In Gethsemane

182:1.1A few mo­ments af­ter ar­riv­ing at camp, Je­sus said to them: “My friends and breth­ren, my time with you is now very short, and I de­sire that we draw apart by our­selves while we pray to our Fa­ther in heaven for strength to sus­tain us in this hour and hence­forth in all the work we must do in his name.”

182:1.2When Je­sus had thus spo­ken, he led the way a short dis­tance up on Oli­vet, and in full view of Je­ru­sa­lem he bade them kneel on a large flat rock in a cir­cle about him as they had done on the day of their or­di­na­tion; and then, as he stood there in the midst of them glo­ri­fied in the mel­low moon­light, he lifted up his eyes to­ward heaven and prayed:

182:1.3“Fa­ther, my hour has come; now glo­rify your Son that the Son may glo­rify you. I know that you have given me full au­thor­ity over all liv­ing crea­tures in my realm, and I will give eter­nal life to all who will be­come faith sons of God. And this is eter­nal life, that my crea­tures should know you as the only true God and Fa­ther of all, and that they should be­lieve in him whom you sent into the world. Fa­ther, I have ex­alted you on earth and have ac­com­plished the work which you gave me to do. I have al­most fin­ished my be­stowal upon the chil­dren of our own cre­ation; there re­mains only for me to lay down my life in the flesh. And now, O my Fa­ther, glo­rify me with the glory which I had with you be­fore this world was and re­ceive me once more at your right hand.

182:1.4“I have man­i­fested you to the men whom you chose from the world and gave to me. They are yours—as all life is in your hands—you gave them to me, and I have lived among them, teach­ing them the way of life, and they have be­lieved. These men are learn­ing that all I have comes from you, and that the life I live in the flesh is to make known my Fa­ther to the worlds. The truth which you have given to me I have re­vealed to them. These, my friends and am­bas­sadors, have sin­cerely willed to re­ceive your word. I have told them that I came forth from you, that you sent me into this world, and that I am about to re­turn to you. Fa­ther, I do pray for these cho­sen men. And I pray for them not as I would pray for the world, but as for those whom I have cho­sen out of the world to rep­re­sent me to the world af­ter I have re­turned to your work, even as I have rep­re­sented you in this world dur­ing my so­journ in the flesh. These men are mine; you gave them to me; but all things which are mine are ever yours, and all that which was yours you have now caused to be mine. You have been ex­alted in me, and I now pray that I may be hon­ored in these men. I can no longer be in this world; I am about to re­turn to the work you have given me to do. I must leave these men be­hind to rep­re­sent us and our king­dom among men. Fa­ther, keep these men faith­ful as I pre­pare to yield up my life in the flesh. Help these, my friends, to be one in spirit, even as we are one. As long as I could be with them, I could watch over them and guide them, but now am I about to go away. Be near them, Fa­ther, un­til we can send the new teacher to com­fort and strengthen them.

182:1.5“You gave me twelve men, and I have kept them all save one, the son of re­venge, who would not have fur­ther fel­low­ship with us. These men are weak and frail, but I know we can trust them; I have proved them; they love me, even as they rev­er­ence you. While they must suf­fer much for my sake, I de­sire that they should also be filled with the joy of the as­sur­ance of son­ship in the heav­enly king­dom. I have given these men your word and have taught them the truth. The world may hate them, even as it has hated me, but I do not ask that you take them out of the world, only that you keep them from the evil in the world. Sanc­tify them in the truth; your word is truth. And as you sent me into this world, even so am I about to send these men into the world. For their sakes I have lived among men and have con­se­crated my life to your ser­vice that I might in­spire them to be pu­ri­fied through the truth I have taught them and the love I have re­vealed to them. I well know, my Fa­ther, that there is no need for me to ask you to watch over these breth­ren af­ter I have gone; I know you love them even as I, but I do this that they may the bet­ter re­al­ize the Fa­ther loves mor­tal men even as does the Son.

182:1.6“And now, my Fa­ther, I would pray not only for these eleven men but also for all oth­ers who now be­lieve, or who may here­after be­lieve the gospel of the king­dom through the word of their fu­ture min­istry. I want them all to be one, even as you and I are one. You are in me and I am in you, and I de­sire that these be­liev­ers like­wise be in us; that both of our spir­its in­dwell them. If my chil­dren are one as we are one, and if they love one an­other as I have loved them, all men will then be­lieve that I came forth from you and be will­ing to re­ceive the rev­e­la­tion of truth and glory which I have made. The glory which you gave me I have re­vealed to these be­liev­ers. As you have lived with me in spirit, so have I lived with them in the flesh. As you have been one with me, so have I been one with them, and so will the new teacher ever be one with them and in them. And all this have I done that my breth­ren in the flesh may know that the Fa­ther loves them even as does the Son, and that you love them even as you love me. Fa­ther, work with me to save these be­liev­ers that they may pres­ently come to be with me in glory and then go on to join you in the Par­a­dise em­brace. Those who serve with me in hu­mil­i­a­tion, I would have with me in glory so that they may see all you have given into my hands as the eter­nal har­vest of the seed sow­ing of time in the like­ness of mor­tal flesh. I long to show my earthly breth­ren the glory I had with you be­fore the found­ing of this world. This world knows very lit­tle of you, righ­teous Fa­ther, but I know you, and I have made you known to these be­liev­ers, and they will make known your name to other gen­er­a­tions. And now I prom­ise them that you will be with them in the world even as you have been with me—even so.”

182:1.7The eleven re­mained kneel­ing in this cir­cle about Je­sus for sev­eral min­utes be­fore they arose and in si­lence made their way back to the near-by camp.

182:1.8Je­sus prayed for unity among his fol­low­ers, but he did not de­sire uni­for­mity. Sin cre­ates a dead level of evil in­er­tia, but righ­teous­ness nour­ishes the cre­ative spirit of in­di­vid­ual ex­pe­ri­ence in the liv­ing re­al­i­ties of eter­nal truth and in the pro­gres­sive com­mu­nion of the di­vine spir­its of the Fa­ther and the Son. In the spir­i­tual fel­low­ship of the be­liever-son with the di­vine Fa­ther there can never be doc­tri­nal fi­nal­ity and sec­tar­ian su­pe­ri­or­ity of group con­scious­ness.

182:1.9The Mas­ter, dur­ing the course of this fi­nal prayer with his apos­tles, al­luded to the fact that he had man­i­fested the Fa­ther’s name to the world. And that is truly what he did by the rev­e­la­tion of God through his per­fected life in the flesh. The Fa­ther in heaven had sought to re­veal him­self to Moses, but he could pro­ceed no fur­ther than to cause it to be said, “I AM.” And when pressed for fur­ther rev­e­la­tion of him­self, it was only dis­closed, “I AM that I AM.” But when Je­sus had fin­ished his earth life, this name of the Fa­ther had been so re­vealed that the Mas­ter, who was the Fa­ther in­car­nate, could truly say:

182:1.10I am the bread of life.

182:1.11I am the liv­ing wa­ter.

182:1.12I am the light of the world.

182:1.13I am the de­sire of all ages.

182:1.14I am the open door to eter­nal sal­va­tion.

182:1.15I am the re­al­ity of end­less life.

182:1.16I am the good shep­herd.

182:1.17I am the path­way of in­fi­nite per­fec­tion.

182:1.18I am the res­ur­rec­tion and the life.

182:1.19I am the se­cret of eter­nal sur­vival.

182:1.20I am the way, the truth, and the life.

182:1.21I am the in­fi­nite Fa­ther of my fi­nite chil­dren.

182:1.22I am the true vine; you are the branches.

182:1.23I am the hope of all who know the liv­ing truth.

182:1.24I am the liv­ing bridge from one world to an­other.

182:1.25I am the liv­ing link be­tween time and eter­nity.

182:1.26Thus did Je­sus en­large the liv­ing rev­e­la­tion of the name of God to all gen­er­a­tions. As di­vine love re­veals the na­ture of God, eter­nal truth dis­closes his name in ever-en­larg­ing pro­por­tions.