A SPIRIT'S VIEW OF GOD

　Some Spiritualists have been puzzled by Silver Birch's conception of God. The following questions and answers will help to make his meaning clear:

　WHO or what is the Great Spirit? Is it loveーthe spirit or feeling of love in everything?

　The Great Spirit is the natural Law of the universe. The Great Spirit is the creative force behind all life, whether registered in the plane of matter or in the plane of spirit. The Great Spirit is perfect love and perfect wisdom. The Great Spirit pervades all the universe, whether it is that tiny portion known to you or that larger part which, as yet, has not been revealed to earthly gaze.

　The Great Spirit fills all life. The Great Spirit is within all beings. The Great Spirit is within all laws. The Great Spirit is the Great Spirit. He is Life. He is Love. He is everything. How can we, who are but the servants, describe the Master? How can we, whose conceptions are puny, describe that which is of immeasurable magnitude?

　We are told that God knows when a sparrow falls. How is it possible for God to know of all that happens to all the vast popu-lation of the world, not to mention the countless millions who have passed on?

　That which is called God is the natural Law of the universe. The Great Spirit is within everything. Everything is the Great Spirit. Because the soul knows itself, the Great Spirit knows the soul. Because the sparrow is the Great Spirit, the Great Spirit knows the sparrow. Because the Great Spirit is in the trembling leaf, the trembling leaf is the Great Spirit. Throughout the whole of your world and mine, throughout the universe, even in worlds which are not yet known to you,

the laws of the Great Spirit reign supreme. Nothing happens outside those laws; therefore, all is known because all comes within the compass of natural law, which is the Great Spirit.

　You say the Great Spirit is in everything, the source of all thingsーhate and love, wisdom and folly. It seems to follow that the man who does wrong is acting within the laws of the Great Spirit as much as the man who does right; those who preach the gospel of war and hate as much as those who preach peace and love. No one, in fact, can transgress the laws of God because everything is part of those laws. Can you answer this difficulty?

　There is perfection and there is imperfection, but imper-fection contains within itself the seeds of perfection, for per-fection comes from imperfection. Perfection does not come from perfection, but from imperfection.

　Life is evolution, it is progress, a striving upward, a develop-ment, unfolding, extension, reaching out. What you call good or bad are but stages in the road of life, lines of progress. They are not the end. You judge with an imperfect under-standing. You say thus far is good, thus far is bad. That is only your idea. When you are not in relation to these events, you judge them differently. But the Great Spirit is within all things.

　Then is the Great Spirit responsible for earthquakes?

　The Great Spirit is the Law—the Law that controls all things. The Law governs all things. There is nothing in the universe which is outside the Law.

　I know that earthquakes and storms and lightning puzzle the brains of those in your world, but they are all part of the universe. The universe is evolving, even as those who dwell in it are evolving. The world of matter is far from perfect yetーand it will not reach perfection. It will evolve higher and higher.

　Does that mean that the Great Spirit is evolving?

　No, the Great Spirit is the Law and the Law is perfect. But that part of the Great Spirit that is expressed in your world is subject to the evolution of that world as far as its expression is concerned. Remember that your world is evolving, and these things are the signs of its evolution. Your world was born in fire and tempest and is gradually evolving towards perfection.

　You cannot say that the Great Spirit is responsible for the beauty of the sunset and the sunrise, for the myriads of glitter-ing stars in the firmament, for all the delightful songs of birds, and then say that the Great Spirit is not responsible for the storm and the lightning, the thunder and the rain. They are all part of the great law of the Great Spirit.

　In that sense, you might argue that the Great Spirit is responsible for those who are depraved, for those who are so unenlightened that they render harm to their brothers in your world.

　But to each one of you there is given that amount of free will which, as you evolve, you learn to exercise. The higher you evolve in the spiritual scale, the greater can you exercise your free will. You are your own limitation, but, because you are part of the Great Spirit, you can conquer all the difficulties and obstacles in your world.

　Spirit is superior to matter. Spirit is the king and matter is the servant. Spirit reigns supreme. It is the essence out of which all life is made, for spirit is life and lite is spirit

　Is there a Great Spirit apart from His universe?

　No, the universe is but the reflection of the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit is the system.

　Can a fly understand the world? Can the fish realize what the life of the bird is? Can a dog reason like a man? Can the stars understand the sky? Can you understand the Great Spirit, Who is greater than all your minds:

　But you can try to learn to express your soul, so that, when no words pass your lips and in the silence of your own soul, your spirit reaches out for communion with the Great Spirit. Then you know that He and you are one. It is not possible to express that in language, but it is expressed in the silence of the soul within you and within every soul in the uni-verse.

　Does spirit need contact with the world of matter in order to gain conscious individuality?

　Yes. In order to gain consciousness it must incarnate through matter and have the experiences of matter. It evolves from matter into spirit. That means that its association with a body of matter enables it to express itself as an individual working through the personality of the physical. Spirit becomes aware of itself after it has incarnated into matter.

　If so, is the Great Spirit gaining experience through us?

　No. Your evolution cannot affect that which is already perfect. 

　But we are all parts of the Great Spirit. Does not the evolution of a part affect the whole?

　It only affects that part which is manifesting through you, which in itself is perfect, but is not perfect in its expression through each one of you. In itself, spirit is perfect. It is the primary substance of the universe. It is the breath of life. In its expression through you it is imperfect because you are imperfect. As you evolve, more of the perfection can express itself through you. You are not evolving the spirit, but you are evolving the bodies through which the spirit can express itself.

　Are the bodies through which the spirit expresses itself made of matter in varying form?

　Yes. The Law is perfect. The Law as it is expressed through you is not perfect because you are imperfect, and so the perfect Law cannot operate through you. But as you become more and more perfect, so more of the Law can operate through you. Imagine you have a mirror and a light. The mirror reflects the light, but if the mirror is very poor it cannot reflect all the light. As you make the mirror more perfect, it can reflect more of the light

　Everything is constantly working itself out in fuller expres-sion. Have I not told you that life is like gold that has to be extracted painfully from the ore, which has to be crushed and purified？ Who is to say that the ore is bad but the gold is good？

　But surely we all have ideas of what is good and what is evil.

　These are but the expressions of the moment. They express the stage which has been reached in evolution. When the soul has evolved higher, it will leave them behind. They are but the imperfections caused by a perfect law seeking to express itself through instruments which have deviated from the path. That is why I embrace them all.

　Does that mean that God, in the beginning, was not good?

　I know nothing of beginnings. I know nothing of endings. I only know the Great Spirit always has been and always will be. His laws are perfect in their operation. Do you not see that you may have perfect light but, if you strive to reflect it through badly polished mirrors, it does not emerge as perfect? But you cannot say the light is imperfect, that it is evil. It is only that the soul is not yet ready to express the perfection that is within itself. That which your world calls evil is only imperfection, imperfectly expressing the Great Spirit through it.

　Is it right to say there is only one Being or Person that is able to create, and that we have not the power to create anything at all?

　The Great Spirit is, always was, always will be. All life is the Great Spirit and the Great Spirit is all life. How can you create? But the more you are evolved in your soul, the more you can beautify and improve. The less evolved you are, the lower is your range in the universe.