Christ is very Lord

Wherein were Christ and his disciples different from other men?

IT is necessary to use some kind of a figure to impress a figure when finite words are too meagre to convey a tithe of the richness of spirit thought.

(This should always be remembered when studying the sayings of Christ and his disciples. Try to understand not merely the words or figure employed, but the spirit which is meant to be conveyed). Having understood previous articles, you will remember we found in the great centre of all things, whom scriptures term Jehovah, the odic force which is the prime or first cause of all forces.

Now for a figure of this odic force, existing at its source in Jehovah, let us take a simple, clean fire of anthracite coal. As it glows and burns there it gives off several things, not one of which is a bit of the entire coal itself. There is heat: compare those rays of heat to the emanations of life from God, by which the vitalising principle is communicated to everything that lives. There is light: let that answer to the emanations of spirit which scatter far and wide the seed germs of spirit throughout the universe, and constantly feed those germs, always through the attraction of like to like.

The greater the development the greater the attraction, and hence the more rays of light that will be received (just as a highly-polished surface attracts and reflects more rays from the sun than a duller one). Then there is motion: consider this like unto the mighty emanations which produce the cosmos force. We have previously seen that when one of these seed germs of light falls into the embryo germ of mortality, produced through conjunction of the attraction of the sexes, we have the miniature babe, with nothing more required but time for its development—nothing more. If it is never developed in earth life it will be in the next sphere to it.

Well, suppose, now, one little coal from that glowing fire had been dropped into the soul of the embryo babe, instead of merely the seed of light! Do you not suppose one such little coal—nay, hundreds—might be spared, yet never seem to affect the strength of the heat and light of a vast bed of glowing coals? (Remember this is but a poor figure of great power and glory). How does anybody know but that by some incomprehensible law such a coal is sent, at certain proper intervals, to every world in the universe?

But if it is, how shall any being less than the spirit in the coal be able to reveal the fact? If we are not gods, to witness the workings of God primo facto, how shall we be able, from any knowledge that we can have (which you remember is only what we have experienced), to assert a positive affirmative, more than a positive denial? But as we may be able to judge somewhat of laws which we cannot grasp, analyse or define by their workings, so may we judge of how Christ differed from other men by what he did, and the effects which he produced.

What other man ever lived in your world whose influence was potent enough to cause the chronology of time, as reckoned in the world, to be dated from his birth? What other man ever lived who aroused the amount of thought and discussion in the most intelligent minds of the earth that he has done, and does? What other man taught spirit truths so simple that the mind of the young child is able to grasp their meanings, and the little eyes glisten with love and sympathy, the sweet voice grow more gentle and tender from the spirit stirred and thought awakened in the young soul, yet truths so profound, so impressive, that not nineteen hundred years of elaboration and discussion and reflection has been sufficient to bring forth one-half the force and attractiveness and helpfulness of the spirit of the teachings with which Jesus of Nazareth expounded the mind of God?

Much more might be asked, but ponder well these three simple questions, then ask of your own soul, Wherein did Christ differ from other men?

As to the disciples, the purely human characteristics of the men show in all the examples given of their lives and sayings. But their spirits were enlarged and lifted up by the teachings and example of a spirit greater and higher than their own. Just so may the minds and spirits of men today be enlarged and lifted up by influx of spirit greater than themselves, if they earnestly seek.

That was one of the clearest and most explicit teachings of Christ—the spirit which was left in the world, free to all men when he was gone. Not but that the spirit was always in the world—but it was not perceived of men, nor understood; and Christ asserted that he, also, was before the world began. If his testimony proves true in other things, have we a right to doubt it in this?

Does the incarnation trouble you? Are you able, then, to tell why, or how, or in what manner, your own spirit becomes incarnate in the body in which you are at present imprisoned? Can you tell when the life principle of your own spirit began? through what stages it may have passed? or if it existed before the world existed in which you are now conscious of living? If you cannot answer questions concerning your own identity, with which you would naturally be supposed to be most familiar, by what logic or authority can you deny Christ's positive statements of what he knew concerning himself? He also asserted that every man was a son of God by divine birthright with himself.

Would it not be wisdom to accept, in lieu of mysteries which you cannot fathom, this conclusion: if an ordinary man's spirit holds a cupful of the divine spirit, then the spirit of Christ holds a whole barrelful.

Many persons whose enthusiasm leads them to magnify the facts of mediumship, and those to whom the spirits of their departed friends seem more than the spirit of Christ, satisfy themselves upon the whole subject by saying, Christ was a medium.

Do any mediums, after they die, come back, without the aid of dark circles, or cabinets, and allow their former friends to handle their spiritual bodies and talk at length to them? and, also, do they partake freely of food with them? Does any medium dare to assert that he is one with God when he knows he is about to die? Do you know the name of any medium potent enough to keep dark, low spirits away from other developing mediums? Let any medium thus troubled with influences which he feels to be low or impure pray earnestly and persistently, in the name of Christ Jesus, to be delivered from them, then add his testimony to that of the spirits of light and truth, through all the spheres of heaven, who are ever ready to proclaim that Christ is very Lord, Son of God, and King of Hosts.

Spirit Author Unknown — LEAFLETS OF TRUTH; OR, Light From the Shadow Land, M. KARL, CHICAGO: 1886