TO THOSE WHO SERVE
Silver Birch never loses an opportunity to encourage workers for Spiritualism in their task. He has urged on engaged in India, Sweden, America and other parts of the world. besides those in England. Here are some typical messages, which gave new enthusiasm to the recipients:
To Carl A. Carleson, one of Sweden's best known Spiri-tualists:
YOU came here tonight in order that you may be refreshed with the power of the spirit; that you may take it away with you into the far-away places, so that the light of the Great White Spirit may spread and be cast into the places where darkness now reigns. I am very happy to greet you and give you the blessing of the world of spirit upon the mission you promised to undertake many years ago.
I am only the mouthpiece of those who send nie to do the work of the Great Spirit. Your footsteps have been led for many, many years upon the path that you must tread. The work which is yet to be done is a great and mighty work. In that work which lies before you, the extent of which you cannot visualize, there will be called to your side, from our world, a band of those who know what must be accomplished in your own country.
Often your heart will bleed because of the difficulties that you will meet; because those you expect to welcome the truth will deny it. Often your heart will rejoice because you will be able to carry this new truth to places where it can be of service to the children of the Great White Spirit. But which-ever it may be, whether tears of sorrow or the rejoicing of your heart, we want you to know that when your tears flow ours will flow also; when you rejoice in heart, we will rejoice in heart, too.
No difficulty you meet, no obstacle in your path, will be allowed to impede the plans of the Great White Spirit and those who seek to serve Him from your world and ours. When you do not know which way to turn, stop and relax. Ask for that which will sustain you and will carry you forward once more. There is no limit to the help, the power and the inspiration that will come to you if you will have complete trust and faith in us. We will serve you, as we would that you serve others.
To V. D. Rishi and his wife, India's greatest propagandists:
IN the country where you serve, there is as yet only a glimmer of light in a world of darkness. That little point of light is kept burning by those who know that it is the light of the Great Spirit. It is by the service of people like you that the light can grow and grow. As it grows, all ignorance and selfishness will disappear, and in their place will come a new light of service, which is the biggest part of the Great Spirit.
That is a very big work and nothing in the world of matter can prevent those who serve from fulfilling their task. Your country has many hundreds of years of wrong teaching to undo. You are not working single-handed. There are always with you those from our side of life. The power of the spirit is greater than the power of matter. So far, you have never been failed.
You two have been brought together. It is all a part of the Plan, so that together you can work to bring a new light to the many thousands of souls who are still in the darkness of material things. You have been brought to this circle that you may see what can be achieved by harmony. The contact with the spirit that you will get here will not be ended when the sitting is over. You will feel the power that will go with you and will be with you always.
It will lift you up and will help you to fight every battle. It will remain with you and will help you to remove all the stones in your path. It will urge you on when you feel depressed, lift you up when your eyes are cast down. It will bind you with the Great Spirit of all and will make you understand that those who serve may receive impressions from a power that overcomes all the difficulties of earth. Know that you are never alone. Your fights are our fights and your difficulties our difficulties.
May the Great Spirit be with you in your journeys and in your mission. May His light illumine your heart and give you a greater understanding of His purpose. May you feel that power which will sustain and uplift you, and cause your feet to be placed on the pathways which lead to His knowledge. May you feel His arms and His cloak around you, and know that you are guided and protected in all that you seek to do in His service.
Three years later, when Mr. and Mrs. Rishi again visited the circle, Silver Birch said:
THE ties that I made with you when last you came to England have never been broken, and you will go back to your country with enthusiasm and with a new determina-tion. We know how faint the heart becomes when there are so many obstacles to be surmounted. We know all that lies in your path, and we know how you have struggled valiantly to be true to that light which has been given to you, which you have sought to follow in all its truth and beauty.
We realize how human hearts despair at times when it seems that the road is encompassed by the mists of ignorance. Once again it is my joy to remind you of the great task that brings us all together. One of the scribes in your world said:
"East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" But they do meet. They meet because we are all of one spirit, and to the Great Spirit there is no East and no West. no North or South. The children make the boundaries; the Great Spirit seeks to weave all the colours into one pattern of harmonious beauty.
You have been richly blessed, for you have chosen the path of service. You and your wife are one, for you serve together and you stand together. The mantle has indeed fallen on you, and it is the mantle of spiritual love that envelops you, that shields you and guards you.
Think not that you are alone, for behind you there is the mighty host of the spirit world. The work that you do will live, and you, who see only. failure, do not realize your successes. Somebody has to hack a pathway through the jungle. Do not despair. You go back to your country and blaze once again that trail which will make it easier for others to come after you.
Dr. Carl A. Wickland, famous for his psychic cures of obsession in America, visited the circle a few months after the passing of his wife, whose mediumship enabled his work to be done. He was accompanied by his secretary, Mrs. Nelle Watts. To Wickland, Silver Birch said:
I AM happy to greet two faithful workers whose backs have become a little bent with their labours and their service, and who can look back through the years and realize that they have helped many to come out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of truth and understanding.
Your work is doneーa great and noble work that will be an inspiration to others. Soon you will put down the torch and others will take it up. The work that you have done will not die. It cannot die. Do not expect your world of matter to recognize truth when it comes in your own generation. The way of the pioneer is always full of difficulty. But the work will live on.
At the end of a life of service you can look back and know that many rejoice because you have lived. You have brought new hope and health and restored life itself to many to whom living had become darkness and despair. You have freed them and you have enabled them to take up the thread of life. You have cast them out of their prison. You have helped those in my world who were ignorant of the great harm that they were doing.
Your world of matter does not understand the links be-tween the two states of life. Just as you can have the heights of inspiration from the realm of spirit by those who are the wisest and the greatest, you also have possession by those
who are ignorant. It is the same law of attraction that operates.
You have done a great work and in fighting ignorance you have been spurned by those who could have held the hand of co-operation towards you, but you are in the line of succession of all pioneers who have had to fight for their truth and who have left their truth highly prized because of their labours.
My mission is like yoursーto undo all the evil that comes through ignorance and superstition. We offer your world of matter the priceless jewel of knowledge, before which all ignorance must ultimately flee.
Do you realize that, out of those whom you have helped to put their feet on the paths of spiritual progress, there is not one who does not return to you to try to help you as you helped them? They, having received service, strive to render service.
Do not think that you are alone. Do not think that your house is empty. Do not think that your wife has left. She is with you still. She is closer than ever she could be. Even though your eyes may not see and your ears may not hear. her spirit is close to yours.
To delegates from America and elsewhere who had attended the meetings of the International Spiritualist Congress at Glasgow in 1937, and who had been invited, with a few others, to a special seance, Silver Birch said:
THE magnitude of spiritual truth has brought you all together, and you have conferred one with another to try to find a new strength and new courage, to return to your own lands with a new understanding and a new hope.
Your world of matter cannot be silent to the voice of the spirit any longer, for you stand at the cross-roads and a choice has to be made.
Your Churches have failed you; they are bankrupt. Your men of science have failed you; they seek to destroy instead of building. Your philosophers have failed you; theirs is but the empty talk of idle speculation. Your statesmen have failed you; they have not learned the supreme lesson that only through sacrifice can peace come to your world. In his despair, the child of the Great Spirit cries out for guidance.
We remind you of the great trust that is reposed in you, the great responsibility that is yours to bear, for there is One that cannot failーthe Great Spirit of all life. If you will but allow His power to guide you, His wisdom to lead you, His love to sustain you, you will find the solution of all your troubles, for you will all find your selves, the true selves, the greater selves that seek not for glory for themselves alone but only desire to serve.
Your world is full of strife and bitterness, full of discord. It is full of tears and misery and bloodshed. And yet each cries: “Give us peace.” I urge you all to remember the potentiality that lies within yourselves. You are the Great Spirit, each one of you. His infinite power is latent within you. If you will but call it into being and let it rise to the surface, it will break all the bonds of limitation that stand in the way.
Reveal yourselves in the fullness of its hidden glory. Realize that you are indeed the Great Spirit, with infinite power at your disposal, and you will indeed be the instruments of the new age, which slowly is beginning to dawn over a darkened world. Put not your faith in the world of matter or in those who dwell in that world, no matter how high a place they occupy. Look beyond! Try to catch that inspiration that ever seeks to illumine your lives with its desire to serve.
Go forward! And, though you will find many disappoint-ments and many failures, we will always stand behind you, seeking to enthuse you in your days of difficulty, seeking to give you hope and strength when you are tired, seeking to raise you up when you are cast down. You will never be alone. The Great Spirit will send His ministers to guard you. Some of you will go to far-off places. But the power of the spirit will not disperse. It will go with you, striving always to reveal itself in your lives as you desire to serve.
May the blessing of the Great Spirit go with each one of you, and may you realize how infinite is the love which seeks to hold you in its embrace. May you realize that you are enveloped in the mantle of divine love. May you look beyond the difficulties and the trials and the troubles of the world of matter and raise your faces to the sun, the golden symbol of the Great Spirit.
Fill your hearts with love, your minds with knowledge, your spirits with a determination to serve. Then the will of the Great Spirit will make itself known through you, and all your hearts will beat in unison with His great heart, and you will be at one with Him. May the Great Spirit bless you all.