John G. Carlisle Writes that He Has Received Divine Love and is Now in Considerable Light

September 29, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John G. Carlisle.

Well my friend, I have not written you for some time, not because I did not desire to do so, but because I have not had the opportunity; for I have been present many times when other spirits were here writing you. I have also been present when you and your friends have talked about spiritual things and have listened with very close attention and have derived much benefit from thinking of what you have declared to be the truths of the Spiritual Kingdom.

As a consequence, I have progressed very much and am now in considerable light and have received into my soul sufficient of this Love that you talk of to be convinced that it is a wonderful redeeming influence from the darkness and suffering that I - and spirits like me - found ourselves in when we came to the spirit world. I know that prayer is a thing that brings its response, and I am praying with all my soul, but it is hard to make a complete surrender of my beliefs and to forget the deeds of my life that cling to me with such very great tenacity.

While as you have said in your conversations, and as some of the bright spirits tell me, the true longings of the soul will bring to my soul this Love, yet I find it difficult to get these longings so that they are not mingled with the thoughts of earthly things that came with me when I became a spirit. As you know, when on earth I accumulated in my memory a large and varied amount of evil and sin, and when I became a spirit, I found it very natural that these memories should be with me and control my thoughts and desires as they did on earth. In fact, they seemed to get rid of some member of my body without injuring the body.

So you will see, it is not so easy to have these longings that I speak of, and even if a spirit makes up his mind and will to have the longings, he cannot always succeed. This has been my experience, and I have suffered so very much in consequence of this inability to direct my will to these longings. Intellectually I understand that this is necessary and that the longings, when earnestly possessed, will bring relief and surcease from these sufferings, but this intellectual knowledge, I find is not sufficient. The knowledge does not bring the power to will, and the will is controlled by appetites and desires. I know that I must try to control these appetites and desires, but oh, how hard is the task!

It is very foolish for men to suppose that they can cultivate and exercise these desires and appetites until a time convenient to them, and then by the mere wish control these desires and have these longings and aspirations come to them so that the help that comes in response to prayer will be theirs. No, they will find themselves greatly disappointed, for they will realize that these desires and the results of their indulgences will bind them in bands of iron, that a mere intellectual attempt to sever will not prove efficacious.

The spirits who all have this Love, of which they tell me, teach me that this Love is sufficient to bring happiness to me, and that it will come in response to earnest prayer, but they do not tell me that by the sudden exercise of my will, I can obtain these true longings, and if they should so teach, I could hardly believe them, for I have had such a will and have attempted to pray, and as I think wanted to be in all earnestness, but still the longings would not come free from the memories of my sinful life on earth; and I find that I have to continue to pray in order to progress the little that I have progressed.

I have no doubt that the Love is waiting for me and that I will be enabled to obtain it by the proper condition of my longings, but the trouble is to get the proper longings. It is not so easy to get rid of the effects of evil deeds and evil thoughts on earth, and the mere praying with the mind will not help except such prayers become merged into the prayers of true longings.

Well, I realize all this in my own experience, and I am praying and longing, and sometimes I feel the true longings, and then comes the response and I progress just that much. I mean in proportion to the strength of these true longings.

When men believe that by merely saying that they believe on Jesus Christ or by asking forgiveness of the priests and when absolved believe that they have done all that is necessary, they are mistaken, and if they rest in that contentment, they will find themselves as I was when they come to spirit life. No belief of this kind, or absolution by the priests, will put them in such condition of memory or soul as will enable them to have these longings of which I speak.

You may think that I am quite a preacher, but I am very ignorant of the bulk of the spiritual truth and what I have said is the result of my own experience. Well, I will not write more now, except to thank you and your friends for the opportunities that I have enjoyed in listening to your conversation on spiritual matters. I will not cease to come to you even though I may not be able to write. So with my love and hope that you will pray for me, I am

Your friend and well-wisher. Good night.

John G. Carlisle Writes that His Old Ideas Cling to Him and Hold Him in Darkness and Sufferings

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

I am here, John G. Carlisle.

I am the spirit who wrote you once before and I merely want to say tonight that I am better than I was then and am not in so much darkness; but yet I suffer and am paying the penalty for my sins.

The advice that you gave me and also the help that I received from Mr. Riddle have benefited me a great deal, and I am hoping that sometime I may get into the light and be free from my sufferings.

If I could only have faith in what he and other good spirits tell me, I believe that I would soon be in a much better condition, but somehow I don't seem to be able to have this faith. My old ideas stick to me, and although I realize that many of them were wrong, yet they cling to me and hold me in the darkness and sufferings. This may seem strange to you, but it is a fact. Beliefs are wonderful things of substance and strength when they have become fixed in a man's mind by long years acquiescence and fostering, and that was my case.

As you may know, my animal appetites were strong and I gave free vent to them, and to ease my conscience I embraced certain beliefs, which as I lived and fostered them, came to be realities to me, and now they stand before me, as it were, like a wall of brass and rarely give me an opening to get beyond or out of them. My friends that you brought to me are trying to help me, and at times I feel that what they tell me must be true. But then comes in the old long years of belief, and I lose the benefit of what influence I may have received from these spirits who I see are so beautiful and happy.

I do not understand this enigma, and because I do not, I sometimes think, that what I think, I see in these others are mere hallucinations of my own mind. And then again these influences come to me with such force that I think I must break away from these band of belief and see the light as they see it. But the struggle is hard and the progress is slow. I tell you that if I could only come again into my earth life, I know that my life, or rather the way I lived it, would be very different, but it is too late now and I must make my fight here, and it is a hard one.

The thing that gives me greatest hope is that while Riddle may not have been so bad a man as I was on earth, yet he was a mere man with no special pretensions to goodness, and now I see him a beautiful and happy spirit, and he says it is not on account of any inherent goodness in himself, but because he has received to some degree what he calls the Divine Love; and he urges me to try to believe in this Love and open up my soul to its inflowing. It may be right, but I don't seem to be able to understand what he means, or to find the way to open up my soul as he advises.

But this I know, he has given me hope and I, at times, make the effort to follow his advice, and I even pray, but I am afraid that my faith is not very strong, though I observe that when he is with me I seem to have more power to make this effort than when I am alone. And he is kind to me, for he comes quite frequently, and at times, there comes with him a wonderfully beautiful spirit who he says is your wife, and she seems to have so much love with her. I say she comes with him, and when she does, her influence is wonderful and I feel nearer leaving my old evil thoughts and getting into light than at any other time. And she talks to me in such words of love and encouragement, that it makes me believe that there must be a better place and a better condition for me.

So you see from all this what thoughts and beliefs cemented to a man's soul by an evil life on earth will do for him when he becomes a spirit and all these evil things come before him like a panorama as they do in my case. But I sowed and I am now reaping, a saying which I often heard on earth, but which to me was meaningless as it is, I have no doubt, to many others who are living such lives as I lived.

Well, my friend, I must not write more, but I feel better for I realize that it does me good to come in contact in the way of exchanging thoughts with a mortal for notwithstanding I have no mortal body, yet in thought and desires I am still a mortal.

So, thanking you for your kindness to me I will say good night.

Your friend,
J.G.C.

Helen Padgett Writes a Short Note About John G. Carlisle's Appearance and Explains Why He was Allowed to Write His Message

November 20, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Helen.

I called you because when the spirit* who wrote came, he was in such a very bad and suffering condition and begged so piteously to write that I thought it would be doing a great act of love and mercy to let him write.

He is a very ugly and dark and deformed spirit in his appearance, and while a man of great intellect, yet, his soul is almost in a condition of death; that is, it has no conscious life, for it was literally starved and was not capable of seeing or feeling any of the higher or better impulses. So when he came and said that he needed help so much, we let him write.

He is now with Mr. Riddle, and I hope that he may find some light and relief, though, I fear that he will have a struggle to believe what may be told him for, as you may know, when the soul becomes all shrunken and dead, it is hard for the intellect to believe anything which pertains to the awakening of the soul; but everything is possible with God and this man is not beyond redemption.

I believe, though, that he will have a long course of soul development before he will see the light and realize that his sufferings are leaving him. He must have been a very wicked man on earth, for he has about him all the traces and evidences of a very abandoned and wicked life.

"Their sins do follow them, saith the Lord," and I may add - stay with them until the great Law of Compensation has been complied with, or the greater Law of Divine Love has supplanted it.

You must not write more now. So goodbye.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

*John G. Carlisle

John G. Carlisle Writes That He is Suffering and in Darkness and Asks For Help

November 20, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me write, John G. Carlisle.

I merely want to say that I need help so much. I am suffering so very much and in such darkness, and I can find no relief from my condition. So please tell me if you can help me. Some spirits here say that you have helped others and I want help if it can be found.

It is not necessary for me to tell you who I am, or what I did on earth, for you as many others in Washington knew just what kind of life I led when I lived in that city, as I was a prominent man and my actions were watched and known by a great many.

Suffice it to say that I am now paying the penalties for my evil life, and I am in torture and such intense darkness and don't know the way to relief if there is any for me. I want you to help me, and if you can and will do so, I will never forget you. I will come and claim your promise; and if you can succeed, I will be everlastingly obliged.

Yes, I have seen him (Cleveland) on several occasions and have talked with him, but he seems to be in a better condition than I am for some reason that I don't understand. We were very much alike in certain particulars when on earth, but he seems to have found some means by which he is enabled to live in a brighter state than I do.

No, I have never met Mr. Riddle and don't know that he is in the spirit world, but from what you say I suppose he is. But why do you ask? You know that I knew a great many of the public men, and so very many better than I knew Riddle and, hence, I am a little anxious to know why you ask me if I have seen him. Well, you make me anxious to meet him and should I do so, I will remember what you say.

Well, I have looked and I see some beautiful spirits but I don't know any to them. I have asked who they are, and one says she is your wife and what a beautiful spirit she is and how good and loving her appearance. I wonder why she is of such beauty! I have asked her, and she says she will try and has left me.

Well, he is here and how surprised I am, for he is beautiful and bright, too, and seems to have so much love about him. What is the cause of all this wonderful beauty and brightness?

Well, he has spoken to me and tells me that he is glad to see me, and that he is willing and anxious to help me out of my darkness and wants me to go with him for a talk, and I am going. I will try to do as you say and will certainly make every effort to understand this great mystery.

So my friend, I must leave you, but in doing so I want to express to you my gratitude for what you have done and for your kind thoughts. So believe me when I say that I am very grateful.

Goodbye,

Your Friend,
John G. Carlisle