I APPEAL UNTO CAESAR
Works of Geraldine Cummins
The Cleophas Series
THE SCRIPTS OF CLEOPHAS
PAUL IN ATHENS
THE GREAT DAYS OF EPHESUS
WHEN NERO WAS DICTATOR
AFTER PENTECOST
—–
THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS
THE MANHOOD OF JESUS
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
THE ROAD TO IMMORTALITY
BEYOND HUMAN PERSONALITY
THEY SURVIVE
TRAVELLERS IN ETERNITY
PERCEPTIVE HEALING
Irish Novels
THE LAND THEY LOVED
FIRES OF BELTANE
I Appeal Unto Caesar
(THE SCRIPTS OF CLEOPHAS)
BY
GERALDINE CUMMINS
FOREWORD BY
THE REV. B. A. LESTER, B.A. (OXON)
Special Edition for
PSYCHIC BOOK CLUB
48-49 OLD BAILEY, LONDON, E.C.4
First Published 1950
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY CHARLES CLARKE (HAYWARDS HEATH) LIMITED
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
- FOREWORD BY THE REV. B. A. LESTER, B.A. (OXON).
- (ACTS XXI). ST. PAUL SAILS FROM PAMPHYLIA, DISEMBARKS AT TYRE, WHERE HE MEETS. MARK. MARK BRINGS HIM A MESSAGE FROM PETER URGING HIM NOT TO GO UP TO JERUSALEM BECAUSE OF THE ANTAGONISM OF THE HIGH PRIEST.
- AGABUS PROPHESIES. UNDETERRED BY HIS WARNING PAUL DECLARES HE WILL GO UP TO JERUSALEM WITH THE GIFTS FROM THE GENTILE CHURCHES FOR THE BRETHREN.
- THE TALE OF “THE BRAWLING VIRGIN.”
- PAUL’S JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. HIS MEETING WITH JAMES, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
- PAUL COMMENDS THE PROJECT OF MARK TO WRITE THE LIFE OF JESUS.
- PAUL IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE.
- THE PURIFICATION OF THE SAINT OF TARSUS IN THE TEMPLE.
- PAUL IS ATTACKED BY HIS ENEMIES. ROMAN SOLDIERS RESCUE HIM FROM THE MOB.
- PAUL IS BROUGHT BEFORE THE CHIEF CAPTAIN LYSIAS IN THE CASTLE.
- PAUL APPEARS BEFORE THE HIGH PRIEST AND THE COUNCIL OF THE ELDERS.
- PAUL’S SISTER’S SON ADAIAM WARNS HIM OF THE YOUNG MEN’S PLOT TO ASSASSINATE HIM.
- ANANIAS, THE HIGH PRIEST, THREATENS JAMES. JAMES REFUSES TO EXPEL PAUL FROM “THE SECT OF THE NAZARENES.”
- HOW ADAIAM GAVE HIS LIFE FOR PAUL.
- PAUL IS BROUGHT FROM JERUSALEM TO CAESAREA. HE ENTERS THE TOWN RIDING BETWEEN TWO SOLDIERS, HIS HANDS BOUND BY A CHAIN TO THEM.
- THE ROMAN GOVERNOR FELIX DEMANDS THAT THE HIGH PRIEST SHOULD COME TO CAESAREA TO MAKE HIS ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE PRISONER PAUL.
- PAUL’S TRIAL. FELIX SILENCES ANANIAS AND ORDERS THAT THE PRISONER SHALL BE KEPT IN PRISON WHILE THE MATTER IS FURTHER INVESTIGATED.
- THE RISE FROM SLAVERY TO POWER OF FELIX AND HIS BROTHER PALLAS.
- SIMON MAGNUS DEMONSTRATES HIS MAGICAL POWERS TO FELIX AND QUEEN DRUSILLA. FELIX PERSUADES HER TO REFUSE TO RETURN TO HER HUSBAND, KING AZIZUS.
- FELIX IS HAUNTED BY VISIONS OF THE VICTIMS HE HAS CAUSED TO BE MURDERED IN HIS RISE TO POWER.
- THE CHRONICLE OF MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS.
- MARY VISITS PAUL IN THE PALACE AND CURES HIM OF HIS FEVER.
- PAUL IS CONSULTED BY FELIX AND DRUSILLA. PAUL CURES THE GOVERNOR’S “DISTEMPER OF SOUL.”
- THE YOUTHS, WHO HAD TAKEN AN OATH TO SLAY PAUL, SEEK TO ASSASSINATE HIS GENTILE DISCIPLES, SOPATER AND PHILOMENUS.
- THE FEUD BETWEEN GREEKS AND JEWS IN CESAREA. THE GREEKS PLUNDER THE HOUSES OF INNOCENT JEWS AND SLAY THEM IN REVENGE FOR THE MURDER OF PHILOMENUS.
- SIMON THE MAGE HAS URGED FELIX TO GIVE PAUL UP TO HIS ENEMIES IN JERUSALEM, FOR THEY HAVE THE EAR OF CESAR AND WILL CAUSE THE GOVERNOR’S DOWNFALL. FELIX COMPROMISES, DOES NOT SET PAUL FREE, NOR DOES HE SURRENDER HIM TO THE HIGH PRIEST AT JERUSALEM.
- FELIX IS RECALLED TO ROME. THE END OF FELIX AND DRUSILLA.
- PAUL’S TRIAL IN CAESAREA BEFORF FESTUS, THE NEW GOVERNOR. HE CLAIMS HIS RIGHT AS A ROMAN CITIZEN TO BE JUDGED BY CAESAR.
- FOR EIGHT SEASONS PAUL HAS BEEN IN CHAINS IN HEROD’S PALACE. HIS VISION OF AN ANGEL.
- HEROD AND BERENICE HIS SISTER COME TO CESAREA. PAUL TESTIFIES BEFORE THEM AND FESTUS.
- HEROD SEES PAUL PRIVATELY. THE KING IS AMAZED AT THE SAINT’S UNWORLDLY REJECTION OF THE HANDSOME OFFER MADE TO HIM.
- IN THE COMPANY OF LUKE AND IN THE CHARGE OF JULIUS, THE CENTURION, PAUL TRAVELS IN A SHIP TO SIDON.
- ADVENTURES ON THE VOYAGE AFTER DEPARTURE FROM SIDON. THE CAPTAIN REJECTS PAUL’S ADVICE TO SEEK THE SHELTER OF FAIR HAVENS.
- “THE DRAGON OF NIGHT THAT BESTRODE MOUNT IDA.” THE STORM.
- THE CREW PLAN A REVOLT. PAUL’S ELOQUENCE SUBDUES THEM AND PREVENTS THE MURDER OF CENTURION AND SHIPMASTER.
- THE MADNESS OF DESPAIRING MEN. PAUL BECOMES LEADER AND CAPTAIN, AND THEY OBEY HIM. THE SHIPWRECK.
- MELITA. THE ISLANDERS HAIL PAUL AS THE SEA GOD. HE CONVINCES THEM HE IS THE MESSENGER OF A MIGHTY GOD. CHAINED TO A SOLDIER HE TRAVELS IN A VESSEL TO ITALY. HE APPROACHES ROME AND BELIEVES THAT NOW WILL COME THE FULFILMENT OR DESTRUCTION OF ALL HIS DREAMS.
- APPENDIX 1.THE WORK AND JOURNEYINGS OF JOHN, THOMAS, ANDREW, SIMON MATTHIAS, THADDEUS AND OTHER DISCIPLES.
- APPENDIX 2.SON OF MAN AND SON OF GOD.
- APPENDIX 3.THE CHRONICLE OF MARY. NOTES BY THE REV. B. A. LESTER, B.A.
FOREWORD
BY THE REV. B. A. LESTER, B.A. (OXON)
THE story that is told in these pages is a remarkable one and lets us into the heart of one of the most critical and dramatic moments in the growth of the early Christian Church.
We are given a view as it were from a near angle into that drama of Christian development with which the record of St. Luke is concerned in the Acts of the Apostles, and the intensity of which so frequently and poignantly reveals itself in the letters of the Apostolic Champion and hero, St. Paul.
For Christians of today, Christianity is a World Religion- The Gospel of the Redemption, not of a race or a nation, but of Mankind. This is taken as a fundamental assumption. Rightly so, for it is implicit in the teaching of Christ. But our thankful appreciation of this universality is all the greater as we come to realise the length and painfulness of the struggle through which the fiercely nationalist zeal of disciples whose early hopes were expressed in the words “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel,“ was at last translated and spiritualised into a great and catholic hope for Man and the sense of a citizenship through Christ in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor Barbarian, Bond nor Free-the
“Urbs Sion unica, mansio mystica, condita coelo” of the rhythm of Bernard of Cluny.
In this drama there is perhaps no more cardinal moment than that in which the Apostle of the Gentiles, by appealing to Caesar, transfers the centre of interest-and of controversy- from the fanatically nationalist courts of Jerusalem to the very heart of the civilised world.
Let me say here that this book, “I Appeal Unto Caesar,” contains a story within a story, and readers will, I hope, be led to read also “The Scripts of Cleophas,” “Paul in Athens,” “The Great Days of Ephesus” and “When Nero was Dictator.” For those that do so the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul’s Epistles will open themselves as never before and they will turn to them with a new interest and a more vivid sense of real and human drama.
The language in which the story is told is simple and clear. At times it rises to the heights of poetry and the imagery strikes the mind like a flash of lightning, as when the tossing ship in the storm-stricken Mediterranean, is seen as a “Stag of the Sea”- nor is a touch of humour absent as when the High Priest is portrayed as of monstrous girth “As the Girth of Jonah’s Whale !” And throughout there is a sense of drama-a drama of poignant human life with something felt to be working behind it and through it that is more than human.
It has been given to Miss Cummins-for whose long, faithful and exacting work readers will feel more and more grateful the more carefully they study it-to pen for us this story. But its ultimate origin and composition are not hers. There are spheres of technical and historical research involved, wherein the story moves at ease, which-gifted as she is-she has not chosen herself to explore. She has penned the work but not composed it, nor yet has it been dictated to her by earthly voice. That which has guided her hand makes no claim to be infallible or divine but does claim to have drawn upon a certain “Tree of Memory” wherein the sayings and doings of the past have left their trace.
We are perfectly free to criticise and check up with the aid of all historical and scientific research available, all that is here told us-and any student of the Acts who reads such a fascinating work of historical and topographical research as Professor W. M. Ramsey’s “St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen” will be amazed at the way in which the story in Miss Cummins’s scripts. “rings true,” expands and explains. “How these things can be” scientific psychology is not at present in a position to say, nor is there any guarantee that science alone, without the help of some further mode of understanding, will ever be.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth” than are dreamt of in contemporary philosophy. And, if it can be argued that, while that may well be so as regards the “Things in Heaven,” it is to be desired that, at least, the “Things on Earth” should confine themselves to the strict paths of decent normality, and that where the veil parts evil may come in, I would confidently reply that, as regards this book, there is no evil here. We are bidden in the Scriptures to “try the Spirits” and we are given excellent criteria by which to try them.
In this story we are helped by a vivid sketch of a dramatic moment in the life and work of the Great Apostle of the Gentiles to a deeper realization of his difficulties and to a deeper sharing of his faith. We turn back to the scriptures with a renewed interest in that vivid drama through which the Spirit of God was cleaving the way for the message of Christ to the uttermost parts of the Earth. Such is not the guidance of “Carrion Spirits of the Abyss.”
In the stormy world of today where philosophies of a dialectic materialism that admits no God, and passionate nationalisms that have no spiritual vision beyond their own borders would seem to be the sole contending forces, the story in these pages may help to re-awaken in the minds of some the eternal message of The City of God.
I would commend the book with the words of the old Welsh writer, Ellis Wynn, who thus prefaced his strange story of the “Visions of the Sleeping Bard”-“A ddarlleno ystyried”. “Whoso readeth, let him consider.”
NOTE
As in the case of the other volumes of The Cleophas Scripts, this present book is claimed to have been dictated to Geraldine Cummins by “The Messenger of Cleophas.” It was written in my presence and the manner of writing was precisely the same as that which has been previously described.
Chronologically, this book follows The Great Days of Ephesus and precedes When Nero was Dictator. For various reasons it has hitherto been withheld from the public. But since the publication of The Childhood of Jesus and The Manhood of Jesus, it seems now to fall into place seeing that an account is given herein of the wanderings of the Mother of Jesus after the death of her Son on the Cross.
In his Foreword Mr. Lester refers to Professor W. M. Ramsey’s “fascinating work, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.”I can assure readers that Miss Cummins has not read this book, nor has she ever visited south-eastern Europe.
E. B. GIBBES.
ハァ、ハァ、ハァ、山に行き続けるために鍛えないといけない、という事でロードランを先週から復活させましたが今週もやりました。スゴイキツイ、しかしだからこそやらないと。明日がコワイ。
さぁどうしたもんでしょうか、こういう作業はやった事がありませんのでまずはテストで書籍冒頭部分を抜粋してみましたが、イヤーこれはくじけるかも知れない。ちなみにこの書籍はパウロの伝道記ですよ。山本貞彰氏が翻訳しなかった書籍となり、この書籍の日本語版は存在しません。
もう復刊の作業自体が完全にボツの状態になってしまっていますので(ボツの真相について長文ブログ内で書き残すつもりですが)書籍テキスト化の作業自体が無意味に思える事もありますが、イヤそれを言っちゃいけない、霊的知識普及および自分自身のお勉強という事で十分意味があります。
「I Appeal Unto Caesar」OCR変換まで完了中、これからGoogle翻訳に入るという段階、「シルバーバーチの霊訓 4巻」テキスト見直し30%完成中。宇宙書籍1冊注文中ですが、復刊がなくなった僕はもう自分で本を書くしかない状況ですので、書籍執筆お勉強用として宇宙書籍をもう少し入手した方がイイと思い始めています。
キャラデザほぼ終了中、ネームを描き上げて原稿用紙に線画を描き始めますが、とにかくあの作業もこの作業も全く脱出につながらないこの恐るべき絶望感。しかし帰幽1秒前まで僕は脱出をあきらめない、それくらいイヤがっている、絶対に閉じ込められ続けるのは拒否するという事です。何としても脱出の糸口をつかんでみせる、死んでもあきらめない(祈)†