Serjeant W.C.E. - Twilight Visions

The day’s work done, I cast my pen aside
And rose, with aching eye and troubled brain,
Thinking how oft my fellow workers here
Have suffered in the flesh for labours wrought
In love to all mankind; and how the world
Cares nought for words which teach not of itself;
For to the world, itself is all in all,
And nought outside it can the world conceive
As real and true. And yet this earth must cease
To be for ever to each mortal, when
The Spirit casts off earth, and, in new life
Will feel and know the world to be the vale
Of deathly shadows compass’d round about
With ignorance and error, sin and crime,
With yearnings, longings, miseries, and griefs,
And all that makes the “Breath of Lives” to seem
As Angels wrestling with the powers of hell.
        *     *     *     *

A gentle Spirit with the twilight came
And rested on my soul; then hope with peace,
Long since to me as strangers, touched my heart,
And, sitting at the organ, soft and sweet
There streamed a flow of harmony, tho’ I
Scarce seemed to touch the keys, yet simple hymns
Called forth a train of Spirits bright and young,
Amongst them saw I all that I had known
And loved in days when life seem’d sweet to me.
I was a child again, and saw myself
As such – no aching eye – no troubled brain
Had that young being who in faith and hope
Sang songs of holiness, of peace and truth –
There, resting on his Mother’s breast, with arms
Clasped round her neck, with loving eyes that watched
The loving face, whereon a parent’s smile
Was ever present in the days now past,
Now buried in the dust with former things.
        *     *     *     *

In saddened notes swelled forth “Thy will be done!”
And then appeared a radiant spirit form
Of one who, as a babe, was called away,
From out this world of wretchedness and sin.
366 An infant – which scarce breathed upon the earth
Ere God, in His great mercy, took her home
To dwell with Him, and she, an Angel bless’d,
Now looks in pity on her parents here,
A weeping witness of the vacant lives
Which in the world their souls are forced to pass
As, hung’ring for the love of One in heaven
They stagger on from day to day in doubt –
In misery, which none but they can know.
        *     *     *     *

Some cursed bonds can ne’er be snapped in twain,
Save death or sin alone be brought to bear
To shatter human customs hard and vile,
And false and horrible as hell itself.
For man exists in darkness, bound by laws
Which curse and damn his very soul on earth;
Mankind will not accept the Master’s words
Or listen to His cry within the soul.
And so the world in falsehood wanders on
And dooms the inner Man of Light again
To suffer crucifixion in the flesh;
The Trinity – of Wisdom, Love and Truth –
The Christ, is absent from this “Christian” World
And ignorance with hatred lies and sin
Reign rampant in their infidel abode.
        *     *     *     *

“Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.”
O Lord! we suff’ring mortals here on earth
Have nought but Thee, Thou Guide of all mankind
To lead us in our wand’rings, and to turn
Our falt’ring footsteps from the way of death;
Thy Angels true are sent to fainting souls,
And lovingly their voices soft are heard
Peace! troubled hearts, hereafter all shall be
Made up in heaven. Know that sufferings
Are sent in love that we may minister,
To all your needs, and bear you safely home
To that good land ordained for all mankind –
The kingdom bright – of happiness and love,
Whereon your lives shall ever be a rest
In one long summer day of light and joy.
No mortal e’er can comprehend the peace
Of God, which shall be yours, when, from the world
Your glorious inner beings stand apart
For ever! Soon shall you know all that we
367 Would tell you now – yet hope and struggle on.
“At evening time there shall be Light! and then –
The Living Light shall lead you home to God,
Home to the place which He hath made, – ’tis yours
For ever! We are sent to tell you this
And by the Mighty One we do not lie!
        *     *     *     *

“O Glorious Angels of our Loving God!
Pray tell us if this land, we fain would know,
Contains the dear ones we have loved on earth?
For what were heaven e’en to us, if we
Could nevermore be all in all to those
Who when on earth were all in all to us!”
A voice replied – ’twas one I oft have heard
And learned to love with more than mortal love,
“Look up, my own! and see me with thee now
For ever on this earth. If then ’tis so,
How canst thou think that I shall ever be
Apart from thee in heav’n – the land of love
Wherein alone life’s consummation finds
A fullness in its own eternal self?
For God is all – thus He is life and love
And love eternal is the power that welds
Each atom in the universal chain
Of infinite expanse throughout the skies –
Which ever shows to godly men on earth
The Power of powers that reigneth over all!”
        *     *     *     *

Then in the gloom a glorious form appeared,
And, standing by my side, it pressed its lips
Upon the troubled brow which none could calm
On earth, save she who was beside me then.
And so an Angel from our loving God
Came down to comfort, in the eventide –
To show, by light of love, God’s holy truth,
Which from the world – in darkness – hath been hid
Because the world in darkness will exist,
And, living thus, man sins against himself
And so against his loving God of Life.
The promised Light appeared at evening time,
And by its living rays did I perceive –
Mankind to wander on in sin and shame;
Thus hell prevails to-day where heaven should be....

Wm. C. Eldon Serjeant.
London, 6th December, 1887.

461

February 1888 (pp. 461-465)

Twilight Visions.
Part II. – The Crescent.

“The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’”

– Jer. xxxi., 3.

“In life, in death, O Lord! abide with me!”
Thou, Ruler o’er the Living Rosy Cross –
Great Master Mason of the mortal frame,
Which is the temple of the Holy Ghost –
Grand Power of all who through the secret sun
Dost hold the soul in tenement of clay
To guide it safely through the gloom of night
Into the golden morn, when all things then
In Light of Love – thine own Eternal Self –
Shall truly stand revealed to those that strive
In truth to know the Power which all mankind
Shall worship in the Universal King.
        *     *     *     *     *
My children! saith the living God of Love,
Now “if with all your hearts ye truly seek,”^[1]
Ye surely shall find me your King in Heaven,
And finding me shall know yourselves to be
Anointed Princes – Rulers of the Earth –
The Powers of Light sent by me in the flesh,
And named Michael! You are here to fight,
To hurl down Satan to his black abyss,
Where ignorance and error, sin and crime,
And hellish spirits dark for ever dwell
With all who in the bonds of slavery
Lead deathly lives as creatures of the world –
The wretched earth-worms of that bounden sphere,
Which is the only Hell mankind can know!
        *     *     *     *     *
The night is now far spent, and in the sky
From out a dark blue setting there hath shone
In ages past, as now, full many a star
Proclaiming to mankind the Light of Heaven,
Each with its own peculiar brilliancy
Illumining the minds of men with rays
Which point to other realms beyond this world,
And ever tell of one star differing
In glory from its fellow star on high.
462 What great and hidden meaning lieth here!
Why are the stars above held forth to man
As entities which tell of other states?
The Stars of Heaven are never seen by man;
As man, he cannot know that glorious light
Sent forth – from States of Wisdom not in skies –
Through brilliant rays which meet not mortal gaze,
And are invisible save to the one
Who – seeing through perception – contacts light,
That Light of ancient days, since passed away
Into the sombre gloom of deepest night;
Because in ignorance and selfishness
Man willed to dwell in darkness on this earth.
And now behold the fallen Lucifer! –
Thou Morning Star of Truth – again arise –
To touch with thy bright rays the mind of man
And open to his gaze the Light of Love,
Reflected in the silv’ry Crescent now
About to crown the Living Cross of Truth.
        *     *     *     *     *
Shine forth, fair Luna! Man hath waited long
For thee – O bringer of the Golden Light.
Surmount the Cross – thou Goddess of the Gods –
Which suff’ring mortals here in agony
Have borne along, desiring of their King –
Of whom thou art – those better things on earth,
Which He hath promised them in days of old,
Shall take the place of former things to pass –
With mourning, weeping, bitterness, and death –
Away for ever, as the first-born states
Of Heaven and earth and sea no more to be.^[2]
        *     *     *     *     *
Fair Keeper of the rays shed by the Sun!
Whilst feeble mortals now deny thy power,
We of the morn declare thee as thou art;
The mediate force to govern all mankind,
The force of love which mortals cannot know.
For that man holds as love is passion foul:
It hath transformed the earth into a hell,
And none save thou can mediately stand
To rid the earth – by Truth who comes from thee –
From that curs’d tyrant in the world or hell,
The devil – Satan – he that doth deceive,
Accuser of our brethren, soon to be
463 Bound hand and foot in heaven, then cast to earth,
When angels dark and all who fight for him
Shall fall with him through Michael’s power and might.^[3]
        *     *     *     *     *
The grandest vision seen in heaven from earth
Has burst upon the wond’ring mind of man,
For woman has appear’d with Sun array’d –
She stands on Luna, o’er her holy brow
A coronet of twelve bright golden stars:
She crieth out and travaileth in pain
To be delivered of the Child of Truth,
Which is, in love, to rule mankind as one,
The one great body in the Spirit Christ^[4]
Who cometh now a second time to man
Through her who clothes him with a mortal form,
Our Holy Mother in the Living God.
And yet about the woman, as of old,
Damned Satan’s lurks, with seven diadems –
The dragon stands as knowledge of the World,
Which would devour the holy child of God.
But so-called knowledge is not ever true,
Frail mortals know not that the states of Heaven
Permit below themselves the states of Hell
To be – that mortals there may feel the Truth –
The everlasting fire, consuming Self –
Destroying all the former things in man
Through fiery sufferings induced by self,
Through freedom granted by a Loving God.
The Universal King in love ordains
That man shall ever reap the crop he sows,
And so the Woman clothed with the Sun,
Who sows the seed of love amongst mankind,
Shall reap the fruits of love in Heaven – her home –
Where happiness and peace eternal reign,
Wherein the dragon hath no place – no power.
All hail! thou glorious Bride, in Light array’d,
O, woman, clothed with the Bridegroom’s Power,^[5]
464 Arise and shine! The time is now at hand
To change this earth into a heaven bright,
This hell into a paradise of Saints;
Through thee alone can mortals rise from earth
To soar into Eternity – God’s Peace;
Through thee alone can man perceive the light –
The Sun of Wisdom,^[6] which shall soon appear
Acknowledged King supreme of all that is,
Which He hath made in love for all mankind.
Woman! behold a groaning world awaits
The crushing of the Serpent’s power through thee;
Look on the fairest cities of this globe,
In misery the love-starved of the earth
Now walk the streets; whilst degradation vile
Confronts them in their daily – hourly lives,
Because mankind will sell itself for gold
To one, who is the prince of hell; he rules
The States of falsehood in this mortal world
Wherein the moaning of tormented souls
Appeals to God^[7] in mortal agony
To ease the burdens of their earthly lives
By teaching them of thee, O Queen of Heaven!
        *     *     *     *     *
Woman, behold the sighing, wretchedness,
Depravity, disease and death on earth!
Pure life has left these mortals who transgress
The laws of God by being of the world;
They know not happiness and peace and thee.
Thou art of nations all, the Saving Health.
Stretch forth thine hands and save, O Queen of Heaven!
        *     *     *     *     *
Woman! behold the man of war exists
Whose work it is to shed the blood of him
Who truly is a portion of thyself;
Nay more, thine all, within this weary state;
The Father of thy loved ones in the flesh!
How long wilt thou permit ungodly strife
To keep thee from thy lawful throne on earth,
The one great Empire that shall bow to thee,
That thou alone can’st rule, Queen of the South?^[8]
465 O, Bride of Heaven, thou knowest well that He –
The Son of Man – thy bridegroom – came to save,
Not to destroy, the lives of men on earth!^[9]
        *     *     *     *     *
Great Spirit Love! Bright Queen of Highest Heaven,
Send forth thy potent force, and let it fire
The hearts of all within this little sphere;
Show worldly rulers in their sinful states
That thou alone art Queen of all Mankind;
And in these petty princes of the earth
Destroy, we pray thee, all the mortal lusts
Of self, of gold, and praise, and feeble power,
Implanted in their natures by the one
Who rules them with their subjects in this hell
Created by themselves through ignorance
Of thee, O, Spirit Love, Blest Queen of Heaven!

Wm. C. Eldon Serjeant.
London, 28th January, 1888.

Footnotes

↑ See Deut. iv.
↑ See Rev. xxi.
↑ See Rev. xii.
↑ i.e., The invisible, universal, and eternal principle which mortals can only conceive of as the sum total of the combined spirits of Truth, Love, and Wisdom, when manifested in that “Son of Man,” or humanity, which is also the “Son of God,” collectively and individually.
↑ In the Kabala, the Bride of the “Heavenly Man,” Tetragrammaton, is Malkuth – the foundation or kingdom. It is our earth, which, when regenerated and purified (as matter), will be united to her bridegroom (Spirit). But in Esotericism there are two aspects of the Logos, or the “Father-Son,” which latter becomes his own father; one is the unmanifested Eternal, the other the manifested and periodical Logos. The “Bride” of the former is the universe as nature in the abstract. She is also his “Mother”; who, “clothed with the bridegroom’s power,” gives birth to the manifested universe (the second logos) through her own inherent, mystic power, and is, therefore, the Immaculate Mother; “the woman clothed with the sun, and travailing” in child birth, in Revelation, ch. xii. – Ed.
↑ See Psalm lxxxiv., 11.
↑ i.e. The Universal Spirit in whom all things exist and have being. That Eternal Principle which fills all Space and Time, and is Space and Time (in its abstract sense, as otherwise it would be an extra-Cosmic God), and is perfect in perfection.
↑ See Matt. xii., 42.
↑ Luke ix., 56.

[nf153-1] See Deut. iv.

[nf154-2] See Rev. xxi.

[nf155-3] See Rev. xii.

[nf156-4] i.e., The invisible, universal, and eternal principle which mortals can only conceive of as the sum total of the combined spirits of Truth, Love, and Wisdom, when manifested in that “Son of Man,” or humanity, which is also the “Son of God,” collectively and individually.

[nf157-5] In the Kabala, the Bride of the “Heavenly Man,” Tetragrammaton, is Malkuth – the foundation or kingdom. It is our earth, which, when regenerated and purified (as matter), will be united to her bridegroom (Spirit). But in Esotericism there are two aspects of the Logos, or the “Father-Son,” which latter becomes his own father; one is the unmanifested Eternal, the other the manifested and periodical Logos. The “Bride” of the former is the universe as nature in the abstract. She is also his “Mother”; who, “clothed with the bridegroom’s power,” gives birth to the manifested universe (the second logos) through her own inherent, mystic power, and is, therefore, the Immaculate Mother; “the woman clothed with the sun, and travailing” in child birth, in Revelation, ch. xii. – Ed.

[nf158-6] See Psalm lxxxiv., 11.

[nf159-7] i.e. The Universal Spirit in whom all things exist and have being. That Eternal Principle which fills all Space and Time, and is Space and Time (in its abstract sense, as otherwise it would be an extra-Cosmic God), and is perfect in perfection.

[nf160-8] See Matt. xii., 42.

[nf161-9] Luke ix., 56.

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