Now I must speak of the sacred reality of being born of the water, of which the earthly ordinance of baptism is but the symbol.
Between the two realms, the lower and the higher, is the River of Life. The higher realm extends upward into infinitude, glory ascending above and beyond glory. The lower realm includes this world and everything that is beneath it. It descends into the lowest realms of the bottomless and embraces the outer realms of darkness.
Between these two realms, that meet together on the borderland of earth and the higher dimension, there is the River of Life. Its waters are more real and sparkling and alive than any singing mountain river. It pulsates with joy and vibrates with a sheer, exquisite beauty that is impossible to describe. Sunlight sparkling on diamonds is the best description that can be given.
The waters of the most frolicking streams on earth, can and do often come to a stale "dead end" slough of stagnancy and defilement. They can end in a contaminated swamp that breeds disease and pestilence. However, the waters of that bounteous River of Life can never be restricted, retarded nor defined.
This River can best be described by using some of earth's scientific knowledge as comparisons. The whole world is completely enfolded in the ethers and oxygens and the various elements and substances which make up the air we breathe. And though the entire earth is completely enfolded and surrounded in this refined substance we call "air" nevertheless there are certain air currents and trade winds which are like living streams or rivers. They flow forth in their destined channels as they continually renew and give life to the whole encompassing atmosphere -- and to the world.
There are the great and mighty oceans of water, vast and extensive, covering the larger portion of the earth's surface. And through and across these vast bodies of water there are also currents and streams that are like great, stupendous rivers, flowing onward forever and forever, renewing and revitalizing the whole.
The energy and power used to keep these vast streams circulating can never be computed by the minds nor be measured with the instruments of man. The manpower or the kilowatts used in operating a small pump can give only the faintest idea of the exerted energy used to keep those ocean currents flowing onward -- ever onward. These vast currents are miles wide and their depth has not been measured as they encircle the earth in their endless journey of revitalization.
There is the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, bringing its warming, beneficial balm and blessings to many shores and many lands. There is the Japanese Current of the Pacific, with its like powers of functioning. There is the Labrador Current. And there are numerous smaller currents and tributaries, which lend their life-giving vitality to keep alive the whole, vast, stupendous seas. It is not necessary to name or number them all here.
It is only necessary for one to stop for a moment to contemplate the majesty of such mighty rivers, flowing through the oceans as they hold the power of life, of warmth and of renewal in their everlasting tides, in order to comprehend the fullness of this explanation. If one, in that brief moment of contemplation, will let the breath of joyous wonder enter his being as he stands in awe at the wisdom and power so profound that it can create and hold these tides in control, he will, in that moment, be very close to the Truth. The reverent awe these thoughts awaken is "The fear of the Lord," expressed of old.
When contemplated thus, the existence of every created thing becomes a revealed miracle of unfathomable magnitude.
Now, to return to the River of Life. When ministers speak of "the other side," they are referring to or designating the life on the other side of that River -- the life beyond mortality -- the life beyond death. In a way this is correct, but in another way it is quite erroneous. "The other side" need not refer to death at all. Many die who do not have the power nor the privilege of crossing that River of Life. These unhappy, disembodied ones remain on this side of that River completely unaware that it even exists. And because of their unworthiness they are deprived of its power and beauty and glorifying, perfecting potentialities.
The River of Life could be likened to the ocean currents in this way: every existing thing which God has created is enfolded or immersed in His great and wondrous love -- a love that fills all time and all space. It is everywhere. Man is always enfolded in the unspeakable power of this boundless love. Man has either taken this love for granted, ignored it, rejected it, denied it, or through his ignorance, remained unaware of it and its life-giving strength and purifying glory.
Nevertheless the love is always there, always awaiting man's acceptance of it. "Abide in me and I will abide in you." "Turn unto me and I will turn unto you," are God's own eternal promises given unto men.
Now, to describe the River and reveal its purpose and meaning and its powers. Flowing through the vast glory of God's enfolding love is also a current or stream. It is a River of God's concentrated love, intensified and magnified a thousand-fold. This concentrated stream of God's intensified love is the River of Life. Because these mighty waters are the concentrated love of God, they hold the power of renewal and of cleansing and of restoration for any individual who prepares himself to pass through them. To be prepared to enter these holy waters, one must begin to develop the gift of love.
The powers contained within the Waters of Life are almost incomprehensible. These waters contain the divine, wondrous power to wash away the very effects and results of one's errors and his sins and mistakes. The sins and weaknesses are consumed through the bringing forth of the divine Christ Light. In the releasing of this glorious Light the mortal transgressions are forgiven, the weakness consumed and the sins overcome. But even then the results of those weaknesses and transgressions and sins remain with all their lingering hurts and effects until one is immersed in the great purifying River of Life and receives that divine birth of the water in its true reality.
As one learns to hold forth his sins and weaknesses and transgressions in that redeeming flame of Christ's holy Light they are consumed by His glory and one is free. Then it is that he is prepared to receive the life more abundant -- even Life Eternal, which Christ so definitely promised. This ancient promise is fulfilled unto one as he goes down into the waters of the great River of Life and is literally born of the Waters as he comes up out of them.
This birth, or baptism contains the great healing and the full glorifying, restoring power of all perfection. All things are made perfect and are exalted by it. All conditions are transformed and readjusted and are completely transmuted into the perfect plan God held in His mind in the beginning of creation. There is only one condition which man has to fulfill, he has to be willing as he makes every effort within his powers to receive these complete blessings of God's boundless, transforming love.
As one yields up his sins and his weaknesses he becomes a new person. As he humbly, penitently yields up the effects and results of his errors and mistakes and sins into the healing, restoring power of Almighty God’s boundless River of concentrated love, the scars and hurts and often terrifying results of his blundering, whether ignorantly or intentionally performed, can be healed. Even the wounds he may have inflicted upon the hearts and minds of his loved ones and his friends and associates as well as those inflicted purposely upon those whom he considered his enemies, can be restored to the perfection of God's infinite, loving power of complete sanctification.
This is the great healing that must come. This is the healing Christ promised. This is the healing that is beyond anything physical man has ever dreamed of, or even longed for. In this great and glorious healing the effects and results of all one's errors and sins and weaknesses are washed out into the great ocean of God's creative power and are transformed and transmuted as they are adjusted to conform to His divine and holy plan. The dynamic powers of God are the powers of creation. The powers of His forgiving love, as one partakes of it, through obedience, contains also the power of "un-doing" all the evils one may have wrought during his blind, arrogant living, or by his great ignorance or deliberate rebellion.
It must be here remembered that in God's plan is held all the perfection, the splendor and the honor and glory possible for one to receive.
Within the Light or vibration of Christ is contained the power of redemption and forgiveness and overcoming. Within the River of Life is contained the power of sanctification and of perfection so that even the effects of one's sins are blotted out.
Man, in his mortal blindness, has continually fought against the Will of God. He has not realized that within the Will of God all joys and gifts and blessings are held in all their divine abundance and overflowing, breathtaking perfection -- blessings and gifts so far beyond anything mortal man is capable of comprehending or conceiving, he would be utterly blinded by their brilliance if he glimpsed them, even partially, before his own purification was accomplished. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things God hath prepared for them that love him."
These dynamic, breathtaking blessings are not intended for only a few. These blessings are intended for each and every individual who will learn to place himself in tune with the Will of God, for obedience is true love in its fullest expression.
As one learns to hold himself in the fountain of God's almighty love he lets go of the little, mortal "self" and it is dissolved and the great, dynamic, Christ-enlightened soul of himself steps forth to fill the place of a redeemed, sanctified son of God.
Also within the waters of the beautiful River of Life is contained the power of the great healing that will eventually heal and restore the earth and every living soul who will accept of Its blessings and prepare himself to receive them. Within these sacred waters is held the power to heal even the memory of one's errors and mistakes and sins so that "they will never come into remembrance before the Lord." They will also be erased from the memory of the individual who committed them and from the memories of those who may have been injured by those misdeeds of rebellion, defiance or ignorance or deliberate wickedness.
The thing required to participate in these wondrous blessings is that one begin to develop the gift of love. The waters of the River of Life are the concentrated, outflowing powers of God's love and only by bringing forth some degree of that love from within one's own heart is it possible to share in the healing wonders of its divine properties and powers.
And it is only through these dynamic waters of love that one can possibly step across into the higher realm of divine activity and progress and exaltation.
Anyone returning from the other side to render service to this earth must do so by again going down through those waters in order to be completely fortified for his assigned task. This is necessary in order for one to endure the dark, discordant, evil vibrations of a world so engulfed in sin and selfishness and greed as this earth is.
This great stream of Life was comprehended in a small way by all the ancient peoples of the earth. The Hebrews designated it as their own River Jordan, using the physical symbol of their own stream and their own entrance into the "promised Land" as a pattern to express the crossing of that River of Life into the realms of heaven.
This sacred River of Life has stood between the two worlds from the very beginning. It is the eternal dividing line between those who remain in their discords, their dislikes and their hates and those who develop the gift of love. Those who love much, automatically develop and bring forth the Christ Light. When the impulse of Love's compassionate, tender forgiveness are developed until they transcend every other impulse and vibration, one will have the power to fulfill all things.
This love is the love that must be rendered to God with all one's heart, all his mind, and all his soul and all his strength. It is the love that must reach out to enfold not only one's own, but his neighbors and acquaintances -- and his enemies -- and then go forth to encompass the world in the warmth of its redeeming, forgiving tenderness.
Thus it is that all the laws are fulfilled by those who live in perfect accord with those first two Great Commandments. Those who fulfill this law of divine love and obedience will be born of the water and of the Spirit in very truth, which reality so far surpasses any mortal symbols there is no comparison.
"So, beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (I John 4:7-8). This love cannot be feigned. It must be real as it comes forth from the depths of one's heart, flowing out to bless and heal a world. This love can only be achieved or obtained through earnest prayer for it is required that one "pray for this pure Christ-like love with all the energy of heart."
As one seeks for this love it will begin to flow to him and at last it will enfold and glorify him as it flows henceforth out through his own open heart. "This is the Fruit of the Tree of Life, the love of God that is shed forth through the hearts of the children of men."
The ancient Egyptians often depicted their departed sailing forth in boats as they drew their elaborate pictures on the walls of their temples and tombs. To the Egyptians, the painted pictures of boats served the purpose of literal boats, for, after all, the journey was a spiritual one. Nevertheless, because of ignorance, the individual's physical belongings and treasures, along with all necessary equipment, including a servant or two and perhaps his wife, were sealed in the tomb to take that journey with him.
In the Egyptian Book of the Dead the River of Life is frequently referred to.
The ancient Grecians had a vivid awareness of the River of Life, though to them it came to represent more the river of death than the exalted River of Life. In their mythology the ferryman, who bore the newly arrived dead across the "Styx" or River, was named "Charon." Even in this negative belief they acknowledged man's survival of the change called death. Their negative idea of the River did not develop until they, as a people, degenerated and transgressed the laws of their own natures and inborn ethics.
In the beginning the word "Charon" meant literally, "One who guides," or "One who conducts." Charon was a title of honor or appointment, not a personal name. Charon was the title of anyone who was sent to escort others across that great, wondrous River. In time, because of increasing wickedness and hence growing superstition, with its consequent fears and engendered ignorance, Charon began to represent one grewsome individual who eventually became a black-robed, sinister figure armed with a scythe -- "the angel of death."
No one individual has ever been assigned the responsibility of assisting others across that sacred stream, yet none ever cross it for the first time unescorted. Only in love can that River be crossed and only those who love greatly are sent to guide loved ones or friends -- or others, according to the divine assignment, through those holy Waters of Life.
To the various Indian tribes of America, the River of Life was quite real. There were a few tribes who buried their dead, not in graves, but in pure, running water. They too sent a man's belongings, and often a horse, along with him to carry him safely across the stretches of "no-man's-land" before he embarked upon the great shining waters. They believed the great oceans were literally those shining waters of Life, which they called "The Many Waters." When the white man and the Spaniards came from across the seas the Indians welcomed them as gods, thinking they had come from heaven, or their Happy Hunting Ground.
The Hindoos likewise knew of the River and consecrated the Ganges to stand as a symbol of it on this earth. Their pilgrimages to this muddy, polluted stream, as they plunge themselves into it, believing it will purify and sanctify them, is well known. And, until the British government ended the practice, a man's wife was burned with him on his funeral pyre -- and the very pyre itself was intended to represent a boat.
The Norsemen knew of the great River of Life and instead of burying their heroes they set their bodies adrift on burning boats or barges, believing that by the time the boat had finished burning the individual would have arrived at the far shore of the River and be welcomed into Valhalla by Odim himself.
The ancient Persians, under Zoroaster, knew of the reality of the mighty River of Life and they both sang and wrote of it.
The Sarawak Caverns on the Island of Borneo, which have recently been re-discovered, are filled with boat caskets hewn from hollowed-out logs. Many of these boat coffins still contain the bones of their dead.
Every ancient race and people had a knowledge of this sacred River of Life, which in time became garbled by tradition and through their oft repeated legends. However there is no need to mention and name all the races and peoples and tribes who stood in reverent awe at the very thought of that River, nor to go further into detail concerning their separate beliefs which tell the same story in their own, often distorted, ways.
Poets from time immemorial have sung of the beauties of that River. Christian churches have chanted of its glory in their hymns and anthems while the records of all the ancient races of the earth have testified to its reality.
On "the other side" of that wondrous River one is lifted into an entirely new and higher vibration of life that is difficult to describe. I can only share with you its beauty and purpose and reality as you are willing and able to lift your vision beyond the tangible things your physical eyes are able to behold.
Light is measured by degree and understanding is measured by Light which continually increases as one goes onward into the higher realms. There is no limit to which an advancing, love-filled individual may ascend as he becomes increasingly aware of his surroundings. As he advances, new and higher vistas of progress and unutterable beauty unfold. It is a realm of ever increasing joy and power and continued achievement.
The distance between you and that holy River of Life can only be measured by your own awakening awareness or consciousness. Sometimes it takes centuries to journey from this world to that River. And there are those who never make it. It is a journey, not of distance, but of mental and spiritual awakening. Each makes that journey according to his or her unfolding vision and according to his own individual desiring and degree of love. Advancement comes with increasing knowledge and faith and love and with expanding spiritual vision, one brings forth that divine Light of Christ right within himself and so develops the gift of love. The Light of understanding and the love of outpouring unselfishness must both be developed in order for one to cross that River of Love.
Love itself requires nurturing and willing and letting and continual growth. No one can transform himself from a "hateful" person into a loving one in an instant -- or a day. In the realm of glory, love must become the eternal reality of one's being, not just a shallow, mooded emotion hung on a weathervane. Neither can it be incipid, weak or feigned. It is impossible to counterfeit love and try to use the counterfeit as the golden coin of admission into the higher dimensions. Real love has to become the all-encompassing part of one's entire nature. It must become a very part of the individual in its unfailing, joyous, exquisite beauty and power as it carries forth the Light. Such love is beyond all substitutes and all imagining. And one must actually become that love.
No one is able to even approach, let alone cross the great River of Life, who is not spiritually prepared, whether in mortality -- or out of it. This is not because the River and its divine properties are forbidden. It is simply "out of bounds" because those who will not accept God's love cannot possibly comprehend it. Nor could they endure the enfolding, glorifying essence of that powerful baptism if they are not prepared to receive it.
All those who are worthy to be born of the water and partake of its glory, receive the power to send out the vibrations of that increased love in some measure. Those who do not love God, or their fellowmen, are not yet qualified to comprehend His great healing, perfecting, wondrous love, nor can they receive of its boundless blessings.
To partake of the great love one must learn to bestow love in a selfless, outpouring benediction of silent compassion. In this service one is required to love more than just his own near and dear ones -- and those who love him. He is required to develop this love until it can enfold his neighbors and then, reaching out, gather the whole human race in its tenderness. It must enfold one's enemies until they too are healed of their dislikes and their hates and their evils.
As love flows out from an individual, the greater love pours into him in an ever increasing degree. Love must flow. It must never become stagnant. Love cannot be taken for granted. Neither is it enough that one be a sweet-tempered individual, free from discords and dislikes. One must develop love until it becomes an actual, living power as it flows out from him in its course of blessing and of healing. When these currents of love are released from within an individual, he is truly partaking of the fountains of living water and they are flowing forth from his heart in their benediction of silent, powerful glory.
God's great love has never been withheld from any child of His divine creating. God's love enfolds the world and makes alive all things. When His children open up their hearts to this love and permit it to flow through their beings, they will not only be purified and cleansed by its dynamic power of exquisite beauty, they will be completely healed by it. They will then have the power to send that love out to enfold whomsoever they desire to assist, or to any in need. It has no limits when magnified and sent out through an open, understanding heart. This love is known in the higher realms as "The Love of God Substance." It can be used at all times for the benefit of man -- and for his healing.
To those who first view that mighty River of Life it appears to be of the substance and consistency of water in its clearest most beautiful degree. To those who have advanced into the higher life it is soon comprehended to be composed of the concentrated life-force of God's almighty dynamic love, which is spiritual. This love is the creative and the sustaining and the renewing power of the universe from the atom upward.
This River is literally the point of egress as one steps beyond the vibrations and influences of the earth. It is not a river one rows across, as some have believed. Neither is it a stream one can swim across. It is "entered into" and one "comes up out of it."
This River is entirely spiritual in its sublime essence, for it is love. And blessed are those who are prepared to pass through it for it is Life. In going down into its waters and crossing through them, by being completely immersed in it, one does not need to hold his breath, nor need to be afraid. This River IS Life -- and the breath of Life is contained in it.
As one learns to hold himself in the fountain of God's Almighty love, he lets go of the little ego-filled self. It is dissolved and the sanctified soul of himself steps forth to fulfill its glorified destiny. This ultimate perfection, this fulness of joy and happiness and every conceivable good, has always been the plan. Down the millenniums it has been awaiting man's acceptance of it. In God's will there is nothing but the divine, triumphant, beautiful fulfilment of every man's own inborn greatness. It is in God's Will that all joy, all happiness and all perfection are held.
One need not die in order to hold himself in the healing properties of that great River of Life. That River has always existed -- will always exist. Man has only to alert his soul to comprehend.
The true reality is that each and every individual who will but prepare himself to believe, or be and live according to the divine law and love of his own being, will be given the power to hold himself within the cleansing, life-giving waters of that sacred, holy River of Life. This experience is an actual reality, not just a mortal symbol.
The sacred privilege of being immersed in the River of Life, as stated previously, transmutes or eliminates the effects of every regretted error and mistake. Not only the present is perfected through this divine experience but the past also. All things are healed and beautified by the tender power of God's Almighty love as one aligns himself with it.