Final Admonitions and Warnings

181:1.1When the eleven had taken their seats, Je­sus stood and ad­dressed them: “As long as I am with you in the flesh, I can be but one in­di­vid­ual in your midst or in the en­tire world. But when I have been de­liv­ered from this in­vest­ment of mor­tal na­ture, I will be able to re­turn as a spirit in­dweller of each of you and of all other be­liev­ers in this gospel of the king­dom. In this way the Son of Man will be­come a spir­i­tual in­car­na­tion in the souls of all true be­liev­ers.

181:1.2“When I have re­turned to live in you and work through you, I can the bet­ter lead you on through this life and guide you through the many abodes in the fu­ture life in the heaven of heav­ens. Life in the Fa­ther’s eter­nal cre­ation is not an end­less rest of idle­ness and self­ish ease but rather a cease­less pro­gres­sion in grace, truth, and glory. Each of the many, many sta­tions in my Fa­ther’s house is a stop­ping place, a life de­signed to pre­pare you for the next one ahead. And so will the chil­dren of light go on from glory to glory un­til they at­tain the di­vine es­tate wherein they are spir­i­tu­ally per­fected even as the Fa­ther is per­fect in all things.

181:1.3“If you would fol­low af­ter me when I leave you, put forth your earnest ef­forts to live in ac­cor­dance with the spirit of my teach­ings and with the ideal of my life—the do­ing of my Fa­ther’s will. This do in­stead of try­ing to im­i­tate my nat­u­ral life in the flesh as I have, per­force, been re­quired to live it on this world.

181:1.4“The Fa­ther sent me into this world, but only a few of you have cho­sen fully to re­ceive me. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, but all men will not choose to re­ceive this new teacher as the guide and coun­selor of the soul. But as many as do re­ceive him shall be en­light­ened, cleansed, and com­forted. And this Spirit of Truth will be­come in them a well of liv­ing wa­ter spring­ing up into eter­nal life.

181:1.5“And now, as I am about to leave you, I would speak words of com­fort. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I make these gifts not as the world gives—by mea­sure—I give each of you all you will re­ceive. Let not your heart be trou­bled, nei­ther let it be fear­ful. I have over­come the world, and in me you shall all tri­umph through faith. I have warned you that the Son of Man will be killed, but I as­sure you I will come back be­fore I go to the Fa­ther, even though it be for only a lit­tle while. And af­ter I have as­cended to the Fa­ther, I will surely send the new teacher to be with you and to abide in your very hearts. And when you see all this come to pass, be not dis­mayed, but rather be­lieve, inas­much as you knew it all be­fore­hand. I have loved you with a great af­fec­tion, and I would not leave you, but it is the Fa­ther’s will. My hour has come.

181:1.6“Doubt not any of these truths even af­ter you are scat­tered abroad by per­se­cu­tion and are down­cast by many sor­rows. When you feel that you are alone in the world, I will know of your iso­la­tion even as, when you are scat­tered ev­ery man to his own place, leav­ing the Son of Man in the hands of his en­e­mies, you will know of mine. But I am never alone; al­ways is the Fa­ther with me. Even at such a time I will pray for you. And all of these things have I told you that you might have peace and have it more abun­dantly. In this world you will have tribu­la­tion, but be of good cheer; I have tri­umphed in the world and shown you the way to eter­nal joy and ev­er­last­ing ser­vice.”

181:1.7Je­sus gives peace to his fel­low do­ers of the will of God but not on the or­der of the joys and sat­is­fac­tions of this ma­te­rial world. Un­be­liev­ing ma­te­ri­al­ists and fa­tal­ists can hope to en­joy only two kinds of peace and soul com­fort: Ei­ther they must be sto­ics, with stead­fast res­o­lu­tion de­ter­mined to face the in­ev­i­ta­ble and to en­dure the worst; or they must be op­ti­mists, ever in­dulging that hope which springs eter­nal in the hu­man breast, vainly long­ing for a peace which never re­ally comes.

181:1.8A cer­tain amount of both sto­icism and op­ti­mism are ser­vice­able in liv­ing a life on earth, but nei­ther has aught to do with that su­perb peace which the Son of God be­stows upon his breth­ren in the flesh. The peace which Mi­chael gives his chil­dren on earth is that very peace which filled his own soul when he him­self lived the mor­tal life in the flesh and on this very world. The peace of Je­sus is the joy and sat­is­fac­tion of a God-know­ing in­di­vid­ual who has achieved the tri­umph of learn­ing fully how to do the will of God while liv­ing the mor­tal life in the flesh. The peace of Je­sus’ mind was founded on an ab­so­lute hu­man faith in the ac­tu­al­ity of the di­vine Fa­ther’s wise and sym­pa­thetic over­care. Je­sus had trou­ble on earth, he has even been falsely called the “man of sor­rows,” but in and through all of these ex­pe­ri­ences he en­joyed the com­fort of that con­fi­dence which ever em­pow­ered him to pro­ceed with his life pur­pose in the full as­sur­ance that he was achiev­ing the Fa­ther’s will.

181:1.9Je­sus was de­ter­mined, per­sis­tent, and thor­oughly de­voted to the ac­com­plish­ment of his mis­sion, but he was not an un­feel­ing and cal­loused stoic; he ever sought for the cheer­ful as­pects of his life ex­pe­ri­ences, but he was not a blind and self-de­ceived op­ti­mist. The Mas­ter knew all that was to be­fall him, and he was un­afraid. Af­ter he had be­stowed this peace upon each of his fol­low­ers, he could con­sis­tently say, “Let not your heart be trou­bled, nei­ther let it be afraid.”

181:1.10The peace of Je­sus is, then, the peace and as­sur­ance of a son who fully be­lieves that his ca­reer for time and eter­nity is safely and wholly in the care and keep­ing of an all-wise, all-lov­ing, and all-pow­er­ful spirit Fa­ther. And this is, in­deed, a peace which passes the un­der­stand­ing of mor­tal mind, but which can be en­joyed to the full by the be­liev­ing hu­man heart.