ETERNAL TRUTH
CHAPTER FOUR
ETERNAL TRUTH
"THE simple truths we teach are indeed truths which are eternal. These truths of the spirit are intended to free your world by teaching man how to free himself.
"Always we begin with the individual, the unit which, when it is multiplied by millions, constitutes the world in which you live. It is a very slow and arduous process, illuminating one by one, but it could not be done other-wise. Mass conversion always fails. When the hypnotic spell is broken and the emotions recede to normal, it is all forgotten. And, indeed, perhaps those who have experienced these heightening calls to their senses are sometimes a little ashamed.
"And so, despite all opposition and hostility and antagonism, we continue to labour, reiterating the simple truths which in the end must prevail, knowing that even as little drops of water will in time wear away a stone, to one by one the light comes and the truth is embraced. Where it is understood and appreciated in all the fullness of its implications, there is to be found a soul who will never look back, who will never regret saying farewell to the bonds which held him for too long. You have moved out of darkness into light."
It is in such beautiful prose that Silver Birch broaches the most involved and enigmatic subject ever to bemuse the minds of philosophers and priestsーthat of truth. Who can deny that here, in the phrases of a spirit guide, is contained an interpretation of truth that for logical analysis of the term and awareness of its tremendous spiritual significance as a value in the moulding of human conduct, can have been seldom equalled?
"When you are children you are taught according to your capacity to assimilate," Silver Birch has explained. "You begin with the letters of your alphabet and, as the mind grows, you are taught to make words and to read. Gradually the knowledge contained in the printed word becomes accessible to you. As to the amount of know-ledge that you receive, that is dependent wholly and solely upon your capacity for appreciating it. There is an infinity of wisdom, range upon range upon range, but it can only become available to you as you are mentally and spiritually equipped to receive it.
"But no knowledge alters truth. There is no wisdom that in any way alters the truth of any teaching. If it was true in the past it is true to-day and will be true to-morrow. Truth is constant and eternal. You can add to wisdom, you can add to knowledge, but you cannot bring new truth. Your world has all the truth that it requires for its essential purposeーthe tundamental truths of kindness, service, love. It knows what it should do in order to have a better world.
"All that is necessary for your growth, progress, unfold-ment, evolution has been made known throughout all the generations. If man would but follow the truth which has been revealed he could achieve here and now on earth far more of the divinity within him than has ever been manifested.
"All the great teachers, the instruments of the spirit who have added their lustre to the world, have taught truths that were similar in basis. Each came to reveal the spiritual nature of man, to draw attention to the eternal qualities possessed by every human being. Each taught of the infinite soul, the divine spark, the portion of the Great Spirit resident within all human life.
"Each taught those principles which, if adopted and followed, would enable that spirit to have a greater expression. Each made it clear that living according to spiritual ideals would banish from your world all the miserable spectres that haunt it, all the fears and miseries and sadnesses which have needlessly afflicted it for too long.
"Love thy neighbour as thyself, give service to those who need it, help the weary and the thirsty, heal the sick, comfort the mourner, visit those who are in afflictionーthese are the truths that have been taught a long time ago. If man would but practise them he could transform the whole of his world and make it impossible for war, with all its hideous horrors, to be visited on him again.
"Let me make clear what is our attitude. It is that man has at his command all that which is necessary for his growth and for his spiritual equipment. There are many sacred books, there have been many teachers, many inspired men and women who have caught glimpses of the inner life and each in his own way has interpreted
what he has seen. But, unfortunately, the simple truth which has been revealed from the higher aspects of life has been overlaid.
"Men have built on it edifices of doctrine, of dogma, of creed, of ritual, of ceremony. A whole bulwark of theology has been placed on the foundation of simple spiritual truth until now the foundations are completely forgotten. Thus it is that we have constantly sought out instruments through whom the message of the spirit could be given in all its pristine beauty, in all the quality of its simplicity, radiant because it is un-adorned.
"We are not concerned with systems of belief fashioned by the minds of man; we are concerned with the truths of the spirit as they have been revealed in the world of spirit where we are not confronted with the illusions of your early life. It is because we have seen so many human wreckages, so many human derelicts coming to our world, it is because we have seen the transition of so many thousands completely unfitted in every way for the life that confronts them, ignorant, full of misconcep-tion, filled with prejudice, that we decided that it would be far simpler if man, whilst on earth, could have in his midst the simple truth that would prepare him for that life which one day will be his abiding reality.
"And so we have declared constant war on all those systems and organisations, on all those beliefs which stand in the way, all the obstacles that have needlessly been created, all the superstitions which becloud and befuddle the mind, so that all the children of the Great Spirit can have at their command the eternal truths which will enable them to live their lives as the Great Spirit intended that they should.
"Never mind what others say, forget all the condem-nations and all the denunciations. These are the simple truths of the spirit that will stand forever. They will answer every test that reason demands. They will not demean your intelligence. They are simple, so simple, that they can be grasped and understood by any ordinary individual. These are the truths that will prevail long after all priestcraft has completely failedーsimple, eternal truths of the spirit, founded on the eternal, natural laws.
"We require no popes, no archbishops, no priests, no clergymen, no churches, no temples, no synagogues. We build no system of theology. We enunciate simple truths and we are determined that, given the instruments, these truths will continue to permeate every form of society, so that all men can be free in body, mind and spirit, and never again shall they become bondmen living in slavery. The darkness of ignorance will have perished and the light, the effulgent light of truth, will reign in its place."
The simple truth about ourselves... how few of us really know this? There are those, no doubt, who think they possess a more penetrating insight into the character and personality of others than they are able to focus on themselves. They feel qualified to pass judgment on one another. "It's about time he realised. . . ." "When will he learn?..." "If only he could see himself as others see him..." We are all familiar with the cliches of those who know the simple truth about everybody but them-selves.
Then along comes someone who, in spiritual stature and pertinence of comment stands out among his fellows and commands respect. When such a person speaks we can be sure that what he has to say about our true selves is eternally appropriate.
Such a man was Socrates, such a man was Jesus, and such a man is Silver Birch. This inhabitant of another world, entrancing the body and using the vocal chords of a London medium, breaks through all the barriers of mediumship and language, and in effortless, memorable words, declares:
"What I can do is to remind you of the eternal, un-failing principles. When all else in the world of matter has been understood, explored and explained, there still remains the natural laws of the Great Spirit which no man has ever completely explored or explained. They are infinite in their conception and in their application. If all of you, confronted as you are daily by events which call on you to make decisions, could remember that you are spiritual beings and what is important is not what happens materially, although it has its place, but what happens to you spiritually, to your nature, your eternal nature.
"All the things of matter will fade away and will become absorbed in the dust of which the earthly world is made. Ambitions, desires, the acquisition of wealth, all these are of no account, but you will always remain as spiritual beings, and your richness will be just what is contained within your own nature, no more and no less. That is the lesson to be learned in all earthly life. If you learn it you are wise because you have found yourselt and, having found yourself, you will have found the Great Spirit.
"I see so many in your world, frantic, despairing, not knowing where to turn, rushing hither and thither with no time to spare because so many 'important' things have to be done, and yet the most important of all is neglected and overlooked. Is not this the lesson of all our teaching? Is not this the purpose behind the return of every being from our world, so that you should derive from your lives the joy, the satisfaction that should be yours as children of the Great Spirit?
"That is more important than what is called religion, or churches, or creeds, or doctrines, more important than all the things which have divided mankind and caused war and chaos and confusion. It is just the simple truth about their own natures. And yet it is possessed by the few and not by the many."