JESUS our great captain

JESUS our great captain

Hermes, the Egyptian, gives us his account on the machinations of the priests, who, rejecting the truth, ascribed the healing power, which Jesus exercised to Beelzebub. Although evidencing no fear, Jesus was deeply impressed with that which was coming upon him. In the following extract, Hermes recounts the Feast of the Passover, the band going up to Jerusalem, the shelter in the gardens, the secret council of the rulers and priests, the false accusations, Judas’ betrayal and the midnight capture, the trial scene, Pilate’s cowardice, the dolorous way to Calvary and the bloody work completed—

We were in Galilee when the passover of the Jews drew nigh, and we were surprised when the Master said to us that he would go up to Jerusalem on the occasion. 

We tried to persuade him against going, for we knew that the chief priests and others had been plotting to destroy him. 

They saw clearly that if Jesus succeeded in getting the people to submit to his doctrines, their whole system would be overthrown, and that their fat livings upheld by exactions from the ignorant masses would also be swept away. 

But to all our entreaties, the Master would not lend his ear. 

He had made up his mind to do his duty, and go he would. 

Ah—there was no shrinking, no cowardly fear in him when danger was impending. 

It mattered not where he was—whether in temple or synagogue, on hillside or seaside, he never showed the slightest fear of man, but was ever ready to speak and work for man's welfare. 

Finding him resolved we opposed him no longer, but catching the same spirit, we professed, one and all of us, to be ready to go even to death with him. 

So we thought then. 

O—how brave we are at times! 

But it was self that made us cowards.

When we reached Jerusalem, he went to the temple, as was his wont, and spoke daily to the people, there assembled at that time in great numbers. 

In the evenings we went to Kedron, in the gardens of which we found shelter, though under the open canopy of heaven, away from the noise and bustle of the city. 

The crisis came on. 

The last evening with our Master, after supping with him, we went back to our shelter in the gardens. 

And while engaged in devotion with him there, the chief priests and rulers were sitting in council, as we afterwards learned, planning how they might get rid of him. 

But even amongst these men there were some who had secretly believed in Jesus, and now that the storm was about to burst, they boldly avowed their attachment and stood up in his defence. 

These were Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, Gamaliel, and others of the masters of Israel. 

The High Priest Caiaphas, as I afterwards learned, rose from his great throne and spoke to the assembled council. 

After showing what Jesus had done, and was doing, he accused him of witchcraft, stating that witnesses were ready to declare that he had spoken both against their holy temple and city and that he had despised the laws of Moses—laws that had been penned by the hand of God. 

Another rose and accused him of making himself a king, thus giving the Roman government cause of complaint and interference—while one after another brought other charges against him and clamorously called for instant decision.

It was at this point the humble and meek-minded Gamaliel opened his mouth in defence of the Master. 

He asked them how it was possible for such a character as they made out Jesus to be—to do the good and wonderful works he had done, and of which many of them were witnesses, except God were with him. 

Thereupon one rose up in great wrath as if possessed by their supreme devil Beelzebub and appealed to heaven to crush the meek Gamaliel. 

But the ruler Nicodemus boldly stood up and quietly, but firmly thrust back the accusations that had been made against Jesus. 

He said he would not call down the curses of heaven on their heads—

He would rather plead for mercy on them, notwithstanding the iniquitous courses they had pursued to gain their object—the destruction of the innocent. 

O blessed religion, as taught by Jesus, glittering in the beauty of truth! he cried, but when put on as a cloak, it becomes dark and cruel, seeking to appease offended heaven by sacrifices on bloody altars. This is not the religion taught by Jesus. Why do you thus secretly meet to sit in judgment on him? He is not afraid to look you in the face. Are ye afraid? But go on in your evil way and become guilty of slaying the innocent. Rear your altar, ye priests! Lead forth as the victim, for the last of your bloody sacrifices, Jesus, the Son of the Living God! 

Thus spoke the Ruler, who had long been a believer in secret, but who now fought bravely for the Master before the chief priests and rulers of the nation. 

I leave you, he said—I wash my hands of this evil deed! 

On saying, which accompanied by Joseph, Gamaliel, and others, he left the council. 

That same Caiaphas would have given a hundred years of life could he have done the same, but he was afraid for his position as High Priest.

Not far from the place of secret council was Judas, the wretched traitor, who sold his Master for a few pieces of silver. 

My soul burned in bitter wrath against the foul wretch, and had he been clinging even to the sacred altar, I verily believe I would have torn him limb from limb, and thought I was doing but justly. 

The traitor lay waiting the decision of the secret conclave, some of whom had concerted with him that same night how to take Jesus.

A sorrowful night it was to us all. 

He alone was composed. 

He was conversing freely with us, telling us of the heavenly country and of his return to his kingdom above, when lo! in the thick darkness, we saw lights approaching.

All Nature was silent, even the stars veiled their faces, refusing to look on the impending deed of darkness. 

O—think of that! 

The lights of flickering flambeaus showed the forms that approached, guided by the traitor—a band armed with swords and spears and bows—a whole regiment of armed men to capture one man and a few unarmed followers. 

Jesus stood unmoved at the sight, and when they came near, he said—

Whom seek ye? 

They said they wanted Jesus of Nazareth. 

He then said—

I am he when at once, as if stricken, the whole band of armed men fell flat on their faces to the ground. 

Amazing sight! 

The rough soldiers of Rome, unaccustomed to bowing the knee, doing homage as to a king—prostrate before him whom they had come to arrest as a criminal! 

Then the traitor, who accompanied them to earn his vile wages, attempted to salute his Master whom he had sold (a long and sore punishment he had to undergo, and he has doubtless long regretted the dreadful deed).

At length, they laid hands on the victim, when Peter, who was armed with a sword, boldly attacked them, wounding severely a servant of the High Priest. 

But even then—at that trying moment, the goodness and power of our beloved Master was shown, for, after rebuking the impulsive, but warm-hearted disciple, he turned to the man who had been struck, and by a touch healed his wound. 

Ah! Caiaphas, where was the sorcery there? 

The afterlife of the man whose wound had been healed gave answer, for he became from that night a thorough believer in Jesus and was prominent as a spreader of the truth in Judea. 

That passionate stroke of Peter's made numerous converts to the truth—more than ever he had made during all the mission of the Master.

They led him away and brought him before the High Priest and rulers, who ordered him to be taken to Herod's judgment-bar, but he, declining to sit in judgment on Jesus, handed him over to Pilate the Roman governor. 

Being a foreigner, I was not suspected of being one of his followers and got admission along with others. 

There the enemies of Jesus brought forward their charges, one of these being that he had said he was a king, thinking by such an accusation to gain the ear of the Roman governor. 

But after questioning him, Pilate declared to the clamorous, malicious men who crowded the Roman hall that he could find nothing against him. 

You can imagine how hard it was for me to stand there, amidst the crowd of bitter enemies, and see my beloved Master rudely struck in the face, while first one miscreant and then another brought forward false accusations against him.

Pilate, who was a just and honourable man, fearing the gods of his country, indignantly protested against the bigotry of these spiteful Jews and declared that he saw nothing in their charges. 

But they, determined to accomplish their object, insinuated that he was not doing his duty as a Roman governor in setting one at liberty who had been seditiously stirring up the people. 

Still he stood firm, even condescending to plead with them to desist from their charges. 

Away with the fellow! Crucify him! cried the infuriated crew. 

Even the wife of Pilate entreated him not to listen to the bloodthirsty accusers of Jesus, but though he considered him innocent, he—afraid of the threats of the Jewish rulers and priests to denounce him to the Imperial Government—after protesting against the deed and washing his hands from innocent blood gave him up to be crucified. 

He was guilty, notwithstanding, for, but for his cowardly fear of Jewish malevolence, he had power sufficient to have acquitted Jesus. 

But in all this was fulfilled the old prophecy that he would die an ignominious death.

There was no prison for him—

No breathing-time allowed by these hounds thirsting for his blood. 

The altar was erected and the victim lamb was led out as a bloody sacrifice to the God of Heaven! 

Ah—what have priests not done in the name of God to further their own selfish ends! 

Alas! it has ever been thus—

True religion set at nought—

Love and truth sacrificed!

That morning you would have thought that all Judea had gathered together to witness the crucifixion of these three men, for Jesus was doomed to suffer death between two robbers—thus basely heaping odium on him even in his death. 

I never left from the time of his arrest until they brought him to Calvary. 

I had seen nothing of the others, excepting Peter, who was present at the palace of the High Priest in the early morning. 

Poor Peter, he lost his temper when questioned by one who suspected him to be a follower of Jesus, denying with an oath all knowledge of him, but bitterly he repented of his cowardly conduct.

Jerusalem was at the time crowded by people from all parts of Judea, and the whole course of that ever-memorable procession along the streets was crowded by onlookers, and when the Roman guards on their prancing war-horses appeared with Jesus in their midst, many of the people wept, and some of those who had cried for his crucifixion, now shed tears as they looked on him who quietly and uncomplainingly went on to a cruel and shameful death.

On reaching the accursed hill, they stripped him of his raiment and drove the nails through his hands and feet into the cross—and doing the same with the two robbers, they thrust the three crosses into the ground. 

And there between these two thieves hung the Prince of Glory in agony and shame amid that crowd of mocking heartless Jews and rough Roman soldiers, yet even then I heard no complaint from his lips. 

On the cross over his head, the Romans, by command of Pilate, placed an inscription in three languages, evidently to spite the Jews, in these words—

Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. 

They complained to Pilate and wished him to alter it, but he refused to hear them.

Their bloody work had not long been accomplished when Heaven frowned on the dreadful deed. 

All Nature became shrouded in thick darkness—the vivid lightnings flashed and the thunder rolled. 

Terror was pictured on every face of the assembled people, and the Roman soldiery, who were never afraid of ten times their number, crouched as if they expected the heavens to fall on them—

I believe there was more done at that black hour to bring home conviction of the truth than during all the ministry of our beloved Lord. 

The educated amongst these Romans were heard exclaiming—

Surely this man is the Son of a Divine Being!

Was the company at what is called the Last Supper confined to the twelve?

No—but it was confined to the disciples who were with the Master at the time, including the twelve. 

In this he made no distinction—he looked on all as his brethren. 

We were all dear to Jesus, but these twelve being Hebrews he chose to be his body servants.

You say Jesus was taken from the High Priest to Herod and then to Pilate. In one of the four gospels, the writer says he was taken from the High Priest’s to Pilate, who remitted him to Herod, and that the latter sent him back to Pilate—Is there no mistake in your statement?

No—my statement is correct.

Hermes, the Egyptian, tries to give us something more of his mission work—

Did the other priests adhere to you in your work of reformation?

The priests of Egypt were supported by a tax on the landholders, who were grievously oppressed by such burdens. 

These priests were the lords of the land and possessed great riches, and you may easily imagine that it required great faith in them to leave their wealth and begin to fight against the corrupt system by which that wealth was obtained. 

I fear it would be the same in your day. 

A few of the lower orders took part with me. 

We went out to the work depending on the great God, our Father. 

If we got a meal in the morning, we were as sure of it in the evening—and we were always sure of a roof to shelter us at night even though that were but a tree of God's own planting.

Hermes gives us bits from a discourse he delivered to his countrymen when he began his work of reformation in Egypt. 

These, he extols, may still be of service, for though we live in an advanced period in our history, we have not gone so far into their old modes of thought as we fancy we have done. 

They may be accounted old and worn-out in their religious ideas and we may imagine that we are now far in advance, but it is not so. 

In the matter of science, we are doubtless in advance, but in theology, our progress has been very little indeed—

We are but imitators of the ancients.

I feel a degree of difficulty in reproducing these discourses. 

I do not get my ideas conveyed to you exactly as I want them—depending as I do on the translation of the medium, who is liable to go wrong now and again. 

For this, however, neither of us is to be blamed. 

He may err in translating us, and we may misapprehend your questions and give you incorrect answers. 

It would be much better had we the language. 

But on the whole, we do wonderfully well. 

It was somewhat in this fashion I spoke—

Fellow countrymen, hearken unto me. 

You have long known me as a priest—as one who has gone out and in amongst you, and my character is well known to you all. 

But here I stand this day to declare to you that henceforth I am no longer a priest. 

My eyes once closed are now open to see the monstrous idolatry and absurdity of our temple service. 

At these altars on which we kindle fires and burn incense and offer up sacrifices to gods of stone and wood—gods of iron, of silver and of gold—at these altars I will serve no longer—to such senseless forms of beast, bird and reptile, I will no longer bend my knee in worship—no longer can I look upon them even as symbolic representations of what has been called the attributes of the great God—for he whose eyes have been opened to all this delusion and absurdity can never be satisfied with such an excuse. 

Our whole religious system is corrupt and cries aloud for reformation.

Our ancient records go far back in the history of the world—even down the long ages to the formation of the earth by the fiat of the great and mighty God, the Creator and the Sustainer of all things in heaven and in earth. 

But who amongst the sons of men can say—

God is like this—or God is like that? 

Not one—we can form no conception of his shape or form. 

He is above and beyond all form. 

He is INTELLIGENCE.

In the sacred writings of the nations— Egyptian, Persian, Hebrew—various attributes have been ascribed to the great Spirit, such as omnipotence, omniscience, foreknowledge, justice, truth, love, mercy and goodness. 

These, and many more besides, have been spoken of as belonging to God—and men, led away by their own conceits and false conceptions of the great and infinite One have symbolised these attributes in the forms of birds and beasts and crawling reptiles—and the people, having little knowledge of symbols, and no one inclined to show them a better way, have fallen down and worshipped these as gods—the senseless blocks of wood and stone and metal! 

Away with it altogether! 

How long shall we tolerate such a system? 

God is One. 

He is complete. 

He is Intelligence. 

These so-called attributes are but the conceptions of man—they are not of God. 

Finite men, for their own convenience have used these terms and spoken in such a way as to lead others to imagine a God divided. 

But He is one—Intelligence. 

And being so, He is the All-powerful—

The All-wise—

The All-good—

The All-loving—

The All-merciful—

The All-just God. 

Where all is good, there can be no such thing as evil. 

Where all is truth, there can be no lie. 

There can be no evil existing with Infinite Intelligence. 

Evil is the result of man's ignorance. 

Why then you say create man in ignorance? 

Because it is decreed by our Creator that we should acquire knowledge by the exercise of the powers He has granted us. 

Man is not born wise and good and loving, but he is born with all the faculties by which he may during his lifetime become wise and good. 

There can be only one All-powerful Being—the One Perfect Intelligence from whom we spring and of whose nature we are partakers, but in a finite degree—and it is our duty to grow in likeness to Him. 

But ah! how unlike are we to the great Spirit—the ever-living God, whose goodness, whose light flows out to all eternally! 

It goes far beyond all that we can conceive.

Do not think that I mean to say there is no such thing as sin. 

I do not contradict myself. 

If I make a bargain with a man and afterwards break the contract, I sin against that man—I injure him—and by all that is just, I must account for it. 

The sin—

The injury is done to my neighbour, but I must account to the great Intelligence for that sin. 

I must be judged and I must suffer even though I should wander in Hades for thousands of years.

Seeing we have been endowed by the great Creator with powers so great, let us do our duty in respect to our fellow men wherever we go, and at all times. 

Let us try to raise the fallen—to give a helping hand to those who are downtrodden—to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and by every means let us seek to dispel the darkness of ignorance by imparting to others that light, which we ourselves possess. 

It may be we can give but a dim light, but if but a spark let it be given, so that it in time may lighten up the benighted ones around us.

Now brethren, if you are convinced that I am speaking words of truth—truth worthy your acceptance, and still refuse to accept it, you are responsible to the great Spirit, the Father and Creator of All. 

Do not think that He will fail to call you to account. 

Judgment awaits you. 

Be persuaded then to abandon the course you have hitherto pursued. 

Cast away these senseless idols—

Be men and acknowledge the great Intelligent One as your God, and Him only.

Thus changed in mind, you will strive to conduct yourselves as the children of God. 

But if not—

If you still persist in your idolatries, when you come to cross the river, beware! 

You may be sent back in disgrace in the boat with an ape at the helm—

All mankind are our brethren—a universal brotherhood—all are related, as system to system in the starry heavens—all bound to God the great Father, the Life-giver, the Infinite Intelligence.

I am not sure about what you said in reference to sinning against God and our neighbour—will you explain?

I said—or meant to say that in sinning against men we might escape from man's judgment, but we cannot escape from the Infinite Intelligence. 

We are created ignorant, and that which we do in ignorance is not reckoned sin. 

If you place a number of human beings on an island, totally ignorant, having no knowledge of God and his laws, what would be the result? 

All manner of evil. 

But would you punish these men and women for their lawless deeds? 

Could you?

Dare you? 

No—assuredly not. 

But on the other hand were these persons somewhat enlightened and conscious that they were doing that which they ought not to do, you might justly condemn them as worthy of punishment. 

When sin is committed, an injury is done to man. 

You cannot really by sinning injure God. 

Still, God will hold you accountable for all you do against the light of his truth within you. 

Be assured of this.

You said your addresses were chiefly delivered to the unlearned or poorer class of the people—if so, was it likely they would fully comprehend such a discourse?

You must understand that we were not like you in our beliefs. 

The people of Egypt were generally instructed in many of the mysteries of the symbolical worship that prevailed under our corrupt system of theology. 

We paid great attention to the consideration of the attributes of the Deity—and we (the priests) studied by every means to represent these attributes by various animals, so as to convey to the uninitiated some idea of truth—but all this would not do—inherently bad from the first though containing some truth such a theology, step by step, led the people into idolatrous practices in their worship, and in course of time, long before my day, the whole system had become a mass of absurdity and corruption. 

All this I wanted reformed, and instead of seeing them bowing down ignorantly to idols, to get their minds directed to the One Great Spirit, the Maker of All Things, and the only object of man's worship, I was incited to pursue this course of reformation by spirit influence, for, as I spoke to the people, I felt the very words welling up into my mouth. 

I do not know how this was done, but conscious they were not mine, I concluded they were from a high and holy source. 

Yes—if men would but put reliance at such seasons on the great Spirit rather than dependence on their own mental powers or on their knowledge gained by study, the results would be much greater and more beneficial to their fellow men. 

Men sent by God, and who place themselves under his guidance, need give no anxious concern as to what they will say—when in the right condition, the heavenly help will be at hand. 

But it will not do to rely on us in every case—for in many men this would beget laziness and their thinking powers would lie dormant. 

It is man's duty to cultivate every faculty of his nature, and at the same time strive to have his soul in such a condition that influences from the spirit world may not be shut out. 

With us there is ample room for every thinking being—ample opportunities for the cultivation of his highest nature—for the study of creation. 

How often have men made a blade of grass the object of inquiry and thought and found their earth-life too short to pursue the loved study. 

Here they will find time! 

Here, too, the honest doubter will find his doubts dispelled—

The darkness of doubt annihilated by the light of truth. 

It is even good for men to doubt—

It sets them eagerly on the search for truth and they are benefitted in the arduous struggle to reach it.

Do you now adhere to the doctrines yon advocated in your discourse?

Certainly—I hold them now. 

But if I found anything, which I taught on earth to be discordant with the truths of this life, life in the spirit world, I would at once cast it off—not however without first picking out the precious stones from amongst the rough rubble.

O Great and Glorious Spirit, Fountain of All Truth, Source and Centre of All Intelligence, Creator and Preserver of All Things throughout the wide universe—

Our Father, send forth, we pray Thee, Thy bright messengers to guide and guard these mortals, our brethren, into all truth. 

And may their souls' thirst be fully quenched from the ever-flowing fountain of Thy truth and Thy wisdom. 

Depending on Thee alone in their earth-pilgrimage, may they when they pass over to us be welcomed into the Summerland, which Thou, O loving Father! hast prepared for them.

Hafed, Prince of Persia—His Experiences in Earth Life and Spirit Life

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