COMMUNICATION HELPS SPIRITS

　SPIRITUALISTS are sometimes confronted with the foolish assertion that séance talks tend to retard the progress of a spirit on the Other Side, the objectors apparently never realizing that if a spirit did not want to talk at a séance there is no power in this world or in the next that could compel him to do so. Once Silver Birch mentioned a communicator who had spoken the previous week, someone who had recently passed over, and said it had helped the spirit a lot.

　"Contact with your world through a medium always helps a soul's evolution," he said, “because it enables him to see that the ties of earth do not bind him as he thought they did when first he came to our world. It helps to dissipate a little of the mist.”

　Another interesting sidelight on life in the Beyond was given when the guide repeated to a sitter a message from a spirit who wished to apologize for trouble he had caused during his life on earth.

　"I know it does not matter to you, now," he said, “but he had to voice his regret. I did not say it so much for you, but because it helps him. When they make these requests it is a sign that they are finding their true selves, and that is why I conveyed the message. I know that to you it is past and for-gotten. But it is registered and cannot be obliterated until growth takes place and recognition is made."

　Once Silver Birch asked us, "Have you ever considered the feelings of those who return to you from my world and who cannot bring their influence to bear upon you? Have you considered the many who pass from your world into mine and then, because their focus changes and they see life for the first time in its proper perspective, they eagerly return to bring their tidings of joy to the ones they love?

　"But your world is dead to them," he went on. "It cannot hear and it cannot see. Many foolishly imagine that their five senses are the sum total of all reality and nought exists beyond these crude and clumsy senses.

　"Often we see the return from our world of eager souls, yearning to make their presence felt, trying to touch with outstretched hands the ones they have left behind for a while. We see dismay written on their faces as they learn with regretful surprise that no longer can they make an impression on your world. They cannot be heard; they cannot be seen; they cannot be felt, with all the will in the world, even in those homes where love reigns. And, very disconsolately, we have to tell them that, until the ones they seek to touch can be brought within the radius of spirit influence, it is hopeless to try to reach them."

　Then Silver Birch told of another aspect of the failure of those in the spirit world to reach us.

　"I have accompanied many whom you call pillars of the Church," he said. “They have gone back to their places of worship, to their cathedrals and churches. They have listened to the recital of much that they now know is false, and their hearts have been filled with heaviness and their heads have been bowed down in sorrow as they realized that they too had helped to perpetuate a system of error and superstition.”

　"That must be hell for them,” commented a sitter.

　"It is purgatory," replied the guide. "Yet it is the Law, for each must undo the wrong that he has done. Each must pay the price for the life he has lived. In eternal justice, all accounts are settled with equity, and none escapes the operation of the Law.”

　"How could such a man undo the wrong he has done?" asked one of the circle.

　"He has to meet every one to whom he has given wrong teaching, and undo all his error."

　"Does he have to meet face to face everyone to whom he has preached?"

　"Yes.”

　"But, in the meantime, they may have been put right," said the sitter.

　"If that is done, his task is lightened.”

　"Suppose he thought he was doing the right thingーdoes that affect it?"

　"Yes, that helps, because motive always counts."

　"But if he thought he was doing the right thing, would he still have to meet them all?" persisted the questioner.

　"Not if he thought so in his soul,” replied the guide. “But there are many who do not think so in their souls, to whom pride and arrogance, possessions and wealth are more impor-tant than what is the truth. When you have become part of a system, when enmeshed in it, then it holds you in its chains. You seek to paralyse your reason by repeating old shibboleths.

　"Our quarrel is not with the honest man who makes mis-takes without realizing it, but with those who know within their hearts that their allegiance is not to truth but to a system which they seek to perpetuateーor else they are afraid of facing the future if they discard what has come to them from the past. We do not condemn the honest men who do wrong because they do not realize it, but we condemn the many who know that what they say and do is wrong, who employ casuistry and who justify themselves by saying, 'If we do not do this, we have no guidance, we have no teaching to offer.'

　"But even where wrong is done unintentionally, it must be put right. Then, it is not so much a purgatory as a delight. It is a joy of service because it is done with willingness of soul.”

　One sitter recalled that he was at one time a Methodist missionary. "Do you mean that I shall have to put right the wrong teaching I gave to all the people to whom I preached?" he asked.

　"Yes, if they have not found truth by then, if because of what you have said you have delayed a soul in reaching the light you will have to help him to find the light," was the guide's reply.

　"That sounds rather overwhelming, for I have spoken to so many people," said the sitter.

　"You, like all others, will have to face all your tasks," said Silver Birch. "But you need not worry.”

　"Probably those he has helped since he gave up his ministry will help him to bring the light to the others," suggested another sitter.

　"Yes," replied the guide. “Eternal justice is not mocked. I wish that you could see the operation of Law as I see it and know how finely balanced are the scales of justice. Then you would know that the Great Spirit makes no mistakes.

　"Do you not realize that every teacher has a grave respon-sibility? You hear me say to you so often, 'You have know-ledge; but you have the responsibility that comes with knowledge.' If you seek to lift yourself up above your fellows, to guide and instruct them, you must be sure of the ground on which stand. If you have not subjected your-self to every search, to every test, if you have not faced all possible criticism, if you are content to be indifferent, to give a teaching without knowing for certain that your words are true, you must pay the price for your sloth and your careless-ness.

　The effect that wrong teaching can have on a soul was illus-trated at another sitting. One of the circle told Silver Birch of the experience of some Spiritualists who had been able to help a number of spirits who said they had been living in the cemeteries, waiting with their bodies for the Judgment Day. He asked whether such a thing was possible.

　"It is quite true," replied the guide. "That is one of our great troubles. They expect these things and nothing can be done with them until they learn to change their thoughts. For practically their whole earthly lives they have moulded the thought form that, when the body dies, they will wait until the Angel Gabriel sounds his trumpet. And until they can destroy, with adjustment, the power that they have created it holds them in that prison.

　"It is just the same as those who refuse to believe that they have passed on. As long as they refuse to believe it, we can-not make them believe it. You have no idea of the difficulties when we try to convince them that they are dead. I remem-ber a long argument I had with a man who was a Christa-delphian. He looked at me and said, 'How can I be dead if I am alive?' He would not believe me and said he would wait for the Resurrectionーand he stayed there.''

　"What do they do with their time?" asked a sitter.

　"They wait,” said the guide. "You must remember that there is no such thing as time to us. If they knew that they were waiting, that would destroy the thought-form. It is a self-made prison. But it is so hard to convey these things to you. We have no time as you understand it, because we have no earth spinning round on its axis, dependent on the sun to give night and day. How would you count yesterday and to-morrow if there were no divisions of night and day?"

　"But even if there were no divisions of time, we would be conscious of time passing," said a sitter.

   "No, you would be conscious of growth and evolution in relation to events which pass around you," corrected the guide. "But time is not passing. Your spirit is growing and events are taking place around you. Time is merely your measurement of your relationship to events. If you are un-conscious there is no time, because your relationship to events has altered. When you dream, your relationship to events is altered and so things happen more quickly than they do when you are chained to your earthly body.”