February 16, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.
I am here, Luke.
Well do you think you can take my message tonight? It looks like you may. At any rate we will try.
As I was saying, "In what way is a man to obtain this development of the soul in its natural love?"
In the first place, he must recognize the fact that he does not live to himself, alone; that what he conceives to be the workings of his own mind and will are not always the result of thoughts and desires that originate in him, but are largely the products of the influences of the workings of the minds of spirits who are around him, trying to impress him with their desires and wills; and. consequently, you will understand that it is very important to man as to what kind of spirit influences he has surrounding and working upon him. If these influences are good, the better it is for his progress in the development of this natural love; but if they are evil influences then, of course, such development is retarded.
Consequently, the first thing for a man to do is to attempt to attract to himself influences of the higher nature; and he can do so by trying to cultivate good thoughts and to indulge in good and moral acts. The great Law of Attraction, that we have written about, applies and works in such cases as this, as it does in every other relation of God's universe. If a man's thoughts are evil, there will always be attracted to him spirits of similar thoughts; and when they come to him, they attempt to and succeed in intensifying these evil thoughts of his, which attract them to him.
It must emphatically be understood in this regard, that man may and often does originate his own thoughts and desires, and it is not necessary that any influence of these evil spirits should be present and operate upon his brain or affections, in order that these evil thoughts and desires should come into existence. And again, man has a will power that is susceptible of being exercised, free from the wills of these evil spirits; and you will see how true this is when you remember that he can exercise that will power, free and independent from the Will of God Himself. So I say that these thoughts and desires may and do originate in man, free and independent of the wills or influences of these evil spirits; and as a fact, these spirits are attracted to him only when these thoughts that he has originated are evil.
Now, if man would have this progress that I speak of, he should endeavor to have good and pure thoughts and desires, and then he will attract to him spirits who are good and pure, and their influences will help him to a wonderful degree in strengthening and increasing these thoughts, and make it less and less likely that evil thoughts will arise in his brain, or evil desires in his affections; and as a consequence, his will power will be exercised in doing those things which are good and moral. Now, while man may originate these thoughts and desires, he must also know as a truth that this progress is not dependent upon him alone, for when he is in that condition to attract the good spirits, they will invariably come to him and render their help; and it will prove to be a wonderful and never failing help.
Now, man's thoughts and desires are not always, as may be supposed, the result of something that may be hidden within himself, and of which he may not know its existence. I mean not in all cases, and probably in only a minority of cases; for most frequently are these thoughts and desires the children of an objective influence, that comes to him by reason of objects becoming sensible to his ordinary senses, which create or suggest these thoughts or desires.
Without going into details, you will understand what I mean, but as a mere illustration: a glass of whiskey may and does suggest to a man who likes whiskey, the thought and desire that he should take a drink, and thereby bring into operation his will, which is followed by the act of drinking. And so with many other objects which a man meets in the course of his daily life. But these thoughts and desires arise not only from seeing objects, but also from feeling and tasting them.
And again, these objective suggestions, causing these thoughts and desires, arise and exist not only from the real object sensed, but also from words and thoughts which are expressed by other human beings in course of conversations or in books and literature. And when they come in this way, they are frequently more effective than in any other and, hence, as these objective words and thoughts enter the mind of man, they create similar thoughts, which frequently intensify and attract the evil spirits of like thoughts, with their degenerating influences. Hence, the importance of a man avoiding companionship where such communications take place and the books and literature where these evil suggestions are made.
It has been well said that, "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" and I may add that such communications corrupt good thoughts and produce evil desires and retard the progress of the soul in its natural love. For it must be remembered that this love is pure and free from all evil or taint of defilement when it is fully developed and anything that tends to defile it retards the progression of the soul in this particular.
So the plain lesson to be drawn from all this is that man must, in the first place, make the effort to have only good and pure thoughts and desires from his inner self, and next, he must avoid those objects and associations that tend to cause to arise in him these evil thoughts, and thirdly, he must learn the truth that when he has these evil thoughts, he attracts to himself spirits of evil who, by their influence, can and do intensify these evil thoughts and desires.
I know as regards this last mentioned truth, that the majority of men have no knowledge of its existence; but it is time that they should learn that such a danger to their soul's progression does exist and is always imminent. And they should learn this other fact that when their thoughts are pure and free from defilement, they have surrounding them the influence of good spirits, who work to increase and make permanent their good thoughts; and as these good thoughts continue, the natural love develops towards its pristine condition of purity, and man comes nearer to his designed condition of existence.
So you will see from this, that as man's thoughts and desires become freed from these things that tend to defile him, he naturally progresses toward that condition which is necessary, in order for him to have this development of the soul in its natural love. Again, the development may be helped very much by man thinking and doing acts of charity and kindness and observing the Golden Rule; for every act of charity and kindness and self-sacrifice for the sake of others has its reflex action in his own condition of love and soul and helps their development.
In short, the observance by man of all the moral laws, which are many and varied, tends to bring about the development of the natural love. And this must be remembered, that as this development proceeds, the tendency to indulge in the perverted appetites of the flesh, as they are called, will disappear; and as it disappears, this love, of course, becomes purer and sweeter, and brings man nearer to his state of perfection.
And again, the meditation upon spiritual things, and the out-flowing of this love towards the Father will cause the progression for while all men, as we have said, do not seek for the Divine Love, yet as all men are children of God, he helps them to the full extent of their desires; towards happiness, and the perfecting of this love in its natural pure state and with which he endowed them at their creation. Upon their will and aspirations depends the nature of the help which the Father gives to them; but always He gives his help and blessings and to the fullest. His great desire is that man shall become perfect in that love which they possess and which they seek for; and the natural love in its qualities may become as perfect in man, as may the Divine Love in its qualities. Each is just as much in harmony with God's universe in its respective qualities as is the other.
So I say, man is helped, and more than in any other way, by his meditations of the higher things of his being, and by prayer and aspirations to the Father, who hears the prayers of the man who has only this natural love, and answers them just as He does the prayers of the man who has the Divine Love in his soul.
Ultimately all sin and evil will be eradicated from the universe, and man in his mere natural love will become pure and perfected and happy.
I have tried in my inefficient way to show man how he may progress in the development of his natural love, and if he will follow my advice, he will succeed. For as man, by the indulging of these perverted appetites of the flesh, and the exercise of his will power, fell to a low degree of degeneracy, so he can by ceasing to indulge in these perverted appetites, and the exercise of that same will power, rise again to his condition of purity in his natural love.
And besides, he has the help of the Father and the good angels in his efforts to recover, and also the experience of the result of his fall, which he may not be conscious of, but which in his inner self has an existence and is continually working.
Well my dear brother I must stop; and I feel that you have taken my message very successfully. Read it over and correct errors of construction. I will come soon and write again.
Your brother in Christ,
Luke
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