LESSONS OF BEREAVEMENT

　　　　Chapter Five

　LESSONS OF BEREAVEMENT

You should not grieve when death comes, unless you are grieving for yourself because you will miss a familiar face or figure. The spiritual verities should be the foundation of your existence. They should shine through your lives as radiant indexes to everything you do. You who call yourselves Spiritualists should not think that Spiritualismーthe name given to certain aspects of spiritual truthーis something which applies only when bereavement is felt, and does not come into play on any other occasion.

　　　　　　　　　　　　SILVER BIRCH

　Here, Silver Birch addresses in turn, a widower, parents of "dead" sonsーone by natural causes, the other a suicideーand the widow of a famous journalist, Laurence Easterbrook, who was accompanied by her son.

　"It has been a hard road, but you could not have done any more. You tried everything you knew. Who would want to try to perpetuate the earthly existence of one they love when the body can no longer hold the spirit? There must be separation at one time or another in earthly life. It is better for the stronger to remain and the weak to pass on.

　You can count your blessings, for you

were able to face your crisis with knowledge and not with ignorance. How much more difficult would your life have been if you had not this revelation of what the power of the spirit can do? You had added to you some extra years of happiness. For that be grateful, but you could no longer delay the spirit which had to quit a mortal frame which could no longer contain it.

　She had mixed feelings. Sometimes she wanted to go, sometimes she wanted to stay, but the latter was only because of you and not for herself. She will have no more pain. She will never have to face old age, infirmity, weakness and all the defects which inevitably come to so many people when they are long past the prime. As the body gets weaker, the spirit becomes stronger. 

　When you are happy, she is happy. When you are depressed, she is depressed. It is a physical loneliness, but not a spiritual one. She is never really far from your side. She still regards it as her home and you as her husband.

　You have faith, not credulous faith, but real faith founded on what has been revealed to you. Knowledge came when you were ready to receive it, to prepare you for what was inevitable. Let that knowledge be your base. Life has still much to offer you even in your world You have not come to the end of the road. You have your own service to render, your own gifts to fulfil, a purpose to accomplish.

　The Great Spirit is perfect justice, providing through natural laws retribution and compensation. The account is always perfectly balanced. You will not be forgotten, over-looked or neglected. There is a love that will guide, sustain and cherish you. Let that be your sheet anchor. It will enable you to remain firm and steadfast all the time.'

　　　★            ★            ★

'Your boy is proud of you both because of the way you strive to serve by helping those who come into your orbit. What is important is the seed that drops into receptive soil. The one you received has grown into a beauteous flower. Your boy is delighted to see how naturally you accept spirit truths which have made so great an impact in your lives.

　You had to find a great truth through a great sorrow. This was the touchstone, the means to enable you to find your-self when you were lost and it seemed there was nobody and nothing that could offer any help.

　It is a fundamental spiritual truth that the soul begins to come into its own only when the individual has touched the lowest possible depth and nothing material can offer even a gleam of hope. When realisation dawns that there is nothing in the world of matter to which you can cling, it is then that the soul has its rebirth and begins to find expression.

　Your earthly lives are not easy; they have never been easy. But there is a law which takes care of such matters, that those who serve will never want; their essential needs are always supplied. It is for them to exhibit, as best they can in their lives, the result of what they have experienced. They learn, by doing so, to strengthen the links that bind them to the Great Spirit. The more you strengthen the link, the deeper becomes the channel through which help and power can come to you.

　The soul who knows has equanimity, calmness, resolution. It shows no fear, it refuses to allow anxiety to stay, it banishes the darkness of ignorance, superstition and worry. It knows that the power which gave it life, which rules the universe, which makes provision for all that breathes and moves, cannot fail.

　What is important is that you should not fail the Great Spirit, so that your actions never betray the trust that is reposed in you because of what you have received, what you are receiving and for the wisdom that you have acquired.

　Hold on to what you know. Be steadfast because of all that has been revealed to you. Face up to each problem, do the best you can with it, and forget it. Help will always come because those who love you, and are closer to you than they have ever been on earth, will see that you come through.'

　　　　　★          ★         ★

　"Every individual is personally responsible for what he does, for this is the natural law. Much as you love anybody else, you cannot assume the responsibility for his life. You cannot shoulder the results of his actions. This is cause and effect. If make a mistake you must pay for itーI am talking about the spiritual law.

　In your world you often see injustice, unfairness and inequality. It must be so because it is an imperfect world. But the law of the spirit is perfect. It is unfailing. Effect follows cause with mathematical, mechanical certainty, you cannot divorce effect from cause. Each effect is the natural result of a cause which in turn was a natural result of an effect.

　This is an unending chain of events. If you could alter the sequence of cause and effect, or of sowing and reaping, and thus make it possible for the selfish to be as spiritually evolved as the unselfish, then you would be making a complete mockery of any divine justice. And so it always must be that you will reap what you sow.

　You are responsible for what you do. You must take the consequences. You will make mistakes and you will pay the price for them. You should learn from them. You came into your world to make mistakes; if you were perfect you would not be where you are.

　The mistakes and blunders arise from the nature of your imperfection. But when you fall down you can pick your-self up. Nothing is irretrievably lost. There is always a new day, a new dawn, with a new hope and a new possibility.

　They preach in some religions that you can be absolved from your responsibility, but it cannot be done. None but the sinner can expiate the sin. You cannot, by the recitation of any phrase, or any words which you describe as sacred, give absolution and eliminate the effect of a cause.

　So, much as you love somebody else, you are not re-sponsible for his actions. He must learn and, in learning, he will grow, evolve, develop and unfold. This is the law of life. Life is not static; it is a constant movement upwards, part of a progress that is eternal. You cannot put a period to perfection. You will strive through aeons and aeons of time to get closer and closer to it, but you will not achieve it. The achievement of perfection is an infinite process, it has been achieved only by the Great Spirit.

　Do not worry. Worry produces a blockage in the channel through which help can come. I always say that you should cast out fear. Fear is bad for you; it creates a miasma; it engulfs you; it blankets you with gloom. These are conditions which it is very hard for the power of the spirit to penetrate.'

　　　　　★         ★         ★

　"I have Laurence here with me. He is very proud of you both. You have come through very well indeed. He wants you to know that just as he has revealed his ability to guard and protect you, so you should expect with confidence that he will finish the job. Have no fear for the morrow. Never allow fear to effect a lodgment within your being. There is nothing in your world to fear.

　Laurence is always with you, because where love is he is. He is never absent from your heart or your hearth. He has left you physically, but he is with you spiritually. Those who are united spiritually will never be separated. How fortunate are you to have found such a depth of love and under-standing and to have fulfilled the purpose of being comple-mentary to one another, the two halves that make the whole, the real divinity so rarely found in your world, the marriage of two souls.

　You should be proud of him, a great soul whose illumina-tion was often visible even when he dwelt among you. He could touch chords and reach heights that are not given to many. He loves you both. His love encircles you like a band of steel. He will always be with you. He will guard, guide, sustain and cherish. If only what you have could be had by millions, what a different world yours would be!

　So greet each morn with exultation, the herald of new spiritual adventures filled with infinite possibility and the chance to add to your lustre and to your attainment. Each morn gives the opportunity to quicken your spiritual growth, to develop the divinity within you and bring you closer to the source of all life.'

　　　　　★         ★        ★

We are, all of us, seen and unseen, wherever we may dwell, included in a vast spiritual family, with the Great Spirit as our Father and each of us as His children. The tie of the divine spirit binds us all together and makes us one. Thus we feel we are richly blessed because so many of the barriers between the two states have been overcome. There is, as a result, a procession of enlightened beings who are able to make their beneficent impact on so many in the world of matter today.

　　　　　　　　　　　　SILVER BIRCH