GUIDE TALKS TO TWO CHILDREN

   There are two very privileged children, Ruth and her brother Paul, who are counted among Silver Birch's personal friends and with whom he always has a Christmas talk. Here, from the pen of their father, a Fleet Street journalist who uses the nom de plume of Paul Miller, is a description of one of these when ques-tions submitted by the children were answered eloquently and simply by the spirit guide: 

　IN these words the teacher loved by thousands greeted the children: "I pray to the Great Spirit that we may realize His love, His wisdom, His mercyーthat we may approach Him in simplicity and innocence and learn to the full those truths which are revealed to those whis child-like minds and hearts. ever changing yet changeless Nature, but in the innocence of iittle children."

　Then, like a father, the guide spoke to Ruth and Paul and told them that he had been with them often though they had not seen him. "I have played with you," he said, "and I have come with fairies and angels, and especially with those who watch over you to help you realize the wonders of the greater life.”

　The girl, whose clairvoyant powers are beginning to func-tion, asked Silver Birch the meaning of lights she sees in her bedroom. The boy has occasional glimpses, especially if he is with his sister. Sometimes he hears knocks. To Ruth, the guide explained that the lights were brought by fairies and guardian angels. "They bring their guardian lights to sur-

round you," he said. And to the boy he said: "There are lots and lots of children who never played in your world because they were removed before they had a chance. They are brought back to play with you, so that through you they can enjoy some of the experiences they never had.”

　When Ruth said he was kind to come and talk to them, this was the reply, "No, you are kind to listen to me, because I get more out of coming to talk to you than you get out of listening to me. In your hearts and minds, I see reflected the purity that belongs to the higher spheres that are my natural home, and it is in you I find that compensation so badly needed by one who works near the earth.

　"Do you enjoy going back to see your spirit friends?" asked Ruth.

　"Yes, I do," was the guide's answer. “If you had been away from your home for a long time and had not seen your father and mother, and then you were told that you were going home, would not you be glad? I am going home to my Father in His house of many mansions to meet those whom I love and who love me and who sent me on a mission. But I return so that I may get more strength to serve more and more people who require our knowledge to help them under-stand their journey in life.”

　"I do enjoy seeing the fairies," said Ruth.

　"Be happy you do, for there are many to whom they make no response," the guide commented. Then both children asked if they could sit on the medium's knee so that they could kiss the guide. The next request was to be told something about the spirit world.

　"Do you know," said the guide, "we have a large animal kingdom where they all dwell together in peace—all animals and all birds, with no hatred, where the lion does lie down with the lamb, where they neither fight nor prey on one another? We have many beautiful gardens with flowers of

every hue, of every shade, of every pattern in conformity with their own type of beauty. We have colours you have colours you have never seen. We have beautiful lakes, mountains, streams, rivers, and

wonderful birds with gorgeous plumage and striking colours. We have many beautiful kinds of insects, not as you have them, but they are transmuted, for they have passed through the chrysalis stage and have emerged in all their radiance.''

　Then the boy broke in to say that there would not be much left of the lamb if it lay down beside a lion on earth.

　"But I speak not of your world, but of mine, was the answer. And when Ruth said the guide's home must be very beautiful he went on, "It is so beautiful that it is beyond the imagination to describe. Painters cannot find colours to depict all its shades. Musicians cannot find tones within the range of their instruments to express all its artistry and beauty. It is so beautiful that you cannot realize it. It is more beautiful than your most beautiful dream come true. Ask your "Uncle' Marcel”ーhe was referring to Marcel Poncin, the psychic artist, who was at the sitting—"he is an artist, and he will tell you that he has no pigments to paint the glories of the spirit world that are revealed to him in fleeting moments of inspira-tion."

　Ruth remarked that she could not remember being in the spirit world in her sleep, and was told that it was because her little brain could not hold all that was in the larger mind.

　To the boy's remark that he spoke very clearly, Silver Birch remarked, “I am so glad, for it took me a long time to learn, nearly as long, Paul, as it took you to learn to speak. I prac-tised for years to learn this awkward language of yours. We do not have this trouble in my world. We do not speak any language. Thought is life, so we are always known for what we are.”

　Paul asked whether it was possible to tell a lie without being found out, and this was the answer, "There are no lies in my

world, for you cannot deceive the Law. The Law reflects what is happening. It tears away all pretence and deceit and leaves you stripped naked for everyone to see. Only those who are selfish are afraid."

　Ruth asked whether it would be possible for Jesus to talk to children through a trance medium. Silver Birch explained: "No. He uses us as the king of your country uses others to represent him. We are his ambassadors. We carry his thoughts to you and yours to him. But his spirit is always hovering over us. He is never far away. As I told you before, when I go to him, as I am going soon, I shall take with me all the good thoughts and all the good words and the love from two children I know called Ruth and Paul, for you remember that his greatest love is for children.”

　There was a few moments' silence, while the young sitters thought that over, and Ruth broke in with, “I am very glad I believe in spirits and fairies. I hope I do always."

　"Yes, you will always have those beliefs," was the reply, "and though people will laugh at you, take no notice. Think only how fortunate you are. They do not know.” And to one of the adult sitters, the guide said he was trying to show her a fairy because she had often expressed a mental request to see one. He explained that the vibration was so rapid that humans could seldom see them. But, he added, he would succeed one day in making the fairy visible.

　When I asked whether a friend of mine was present, Silver Birch replied, “You are funny people. You ask these ques-tions, yet you know that those who love you are always with you. They never go away. You are bound to the tram-mels of the physical. In the world of spirit there is no time, there is no distance. It is only a question of focusing con-sciousness. I go away, but I remain here just the same. But I must not go into that now, for it makes things difficult for the children."

　Paul was anxious to know how we remember, and the guide explained that once you knew a thing it was stored in a "room of memory," and as soon as it was needed again the desire to know acted like a lever and pulled out the thing you had known before. “And there it presents itself," he said, "waiting to be used. As soon as it is used, it slips back again into the room of memory. Nothing you learn is ever lost. What you learn can never be forgotten.”

　"Then, do you know what we think?" asked Ruth.

　"Those who are closest to you know," he said, “for your thoughts are like an open book to them, but those who are not close to you do not know, for they cannot get near enough to you."

　"I love youーI cannot tell you how much I love you," was the girl's answer to that explanation, as she and her brother looked at the medium's face, expecting to see the guide whose answer brought tears to the eyes of the sitters.

　"I love you, too,” he said, “and it is a love tempered with the love that comes from the centre of all love, the love that rules the whole world, the love that actuates the whole universe, the love that holds all life in its tender embrace and will not suffer one child to be released from it no matter where it is or what it does. It binds all spirit together through all the ages, before the beginning, after the end. Through all eternity it is the love of God and the God of love. And each time you express that love you help God to express Himself and enable the work of Creation to continue its Plan.''

　The next series of questions was about the guide's life as an Indian, and he told them how it was regulated by the seasons in his home by the rushing waters near the mountains. Life, he went on, was simple then, with none of the problems of modern civilization, with all its haste. He told them that one of the little guardian spirits had come to tell him that it was time good children were in bed. When their bodies were asleep and being restored, they would go to the spirit world.

　"And now one thing more before I leave you," said the unseen friend. "I am going away soon, and I shall soar through the spheres to the place that is my home, and I shall meet there those I have known for many hundreds of years. They are the ones who are striving to help your world, often in spite of itself. I shall go there to recapture some of the power I earned a long time ago.

　"I go back to where I belong, to learn of the plans for the future, to see whether I have been able to accomplish all that has been entrusted to me, where I have failed and made mis-takes, and if I can correct them next time. And then we go together to a great assembly where we shall meet the one you call Jesus, and he will talk to us in words of beauty, sweetness,

understanding and sympathy. The mantle of the Great Spirit will envelope us. The cloak of His love will surround us, and garbed with His majesty we shall come back to carry on the work that has been entrusted to each one of us. And every time a little child says, 'I love you, Silver Birch,' that helps, because only through love can we work, and only when we find the response of love do we know we are succeeding.

　"May you reflect the light of heaven in your lives. I pray to the Great Spirit that His blessing shall always dwell with you. I know that you are protected by those whom He has charged to keep you in His ways."

　And for these children the greatest day of the year was over. The boy glanced in wonder as the medium was restored to his body and spoke to him. The girl put her arms round me, and with tears of joy running down her face said, "I am so happy Silver Birch is my friend."