Rejoice, Thou Barren One

     “FOR IT IS WRITTEN, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband” (Gal 4:27).

     Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for the Lord Omnipotent reigneth.

     When we begin to see that the great Universal God overshadowing the Universe causes it to bring forth in due season, we begin to understand why it is stated, as quoted above, that “the barren and desolate shall have many children.”  We begin to see that, when we contact the Father within, the old order of trying to make things appear from the outside is done away with.  The old order passeth away — “Behold, I make all things new, saith the Lord of Hosts.”

     Thousands of people have tried in every way to bring forth the manifestation of Spirit; to make demonstrations; yea, even to help others in the name of the Lord; and have found themselves and their lives barren as the desert, while others about them seemed to bring forth manychildren; and they have wondered, and finally fallen under the belief that the manifestation of spirit was not for them, but only for a special few; or that they were not fit avenues, or not yet ready to express the Christ Truth — hence they bore no children.

     But the old order changeth.  The light is breaking over the dense human consciousness.  Man is awakening to know that contact with the Father within is the propagating influence which will bring forth many more children than “she that hath a husband.”   He is beginning to understand that the creative force of the Universe is even at this instant at work within the secret place of his being, and that just as soon as he is ready to “let” (through the process of recognition), “the word will become flesh and dwell among them,” and he shall say, “Let the child be born,” and the barrenness of a thousand life-times in the flesh shall be swallowed up in the glorious expression of the flowering desert.  “It shall blossom as a rose.”  The well-watered garden shall take the place of the barren waste.

     Martha had many cares in preparing to receive the physical Jesus.  Symbolically speaking, the most she got for her work was perhaps a “Thank you,” while Mary feasted upon the hidden manna of Spirit.  The human sense would like to condone poor, long-suffering Martha.  A thousand reasons why she acted as she did are offered, but the rather uncompromising fact stands that she was rebuked, and that the blessing was given to Mary.  All this symbology does not mean that the Mary consciousness might not do just as much work with her hands as the Martha, but from a different standpoint.

     When we are on the outside of being, trying to bring forth, we are finally rebuked for our barrenness, even though we have put into expression the best that seemed to be in us.  Likewise the state that dreams of perfection, and dwells in a mental state of rightness and perfection, is also rebuked for vain imaginings.  The Word must become flesh.  “In my flesh shall I see God.”  One extreme is as bad as another.  The Word must become flesh, and the flesh must become spiritualized or resurrected, until the two become one.  We then have Jesus the Christ — instead of Jesus the son of the carpenter and Christ the Son of God dwelling in one body.  The two become one, and the sayings of the Scriptures are made true.  It is then that “death is swallowed up in victory,” because death could only come to the one of a divided consciousness.  What is told in secret shall be called from the housetop.  Thus we see that the Christ of God decided to submit to what is known as the crucifixion in order that the world might see the transcending power of spirit over matter, and to know that the law, “I have power to pick it up and lay it down,” was true and provable.  To stay on the heights of this law was to escape the seeming ugly reality.  Do you imagine that the Christ who was able to open the eyes of the blind, restore lost substance to the body of Lazarus, and do a thousand other things directly in opposition to the best accepted laws of the physical world of that day and this could not have averted the Crucifixion?  If so, then read Matt. 26:53:

“Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?”

Where is the Father, and how do we pray?  You see, then, that the Christ decreed this to come to pass.  When He descended to the human Jesus state of consciousness, then He asked that the “cup pass from me.”  We understand that what He had accepted or decreed in secret should come to pass.  So is it true with you.  You will begin to see that all the unborn children shall be released when the body and soul become one.  To pray then will be to speak forth only that which is about to appear.  Prayer will not be the old idea of wondering whether God wants to do a certain thing; it will be merely an exquisite feeling of gratitude, which says, “Thank you, Father,” because it knows that the answer exists before the question.  Do you begin to see why it is that the one who was barren of manifestation will suddenly become fruitful?  The limiting laws of the human concept of creation shall be dropped off, and the recognition of the Father of all shall cause thy barrenness to be a forgotten state.  “The former things shall pass away — they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more.”  Thus the barrenness shall be swallowed up in the abundance.

     From the human standpoint we even admit that we have teachers of Truth or music who cannot demonstrate for themselves, but can give readily to others.  From the Divine elevation this is an utter impossibility.  This state of barrenness which brings forth no manifestation shall be fertilized with the overshadowing influence of the Ever Presence, and what it has so long conceived on the invisible shall come into manifestation.  No more shall the world be filled with barren ones who talk but who do not show forth the works, for they shall have united the body and soul and resurrected the risen Christ, which hath a body and which lives in the world, but is not of the world insofar as coming under the hateful laws of the human mind.  Death is swallowed up in victory, and with it all the things that go to bring about or make death possible.

     “Call no man your father,” for “every man is a liar, and the father of it.”  We see what lies have been told about us in the name of family, nationality, etc.  We are burdened with hateful lies of every sort, because we have recognized a human parenthood.  We have assigned to ourselves all the limitations of human-kind, and therefore we are full of troubles, and so are our days.  “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.”

     Do you begin so see, O barren one, that your name shall be changed, and that you shall be as a land flowing with milk and honey?  For the spirit of the Infinite Spirit broods over all, and has broken the hateful bondage and set the prisoners free.  Then is thy house gladsome with the laughter and joy of many children — your glorious ideas that have so long remained in the silence of your mind come forth with joy and thanksgiving.

     “This is life eternal, to know ME.”  Where is this ME, and what will you do with this life eternal?  Do you expect to carry on this limited personality for eternity?  Do you expect to be John Smith for eternity?  Only when Jesus the son of the carpenter became Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, did He ascend above the limiting influences of beliefs that belonged to His family, nationality and time.  When He became Jesus the Christ, and “the Word became flesh,” He transcended ont only nationality, but time and space, and was able to set aside any law of the belief-world, just as the intense sunshine sets aside the dark shadows of night.

     All disease and all barrenness out-pictured on your body and affairs are merely the shadows of beliefs cast upon the screen of your life.  When the light has come, the shadows disappear.  It is no good to throw a picture on a cinema screen if that screen is illuminated.  So the shadows of the belief-world, that have been formerly true to the human mind, fail absolutely to record when you have come to the place of letting “the light within so shine before men.”  We do not heal the Christ, nor yet prosper Him, nor yet change Him.  We merely recognize Him, and as we do so we bring out that which has been eternally.  Thus healing is swallowed up in victory.  Were anything real to be healed, it would be utterly impossible to accomplish it.  The Christ of God needs no assistance, no help, no healing.  But until the John Smith realizes this Christ within himself, and permits it to come into manifestation, he will merely be working on a plane of imagination.  Nothing concrete nor definite can take place.  So many of us have stood about and seen the demonstrations; yea, we have even partaken of the bread, the fish, and the wine; but we have forgotten to partake of the spirit, so when we had consumed the manifestation we rushed back for more and found ourselves far from the source of substance.  So many people are so engrossed in listening to words that they only bask in the light of another’s understanding, and hence miss the glorious possibility of the command, “Go thou and do likewise.”  Many are asking for life free which is promised, while still holding a miser’s consciousness within themselves.  Do you not know, until you can give yourself to the Universe it cannot give the ever-flowing substance to you, for the simple reason that there is no capacity to receive it?  The mind which is still hoarding cannot have the infinite rivers of abundance poured into it, else it would be destroyed; but the consciousness that has given itself to the Infinite is an open way through which the torrents and floods of substance can flow.  It thereafter does not have to seek — it receives before it asks, for an infinite stream of substance is constantly pouring through into expression.

     “It is written” — so full of meaning is this statement, nothing shall retract or rub out a single word until it be fulfilled.  “Not one jot or title shall be removed until the law shall be fulfilled.”  It is written that “the barren shall be more fruitful than she that hath a husband.”  The law that is so full of promise, and so glorious to all those who have wondered and grieved and tried to bring forth the works of the Master.  “Go thou and do likewise” is a pretty big command, but there it is.  What are you going to do about it?  Talk it over with some wise one who will go into gushing phrases and words, and whose barren life is filled with mute testimony of failure?  Be still; be very still.  Finally you will hear the command, “Go within and shut the door,” and you will let the glorious revelation take place within your own consciousness.  “Nothing shall by any means hurt you.”  Who are you, and what are you going to do about it?

     “And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts.”  Ye, the newborn, the resurrected one.  In the silence, in the tomb, in the aloneness, shall ye know the things which ordinarily are not written nor spoken of — things which are neither seen nor heard by the noisy ones who are clamoring for place and power.  “Behold, I make all things new.”  Do you see?  You who read.  “All the nations shall call thee blessed,” for they will recognize the Christ within you; the same glorious Christ that functioned in the man Jesus and enabled Him to go against the laws of the human mind and set them aside as non-existent.

     “None of them is lost but the son of perdition.”  The only thing that is lost is the memory of the human personality — the subconscious mind — the storehouse of all evil.  The god that was.  The god of the kingdom of WAS is lost, forgotten, wiped out, and the place thereof is no more.  The Holy Presence of

Christ in the eternal NOW is here.  “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.”  The desolate barren land shall blossom as a rose.

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.”

     It seems a strange thing to say, Buy gold in order that you may be rich.  It would seem that if you had money with which to buy gold you would already be rich.  But the secret doctrine causes the light to break over this symbology and to reveal that the complete giving up of the symbol is the buying of the gold which will make you rich.  “Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor” is merely another way of stating that man is to take his attention away from the worship of symbols and place his allegiance on the Power.  Awake, thou that sleepest.

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev 3:18).

     Do you begin to see the treasures incorruptible that lie within the consciousness of Christ, awaiting the coming of the Master?  Awaiting the coming of that one who will take his Divine Heritage and assume the proportions of the Son of the Living God.  The barren one who will suddenly realize that the Father — Infinite-Omnipotent — over brooding all, has suddenly brought into manifestation the unborn children of desire.  It is wonderful!

     “Who is my father, mother, sister, or brother?” is the question you will answer with deep joy.  Not to become a “holier than thou,” but because you are ready to partake of the infinite nature of your Divine Fathership.  The wonder of the invisible shall be made manifest to you.  You shall begin to partake of the qualities of Spirit.  As ye have borne the earthly image, so shall ye bear the heavenly.  Do you hear?  “Yet in my flesh shall I see God.”  It is wonderful!

     “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches.”  When you hear what it is saying to you (for you are the Church of the Living God — the center from which pours this glorious white light of revelation), then you will fold your tent and steal silently away into the new place of expression.  And this shall be a natural event, not some human concept of moving out of evil conditions, but a showing forth of the God-power into expression.  Do you see why “He that travels alone travels far”?  And why the command, “Salute no man as thou passest along the highway,” is not unfriendliness, but the essence of wisdom?  “Behold, I make all (not some) things new.”  Do you believe that?  Where is the I?  What about it — you who read these lines?  Are you going to run to someone and ask him to explain this to you or are you going to be still and let ME explain, and thereby turn your barrenness to fruitfulness and make you a gladsome land?

     Just so soon as you begin to see the futility of opinions and beliefs regarding life and the Truth, just so soon will you go within and lave in the living waters, and partake of the hidden manna and “buy gold that has been tried by fire.”

     “The old order passeth away” — the old order is the order of your human personality and its destiny; the old law of cause and effect, of karma — the endless karma that you have been making and passing through.  The Spirit of Life has suddenly thrown you off the wheel, and you are freed into expression as the Son of the Living God.  Do you suppose that the Son of the Living God has anything to do with the son of the carpenter?  He has only this much to do: to absorb the personal idea into the glorious impersonal nature of God, and thereby free him of the limitations and narrow confines, yea, the barrenness of the human concept of existence.

     Hear ye, you who read this page: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God.”  Do you hear?  Do you see?  When will you take your Divine Heritage?  When will you appropriate the gifts of the Spirit?  Not until you can go within and shut the door, and listen not to the noisy man whose breath is in his nostrils.

     “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”  So the unborn ideas that you have been holding in your mind, and wishing for all these many years, suddenly come into expression, for the Christ and Jesus are one.  “Whatsoever things ye ask in my name, that give I unto thee.”  It is well.

“For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.”

     Do you believe this?  If so, you are at this very instant rejoicing.  The rejoicing is a command and a statement of a fact at the same instant.  You are automatically rejoicing because you have suddenly discovered that the barren years and efforts have been turned to good account, and the glorious ideas have all been freed into expression.

     When you come to the place of belief you have come to the place of acceptance.  You have come to the place where you have accepted the Reality of Being, and you are therefore not surprised nor are you dismayed at the appearance of the Power of Spirit which instantly neutralizes the beliefs of the flesh.  “Let the dead bury their dead” — so the old conditions and beliefs and acts all fall from the cliff of oblivion and you stand on the heights, rejoicing in the name of the Living God which is written on your forehead.  You stand on the heights, not as one balanced for the space of few joyous moments, to be dashed again into the valley of despond, but you stand there and rest in the new understanding which has shifted the weight of the human mind and beliefs and has freed itself from the law of human gravitation.  “If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the law.”  You are in the Spirit when you recognize the Christ within and act in accordance therewith.

     The whole proposition is put to the one who seeks the light.  When he has come to the place that he seeks not another’s opinions and beliefs, then he has arrived at the point of:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.”

     Here is a simple statement of a fact.  “Believest thou this?”  If so, you are beginning to experience a new life, a life that is everlasting, right here in the flesh, and the life which is now coming into manifestation cannot come under the condemnation of the former self.  You are freed from the condemnation of the John Smith against which you fought so long.  You are now passed from the death of these things — these beliefs and difficulties — into Life.  Finally man is unveiled to himself.  When agreement is made — conception takes place.  The new idea or concept gathers quickly a body — and the child is born.

 

Walter C. Lanyon