Saul Writes About the Old Testament; Many Things Therein Declared Never Had Any Existence

April 7, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Saul.

I very much desire to write a short message tonight as I promised you a short time ago. I will not detain you very long and will try to make my message as succinct as possible.

I know that many men look upon me, as depicted in the Old Testament, as having been a great sinner and violator of God's Laws. Well, that is largely true, for I did not let God's Will control me as I should have done and, consequently, I became in discord with His Will, and did many things that were contrary to His Laws. Of course, my knowledge of these Laws was limited to the teachings of Moses and the prophets, as they were given to me by tradition and word of mouth.

The books which are part of the Old Testament were not written in my time, and many of these Laws came to me by tradition. The Old Testament contains many sayings which were written long after the times that they purport to have occurred, and many things therein declared never had any existence, except in the minds of men who, at much later periods, conceived that it might be wise to write these things. Many alleged incidents connected with my life never had an existence and were merely the fictions written by subsequent writers.

We had very few writings in the shape of manuscript in my time, and men depended upon tradition and memory.

Well, the history of my life and doings was not written at the time it purports to have been written. I was a real person and a king, and some records of me and my people were actually written, but they were very few and, as time went, by the imagination and ingenuity added to them in the way of tradition, and then those books relating to me, as they are now contained in the Bible, were compiled from some of these writings and from tradition.

The story of my experience with the "Witch of Endor," as she is called, was not written at the time; but it is a fact that I had visited her and had an experience somewhat similar to that related in the Bible. I had with me at the time of my visit some of my followers, and they saw and heard what took place, and after my death, they repeated and described what had taken place to my countrymen, and also to the followers of David; and some parts of this occurrence became inscribed on the materials which we used to preserve some of the occurrences of those times. But there was not kept any accurate history of the scene. The people of those days had retentive memories, and for long years afterwards this incident of my life was handed down from generation to generation, and some parts thereof were written by some scribes and other parts by other scribes.

I merely write you this to show that you need not give credit to the supposed truths of many sayings of the Old Testament, for many of these accounts had no existence.

I know that what I have written is not of much importance, but while you are receiving these truths, you had as well learn something of what was true in my life.

I will not write more tonight, so thanking you, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Saul

John Writes About How to Solve the Problem of What is True and What is Not

April 7, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John.

I desire to write a little to night upon a subject that may prove to be of interest to you and others who may read my message. I will not write a very long message, but will say what I desire in short sentences, so that the truth that I intend to convey may be understood at a glance.

• Well, when you are sure that you have discovered or have had revealed to you a truth, let it sink deep into your soul so that it will find such lodgment as will cause you to realize that this truth is a reality, and a thing that must not be forgotten or neglected in its application to your daily life on earth.

• When you have found that the truth fits some peculiar condition of your mind's experience, adopt it as a criterion for determining what your course of action shall be.

• When you have thus adopted it, let it always remain with you as a guide and monitor in determining what your belief as to the particular thing involved shall be.

• When you have, thus, received this belief of the mind, encourage and feed upon it until it becomes a thing of established faith; and when faith has become a part of your very being, you will find that the accompaniments of such faith, in the way of longings and aspirations, will become things of real existences, which will result in actual knowledge.

• When such knowledge becomes yours, then you have solved the problem of what is true and what is not. And when you have solved this, you will become a man who, when he utters his knowledge of truth, will speak as one having authority.

Such was the process by which Jesus became the possessor and authentic expositor of the great spiritual truths that had never before been known and declared by any man.

Of course, these various steps which lead to this great knowledge of truth, must be taken gradually and with increased confidence. In all this, the help and influence of the Father are necessary and such help and influence comes only in response to sincere, soul aspiring prayer.

Prayer must arise from the soul of man and the response must come from God. There is no other means by which this knowledge can be obtained. All knowledge of things spiritual, that men may think they possess, coming in any other way cannot be relied on, for there is only one source of such knowledge out of which the real spiritual truths of God emanate.

And Love is the great principle that enters into all knowledge of things spiritual, and without Love it is utterly impossible for man to rightfully conceive the truths of God and possess them.

I merely desired to give you this short lesson on truth and knowledge and love, so that in receiving and absorbing our messages of the great spiritual truths of the Father, you may realize the means of making them your own in a manner to satisfy your soul perceptions.

I will come soon and write you a message on some of these vital truths. Think of what I have above written, and you will find that your soul perceptions will be opened up to a clear and wonderful comprehension of the real meaning of what we desire to reveal.

I will not write more to night.

Your brother in Christ,
John

Jesus Writes About the Beliefs of Christian Scientists

April 5, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

These people (the Christian Scientists) obtain by their study of the principles that God is everything, and that their will must be subjected to His, a certain union with the power of the spirit world that calls into operation those powers which give them strength of will and a belief that their appetites for the stimulant (smoking) has left them; and that being so, they may easily refrain from further indulging this appetite.

The spirit forces help them to a greater extent than they possibly understand; but in order for this help to become effective, these people must necessarily come in rapport with these forces. They, by what they believe they possess in the way of having a proper conception of the true relationship of themselves to God, further believe that there is some power which exists in the spirit realms that is sufficient to take from them their appetites and enable them to lay aside these appetites for what they realize is the unreal.

This faith is a wonderful thing in helping man to do, or not to do, a particular thing. And even though they may not understand the true principle upon which this faith works out the results of which they testify, yet they acquire the faith which causes them to come into close rapport with the powers that actually help them to a successful realization of their desires.

As a matter of fact, God does not, as you may say, personally intervene in these matters, for He performs His work by means of spirits or ministering angels, as the Bible teaches, in things having to do with the material things affecting a man's existence; and even in the matters of the soul, He uses the Holy Spirit as an instrument to bring to man His Divine Love and infill the soul of man with its presence and essence and influence.

Many of these Christian Scientists have in their souls this Divine Love without really understanding that it is there or why or how it came to them; but they see the effect and have a knowledge that there is some power within them that enables them to come closer to the Father and experience the presence of His Love.

Christian Science is, in many particulars, a belief which leads to a faith that brings the true, sincere believer into an at-onement with the Father and makes the believer a possessor of this Divine Love of the Father; and yet many of its teachings are misleading and hard to understand, and not suitable for the great mass of mankind, because of certain mental requirements necessary to be understood before the seeker can grasp the truth that this Divine Love is the only thing that will save him from his sins and fit him for the Kingdom.

But I must not write more on this subject tonight for, as I have told you, I will come sometime and show you its merits and demerits in detail.

I will soon come and finish my last message, and as there are so many more that I desire to communicate, I hope that we may proceed faster in our work. I will be with you in your daily life in my love and influence, and try to help you to that condition of mind and soul progress that you pray for, and that are so very necessary.

Yes, I hear your request, and I pray as you desire; and I know that the Father answers my prayers, as he also answers yours. Only have more faith and more soul longings, and you will soon realize an inflowing of this Love to a wonderful degree.

I must stop now. With all my love and blessings, I am

Your friend and brother,
Jesus

Samuel Writes Further on Continuous Life After the Death of the Body

March 30, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Samuel.

I desire to continue my message on the subject of the continuous life of a man after the death of the body, as shown by the manifestations of nature.

As I was saying, the apparent death and resuscitation of things of the vegetable kingdom, do not furnish any argument that man will continue to live after the death of the physical body. Now I know it is difficult to understand what there can be in the manifestations of nature to prove such persistent life, and that the people for whose benefit I am writing this will not be willing to use evidence of things of a spiritual nature to prove this continuous life and, hence, I will confine myself to matters material.

Well, in the first place, there is no such thing as the death of anything in all the material universe of God. Every primal element has life in it, even though that life may not be apparent to the consciousness of men, but it is a fact. Every atom or electron, as the scientists term these particles of matter that are reduced to their infinitesimal proportions, is pregnant with life; and the very apparent decay of material substances is nothing more nor less than the results of the operation of the life that they contain, working out the changes of form or expression.

If the scientists will investigate and analyze the constituents of particles of all matter, notwithstanding that they appear to be devoid of the life principle, he will find that life, in some of its expressions, is contained in these particles, and that there is nothing in the material things of nature that is completely inert. There is no such thing as inertia - it only appears to exist; and while it may not be apparent to the natural eye that everything in the material has life within itself, and as a result therefrom, there is force and motion, yet such is the fact.

This life principle permeates everything - applies to and forms a part of everything that has the appearance of natural existence. The grain of sand on the seashore or the dust of the decayed tree has within it life, and this life is no more nonexistent or absent from these material things, than are the elements that compose this visible form of matter ever lost or without existence. It is true that these elements change their forms and their compositions, yet they never cease to exist, or become nothing. Nothing means a void, and in God's creation there is no void. Everything is of substance and there are no vacancies unfilled.

And, hence, as life is the foundation principle of existence and life exists everywhere, and there being no void in nature, life permeates everything, whether visible to the mortal eye or senses or not.

When that which is material decays or disintegrates, it does not do so as the result of the absence of life, but as the result of the operation of this principle of life upon the material in such a way as to cause the separation of its elements, and their change into new forms and appearances.

I know it is said that the workings of the elements; that is fire and water and air and chemicals known and unknown, cause the disintegration or even the disappearance of things material, but this is not strictly true, for these elements do not affect these things themselves, as a primary result of their workings, but what they affect is the life within these materials, and as that life lessens or changes, the materials of which that life is a part disintegrate or dissolve, as is sometimes said, into thin air; and never does any part of the material substance, no matter how minute it may come to be, die - that is, in the sense of losing life.

Life is a thing of such delicate nature, and is so susceptible to a division or reduction to a smallness almost to infinity, that no substance can become so small that life is not a part of it and the vital principle of its existence.

As is known, the solid rock may be reduced not only to dust but to a liquid and then to a vapor and then to a gas and then to that - that is not sensitive to the consciousness of men, and yet the life principle exists in all these forms of that material rock; and that which ultimates (finally goes) into apparent nothingness, contains life just as does the original rock, or any of its subsequent forms in the process of reduction to seeming extinction.

The materialist accepts these phenomena as true, and blindly and with full assurance announces that nothing in creation is ever lost or annihilated. This being true, why is not the conclusion logical that the apparently inanimate rock or the animal without reasoning powers or the man with the reasonable faculties, is never annihilated or lost; or in other words, never dies the death that results in nothingness!

But they say, while this may be true, yet the materials which form these various aspects of existence do not necessarily or probably come together again and reform the identical being that once appeared as an existing thing and then dissolved into the elements that composed the thing; and hence, while the elements in some form may continue to live forever, yet that form in which they once existed will not again appear. I know that this is a reasonable conclusion and one in accord with the demonstrations of science, and is applicable to the merely physical man just as to any other manifestations of the material things of nature.

But even these materialists admit that in the case of man, there is something in his formation and essential being that is more than or in addition to the merely physical portions of him, and while they may say that this something is wholly of a material nature, yet they admit that it is of a material different and distinct from the material that forms the visible physical body.

I do not speak of the soul or spiritual part of man, but of the intellect and of the five senses and of the reasoning powers, all which, of course, includes the memory. That part of man that embraces these things, the materialists must admit, is distinct and different from the mere body, and, even though it were here to be conceded that they are material, yet no man has ever seen them or felt them or in any way perceived their existence as he has that which he knows to be of the material. He has seen and heard and known the effects of the existence of these invisible material qualities, as he may call them, but has never demonstrated that they died when the physical body died. The furthest that he can go in this direction is that they disappeared and became lost to his consciousness; but that they disintegrated or dissolved or were reduced to a gaseous substance or thin air, in which he has seen the visible physical body disappear, he cannot affirm. The limit of his knowledge is that with the death of the physical body, this other, as he terms it, material part of man disappears and never again reappears to his physical senses.

As I say, he has never observed and has no knowledge of any disintegration of these invisible material parts of man into any primary elements or atoms or electrons, as he applies such terminology to the physical body, and hence he is not justified in concluding that any such results to this invisible material follows the death and dissolving of the flesh and blood and bones of man. To so conclude is more of a speculation than to hold that the invisible material did not dissolve into forms more invisible, if such an expression can be used.

As I have said, life is in all things, visible and invisible, and there is no vacuum in nature. While man is living it is demonstrated that life is in this invisible part of man, and more abundantly than in the merely visible body; and as life continues after death in the elements of this latter body, why cannot we declare that after death life continues in the invisible part of man? Nothing is ever lost or annihilated, and hence these parts of man cannot be annihilated, and existing they must contain life.

Has the materialist ever been able to demonstrate to his own satisfaction even, that this invisible part of man, which he says is material, ceases to live? He cannot say that the elements of the physical body, no matter what form they may assume, cease to live, but on the contrary affirmatively asserts that they are never annihilated and continue to exist; and as life is necessary to existence they must continue to have life.

So according to their own arguments and demonstrations and ultimate claims, the death of the physical body does not destroy the elements which compose that body but only the form in which these elements were combined. Then from this the most that they can claim as to the invisible material part of man is, that while the material which composed this part is not dead or annihilated, yet their formation may be disintegrated or changed; and hence the identity of the man, as to this portion of him, no longer exists. But this conclusion does not follow as a logical sequence, and the materialist has nothing upon which to base this conclusion, except that he has seen and knows that when the visible body dies it disintegrates and ultimately disappears.

He has never seen the disintegration of this invisible part of man, though he has seen its manifestations decay and even destroyed; but the cause of this is shown to be some decadence or disorganization of some part of the visible body through which the invisible manifested.

These materialists have knowledge of the facts that men have been deprived of their arms or legs or other parts of the body, and yet the invisible parts remained perfect, performing their functions. Also it is true, that men have received injury to their physical organs of sight or hearing, and, as a consequence the invisible organs of sight or hearing did not function, but that fact constitutes no proof that they were dead or had ceased to preserve the form they had before the physical organs were impaired; for when the defects of the physical organs were removed and these organs again came into condition to do their functioning, the invisible faculties of sight and hearing manifested their existence again just as they had existed before the physical organs were impaired. And so many similar instances might be referred to, to show that death or destruction of any or many parts of the visible body does not destroy or disseminate into its elements the invisible material part of man.

And besides, let the materialists consider the great difference in the powers and objects of the creation of these visible and invisible parts of man, and they will realize that the purely physical is wholly subordinated and used merely to enable the invisible parts to manifest themselves, and show that the real man is the invisible part, and that man can lose part of his physical vestment, and yet exist and perform his functions and exercise his powers.

I have thus tried to show that no argument can be drawn from any analogy between the vegetable things of nature, dying and coming to life again, and man's dying. Yet neither can any argument be drawn from the fact that the visible body of man dies and goes into its elements never to be resuscitated again as the same body, to show that the invisible body of man dies and is dissolved into its elements, and that man ceases to be the individual that he was before the death of the physical body.

I may not have made my message as plain and convincing as I would desire, but in discussions of this kind it is difficult to transmit the various shades of thought through the medium of a mortal. I thank you for your courtesy and will stop now. So with all my love and the blessings of the Father, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Samuel

Elias Writes a Short Note that He Wants to be Included in the Book of Truths to be Published

March 24, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Elias the prophet.

I am a stranger to you, but you are not to me for I know all about you and the great work you are doing and will have to do.

I understand that you are tired tonight and I will not write more. I only wish to say that when the opportunity presents itself, I should like to write you a message so that I may not be left from the Book of Truths which you shall publish.

Well, I am glad that you feel that way. I am your brother and friend and a follower of the Master. I am in the Celestial Spheres in a place very near the highest spirits who are my associates. I will write to you fully when I come.

With my love and blessing, I will say good night.
Elias

William Stone, Father of Dr. Leslie R. Stone, Writes of Dr. Stone's Selection by the Master to Do the Great Work for His Mission

March 23, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Father.

I desire to write just a line before my son leaves. I am his father and I want him to know that I have not forgotten to take advantage of any opportunity to write that may arise.

His mother is here, too, and she sends her love to him and desires to say that she heard the message which Mary wrote him, and that she is the happiest little angel in all the spirit world. And we are all happy and know that what has been told him is true. He must not doubt even though he cannot now realize the possibility of performing this great mission of which he has been called by the Master. In time he will be instructed and will have sufficient power given him to do this work.

I say we are all happy because of this great favor. Your mother says that she is thankful beyond all expression - that her prayers have been answered so surprisingly - that she never for one moment imagined that her boy would have been made the instrument in doing this work - that she only prayed - that he might receive this Divine Love and become at-one with the Father. And when this other surprising favor came to him, she realized that God was very good to her beyond all conception.

Tell my boy that he must believe and try his best to perform this work, that I am sure that a way will be opened up by which he will be enabled to do this duty, for now it is a duty.

I am very happy and the more I progress the greater my happiness becomes and the goodness of the Father appears. His sisters are very happy, too, and rejoice with us all.

Last night I was not present at the wonderful seance which his soulmate speaks of, but I know that it must have been impressive beyond conception, and I must say that I have never seen Mary so happy as she has been since then.

Well, I will not write more tonight. I thank you and with love and esteem,

I am his father,
William Stone

Mary Kennedy Writes A Note of Love to Her Soulmate, Dr. Leslie R. Stone

March 23, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Mary.

I am here and I want to write to my soulmate and I know that you will let me do so. Helen said she would make you take the pencil and told me to get ready and catch hold and as soon as you did so, and you may depend on it that I was right here and grabbed the pencil as soon as I could.

Well, it has been so long since I wrote him that I was hungry to do so. I know that he writes me and that I make him realize that I am with him, but that doesn't satisfy me altogether for you know that when you love a person you just have to tell them. It really gives relief, and besides I know that he likes to have me tell him.

Well, I suppose he will not think it anything new when I say that, "I love him with all my heart and soul," but nevertheless I must tell him for I do.

If I could only write to him as your sweetheart does to you, it would not occasion so much anxiety for then I could spread it out and not have to wait to bunch it all together. But it keeps and I don't lose any of it. Tell him that I am progressing very rapidly now and will soon get into a sphere where Helen tells me I will find so much more happiness, and that the more Love of the Father that I get, the more I will love my soulmate. I am with him a great deal as I have told him before. I try my best to help him.

He is developing in his soul also and I am glad. I must tell him what a love feast we three had last night. I mean Helen and Clara and I.

When we heard Jesus say that Mr. Morgan had been selected by Jesus and would be given the great Love of the Father and knowing that you and my dear had already been selected, we just hugged one another and shed tears of joy for to us who know what a wonderful spirit the Master is and especially having seen the great display of his glory, we thought how fortunate we were in having soulmates who had been so favored by Jesus and the Father.

You cannot appreciate what it means to us for you don't know conditions here and what power and Love exists not only in the Celestial Heavens but in the Spirit Heavens.

Oh, I tell you that if we were mortals and you were our husbands on earth, we should have such a pride as might condemn us to do penance.

You must all believe what has been told you as to the work which you are to do and thank the Father for the great opportunity that will be given you to do so much good to mankind and to develop your own soul, for we know that if you do the work we will not be separated very long.

I am so happy tonight I could not talk about anything else and Leslie must pardon me for not having written about other things. Soon I will come to him and tell him about my home here, and what he may expect when he comes over.

I have written him a long letter and I must stop. So with my sisterly love for you and my soulmate love to him,

I will say good night.
His Mary

General Saul S. Henkle, an Old Friend of James E. Padgett, Writes That He Enjoys Being With His Circle of Spirit Friends

March 23, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Saul S. Henkle.

Let me say just a word, for while you are all having your love thoughts passing, I would like to come in, too.

I was your old friend, Saul S. Henkle, and while I was not so young as you folks when on earth, yet, now I am younger than you, and no doubt better looking!

But seriously, I have enjoyed being here this evening and listening to the messages that you have received. Of course, I never knew your spirit friends on earth, but over here, I have become acquainted with them through that beautiful wife of yours, and I enjoy their companionship very much, especially that of Mrs. Stone, who is so beautiful and full of the Divine Love, and such a tender, loving mother. I am also very fond of the little girl that your Helen calls "Lovesick." Well, she undoubtedly is in love, but she doesn't look sick and is just as bright and beautiful and happy as one can imagine. She does love her soulmate though and doesn't hesitate to let us all know the fact. How happy all your friends are, and how happy I am to be with them!

Over here, there are little circles of friends, just as on earth and there is a difference also in the natures and disposition of those who form the circles; and I want to say that your soulmate and that of the Dr. are two of the cheeriest little spirits that I know.

Yes, I have met her and she is not very happy. She has the belief that held me back so long, and little soul development. I have tried to help her, but it is hard to make her think differently from what she did on earth. But sooner or later it will come about, that she will receive the truth. She is not my soulmate, so your wife says, and she seems to know all about soulmates. She says that she will soon tell me who mine is, and I will be glad of it.

I must not write more, but thank you very much for your kindness.

Your old friend,
General S.S. Henkle

Judge Frank D. Syrick Writes a Short Note About His Happiness and is With His Soulmate More Often Now

March 23, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Syrick.

Well, "You can't lose me," as the boys say, for I have your wife on my side, and I think that we can beat you and Dr. Stone, although you are two of a kind.

Well, my dear friend, I want to write just a little as I have not written you for some time, and you know the great pleasure it gives us in exchanging a few thoughts. I am very happy, and so is Rose, who is here, and says that you are her next soulmate when I get divorced from her, but I will tell you privately don't depend on that. I am progressing and am with her so much oftener than formerly, and I also have a greater opportunity to be with your folks.

I will come soon and write you about something that I have found to be true since I have been a spirit, and which I know you will like to hear of.

How is my friend the doctor? He looks as if he might be very happy, and if he could see that little soulmate of his I know he would be.

Well, you two had the advantage of me on earth, because you knew more of this Divine Love than I did, but I am ahead of you now, for I have my soulmate right here with her arms around my neck, giving me a kiss occasionally, and I know it. And your soulmates say that your two have their arms around your necks, too, and they know that sometimes you realize it.

Well, I am glad that we can have our little jokes together. Oh, what a difference from what I expected! I thought that when I came over, I would either be helping in building fires or riding on clouds playing harps. But believe I would sooner be just as I am with Rose telling me all the sweet things that she does.

I must stop now and with my love and that of Rose will say good night.

Your old friend,
Syrick

Jesus Writes on How the Divine Love Enters Into the Soul of Man

March 23, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I am here according to promise and desire to write you on a subject that all men should be acquainted with. "How the Divine Love enters into the soul of a man."

As I have told you before, man is a creature of God having a body, spirit and soul; and all these are necessary to make the perfect man. But these three parts of man are different in their characteristics and functions, and are separate and distinct, and have qualities that are unlike in their composition as well as in the duration of their existence.

The body, as you and all men know, has an existence which lasts only during the life of the mortal on earth, and after that life ends, dissolves into its elements, which no more can form the same body either in the mortal world or in the spirit world, for these elements are merely things of matter and may be and are used to form other bodies and manifestations of the material of nature; not necessarily in the form of human beings, for they enter into other forms both animal and vegetable and are so disseminated that never again will they become parts of a resurrected body. Your orthodox do not teach this truth, but think in some mysterious way that the mortal body will sometime be resurrected.

No, the body, when it has performed its function of maintaining and shielding the soul and spirit of man during his earth life, is no longer and cannot thereafter be a part of that man and may be considered as something that is no longer a part of him.

This body though, as a matter of fact even during the life of the mortal, is not the same body during that life, for continually is there changes in the elements that compose that body; and one element or set of elements, gives place to others and becomes lost or absorbed in the great sea of elements that help form or constitute the universe of God.

By operation of the Laws of Attraction and Repulsion, these elements, as they replace others which disappear, conform themselves to the general appearance or outline of the parent body, so that the identity of the body as well as of its appearance is preserved; and as a man grows older, the laws which make the changes in his appearance cause these new elements to conform to these changes, so that, even while the material continues to envelop the spirit during the short span of a man' s life, yet that material is not the same for any length of time. I make this preliminary statement merely to show that the material part of man is not at all connected with the real man, so far as the persistent nature of him is concerned, and this material need not be considered in discussing the subject that I desire to write about.

The spirit part of man is that part which contains what may be called the functions of life and the force and power existing in him and which immediately control him in his conduct and living. This real, existing principle of life, unlike the body, never dies, but continues to live after the spirit drops its envelope of flesh. This spirit part of man contains the seat of the mental faculties and reasoning powers, and uses the organs of the material body to manifest these attributes. These faculties live and exist, even though the physical body may be in such imperfect condition that the spirit may not he able to make its manifestations in such a way as to enable the mortal to perceive or sense the material things of nature, as they are called. To be specific, even though the material organs of sight may become impaired or destroyed, yet in that spirit body, which is within the physical body, exists the actual sight just as perfectly and completely as if these impaired or destroyed organs were doing their functioning; and the same is true as regards the hearing and the others of what are called the five senses of man.

And as to the reasoning faculties and mental qualities, they exist in the perfect state whether the brain is healthy or not or whether it performs its work or refuses to do so. These qualities do not depend upon the soundness or perfect workings of the organs of the physical body in order that these spirit qualities may exist in a perfect condition, but the proper workings of the physical organs, or rather the proper and natural movements and manifestations of the brain, and the conscious operations of the mental faculties, do depend upon the spirit faculties being able to use these physical organs in a proper way and in accordance with the harmony of the creation of the relative and correlative parts of man.

These spirit faculties, which man calls the intellect and the five senses, are a part of the spirit body which is enclosed in the material body and which in turn encloses the soul. When the material body dies, the spirit body continues to exist and live on in the world of spirit, and with it and as continuing parts of it, these intellectual faculties, performing all their functions free from the limitations that the physical organs placed upon them. And when this change takes place, these mental qualities, notwithstanding that they have not the material organs through which they functioned when in the mortal frame, can conceive thoughts of things material and hear and see things of the material just as they did, and even more perfectly, when they were enveloped by the environments of flesh and blood.

So you see when the mortal dies, the only thing that dies and is left behind is the mere physical body, and with the spirit body survives all those things which can be said to be the real man, so far as the mind is concerned. Hence, man never ceases to remember and to progress and to know that he is a being which death cannot destroy or change into something that he was not before death came to him. And thus I answer the question: "When a man dies shall he live again?" He never ceases to live, and his living is not a new life, but merely the continuation of the old life with all the things of mind and conscience that were his in the old life.

In the purely spirit life, the spirit body continues to contain the soul and will be its protector and covering so long as that spirit body shall last. But this body then begins to change, and by disintegration into what we may call spirit elements, and the formation of new elements to replace the disappearing ones. This change in this body is not caused by the same laws that operated to change and disintegrate and replace the physical body, but by the law controlling the development of the soul which the spirit body contains.

The soul is the real man, because it is the only thing or part of man that may become immortal, the only part of man that was made in the image of its Creator, and the only part of man that may become a part of the Substance of its maker and partake of His Divine Nature. I say may, for that is an important part of this great possibility. I know this possibility of the soul becoming immortal - by partaking of the Divine Nature of God - is true; for it is a proven fact in the case of many souls who are now in the Celestial Heavens.

I also know that there are many souls in the spirit world, who have been there for many centuries, who have never received this Divine Nature and consciousness of immortality. Whether such souls who have not received this Divine Nature shall become or are immortal has never been demonstrated. This I do know that in the economy of God's plan for the forming of His Kingdom, at some time - when, I don't know - this privilege of partaking of His Divine Nature and the certainty of immortality will be withdrawn from the souls of men and spirits and then, whether these souls who suffer this condemnation will partake of immortality no spirit knows, only God.

There are other things that I know and here tell you, and among them is this: that so long as the soul does not receive this Divine Nature, the mind, which I have described as being a part of the spirit body, continues to exist and dominates both soul and body; and in its progress it may attain to a condition of purity and perfection such as were possessed by the first created living souls - our first parents. Many spirits now are in this condition, but yet are mere men, and their souls remain only in the image of God - nothing more.

While God is mind, mind is not God, and also while God is spirit, spirit is not God. So that when men teach that mind is God, and that men must seek to attain to that mind, and thus become like God, they fall far short of the truth. The mind is only an attribute of God, and beyond and back of that mind is the real God - the personality, and that is Soul, from which emanates all these attributes and manifestations which mortals as well as spirits may be conscious of.

But while God is Soul, yet that Soul is a thing of substance with a nature Divine, and the seat and fountainhead of all the great attributes that belong to Him, such as love and power and life and omniscience and mercy. And here I must state one fact which may startle those who believe and teach that mind is God, and that is, that which is called the human mind is not a part of the mind of God, for this human mind and all its faculties and wonderful qualities are mere special creatures just as are the spirit body and material body of man. As I have said, man was created in the image of God only as regards the soul; and here always bear in mind that the creation was only an image.

The mind of man was a special creation, just as were the minds of the lower animals, differing only in degree. And if God had not given to man a soul and the spirit body to envelop it, and in which he placed this mind of man, when man died the death of the physical body, that would have been the end of him; as such death is of the body, which is not a part of this soul image of God.

As I have heretofore written you, when God created man and made him in His own image as to the soul, He also gave to man the possibility of obtaining the Substance of the Father; that is, of having that soul which was a mere image become that soul which is of the Substance of the Creator. I have also explained to you how man, by his disobedience, lost that possibility, and for long centuries was deprived of this great privilege, and how it was again restored to him at the time of my coming to earth, so that he now and for nineteen centuries past has had the possession of this great gift or privilege of partaking of the Substance of the Father.

Well, when man, by the way that has been pointed out to him, becomes possessed of the Substance of the Father's Divine Nature, even in an initial degree, his soul commences to change and lose its character as a mere image and to progress towards the attainment of that condition when this image disappears and the Divine Substance takes its place; and as the progress continues, he receives so much of the Substance that his soul takes on the Divine Nature of the Father, and his at-onement with the Father becomes so perfect that he becomes an inhabitant of the Father's Kingdom.

This occurs when he becomes fitted to enter the First Celestial Sphere; and just here occurs another thing which may startle those who teach that the mind is the essence of God, and that is the mind which man, both as mortal and spirit, possesses up to that point in the progress of the soul where the transformation into the Divine Nature takes place, becomes a thing of naught; or rather becomes absorbed in the mind of the soul, which is the real mind of the Father. And then and ever after, only this mind of the soul is that which enables the real Divine man to understand the things of God to help him in his progress.

I will continue later. You are tired. But remember that I love you and you have me with you at all times to help and sustain and comfort you. Good night my dear brother.

Your friend and brother,
Jesus

Jesus Writes That He Has Chosen Eugene Morgan to do a Work in Reference to the Spreading of the Truths

March 22, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I will give you the prayer very soon now, and you will receive with it a spiritual enlightenment of its meaning that will draw you very close to the Father and His Love.

(Refers now to Mr. Morgan.) Yes, I speak to him sometimes, and he hears my voice, and is not mistaken; but he must not think that all the impressions that he has are from the spirits, for such is not true. As he progresses in the development of clairaudience, he will be able to distinguish between what comes to him from the spirits and what may arise in his own mind. He must not be discouraged or let doubt enter his soul, for his faith must be one of soul and not of mere mind.

I have selected him to do a work in reference to the spreading of my truths, and he must determine that his mission is one that will occupy his time during the balance of his earthly existence; and if he now draws back from this work, he will lose a wonderful opportunity for helping mankind and for developing his own soul and fitting himself for a happy existence in the spirit world.

He has been favored as few mortals have been, or will be, and he must realize and appreciate that fact, for it is a fact, and only the Celestial spirits who are with me in this work know the importance of it. I am his friend and brother, as I have told him, and he has my love and influence as few mortals have ever had, and this because I know that he is a true man and will not fail me in what I wish to accomplish. I know that many times it has been said and written by mediums that I have come and written to them, but such is not the truth, and it is only since I have determined that you shall receive my written messages of the truth, have I come in such close contact with you. Often have I tried to influence them with my love and thoughts, but not for long years have I come in such close rapport as to have them receive my written messages or hear my voice audibly, as your friend has heard it, and will hear it in the future.

Yes, I have chosen him just as positively, and with the certainty as I chose my disciples when on earth; and I expect that he will follow me as faithfully as they followed me. As time passes the conviction will grow stronger and stronger that he has been selected for my work; and there will come to him a knowledge and power which he does not now realize, and which it is impossible for him at this time to understand.

After you and he have gotten in the condition when you can let your thoughts of earthly necessities cease to trouble you, and become in that state of mind and soul that will enable you to turn all your thoughts and longings to the Father and the work that He desires you both to do, there will come to you such a blessing from the Holy Spirit that will prove to you that the Pentecost of the days of my disciples has again been given to man to bless and make him pure and powerful, and the wonder of his fellow mortals.

I, Jesus, tell you this with the authority and knowledge that have been given me by the Father, and no man can gainsay it. I have spoken, and you both must believe.

So, my dear brother and friend and disciple, I will stop, and in doing so, say that you and your friend have the love and blessings of him who never makes a mistake or misleads his disciples in the things of the soul. Good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

**********

Helen Confirms that the Master wrote and selected Mr. Morgan to do a work in reference to the spreading of his Truths.

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Oh, my dear one, what a message you had from the Master, and with what power and authority he wrote you! Again, he displayed that great glory of which I have written, and so grand and magnificent was his appearance that we could scarcely look upon him. He certainly was the son of the Father as he wrote to you and declared that you both were his disciples, and that power and great soul development would be given you.

And Ingersoll was present, and he stood in amazement, and almost adoration, as he saw the wondrous greatness and power of the Master. He says that no spirit can doubt that Jesus is the true son of God and the greatest of all the spirits in the Heavens; and that he feels that he is of such insignificance when he sees the glory displayed by the Master. He, Ingersoll, is so humble and so remorseful when he thinks of his days on earth, when he doubted that Jesus ever lived, and if he did, that, in his opinion, he was merely a good man and nothing more.

I tell you that the opportunities which we spirits have had - now three times - to see displayed this wonderful glory and power of Jesus, have made us all realize that the love of the Father which Jesus has is beyond all conception; and he tells us that such love may be ours if we will only strive and pray for it.

Oh, my dear, when I think of the great favor that has been bestowed upon you I thank the Father with all the capacity that I have. I am so happy! Some day you will be with me, and this happiness will be ours together.

Well, dear, this has been a glorious night, and I will not mar the happiness that comes to us by attempting to write of anything else.

So, with all my love and many kisses, I am

Your own true and loving
Helen

Samuel Writes About Continuous Life After the Death of the Body

March 21, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Samuel.

I desire to write for a short time on a subject that is of importance to those who are in doubt as to the reality of the future life. I know that a vast majority of mortals believe in a future existence and the immortality of the soul, but there are a considerable number of mortals who do not know these facts or who have no belief regarding the matter and simply say "I don't know." It is to these latter persons that I wish to write.

In the first place, all persons know, if they know anything, that they are living and that sooner or later what they call death is inevitable - no matter from what cause it may take place. "To live" then, implies that there is such a thing as continuous life; and "to die," to these people demonstrates that the life with which they are acquainted ceases and that the material body in which this life manifests itself gradually disintegrates into the original elements that composed that body.

Now a man - being a materialist purely- would seem to be correct in his conclusions that when life, which could be manifested only through the material things of nature, ceases, and the body becomes inanimate and dead, that then is the end not only of the body but of the individual. And if there existed no other manifestation of life than this physical one, there would be no foundation upon which to base the assumption that the death of the body does not end all.

I know it has been asserted in the way of argument that even though the material parts of vegetation die, yet as spring comes around, these materials show forth again the life that had previously manifested itself and, therefore, by analogy the death of the human body merely means that its life will appear again in evidence in some other body or form.

But upon close investigation and exact reasoning, it will be seen that the two subjects of demonstration are not alike, because while the material of the vegetable kingdom apparently dies, yet it does not all die, for even though you may apparently see the particular body of the tree or plant or every part of it go into decay or rottenness, yet as a fact, this is not true. The whole of the material plant which enclosed or manifested life does not die until out of it a new body arises and grows, and the life that animated the body that appears to have died continues in it awaiting the new growth for its display of existence.

The flower dies and the bush upon which it grows may appear to die, yet the roots continue to enclose the life principle which causes the bush to grow again, and which has its genesis in these roots, and is the same life that originally existed in the bush. Pluck up the bush by the roots and expose them to the elements until they die and commence to disintegrate, and then replant them, and you will find they will not grow, for the reason that the life which had animated them has departed.

And the same conclusions will be reached when you apply the same investigation and reasoning to every species of the vegetable kingdom. The grain of corn, though apparently dead, is in reality not dead, but continues to contain the life principle which was the cause of the growth of the stalk and the blade and the ear in the blade. Nothing of the vegetable kingdom will be reproduced or form the basis of a new growth, unless some part of the old growth retains in it the life force.

In man's investigation of the wonders of vegetable life, he has discovered that a grain of corn that had been entombed in the hands of an Egyptian mummy for more than three thousand years, when planted in the ground, reproduced the stalk and blade and ear of corn, just as the original material body had produced. And why? Not because when the grain of corn was planted in the earth it received unto itself new life or any force that was not already in it, but because the grain had never ceased to be without the life that existed in it as it grew from the original seed to the perfect grain. The grain had never lost its life and had never died, though apparently it had. Always there was some part of the original body that continued to exist and that held enclosed in itself the life principle. Without the preservation of some part of the original body, there could never have been a manifestation of the life that caused the growth of that body. This phenomena, as you call it, was not the resurrection of a material body that had died and become disintegrated and nonexistent, but was merely the resurrection of that part of the old body that had never died, but had always retained in it the life principle. And this, I say, is no argument for the future existence of man, as viewed from a purely material aspect.

When the body of a man dies it is eternally destroyed, either by natural decay or by incineration or, sometimes, by cannibals, so that no portion of his body remains in which the life principle may be preserved; and so far as the material body is involved, it utterly disappears - no roots remain in the ground and no grain or seed of it is preserved from which a new body may arise.

So I say, the phenomena of the vegetable apparently dying and, after a season springing forth again, and producing a body similar to the one that had formerly lived and died, furnishes no demonstration or argument from which, logically, can be drawn the conclusion that when a man dies, he will not cease to exist, or will live again.

From the purely material standpoint, the materialist has the better of the argument, and he may well ask the question: "When a man dies shall he live again?" and answer the inquiry by saying, nature furnishes no proof that he will.

It may be said that life permeates all nature and is the basis of all existence, and that assertion is true; but it does not follow therefrom that any particular manifestation of life, such as the individual man, when once ceasing to manifest, will again be reproduced in that particular identity of material manifestation, or in that form or existence that will make itself the identical being that had ceased to exist.

So to show man that there is a continuous existence after the death of the body - and I mean an individual, identical existence - something more is required than the argument of analogy in nature, or to the material things of nature in which life appears and then apparently disappears and then reappears. As the discussion on this phase of the matter will require more time than you have tonight to receive it, I will defer the treatment until later. With all my love I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Samuel

White Eagle and Helen Write About Mr. Lipscomb Who Wasn't Allowed to Write a Message

March 19, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, White Eagle.

Lipscomb tried to write and I would not let him because he was drunk and I know you did not want him to write.

**********

Helen writes that poor Lipscomb imagined he was intoxicated.

I am here, Helen:

Well, you have had some of your old lawyer friends write you, and I was glad of it, for they seemed to be happy in doing so. The last one was poor Lipscomb, and he imagined that he was intoxicated but, of course, he was not. He thought so himself; and as you have heard, "thoughts are things."

Well, I am very sorry for him. I have tried once or twice to help him, but I am afraid that I will have to wait some time before I can make any impression on him. He is so earthbound, and that accursed appetite seems to have such a hold on him that he is completely dominated by it. But time, as you say, will help him.

Well my own dear, I was with you tonight at church and you realized it while the choir was singing, for I could see and feel that your love was flowing to me, and I was very happy.

The preacher was very entertaining and his argument on the negative of the proposition was all right, for God's Love is open and waiting for everyone who may seek it, and no one will be deprived of it because of any supposed unpardonable sin. And his second proposition was, in a way, true also; but the conclusion that any man may by his own will and shutting of his soul desires to the influence of the spirit damn himself eternally is wrong. All will be saved either in the spirit world or the Celestial Heavens ultimately. Such sermons, while not expositions of the full truth, yet may do some good by awakening the hearers to a realization of their actual condition and need for the things of the spirit.

Well sweetheart, I must not write longer tonight as it is late. So with all my love, I will say, believe that I love you and am with you in all your worries and enjoyments.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Maurice Smith, a Brother Lawyer of James E. Padgett, Seeks His Help in Getting Out of Darkness

March 19, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Maurice Smith.

Let me say a word too. As Hay had the opportunity to write I would like to do so, also. I will not detain you long, as I merely want to let you know that I am alive. Well, I am not very happy and am in darkness and suffering and don't see any prospect of relief.

I noticed that as he left you, he was much happier than when he commenced to talk to you, and I thought that maybe you said something to help him, and that you might help me, also. I know you will, if you can.

I saw some spirit who was very bright looking, but I could not see distinctly or recognize him, and I suppose it was some acquaintance of Hay, that you had something to do with his meeting. Well, you surprise me for I did not know that Mr. Riddle was that kind of spirit. I thought that he was like the rest of us lawyers, who all seemed to be grouped together in darkness and suffering, and some say, Hell; but I don't like that word and I shall insist that I am in the darkness only, and, besides if it were Hell, I should see the devil and the fires, etc., which I have never seen.

A long time ago, as it seems to me, I saw Taggart. It must have been when he first came over, but I have not seen him for some time, as he appears to have left us.

Well, you astonish me some for I have never thought that you could help a spirit and, in fact, I am so astonished at the knowledge that I can communicate to you in the way that I do, that I am ready to believe most anything, and I assure you that I am very willing to follow your advice if there is any hope of my changing my condition for a better one.

Yes, I see some spirits, and they certainly are bright and beautiful. They must belong to another sphere, for I don't often see spirits of that kind, and when I do, they don't seem to be quite natural. But, as you have called my attention to them, I see that they are real, and they seem to have looks of love and kindness about them. And now, I see one who is not so bright or beautiful as the others; but he seems to be happy and does not have the darkness surrounding him, and he comes to me and says: "Hello, Maurice, I am glad to see you," and lo, and behold, it is Taggart!

Well, don't this beat the devil! Who would have thought that he could look as he does? And he says he is very happy and wants to help me and will tell me the way to get into a condition similar to his own, and if I want to argue the matter, he is ready to do so. The same old Taggart, ready for an argument. I wonder what he has to say? He says come with him and he will tell me, and I must go.

So thanking you, I will say good night.

Your old friend and fellow lawyer,
Maurice Smith

E.R. Hay, a Brother Lawyer of James E. Padgett, Writes that He is Now a Spirit and Happy that He Can Communicate with Him

March 19, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, E. R. Hay.

Yes, I am, and I am so glad that I can write you. I learned only recently that spirits could write through mortals. When I came to make inquiries, I found that you are the mortal through whom they write and I was surprised. Why, my dear fellow, you certainly are favored to have such a power, and I know that many spirits are very thankful that you permitted them to write.

Well, let me see, what shall I say. Well, well, what a wonderful thing, and I am right here to participate myself. I know you don't care to hear from a spirit like myself, as you have so many of the beautiful and bright spirits write you. But say, old fellow, I have met your wife here and she is a beautiful spirit, and so loving and kind. I have talked to her, and she has tried to help me, and she has. Oh, what a favored man you are to have such a wife! Not only so beautiful, but so powerful and majestic! She comes from the Celestial Spheres and is so filled with what she calls the Divine Love, that I can scarcely look at her at times.

What does all this mean, anyhow? It has not been long since we were both on earth, and yet there is such a difference between her and me. I was a church member and attended to my duties very conscientiously, and I don't know that she did more, and yet, the great difference. I wonder if going to church and conforming to its creeds and ceremonies amount to anything. There must be something else.

She has told me the cause of the difference, but I don't quite comprehend, and I find it hard to turn my thoughts to the things that she has told me of; for the beliefs of my earth life cling to me and hold me just where I was on earth.

Of course, when I died, I did not go to Heaven, and I have not seen God or his throne and the angels that we used to sing about, and it causes me to think that there must be some mistake in what I believed with regard to these things; yet I am afraid to let go my beliefs.

I have seen other spirits than your wife who have told me of what they call this Divine Love, and the necessity of having it in my soul in order to progress, but, yet, I doubt, and can't make up my mind to seek for it. It certainly is strange. I wonder what the church is for, if its believers find no more realization of their expectations than I have found.

I am in what is called the earth sphere and not happy, although I try to make the best of it, there is considerable darkness and some suffering, and I don't appear to find any associates, except those who are unhappy, too. I know that if I were on earth, I would not associate with such people, but here I can't help it and don't seem to be able to find any other kind. And I tell you, when your wife and several others who are bright and beautiful come to me, it gives me the greatest joy imaginable.

Yes, I have seen a number of our old lawyer friends, but they are just about as I am; some may be a little happier, but the most of them are just in my condition; and some, I am sorry to say, are in greater darkness and seem to be suffering intensely. There is one who killed himself. He is in a terrible condition, and I believe that he would like to kill himself again if it would put him out of his misery. I feel sorry for him, and wish that I could help him, but what can I do? I can't tell him of the consolation of my church creeds, for I have not found any consolation in them myself.

Well, I have listened to your advice, and I must say that in some particulars, you astonish me; but as you say it is all true, I must try to follow it, at least, until I find that it is not true. It certainly is wonderful that some of the spirits that you name could get in the condition of happiness that you speak of. I will try to do as you say, and as I understand the first thing is an open mind, I will try.

Yes, I see some bright spirits and among them your wife, and she is smiling at me and now comes to me and says, believe what you have told me; and now she says, "Here is an old acquaintance of yours," and brings Mr. Riddle to me, and my stars, what a beautiful man he has gotten to be and so bright and lovely. Well, I am astonished!

He says he remembers me and is glad that he can be with me, and says, that he has some things to tell me which are true and vital to my happiness and invites me to go with him. And notwithstanding I feel such happiness in being with you and writing to you, I will have to go with him, for I may find what you have told me I can find, if I will only follow the advice that may be given me.

Well, I am certainly glad for this opportunity to write, and I thank you for your talk. I will go now, but I should like to come again sometime and write.

With my kind regards, I will say goodbye.

E.R. Hay

Joseph of Arimathea Writes That He Laid the Body of Jesus in the Tomb After His Crucifixion

March 16, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Joseph of Arimathea.

I desire merely to write a few lines to let you know that I really did exist as a mortal, and that I am the same man who laid the body of Jesus in the tomb where never before had anybody been laid.

I was with him at his death, and I was with his body when it was laid in the tomb and sealed, and I know and testify that no man or men or society of men, as it has been said, stole his body from the tomb. His body was entombed as was the custom of my time, and he was wrapped in cerements and fitted for the long sleep in the tomb, as we supposed.

While I was not a full Christian, yet his doctrines appealed to me as containing the truth, having about them a living inspiration, which I did not find in the teachings of the Jewish theology, for I was a Pharisee. I never thought that his death was justifiable or approved it, but I was not able to prevent it; and feeling that a great crime had been committed by the people of whom I was one, I tried to make a small atonement for the great crime by giving him burial in my new tomb.

Of course, I did not believe that he would rise again in the way that he had made known to some of his disciples, and when we buried him, I only thought that that tomb would be his sepulchre until nature had destroyed the body as it had done in the cases of all others who had been entombed.

As you may realize, I was interested in the proceedings taken by the Jewish leaders in their efforts to prove that he, Jesus, would not arise from the tomb on the third day, and I kept watch as well as did the soldiers, and I can testify that no mortal ever removed the stones from the mouth of the tomb.

I was there when the angel came and the soldiers were put in the sleep that the Bible speaks of, and I Joseph say this, knowing that it may not be believed and the Bible makes no mention of it, that I saw the stones rolled away and the shining one standing guard at the entrance of the tomb. I was frightened and I left the place, and was so overcome that I did not return there until the early morning, and then I saw Mary and heard her inquiring for the whereabouts of her beloved Master, and more wonderful, I saw the man of whom she inquired suddenly reveal himself to her, and I can testify also, that it was the same Jesus whom I had helped lay his body in my tomb.

He was not of flesh and blood, as they say, for he suddenly appeared, and his appearance was not the same as that of the Jesus whose body had been entombed; but when he revealed himself to Mary, there was the same countenance and the same wonderful eyes of love that I was familiar with, and the same voice of love and affection. I know this and I want to tell the world that it is true.

Before Peter came, I went into the tomb, and it was empty and when Peter came I was with him in the tomb and saw his astonishment, and heard his words of wonder and amazement, for notwithstanding what the Master had told him prior to the crucifixion, he did not believe or comprehend, and he was astonished and bewildered as were all of us.

Jesus of Nazareth arose from that tomb, and his fleshly body was de-materialized. As to his disappearance, I could not then explain, as could none who saw him after he had arisen, but now I know that because of his great psychic powers, as you would call them, he caused the disintegration of that body into its elements, as can be done now by many spirits who have that power. Yes, Jesus arose from the tomb, but not from the dead, for he never died, as you will never die, only the physical vestment that enveloped his soul.

I am now in the Celestial Heaven and am with him a great deal, and know that he is the greatest and most wonderful of all the spirits in the Celestial Sphere, and the nearest to the fountainhead of God's Love. He is truly His best beloved Son.

I also want to say that he writes to you his messages of truth, and was with you tonight for a short time. Listen to him and know that you have in him a friend who is closer than a brother, or father or mother.

My brother, I will stop now, and in leaving, say that you have my love and blessings.

Your brother in Christ,
Joseph

St. Stephen Writes a Short Note About the Importance of James E. Padgett Receiving the Truths

March 15, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here and desire to write just a few lines, for you are not in condition for lengthy writing tonight.

The Master was disappointed, but he is so loving and good that he did not complain and only wanted you to feel that you must not worry, because of the fact that you could not take his message; but nevertheless he was disappointed.

I understand that you could not control your sleepiness and are not to blame, but it was unfortunate, and it must in some way, if possible, be avoided in the future.

If you only realized the great importance of these messages and the great number that are yet to be written, you would bend every effort to facilitate their reception. I am not saying this complainingly, but merely stating a fact. So try your best to get in a good condition so that there will be no failure in your receiving the messages.

I am so very much interested in this work and so are a host of other spirits who realize the importance of these truths being given to mankind. They are the only truths and never since the time when the Master was on earth have they been revealed to man.

I will not write more tonight, but will say with all my love that, I am your brother in Christ.

St. Stephen

Jesus Writes About What it is That Makes a Man Divine?

March 15, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I wish to write tonight on the subject of: "What it is that makes a man Divine."

When man was created, he was given the highest qualities that could be bestowed upon a mortal, and yet he was mere man, but the perfect one, and with these qualities was given him the possibility of becoming in his nature Divine like the Father; but this gift was never possessed by him in its enjoyment of full fruition until after my coming to earth and making known to man that such a possibility existed.

The first created man never possessed this gift in its fulfillment, but merely had the possibility of receiving it, on condition that he continued in his obedience and made the effort to receive it in the way that the Father declared was the only way. You have been told in detail what this gift was, and how the first parents forfeited the enjoyment of it by their disobedience and ambition to possess it in a way that was not in accord with the Father's way.

As I have said, man lost this possibility at the time of the first disobedience, and thereafter became gradually a man with his moral nature sinking lower and lower until he got almost to the condition of the beasts in the field. And from that condition man has been gradually improving or progressing towards his first state of purity.

But a great many men have ceased to know, or have never known, that God is the Creator of all things, and that all creation is dependent upon Him for its very existence, and in their assurance and self importance they have assumed and professed to be true that their progress or salvation depends upon their own efforts, and that these efforts are sufficient to bring about this state of purity or harmony with God's Laws and desires.

But in this men are mistaken, for there is nothing in them that is Divine, and there never will be when they depend upon their own selves to progress to that state of perfection. The Divine Nature of the Father is not in man and will never become a part of him until he pursues the way which is absolutely necessary for him to accept and follow in order to become anything more than mere man.

I will not write more tonight as I think it best not to do so. I understand that you could not prevent your condition of sleepiness, and I do not blame you, but I think it best to wait until later to finish what I desire to write.

Well, my dear brother, believe that I have only love for you, and will get close to you as we progress - so I say, don't worry. I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Professor Joseph Salyards Writes About Perfecting the Natural Love While on Earth

March 15, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Prof. Salyards.

Well, I was telling you of the object of man's life on earth, and the necessity for his doing certain things, in a general way, in order to bring to mankind the happiness which might be theirs while on earth. Now I desire to go into a little in detail with reference to these matters.

As has been written you before, there is only one way in which man can attain to the supreme happiness, which the Father in His goodness has made possible for man to attain to and which, when once obtained, can never be taken from him. But there is also another kind of happiness which is not in either its nature or results, the same as that which I have just referred to; and man may obtain it in a way and by a method which are different from those which are necessary to obtain the first kind.

Man was originally created good and pure and happy, and only by his disobedience did he lose these qualities which, when lost, finally made him approach somewhat the likeness of the lower animal, although the latter is probably not so unhappy as man became, by his fall from the state of the high condition of his creation.

When in his original state, he was happy in what we called, and what was, his natural love, which he fully possessed and needed nothing additional to make him happy. This condition made man his own master, as it were, and the Father's Divine Love was not necessary to develop him more as mere man than he then existed. He was pure and free from sin and in perfect harmony with God's Laws governing his creation.

But after the disobedience, he lost this harmony and in doing so lost also the power to preserve in himself the happiness which was his by right of creation; and he also soon realized that as this power left him, his dependence upon himself became less and less effective to keep him in a condition of purity and contentment and, as a consequence, he became less than perfect man and has been such ever since that time.

Now with the other qualities that were given him at the time of his creation, there was, and is, one that he has never been deprived of, and one that he has never realized his inability to exercise, although he so often exercises it wrongly; and that is the will, which is the greatest of the natural attributes that man possesses, for even God will not attempt to control that. I mean in the way of compelling.

And this quality is the one that, more often than any other, will help man to again attain to that state or condition in which he was the perfect man; but while this is true, yet it is also one of the greatest obstacles to attaining to that state.

Upon man himself, very largely depends the success of his regaining his pristine purity and harmony with the laws that govern his being, and he must understand this fact; for if he should believe, and rest in the belief, that other men, or other instruments controlled by men, can rescue him from his present condition of in-harmony and unhappiness, he will be disappointed and his salvation will be a long time delayed.

But the exercise of this will power in the proper direction will depend upon other things that he must possess in order to insure his return to his first estate. Among these are the necessity for his obtaining knowledge that will enable him to know himself and the relationship of himself to what is true and good. This knowledge will come to him as he examines himself and learns the difference between right and wrong, and this I mean in its general sense, for right and wrong mean harmony or in-harmony with the laws of which I speak, and not right and wrong according to the several circumstances of men, for these differ, and what may be right or wrong to one man will not be to another.

And man by proper contemplation and observation may learn the difference between right and wrong, in the sense in which I use the terms, and be enabled to embrace or avoid those deeds or thoughts that come within one category or the other. Again, he must realize that there is such a thing as the natural love being a part of him, and a thing which may be possessed and cultivated to such a high degree that all men will be brothers to him and the children of one common Father, who has Love and care for all alike who are content to remain the mere man.

Again, he must realize that he has a Father in God, his Creator, and that that Father has a love for him which will always bring to him happiness and peace, if he will only respond with his own love; for man must have an object of worship and adoration, even when he possesses only the natural love, and he must learn that his love must go out to the Father in faith and confidence. There are many other things that he may learn by contemplation and meditation as I have said.

Many qualities that are desirable will flow to man from the knowledge that there is a Father who loves him, and that he has or may have a love for that Father, and also for his brother man. In fact, from these two subjects of knowledge, everything else may come to man that will make him the perfect man in harmony with the laws of his creation and a pure happy and contented creature.

Now, when man obtains this knowledge - and here observe the distinction between knowledge of these things and the possession of them - he will naturally try to obtain all that knowledge shows him may become his to possess, and then will come into operation the great will power, and by its exercise there is nothing that can prevent him from arriving at the goal of his desires. In this way, one can, in a sense, be his own redeemer, but he will find the struggle hard, and the obstacles to be overcome, many and repelling.

There are many mortals who have a wonderful development of this natural love, notwithstanding the fact that they are living in sin and in in-harmony with the laws that I speak of, and who will find from that fact alone that their progress will be more rapid and easy when they come to the spirit world, on their journey to the state of perfect man. I do not believe that any mortal can ever attain to this condition while in the earth life, but he can lay the foundation for a rapid progress after he becomes a spirit. The temptations and desires that beset him as a mortal, at this time, are so great, that rarely can he become that perfect man while on earth.

But the time will come, I believe, when men will become perfect even while on earth and in this I have reference to his natural love merely. While, as I say, for man to obtain this state of perfection, he must depend upon himself to a very large degree, yet, it will be comforting to him to know, that there are hosts of spirit friends who are with him, trying to help him to obtain the knowledge of which I have spoken; and in his contemplations and meditations, they are with him suggesting to him and impressing on him the thoughts of truth that help him very much to understand the right from the wrong, and they also sustain him, in some degree, in the exercise of his will in the right direction.

So from this it must become apparent to man that a very important thing in the determination of this great problem as to what is right and what is wrong, is the kind of associates that he may have, and this applies to the mortal as well as spirit companions. And man must know this, that as his desires and appetites on earth attract to him companions of similar desires and appetites, so; also, does the same Law of Attraction operate in the case of his spirit friends.

Now, in all this, I have no reference to the redemption of man by the possession of the Divine Love of the Father, for such redemption and its way of saving man, are altogether different from those of redeeming him in his natural love. In the one case, when he has found the goal of his desires, he becomes a merely perfect man and nothing more. In the other case, he becomes an Angel of God, Divine is his nature, with no limitation to the progress that he may obtain and the happiness that may become his.

And - Oh, man! Why will you be satisfied to become merely a perfect man, when you may become a Divine Angel of the Father's Kingdom with immortality assured? Man may not know it, but it is a fact, that it is easier, and the way is shorter to become a Divine Angel, than to become a perfect man.

So my advice to all men is - and I speak what I do know from a knowledge that comes to me from experience and possession - to seek for the Divine Love of the Father with all their strength and efforts, and then they will become not only the perfect man, but will obtain that which our first parents never obtained, but which was theirs for the proper seeking, as it is all men's.

I have written enough for tonight and will close.

Your old friend and professor and brother in Christ.
Joseph H. Salyards

St. John Writes About the Belief in the Efficacy of the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus by His Death and Crucifixion

March 18, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, St. John, Apostle of Jesus.

I wish to write tonight on a subject that is of importance to the members of the orthodox churches as to the belief in the efficacy of the atonement of Jesus by his death and crucifixion.

All the orthodox believe, and their preachers and evangelists teach in their sermons and addresses, and the teachers of Bible classes instruct their students, that the blood of Jesus and his death on the cross were the two factors in his career on earth that save men from their sins and satisfy the great penalty of death which overhangs them, because of man's first disobedience and the sins that followed therefrom.

Well, this doctrine has prevailed in the beliefs and teachings of the church ever since the church became established by the convention that met in pursuance of the orders of Constantine, when the books that now constitute the Bible were given the sanction of the church as canonical. Before this time some of the early fathers believed in the doctrine of the atonement as above stated, and the controversies between them and others who did not subscribe to this doctrine were very bitter, and at times, very un-Christian according to the Christianity that prevailed among the early followers of the Master, or according to his teachings.

From that time until the present, although the great Roman church has been seceded from and reforms have been made by churches founded on such reforms, this doctrine has been incorporated in and believed by most of the churches, no matter what name they may have adopted and what form of government they may have prescribed. This doctrine constitutes the foundation principles of these various bodies of church entity, and to-day, these principles are as much a part of faith and teachings of the churches as they ever were in all the centuries that have passed.

Of course, with this cardinal doctrine there have also become incorporated in these faiths and teachings certain other principles, which apply more to the individual members of the church than to the church itself as a body. I mean belief in the truth that there is a close relationship between God and the individual which may be established by prayer and the longings of the soul for the inflowing of God's Love and the regeneration of the nature of man by the influence of this Love by the Father.

But in these latter days, this truth has been known to and its workings experienced by a comparatively few of those who call themselves orthodox Christians. The large majority has depended upon the belief in the doctrine that Jesus, by his sacrifice and death, paid the debt which man owed to God; and when the members of the church in an intellectual belief assert that they believe in and accept Jesus as their Saviour because he paid the debt, and by the shedding of his blood washed away their sins and made them at-one with the Father, and thereby became saved from the wrath of the Father, and in a moment become the truly redeemed and accepted children of God, and that as long as they maintain that belief and attend to their duties as such members and observe the regulations of the church, they are safe and fitted for the enjoyment of Heaven and the presence of the Father.

They also believe that unless a man accepts Jesus as his Saviour, in the way I have mentioned, that man will be eternally lost, and in the beliefs and teachings of some of these members, will be sent to hell to be eternally damned and punished.

Well, one view of this doctrine is just as true as the other, or rather just as untrue, because both of these phases of belief have no foundation in fact, and are not in accord with the teachings of the Master, or with the fact as I know it to be, not from any mere belief but from personal experience and observation.

Oh, how the pure teachings of the Master have been distorted and made the means of preventing so many human souls from reaching the Heaven of happiness that they wished for, and that they thought would be theirs when they should give up their mortal lives.

This doctrine, so long believed, has worked the damnation of many a man, as regards his soul development and his becoming at-one with the Father and reaching the Heavens that are prepared for those who obtain that soul union with the Father.

I know it may seem surprising to some who are really true believers in this doctrine and, as they think, in the truths of God and the teachings of Jesus, which are believed to be infallibly contained in the Bible, that I announce the falsity of these beliefs and their utter ineffectiveness in enabling these sincere people to obtain that which they so earnestly desire.

But such is truth, and truth never changes, never compromises with untruth, and never permits the erroneous beliefs of a really sincere mortal to swerve in one iota from the results and consequences of that false belief. And the great injury that this false doctrine has done to humanity, and is now doing, will continue in the world to come, until the belief in truth shall supercede the belief in that which is false. And, thus, not everyone who shall say "Lord, Lord," will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

These false beliefs have operated in two ways to injure man and render him unfit for an entrance into the Kingdom. First, by the belief that brings about the injury that results from the positive operation of error, which is great; and next by the want of belief in the truth, which prevents progress in the acquirement of those qualities which belong to and are necessary parts of that truth.

When men believe in the doctrine that I have stated they become satisfied and, knowingly or not, remain in a state of false security, not attempting to develop the soul qualities, which are the only ones that are in relationship with God. Their mental beliefs are strong and may increase in strength, but their soul communions with the Father and their growth and expansion in the soul development, becomes stagnant and, as it were, dead.

This is the great injury that these false beliefs do to the man and to the spirit. I mean in his individual capacity, for it must be known as a truth, that the salvation of man or his soul progress towards an at-onement with the Father is an individual matter solely, and men as aggregations or in church communities are not redeemed from sin, nor as such, can they have any relationship with the Father or receive His Divine Love, which is the only salvation.

There is only one possible way in which man can come in unison and at-onement with the Father, and thereby fitted to enjoy or inhabit the mansions in His Kingdom, which Jesus spoke of when on earth, and that is the way that will make the soul of man like the soul of the Father, and a partaker of his Divine Qualities of Love and Life. No belief that will not bring about this uniting and commingling, as it were, can possibly make the soul of man a partaker of these qualities that are a part of the soul of God.

Then let man consider for a moment what possible connection there can be between these Soul Qualities of God and the death and blood of Jesus. God is the creator of life and death, and also of blood and flesh, and He can destroy as well as create. Had the sins of man called for the sacrifice of that which was mere flesh and blood, or the extinguishment of a life that God had created in order to pay the penalty of that sin, then a God who demanded such a payment - and this implies of course, that such a God was wrathful and could only be appeased by something that He could not of and by Himself obtain - would not possibly be satisfied with that which He had created and over which He still had absolute control, and which He could destroy and make non-existent at any time He pleased. Jesus' life was already a possession of God, and when he surrendered that life, he did not give to God anything that he did not already own and could not have taken. And when his blood flowed on the cross, it was not that which God could not have made flow at any time and in any manner.

So the absurdity of such a doctrine is too apparent for serious consideration. For its logical meaning is that God was demanding a debt that had long been unpaid, all wrathful and insatiable, and would be satisfied only with the death of a living being and the flowing of his blood; and that death and that flow of blood in one way or manner only, namely, on the cross. And yet with all this demand that has been sounding down the ages for centuries, relentlessly and unpityingly, He became satisfied and His wrath assuaged by seeing His own creature die - and that creature His best beloved son - and by hearing the trickling of the blood of that creature from a wooden cross; by all which, the life and the blood being already His to let live or destroy as He might see fit, man became at-one with Him.

The simple reduction of such a proposition is that God, in order to pay a debt that was owing to Him, accepted in payment thereof that which was already His, and which no power or being in all His universe could have taken from Him.

Now, I say all this reverently as your preachers say, but the fact is, that the mere assertion of such a doctrine, as I have been dealing with, is so blasphemous that no treatment of it, showing its falsity, could be irreverent.

And again, the absurdity of believing that God demanded that Jesus should die on the cross as one of the necessary accompaniments of his death, in order to carry out God's plan for this death and make the payment satisfactory, is so apparent and absurd, that I and all of us spirits in the Kingdom of the Father wonder that mortals can believe such an unreasonable dogma.

To follow this absurd proposition to its logical conclusion, it was necessary not only, in order that the debt might be paid, that Jesus should die on the cross, but that Judas should become the traitor, that the Jews should clamor for his death and that Pilate should pronounce the sentence. These were all necessary means to the satisfaction of the debt, and being so, why is it then that Judas and Pilate and the Jews are not saviors of mankind also, even if you say in a secondary sense. Jesus could not have clamored for his own death, or erected his own cross or nailed himself thereto, or pierced his side with a spear in order that the blood might flow, for if he had done this he would have been a suicide; but it may be, there would have been more of the elements of the payment of a debt in that method of dying than in the way in which his death was brought about.

No, I tell you, I, John, who loved the Master more than all the others and who was closer to him, who was with him when he was nailed to the cruel cross, which I think of with horror, and who was among the first to take his body from the tree and first felt his blood upon my hands - tell you that the death of Jesus on the cross did not pay any debt that man owed to God, nor did his blood wash away the sins of any man. And oh, the pity of it all is that mortals for all these long years have believed that they were saved by his sacrifice and blood, and by such belief have never come any nearer to the Master or in at-onement with the Father.

As I and others have written you, the only way in which man can be saved from his sins and become in at-onement with the Father, is by the New Birth, which the Master has described to you as being the result of the flowing into the soul of a man of the Divine Love of the Father, and the disappearing of everything that tends to sin and error. As this Love flows into a man's soul it permeates that soul as does leaven the batch of dough, and that soul partakes of this Divine Love and thereby becomes like the Father in His Divine Nature, and fitted to inhabit His Kingdom.

Now, you can readily see that there can be no possible relationship existing between the death of Jesus on the cross and his blood, and the giving to the soul of a man those Divine Qualities that belong to the Father's Nature. These Qualities are not imparted to man by death and blood, but by life and love and faith which comes with that Love - and here when I say faith, I do not mean the mere intellectual belief of which I have spoken.

As we have before written, when the first parents were created, they were not given this Divine Love, but the mere possibility of obtaining it upon their seeking for it in the Way that God had provided. It was not forced upon them, but it was optional with them whether they would receive it and become fitted to inhabit the Kingdom of Heaven. When they committed their act of disobedience, they forfeited this privilege and, as to it, died and were left without a mediator between themselves and God. And here I don't mean any mediator in the way of paying a debt, for they owed no debt to God - they were merely, as you mortals might say, disinherited children; and the only mediator that man needed after that time was one through whom might come the Glorious Tidings that the Father had changed His Will, or forgiven the disobedience to the extent of restoring his original state, which is the re-bestowal of the privilege of obtaining into their souls His Divine Love.

And, in this sense, never was there any mediator between God and man until the coming of Jesus and his announcing to man that the Father had changed His Will and had restored to mankind the great privilege of partaking of His Divine Nature and Immortality. And thus, as in the first man, Adam, all men died, so in the man Jesus, were all men made alive. And Jesus was the mediator not only in declaring to man the re-bestowal of this Great Gift of the Divine Love and Immortality but, also, in showing the Way by which men could and must seek for that Gift in order to possess It.

The Great Gift of God to man was not Jesus, but the potentiality of obtaining the Divine Love of the Father and thus becoming Divine and fitted to reside in the mansions of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And thus Jesus became the Resurrection and the Life and brought Immortality to light. How much greater a saviour than by paying a supposed debt by his death and blood.

No, he is the saviour of man by his living and his teachings, for he was the first to receive this Divine Love and to become Divine himself, and the first fruits of the resurrection. We have explained to you before in detail, some of the truths that I have declared in this message, and it is not necessary to further explain them here.

In closing, I wish to declare with all the emphasis that I possess, arising from a knowledge based upon the teachings of the Master and my personal experience as a possessor of this Divine Love and a partaker of the Father's Divine Nature, that no vicarious atonement of Jesus, nor the shedding of his blood, saves any man from sin or makes him a redeemed child of the Father, or fits him for a home in the mansions of the Celestial Spheres.

With a love that can come only from a redeemed and Divine Nature, I love all mankind and am working to help them find the way to life and immortality and happiness beyond the conception of mortals or spirits who have not received this New Birth of the Divine Love of the Father.

I have written enough for tonight and you are tired. So my dear brother with all my love and the blessings of a heart filled with the Love of the Father, I am

Your brother in Christ,
John