• The Coming of the Kingdom (and, The Sign of the Spirit).
John Todd Ferrier. Published in the magazine The Herald of the Cross, Vol. XXI, Nº.
5. Sep-Oct, 1947. The Order of the Cross,
Information: The magazine The
Herald of the Cross can be bought from its
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The Order of the Cross.
(p. 164)
THE SIGN OF THE SPIRIT (*)
The possession of the Holy Spirit may be known by the Soul in whom the
consciousness of the Divine Love has been called forth.
For the Fruits of the Holy Spirit are ever the same in all ages; and they are
these –
Pity unto all Creatures;
Compassion for all Souls;
The Divine Love showing itself in all the ways of life so that they become pure;
The Divine Peace making itself manifest in such a way that peace is shed abroad
everywhere and the spirit that makes for strife and warfare subdued;
The Divine Joy revealing itself in glad service for the Divine through
ministering to the children of the Father.
I.
(p. 165)
THE
COMING OF THE KINGDOM (*)
CONTENTS
The
The Realization of the Kingdom
The
The Arising of the False Kingdom
The Arising of the Historical Church
The Return of the
THE
THAT the
It would be well, if you will permit me to do so, to take you back to the days
of the Manifestation that you may hear anew what was said concerning the
You will note that the Master did not claim to have come from the FATHER-MOTHER to
found an earthly kingdom. For He Himself said that His Kingdom, or the Kingdom
to which He belonged, was not of this World. It did not follow the World’s
motion, nor take up the World’s standards to embody them. The world concept of a
Kingdom was quite foreign to Him. It was alien to the Kingdom with which He was
associated, and of which He had to speak. It was a mirage of the nature of the
Kingdom which He had to reveal, and of the life which He sought to embody. He
showed clearly in the parabolic teaching that in its coming it was first of all
the approach of the Heavens to man. It
(p. 166)
was the seeking of
the Heavens to find man. It was the bringing to him of some glimpses of the
Heavenly things to present them to his vision, as the parables do; that the
presentation might arrest the vision, recall something in it, hold it, draw it
on to follow unto the realization of that of which the parables spake, though,
of course, the inner significance was only covertly expressed.
The Coming of the Kingdom of the Heavens is the coming of Angelic breaths. True,
it comes through embodiments. The Master did not simply give parables. A teacher
may speak in parable. If he has some vision to illustrate, some philosophy to
expound, he may use parabolic teaching. It was common in the east. But in the
parables used by the Master, whilst many of them were gathered from the
objective world, and from the beautiful associations in the Human Kingdom
expressing human relationships, there was always that breathing through them
which was not of the mind, though the philosophy was always of the Divine
Wisdom. There was a breath in them that told that they were wafted from the
Heavens themselves. The breaths of the Angelic World were present to those who
heard.
The Kingdom of the Heavens is first the atmosphere generated from the Heavenly
states and conditions; then the Life of the Heavens embodied; and then the crown
of that embodiment in the glory shed by the Heavenly radiations. And when the
Heavens come, after the manner set forth in the parabolic teaching of the
Master, they do not say to this man and to that woman – “Come, you must believe
in me, and then you will be in my Kingdom. Come, you must be citizens of the
Kingdom, and
(p. 167)
the only way is to
believe.” What the Heavens really say is like this: “Drink in of this breath;
apprehend this vision; see the glory of life as illustrated in the parable, for
it speaks of the purpose of the FATHER-MOTHER
concerning you”.
We shall see presently a yet more inward motion, and the meaning of this motion
as set forth in the parabolic teaching, which is still more fully expressed in
the allegorical teaching, and yet more profoundly revealed in those intimate
conversations which the Master had with His beloved friends who came to
understand the purpose of His coming, and His ministry.
Therefore, in the coming of the Kingdom, the motion of the Soul is Heavenward.
It is first from the Heavens to man. The Kingdom is GOD’s gift.
It is GOD seeking unto the finding of the Soul. It is a Divine Motion.
Man seeks unto the finding of what GOD has given. He is a seeker after goodly
pearls, of this kind and that, each with its grain of value, or of radiance. But
when man finds the pearl of greatest price, he gives up all seeking for aught
else. He is willing to surrender everything he may have acquired, even to the
giving up of life itself, in order to find and possess this pearl. The motion of
his whole Being is Godward.
It was this motion of the Soul and of the Heavens the Master illustrated. He
unveiled the Heavens’ motion towards man to mean the coming of the Kingdom; and
the motion of the Soul to the Heavens through the coming of the Kingdom to mean
the finding of the Kingdom. First, the Kingdom comes as a blessed influence; as
a holy breath; as a glorious radiance; as a wonderful power. It is like a voice
and a vision from the Heavens.
(p. 168)
But the Kingdom finds us only when the Being responds. We must drink in the
breath. We must seek unto the understanding of the vision. We must needs be
moved to finer issues, even to seek unto the finding of the radiance in
realization which the Heavens pour forth.
It was thus the Master revealed the meaning of the Kingdom of the Heavens and
the finding of that Kingdom.
THE REALIZATION OF THE KINGDOM
Yet more did He reveal. He spake of it as subjective, and of dual motion. In the
duality there was harmony. In the dual motion there was unity of purpose and
unity of action, and such realization as the motion was able to have. The Master
indicated that the more inward motion brought to the individual the realization
of something more illuminative and intense than the Kingdom of the Heavens. He
revealed how the Soul could hear a Voice and behold a Vision from the Divine
World: it was the
“The
Be assured of this: The Kingdom of GOD is within you. And it cometh not with
observation of a phenomenal and outward nature. It cometh through
(p. 169)
heavenly perception
and realization. All true apprehension and comprehension ultimate in
realization.
Such were the Teachings of the Master concerning the Kingdom with which He was
associated. He brought the breath of the Heavens with Him. The Heavens sought
the Children who could respond. In the measure in which they responded, they
found the Kingdom of the Heavens about them. It was the same breath as once they
knew; the same radiance they had of old time beheld. If these seemed in less
degree to them than to Him, it was owing only to their capacity being limited at
the time. They could have had it in greater degree; and they did come at it and
into it in greater degree as they drank in from the Divine World. This was the
Kingdom of which He spake. It was the regnancy of the Heavens around the life
and within the Being, leading up into the consciousness of the regnancy of HIM Who
fashioneth all the Heavens, Who giveth all Divine atmosphere, Who maketh Life
radiant with the garment of HIS own Glory. This was the Kingdom the Master
brought.
Now, it is important that you should understand what I have said unto you,
because of what I would further unveil. And with that understanding, we will
look at how the intimate disciples understood the Kingdom. What did they
apprehend concerning it? If there were those who anticipated an earthly regnancy
with the Master at the head of it, they were very early disillusioned. It has
been said that Judas – the one who was said to have betrayed the Master –
betrayed Him because of disappointment. Always receive that kind of thing
(p. 170)
most guardedly. The
Master was betrayed. He was betrayed by many. There was only one Judas or Jude
in the discipleship, and he did not betray the Master. But he was accused of it,
and suffered most grievously because of the accusation. The Master assured His
intimate ones there would be no such earthly kingdom. He had come to reveal to
them the nature of the
How did the disciples, the intimate ones, apprehend the Kingdom of which He
spake? That it was a Kingdom of living Truth. It was the Truth concerning the
Mystery of the Soul. It was the Truth whose motion makes the life true and
beautiful. It was the
And everyone who would know that meaning, must have it from HIM Who was
at the heart of the Kingdom, the Regnant Divine ONE. The disciples
knew that the Kingdom they were to seek was the embodiment of the living Truth.
And so they had to endeavour to set their affairs in order. Oft-times
(p. 171)
the Master had to
chide them. Oft-times in their impulsive moments they misjudged one another,
just as they misunderstood Him. There were moments when they grew a little
jealous of one another, and He had to chide them. For jealousy is but a
misdirection of a Divine power within the Being. In this way they came to learn
the meaning of the
They had to learn, and they did at last learn, that the Kingdom which the Master
spake of was the
And as they grew in the understanding of the Kingdom in its coming to them, and
of the
(p. 172)
connected with the
outer manifestation? Lovest thou ME with all thyself so that thou lovest ME more
than thou lovest thyself?”
You will now understand that the
THE
Then the intimate ones had to learn that the Kingdom of GOD was a Kingdom of
sublime sacrifice; that it had nought to do with the pomp of the world, nor the
claims of the world, but only with the motion of GOD within the Being;
that it was of Truth and of Love; and that where a Life was the embodiment of
Truth and the exposition of Love, it was a life for GOD, a life to be made
a sacrifice.
(p. 173)
Who could imagine
that GOD, being knowable, could be realizable without the realizing one learning
that in such a realization the whole Being must become sacrificial in its
attitude, laying its potencies, even the essences of its Being, on the Altar for
Divine uses?
It was thus the Master addressed His intimate ones towards the close of the
Manifestation days when He said to them – and spake to them with a Soul-passion
ye could not understand through mere utterance of it – “Are ye indeed able to
drink of the cup of which I shall drink, and to be baptized with the baptism
with which I have to be baptized?”
Those intimate ones knew what He meant by the coming of the Kingdom of the
Heavens to Earth, the coming of the Kingdom of the Heavens to the Soul, and the
coming of the glorious atmosphere which those Heavens brought. And they knew
that the coming of the
THE ARISING OF THE FALSE KINGDOM
Now, these brethren held these Teachings sacred. To them they were Masonic. They
were kept for the Brotherhood, and only more general teachings given out. And
they held them sacredly as long as the conditions permitted after the Master had
left them to undertake the Burden of the Oblation.
Just for a brief moment, we will glimpse them in the Brotherhoods. Of these
there were quite a number. They were those centres which He visited to meet with
His intimate ones.
(p. 174)
After He left them, they had to look out upon the world. They knew the state of
Jewry. They knew much that He had told them concerning the awful darkness which
prevailed. They watched, as He had counselled them to watch, the arising of the
Pauline Church. They knew that there were some teachers who went forth speaking
of the things they had gathered from the Brethren, as well as from the Master,
and who gave what may be described as oral teachings. These teachings became
traditional. They were ultimately received as the original message of the
Master. They were spoken from time to time by those who had not heard them from
the Master, and who did not understand their meaning. And what of truth they
contained was changed. And thus, there grew up in the minds of those who heard
them, the idea of another kingdom.
Now let us look at the kingdom that arose as the result. It did not arise out of
the Brotherhoods. It arose as the result of the oral teaching. In that teaching
there was, as we have indicated to you on a previous occasion, a sad
misunderstanding, a consequent misinterpretation of the Redemption, and,
subsequently, an utter misconception of the
(p. 175)
their minds and
their hearts readily responded to the betrayal.
This was the view held in the early days of the inception of historical
Christianity concerning the Redemption and the coming of the Kingdom. Just as
the Redemption became entirely associated with the Master in His sacrificial
burden-bearing on
Yet He came not. The communities of Souls which had been brought together, grew.
The idea of His Kingdom became associated chiefly with the communities, until in
their expansion they became concrete institutions. Then the idea of the Kingdom
became associated with the institutions, and as these grew, the Kingdom spread
itself over the Grecian Archipelago and Asia Minor and Northern Africa, and even
into
THE ARISING OF THE HISTORICAL CHURCH
And so it went on until beliefs became more concrete and more bound up in
tradition. Following
(p. 176)
this motion there
rose up that which should have been a beautiful venue, and could have been if
rightly illumined and directed, the great Church which has swayed the western
World for ages. Every century that rose and set, notwithstanding the
controversies over the personality of the Master, His supposed Deity or
otherwise, His Sacrificial Act and Burden-bearing, that Church rose and spread
itself through all the western World, and the near eastern World too, till the
time of the division came through the controversy as to whether the seat of
authority should be in Rome or Byzantium, as Constantinople was then called.
And so, to this day, the
(p. 177)
those things which
they themselves once knew in the Heavens, before they were sent to this World to
be its helpers.
The transference of the idea from the Master to the institution gave to the
Church a power which it has claimed ever since. By representing the Church to be
the Kingdom, those in Authority claimed absolute jurisdiction over the
consciousness of its citizens, and over all the outer administration of States.
And it was thus that the Kingdom grew and expanded in His name, notwithstanding
all that was taught by Him in those wondrous days of the Manifestation to the
beloved ones who gathered in the different communities and heard the sweet music
of the Angelic World, and the great Themes of the Celestial Hierarchies, and the
trumpet-call of the Gods; aye, and the blessed Message of the FATHER-MOTHER.
Now you will understand something of the tragedy that overtook the Kingdom which
the Master came to speak of, and apprehend somewhat of the nature of its
betrayal, and how in its vision, its life, its sublime reality, it became a
world institution, claiming Divine Power and Authority, and dominion over all
Souls. By this it is not meant that there is nothing beautiful in the Church of
Rome. There is much that is beautiful. I have often worshipped before its
Altars. The Saints carried into it the good it possesses. But the Children
within the borders of that great institution do not understand what the Kingdom
of the Heavens is. Nor have the Saints found within her the
(p. 178)
Sanctuaries in this
land there is to be found still something of that atmosphere. For you must
recognize this, that beliefs never generate a beautiful atmosphere; not if they
were repeated twenty-four hours in the day and three hundred and sixty-five days
in the year. The whole atmosphere of such beliefs is mental, cold, unresponsive
to the Soul. But devotion, even the devotion of an hour a day in a Sanctuary,
gives it an atmosphere. It brings an atmosphere which is of the Heavens. For
devotion is Love outpouring itself in seeking to contact that which the Soul
most loves, and to find its LORD.
You have seen what the nature of the Kingdom was which the Master brought, and
how He interpreted it. You have heard how the disciple understood His
interpretations, and what their outlook was when He passed away. You have had
the veil lifted that you might know what it was they feared. For the Master had
told them that they would be scattered as communities. And they were broken up
through the conditions that arose subsequent to the Pauline motion. You may now
see the nature of the Kingdom that arose out of the ashes of the breaking up of
the Brotherhoods; for the growth of that Kingdom and the historical development
of Christianity are one. And you may see how men and women think of the
THE RETURN OF THE
In contrast to all such, you are now shown the Kingdom of the Heavens to be a
Kingdom of holy Breaths, and the
(p. 179)
of Divine Regnancy
in the Soul, which may be expressed in beliefs, through liturgies and litanies,
and by means of symbols used in beautiful Sanctuaries in devout worship, but
which must always be quite distinct from the venues through which they may seek
expression. And you now know that the Kingdom of the Heavens is an atmosphere
about you, and that if you have not the atmosphere you have not the Kingdom of
the Heavens about you, encompassing you, overshadowing you. And you also now
know that the
Now, through the ages there has been belief in the
Now it is made known unto you that the Kingdom, which should have come as the
result of the Teachings in the days of the Manifestation, is coming in these
days; for these are the days of the Return. They are the days when the
Redemption not only draweth near but is begun. For the Oblation
(p. 180)
has been
accomplished. With the Redemption the Kingdom will come. The Redemption is not
hypothetical; it is most experiential. Like the
The Kingdom that should have come to abide with the Christhood, that came to the
intimate ones for a little time, but was afterwards lost to the vision through
the arising of the kingdom that has filled the world of the western outlook, and
even much of the east, to the obscuration of the real meaning of the Kingdom of
GOD and HIS Christ, and the coming of the Kingdom of the Heavens, is to be restored.
It is come in a return of Christ consciousness. In this sense it is also
becoming within many. It is only in its beginnings, but it has come to abide. It
is coming in every Soul who has glimpsed the real Christ-vision. The Kingdom of
the Heavens is coming through every Soul who is embodying Jesus. The
(p. 181)
reigning with
Christ. Christ is reigning within them, and expressing HIS
regnancy through them.
In this way the Kingdom has this time come back to triumph. It has returned to
remain and shed its glory. It has come back to be unveiled and revealed more and
more unto all Souls who have the will to behold it, and enter into the
understanding of it, and follow it unto Divine Citizenship. For those who
betrayed the Master and the Teachings He gave have been overthrown. By the Work
of the Oblation there have been cast down the principalities and powers that
betrayed the LORD’S Anointed in the Divine Vision which the Master gave
to the World.
Notwithstanding that the cry is heard in many places, “Behold, He is here!
Behold, He is there!”, and that many are misled, the Kingdom is coming. It has
come from the Heavens where it has its first motion. It has come with the
letting down of the Divine Mystery in the Seven Baskets of Divine Wisdom, and in
the Twelve Baskets of Heavenly Bread which had to be withdrawn and gathered up
when the false Kingdom arose. For the Planetary Heavens are now full of Light,
and the Light can be reflected down into the minds and hearts of the children of
men who are able to receive that Light from the Heavens. And many hearts are
responding to the upper motion; and in the measure in which they respond, the
Kingdom of GOD will come again to them and through them, even the most blessed and
glorious realization in the Within of HIS Regnancy.
Unto this end the call comes to every one of you. Drink in the breaths of the
Kingdom! Let the visions make you beautiful with the beauty of the Heavens! Let
the blessed fellowships exalt your
(p. 182)
spirit in the sense
of uplifting you into the GOD Realms, even until HIS
Kingdom becomes so great within you that ye are henceforth for HIM an
exposition of Emmanuel, the Divine Mystery incarnate in you, the Divine Presence
making Deific manifestations through you, revealing through you the very
qualities of the FATHER-MOTHER.
In the measure in which ye receive the Kingdom thus, ye are contributing to its
coming in the World. In the measure in which you embody it thus, are ye centres
of magnetic outpouring unto the healing of the World. In the measure in which ye
realize it unto the power of great revealing of it, shall you be used by the
Heavens to bring the Vision to those venues through which it should have been
given through the ages, so that these may know true purification, and such
changes as would make them fit channels for the Divine Life-streams to flow
through unto the children of this World, that they too may feel again the
atmosphere of the Angelic Presences, and know once more that GOD is
Love.
Unto this end we live. Unto this end do we embody. Unto this end we make
sacrifice.
O ye who are the called of GOD, be ye indeed HIS called ones! Have
written again upon every vesture of your attributes HIS Own Signature, so
that ye may be like HIM in all things.
Ever Blessed be HIS Glorious Name Who hath called us unto this high estate, and hath given
unto us of HIMSELF, and so honoured us to be HIS
Children and HIS Servants, and the vehicles for the revealing of HIS Glory.
I.
NOTES
(164:*) Logia reprinted from the magazine The Herald of the Cross, Vol. V, p. 151.
(165:*) An Address given in the Sanctuary at Headquarters on Wednesday evening, February 18, 1928, and later revised by the Author.
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