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March 8th, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here St. James, Apostle of Jesus.
I come to write my message as Elias told you I would. Well, I desire
to write on the subject of: "What is the great truth respecting
the way that the destruction of the powers of temptation, that arises
from the perverted man, may be restored to the condition of perfection
which the first parents possessed before their fall?"1
You will understand that this does not involve any consideration
of the operation of the Divine Love upon the soul, but exclusively
the consideration of the method by which the soul may be so purified
by the operations of the actions and the will power, in conjunction
with or influenced by the workings of the powers of the spirits
who have been relieved of the sins and errors that followed the
fall.
When man was created, as has been told you, he was created perfect,
and every quality and function and attribute that was a part of
him was so created that harmony - the most exact with the laws of
God that governed his existence - became his, and no discord of
any kind was in existence to mar that harmony. But as the spiritual
nature of man became subordinated to the appetites and passions
and fleshly desires, sin and error and inharmony appeared and increased
until man became degraded, and desired only those things that would
satisfy these sinful desires.
And so this degeneracy continued until man reached his lowest degradation,
and the turning point came in his career, and then he commenced
slowly and gradually to rise from this condition of depravity until
at last, he arrived at the stage of his condition of inharmony with
these laws of his creation that now exists; and his destiny is to
a complete restoration to the perfection of his first estate.
This improvement and gradual restoration depend upon two causes
- one, man himself by his own thoughts and reformation of the animal
appetites and desires; and the other, the influence and guidance
of spirits who, in the spirit world, have arrived at that perfection,
or are progressing thereto, and are in a condition of harmony with
these laws, superior to that of mortals to whom they lend their
influence and help.
Men, in their degeneracy or progression, are controlled very largely
by their thoughts, and these thoughts are created by the operations
of their desires, and which on the other hand, cause these desires
to increase. But back of the thoughts are always these appetites
and passions existing in their abnormal conditions, and they constitute
the basic or moving cause of desire and thought and act. So that
in order for men to become relieved of his abnormal desires and
thoughts and acts, the cause thereof must be eradicated, and the
seat or function of the cause be brought into harmony with laws
of the creation of these functions or seats of emanation.
And strange as it may seem to you, and by a process that is contrary
to the ordinary workings of the law of cause and effect, men must
first deal with the effects in order to control the cause and thereby
destroy the effects. This may seem to be an impossible operation,
and contrary to the laws that govern the material world and its
ordinary functioning, but yet it is possible, and the only possible
way in which the causes may be destroyed. Notwithstanding the fact
that the animal or material part of man has had the ascendancy,
for all these centuries, over the spiritual part of his nature,
yet that spiritual part exists and has always existed and is waiting
to assert itself whenever the opportunity occurred, and this assertion
was prevented or suppressed only by reason of the want of opportunity.
The spiritual may be said to be the natural state. I mean that
in that state, the animal is subordinate to the spiritual and is
controlled by it, and man's true tendency is to exist and act in
accord with that natural state. Then such being the fact, it may
be asked why, or in what manner did this natural spiritual condition
become, in the manifestation of what man's dominant dualities are
supposed to be, subordinated to the control of the inordinate exercise
of this animal side of his nature, which resulted in the sin and
unhappiness that so many of the teachers and philosophers proclaim
to be his natural condition?
Well tonight, I will not attempt to explain the manner in which
this inversion or perversion of man's true nature took place, but
will at some future time write on this subject.
The question now is, how can man obtain the restitution to his
created perfection?
As I have said, this can only be accomplished by making the perfect
adjustment of the two apparent conflicting sides of his nature.
And first, he must recognize that he has the spiritual nature as
well as the animal, and that there is such a relationship and coordination
between the two that the supremacy of the latter disturbs the harmony
of his perfection as man. The spiritual having been subordinated,
the remedy is to remove the subordination and restore the equality.
The spiritual, notwithstanding its condition, is always fighting
to regain its place in the true adjustment and will always answer
the call of man, to come to his rescue; and the only thing that
has prevented that response is that man has not called for it to
assert itself.
Well I am sorry, but we had better postpone until later. Try to
get in greater rapport. Good night.
Your brother in Christ,
St. James
1This distorted sentence is evidence of poor rapport.
It probably should read: "What is the great truth in respect
of the way that the perverted man may be restored to the condition
of perfection which the first parents possessed before their fall?"
This is the beginnings of a really good message, but it was sadly
never continued. However it seems to support some of the approaches
used by AA, where in order to address alcoholism, a degree of spirituality
is introduced. What we see in this message, is St James suggesting
that the solution to any of these animal failings, is to strengthen
the spiritual side.
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