The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. Levi
And when the guards returned and told the king what Zacharias said, he was enraged and said,
14 My guards, go back and tell that wily priest that he is in my hands; that if he does not tell the truth, does not reveal the hiding place of John, his son, then he shall die.
15 The guards went back and told the priest just what the king had said.
16 And Zacharias said, I can but give my life for truth; and if the king does shed my blood the Lord will save my soul.
17 The guards again returned and told the king what Zacharias said.
18 Now, Zacharias stood before the altar in the Holy Place engaged in prayer.
19 A guard approached and with a dagger thrust him through; he fell and died before the curtain of the sanctuary of the Lord.
20 And when the hour of salutation came, for Zacharias daily blessed the priests, he did not come.
21 And after waiting long the priests went to the Holy Place and found the body of the dead.
22 And there was grief, deep grief, in all the land.
23 Now Herod sat upon his throne; he did not seem to move; his courtiers came; the king was dead. His sons reigned in his stead.
SECTION III
CHAPTER 7
Archelaus reigns. Mary and Elizabeth with their sons are in Zoan and are taught by Elihu and Salome. Elihu’s introductory lesson. Tells of an interpreter.
The son of Herod, Archelaus, reigned in Jerusalem. He was a selfish, cruel king; he put to death all those who did not honor him.
2 He called in council all the wisest men and asked about the infant claimant to his throne.
3 The council said that John and Jesus both were dead; then he was satisfied.
4 Now Joseph, Mary and their son were down in Egypt in Zoan, and John was with his mother in the Judean hills.
5 Elihu and Salome sent messengers in haste to find Elizabeth and John. They found them and they brought them to Zoan.
6 Now, Mary and Elizabeth were marveling much because of their deliverance.
7 Elihu said, It is not strange; there are no happenings; law governs all events.
8 From olden times it was ordained that you should be with us, and in this sacred school be taught.
9 Elihu and Salome took Mary and Elizabeth out to the sacred grove near by where they were wont to teach.
10 Elihu said to Mary and Elizabeth, You may esteem yourselves thrice blest, for you are chosen mothers of long promised sons,
11 Who are ordained to lay in solid rock a sure foundation stone on which the temple of the perfect man shall rest – a temple that shall never be destroyed.
12 We measure time by cycle ages, and the gate to every age we deem a mile stone in the journey of the race.
13 An age has passed; the gate unto another age flies open at the touch of time. This is the preparation age of soul, the kingdom of Immanuel, of God in man;
14 And these, your sons, will be the first to tell the news, and preach the gospel of good will to men, and peace on earth.
15 A mighty work is theirs; for carnal men want not the light; they love the dark, and when the light shines in the dark they comprehend it not.
16 We call these sons, Revealers of the Light; but they must have the light before they can reveal the light.
17 And you must teach your sons, and set their souls on fire with love and holy zeal, and make them conscious of their missions to the sons of men.
18 Teach them that God and man were one; but that through carnal thoughts and words and deeds, man tore himself away from God; debased himself.
19 Teach that the Holy Breath would make them one again, restoring harmony and peace;
20 That naught can make them one but love; that God so loved the world that he has clothed his son in flesh that man may comprehend.
21 The only Savior of the world is love, and Jesus, son of Mary, comes to manifest that love to men.
22 Now, love cannot be manifest until its way has been prepared, and naught can rend the rocks and bring down lofty hills and fill the valleys up, and thus prepare the way, but purity.
23 But purity in life men do not comprehend; and so, it, too, must come in flesh.
24 And you, Elizabeth, are blest because your son is purity made flesh, and he shall pave the way for love.
25 This age will comprehend but little of the works of Purity and Love; but not a word is lost, for in the Book of God’s Remembrance a registry is made of every thought, and word, and deed;
26 And when the world is ready to receive, lo, God will send a messenger to open up the book and copy from its sacred pages all the messages of Purity and Love.
27 Then every man of earth will read the words of life in language of his native land, and men will see the light, walk in the light and be the light.
28 And man again will be at one with God.
CHAPTER 8
Elihu’s lessons. The unity of life. The two selfs. The devil. Love the savior of men. The David of the light. Goliath of the dark.
Again Elihu met his pupils in the sacred grove and said,
2 No man lives unto himself; for every living thing is bound by cords to every other living thing.
3 Blest are the pure in heart; for they will love and not demand love in return.
4 They will not do to other men what they would not have other men do unto them.
5 There are two selfs; the higher and the lower self.
6 The higher self is human spirit clothed with soul, made in the form of God.
7 The lower self, the carnal self, the body of desires, is a reflexion of the higher self, distorted by the murky ethers of the flesh.
8 The lower self is an illusion, and will pass away; the higher self is God in man, and will not pass away.
9 The higher self is the embodiment of truth; the lower self is truth reversed, and so is falsehood manifest.
10 The higher self is justice, mercy, love and right; the lower self is what the higher self is not.
11 The lower self breeds hatred, slander, lewdness, murders, theft, and everything that harms; the higher self is mother of the virtues and the harmonies of life.
12 The lower self is rich in promises, but poor in blessedness and peace; it offers pleasure, joy and satisfying gains; but gives unrest and misery and death.
13 It gives men apples that are lovely to the eye and pleasant to the smell; their cores are full of bitterness and gall.
14 If you would ask me what to study I would say, yourselfs; and when you well had studied them, and then would ask me what to study next, I would reply, yourselfs.
15 He who knows well his lower self, knows the illusions of the world, knows of the things that pass away; and he who knows his higher self, knows God; knows well the things that cannot pass away.
16 Thrice blessed is the man who has made purity and love his very own; he has been ransomed from the perils of the lower self and is himself his higher self.
17 Men seek salvation from an evil that they deem a living monster of the nether world; and they have gods that are but demons in disguise; all powerful, yet full of jealousy and hate and lust;
18 Whose favors must be bought with costly sacrifice of fruits, and of the lives of birds, and animals, and human kind.
19 And yet these gods possess no ears to hear, no eyes to see, no heart to sympathize, no power to save.
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