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April 1st, 1917
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Elias.
I will write a few words in respect to the sermon that you listened
to tonight on the question: Do the dead communicate with the
living?
The preacher1 is a believer in what he enunciated and
the only trouble with him is that he has very little knowledge of
the truths of spiritualism, and hence his ability to teach these
truths is very limited. The mere fact that the soul and spirit of
man continue to live when they shuffle off the mortal coil, as he
described it, is but the first truth of this great subject, and
is one that all spirits learn immediately upon their separation
from the body no matter what their religious beliefs may be or whether
they have any such beliefs or not. This fact is one about which
there can be no difference in knowledge. They all know, in a moment,
as it were, that there is no such thing as the death of the soul
- the real man. But this, as I say, is the mere beginning of knowledge,
and beyond the fact of this continuous existence, this knowledge
serves no purpose as to the destiny of man.
The preacher was much interested in the book2 about
which he was talking and found in it some statements that are confirmatory
of the beliefs that he already possessed, and some statements that
are new to him and which gave him somewhat larger views on the subject;
but necessarily these views are not of the vital truths which a
more complete or extended knowledge of spiritualism will give to
him.
The spirit of whom he was talking knew little more than what appeared
to his senses, and, of course, these things are only those that
come to the knowledge of the spirit when it first enters the spirit
land. Its truths are not learned in a moment, and frequently not
for centuries, and as to the higher truths, are never learned by
a great majority of the spirits. So that, what is contained in the
book referred to is very consoling to those who believe that their
loved ones are waiting to meet them, and will receive them when
they cease to be mortals, with love and affection and joy, and further
that these loved ones are with the mortals while on earth, watching
over them and trying to help them, yet no information as to the
lives that these spirits must lead in the spirit world as soon as
their status is determined by the great law of attraction and what
the future may be and is disclosed to them and for the reason that
the spirit communicant did not know.
But, as the preacher said, it is a glorious knowledge to possess,
that man after death, still lives, and that his soul does not have
to wait for some great resurrection day to realize that it has life
and consciousness.
The preacher is still in the dark as to the conditions of spirits
and their destiny, and as to the means provided to attain to the
heavens, and become released from the hells, by the Father's love.
To merely live is not the end of men or spirits, and the fact of
living as a spirit of today instead as a mortal of yesterday does
not demonstrate immortality; and the consoling thought that the
preacher expressed from the fact of continued existence after death,
are merely the wishes of desire based on such existence.
The preacher has at this time within his own soul that which is
freed from the limitations of his erroneous beliefs in many supposed
truths, would cause him to know that the life in the spirit world
is something more than the mere living, and that this living is
only a means to the realization and possession of that immortality
that is so often preached about and hoped for.
He has much of the Divine Love in his soul, and that soul is struggling
to expand and get in condition to receive more of this love, and
is prevented from so doing only by the erroneous beliefs that he
has imbibed and misconstrued by his long years of living in what
he calls, the truths of the Bible and the fear that if he loses
such beliefs or questions the truth of the source of his beliefs
there can be no salvation for him. And this is not surprising, for
he knows no source of correction of these errors of his beliefs,
and as a wise man - and wise only because he does not know how to
obtain greater wisdom - he holds on to his beliefs and reverences
the source thereof - and his intellect is satisfied. But the soul,
the important soul, which can be fed only by its own perceptions,
is like the imprisoned bird, panting and struggling to beat down
the bars of its imprisonment and get out into the freedom of God's
wide atmosphere. And his mind - the misguided mind - is the bars
of his soul's freedom and prevents it from opening up its own perceptions.
If the preacher only knew the truth and the way to open the doors
to his soul's prison, he would long for that truth and seek that
way with all the energies of his soul's powers, and would then become
free and progress towards the attainment of the certain knowledge
of immortality.
But this I will say now, that sometime he will learn the truth
and the way, and his beliefs will become in accord with the longings
of his soul and the shackles of his mind's erroneous beliefs will
be loosened and fall from him, and then he will realize that he
is a true son of the Father, privileged to partake of the Great
Love without limit in his onward progress to the Celestial spheres.
The church was filled with many spirits interested in the discourse,
anxious to learn any truths that might be declared, but they learned
nothing, for what he declared, as truths, they already knew, notwithstanding
that these spirits were of all kinds - wicked and dark and suffering
and bright and happy, and mostly still men without the physical
body.
Well, I thought it might be advisable to write as I have, so that,
if the preacher should ever hear this message, he will see the necessity
for seeking the deep and real truths that disclose the conditions
and destinies of the spirit of men. And besides, he will also realize
the importance of his knowing these truths, so that he may teach
them not only to men, but to spirits as well, who form the vastly
larger part of his audience. I will not write more now.
With my love and prayers for the Father's blessings
on you, I am
Your brother in Christ,
Elias
1 Rev J.L.Gordon, preacher of the Congregational Church,
10th and Y Street, Washington D.C.
2 "Raymond, or Life and Death," published in 1916. Written
by Sir Oliver Lodge (1851 - 1940) the world renowned physicist on
the death of his son Raymond who died in battle at Ypres in 1915,
the book is split into two parts,but at every stage each chapter
contains clear cross referenced evidence obtained by him of the
continuation of life after death.
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