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Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, a poor, miserable man who is without hope in this dark
and dreary world of lost souls, and surrounded by spirits who are
like myself - suffering from the effects of an evil life and a lost
soul.
I come to you because I have seen others come, and apparently receive
some benefits and, as you know, hope is a thing which will come
to us at all times, even though for a moment; and when I came to
you that moment was mine. But to be frank, I do not expect that
you can help me any, for the moment of hope has gone, and only my
dark and fixed despair is with me.
But as I have commenced to write, I will be polite enough to continue,
and show to you that I am not unmindful of the realization of the
benefit of the opportunity which you give us to come to you, and
of your kindness in listening to our tales of woe. And so if not
too troublesome I should like to tell you a little of my condition
and what brought it about. I mean as I now see things in their true
nature and relationship to cause and effect, and why I am in the
condition of darkness and suffering that now holds out to me no
hope of succor.
Well, when on earth, I was at one time a minister of the gospel
of Christ, and for a number of years preached, as I thought, his
truths of salvation to men; and at the same time actually and truly
believed in what I taught. But now I see that my belief was wholly
intellectual and not arising from the soul's inspirations; and my
teachings were also merely those, or rather my condition as teacher
was merely that of the teacher of a school or similar institution.
I never enjoyed religion in its true or soul sense, and all my
endeavors to teach others were made because I had a kind of realization
that I was called upon to pursue that course of life.
But my teachings, while others have been benefitted by them, never
benefitted myself. Well, after a while I got tired of this life
of the ministry, and in an evil hour, forsook it, and became a lawyer;
and then my thoughts were taken entirely away from things religious,
and as I progressed in the studies and thoughts of my legal profession,
there developed in me the mental condition of mind that required
every proposition asserted to be proved by convincing and irrefutable
evidence.
And this condition of mind grew in me, and to such an extent, that
nothing would I accept as true where faith merely was all that was
given upon which to base the truth. And, as a consequence, I became
a reader of books that were called scientific, and showed me the
absurdity of receiving as an established fact, anything which could
not be demonstrated by my five senses in conjunction with my reasoning
faculties.
After a while, the question of God's existence and the truth of
the genuineness of the Bible, and the reality of religion came before
my skeptical mind in a new light, and as I had associates whose
minds were in a similar condition to my own, I rejected the truth
of all these things, and became an infidel without a God or saviour
even in a mental sense.
And so I continued to live in this condition of mind, which all
the time became as the years went by, more skeptical, and my soul's
development, as I now see, what little it then had been, ceased
and I became dead, and dead beyond resurrection.
In my ministerial life I taught, and mentally believed in, the
ministrations of the Holy Spirit, and its functions in awakening
man's soul to a realization of the necessity of seeking the love
and favor of God. And I also preached that without the work of the
Holy Spirit it was impossible for any man to become the possessor
of God's Love, or to be accepted by Him as a child redeemed. And
I also preached that to reject the benefit or the work of the Holy
Spirit or as the Bible says, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit,
was to become guilty of the unpardonable sin, for which there was
no forgiveness. And after I became a skeptic, as I have said, I
was guilty of this very sin, for I, while ever respectful in my
declarations as to things religious, often vowed and asserted that
the Holy Spirit was a myth, and that it did not work to save men's
souls, and could not. That all who believe in such silly tales,
were of shallow minds, and needed to be educated to the truths which
could only be obtained by developing their minds and be made to
realize that whatever their senses, together with their reasoning
powers did not prove, or rather accept as proved should be rejected.
So you see, I, according to the Bible teachings committed this
unpardonable sin, though while on earth I did not believe that I
had; and, in fact, did not believe there was any such sin to commit;
but, alas! how many of my associates, men of bright minds and loving
and kindly souls committed the same great sin.
I died, and when I died and became a spirit my beliefs came with
me and remained with me for a long time; and I enjoyed considerable
happiness in the exercise of my mental qualities in the pursuit
of certain studies in regard to the spirit world. I met many congenial
spirits, and in our interchange of thoughts, I found much that was
interesting and profitable. But after a while for some unaccountable
reason these pleasures of intellectual enjoyment ceased to have
the satisfying properties that they had at first, and I felt that
there was something wanting though I did not realize what it was,
and my companions could not tell me.In my wanderings I met many
spirits, and always being eager in the search of truth, I did not
hesitate to ask questions of those whom I thought might be able
to enlighten me, and at last, in my pursuits, I came across a very
beautiful and bright spirit - the most beautiful that I had seen
- and being curious in its best sense, I asked what was the cause
of his beauty and brightness and apparent happiness, and in a voice
that was all love and with a look of great pity and sympathy, he
told me that there was only one cause and that was that through
the ministry of the Holy Spirit he had received the Love of God
in his soul, and that as a result of that Love from an ugly and
dark spirit he had come into the condition in which I saw him.
You can imagine my surprise. It was like a thunderbolt out of a
clear sky. It was proof, plain, palpable and convincing that the
Holy Spirit was a real thing, that it does cause the love of God
to flow into the souls of men and spirits and that its work brings
such glorious results. Where now was my belief that only five senses
and the reasoning powers of my mind were the only things that could
show me the truth. Oh, I tell you it was a shock! And then there
came back to me the teachings of the Bible and my early life as
a minister, and with these recollections came the conviction of
the awful mistake that I had made while on earth. And worse than
all, and what sounded my everlasting doom, came the memory that
I had blasphemed and committed the unpardonable sin against the
Holy Ghost, and that for me, never through all eternity was there
any possibility of forgiveness.
Why should not all hope die within? It did, and can you be surprised
when I tell you there can be no hope, and that I must suffer and
remain in this condition of darkness and soul death through all
the long years of the future.
So you see that, that one moment of hope when I came to you, or
rather which caused me to trouble you with my unhappy story of why
I am beyond all hope of forgiveness or expectation of any happiness
or life in the outstretching future.
So my friend, I am in the position of Dives; I cannot myself be
benefitted by his knowledge of the truth of the Holy Spirit, and
the certain doom which arises from blaspheming its work and mission,
yet I can tell you to sound the warning to all mortals that they
must not deny the Holy Spirit or speak words of blasphemy against
it.
Well I have taken up more of your time than I should have done,
and I will stop writing.
My name was S. B. C._____. I lived in Glasgow, Scotland, and I
died in 1876, in a fatal and false belief, and a traitor to my young
faith.I would say, that if you could show me that what you say is
true, I would be the happiest man in all the spirit world, and that
I would seek for this love of God with all my heart and soul. But
I feel that you are raising in me false hope. Well, if you are speaking
what you know, I will try to believe what may be said to me; and
I assure you that I will listen most attentively, and respectfully
to what may be said, and of course, if there is any hope held out
to me I will grasp it and never let it go away from me. But it will
be hard for me to believe that there is any forgiveness for me.
Yes, I promise that I will try to listen without having my present
beliefs influence me, as far as I can.
Well, I see a great number of spirits - some are very unhappy and
some not so unhappy, but dark and forbidding.
Yes, I see some bright ones, just like the one who told me that
his beauty and happiness came from the work of the Holy Ghost in
his soul.I have told her what you said, and she says to me: "My
dear brother you are mistaken in thinking that you are beyond forgiveness,
for the Father's mercy is so great and His love so abundant that
they are sufficient to redeem the vilest sinner that ever existed
or ever will exist in all His great universe. So if you will come
with me, I will show you the results of this Mercy and Love of the
Father, and you will soon realize that this mercy and love is for
you, even though you now believe that you are past redemption."
And she looked on me with such love and sympathy, that I already
feel that I may be wrong, and I am going with her. So my very dear
friend, I will come to you again and tell you my experience with
your grandmother.
So believe that I am so thankful to you for your interest, and
permit me to subscribe myself.
Your thankful friend, and so good night.
S. B. C.___
This is not Stephen B Elkins,
because Elkins was known to Padgett, and S.B.C lived in Glascow..
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