Sadhu Sundar Singh - A Short Biography

Sadhu Sundar Singh disappeared in the foothills of the Himalayas in 1929. As a Christian witness he had been rejected as well as welcomed, persecuted, and even left for dead. By many missionaries and even Indian Christian leaders he had been regarded as a highly eccentric convert, totally out of step with contemporary Christianity as he wandered the roads in his yellow robe and turban. And yet, even though he never heard the later vogue-word "indigenisation," he had done more than any man in the first half of the twentieth century to establish that "Jesus belongs to India." He made it clear that Christianity is not an imported, alien, foreign religion but is indigenous to Indian needs, aspirations, and faith. He remains one of the permanently significant figures of Indian Christianity.

Sundar Singh was born in 1889 into an important landowning Sikh family in Patiala state, North India. Sikhs, rejecting Hindu polytheism and Muslim intolerance in the sixteenth century, had become a vigorous nation with a religion of their own. Sundar Singh's mother took him week by week to sit at the feet of a sadhu, an ascetic holy man, who lived in the jungle some miles away, but she also sent him to a Christian mission school where he could learn English.

Her death when he was fourteen plunged him into violence and despair. He turned on the missionaries, persecuted their Christian converts, and ridiculed their faith. In final defiance of their religion, he bought a Bible and burned it page by page in his home compound while his friends watched. The same night he went to his room determined to commit suicide on a railway line.

However, before dawn, he wakened his father to announce that he had seen Jesus Christ in a vision and heard His voice. Henceforth he would follow Christ forever, he declared. Still no more than fifteen, he was utterly committed to Christ and in the twenty-five years left to him would witness heroically for his Lord. The discipleship of the teenager was immediately tested as his father pleaded and demanded that he give up this absurd "conversion." When he refused, Sher Singh gave a farewell feast for his son, then denounced him and expelled him from the family. Several hours later, Sundar realised that his food had been poisoned, and his life was saved only by the help of a nearby Christian community.

On his sixteenth birthday he was publicly baptised as a Christian in the parish church in Simla, a town high in the Himalayan foothills. For some time previously he had been staying at the Christian Leprosy Home at Sabathu, not far from Simla, serving the leprosy patients there. It was to remain one of his most beloved bases and he returned there after his baptism. Then, in October 1906, he set out from it in quite a new way. He walked onto the road, a tall, good-looking, vigorous teenager, wearing a yellow robe and turban. Everyone stared at him as he passed. The yellow robe was the "uniform" of a Hindu sadhu, traditionally an ascetic devoted to the gods, who either begged his way along the roads or sat, silent, remote, and often filthy, meditating in the jungle or some lonely place. The young Sundar Singh had also chosen the sadhu's way, but he would be a sadhu with a difference.

"I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord," he said, "but, like Him, I want no home, no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all men of the love of God."

He at once put his vocation to the test by going back to his home village, Rampur, where he was shown an unexpectedly warm welcome. This was poor preparation for the months that were to follow. Scarcely tough enough to meet physical hardship, the sixteen-year-old sadhu went northward through the Punjab, over the Bannihal Pass into Kashmir, and then back through fanatically Muslim Afghanistan and into the brigand-infested North-West Frontier and Baluchistan. His thin, yellow robe gave him little protection against the snows, and his feet became torn from the rough tracks. Not many months had passed before the little Christian communities of the north were referring to him as "the apostle with the bleeding feet." This initiation showed him what he might expect in the future. He was stoned, arrested, visited by a shepherd who talked with strange intimacy about Jesus and then was gone, and left to sleep in a way-side hut with an unexpected cobra for company. Meetings with the mystical and the sharply material, persecution and welcome, would all characterise his experience in years ahead. From the villages in the Simla hills, the long line of the snow-clad Himalayas and the rosy peak of Nanga Parbat, rose in the distance. Beyond them lay Tibet, a closed Buddhist land that missionaries had long failed to penetrate with the gospel. Ever since his baptism Tibet had beckoned Sundar, and in 1908, at the age of nineteen, he crossed its frontiers for the first time. Any stranger entering into this closed fanatical territory, dominated by Buddhism and devil-worship, risked both terror as well as death. Singh took the risk with his eyes, and his heart, wide open. The state of the people appalled him. Theirairless homes, like themselves, were filthy. He himself was stoned as he bathed in some cold water because they believed that "holy men never washed." Food was mostly unobtainable and he existed on hard, parched barley. Everywhere there was hostility. And this was only "lower Tibet" just across the border. Sundar went back to Sabathu determined to return the next year.

He had a great desire: to visit Palestine and re-live some of the happenings in Jesus' life. In 1908 he went to Bombay, hoping to board a convenient ship. But to his intense disappointment the government refused him a permit, and he had to return to the north. It was on this trip that he suddenly recognised a basic dilemma of the Christian mission to India. A brahmin had collapsed in the hot, crowded carriage and, at the next station, the Anglo-Indian stationmaster came rushing with a cup of water from the refreshment room. The brahmin -- a high-caste Hindu -- thrust it away in horror. He needed water, but he could only accept it in his own drinking vessel. When that was brought he drank, and revived. In the same way, Sundar Singh realised, India would not widely accept the gospel of Jesus offered in Western guise. That, he recognised, was why many listeners responded to him in his Indian sadhu's robe.

There was still sharper disillusionment to come. In 1909 he was persuaded to begin training for the Christian ministry at the Anglican college in Lahore. From the beginning he found himself being tormented by fellow students for being "different" and no doubt too self assured. This phase ended when their ringleader heard Singh quietly praying for him, with love in his tones and words. But other tensions remained. Much in the college course seemed irrelevant to the gospel as India needed to hear it, and then, as the course drew to an end, the principal stated that he must now discard his sadhu's robe and wear "respectable" European clerical dress; use formal Anglican worship; sing English hymns; and never preach outside his parish without special permission. Never again visit Tibet, he asked? That would be, to him, an unthinkable rejection of God's call. With deep sadness he left the college, still dressed in his yellow robe, and in 1912 began his annual trek into Tibet as the winter snows began to melt on the Himalayan tracks and passes.

Stories from those years are astonishing and sometimes incredible. Indeed there were those, who insisted that they were mystical rather than real happenings. That first year, 1912, he returned with an extraordinary account of finding a three-hundred-year old Christian hermit in a mountain cave-the Maharishi of Kailas, with whom he spent some weeks in deep fellowship. Other stories were more credible, even if more terrible. He had been sewn into a wet yak-skin and left to be crushed to death as it shrank in the hot sun ... tied into cloths laced with leeches and scorpions to sting him and suck his blood ... roped to a tree as bait for wild animals. At these and at other times he had been rescued by members of the "Sunnyasi Mission" -- secret disciples of Jesus wearing their Hindu markings, whom he claimed to have found all over India.

Whether he won many continuing disciples of Christ on these hazardous Tibetan treks is not yet known. For the Tibetan it was Buddhism or nothing. To acknowledge Jesus Christ was to ask for death. But the Sadhu's own courageous preaching cannot have been without effect.

As Sundar Singh moved through his twenties his ministry widened greatly, and long before he was thirty years old his name and picture were familiar all over the Christian world. He described in terms of a vision a struggle with Satan to retain his humility but he was, in fact, always human, approachable and humble, with a sense of fun and a love of nature. This, with his "illustrations" from ordinary life, gave his addresses great impact. Many people said: "He not only looks like Jesus, he talks like Jesus must have talked." Yet all his talks and his personal speech sprang out of profound early morning meditation, especially on the Gospels. In 1918 he made a long tour of South India and Ceylon, and the following year he was invited to Burma, Malaya, China, and Japan. Some of the stories from these tours were as strange as any of his Tibetan adventures. He had power over wild things, like the leopard which crept up to him while he stood praying and crouched as he fondled its head. He had power over evil, typified by the sorcerer who tried to hypnotise him in a railway-carriage and blamed the Bible in the sadhu's pocket for his failure. He had power over disease and illness, though he never allowed his healing gifts to be publicised.

For a long time Sundar Singh had wanted to visit Britain, and the opportunity came when his old father, Sher Singh, came to tell him that he too had become a Christian and wished to give him the money for his fare to Britain. He visited the West twice, travelling to Britain, the United States, and Australia in 1920, and to Europe again in 1922. He was welcomed by Christians of many traditions, and his words searched the hearts of people who now faced the aftermath of World War I and who seemed to evidence a shallow attitude to life. Sundar was appalled by the materialism, emptiness, and irreligion he found everywhere, contrasting it with Asia's awareness of God, no matter how limited that might be. Once back in India he continued his ministry, though it was clear that he was getting more physically frail.

His gifts, his personal attractiveness, the relevance of Christ as he presented Him to his Indian people could have given Sundar Singh a unique position of leadership in the Indian church. But to the end of his life he remained a man who sought nothing for himself, but only the opportunity to offer Christ to everyone. He was not a member of any denomination, and did not try to begin one of his own, though he shared fellowship with Christians of all kinds. He lived (to use a later phrase) to introduce his own people to "the Christ of the Indian road."

In 1923 Sundar Singh made the last of his regular summer visits to Tibet and came back exhausted. His preaching days were obviously over and, in the next years, in his own home or those of his friends in the Simla hills he gave himself to meditation, fellowship, and writing some of the things he had lived to preach.

In 1929, against all his friends' advice, Sundar determined to make one last journey to Tibet. In April he reached Kalka, a small town below Simla, a prematurely aged figure in his yellow robe among pilgrims and holy men who were beginning their own trek to one of Hinduism's holy places some miles away. Where he went after that is unknown. Whether he fell from a precipitous path, died of exhaustion, or reached the mountains, will remain a mystery. Sundar Singh had been seen for the last time. But more than his memory remains, and he has continued to be one of the most treasured and formative figures in the development and story of Christ's church in India.

Sadhu Sundar Singh 1889-1929?

THE LIFE OF Sundar Singh

1889 - Born at Rampur, Punjab

1903 - Conversion

1904 - Cast out from home

1905 - Baptised in Simla; begins life as a sadhu

1907 - Works in leprosy hospital at Sabathu

1908 - First visit to Tibet

1909 - Enters divinity college, Lahore, to train for the ministry

1911 - Hands back his preacher's license; returns to the

sadhu's life

1912 - Tours through north India and the Buddhist states of

the Himalayas

1918 to 1922 - Travels worldwide

1923 - Turned back from Tibet

1925 to 1927 - Quietly spends time writing

1927 - Sets out for Tibet but returns due to illness

1929 - Attempts to reach Tibet and disappears

Further Reading:

Appasamy, A. J. Sundar Singh. Cambridge:

Lutterworth, 1958.

Francis, Dayanandan, ed. The Christian Witness of

Sadhu Sundar Singh. Alresford: Christian Literature

Crusade, 1989.

Streeter, Burnett and A. J. Appasamy. The Sadhu: a

Study in Mysticism and Practical Religion. London:

Macmillan, 1923.

Watson, Janet Lynn. The Saffron Robe. London:

Hodder and Stoughton,1975.

In Australia KOORONG Books do an excellent little

paperback called "Sadhu Sundar Singh"

Woodbridge, John. More Than Conquerors. Australia, 1992.

Much of the above detail was provided

by this very well researched and illustrated

book. It features lots of inspiring

biographies. Thanks to the publishers

& authors of this excellent volume!

Parables and Insights - Sundar Singh

"Our Lord has called us to be fishers. When a fisherman is at work he makes no noise; he sits quietly there until his net is full; for if he were to make the slightest sound the fish would escape. That is why we work in stillness; when the net is full the whole world will see what we have been doing."

Once when the Sadhu was crossing the Kailas Range in the Himalayas, he came upon the cave of an aged ascetic, in the midst of wonderful scenery, not far from the Lake of Manessarowar. He was used to finding Indian Sannyasis and Tibetan monks in these mountain regions, but now, to his surprise, he found that this was a Christian hermit who bid him to kneel down and pray with him, whose prayer closed with the name of Jesus, and who then read aloud to him some verses from the Sermon on the Mount from an ancient manuscript. Then the seer told him a wonderful story. He said that he had been born three hundred years before at Alexandria, of Moslem parents. At the age of thirty he entered a Dervish Order, but neither prayer nor study of the Koran brought him any peace. In his inward distress he went to a Christian saint who had come from India to Alexandria in order to preach the Gospel. This saint was Yernaus (the Arabic form of Hieronymus) the nephew of St. Francis Xavier. This man read aloud to him the words out of a little book: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." These words from the Bible led him to Christ. He left his monastery and was baptised, then he went out into the world a wondering preacher, first of all with his teacher, and after that alone. After long years spent in missionary journeys he retired to the holy mountain of Kailas to give himself up to meditation, prayer, and intercession. In this solitary life of prayer wonderful apocalyptic visions and revelations had been granted him.

"Once there was a man who had a beautiful garden. The plants and the trees were well cared for, and all who went by were delighted with its appearance. Then the man had to go away for a time. 'But,' he thought to himself, 'my son is here, and he will keep it in order until I come back.' But the son did not bother himself at all about the matter, and no one looked after the garden. The gate was left open, and the neighbours' cows got in and ate up the carefully tended plants. No one watered the thirsty plants, and they ; soon began to wither. People used to stand and stare in wonder at the destruction that was being wrought. But the son lolled idly at the window. Then the passer-by asked why he was neglecting the garden like this. 'Oh,' he said, 'my father went away without telling me what to do.' You Indian Christians are just like this; your missionaries have gone away, and may not be back for a long time, and you look on and do not bestir yourselves. But if you wish to be true sons, then do your duty without a special command from your father."

"Yesterday I reached Wittenberg, the cradle of the Reformation. I have seen the house in which Martin Luther lived and the church in which he used to preach. It was on the door of this church that he nailed the ninety-five theses of the Reformation, and in that church he was buried. Tonight I am to speak in this church."

"One day when I was in the Himalayas, I was sitting upon the bank of a river; I drew out of the water a beautiful, hard, round stone and smashed it. The inside was quite dry. The stone had been lying a long time in the water, but the water had not penetrated the stone. It is just like that with the people of Europe; for centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity, they are entirely steeped in its blessings; they live in Christianity; yet Christianity has not penetrated them, and it does not live in them. Christianity is not at fault; the reason lies rather in the hardness of their hearts. Materialism and intellectualism have made their hearts hard. So I am not surprised that many people here do not understand what Christianity really is."

"When Jesus entered Jerusalem the people spread their clothes in the way and strewed branches before Him in order to do Him honour. Jesus rode upon an ass, according to the word of the prophet. His feet did not touch the road which was decorated in His honour. It was the ass which trod upon the garments and the branches. But the ass would have been very foolish to have been uplifted on that account; for the road really was not decked in its honour! It would be just as foolish if those who bear Christ to men were to think anything of themselves because of what men do to them for the sake of Jesus."

'The truth is that we cannot live a single day, nor indeed a single hour, without God. 'In Him we live and move and have our being. 'But most of us are like people who are asleep, who breathe without being conscious of it. If there were no air around them, and they ceased to breathe, they would be neither asleep nor awake, they would die of suffocation. As a rule, however, men never think about the absolutely indispensable gift of the air we breathe. But if we do reflect upon it we are filled with thankfulness and joy. Our spiritual dependence upon God is something very like that. He sustains us; we live in Him Yet how many of us ever think about it? How many souls are there who really wake from dumber and begin to breathe in the Divine air, without which the soul would die of suffocation! What kind of breathing, then, is this? The breath of the soul is prayer, through which fresh currents of air sweep into our being, bringing with them fresh supplies of vital force from the Love of God, on whom our whole life depends." "All life comes from God, but most people never think about this at all; they are quite unconscious of their spiritual life. It is only when a man begins to pray that he becomes conscious of this relationship. Then he begins to think, and realises how wonderful it is to live in God."

"Once I was sitting upon the shore of a lake. As I sat there I noticed some fish who came up to the surface and opened their mouths. At first I thought they were hungry and that they were looking for insects, but a fisherman told me afterwards that although they can breathe quite well under water they have to come up to the surface every now and again to inhale deep draughts of fresh air, or they would die. It is the same with us. The world is like an ocean; we can live in it, carry on our work and all our varied occupations, but from time to time we need to receive fresh life through prayer. Those Christians who do not set apart quiet times for prayer have not yet found their true life in Christ . . . "

"God has created both the mother's milk and the child's desire to drink it. But the milk does not flow of itself into the child's mouth. No, the child must lie in its mother's bosom and suck the milk diligently. God has created the spiritual food which we need. He has filled the soul of man with desire for this food, with an impulse to cry out for it and to drink it in. The spiritual milk, the nourishment of our souls, we receive through prayer. By means of fervent prayer we must receive it into our soul. As we do this we become stronger day by day just like the infant at the breast."

"Prayer is both the air we breathe and the mother's milk of the soul. Without prayer it is impossible to receive supernatural gifts from God."

"Prayer is the necessary preparation for receiving spiritual gifts from God." "Only longing and prayer make room for God in our hearts." "God cannot give us spiritual gifts excepting through prayer." "It is only as we are immersed in the spiritual world that we can understand spiritual things."

"There are beautiful birds in the air, and twinkling stars in the heavens, but if you desire pearls you must plunge down into the depths of the ocean to find them. There are many beautiful things in the world around us, but pearls can only be discovered in the depths of the sea; if we wish to posses spiritual pearls we must plunge into the depths, that is, we must pray, we must sink down into the secret depths of contemplation and prayer. Then we shall perceive precious pearls."

"When we are in the dark we know through our sense of touch what kind of object we are holding in our hands, whether it is a stick or a snake. Both can be felt in the darkness, but we can see them only in the light. So long as we are not in the light we grope and stumble about, and we cannot see true reality. The man who does not believe in Divine Light is still in darkness. What then shall we do to come to the Light? We must step out of the darkness and approach the Light; that is, we must kneel before our Saviour and pray to Him fervently. Then we shall be bathed in His Light, and we shall see everything clearly. Prayer is the key which opens the door of Divine Reality. Prayer leads us out of that darkness in which, in spite of all our intelligence and power of vision, we cannot perceive the Light of Truth. Prayer leads us into the world of spiritual light."

"Through prayer, by the simple method of prayer, we become aware of Christ's Presence and learn to know Him." "You must go, into the stillness and pray to Christ in solitude, there you will hear the Voice of Him who alone can help you." "If you read His Word and pray to Him even only for half an hour every day, you will have the same experience. He will reveal Himself to your souls." "I am sure that He will reveal Himself to you in prayer; then you will know Him as He is. And He will not only reveal Himself to you, but He will come and give you strength and joy and peace."

"The essence of prayer does not consist in asking God for something but in opening our hearts to God, in speaking with Him, and living with Him in perpetual communion. Prayer is continual abandonment to God." "Prayer does not mean asking God for all kinds of things we want, it is rather the desire for God Himself, the only Giver of Life." "Prayer is not asking, but union with God." "Prayer is not a painful effect to gain from God help in the varying needs of our lives. Prayer is the desire to possess God Himself, the Source of all Life." "The true spirit of prayer does not consist in asking for blessings, but in receiving Him who is the giver of all blessing, and in living a life of fellowship with Him." "Prayer is not a kind of begging for favours; it is rather breathing and living in God." "A little child often runs to its mother and exclaims: 'Mother! Mother!' Very often the child does not want anything in particular, he only wants to be near his mother, to situpon her lap, or to follow her about the house, for the sheer pleasure of being near her, talking to her, hearing her dear voice. Then the child is happy. His happiness does not consist in asking and receiving all kinds of things from his mother. If that were what he wanted, he would be impatient and obstinate and therefore unhappy. No, his happiness lies in feeling his mother's love and care, and in knowing the joy of her mother-love." "It is just the same with the true children of God; they do not trouble themselves so much about spiritual blessings. They only want to sit at the Lord's feet, to be in living touch with Him, and when they do that they are supremely content."

In another parable Sundar Singh tries to show how mean and contemptible a thing it is to beg for all kinds of everyday things when one is in the Presence of the greatness and wonder of God: "Have you ever seen a heron standing motionless on the shore of a lake? From his attitude you might think he was standing gazing at God's Power and Glory, wondering at the great expanse of water, and at its power to cleanse and satisfy the thirst of living creatures. But the heron has no such thoughts in his head at all; he stands there hour after hour, simply in order to see whether he can catch a frog or a little fish. Many human beings behave like that in prayer and meditation. They sit on the shore of God's Ocean; but they give no thought to His Power and Love, they pay no attention to His Spirit which , can cleanse them from their sins, neither do they consider His Being which can satisfy their soul's thirst; they give themselves up entirely to the thought of how they can gain something that will please them, something that will help them to enjoy the transitory pleasures of this world, and so they turn their faces away from the clear water of spiritual peace. They give themselves up to the things of this world which pass away, and they perish with them."

"Sometimes people ask me this question: 'If God does not wish us to ask for material things, but for Himself, the Giver of all good, why does the Bible never say: Do not pray for this or that, pray simply for the Holy Spirit? Why has this never been clearly expressed? 'I reply, Because He k new that people would never begin to pray if they could not ask for earthly things like riches and health and honours; He says to Himself: If they ask for such things the desire for something better will awaken in them, and finally they will only care about the higher things."

"The heat and the sun's rays, falling upon salt water, cause evaporation, which gradually becomes condensed into clouds, which again descend in the form of sweet, fresh water. The salt, and all the other things in the water, are left behind. In the same way the thoughts and desires of the praying soul rise to heaven like clouds; then the Sun of Righteousness cleanses them from the taint of sin by His purifying rays. The prayer then becomes a great cloud which falls in showers of blessing, life, and strength upon the earth below."

"Through prayer we experience the greatest of all miracles, heaven upon earth."

Such miracles also are worked through the power of persistent intercession: "There are times when one can do more good by prayer than by preaching. A man who prays incessantly in a solitary cave can help other people a great deal. An influence goes out from him which actually pervades the spiritual atmosphere, even though this influence is exerted in great stillness, unperceived by men, just as wireless message are conveyed by unseen waves, and as the words which we speak penetrate the consciousness of other people through mysterious channels of communication."

"He who searches for Divine Reality with all his heart and soul and finds it, becomes aware that, before he began to seek God, God was seeking him, in order to draw him into the joy of fellowship with Him, into the peace of His Presence; even as a child who has strayed, when he is safely back in his mother's arms, realises that she had been searching for him, with deep maternal love, before he had begun to think about her."

"O Lord God who art all in all to me, Life of my life and Spirit of my spirit, have mercy on me and fill me with Thy Holy Spirit and with love that there may be no room for anything else in my heart. I ask not for any blessing, but for Thyself, who art the giver of all blessings and of all life. I ask not for the world and its pomp and glory, nor for heaven, but I need Thee Thyself, for where Thou art, there is heaven. In Thyself alone is satisfaction and abundance for my heart; Thou Thyself, O Creator, hast created this heart for Thyself, and not for any other created thing. Therefore this heart cannot find rest in aught but Thee: only in Thee, O Father, who hast made this longing for peace. So now take out of this heart whatever is opposed to Thee and abide and rule in it Thyself, Amen."

The most wonderful experience the Sadhu has ever had of this peace was on that occasion when he was thrown into a well which was full of dead bodies. "The physical suffering was great, but in spirit I was happy. I began to pray to God, and His joy flowed into my heart to such an extent that I forgot the gruesome place I was in. A wonderful peace filled my heart, so lovely that I cannot describe it." "Never have I experienced greater blessedness in the peace of Jesus, received through prayer, than during those very days. Christ's peace turned that deep well into the Gate of Heaven." "How was it possible to have the peace of Cod in the pitch-dark night, in the midst of corpses and dead men's bones? Joy like this, peace like this, comes from. nothing in this world. God alone can give it. While I was sitting therein the well I reflected that I never felt this kind of happiness while I lived in the house of my parents in comfort and luxury. Whence, then came this overflowing joy in that terrible den? I saw then more clearly than ever, that Jesus is alive, and that it was He who was filling my heart with peace and joy."

"I was talking once with a very learned man, a psychologist, who assured me that the wonderful peace which I experienced was simply the effect of my own imagination. Before I answered him I told him the story of a person who was blind from birth, and who did not believe in the existence of the sun. One cold winter day he sat outside in the sunshine, and then his friends asked him: 'How do you feel now? 'He replied: 'I feel very warm.' 'It is the sun which is making you warm, although you cannot see it, you feel its effect".' 'No!' he said, 'this is impossible; this warmth comes from my own body; it is due to the circulation of the blood. You will never make me believe that a ball of fire is suspended in the midst of the heavens without any pillar to support it.' Well, I said to the psychologist, 'What do you think of the blind man? 'He was a fool!' he answered. 'And you,' I said to him, 'are a learned fool! You say that my peace is the effect of my own imagination, but I have experienced it.'

"The Cross is like the fruit of the walnut-tree. The outer rind is bitter, but the kernel is refreshing and strengthening. From the outside the Cross has neither beauty nor goodness; its essence is only revealed to those who bear it. They find a kernel of spiritual sweetness and inward peace."

"During an earthquake it sometimes happens that fresh springs break out in dry places which water and quicken the land so that plants can grow. In the same way the shattering experiences of suffering can cause the living water to well up in a human heart."

"A newborn child has to cry, for only in this way will his lungs expand. A doctor once told me of a child who could not breathe when it was born. In order to make it breathe the doctor gave it a slight blow. The mother must have thought the doctor cruel. But he was really doing the kindest thing possible. As with newborn children the lungs are contracted, so are our spiritual lungs. But through suffering God strikes us in love. Then our lungs expand and we can breathe and pray."

"Once there was a man who noticed a silkworm in its cocoon; he saw how it was twisting and struggling; it was in great distress. The man went to it and helped it to get free. The silkworm made a few more efforts, but after a while it died. The man had not helped it; he had only disturbed its growth. Another man saw a silkworm suffering in the same way, but he did not do anything to help it. He knew that this conflict and struggle was a good thing, that the silkworm would grow stronger in the process, and so be better prepared for its new stage of life. In the same way suffering and distress in this world help us to get ready for the next life."

"Many people despise those who give their health, their strength, their means, for others, and call them fools; and yet they are those who are able to save many." "Not until we lavish our strength do men begin to see that we are not selfish, but that we are really redeemed. Our Saviour says that we are the salt of the earth. Salt does not impart its flavour to other things until it is dissolved. Suppose we put some salt into a saucepan with boiling rice .... Because it dissolves it gives flavour to thousands of grains of rice. In the same manner we can only redeem others by giving ourselves up for them."

This giving out becomes a blessing to others. That is my own experience. When I went up to Tibet, if I did not give out some blessing or power which I felt I possessed, I lost my peace; and when I gave away any gift of strength, then peace came back." "The pipe which carries water from place to place is always clean, because it is always being cleansed by fresh pure flowing water. It is just the same with those who are used by the Holy Spirit to serve as channels of the living water to others. They keep themselves pure and holy and become heirs of God's Kingdom."

As the inner life with God grows through the loving Service of others, so it contracts if it shuts itself up to self centred reflection, caring nothing for the world outside. A mysticism which confines itself to "pure contemplation" spells the death of true fellowship with God. By a series of vivid parables and stories the Sadhu illuminates this side of his experience.

"Fish which always live in the depths of the ocean lose some of their faculties, like the Tibetan hermits who always live in the dark. The ostrich loses his power of flying because he does not use his wings. Therefore do not bury the gifts and talents which have been given to you, but use them, that you may enter into the joy of your Lord."

"While I was in Tibet I saw a Buddhist, a monk, who had lived for five or six years in a cave. When he went into the cave he had good eyesight. But because he stayed so long in the darkness his eyes grew weaker and weaker, and at last he became quite blind. It is just the same with us. If we do not use the blessings which we have received from God for His Glory, we are in danger of losing them for ever."

"When I was in Palestine I stood by the Jordan and said to myself," This fresh water is always flowing into the Dead Sea, and yet the Sea remains dead, because it has no outlet' .... Even so there are individual Christians and Christian communities and churches which are dead because the living waters of the Gospel are always flowing into them, but they are not flowing out again to make the land fruitful. They receive gifts of knowledge and experience, but they do not share them with others. The gifts of the Word and of the Spirit come to them, but they do not give them out again to those who have them not."

'If we have really received God's redeeming message, it becomes a power within us which impels us to speak of the Lord. Those who have experienced this cannot sit still and keep silence about that which God has done for them; no, they must speak." "We have no right to be silent; even when confession of Christ leads to persecution and suffering we must bear witness."

"It is a joy to me to be allowed to bear witness." "I want to bear witness of my Saviour, because I have received so much from Him." "What a privilege it is to be His witness, a witness of the Living Christ! That is a privilege not even given to the angels, because they cannot testify to His power as Redeemer. They have no experience of salvation because they have never sinned. Only those who have been saved by His grace can bear witness." "Oh what love God has shown toward us, in refusing this honour to the angels, and in granting it to men.''

"It is not necessary for everyone to be a preacher." "It is quite possible to be a great preacher without being a witness for Christ. I tis also possible to be a living witness, indeed a great witness, for Christ without being a preacher or a speaker." "Every Christian, whether man or woman, boy or girl, rich or poor, workman or peasant, writer or priest, judge or official, doctor or lawyer, teacher or pupil, Government official or missionary, is only a Christian on condition that he witnesses for his Lord. In order to bear witness to Him it does not necessarily follow that we must preach in the bazaar or from the pulpit, or that we must conduct Bible classes, Sunday Schools, and Christian Unions, no, these are only some of the ways by which we can witness; but all Christians, wherever they are, have the opportunity of witnessing for their Master. They can do this by their upright life, their blameless character, by the integrity of their behaviour and their sincerity in speech, by their enthusiasm for their religion and their love for their Master, using every possible opportunity of telling others about Jesus Christ."

"Every one of them can be a witness for Christ, not only with his lips but by his whole life." "Every Christian ought to be a living martyr, who lives for the sake of his Master."

"The fishes of the sea live in salt water, yet when we eat boiled fish there is no salt taste in the water in which they have been boiled. They have lived in an atmosphere impregnated with salt, yet they have kept free from its flavour. So do true Christians live in the world, without taking it into their hearts." "The man of prayer remains free from the taint of sin although he lives in a sin-stained world, because his inner life is preserved by prayer."

"The world is like an ocean. We cannot live without water, it is true, but it is also true that we cannot live if we allow the wafer to engulf us, for there is life in water and also death. If we make use of water we find that there is life in it, but if we are drowned we find death." "In this world we are like little boats." "A boat is only useful on the water; for there it conveys men from one shore to another. But if we drag it overland, through fields, or into a town, we find that as a vehicle it is utterly useless. The place for a boat is on a river or on the sea. But this does not mean that the water must be in the boat. For if it is in the boat, the boat will become useless; no one would then be able to steer it over the water. It would fill with water, sink beneath the waves, and whoever was in it would be drowned. The boat must be in the water, but the water must not be in the boat."

"In Christ I have found what Hinduism and Buddhism could not give me, peace and joy in this world. People do not believe, because they are strangers to the experience. Once when I was wandering about in the Himalayas, in the region of eternal snow and ice, I came upon some hot springs, and I told a friend about them. He would not believe it. 'How can there be hot springs in the midst of ice and snow?' I said: 'Come and dip your hands in the water, and you will see that I am right.' He came, dipped his hands in the water, felt the heat and believed. Then he said: 'There must be a fire in the mountain. So after he had been convinced by experience his brain began to help him to understand the matter. Faith and experience must come first, and understanding will follow. We cannot understand until we have some spiritual experience, and that comes through prayer. As we practise prayer we shall come to know who the Father is and the Son, we shall become certain that Christ is everything to us and that nothing can separate us from Him and from His Love. Temptations and persecution. may come, but nothing can part us from Christ. Prayer is the only way to this glorious experience."

"Our knowledge of Divine Reality depends upon our inner life, and not upon philosophical arguments." "Although Philosophy tries to grasp Divine Reality, it does not succeed. No one can grasp Divine Reality with the intellect." "Jesus began His work, not among philosophers, but with simple fisher folk. The world has seen many learned men, and many of them it has already forgotten; but these simple men who helped Jesus Christ in His work will never be forgotten."

It is not God who sends the sinner to hell, it is his own sins. God allows everyone to come to heaven; indeed, He invites everyone most earnestly to come in. But sinners themselves feel that it is a torture to stay there; that is why they do not desire it. God does not make their entrance into heaven either difficult or impossible, no, it is their own inner attitude which makes it impossible for them to have any joy in eternal life."

"The Indian seer lost God in Nature; the Christian mystic, on the other hand, finds God in Nature. The Hindu mystic believes that God and Nature are one and the same; the Christian mystic knows that there must be a Creator to account for the universe."

"When I entered heaven for the first time I looked all round me and then I asked: 'Where is God?' and they answered and said unto me: 'God is seen here as little as on earth for God is infinite. But Christ is here, He is the image of the Invisible God, and only in Him can anyone see God, either here or upon earth."

"Some years ago I saw how a simple countryman was being shown a red glass bottle filled with milk. They asked him what was in the bottle. He said: 'Wine, brandy, whisky.' He could not believe that it was filled with milk until he saw the milk being poured out from it, because he could not see the white colour of the milk owing to the redness of the glass. So it is with the Person of the Saviour. He became Man and His Godhead was hidden in His Humanity. People saw Him tired hungry and thirsty, and they said: 'If He is God, why is He tired, hungry and thirsty, and why does He pray to God?' They saw only His human side, and could not believe that He was really Divine. But those who followed Him and lived with Him knew that He was more than human and that He was God.' "

"Some years ago in Tibet I heard a story about a King who wished to send a message to his people. He entrusted the errand to his servants, but they would not do as he wished. The King, who loved his subjects, now resolved to take the message to them himself in order to be convinced of their difficulties. He could not go there as a king, for he wanted his subjects to speak to him freely of all their sufferings and distresses. So he changed his garments, left off his royal robes, and dressed himself like a poor man. Then he went right among his people and said to them: 'I have been sent by the King in order to learn about all your difficulties. 'The poor and the distressed had confidence in him and told him all their anxieties, and he saw how he could help them. But there were also some proud people who could not bring themselves to believe that such a poor man was really the King's messenger, so they were rude to him and chased him away. Later on the King came to his subjects at the head of his army in all his royal state, and the people could hardly recognise him again nor believe that it was the same person. They said: 'Then he was a poor man and now he is King.' The proud who had despised him were punished and thrown into prison, but those who had been good to him were honoured and their wants relieved. Even so is it with the Word of Life who became man; His people did not see His Glory, and they crucified Him. But the days are coming when we shall see Him in His Glory, and we shall know that He is the same Jesus Christ who lived like a poor man for three-and-thirty years upon this earth."

"Once when I was travelling about in the Himalayas I saw something which made the love of God very real to me. In a Tibetan village I noticed a crowd of people standing under a burning tree and looking up into the branches. I came near and discovered in the branches a bird which was anxiously flying round a nest full of young ones. The mother bird wanted to save her little ones, but she could not. When the fire reached the nest the people waited breathlessly to see what she would do. No one could climb the tree, no one could help her. Now she could easily have saved her own life by flight, but instead of fleeing she sat down on the nest, covering the little ones carefully with her wings. The fire seized her and burnt her to ashes. She showed her love to her little ones by giving her life for them. If then, this little insignificant creature had such love, how much more must our Heavenly Father love His children, the Creator love His creatures!"

Christ speaks: "If you talk with a man who has been born blind about different colours: red, blue, yellow, and their variations, he has no conception of their glory and beauty, and he is quite unable to value them for he only knows about them; he knows their different names ,it is true, but he can never have a true idea of the various colours until his eyes are opened. In fact, the colours are quite remote from his experience. Even so is, it with the eyes of the spirit. A man may be as learned as possible; but until he has received his spiritual sight he cannot know Me, nor see My glory, nor understand that I am the Incarnate, God.

"It is impossible for us to achieve our own salvation.... Good ethical teaching sounds well, but it accomplishes nothing. A fish which has been caught in a net can see a certain distance before it; it can even move about a little, but it is still a prisoner.... If it tries to work its way out, it realises still more painfully that it is a prisoner. My studies broadened my mind, but in spite of everything I discovered that I was caught in the net of sin. I am not alone in feeling this; I have met many, many Indians who had forsaken the world, who were living in caves in the jungle where they were striving with all their might to find the way to spiritual freedom; but all their efforts were fruitless. They only became more deeply entangled in the net.... Many of them, however, went on seeking until they found Christ.... Christ broke the fetters of sin, and they were free."

"If the little chicken in the egg were to declare that nothing existed outside the egg, and its mother were to reply: 'No, in the outside world there are mountains, flowers, and blue sky,' and the little chicken were to reply: 'You are talking nonsense, I can't see any of these things,' and if the shell were to break suddenly, then the little chicken would see that his mother was right. It is just the same with us, we are still in the shell, and we see neither heaven nor hell. But one day the shell will break, and then we shall see. At the same time there are hints of the future state: the little chicken in the shell has eyes and wings, which are in themselves a sufficient proof that they will be needed for a future life. The eye is created for seeing, yet what can it see while it is in the shell? The wings are created for flying, but how can it fly while it is in the shell? It is quite clear that neither eyes nor wings are intended for a cramped life within the limits of a shell. In the same way, we have many desires and longings which can never be satisfied here. There must be so me way of satisfying them, however, and this opportunity is Eternity. But just as the little chicken needs to be kept warm as longas it is in the shell, so while we live in this world we have to be cherished and warmed by the brooding Presence and Fire of the Holy Spirit."

"Other teachers who know that they will have to leave this world are anxious that their teaching should continue to live in written form when oral instruction is no longer possible. But Christ is quite different. He never dreamt of leaving us alone, and He will be with us to the end of the world; therefore He did not need to leave any written word behind. Then there is another reason why He wrote nothing. If He had written something in a book, men would have bowed down and worshipped it, instead of worshipping the Lord Himself. God's Word is only a hand stretched out to point the way to the Lord who is the Truth and the Life." "The Life and the Spirit of the Lord can only be written in the hearts of men, and not in books."

"In the mountains the rushing streams make their own river bed along which they flow; but in the plains men have to work hard to make canals, in order that the water may flow along them. It is just the same with those who live upon the heights with God. The Holy Spirit streams through them freely, while those who give little time to prayer and communion with God have to find their way with much labour and effort."

"We in India," says the Sadhu, "knew already that God is good. But we did not know that He was so good that Christ was willing to die for us." "There is much that is beautiful in Hinduism, but the highest light comes from Christ." "To some extent God satisfies all desire for Himself, but full satisfaction is only found in Christ"; "he who find. Him finds Heaven upon earth."

"The Wise Men followed the Star to Bethlehem. But when they reached Bethlehem they no longer needed the Star, for they had found Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. When the sun rises the stars lose their radiance." "In India we have many genuine truth-seekers, who faithfully follow their Star; but it is only starlight which guides them. But you Christians have the glory of the Sun." "Hinduism and Buddhism have dug canals, but they have no living water to fill them." "In this sense I was prepared to receive the Living Water from Christ." "Christianity is the fulfilment of Hinduism."

"There is in the Himalayas a certain kind of flower which by its scent lulls men into unconsciousness.... in form and colour the flowers are beautiful; everyone who sees them feels attracted to them, but no one walks near them, or sits down among them without being overtaken by mysterious and fatal slumber. At first I thought that the flowers were poisonous, but people assured me that this was not the case, for those who have been overcome by the scent do not die until the twelfth day, and then death ensues from hunger and thirst, and not from the immediate effect of the drug. In like manner the things of this world are not in themselves evil, but they stupefy careless souls, and hinder them from being conscious of spiritual hunger and thirst, and they drift into a sleep which may easily lead to spiritual death."

"I say to the Hindu Sadhus: 'You become Sadhus because you want to torture yourselves. I became a Sadhu in order to serve; I do not torture myself, although I have often been tortured by others. 'Indians forsake the world and deny themselves before they have discovered the fullness of God. They practise self-denial for its own sake not because they have found peace, but because they want to win peace."

"When a man is thirsty, whether he be learned or ignorant, young or old, in order to quench his thirst what he needs is not knowledge, but water. Before he drinks the water he does not need to know that it contains oxygen and hydrogen. If he refused to drink it until he could understand what we mean by oxygen and hydrogen he would die of thirst. From time immemorial men have quenched their thirst with water without knowing anything about its chemical constituents. In like manner we do not need to be instructed in all the mysteries of doctrine, but we do need to receive the Living Water which Jesus Christ will give us and which alone can satisfy our souls."

"It must be admitted that philosophy has made no progress in the course of centuries. The same old problems repeat themselves, though in new forms and in fresh language. In India an ox with blindfolded eyes goes round an oil-press all the day long. When his eyes are unbandaged in the evening he finds that he has been going round and round in a circle and that although he has succeeded in producing some oil he has gone no further. Although the philosophers have been at it for hundreds of years, they have not reached their goal. Now and then, after much labour they have produced a little oil, which they have left behind them, but it is not sufficient to meet the sore need of mankind."

The Sadhu differentiates true knowledge of God from pantheism:1. "God is our Creator and we are His creatures; He is our Father, and we are His children." 2. "If we ourselves were divine, we would no longer feel any desire to worship." 3. "If we want to rejoice in God we must be different from Him; the tongue could taste no sweetness if there were no difference between it and that which it tasted." 4. "To be redeemed does not mean to be lost in or absorbed into God. We do not lose our personality in God; rather we find it." 5. "Pantheism does not admit the fact of sin, therefore we often find immoral conduct among its followers."

"No one ought to imagine that the Presence of Christ and the sense of 'Heaver upon earth' mean what a believer in pantheism means when he says: 'Now I am God.' No, we are in God and God is in us. But that does not mean that we are God or that He is man." "There is fire in the coal, and the coal is in the fire, but the coal is not the fire, and the fire is not the coal. We are only so far united with God as we give our hearts to Him and allow Him to baptise us with the Holy Spirit."

"Look at the sponge as it is immersed in the water. The sponge is in the water, and the water is in the sponge. But the sponge is not the water, nor the water the sponge, but both are different things. When we give time to prayer then we are in God, God is in us; but that does not mean that God is our soul or that we are God." "Just as the water is in the sponge, so God is everywhere and in all things, but He is not identified with created things."

"Have you ever stood in a smithy? Did you notice how the blacksmith held the iron in the fire? It became more and more glowing the longer it lay in the forge, until at last it looked quite like fire. Their on was in the fire, and the fire was in the iron, but the iron was not the fire, nor the fire the iron, When the iron began to glow, the smith could bend it into any shape he desired, but it still remained iron. Even so we still retain our personality when we allow ourselves to be penetrated by Christ."

"The Atonement achieved a union which was not there before. He is in us, and we are in Him; by this I do not mean that kind of union which Indians call 'losing oneself in God.' They talk of the stream which is swallowed up or lost in the ocean. We do not lose ourselves, but we attain life in union with Him."

"Krishna says: 'In every age I am born to save the good and to destroy the wicked.' Jesus, on the contrary, came to save sinner."

At The Feet of the Master - Sundar Singh

FOREWORD

This book "At the Feet of the Master" is a record of the dialogues which took place between Jesus and his disciple Sundar Singh. In these dialogues the mysteries of spirit, faith and life are explored.

PREFACE - BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

The life of Sadhu Sundar Singh was most remarkable in it's Christ-likeness. He was born amidst the depths of Indian culture and religion, and into a Sikh family. During the early part of his life Sundar's mother would take him week by week to sit at the feet of a sadhu, an ascetic holy man, who lived some distance away in the rainforest.

But with the death of his beloved mother when he was only fourteen years old, the young Sundar grew increasingly despairing and aggressive. His hatred of the local missionaries and Christians culminated in the public burning of a bible which he tore apart page by page and threw into the flames.

Yet before long Sundar was intent on taking his own life. Sundar had arrived at a point of desperation: he had decided to throw himself under the Ludhiana express if God did not reveal to him the true way of peace.

At three in the morning he rose from his bed and went out into the moonlit courtyard for the ceremonial bath observed by devout Hindus and Sikhs before worship. He then returned to his room and knelt down, bowed his head to the ground and pleaded that God would reveal himself. Yet nothing happened.

He had not known what to expect: a voice, a vision, a trance ? Still nothing happened. And it was fast approaching the time for the Ludhiana express.

He lifted his head and opened his eyes, and was rather surprised to see a faint cloud of light in the room. It was too early for the dawn. He opened the door and peered out to the courtyard. Darkness. Turning back into the room he saw that the light in the room was getting brighter. To his sheer amazement he saw not the face of any of his traditional gods, but of Jesus the Christ.

Jesus Christ was there in the room, shining, radiating an inexpressible joy and peace and love, looking at him with compassion and asking, "Why do you persecute me? I died for you ..."

From here on the life of Sundar Singh became most Christ-like. Being unwilling to denounce his Master, it was not long before he had been rejected by his family. Sundar took the saffron robes of the sadhu and began a life of spreading the simple message of love and peace and rebirth through Jesus. He carried no money or other possessions, only a New Testament.

He travelled India and Tibet, as well as the rest of the world, with the message that the modern interpretation of Jesus was sadly watered down. He visited the West twice, travelling to Britain, the United States, and Australia in 1920, and Europe again in 1922.

With the large number of "spiritual paths" and "techniques" facing the world of today it is of special value to consider the life and insights of one who truly embraced the simplicity, love and freedom offered through devotion to Christ.

"I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord," he said, "but like Him, I want no home, no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all people of the love of God."

THE VISIONS - PART ONE

One dark night I went into the forest alone to pray. I sat upon a rock. There I laid before God my deep needs and begged his help. After a while I saw a poor man come towards me. I thought he was approaching me to beg some kind of relief because he was hungry and cold.

'I am a poor man, too,' I said to him.' l have nothing at all but this blanket. You'd better go into the local village and get help there.' Then, as I was still in the middle of speaking, he flashed like lightning, showering drops of blessing, and disappeared immediately. What a bitter disappointment! It was clear to me, too late, that this had been my beloved Master. He came not to beg from a poor wretch like me, but to bless and enrich me (2 Cor. 8:9). I remained there weeping. With what sorrow I regretted my utter stupidity and lack of insight!

THE VISIONS - PART TWO

I went back to the forest to pray another day, after I had finished my work. As I sat on the same rock I thought about what blessings to pray for. While I was doing this it seemed as though another person came and stood near me. From his bearing and dress and way of speaking, he seemed to me to be a well respected and devoted servant of God, yet his eyes glittered with deceit and cunning. As he spoke it was as if he breathed an odour of hell. He said to me: Holy and honoured sir, pardon me for interrupting your prayers and breaking in on your privacy. But it is one's duty to try to promote the welfare of others, so I have come to lay an important matter before you. Your pure unselfish life has made a deep impression not only on me but on a great number of devout people. In God's name you have sacrificed yourself body and soul for others, but have you been truly appreciated? What I mean is, as a Christian you have influenced only a few thousand other Christians, some of whom even distrust you. Wouldn't it be much more worth while if you become a Hindu or a Mussulman? Then you could really become a great leader. They are looking for such a spiritual leader. Consider what I'm suggesting; if you accept it, then three hundred and ten million Hindus and Muslims will become your followers. And pay you enormous respect and honour. As soon as I heard this these words rushed from my lips:

You Satan! Get out! I knew you immediately. You're the wolf in sheep's clothes! Your single desire is for me to renounce the cross and the narrow path that leads to life, and to choose the broad road of death. My Master himself is my lot and my life. He gave himself, his very life, for me and so it is right that I should offer my own life to him as a sacrifice, for he is everything to me. Get away! I have nothing to do with you.

On hearing my reply the deceiver went off grumbling and growling in rage. I, in my tears, poured out my soul to God in prayer:

My Lord God, you who are everything to me, life of my life, spirit of my spirit, look on me in mercy, so fill me with your Holy Spirit that my heart shall have no room for love of anything else but you alone. I seek from you no other gift but that of yourself, the giver of life with all its blessings. From you I ask not for the world or its treasures. But you alone I desire and long for; where you are there is heaven. My heart hungers and thirsts; it can only be satisfied by you who gave it birth. O my Creator, you have formed my heart for yourself alone and no other. It can find no rest or ease except in you, my Creator, who has placed in my heart this longing for rest. Remove then from me all that is opposed to you and come into my heart to stay and rule for ever. Amen.

When I rose from this prayer I half- saw through my tears, a glowing being dressed in light and beauty, standing before me. Though he did not speak a word yet there poured from him lightning- like rays of life-giving love, the power of which penetrated and bathed my very soul. At once I knew that my dear Saviour stood before me. Immediately I arose from my seat upon the rock and fell at his feet. He held in his hand the key of my heart. Opening its innermost chamber with his key of love, he filled me with his presence, and whenever I looked within or outside myself I saw only him.

At that moment, I knew that man's heart is the very throne and fortress of God; that when he enters there to take up residence heaven begins.

In those few seconds he so filled my heart and spoke such wonderful words that I could not tell them all, no matter how many books I wrote. For the things of heaven can be spoken of only in heavenly language; earthly tongues are not sufficient for them.

Yet I will try to write of some of those things of heaven which came to me from the Muster by this means of vision. Upon the very rock where I had just sat, the Master seated himself. With me at his feet there flowed between us, Master and disciple, the following conversation.

GOD'S PRESENCE - PART ONE

The disciple:

O Master! Fountain of life! Why do you hide yourself from those who adore you and do not delight the eyes of those who long to gaze upon you?

The Master:

Eyes of the Spirit. My true child, true happiness does not depend upon physical sight. It comes through spiritual vision and depends upon the heart. In Palestine thousands looked at me, but that did not give them all true happiness. Mortal eyes perceive those things which are mortal; physical eyes cannot see the immortal God or spiritual beings. You yourself cannot see your own spirit, so how can you look at its Creator? However, when your spiritual eyes are opened then most certainly you can see God who is Spirit (John 4:24). What you now see of me is not seen with your physical eyes but with the eyes of the spirit.

When thousands of people saw me in Palestine, did they all see me with their spiritual eyes opened, or did I myself become mortal? Not at all! I took on a mortal body in order to give a ransom for the sins of the world. When the work of salvation for sinners was completed (John 19:30), then what was immortal transformed what was mortal into glory. So after the resurrection only those who had received spiritual sight were able to see me (Acts 10:40-1).

Knowing and Knowing Of. There are many people in this world who know about me but do not know me. Since they have no personal relationship with me, they have no understanding of me, or faith in me, and do not accept me as their Saviour and Lord.

It is like talking about reds, blues and yellows with a man born blind. He remains totally unaware of their beauty and charm. They mean nothing to him. He knows about them, he knows their names, but he lacks a true appreciation of their colour. That he can only know if his eyes are opened. Similarly, until a man's spiritual eyes are opened he cannot know me. However scholarly he may be he cannot see my glory, my divine nature; he cannot understand that I am God incarnate.

Seeing Clearly. Then there are many believers who are aware of my presence in their hearts, bringing them spiritual life and peace, who cannot clearly see me. In the same way, the human eye cannot at first see properly when medicine has been dropped into it, but it feels the presence of the medicine, cleansing deep into the eye, and promoting the power of sight.

The true peace born by my presence in the hearts of believers is not visible, but they can feel its power and are happy in it. Nor can they see the happiness of mind and heart that is theirs as they enjoy the peace of my presence.

Invisible Sweetness. The same analogy can be made using the sense of taste. The tongue tastes sweetness, but sweetness remains invisible. In the same way, I give my children life and joy with the hidden manna, that bread of which the world with all its knowledge does not and never can know (Rev. 2:7).

Sometimes during sickness the sense of taste is impaired, and however delicious the food given to the sick person may be, it tastes unpleasant to him. In the same way sin distorts one's spiritual taste so that word and service and presence lose their attraction to the sinner. Instead of benefiting from them he starts to argue about them and criticise them.

Prophet or Christ. In addition, many believers (like the man born blind who received back his sight) are able to see Jesus as a prophet and as the Son of Man, but do not regard him as the Christ, the Son of God (John 9:35-7), until I am revealed to them a second time in power.

Mangoes or Mother. A mother once hid in a garden, among some thick shrubs. Her little son was hunting for her and crying as he searched. He looked high and low through the whole garden but could not find his mother. A servant came to him, 'Sonny, don't cry! Look at the mangoes on this tree. And look at the pretty flowers. Come on, I'll get some for you.' But the child cried out, 'No! No! I want my mother. The food she gives me is nicer than all these mangoes and her love is sweeter than all these flowers. This garden is mine, anyway, because all that my mother has is mine. No! I want my mother.'

When the mother, hidden in the bushes, heard this she rushed out and caught her child to her breast, smothering him with her love and kisses. That garden became paradise to the child. In the same way, too, my children cannot find any true joy in this great garden of the world, though it is so full of charming and beautiful things, until they find me. I am their Emmanuel who is ever with them. I make myself known to them (John 14:21).

The Water & the Sponge. Just as the sponge lies in the water and the water fills the sponge, but the water is not the sponge and the sponge is not the water, but they remain different, so my children abide in me and I in them. This is not pantheism. This is the kingdom of God which belongs to my children in this world. And just as the water fills the sponge, so I am in every place and in everything, but my identity is not lost (Luke 17:21).

Wash a piece of charcoal and its blackness will not disappear, but let the fire enter into it and its dark colour vanishes. So, too, when the sinner receives the Holy Spirit (who is from the Father and myself for we are both one) it is the baptism of fire. In it all the blackness of sin is driven away and that sinner is made a light to the world (Matt. 3:11-14). Like the fire in the charcoal, I abide in my children and they in me, and through them I make myself known to the world.

GOD'S PRESENCE - PART TWO

The disciple:

Master, if you made a special manifestation of yourself to the world, men would no longer doubt the existence of God and your own divine nature. They would all believe and enter upon the way of holiness.

The Master:

God Became Man. My son, I know every man's inner state. I know well and I reveal myself to each heart, according to its needs. There is no better way of bringing man into holiness than by revealing myself to him. I became man, so that men may know God. I came to reveal that God is not as a distant stranger or a tyrant, but one full of love and no stranger to man, for man was made in the image of God.

Man has this natural desire to see the God whom he loves. But the Father cannot be seen. God is by nature incomprehensible. He who would comprehend God must have his nature. Man is a comprehensible creature and as such he cannot see God. Yet God is love and he has endowed man with that same faculty of love. So in order that man's craving for love might be satisfied, God adopted a form of existence that man could comprehend. And God became man. He is visible to his children. They may see him and enjoy him with all the holy angels (Col. 1:15; 2:9). That is why I said, 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9-10. NIV).

And although I am called the Son, while I am in the form of man, I am the eternal and everlasting Father (Isa. 9:6).

Heat and Light. I and the Father and the Holy Spirit are one. In the sun there is both heat and light, but light is not heat and heat is not light, yet both are one, though different in their forms. Similarly, I and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, bring light and heat into the world. The Spirit which is the baptismal fire, burns to ashes all sin in the hearts of believers making them pure and holy. I, who am the true Light (John 1:9; 8:12), disperse all dark, evil desires and lead believers in the way of holiness, to bring them finally to their eternal home. Yet we are not three but one, just as the sun is one.

A Broken Limb. Whatever worth and power and ability God has given to man must be put to use, otherwise it gradually decays and dies. So faith, if it is not truly fixed on the living God, is shattered by the shock of sin and it turns to doubt. It is often said, 'If only this or that doubt could be removed then I'd be ready to believe.' that is like asking the doctor to remove the pain before setting the broken limb, which is silly, because the pain comes from the broken limb and when that is set the pain will stop. So man's tie with God has been snapped by sin, and doubts - which are the spiritual pains - have arisen. What is needed is for union with God to be renewed again, and then those doubts about my divine nature and the existence of God will automatically disappear. In place of pain will flow that wonderful peace which the world cannot give or remove. This is why I became flesh: that broken men may be reunited with God and that they may be happy with him in heaven for evermore.

Love at all Times. God is love. He has given this ability to love to all living creatures, and especially to man. And it is only right that the lover who has given his life and love should receive our tribute of love - which is his due. God loves all his creation and if the love he gives us is not used properly then it turns to selfishness. If we do not love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, with the love he has put within us, then our love falls from its high calling and becomes self-centred. So disaster rises within the world for man and all God's creatures. In a strange way, every selfish person is a self-destroyer.

I have also said, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' This refers, of course, to all men, since in one sense all men are neighbours. However, it especially includes those who constantly live near to each other. It is easy to live at peace with a fellow neighbour just for a few days, even if he is unfriendly to you. But to show constant love when he is persistently troubling to you, is extremely difficult. In times like these you must love him as yourself.

When within one's own community one has won the battle to love at all times, then it becomes easier to love all others as yourself. When a man loves God with all his heart, mind and soul, and his neighbour as himself, then doubts disappear. In that man, God's kingdom will be established for ever. Melted and moulded in the fire of love that man will be restored into the likeness of the heavenly Father who in the beginning made man in his own image.

Born of the Spirit. I manifest myself through my word to those who seek me with a pure heart. Just as I took on a human body for man's salvation, so my word, which is Spirit and life (John 6:63), is written in the language of men. Both inspired and human elements are united in it. And just as men do not understand me, they do not understand my word. It is not necessary to know Hebrew and Greek in order to understand it - what is needed is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It is this abiding in the Holy Spirit of which the prophets and apostles wrote. Without a doubt the language of my word is spiritual and only the person born of the Spirit is able to understand it fully. It does not matter whether that person knows all the world's critical arguments, or is just a child, the language of the Spirit is understood by the person in the Spirit; it is his mother tongue. So remember this: The wisdom of the world cannot understand it for they have no share in the Holy Spirit.

Unfinished Art. I, the author of the book of nature, freely manifest myself in creation. To read this book and find me there, men also need spiritual insight, otherwise they will go wrong.

The blind man uses the tips of his fingers as eyes and can read a book. But he cannot assess the truth he reads simply by touch. He must use his understanding. The agnostics and sceptics who investigate truth and find only defects instead of perfection are a case in point. Fault-finding critics ask, 'If there is an almighty Creator of the world why are there defects in it? Why do we have natural disasters, pain, suffering, death?' Their error is similar to the mistake made by the ignorant man who finds fault with an unfinished work of art. When he sees the complete picture, he feels a sense of shame and ends up singing the praises of its author. God did not form the world as it now is in one day, nor will it reach perfection in one day. The whole of creation moves forward to perfection. If we of this world could look from God's perspective and see the perfect world that it will one day be then we too will say, in praise, all is very good (Gen. 1:31).

Breaking Out. The human spirit lives in the body, rather like the chicken in its shell. If one told the chicken of the great outside world which it would see when it was set free of its shell, the chicken would not understand or believe it. If one told it that its feathers and eyes would enable it to see and fly, it would not believe it. And there would be no way of proving it to the unborn chick until it came out of its shell.

So in the same way many are uncertain about life after death and the existence of God, because they cannot see beyond the shell-like body of flesh. Their thoughts, like feeble wings hampered by the shell cannot take flight beyond the narrow confines of the brain. Their weak eyes cannot discover those eternal unfading treasures which God has prepared for those who love him (Isa. 64:4; 65:17). The conditions necessary for attaining eternal life are like those of the chicken egg which is hatched by the warmth of the mother hen. If we are to receive eternal life, we should receive in faith the life-giving warmth of the Holy Spirit.

Conferred Immortality. There are many who say that a beginning must have an end. This is not true. God who is able, at his will, to bring into being something from nothing is also able by his powerful word to confer immortality upon what he has made. If this were not so he could not be called Almighty God. Life in this world decays and is destroyed because it is subject to those things which are themselves subject to change and decay. But if this life were set free from those influences of death it would attain eternity. By being brought under the care of the eternal unchanging God, who is the fountain and source of life, it will escape death's clutch.

For those who believe in me, 'I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand' (John 10:28, NIV), 'I am the Lord God almighty that is, was and will be' (Rev.1:8)

SIN & SALVATION - PART ONE

The disciple:

Master, it is clear to almost everyone that disobedience to God and refusal to worship him is sin. The deadly result of this state of affairs is evident in the world. But the exact nature of sin we are not clear about. How, in almighty God's very presence, in opposition to his will, and in his own world, did sin come to be?

The Master:

Self Will. Sin is to live according to one's own will and cast aside the will of God. It is to dispense with God's truth and law and to satisfy one's own desires. In so doing, one thinks one can possess real happiness. Sin has no individuality - no one can say that someone has created it. Sin is simply the name given to a state or condition. There is only one Creator God and he is good. He could not have created a bad thing because that would mean he acted contrary to his own nature. Apart from the one Creator there is no other who could have created sin. Satan can spoil what God has created, but he has no power to create anything. Sin, then, is not a part of God's creation, nor is it a self-created existence. It has no individuality or personality, but is simply a delusive, destructive state of non-being.

Light Quenches Darkness. Here is an example: light possesses real existence but darkness does not. Darkness exists only as a state in the absence of light. Sin or evil, then, is not a self-existent thing, but merely the absence or non-existence of good. This dark state of evil is most horrific. Because of it many miss the right course and are shipwrecked on the rock of Satan. There they fall into the darkness of evil and are lost in hell. For this reason I, the light of the world, was revealed as a man. I came to rescue those who put their trust in me from the power of darkness, and bring them safely home to heaven, where there is neither name nor sign of darkness (Rev. 21: 23).

Of Man & Machine. You ask how this dark state of sin came to be in the very presence of the Lord of creation? It arose because Satan and men wilfully sought to carry out their own desires and live in an unlawful, wrong way. But yet, you ask, why did God not create man in such a way that he could not fall into this evil state? The answer is that man would then have had to be constructed like a machine, without free will or choice. To enter the state of true happiness in God, one must act from within one's own free choice.

Adam and Eve fell prey to the beguiling tricks and deceit of Satan. In their sinless state they had not known there were such things as lies and deceit. Before that Satan himself had not known of the existence of the pride for which he was cast out of heaven, because no such thing as pride had previously existed. Yet although this state of sin in both men and Satan came into God's world, God has by his almighty power given that state another dimension by bringing good out of this evil.

First, God's boundless love has been revealed. It has taken form in the birth of Jesus and he has redeemed the world. This would not have happened in different circumstances and would have remained a hidden mystery of God. Second, the redeemed, having tasted the bitterness of sin, will all the more richly enjoy the happiness of heaven, just as after a bitter taste the sweetness of honey gives greater delight. In heaven the redeemed sin no more, but serve their Father God in meekness and obedient love, abiding in him in joy for evermore.

Eclipses of Sin. Men are keen to discover faults - such as spots or eclipses - in the sun and moon. But they give no thought to the dark spots and eclipses of sin. You can measure from their attitude to sin how great the darkness is in men. The very light they have is darkness (Matt. 6:23). Sin has deadened man's heart and mind so that they have no sense of disgust or pain, just as the body of the leper becomes numb to pain. But the time will come when man will awake to the terrible ravages of sin, and then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Weight of Water. There are many immersed in sin who are unaware of its weight, like the man who dives into the water unaware of its ton weight until he is drowned by it. The man who emerges from the water and tries to carry some away with him soon realises just how heavy even a little bit of water is. Anyone who knows the burden of sin and comes to me in penitence freely receives rest, for it is such people that I came to seek and to save (Matt. 11:28; Luke 19:10).

Poison of Sin. Before death occurs it is not necessary for every single member of the body to become useless and weak. A weakness or injury to the heart or brain is enough to bring life to an end despite the health and strength of the rest of the body. In the same way by its poisonous effect on the mind and heart one sin is sufficient to ruin the spiritual life not just of that one person, but of a whole family, a nation, even a whole race. Such was the sin of Adam. Yet, just as one word from me could raise Lazarus from death to life, so I am sufficient to give eternal life to all.

Bad Company. Sometimes it happens that an animal or bird stays for a long while with man and then returns to its own kind. But they, instead of welcoming it, set upon it and kill it. The reason for this is that its long familiarity with man has changed the bird, and its habits are not the same as those of the other birds. Similarly animals reject from their society those of their kind who have come under the influence of man. So how can saints and angels in heaven live with those who have lived closely with wicked men? This does not mean that saints and angels have no love for sinful men, but that the pure life of heaven will itself be distasteful to such men. For clearly, when sinners dislike the company of good men in this world, how can they be happy in their company throughout eternity? To them heaven would be as distasteful as hell itself!

Don't suppose that God will turn sinners out of heaven and cast them into hell because he wants to. God would never cast anyone into hell. It is the sinner's foul life that makes him throw himself into hell. Within each man's heart is his own heaven or hell. It exists now, long before the end of life when heaven and hell draw near, and it is measured according to the good or evil nature of each man. So anyone who longs to be saved from that eternal torment, must truly repent of his sins and give his heart to me. By me and through the power of the Holy Spirit a man may become, for ever, a child of the kingdom of God.

The Rebel. A rebel against a king or government in this world may save himself by taking refuge in another country. But where shall a rebel against God flee for safety? Wherever he goes, even to heaven or hell, he will find God ever present (Ps. 139:7-8). He will find his safety only in repentance and submission to his Lord.

Our Good Deeds. The fig leaves were too scanty a covering for Adam and Eve, so God gave them coats of skin. And before God's anger man's good deeds are as useless as fig leaves. Nothing will save man from God's anger but my robe of righteousness.

The Moth & the Flame. The moth does not think of the burning and destructive power of the flame, but rushes into it, fascinated by its brilliance, and dies. Man, too, rushes into his eternal destruction, lured into sin thoughtless of its destructive, poisonous power. But my light saves the sinner from death. It gives life and enduring happiness. Man was capable of accepting the precious gift of my true light.

Sin Creates Disease. Sin is not an illusion or a figment of the imagination. In the state of spiritual darkness where the evil will of man is exercised, living seeds have come into existence containing such evil that they have infected his spirit for ever and will finally destroy it, just as smallpox can destroy the beauty of man, turning him into repulsive ugliness. God did not create evil, and he did not create disease and bodily pains. They are quite simply the natural result of man's disobedience. Pain and disease are not things of the imagination. They are the visible expression of the unseen disease of sin. And this sin may be personal or that of someone else in the family of man. When all the members of the family repent and are united to me my health-giving blood circulates through all. It heals all their internal hidden diseases and gives them eternal health. It was for such a healthy state that man was created, that he might dwell ever with his Lord and Master in happiness.

SIN & SALVATION - PART TWO

The disciple:

Master, today some scholars and their followers say that you were a great teacher and example for man's spiritual life, but that salvation and eternal happiness depend on one's own efforts and good deeds. So they make your atonement and redemption meaningless and futile.

The Master:

Don't ever forget that spiritual and religious ideas connect with the heart more than the head. The heart is the temple of God and when it is filled with God's presence then the head is enlightened. The mind and eye of understanding are useless without the true light, just as natural eyes are sightless without daylight. In the dark one may mistake a rope for a snake. The worldly-wise pervert spiritual truth and lead simple minds astray. Satan beguiled Eve with the most crafty of all the animals, the serpent, not the sheep or the dove. So he takes the wisdom and the skill of the wise and uses them as instruments suited to his own purpose. It is not enough to be learned and clever. It is the innocence of the dove that I required when I said, 'Be wise as serpents, harmless as doves' (Matt. 10:16).

Serpent of Brass. My cross and atonement do for believers what the serpent of brass did for the Israelites. In the wilderness the brass serpent saved the men who looked up at it in faith (Num. 21:9; John 3:14-15), though some did not believe but were critical. They said:

If Moses had prescribed a powerful drug as an antidote for the poisonous snakes that would have provided a good reason to exercise faith. But what power can a pole have over this venom? Those with such an attitude died. Today too those who object to the method of salvation which God has appointed will perish in the poison of their own sin.

Life From Blood. A young man fell down a precipice. When rescuers reached him he was so badly injured and had lost so much blood that he was at the point of death. His father took him to the doctor who said, 'This man has lost too much blood. If anyone is prepared to give his own blood he may recover, otherwise he will die.' The father, whose heart overflowed with love for his son, offered his own blood and the son lived.

Man has fallen from the mount of holiness and lies broken and wounded by his sins. Through those wounds his spiritual life has ebbed away and he is near to death. But I pour out my own eternal spiritual blood for those who believe in me so that they may be saved from death and gain eternal life. This is the purpose of my coming. It is so that they may have life, full to overflowing and live in eternity (John 10:10).

Life in the Blood. In times of old, men would not eat certain foods, or drink the blood of animals, in the belief that this would keep them from certain diseases and also would not encourage or strengthen the animal nature within them. But now, 'My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink' (John 6:55). By my body and blood man can receive perfect health and heavenly joy and happiness.

Salvation is More than Pardon. You don't get full salvation just because your sins have been forgiven. Full salvation only comes when you are set completely free from all sin. It is possible for a man to receive full pardon for his sins and yet die from the disease of his sin. For example, a man was ill for some time and as a result his brain was affected. In this state he attacked and killed another man. The death sentence was repealed when his relatives explained the circumstances in which it had happened. The man was granted a pardon for the crime of murder. But before his friends could reach him with the good news, indeed as they were on their way, the man died of the very illness which had caused the murder.

Now what advantage was this pardon to the murderer? Had his disease been cured the man would have been safe and then his pardon would have given him true happiness.

This is why I was revealed in the flesh: to save penitent believers from the disease of sin, from its punishment and from death. I came to remove both the cause of sin and its results. They will not die in their sins, for I will save them (Matt. 1:21). They shall pass from death to become heirs of eternal life.

The Hunter and the Honeycomb. For many people life is packed with dangers. They are like the hunter who caught sight of a honeycomb on a branch overhanging a stream. He climbed up the tree and began to enjoy the honey. He was quite unaware of the danger he was in - that below him an alligator lay with open jaws waiting for him to fall into the stream; that a pack of wolves had gathered round the foot of the tree eager for the hunter to descend; and that worst of all, the tree itself was rotten, eaten away by insects and ready to fall. In due course, the unwary hunter fell straight into the jaws of the alligator.

It is like this for the human spirit who enjoys for a short time the attractive and fleeting pleasure of sin. Ensconced in the body, it gathers in the honeycomb. It has no idea that it lies in the midst of a fearsome jungle where Satan crouches ready to tear the human spirit to pieces, and hell waits open-mouthed like the alligator, poised to gulp it down, while worst of all the tiny insects of sin have eaten away the very roots and life of the man. Soon the soul falls and becomes the prey of hell.

But the sinner who comes to me I will deliver from sin, from Satan and from hell. I will give him eternal joy, which no one will take away from him (John 16:22).

The Snake's Glittering Eye. Satan draws men to himself with crafty, enticing words, and then swallows them down just as a snake fascinates little birds with its glittering eye and swallows them. But those who believe in me I deliver from that old serpent and from all the soul-destroying attractions of this world. I will set them as free as birds to fly freely through the open heaven. Resisting the force of earth's gravity, they will mount on wings of prayer and reach home safe at last, their hearts drawn by the sweetness of my love.

Yellow Jaundice. Just as everything seems yellow to a man with jaundice, so to the sinner truth is moulded to the shape of his sin. And it comes as no surprise when such people go one step farther and put me down as a sinner like themselves. But my work, which is to save sinners, does not depend on the good opinion of the world. It continues to move undisturbed in the lives of believers. Just as Levi paid tithes to me when he was still unborn in Abraham's loins, so through my death on the cross all generations of believers have in me the atonement and ransom for their sins, though they were not at that time even born. For my salvation is for all races of men in the world.

Bitter & Sweet Fruit. It is rubbish to say that a man can get hold of salvation by his own efforts and by good works without being born again. Rulers and teachers of ethics say, 'Become good by doing good.'

But this is what I say, 'Become good yourself before doing good works.'

When that new, good life becomes yours, then good deeds will be the natural result.

Only a fool says that a bitter tree will finally become sweet by constantly bearing fruit. A bitter tree can only become sweet by being grafted on to a sweet tree. The goodness of the sweet tree passes into the bitter one and it is gradually changed. This is what we call a new creation.

The sinner may want to do what is right, yet it will only result in sin. But when he repents and is grafted into me by faith, the old nature in him dies and he becomes a new person. Then from this new life, whose origin lies in my salvation, good deeds spring as the fruit and they abide for ever.

Self-righteousness. There are many who have learnt from experience that man's natural goodness cannot bring true peace of heart. Neither can it make him certain of salvation or of eternal life. This was true of the young man who came to me seeking eternal life. His thoughts about me were wrongly conceived from the beginning, just as many worldly wise men today have a misconception of who I am. That young man assumed I was like one of those teachers who are white-washed sepulchres, in whose lives there is not an atom of goodness. That's why I said to him, 'Why do you ask me about goodness? There is no one good but One.' But he failed to see in me the One who gives goodness and life. When I tried to draw him into my friendship, to make him a truly good man and to grant him life, the young man became sad and left me. Yet his life clearly shows that he was not satisfied with keeping the commandments and that his own goodness did not bring him the certainty of eternal life. He would not have come to me if his good works had given him peace, nor would he have left me in sorrow (Mark 10:17- 23).

Now long afterwards another young man, Paul, recognised me and the desire of his heart was completely filled. He did not turn away in sadness but gave up all that he had and followed me (Phil. 3:6-15). So everyone who stops trusting in his own self-righteousness and follows me, will receive eternal life from me and true peace.

PRAYER - PART ONE

The disciple:

I have sometimes heard people ask, 'Since God is fully aware of our needs and knows how to supply them in the best way, whether we are good or evil, why should we pray to him about them? Can our prayers, for any of our needs, actually alter the will of God?'

The Master:

Real Prayer. Those who ask such a question show clearly that they do not know what prayer is. They have not lived a life of prayer or they would know that prayer is not a form of begging to God. Prayer is an effort to lay hold of God himself, the author of life. When we have found him, the source of life, and have entered into communion with him, then the whole of life is ours. With God we have all that will make life perfect.

God gives evil-doers what they need for their life in this world because he loves them. But he does not even show them their spiritual needs because they have no spiritual life. If God were to shower them with his spiritual blessings they would not appreciate them, but to believers God gives all kinds of gifts, especially his spiritual blessings, with the result that very soon they scarcely notice earthly blessings, fixing their love on the unseen and spiritual.

You cannot alter the will of God, but the man of prayer can discover God's will. For such men who pray God reveals himself in the hidden chamber of the heart and there he speaks with them. When God shows them that his loving plans and actions are for their good, then their doubts and difficulties pass away for ever.

Breathe in the Holy Spirit. Prayer is a breathing in of the Holy Spirit. God so pours his Holy Spirit into the life of the prayerful that they become 'living souls' (Gen. 2:7; John 20:22). They will never die. The Holy Spirit pours himself into their spiritual lungs through prayer, filling them with health, power and eternal life.

God is love and he freely gives what is necessary for both the earthly and spiritual life. He offers salvation and his Holy Spirit to everyone just as freely, but people treat them casually. It is prayer that teaches us to value them. They are as necessary as air and water, heat and light, without which life is impossible. God has freely provided all that is necessary for the spiritual life. But men put so little value on these things that they don't thank God for them. Yet men will greatly value God's gifts of gold and silver and precious stones which are gained with great difficulty and are rare, even though the hunger and thirst of the body and the longings of the heart cannot be satisfied by them.

This is the sort of stupidity that men of this world display in regard to spiritual things, but to the man of prayer God gives true wisdom and eternal life.

Sub-marine Safety. This world is like a huge ocean in which men sink and drown. Yet marine animals can carry on their life in the deepest water because they come up to the surface and take in air. So they can live in the depths. And so too those who rise to the surface of this life's ocean and in prayer, breathe in the life-giving Spirit of God, those people find life and safety even in this world.

Fresh Fish in Salty Water. Although fish spend their whole life in the sea's salt water, they don't themselves become full of salt. They still live. Similarly, the man of prayer remains free of the sinful taint of this sin- defiled world in which he lives because he keeps his life through prayer.

Sweet Water From Salty. Water from the sea is drawn upwards by the hot rays of the sun and all bitterness and salt are left behind. Gradually this sweet, refreshing water forms clouds which fall in showers on the earth. That is how it is when the thoughts and desires of the man of prayer rise up like misty emanations of the soul, the rays of the sun of righteousness purify them from sin and his prayers become great clouds from heaven bursting into showers of blessing, refreshing many on earth.

Dry Feathers. The waterfowl spends its life swimming in the water yet when in flight its feathers are perfectly dry. So with men of prayer - when they rise high above this sin- polluted world to go to their eternal home they arrive free from any spot or stain of sin.

A Boat Afloat. A ship is made to be in water, yet it is dangerous for water to flow into the ship. So a man has his life in this world - and that's good. As he keeps himself afloat and he can help others, together they enable each other to sail to life's harbour. But if the world seeps through into his heart it means death and destruction and he will sink. So the man of prayer always reserves his heart for Jesus who formed it to be his temple. In this way he rests in peace and safety now in this world, and in the world to come.

Floating & Sinking. We all know that without water it is impossible to live; yet if we sink under it, we die. We need water, but we mustn't drown in it. So the world and worldly things must be used wisely: without them life is impossible. God created the world for men to use and enjoy. But man must not drown himself in it. To sink into the world means that the breath of prayer is stopped and man will die.

Of Sun & Air. If man stops living by prayer, the life of the Spirit begins to fail. Worldly things which were intended to be useful then become hurtful and destructive. By its heat and light the sun causes all vegetation to flourish, but it also makes it shrivel and die. The air gives life and vigour to living beings, yet it is the air that makes them go rotten. So man must 'watch and pray', and use the things of this world wisely and to his spiritual advantage.

Not of this World. We must live in this world as people who are in it but who do not belong to it. Then the things of this world will help us grow in the spiritual life instead of hurting and destroying it. The condition for all spiritual growth is that a man keeps his face turned towards the sun of righteousness.

Sweet Scents from Bad. It sometimes happens that in a plot of dirty, filthy ground flowers spring up and flourish, and the sweet scent of the flowers overpowers the evil smell. The plants have turned towards the sun and received its light and heat, and the filth, instead of being hurtful to them, fertilises them, helping them to grow and flourish. So the man of prayer who turns his heart to me receives my light and warmth and the sweet scent of his new holy life glorifies me amid the smell of this evil world. From such a man rises not only sweet scents but fruit which lasts for ever.

PRAYER - PART TWO

Receiving God Himself. Praying does not imply that without prayer God does not give us anything, nor that God is unaware of our needs until we pray. But praying has this great advantage: the soul is best fitted to receive God himself, as well as his blessings, when it is in an attitude of prayer. It was not after one but after ten days of special preparation that the apostles were able to receive the outpouring of the fullness of the Spirit.

If a blessing were given to one who was not ready to receive it, he would not value it sufficiently nor be able to keep it for very long. There is the example of Saul who received the Holy Spirit and the kingship without seeking for them. Very soon he lost them both. Saul had not set out from home to seek God and his Holy Spirit, but to look for his lost asses (1 Sam. 9:3,10:11, 31:4).

Sensitive Plants. Only the man of prayer can worship God in spirit and in truth. Others are like sensitive plants. When they are at worship they are affected by the teaching and presence of the Holy Spirit and seem to shrivel, bowing their heads to become serious for a while. But scarcely have they left the church when they perk up and brightly go on in their usual old way.

A Wild Tree. If we do not care for a tree or a shrub which bears good fruit or flowers it will degenerate and return to its wild state. If the believer neglects his spiritual life through lack of prayer he ceases to abide in me. His carelessness will make him fall from that state of blessedness and he will sink once again into his old sinful ways and be lost.

The Crane & the Frog. You may think, when you see a crane standing motionless on the side of a pond or lake that it is reflecting on the glory of God or the excellent quality of the water. But no such thing! He stands there motionless for hours waiting to catch sight of a fish or frog, and the moment he glimpses it he springs upon it and gulps it down. When they come to pray and meditate many people are just like that crane. They sit by the shore of God's boundless ocean and give little thought to his majesty and love, or to his divine nature, and his holiness which cleanses us from our sin and satisfies the hungry soul. Instead, their thoughts are wrapped up in how to get a specially desired object to indulge their worldly senses.

So they turn from the source of true peace, immersing themselves in the fading joys of this world which pass away and die with themselves.

Water & Oil. Water and oil both come from the earth. They may seem to be alike but they are the exact opposite, for one extinguishes fire and the other adds fuel to it. Now the world with its treasures, and the heart athirst for God, are both God's creations. But to try to satisfy the heart with the wealth, pride and honours of this world is like trying to put out a fire with petrol. The heart can only find rest and satisfaction in God who created it. The longing desire of which it is conscious (Ps. 42:1-2) is eased in God alone. So to anyone who comes to me I will give that living water to calm his troubled heart. He will never again be thirsty but there shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life (John 4:14).

The Layers of an Onion. Men try uselessly to find peace in the things of this world. Experience has clearly shown that this world does not give true peace and lasting satisfaction. People of this world are like the boy who peels off layer after layer of an onion trying to find something inside but finds nothing at all since an onion is only a collection of skins. And this world and everything to do with it turns out to be meaningless emptiness (Eccles. 12:8), until men discover the true fountain of peace and life (Isa. 55:1; Jer. 2:13; Rev. 22:17).

Cracked Cisterns. The world is like a mirage in which the seeker of truth hopes that he will find something to satisfy his thirsty spirit. But he meets nothing but disappointment and despair. The water of life is not to be found in man-made tanks or cracked cisterns. I am the source of living water. Those who come to me in prayer with a pure heart will find me and will be satisfied by my eternal life- giving water (John 4:10-13; Rev. 22:17).

Spiritual Milk. A woman was travelling along a mountain track carrying her child in her arms when the child saw some pretty flowers and leapt out of its mother's arms to touch the flowers. But he fell on a rock and died instantly. Now it is perfectly clear that the child's safety and its nourishment were to be found in its mother's bosom, not in the fascinating flowers, which ended up causing death. Yet that is how a believer behaves whose life is not a life of prayer. When he catches sight of the fleeting, fascinating pleasures of the world, he forgets my love and care, which are far greater than those of a mother; he forgets the spiritual milk which I provide for him; he leaps out of my arms and is lost.

Eager to Suckle. The child can't feed on his mother's milk without some effort on his part. In the same way my children whom I carry in my bosom can only obtain the spiritual milk which is able to save their souls if they earnestly seek it and draw upon it. And just as the child does not need to be taught but knows instinctively how and where to obtain food, so those born of the Spirit know by a spiritual instinct how to pray. It is not worldly philosophy or wisdom that shows my children how to obtain the milk of eternal life, but the spirit of prayer.

Eternity in their Hearts. I have infused man with a hunger and thirst for God, so that daily he may be reminded of his dependence on his Creator. He won't be able unthinkingly to regard himself as God because his needs will force him to realise that his life is bound up with the one who created him. So he will come to live in me and I in him, and in me alone he will find true happiness and joy.

PRAYER - PART THREE

Friendship with God. To pray is to be, as it were, on terms of friendship with me. And by being in communion with me in this way and abiding in me, a person becomes like me. There is an insect which feeds upon and lives among the grass and green leaves and becomes like them in colour. There is also the polar bear which lives in the white snow and has the same snowy whiteness. The skin of the Bengal tiger is patterned like the reeds in which it lives. And those who live in communion with me through prayer take on my nature and with the saints and angels become like me, formed in my image.

Mount of Transfiguration. I took Peter, James and John into close fellowship with me on the Mount and revealed something of my glory to them. There they also saw two of the saints - Moses and Elijah. It was only for a short while, but my disciples were so captivated by that brief glimpse of my heavenly glory that they wished to build three shelters and live there (Matt. 17:1-5). How much more wonderful will be the happiness that comes to those when they enter into their longed-for heaven with innumerable saints and angels and share with me my full glory which never ends nor changes (John 17:24; Jas. 1:17). The man of prayer will never be alone. He will live with me and my holy ones for ever (Matt. 28:20; Zech. 3:7-8).

Power Harnessed. It is no great thing to control and utilise the powers of nature, whether lightning, wind, energy, or wild animals. But it is true to say that it is essential to gain mastery over the world, Satan and the self with all its passions. That is a momentous feat. It is only to those who live a life of prayer that I give the power to overcome all the might of the enemy (Luke 10:17, 20), so that even while they live in this world, they can abide with me in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Satan, then, being below and they above, he is never able to reach them. They live with me for ever in safety without a tremor of fear.

Although men have control over the powers of nature they are not able to travel as far as the man of prayer. Such a man who has mastered self and Satan can range at will through the everlasting heavens.

Sweet Honey of God. The man of prayer gathers happiness and value from all God's creation without harming it in any way just as the bee collects the sweet juice of the flowers and turns it into honey without injuring their colour or fragrance. And as bees gather honey from flowers in all sorts of different places and store it in the honeycomb, so the man of God gathers sweet thoughts and feelings from every part of creation. Then in communion with his Creator he stores the honey of truth in his heart, so that anywhere, at any time, in peace with God he can taste with delight the sweet honey of God.

Wise Virgins. Now is the time to live as the five wise virgins did (Matt. 25:1-13), and store in the vessels of your heart the oil of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, like the five foolish girls, you will meet with nothing but grief and despair. Now, too, is the time to collect the manna for the true Sabbath, that is, for the reign of a thousand years of eternal rest, otherwise there will be nothing left for you but sorrow and suffering (Exod. 16:15, 27). Pray that you will be saved from being caught out during the bitter distress of the last days, or on that great last Sabbath. The opportunity you have now will never come again (Matt. 24:20-1).

Just as the climate brings about changes in the shape, colour and growth patterns of plants and flowers, so those who maintain communion with me grow and change spiritually. They are transformed into my own glorious and incorruptible image, shedding their old nature.

God's Finger. With my finger I wrote upon the ground the sinful state of each of those who, despite their own inner vileness, had brought along the woman taken in adultery for me to condemn - so that one by one they left her and went away ashamed. With my finger, too, I point out in secret to my servants their wounds of sin. When they repent, with a touch of the same finger I heal them. Just as a child grasps his father's finger to help him walk along with him, so I with my finger lead my children along the road from this world to their home of eternal peace and rest (John 14:2-3).

In My Father's Name. Often men pray to the Father in my name when they are not abiding in me. They take my name into their mouths and on their lips, but not into their hearts and lives. That is why they do not receive what they pray for. But when I abide in them and they in me, then whatever they ask of the Father they receive, for in that state of abiding they pray under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit shows men what will glorify the Father and is best for themselves and others.

If they are not living with me, they will experience the answer that a bad son received from a governor whom his father had served with courage and distinction. When the son presented his request in his father's name and asked for some help with employment the governor pointed out his evil life and habits. 'Don't come crying to me in your father's name,' said the governor, 'but first act as he did. Don't merely pay lip service to his high qualities. Carry them out into your life and then your request will be granted.'

Love Your Enemies. There is a great difference between the prayers of those who worship and praise me with their lips and those who do so from their hearts. For example, there was a true worshipper who constantly prayed for his enemy's eyes to be opened so that he might see and accept the truth. This enemy, a worshipper in name only, prayed in hate for my true worshipper to be struck blind. Finally the prayers of the true worshipper were answered By the loving will of God: the man who had been a hypocrite, a worshipper in name only, received spiritual sight and understanding. He became a true worshipper of God, a convinced believer and with a heart full of joy he became a sincere friend and lasting brother of my true believer.

Bridges of Water. Prayer makes things possible for men which they find otherwise impossible. My believers experience wonderful things in this life that are not only contrary to the rules and opinions of this world, but are thought to be altogether impossible. Scientists do not see that the God who created all things in order and set laws for them cannot be imprisoned behind the bars of his own laws.

The ways of the great law-giver are beyond man's understanding. His eternal will and purpose is the blessing and prosperity of all his creatures.

The reason the natural man cannot grasp this fact is because he does not belong to God - spiritual things are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).

The greatest of all miracles is the new birth. To the believer who has experienced this miracle all miracles become possible. Now in very cold countries it is common to see a bridge made of water. When the surface of a river is frozen hard the water beneath still flows freely on and men cross over this icy bridge safely and easily. But, if people perspiring in the heat of the tropics heard you speaking of a bridge of water spanning a flowing river, they would tell you to stop talking rubbish. They would say such a thing was against the laws of nature. There is the same huge difference between those who have been born again and live by prayer and those who live worldly lives centred on material things. The latter are so utterly ignorant of the life of the soul that they consider it impossible, for they can only understand the material world they live in.

Stretch out your Hand. The man who desires to receive through prayer all the blessings of the spiritual life must believe and obey in total obedience. The man who came to me with a withered hand (Matt. 12:10-13) was cured because he instantly obeyed when I commanded him to stretch out his hand. But suppose he had not obeyed but questioned me with 'How can I do that? If I'd been able to I would not have needed to come to you, would I?' and, 'First heal my hand and then I'll stretch it out.' All these arguments would have seemed very proper and reasonable, but his hand would never have been healed.

The man who prays must be obedient and believing. Stretch out to me your weak and withered hands and I will give you spiritual healing and life. I will grant all things according to a man's needs (Matt. 21:22).

SERVICE - PART ONE

The disciple:

Master, what is the true meaning of service? Do we serve the Creator and then his creatures for his sake? How can man, who is a mere worm, be of any use to God in the care of his large family? Does God need man's help to protect and preserve his creatures?

The Master:

Love Offerings. Service means the activity of the spiritual life. It is man's spontaneous love offering to God. God, who is love, is ever active in the care of his creation. He desires that all his creatures, especially man formed in his own image, should not be idle. God does not need man's help to care for his creatures. They are created in such a way that they could not continue to exist without his help, and he has provided all they need to satisfy them.

When truly serving others the man who serves greatly benefits. This was your experience in Tibet. There you were, in fear of death and bitterly cold, when you saw someone lying buried in the snow, at the point of death. You went to him and lifted him upon your shoulders and carried him onwards. The effort you made produced heat in your body which passed into his and it saved both of you. In rescuing that stranger you saved your life. This is the true end of service. No one can live alone, deprived of the help of others. If anyone receives help and is unwilling to return it when he can, then such an ungrateful fellow has no right to expect help from anyone at all.

Lazarus Come Forth. Man must use in God's service all the abilities and powers with which God has provided him otherwise he will not receive God's help. As soon as man does his part, God will complete it. For example, when Lazarus had died, man's part was the removal of the stone from Lazarus' tomb. That was not a job that needed God's power. But when the people had rolled away the stone, then God acted. I, God, did what was beyond the powers and abilities of man: I gave life to the dead. But after that there was still work for man to do: Lazarus had to be freed from his grave-clothes (John 11:39-44).

So for those still dead in sin, it is the work of my disciples to roll away the gravestones - all those problems which hinder people and make believing difficult - but it is my work to give life. Often, too, some who have received spiritual life still remain locked up in their old habits and evil associations and then it is the work of my children to lead these into perfect freedom. To render such a service to each other means always being alert to me in heart and soul.

The King's Servant. There was a king, who, when he was dying, spoke to a faithful servant: 'It has been my practice to send you before me when I set out on a journey so that you can announce my coming and make preparations for my reception. I am going to the land of the dead. So go and inform them that I am about to join them.' At first the faithful servant did not understand what his lord meant. But as soon as he realised that he was meant to die and thus precede his master into the land of the dead, without a moment's hesitation the servant plunged a sword into his own heart. So he entered the land of the dead to await his lord.

I am the Lord of life, the King of kings (Rev. 19:16). It is the duty of my servants to carry the gospel to those who are dead in sin and be ready to give their lives for me. I came to earth for man's salvation and will come once again.

A Rebellious Son. A rebellious son once left his father's house and joined a gang of thieves. In time he became as brazen and ruthless as the rest. The father called his servants and ordered them to go and tell his son that if he would repent and return home all would be forgiven, and his father would welcome him home again. But the servants refused to go. They were terrified of the wild country and fierce robbers. Then, the elder brother who loved the son as much as his father, set off to carry the message of forgiveness. But soon after he had entered the jungle the elder son was attacked by the thieves who mortally wounded him. When the younger brother realised it was his own brother whom his gang had injured, he was full of grief and remorse. The elder brother delivered the father's message of forgiveness and then he died, his purpose in life completed and love's duty done. This sacrifice of the elder brother deeply impressed the rebellious son and he returned to his father, deeply sorry and determined to lead a new life from that day on. Isn't it right that my sons should also be ready to sacrifice their lives for their brothers who have gone astray and been ruined in sin. They too must be willing to go out with the message of forgiveness as I gave my life for the salvation of many.

Salt of the Earth. My children are like salt in the world (Matt. 5:13). If the salt crystals are not dissolved they cannot give out their flavour. That's how it is with my children. They must be melted in the fire of love by the Holy Spirit and made into living sacrifices. Then they will be able to bring to souls in need the spiritual and heavenly life by which men may be saved. If they don't, they will be no better than Lot's wife who became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26). In Gethsemane (Luke 22:44), I was melted for your sakes, and on the cross I gave my life to save the lives of men for life must be paid for with life. So you are also called to give your lives to bring spiritual life to others and deliver them from death.

Murderer Sent to Battle. A certain murderer was sent into battle instead of being hanged. On the battlefield he fought with fearless courage and although he was severely wounded he returned to his country a conqueror. After the victory he was brought into the court again to be given his sentence. But the king cancelled his death sentence when he witnessed the wounds of battle on his body. Not only did he forgive his crime, but he rewarded him highly, raising him to a position of honour in his court. So those who fight on my side against Satan in the holy war with courage and boldness to save their fellow men, will receive my reward. I will forgive their sins and receive them into the kingdom of God and I will crown them with honour and give them a kingdom. (Jas. 5:20; Rev. 3:21).

Pipe Cleansed by Water. The pipe that carries clean water is itself washed clean by the water it conveys. Those who in the power of the Holy Spirit, carry the water of life to others are themselves purified and become heirs of ) the kingdom of God.

Obedience - The Best Training. The best way for the believer to make himself fit to receive the Holy Spirit and to embark upon service is to be obedient. When he hears the heavenly voice, he must immediately begin to serve, with all the ability that he has. If one wants to become a good swimmer, it is not much use just listening to the theory of swimming. One must enter the water and strike out for oneself. It is only by constant practice, first in shallow water, then in deep water, that one can become proficient. So, in order to know how to save souls who are sinking in the dark waters of sin, the best way is to enter the only real bible college - that is, to enter into union with me (Acts 4:13).

Strength in Weakness. Some hold back from my service because of theirs lack of ability. They fail to remember that my strength gives power in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Like invalids, they remain weak because they don't take proper exercise or do any work. Yet they have recovered from their disease and are eating nourishing food. Such believers need to trust me and set out to serve me by saving sinners from destruction.

SERVICE - PART TWO

Love is the Touchstone. Love is the touchstone by which truth is perceived. By it all men will know who are my disciples (John 13:35). The sword of justice is mine to bring truth out of love. Some people think that I intend to finish my work without showing any mercy, like Solomon (1 Kings. 3:16-28). But, like Solomon, my purpose is to apply the touchstone of love in order to show that you are the children of that God of love who gave his life for you. So live in that love and serve one another. Even give up your lives in service for each other as I did for you. Then you shall live, as I am living (John 14:19).

Love Bears Much Fruit. If you are my disciples, then your service of love will bear much fruit (John 15:8). If men speak evil of you criticising you for your goodness, then pray for them. Instead of hitting back at them, let them taste the sweet fruit of your love.

Mischievous boys throw stones at juicy fruit on a tree. Without a murmur the tree drops its fruit on them. The tree cannot throw stones. It can only return what it has without complaint: the sweet fruit which God has given it. Don't be cast down by ill-treatment. When men fling abuse at you it is full proof that yours is a fruitful life. Though they may treat you in this way, driven from envy and spite, yet your heavenly Father is revealed and glorified. Don't imagine that God hungers after glory or that man can supply something lacking in his glory. Not at all! The purpose of God's love is to lift miserable man out of the sinful state into which he has fallen and to bear him upwards to his own glory. God does not give glory to himself but to man by cleansing and purifying him. In this the wonder and majesty of God's love is shown.

Shine Like the Sun. I will give glory to those in my service who haven enabled others to turn from sin and find righteousness in me. They will receive such glory that will make them shine like stars, and when they have been made perfect in the kingdom of their Father, they will shine like the sun. The stars in the sky fade and disappear at the rising of the sun of righteousness. But my Father's wish is that his sons should be like himself, perfect and shining with everlasting glory, rejoicing for ever in his boundless, eternal love.

Phosphorescent Light. There are little creatures like the firefly which are far inferior to man, yet give flickering light in the world. And there are some small plants among the vegetation in the Himalayas that illumine the dark jungles with their faint phosphorescent glow. Some tiny fish that swim in the deep ocean give out a shimmering light which guides other fish and helps them escape from their enemies. So how much more ought my children to be lights in the world (Matt. 5:14). They must be completely willing to sacrifice themselves so that they may bring others into the way of truth, by their God-given light. Only then can those who are in darkness and prey to Satan's attacks be guided safely away.

Tibetan Hermits. If they do not use their heaven-sent powers in the service of God and his people, my servants are in danger of losing those heavenly gifts for ever. This has happened to certain fish in the deep, dark waters and it happens to some hermits in Tibet - they have both lived in darkness for so long that they have entirely lost their sight. Similarly, the ostrich has lost the power of flight completely by not using its wings. Be careful, then, not to neglect whatever gifts or talents that have been entrusted to you. Make use of them that you may share in the bliss and glory of your Master (Matt. 25:14-30).

A Boy & His Bread. Sometimes, when there is a great act of service to be done which will bring salvation and blessing to many, I choose those who are of little value in the world's eyes. They make no boast of their own power or wisdom, but put their entire trust in me. What small ability they possess they account of no great value, but instead devote their entire selves to my purpose and work (1 Cor. 1:26- 30).

An example of this can be seen when I fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. My disciples did not help me to perform this miracle. They were full of doubt and confused, and they wanted to send the huge crowd away. I chose instead a small boy whom I had cured of paralysis to be my servant (John 6:9). He was determined to follow me and to hear my words. His poor mother had wrapped up in his clothes some barley cakes and dried fish. It was enough for two or three days' journey. When my disciples asked about among the crowds for food, this faithful lad immediately brought all he had and offered it to the disciples. There were wealthier people there with wheaten cakes, but they were not prepared to give them up. It was the simple barley bread of this boy that brought about a banquet as the crowds were filled.

Remember my Name. Many people remain dissatisfied and ungrateful no matter what blessings they receive or what miracles they see performed for their benefit. Such folk can never be used to bless and serve others. They are like the man whom I healed after he had suffered from an incurable disease for thirty-eight years. Instead of being grateful to me and believing in me he did not even trouble to remember my name (John 5:12-13). The world can hope for no blessing from such people. It comes only from those like the poor widow, who are ready to give up all they have, even all their income (Luke 21:2-4).

A Frozen Soldier. If they wish to render me true service and perform their duty as it should be done, my servants must be ready to offer life itself. They should be like that faithful soldier who remained at his post in the bitter cold and falling snow till he froze to death. He stood like a statue and kept his place, while his fellow men went off to warm themselves by the fire. When their king came and saw his body fixed and faithful in death, he took off his crown and placed it for a while on the dead soldier saying, 'Such a faithful soldier and servant of the king is worthy of a crown of honour and glory. Would that he had lived to be made a ruler in my kingdom!'

So I require my servants to be utterly faithful in the task to which I have appointed them. To those who, like that soldier, finish their work with faith and courage, I will grant a never- fading crown in I my eternal kingdom (2 Tim. 4:4-8).

Squandered Diamonds. Many people have wasted the precious time I give them for my work. Even now they have an opportunity to rouse themselves and make the best use of the time that remains.

Instead, they are like the hunter who wandered through the jungle and found some pretty stones by the edge of a stream. Not knowing their value he put them in his sling and shot at the birds in the trees by the water. One by one each stone fell into the water and was lost. There was one stone left when the hunter decided to go back to the city. As he wandered by the bazaar, holding the pretty stone in his hands, a jeweller saw it and offered him a thousand rupees for such a valuable diamond. When the hunter realised his mistake he was beside himself with sorrow. 'What a fool I am!' he cried. 'How stupid I am! I have shot the birds with diamonds not knowing what they were! Now they're lost in the river. And I've lost my chance to be a millionaire! Still - I've got one left, and that's something.'

Every day is like a precious diamond. Though many priceless days have been wasted in the pursuit of passing pleasure and are sunk for ever in the depths of the past, you can wake up to the value of what remains. Bring what you still have left and put it to its best use so that you may gather spiritual riches for yourself. Use your days in my service, for I give you life with all its priceless blessings. Use it to save others from sin and death and you will receive the eternal riches of my heavenly reward.

THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING - PART ONE

The disciple:

What is the meaning and purpose of the cross? Why do pain and suffering exist in the world?

The Master:

The Cross is Heaven's Key. At the moment of my baptism I took the cross upon my shoulders for the sake of sinners. Then heaven was opened. For thirty-three years I bore my cross and then died upon it and heaven which had been closed because of sin, was for ever opened to believers.

Now, as soon as believers take up their cross and follow me, they enter heaven through me (John 10:9). They begin to enjoy an unbounded bliss which the world cannot understand, for heaven stays shut up against unbelief. Unbelievers learn by experience that joy follows pain. But that kind of joy does not last. It is not the joy I give to my children. They have comfort in pain, and perfect peace and happiness while they are suffering. Those who joyfully take up my cross are borne up by it and when they at last enter heaven they are still supported by it.

Just Visiting this Planet. Pain comes because of man's perverted and rebellious nature. Tropical heat is annoying and painful to those who live in cold lands, and so is the bitter cold to people in the tropics. Heat and cold depend on the earth's relation to the sun. So man can enter into a stage of agreement or disagreement with God by exercising his own free will. The laws of God are intended for the spiritual health and happiness of man. Opposition to them brings spiritual pain and suffering. God does not remove these states of opposition and rebellion, but uses them to make it quite obvious to man that this world was not created to be his home. Man lives in it as a foreigner in a strange land (2 Cor. 5:1-2, 6).

This world is a preparation for man's perfect, eternal home. The many repeated blows of suffering are intended to keep his spirit awake and alert. Otherwise man would become careless and fall away from the truth to share in the ruin of this unstable world. God's plan was for man to live in communion with his Creator, and after being set free from the suffering and misery of this passing world, to enter heaven in eternal peace and happiness.

Poison as Medicine. Pain and suffering are bitter poisons. But the antidote to poison is sometimes poison itself. So pain and suffering can be used as bitter medicines to bring about the spiritual health and life of my believers. As soon as they enter into perfect health, in heaven, there will be an end of all suffering. Their pain is no pleasure to me. I want only eternal health for my children (Lam. 3:31, 33).

Pure Water after an Earthquake. After an earthquake, springs of pure water sometimes rise up in desert places. Then the arid wasteland is irrigated and becomes fruitful. Similarly, in some cases the shock of suffering opens up hidden springs of living water within a man's heart. In place of complaints and grumbles streams of gratitude and joy flow from him (Ps. 119:67, 71).

A Baby's First Cry. When a baby enters the world it is important for it to cry, so that its lungs expand and breathe in fresh air. Sometimes it is necessary to slap the baby to make it cry. That's how it is with my perfect love. I sometimes cause my children to cry out in pain so that their spiritual lungs can expand in the breath of prayer. So they receive spiritual refreshment and abide in eternal life.

The Walnut Rind. A walnut's outer rind is bitter, but its inner kernel tastes good and is refreshing. In the same way, the cross does not look anything at all. But its inner nature and character are revealed to the cross-bearer. The believer finds in it the choicest food of the spiritual life.

The Repugnance of Sin. When I was born on earth I bore the cruel cross for man's salvation, not just for the six hours of my crucifixion, or the three and a half years of my ministry, but for my entire life. I carried my cross for all the thirty-three and a half years of my life so that man might be delivered from the bitterness of death.

A man who is clean finds it most unpleasant to stay for even a few minutes in a filthy, unclean place! So it is for those who live in me; they find it distasteful to live amid evil. That is why some men of prayer abandon the world. They are so upset by the foulness of sin that they go to live as hermits in deserts and caves. If men, who are themselves wrongdoers, feel the pressure of sin so hard to bear that they cannot endure the company of their own kind and leave them, never wishing to return, think how extremely painful my cross must have been for me. Consider this: I, the fountain of holiness, had constantly to live my life among men made rotten with sin. It is beyond the powers of man's mind to appreciate this properly and really grasp hold of it. It is something even the angels desire to look into (1 Pet. 1:12). Before creation the angels knew that God is love. Yet they found it a most wonderful and amazing thing that the love of God should become incarnate and bear the cruel cross, in order that his creatures might be saved and enter eternal life.

Timely Relief. And while they are in this life I share the cross of those who abide in me and I enter into their sufferings (Acts 9:4). Though they-are creatures and I am their Creator yet I am the life and spirit of my children and they are my body. Just as the body and spirit, though separate entities, are so inter- mingled that if the body feels pain the spirit immediately becomes conscious of it. So I share every pain and grief of my children and bring relief just at the right moment.

The Fiery Furnace. Since I myself bore the cross I am able to deliver and keep in perfect safety all who are cross-bearers. Even when they walk through the fires of persecution, I am there. I was with the three men in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. With all its raging heat it had no power to hurt them (Dan. 3:23-5;1 Pet. 4:12-13). So those who by the baptism of the Holy Spirit have received the new life will never feel the fires of persecution. Nothing will hurt them for they live in me, in eternal peace and safety.

THE MYSTERY OF SUFFERING - PART TWO

The Winter of Trees. In the bitter cold of winter the trees stand bare of leaves. It seems as if their very lives have departed for ever. Yet in the spring they shoot new leaves and beautiful blossom, and the fruit begins to bud. So it was with me in my crucifixion and resurrection. And so it will be for my faithful cross bearers (2 Cor. 4:8-11; 6:4-10). Though they seem crushed and dead beneath their cross they will produce the beautiful blossom and glorious fruit of eternal life which goes on for ever.

Bitter Trees and Sweet Fruit. When a sweet tree is grafted on to a bitter one, both trees feel the knife and both suffer, in order that the bitter tree may bear sweet fruit. So, for man's evil nature, poisoned by sin, to become holy and spiritual, first of all I myself, and afterwards believers, had to suffer the agony of the cross, that believers might for ever bear good fruit. In their own suffering as they are grafted into me, the glorious love of God is revealed.

Seek not Man's Praises. This world is a battlefield. Do not be surprised or distressed when you are persecuted and ill-treated. It will be a sad time for you when men of this world praise you (Luke 6:26)! When that happens you will know that you have taken on the world's perverted ways and habits because it is totally against the grain for people of the world to praise my children! Light and darkness just cannot coexist. If evil men act against their nature and, for the sake of appearances, decide to stop persecuting you, then you will suffer all the more for it - for their influence will enter your spiritual life and hinder your spiritual progress.

To trust the world or men of the world is to build your house on the sand for they are totally unstable. Today they will raise you up high, but tomorrow they will cast you down with such ferocity that nothing will be left of you. 'Hosanna! Hosanna!' they all cried when I went up to Jerusalem (Matt. 21:9). A few days later they changed their cry to 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' (Luke 23:21). When the world saw that my words and life were against their life of sin and self- seeking, then they sided against met

Even Believer's Turn Against You. If through some misunderstandings few, or even all, the believers turn against you, hurt you, do not regard it as something unfortunate. If, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in all honesty and sincerity, you have obeyed and done your duty, then God himself and all the hosts of heaven will be on your side.

Do not let yourself get discouraged. The time will come when all your good intentions and purposes, all your unselfish love will be made known to the world. In everyone's presence God will honour you for your faithful service and hard work.

I renounced all things for man's salvation. And I myself was renounced by the world. Yet in the end I regained everything. So don't be alarmed if the world deserts you. It deserted God himself. In this way you are seen to be a true son of your heavenly Father.

Luxury. Don't imagine that those who live in luxury, and are successful in worldly affairs, are all true worshippers of God. Very often the opposite is true. It is possible for sheep to wander away from the fold and from the shepherd and still find good pasturage, but the sheep are constantly in danger of being torn to pieces by wild beasts and this is how they will end up. But those who remain in the fold with the shepherd, stay under the shepherd's care. They may appear weak and feeble but they are free from danger. This then is the difference between believer and unbeliever.

The Snake & the Silkworm. At first the lives of the believer and the unbeliever look alike, but they gradually grow apart. When their ends come they are as different as the snake and the silkworm. The snake remains a snake no matter how often he casts his skin, but the silkworm changes into a new creature when it casts off its unsightly cocoon. It becomes a pretty moth that flies in the air. So the believer casts aside his old nature and takes flight into spiritual glory, for ever in heaven. But the sinner remains a sinner even in death.

Cramped within the cocoon, the silkworm struggles and strains as though bearing the cross. Yet this same strife and difficulty strengthens its wings and fits if for its future life. Similarly my children struggle and strain in their earthly nature, sighing with longing as they look forward to their release. But as they bear their crosses I give them strength, and so they are made ready for eternal life (Rom. 8:23).

In the middle of this spiritual warfare, just when they are carrying their crosses, I bring my followers a truly wonderful peace of heart so that their courage does not falter. When my faithful disciple was martyred for witnessing about me in his words and actions, he was hung upside down on a tree. But his peace of mind was so great that he was utterly unconscious of his pain and disgrace. He turned to his persecutors and said, 'I am not dismayed. Praise God for his glorious cross.' He expected nothing else in this topsy-turvy world, where nothing is seen straight. His enemies had turned him upside down because they themselves had got everything the wrong way up, but for God he was the right way up. A slide put into a projector upside down reproduces the picture correctly. The world may scoff at my child hung upside down, but he is ever the right side up for me.

Living Sacrifices. It may be the call of some to become martyrs for me, but I also need witnesses who will daily offer themselves as living sacrifices for the salvation of others (1 Cor. 15:31). For some people death may seem easy. It is harder to live for me, for a believer's life is a daily dying to the self. Those who are ready to lay down their lives for my sake in this will share my glory. They will live with me for ever in the fullness of joy.

Showers of Blessing. If pain, suffering, sorrow, and grief rise like clouds and overshadow your life for a time, hiding the sun of righteousness from view, do not be discouraged. These clouds of distress will descend in showers of blessing on your head. In the end the sun of righteousness will rise for ever to set no more (John 16:20-2).

HEAVEN & HELL - PART ONE

The disciple:

Master, what are heaven and hell and where are they?

The Master:

Receiving Blows & Eating Cake. Heaven and hell are two opposite states in the spiritual realm. Their origins lie in the heart of man and their foundations are laid here in this world. Since man cannot see his own spirit he cannot see these two states of the soul. But he can experience them within him just as he experiences pain from a blow, or sweetness from eating cake. Wounds caused by a-blow get more and more painful until finally they end in gangrene and death. On the other hand, when sugar is digested it gives the body energy. Similarly, pain resulting from a sinful act, or happiness from a good deed are to some extent felt immediately in this world, but their true effect - whether penalty or reward - are perceived in the realm of the Spirit and realised after death.

Insatiable Desire. In this world man is never satisfied for long with one thing, but is constantly in search of a change of circumstances or surroundings. This is a sure indication that the fleeting things of this world will never satisfy him. What he really wants is something that is stable and unchanging and satisfies all his tastes and desires. When he seeks and finds this reality in me the need for any further change ends; one does not grow weary of perfection for this is the single longing of the body and spirit. In all truth the one desire of the human soul is for true peace.

There are times when sudden unlooked-for sensations of pleasure or pain pierce a man's heart. They come unsought from the spiritual states of heaven or hell and may occur again and again. Slowly, according to the habit of the man's spiritual life, one becomes more frequent until, at last, by steadily preferring one over the other, the man makes his final choice. In this way the foundation of heaven or hell is built upon a man's heart while in this world. After death he enters into that state which in this life his desires or passions have prepared him for.

Thirst Quenching. Some say that desire is the root of all pain and sorrow and so it is not right to desire happiness in heaven or in communion with God. They think that salvation comes from killing all desire. But to say this is silly. It is like telling a thirsty man to kill his thirst instead of giving him water to drink. Desire, like thirst, is part of life itself. To take away either without satisfying them is to destroy life, which is not salvation but death. Thirst implies a need for water; water is intended to remove thirst. So the existence of desire in the soul implies the existence of true happiness and peace. When the soul finds the one that gave it that desire, it receives its greatest satisfaction; satisfaction greater than that which comes from quenching human thirst. This spiritual satisfaction of the soul's desire is heaven.

Surrounded by Water. There are many in this world who die of thirst. They are like the man who could not quench his thirst, though he was surrounded by water, for the water was the salty sea-water. In the same way, in God's boundless waters of love yet in their disobedience and sin, they find God's fresh water of grace distasteful. So they perish from thirst. But for those who repent of their sin and turn to me, fountains of life-giving water gush up from the depths of my love. These men find in the God who loves them the satisfaction they seek and enduring peace. There they enter heaven.

Whips of Love. Many are so ardently devoted to this world that they are pulled irresistibly down by the force of its gravity and finally slip into hell. Though they have my teaching and example set before them, by my children, they fall, like stones thrown upwards for a while and then drawn back down to the ground. Yet when a man turns his heart to me in true repentance I forgive him. With whips of love I cleanse the temple and make it fit for the eternal dwelling of the King of kings. This earthly life is such that the glory and pomp of kings are here today and gone tomorrow. But those who become sons in the kingdom of God possess glory and honour, thrones and crowns, and a kingdom in heaven that has no end.

Locked Houses. Sinners steal other people's property to increase their own pleasure. So people lock up their homes when they go away. This will continue as long as men's hearts are locked in sin against their Lord and Creator. When, however, the lock of the heart is opened to God who patiently stands knocking at its door (Rev. 3:20), then the heart's desires and longings are fulfilled and there will be no more need to lock up houses. Instead of stealing each other's goods and hurting each other, men will serve each other in love. For when men give God what is his due they share in his love, serving one another and seeking only what is good. In this way they will enter God's wonderful joy and peace: this is heaven.

Three Men Crucified. Two thieves died, one on either side of me, when I gave my life for mankind. To all outward appearances, we were just three men suffering the same fate. Yet from the spiritual point of view our deaths were vastly different. I died to save sinners from hell and lead them into heaven. One thief shut his heart against me and died unrepentant. But the other opened his heart to me in true repentance. He died in communion with me and found life. That very day he entered into Paradise with me (Luke 23:43).

Paradise does not only exist beyond the grave. It begins in the hearts of men now, though it is hidden from the eyes of the world. One of my faithful martyrs suffered untold agony in persecution. But when he was dying he was so filled with the joy of heaven that he told his persecutors, 'If only I could open my heart to show you the wonderful peace I have, which the world can neither give nor take away! Then you would be convinced of its truth! But this is the hidden manna which it is impossible for you to see.' So after his death those foolish men tore out his heart hoping to find something precious there. They found nothing, of course. The reality of heaven is known only to those who accept me and find their joy in me.

Mary's Womb. Mary's womb, where I lived for some months, was not such a happy place as the heart of a believer. There I make my home for ever and turn it into heaven (Luke 11:27-8).

The Poor Beggar & the Treasure. Many long for heaven yet miss it completely by their own stupidity. Once a poor beggar sat for twenty-one years on top of a hidden room full of treasure. He was so eaten up with the desire to be rich that he hoarded all the coppers he received. Yet he died in miserable poverty, quite unaware of the treasure he'd sat on for so long. My word is near to you in your mouth and in your heart (Deut. 30:14).

Hot Springs in the Snow. Those who don't know the spiritual life maintain that it is impossible to experience real peace and true joy in this grief- stricken world. But those who have experience of the spiritual life know that the hidden fire of the Holy Spirit glows within them. Just as you can sometimes find hot- water springs flowing in the middle of the ice-fields of the polar regions, so in the middle of this cold, sorrowful world there are warm streams of heavenly peace flowing in the hearts of believers.

Sun's Rays & Coloured Glass. God has created all men in his own form and likeness. They are all made of the same flesh and blood. Yet they are different in character, temperament and abilities. If all the flowers in the world looked the same and smelled the same the countryside would lose its charm. The sun's rays pass through coloured glass and the colours stay the same as the sunlight draws out their varied beauty and charm. In the same way the sun of righteousness displays his glory and love through the God-given virtues of saints. They are the ones who live in me and they will have joy for evermore.

HEAVEN & HELL - PART TWO

The disciple:

Master, some people say that the comfort and joy that believers experience are merely the consequence of their own thoughts and ideas. Is this true?

The Master:

A Ball of Fire in the Sky. That comfort and lasting peace within believers comes from my presence in their hearts and from the Holy Spirit who gives them life. Those who attribute this spiritual joy to subjective thinking are like the foolish blind man sitting in the winter sunshine to warm himself. When people asked him what he thought of the warm sun's rays, he firmly denied such a thing as a sun.

'This warmth,' he said, 'comes from within my own body. It is nothing more than the powerful heat generated by my own thoughts. Don't talk nonsense about this big ball of fire hanging up in the sky.'

So watch out! 'See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy! which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ' (Col. 2:8).

The Poverty of Philosophy. If true happiness depended on the thoughts of man, then all philosophers and deep thinkers would overflow with it. But apart from those who believe in me, men who are worldly-wise are totally unable to achieve happiness. All they can produce is a fleeting intellectual pleasure which they find in following certain rules and understanding of their own.

One of the basic properties of charcoal is that it will burn, but without oxygen it won't catch alight. That is how it is with man. I have built into him an innate ability to be filled with heavenly joy and to need life. But unless the oxygen of the Holy Spirit enters man's soul, he will remain as dark as coal, never able to come alight with true and lasting peace.

Strings of a Violin. This ability of man's mind and heart is also like the strings of a violin. When the strings are tightened and harmonised the bow produces the most charming music, otherwise the touch of the bow will produce discords. Again, the sweet sounds that come when the strings are in tune, depend on the air to produce and carry them to the listening ear. In the same way, to create beautiful harmonies with thoughts and imaginations of men, the breath of the Holy Spirit is vital. In the presence of the Spirit; heavenly tunes and joyful melodies are created in men's hearts, both in this life and in the next.

HEAVEN & HELL - PART THREE

The disciple:

Master, sometimes I am aware that my peace and happiness have gone. Is this because of hidden sin or some other reason unknown to me?

The Master:

Dry Bones. Yes, this is sometimes the result of disobedience. But occasionally I appear to leave my children lonely and restless for a while because then I am able to reveal to them what they are really like: utterly weak and nothing but dry bones apart from me (Ezek. 37:1-14). They will think that they do not need me if they live in a constant state of ease and rest, and then, in their pride, they will presume that they are as good as God and so fall, and end up being punished in hell (1 Tim. 3:6; Jude 6; Isa. 14:12-17). So in this way I teach my children and bring them up, to walk humbly with me their Creator, that they will enter eternal joy in heaven.

Overwhelmed by the Glory. At times when I enter into my children and fill them with the fullness of the Spirit they overflow with such divine happiness that they are not able to endure the glory and blessing that I bring to them, and they feel faint, or even lose consciousness. This is because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither can earthly things the eternal. First men must be freed from the power of this empty world and lifted to my glory (1 Cor. 15:50, 53; Rom. 8:19-22). Then my will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. Then pain and suffering, sorrow and grief, evil and death shall be removed for ever. All my children shall enter the kingdom of my Father and there in the joy of the Holy Spirit they shall reign for ever and ever (Rom. 14:17; Rev. 21:4; 22:5).

A PRAYER

Dear Master, My heart overflows with gratitude and praise from your many blessings and gifts to me. But the praise of my heart and lips are not enough for me to show you my devotion; I must prove this by my action and service.

I thank you and praise you for bringing me, worthless as I am, out of death into life. You have made me able to rejoice in your fellowship and love.

I know nothing of myself or my needs, but you, Father, know everything about your creatures. Nor can I love myself as you love me. To love myself in the right way, I must, with all my heart, mind and soul, love the boundless love which made me. You are that love. You gave me only one heart so that I might concentrate on you alone, my Creator God.

Master, to sit down at your feet is far better than to sit on the mightiest throne of this world. By your feet I am enthroned for ever in the eternal kingdom. So now, on the altar of those sacred feet, I offer myself as a living sacrifice. By your grace accept me and use me in your service wherever and however you please.

You are mine and I belong to you. From a handful of dust you formed me in your own image, and gave me the right to be called a son of God. All honour, glory, praise and thanksgiving be to you, my Lord, for ever and ever. Amen.

FOOTNOTE

The above text was first translated from the Urdu by Arthur and Mrs Parker for the Christian Literature Society for India. (1922). The current publication introduces a system of subheadings for reader convenience.

The Visions of Sadhu Sundar Singh of India

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE

The life of Sadhu Sundar Singh was most remarkable in it's Christ-likeness. He was born amidst the depths of Indian culture and religion, and into a Sikh family. During the early part of his life Sundar's mother would take him week by week to sit at the feet of a sadhu, an ascetic holy man, who lived some distance away in the rainforest.

But with the death of his beloved mother when he was only fourteen years old, the young Sundar grew increasingly despairing and aggressive. His hatred of the local missionaries and Christians culminated in the public burning of a bible which he tore apart page by page and threw into the flames.

Yet before long Sundar was intent on taking his own life. Sundar had arrived at a point of desperation: he had decided to throw himself under the Ludhiana express if God did not reveal to him the true way of peace.

At three in the morning he rose from his bed and went out into the moonlit courtyard for the ceremonial bath observed by devout Hindus and Sikhs before worship. He then returned to his room and knelt down, bowed his head to the ground and pleaded that God would reveal himself. Yet nothing happened.

He had not known what to expect: a voice, a vision, a trance ? Still nothing happened. And it was fast approaching the time for the Ludhiana express.

He lifted his head and opened his eyes, and was rather surprised to see a faint cloud of light in the room. It was too early for the dawn. He opened the door and peered out to the courtyard. Darkness. Turning back into the room he saw that the light in the room was getting brighter. To his sheer amazement he saw not the face of any of his traditional gods, but of Jesus the Christ.

Jesus Christ was there in the room, shining, radiating an inexpressible joy and peace and love, looking at him with compassion and asking, "Why do you persecute me? I died for you ..."

From here on the life of Sundar Singh became most Christ-like. Being unwilling to denounce his Master, it was not long before he had been rejected by his family. Sundar took the saffron robes of the sadhu and began a life of spreading the simple message of love and peace and rebirth through Jesus. He carried no money or other possessions, only a New Testament.

He travelled India and Tibet, as well as the rest of the world, with the message that the modern interpretation of Jesus was sadly watered down. He visited the West twice, travelling to Britain, the United States, and Australia in 1920, and Europe again in 1922.

With the large number of "spiritual paths" and "techniques" facing the world of today it is of special value to consider the life and insights of one who truly embraced the simplicity, love and freedom offered through devotion to Christ.

"I am not worthy to follow in the steps of my Lord," he said, "but like Him, I want no home, no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all people of the love of God."

PREFACE by SUNDAR SINGH

The following is the preface of the original publication of 1926:

In this book I have attempted to write about some of the visions which God has given me. Had I considered my own inclinations I would not have published the account of these visions during my life time; but friends, whose judgment I value, have been insistent that, as a spiritual help to others, the publication of the teaching of these visions should not be delayed. In deference to the wish of these friends this book is now presented to the public.

At Kotgarh, fourteen years ago, while I was praying, my eyes were opened to the Heavenly Vision. So vividly did I see it all that I thought I must have died, and that my soul had passed into the glory of heaven; but throughout the intervening years these visions have continued to enrich my life. I cannot call them up at will, but, usually when I am praying or meditating, sometimes as often as eight or ten times in a month, my spiritual eyes are opened to see within the heavens, and, for an hour or two, I walk in the glory of the heavenly sphere with Christ Jesus, and hold converse with angels and spirits. Their answers to my questions have provided much of the material that has already been published in my books, and the unutterable ecstasy of that spiritual communion makes me long for the time when I shall enter in permanently to the bliss and fellowship of the redeemed.

Some may consider that these visions are merely a form of spiritualism, but I would emphasise that there is one very essential difference. Spiritualism does presume to produce messages and signs from spirits out of the dark, but they are usually so fragmentary and unintelligible, if not actually deceptive, that they lead their followers away from, rather than to, the truth. In these visions, on the other hand, I see vividly and clearly every detail of the glory of the spiritual world, and I have the uplifting experience of very real fellowship with the saints, amid the inconceivably bright and beautiful world made visible. It is from these angels and saints that I have received, not vague, broken and elusive messages from the unseen, but clear and rational elucidations of many of the problems that have troubled me.

This "Communion of the Saints" was a fact so real in the experience of the early Church, that it is given a place among the necessary articles of their faith, as stated in the "Apostles' Creed." Once, in a vision, I asked the saints for a proof from the Bible of this communion of saints, and was told that it was to be found clearly given in Zechariah 3:7-8, where "those that were standing by" were not angels, but saints in glory; and God's promise, on condition of Joshua fulfilling His command, is that he will be given "a place of access to walk among them (saints) that stand by," and these are his "fellows" the spirits of men made perfect with whom he could commune. There is repeated mention of Spirits, Saints and Angels in this book. The distinction I would make between them is that spirits are good or bad, who after death exist in a state intermediate between heaven and hell. Saints are those who have passed on through this stage into the higher sphere of the spiritual world, and have had special service allotted to them. Angels are those glorious beings to whom all kinds of superior service have been allotted, and among them are included many saints from other worlds, as well as from this world of ours, who live together as one family. They serve one another in love, and, in the effulgence of God's glory, are eternally happy. The World of Spirits means that intermediary state into which spirits enter after leaving the body. By the Spiritual World is meant all spiritual beings that progress through the stages between the darkness of the bottomless pit and the throne of the Lord in light.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Rev. T. E. Riddle of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission, Kharar, Punjab, who has journeyed up to Subathu to translate the original book from Urdu into English. My thanks are again due to Miss E. Sanders, of Coventry, for having corrected the proofs.

SUNDAR SINGH

Subathu, July, 1926.

The Visions

LIFE

There is only one source of Life--an Infinite and Almighty Life, whose creative power gave life to all living things. All creatures live in Him and in Him will they remain forever. Again this Life created innumerable other lives, different in kind, and in the stages of their progress man is one of these, created in God's own image that he might ever remain happy in His holy presence.

DEATH

This life may change but it can never be destroyed, and though the change from one form of existence into another is called Death, this never means that death finally ends life, or even that it adds to life, or takes away from it. It merely transfers the life from one form of existence to another. A thing that disappears from our sight has not thereby ceased to exist. It reappears, but in another form and state.

MAN CAN NEVER BE DESTROYED

Nothing in this whole universe was ever destroyed, nor can it ever be, because the Creator has never created anything for destruction. If He had wished to destroy it, He would never have created it. And if nothing in creation can be destroyed, then how can man be destroyed, who is the crown of creation, and the image of his Creator? Can God Himself destroy His own image, or can any other creature do it? Never! If a man is not destroyed at death then at once the question arises, where will man exist after death, and in what state?

I shall attempt to give a brief explanation from my own visional experiences though it is not possible for me to describe all the things which I have seen in visions of the spiritual world, because the language and illustrations of this world are inadequate to express these spiritual realities; and the very attempt to reduce to ordinary language the glory of the things seen is likely to result in misunderstanding. I have, therefore, had to eliminate the account of all those subtle spiritual occurrences, for which only a spiritual language is adequate, and to take up only a few simple and instructive incidents that will prove profitable to all. And since at some time or other every one will have to enter into this unseen spiritual world it will not be without profit, if we, to some extent, become familiar with it.

WHAT HAPPENS AT DEATH?

One day when I was praying alone, I suddenly found myself surrounded by a great concourse of spirit beings, or I might say that as soon as my spiritual eyes were opened I found myself bowed in the presence of a considerable company of saints and angels. At first I was somewhat abashed, when I saw their bright and glorious state and compared with them my own inferior quality. But I was at once put at ease by their real sympathy and love-inspired friendliness. I had already had the experience of the peace of the presence of God in my life, but the fellowship of these saints added a new and wonderful joy to me. As we conversed together I received from them answers to my questions relating to my difficulties about many problems that puzzled me. My first inquiry was about what happens at the time of dying and about the state of the soul after death. I said, ' We know what happens to us between childhood and old age, but we know nothing of what happens at the time of death or beyond the gates of death. Correct information about it can be known only by those on the other side of death, after they have entered the spiritual world. "Can you", I asked, "give us any information about this?"

To this one of the saints answered! "Death is like sleep. There is no pain in the passing over, except in the case of a few bodily diseases and mental conditions. As an exhausted man is overcome by deep sleep, so comes the sleep of death to man. Death comes so suddenly to many, that it is only with great difficulty that they realise that they have left the material world, and entered this world of spirits. Bewildered by the many new things that they see around them, they imagine that they are visiting some country or city of the physical world, which they have not seen before. It is only when they have been more fully instructed, and realise that their spiritual body is different from their former material body, that they allow that they have, in fact, been transferred from the material world to the realm of spirits."

Another of the saints who was present gave this further answer to my question, "Usually," he said, "at the time of death the body loses its power of feeling. It has no pain, but is simply overcome by a sense of drowsiness. Sometimes in cases of great weakness, or after accident, the spirit departs while the body is still unconscious. Then the spirits of those who have lived without thought of, or preparation for, entering the spiritual world, being thus suddenly transferred into the world of spirits, are extremely bewildered, and in a state of great distress at their fate, so, for a considerable period, they have to remain in the lower and darker planes of the intermediate state. The spirits of these lower spheres often greatly harass people in the world. But the only ones that they can injure are those who are like in mind to themselves, who of their own free will open their hearts to entertain them. These evil spirits, allying themselves with other evil spirits, would do immense harm in the world were it not that God has appointed innumerable angels everywhere for the protection of His people, and of His creation, so that His people are always safe in His keeping."

"Evil spirits can injure only those in the world who are like in nature to themselves, and then they can do it only to a limited extent. They can, indeed, trouble the righteous, but not without God's permission. God sometimes does give to Satan and his angels permission to tempt and persecute His people, that they may emerge from the trial stronger and better, as when He allowed Satan to persecute His servant Job. But from such a trial there is gain rather than loss to the believer."

Another of the saints standing by added in reply to my question, "Many whose lives have not been yielded to God, when about to die, seem to become unconscious; but what actually happens is that when they see the hideous and devilish faces of the evil spirits that have come about them, they become speechless and paralysed by fear. On the other hand the dying of a believer is frequently the very opposite of this. He is extremely happy for he sees angels and saintly spirits coming to welcome him. Then too, his loved ones, who have died before, are permitted to attend his deathbed, and to conduct his soul to the spiritual world. On entering the world of spirits he at once feels at home for not only are his friends about him, but, while in the world he had long been preparing himself for that Home by his trust in God and fellowship with Him."

After that a fourth saint said, "To conduct the souls of men from the world is the work of angels. Usually Christ reveals Himself in the spiritual world to each one in degrees of glory differing in intensity according to the state of each soul's spiritual development. But in some cases He Himself comes to a deathbed to welcome His servant and in love dries his tears, and leads him into Paradise. As a child born into the world finds everything provided for its wants, so does the soul, on entering the spiritual world find all its wants supplied."

THE WORLD OF SPIRITS

Once in the course of conversation the saints gave me this information. "After death the soul of every human being will enter the world of spirits, and every one, according to the stage of his spiritual growth, will dwell with spirits like in mind and in nature to himself, either in the darkness or in the light of glory. We are assured that no one in the physical body has entered into the spiritual world, except Christ and a few saints, whose bodies were transformed into glorious bodies, yet to some it has been granted, that, while still dwelling in the world, they can see the world of spirits, and heaven itself, as in 2 Cor. 12:2, though they themselves cannot tell whether they enter Paradise in the body or in the spirit."

After this conversation these saints conducted me around and showed me many wonderful things and places. I saw that from all sides thousands upon thousands of souls were constantly arriving in the world of spirits, and that all were attended by angels. The souls of the good had with them only angels and good spirits, who had conducted them from their death-beds. Evil spirits were not allowed to come near to them, but stood far off and watched. I saw also that there were no good spirits with the souls of the really wicked, but about them were evil spirits, who had come with them from their death-beds, while angels, too, stood by and prevented the evil spirits from giving free play to the spite of their malicious natures in harassing them. The evil spirits almost immediately led these souls away towards the darkness, for when in the flesh, they had consistently allowed evil spirits to influence them for evil, and had willingly permitted themselves to be enticed to all kinds of wickedness.

For the angels in no way interfere with the free will of any soul. I saw there, also, many souls who had lately come into the world of spirits, who were attended by both good and evil spirits, as well as by angels. But before long the radical difference of their lives began to assert itself, and they separated themselves--the good in character towards the good, and the evil towards the evil.

SONS OF LIGHT

When the souls of men arrive in the world of spirits the good at once separate from the evil. In the world all are mixed together, but it is not so in the spiritual world. I have many times seen that when the spirits of the good--the Sons of Light enter into the world of spirits they first of all bathe in the impalpable air-like waters of a crystal clear ocean, and in this they find an intense and exhilarating refreshment. Within these miraculous waters they move about as if in open air, neither are they drowned beneath them, nor do the waters wet them, but, wonderfully cleansed and refreshed and fully purified, they enter into the world of glory and light, where they will ever remain in the presence of their dear Lord, and in the fellowship of innumerable saints and angels.

SONS OF DARKNESS

How different from these are the souls of those whose lives have been evil. Ill at ease in the company of the Sons of Light, and tormented by the all-revealing light of Glory, they struggle to hide themselves in places where their impure and sin-stained natures will not be seen. From the lowest and darkest part of the world of spirits a black and evil-smelling smoke arises, and in their effort to hide themselves from the light, these Sons of Darkness push down, and cast themselves headlong into it, and from it their bitter wails of remorse and anguish are heard constantly to arise. But heaven is so arranged that the smoke is not seen, nor are the wails of anguish heard, by the spirits in heaven, unless any of them for some special reason should wish to see the evil plight of those souls in darkness.

DEATH OF A CHILD

A little child died of pneumonia, and a party of angels came to conduct his soul to the world of spirits. I wish that his mother could have seen that wonderful sight, then, instead of weeping, she would have sung with joy, for the angels take care of the little ones with a care and a love that no mother ever could show. I heard one of the angels say to another, "See how this child's mother weeps over this short and temporary separation! In a very few years she will be happy again with her child." Then the angels took the child's soul to that beautiful and light-filled part of heaven, which is set apart for children, where they care for them, and teach them in all heavenly wisdom, until gradually the little ones become like the angels.

After some time this child's mother also died, and her child, who had now become like the angels, came with other angels to welcome the soul of his mother. When he said to her, "Mother, do you not know me? I am your son Theodore," the mother's heart was flooded with joy, and when they embraced one another their tears of joy fell like flowers. It was a touching sight! Then as they walked along together he kept on pointing out, and explaining to her the things around them, and during the time appointed for her stay in the intermediate state, he remained with her, and, when the period necessary for instruction in that world was completed he took her with him to the higher sphere where he himself dwelt.

There, on all sides, were wonderful and joyous surroundings, and unnumbered souls of men were there, who in the world had borne all kinds of suffering for the sake of Christ, and in the end had been raised to this Glorious place of honour. All around were matchless and exceedingly beautiful mountains, springs & landscapes, & in the gardens was abundance of all kinds of sweet fruits & beautiful flowers. Everything the heart could desire was there. Then he said to his mother, "In the World, which is the dim reflection of this real world, our dear ones are grieving over us, but, tell me, is this death, or the real life for which every heart yearns?" The mother said, "Son. this is the true life. If I had known in the world the whole truth about heaven, I would never have grieved over your death. What a pity it is those in the world are so blind! In spite of the fact that Christ has explained quite clearly about this state of glory, and that the Gospels again and again tell of this eternal kingdom of the Father, yet, not only ignorant people, but many enlightened believers as well, still remain altogether unaware of its glory. May God grant that all may enter into the abiding joy of this place!"

DEATH OF A PHILOSOPHER

The soul of a German philosopher entered into the world of spirits and saw from afar the incomparable glory of the spiritual world, and the boundless happiness of its people. He was delighted with what he saw, but his stubborn intellectualism stood in the way of his entering into it, and enjoying its happiness. Instead of admitting that it was real, he argued thus with himself, "There is no doubt at all that I see all this, but what proof is there that it has objective existence, and is not some illusion conjured up by my mind? From end to end of all this scene I will apply the tests of logic, philosophy and science, and then only will I be convinced that it has a reality of its own, and is no illusion." Then the angels answered him, "It is evident from your speech that your intellectualism has warped your whole nature, for as spiritual, and not bodily, eyes are needed to see the spiritual world, so spiritual understanding is necessary to comprehend its reality, and not mental exercises in the fundamentals of logic and philosophy. Your science, that deals with material facts, has been left behind with your physical skull and brain in the World. Here, only that spiritual wisdom is of use which arises out of the fear and love of God." Then said one of the angels to another, "What a pity it is that people forget that precious word of our Lord, 'Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven' (Matt. 18:3). I asked one of the angels what the end of this man would be, and he replied "If this man's life had been altogether bad, then he would at once have joined the spirits of darkness, but he is not without a moral sense, so for a very long time he will wander blindly round in the dim light of the lower parts of the intermediate state, and keep on bumping his philosophical head, until tired of his foolishness, he repents. Then he will be ready to receive the necessary instruction from the angels appointed for that purpose, and, when instructed, will he be fit to enter into the fuller light of God in the higher sphere."

In one sense the whole of infinite space, filled as it is with the presence of God, who is Spirit, is a spiritual world. In another sense the World also is a spiritual world, for its inhabitants are spirits clothed with human bodies. But there is yet another world of spirits after they leave the body at death. This is an intermediate state -- a state between the glory and light of the highest heavens, and the dimness and darkness of the lowest hells. In it are innumerable planes of existence, and the soul is conducted to that plane for which its progress in the World has fitted it. There, angels especially appointed to this work, instruct it for a time, that may be long or short, before it goes on to join the society of those spirits -- good spirits in the greater light, or evil spirits in the greater darkness -- that are like in nature and in mind to itself.

UNSEEN HELP

Our relatives and dear ones, and at times the saints as well often come from the unseen world to help and protect us, but the angels always do. Yet they have never been allowed to make themselves visible to us, except at a few times of very special need. By ways unrecognised by us they influence us towards holy thoughts, and incline us towards God and towards good conduct, and God's Spirit, dwelling in our hearts, completes that work for the perfecting of our spiritual life, which they have been unable to accomplish.

The greatness of any one does not depend upon his knowledge and position, nor by these alone can any one be great. A man is as great as he can be useful to others, and the usefulness of his life to others depends on his service to them. Hence, in so far as a man can serve others in love, just so far is he great. As the Lord said, "But whosoever will be great among you let him be your servant" (Matt. 20:26). The joy of all those that dwell in heaven is found in this that they serve one another in love, and thus, fulfilling the object of their lives, they remain forever in the presence of God.

THE CORRECTION OF ERROR

When people earnestly desire to live lives pleasing to God, the readjustment of their views, and the renewal of their lives, begin in this world. Not only does the Spirit of God teach them directly but in the secret chamber of their hearts they are helped by communion with the saints, who, unseen by them are ever at hand to assist them towards the good.

But, as many Christian believers, as well as non-Christian seekers after truth, die while still holding false and partial views of truth, their views are corrected in the world of spirits, provided that they are not obstinately welded to their opinions, and are willing to learn, because neither in this world, nor in the next, does God, or any servant of His, force a man to believe anything against his will.

THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST

I saw in a vision the spirit of an idolater on reaching the world of spirits begin at once to search for his god. Then the saints said to him, "There is no god here save the One True God, and Christ, who is His manifestation." At this the man was a good deal astonished, but being a sincere seeker after truth, he frankly admitted that he had been in error. He eagerly sought to know the correct view of truth, and asked if he might see the Christ. Shortly after this Christ manifested Himself in a dim light to him, and to others who had newly arrived in the world of spirits, because at this stage they could not have endured a full exhibition of His glory, for His glory is so surpassing that even the angels look on Him with difficulty, and cover their faces with their wings (Isaiah 6:9). When He does reveal Himself to any one He takes into account the particular stage of progress to which that soul has attained, so He appears dimly, or in the fuller light of His glory, that the sight of Him may be endured. So, when these spirits saw Christ in this dim but attractive light, they were filled with a joy and peace which is beyond our power to describe. Bathed in the rays of His life-giving light, and with the waves of His love, which constantly flow out from Him, flowing over them, all their error was washed away. Then with all their hearts they acknowledged Him as the Truth, and found healing, and, bowing in lowly adoration before Him, thanked and praised Him. And the saints, who had been appointed for their instruction; also rejoiced over them.

A LABOURER AND A DOUBTER

Once I saw in a vision a labouring man arrive in the spirit world. He was in great distress, for in all his life he had given no thought to anything but earning his daily bread. He had been too busy to think of God, or of spiritual things. At the same time he had died another had also died, who was a doubter, obstinate in his opinions. Both were ordered to remain for a long period far down in the world of spirits in a place of darkness. In this, being in distress, they began to cry for help. Saints and angels, in love and sympathy, went to instruct them that they might understand how to become members of the Kingdom of Glory and Light. But in spite of their distress, like many other spirits, they preferred to remain on in their dark abode, for sin had so warped their whole character and nature that they doubted everything. They even looked with suspicion on the angels who had come to help them. As I watched I wondered what their end would be, but, when I asked, the only answer I got was from one of the saints, who said, "God may have mercy on them."

We can form an estimate from the depravity of man's perverted nature from this, that, if an evil report about another goes round, even if it is false, a man whose outlook is distorted by sin will at once accept it as true. If, on the other hand, a good and perfectly true report is received, for example that such and such a man is a devout man, who has done this or that work for the glory of God and for the good of his fellows, then, without hesitation, such a hearer will say, "It is all false. So-and-so must have some motive of his own at the back of it all." Should we ask such a man how he knows that the former case is true and the latter false, and what proof he can give, he will have not the slightest proof to put forward.

All that we can learn from such an attitude of mind is, that, as his mind is tainted with evil he believes evil reports because they fit in with his evil nature, and he thinks good reports are lies because they do not fit in with the evil of his heart. By nature a good man's attitude is the opposite of this. He is naturally inclined to doubt an evil report, and to believe a good report, because this attitude best fits in with the goodness of his nature. Those who in this world pass their lives in opposition to the will of God will have rest of heart neither in this world nor in the world to come; and, on entering the world of spirits they will feel bewildered and distressed. But those who in this world are conformed to the will or the Lord will be at peace on reaching the next, and will be filled with unspeakable joy, because here is their eternal home, and the kingdom of their Father.

THE JUDGMENT OF SINNERS

Many have the idea that if they sin in secret then none will ever know about it, but it is altogether impossible that any sin should remain hidden forever. At some time or other it will certainly be known, and the sinner will also receive the punishment he deserves. Also goodness and truth can never be hidden. In the end they must triumph, though, for a time, they may not be recognised. The following incidents will throw light on the state of the sinner.

A GOOD MAN AND A THIEF

Once in a vision, one of the saints recounted this story to me, "Late one night a godly man had to go a distance to do some necessary work. As he went along he came upon a thief breaking into a shop. He said to him, 'You have no right to take other people's property, and to cause them loss. It is a great sin to do so.' The thief answered, 'If you want to get out of this safely, then get out quietly. If you don't there will be trouble for you.' The good man persisted in his efforts, and, when the thief would not listen, he began to shout and raised the neighbours. They rushed out to seize the thief, but as soon as the good man began to accuse him, the thief retaliated and accused the good man. 'Oh-yes;' he said, 'you think this fellow is very religious, but I caught him in the very act of stealing.' As there were no witnesses both were arrested, and locked up together in a room, while a police officer and some of his men hid themselves to listen to their conversation. Then the thief began to laugh at his fellow prisoner.

'Look,' he said, 'haven't I caught you nicely? I told you at first to get out or it would be the worse for you. Now we'll see how your religion is going to save you.' As soon as the officer heard this he opened the door and released the good man with honour and a reward, while he gave the thief a severe beating, and locked him in a prison cell. So, even in this world, there is a degree of judgment between good and bad men, but the full punishment and reward will be given only in the world to come."

SECRET SINS

The following was also related to me in a vision. A man in the secret of his own room was committing a sinful act, and he thought that his sin was hidden. One of the saints said, "How I wish that the spiritual eyes of this man had been open at the time, then he would never have dared to commit this sin." For in that room were a number of angels and saints, as well as some spirits of his dear ones, who had come to help him. All of them were grieved to see his shameful conducts and one of them said, "We came to help him, but now we will have to be witnesses against him at the time of his judgment. He cannot see us, but we can all see him indulging in this sin. Would that this man would repent, and be saved from the punishment to come."

WASTED OPPORTUNITIES

Once I saw in the world of spirits a spirit who, with cries of remorse was rushing about like a madman. An angel said, "In the world this man had many chances of repenting and turning towards God, but whenever his conscience began to trouble him he used to drown its prickings in drink. He wasted all his property, and ruined his family, and in the end committed suicide, and now in the world of spirits he rushes frantically about like a mad dog and writhes in remorse at the thought of his lost opportunities. We are all willing to help him, but his own perverted nature prevents him from repenting, for sin has hardened his heart, though the memory of his sin is always fresh to him. In the world he drank to make himself forget the voice of his conscience, but here there is no possible chance of covering up anything. Now his soul is so naked that he himself, and all the inhabitants of the spiritual world, can see his sinful life. For him, in his sin-hardened state, no other course is possible but that he must hide himself in the darkness with other evil spirits, and so to some extent escape the torture of the light."

A WICKED MAN PERMITTED TO ENTER HEAVEN

Once in my presence a man of evil life entered at death into the world of spirits. When the angel and saints wished to help him he at once began to curse and revile them, and say, "God is altogether unjust. He has prepared heaven for such flattering slaves as you are, and casts the rest of mankind into hell. Yet you call Him Love!" The angels replied, "God certainly is Love. He created men that they might live forever in happy fellowship with Him, but men, by their own obstinacy, and by abuse of their free will have turned their faces away from Him, and have made hell for themselves. God neither casts any one into hell, nor will He ever do so, but man himself, by being entangled in sin, creates hell for himself. God never created any hell."

Just then the exceedingly sweet voice of one of the high angels was heard from above saying, "God gives permission that this man may be brought into heaven." Eagerly the man stepped forward accompanied by two angels, but when they reached the door of heaven, and saw the holy and light-enveloped place and the glorious and blessed inhabitants that dwell there, he began to feel uneasy. The angels said to him, "see how beautiful a world is this! Go a little farther, and look at the dear Lord sitting on His throne." From the door he looked, and then as the light of the Sun of Righteousness revealed to him the impurity of his sin-defiled life, he started back in an agony of self-loathing, and fled, with such precipitancy, that he did not even stop in the intermediate state of the world of spirits, but like a stone he passed through it, and cast himself headlong into the bottomless pit.

Then the sweet and ravishing voice of the Lord was heard saying, "Look, My dear children, none is forbidden to come here, and no one forbade this man, nor has any one asked him to leave. It was his own impure life that forced him to flee from this holy place, for, 'Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God' (John 3:3).

THE SPIRIT OF A MURDERER

A man, who some years before had killed a Christian preacher, was bitten by a snake in the jungle, and died. When he entered the world of spirits, he saw good and bad spirits all around him, and because the whole aspect of his soul showed that he was a son of darkness, the evil spirits soon had possession of him, and pushed him along with them towards the darkness. One of the saints remarked, "He killed a man of God by the poison of his anger, and now he is killed by the poison of a snake. The old Serpent, the devil, by means of this man, killed an innocent man. Now, by means of another snake, which is like him, he has killed this man, for 'he was a murderer from the beginning' " (John 8:44).

AND THE SPIRIT OF THE MAN MURDERED

As he was being taken away, one from among the good spirits, who had come to help him, said to him, "I have forgiven you with all my heart. Now can I do anything to help you?" The murderer at once recognised him as the same man whom he had killed some years before. Ashamed and smitten with fear he fell down before him, and at once the evil spirits began to clamour loudly, but the angels who were standing at a distance rebuked and silenced them. Then the murderer said to the man whom he had killed, "How I wish that, in the world, I could have seen your unselfish and loving life as I see it now! I regret that through my blindness, and because your real spiritual life was screened by your body, I could not then see the inner beauty of your life. Also by killing you I deprived many of the blessing and benefit that you would have given them. Now I am forever a sinner in God's sight, and fully deserve my punishment. I don't know what I can do except hide myself in some dark cave, because I cannot bear this light. In it, not only does my own heart make me miserable, but all can see every detail of my sinful life." To this the man who had been murdered replied, "You should truly repent, and turn to God, for if you do there is hope that the Lamb of God will wash you in His own blood, and give you new life that you may live with us in heaven, and be saved frown the torment of Hell."

The murderer said in reply, "There is no need for me to confess my sins for they are open to all. In the world I could hide them, but not here. I want to live with saints like you in heaven, but when I cannot bear the dimness of the self-revealing light in the world of spirits, then what will be my state in the searching brightness and glory of that light-filled place? My greatest hindrance is that, through my sins, my conscience is so dull and hardened that my nature will not incline towards God and repentance. I seem to have no power to repent left in me. Now there is nothing for it, but that I shall be driven out from here forever. Alas for my unhappy state!" As he said this, fear-stricken, he fell down, and his fellow evil spirits dragged him away into the darkness. Then one of the angels said, "See! there is no need for anyone to pronounce a sentence of doom. Of itself the life of any sinner proves him guilty. There is no need to tell him, or to put forward witnesses against him. To a certain extent punishment begins in the heart of every sinner while in the world, but here they feel the full effect of it. And God's arrangement here is such that goats and sheep, that is, sinners and righteous, separate of their own accord.

God created man to live in light, in which his Spiritual health and joy are made permanent forever. Therefore no man can be happy in the darkness of hell, nor, because of his sin-perverted life, can he be happy in the light. So wherever a sinner may go he will find himself in hell. How opposite to this is the state of the righteous, who freed from sin, is in heaven everywhere !"

THE SPIRIT OF A LIAR

In the world there was a man so addicted to lying that it had become second nature to him. When he died and entered the world of spirits, he tried to lie as usual, but was greatly ashamed because even before he could speak, his thoughts were known to all. No one can be a hypocrite there, because the thought of no heart can remain hidden. The soul as it leaves the body bears in it the imprint of all its sin, and its very members become witnesses against it. Nothing can blot out that stain of sin except the blood of Christ. When this man was in the world he regularly tried to distort right into wrong, and wrong into right, but, after his bodily death he learned that there never is, and never can be, a possibility of twisting truth into untruth. He who lies injures and deceives no one but himself, so this man by lying had killed the inner perception to truth which he had once possessed. I watched him as, inextricably tangled in his own deceit, he turned his face away from the light from above, and hurried away far down into the darkness, where none could see his filthy love of lying, except those spirits who were like in nature to himself.

For Truth is always Truth, and it alone gave this man the sentence of his falseness, and condemned him as a liar.

THE SPIRIT OF AN ADULTERER

I saw an adulterer, who had shortly before arrived in the world of spirits. His tongue was hanging out like a man consumed by thirst, his nostrils were distended, and he beat his arms about as if a kind of fire burned within him. His appearance was so evil and loathsome that I revolted at looking at him. All the accompaniments of luxury and sensuality had been left behind in the world and now, like a mad dog, he ran frantically around, and cried, "Curse on this life! There is no death here to put an end to all this pain. And here the spirit cannot die, otherwise, I should again kill myself, as I did with a pistol in the world in order to escape from my troubles there. But this pain is far greater than the pain of the world. What shall I do?" Saying this he ran towards the darkness, where were many other like minded spirits, and there disappeared.

One of the saints said "Not only is an evil act sin, but an evil thought, and an evil look is also sin. This sin is not confined only to trafficking with strange women, but excess and animalism in relation to one's wife is also sin. A man and his wife are truly joined together not for sensualism but for mutual help and support, that they with their children may spend their lives in the service of mankind and for the glory of God.

But he who departs from this aim in life is guilty of the adulterer's sin."

THE SOUL OF A ROBBER

A robber died and entered the world of spirits. At first he took no interest in his state, or in the spirits about him, but, as his habit was, he at once set about helping himself to the valuables of the place. But he was amazed that in the spirit world the very things seemed to be speaking and accusing him of his unworthy action. His nature was so perverted that he neither knew the true use of these things nor was he fit to use them rightly. In the World his passions had been so unbridled, that, for the most trifling cause, he, in his anger, had killed or wounded any who had offended him. Now in the world of spirits, he began to act in the same way. He turned on the spirits, who came to instruct him, as if he would have torn them to pieces, like a savage dog will do even in the presence of its master. On this one of the angels said, "If spirits of this kind were not kept down in the darkness or the bottomless pit, then they would cause immense harm wherever they might go. This man's conscience is so dead, that even after he has reached the world of spirits, he fails to recognise that, by murdering and robbing in the world, he has wasted his own spiritual discernment and life. He killed and destroyed others, but in reality he has destroyed himself. God alone knows if this man, and those who are like him, will remain in torment for ages or forever."

After this the angels appointed to the duty took him, and shut him down in the darkness from which he is not permitted to come out. The state of evildoers in that place is so terrible, and so inexpressibly fierce is this torment, that those who see them tremble at the sight. Because of the limitations of our worldly speech we can only say this, that wherever the soul of a sinner is, always and in every way, there is nothing but pain that ceases not for a moment. A kind of lightless fire burns forever and torments these souls, but neither are they altogether consumed, nor does the fire die out. A spirit who was watching what had just happened said, "Who knows but that in the end this may not be a cleansing flame?" In the dark part of the world of spirits, which is called Hell, there are many grades and planes, and the particular one in which any spirit lives in suffering is dependent on the quantity and character of his sins. In fact God made them all in His own image (Gen. 1:26, 27; Col. 1:15), yet by their connection with sin they have disfigured this image, and have made it unbeautiful and evil. They have, indeed, a kind of spiritual body, but it is exceedingly loathsome and frightful, and if they are not restored by true repentance, and the grace of God, (while on earth), then in this fearful form they must remain in torment forever.

THE STATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THEIR GLORIOUS END

Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, begins in the lives of all true believers in this world. Their hearts are always filled with peace and joy, no matter what persecutions and troubles they may have to endure; for God, who is the source of all peace and life, dwells in them. Death is no death for them, but a door by which they enter forever into their eternal home. Or we may say that though they have already been born again into their eternal kingdom, yet when they leave the body, it is for them, not the day of their death, but their day of birth into the spiritual world, and it is for them a time of superlative joy as the following incidents will make clear.

THE DEATH OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN

An angel related to me how a true Christian, who had wholeheartedly served his Master for thirty years, lay dying. A few minutes before he died God opened his spiritual eyes that, even before leaving the body, he might see the spiritual world and might tell what he saw to those about him. He saw that heaven had been opened for him, and a party of angels and saints was coming out to meet him, and at the door the Saviour with outstretched hand was waiting to receive him. As all this broke upon him he gave such a shout of joy that those at his bedside were startled. "What a joy it is for me," he exclaimed, "I have long been waiting that I might see my Lord, and go to Him. Oh friends ! look at His face all lighted by love, and see that company of angels that has come for me. What a glorious place it is! Friends, I am setting out for my real home, do not grieve over my departure, but rejoice !" One of those present at his bedside said quietly, "His mind is wandering." He heard the low voice and said, "No, it is not. I am quite conscious. I wish you could see this wonderful sight. I am sorry it is hidden from your eyes. Good-bye, we will meet again in the next world." Saving this he closed his eyes, and said, "Lord I commend my soul into thy hands" and so fell asleep.

COMFORTING HIS DEAR ONES

As soon as his soul had left his body the angels took him in their arms, and were about to go off to heaven, but he asked them to delay a few minutes. He looked at his lifeless body, and at his friends, and said to the angels, "I did not know that the spirit after leaving the body could see his own body and his friends. I wish my friends could see me, as well as I can see them, then these would never count me as dead, nor mourn for me as they do." Then he examined his spiritual body and found it beautifully light and delicate, and totally different from his gross material body. On that he began to restrain his wife and children who were weeping and kissing his cold body. He stretched out his delicate spiritual hands, and began to explain to them, and with great love to press them away from it, but they could neither see him, nor hear his voice, and, as he tried to remove his children from off his body, it seemed as if his hands passed right through their bodies, as if they were air, but they felt nothing at all. Then one of the angels said, "Come, let us take you to your everlasting home. Do not be sorry for them. The Lord Himself, and we also, will comfort them. This separation is but for a few days."

Then in company with the angels he set out for heaven. They had gone forward only a little way when another band of angels met them with cries of "Welcome." Many friends and dear ones, who had died before him, also met him, and on seeing them his joy was further increased. On reaching the gate of heaven the angels and saints stood in silence on either side. He entered, and in the doorway was met by Christ. At once he fell at His feet to worship Him, but the Lord lifted him up, and embraced him, and said, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." At that the man's joy was indescribable. From his eyes tears of joy began to flow, and the Lord in great love wiped them away, and to the angels He said, "Take him to that most glorious mansion that, from the beginning, has been prepared for him." Now the spirit of this man of God still held the earthly idea, that to turn his back on the Lord as he went off with the angels would be a dishonour to Him. He hesitated to do this, but, when at last he turned his face towards the mansion, he was astonished to see that wherever he looked he could see the Lord. For Christ is present in every place, and is seen everywhere by saints and angels.

In addition to the Lord, he was delighted to see that on every side there were surroundings that filled him with joy, and that those who are lowest in rank meet without envy those who are higher, and that those whose position is more exalted count themselves fortunate to be able to serve their brethren in lower positions because this is the kingdom of God, and of love.

In every part of heaven there are superb gardens which all the time produce every variety of sweet and luscious fruit, and all kinds of sweet scented flowers that never fade. In them creatures of every kind give praise to God unceasingly. Birds, beautiful in hue, raise their sweet songs of praise, and such is the sweet singing of angels and saints that on hearing their songs a wonderful sense of rapture is experienced.

Wherever one may look there is nothing but scenes of unbounded joy.

This, in truth, is the Paradise that God has prepared for those that love Him, where there is no shade of death, nor error, nor sin, nor suffering, but abiding peace and joy.

THE MANSIONS OF HEAVEN

Then I saw a man of God examining his appointed mansion from a great distance. When this man, in company with the angels, arrived at the door of his appointed mansion, he saw written on it in shining letters the word "Welcome," and from the letters themselves "Welcome, Welcome," in audible sound was repeated and repeated again. When he had entered his home, to his surprise he found the Lord there before him. At this his joy was more than we can describe, and he exclaimed, "I left the Lord's presence and came here at His command, but I find that the Lord Himself is here to dwell with me." In the mansion was everything that his imagination could have conceived, and everyone was ready to serve him. In the near-by houses, saints, like-minded to himself, lived in happy fellowship. For this heavenly house is the kingdom which has been prepared for the saints from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:34), and this is the glorious future that awaits every true follower of Christ.

A PROUD MINISTER AND A HUMBLE WORKMAN

A minister who looked on himself as an exceedingly learned and religious man died at a ripe old age. And without doubt he was a good man. When the angels came to take him to the place appointed for him by the Lord in the world of spirits, they brought him into the intermediate state, and left him there with many other good spirits, who had lately arrived, in charge of those angels who are appointed to instruct good souls, while they themselves went back to usher in another good spirit. In that intermediate heaven there are grades upon grades right up to the higher heavens, and the grade into which any soul is admitted for instruction, is determined by the real goodness of his life on earth.

When the angels, who had put this minister in his grade, came back conducting in the other soul, for whom they had gone, they brought him up beyond the grade in which the minister was, on their way up to a higher plane. Seeing this the minister in a blustering voice called out, "What right have you to leave me half-way up to that glorious country, while You take this other man away up near to it? Neither in holiness, nor in anything else, am I in any way less than this man, or than you yourselves." The angels replied, "There is no question here of great or small, or of more or less, but a man is put into whatever grade he has merited by his life and faith. You are not quite ready yet for that upper grade, so you will have to remain here for a while, and learn some of the things that our fellow-workers are appointed to teach. Then, when the Lord commands us, we will, with great pleasure, take you with us to that higher sphere." He said, "I have been teaching people all my life about the way to reach heaven. What more have I to learn? I know all about it."

Then the instructing angels said, "They must go up now, we can't detain them, but we will answer your question. My friend, do not be offended if we speak plainly, for it is for your good. You think you are alone here, but the Lord is also here though you cannot see Him. The pride that you displayed when you said, 'I know all about it' prevents you from seeing Him, and from going up higher. Humility is the cure for this pride. Practice it and your desire will be granted." After this one of the angels told him, "The man who has just been promoted above you, was no learned or famous man. You did not look at him very carefully. He was a member of your own congregation. People hardly knew him at all, for he was an ordinary working man, and had little leisure from his work. But in his workshop many knew him as an industrious and honest worker. His Christian character was recognised by all who came in contact with him. In the war he was called up for service in France. There, one day, as he was helping a wounded comrade, he was struck by a bullet and killed.

Though his death was sudden he was ready for it, so he did not have to remain in the intermediate state as long as you will have to do. His promotion depends, not on favouritism, but on his spiritual worthiness. His life of prayer and humility, while he was in the world, prepared him to a great extent for the spiritual world. Now he is rejoicing at having reached his appointed place, and is thanking and praising the Lord, who, in His mercy, has saved him, and given him eternal life."

HEAVENLY LIFE

In heaven no one can ever be a hypocrite, for all can see the lives of others as they are. The all-revealing light which flows out from the Christ in Glory makes the wicked in their remorse try to hide themselves, but it fills the righteous with the utmost joy to be in the Father's kingdom of Light. There, their goodness is evident to all, and it ever increases more and more, for nothing is present that can hinder their growth, and everything that can sustain them is there to help them. The degrees of goodness reached by the soul of a righteous man is known by the brightness that radiates from his whole appearance; for character and nature show themselves in the form of various glowing rainbow-like colours of great glory. In heaven there is no jealousy. All are glad to see the spiritual elevation and glory of others, and, without any motive of self seeking, try, at all times, truly to serve one another. All the innumerable gifts and blessings of heaven are for the common use of all. No one out of selfishness ever thinks of keeping anything for himself, and there is enough of everything for all. God, who is Love, is seen in the person of Jesus sitting on the throne in the highest heaven. From Him, who is the "Sun of Righteousness," and the "Light of the World," healing and life-giving rays and waves of light and love are seen flowing out through every saint and angel, and bringing to whatever they touch vitalising and vivifying power. There is in heaven neither east or west, nor north nor south, but for each individual soul or angel, Christ's throne appears as the centre of all things.

There also are found every kind of sweet and delicious flower and fruit, and many kinds of spiritual food. While eating them an exquisite flavour and pleasure are experienced but, after the are assimilated, a delicate scent, which perfumes the air around, exudes from the pores of the body.

In short the will and desires of all the inhabitants of heaven are fulfilled in God, because in every life God's will is made perfect, so under all conditions, and at every stage of heaven, there is for every one an unchanging experience of wonderful joy and blessedness.

THE AIM AND PURPOSE OF CREATION

A few months ago I was lying alone in my room suffering acutely from an ulcer in my eye. The pain was so great that I could do no other work, so I spent the time in prayer and intercession. One day I had been thus engaged for only a few minutes, when the spiritual world was opened to me, and I found myself surrounded by numbers of angels. Immediately I forgot all my pain, for my whole attention was concentrated on them. I mention below a few other subjects on which we conversed together.

NAMES IN HEAVEN

I asked them, "Can you tell me by what names you are known?" One of the angels replied, "Each of us has been given a new name, which none knows except the Lord and the one who has received it (Rev. 2:17). All of us here have served the Lord in different lands and in different ages, and there is no need that any know what our names are. Nor is there any necessity that we should tell our former earthly names. It might be interesting to know them, but what would be the use of it? And then we do not want people to know our names, lest they should imagine us great and give honour to us, instead of to the Lord, who has so loved us that He has lifted us up out of our fallen state, and has brought us into our eternal home, where we will forever sing praises in His loving fellowship - - and this is the object for which He has created us."

SEEING GOD

I asked again, "Do the angels and saints who live in the highest spheres of heaven, always look on the face of God? And, if they see Him, in what form and state does He appear ?" One of the saints said, "As the sea is full of water, so is the whole universe filled with God, and every inhabitant of heaven feels His presence about him on every side. When one dives under water, above and below and round about there is nothing but water, so in heaven is the presence of God felt. And just as in the water of the sea there are uncounted living creatures, so in the Infinite Being of God His creatures exist. Because He is Infinite, His children, who are finite, can see Him only in the form of Christ. As the Lord Himself has said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). In this world of spirits the spiritual progress of any one governs the degree to which he is able to know and feel God; and the Christ also reveals His glorious form to each one according to his spiritual enlightenment and capacity. If Christ were to appear in the same glorious light to-the dwellers of the darkened lower spheres of the spiritual world, as he; appears to those in the higher planes, then they would not be able to bear it. So He tempers the glory of His manifestation to the state of progress, and to the capacity, of each individual soul."

Then another saint added, "God's presence can indeed be felt and enjoyed but it cannot be expressed in words. As the sweetness of the sweet is enjoyed by tasting, and not by the most graphic descriptive phrasing, so every one in heaven experiences the joy of God's presence, and every one in the spiritual world knows that his experience of God is real, and has no need that any should attempt to help him with a verbal description of it."

DISTANCE IN HEAVEN

I asked, "How far from one another are the various heavenly spheres of existence? If one cannot go to stay in other spheres is he permitted to visit them?" Then one of the saints said, "The place of residence is appointed for each soul in that plane to which his spiritual development has fitted him, but for short periods he can go to visit other spheres. When those of the higher spheres come down to the lower, a kind of spiritual covering is given to them, that the glory of their appearance may not be disconcerting to the inhabitants of the lower and darker spheres. So when one from a lower sphere goes to a higher, he also gets a kind of spiritual covering that he may be able to bear the light and glory of that place."

In heaven distance is never felt by any one, for as soon as one forms the wish to go to a certain place he at once finds himself there.

Distances are felt only in the material world. If one wishes to see a saint in another sphere, either he himself is transported there in a moment of thought, or at once the distant saint arrives in his presence.

THE WITHERED FIG TREE

I inquired of them, "Everything is created for some purpose, but it sometimes appears that that purpose is not fulfilled, for instance, the purpose of the fig tree was to produce fruit, but, when the Lord found it fruitless, He withered it up. Can you enlighten me as to whether its purpose was fulfilled or not?" A saint replied, "undoubtedly its purpose was fulfilled, and was fulfilled more fully. The Lord of Life gives life to every creature for a certain specific purpose, but if that purpose is not fulfilled He has power to take back the life in order to fulfil some higher purpose. Many thousands of God's servants have sacrificed their lives in order to teach and uplift others. By losing their lives for others they have helped them, and thus fulfilled the higher purpose of God. And if it is lawful, and a most noble service, for man, who is higher than fig trees and all other created things, to give his life for other men, then how can it be unjust if a mere tree gives its life for the teaching and warning of an erring nation? So through this fig tree Christ taught this great lesson to the Jews, and to the whole world, that those whose lives are fruitless, and who fail in the purpose for which God created them, will be altogether withered and destroyed."

And the facts of history make it abundantly plain to us that the bigoted and narrow Jewish national life of that day was, because of its barrenness, withered away like the fig tree. And in the same way the fruitless lives of others, though outwardly they may appear fruitful, are a cause of deception to others, and will be cursed and destroyed. If any one should object that when the Lord cursed this fig tree, it was not the fruit season and figs should not have been looked for, then he should reflect that for doing good there is no fixed season, because all seasons and times are equally appointed for good works, and that he himself should make his life fruitful and thus fulfil the purpose for which he was created.

IS MAN A FREE AGENT?

Again I asked, "Would it not have been far better if God had created man and all creation perfect, for then man could neither have committed sin, nor because of sin would there have been so much sorrow and suffering in the world; but now, in a creation made subject to vanity, we have all kinds of suffering to undergo ?"

An angel who had come from the highest grades of heaven, and occupied a high position there, replied, "God has not made man like a machine, which would work automatically; nor has He fixed his destiny as in the case of the stars and planets, that may not move out of their appointed course, but He has made man in His own image and likeness, a free agent, possessed of understanding, determination, and power to act independently, hence he is superior to all other created things. Had man not been created a free agent he would not have been able to enjoy God's presence, nor the joy off heaven, for he would have been a mere machine, that moves without knowing or feeling, or like the stars that swing unknowingly through infinite space. But man, being a free agent, is by the constitution of his nature, opposed to this kind of soulless perfection -- and a perfection of this kind would really have been imperfection -- for such a man would have been a mere slave whose very perfection had compelled him to certain acts, in the doing of which he could have had no enjoyment, because he had no choice of his own. To him there would be no difference between a God and a stone."

Man, and with him all creation, has been subjected to vanity but not forever. By his disobedience man has brought himself, and all other creatures, into all the ills and sufferings of this state of vanity. In this state of spiritual struggle alone can his spiritual powers be fully developed, and only in this struggle can he learn the lesson necessary to his perfection. Therefore, when man at last reaches the state of perfection of heaven, he will thank God for the sufferings and struggle of the present world, for then he will fully understand that all things work together for good to them that love God (Rom. 8:28).

THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD'S LOVE

Then another of the saints said, "All the inhabitants of heaven know that God is Love, but it had been hidden from all eternity that His love is so wonderful that He would become man to save sinners, and for their cleansing would die on the Cross. He suffered thus that He might save men, and all creation, which is in subjection to vanity. Thus God, in becoming man, has shown His heart to His children, but had any other means been used His infinite love would have remained forever hidden. "Now the whole creation, with earnest expectation, awaits the manifestation of the sons of God, when they shall be again restored and glorified. But, at present, they, and all creation, will remain groaning and travailing till this new creation comes to pass. And those also who have been born again groan within themselves, waiting for the redemption of the body; and the time approaches when the whole creation, being obedient to God in all things, will be freed from corruption, and from this vanity forever. Then will it remain eternally happy in God, and will fulfil in itself the purpose for which it was created. Then God will be all in all" (Rom. 8:18-23).

The angels also conversed with me about many other matters, but it is impossible to record them, because, not only is there in the world no language, no simile, by which I could express the meaning of those very deep spiritual truths, but also they did not wish me to attempt it, for no one without spiritual experience can understand them, so in that case, there is the fear that, instead of their being a help, they would be to many a cause of misunderstanding and error. I have, therefore, written only a few of the simplest of the matters talked over, in the hope that from them many may get direction and warning, teaching and comfort. Also, that time is not far distant when my readers will pass over into the spiritual world, and see these things with their own eyes. But before we leave this world forever, to go to our eternal home, we must with the support of God's grace, and in the Spirit of prayer, carry out with faithfulness our appointed work. Thus shall we fulfil the purpose of our lives, and enter without any shade of regret, into the eternal joy of the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father.

THE END

COPYRIGHT NOTE

As we feel this material to be of special value to humankind, this publication of the "VISIONS of SADHU SUNDAR SINGH of INDIA" is hereby placed in the public domain. Permission is also hereby freely granted to include any (or all) of the text in any book, booklet, leaflet, Web Page or software package.

Published By Noah's Ark,

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NSW, 2350, Australia. 1996.