WISDOM OF SILVER BIRCH

First Published  1944

　　　　INTRODUCTION

　THIS new volume of the utterances of Silver Birch, the spirit guide of Hannen Swaffer's home circle, is the result of the pop-ularity of previous books on the same subject. Silver Birch is among the most popular "dead" men in the world, and the value of what he says is that it can be applied to our daily lives. That is its first merit, but he also teaches something from which he never deviates—that there is a moral law ruling the universe, that it is truly universal and cannot be influenced by any petition, remorse, penitence, or any of the devices which men construct to escape from the results of their actions. The same law, he teaches, also automatically rewards for service rendered.

　The difficulty in compiling this book was to decide what to leave out, for the material available is ample. I have tried to show by selection that Silver Birch is thoroughly entitled to the name of guide—that he knows the direction in which we should go, and he is capable of leading us over, through and round the obstacles in the way of all of us.

　Though not a member of the home circle at which these talks were given, I am sufficiently well acquainted with it to know that the aim is to give the maximum service through a simple teaching which all people at all stages of evolution can under-stand and apply. The difference between the classical phil-osophers and the modern philosophers is small, the ancients being distinguished by their simplicity and also by the fact that some of them were conscious of the spirit source of their in-spiration. But here is a living witness to the fact that truth does not die, does not change, can be presented so that all may benefit, and requires no alteration except in the terms in which it is expressed. Silver Birch proves, by his teaching, the con-tinuity of human consciousness beyond the grave, teaches and shows that wisdom is never lost, but is the distilled essence of human experience, whether in this world or the next, and that our possibilities are boundless. 

　As one who has been in good times and "bad" much helped by this wise old guide, I gladly present these extracts. I am acquainted with most philosophies and nearly all the religious systems, ancient and modern, but for simplicity, truth and practical use have lighted on nothing to equal spirit teaching. And in sheer eloquence it has no peer, because it is at least one stage nearer the source of all inspiration.

　The purpose of this book is to cast light in dark places, to ease the burdens carried on human shoulders, to explain the great scheme of life, to demonstrate the survival of the human soul beyond the grave, and to rebuild the world into the fair and gracious place it could be if men would but apply the know-ledge now at their command.