler or President of the Land. And he ruled seven years and six months wisely and well. Because he had ruled so well and because he had attacked so courageously the power of money intrenched in high places, the People cried out here and there and said: Let us make him permanent President, for he is the man.

But this mighty Hunter who was their leader, knowing well whence his strength came answered them and said: Nay! not so. I gave my promise to rule no longer than the stated terms. Lacking only a few months, I have held the highest office in the land for two full terms according to the Law. Therefore ye must select another man. But the People cheered him and cried out: No other man will do. Then came temptation to this mighty Hunter, this noble leader and lover of his race. He said unto his soul: The people say that I alone am wise. I will select a ruler for the land who shall fulfill my plans. And so the people shall be saved. He thus fulfilled the letter but not the spirit of the Law. Overwhelmed by tumultuous flattery such as few men ever had, he forgot whence came his power and he fell.

Selecting a friend whose generous tongue had spoken pleasant things and whose rotund form denoted the friendly, easy-going and human kind of man, this mighty Hunter selected, worked for and elected his friend to office, convinced that his friend would serve the People well. Now having done his duty by his people as he thought, he took his son and many tents and guns and servants and went into the continent of Africa to hunt. For so he rested up his body. But his soul was never weary for he never harbored any doubts. He was so sure that he was always right.

Now no mortal man is always right, especially the man who loves the incense of flattery and applause. For Flattery will blind with dust the strongest eyes.

The need of every man and of every ruler is to think. Without thought, deep and quiet and persistent thought no man is wise enough to help his fellows in their hour of need. Yet lo! in the very hour of all his Nation's greatest need this mighty ruler as men thought went off like some raw boy to hunt wild beasts instead of seeking a quiet nook where by deep and earnest thought he might still aid and help his People's struggles against those giants, Greed, Injustice and Financial Power.

He went away to hunt and not to think, when clear thinking was the one need of the hour. Then fell the Lord's grace from the man and he became merely human, his wisdom all was gone and his high honors shorn from him. In the hour of Fate he failed.

Chapter II

Now thinking is the hardest task that is known to man. To think is labor twice distilled. More difficult than the rowing of a boat against a strong sea and a rising wind; harder than the digging of coal or iron or silver or gold or tin or copper in a stuffy mine down in the earth; requiring greater strength and skill than wielding broadswords against overmatching foes; requiring more grit than facing winter winds on arctic wastes, so difficult it is to think down to the core of things and to solve problems as yet unknown and still unravelled.

That is why the people leave the task of thinking to their chosen leaders. The task seems all too hard. People shrink from tasks that take heroic discipline of mind besides the expert knowledge of what and how to eat and when. And yet I say unto you, no nation can be free or can permanently endure unless its people learn to think.

For freedom rests upon the foundation stones of individual hearts and consciences, not on laws in written books nor yet on graven tablets nor in the authority and learning of any leader however wise. All men must learn to think, or else in time Liberty will languish and then die. So this mighty hunter and leader and lover of his land went away to Africa to hunt and not to think. But when a year had passed he came forth from the jungles laden down with trophies, he and his son and his servants. And messengers met him on his coming forth. Some had even penetrated the wilds of Africa to speak with him and seek his wisdom. But he would not speak. He only said: How is it with my People? And the messengers answering him replied: It is not well. Doubt and Confusion and Discord fill the land. Thy people want thee to return and aid them with thy wisdom. And the mighty Hunter marvelled much and questioning the Messengers again said: What is the matter? And the Messengers answered him and said: Thy friend whom thou hast chosen to succeed thee is not so wise as thou didst think. And marvelling more, the mighty Hunter questioned them again; and again they made the same answer. Then this mighty hunter quickly and brusquely lifted up his hand, for such his manner was, and tossed up his head and said: I will return. I will no longer wait, I will return unto my land and people; and so he wended back his way and while he was in foreign lands he was feted and treated like an Emperor of ancient Rome. And all men hark* ened to him as to an oracle because he was an honest man. O that his wisdom had been equal to his honesty!

When the ship at last had brought him to his native land shouts rent the sky and in the giant city where he was born the populace cried out in joy saying: He has returned. The man our country needs has come at last.

Unto his home beside the sea leaders of all parties came to talk to him. For a time he held his tongue in leash and listened. But by and by not being wise and therefore not seeing his need of the long and deep silences that precede and accompany all thinking, he opened up his mouth, unloosened his tongue and talked and talked too much, won over by the flattery that wooed him and whose incense rose up to his brain. Then the wiser men spread here and there throughout the nation, shook their heads and sadly said: Alas! he is not the man we thought. He talks too much. His heart may be of gold but his feet are of our common clay and his soul does not keep in view the visions which it sees. Too bad! Too bad! He is not the man. Thus spake the wiser men one to the other, consulting quietly and alone.

Chapter III

This is the new Revelation written down at the dictation of the Lord thy God, who loveth thee, by one who knowing books and libraries and colleges, yea! who has known the pride of learning and the temptations thereof, still has kept within him the heart and the soul of a little child. And it is because of the simplicity of his heart and his soul, and the humbleness of his desires, they being very few and very meek, all vanity and pride of ambition having long since been taken away from him in order that he might be prepared to do this work, although what the work was he did not then know. I say it is because of these things that I have selected him to give unto thee, O my People (and all races everywhere in all the world are my people) this my message. He did not ask for this task, the greatest known to man. He stood patiently waiting to receive whatever word might come unto him and having received it to do it promptly and without fear and with modesty of mind and heart and soul. For without meekness of soul and simplicity of heart, no work of the Lord thy God ever has been or ever shall be done upon earth. Finding thus at last a man waiting and willing to do my will; who has no fear because he knows that I am with him, and who would smile at the Crucifixion on the Cross, even as Jesus smiled once before, I have therefore selected him to write down my Message because after waiting for an entire lifetime, that is up to and into the fiftieth year of his age for the chance to carry some message from me to his f ellowmen, and because he complained not and repined not and cried out not against the length of time during which I tested him and tried him sorely in order to see what his strength was, and when at length I found that his steady answer to all the temptations which I placed before him was in saying simply. I am in the hands of God. I am here on earth to do His will and His will alone. Therefore I have selected him to bear my word to men. Because he has believed. And therefore, when I came unto him in the darkness of the night, and rousing him out of a sound and restful and healthy sleep, said unto him: Awake and light thy candle and take thy pen and whatever paper there is conveniently at hand and write what I tell thee to write for thou hast and shall have only such knowledge as I give unto thee — I thy Lord and thy God, — dost thou understand? — he answered and said Yea! Lord, I understand.

Then take thy pen and thy paper and write thereon exactly the words I send thee and no other words whatsoever. For whoso tampers with the words of the Lord, he shall be damned; and all of his power and influence and authority shall be taken from him, yea! even though he may have been ordained by men as a priest or minister to preach unto them on the holy Sabbath Day. But I know not ministers who preach. I recognize only ministers who minister unto me and my people. Whoso speaketh the Word and doeth it not, he is not and never has been a minister of mine.

Chapter IV

As I have written in my first gospels, those originally taken down carefully and afterwards ingeniously corrupted and added to by mortal men who sought to serve me by founding a religious institution that was to wield power and to perpetuate power among men instead of spreading my word and my spirit, which is the spirit of Jesus Christ, — for he is I, and I was in Him, — throughout the world. I say they do wrong who seek to perpetuate or to glorify or to symbolize or to make plain to the sight of men my spirit, except it be done spiritually. There is no other way in which to do anything except the right way, and when I said unto you, Follow me in spirit and in truth, I meant exactly those words and no other words. A right spirit, that is the spirit of the Lord thy God needs not sticks nor stones; neither cut stones nor hewn timbers to help make itself known to the hearts of men.

I say unto ye now that walls shut out the sunlight of my Heavens and the blueness of my sky and the beauty of my world and therefore churches have become an abomination unto mine eyes, inasmuch as they are and have been for many years obstructing the words and visions and kind deeds which I put into the hearts of men to do.

For the so-called followers of Jesus Christ, whom I do not punish because they are blind and see not, I say the so-called followers of Christ, and ye may well mark the word, which word I send unto you not entirely in scorn but in pity and in wonder at thy blindness, — the so-called followers do not do my bidding nor do they follow nor are they followers of my Son, Jesus, in so far as they think to shut themselves up in their costly churches and listen to their costly music and sing hymns out of their dainty hymn-books and sit in ease on their costly cushions and swing incense in the costly censers of silver and plated gold.

For know ye that in shutting themselves in, my so-called followers have shut me out. And I have taken my refuge again in the hearts of the poor and lonely and forsaken who day and night cry unto me. And I, their God, the living God will render them Justice; and I, their God, the living God, will give them comfort, and I, their God, will feed them and clothe them and uplift them whenever they too shall arise with clean hearts to follow me.

Chapter V

But I say unto you, there is no heart that is clean that holds envy. And there is no heart that is clean that holds Hate. And there is no heart which is clean that holds the sneaking worldly ambition to possess power. Such are not and never have been the servants of the Lord. And I say unto you, there is no honor in poverty, no grace in rags, nor goodness in obscurity or in ignorance. But the only badge of honor in a man is that he face life cheerfully and that he fight the battle of life bravely and that he accept what I send unto him gratefully and with a contrite heart.

And furthermore I say unto you: The poor shall not become rich nor put off their poverty so long as Envy and Hate abide with them. For there be people by the million who do not know how to use riches any better than those who now possess them. And there be people whose hate for their fellowman because he happens to be a rich man is an abomination in my sight. All such are not my followers. Let no man call upon the Lord until his heart is clean for I will not hear him. I say I will not listen to any man, rich or poor who hides Envy or Hate in his heart. Therefore, cleanse ye your hearts. Love alone can make the world beautiful and human life gracious. Therefore seek ye love in purity and in truth.

Chapter VI

Now inasmuch as ye have had the words and teachings of Jesus Christ and yet have not believed on Him nor done His work nor followed His teachings, I will confound you and confuse you and mystify you by forbidding you, — yea! forbidding you, — until you have cleansed your hearts, to even call upon His name, for ye have taken His name in vain. Ye shall cease to take the name of Jesus in vain. For either ye have taken it in vain both in word and deed by being proud and selfish and hypocritical, or ye have taken it in vain by allowing the vain and proud and hypocritical worldly folks to sit beside ye in your churches and to take part in your services without rebuke, thus giving countenance to hypocrisy and humbug and lying.

Therefore, I, thy God, the living God who created both the Heavens and the Earth, forbid ye to speak the name of Jesus except in thy solitary prayers. If ye would follow Him, then I command you to go out quietly and alone to aid the poor and oppressed everywhere in the world. And when ye have done work for the poor and oppressed, then alone in thy chamber at evening time or in the early morning you may say softly to thyself: What I have done I have done, Jesus, in thy name.

Moreover I say unto you that whereas Jesus was poor ye have builded Him churches that are rich; and whereas He was meek, ye have builded Him temples that are proud; and whereas He was lowly, ye have reared monuments to Him that are high, under the pretense of honoring His name. But I say unto you: Ye have done wrong. These things are not done to His honor but to thy own pride and to the vanity of thy own hearts. I say unto you furthermore that He does not need either costly churches or fine music or velvet pews or swinging censers or electric lights or loud hosannas or hymns of praise or the tender and beautiful adorations of choral music, — nay! not even this, the best part of all the worship that is in thy churches today, but He needs the loyal devotion of loving hearts, of loving hearts I say. And what He needs He receives not in the measure that He needs it. For I say unto you that whereas you crucified Him once in the flesh, you have since crucified Him a thousand times in the spirit, as you are still doing. For your hypocrisy is a crucifixion to Him; and your timidity is a crucifixion to Him; and your fear of giving offence to worldly folks is a crucifixion to Him. And your graven images of His body nailed upon the cross and showing His body and His wounds — all these things are a crucifixion to Him. For I say unto ye who are spiritually blind and therefore see not; who are spiritually deaf and therefore hear not; who are spiritually dumb and therefore understand not, that a physical wound unto a mortal man is nothing compared to a wound or insult to the spirit of that man.

And if a mortal man can and does (as many of them alas do) suffer far more from spiritual than from physical pain, then how much the more must the Lord Jesus Christ suffer whose soul was so much greater than His poor physical body. And if by representing in graven images the body and wounds which thy Lord received upon one day and in one mere mortal hour of His immortal life, are ye not degrading Him when ye do not understand the nature and meaning of His soul that having infinite capacity for pity and for love hath therefore a like capacity for pain? For the ability to love carries with it the capacity to suffer. A little love may be followed by a little suffering, but a great love is followed by a great suffering, unless those who are loved know and feel and understand and consequently appreciate the love given them. For that is the law.

Therefore I say unto you: Beware how ye degrade unwittingly the Christ whom ye desirest to follow and whose teachings ye say ye desire to do. For to do honor unto anything requires first of all understanding. The child cannot truly honor its parent nor can the parent rightly honor the child without understanding. For understanding begetteth sympathy. And the brutality of the world rests upon misunderstanding, that is to say upon a lack of sympathy. So I say unto you; if ye would honor the Lord Jesus Christ follow Him and do His will in meekness and lowliness of spirit. For how can He be at one with you or you be at one with Him, when ye neither know nor understand nor sympathize with the spirit of Christ?

Be ye patient and ye shall in seeking find. Be ye humble and ye shall in striving attain. Be ye lowly and ye shall discover the way to Life everlasting, which is simply the way of Love.

Chapter VII

Again I send this message unto you. Ye must believe — O ye must believe. There is no other way. And in order that ye may believe I will close your temples and your places of worship which ye have allowed to be defiled by the feet and the hands and the voices of Hypocrites and Pharisees. For even ye, my Followers, have read my Word and obeyed not; ye have perceived my law and done it not. For have ye not feared more to give offence to the rich Pharisee than to give offence to thy Father who art in Heaven. Therefore I say unto you my People, I say unto you my servants, that ye shall put away with reverence and with carefulness the Bible, yea! even the Bible thou callest holy and which I sent unto thee for a living word to live by, to act by, to do thy daily business and to guide thy daily conduct by, and with only faith within thy heart and with the simplest of simple and modest clothing upon thy backs, thou shalt go forth beneath the open sky, thou shalt look into the heavens and say: There is a living God! There is a living God who is our Father in Heaven, and He will save us and He will guide us and He will instruct us and He will uplift us.

Then ye will, yea! ye must believe. And whatsoever He bids thee do thou shalt do it, and whatsoever He bids thee say, thou shalt say it. And whatsoever He bids thy heart and thy soul and thy mind believe, thou shalt believe it. For there is no God but God. And God the Father is still a living God. He sent unto thee Jesus Christ to teach thee peace and harmony and brotherly love. He sent Jesus, the poor carpenter, the Christ, to teach thee to be at peace one with another; to instruct thee in the way of salvation and eternal life. He sent Christ unto you, I say, to banish the idols from thy temples, and uncleanness from thy hearts and thy minds and all injustice from the world. And I say unto you in order that thou mayest say the same thing unto thyself, — unto thy Heart and thy Soul and thy Mind, unto the deep conscience which I, the living God, have put into every one of ye, — How is it my child with thee? Dost thou barken unto thy conscience and so walk by the light which I have given thee?

Dost thou conduct thy business according to thy conscience and treat the servants who serve thee, according to thy conscience? Dost thou buy and sell in the market place according to thy conscience? Dost thou eat and drink and go to bed according to thy conscience? Dost thou love thy wife according to thy conscience or according to thy pleasure?

I demand of thee an answer, O thou man who dost not believe there is any living God; I demand of thee an answer and thou shalt make an answer even to thy own self and I, thy Father shalt know what thy answer is, even unto the end of the world. For I am everywhere, as I have said to thee before. I am in thee and thou art in me. For I am thy Father who lovest thee. Remember always these words, — I am thy Father who lovest thee, but thou must believe upon me. For I am the Way and the Light and the life everlasting, but ye must believe. Ye must believe upon me.

Chapter VIII

All those who would laugh may laugh! All those who would jeer, may jeer! All those who would doubt may freely and plentifully and most gorgeously and with the sharp air of unripe youth may continue to doubt even so long as it pleaseth them. Doubters alone suffer from their own unripe knowledge. And no wise man would be so unwise as to interfere with their folly. Oil and water do not mix. So wisdom and folly do not mingle. Yet I say unto you the Truth shall still prevail. For Truth is straight as sunlight, and Truth is clear as daylight, and Truth is beautiful as moonlight. Therefore, the Truth must and will prevail.

Ye who love the Truth must not and shall not fear. 1 forbid ye to contend under the delusion that it is thy duty to spread it. I forbid thee to do anything in hope of instructing thy fellows in it except one thing and one thing only, — to merely state it. For God alone can open the hearts and minds and souls of men. Therefore shall ye who believe on and try to live by the Truth, ye shall merely state what the Truth is, and thou shalt leave the rest to God.

Chapter IX

Because ye have believed not in the Spirit but only in the names of things, and moreover because ye have cried, Lord! Lord! when there was hypocrisy in thy heart and worldly cunning in thy soul and mere shrewdness in thy mind and because ye have allowed hypocrits to stand beside thee in my temples, and to sing hymns in my name and to my so-called glory without rebuke, thus giving comfort by thy silence to hypocrisy and to deceit, when the honest curses of blasphemous sinners would have been sweeter music in mine ears, therefore I say unto you my people, my children and all ye who believe in the Lord, I send you herewith another Message and it shall come unto thee and be revealed unto thee and be called by thee^ — The Message from the Unknown.

Because, I say, of your worshipping of mere names, — even the name of your Lord Jesus Christ and not the Spirit and the Life that lies behind the name, I will confound you and confuse and mystify you by giving you not even a name to conjure with or to believe in or to call upon in thy need. Thou shalt henceforth call alone upon me the Lord thy God, and I will lead thee and save thee and comfort thee. Thou shalt have no other friend or saviour, but only me the Lord, thy God. Ye shall repeat day and night; There is no God but God, and the Power and the Spirit and the Love of God is everywhere, and only by believing on Him and allowing your hearts to be filled by His love shall ye attain unto any real life either here or hereafter.

For I say unto you that the worship of the names of things and not of the spirit of things is idolatry, and ye have become idolaters and the Truth is not in you. Nor can the Truth come unto you until you cease from Pride and become even as little children. By pride I mean religious pride and professional pride and the pride of the good man in his goodness and of the scholar in his scholarship; of the orator in his orations, and of the philanthropist in his philanthropy, and of the minister in his holy calling. For I say unto you that unless ye cleanse your hearts from pride, ye shallt not see nor hear nor be able to do the bidding of the Lord thy God who is with thee, who was with thee and who shalt be with thee unto the end. Amen!