{"collection":"Spiritualism & Psychical Research","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/archive_org_doyle-spiritualists-reader/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/archive_org_doyle-spiritualists-reader","id":"archive_org_doyle-spiritualists-reader","license":null,"rights_basis":"archive_org_open:pre_1929_us_pd_heuristic:year=1924","source":"archive_org","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/doyle-spiritualists-reader","summary":"","tags":["Spirit writings;Spiritualism"],"text":"The \nSpiritualists\u2019 Reader \n\n\nA Collection of Spirit Messages \nfrom many sources, specially \nprepared for Short Readings \n\n\nCompiled by \nSir Arthur Conan Doyle \n\n\nAuthor of \n\u201cThe New Revelation,\u201d \u2018The Vital Message,\u201d \n\u201cThe Evidence for Spirit Photography,\u201d &c. \n\n\n1924 \n\u201cTWO WORLDS\" PUBLISHING CO. LTD., \n18 CORPORATION STREET, \nMANCHESTER. \n\n\nPREFACE. \n\n\nIt has seemed incongruous to many Spirit- \nualists that in our services we make so little use \nof the glorious communications from the other \nside. We have a literature which is unapproached \nby that of any other religion or philosophy in the \nworld, and we do not take adequate advantage \nof it. It has been my pleasant task, therefore, \nto make a series of extracts from some of my \nfavourite spiritual books in the hope that they \nmay be useful to those who have to conduct \nservices and who have not the time or opportunity \nto make a selection for themselves. \n\n\nI have not arranged the quotations under \ntheir separate headings in a large way, but each \nbears its own description, and by consulting the \nindex a reader who wishes to treat any particular \nphase of our knowledge can easily find his material. \nSuch a reading should, in my opinion, form an \nintegral part of every Spiritualist -gathering, so \nthat our people may be accustomed to hearing \nthe wisdom and the beauty of the utterances \nfrom beyond. \n\n\nIt is very essential, however, that it should \nbe well read, and good reading is a rare accomplish- \nment. If the officiating minister has not got it \nhe should find some one in his congregation who \nhas, and he should confide the task to him. Many \ngood earnest clergymen ruin their own efforts \nby the unnatural voice which they adopt, which \nis enough to spoil by its artificiality the effect of \nthe most beautiful passages. Simplicity and \naudibility are the two essentials for good reading. \n\nIn dealing with spirit utterances we do not, \nof course, ascribe infallibility to them, especially \n\n\nwhen they deal with matters of speculation. \nSpirits are finite like ourselves, and the higher \nwill often intervene to correct the views of the \nlower. At the same time, though the contents \nof this book are merely like a few heads of grain \npicked from a vast field in order to show the \nrichness of the harvest, the reader cannot fail to \nbe struck by the high level of the messages and by \ntheir remarkable agreement in essentials, although \nthey are drawn from so many sources. \n\n\nWe can never expect absolute unanimity. \nPeople have their own point of view there as here. \nA narrow man is not instantly converted to breadth \nof view by the fact of death. On such debated \nsubjects as reincarnation or the Godhead of \nChrist there is as sharp a division there as here. \nHuman death is only one forward step in the \nillimitable march of the spirit, and it is still faced \nby a horizon which shrouds many mysteries. We \nmust train our own spirits to be tolerant and \ncharitable, realising that many of the woes of \nmankind, and much of the religious confusion \nhave been caused by those who attempted to define \nthat which was beyond human comprehension. \nWhether Christ was a man-like God or a God-like \na or whether there are three persons or one \n\nn God, is a mere matter of speculation which has \nnaib vital in it. It is probable that the world \nwould have been none the worse had such questions \nnever been raised. On the other hand, it is \nessential that we should strive for the spirit of \nthe Sermon on the Mount, and that we should \nremember the words of Micah, \u201cWhat doth the \nLord require of thee but to do justly, love mercy, \n\n\nand walk humbly with thy God >?\u201d \n\n\n_ In dealing with occasional discrepancies in \nspirit utterances we have also to remember that \n\n\nfrom the misery of the lowest purgatorial spheres \nto the glories of the seventh heaven, there is a \nlong ladder of evolution, and_that every rung o \nit is different from the last. The nearer the earth \nthe more material the condition, and the experience \nof a lower spirit is naturally very different from \nthat of a high one. If earth experiences were \ngiven by a Hinilso. peasant and by an Oxford \nProfessor they would read very differently, and \nyet each would represent a truth. \n\n\nI pray, then, that this little book may carry \nout that for which it was designed, and I give my \nthanks (and my apologies) to the many mediums \nwhose messages I have purloin \n\n\nARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. \n\n\nCROWBOROUGH, \nOctober, 1923. \n\n\n\u201cThe Cage is buried, but the bird is free, and \n\n\nsings above the grave.\u201d \nSpirit MEssAceE. \n\n\nSPIRITUAL PHYSICIANS. \n\n\n\u201c\u201cWhat do physicians find to do there? \u201d \n\n\n\u201cPlenty and plenty. Those who come over \nmentally unbalanced, those needing kind and wise \ntreatment to bring them out of sin or out of \nselfishness, and those who are projected into this \nworld by accident or suicide or other sudden ways, \nall need spiritual physicians. The remedial \nagencies here are mental and spiritual instead of \nmaterial ; but physicians, if of the right stamp, \nsoon learn to adapt their treatment to such cases.\u201d \n\n\u201cWhat happens to the mind that has been \nunbalanced here?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWe have many specialists who take charge \nof these. Many are the result of disease or old \nage, but those are easily cured. For spirit does \nnot require any grey matter or brain cells for \nintelligence.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cSometimes a snap in the brain or in the \narteries, and they come to us very quickly. In \nsuch cases it is without knowledge that they have \n\nassed out of the body. That is a condition that \nPas to be watched and cared for here, else they \nremain very long in the dream state and do not \npremtens. I have watched many cases on earth \nut never knew what happened on this side until \nI came here. Physicians have work to do here. \nAnd their labour on earth, and their study of \nabnormal conditions there, help them here to \nheal the spirit that is beclouded by the physical ; \nor, rather, the impressions made by the physical \nwhile it had power over them.\u201d\u2014Spirit World \nand Spirit Life. \n\n\n12 THE SpiRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \nHEAVEN. \n\n\nI now saw that it was not impossible to pass \nfrom plains to mountain heights, and that powers \nof vision and conceptions of sacred harmonies \nsurrounding me were in exact relation to my \nspiritual perception and capacity of receptivity, \nnow being more perfectly unfolded through new \nexperiences. \n\n\nI also saw that labours brought no fatigue. \nMy eyes, heretofore unaccustomed to such \nbrilliancy of light, acquired larger capacity to \nrelate to all changes of conditions. \n\n\nUpon the journey which I now entered | \npassed through different altitudes, in all of which \nthere seemed to be so many kaleidoscopic changes \nthat at first I could not fully comprehend my \nsurroundings. My robe changed its texture, and \nin each transformation I received new poetical \nand harmonial suggestions of eternal love and \nwisdom, each more entrancing than the other, \nin-breathed, absorbed, and assimilated through \natmospheric and spiritual influences, leading me \naway from the low and grovelling conditions in \nwhich I had but recently seen so many, out into \nthe glorious light and liberty of the Divine Being, \ninfinitely superior to the limitations of material \nstates. \n\n\nFrom certain altitudes I beheld, at great \ndistances, cities and villages, with their multitudes \nof busy and conglomerate populations\u2014many \narchitectural curiosities, crystal streams flowing \nfrom mountain peaks, rearing their lofty heads \ninto space, from which wave vibrations were \nreceived, each one signifying to me the spiritual \nand intellectual fact that 1 should and could pass \ninto closer relations with the great masters and \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 13 \n\n\nadepts, upon whom wondrous powers over \nelements had been conferred. \n\nThe vibrations, which | then began to study, \nconveyed interior meanings to all who had learned \nto translate them wisely. By them a universal \nlanguage could be understood through all space.\u2014 \nA Celestial Message. \n\n\nWAR. \n\n\nYour wars and your wholesale murderings \nare even more fearful. You settle your differences \nwith your neighbours, who should be your friends, \nby arraying against each other masses of spirits\u2014 \nwe see not the body; we care only for the spirit \ntemporarily clothed with those human atoms\u2014 \nand those spirits you excite to full pitch of rage \nand fury, and so you launch them, rudely severed \nfrom earth-bodies, into spirit life. You inflame \ntheir passions and give them full vent. Vengeful, \ndebased, cruel, earthbound spirits throng around \nyour -earth-sphere, and incite the debased who are \nstill in the body to deeds of cruelty and lust and \nsin. And this for the satisfying of ambition, for \na passing fancy, for an idle princely whim.\u2014 \nSpirit Teachings. \n\n\nCHRIST\u2019S POSITION. \n\n\nWe were speaking of the Bible one evening, \nand Mary said :\u2014 \n\n\u201cThe essential parts of the Bible are the \nethical teachings and the sacred example of the \nChrist. The earth needed Christ, and he came. \nThe earth still needs him, and his influence is \nstill here. But many are deaf and blind to this \n\n\n14 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ninfluence, and because this is so, war still desolates \nthe earth and selfishness and crime sometimes blot \nout the law of unselfishness and love that he gave \nhis life to teach.\u201d \n\nWe asked if Christ was near to those on that \n; plane. \n\n\u201cChrist is exalted to the heavens above, but \nhe is as the elder brother and the guide of us all \non this plane. As you advance in knowledge of \nthis life we can tell you more of its mystery and \nloveliness.\u201d \n\n\u201cHow can we advance?\u201d \n\n\u201cConquer doubt; build up hope; believe \nin the infinite love.\u201d \n\n\u201cThe cruelties of this world and the sufferings \nof the innocent make it hard sometimes to believe \nthat the world is ruled by infinite love.\u201d \n\n\u201cBelieve in God\u2019s mercy through it all. The \nsuffering of the innocent is more than made up to \nthem here. \n\n\u201cThe pure in heart have a vision of a purified \nworld where kindness and justice shall reign. \nThey are the hope of the world, and through them \nwe must reach those whose thoughts are all for \nself and for selfish interests. \n\n\u201cThe hope for the future lies in the philosophy \nthat Christ brought to earth and which here is \nour rule of life. Christ was the apostle of love and \npatience, and he desired to deliver the world \nfrom evil through the power of love. But evil \nheld sway by reason of its long continuance and \ngrowth, and was too strong, as it has many times \nsince been too strong, to be overcome by spiritual \n\nower. But the time is coming when the Christ \nlove will prevail, and wisdom and love together \nshall rule the world.\u201d\u2014Spirit World and Spirit \n\n\nLife. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 15 \n\n\nCHRISTIANITY. \n\n\nMan has gradually built around the teachings \nof Jesus a wall of deduction and speculation and \nmaterial comment similar to that with which the \nPharisee had surrounded the Mosaic law. The \ntendency has increasingly been to do this in \nproportion as man tg st sight of the spiritual \nworld. And so it has come to pass that we find \nhard, cold materialism deduced from teachings \nwhich were intended to breathe spirituality, and \nto do away with sensuous ritual. \n\nIt is our task to do for Christianity what \nJesus did for Judaism. We would take the old \nforms and spiritualise their meaning, and infuse \ninto them new life. Resurrection rather than \nabolition is what we desire. We say again that \nwe do not abolish one jot or one tittle of the teaching \nwhich the Christ gave to the world. We do but \nwipe away man\u2019s material glosses, and show you \nthe hidden spiritual meaning which he has missed. \nWe strive to raise you in your daily life more and \nmore from the dominion of the body, and to show \nyou more of the mystic symbolism with which \nspirit life is permeated.\u2014Spirit Teachings. \n\n\nMARRIAGE. \n\n\nYou wish to know something of the future \nlife of those who have been happily married on \nearth. We must divide them into two classes : \nthose who have been truly mated, and those who \nhave not been so, but have been married to partners \nwith whom they have been fairly happy, but not \ncompletely so. As regards those who have not \nbeen happy enough to come under either of the \n\n\n16 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nabove classes, we can only say they have lived a \nlife against Nature's laws, and have to suffer the \nnatural penalty. All men must ultimately meet \ntheir true mates, whether in this life or the next ; \njust as certainly as all men must be sooner or later \nsaved. This may take centuries of time to accom- \nplish, according as they have lived when in the \nflesh. An unhappy life in the flesh tends to retard \ntheir happiness in the future ; hence those who do \nnot come under the foregoing categories are simply \ndelayed in their happiness, like all other trans- \ngressors. Those who have been true to their \ncompanions, and have gained their love, have, of \ncourse, nothing to repent of in the next life. If \nthe two partners then find that they were not \nconjugally as happy as they would like to have \nbeen, their relationship in the next world will \nsimply be that of friends, and they may each meet \ntheir true companions there and be happy. Mar- \nriage, in fact, does continue in heaven, theologians \nnotwithstanding ; ; and only those who have been \ntruly mated here can conceive how impossible it \nwould be for a heavenly society to exist without \nthe continued existence and capacity for enjoying \nthe highest love, next to that of God. Of course, \nthose who have not known true love on earth can \nbe excused for not being able to reconcile their \nnotion of heaven with the continued existence of \nearthly marriages.\u2014 Spirit Teachings. \n\n\nPROGRESS IN THE NEXT LIFE. \n\n\n\u201cThere are many problems at present hidden \neven from the higher planes. Study and dis- \ncovery are among the delights here. There is \nan infinite amount of undiscovered science still \nbefore us. We follow the thought of others, and \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 17 \n\n\nadvance step by step, inch by inch, and are held \nin wonder and awe at the dim visions before us \nof the powers and forces yet to be used. We are \nchildren yet in the infinite knowledge, and we of \nmortal birth move along in smaller circles than \nthe spirits of other planes or universes. But can \nyou conceive a little of the joy of acquiring the \nknowledge that leads us into such limitless wonders ! \nKnowledge is growth, and growth is happiness ; \nand all avenues of thought lead upward to infinite \nwisdom, justice and love.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWe are individuals, but we belong to a \ngreat scheme of higher consciousness toatl which \nwe are all tending. That is the real joy of this \nlife; that it is evolutionary onward and upward \nto infinite results of which we yet have no complete \nconception; only dimly perceiving the ultimate \njoy, wisdom and affection.\u201d \n\n\nWe spoke once of the delights they had men- \ntioned on their plane, and expressed our wonder \nby remarking that it seemed too good to leave for \nanother. \n\n\n\u201cYou will not be obliged to change until \nyou wish to do so. But neither do you need to \ndread the higher spheres. As a child you would \n\nrobably have dreaded the high school, though \nlicen you longed for it. And that is the way it \nis here. Progress is natural, following the develop- \nment of the mind.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cMany prefer to stay here. We find abundant \nopportunities for service. We are attracted to \nthe planet we came from and prefer to stay near \nit for a time. All go on some time, but the time \nof the change is indefinite and is decided by each \nindividual a r himself\u2014at least after a certain \ndegree of advancement is made.\u201d \u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nB \n\n\n18 Tue SpiriTuAuists\u2019 READER \n\n\nFUTURE OF SPIRITUALISM. \n\n\n\u201cThere are prophecies of a wonderful wave of \nspiritualisation\u2014that someone will arise to save us \nfrom the evils of materialism and selfishness into \neh we seem drifting. Is there any truth in \nthis >\u201d \n\n\u201cThe world moves slowly and no miracle is \nlikely to happen. But if you will just study the \npast and go back far enough, you will see that \nthe tendency is always upward. But whether \nthe tendency can be measured by years or by \ncenturies, is something which we do not know. \nThe optimists will believe the change will come \nsoon; but the pessimists believe it will be long \ndelayed if it come at all. We can watch and \nhelp as best we can, and then wait; and that is \nwhat the world will have to do. Our teachers do \nnot tell us of any coming marvel. Just patient \neffort, and working for the good at all times, is \nwhat we are taught as our part of it.\u201d\u2014Spirit \n\n\nWorld. \nSPIRIT AND MATTER. \n\n\nThis was all from the professor, but to my \nsurprise, William James appeared, saying that he \nwould like to add his testimony to what had been \nsaid of impressions of spirit life. \n\n\u201cSpirit is one thing,\u201d he wrote, \u201cmatter \nanother. Do not expect to measure both in the \nsame way. Your professor friend is trying to \nmake your earth language convey a little more \nclearly the impression of the life here. We are \npuzzled how to get over to earth life the beauty \nand harmony of this one. Where all are tuned \nto the same vibrations there can be no discordant \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 19 \n\n\nnotes. You are musically in tune with the great \ncomposers, and you will know what I mean when \nI say that to be in tune with the heavenly vibrations \nmeans a harmony undreamed on earth. It means \na readjustment of the earth-born faculties. It \nmeans that the follies of earth thought are replaced \nby the wisdom of this sphere. It means that the \nwisdom of earth thought is merged in heavenly \nknowledge. It means that the transient loves of \nearth are replaced by loves and friendships so fine \nas to bear no resemblance to the fleeting ties of \nearth. \n\n\n\u201cHave I added anything to the clearness of \nthe description >?\u201d \n\n\nThis was all at this time, but in closing | \nwould like to add one more word from Professor \nJames, who came a few evenings later with this :\u2014 \n\n\u201cT have a word to say to earth people, if I can \nget it through as I wish. It is that the earth is \n] of mystery; every plant that grows, every \nwave of the ocean, every star that shines, has its \nown hidden mystery. Life, the life of the spirit, \ns God\u2019s mystery, and God's blessing, and_ its \nvichest blessings are here in the unseen. \nthen, turn away from this greatest and best of all \nmysteries? Why not come into closer touch \nwith this incomparably great and unseen life > \u201d \nal of Professor William James, from Spirit \n\n\nor \n\n\nCAUTIONS. \n\n\nLike attracts like, and the silly curious inquirer \nwho asks from no desire for information, but only \nto gratify a whim or an idle curiosity, or to entangle \nus in our talk, is answered, if at all, by a spirit \nlike to himself.\u2014 Spirit Teachings. \n\n\n20 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nI should be very sorry if the reading of these \nletters of mine should cause foolish and unthinking \neople to go spirit-hunting, inviting into their \nsoba sphere the irresponsible and often lying \nene spirits. Tell them not to do it. \nuld you advise any delicate and sensitive \nwoman oe sit down in the centre of Hyde Park, \nand invite the passing crowds to come and speak \nthrough her, or touch her, or mingle their magnet- \nism with hers? You shudder. You would \nshudder more had you seen some of the things \nwhich I have seen. \n\nDo not be too sure that the entity which raps \non your table or your cupboard is the spirit of \nyour deceased grandfather. It may be merely \na blind and very desirous entity, an eager conscious- \nness, trying to use you to hasten its own evolution, \ntrying to get into you or through you, so as to \nenjoy the earth and the coarser vibrations of the \nearth. \n\nIt may not be able to harm you; but on the \nother hand, it may do you a great deal of harm. \nYou had better discourage such attempts to break \nthrough the veil, for it is thinner than you think, \nand though you cannot see, you can feel through \nit.\u2014Letters from Living Dead Man. \n\n\nJESUS. \n\n\nThose who have given you the only record \nyou have of the life of Jesus have insisted too much \non His persecution by learned ignorance, and too \nlittle on the moral dignity of His life amongst \nthose who lived with Him. They had not access \nto the original recipients of His teaching, and \nborrowed at tenth hand stories that were rife. \nIt is as though centuries hence men should compile \n\n\nTHE SpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 21 \n\n\na history of these days from the current stories of \nSociety. It is important to mark this.\u2014Spirit \nTeachings. \n\n\nREINCARNATION. \n\n\n\u201cWith regard to reincarnation, it is a large and \ncomplicated subject. I can only tell you in this, \nas in all things, what I have myself experienced, \nor heard from higher spirits, and believe to be \ntrue. And so I think it is incorrect to state that \nall must come back to a material life on earth. \nWhen anyone has entered into any spiritual \nknowledge during the mortal life, they are never \nreincarnated, except by their own special desire. \nIf they are undeveloped and animal in the earth \nlife, they frequently return there in spirit form, \nas earth-bound spirits. Often they receive \nthrough the teaching of mortals their first desire \nfor a better life. It is not necessary to pass \nrepeatedly through the earth life in order to pro- \ngress. I will not say no one has ever reincarnated, \nbut I have never yet met anyone who has.\u201d \n\n\u201cDo you, then, hold the doctrine of reincarna- \ntion?\u201d \n\n\u201cNot as an absolute law under which all spirits \nmust pass, but I do believe that in the experiences \nof many spirits reincarnation is a law of their \nprogression. Each spirit or soul born into \nplanetary life has spiritual guardians who, from the \ncelestial spheres, superintend its welfare, and \neducate the soul by such means as seem best to \nthem in their wisdom. These spiritual guardians, \nor, as some term them, angels, differ in their \nmethods and their school of thought, for there \nis no sameness anywhere, I am taught, and \nno absolute path upon which all must walk alike. \nEach school of thought which has its counterpart, \n\n\n22 Tue SprIrRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nits dim imperfect reflection on earth, has the \nperfected system of the school and its highest \nteachers in the celestial spheres.\u201d \u2014Speaking Across \n\n\nthe Border Line. \nRELIGION. \n\n\nWe attach little importance to individual \nbelief : that is altered soon enough by extended \nknowledge. The creed which has been fought over \nwith angry vehemence during the years of an earth \nlifetime is surrendered by the enfranchised spirit \nwithout a murmur. The fancies of a lifetime on \nearth are dissipated like a cloud by the sunlight \nof the spheres. We care little for a creed, so it be \nhonestly held and humbly professed; but we \ncare much for acts. We ask not what has such a \none believed, but what has he done> For we know \nthat by deeds, habits, tempers, characters are \nformed, and the condition of spirit is decided. \nThese characters and habits, too, we know are \nonly to be changed after long and laborious pro- \ncesses ; and so it is to acts rather than words, to \ndeeds rather than profession, that we look. \n\nThe religion which we teach is one of acts and \nhabits, not of words and fitful faith. We teach \nreligion of body and religion of soul; a religion \npure, progressive and true; one that aims at no \nfinality, but leads its votary higher and higher \nthroughout the ages, until the dross of earth is \npurged away, the spiritual nature is refined and \nsublimated, and the perfected spirit\u2014perfected \nthrough suffering and toil and experience\u2014is \npresented in glorified purity before the very foot- \nstool of its God. In this religion you will find no \nplace for sloth and carelessness. The note of \nspirit-teaching is earnestness and zeal. In it you \nwill find no shirking of the consequences of acts. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 23 \n\n\nSuch shirking is impossible. Sin carries with it \nits own punishment. Nor will you find a con- \nvenient substitute on Whose shoulders you may \nbind the burdens which you have prepared. \nYour own back must bear them, and your own \nspirit groan under their weight. Neither will you \nfind encouragement to live a life of animal sen- \nsuality and brutish selfishness, in the hope that \nan orthodox belief will hide your debased life, and \nthat faith will throw a veil over impurity. You will \nfind the creed taught by us is that acts and habits \nare of more moment than creeds and faith; and \nyou will discover that that flimsy veil is rent aside \nwith stern hand, leaving the foul life laid bare, \nand the poor spirit naked and open to the eye of all \nwho gaze upon it. Nor will you find any hope \nthat after all you may get a cheap reprieve\u2014that \nGod is merciful and will not be severe to mark \nyour sins. Those human imaginings pale in the \nlight of truth. You will gain mercy when you \nhave deserved it ; or rather repentance and amend- \nment, purity and sincerity, truth and progress \nwill bring their own reward. You will not then \nborire either mercy or pity. \nThis is the religion of body and spirit which \nwe proclaim. It is of God, and the days draw \nnigh when man shall know it.\u2014Spirit Teachings. \n\n\nORIGIN OF EVIL. \n\n\n\u201cCan you tell us the origin of evil?\u201d \n\n\u201cThat is not for us to know at present. The \norigin is so far away in an unknown past that only \nthe Creator of us all can rightly tell of its origin \nand use. But we know that all things work towards \na final greater good, and that is sufficient for us \nat present. \n\n\n24 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\n\u201cIs the percentage of good people any greater \nnow than a hundred years ago?\u201d \n\n\u201cThe percentage is far greater than formerly. \nBut the quiet lives of the good, with their unseen \nand unselfish service, do not get to the knowledge \nof the public as do the riotous actions of the evil- \nminded ones.\u201d \n\n\u201cIs the world growing better?\u201d \n\n\u201cThe good are growing better; the evil are \ngrowing more evil still.\u201d \n\n\nORTHODOXY. \n\n\nThink! You say to us that we are not of \nGod because our ideas of Him made known to you \nare not compatible with some notions which you \nhave EN \u00a7 from certain of the books in your \nsacred records. Tell us which is the God with \nWhom we are at variance in our ideal. Is it the \nGod Who walked in human form with Adam, \nand is fabled to have wreaked direful vengeance on \nthe ignorant creatures who are said to have com- \nmitted what you now see to be a very venial fault > \nOr is it the God Who commanded his faithful \nfriend to sacrifice to Him the only child of his love \nas an acceptable offering? Or is it the God Who \nreigned over Israel as an earthly monarch, and \nWhose care was feigned to be devoted to the \nenunciation of sanitary laws, or to the construction \nof a tabernacle, Who went forth with the armies of \nIsrael to battle, and issued blood-thirsty laws and \nregulations for the extirpation of innocent and \nunoffending peoples? Or is it, perchance, the \nGod Who enabled His servant Joshua to arrest \nthe course of the universe and to paralyse the solar \nsystem, in order that the Israelites might revel a \nfew hours more in gore and carnage? Or is it \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 2 \n\n\nrather with the God Who was feigned to be so \nangry with His chosen people because they wished \nfor a visible monarch, that He visited upon them \nan elaborate revenge extending over many hundreds \nof years? Or with which of the Gods of the \nprophets are we at variance? with Isaiah's God, \nor with Ezekiel\u2019s? or with the lugubrious Deity \nthat Jeremiah\u2019s morbid mind imagined? or with \nDavid's Divinity, half father, half tyrant, cruel and \nyielding by turns, always inconsistent and irra- \ntional > or with Joel\u2019s? or with John\u2019s; or with \nPaul\u2019s Calvinistic conception, imagined and painted \nwith horrid phantasies of predestination and hell \nand election and a dreamy listless heaven >\u2014 \nSpirit Teachings. \n\n\nUNDEVELOPED SPIRITS. \n\n\n\u201cT am not trying for marvels or wonders, \nbut I do want to try to give a plain, simple state- \nment of the life here that may lead some anxious \nfearing soul into more faith and happiness. I wish \nI could save them from looking forward with fear \ninto the dark unknown. Will you try and take \nwhat you can, and | will try and write what I can, \nof comforting thought to all those who are really \ntrying to live the right life on earth, and desiring a \nnew inspiration for the future. \n\n\n\u201cMany come so very ignorant, and come into \nsuch a long sleep and unconscious period, which \nwe are sure is unnecessary, for they have not \nbelieved the truth of active spiritual development \nhere. So they lose time, and lose the power at \nfirst of realising the life and all it means. Tell \nall who come in the circle of your influence that \nthey are making their future now, and can almost \n\n\n26 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ncontrol this future condition, if they will only \nseek the truth and abide in it while still on earth. \n\n\n\u201cT do not often preach, but feel like a sermon \nto-night. For the souls that come to this side \ncome in such multitudes that they can scarcely be \ncounted, yet only here and there are the spiritually \ndeveloped ones, the ones who can enter into this \nlife with joy, and commence the development of \nspiritual power at once. The pity of it gets hold \nof us here, now and then, and we feel like trying to. \nbombard the earth with spirit bombs ;\u2014some- \nthing to make the people think, something to \nforce them away from their material thoughts, \npleasures and plans. \n\n\n\u201cWe are obliged to begin our work with them \nas we would begin with children, and not even in \nthat way when they first come. They sink into a \nstate that is hard to be described. \u201cThey are not \neven ready to think. Brain and sense and heart \nand soul have so long been educated wrongly that \nsilence and unconsciousness are the only remedies \nat first. Then there comes a confused awakening, \nwith all their human habits of thought and all \ntheir evil selfishness predominant. What can be \ndone, then, except to put strong forces in control \nthat they at least may be kept from harming others. \nYou cannot conceive of this work, I am sure; \nbut it is very real here.\u201d \n\n\nINSPIRATION. \n\n\nVery few of the high thoughts expressed in \nearth\u2019s literature were begotten by man himself. \nThey are the result of his conjunction, unknown to \nhimself, with the higher nature of his guardian \nangel. Man originates practically nothing. He \nsimply exercises a divine power of choice, and \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 27 \n\n\nanyone may perceive this for himself by looking \ncarefully into his own nature. On every matter \ntwo thoughts or opinions are offered him\u2014one \nevil, one good. He merely adopts what he prefers, \nbut on that preference hangs life or death. In the \nsame way, when any special message is needed for \nEarth, or any other similar star, thoughts expressing \nthe message are brought into the man\u2019s conscious- \nness, and he delivers them in the natural language \n\n\nof the earth, firmly believing them to be his own.\u2014 \nBehind the Veil. \n\n\nEVIL, \n\n\nThe joys of that life had been for a long time \nso wonderfully portrayed that we began to wonder \nif the malicious ones of earth were to be allowed \nto enter into equal happiness. One evening this \nthought was answered, even before it was expressed \nin words. \n\n\n\u201cYou are thinking,\u201d the pencil wrote, \u201c\u2018that \nwe have not emphasised sufficiently the conse- \nquences of an evil life; that we have not warned \nthe selfish and the malicious ones, and have allowed \nthis life to seem too easy of achievement ; and we \nwish to say, every time and all the time, that \ncharacter is of the first importance. As a man \nlives on earth, so will he appear on this side. \nSlipping out of the mortal body does not always \nmean entrance into perfect happiness. Justice, \npurity, unselfishness and kindness of heart are the \npassports to the heavenly life. If these are lacking \nthey must be acquired, and sometimes the effect \nof mortal sin makes this acquirement very difficult, \nand often the time is long and unhappiness great, \nbefore the evil is eliminated from the soul. We \ncannot make this too strong or the caution too. \nserious ! \n\n\n28 THE SPpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\n\u201cSelfishness appears to us here as the founda- \ntion of all sin. It appears to be the root of all \nevil, and is insidious in its destruction of character. \u00b0 \nSelfishness may be only superficial or it may be \n\u2018deeply ingrained in the individual. The first \nmay be overcome when true knowledge takes the \nplace of vanity and superficiality; the second \nis the foundation of so much evil that it is most \ndebasing in effect, and most difficult to overcome. \nIt masquerades often in fine dress, for many \nstrive for beauty selfishly; make music and art \na matter of personal pride; or adorn themselves \nwith exquisite textures and priceless gems; and \nforget the deeper meaning of spiritual loveliness. \n\u2018The selfish use of wealth and power; lack of \nsympathy for the poor or suffering; pride; _self- \nesteem \u2014 all these, and many other manifesta- \ntions of self love, are working towards spiritual \natrophy.\u201d \n\n\u2018How about those who take their own lives \nto get rid of the evils of this existence >\u201d \n\n\u201cWhen a human life is broken by the owner \n-of that life, there is a long period of unconsciousness \nbefore any reconstruction can take place. Years \nmay elapse before they are ready to begin any \nadvancement. The suicide takes his own way \ninstead of God\u2019s way ; and the result is, to paralyse \nthe finer spiritual qualities and prevent entrance \ninto the joy of this life for a long time.\u201d\u2019 \n\n\u201cWill the world ever come into true \n\u2018Christianity >\u201d \n\n\u201cIt will come eventually. Every individual \nhas the power to bring that blessed time a little \nnearer. The work goes on from here as well as \nthere, and all are needed; for the strife between \n\u2018good and evil grows daily more vicious on the side \nof evil and needs daily reinforcements on the side \nof good.\u201d \n\n\nTHe SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 29\u00b0 \n\n\n\u201cYou believe that final victory will be with \nthe good >\u201d \n\n\u201cT know it will. But there must be greater \npower both here and there. We see the evil ; \nbut not in the hopeless way you see it, for we see \nalso the remedy.\u201d \u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nINTELLECT AND SPIRIT. \n\n\nThere are individuals who have probed the \ndepths and scaled the heights of intellectual \ndevelopment ; they dwell amongst the cold peaks \nof scientific attainment. They have stored their \nminds with a huge mass of information regarding \nthe facts of existence, not recognising the truth \nthat knowledge is useless until you use it; and \nunless knowledge is used to sweeten life, it is of \nlittle value to humanity. Such individuals are \noften unapproachable to their fellows here, and \nwhen they reach the spirit world they find them- \nselves in solitude, their natures are stunted and \ncold; the love-tides do not flow freely, their \nhuman sympathies and affections have been frozen, \nand very often a little child leads them into happier \nconditions in the social spheres, where love warms \nthe spirit into freer ae rounder life.\u2014Death\u2019s \n\n\nChiefest Surprise (E. W. Wallis). \n\n\nPOWERS OF THE SPIRIT. \n\n\nre One evening my grandfather came, and Mary \nsaid :\u2014 \n\n\u201cHe is very bright and happy looking, and \nif you could see his perfect form and youthful \nappearance, you would not be calling him grand-- \nfather.\u201d \n\n\n30 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\n1 spoke of his stooping shoulders when on \nearth, and Mary came back with this :\u2014 \n\n\u201cMust I repeat, that no physical imperfection \nappears in the spirit form? He is not surprised \nthat you remember his bent figure, but thinks he \nwill be able to surprise you when you come. \n\nA young soldier of whom we had known, had \nbeen blown to atoms by a shell. We asked if \nthat would interfere with the spirit\u2019s entrance \ninto that life. \n\n\u201cThe body does not imprison the spirit ; \nneither can the spirit be injured. The soul of the \nyoung soldier would arrive here as perfectly as if \nborne on angel wings. \n\n\u201cThen spirit is not subject to accidents >?\u201d \n\n\u201cSpirit is superior to all conditions. I could \nmeet lightning without sensation, or ride on the \nwings of a tornado, or drop into the greatest heat, \nor move among polar snows, and all sensations \nwould be pleasant. Spirit is the controlling power. \nI do not quite know how to express it, but spirit \nis above and beyond any conflict of the elements, \nor any material conditions. In our movement \nthrough the ether we have no sense of obstruction, \nand we pass easily through matter that you consider \nsolid. We are infinitely finer than any material \nknown on earth.\u201d \n\n\u201cCould you descend into the earth?\u201d \n\n\u201cIt is through spirit that the treasures of the \nearth have been found. It is through spiritual \nimpressions on the mind of man that he has been \nsent to seeking and using the hidden riches which \nare there for the finding.\u201d \n\nSpeaking of the higher planes, we are told :\u2014 \n\n\u201cLife on the higher planes is more ethereal \nthan here, and all conditions are more ethereal. \nComing to this plane from a higher one is a little \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 31 \n\n\nlike descending from an altitude where the air is \nlight to a lowland where the air is dense. Like \na life accustomed to the rarefied air of mountain \ntops, descending into deep pits of the earth, \nwhere the air is too heavy for them to breathe.\u201d \u2014 \n\n\nSpirit World. \n\n\nTHE ATONEMENT. \n\n\nThe atonement was the expression through \nChrist of the love of the Father even unto death, \nfor every human soul. It enabled us to draw \nnearer to the Father than was possible before \nChrist died. But this is a great mystery which \nyou cannot fully understand. By assuming the \nhuman form, Christ gave the crowning dignity to \nhumanity, and so caused an at-one-ment between \nus and God. Now, that this at-one-ment is \naccomplished by Christ, the Holy Spirit can take \ncomplete possession of the heart, and by filling it \nwith the Divine Presence gradually purify it from \nsin. It was to bring us into this soul union that \n\n\nChrist lived and died. \n\n\nBut Christ\u2019s death does not remove the effects \nof sin from any human being. Direct, deliberate \nsin has far-reaching consequences, stretching even \ninto eternity, and the evil must be undone and the \nsoul make restitution itself for the evil done in the \nbody. \n\nIt is the doctrine of the substitution of Christ, \nthe Sinless One, to satisfy the laws the sinner has \nbroken, that has done so much evil. It has lulled \nthe wicked into a false security. The first thing \nthey find when they come here is the record of \ntheir life, and every man goes to the place he has \nmade for himself, according as that life has been. \nAbsolute, impartial justice is meted out to every \n\n\n32 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nman, of every clime and every race. However \n\nfeeble have been the glimmerings of goodness and \n\ntruth, here they are fostered and strengthened till \n\nthey burn brightly for God. The ignorant are \n\ninstructed, the weary are soothed, and the broken- \n\nato are comforted.\u2014Speaking Across the Border \nne. \n\n\nCELESTIAL MUSIC. \n\n\n\u201c\u201cHave you any conception of what the music \nof this life may be? Do you ever wonder what it is \nlike? It is caused by vibrations, but produced in \nthe ether by speech of this life. And the study of \nthis force is the most careful and perhaps the most \ndifficult of all. The power depends upon the \nspeed ; the speed depends upon the spirit. For \nthe worker must learn to ne and use the force \nin accordance with law. Nothing is guess work ; \nnothing happens by chance. All is orderly. All \ncan be acquired by study. \n\n\n\u201cYou say this is not definite. Could you \ndescribe an unseen and unknown property to one \nentirely ignorant of that property? To attempt \na comparison, Mary has asked if you could describe \nthe fragrance of a rose. How about the flavour \n\nof a fruit to one who had never known the taste ? \nYou can say sweet or sour or bitter, but these \nconvey no meaning to one who has never tasted \nsweet or sour or bitter. So, you see, we can only \ngive the crudest examples of the effects of certain \npowers, because we cannot explain the finer \nmeaning. \n\u201cT can say, then, that vibration is our power. \nWe study its properties and its uses. We learn to \ncontrol. And when we have finally become capable \n\n\nTHE SpirRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 33 \n\n\nof using it we become workers with infinite resources \n2? \nand power at our command. \n\n\nThen Mary added :\u2014 \n\n\n\u201cThis teacher was one who was a scientist on \nearth, and would have used scientific terms if \ncould have impressed them on your mind. But as \nyou could not take them he tried to give you more \ngeneral ideas.\u201d \u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nA MEETING IN HEAVEN. \n\n\nAnd now, my ward and friend, let me show \nyou a scene which will point what I have written. \n\n\nOn a hill-side green and golden, and with the \nperfume of many flowers hovering round like music \nkissed by colour, there is an old gabled house with \nmany turrets and windows like those which first in \nEngland were filled with glass. It stands amid trees \nand lawns, and down in the hollow is a large lake, \nby the shores of which birds of many colours, and \nvery beautiful, disport themselves. This is not a \nscene of your sphere but one on this side of the veil. \nIt were of little profit that-1 argue to show the \nreasonableness of such things being here. It is so; \nand that men should doubt that all that is good and \nbeautiful on earth is here with beauty enhanced and \nloveliness made more lovely is, on our part, a matter \nof wonder quite as great. \n\n\nOn one of the towers there stands a woman. \nShe is clad in the colour of her order, and that colour \nis not one you know on earth. I would describe it as \ngolden purple ; but that will, I fear, convey little to \nyou. She looks out towards the horizon, far away \nacross the lake, where low-lying hills are touched \nby the light beyond. She is fair to look upon. Her \nfigure is more perfect and more beautiful than that \n\nc \n\n\n34 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nof any woman on earth, and her face more lovely. \nHer radiant eyes are of a lovely violet hue, and on \nher brow a silver star shines and sparkles as it \nanswers to her thoughts within. This is the jewel \nof her order. And if beauty were wanted to make \nher beauty more complete, it may be seen in just a \ntinge of wistfulness which but as to the peace and \njoy of her countenance. This is the Lady of the \nHouse, where live a large number of maidens who \nare in her charge to do her will and go forth on \nwhat mission she desires from time to time. For \nthe House is very spacious. \n\n\nNow, if you study her face you will see at once \nthat she is there expectant ; and presently a light \nsprings up and flashes from her eyes those beautiful \nviolet rays; and from her lips issues a message ; \nyou know this by reason of the flash of light, blue \nand pink and crimson, which darts forth from \nbetween them and seems to take wing far too quickly \nfor you to follow it across the lake. \n\n\nThen a boat is seen coming quickly from the \nright between the trees which grow on its borders ; \nthe oars flash and sparkle, and the spray around \nthe gilded prow is like small spheres of golden glass \nmingled with emeralds and rubies as it falls behind. \nThe boat comes to the landing-place, and a \nbrilliantly robed throng leap on to the marble steps \nwhich lead them up to the green lawn above. One \nis not so quick, however. His face is suffused with \njoy, but he seems also to be full of wonder, and his \neyes are not quite used to the quality of the light \nwhich bathes all things in a soft shimmering \nradiance. \n\n\nThen, from the great entrance, and down \ntowards the party, comes the Lady of the House, \nand pauses at a short distance from the party. \nThe new-comer looks on her as she stands there, \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 35 \n\n\nand utter perplexity is in his gaze, rapt and intent- \nThen at last she addresses him, and in homely \nwords this _shining saint of God welcomes her \nhusband: \u201cWell, James, now you have come to \nme, at last, dear, at last!\u2019 \n\nBut he hesitates. The voice is hers, but \ndifferent. Moreover, she died an old woman \nwith grey hair, and an invalid. And now she \nstands before him, a lovely woman, not young \nnor old, but of perfect grace and beauty of eternal \nyouth, \n\n\n\u2018And I have watched you, dear, and been so \nnear you all the time. And that is past and over \nnow, and your loneliness is gone for ever. For now \nwe are together once again, and this is God\u2019s \nSummer land, where you and | will never grow \nold again, and where our boys and Nellie will come \nwhen they have finished what is theirs to do in the \nearth life.\u201d \n\n\nThus she talks, that he may get his bearings ; \nand this he does at last, and suddenly he bursts. \ninto tears of joy, for it comes to him that this indeed \nis his wife and sweetheart, and love overcomes his \nawe. He moves forward with his left hand over his \neyes, just glancing up now and then, and when he \nis near she approaches him quickly, draws him into \nher arms and kisses him, and then, throwing one \narm about his neck, takes his hand in hers and leads. \nhim up the steps, with slow and gentle dignity, \ninto the House she has prepared for him. \n\nYes, that house is the heavenly counterpart of \ntheir home in Dorset where they lived all their \nmarried life, until she passed hence, and where he \nhad remained to mourn her absence. \n\nThis, my ward, I have set down by way of \npointing, with homely incident, the fact that the \ntreasures of heaven are not mere words of sentiment, \n\n\n36 Tue SpiriTuALists\u2019 READER \n\n\nbut solid and real, and, if you will not press the \nword, material. Houses and friends and pastures \nand all things dear and beautiful that you have \non earth are here. Only here they are of more \nsublime beauty, even as the people of these realms \nare of a beauty not of earth. \n\nThose two had lived a good life as country \nsquire and wife, both simple and God-fearing, and \nkindly to the poor and the rich alike. These \nhave their reward here ; and that reward is often \nunexpected i in its nature, as it was to him. \n\nThis meeting | myself witnessed, for I was \none of those who brought him on his way to the \nHouse, being then of that sphere where this took \nplace. \n\nWhat sphere was it, please ? \n\nThe Sixth, And now, friend, I will close, and \n\u2018would I might show you now some of these beauties \nwhich are in store for the simple-hearted, who do \nwhat they can of love and seek the righteousness of \nGod to please Him, rather than the high places \namong men! These shall shine as the stars and \nas the sun, and all around them shall take on more \nloveliness by reason of their presence near. It is \nwritten so, and it is true.\u2014Vale Owen. \n\n\nPSYCHIC CONNECTIONS. \n\n\nAll around you are divers chains, or what look \nlike chains, fine and small. They are in truth the \nelectric \u201ccords\u201d attaching you to myriads of other \nminds. They are the vibratory \u2018\u2018cords\u2019\u201d\u2014by means \nof which so much is conveyed to you of both good \nand ill. The whole atmosphere around you is \nelectric. The ether is full of varied colours. \n\u2018Could you but see them you would almost believe \nthat you were already out beyond matter. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 37 \n\n\nThe fine, tiny \u201ccords\u201d of which we speak are \nthe same all over the universe, connecting every- \none and everything. It is difficult clearly to \nexpress their full meaning in language you would \nat present understand\u2014but this we can tell you. \nJars or frets affect certain \u201ccords\u201d especially, and \ntighten or, as it were, make such loose. This \ndoes not happen without some corresponding effect \non the body physical. Therefore, from all stand- \npoints, the more calmly you hold yourself, firm, \ncultivating poise of mind, the better for you all \nround. \n\n\nWhen we speak of \u201c\u2018cords\u2019\u2019 it is not those \n\u201ccords\u201d as you on earth would speak. We use \nthe term merely in order to illustrate and help \nyou to picture in some degree what we mean. \nActually these \u2018\u2018cords\u2019\u2019 are electricity of the very \nfinest, most tenuous type and style. They radiate \neverywhere and more especially amongst those \neen whom great harmony and a similar habit \n\nof mind exists. This is what you often hear called \n\u201ctelepathic\u201d ; as one mind signals or thinks along \na certain line, that signal or thought will at once \nbe caught by any and all who are similarly inclined \nelectrically. It vibrates right along until it reaches \nthe mind\u2014the sense mind of those in sympathy \nwith it. It is a species of telegraphy which, when \ncarried almost to perfection, as in a few rare cases, \nwill serve instead of any outward means of com- \nmunication between such people. This unceasing \nflow of power ever radiating and vibrating in the \nether around people is liable to jerks, according \nas they have or have not control of their mind \nand thoughts. If you could see the beauty all \naround you, the colours, the electricity, the \nrapidity of vibrations, you would scarcely be able \nto bear it, lover as you are of colour and beauty in \nall ways. But it 1s, we believe, interesting and \n\n\n38 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nuseful to know that these beauties exist, and that \njust as in proportion your thoughts are of sympathy, \nthanksgiving | and upliftment\u2014so around you do \nthese \u201ccords\u201d persist and increase. \n\n\nRound many a soul all is dull and dead- \nlooking, because these people never lift their \nthoughts beyond matter.\u2014Teachings of Love. \n\n\nREST HALLS OF HEAVEN. \n\n\nWe can only convey our experiences approxi- \nmately. To describe conditions here in words is \nquite impossible. Please remember this. My \nbrother helped me into one of these Rest Halls. \nConfusion at once dropped away from me. Never \nshall I forget my happiness. I sat in the alcove \nof a splendid domed hall. The plashing of a \nfountain reached my tired being and soothed me. \nThe fountain \u201cplayed\u201d music, colour, harmony, \nbliss. All discordances vanished and | was at \npeace. My brother sat near me. He could not \nstay long, but promised to return. I wanted to \nfind you at once to tell you | had found peace, but \nit is only now that I could do so. On earth the \nstudy of crystal formations was a great hobby of \nmine. To my intense delight I discovered that \nthis splendid hall was constructed according to the \nlaw of crystal formations. I spent hours in \nexamining various parts of it. I shall spend hours \nand days and weeks there. I can continue my \nstudies and make endless discoveries. What \nhappiness! When I have regained a state of \npoise, my brother says I may help him in his work \noutside. I am in no hurry for this. \n\nYou evidently know nothing about crystals. | \ncannot impress your mind with the wonders of this \nplace. What a pity! This place is so different \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 39 \n\n\nfrom any earthly edifice that I fear it is useless to \nattempt description. As it is, people will say I am \nromancing. Or else they will say that you, my \nfaithful scribe, have let your imagination run away \nwith you.\u2014Private Dowding. \n\n\nPOWER OF THOUGHT. \n\n\nIf you create something on earth in solid \nmatter, you create it first in thought-substance ; \nbut there is this difference between your creation \nand ours: until you have moulded solid matter \naround your thought-pattern you do not believe \nthat the thought-pattern really exists save in your \nown fancy. \n\nWe out here can see the thought-creations of \nothers if we and they will it so. \n\nWe can also\u2014and I tell you this for your \ncomfort\u2014we can also see your thought-creations, \nand by adding the strength of our will to yours we \ncan help you to realise them in substantial form. \n\nImagination creates in this world, as in yours ; \nit actually moulds the tenuous substance.\u2014Letters \nfrom a Living Dead Man. \n\n\nPOWER OF THOUGHT. \n\n\nYou want to know how we on this side \u201ccon- \nstruct objects for our use.\u201d When you create a \nmaterial object it is first designed by the mind, \nthen fashioned by the hands. In this condition it \nremains till the ravages of time destroy it. Then \nchemical changes are set up, and nature uses the \natoms once more in her laboratory. \n\nWith us the process is different. The spirit \nconstructs a shought-form, clothing it with spiritual \n\n\n40 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ntangibility. This tangibility is etherealisation, and \nthe spirit operator wills it into any form he desires. \nhen it has served his purpose, he then absorbs it \nback into himself. It can be dispelled by thought, \nas well as produced by thought. It is in this way \nthat we show ourselves to mortals. We reproduce \nthe very garments we wore on earth, with many \nre to ensure recognition \u2014Across the Border \nine. \n\n\nINSPIRATION. \n\n\nNearly all forms of beautiful thought which \nare expressed, either in the writing of prose or \npoetry, or in painting, sculpture or music, have \nbeen inspired by some spirit-artist or musician, in \nwayes of thought to a receptive mind on the earth \nplane. Probably many so inspired have no idea \nthat the thoughts are not entirely their own, and \nwould resent a suggestion of invisible help. But \nthey are helped, nevertheless, by those on this side, \nand sometimes one will admit that the words came \nhe knew not how, or that the picture was painted \nin an ecstasy, when he could neither eat nor drink \ntill the inspiration ceased. And thus are produced \nthe masterpieces of a man\u2019s life. Now it is just \nas your spirit is enabled to rise, consciously or \nunconsciously, into communion with those lofty \nbeings of this higher life, that great things can be \nsaid or done on the earth plane. It is the divine \nessence of knowledge and beauty, filtering down to \nthe inhabitants of earth, in such measure as they \nare capable of receiving it. When the inspiration \ncomes, it depends entirely on the mentality of the \none who receives it, what form it will take. It \nmay express itself in music, painting or verse, but in \nall cases the inspiration comes through silent waves \n\n\nTHE SpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 4! \n\n\nof thought, flowing over the soul of man. The \nmore receptive and spiritually developed the \nnature, the finer the result of the inspiring spirit. \n\n\nI want to add a few lines to Sunday\u2019s letter. It \nis possible that, from what I then wrote you, some \nmight think that spirit help would turn men into \nautomata. That they would be reciting the \nthoughts of spirits rather than giving their own \nideas. This is not so. No spirit can impress a \nmaterial nature, and no one can be helped against \nhis will.\u2014Across the Border Line. \n\n\nSELF REVELATION. \n\n\nNot only is the past life laid bare to himself, \nbut it is patent also to all his friends, for the \nspirit shows in his person the sort of life he has led \nin the past, and he cannot change the appearance of \nthe picture until he has obliterated the recollection \nof all that was evil by making restitution to those \nhe has wronged and obtaining the forgiveness of \nthose he has injured. \n\n\nYou must understand that the memory apper- \ntains to the spirit, and not to the body ; and it is one \nof the few qualities of mind that the materialist has \nbeen puzzled to account for, because, though every \nparticle of the matter of which the brain is composed \nmay change, there remains indelibly impressed on \nthe mind the recollection of the past experience of \nthe individual from the days of his childhood. If, \nhowever, these impressions had belonged to the \nmatter of the brain, they would have been swept \naway long since in the course of the perpetual \nchanges that are going on in the organism of the \n\n\nhuman body.\u2014Life Beyond the Grave. \n\n\n42 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nEFFECT OF OUR ACTIONS. \n\n\nIs it nothing that we teach you that each act \nin this, the seed-time of your life, will bear its own \nfruit; that the results of conscious and deliberate \nsin must be remedied in sorrow and shame at the \ncost of painful toil in far distant ages; that the \nerring spirit must gather up the tneled thread and \nunravel the evil of which it was long ages ago the \nperpetrator ? \n\n\nIs it nothing that we tell you that words and \ndeeds are as the pebble thrown into the stream \nwhich causes an ever-widening ripple, ceaselessly \nenlarging in its effects ; and that for such influence \nyou are accountable; that every word, every act, \n1s of incalculable import in its results and influence ; \nthat the good which your influence produces is to \nyou a source of gratification hereafter, while of the \nill you must view the baneful effects in agony and \nremorse ? \n\n\nIs it nothing that we tell you that reward and \npunishment are not delayed till a far-off day faintly \nimagined, after a period of torpor, almost of death, \nbut are instant, immediate, supervening upon sin by \nthe action of an invariable law, and acting cease- \nlessly until the cause which produced it is removed ? \n\n\nIs this no incentive to a life of sanctity and \nholiness? Which, say you, is the more potent \nincentive to a holy life of progress: that ereed \nwhich we have indicated, or that which teaches that \na man may live as seems to him good, may wrong \nhis neighbours, insult his God, and debase his own \nspirit, may break all laws divine and human, may \n\ne loathsome in his moral nature, a blot on the \nname of man, and then, by a fanatical cry, by a \nfancied faith, by a momentary operation of the \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 43 \n\n\nmind, may be fitted to enter into a dreamy heaven, \nwhere his sole joy is to be that which his nature \nwould view with distaste, but which, now that the \nmagic change has been effected, is to become the \ncongenial occupation of eternity? Which faith \nwill move the degraded most? To tell him that \nfor each sin, discovered or undiscovered by his \nfellow, he will have to repent ; that each must be \nremedied, not by another, but by himself; and \nthat no happiness is possible for him till he grows \na purer, better, truer man? Or, to tell him that, \ndo what he will, heaven is open to the vilest repro- \nbate, and that a dying cry, when fainting nature is \nwrung with agony, can magically change his \nspirit, and send it, after a distant judgment, pure \nand good, into the immediate presence of his \nGod ?\u2014Spirit Teachings. \n\n\nSPIRIT SENSES. \n\n\n\u201cThe five earthly ones are all so increased and \nmultiplied by their varied powers, that they might \nwell be called additional ones. Then we have \nperceptions not dependent upon sight, hearing, \ntouch or taste. These belong to spirit intuitions.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cI suppose you hardly have need of the sense \nof taste?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cNot as you know it. Although there are \nmany things that appeal to us almost like that \nsense. We have fruits and flowers and many \nother things, that appeal to both taste and smell. \nBut we do not gain them through material organs \nas you do.\u201d \n\nWe asked about other sensations. \n\n\n\u201c\u201cWe have sensations analagous to the mortal \nones, though only in a spiritual sense. We do \n\n\n44 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nnot need to clasp the hand to show our friendship. \nThere is no need of kisses or other expressions of \naffection. We have the spiritualised form of them \nwhich is higher and finer.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cDo you use language there?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWe can speak if we wish; and oratory, \npoetry and lessons are given in word language. \nBut in ordinary intercourse ideas flash from mind \nto mind without need of words. We speak with \nspirit organs, aS we use other spirit powers ; \nbut this you can hardly understand as yet.\u2019 \n\n\n\u201cCan you read the written words here, or do \nyou get them through our minds ? \n\n\n\u201cT read mostly through the mind; I have not \nlearned the other way yet. Others can read \nwritten words, but I have not progressed so far. \n\n\n_.\u201cIf there were a picture in this room that \nneither of us knew or saw, could you tell what \nit was?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cT doubt it, unless it was the likeness of some- \none I knew and loved, and I am not sure even of \nthat. We see your soul or spirit selves, and do \nnot discern the physical very clearly except as a \nshadow of the soul. It is like seemg your true \nself through a veil; the material flesh is the veil. \nA picture does not have the inner spirit. It is \nonly an impression of a material body, and that \nis hard for us to see. Some can see perfectly all \nmaterial things, but my own power is at present \n\n\nlimited.\u201d\"\u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 45 \n\n\nDIFFICULTY OF EXPRESSION. \n\n\nThe difficulty of expression was again men- \ntioned when we read one evening the beautiful \nsonnet that is attributed to the spirit of F. W. H. \nMyers :\u2014 \n\n\nA Sonnet. \nTo all who wait, blindfolded by the flesh, \n\n\nUpon the stammered promise that we give, \nangling ourselves in the material mesh \nA moment, while we tell you that we live. \n\n\nGreeting, and reassurance ; never doubt \n\nThat the slow tidings of our joyful state, \n\nSo hardly given, so haltingly made out, \n\nAre but the creaking hinges of the gate. \n\nBeyond, the garden lies ; and as we turn, \n\nWond\u2019ring how much you hear, how much you \nguess, \n\nOnce more the roses of glad service burn \n\nWith hues of loving thought and thankfulness : \nik more we move among them, strong and \n\nree, \n\nMarvelling yet in our felicity. \n\n\n\u201cThe poem is true. If only you could see \nour difficulty of expression you would be patient \nwith misunderstandings. We are not so in touch \nwith material language and thought as to be able \nto express the marvels of this life by material \nwords or imagery. We are of different conditions \nand different expression, yet we try to become \nmaterial for the moment, that we may help you \nto understand ;_ but often the language fails, and \nwe are confused by lack of right words.\u201d \u2014Spirit \nWorld. \n\n\n46 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nTHE JUDGMENT. \n\n\nWhile we waited in expectation of what we \nwere to see, a soft strain of music floated towards \nus as though borne upon some passing breeze. \nThis grew stronger, fuller, more distinct, till a \nsolemn majestic measure like the march of an \narmy fell upon our ears. \n\n\nThen the curtains glided apart and showed us: \na huge mirror of black cd apart marble. And \nthen the music changed to another measure, still \nsolemn, still grand, but with somewhat of dis- \ncordance in its tones. It wavered, too, and \nbecame uneven in the measure of its time, as \nthough halting with uncertain step, stumbling and \nhesitating. \n\n\nThen the air around us darkened till we could. \nscarce see each other's faces ; slowly the light faded, \nand at last all we could see was the black polished \nsurface of the gigantic mirror, and in it I saw \nreflected the figures of two of the members of our \nexpedition. They moved and spoke and the \nscenery around them grew distinct and such as | \nhad seen in the Inferno we had left. The weird \nmusic stirred my soul to its inmost core, and \nlooking upon the drama being enacted before my \neyes I forgot where I was\u2014I forgot everything\u2014 \nand seemed to be wandering once more in the \n\n\ndark depths of Hell. \n\n\nPicture melted into picture, till we had been \nshown the varied experiences of each of our band, \nfrom the lowest member to our leader himself\u2014the \nlast scene showing the whole company assembled \nupon the hill listening to the farewell discourse of \nour commander. And like the chorus in a Greek \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 47 \n\n\nTragedy, the wild music seemed to accompany and \nexplain it all, varying with every variation in the \ndramas, now \u2018sad and sorrowful, now full of repose \nor triumph. . . At last as the final scene was \nenacted it sank into a soft plaintive air of most \nexquisite sweetness, and died away note by note. \nAs it ceased, the darkness vanished, the curtain \nglided over the black mirror and we all turned \nwith a sigh of relief and thankfulness to congratulate \neach other that our wanderings in that dark land \nwere past. \n\n\nI asked my father how this effect had been \u00a9 \nproduced, was it an illusion, or what ? \n\n\n\u201c\u201cMy son,\u201d he answered, \u2018\u201c\u2018what you have seen \nis an application of scientific knowledge, nothing \nmore. The mirror has been so prepared that it \nreceived and reflects the images thrown upon it from \na series of sheets of thin metal, or rather what is \nthe spiritual counterpart of earthly metal. These \nsheets of metal have been so highly sensitised that \nthey are able to receive and retain these pictures \nsomewhat in the fashion a phonograph (such as \nyou saw in earth life) receives and retains the \nsound waves. \n\n\n\u201cWhen you were wandering in those dark \nspheres, you were put in magnetic communication \nwith this instrument and the adventures of each \nwere transferred to one of these sensitive sheets, \nwhile the emotions of every one of you caused \nthe sound waves in the spheres of music an \nliterature to vibrate in corresponding tones of \nsympathy. \n\n\u201cYou belong to the spheres of Art, Music and \nLiterature, and therefore you are able to see and \nfeel and understand the vibrations of those spheres. \nIn the spirit world all emotions, speeches or events \nreproduce themselves in objective forms and \n\n\n48 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nbecome for those in harmony with them either \npictures, melodies or spoken narratives. The \nspirit world is created by the thoughts and actions \nof the soul, and therefore every act or thought \nforms its spiritually material counterpart. In this \nsphere you will find many things not yet known to \nmen on earth, many curious inventions which \nwill in time be transmitted to earth and clothed \nthere in material form.\u201d\"\u2014A Wanderer in the \n\n\nSpirit Lands. \nCHARACTER. \n\n\nThe worth of character, which you sometimes \nignore and never rightly recognise, must be seen \nas we see it here, to be appreciated. We have \nwonderful surprises here. We see men as they are. \nNot, of course, all men always. But when the \nwrappings are off we see the nature of the soul, and \nthe factor that decides is the character. I know \nthis sounds like a commonplace. But it does not \nseem a commonplace when it is applied as we see it \napplied here. No. You can hardly, by any \nstretch of imagination, realise what a change it is to \nlive in a place where the only test is character, \nwhere property, station and work do not count\u2014 \nno, nor religious profession. The idea, which \nyou so often have in the world, that the words \nwhich you say with your lips have magic influence \non your hearts, must be seen in all its hollow \nabsurdity to be understood.\u2014Letters from Julia. \n\n\nGROWTH OF CHILDREN. \n\n\nThe child grows up naturally here as it would \nupon earth; but if, as is frequently the case when \none or another of their beloved ones come here, they \nexpect and desire to see once again the little one \n\n\nTue SpiriTuALists\u2019 READER 49 \n\n\nthey loved and lost, as they say, then that child is \npermitted, by power of thought, to show itself as \nof old to its mother or father. Just as in a reverse \ncase one who came here old and wrinkled, as seems \nto earthly eyes, would, for purposes of recognition \nalone, appear again the ,same\u2014although as we \nstate there is no \u2018old age\u201d\u2019 out here. \n\nThe children chiefly dwell in their own special \ndomain, almost a little world of their own, where \nplaces of learning, religion and love abound, as \nwell as the beauteous gardens and playing grounds \nof Paradise the fair. There are endless methods of \nteaching, learning and happiness evolved for the \nspiritual advancement of the children. We need \nnot tell you that the Master Himself, Who so loved \nthe little ones, is constantly present there, too. \nAnother point of interest and comfort, friend, is, \nthat the children are never allowed to forget or \nlose their love for their earthly parents. Often \nand often they are brought to meet them in the \nappointed meeting-place where many separated \nsouls are re-united\u2014during the hours of sleep\u2014 \nTeachings of Love. \n\n\nTHE FUTURE OF THE SCEPTIC. \n\n\n\u201cHe seems to question everything, and doubts \neven the spiritual life. He knows, of course, that \nhe has passed away from earth, but is busy explain- \ning that and many other things, with a philosophy \nof his own. He has a bright brain and we wish to \nturn it to the truth, and lead him into the real \nlife here. That is wey I asked you to send him a \nmessage. He does not know you are communicat- \ning. We believe that if he can find himself\u2014that \nis, realise that he is a spirit and living a spint life \nalready\u2014that he will begin to study and grow. \n\nD \n\n\n50 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nThe next day the pencil wrote :\u2014 \n\n\u201cAfter talking with you yesterday, I turned, \nand with the quickness of thought, was far away ; \nso far that it would have taken you days to accom- \nplish the journey. We went to see the one to \nwhom we wish you to speak, and we have brought \nhim to our circle to talk to you. He does not \nbelieve it can be done. Can you convince him? \nWill you speak to him?\u201d \n\nSis. said :\u2014 \n\n\u201cWell, Frank Chase, are you really here to \ntalk to me again after all these years?\u201d \n\nMary said: \u201cHe does not believe it As you. \nCall to his mind someone he used to know.\u201d \n\nSis complied by asking: \u201cDo you remember \ngoing to o New York to see a young lady >?\u201d \n\n\u201cWill you tell him how she looked ? \u201d \n\nSis gave a short description of the young \nlady, and Mary said: \u201cWill you keep on? He is \nimpressed.\u201d \n\nSis asked if he remembered this young lady \ncoming to where he lived. \n\n\u201cKeep right on. He is interested.\u201d \n\nAfter further talk we were told: \u201cHe knows \nnow it is you, and is overjoyed to know it is possible \nto talk with and hear from earth, which he has \nnever done before.\u201d \n\nAfter some further conversation Mary said : \n\n\u201cHe is so surprised that he can hardly credit it at \nall. Yet he knows that only you could tell him \nsome of these things. We will bring him again \nsoon ; it is a good beginning. He is startled, and \ncan hardly believe; but will probably wish to \ninvestigate, as that 1 is his turn of mind, and that \nis what we wish.\u201d \n\nWe asked if they could explain how he had \nbeen getting along all these years without learning \nmore. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 51 \n\n\n\u201cTry to think of yourself in a dream, a long \ndream, and everything happening in ways that are \nstrange, yet you do not wonder about it. Your \ndream accepts the things as true. That is as near \nas I can describe his situation. When he first \ncame he was met by his father and sister, but they \nfailed to reach his reasoning mind and he has \nwandered on in this condition through all these \nyears.\u201d \n\nAt another time he came of his own accord to \nMary, wishing to talk. After a short conversation \nSis asked if in all that time he had been there he \nhad heard of the many wonderful inventions that \nhad appeared here in the meantime. He had not, \nand wished to know about them. First was the \ntelegraph. Yes, he remembered that. But the \ntelephone was new, and the wireless, and automo- \nbiles. Then we went on to tell of the great war,. \nand the immense ships that carried our soldiers, \nand the terrible guns, and the liquid fire. He had: \nheard a little of the war, but did not believe it \npossible to do such things. \n\n\u201cWhat are the good things of earth?\" he \nasked. \n\nThis came near being a \u201cposer,\u201d but Sis spoke \nof the Red Cross work, the hospitals, the aid to the \nstarving, etc. Mary said: \n\n\u201c\u201cHe thinks the world must be in a terrible: \ncondition with so much science producing evil \nthings. Tell him of the great vessel that was sunk. \nby the Germans. Tell him about the ship that \nwas sunk by an iceberg.\u201d \n\nWe talked some time, and after some remark \nof Sis\u2019s he said: \u201cWhat am I going to hear from \nyou next! No one else could have told me the \nthings you have. I did not know it could be done.\u201d \n\nMary added : \u201cHe is dazed with the thought, \nbut he will take it to think over as he did the last: \n\n\n52 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ntime. You are certain of getting hold of him, and \nwe must keep it up.\u2019 \n\n\u201cThis is startling, Mary! How can such \nthings be?\u201d \n\n\u201cWill you believe that each one makes his \nown life, each one has the chance and must develop \naccordingly? Frank Chase\u2019s condition was \ncaused by too much doubt, too much unbelief in a \nspirit life. He would not believe he was in a \nheavenly sphere, and would not admit that he \nneeded help; but argued himself into a strange \nand persistent unbelief, until the desire for any- \nthing different almost disappeared.\u201d \n\nThe next time he came Mary wrote for him \nas follows : \u2014 \n\n\u201cT am here. Your teacher will write for \nme. I have been so unbelieving that I could get \nnothing of course ; and so I had no proof of \nthe connections between the two worlds. But \nwhat you have said convinced me and I am study- \nlig now so that I too can get in touch with mortal \nives. \n\nMary added: \u201cThere have been years, he \nsays, when he believed he was on some plane above \nthe earth, but did not understand that this plane \nmight be the beginning of heavenly life for him. \nIt is hard to make you understand, and he says \nnow it is hard for him to understand; and it \nseems to him more like a long, long dream than \nanything else he can compare it to. He is learning \nfast, and is far happier than before, and pursues \nhis \u2018studies eagerly.\u2019 \n\nis was an amazing experience for us. We \nhad read something of such things, but it was all \nso strange we had passed it by. But this brought \nthe truth to our realisation with much force. \n\nIt seems these unfortunate spirits can fre- \nquently be helped from this side quicker than \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 53 \n\n\nfrom there, if they can reach someone whom they \nknew. But they eventually find the way out of the \nfog in some manner, in any case; though as we \nwere told, it may be years and years. Such spirits \nhave not necessarily led evil lives while here. \nMore often this spiritual handicap is the result \nof too strong belief in some superstition, some \ncreed, or some philosophy on earth; a case of \nbeing certain that one way is right and all others \nwrong. Such beliefs and philosophies continue \nwith them more or less strongly on the other side, \njust as superstitions sometimes cling to one here \nin spite of all the evidence there may be to show \nthey are without foundation\u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nWORK IN SPIRIT WORLD. \n\n\nIt is very difficult to tell you about work in the \nspirit world. It is allotted to each one his por- \ntion, according to how he has progressed. If a soul \n\nas come direct from earth, or any material world, \nhe must then be taught all he has neglected in the \nformer existence, in order to make his character \ngrow to perfection. As he has made those on earth \nsuffer, so he himself suffers. If he has a great \ntalent, that he brings to perfection here; for if \nyou have beautiful music, or any other talent, we \nhave them here much more. Music is one of the \ngreat moving forces of our world; but although \narts and talents are carried to their fullest, it is the \ngreat work of all souls to perfect themselves for \nthe Eternal Life. \n\nThere are great schools to teach the spirit \nchildren. Besides learning all about the universe \nand other worlds, about their kingdoms under God\u2019s \ntule, they are taught lessons of unselfishness and \ntruth and honour. Those who have learned first as \n\n\n54 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nspirit-children, if they should come into your world, \nmake the finer characters. \n\nhose who have spent all their material exist- \nence in merely physical labours, have to learn every- \nthing when they come here. Work is a wonderful \nlife, and those who become teachers of souls learn \nso much themselves. Literary souls become great \norators, and speak and teach in eloquent language. \nThere are books, but of quite a different kind from \nyours. One who has studied your earth-laws \nwould go into the spirit-school as a teacher of \njustice. A soldier, when he himself has learned \nthe lessons of Truth and Honour, will guide and \nhelp souls in any sphere or world, to fight for the \nright faith in God.\u2014Thought Lectures. \n\n\nAFTER VICTORY. \n\n\nWhat I want to say is that in the most crushing \ndefeat of the enemy lies no true victory; that the \ngreat, the glorious, the transcendent victory will \n\nin the successful application of Christian \nprinciples to the business of the world; and that \napplication will lead to life, not death\u2014to up- \nbuilding, not destruction. Remember that the \nredemption of humanity implies the return to \nthe Father\u2019s fold of men irrespective of race or \nreligion. \n\nbless you, my dear, faithful friend !\u2014 \nPhilemon, Letters from the Other Side. \n\n\nWHAT IS LIFE? \n\n\n\u201cWhat is life? We do not know! I/\u00a2 is! \nIt is like the answer we have to give in regard to the \nSupreme Deity: J\u00a2 is! That is all we know. \n\n\nGod is life, and life is the gift of God. What this \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 55 \n\n\nmost subtle, most unseeable, most elusive\u2014\u2014 \nNo, we cannot discover it. It simply is! That \nis all. Some philosophers and scientists may think \nthey know, but they do not. It is the riddle of \nthe universe, and only the Creator of the universe \nholds the secret in his soul.\u201d \n\n\u201cAll life is of spirit origin though manifesting \nitself in such manifold and even grotesque forms. \nThe wide diversity comes from the material \nenvelope, and in what Darwin called adaptation to \nenvironment. Spirit is indestructible, not subject \nto disease or death. But the earthly form in which \nfor a time it manifests itself may be subject to all \nthe accidents and disease of mortal existence. \n\n\u201cT do not know all universes, nor all the ways \nof life in them; but I think all immortal spirits \nare always first in human form, and subject to \nmaterial conditions, and come out of these condi- \ntions according to the laws of spiritual evolution. \nLife here is still progressing to higher forms, and \nwill finally reach a perfection as yet undreamed \neven by us of the lower planes.\u201d \u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nDYING. \n\n\nRemember that you are a spirit\u2014just as much \na spirit now as you will be when you come here, \nbut you have that spirit encased while on earth in \nan outer covering called the body. This is a \nprotection to the spirit while you are undergoing \nyour probation on the earth-plane ; and when you \nave finished with it your spirit form will rise out of \nthat body of \u2018cans component parts, an exact \nfacsimile of it. \nPerhaps it may interest some if I describe the \nprocess (of how the spirit leaves the body). First, \nthe spirit form, which is unconscious at the time, \n\n\n56 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ncommences to rise from the top of the head, through \nthe aperture which is never completely closed from \nbirth to so-called death, and slowly ascends head \nfirst, and in a perpendicular position, until the \nwhole form stands, as it were, on the earthly body. \nThen those spirits who are there to receive the \nspirit body hold out their arms and support it, \nuntil the cord, which is attached to the spirit feet \nand thence down to the material head, has passed. \nThis cord is usually about a quarter of a yard \nlong, and until it has passed the spirit is not free. \nDuring its passing there is often a spasmodic \nmovement in the body, and what is termed a \ndeath rattle, but in almost every case the breath \nhas actually left the body before this occurs. The \n\nnal spasm is caused by the cord passing through \nthe body preparatory to its final separation. This \ncan be seen by clairvoyants who may watch a \ndeath scene. \n\nAfter the spirit is free it is taken by loving \nfriends to a place of rest\u2014it may be by relatives, or \nit may not\u2014but always by those who are most \nsuitable to help it at that time. In some cases \nthe spirit sleeps for a week or more.\u2014Spirit \nTeachings. \n\n\nVISIONS. \n\n\nQ. Are the appearances of Christ and the \nSaints, reported to have been seen by the faithful, \nprojected by the minds of the latter, or are they \nreal appearances ? \n\nIt is very difficult to give an answer that \ncovers all the cases. In all instances the vision \nis occasioned by some real wave of loving interest \non the part of some spiritual being. A slum-child \nrecovering consciousness in an accident ward, \n\n\nTue SPiRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 57 \n\n\nseeing a beautiful lady bending over her, may \nimagine it is the Queen. This is one extreme. \nThere are other cases where I should judge the \nexperience to be an actual one, to emanate from \nthe Being personified. You will notice one thing : \nthe percipient, as a rule, clothes, fashions the \nvisions along some lines of convention. Where \nthis is not done\u2014which is rare\u2014what I have said \ndoes not so much apply. Bernadotte saw a \nrepresentation of the Blessed Virgin, who sent her \nan answering thrill in response to her ardent faith. \n\u201cAccording to thy faith be it unto thee,\u201d holds \ngood, despite certain elements of error and super- \nstition.\u2014God bless us, one and all !\u2014Philemon, \n\n\nLetters from the Other Side. \n\n\nLIFE IN THE BEYOND. \n\n\nWhen a man dies he has to learn everything \nanew. He is like a child in regard to many things \nthat we are acquainted with, and has to be instructed \nin the most ordinary subjects. For instance, he \nlearns an entirely new means of locomotion; \nhe finds that he requires no food, and cannot \nunderstand how he is to live or what he is to do. \nHe may want to go to bed, but he finds that he is \nnever tired, and it is never dark\u2014there being no day \nor night in the spirit world\u2014which, of course, \npuzzles him exceedingly. Again, he wonders \nwhere his friends are, for he very often does not \nrealise that he is dead at all.\u2014Life Beyond the \nGrave. \n\n\nThe body you now wear, and the trees and \nrivers and other things of material substance, which \nyou call real, are not so enduring, nor so real, as \ntheir counterparts in these spheres. For here is \n\n\n58 . \u2018Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nfound the energy which comes to your systems, and \nis as the electric dynamo to the single lamp as to its \npower and intensity. \n\nWhen, therefore, men think of us as of whiffs of \nsmoke, and of our environment as drifting shadows, \nlet them pause and ask if there is any sound reason \non which to base their view. Nay, there is no \nreason in it whatsoever, but, on the contrary, it is \n\n\nfoolishness, and unworthy of thinking beings.\u2014 \nVale Owen. \n\n\nAIM OF THE MOVEMENT. \n\n\nWe have before us one sole aim, and that alone \nhas brought us to your earth. You know our \nmission. In days when faith has grown cold, and \nbelief in God and immortality is waning to a close, \nwe come to demonstrate to man that he is immortal, \nby virtue of the possession of that soul which is a \nspark struck off from Deity itself. We wish to \nteach him of the errors of the past, to show him the \nlife that leads to progress, to point him to the future \nof development and growth.\u2014Spirit Teachings. \n\n\nPOOR AND RICH. \n\n\nYou lead two lives at the same time; : and a \nman may make a name and a reputation in both \nworlds at once, or in one only ; for it often happens \n\u2014indeed, it is most commonly the case\u2014that men \nwhom we think the most of are least thought of by \nyou. Many a poor man is a power in the spirit \nworld, and will have a name awaiting him, when he \nenters spirit life, which kings might envy.\u2014Life \nBeyond the Grave. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 59 \n\n\nSPIRIT AND MATTER. \n\n\nThe existence of this spiritual counterpart \nof earthly objects seems to you an extraordinary \nstate of things, and you cannot take it all in yet, but \nwhen you consider it fully you will see that it is only \nreasonable. Your towns are full of men and women \nwho have parted with their material bodies, and still \nlive on in the old way, scarcely knowing whether \nthey are alive or dead, for they see everything going \non as before ; they jostle against their friends in the \nstreets, and they see no difference in them excepting \nthat those who are still in the body seem\u2014as we told \nyou before\u2014like deaf, dumb and blind people, who \npass them by, and take no notice of them. Of \ncourse, all who pass away from your world do not \nlead this kind at life, or there would not be room \nin your towns to hold the millions who would in \ncourse of time become crowded together. As it is, \nthese unfortunate beings are sadly too numerous. \nIt is a painful sight to see the wretches who crowd \ntogether in their old haunts in your cities and in \nthe country, too; for generations of people will \nsometimes live on and on in the same house, never \nthinking of the possibility of there being any higher \nlife, but simply vegetating, as, in fact, thousands \ndo amongst you now. \n\nYou appear to us like a double man. We see \nthe physical body precisely the same as you see \nyourself, only instead of being solid and material * \nis transparent and shadowy to our eyes, and we see \nyou seated on a transparent or shadowy chair, \nsurrounded by shadowy papers, and equally \nshadowy furniture ; in fact, you present the appear- \nance of a ghost to us. So much for the physical \nbody and its material surroundings. Your savants, \n\n\n60 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nwho imagine that there is nothing but matter, may \n. perhaps be surprised to hear that there is a spiritual \nduplicate or counterpart (we will call it a counter- \npart) of the foregoing objects, including yourself, \nand that this counterpart, though spiritual from \nyour point of view, and therefore invisible to your \nsenses, is tangible and material to our touch. The \nphysical body and material objects are not, however, \ndistinct from the spiritual counterparts, but are \ninter-blended, the onan being attached to the \nlatter by a sort of silvery thread, which causes them \nvirtually to be one inseparable substance so long as \nthis spiritual tie is maintained. When, however, \nby the death of the physical body the spiritual \ncounterpart becomes independent of the former, it \nbegins to exist alone, and so also with the furniture, \netc. When the spiritual tie is severed which \nattaches your articles to their spiritual counterparts, \nthe latter can be displaced and moved away, and \nbecome thenceforth, in the spirit world, separate \nand distinct objects. The spiritual counterpart \nbeing to us the most material, of course conceals, \nfor the time being, the material object from our \nview. \u2018The latter per se offers, of course, no imp \nment to our movements, being transparent % \nour senses, but the spiritual object, whether con- \nnected or disconnected, impedes our locomotion, \nand requires to be displaced before we can pass. \nus, you see, that entering your rooms we have to \ncome in through the door like other human beings. \nWe do not care to break through your walls, or \ncome in at the window, or through the ceiling, \nthough we are aware that such is reputed to be the \northodox mode of locomotion in our world. Since \nwe told you the spiritual counterpart of your walls \nand your doors is solid to our senses, of course we \nmust either open the door or break through. The \nlatter we can do if we like; not by physical force, \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 61 \n\n\nas with you, but by the exercise of will-power, \nwhich answers the same purpose with us, where \nthe strongest man is he who has the most powerful \nwill. You do not see why we should hesitate to \nadopt the first-named mode of entrance and come \nin through the wall, if it suits us and can be so \neasily accomplished as we suggested; but you \nmust understand that we do not care to injure what \ndoes not belong to us. You can, if you like, break \nthrough your friend\u2019s window, but you do not do so, \nfor the same reason.\u2014Life Beyond the Grave. \n\n\nHaving explained to you that you possess a \nspiritual body, you can easily understand that \nin controlling you to write, we can take hold of the \nspiritual counterpart of your hand and move it \nabout. This does not prove how we move your \nmaterial hand. Quite so; but it shows that if the \ntie between the two is strong enough, and we can \nalso impress your brain with the ideas we want to \nwrite, we can induce your hand to trace out the \nwords on paper which are to express our ideas. \nThis we do by magnetism, for you could not write \nfor us had you not previously been magnetised also. \n\n\nYou present to us the appearance of a deaf, \ndumb au blind man, because, though we may \naddress you, you cannot hear us, neither can you \nsee nor talk to us. You can speak to us if you like to \ndo so, but of course, you cannot be aware of our \n\nresence and hence, virtually, you are dumb also. \nWhen you are passive we can, however, talk to \nyou, and often we enter your brain slowly as \nthoughts, and you think they are your own.\u2014 \n\n\nLife Beyond the Grave. \n\n\n62 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nSPIRIT LAW. \n\n\nIt is necessary that you should recognise that \nthe spirit world is a realm of law and order\u2014not of \nsupernatural magic\u2014and that character persists \nafter death ; that by no possible means can anyone \ncut himself away from his past. An interesting case \nwill illustrate this. I attended the awakening of an \nold man who \u201cpassed over\u201d to our side very sud- \ndenly. When he awoke to consciousness he pro- \ntested vehemently that he was not dead, calling us \nall liars and fools. He had been cynical and con- \nceited, and believed that men were honest and \nwomen virtuous only so long as they were not found \nout. He imputed the worst intentions to all, and \nhaving no sympathy with others he had no friends, \nso that he found himself a stranger in a strange \nland. He was isolated, hemmed in by his own \nmental state, and could neither see nor hear the \nreal spiritual world, as his own conditions were his \nown surroundings. \u2014 Death and the Beyond \n\n\n(Wallis). \nSLEEP\u2019. \n\n\nIt may be asked, Does the soul body require \nrecurring periods of rest, similar to that which \nobtains on earth ? Now, there are no arbitrary \ntime divisions here like night and day, accordin \nto which earth occupants sleep during night an \nwork during day. But every soul after a period of \nactivity becomes tired and needs rest and recupera- \ntion. This is obtained by something analogous to \nslumber ; it may be partial or absolute insensibility \nlike sleep, but it is always dreamless. When the \nsoul organism requires such rest, there comes round \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 63 \n\n\nand about it a kind of twilight, which is an indica- \ntion that rest is necessary and it also induces \nslumber. There is no uniformity as to the time \nor the manner of seeking this repose\u2014each one \ntakes it just when he or she feels the need of it. \nIt is always restful and restorative and some good \npeople on earth will be thankful to know, that \nwhen this need is felt, rest always ensues. Insom- \nnia is unknown in this life. \n\n\nSEX. \n\n\nDoes sex persist in this new life ? \n\n\nIn a modified form, Yes. The reader will \nconcede that the primary purpose of sex on the \nmaterial plane is to provide for the perpetuation of \nthe race. No such need exists here. But sex \ndifferentiation is not only a question of the body, \nit is also a matter of the soul, and although you \nleave all the physical sexual differences and demands \nbehind you when you come across death, you still \nbear in your natures sex qualities and differences, \nand so here a man in his outlook remains a man, \nand a woman remains a woman. \n\n\nBut as you grow upward towards the higher \nthings, there is a gradual diminution and lessening \nof the sex dividing line, and the sex division which \nis sharply accentuated with the new arrivals in this \nlife, diminishes more and more with spirit growth. \nThe two natures, once acutely divided, grow \ntowards each other, and each gradually develops \nqualities peculiar to the other. Man acquires on \nhis upward career woman\u2019s tenderness, and woman \nattains to man\u2019s strength. \n\n\n64 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nHEALTH. \n\n\n_ Is the spirit body subject to illness, disease or \naccident ? \n\n\nAccident? No. Organic disease? No! but \na temporary lapse of soul health which might be \ndescribed as illness, is not unknown. This takes \nthe form of absorbing and persistent grief for one\u2019s \nself or for others ; remorse for evil done ; unhappy \nmemories ; longings for the unattainable; carnal \nearth desires; feelings of hatred and bitterness ; \ndesire for revenge; jealousies; hatred, malice \nand all uncharitableness. These and similar men- \ntal conditions all constitute disease of the soul, the \nremedy for which in every case is to encourage \nthe development of the opposite quality of the \nparticular disease. \n\n\nDo you hate? Then you will find love the \nantidote. Are you unduly depressed? Take a \ndose of optimism, it will put you right. Are you \nself-absorbed with your own griefs>? Lend a \nhelping hand to another in similar straits and you \nwil effect your own cure. The poet asks: \u201cWho \ncan minister to a mind diseased?\u201d The sufferer \nmust be his own physician; he himself and no \nother possesses the remedy. \n\n\nGentle, kind and gracious souls are ever round \nabout such suffering ones to encourage and advise \nand cheer, but in the long last, the sick one must \neffect his own cure. Some such mental illnesses \nas have been indicated are seemingly intractable, \nand souls suffer in these little hells for long periods ; \nbut ultimately, in every case, they will emerge \ncured. God loves them all, and \u201cwhom the Lord \nloveth He chasteneth,\u201d\u2019 but only for his edification \nand uplift. \u201cSorrow may endure for a night, \n\n\nTue SpiriITUALISTs\u2019 READER 65 \n\n\nbut joy cometh in the morning.\u201d I trow that \nJudas Ticasior the betrayer of his Master, has by \nsuffering washed his robes, cleansed his soul, and \nis now a saint in glory. \n\n\nPROCESS OF DEATH. \n\n\nThere are many ways of passing from your \nside to ours. Of these the most general is painless \nwaking up, and the first sensation is one of rest, of \nrelief, and of peace. The dead\u2014for I fear | must \nuse that misleading word\u2014in almost all cases where \ndeath has been unexpected, does not realise the \nchange that has taken place. His only idea is that \nhe has suddenly recovered. Physical pain drops off \n\nou like a garment with the body which you have \nleft behind, you wake up well, and your first \nimpression is one of delight ; just the same as when \nyou wake up from a bad dream and discover that it \nwas only a dream. So simple, so natural does this \nseem, that you almost always mistake what has taken \nplace. I did, as you know. And I find it is a \ncommon experience. Many refuse to believe they \nare dead. It is, of course, true that they are not \ndead. They have all their faculties: they see, \nthey hear, they move hither and thither. Everything \nseems the same to them as before. Their first \nrealisation of the change that has taken place is a \nkind of shock to them. \u2018\u2018So this is death. Then if \nso, there is no such thing as death!\u201d For it is so \nentirely different from what we imagined. \n\nWhat first convinced me that something had \nhappened was the sight of my old body. After that \ncame the discovery that my nurse did not see me \nnor hear me, but wept about my body as if that were \nmyself. This is what usually happens. The \npassing soul, which retains consciousness, sees the \n\nE \n\n\n66 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nbody which it had inhabited lying inert. The \nsnapping of consciousness between the soul and the \ntenement, if | may so speak of it, is usually not felt \nby the soul. With some it is different. \u201cThey feel \nas if it were the slow breaking, one by one, of the \nthreads which connect the soul with its tenement ; \nbut the process is not painful, even when it is pro- \ntracted. I have spoken to many on the subject, and \nthe majority tell me that their experience agrees \nwith mine. They could not even say that they \ncould remember the exact moment when the body \nparted company with their soul. Some say that \nthey left the body before it ceased to breathe, others \nthat they lingered behind for a time after physical \nlife had ended. But these are exceptions. The \nimmense majority here say the same thing. They \nwere asleep ; they found themselves awake and well, \nin the same place where they fell asleep, and at first \nthey could not realise they had died. And this is \nthe case even when, as in some churches, the dying \nhave been prepared for death by the last solemn \nrites. They knew that they were going to die, but \nthey did not expect that dying was waking up quite \nwell, with all their old faculties and memories in \nthe same place where they fell asleep, and this \nalways is a source of astonishment, of bewilderment, \nto them at first. Many think it is a pleasant dream \nto be well, and dread waking up to the old pain and \nweakness. All that I have written relates to the \nimmediate moment after awaking, and to the \nexperiences of the majority. There are many, very \nmany, exceptions. But, as a rule, Death is a pain- \nless waking up in health, and the first emotion is \nbewildered astonishment. \n\nWhen the newly arrived have had many friends, \nrelatives, or those whom they have loved on this \nside, they find them waiting for them. Especially \nwhen they have kept thinking of or praying for them. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 67 \n\n\nForgetfulness separates here as there. But all \nwhose minds and hearts have been closely knit in \nlove with those on this side find their loved ones \nwaiting. And yet so great is the difference between \nwhat is and what they expected, that even when \nthey are welcomed on this side by those whom they \nknew to have been long \u201cdead,\u201d it is to them as a \ndream. Bewilderment, surprise are the first sensa- \ntions. When I came over, you will remember | \nwas at first quite alone, when I was allowed by my \nexperience with the nurse to discover for myself \nwhat had happened, and then came the angel who \ntook me apparently a long, long way to my rela- \ntions and friends. \n\nIt is in pity to His wandering, s.ruggling chil- \ndren that God has in these later days opened once \nmore\u2014and wider than ever before\u2014the doors of \ncommunion between the two worlds. He is send- \nIng out again messengers to warn man, ambassadors \nto tell him of the better way, the truer path to the \nhappiness of a higher life, and to show him that \nknowledge and that power which shall yet be of \nright his inheritance. As the prophets of old spake, \nso speak these messengers now, and if they speak. \nwith clearer voice, with less veiled metaphor, it is \nbecause man is no longer in his infancy and n \nnow that he should be shown the reason and the \nscience upon which his beliefs and hopes must be: \nfounded.\u2014A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands. \n\n\nA CAUTION. \n\n\nRealise that between us and you a great psychic. \ngulf is fixed, putting many difficulties in the way \nof communication. There is an underlying truth in \nevery wrongly transmitted message. \u2018Treat us not. \n\n\n68 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nas fraudulent, because we cannot always pierce the \ndarkness of your material minds. Do you always \nreceive your telephone messages correctly ?>\u2014WNot \n\n\nSilent\u2014if Dead. \n\n\nSPIRIT LIMITATIONS. \n\n\nNeither spirits nor mortals can know every- \nthing, and spirits can only give you what are the \nteachings which their own particular schools of \nthought and advanced teachers give as their explana- \ntions. Beyond this they cannot go, for beyond this \nthey do not themselves know; there is no more \nabsolute certainty in the spirit world than on earth, \nand those who assert that they have the true and \nonly explanation of these great mysteries are giving \nyou merely what they have been taught by more \nadvanced spirits, who, with all due deference to \nthem, are no more entitled to speak absolutely than \nthe most advanced teachers of some other school.\u2014 \n\n\nA Wanderer in the Spirit Lands. \n\n\nLIFE BEYOND. \n\n\n\u201c\u201cWe are not thinking of birth at all. It is \nalways the present here. No looking forward to \nold age and decrepitude of either mind or body. \nThe future is ours; the present is ours. How \ndifferent from the half-fear of the future, the dread \nof the years that may bring hardships, the looking \nforward to the silence of the grave, and the terror \nof the future! Can you see? \n\n\u201c\u2018T was not happy on earth, but I feared the \nend of that life, and had rather a morbid terror of \ndeath. Will you see the difference now? Nothing \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 69 \n\n\nto fear, neither sickness, poverty, age nor death. \nWhy count the years, when each passing one will \nonly add to your happiness and power, and preserve \nforever both youth and beauty? Good-bye to \nbirthdays! Greet the future with joy that will \ntake no cognizance of years!\u201d \n\n\n\u201cThe tie between the two worlds, or rather the \none world of the seen and the unseen, grows closer \nas the years go by. I did not know much about \nthis life when there, but I imagined more than I \nknew. The normal life here was a surprise; for \nI had thought of angels with wings and harps, and \nheaven as a city of golden streets. But nothing of \nthe kind is here. Normal progression; friends, \nwork, service for others\u2014yes, happiness ; in travel, \nmusic, books and congenial companions. It is \nall normal and all true. It is worth working for \nthere. And all the work is simply to have high \nideals and live up to them. The golden rule is no \ndead letter. Be sure of that ! \u2019\u2014Spirit World. \n\n\nQ. When you went away did you go to that \nland you have described ? \n\n\nP. I went to that realm of love and light. It \nis useless to repeat my attempt at description. But \nI went further. I left that pleasant and beauteous \nland, for land it is in the same sense to us as spirits \nas the earth is land to you incarnate beings. All \nattempts at describing ultra-earth spheres and \nstates leave a sense of unsubstantiality and unreality, \ntherefore I refrain. This needs repeating, because \nit is so hard for you to realise that we are the light, \nyou the shadow, we are the reality, you the appear- \nance. But I| did not remain long. \n\n\nI speedily returned to the sphere of love and \nlight, for I am not yet inured to existence in the \nultra-etheric worlds. \n\n\n70 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nQ. Do you dwell in communities or families ? \n\n\nP. All who are in the sphere of love and light \ndwell in families, communities, groups, the binding \nforce of which is love, love alone, sympathy, \nmutual affection. There you have less one-sided- \nness than on earth. It is a world of mutual loves \nand affections and pursuits. Parents and children \nare reunited only if that love tie persists and friends \nand relatives have no other reason for being \ntogether but that they love to have it so. Different \nkinds of love are merged in the highest form of \nall\u2014friendship, affinity in varying degrees of inten- \nsity and nearness\u2014Letters from the Other Side. \n\n\nTHE CHURCH. \nFrom Archdeacon Wilberforce. \n\n\nYou see, here, in this borderland, we feel \nmuch more vividly, and can be easier helped \nand hurt, than when protected by the material \nenvelope of the body. That is why compara- \ntively few return to the earth-sphere. They \nwould reap sorrow rather than joy. It is not \npleasant to feel that your place is so soon filled, \nthat you have become a \u201cblessed memory\u2019\u2019 when \n\nou are more palpitating with life and love and \n\n\ncht than ever before. \n\n\nI want to say that the Church, our beloved but \nvery faulty, very erring Mother, can only prove \nand continue to prove a ghastly failure while she \nretains, unrescinded, the awful doctrine of hope- \nlessness for those who pass on, outside of, or at \nenmity with, her communion. To the learned we \ntell the truth. To the simple, to the little children \nin the faith, we still deal out the old dogmas and \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 71 \n\n\nso drive them to seek refuge, sometimes in very \ndoubtful folds of faith and practice. | must write \nno more now, except to tell you that I: do come \ninto touch with other friends, but only partially. \nSome have erected certain insuperable barriers \nbetween themselves and the emancipated soul \nby what are termed \u201ctruths,\u201d basic truths of \nTheosophy, etc. Others have much\u2014nearly all, \nin fact\u2014to learn with regard to the world with \nwhich they believe themselves to be in daily \ncommunion. So they are; but much that they \nbelieve to be imparted to them is merely, as it \nwere, their own mental conception mirrored forth \nin their own objective consciousness. God bless \nroe keep you\u2014Philemon, Letters from the Other \nide. \n\n\nOTHER WORLD LIFE. \n\n\nP. There are spirits who have never been on \nearth in this world. There are beings from all \nparts of our solar system, but I am not aware \nthat there are any extra-solar-system beings \nwithin our radius. Our learned spirits deny its \npossibility, as your astronomers deny that beings \nfrom other planets dwell upon earth. We are \nnone of us spirits in the sense of transcending \nthe stream of events you call time, and the juxta- \nposition of worlds and objects that men term \nspace. \n\n\nQ. But you are not\u2014even in your world\u2014 \nall equally developed > \n\n\nP. We spirits are not a democracy but a hier- \narchy\u2014an ordered grade of beings, ascending \nbeyond our capacity even here to follow its upward \nranges. But there is no injustice. Each occupies \n\n\n72 THE SpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nits position by reason of capacity and fitness. \nemocracy on earth will fail unless it becomes a \nbrotherhood, older and younger brothers. \n\n\nQ. Can you tell us about the solar systems \nother than our own ? \n\n\nP. I cannot go in thought outside of our \nsystem in the sense of attempting to outline other \nsystems, their nature and modes; but of this I \nam sure: they are like our solar system, and we \nhuman spirits shall find ourselves at home in \nany member of any solar system, because God \nrules and reigns in all, and we are His offspring.\u2014 \n\n\nLetters from the Other Side. \n\n\nOUTER DARKNESS. \n\n\nThe sinfulness of sin chiefly shows itself in \nthe inability to see God. The punishment of sin \nwhich is remedial is the sense of loneliness and \ndarkness which overwhelms the loveless souls \nwhen they come into this world, the atmosphere \nof which is eternal love. This they endure until \nsuch time as they love. When they love, they \nturn to God, and see in the darkness a ray of the \nLove infinite and everlasting, in which they are \nable to realise, as we do, that they live and move \nand have their being. \n\n\nThere is much about this of which I will tell \nou later. For the present let me just say this : \nThere 3 is, when the loveless soul comes here, as \nmuch care taken to welcome it as when the soul \nof love arrives. But the selfish soul is blind and \ndark, and shudders in the dark. The imagination, \nwhich here is far more powerful than with you, fills \nthe solitude with spectres, and the sinner feels \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 73 \n\n\nhe is encompassed by the constantly renewed \nvisions of his deeds. Nor is this all ; he sees those \nwhom he has injured, and he fears. If ever a soul \nneeds a Saviour and Deliverer it is when imagina- \ntion and memory without love recreate all anew \nthe selfish acts of a loveless life.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nCLOTHES. \n\n\nPlease understand that the explanation now \ngiven has to do with spirit folk who have had their \norigin in civilised communities. I am not for the \nmoment concerned with the robing of the dead \nsavage, or partially civilised person, though the \nunderlying principle operating is identical in all \ncases. \n\n\nAll decent folk have latent at the back of their \nminds the idea that clothing is indispensable. The \nconsciousness of this need is woven into the very \ntexture of their thinking ; it is an integral part of \nthemselves ; they could not conceive of an existence \nfor themselves where garments could be altogether \ndispensed with. This idea has such a governing \nand determining effect upon their life and action \nthat without conscious effort it is sufficiently \npowerful to automatically garb them on their \nemergence through death. And here you have \nanother vivid example of the mechanical operation \nof a strong and latent idea within the soul and of \nits self-volition. So that when man awakes from \nthe sleep of death his latent sense of the proprieties \nof decent life have already provided him with \nsuitable garments. \n\n\nThis, then, is the basic principle, the operation \nof which clothes a man in spirit life. \n\n\n74 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nThe question may perhaps be asked: Has a \nerson no voice in deciding the kind of clothin \nbe may wear? At the outset of his soititual \ncareer he has no power whatever to interfere with \nthe kind of dress he wears, because it is the reflec- \ntion of his own soul. If he is beautiful in his \nnature and loves beautiful things and performs \nkindly actions, his garments will be becoming and \nbeautiful. If his life has been ugly and selfish his \nrobes cannot be anything but sombre and unlovely. \nA vain superficial woman whose life on earth was \nlargely occupied with her personal adornment \nfinds to her chagrin that here her very vanity has \nclothed her with a robe that is anything but lovely. \nBut the good folk, the real ingrained good folk, \nwho come through death in their thousands, have \nrobes which scintillate with beauty, reflecting as \nthey do beautiful minds. Gracious and kindly \nnatures are invariably beautifully garbed. And \nthen there are the great and high and exalted ones, \nwho are \u201cclothed with righteousness as with a \ngarment,\u201d and their vesture is almost too dazzling \nto look upon. Your garments change with the \nstate of your mind, and as you grow from strength \n\nto strength, so do they become more lovely. \n\nyou perceive that upon awakening on the spirit \nside of life you find yourself arrayed in robes self- \nevolved by the mechanical processes of your own \nmind, and these garments, which are compo \nentirely of thought stuff, have been radiated from \nand exactly reflect your own nature. Thought \ntexture is a wonderful fabric, and is amply sufficient \nto garb the spirit body. \n\nNow, it may be asked, is it possible for any \nbeing to himself add to his own adornment? Yes. \nOne of the activities of this life is creative, and it \nis possible by concentrated mental effort to add \nmuch in the way of adornment if you so wish it. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 75 \n\n\nGreat souls, however, are too occupied with the \nhigher activities to be concerned about this; \nbut partially civilised peoples, little children and \nbonnie lassies are taught how to create pretty \nthings to wear. You see, dear friends, up in the \nGreat Beyond there is a salutary ministry of \n\u201clittle things for little minds\u201d \u2014toys for the bairnies, \npretty baubles for the lassies, and so on\u2014beautiful, \nis it not ? \n\n\nPeoples of ancient races\u2014Egyptian, Indian, \nChinese, Persian\u2014who on earth attained to a \nmeasure of civilisation and functioning now on \nspiritual planes\u2014some of which I have been \nprivileged to visit\u2014not unfrequently bejewel their \nalready resplendent spirit garments in the way \nwhich has been indicated. Uncivilised and savage \nraces, whose conception of the need of clothing is \nmost elementary, End when they come through \ndeath that their limited need is self-provided, their \nspiritual robes being of a correspondingly scanty \ncharacter.\u2014Morrow of Death. \n\n\nCAN THEY SEE US? \n\n\nAll earth-dwellers are not equally visible to \nus. I can see the \u201cscribe\u201d clearer than I can \ndiscern others most near and dear. The reason \nis somewhat as follows :\u2014 \n\n\nThe physical bodies are like lanterns enclosin \n\u201clights,\u201d souls and spirits. Where the physica \nis the best-developed part of the being\u2014no, no, \nwhere it is of the earth, earthy, very gross, the \nlight given off by the soul is dim and unpenetrating. \nSuch a person would be almost invisible to us \nhere, even were he one\u2019s own son. I can see the \n\n\n76 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nscribe more by reason of the rapid intensity of her \nvibratory system than by reason of the lesser \nmateriality of the physical instrument. I can see \nyou as clearly as I see her ; but there is this differ- \nence: I cannot help seeing her, even if I did not \nwant, without shutting my spiritual eyes; but I \nhave to look for you and find you. I cannot \nexplain except that it is generally true, this insistent \nvisibility of the so-called \u201cmediums.\u201d \n\n\nQ. Do you see me more clearly now than \nwhen on earth ? \n\n\nP. I feel rather than see your thoughts, far \nmore vividly than when on earth, for this reason. \nI am a thought-man. You as a thought-woman \nmeet that thought-man, myself. Your body pre- \nvents you receiving the full impact of my thought. \nI have no such impediment, but receive your \nthoughts in full force. Therefore I know you \nbetter than I ever could have known you on earth.\u2014 \n\n\nLetters from the Other Side. \n\n\nFOOD. \n\n\nThe question may now be asked: Does the \nResurrection or after-death body require food to \nnourish and sustain it, as is the case with the earth \n\nody ? \n\nThe circumstances are not parallel. Without \nfood the physical or earth body would decay and \nperish. Pood is an absolute necessity to it, to \nreplace waste and renew the vital forces which are \nbeing continually exhausted by bodily activities. \nWithout food the physical body dies, but the \nspiritual or soul body is immune from anything \nanalogous to death ; yet for its health and develop- \nment it requires sustenance of a kind. You see, \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 77 \n\n\nit is a soul or mind body, and food for the mind is \nessential to its well-bemg and growth. Were it \npossible for a being in this life to absolutely \nenclose himself within himself and shut out all \nexternal influences and stimuli, such an one would \ncertainly languish and his spirit body become \nalmost atrophied. But such a possibility is almost \ninconceivable. Surrounding every individual here \nare healthy, informative and __ soul-expanding \ninfluences, and just to the extent that he opens his \nnature to their incoming is his spiritual body \nnourished and sustained. \n\n\nPerhaps you ask: How does this occur ? \nWhat is the modus operandi? Just as you breathe \nair in the earth life, so here you inbreathe all these \nrevivifying and beneficent influences surrounding \nyou to which you happen to be en rapport. In \nthis way soul nourishment is automatically imbibed. \n\nyou open your mentality to higher influences \nand recuperative forces, they enter and your soul \nbody becomes reinvigorated and fortified. \n\n\nBy way of illustration\u2014on earth you may read \nan elevating book, listen to an instructive discourse, \nor come under the spell of fine music, and as a \nresult your soul is largely benefited by these \nuplifting influences. How do they enter your \nsoul? Through your sense channels, which con- \nvey them to the brain, from whence they are \nreceived into and assimilated by the mind; and \nhere, in a similar way, do these exterior uplifting \ninfluences come into your nature and nourish and \nstimulate your mind and make for the health of \nyour soul body. You do not eat great thoughts \nhere, they are inbreathed by souls in affinity with \nthem and are then mentally digested and assimilated \nby the spirit body. Should you starve the mind \nhere you starve your body, which is constructed \n\n\n78 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nof mind stuff. Now, with little children and \nadults likewise who are children in spiritual things, \na semblance of eating as on earth is sometimes \ndesirable and may be indulged in with great \nbenefit. These folk\u2014little children and children \nof a larger growth\u2014who can conceive of no satis- \nfactory existence without receiving food through \noi mouths, find means to gratify their imaginary \nneeds. \n\n\nFruits\u2014beautiful to behold and luscious to the \ntaste\u2014are in great profusion, and may, as thought \nnecessary, be plucked and eaten. These fruits con- \ntain in concentrated form, mental and spiritual \nessences. Though seemingly eaten, they are not \nswallowed as is food on earth, but are dissolved in \nthe mouth cavity, then imbibed into the system. \nBut folk as they grow upward and progress onward, \nultimately perceive the puerility of the process, \nand do not pursue it. How the savage and \npartially civilised do in the matter of their imaginary \nneed for food, I am not able to say; excepting \nto remark that savage peoples, as a rule, do not \neat unless they feel hungry. Civilised folk on \nearth eat at stated times and probably far too \nfrequently. Not so is it with the savage, and as \nsuch an one would never feel anything approxi- \nmating to a hunger pang here, he doubtless wou \nhave no desire for food. Still, if such a desire \ndid manifest itself, I have no doubt whatever \nthat the marvellous workings of the subconscious \nmind would provide him with food which his \nuntutored mind deemed suitable and_ sufficient. \nBut the savage of earth is not long a savage here, \nand soon becomes quite at home in celestial climes, \nand in a marvellous way adapts himself and his \ndoings to his wonderful new life-\u2014Morrow of \n\n\nDeath. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 79 \n\n\nAFFINITIES. \n\n\nQ. Do you believe that every soul, whether \nmale or female, has its counterpart ? \n\n\nP. I am inclined to believe that each soul \nhas its counterpart, its affinity, its complement in \nsome other soul. But here again there are excep- \ntions in the case of certain mystics who seem to \nfind entire fulfilment in God Himself. But most \nDantes need a Beatrice to lead them upwards and \nonwards to the sphere where the beatific vision \nbursts upon their enraptured gaze. Only mediately \ncan most souls attain to full spiritual and celestial \nmaturity. \n\nQ. But perhaps Beatrice herself longed for \nan inspiring guide ? \n\nP. Beatrice had her full joy and delight in \nguiding and tending the poet\u2019s faltering footsteps, \nmuch as mothers teach children to walk. \nDante was as slow to recognise the actual guiding \npresence of Beatrice as children are to realise \nwhat they owe to those who nurture and cherish \nthem through infancy and childhood. Dante \nand Beatrice are true to fact, even should neither \nhave ever lived as individuals on earth. They \nare symbols of eternal truths. \n\n\nI take this example from where I am as an \nideal. From earth I should not have thus regarded \nit. I should have felt it inadequate. But here \nI see that the perfect equality of two souls exactly \ncomplementing each other would mean a kind \n\nof stagnation, arrest, monotony, equilibrium, that \n\ndebarred one from further yearning, striving, \nloving, growing towards a good ever realised, only \nas a step to yet further perfection.\u2014Letters from \nthe Other Side. \n\n\n80 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nDEATH. \n\n\nI fell into earthly oblivion, but nvakened to full \nawareness in another set of surroundings. I was \na spirit, among spirits\u2014some clear and perfectly \ndefined, others as it were in a fo id not then \nknow that I was \u201cdead.\u201d But r wondered at the \nfog-bound friends whom I knew so well, yet could \nnot see. Later I discovered that the fog-bound \nspirits were incarnate friends. The clearly defined \nbeings were the \u201cdead,\u201d old college friends. \n\u201c\u201cKhaki\u2019\u2019* and my mother were the first who made \nme realise I was a spirit among spirits\u2014I now \nthink I \u201cdied\u201d twelve hours before my body \nceased to function, because I went to all the \ndear ones, and could only see them as in a mist. \nDirectly my body ceased to function I escaped \nfrom the earth and saw the friends of my youth, \n\u201cKhaki\u201d and my mother; and then I knew that \nthe change called death had supervened. I went \nto all who really loved me, not to those who just \nadmired or respected me; and, dear friend, the \nlatter were, they are, the majority. In the state \nbetween the two worlds no mistakes are made. \nThe spirit follows, is drawn, by the bonds of \nlove\u2014Canon Wilberforce, in Letters from the \nOther Side. \n\n*His dog \n\n\nARE MANIFESTATIONS DESIRABLE ? \n\n\nIn the first shock of separation almost all \ndesire to manifest, and seize any avenue to that \nend. Later they see that it is not so tremendously \nurgent, and only those who are either earth-bound \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 81 \n\n\nor heart-bound, through one who cannot live \nwithout the loved presence, continue to communi- \ncate. In most cases one world is more than \nenough to deal with; therefore intercommunion \nis a hindrance rather than a help to growth here \nor with you, except in the early days of severance, \nwhen it is a mutual service.\u2014Letters from the \n\n\nOther Side. \n\n\nDESIRE FOR LIFE. \n\n\nHave you ever wished to be back again in this \nlife? She wrote\u2014 \n\n\nNo, I have never for one passing moment \nwished to be back in my body again \n\n\nThe body is such a miserable sobelints for \nthe spirit in which we live and move and act as \nwe think. No, if I might come back and live on \nearth as I used to do, | would not ; it would be all \nloss and no gain. There is nothing the body \ncould give me that I do not now enoy. Only \nin an etherealised but more real way, and much \nthat I now enjoy I should lose by being again in \nmy body. \n\nWhat about being parted from friends who \nsurvive ? \n\n\nThat is, I admit, a deprivation to them and to \nyou, inasmuch as you see them lamenting their \ndeprivation. But it is not a real deprivation. \nYou are with them to help them more than when \nyou lived. When the departure entails material \nloss, as of the father who earns the money with \nwhich the family is supported, and the children are \nhungry, are scattered, or are sent to the pore \nyou may think that it is hard to bear. And i \none way it is. But you can have no idea of the \n\nF \n\n\n82 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nabiding sense of the things which most impress \nus here. The first is the vivid realisation of the \nlove of God ; the second is the exceedingly transi- \ntory nature of all earthly things; and the third, \nthe extent to which poverty and misery minister to \nthe creation of character, the development of \nlove.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nCONDITIONS OF THE OTHER LIFE. \n\n\n\u201cHardly. We have a system or order of \nwork and study, though what you call hours and \nminutes are not so counted by us. The divisions \nof time are not arbitrary, but I am thinking how \nto tell you of the orderly way in which we work. \nPerhaps if I call it (this by way of illustration) a \ncentral office, where the plans of work are arranged \nand messengers sent to us when we are needed, it \nmay help you a little.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWell, again: You have no need for food, \nand so no rivalry in obtaining it; no buying or \nselling, no business of any kind, no money, no \nmedium of exchange.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWe are as busy as you. We exchange many \nthings, which might be called barter. For instance, \nI study something I wish to perfect myself in, and \nteach, perhaps, my very teacher in some other \nbranch. We exchange many things, sometimes \nwork, sometimes ideas, sometimes the many acts \net love dr friendliness; but all without your \nmedium of exchange, money. We have love \ninstead, or, if to those we do not know, whatever \ncourtesy suggests. So you see we have a busy \ntrading system, and enjoy it, too, and no one \nbecomes bankrupt.\u201d \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 83 \n\n\nSis said it was very difficult for her to realise \nthat there would be no desire to eat or sleep. \n\n\n\u201cYou will never miss either. Instead, you \nwill be delighted that the sordid occupations of \n\n\nlife do not interfere with your progress. \n\n\n\u201cSo much of life here is made up of chasing \nthe dollar with which to buy food aN comfort, \nit would seem that many people would be com- \npletely lost over there. What will a banker do \nthere, for instance?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWill you know that his training there will \nnot be lost here. He may not handle money, \nbut there are many other ways in which that \ntrained accuracy will be of service.\u2019 \n\n\n\u201cThen, your travel is so different. You have \nno railroads, no trains, no automobiles, no air- \nplanes, no steamships.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWait till you come and we take you on a trip \nto some far off place. The mode of travel will be \nas much finer as your Cadillac is finer than a \nwheelbarrow ! \n\n\n\u201cHaving no need of the things that money \nbuys, there can be with you no jealousies because \nof place or position attained by material blessings.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cThey who serve most are the greatest here. \nThere is no computing of place or position except \nby service or wisdom. Service may be of the \nintelligence, or of the spiritual gifts, or the more \ncommon activities; but the wiser the service, or \nthe more loving and unselfish the giving of one\u2019s \nself\u2014these are the things that give prominence \nin spirit life.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cYou have no thieves or robbers, and no need \n\nfor insurance policies.\u201d \n__ \u201cWe have the unworthy ones to guide and the \nwicked ones to convert, and the time and patience \n\n\n84 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ngiven to this work is more than any occupation on \nearth would probably demand. The unworthy \nones are always with us, therefore that work is \nnever done.\u201d \n\n\nI said they had no colour line, therefore no \nrace prejudice; and Sis asked if spirits were \nalways white. \n\n\n\u201cNot that exactly, but spirit is not black or \nred or yellow or brown. It is spirit, that is all.\u201d \n\n\nWhen we read this later Mary corrected it by \nsaying :\u2014 \n\n\u201cThat would seem to make spirit a colourless \nsubstance. That would be quite the opposite of \nthe truth. Spirit is white, in a way, because spirit \nrepresents truth, beauty and nobility of character. \nThe character determines the exterior, and purity \nof soul expresses itself in purity of appearance.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cThen, as you have remarked several times, \nyou have no care of the house or clothing or person. \n\n\n\u201cIt makes us almost weary to think of all \nthese things; but your list has brought to our \nattention our freedom and our joys. We become \nso accustomed to our blessings that we perhaps \nforget a little, and it is good to be reminded.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cBut, Mary, what are the youngsters going \nto do? There are no games of football, no base- \nball, no tennis, no golf, no -billiards, no card- \nplaying!\u201d \n\n\u201cDon\u2019t you worry. There are pleasures \nbeyond these, and there are delightful occupations \nthat take the time.\u201d \n\nSis spoke of the wonders of mountain scenery \nhere, and asked if any such would be there. \n\n\u2018What did you hear from the college professor \nin regard to the desires of life here>? Were you \nnot to see the rugged and the grand, as well as the \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 85 \n\n\nquiet beauty of valley and stream? He is right, \nand there will be no disappointment for you.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cBut the snowy mountain ranges here have \nan attraction just because we cannot easily reach \nthem. Dee could there go in an instant to any- \nthing she wanted to see.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cShe would not be impressed in the way you \nwould sense it ; but it would impress her, neverthe- \nless. You can look into fathomless space here as \nwell as there. You can see infinite distance, and \nthe evidences of infinite power. And you can see \nthe wonderlands of strange planets.\u2019 \u2014Spirit \n\n\nWorld \nOUR NARROWNESS. \n\n\nI cannot express to you the freedom wherewith \nthe Spirit of God would bless us. But we will \nnone of it. We measure the immeasurable with \nour puny footrule. I speak for myself, and we \nlimit to our capacity of comprehension the truths \nwe can accept. It must be so, but remember \nthat it is so. \n\n\nMy love and blessing.\u2014Philemon. \n\n\nVIBRATIONS AND MUSIC. \n\n\n\u201cDo you have anything there that i is compar- \nable to an orchestra or to an organ?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cWill you put out of your mind any idea that \nheavenly music is inferior to that of earth? You \ndo not conceive of spirit power or heavenly music. \nThese are things we cannot make plain to you. \nBut the music you love best is only the slightest \nindication of that which you may\u2014 \n\n\n\u201cO, I get lost for words!\u201d \n\n\n86 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nSis asked an old school friend who had been a \n\n\nfine pianist on earth if she kept up her music there \n\n\n\u201cNot much,\u201d was the reply, \u201cIt is all so \nwonderful, I feel myself unable to learn the methods \nby which it is produced.\u201d \n\n\ni \u201cMusic wasian easy accomplishment\u00a7for you \nere. \n\n\n\u201cT had the keyboard before me there and could \nfind the combinations easily, it is true. But here ! \nOh, my dear! If you could only know the differ- \nence between earthly and celestial music ! \n\n\n\u201c\u201cYou are wondering how it is that I who have \nbeen here so much longer than Mary should not \nhave entered into the study of music before she \ndid. You see, that so far as spiritual knowledge \nwas concerned I was a child when I| came over, \nand had to begin as children do. I could not \nhear sounds for a long time; spiritual deafness, \nyou might call it. And so I began with other \nthings, and grew so interested that I almost forgot \nmusic. Then when my discovery of musical \nvibrations came I wished to know how they were \n\nroduced, and went to a teacher of the science. \n\nut | did not give enough time to it because \ninterested in other things, and so Mary got ahead \nof me. The study is fascinating, as you will \nlearn for yourself when you come. We will \nconditions you do not know. They are started \nby the will of the musician in a manner you cannot \nunderstand ; but you may know that the thought \nof the composer may express itself directly without \nthe slow medium of writing, or even of performing. \nCan you conceive the thought as a material atom, \nif we may so express it, that moves outward from \nits producer and goes on its way with influence \nin proportion to its quality?\u201d \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 87 \n\n\n\u201cDo you have mechanical means of reproduc- \ning music, or does the author have to send it from \nhis mind each time ? \u201d \n\n\n\u201c\u201cWe have spirit instruments as we have spirit \nhouses. How else could we get the grand total \nof harmonious production? Sounds are set \nvibrating on the spirit instruments according to the \nconception of the artist or the performer, and the \nvariety of tone or subject is as varied as the thought \nof the musical mind. Some prefer the quick and \njoyous tones and chords ; ; others still hold earth's \nmemories in retrospective thought, and their \nmusic grows pensive and perhaps pathetic ;_ while \nothers are filled with the desire for intricate har- \nmonies. But all are beautiful, each in its own way. \n\n\n\u2018Any description of spirit instruments would \nbe beyond your conception. But nothing on earth \nis so perfect and so beautiful in tone. \n\n\n\u201cHow about the great singers who have been \nso famous and so loved on earth ? \n\n\n\u201cThe beauty of music and its power of expres- \nsion does not depend upon the voice, and may \ncarry its message to the heart without song. It \nmay appeal to one with the same power but by \ndifferent means. We can sing if we wish, though \nthe exquisite effects produced by heavenly instru- \nments make the use of the voice less desired.\u201d\u2014 \n\n\nSpirit World. \nCHRIST. \nQ. Was Jesus Christ an Essene, i.e., of the \n\n\nFreemason Initiates ? \n\n\nP. He belonged to them but was not of them. \nHe broke away and insisted on taking the outside \nworld into the innermost of Truth, being aware \nof the fact that none can receive beyond his native \n\n\n88 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ncapacity. Those who would keep wisdom from \nthe multitude err just to the degree in which they \nfail to perceive the truth of what Christ was always \ninsisting upon\u2014that the soul, or rather the spirit \nof a man, must have unfolded the spiritual senses, \nbefore it can apprehend the truths of the Spirit. \n\n\nQ. Then why did Christ speak of truths \n\n\noften so far ahead of their apprehension ? \n\n\nP. He spoke of those inner truths to cause \ntheir souls to yearn for them, just as the germinat- \ning seed strives to reach the light. Truth always \nprecedes us. We follow after, press on, forever \nlearning, but never able to come to the. full know- \nledge of the Truth. Where I am it is still so. \n\n\nChrist not only did not give all, He did not \nknow all as the Logos, the incarnate Word of \nGod. \u201c\u2018Mild he laid His Glory by.\u2019 What \nGlory? Of the sun, moon and stars? No, but \nof omniscience, and as the Logos He must defer \nto the Supreme Father. As undifferentiated Spirit \nthere are no limitations. \n\n\n_Q. Can you explain more fully what I never \nes understood in your teaching of the suffering \nod ? \n\n\nP. I taught of the suffering of God in and \nthrough all the sins and sorrows of humanity, \nespecially in this fearful world-war. I exaggerated \nand minimised, as | see now, from my own experi- \nence. For instance, I know all you suffer on a \ngiven occasion; I suffer with and for you. But \nI suffer not hopelessly and despairingly, because \nI know the outcome. Just as, in a dream, when \nthe tension is greatest and the stress severest, \nyou remember it is only a dream and thus take \ncomfort, so in similar way I realise the evanescence \nof the worst that can happen upon earth, and \nthat comforts me.\u2014Letters from the Other Side. \n\n\nTue SpIrRITUALISTs\u2019 READER 89 \n\n\nJULIA TALKS. \n\n\nWe then can see what were the sources of these \nvague impressions, intuitions and aspirations, both \nup and down. We were in the midst of these \nBeings always, but we mistook them for parts of \nourselves. They are distinct, although united, for \nmo one can live to himself alone. We are all \nmembers one of another, and this is as true of \nspirits as of bodies. \n\n\nThese evil agencies exist. That I know. We \nsee them; but we cannot fear them. For greater \nis He that is for us than all they that are against us. \nHe is Love. And He is stronger than hate. The \nonly power the Evil Ones have is due to our fear \nand lack of faith. They are powerless when we \nyield to the good Guardian who is ever near us, \nor when we know God, who is Love. I have not \nseen much of this evil side of life, and my informa- \ntion must be more or less second-hand. \n\n\nWhen I began to move I walked as I used to \nwalk, and it seemed natural to do so. My Guide \nwalked beside me, and we saw the world as it \nwas with spirits moving among men. | did not \nsee at first which was which. They were all \nliving people, it seemed to me. But I saw the \nspirits pass through matter and move away, as \nphysical bodies could not do. Then I asked my \nGuide, and he said they were like myself, those who \nhad lived on earth and had passed on. Then I saw \nthat they moved sometimes as if they were still in \nthe body, and at other times as if they were angels \ncoming and going with great speed, and I remarked \nupon it to my Guide. And he said, \u201cYes, they \ncan do as they please, for it is in the power of the \nmind to go slow or fast.\u2019\u201d Then I thought if they \n\n\n90 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ncan! can. And I asked, not speaking, but thinking \nin my mind, if this were so? And my Guide, \nwithout my having spoken, answered and said, \n\u201cThis also is possible to you.\u201d And I said then \nto him, \u201cMay we go as they go wherever we are \ngoing?\u2019\u2019 And he smiled and said, \u201cAs you will, \nso it will be.\u201d\u201d And then I had my first experi- \nence of the new freedom of locomotion. The \nearth seemed to grow small beneath my feet. \n\n\nWe went through space at a great speed. I \ndid not feel the speed so much while in motion as \nwhen we stayed and discovered how fast and how \nfar we had come. When we stayed it was not in \nthis world at all. We had left your planet and \nwere now speeding through space. I was hardly \nconscious of movement. We went as we think. \nOnly the things we saw at first disappeared, and \nthere was nothing to check or time our flight. \nWe were together, my Guide and I. We went to \na place at a great distance from your earth. The \ndistance I cannot measure. Nor do we take \naccount of distance when you have only to think \nto be anywhere. The stars and the worlds, of \nwhich you see gleaming twinklings at night, are \nto us as all familiar as the village-home to a \nvillager. We can go where we please and we do \nplease very often.\u2014 Julia. \n\n\nTASKS IN THE BEYOND. \n\n\nIt should, however, be stated that in the \nearlier stages of your celestial career it is unlikely \nthat you will engage in any definite systematic \ntask, for the reason that this life to you at first will \nbe so new, so strange, so different from anything \nthat you had ever thought or dreamed of, that for \na period you will be content just to investigate \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 9] \n\n\nand explore and to endeavour to understand the \nnew life. You will meet those whom you love \nand have remembered ; you will make pilgrimages \nhere and journeys there ; ; you will at the outset \n\nave so much to learn and to unlearn and to dis- \ncover and to understand, that your earlier energies \nwill be fully occupied in these things. You will, \nhowever\u2014as your sojourn here lengthens\u2014find \nlittle and varying ministries, little services of \ndiffering sorts, all of which will keep you happily \nemployed. But when ultimately you fully realise \nyour relationship to the new life\u2014a spiritual being, \nfunctioning on a spiritual plane, endowed wit \nspiritual powers\u2014you will then discover your \ntrue bent and find joy and useful service in \nfollowing it. \n\n\nNow we will commence at the beginning, and \nrefer to the employment of young life here, the \nbairnies and little lads and_lassies. Naturally \nthat which would occupy their youthful energies \nwould be of an educational nature, so there are to \nbe found everywhere\u2014for these dear little souls\u2014 \nschools of a kindergarten character where they are \ntaught and their growing faculties trained. In \none respect these younger lives have an advantage \nover those who come across death their senior in \nyears, because they have not so much to unlearn. \nThe care, training and instruction of this young \nlife provides delightful occupation to a very large \nnumber of grown folk, and it is with them always \na self-imposed labour ot love, and each concen- \ntrates upon some particular phase in the education \nof the little ones. They are all taught to develop \nfrom infancy the thinking and reasoning faculties, \nand even from babyhood self-mastery and thought \nfor others is a dominant note in the celestial \ncurriculum. Systematised play and joyous games \nare necessary to the young life. Here, as on earth, \n\n\n92 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\n\u201call work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,\u201d \nand the happy little youngsters in the playing \nfields are indeed a sight to be seen. \n\n\nO you parents of earth, you dear mother \nwith the aching heart, who think wistfully of the \nlittle life that was touched by the Angel of Death \na short while since and taken from you, be assured \nthat your darling is in the safe keeping of Love and \nWisdom, and that the memory of a dear mother \nis religiously fostered. I would here relate some- \nthing which will have a message for those who are \ncompetent to read between the lines ; it is literally \ntrue. \n\n\nSome while ago | perceived in the distance a \ncrowd of merry youngsters whose happy faces \nwere intently gazing upon something ministering \nto their joy. What a lyric is there in the lilt of \na child\u2019s laugh ! \n\n\nI proceeded towards the merry throng and \nfound their interest was absorbed in a\u2014just think \nof it\u2014Punch and Judy show. A literal fact, if you \nplease. I enquired for my own edification, and \nit appeared that the old showman and his wife, \nwho was with him, had spent a long life on earth \ngoing around from place to place making the lads \nand lassies happy wherever they went and earning \na precarious existence _by so doing. When the \nold man \u201cpassed over\u201d he was unhappy because \nhe had not his puppets with him. He loved the \npuppets, and still more to see bright faces and \nlaughing eyes all around him. He was told in \ndue course\u2014greatly to his surprise\u2014that he might \nhave his Punch and Judy show here, but he would \nhave to make it himself. This he was unable to \ndo, although he tried repeatedly by creative \nthought ; later, however, his wife joined him, \nand with her help they ultimately succeeded in \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 93 \n\n\ncreating an exact replica of the old earth show \nwith all its appurtenances. And now the old man \nfinds an intense delight in wandering through the \nElysian fields with his dear partner and his much- \nloved puppets, ministering to the delight of \nmerry-faced youngsters. \n\n\nSays my critic: Crude, puerile, impossible ! \n\nNo, sir, absolutely true, beautiful in its \ninception and Christ-like in its ministry, and a \nstepping-stone to a higher service in the life yet \nbefore these two choice souls. \n\n\nIn contemplating the after-death state it must \never be remembered that its structure, its composi- \ntion, the constituents which form it, are non- \nmaterial. It is erroneous to suppose that the \nelements of which it is composed are sublimated \nor rarefied matter. This is not so; if it were the \nlaws which have governance in the material cosmos \nwould be operative here also. To argue\u2014as some \ndo\u2014that there can be per se only one ultimate \nkind of substance is surely to fetter Omnipotence. \n\n\nSurely the Power who in the remote eons \nbrought out of nothing the material universe would \nbe competent to create another universe of a \ndifferent character, and this is the fact. Why \nlimit God? Earth is the synonym of matter, \nheaven of spirit.\u2014Morrow of Life. \n\n\nWHAT THE AGE NEEDS. \n\n\nWhat the age needs is time to think, time to \nmeditate, time to pray, time, in short, for the \nDivine and Eternal. What is it that we must \nneed in our efforts to bring this world of ours into \ntouch with yours? Why have I failed with you, \ncomparatively > Why is the Bureau I wrote about \n\n\n94 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nyears ago not established? All because of one \nthing, and one thing only. You have no time. \nThat is to say, that all the time you have you spend \non the things of this whirling transitory life. It \nwill not do. Your world will gain no glimpse of \nthe Other Side, open we the chinks never so widely, \nwhen the whole day is spent in the desperate pur- \nsuit of an unceasing multitude of this world\u2019s \naffairs. No; to truly live you must make time \nto think; to clear, Le some moments at least, \na silence where our voices may be heard. That \nis nothing new, but the world seems to be forgetting \nit more than of old. We can do nothing to establish \nthe connection unless, for at least some brief \nseason, you can say to yourself, \u2018\u201cPeace ; be still!\u201d \n\n\nWe do not ask impossibilities. We do not \nwish men in a newspaper office to practise the \ncontemplative life of the monks of the Thebiad. \nBut we do want even newspaper men to have at \nleast five minutes in every day.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nA VIEW IN HEAVEN. \n\n\nWaiting for an opportunity to resume contact \nwith you, and quietly musing, I lifted up my eyes \nand _ beheld the glorious prospect before me. \nUndulating meadowland bespangled with flowers, \nand stretching away into far distances were, here \nand there, hill and dale; coppice and thicket ; \nplantation and wood; and away on the horizon \npurple hills footing a range of majestic snow-clad \nmountains. This panorama, | reflected, is not \nan offshoot of my own personality, likewise it is \nnot a semblance, but an exterior reality, tangible \nand substantial, and to me as real as anything \nsimilar to you on earth. How, then, did this \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 95 \n\n\nmajestic sweep of countryside\u2014which is so real\u2014 \ncome into existence? It is the creative work of \nhigh angelic beings. God made man in His own \nimage, after His own likeness. We are all children \nof the Divine Father, and as we grow in beauty \nand grace, so also do we grow in power of achieve- \nment, and from the lowliest personality to the \nhighest Angelhood, God delegates His powers to \nHis creatures, just to the extent of their capacity \nto use them. \n\n\nTHE LOWER HEAVEN. \n\n\nPossibly my reader may be inclined to ask : \nDo I consider myself in heaven? If that term is \nintended to convey the meaning placed upon it \nby orthodoxy, the answer is No! If, however, \nby heaven is meant a state of harmony and peace \nand soul satisfaction, then indeed I am in heaven. \nIf a state of joyous activity, of happy service for \nothers, of fine effort for the enlightenment and the \nwell-being of one\u2019s fellows is heaven, then I am \nthere. If heaven be freedom from the carking \ncare and blighting sorrow of earth; if heaven be \nemancipation from the fetters of the flesh; if \nheaven be the gradual and progressive purification \nof one\u2019s nature and the fuller comprehension and \napprehension of things spiritual; if heaven be \nthat state where one becomes ever more and more \nin harmony with the things of the good God, \nverily I am indeed in heaven. \n\n\nShould the question be asked: Have I seen \nany of those majestic Bible worthies of whom we \nread so much on earth? No! Have I met the \nApostles, the prophets, the martyrs, whose \nmemories are the priceless possession of the \nChristian Church? No! These radiant souls are \n\n\n96 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nfarther on and higher up and in glory unspeakable. \nI follow on, but at present am only qualified for \nthe kindergarten of the spiritual life. \n\n\nHave I seen my Master, the crucified Nazarene? \nO that this beatific vision had been vouchsafed \nto me, as it has been to some. He is about us, \nand with us and in us, though mine eyes have not \nyet seen His glory, but in mystic moments I have \nhad a vivid sense of His nearness. O Jesu, my \nMaster, may I become more and more worthy \nof Thy service and more and more like unto Thee ! \n\n\nHave I seen God? This is unthinkable. \nNo soul can visualise Deity in the totality of His \nundreamed-of majesty and splendour, but a sense \nof the presence of God is everywhere. We know \nthat He is. We see the evidences of His reality \nall round about us, and feel them within us. The \natheist is unknown in the life spiritual. God is \nvery near us all, \u201cCloser is He than breathing, \nnearer than hands and feet.\u201d We may not see \nGod, but we may and do sense the Eternal Presence. \nEven the smallest child here has in his soul some \nawareness of Deity. We are overshadowed by \nHis love, and in a very real sense to us \u201cunderneath \nare the everlasting arms.\u2019\u2014Morrow of Life. \n\n\nDARK SPIRITS. \n\n\nQ. Is it good for spirits who describe them~ \nselves as beings in darkness to try to get help \nfrom those on earth ? \n\n\nP. The ideally best does not obtain in any \nworld with which I am acquainted practically. It \nis still ahead, for which I am profoundly grateful. \nIt might be far better for these darkened ones to \nbe helped from the other side, but they often get \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 97 \n\n\nno help except through the incarnate, with whom \nthey are in closer touch than they are with the \ndisembodied. \n\nThis question, like all others, depends upon \ncircumstances. Few are fit to undertake this \nwork, and should not seek it of their own volition ; \nbut no request for prayer and help should be \nrefused. On the other hand, to sit deliberately \nand invite that kind of visitant seems to me folly, \nif not even presumption.\u2014Letters from the Other \n\n\nSide. \n\n\nTHE HELL OF THE MATERIAL. \n\n\nPresently we came to a sort of parapet, from \nwhich we looked down into what at first seemed \nunknown and unfathomable depths, so impene- \ntrable was the darkness which overshadowed 1t ; \nbut after a time my vision became strengthened, \nso that I began dimly to perceive what was before, \nor rather beneath, us. I saw here and there a \nfigure walking about with a sort of uncertain \nmovement, as one might walk in a dream or in \nutter darkness. Some of them stumbled, others \nstretched out their hands as if to feel their way. \nBut far more than were walking were sitting or \ncrouching immovable, as though they were hewn \nof stone. There was no sound of voices, there \nwere no shrieks, no wails, no curses. The silence \nwas profound and oppressive, and was only \nbroken by an occasional sigh or moan, as one \nsometimes moans in sleep, which, low as it was, \nsmote on the ear with terrible distinctness. \n\n\nWhat did it mean? \nMy companion divined my inward question- \n\n\ning, and replied, \u201cThese are in a spirit lethargy\u2014 \na soul sleep, whieh has bound many of them for \n\n\nG \n\n\n98 Tue SpiriTuALists\u2019 READER \n\n\nyears, and which may bind them for years to \ncome. Their spiritual natures are wholly dormant, \nand being taken from the material world, where \nalone their energies found activity, they have \nnecessarily fallen into their present state. These \nsouls are, so to speak, yet in embryo, and have \nnot been born into spirit-life.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cFrom what classes of mortals come these \ninhabitants of this land of sleep and death?\u201d \n\n\n\u201cThose who know nothing whatever of spiritual \nlife while on earth. Those in whose hearts were \nno high aspirations, no sense of purity and goodness, \nand who mocked at the very words. Those who \nby vicious lives have murdered the spirituality \nwithin them. Those who allowed their souls and \ntheir intellects to be fettered by superstitions and \nfollowed blindly the leading of others. Those \nwho lived wholly for self, refusing to recognise the \ngrander meanings and purposes of life. In the \nsphere we have just left the spiritual perceptions \nwere not killed, only perverted or put aside. \nHere they have either never been developed or else \nhave been so nearly destroyed that only the germ \nremains. That can never perish, and will some \nday, perhaps in the far future, be developed into \nactive life.\"\"\u2014Heaven Revised (Duffey). \n\n\nHELPING THE DARK SOULS. \n\n\n\u201cBut if they were to look upward could they \nnot see us? Could we not beckon to them, and \nso awaken them to a knowledge of something \nbetter than their present condition, and to a desire \nto attain to it?\u201d \n\n\u201cNo; as their spiritual senses are dulled \ntheir eyes are blinded to all things spiritual. They \ncannot see us. They could not hear our voices. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 99 \n\n\nWe can only communicate with them by the means \n\nof earthly organisms. Sometimes at the seances \nheld on earth one of these benighted spirits finds \nhis way thither, and by listening-to words uttered \nthrough mediums for the first time becomes \nconscious of the existence of a higher spiritual life. \nFrom that hour dates his spiritual progress. But, \n\noh! his way is a long and weary one! If mortals \ncould only realise it how anxious they would be \nto avoid travelling it themselves; how zealous \n\n\nto help others !\"\"\u2014Heaven Revised (Duffey). \n\n\nHOW A MOTHER FEELS IN THE BEYOND. \n\n\nPhilemon greets you, my friends. \n\n\nCan you give me any conception of the \nlife and work of my beloved mother, such as you \nhave given of your own life ? \n\n\nP. Yes, I can, in words that are but faint \nsymbols of the reality. Your mother rarely, \nalmost never, returns directly to the Borderland \nrealm where intercommunications take place. Not \nfinding a medium attuned to her as I do, that is \nnatural. But she is aware of everything that \naffects those whom she loves, and in supreme \nmoments is with them, unseen but seeing, unheard \nbut hearing. I will not attempt to explain how \nthis is brought about\u2014I could not make it clear. \n\n\nShe is aware of the spiritual values, the content, \nas estimated in the spiritual world, of all your \nearthly strivings. She would see, as a rosy glow, \nfraternal affection passing from one to another of \nher children, in waves; she would perceive the \nardent desire for service emanate in the form of \nazure-hued clouds, deepening to an intense violet \nhue. When sadness and depression oppress your \n\n\n100 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nspirit, she sees these colours saddening into greyish \nues. \n\n\nShe dwells in a world that I call the Realm of \nRoses ; roses are the only flower-form that conveys \na faint idea of its freshness, fulness, fragrance an \nbeauty. This sounds feeble, perhaps foolish ; \nbut I felt this when I was permitted to visit her, and \nI always think of her there. \n\n\nQ. Is she with those who were so near and \ndear to her on earth ? \n\n\nP. They are not all with her, but she is with \nthem all, whenever she so wills, or they so need. \n\n\nShe is very restfully busy, reposefully active. \nI \u2018know the bliss of such service, of such activity, \nthrough my visits to where she is. Her work is \nto the denizens of the spirit world who enter \nspirit life somewhat stunted and starved, however \nnoble they may have been, through lack of beauty \nand fragrance in their earthly surroundings. Man \na child of rich parents, reared in dreary wealt \nand luxury, needs her ministrations. Many a \ncity man, who has really forgotten that daisies \nand buttercups are as necessary to a normal \nexistence as silver and gold, has to undergo a \ncourse of re-education in her world before the \nangels can do anything for him. Your mother \ncame to me, when I was perplexed at finding \nmyself in a hueless, grey world, drawn thither in \nthe quest of a soul in sore need of help. I was \nexclaiming, \u201cHow can this grey underworld form \npat of God's world? Shall I ever see colours and \n; ee again?\u201d Then I looked up to see her \nscintillating with the most delicate shade of every \nEosuble colour, some of which were new to me. \ne wore the most wonderful opalescent garments ; \nthe colours changed as she moved. She held \ntowards me what appeared to me as the most \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 101 \n\n\nmarvellous flowers I had ever beheld, both hands \nfull\u2014the colours were as those of living gems ; \nand she said in a voice as musical as rippling waters : \n\n\u201cDear friend! This is too much for you. Come \nwith me for a while. You will return strengthened \nand better equipped for your mission.\u201d \n\n\nThat sojourn in her world was my retreat. | \nmarvel that I have attempted to tell you, because \nit is so hopeless to attempt to portray these things. \n\n\nThis is where I have been. I had met her \npalmer or rather she me, more as the friend \nremembered on earth\u2014not before as this radiant \nbeing with the flowers. I have brought back with \nme some of that radiance, and I, by my presence \nshed light and beauty and joy in \"the dark and sad \nspheres where my work often lies. I am so very \nhappy, so very glad to be of service where I am, \nI could not be as happy anywhere else. I am not \na round peg in a square hole, but a nice square \npeg in a first-class square hole. : \n\n\nWhen my radiance is dimmed | shall return to \nthe realm of Roses and Joy, for recuperation and \nrefreshment. \n\n\n. What memories do you keep of the \nloved ones still left on earth ? \n\n\nP. It is most difficult to generalise. It is an \nindividual idiosyncrasy. I may remember my \nchildren\u2019s names, but find myself utterly unable \nto transmit those beloved sounds through certain \nmedia. The memories with strong emotional \ncontent are those which survive longest. In the \nspirit world I should think of my _ beautiful \ndaughter, my clever daughter, not of my first or \nsecond\u2014not necessarily by name.\u2014Letters from \n\n\nthe Other Side. \n\n\n102 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nOBJECT OF THE WAR. \n\n\nQ. Is the world on the whole purged by \nthis terrible war ? \n\n\nP. Icansay this: the world is a better world, \na holier world, than when | left it. This is true. \nI will give you my personal view, which may be \noptimistic or short-sighted. The hour is dark \nand yet darker. But the darkest hour is not \nfar distant. There is no need for despair, nor \neven for discouragement. \n\n\nThe crest of the wave to me is in sight, but the \nend will not come until the statesmen and politi- \ncians of the world recognise that righteousness \nalone exalteth a nation, and that the children of \nlight must emulate the children of darkness in \nactivity and self-sacrifice. They, the statesmen, \nalready see this truth dimly. \n\n\nGod keep and sustain you!\u2014Philemon, in \n\n\nLetters from the Other Side (Written in 1917). \n\n\nIMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH. \n\n\nThen I was dead! How strange it seemed to \nbe dead, and yet with such superabundant life ! \nHow mortals misapprehend the meaning of the \nword. To be dead means to be alive with a \nvitality earthly humanity does not know. How \nlong had I been dead? It seemed to be early \nmorning. The watchers were silent, having dozed \noff to s eep in their arm-chairs. The rays of the \nlamp were paling before the light of the approach- \ning day, which was heralded in the east by scarlet \nbanners flung across the sky. When I had fallen \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 103 \n\n\nasleep\u2014into that peaceful sleep from which I had \nwakened in another world\u2014the night had been \nfar spent. I must have passed away at the ebb of \nthe tide, when day was struggling with , Sariuest, \nand nature itself was at its Towet xh ebb. I ha \n\nrobably been dead twenty-four Pew I had \nfallen asleep on earth; I had awakened in the \nland of spirits. \n\n\nThe land of spirits! Strange as it may seem, \nI for the first time realised this fact. My thoughts \nand emotions up to this point had all been con- \nnected in some way with the world and the life | \nhad left behind me. But where were the spirit \nforms of the loved ones who had passed on etre \nand whom I had expected to meet me at the gate- \nway, and to welcome and guide me into the life \neternal> On the threshold of this new life I felt \nno fear at my seeming isolation, but a sense of \ndisappointment and loneliness, and of bewilder- \nment also, stole over me. Even as these thoughts \npassed through my mind the room and all it \ncontained seemed to dissolve before me. I found \nmyself upon a great plain, which gently inclined \ntowards a valley, through the depths of which \nflowed a stream. I cannot describe the beauty \nof the scene. Earth is beautiful, and its beauties \nfound their way to my heart ;_ but the spirit-world \nis far more so. The scene seemed strangely \nfamiliar. It was so like, and yet so unlike, an \nearthly valley, where I had spent many happy \nhours\u2014perhaps the happiest of my life. It seemed, \nindeed, the earthly valley glorified and spiritualised, \nas who shall say that it was not? The grass was \nintensely yet safely green, and starred with myriads \nof daisies. When last I had beheld the earthly \nvalley it was still beautiful, but it had the beauty \nof death that sent a chill to my heart, and over it \nhung a pall of cloud which completely enshrouded \n\n\n104 Tue SprirRITUALIsts\u2019 READER \n\n\nits depths. But my valley was resurrected, and \nwas mine evermore. \n\nI was walking, but, strange to say, my feet \ndid not touch the ground. I walked along just \nabove the surface of the earth, just as I had done \nmany times in dreams\u2014the realest dreams | ever \nhad. What a strange sensation it was to be freed \nfrom the weight of the earthly body\u2014to be released \nfrom the physical law of the attraction of gravita- \ntion! I felt that I might rise to any height to \nwhich I aspired, yet was content for the present \nto keep near the ground. \n\nBut my friends\u2014my spirit friends\u2014where \nwere they? Why was I thus so isolated in\u2019 my \nnew life? I was not conscious of having uttered \na thought aloud, but as if in response to it I found \nmyself in the presence of two youths, whose \nradiant countenances possessed more than mortal \nbeauty. Years ago I had laid away with an aching \nheart and many bitter tears two beautiful babes, \nfirst one and then another; and many times \nthereafter I stretched out my arms with soul-felt \nlonging towards the unknown land whither they \nhad gone, as if to reach to them and bring them \nback to me. But when I clasped my arms to \nmy breast again they were always empty. My \nbabes! How I had longed for them, yearned for \nthem! They had always been babes to me in \nmy memory, little tender, clinging things, finding \ntheir whole world in mother-love. But when I \nbeheld these youths beside me some _ subtle \ninstinct revealed to me that they were my babes \nnow nearly grown to manhood. | felt neither \nhesitation nor surprise in recognition. It was as \nthough I had always expected them to appear \nthus to me. I only held out my arms with an \n\n\nunutterably glad impulse, crying \u201cMy boys! \nMine!\u201d \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 105. \n\n\nMy lost ones were in my arms, and for a \ntime my soul was filled with a bliss too deep for \nwords. At last emotions struggled into utterance. \n\n\u201cOur mother ! \u201d\u2019 were the glad words I heard \nfrom lips which had never learned to pronounce \nthem in their brief earth-lives, and then there \nwere eager questionings and glad responses. \n\ne have been with you, mother,\u201d said the \nelder, \u201cthrough all these years. Daily we have \nvisited you. We have nestled in your arms. You \nnever called to us that we did not come. And we \nspoke to you and tried to comfort you, but you \ndid not always hear us; and sometimes when our \nmessages reached your heart you did not compre- \nhend from whom they came. You have been \nour mother still, our helper and our guide; and \nwe in turn have helped and guided you as far as \nlay in our power, as we could not have done had \nwe remained with you on_ earth.\u201d\u2014Duffey\u2019s \n**Heaven Revised.\u201d \n\n\nCIRCLE OF EXPIATION. \n\n\nPity Oscar Wilde\u2014one who in the world was. \na king of life. Bound to Ixion\u2019s wheel of thought \nI must complete for ever the circle of my experi- \nence. Long ago I wrote that there was twilight \nin my cell and twilight 1 in my heart, but this is the \n(last >) twilight of the soul. In eternal twilight \nI move, but I know that in the world there is day \nand night, seedtime and harvest and red sunset \nmust follow apple green dawn. Every year spring \nthrows her green veil over the world, and anon \nthe red autumn glory comes to mock the yellow \nmoon. Already the may is creeping like a white \nmist over lane and hedgerow, and year after year \nthe hawthorn bears blood-red fruit after the \nwhite death of its may. (Mrs. T. S: Why have \n\n\n106 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nyou come here?) To let the world know that \nOscar Wilde is not dead. His thoughts live on in \nthe hearts of all those who in a gross age can hear \nthe flute voice of beauty calling on the hills, or \nmark where her white feet brush the dew from \nthe cowslips in the morning. Now the mere \nmemory of the beauty of the world is an exquisite \npain. I was always one of those for whom the \nvisible world existed. I worshipped at the shrine \nof things seen. There was not a blood stripe on a \ntulip or a curve on a shell or a tone on the sea but \nhad for me its meaning and its mystery and its \nappeal to the imagination. Others might sip the \npale lees of the cup of thought, but for me the red \nwine of life. \n\nPity Oscar Wilde. To think of what is going \non in the world is terrible for me. Soon the chest- \nnuts will light their white candles and the foxgloves \nflaunt their aa ee drooping bells. (Will you \ncome again?) I will come again gladly if you \n\nwill Jet me buzz on as an autumn bee might who \nwas tired of hunting for fresh blossoms out of \nseason. I am tired, too, but I like to remind \nmyself now and then of the fact that there are \npeople who regard the little globe as the whole of \nwhat is reality. \n\nYou are the light that lets me peep again \ninto the world which seems so dazzling now that \nthe Divine Justice finds it His pleasure to keep me \nin dim twilight. I lived for the beauty of visible \nthings. The rose-flushed anemones that star the \ndark woodland ways, those loveliest tears that \nVenus shed for Adonis and shed in vain were \nmore to me than many philosophies. \n\nI wither here in twilight, but I_know that I \nshall rise from it again to ecstasy. That thought \nis given to us to help us to endure.\u2014Oscar Wilde, \n\n\nthrough the Mediumship of Mrs. Travers Smith. \n\n\nTue SpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 107 \n\n\nPAIN. \n\n\nQ. I meant to ask: Have you bodily pain ? \nHave you, since you went over, ever experienced \nwhat we call bodily pain, or have you done with it ? \n\n\nP. Yes and No. Yes, when my body of \ntenuous substance you call astral comes up against \nastral currents of the lower astral levels, it suffers \nand shrinks as would a tropical plant or animal in \nan icy blast ; but we know how to avoid such pain, \nfor pain it is. But bodily pain of the kind known \non earth, hopeless and misunderstood, is a thing \nof the past. Here help, instruction or avoidance \nare swiftly and surely available. I wish I could \ngive you a less truthful\u2014no, no, I mean a more \nsatisfactory answer. Your beloved mother can \nenjoy bliss even to the extent of the ecstasy of the \nbeatific vision. She could not do this if she had \nno sensitiveness, and while there is sensitiveness \nof body, of mind, or spirit there is the possibility \nof pain. But just as you discover anodynes on \nyour earth so we, too, explore and discover and \napply the results of research and discovery on our \nplanes. \n\n\nP. I suffered from the non-loving currents \nof the earth-soul when | approached the border- \nland; my spiritual body suffered, but after a \nvery \"lar experience I learned the colour rays \nwhich permitted of approach without discomfort, \nand even with pleasure, as when my thoughts \nimpinge on the thought-aura of the writer. \nneed not really suffer in my present vehicle or \nbody when leaving it behind\u2014so I am told; but \nI do not like to answer where I have no personal \nexperience. I see those who have been here the \n\n\n108 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nlongest appearing most vigorous, most glorious, \nmost luminous, so I conclude that there is nothing \nreally analogous to what you know as death.\u2014 \n\n\nLetters from the Other Side. \n\n\nTHE WORST EVIL. \n\n\nFirst of all, what you need to think of above \neverything else in regard to this matter is, what \nyou or any one of you are doing to make the \nReal World real to men. The worst evil of the \npresent day is not its love of money, nor its selfish- \nness. No, but its Loss of the Soul. You forget \nthat the Soul is the thing. And that all that \nconcerns the body, except so far as it affects the \nSoul, is of no importance. But what you have to \nrealise is that men and women in this generation \nhave lost their souls. And this is a terrible truth. \nIt is not what we used to think of losing the Soul. \nWhen I say lost 1 mean it. You have lost it as \nyou might lose a person in a crowd. It is severed \nfrom you. You are immersed in matter and you \nhave lost your Soul. And the first, the most \npressing of all things, is to find your Soul. For \nuntil you find it you are little better than an active \nautomaton, whose feverish movements have no \nreal significance, no lasting value. The Loss of \nthe Soul, that is the Malady of the Day; and to \nfind the Soul is the Way of Salvation. \n\n\nThe finding of the Soul is the first thing and \nthe most important thing. You will never find it \nunless you give yourself time to think, time to \npray, time to realise that you have a soul. At \npresent, then, do you remember that? You \nremember post time and you remember when you \nmust catch trains. But when do you remember \nthat you must catch your Soul? No, no! All \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 109 \n\n\nis rush and jump and whirl, and your Soul gets \nlost, crowded out of your life. You have so many \nengagements that you have no time to live the \nSoul-life. That is what you have to learn. No \ndoubt your work is important, and duty must \nbe done. But what shall it profit a man if he gain \nthe whole world and lose his own Soul ?\u2014Julia. \n\n\nFATE OF ANIMALS. \n\n\nQ. Do tell us more about the future of those \ndevoted animals, as, for instance, Sir Walter \nScott\u2019s dog. \n\n\nP. Their next step is to companion those \nhuman spirits in the borderland spheres who \ncould not be happy lacking the faithful four-footed \nfriends of their earthly existence, and some lonely \nwaifs are made happy \u201cin heaven\u201d\u2019 by being given \na four-footed pet of their very own. \n\n\nQ. Can you tell jus what is the ultimate fate \nof jour loved dogs ? \n\n\nP. What the ultimate fate is of these \u201clittle \nones\u2019 I cannot at present tell you. There is a \ntradition, born, I verily believe, of human exclusive- \nness and arrogance, which denies the persistence \nof the \u201c\u2018four-footed\u201d beyond certain spheres. Why, \nI ask, should Khaki, who is one of these beloved \nones, be with us here and yet not go forward ? \nI am sure those dogs who have died that others \nmight live, who have refused to live on after the \ndeath of a beloved human friend, have earned, \nand will receive, life, and more abundant life, in \nthe presence of those whom they loved with the \ngreatest of all loves\u2014the love that gives all, asking \nnothing in return.\u2014Letters from the Other \"Side. \n\n\n110 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nREAL RELIGION. \n\n\nOften what seems to you the worst things are \nthe best. Sometimes the apparent best are among \nthe worst. Motive is not se om but it is a \ngreat deal\u2014so much that those from whom motive \nis hidden cannot judge fully. My own experi- \nence of all this was very varied, and I soon became \naccustomed to disregard all the distinctions I had \nmade so much of when in life. Then I used to \nask if So-and-so were religious, whether he belonged \nto this or that or the other church; now these \nthings do not interest me any more than the new \nfrills and facings of fashion. We don\u2019t ask what \nchurch. Here let me say that you may mis- \nunderstand what I have written. It is not that I \nthink being religious is of no importance. It is \nof all importance. What I meant was the asking \nof any one of his church connection as a way of \nknowing whether or not he was religious. That \nis the absurdity we never practise. We never \nask about these things except so far as they stand \nin the way of the real religion. We lament, and \nhave continually to deplore, the fact that they are \nsubstituted for the love which is the fulfilling of \nthe law. The degree of love with which anyone \nloves measures his religion. The degree of hatred \nor indifference which paralyses love in the soul is \nthe test of irreligion. Love eats into selfishness \nas the sun\u2019s rays eat into the black and dark night. \nThat is God in life. That is what we see. Light \nthat shines in the darkness. Love is that light. \nWe don\u2019t care for the shape of the shutters that \nshut it out. Nor for the endless discussions as to \nthe windows that let it in. These questions are so \nsimply answered. The best window, what is that ? \nIt is the window that lets in most light. Where, \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER I \n\n\nthen, is the light that is the test of the window ? \nAnd the light of life is Love, and Love is God and \nGod is Love ; and those who do not love are those \nwho sit in outer darkness, and in the valley of the \nshadow of death. Sin consists in the living \nwithout God; that is to say, without love. But \nthe more you think the more you see that love \nthat is selfish is not love, and love that injures its \nobject is not love but cruelty. The love that \nsacrifices the permanent welfare of the loved one, \nto the Stained ake gratification of the pleasure of \nthe moment, is not real love. All love supposes \nsome degree of restraint, and this is true of the \nHighest as well as of men and women. Restraint \nthat is born of the intelligence that foresees. And \nreal love is the keenest-sighted of all things.\u2014 \n\n\nJulia. \n\n\nTHE ARRIVAL OF SPIRITS. \n\n\nThe tide of immigration sets steadily from \nyour land to ours. There is no emigration back \nto earth. All faces are turned towards the spirit- \nworld ; all feet are hastening hitherward, and all \nmust come at last face to face with death, and, \nstanding on the shores of the mystic river, must \nbid an eternal farewell to earthly life, and venture \nwith hesitation and fear, or with courage and faith, \ninto the unknown and mysterious realm beyond. \n\nThese pilgrims are coming, coming, coming, \nleaving behind them all that possessed material \nvalue on earth, and bringing only\u2014themselves. \nIf they have cultivated their spiritual natures and \nheld themselves above the level of materiality, \nthen they are rich indeed; but if earth and its \ncares engrossed all their attention, and they had \nneither time nor thought for that \u201cbetter part\u201d for \n\n\n112 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nwhich Mary was commended, then no beggar on \nearth could be poorer or more destitute than these \nsouls when they enter the life immortal. Nor \ndo intellectual enlightenment, moral regeneration \nand spiritual illumination wait upon them to be \nut on like an outward garment as soon as they \nae reached the spirit sphere. These are the \ntrue riches, which must be acquired by laborious \neffort. As a man was upon earth, so does he find \nhimself when he first enters here. He who was \nignorant is ignorant still; he who was filthy is \nfilthy still; superstition still holds those spirits \nin its thrall who were its victims upon earth. \nIt would seem to you that all must become \nSpiritualists when they reach here, and the avenues \nP knowledge are thrown open to them; and I \nshall surprise you when I say that there are Method- \nists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Quakers here, \nand all the different sects of religious beliefs, just \nas among you. There are those who bow to the \nsupremacy of a spiritual Pope, and who yet find \nauricular confession and the observance of rites \nand ceremonies necessities to their religious life. \n\u2018True, they encounter much to surprise them when \nthey enter here. Heaven is altogether different \nfrom what they had pictured it; but their beliefs \nand prejudices are stronger than the facts which \ncome under their observation (is not this also \nthe rule in earth life > ), and so they merely readjust \nthemselves, still clinging as far as possible to their \nold tenets. But the time comes, sooner or later, \nwhen they grow out of these superstitions, and \ngetting at first faint glimpses of the truth, these \n\u2018glimpses become brighter and clearer as they \nseek for them. \nThere is no more interesting study than to \n\u2018watch the arrival of these immigrants\u2014these \npilgrims, and to note their first impressions, \n\n\nTue SpiriTUALIsts\u2019 READER 113 \n\n\nexperiences, surprises and disappointments. It is \nalso sad to stand beside the bed of death, as it is \noften our privilege and our duty to do, and witness \nthe terror with which theology has invested the \npassing from death unto life. Is it true that the \nChristian knows how to die? He may meet \ndeath serenely if he be a man of strong character, \nhopeful disposition, and with nerves not easily \nshaken; but with such a character he would \nmeet it no less bravely were he a rejector of all \nreligious faiths. If he be timid and weak, given \nto apprehension and shrinking from danger, not \nall the consolations and hopes which religion can \nafford will save him from becoming terror-stricken \nwhen the last dread hour approaches. There is \nsomething appalling, even to the stoutest heart, in \ngoing out to meet the unknown, and that is what \nall, save Spiritualists, must do. To them, and to \nthem only, is the spirit-world revealed. To them \nit is given to know that they are passing from \ndarkness unto light ; from death unto life; from \nmortality to immortality. How strange that this \nglorious truth, which should be indeed the corner- \nstone of existence, is rejected by so many earthly \n\n\nbuilders !\u2014Duffey\u2019s \u2018Heaven Revised.\u201d \n\n\nDAWN OF NEW LIFE. \n\n\nMoruer ! \n\n\nI am here, but I can\u2019t tell you much. Meslom \nwill help me. He is not very well known to me. \n\n\nI never knew I could come back. I have \nbeen asleep and lost a long time. I am just \nawakening and I am all in a tremor to think I am \nreally alive yet and able to see you. \n\nH \n\n\n114 Tue SpiriTuAuists\u2019 READER \n\n\nI can come to you from time to time. Meslom \nwill help me\u2014I can come\u2014I am already stronger. \nI went away too soon, but now I can make up for \nthe time | wasted. \n\n\nMeslom. \n\n\nL. has been obliged to stop. He is not yet \nstrong enough to do much, but I| brought you \ntogether and you are to help and be a great power. \n\n\nL. is not suffering\u2014he is only just awakened. \nHe was brought to consciousness by his mother\u2019s \nwish to communicate. \n\n\nL. is here again. \n\n\nYes, I am here, and I am so glad I am alive \nagain. Oh! mother darling, I am so thankful \nih so happy to be with you. I am free from \nsuffering. en alive, alive! and all awake to \nthe wonders about me. But remember I have \nbeen asleep. Your wish to speak to me has \nawakened me. I am alive ! \n\n\nI am not able to tell you much, but I am \nfilled with such a tremendous joy of life that I \ncannot imagine going back. \n\n\nI can come to you again and I can tell you \nmuch. Meslom is going to teach me, and says \nI can come when you and Mary arrange. I have \nno choice\u2014it is for you to say. \n\n\nI am alive again and so happy, but I can\u2019t \ntell you much. pear to be in a wonderful \nlight and in a b sevells ous country of perfect condi- \ntions\u2014I can see\u2014\u2014\u2014 \n\n\nMeslom. \n\n\nL. is not able to stand a longer strain, but \nthe conditions are perfect. I will bring him again \nbut not to-day. He is a fine nature and will \ndevelop quickly and be a great help. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 115 \n\n\nFebruary 3rd, 1917. \n\nMeslom. \n\nL. is here. He has been far away and cannot \nstay long, but he will speak. \n\nHere I am. I can\u2019t tell you much yet. I \nwas so excited at being alive that I cannot get in \ntrim for calm work. Since I awoke the other \nday | have been far away in a wonderful country\u2014 \nit seems like the land one sometimes dreamed \nand never quite found. It is perfect and filled \nwith light and perfume and life and movement. \nI cannot explain it all now. I only know I am \nenjoying it and getting strong again and all my \nweakness is gone. \n\nDo you regret your life here ? \n\nYes, I might have done many things which I \nneglected, but I am permitted another life. \n\nI am going to help you to enjoy this life of \nmine and understand what you can before you \ncome, but you are really able to foresee some, \nbecause of your innate appreciation of art and \nbeauty. I shall have the double happiness of \nenjoying and of teaching you. \n\nCan you see me? \n\nYes, and I am so glad you have found Mary \nand that you are able to talk to me. You can \nnever know my feeling the other day, when you \nawakened me from that long sleep which seemed \ndeath, You know I caused this\u2019 myself \nbecause I had been persuaded that it was death \nI was facing, and at the end I was so tired that I \nreally didn\u2019t care. I could not struggle along any \nfurther, but if you had not called me and found a \nway to reach me I should have been obliged to \nwait for long ages, because in the ordinary course \nit requires a much longer time to come back to \nconsciousness. Help me by loving me.\u2014Meslom. \n\n\n116 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nTHE ORTHODOX. \nPhilemon. \n\n\nQ. Is there an immediate enlargement of \nvision on passing over, where there is very narrow \nbut sincere religious conviction\u2014among striet \nPresbyterians or Roman Catholics, for instance ? \n\n\nP. It all depends on the individual and his \nenvironment on this side. Roman Catholic \nfamilies are as well shepherded with us as on earth, \nand members of their families are overshadowed \nby the \u201cdead,\u201d and deterred in many cases from \nleaving the faith which was theirs, and still is a \ncherished part of the new life. Hence you see a \npious or perfunctory Latin Christian would per- \neeive no shock on his entry to the new sphere of \nlife and thought. It would only be gradually and \nby not very definite stages that he would discover \nthe spiritualisation of the old crudities and cruelties. \nThe forms were beautiful, and have changed \nbut little. The spirit has been renewed, and is \nmore in harmony with the soul's deepest convic- \ntions than were the old errors. \n\n\nA friendless soul, without convictions, would \n\nnot find himself i in a community of the formerly \n\n\u201corthodox.\u201d He would be welcomed by the \n\nkindly ministering spirits, whose very presence \n\u2018would cheer his heart and feed his soul. \n\n\nQ. But is it not a shock for the pious Roman \nCatholic, for example, to find that the repetition \nof so many Paters and Aves does not cancel \nhundreds and thousands of years in purgatory ? \n\nP. There is no shock involved. He finds \n\n\nhimself in light and warmth and colour. He \nconcludes that his good conditions are due to that \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 117 \n\n\nvery cause, his prayers and those of others; and \nin a sense he is right. The \u201cpaid\u201d prayers are \nfew in comparison with the real ones, and those \nwho pray \u201c\u2018paid\u201d\u201d prayers for unknown souls often \n\nay truly. \u2018These errors fall away gradually. \nThe priests tell them that the language of time \ncould not express the truths of eternity, and that \nit applied to conditions rather than to duration \nand space. \n\n\nThe fact that there are abodes of darkness \nand despair leads them to infer that they repre- \nsent the \u2018hell\u2019 of earth, and these are bad enough \nin all conscience\u2014so bad that some pious priests, \nstill faithful to their doctrine of the end justifying \nthe means, actually preach that it is a sin for \nspirits to impart the truth to those left on earth \nlest they, thinking it of less moment, should be \ncareless, and so not fearing \u201chell\u201d should merit \nthe sojourn in the abodes of darkness and despair \nto which the wicked virtually condemn themselves. \n\n\nLetters from the Other Side. \n\n\nPASSING OVER. \n\n\nWhat about those you had left in tears ? \n\nNo, I did not think much during the journey \nof those whom I had left behind. They were \nalive and well, and they would soon come over and \nbe with me. The overpowering rush of new \nsensations seemed to leave no room for regrets \nor thoughts of the old life. Well ! you may regret \nthis, but I am telling you facts. You will find it \nso also your first day. And I think it is good and \nnot evil. For otherwise it would have been \ndifferent. \n\n\nWhen we were journeying I spoke little. \nMy thoughts were busy and yet I was not conscious \n\n\n118 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nof even thinking, only of feeling and seeing, \ndrinking in at every point new impressions. \n\nhen we seemed to be arriving at a new world I \nspoke. I asked my guide, \u201cWhere is this? Is \nit Heaven?\u201d\u2019 He replied, \u201cWait and see. You \nwill find those there who will teach you what you \nwant to know.\u201d \n\n\nThe place was very pleasant to behold. The \nair was sweet, and there was a delicious fragrance \nas of flowers in June. The world\u2014for it was a \nworld we were approaching\u2014seemed not unlike \nour old world, but it was different\u2014there was \nnothing to jar. The sense of restful peace and \ncontented love was everywhere. The place had a \nplacid smile of tranquil joy ; the note I remember, \nthe details I will not enter upon. \n\n\nWhen I found my friends there were about \nfive or six of those relatives and near friends who \nhad been on this side for some time. My dear \nlittle sister was the lovingest and dearest of all. \nI saw before me the semblance of her childhood, \njust as she was in the long years ago, when I had \nparted with her it seemed for ever. But she was \nonly assuming the child-form to gain recognition. \nAfter a time, when I learned more about the life \nhere, she revealed herself to me as we see her now, \nas a spirit who is a woman grown. There is no \ndifficulty in our assuming whatever form we need \nfor the purpose of the moment. No, I do not \nmean to say that I could assume permanently any \ndisguise ; but you can make yourself appear for \nthe time what you think you wish to be. For the \nsubtle thought is as an artist not merely in colour \nor marble, but to all apparent semblance in the \nactual person.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nMy little sister having embraced me and \nwelcomed me to the sphere where the loved and \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 119 \n\n\nthe lost are united, took me by the hand and \nbrought me to the friends who were close by \nwaiting for me. They were all very kind and \nloving, and they told me many things. The \nchief surprise that I found was in the fact that we \nwere all so very much the same. We did not \nseem to have become angels or saints. For my \npart I was, I fear, by no means saintly. There \nwas at first a certain awe that numbed me; but \nas that numbing sensation wore off my old natural \nself asserted itself, and I really felt shat I was as \n\nad been, only with a much greater sense of \npower and of freedom. There was the increased \nsense of vitality\u2014doubly and trebly delightful after \nmy illness\u2014and a great feeling of restful absence \nof fret. \n\n\nWhen I came to talk with my friends they \ntold me many things that at first startled me \nThey said, for instance, that I should be able to go \namong all those whom I had left, and that I should \nfeel no sense of separation. For the spirits of \nour friends are open to us on this side. Then I \nsaid, \u201cThere is no death,\u201d and they laughed \nmerrily. \u201cOf course not,\u2019 \u2019 they said, \u201cnot to us \nwho are \u2018dead.\u2019 Death is only a sense of depriva- \ntion and separation which the so-called living \nfeel\u2014an incident of limitation of \u2018life.\u2019 Death \nonly exists for the living, not for us.\u201d And I \nwished at once to go and see if it were so; and \nimmediately as I thought, I was back among those \nwhom I loved. \n\n\n\u201cOne has so much to ask. Are the spheres \nlike this around ? \u201d \n\n\n\u201cIn every way similar. It is only the change \nof condition that makes the difference. Flowers \nand fruits and pleasant landscapes and animals \nand birds are with us as with you. Only the \n\n\n120 Tue SpiriTuALists\u2019 READER \n\n\nmaterial conditions are changed. We do not \ncrave for food as you; nor do we kill to live. \nMatter, in your sense, is done with, and we have \nno feed. 0 sustenance, save that which we can \ndraw in with the air we breathe. Nor are we \nimpeded in our movements by matter, as you are. \nWe move freely and by volition. I learn by \ndegrees, and as a new-born babe, to accustom \nmyself to the new conditions of my being.\u201d \n\n\n\u201cAre things real to you?\u201d \n\u201cQuite; and very beautiful.\u201d \u2014Julia. \n\n\nARRIVAL IN SPIRIT LIFE. \n\n\nAs soon as the spirit, whose departing hour \nI thus watched, was wholly disengaged from the \ntenacious physical body, I directed my attention to \nthe movements and emotions of the former, and \nI saw her begin to breathe the most interior or \nspiritual portions of the surrounding terrestrial \natmosphere. At first it seemed with difficulty \nthat she could breathe the new medium; but in a \nfew seconds she inhaled and exhaled the spiritual \nelements of nature with the greatest possible ease \nand delight. And now I saw that she was in the \npossession of exterior and physical proportions \nwhich were identical in every possible particular\u2014 \nimproved and beautified\u2014with those proportions \nwhich characterised her earthly organisation. That \nis to say, she possesses a heart, a stomach, a liver, \nlungs, etc., etc., just as her natural body did \nprevious to (not her, but its) death. This is a \nwonderful and consoling truth! But I saw that \nthe improvements which were wrought upon and \nin her spiritual organisation were not so particular \nand thorough as to destroy or transcend her \npersonality; nor did they materially alter her \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 121 \n\n\nnatural appearance or earthly characteristics. So \nmuch like her former self was she that had her \nfriends beheld her (as J did), they certainly would \nhave exclaimed\u2014as we often do upon the sudden \nreturn of a long absent friend, who leaves us in \nillness and returns in health\u2014\u201cWhy, how well \nyou look! How improved you are!\" Such was \nthe nature, most beautifying in their extent, of \nthe improvements that were wrought upon her. \n\nI saw her continue to perform and accustom \nherself to the new elements and elevating sensa- \ntions which belong to the inner life. I did not \n\narticularly notice the workings and emotions of \nbee newly-awakening and fast-unfolding spirit, \nexcept that I was careful to remark her philosophic \ntranquility throughout the entire process, and her \nnon-participation with the different members of \nher family in their unrestrained bewailing of her \ndeparture from the earth, to unfold in Love and \nWisdom throughout eternal spheres. She under- \nstood at a glance that they could only gaze upon \nthe cold and lifeless form which she had but just \ndeserted, and she readily comprehended the fact \nthat it was owing to a want of true knowledge upon \ntheir parts that they thus vehemently regretted \nher merely physical death. \n\nThe excessive weeping and lamentation of \nfriends and relatives over the external form of one \ndeparted are mainly caused by the sensuous and \nsuperficial mode by which the majority of mankind \nview the phenomena of death. For, with but few \nexceptions the race is so conditioned and educated \non the earth, not yet having grown into spiritual \nperceptions, not yet progressed to where \u2018\u2018whatso- \never is hid shall be revealed,\u201d realising only \nthrough the medium of the natural senses the \nnearness of the beloved, watching and comprehend- \ning only the external signs and processes of physical \n\n\n122 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ndissolution, supposing this contortion to indicate \npain, and that expression to indicate anguish ; \nI say, the race is so situated and educated that \ndeath of the body al the majority of the earth\u2019s \nse guaseratadh is equivalent to an annihilation of \nrsonality e the individual. But I would \ncomfort the superficial observer, and I can solemnly \nassure the inquirer after truth that when an individ- \nual dies naturally the spirit experiences no pain ; \nnor, should the material body be dissolved with \ndisease or crushed by the fearful avalanche, is the \nindividuality of the spirit deformed or in the least \ndegree obscured. Could you but turn your natural \ngaze from the lifeless body, which can no longer \nanswer to your look of love, and could your spiritual \neyes be opened, you would behold\u2014standing in \nyour midst\u2014a form, the same, but more beautiful\u2014 \nand living! Hence, there is great cause to rejoice \nat the birth of the spirit from this world into the \nInner Sphere of Life\u2014yea, it is far more reason- \nable and appropriate to weep at the majority of \nmarriages which occur in this world than to \nlament when man\u2019s immortal spirit escapes from \nits earthly form to live and unfold in a higher and \nbetter country. You may clothe yourselves with \nthe dark habiliments of woe when you consign, at \nthe altar, a heart to a living grave, or when you \nchain the soul to breathe in an uncongenial atmos- \nphere; but robe yourselves with garments of \nlight to honour the spirit\u2019s birth into a higher life ! \nThe period required to accomplish the entire \nchange, which I saw, was not far ra rom two hours \nand a half; but this furnishes no rule as to the \ntime required for every spirit to elevate and re- \norganise itself above the head or the outer form. \nWithout changing my position of spiritual percep- \ntions I continued to observe the movements of \nher new-born spirit. As soon as she became \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 123 \n\n\naccustomed to the new elements which surrounded \nher, she descended from her elevated position, \nwhich was immediately over the body, by an effort \nof the will-power, and directly passed out of the \ndoor of the bedroom in which she had lain (in \nthe material form) prostrated with disease for \nseveral weeks. It bemg in a summer month, the \ndoors were all open, and her egress from the house \nwas attended with no obstructions. I saw her \npass through the adjoining room, out of the door, \nand step from the house into the atmosphere ! \nI was overwhelmed with delight and astonishment \nwhen, for the first time, I realised the universal \ntruth, that the spiritual organisation can tread \nthe atmosphere which, while in the coarser earthly \nform, we breathe\u2014so \u2018much more refined is man\u2019s \nspiritual condition. She walked in the atmosphere \nas easily and in the same manner as we tread this \n\u201cik and ascend ie eminence. Immediately upon \n\nher emergement from the house she was joined by \ntwo Piel spirits from the spiritual country, and \nafter tenderly recognising and communing with \neach other the three in the most graceful manner \nbegan ascending obliquely through the ethereal \nenvelopment of our globe. They walked so \nnaturally and fraternally together that I could \nscarcely realise the fact that they trod the air\u2014 \nthey seemed to be walking upon the side of a \nglorious but familiar mountain! I continued to \ngaze upon them until the distance shut them from \nmy view; whereupon I returned to my external \nand ordinary condition. \n\nOh, what a contrast! Instead of beholding \nthat beautiful and youthfully-unfolded spirit \nnow saw, in common with those about me, the \nlifeless, cold and shrouded organism of the cater- \npillar, which the joyous butterfly 7 so recently \nabandoned !\u2014Clairvoyance of A. J. Davis. \n\n\n124 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nLOVE. \n\n\nYou may say that there is a love which is \nselfish and a love which is evil. It is true, but \nthat is because the love is imperfect. It is not \nlove when it leads to selfishness. The love which \nleads a mother to engross herself with her own \nchildren and neglect all her duties to other people \nis not wrong itself. It is only because she has \nnot enough love for others that her love for her \nchildren makes her selfish. The great need where- \never love seems to make people selfish is not less \nlove for those whom they do love, but more love \nfor the others who are neglected. You never \nlove any one too much. It is only that we don\u2019t \nlove others enough also. Perfect love all round \nis the Divine ideal, and when love fails at any \npoint, then evil is in danger of coming in. But \neven a guilty love, so far as it takes you out of \nyourself, and makes you toil and pray and live \nand perhaps die for the man or woman whom you \nshould never have loved, brings you nearer Heaven \nthan selfish, loveless marriage. I do not say this \nis against marriage. I know you think that this is \na dangerous doctrine. All true doctrine is danger- \nous, but is not less true for its danger. There is \nno doubt that much so-called love is very selfish, \nand is not love at all. The love, for instance, \nwhich leads a man to ruin a woman, and desert \nher when he has gratified a temporary passion is \nnot love. It is not easy to distinguish it from the \ndeadliest hate. It is self-indulgence in its worst \nshape. Now, all love is of the nature of self- \nsacrifice. There are many things also to be borne \nin mind. We have all not merely to think what \nis the result to ourselves, but also to other persons, \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 125 \n\n\nsome of whom may not yet be born. To love, \ntherefore, anyone really, truly, means that we are \nputting ourselves in his place, loving him as \nourselves, that we desire for him the best, and give \nup ourselves and our own pleasure in order to \nsecure it for him. This is true love, and wherever \nyou find it you find a spark of God. That is why \nmothers are so much nearer God than anyone \nelse. They love more\u2014that is, they are more \nlike God; it is they who keep the earth from \nbecoming a vast hell \nNow, my darling, hold fast to this central \ndoctrine ; Love is God, God is love. The more \nyou love, the more you are like God. It is only \nwhen we deeply, truly love, we find our true selves, \nor that we see the Divine in the person loved. \nOh, Ellen, Ellen! if I could come back and speak \nin the ears of the children of men, I think I should \nwish to say nothing but this\u2014Love! Love is the \nfulfilling of the law, love is the seeing of the face \nof God. Love is God, God is love. If you wish \nto be with God\u2014love! If you wish to be in \nheaven\u2014love! For heaven differs chiefly from \nhell in that in heaven all love up to the full measure \nof their being, and all growth in grace is growth \nin love. Love! love! love! That is the first \nwork and the last word. There is none beside \nthat, for God, who is love, is all in all, the Alpha \na the Omega, the first and the last word.\u2014 \nulia \n\n\nIMPRESSIONS OF ONE JUST PASSED \nOVER. \n\n\n- You know my head is still a little in \nthe clouds, as you would say, in time I shall be \nable to do more practical work. The wonder and \n\n\n126 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nlight here are a little bewildering at first, and I \nhave not tried all my new powers. Where the \nneed is the help is at hand. There was a wonderful \nthing here yesterday. 1 can only describe it to \nyou as a sort of service\u2014but not like anything \nwith you really\u2014and the result has been to make it \na little difficult to think of anything but the attri- \nbutes of God. I have never understood before \nthe value and wonder of a man, or the reality of \nfaith and hope, or what a mere shadow pain is \nand how soon dispelled by the sun. \u2018If it were \nonly possible for you to see with my eyes for only a \nmoment and to realise the great Kindness\u2014but \nyou have to carry on where you are, and I shall be \nalways so near, nearer than ever before, for what \nseparates is matter, and | have done with that, and \nso am nearer and always will be. Later, when \nyou are further from my death and nearer to my \nlife, you will feel me nearer and share in my \ngreat joy . . . I love you all far more than \nbefore. Death is glorious and life here a song of \ntriumph, no words mean what I mean. \n\n\nI look back to my own death as a very wonder- \nful experience, one which I should like to repeat. \nIn this place of peace and understanding there is a \njoyful recognition of many things which have \nonly been seen very dimly and intermittently \nbefore. You do not feel you have come to a \nstrange place, but as if you had come home. \nThere is a moment, just before one understands, \nwhen one regrets what one thinks will be a separa- \ntion from the old days; it is the same kind of \ngrief which you feel now, but it seems impossible \nto find words for the actual change which takes \n\n\nplace. . . . It is true that in a long death the \nmind turns to losses and cannot yet comprehend \nthe gan . . . The fear of the dark dis- \n\n\nappears with the coming of light. Nothing will \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 127 \n\n\nbe lost; I can see ea here the various kinds of \nlinks which bind people moet none of them \nbreakable by such a thing as d \n\nVery hard work just now, ne i needed, \nso I have only come to pass the time of day with \nyou. I am very interested in the development of \nthis ; you will find it will make great changes of \nthought in the world, if only men of sense will \nlisten. . . . Think of me as always taking a \ndeep interest in all that concerns you, for one \nforgets nothing here and yet one remembers \nwithout any of the pain which your memories \nhave. Perhaps this is because you are all building \ncastles in the dark, and from here we can see the \nresult and how happy you will be in them when \nthey are finished. All that you value in the old \nlife, all real things, love, friendship, beauty, \nbei mieeng 7 books, thoughts and feelings, you \n\nwill bring here with you to weave into the new \nlife, peng is full of beauties and joys which have \nnot entered into the heart of man in your state \nyet. I won't say good-bye because I do not go \naway, | am only turning the current into another \nchannel. \n\nOne of the things I have learnt in these \nmonths is the immense power of thought. You \ncan see from here how people change and mould \nthemselves by their thoughts. . . . This war \nis spiritual as well as material ; it is amazing to see \nthe spiritual war waged from here, the other is \npale beside it. But the forces of good are undying, \nimmortal. \n\nI have a great deal to say, but I don\u2019t think it \nis the right time to say it yet.\u2014Zhe Greater \nUnderstanding. \n\n\nI am over the Border, but I am in constant \ncommunication with you on the earth-side. To \n\n\n128 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nme this has been a means of great blessing. \ncannot conceive how anyone can consider that \nsuch communications can possibly retard growth. \nGrowth depends upon love and service ;_and you \nlimit the area of both when you put a wall of iron \nbetween the spheres. The conception of earth \nas a geographical place is very material. You \nthink too much in matter. You cannot realise \nthat to me and to all on this side you are spirit- \nfogged in a little body limited and conditioned by \nthat fog. But the real self is spirit, not flesh-fog, \nand life is ministry and sacrifice and service and \nlove. As, therefore, this means of communication \nenables me to minister to and serve those whom | \nloved, who are often sorely pressed and troubled, \nyou can see how absurd is the doctrine that it is a \nhindrance to development.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nTHE AWAKENING OF WILBERFORCE, \nTHROUGH STAINTON MOSES. \n\n\nWhen my spirit awoke to consciousness of the \neternal life and its surroundings I found myself \nin company with bright and blessed angels, the \nministers to me of the abounding mercy of my \nGod. The shock that severed me from earth \nhad been so sudden that at first I was not conscious \nthat I was in the world of spirits. But my dear \nfather made himself known, and convinced me \nthat I was indeed alive and amongst the ranks of \nthe shining ones. With him was my dear mother ; \nand they were joined after by the pure spirit of \nKeble, and philanthropic souls who delight to \ngather around him aie on earth was a chie \namongst men in philanthropy and deeds of love. \nBy them I was conducted to the home where my \nguardians rest. From them I learn that which is \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 129 \n\n\nrequisite for me, and am taught to put aside much \nthat I once thought of vital moment. Ah! how \neasily does the spirit put away the opinions of earth \nto which it so fondly clung! Through my guar- \ndians I received the request that | would put \nmyself into communication with you. It was \nconveyed to me through your presiding spirit, \nwho now writes for me. I complied with joy, \nand am now pleased beyond measure that I can \ntouch the plane where so many so dear to me still \nlive; though, alas! alas! I cannot reach them. \n\nhey know not; and will not learn as yet. Since \nI left the earth I have been occupied in learning my \nwork, and in preparing mpea for the life of \nprogress to which my being is now devoted. \nAlready, under the guidance of my guardians, | \nhave passed through the first sphere, where are \ngathered those who are bound to earth by the \naffections, or are unable to rise as yet. There I \nsaw some whom | had known in. the body, and \nlearned from them, and from others, much that \nI needed to know. My work will be of a similar \nsort till I reach my appointed sphere. \n\n\nTHE SOUL AFTER DEATH. \n\n\nWhen the soul leaves the body it remains \nexactly the same as when it was in the body; the \nsoul, which is the only real self, and which uses \nthe mind and the body as its instruments, no longer \nhas the use or the need of the body. But it \nretains the mind, the knowledge, the experience, \nthe habits Ne thought, the inclinations; they \nremain exactly as they were. Only it often happens \nthat the gradual decay of the fleshy envelope to \nsome extent obscures and impairs the real self \n\nI \n\n\n130 Tue SpirRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nwhich is liberated by death. The most extra- \nordinary thing which came to my knowledge \nwhen I passed over was the difference between the \napparent man and the real self. \n\n\nIt gave quite a new meaning to the warning, \n\u2018Judge not,\u201d\u2019 for the real self is built up even more \nby the use it makes of the mind than by the use it \nmakes of the body. There are here men who \nseemed to be vile and filthy to their fellows, who \nare far, far, far superior, even in purity and holiness, \nto men who in life kept an outward veneer of \napparent goodness while the mind rioted in all \nwantonness. It is the mind that makes character. \nIt is the mind that is far more active, more potent \nthan the body, which is but a poor instrument \nat best. Hence the thoughts and intents of the \nheart, the imaginations of the mind, these are the \nthings by which we are judged; for it is they \nwhich make up and create as it were the real \ncharacter of the inner self, which becomes visible \nafter the leaving of the body.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nJULIA\u2019S AFTER-DEATH NARRATIVE. \n\n\nWhen you die a change takes place that differs \nso much in different cases that I think I had better \nbegin by describing as clearly as possible what is \nfelt by the person who dies. In my letters I have \ntold you how I felt. There was no pain, no shock, \nno sensation at all save that of waking up out of a \ndeep sleep, perfectly well. That was my experi- \nence, and it was a very happy one. It is a very \ncommon one, but it is not universal. There are \nmany ways of passing from your side to ours. \n\nf these the most general is painless waking up, \nand the first sensation is one of rest, of relief, and \n\n\nTue SpirITUALIsts\u2019 READER 131 \n\n\nof peace. The dead\u2014for I fear I must use that \nmisleading word\u2014in almost all cases where death \nhas been unexpected, does not realise the change \nthat has taken place. His only idea is that he has \nsuddenly recovered. Physical pain drops off you \nlike a garment with the body which you have left \nbehind, you wake up well, and your first impres- \nsion is one of delight ; just the same as when you \nwake up from a bad dream and discover that it \nwas only a dream. So simple, so natural does \nthis seem, that you almost always mistake what has \ntaken place. I did, as you know. And I find it \nis a common experience. Many refuse to believe \nthey are dead. It is, of course, true\u2019 that they \nare not dead. They have all their faculties: they \nsee, they hear, they move hither and thither. \nEverything seems the same to them as before. \nTheir first realisation of the change that has taken \nplace is a kind of shock to them. \u201cSo -this is \ndeath. Then if so, there is no such thing as death !\u201d\u201d \nFor it is so entirely different from what we imagined. \nWe imagine that life, our life, ends with the death \nof the body. What you learn here is that the \nspan of life spent in the earth-body is but a small \nsegment of the great circle of existence. You go \non. You never stop. Sometimes you sleep, but \nyou always wake. \n\n\nWhen the man dies he wakes up himself and \nno other. He is still he, she, she. If a child, he \nwakes up a child; if an old man, he wakes up an \nold man. If it were not so you would lose your \nidentity and imagine that you have been incarnated \nin another body. \n\n\nWhen a new-born babe passes over, conscious- \nness has hardly begun on the earth. It is really \nborn into this world rather than into yours. It \nhas had no earth-experience, no memory of this \n\n\n132 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nside. There is another class which at first at \nleast have no memory of their earth-life. \n\n\nI told you yesterday that some, like little \nchildren, are unconscious of any life but this. \nAnd there are others who are unconscious for a \nlong time. There are some who suffer violent \ndeaths, who seem, as it were, stunned when they \ncome here, and do not recover consciousness until \nthe funeral rites are over, and they are forgotten \namong men. The reason why men have in every \nage made great to-do about funeral ceremonial is \nnot merely to express sorrow, it is to advertise to \nthe dead the change that has taken place. The \ndisembodied soul who wakes up to find his body \ngone and life going on in the home as before, he \nbeing consciously still present, and alive in the \nmidst of it, does not realise that he is dead, and \nsometimes it is quite a long time before he is \naroused to his true condition. He is annoyed \nthat his folk do not see him nor answer him, and \nhe feels as if he were in a kind of bewildered \ndream. There he continues until some spirit \ncan convince him. Of course this occurs mostly \nwith those who have not realised the existence of \nthis world, or who have imagined it so different ; \nthey cannot recognise the truth that they are still \nin the same world after death. Death seems \ndenied in two ways: First, the outward visible \nworld has undergone no change ; ;_ and secondly, \nthey retain unbroken continuity of consciousness, \nthey are themselves, and realise their identity as \nmuch as they do on earth after they undress at \nnight.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 133 \n\n\nAWAKENING IN SPIRIT LIFE. \n\n\nWhat first convinced me that something had \nhappened was the sight of my old body. After \nthat came the discovery that my nurse did not see \nme nor hear me, but wept about my body as if \nthat were myself. This is what usually happens. \n\nhe passing soul, which retains consciousness, sees \nthe body which it had inhabited lying inert. The \nsnapping of consciousness between the soul and the \ntenement, if I may so speak of it, is usually not felt \nby the soul. With some it is different. They feel \nas if it were the slow breaking, one by one, of the \nthreads which connect the soul with its tenement ; \nbut the process is not painful, even when it is pro- \ntracted. I have spoken to many on the subject, \nand the majority tell me that their experience agrees \nwith mine. They could not even say that they \ncould remember the exact moment when the body \n\narted company with their soul. Some say that they \nleft the body before it ceased to breathe, others that \nthey lingered behind for a time after physical life \nhad ended. But these are exceptions. The im- \nmense majority here say the same thing. They \nwere asleep ; they found themselves awake and well, \nin the same place where they fell asleep, and at first \nthey could not realise they had died. And this is \nthe case even when, as in some churches, the dying \nhave been prepared for death by the last solemn \nrites. They knew that they were going to die, but \nthey did not expect that dying was waking up quite \nwell, with all their old faculties and memories, in the \nsame place where they fell asleep, and this always \nis a source of astonishment, of bewilderment, to \nthem at first. Many think it is a pleasant dream to \nbe well, and dread waking up to the old pain and \n\n\n134 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nweakness. All that I have written relates to the \nimmediate moment after waking, and to the experi- \nences of the majority. There are many, very many \nexceptions. But, as a rule, death is a painless wak- \ning up in health, and the first emotion is bewildered \nastonishment. \n\nWhen the newly arrived have had many \nfriends, relatives, or those whom they have loved on \nthis side, they find them waiting for them. Especi- \nally when they have kept thinking of or praying for \nthem. Forgetfulness separates here as there. But \nall whose minds and hearts have been closely knit \nin love with those on this side find their loved ones \nwaiting. And yet so great is the difference between \nwhat is and what they expected that even when they \nare welcomed on this side by those whom they knew \nto have been long \u2018\u2018dead,\u201d\u2019 it is to them as a dream. \nBewilderment, surprise are the first sensations. \nWhen I came over you will remember I was at first \nquite alone, when | was allowed by my experience \nwith the nurse to discover for myself what had \nhappened, and then came the angel who took me \napparently a long, long way to my relations and \nfriends. This is sometimes the case and sometimes \nnot. Sometimes even before the soul leaves the \nbody it hears the welcome sound of the voices \nloved and lost, sees the angels and hears the music \nof the spheres. But these cases are comparatively \nfew. Not until the body is cast off like a worn-out \ngarment do you begin to see, hear and understand \nthe new life.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nHELL IS REMEDIAL. \n\n\nYou may shrink from it, but it is not the less \ntrue that sometimes the parting spirit finds itself \nin outer darkness in which it sees and feels nothing \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 135 \n\n\nbut a dread lostness, a desolation which oppresses, \nand which is described as Hell. And Hell is no \nfiction. And Hell awaits those who have built it \nfor themselves, as surely as Heaven awaits those \nwho have built it for themselves. No, for I must \nnotice your insistent question. Not a hell that is \npunitive except incidentally. Believe me, the law \nof the Universe which is God, is Love, and no \npain on this side or that is ever inflicted on anyone \nexcepting in such a way that out of that pain and \nsorrow may spring joy and gladness of heart. \nAnd Hell is a great remedial agency. You see \nhere the result of your life\u2019s works, thoughts, \ndeeds. What you have sown you reap here. And \nyou must not imagine that the law is here less stern \nthan with you. It is not felt to be so stern because \nit is more easily understood. And the people who \nfind themselves in Hell when they open their eyes \nin the darkness find the Beneficence and the \nMercy of God even in their affliction. You do \nnot realise the exceeding sinfulness of sin until you \nsee its results. And on earth they are often hidden. \nHere they are revealed. You see what you have \nbeen doing. And the sight is often appalling. \nAnd as those who love have before them waiting \nthe dear ones whom they loved, so those who \nhated, or injured or neglected, they also will find \non thia side their victims, who need no whip of \ntorment to scourge the sinner, but only to reveal \nto him, \u2018 \u2018See thy handiwork. This thou hast \nmade of me.\u2019 \u2014Julia. \n\n\nFRIENDS FOR THE FRIENDLESS. \n\n\n_ When the disembodied soul arrives here there \nis often an awkward pause. The new world into \nwhich he has entered is strange, and he is a stranger. \n\n\n136 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nBut the Agency which is at work here soon dis- \ncovers what soul is friendless and alone. The \nangel who came to me was the servant of this \nency. The pause which is awkward is not \nlonger than is necessary for the good of the new- \ncomer. When he arrives he will, after this pause \ntime, if there is no preparation personal to himself, \nbe addressed by the Receiving Angel, who, as I \nexplained, may or may not assume wings as \ncredentials. If the arrival is prepared to receive \nthe news of his awakening there is little difficulty. \nThere was none in my own, and I was at once taken \nto those whom I knew. None of them were very \nnear and dear to me, or they would have been \nwaiting for me. But there are millions of men and \nwomen who arrive here to whom the discovery of \nthe existence of life after death is a stunning shock. \nThey have argued themselves into a conviction \nthat death ends all, and the discovery that it \nbegins all over again makes them often angry, and \nsometimes they refuse to listen to any guidance or \ncounsel. They are then left to themselves to find \nout by personal experience the facts (1) That they \nare still living entities in the same world, althoug \non a different plane; (2) That the laws of the new \nworld need to be learned if they would advance to \nthe better life that lies before them. There are \nmanytowhom thelight of thenew life, whichis Love, \nmanifesting itself and manifested, appeals at once. \nThey are in their element, and rejoice exceedingly \nto be at home in Heaven, at home with God Who \nis Love. But those whose acrid temperament and \nselfish disposition have gradually made them \nloveless and utterly self-seeking, find themselves in \nthis world like blind men in presence of the glory \nof sunrise. It is there, flooding the world with \ncolour and splendour, but all its radiance does not \nexist for him because his optic nerve is destroyed. \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 137 \n\n\nThe optic nerve of the soul is unselfish love; \nwith that one can see God, can enter Heaven. \nI use the terms which use has consecrated. For \nthe arbitrary division, Heaven and Hell, although \npomeapeete to the truth in its crude essence, \nis very far from representing things as they are. \nYet possibly it would d have been difficult to make \nmen realise the difference except by sharp contrasts. \nHeaven shades off into Hell, Hell shades off into \nHeaven, by a million imperceptible gradations. \nBetween the two there is no great gulf fixed, as is \nsuggested in the parable of Lazarus. For the \nBorderland which divides the two is crossed by \ninnumerable paths, along which the dwellers in \nHeaven are perpetually leading those who were \nspirits in prison, to whom those of us who are in \nthe light of the Love of God are preaching. \nPreaching in this sense, that of loving and making \nthem believe in love, and causing them to love. \nAs I wrote, the joy of Heaven is emptying Hell, \nand I never wrote a truer word. The task is \nnot an easy one, but what infinite joy there is \nwhen the darkened eye is opened, and a soul \nbegins to live! This world is like your world, \nonly the things of the spirit are visible, and the \ndulling mask of matter is no longer here to obscure \nthe vision of the soul. \n\nThe fate of the loveless soul is a sad one. \nBut there is no despair. Nor do we ever regard \nany one as hopeless. Many are so blind it seems \nas if the eye had entirely disappeared. But we \nnever give up. And in the end all will come into \nthe Light of the Love of God. But there are \ndegrees of this Light. Between the grey confines \nof the Borderland, between Heaven and Hell and \nthe radiant glories of the spheres where souls per- \nfected in the Love of God and man are to be \nfound, there is an infinity of space. And we grow \n\n\n138 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nand evolve more and more in the realising sense of \nthe glory that suffuses the world and all the universe \nof worlds.\u2014Julia. \n\n\nFIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE BEYOND. \n\n\nI have told you a little about the journey and \narrival, and I want now to tell you my first impres- \nsion and a few experiences. I must begin by \nsaying I do not know how long after the collision \nthese experiences took place. It seemed to be a \ncontinuation without any break, but I cannot be \ncertain that this was so. \n\n\nI found myself in company with two old \nfriends, one of them my father. He came to be \nwith me to help and generally show me round. \nIt was like nothing else so much as merely arriving \nim a foreign country and having a chum to go \naround with. That was the principal sensation. \nThe scene from which we had so lately come was \nalready well relegated to the past. Having \naccepted the change of death, all the horror of our \nlate experience had gone. It might have been \nfifty years ago instead of, perhaps, only last night. \n\nonsequently our pleasure in the new land was \nnot marred by grief at being parted from earth \nfriends. I will not say that none were unhappy, \nmany were; but that was because they did not \nunderstand the nearness of the two worlds; they \ndid not know what was possible, but to those who \nunderstood the possibilities, it was in a sense \nthe feeling, \u201cLet us enjoy a little of this new land \nbefore mailing our news home\u201d; therefore there \nwas little grief on our arrival. \n\n\n_ In writing my first experiences I am going to \ngive a certain amount of detail. My old sense of \n\n\nTuHeE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 139 \n\n\nhumour is still with me, I am glad to say, and I \nknow that what I have to say now will cause a \ncertain amount of amusement to those who treat \nthis subject lightly, but that I do not mind. \nam glad they will find something to smile at\u2014it \nwill make an impression on them that way, and \nthen when their own time comes for the change \nthey will recognise themselves amongst the condi- \ntions of which I am going to write. Therefore, \nto that kind of sceptic I just say, \u201cIt\u2019s all right, \nfriend,\u201d and \u2018\u201c\u201cYou give no offence.\u201d \n\n\nMy father and I, with my friend also, set out \nimmediately. A curious thing struck me. I was \nclothed exactly as I had been, and it seemed a \nlittle strange to me to think I had brought my \nclothing with me! There\u2019s number one, Mr. \nSceptic ! \n\n\nMy father was also dressed as | had always \nknown him. Everything and everybody appeared \nto be quite normal\u2014quite as on earth. We went \nout together and had refreshment at once, and, \nnaturally, that was followed by much discussion \nabout our mutual friends on both sides. I was \nable to give them news and they gave me informa- \ntion about our friends and also about the condi- \ntions ruling in this new country. \n\n\nAnother thing which struck me was the \ngeneral colouring of the place; of England it \nwould be difficult to say what the impression of \ncolouring is, but | suppose it would be considered \ngrey-green. Here there was no uncertainty about \nthe impression ; it was undoubtedly a blue which \npredominated. A light shade of a deep blue. \ndo not mean the people, trees, houses, etc., etc., \nwere all BLUE; but the general impression was \nthat of a blue land. \n\n\n140 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nI commented upon this to my father\u2014who, \nby the way, was considerably more active and \nyounger than he was at time of death, we looked \nmore like brothers. I spoke of this impression \nof blue, and he explained that it was so in a sense. \nThere was a great predominance of blue rays in \nthe light, and that was why it was so wonderful a \nplace for mental recovery. Now some say, \u201cHow \n\n\ncompletely foolish!\u2019 Well, have you not on \nearth certain places considered especially good \nfor this or that ailment? . . . Then bring \n\n\ncommonsense to bear, and realise that the next \nstep after death is only a very little one. You do \nnot go from indifferent manhood to perfect godli- \nness! It is not like that; it is all progress and \nevolution, and as with people, so with lands. \nThe next world is only a complement of your \npresent one. \n\n\nWe were a quaint population in that country. \nThere were people of all conditions, of all colours, \nall races and all sizes: all went about freely \ntogether, but there was a great sense of caring \nonly for oneself, self-absorption. A bad thing on \nearth, but a necessary thing here, both for the \ngeneral and individual good. There would be no \nprogress or recovery in this land without it. As a \nresult of this absorption there was a general peace \namongst these many people, and this peace would \nnot have been attained without this self-centredness. \nNo one took notice of any other. Each stood for \nhimself, and was almost unaware of all the others. \n\n\nThere were not many people whom I knew. \nMost of those who came to meet me had dis- \nappeared again, and I saw scarcely any I knew, \nexcept my two companions. I was not sorry for \nthis. It gave me more chance of appreciating all \nthis new scene before me. There was the sea \n\n\nTHE SpiriTuALists\u2019 READER 141 \n\n\nwhere we were, and I and my companions went \nfor a long walk together along the shore. It was \nnot like one of your seaside resorts, with promenade \nand band; it was a peaceful and lovely spot. \nThere were some very big buildings on our right \nand on our left was the sea. All was light and \nbright, and again this blue atmosphere was very \nmarked. I do not know how far we went, but \nwe talked incessantly of our new conditions and \nof my own folk at home and of the possibility of \nletting them know how it fared with me, and I \nthink we must have gone a long way. If you can \nimagine what your world would look like if it \n\u2018were compressed into a place, say, the size of \nEngland\u2014with some of all people, all climates, \nall scenery, all buildings, all animals\u2014then you \ncan, perhaps, form an idea of this place I was in. \nIt must all sound very unreal and dreamlike, but \nbelieve me, it was only like being in a foreign \ncountry and nothing else, except that it was \nabsorbingly interesting. \n\n\nI want to give you a picture of this new land \nwithout going too deeply into the minute details. \nWe arrived at length at a huge building, circular \nand with a great dome. Its general appearance \nwas of a dome only\u2014on legs\u2014I mean a great \ndome supported on vast columns, circular and \nvery big. This again, in the interior, was an \namides lovely blue. It was not a fantastic \nstructure in any way. It was just a beautiful \nbuilding, as you have on earth\u2014do not imagine \nanything fairylike; it was not. This blue was \n\nain very predominant, and it gave me a feeling \na energy. I wanted immediately to write. I \nwould like to have been a poet at that moment, \nbut as it was I just wanted to express myself \nwith pen and ink. \n\n\n142 Tue SpIRITUALIsTs\u2019 READER \n\n\nWe stayed there some time and had refresh- \nment very similar, it seemed to me, to what I \nhad always known, only there was no flesh food. \nEverything appeared quite normal there, too, and \nthe absence of some things which would on earth \nhave been present was not noticed. The curious \nthing was that the meal did not seem at all a \nnecessity\u2014it was there, and we all partook of it \nlightly, but it was more from habit than need\u2014 \nI seemed to draw much more strength and ener \nout of the atmosphere itself. This | attribut \nto the colour and air. It was while we were in \nthis place that my father explained the reason and \nwork of the different buildings I had noted on our \nwalk together.*\u2014W. T. Stead in \u201cThe Blue \nseen id \n\n\na fine voice seance some time after this book appeared I asked \nMr. Pia) if I could rely upon this account. He replied at once, \u201c Twenty- \n\n\nfive per cent. was the medium.\u2019\u2014A.C.D. \n\n\nSOME MESSAGES FROM RAYMOND. \n\n\n[The confusion of \u201cI\u2019\u2019 and \u201cYou\u201d is caused \nby alternate talk of the spirit and of the spirit \ncontrol.] \n\nTell them I am very happy, very well and \nplenty to do, and intensely interested. I did \nsuffer from shock at first, but I am extremely \nhappy now. \n\nYou do not feel so real as people do where he \nis, and walls appear transparent to him now. The \ngreat thing that made him reconciled to his new \nsurroundings was that things appear so solid and \nsubstantial. The first person to meet him was \ngrandfather, and others then, some of whom he \nhad only heard about. They all appeared to be \nso solid that he could scarcely believe that he had \npassed over. \n\n\nTHE SpirRiTUALISTS\u2019 READER 143 \n\n\nHe lives in a house . . . and there are \ntrees and flowers, and the ground is solid. And if \nyou kneel down in the mud apparently you get \nyour clothes soiled. . . The night doesn\u2019t \nfollow the day here as in the earth-plane. It \nseems to get dark sometimes when he would wish \nit to be dark, but the time in between light and \ndark is not always the same. \n\n\nThere is something always rising from the \nearth-plane, something chemical in form. As it \nrises to ours it goes through various changes and \nsolidifies on our plane. He feels sure that it is \nsomething given off from the earth that makes the \nsolid trees, flowers, etc. \n\n\nI am told that I can meet anyone at any time \nI want to. There is no difficulty. That is what \nmakes it such a jolly fine place to live in. \n\n\nIt is interesting . . . much more than \non the old earth-plane. 1 wish you could come \nover for one day and be with me here. They \nhave all been over with him at night, but he \nthought it very hard you could not remember. \nIf you did he is told the brain would scarcely bear \nthe burden of the double existence, and would be \nunfitted for its daily duties, so the memory is \nshut out. \n\n\nKeep jolly, or it hurts me horribly. Truly \nI know it is difficult, but you must know by now \nI am so splendid. \n\n\nTell mother she has her son back with her on \nXmas Day. There will be thousands and thousands \nof us back in our homes that day, but the horrid \npart of it is that so many of the fellows don\u2019t get \nwelcomed. Please keep a place for me. \n\n\nFollowing on this line of thought Paul \nKennedy, a spirit friend of Raymond\u2019s, said, \u201cIt \n\n\n144 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nis revolting to hear the boys tell you how no one \nspeaks to them ever. It hurts me through and \nthrough.\u201d \u2014*\u2018 Raymond.\u201d \n\n\nNOTES FROM HOME CIRCLE, \n\n\nFor God's sake strike at these people, these \ndolts who will not believe. The world so needs \nthis knowledge. If I had only known this on \nearth it would have so altered my life\u2014the sun \nwould have shone on my grey path had I known \nwhat lay before me. \n\n\nNothing jars over here. There are no cross- \ncurrents. I am interested in many things, mostly \nhuman, the progress of human development, \nabove all the regeneration of the earth-plane. I \nam one of those who are working for the cause on \nthis side hand in glove with you. \n\n\nNever fear, the light will be the greater for \nthe darkness you have passed through. It will \ncome very soon, as God wills it. Nothing can \nstand against that. No powers of darkness can \nstand for one minute against His light. All the \ncrowd working against it will be swept away. \nLean more on us, for our power to help is very \ngreat. \n\n[Where are you? ] \n\nIt is so difficult to explain to you the conditions \nover here. I am where I would most wish to be, \nthat is, with my loved ones, where I can keep in \nclose touch with you all on the earth-plane. \n\n[Have you food ? } \n\nNot in your sense, but much nicer. Such \nlovely essences and wonderful fruits and other \nthings besides, which you don\u2019t have on earth. \n\n\nTue SprIrRiITUALists\u2019 READER 145 \n\n\nMuch awaits you which will very much \nsurprise you, all beautiful and high, and so sweet \nand sunny. Life was a preparation for this sphere. \nWithout that training I could not have been able \nto enter this glorious wonderful world. The \nearth is where we learn our lessons, and this \nworld is our great reward, our true and real home \nand life\u2014the sunshine after the rain.\u2014Editor's \n\n\nHome Circle, Lady Doyle, Medium. \n\n\nTHE RESCUE OF A DARK SOUL. \n\n\nAn undeveloped spirit, Oct. 11th, 1922. \n\n[Do you believe in God ? } \n\nNo! \n\n[Poor fellow. I fear, then, you are in darkness \nand trouble. Can we help you? ] \n\n[A relative intervening.] He says he is coming \nagain to talk to you. He says you are the only \nhumans who have spoken kindly to him. We will \nhelp also, but he is earth-bound, and so you can \nhelp him best. He has not been over very long. \nThe light will soon shine for him also. He was a \nMaterialist. rs te ee \n\nThe Undeveloped Spirit: Friend, thank you \nwith all my heart. I will take care of the medium \nand not abuse your trust. \n\nOctober 12th. \n\n[I hope you are happier.] \n\nYou have helped me already, kind sir. Please \ngo on helping me. You are the only one who has \nsince I left the earth, and I do need help badly. \n\n[We will stand by you.] \n\nBless you for saying that. \n\n[Can you hear and see ? ] \n\n\n146 Tue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\nI hear every word. I see you, too in this \nbeautiful home. I did not believe in a future \nlife. Now I know I was all wrong, and I am all at \nsea in finding myself over here. \n\nPlease say anything that will help me, friend. \nI am ready to listen, for my eyes are opened. \n\n[I fear you are in the gray circles.] \n\nYes, it is all, all gray. That is the awful \npart of it. Our surroundings are so horrible. \n\n[We will soon have you out.] \n\nFor God's sake tell me how. \n\n[Then you do believe in God ! ] \n\nOh, I do, I do! I see it for myself. \n\n[You will soon come along now.} \n\nBless you for saying so. I'll try. That \nwould, indeed, be great. May it come soon. I'll \nsay it with you now. (Joined in the Lord's \nPrayer.) 1 just didn\u2019t care. But, oh, how deeply \nI regret it. Your words have encouraged me more \nthan I can say. \n\n[Can you tell us of yourself ? } \n\nNot now. Please help me in my _ present \nplight. My name was Peter\u2014Peter Johnson. \nMy mind is open to any idea. You encourage \nme so. I shall feel less lonely if I talk to you as \noften as you can spare the time. Thank you with \nall my heart. \n\n[Tell us more detail.] \n\nIn good time that may come. Let me get \nright first. Already it is easier. A little light \nseems to glimmer in the dark. \n\nOctober 19th. \n\n\nOh, I am so much better, dear, kind friends. \nI am trying very hard to go uphill. I begin to \nsee how wrong I have been. My mind is learning \n\n\nTue SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 147 \n\n\nmany great truths. I have seen my own dear \nmother who passed over many years ago. She: \nsays she has waited for me. \n\n[Did you not see her before we spoke to you ? } \n\nNo. I was in too dark a place for even her \nto penetrate. \n\n[Don\u2019t think only of yourself. Help others.] \n\nI have already been able to help one poor \nlonely soul, and he is better, too. All thanks to \nyour circle. I have lost all sense of time. I \ndon\u2019t know how to say how long it is since my \ndeath. \n\n[Who was King ? ] \n\nOh, George ! \n\n_ Twill tell you more later if you will only keep: \nin touch with me. \n\n[Your mother can do the rest.] \n\nYes, but you can help me so tremendously. \nSome day I hope | may repay you for what you \nhave done for me.\u2014The Editor's Home Circle, \nLady Doyle, Medium. \n\n\nTHE RETURN OF THE IGNORANT. \n\n\nThis extraordinary experience took place as \nRandall has described it in \u201cThe Dead Have \nNever Died.\u201d \n\n\u201cThe room was in absolute darkness,\u2019 he \nwrites, \u2018\u2018and suddenly the voice of one called by \nthe world \u2018 \u2018dead,\u2019 trembling with anger, broke: \nupon the stillness of the night. \n\n\u2018\u201cBy what right do you premme to compel \nmy presence in this house?\u2019 the voice cried. \n\n\n148 THE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\u201c\u201cDo you understand the situation in which \nyou find yourself?\u2019 I asked \n\n\n**T do not, and | will not allow any man to \ndictate to me,\u2019 he replied \n\n\n**You are not afraid ?\u2019 I asked. \n\n\n\u201cAfraid! I am not afraid of God or man, \nand I will not remain here.\u2019 \n\n\n\u2018lt might be to your advantage if you would,\u2019 \nI answered. \u2018I did not force you to come. ; You \nare as much a stranger to me as I| am to you. \n\n\n***Who did force me to come?\u2019 he asked. \n***T do not know ; tell me about it.\u2019 \n\n\n***As it comes to me now,\u2019 he answered, \u2018an \nirresistible force seemed to urge me from a dream- \nlike condition. Suddenly I was awake, in your \npresence, and immediately concluded that in \nsome manner you controlled my conduct. That \nI cannot permit.\u2019 \n\n\n\u2018Before you go,\u2019 I said, \u2018I should like to \nhave you know something of the work we are \ndoing, which may account Be your coming. . . \nFor many years I have been engaged in psychical \nresearch with this psychic who sits opposite me, \ntrying to obtain a practical solution of the great \n\n\nphysical change called death. \n\n\n\u201c**What has that to do with me? I am not \ndead, or am I interested in the subject,\u2019 he \nanswered. \n\n\n66 6X \n\n\nY/ait a moment, please. You will be \ninterested when I tell you that I have discovered \nsomething of the daily life and environment of the \nindividual after he has ceased to be an inhabitant \nof the earth-plane. . . . \n\n\n\u201c**There is no such thing as life after death,\u2019 \nhe said. \n\n\nTue SprirRITUALIsts\u2019 READER 149 \n\n\n*\u201c*T am going to try to explain what life is, \nbefore I give you absolute proof of what I state. \nlow follow me. At the moment of conception \nan Atom of the Universal Force called \u201c\u201cGood\u201d\u2019 is \nclothed with substance vibrating more slowly than \nthe life-force which is thus clothed. The individ- \nual is as perfect at the moment as the giant oak \ntree in the heart of the acorn. We cannot see the \nindividual or the oak tree before or after birth and \ngrowth. Life-force vibrates so fast that it is not \nvisible to the physical eye, but ultimately we see \nthe outer covering, that substance which makes \nboth possible. This outer garment of the individ- \nual is composed largely of water. This physical \ny of ours changes once in seven years at least, \nbut with such change we retain individuality, \nform and feature. How is this done?\u2019 I asked. \n***T don\u2019t know, and I don\u2019t care,\u201d he answered. \n\u201cFollow me a little further, please. This \nentity, this life-force, this individuality, this soul, \nthis \u2018\u2018us,\u201d\u2019 if you like, is composed of matter, \ndiffering only in the flesh substance in its vibra- \ntory condition. This accounts for its permanenc \nof form, but no physical eye ever saw or ever will \nsee this self, this spirit form, this soul so-called, \nunless possessed of psychic sight with which, \nspeaking generally, few are endowed. Without \nit one individual can never see the spirit form of \nanother while an inhabitant of this earth. We are \nconscious only of physical expression and sound. \nNow in dissolution from accident or physical \nweakness the body covering that is visible to us is \nno longer fit for habitation; then the separation, \ndissolution\u2014death, so-called\u2014occurs ; the individ- \nual, through a natural process, releases itself from \nthe flesh garment, and stands forth the same man \nor woman as before, though invisible to the \ninhabitants of earth. They see but the old flesh \n\n\n150 Tue Spirituauists\u2019 READER \n\n\nbody which housed the spirit. They could not, \nas I have said, see the true self before, or can they \nsee it after dissolution, because of the intensity, \nbecause of the rapidity of the vibration of the \netheric body, for our eyes are limited to motion \nas well as to distance.\u2019 \n\n\u2018% I cannot accept a word you say \nabout a life after death. There is no other life\u2014 \nthere can be none\u2014a man dies like a dog,\u2019 said \nthe visitor . . . \u2018we have all seen dead people, \nhave seen their bodies buried, and you tell me \nthere are no dead.\u2019 \n\n\u2018Again I said, \u201cYou fail to understand what I \nhave been telling you. We bury the physical \nbodies, but not the spirit bodies; one is just as \nmaterial as the other. . . . Now to begin \neee you know where you are at this moment ? \n\nell me if you know.\u2019 \n\n\u2018\u201c*T don\u2019t seem to know. This is not my \nhome; the room is strange to me; you are \nstrange, too. It is all unreal.\u2019 : \n\n\u2018Listen to me. This frail little woman, over \n\neienty years old, who sits opposite me, is the most \n\ned psychic in the world. More than twenty \n\nyears ago it was discovered that under favourable \n\npsychic conditions such as prevail to-night we \ncould have speech with spirit people.\u2019 \n\n\u201c \u201cBut I am not one of these; the suggestion \nis absurd, I tell you. I am as much alive as you, \nand my body i is quite as substantial as yours, he \nsaid. \n\n\u2018 \u201cHold up your hand as I do mine, and see if \nthere is any difference between the two.\u2019 \n\n\u201c \u2018Yes,\u2019 he answered, \u2018there is a difference, I \nnow discover. Yours is opaque, but mine is \ntransparent. I can see right through my hand. \n{s this hypnotic suggestion ? \u2019 \n\n\nTue SpiriTuALists\u2019 READER 151 \n\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d I said, \u2018you are facing new conditions \nto-night. Do you know that we sit in intense \ndarkness\u2014and cannot see you, although we hear \nyour voice distinctly >\u201d\u2019 \n\n\neee \n\n\nI know,\u2019 he answered, \u2018that it is not dark, \nfor I can see you, and if I can see you, you can \nsee me; but never mind that; what is the matter \nwith my body? I think now T have been very ill, \nand one always looks as I do after a long sickness,\u2019 \n\nhe ecliee \n\n\n\u201cSpeaking of illness, what do you recall \nshout your last illness ? \u2019 \n\n\n\u201c\u201c*My memory seems hazy, but it is coming \nback to me. I recall lying on a bed, the physician \nwaiting, my. wife and children | sobbing. The \ndoctor said, \u201c\u201cHe is passing now.\u201d That did give \nme a start; there were some who would like to \nsee me dead\u2014but I fooled them\u2014for I did not \n\n\ndie. If I had died, how could I be here?\u2019 \n\n\n\u2018*Suppose I tell you that you have already \nmade that change. . . . Suppose I now prove \nit to you. Is there no one in the next life with \nwhom you would like to talk if you could > Remem- \nber that your sickness may have ended in dissolu- \ntion (death); your body is different, and you \nknow you find yourself in a strange city.\u2019 \n\n\n\u201c\u201c*Things have changed, but I don\u2019t want to \nsee or talk to dead people.\u2019 \n\n\nsee \n\n\n, You have been so intent on our \nconversation. | think you have not looked around \n\u2014look, what do you see ? \n\n\n\u2018\u201c\u201c*My God! People, people, pespiet All \nstrangers, and all looking at me, all with bodies \nlike my own ; what strange hallucination is this ? \n\n\nWhere am 1? Where am 1?' \n\n\n152 THE SpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\u201c*You are no longer an inhabitant of this \nworld, but are actually living in the after-life. \nAre there none you know among those you see, \nwho, to your knowledge, are counted among the \n\n\ndead, so-called >\u2019 I asked \n\n\n\u201c*Not one; but wait, there comes\u2014John\u2014 \nmy old partner. Why does he, of all men, come? \nHe is dead! I helped bury him! I was his \nexecutor. Take him and that woman and the \nboy away. I won't see them, I tell you. They \nare dead, all dead. They are coming to arrest \nme. How can they when they are all dead? \nTell me, tell me, tell me quick!\" \n\n\n\u201c**What wrong did you do?\u2019 I asked. \n\n\n\u2018\u201c*Wrong? Who said I did them any wrong ? \nI was faithful to the trust.\u2019 \n\n\n\u201cIn answer another spirit spoke. \u2018No, you \nwere not faithful. You stole the money entrusted \nto you for my wife and child, and left them to \nsuffer. There never was and never can be a \nsecret in the world. When you kept from my \nloved ones that which I left for their support and \nlet them die in want, I saw, and all your friends \nin spirit life saw your act and the working of your \nreine \n\n\n**No secret in the world ?. My crime known ! \nthe dead alive! Have I too left my physical body, \nto find that there are no secrets when I| thought \nto find oblivion? Am I to meet all those I have \nwronged ? I cannot face the future! Darkness is \ngathering! I am falling! God help me!\u2019 \n\n\n\u201cThe voice faltered, struggled for further \n\nspeech, and was lost. The gross material that \n\nc cfothed his organs of respiration, disintegrated, \nand he spoke no more. \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 153 \n\n\n\u201cWe had participated in one of the most \n\nremarkable experiences that it has been the privi- \n\ne of man to have. We had talked with one \n\no had left the physical body, and witnessed \n\nhis 7 pais \"\u2014Randall, \u201c\u201cThe Dead Have Never \nied. \n\n\nTHE NATURE OF HELL. \n\n\nHell is not a place of revolt, but of resignation \n\nto justice, and every soul within its wide dominion \nlearned from experience that the love of God is \n\nas powerfully present here as in the highest heaven. \nis recognition occasions, perhaps, one of the \nsharpest pangs of hell\u2014remorse that one has so \nsely sinned against such unchanging affection, \nwhich still pities where one would look for well- \nmerited revenge. Here sin is brought closely \nhome to the sinner as a wilful and deliberate act \nagainst what is known to be right, or an equally \ncriminal refusal to protect the right: and the \npurpose and mission of hell is understood to be \nthe best that eternal love and wisdom can devise to \neffect a complete redemption from sin preparatory \nto the assumption of Divine sonship. The first \nstage of life has been woefully misunderstood, \nmisdirected, misapplied ; men in their ignorance \nhave presumed to interpret eternal laws by the \nlight of so-called human justice, which may be \ntampered with, and is laradly influenced by speech, \ncaprice, or Sather weakness of earth. Because \ndoes not erect a tribunal in every market \nplace and bring each offender forward to immediate \nand public chastisement it is imagined that sin is \nonly punished in theory, and daring trespassers. \nlift their heads high and race with breathless speed \n\n\nfrom sin to sin. In all this men only add to their \n\n\n154 THE SpIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER \n\n\ncondemnation. They know and admit that \nnatural laws are not subject to caprice! You \ncannot bribe fire not to burn a child, nor hold it \nresponsible for doing so on the ground of the \nchild\u2019s ignorance. It is the nature of fire to burn\u2014 \nit is also the nature of sin to punish. No man can \nplay with either without paying the inseparable \npenalty. \n\n\nHell is God\u2019s house of correction, modelled \nto rescue the perishing and uplift the fallen, and \nso true is it to model that no soul has yet passed \nthe portal until he has fully and freely made the \nadmission, \u201cI have sinned!\u201d \n\n\n\u201cNot one?\u201d I queried. \n\n\nNo! Such a thing would be impossible.\u2014 \nThe Life Elysian. \n\n\nRELATIVES IN THE BEYOND. \n\n\nOf course we are all together. That is the \nlaw of love over here. Mother is so busy, always \ndoing kind things for those who arrive here\u2014 \nstrangers. Just like her dear sweet self. She is \n\n\nfull of fun and sunshine. \n\n\nYou will have many animals in your home \nhere\u2014so many. Several of those who died are \nin your future home. I am so happy. I play in \nan orchestra, and | enjoy it so much. \n\n\n[What do you do?] \n\n\nMusic and children, loving and mothering \nand lots more. Far, far more here than in the \ngray old earth. Nothing in the people round ever \njars. That makes everything happier and more \ncomplete. \n\n\n[Tell us about your surroundings.] \n\n\nTue SpirRITUALIsts\u2019 READER 155 \n\n\nIt is lovely. I have never seen any house on \nearth to compare with it. So many flowers\u2014a \nblaze of colour, and they have such wonderful \nscents, each one different and all blending so \nharmoniously. Then there are gorgeous butter- \nflies, not afraid of one, so that one can go close up \nand see all their beauty. \n\n\n[Can you see other houses ? ] \n\n\nNo, it would spoil the peace. Nature only \nis what one wants. Every house is an oasis. \nBeyond is wonderful scenery and other sweet \nhomes full of dear sweet people, full of laughter \nand joy from the mere fact of living in such wonder- \nful surroundings. No earthly mind can conceive \nthe light and wonder of it all \u2014Editor\u2019s Home Circle, \nLady Doyle, Medium. \n\n\nTHE RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDIUMSHIP. \n\n\nAll channels of communication are limited by \npurpose and capacity. It might be possible under \nexceptional circumstances to use the same conduit \nfor water, gas and electricity, but it is by no means \nadvisable to do so. Every surgeon has most \nconfidence in his own instruments. If the music \nis to be perfect Kubelik must play upon his own \nviolin and Paderewski upon his own piano: how \nmuch more necessary is it that the instrument of \ninter-communion between the two worlds shall \nbe set apart and delicately attuned to the special \nmusic it will be required to play. The great need \nof those in the beyond is for cence\u201d worthy \nand willing to be used in the mission : high, noble, \nself-sacrificing souls who understand t e nature \nand responsibility of the work, realise that only \npurity and holiness will attract corresponding \n\n\n156 Tue SpiriTuauists\u2019 READER \n\n\nagencies from without, always bearing in mind \nthat the nearer the angel messenger using the \ninstrument stands to God the greater will be the \nstrain his presence will put upon the organism \ne employs. It is a high calling, and the man or \nwoman who enters upon it must do so prepared to \nbecome \u201ca living sacrifice, well pleasing unto God.\u201d \nSuch instruments are rare, but when they are found, \nthose into whose care they are entrusted know \nwell their value and will not allow them to be \n\n\nwrongfully or hurtfully handled.\u2014The Life Elysian. \n\n\nTHE POSTMORTEM VALUE OF \nCHARACTER. \n\n\nMen miss the awful emphasis Christ places on \ncharacter because they forget that speaking from \nthe immortal side of life death to him was simply \nan incident in existence, and not an end of it\u2014a \nveil he could thrust aside, passing in and out at \nwill. Neither King of Terrors nor Valley of the \nShadow exists for him, but his eyes look calmly \nforward into the shadowless light of the eternal \nday, and he carries forward into that to-morrow \nthe unbalanced account of life\u2019s to-day. It is \nthis thought in his teaching which should make \nmen pause. There are many nights and days \nbetween the sowing and the reaping, but whatso- \never a man soweth in the Spring he shall reap in the \nAutumn. There is only one accessory death has \nno power to confiscate as the soul passes forward\u2014 \ncharacter. Beliefs, dogmas, creeds and profes- \nsions will all be left behind, but character will \nfurnish the only permissible clothing with which \nit may step into immortality. Its works have \npreceded or will follow on and be produced in \n\n\nTHE SPIRITUALISTS\u2019 READER 157 \n\n\nevidence in the judgment where \u201cexcept your \nrighteousness shall exceed that of the Scribes \nand Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom \n\n\nof Heaven.\u201d\u2014\u2018The Life Elysian.\u201d \n\n\nDEATH DOES NOT CHANGE CHARACTER. \n\n\nThere is a general idea amongst mankind \nthat by the simple process of dying we are trans- \nlated into a condition of omniscience, and solve \nevery problem \u201cin the twinkling of an eye. \nIt was with a sense of deepest gratitude that I \ndiscovered the fallacy of such teachings, and the \nwider my experience ranges the more astounded \nI am that this preposterous assumption could ever \nhave eee 4 or found a sanction in the minds \nof intelligent human beings. Every single ques- \ntion I asked, every scene I beheld, every sound \nheard had its own special revelation to make, and \nthe rapidity with which each successive wave of \ninformation rolled over me allowed me no time \nfor recovery from the grandeur of its power and \nscope. Be not deceived. God ever tempers the \nwind to the shorn lamb. He knows our frame and \nhas ordained that our soul-expansion shall proceed \nunder conditions best suited to our state, and which \nalso tend to magnify His majesty and love. Know- \nledge can only be acquired as we have power to \nassimilate every successive ents of truth; it \nhas no force, no energy unless applied, and the \nman who tries to accumulate it without the corres- \nponding necessary strength to utilise the same \nwould, if successful, find that he had gathered \ntogether and built an edifice which, for lack of \nsupport, would fall and crush him in its ruin. \nThis iy to wield the weight of knowledge can \nonly come by steady growth.\u2014 \u2018Through the Mists.\u201d \n\n\n158 THE SprriTuALists\u2019 READER \n\n\nSLEEP: \n\n\nWhere weariness is, sleep will come, and \nwhere the one is not to be found there is no \nnecessity for the other. When you have been \ntoiling under the weight of a heavy burden you \nmay lay that down, but the fatigue it has occasioned \ncannot be so easily laid beside it. When a sickness \nhas been struggled with and subdued, the conse- \nquent prostration has still to be overcome; but \nif that illness prove to be the victor, and secures \nthe divorcement of the soul from the body, think \nyou some miracle is wrought to overcome the \nweariness of the struggle? Everything in nature \nhas its season of repose! Why should you expect \nto find an exception in the case of a wearied soul ? \nThe conflict and the battle over, does it not require \nrecuperation and sleep to regain its healthful \nvigour? \u201cSo He giveth His beloved sleep!\u201d and \nin that sleep the boundary is passed at which \nweariness is compelled to say \u201cAdieu.\u201d \n\n\u201cDo all persons sleep on entering this life > \"\u201d \n\nNot py sacu ne Sleep divides two states of \nthe soul\u2019s development, as night divides two days. \nSome persons, then they reach this life, have not \nattained to such a standard as to dispense with it, \nand their condition remains much the same as \nformerly, until they reach one of the many \u201crest \nhomes, where they pass beyond the boundary \nline, and then, pen beyond the ri of weariness, \nnever require to s again. hers again pass \nthe spiritual baat before ae the gr \nand so make but a temporary stay Tae (in the \n\n\u2018rest home\u2019\u2019) while growing accustomed to the \nnew mattis The en they pass on to higher \nhomes.\u2014'\u2018Through the Mists.\u201d \n\n\nSTRONG'S LIMITED, Prmwrass. Is Coormaz Sr., MancussTas: \n\n\nIndex. \nA MEETING IN HEAVEN. \nAFTER VICTORY \nAIM OF tm MOVEMENT \n\n\nARE MANIFESTATIONS DESIRABLE | \nA VIEW IN HEAVEN . . \nARRIVAL IN SPIRIT LIFE \nAWAKENING IN SPIRIT LIFE . \n\n\nCHRIST'S. ee \nTIANITY \n\n\nTHEY SEE US \n\nCONDITIONS OF THE OTHER LIFE \u2014 \nCHRIST \nCIRCLE OF EXPIATION \nDIFFICULTY OF EXPRESSION .. \nDYING? ss, \u00a9 fa wa. Ge. * abe \nDEATH) 5. own. 0% \nDESIRE FOR LIFE .. \nDARK SPIRITS \nDAWN OF NEW LIFE \nDEATH DOES NOT CHANGE CHARACTER > \n\nEVIL bidy vin Wee eet ee 8 \n\nEFFECT OF OUR ACTIONS \nae OF seinbiaiaa \n\n\nANIMALS \u00ab. \nFRIENDS FOR THE FRIENDLESS \nFIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE BEYOND \n\n\nGROWTH OF CHILDREN \noe\u201d \nHEALTH \na THE DARK SOULS \nHOW THER FEELS IN THE BEYOND \nHELL As\u2018 REMEDIAL \n\n\nINTELLECT AND Sslasietee \nINSPIRATION .. \n\n\nIMMEDIATELY A EATH .. \nIMPRESSIONS OF ONE ONE HUST PASSED OVER \nJ ware \n\nJULIA TALKS . \n\nJULLA's AFTER-DEATH NARRATIVE. . \n\nLIFE IN THE BEYOND \n\nLOVE vs ae \n\n\nINDEX \nMARRIAGE \n\n\nNOTES FROM HOME CIRCLE ae \n\n\nORIGIN OF EVIL \n\nORTHODOXY ..__... \nOTHER WORLD LIFE \nOUTER DARKNESS .. \nOUR NARROWNESS .. \nOBJECT OF THE WAR \n\n\nPROGRESS IN THE NEXT LIFE \nPOWERS OF THE SPIRIT... \nPSYCHIC CONNECTIONS .. \nPOWER OF THOUGHT .. \nPOOR AND RICH _.. \n\nPROCESS OF DEATH \n\nPAIN a \n\nPASSING OVER \n\n\nREINCARNATION \n\n\nRELATIVES IN THE BEYOND .. \n\n\nSPIRITUAL PHYSICIANS .. \nSPIRIT AND MATTER... \nSELF REVELATION .. \nSPIRIT SENSES \n\nSPIRIT LAW .. \nSLEEP... \n\n\nSEX : \nSPIRIT LIMITATIONS . \nSOME MESSAGES FROM RAYMOND \u00a9 \n\n\nTHE ATONEMENT .. : \nTHE JUDGMENT \n\nTHE FUTURE OF THE SCEPTIC \nTHE CHURCH . \n\n\u2018TASKS IN THE BEYOND . \n\n\nTHE WORST EVIL \n\nTHE ARRIVAL wad SPIRITS \n\nTHE ORTHODO! \n\n\u201cTHE AWAKENING OF WILBERFORCE. \nTHE SOUL AFTER DEATH ae \nTHE RESCUE OF A DARK SOUL :. \n\u201cTHE RETURN OF THE IGNORANT . \nTHE NATURE OF HELL . \n\n\nTHE RESPONSIBILITY OF MEDIUMSHIP _. \nCTER \n\n\n\u201cTHE POSTMORTEM VALUE OF CHARA \n\u2018UNDEVELOPED SPIRITS .. \n\n\nVISIONS . \noo AND MUSIC\u201d \n\n\nWORK IN SPIRIT ical \n\u2018WHAT IS LIFE? _.. \n\u201cWHAT THE AGE NEEDS . \n\n\n\u201cFe \n& \n\n\nSSSR\u2122 SSassres \n\n\nvee Zs","title":"The Spiritualists' Reader","tradition":"Spiritualism & Psychical Research","translated_text":null,"word_count":44812}