Dialogue in the Desert

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KANSAS CITY, MO PU B Lf U ui u


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A DIALOGUE IN THE DESERT


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DIALOG tF EIN THE

DESERTGERALD HEARD

HARPER & BROTHERSPUBLISHERSNew York and London


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A DIALOGUE IN THE DESERT. Copyright, 1942, by Gerald Heard.Printed in the United States of America. All rights in this book arereserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any manner what-soever without written permission. For information address Harper& Brothers. FIRST EDITION C-R


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I N T R O D U C:v& : IONTHE BASIC THEMES OF HISTORY EACH AGEhas to render and accent in its own vernacular. Eachepoch makes its own version of the supreme epony-mous character in its social heredity. Caesar becauseof his

giftsand his circumstances became the type ofthe soldier who shatters liberty to give efficiency. So

Dante, who lives in a period of political libertinage,writes the de Monarchia and puts the assassins ofJulius in the deepest pit of his abominable hell. Evena greater poet has also to use the Caesar symbol. Hehowever is living in an epoch when men were be-ginning again to rise against the masters who prom-ised so much and gave such sorry performance thekings who called themselves Godlike but behaved likebeasts. So in Julius Caesar Shakespeare makes theproto-Emperor a vainglorious epileptic only allowedto appear in order to usher in the noble assassin who


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A DIALOGUEperishes at tfc&Jjaads of Caesar's hounds because heis too splendid to be understood by the people whomCaesar and his lackey Antony can always buy withlargess or intoxicate simply with rhetoric. The authorsliving in the dawn of this day of dictatorships suchas the German Mommsen again glorify Caesar.Swords not trowels build civilization. The armed ar-bitrary will of one man not the free co-operation of apeople is the source of all construction and creation.

There is however a more enigmatic and more influ-ential figure than the Caesar's that is the Chrisfs.He too has been interpreted as each age could under-stand him. The Good Shepherd in the simple draw-ings in the Catacombs, becomes in turn: the Protectorof the Empire; the awe-inspiring Pantocrator in theshining mosaics on the impend churches and palaces;the terrible Judge in the fanatic Dooms of the me-dieval cathedrals; the natural and sensible Teacher ofthe Age of Reason and Good Sense; the romantic Re-former who dies for his faith in the Romantic Revival-then, in our own time, to the Liberals the Liberalwho only wanted to free men from their supersti-tious reverence for the rigid letter and the dead hand

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IN THE DESERTof the past; and finally, to the Modernists who de-cided that he was a self-deluded enthusiast one whoby an historic accident gave rise to a workable faith.The latter four of these interpretations are all to befound in usage today. But none is actually ours. Theyare all, even the latest, past pictures. We have to makeOUT own. Nor is that all required of us; rather eachone of us has to make his own. Contemporary knowl-edge (anthropological, psychological, psychophysical)is far greater and less co-ordinated than at any pasttime. In the light of such information each of us hasto

tryand describe to himself how he believes a great

spirit would behave while seeking to discover for itselfits message. "Man imputes himself," "Studies of theChrist are studies of the student." So it must be. Butoften the very inadequacies of a sketch have been theoccasion whereby a real master was roused to makean adequate rendering. So may it be.

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A DIALOGUE IN THE DESERT


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The speaker in this dialogue, "the lonelyvoice of the desert/' is the Christ of theThree Temptations as outlined in the Gos-pels. The second voice is the "dark echo" ofand reaction from Jesus' own authentic

inspiration. He who said to Peter, "Get theebehind me, Satan!" does not seem to havebeen one who would have needed to see inthe desert an incarnate Tempter. That spiritof deceit spoke in his own mind and was an-swered there, although in the closing sectionit is allowed also to find actual voice andform.The "lonely voice" the first heard in this

dialogue is indicated by italic type, the"dark echo" by roman type, and by blanklines before and after.


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ADIALOGUE IN THE DESERT

More than a whole month now I wonderwhether . . . ?

Whether it really helps?They say the mind becomes clear and the will pas-

sive and you can see, not only what you should do,but things as they actually are. I wonder, I wonder:this intense fasting it does malce things seem clearerand different. But, more real? The mirage loolcs morelike actual water what would it look like if one wasas thirsty as one is hungry? Would not craving thenmake it look maddeningly real one would go stum-bling toward it, half knowing it was nothing, half still


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A DIALOGUEstriving to believe it was life. Vision comes to thefasting they say is that all? Should not the clearedeye see this desert world, uninfested by man, unstainedby life, not as empty and desolate, but as it was beforeman fell and nature was ruined as God sees it still,dazzlingly beautiful very good? But the miragesshimmer too fiercely: one must Iceep one's sensessteady, clear. It's hard to Icnow whether you are notgiddy when you watch them. Better concentrate onsomething nearer, in the middle distance that pieceof valley which IVe watched the last month as themountain shadow swings across it and one knows an-other day is over. That is steady and yet moving. Jwill watch and wait. . . .

There too, though, vision gets confused, the dustdevils are moving up and down. That one was so faintI thought it was eye strain which made the slope theother side become vague. This next one really theBedouin are right they are like angry dancing dervishes"His angels winds: His messengers a flash" are they,

could they be the efforts of some defiant force to ma-terialize and hurl itself in physical rage against thesolitary which dares trespass on the desolation where,banished, they wander seeking rest and finding none?


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IN THE DESERTNo, the middle distance is as confusing as the mi-

rage horizon. Fasting is a test that is clear. Youmust first see if you can keep steady and quiet underthis throbbing strain and hold against this deadly sink-ing. I must look at something quite close and definite,in the cool shadow. These small stones will do hardand smooth and plain. I'll keep looking at them.There is clear symbol of the patience God requires ofus. IVe seen them in the river worn down by years ofits flow. Once the river, cool and fruitful, must havepassed here how long ago only the Creator knowsThese stones were worn smooth and left here untilevery tree, grass and shrub vanished and they aloneremained baked by the incessant sun shaped by riverand then baked by sun like the small cakes the Es-senes used to give us at sundown how good theytasted after the day's labor. There, the stone hascheated one with a pretense of bread, as the air withits mirage cheated one with an illusion of water. Can'tone escape illusion? Even in the desert must dreamand fantasy, stirred up by appetite, like mud, pollutethe clear water of vision!Would one be let starve to death? If I became too

weak and couldn't cross that stretch of sand, the belt


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A DIALOGUE>f rocky ground, the ridge and then go down the longslope which leads at last to the river, back to the corn-fields, the granaries, would help come? There's not abird in that hard blue sky: yes there is one, a vulture-he's no giver, no messenger he's a reminder that myfear has sufficient ground to keep him posted. Well,to him it's a hope. God feeds him I suppose, and if Istarve then His other creature would be fed butpoorly . . .Even now that foot of mine on the stone is getting

like his claw the foot so lean; the loaffike stone sofirm and plump. Wouldn't He, who feeds the carrionbird, feed man, when this His child is seeking Hisway at least till the way is found? Then this poorbody, gladly the birds may pick the fragments exposedand scattered, in one of these ravines where man nevercomes. Or it's all the same (the birds will get theirprovender) swinging on some wayside gibbet; catch-ing every idly curious gaze "nothing to them all theythat pass by" but still worth while to the birds.

Surely he feeds the hungry if they have faith? Thestone that looks so like loaf the substance could bechanged in a moment, and there would be sweet4


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IN THE DESERTstrong bread: under the rocklike crust full nourishingcrumb. They say God needs only to be asked withabsolute faith if you are doing what He wills andHe provides makes stones that so look like bread bebread.

Why not?But if bread was to have been provided, birds would

have brought it an angel fetched it.

You must demand it be importunate. You've theright to command. It won't happen unless you do.The People were fed magically in the wilderness.YouVe an equal right to the same provision. Indeedthis is just a test case to see what you are made of.You know why you are here. The ordinary lifewouldn't do for you. Getting and spending they laywaste their powers. That's not the way for spiritualaristocrats. Your family is naturally aloof. You belongto the desert where you walk apart from man andwith God. You're here frankly and clearly (Nowyou see your mind is clear) to see whether that meet-

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A DIALOGUEing is to be kept God will not fail you, for you knowquite clearly that you are His Son and a father doesn'tgive his son earth when he asks bread or let him,when he's deadbeat with starvation, fancy he sees aloaf only to find it a stone it would be a shabby trickeven for a cad to play on his cub.

But, quite evidently, He does want you to try outyour powers. That's the test you're here for it's asclear as that bun-shaped pebble. You couldn't go onwith the Essenes. You saw they were simply waitingabout waiting for something to happen that neverdoes happen waiting for a sign,

a lead. Yes, they'reon the right tack, facing the right way that's the lifeno doubt. The highest life. But they are a camel trainwaiting for the leader that knows the way across thedesert to the oases. Meanwhile they wait and it can'tgo on. If a new way & radically new way is not foundsoon; well, they won't be let go on leading their sim-ple arrested life much longer. Either the world aroundthem will snuff them out this protected calm today,you know, is only a lull between storms this country-side, right out to the desert will be under fire andsword in another generation or they will simply go

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IN THE DESERTout of themselves the oil used up. No one can waitforever. Hope is a good starter but only faith wins andfaith that is not simply hope with a halo faith thatdoes things, creates things and no self-illusion aboutit either.Now there's the point. (Yes, your mind was always

keen and it was never clearer.) Either your Fatherworks miracles for his children who trust Him as youdo and seek Him as you have or well, you've beenmistaken perhaps blasphemous perhaps He is notyour Father and you have presumed. What has gottenclear as that tiny pool of water you drank from atdawn and you'll drink from at sundown, is the choice

the test either He is your Father and then Heprovides: you ask as His loved Son and He creates foryou, as He created, out of His love, the world at thebeginning. And then your path is plain. That's whythis is so obviously the reason you were driven to comehere. You were called to lead the highest and noblestsouls among men to follow you to an ever higher life

to follow you where they must attain or all theirpast effort is futile and must end to follow you wherethey and you would forever be safe from accident and

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A DIALOGUEdisaster to where you will show the whole worldhere, at last, is God's manifest recognition that this isthe real way, the life of creative faith, for we and wealone can create by faith our daily bread.You must work this miracle not for yourself hun-

gry as you are but for others for the sake of thenew age, you were born to initiate for the sake, thesafety, the salvation, the triumph of the best men whohave lived those Essenes to whom you owe so much

to bring their wonderful effort to fruition. But, youmustn't be afraid or be muddled in your mind. It'sclear there's no other possible choice before you.Here and now you must put it to the test and thenforever you'll know exactly where you are. You'll be,whatever happens, the world's one realist. It's just asimple straightforward case of "either" "or." EitherGod is your Father and you His beloved Son or He isnot your Father and you have gained complete sanityand insight by coming into this clear still lonelinessof the desert. If He is your Father then that stonelet's take a clear concrete case that water-worn peb-ble that looks so exactly like, in color and shape, a

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IN THE DESERTperfectly baked loaf becomes what it appears to bea real loaf!Not much of a miracle, but enough for a living man

to go on with, and enough for the hard-toiling Essenesto know as a sign that you are the Leader so longpromised. You won't be afraid, will you, to put yourfaith to the touchstone of fact? You have to take theplunge that's why you came here. You must decide.God waits your decisive word "Command that stonethat it become bread!"

And lead the Essenes into a land of easy plentyrich beyond the dreams of gluttony stones intoloafs? Why not then the bitter salt pools into milkthe sand into crystallized honey. And they and I tosettle down the desert an easier acre than the corn-field eating and sleeping working magic and thenagain feasting; until some king, learning of our secret,should carry us off as men skep bees and keep us asmagicians at his court to feed his armies: we the firstobject of his enemies' attack; for, till we are destroyedhe is

impregnable?9


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A. DIALOGUEExcuses, just excuses because you haven't the cour-

age to stake your faith. You're afraid the bread won'tchange at your word. By accident, outwardly it looksso like bread, but its substance, in hard fact, it's onlystone, and nothing you can say or do will change it.You haven't the nerve to own that!

Yes, I'm weak and dead hungry but still that's notthe real question. I will stick to that. The fact I'm;suffering and, yes, wanting bread with all my bodyevery appetite is at this moment just one demand"food" that's off the point and I won't be drawn offit by what's irrelevant though I drop dead. The ques-tion, the only question for my Father and so for me,is will the Essenes, will men (all of whom are just asmuch His children as I and He just as much theirFather, though they can't see He cares a rap or plansa straw for them), will these children be better for thispower? A day may come when He will answer theirgreedy cry: give them power to mate the desert a corn-fie/of the jock bread when they will have suchplenty that they will burn wheat and pour whole har-vests into the barren sea. Will His kingdom have come

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IN THE DESERTthen? On this your argument ft must. Bread andrighteousness are one make men rich and comfort-able and they will be good and wise. The rich havenot been so but wanton and arbitrary.The comfortable have not aspired but become slack

and gross. I am desperately hungry but I should bebeaten by my test and have sunk to an animal if I fellinto that trap. I won't be caught in your clever di-lemma. Faith demands more than you, cheap chal-lenger, can understand. Bread, yes, won by sweat ofthe brow, bread as a transitory means never as theend. If God does not give me bread and the power tomake it at my demand then that does not proveeither there is no God or I am not His son. He canmake these stones loaves He can also from thesestones raise Him up as easily fresh sons. You put thetest here and now that's all you can understand. Hemust save us now or I shall die, the Essenes be scat-tered and the case go by default the light will go outand His world sink into everlasting night. You thinkbecause the sun sets it will never rise again becauseyou don't know that the sun is infinitely greater thanthe earth. I know that because the sun sets it will rise

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A DIALOGUEagain, because the earth spins attendant in the sun'ssea of gloiy. As easily can man fall out of the hand ofGod as can the earth fall out of the light and hold ofthe sun. It is setting now our lives will set: they mustset to rise in their fuller power.Bread at will? Could man ever have that, and not

take bread, and the fleshly life it alone can sustain, asthe end? Wouldn't the spirit, in such a heavy grownbody, be sunk and smothered/ This life is a prelimi-nary thing. All this life man must be learning to diethimself for another way of living. It is not easy tolearn that it must demand a drive of energy easilydistracted. As he grew the mouth and throat in theW0mb useless there for the life of earthly feedinghe should follow here, so now in this close world hemust exactingly grow those spiritual organs so that hemay live hereafter. Man does not, cannot live by breadalone. If he does he dies. He lives, he only truly livesby each creative call made on him by his Father thathe grow to the full stature of that heavenly life. Andif he trusts the Creator as his Father then the stonemay be turned into bread but it is not for him, thechild, to dictate. Nor is the choice, as it must seem

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IN THE DESERTto one who is a materialist, either bread and proof ofGod, or starvation and atheism. For it is surely notless hard and quite as good for the Creator to makethe body, which He shaped, able to live without breadwhen He knows the time has come for it so to live,as it is to make that stone a loaf. While, when the soul,so freed, has grown he can and will release it fromthe body cover in which he has raised it.The stone can thus remain stone and He has an-

swered me by feeding me already. A word has comefrom Him and my hunger is stayed. The stone, turnedinto a loaf, would only have fed the body and thenthe spirit must have striven on it would have beendaily bread and then the task of feeding the soul wouldhave still remained. . . .Now, as the sun sets, the dark echo dies away. I feel

a strength rising up in me. This, then, is my Father'sgift not daily bread but bread of the coming dayof the life the spirit will lead. Yet it is no farfetchedfancy or delusion. I feel my body not only freed of itscraving but strong. I am breathing in a mysterious life.As I breathe more deeply and quietly my mind opensto the Gloiy of the Father. I am radiated with His


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A DIALOGUEunfailing and eternal strength this is the bread of lifewhich He gives to me and I am to give to men. Thespirit, filled with this strength, no longer weighed onby the body, instead carries the body tenderly with it.The night has come. I have seen one more step

leading to the source of all power. I will drinfc of thespring, lie down and sleep. Tomorrow I shall be testedand taught more.


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IN THE DESERT

Dawn again. The same outlook no revelation yet.Still, I know one thing and the worst doubt is dead.God is Father and He can and does supply our needsin many a way which, because we cannot understand,till it happens, we think impossible. That dilemma,which yesterday seemed so clear that I thought some-one spoke it in my ear, I know now was false. Therewas a third way between this choice either that stonebecomes bread or God does not care for me and I die.I am alive and I can stoop down and pick up thatloaffike pebble and feel no more the desperate cravingwhich cried in me yesterday it must be miracled intobread. It can stay stone and God stays, yes, He en-dures without this proof, for He has proved His powerto keep the body alive directly through the spirit. ThisI see is the true proof of His presence the only sureproof. Stone into bread would have meant that spiritcan persist, but only because the body, without whichspirit is nothing, is fed with material bread. Now, Ihave been fed, my spirit has been fed directly by thespirit of God. I have breathed in the eternal life and


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A DIALOGUEso it is not my body's feeding which proves the realityof spirit, but my spirit's power to upbear the body. Itproves, as naught else could, that spirit is not only itsown sustainer but the body's also.What now? It is clear that my hunger-inspireddream of making the beloved Essenes safe a littlemagic group raised forever above want that was toocrude, too small a fancy a material rendering of adivine truth. This bread of the coming day, this newpower of spiritual sustenance and growth so thatheaven begins here on earth this is no light to behidden in the desert caves or only carried in the citiescovered under a basket shared selfishly among thefew enlightened, when all the unnumbered peoplessit in night, in cold, in hunger. No, this is a message,good news for the world. The discovery that Faith canmagic desert pebbles into loaves might have served forthe Essenes. To the world the revelation must be giventhat there is a way and method now made known toman whereby he can be sustained and grow spiritually

with material bread if it is present without if it isnot. God feeds as He will never with spectacular rev-elation. He guides as His immense preknowledge16


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IN THE DESERTcan alone guide, so perfectly, so unobtrusively, withsuch consummate skill, that man's co-operation is al-ways being tested up to its limit and ;ust not to break-ing point. As the spinner draws the thread stronglyenough to make it tense and long, sensitively enoughso that, though always under the fullest strain, it shallnever break, so we are guided and watched every step.But only those who walk with God can be fully awarethat they are being guided the rest feel that it ischance a few others, that somehow things fall out sothat they learn and grow. God guides and those whoknow they are His children, know they are guided. Ihave been guided here and sustained here and nowwhen I was looking for my next step, and thought itlay deeper in the desert, back to the Essene house inthose barren hills by the Dead Sea, I am shown it isnot back to the Essenes I am to go.Then whither?|This wilderness is a dividing of the

ways. He who enters it either goes on until he comesto the mount of God and God takes him or he goesback with a message he has won for the world. EvenYohanan came back. It is clear I have more to tell.Yes, J must return and inform the people that there


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A DIALOGUEis a real way no dead ritual or formalized practicebut an actual method of being in touch, in revivifyingtouch with the living God. But how shall I catch theirear? If once I can get them to listen all's well. Theyare wary, though (and well they may be) of teachers!Those profound authorities who Icnow all the texts andjfceep themselves honored and comfortable, throughthe dues of their sacred traffic: those scornful puritanswho show how superbly unattractive is that goodnesswhich is exactly moral on every convention and ruth-lessly exacting in every case where only generosity canplead. How tell the ordinary puzzled Jkindly man jos-tled into unlcindness, hurried into baseness and vio-lence Low now catch his ear and tell him there is areal way, a new path open to God and that this wayis one, not of weary formalism or harsh precision buta way to reality and happiness for him and his harass-ing and harassed neighbors whoever they are, wher-ever they are? All the words are so worn, debased, ex-ploited. The people's attention must be arrested ifsthe only way. Somehow they must be struck}

They are dulled and stupefied and, after all, have18


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IN THE DESERTplayed so largely into the very hands which havetricked them. Why blame the official church and alsothe austere nonconformists. Here is the world's wisesttradition and the modern man's best effort to bringthat tradition directly into practice. If one is perfunc-torily formalized and the other an exhibition of shal-low scrupulosity, whose fault is that? The peoplewanted this kind of performance. They could only beimpressed with appearance. One can't honestly cen-sure the showing off though one may wish it wasmore than dressing up and face deep. What is clearhowever is that if you have something to give themas you have you must leam how to put it up to them.Well, it's out of the question that you will be let haveany official authority, at least for years, and then onlyif you're dead at heart and no longer want to use itwell and for them. You'd have as poor a chance ofbeing let in with the "unco guid." And even if yougot in with them what would you get? An uneasygrudged respect from the ordinary man, who'd dislikeyou all the more because he was ashamed of dislikingso intensely holiness holiness as you demonstratedit and he couldn't deny.


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A DIALOGUENo, you've got to demonstrate, in quite another

way a demonstration original, daring, because it willhave to show you are on a new line and yet it willalso have to show your line starts from the same rockof the one true religion a new start as all the greatprophets have made. You must throw down your chal-lenge so they can't mistake it or overlook it.Where? There's only one place. You must startyour new message in the Temple. There God willshow He recognizes you and if you receive divine rec-ognition there, there only will priest and Pharisee haveto accept your credentials. While the people massedthere think of the effect on them think how thenews would spread out like a speeding ripple through-out the countryside throughout the world "thepromised prophet has come!" The frost would indeedbe broken and a spring tide of new hope would runover hill and valley from village to town. At a strokehalf your mission would be done. You know the place.Ifs curiously like this crag you are standing on. Youremember climbing up there, when you used to behanging round the Temple, until you could crouchon that parapet and look sheer down into the dense

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IN THE DESERTcourt, its huge area carpeted with the crowd, thatcrowd from all over the world, all come to seek lifeand who of them finding it? Poor penned sheep mill-ing round, driven, shouted at, fleeced. Didn't you wishto call out, "Stop, stop, look, listen!" But then youyourself didn't know what to tell them You couldn'tthen even catch their poor blind interest for amoment.Now you see them again. There they are yet, at

this very moment all massed there, all blindly seek-ing all looking for water and bread and being givenmirage and stones. Now you know what they needand how to give it them. T?his is your post, your coignof vantage, here's your taking-off point, here's whereand how the great news can and can only be launchedand start, as the dove out from the ark, to a worldnow to start afresh. You did well to leave the amiableEssenes to their pointless toil, their dying routine,dying because they have cut themselves off from life.Your message is for nothing less than the whole eter-nal People. See, there as at the foot of this cliff, therespread the dense thousands of your race to whom theworld's destiny belongs, who are already, as was prom-

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A DIALOGUEised, as teeming as the sands every grain down therea human being a face turned up waiting your mes-sage a harvest of white faces ripe for you to reap.This is a crisis in the world's history. Here's the mo-ment when God, who has rested after creation, at lastmoves, intervenes, recognizfes by His support that youare His new word and message to men. The path youhave patiently trod has led you have been guidedthere can be no doubt to this spot.Have courage, have faith cast away fear here and

now you launch your message to the people. You can'thesitate. You know that those who trust, their everystep, even the least important is laid before them,prepared, smoothed, graduated. It was for this veryoccasion that the assurance runs he gives his angelsexact instructions to be about your every movementand even if a precipice yawns in your path, if theground opens at your feet, you pass serenely on, borneby their power. So, as God's ambassador, go down toHis waiting people, sweep down from His throne sus-tained and supported by those attendant messengerswhose protective power is earnest of His approval.Don't shrink or you doubt God and doubt His send-

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A DIALOGUE

My poor child left me yesterday. He said he mustgo home would I not come with him and Iceep onhealing all the other sick and wretched that he knew,even in his village. I have stayed. Suddenly as I wouldalmost have gone some echo in the back of my mindsaid:

Is that the way? You feared rightly putting the lightunder a bushel, burying your newfound treasure inthe desert again, leaving all the simple suffering tostumble on to their death in the dark. Seeing, youmust now lead the blind.

That was true, I see. The voice went on:

You shunned, too, the spectacular plunge, the levi-tation miracle with which to catch the poor people'swandering eye and ear. You wouldn't be a magicianany more than you'd conjure stones into loaves. Verywell, very good. You believe you see your way throughthe first barrier the food barrier. You believe you


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IN THE DESERThave discovered how the body, really inspired by thesoul which is drawing on God, may live, when it isnecessary, by the mysterious drawing in of the breathof God. Perhaps you have made a remarkable psycho-physical discovery. Quite likely though as you aredead honest you don't know how long it will work,or whether it is for everyone. But you are also prettycertain you see your way through the second barrier,too how to put over your message so men will reallyaccept it for themselves, neither bought by cheapbread, as Caesar buys them at Rome, nor by cheapshow a circus stunt which, if it proves anything tothem, only proves their narrow temple prejudices,their narrow world notions, are right. But now youhave cured the maniac of madness and fever and evenstopped his hunger you will own you gave him or-dinary water to drink now you are counting on thisbeing your royal road to men's hearts. We'll allowyou have a way open to the nervously wretched cer-tainly, to the sick quite probably, to the hungry evenpossibly. But that's only half the battle. Think it out.

All day long I have been thinking it out to the bitter33


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IN THE DESERTIt may be here is advice from God how best I can usethe message and the method he has given me.

There is no doubt a humble mind as yours can betaught and can see things as they actually are, whenmany a narrow fanatic, puffed with pride would dashhimself to pieces against facts. The world needs yourgospel. You are the Realist-idealist it wants. YouVeshown you are that, by seeing that the Jews themselvesare only a provincial little people. Your message is forthe world, not for one race let alone a sect such asthe Essenes. Now, if you were going to the Essenesyou could prove your bona fides with bread: if to theJews, by a sudden descent of Jehovah's messengerthe Lord they look for suddenly coming to His temple

all pat and prophetic. But these little certificateswon't give you the world, and as you, with your won-derful frankness have recognized, simply curing a num-ber of invalids and making them happily convincedthat the world is soon going to be changed into aworld of love and compassion where everyone accepts,and the whole discharges, unlimited liability well,youVe seen, the men in power are not simply going

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IN THE DESERTsimply to gather them round him, he must beat backand kill the wolves. It's clear you will never shrinkfrom risk to yourself. Arid look at the amazing appo-siteness of this moment? Here you are, immenselygifted with real superhuman powers. You only wantto serve mankind. And here is mankind gathered inthis generation at your feet. They have been driven tothe feet of their Good Shepherd by the wolves. Youcan speak to and heal the sheep the wolf does not,cannot understand. Him you will strike.The sun sets. Look out across the world, its vast

level beams make an avenue from the ultimate oceanto your feet across the vastest Empire the world hasever seen It lies at your feet this evening. Emperorscan rule men's bodies but they cannot enlighten andsave their souls. Prophets and saints cannot rule. Youcoming here and now, by what you are, can at last doboth. That you, the carpenter of a mean village onthat Empire's eastern rim should come to be called,as you will be, divine protector of the Empire wellthat would have stirred any other heart unwiselyperhaps, but how naturally. For surely it is God's rec-ognition that you are His beloved Son. Your stock

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IN THE DESERTyour sensitive and noble feelings, of taking the crownand the majesty, you who, if you cared for your owntaste rather than for saving men, would be meekthe price of being the soldier saint, who goes from hisheart's luxury of sweet communion with God, downto the battle where he knows that no violence to hisown feelings is too great a price to win salvation forothers. He knows that a mawkish gentleness is a fatalselfishness and that the man who, for fear of a spot ortwo on the fine record of his scrupulosity, won't righta vile wrong by violence is no true self-forgetfulSavior. He's only a Pharisee and has no real love ofman.'You see that. You see how you are placed a man

who has insight into both worlds. You are going tosave this world by understanding how alone it can besaved: by understanding how to use its nature, byunderstanding the actual means whereby it alone canbe altered. You are going to link ideals with realityas no one has done before. You are going to recognizeboth and equally that the kingdom of heaven mustcome here and now the time has come, but also thatHeaven can only be on earth if earth, which is physi-

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A DIALOGUEthe glory for they are yours, at the rightful price thatyou recognize. You are not merely prophet and healer,but above all a king. All this is yours, if you will bebrave enough to recognize reality and shun deceitfuldreams, the drugs of illusion and fancy, the easy be-lief that the world can be saved and your detachment,your ineffective innocency preserved,

that you canstay on a mountain uplifting people, praying andpreaching, and not only the gentle and disappointed,the weak and the ill will listen, but the iron Emperors,the soldiers of steel, the immovable men of gold willalso obey. Pharaoh would not let Israel go till theplagues finally killed the firstborn. If Moses had so tostrike, can you, against greater foes, do less? He onlywished for the people to be let go you are going tomake the Pharaohs themselves submit, or you havefailed.

All this is yours because the first great captain whohas your ideals will found the kingdom of God onearth. Look how close the Maccabees went to doingso. Issac became corrupt: had he been as noble asJudas all would have gone well and the kingdomwould have spread. And the Maccabees were not ofthe house of David that's why your family has had to

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IN THE DESERTlive so quietly all these years. The promises of God areto your stock, your family and are all fulfilled in you.If you move, the people will follow. The magnetismwhich heals the maniac will consolidate the massesastound and dismay the oppressors.You need have no scruples. Every day, don't theRomans commit some brutality which calls for Heav-en's vengeance: and many are losing faith becauseHeaven remains silent. We know why. Heaven iswaiting for you. You alone cannot blame Heaven ortry and shift responsibility on it. God has given youpower, opportunity, right of descent, strategic posi-tion. All this is yours yours to end the age-longwrong and to set up eternal justice at the price of ascruple.Yet you are right; it is a big price for a man as noble

as you. The common man is held back, is tested andfound wanting by his physical fear. He dreads defeat,torture, death. These are nothing to you. Your testthe lower could not understand. But I understand andsee it is the severest. You have to sacrifice scruple: yes,for a little, peace of mind for the sake of mankind andof their peace forever. You must love your neighbormore than you love your own matchless moral record.

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A DIALOGUEbeing behind the scenes for a moment. But there'sbehind the scenes and behind the scenes, or beingbehind the scenes there are places which are strategicand places which are just off the map. You mustn't,then, stay any longer out here. We've got plenty ofhideouts for you right at the center. Often the mosthidden place is right inside the hollow boards thatmake the platform of a throne. You're of the realblood-royal while all these others what are they?The Chief Priests are just Trustees whose whole au-thority comes because the People believe they arewaiting for you. Herod, of course, is simply the Romanpuppet and Pilate's authority runs just as far as aRoman javelin can be flung. Everyone, Hebrew,Greek, Roman, knows that If the People rose therewouldn't be a Roman or an Herodian left alive in sixhours. The country is solid behind us. We know it.We've worked at it for years. The mine is packed, thetrain laid.

What sect are you talking of?The Zealot organization! Its whole system is now

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IN THE DESERTWell, have it as you will better to take large views

perhaps and, who knows, it might well lead to a worldturnover. Rome is none too sure of itself. But you'llsee, if you're at all practical, it must start, anyhow,here. Here and here only is your opportunity. You'reless than a nobody anywhere else. Here you have apeculiar topical value. That Davidic look I don'tknow if you have the practical cunning of Jesse's sonmay be all the better if you have. But I do know

you have the appearance of the Hero-King. And that'swhat we want. We've had reports, too, that you canspeak, can hold people, grip them. It's a gift, thatcrowd magnetism. You may have nothing else well,we can substitute for all your other possible inade-quacies. We can get together a staff for you that willguide you in all practical affairs, if you make, as youwell can, just the inaugural appearances and speeches.So if you want to go far or if you are content to stayNumber One in the homeland, doesn't really matter.We can leave that for later discussions. Here andnow it all comes right down to the same thing youmust start here, whether your aim is Jerusalem orRome itself.

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A DIALOGUEI aim at something as far above Rome as Rome is

beyond Nazareth or Bethlehem.

Look here, is this magniloquence or have you beensun struck or moon struck in the desert, have you beenseeing visions?

I have been seeing visions.

Leave them now. This is a firm offer I'm bringingyou.

No more firm than rny faith.What's that?

That the means you are using will never establishthat Kingdom of Messianic righteousness for whichthe People long.

We're practical: we have to be: there is no otherway: we've tried everything else. We're the one partythat can really do something against the tyranny. All

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A DIALOGUEYes, I refuse . . . and I know the price. At this

moment in this dust I know where your mind is andwhere your hand. You said truly I am a king and Icingswho won't come to the thrones held out for them aretoo dangerous, I Icnow, to be left at large. I am a kingbecause I have the royal discernment. I read yourmind as a iking must. You are thinlcrng at this moment,"Why wait? Better now/" and your hand is on the hiltof your long Zealot Icnife. You pause at that. Why notgo back with an adequate report: that you told theParty's secrets to the man called on to serve, that herefused service and so you closed the matter in theonly efficient way, liquidating a life which had becomean obstacle, Jcnowing too much and refusing to act asrequired on that Jbiowledge?

Yes, you are a king, right enough. That's the kinglymind to read a subject's thought. But I'd havekilled you none the less had you only the king's in-sight. I can't, because you have the king's heart aswell. I know men. I've been organizing all my life. Itdoesn't cost me it never has even an extra pulsebeat to strike out a life which fails to serve the Cause

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A DIALOGUEI can't kill you. I'm simply not a good enough

Party member to be able to do it You're wrong andmay be I know little about Him you easily callFather you will wreck our Cause you could.

Then you should kill me. I shan't resist. Anyhow,a man who has fasted forty days is not a difficult exe-cution for one fit, fed and armed . . . and used tothe task.

Don't remind me. You know that, too. You seeinto the heart as long as there is a corner of it notyet turned to stone. I always hated that necessarytask. And so I always did it myself just to hardenmyself, and be, by each execution of a weakling ora false member, more certain of my own strengthand devotion. Each time they cried for, mercy or,worse, died with dumb courage, I knew I had cutmyself off further from any return. That's why Fm inthe key position I now hold. That's why you knowit_l Was sent after you with this offer this ulti-matum.

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Yes, I have found my message and I am on myway to tell the People. You are the first I have met.

Good; so I can tell you about others like me, for Iam one of the People whom you'll have to meet andwho will want to know what you are up to. You'llfind most people just indifferent. They're too busyor too harassed to go and hear any

'

organizer ex-cept for a casual few minutes. But a few will stick.Most of your people will think you crazy or swollen-headed a carpenter's son in Nazareth setting up asa teacher while just south over the hills we haveJerusalem itself trafEc-jammed with every kind ofscribe and scholar! But one or two will take to youjust because you are, they take it, one of themtheir small-town boy against the world. You'll havea little inside group then one that will hang on,listen and learn, whom you can instruct, indoctrinate.

Yes, there must always be a teaching for those whowould learn all that they may, to give their lives tospread the word of Life.

Very well: your little group will travel with you65


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A DIALOGUEand grow. Then and here's the point of what I'mtelling you probably someone who really means busi-ness, someone our organization may have overlooked,will join your gang. He'll be an outsider, pretty cer-tainly. He hasn't joined because you're of his villageand district He's joined because he wants somethingdefinite done. He won't be an enthusiast all flushedwith your fine words, full to windy content with yourclever little illustrations and telling stories. He'll beefficient, businesslike, an organizer.

You think he would look after the funds?

Yes, he might very well if you ever had anywhile the rest looked after the phrases, of which there'llbe aplenty. He'd be a practical man your one truefind. And I'm counting on that man to prove myreprieve has been right policy. He'll win you backover to the Party. You'll join us together and bringalong, too, the best part of the north.

No; I must disprove your wishful thinking. He willnot. Do not spare me on a false prophecy.66


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A DIALOGUEmy Father will be speaking to all who will hear Him.The faith in His love will not fail, no, not if my faithis as mooted as I ... no, not if after I have beenworshiped with the lips of Emperors and my word andmessage from the Father made of no effect, there arisesfrom this desert the succeeding world prophet, who,afraid to be thought a failure will listen to the falsevoice and take to the sword. Then such a faith maysweep away the sham which will be called mine anddestroy also the Persian Magians Rome was too wealcto shatter. And my church? Hemmed in and cut offfrom the Spirit of Life, disputing with sterilizing bit-terness over the letter, men who call themselves minewill torture and kill one another for differing aboutwho J am. Such is to be the outward fate of my ad-venture.Dare I then go on?Yes, for at this moment I may see as my Father sees.He Icnows His own and those to whom I am sent I

shall gather to Him. I am no prophet of the sword norone who appears blazing in the slcy. I am to lead menthrough this world to my Father's h'ngdom. J go toprepare a place for them. God's apparent indifference

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IN THE DESERTis indeed His patience. Each one of us, though it taketo the Age's End, must come of his own free choice.God is Ever. Therefore man may not say Never. At thishour I am part of the Eternal Patience. I will do andsuffer as it decrees. I am content so to serve. Alwaysbehind this apparent world, interpenetrating it, is thesupreme Presence of the Creative Love which sendsme out for this hour to start this great venture andthen to return: to return and watch with It, with allits divine foreknowledge and inner understanding, theunfolding of the supreme design the design whichcan only take on its meaning viewed from the stationof eternity.

I go. For the time being I see. For the time beingthe confusing clouds of illusion, the tempter voice,the world's practical schemings, all vanish. And thestars are sure, clear and encompassing. I go down intothe valley there that voice will return and confuseme, the dust will rise and my guiding stars will, formoments, be lost. I shall again find these doubts whichJ have laid, wrapped thiclcly round me. I shall hearmen asking me to guide and I shall asfc myself, havethey come to betray? I must often hesitate and slip.

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_A Dialogue in theDesert

is imaginative writing at itsbest. Here the Christ of theThree Temptations speaks.His is the Lonely Voice at-tempting in the quiet of thedesert to establish its identity.Answering the sure inspira-tion of that voice is the cold,hard logic of the Dark Echo.Thus highlighted in this des-ert dialogue is man's eternalconflict of right against wrong,of spiritual versus material.Gerald Heard has writtenmany books of significance forour time but only recently hashe turned to narrative writing.Whatever the form or the sub-ject, his writings have markedhim as one of the most stimu-lating and provocative authorsof our period. A Dialogue inthe Desert is memorable read-ing.


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(jrerala JLlearaIs a name which commands re-spect among readers who havefollowed the literature of thelast decade dealing with socialand moral problems. TheAscent of Humanity, TheThird Morality,, The Sourceof Civilization, and Man theMaster are among the booksby him which stand out asprobing analyses of modei'iiman's spiritual and socialplight. Equally provocative arehis two recently publishedbooks based on

portionsof the

Sermon on the Mount: TheCreed of Christ and The Codeof Christ. Mr. Heard is alsoan accomplished writer of nov-els of detection and of shortstories,

Gerald Heard was born inEngland and educated at Cam-bridge. His fortnightly broad-casts entitled "This SurprisingWorld" brought him consid-erable note as a lecturer. Heis now living in California,where his latest books havebeen written.


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Documents

Dialogue in the Desert