Jesus Writes that Many who Think They Have Received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit Have Only Advanced in the Purification of Their Natural Love

May 10, 1920
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me write for a short time upon a subject that will be of interest to you and to those who may read my messages.

What I desire to write upon tonight is the condition of those who think they have received the inflowing or baptism of the Holy Spirit, when the fact is that they have received only that advancement in the purification of their natural love and a harmony with the laws of their creation that causes them to believe that what they experience must be the result of a bestowal of the Love which the Holy Spirit brings to mortals.

In this mistake, so many humans indulge and in the satisfaction, or rather happiness which their experience, growing out of such an increase in the harmony brings to them, they fully believe that the Holy Spirit has taken possession of their souls and caused the happiness. But in thus concluding, they are deceiving themselves and will realize their mistake when they come to an awakening in the spirit life.

The Holy Spirit is that part of God's Spirit that manifests His presence and care in conveying to men's souls His Divine Love. This Love is the highest and greatest and most holy of His possessions and can be conveyed to men only by the Holy Spirit; and this appellation is used in contradistinction to the mere Spirit, which demonstrates to men the operation of God's Soul in other directions and for other purposes.

His Creative Spirit, and His Caring Spirit and the Spirit that makes effective His Laws and designs in the governing of the universe are not the Holy Spirit, though equally part of God's Soul, and equally necessary for the manifestations of His powers and the exercise of the energies of His Soul. These deal with the things of the universe that do not have interrelationship with the Soul of God and the souls of men, and whenever the Holy Spirit is spoken of, it should mean only that part of God's Spirit which transforms the souls of men into the Substance of the Soul of God in its Quality of Love.

I heard the preacher discourse Sunday night on the work of the Holy Spirit as portrayed in the contents of the New Testament, and saw that his conclusions from these contents were wholly erroneous and apart from the truth. As he said, the effects of the workings of the Holy Spirit are shown in more ways than one, and not everyone upon whom it is bestowed is filled with the same powers of displaying its presence and possession. Now in all these evidences of its existence in the experiences given, it must be understood that it is limited in its operations to those conditions and manifestations that have their source in the Divine Love of the Father, that was bestowed upon mankind at my coming in the flesh, and that those evidences of the existence that have no relationship to this Love are not evidences of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

As mentioned in the New Testament, when it was bestowed upon my disciples at Pentecost, it came as with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, which has before been explained to you, that shook the room in which the disciples were assembled and filled them with its powers, which means only that this Divine Love came into their souls in such abundance that they were shaken in their souls to such an extent that they thought the building in which they were assembled was disturbed. But in this, they were mistaken, for the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit is not to affect the things of inanimate nature, but is confined to the souls of men.

And the preacher must know that because men are possessed with powers to accomplish the mental or material things of their living, they are not necessarily possessed with the Holy Spirit. Much of the physical healing of mortals is caused by powers that are bestowed upon men, or some men that are not connected with or proceed from the Holy Spirit. That there is evidence of this, men will recollect that the Old Testament is full of instances where men were healed of their diseases, and other wonderful things performed, at the time that the Holy Spirit was excluded from man's possession. Yet these marvels, as then considered, were performed by men claiming to be endowed with the Spirit of God, which is working for the good and happiness of mankind, and which will continue to work until men shall become in harmony with themselves as first created.

I understand the object of the preacher in attempting to show and convince his hearers, that because they have not those powers that the Bible describes as having been possessed by my disciples after the bestowal of the Holy Spirit that, therefore, they must not believe and conclude that they, his hearers, have not this blessing. His intentions and efforts were commendable and arose from the desire that his hearers should not become disheartened and disappointed in their efforts to obtain the inflowing of the Love that the Holy Spirit brings to men; but on the other hand, his teachings were dangerous and misleading to these hearers, for the natural consequence of such teaching is to lead men into the belief or persuasion that they possess this power and Comforter, when they do not, and thus prevent them from seeking for an obtaining this Comforter in the only way in which it can be obtained.

The Holy Spirit, primarily, has nothing to do with great mental or physical achievements, and to say that because a man is a great inventor or philosopher or surgeon who does things without knowing where the inspiration or suggestion to do the things comes from, therefore he is possessed of the Holy Spirit, is all wrong and misleading.

All things, mediately or immediately, have their existence and operation and growth in the Spirit of God, and only in that Spirit, and which Spirit is evidenced in many and varied ways in men's experience; and hence, men say that they live and move and have their being in God, meaning only that they live and move and have their being in God's Spirit. This Spirit is the source of life and light and health and numerous other blessings that men possess and enjoy - the sinner as well as the saint, the poor man as well as the rich, the ignorant as well as the enlightened and educated - and are each and all dependent on this Spirit for their being and comfort. This is the Spirit that all men possess to a great or less degree, and the brilliant preacher or teacher or orator, possessing this Spirit to a greater degree than his less favored brother, depends upon the same Spirit. It is universal in its existence and workings, is omnipresent, and may be acquired by all men in this sense to the degree that their mental receptivity permits.

And this further demonstrates the fact that God, through and by this Spirit, is with men always, in the lowest hells as well as in the highest Heavens of the perfect man. It is working continuously, ceaselessly and always at the call of men, be that call mental or spiritual. It is the thing that controls the universe of which man's earth is an infinitesimal part. This is the Spirit of God.

But the Holy Spirit, while a part of the Spirit of God, yet is as distinctive as is the soul of man distinctive from all other creations of God; it is that part of God's Spirit that has to do with the relationship of God's Soul and man's soul, exclusively.

The subject of Its operation is the Divine Love of the Father's Soul and the object of Its workings is the soul of man, and the great goal to be reached by Its operations is the transforming of the soul of man into the Substance of the Father's Love, with Immortality as a necessary accompaniment. This is the great miracle of the universe; and so high and sacred and merciful is the transformation, that we call that part of God's Spirit that so works, the Holy Spirit.

So let not teachers or preachers teach, or their hearers believe that every part of God's Spirit that operates upon the heart's and thoughts and feelings of man is the Holy Spirit, for it is not true. Its mission is the salvation of men in the sense of bringing them into that harmony with God, that the very souls of men will become a part in substance and not in image merely of the Soul of God and without this working of the Holy Spirit men cannot become in such union.

I have written you before as to how this Holy Spirit works and the way in which it can bring men the Divine Love of the Father, and what is necessary for it's inflowing. The way described is the only way, and men must not believe and rest in the security of such belief, that every working of the Spirit of God, is the working of the Holy Spirit.

Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, and such attainment is possible only by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Oh, preacher, upon whom a great responsibility rests, learn the truth and then lead men into the way of salvation. I will not write more now, but will come again and deliver another message. Believe that I love you and am

Your friend and brother,
Jesus

Dr. William Ellery Channing Writes that the Unitarian Doctrine, Which He Taught on Earth, Does Not Furnish a Basis for Progress to the Celestial Heavens

March 21, 1920
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me write just a line, as I merely desire to say that I have listened to what the Master has written and can testify that the love to God and love to our fellow man are not all that man needs for a basis of his religion.

I was, when on earth, a minister and taught the same doctrines (Unitarian) that the preacher of the day taught, and believed that they were all that man needed, and died in that belief; but, alas, I discovered after many years of darkness, and of happiness in my natural love that they would not furnish a basis for my progress to the Celestial Heavens - to the condition of the soul transformed by the Divine Love. I merely wanted to say this.

If agreeable to you, I should like to come some time and detail more at length my experience in learning the basis of the true religion.

I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Dr. Channing.

Jesus Writes that People Who Believe in the "New Thought" are on the Wrong Track

June 15, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

Let me write just a line for I desire to tell you that I was with you tonight at the convention of the New Thought people, and saw the impression made upon you by the discourses, and am pleased that what they said only confirmed your faith in our teachings. They are sincere in their efforts to obtain a knowledge of the truth, but the difficulty is, that while they are free from many of the orthodox teachings of the church, yet they have only the natural love and perceptions of the intellect, and to some extent, of the awakened soul in its natural condition.

They know nothing of the Divine Love or the way to the true Kingdom, and are depending entirely upon the spiritual feelings that come to them with the consciousness of an awakened soul, in its conflict with the things that prevent its purification and development into the perfect man.

These people are to be encouraged in their efforts and teachings so far as they disclose the true natural condition of man and the possibility of his becoming in harmony with the will of the Father in their natural love, and to that extent they are progressing beyond the old orthodox ideas of what the real man is, and what is incumbent upon him in order to get into the condition of happiness that comes with a purification of his love, and a longing in harmony with the laws of God governing that purification.

It is to be wished that these men will proceed in their teachings and thus give to mankind a knowledge of what man really is, and the possibilities that lie before him when he exercises the inherent powers that exist within. For concerning sin and inharmony, until the great truths of the New Birth and the transformation of the soul and the wonderful Kingdom of the Celestial Spheres are made known to men through our teachings of these things, these greater truths which lie beyond the knowledge of men at this time will not be his.

In their search for God, they are on the wrong track and will never find him, if they pursue the search in the way indicated by their discourses. God is not within men, nor do they live and move and have their being in Him, nor is He everywhere, waiting to be developed by men as they grow better and purer. No, they are mistaken in their thought as to God and His habitation and will learn when they come into a knowledge of the truth, that God is not in man or in everything that surrounds him, but is separate from him and from the environments in which they live and move and has His locality in the Highest Heavens, where He works out his purposes, and makes Himself and the evidence of His existence known to men by the energies that control the universe in which men exist. He can only be seen by the soul perceptions of a soul that has been transformed into the Divine Angel; to men in every other particular He is unseen and unknown, except as His laws and the effect of their operation disclose His being.

Well, I merely wanted to write this short message, and I am glad that you can receive it. Good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Helen Writes About the Preacher's Sermon on the New Thought, which is Natural Love Purification

May 11, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your own true and loving, Helen.

Well, my dear, I see that you are happy tonight, and I am also, for I heard you read the messages and saw the effect that they had on your soul, and that they caused you to love both the Father and me more. You must not cease to love as you do tonight for there is no other happiness that can supply the peace which this love brings to you.

I was with you tonight at the meeting and heard the preacher (Glaze) speak of the source of the greatest joy, and I was sorry that he did not know that source. He talked of a happiness that came to him from a knowledge that he thought he had of God, and he was in earnest, but he did not realize the real joy or the source thereof. His joy is that which comes from a great degree of the purification of his natural love, which must necessarily bring to him increased happiness, and I am glad that he talked in the way he did, but so sorry that he has not experienced the Real Love that is the only source of the greatest joy.

Well, sometime men will know what the source means, and how different it is from the mere purification of the natural love and, in addition, will learn the way to obtain this Divine Love and keep it as the greatest thing in all the universe.

The talk of the preacher is very beneficial to many of his hearers and causes much searching of their souls, and a better condition of living and an experience that makes them very happy. I would advise you to attend his meetings occasionally, for the influence is good and you may have the opportunity sometime to tell him of the higher truths.

There were a number of spirits present with you desiring to hear and learn something that might render them happier and enlighten them as to the true way, but some things that he said did not help much. He placed too much emphasis on the necessity of making life on earth the great object of their efforts and aspirations, and rather discountenanced the thought that in the spirit life there are heavens and conditions to be longed for and enjoyed. Yet, as I say, his preaching will do good; for the better men become in their thoughts and aspirations, even though as to a mere cleansing of their natural love, the better it will be for them and will tend to make the earth life better and more in harmony with the laws of man's creation.

I am so glad that I can write you again and tell you of my love and assure you of the truths that have been already revealed to you. Well I will not write more tonight. We all love you, and so with my love I will say, good night.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

John T. Richards Writes about Mrs. Kates' Séance and Advises there Are No Animals in the Spirit World

April 13, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John T. Richards.

Let me write a few lines, as I am very anxious to tell you of what the scene was at the meeting tonight. There were surrounding you a very great number of spirits of all kinds and conditions. Some were present for the purpose of mere curiosity and others with the desire to communicate with their loved ones of earth; and still others were seeking help and deliverance from their conditions of sufferings and torment.

Mrs. Kates, the medium, tried to give the communications of some of the spirits who were anxious to tell their relatives and friends of their presence and of the condition in which they, the mortals, were in, and advise them as to what is best to be done; and if they will only take the advice, they will be helped.

There was one spirit who tried to make himself known by an unusual method of identification in having with him a dog, which the person to whom the spirit came was enabled to identify, but the spirit was not within his recollection. The dog was a real dog, but not the spirit of any dog that had existed in the human, or rather, earthly form, and the likeness was created by the spirit who tried to have the individual identify him.

There are no spirits of dogs, or any other animals, that once had an existence on earth, in the spirit worlds. These appearances are all manufactured by the spirits for the purpose of having the medium see, clairvoyantly, the resemblance of the dog on earth, so that an identification may be made. Dogs and other animals when they die never have any part of themselves that survive death and become extinct. They have no soul and, consequently, nothing that persists after death of the earth form.

I was much interested in the séance and tried to make myself appear to the medium, but was not successful.

The condition of the dark spirits who were seeking help was most pitiable, and the medium for some reason was not able to see or understand their condition and, hence, no help was given them, and they went away very sorrowful.

You had several spirits around you, but they did not try to manifest themselves, and I doubt if the medium could have seen them had they tried. They were not of the kind who come to her and make their presence known, for her development as a medium is not such as to enable her to see spirits of the kind mentioned. She has not the soul development that is necessary in order that they can make a rapport with her and, hence, she can neither see nor hear them.

I will not write more now, so good night.

Your friend,
John T. Richards.

**********

Helen comments on the previous spirit writer.

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Well, dear, you have just had a message from one of the spirits who sometimes attends the meetings of Mrs. Kates, and he was very anxious to write you, and we permitted him to do so. He is not of the higher order of spirits, though one who is much advanced in his natural love and knows the different classes of spirits who attend the meetings.

We were present but, of course, could not communicate for the reason that he has given you. If Mrs. Kates would only learn the truth of communication and rapport and seek to obtain the soul development that would enable the higher spirits to come to her, she would have wonderful powers and hear the voices of spirits who now never communicate with her. She is a wonderful medium in the sphere of work that she is doing and many spirits are made happy by the messages of love to their loved ones, and the mortals as well, but her mediumship is not of the order that will benefit her very much, and the time is now arrived when she must get into a higher class of work and enable spirits of a higher order to come to her and communicate.

You must not fail to give her the message that the Master wrote, for upon it depends not only her own salvation, but the salvation of many mortals to whom she can preach the truths of God, and the knowledge of the life beyond the borderline of death. I hope that you will soon have the opportunity.

Well, I see that you are in a better condition today, and some of the higher spirits have been with you, suggesting thoughts and trying to impress you with the importance of your work. You must realize this when you contrast the teachings that you heard today with the truths that have been revealed to you.

Well, they will come soon and continue the messages that treat of the great truths of God and man, and you must get in the condition that will permit them to successfully write.

I will not write more tonight. Baby (Nita) is here and sends her love. We all love you and hope that soon now brighter things will open up to you and that your hopes will soon be realized. Keep up your faith and you will not be disappointed. Good night my dear husband,

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Ann Rollins Writes on the Importance of Knowing the Way to the Celestial Kingdom

March 12, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me write a line. I am not going to write a long message but one that is very short. You are now in condition to receive our messages, and I wish to write for a while on the importance of knowing the way to the Celestial Kingdom, which has been written you before, but I wish to add to what you have received.

You have been told that the only way to obtain that Kingdom is by the Divine Love coming into your soul and changing it into a thing Divine, which partakes of the very Essence of the Father Himself. Well, this is a correct explanation of the operation of this Love on the soul, but in order to get this Love there must be earnest supplication on the part of the seeker, and a mere mental desire for the inflowing of the Love will not suffice.

This is a matter that pertains to the soul alone and the mind is not involved except, as you might say, to start the soul's longings and prayer. When you think that you are longing for this Love and have a mere mental desire for its inflowing, the Love will not come, because it never responds to the mere mind and must always be sought for by the soul's longings. Many men have the intellectual desire for the Love of God, and upon that desire rest and believe that they have the Love and that there is nothing further for them to do; but they will find themselves mistaken and that, instead of possessing this Love, they have awakened only the natural love, and in a way, started it towards its goal of the purified soul, like the first parents before the fall, and will not experience the transformation that comes with the possession of the Divine Love.

It is no easy matter to have these longings possess the soul, and men should not remain satisfied with these mere mental desires, for they will not be benefitted by such desires, except as I may say, in the way of having their natural love purified. The longings of the soul comes only from a realization that this Love is waiting to be bestowed, and that the soul must become active and earnest in its endeavor to have this Love come into it, and then the transformation takes place.

From this you will see how utterly impossible it is for the devotee of the church to experience this Love or to have the longings of the soul which are not aroused by the observance of the church's sacraments, and the duties which it imposes upon them. They may be ever so zealous in their attendance upon the church services and in complying strictly with its requirements as to doing those things which it prescribes. It is with them all a mental process but the soul is not affected. They may think that their desires are from the soul, and that a response will come, but in this they are mistaken and the soul lies dead. Only when the soul's longings are started into activity are prayers of the worshiper answered.

So you will see that a man may be apparently devout and full of zeal for his church and the teachings of his creed, and yet will not be benefitted so far as the progress of the soul is concerned.

Let not your desires be only of the intellect, but try to bring into activity the longings of the soul, and do not rest satisfied until a response shall come, and it will certainly come, and you will know that the Love is present working its transforming power upon the soul. This is all I desire to say tonight. I am pleased that you are now in condition to receive our messages and hope that your excellent condition will continue. With my love, I will say, good night.

Your own loving grandmother,
Ann Rollins

St. Luke Writes on the Erroneous Teachings of the New Thought Movement

March 9, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

St. Luke.

Let me write a few lines tonight as you are in better condition, and I am able to make a rapport with you and deliver my message.

I was with you today at a meeting of the New Thought people and saw the impression made upon you by the speaker in his efforts to show that God is within man, and that only the opening up of the soul or mind of man to the development of that God is all that is necessary to bring that man into a perfect at-onement with the truths of God's Will.

Well, I have to say that this speaker, when he comes to a realization of himself in the spirit world, will find that God is not in him or in anything that he may have possessed in his earth life; and that his development of the kingdom within him, as he termed it, was a mere delusion and a snare to the progress of his soul in its career through the earth life, as well as through the Heavens or spirit world.

He is mistaken when he announces that the Kingdom of Heaven is within him, or that he has that within him which can, by its development, lead to the condition of the perfect man, in the sense that he spoke of. He is following a false way, and all the efforts that he may make will not lead him into the paths that end in the perfect man that partakes of the Father's Divinity.

He is also mistaken when he asserts that God is everywhere - in the flowers and in the thoughts of men and in the heart - for God does not find his habitation in any of these things, and men do not live and move and have their being in Him. He is a distinct and individual entity and is not spread over all His universe, as the preacher proclaimed, and can only be found by the longings of the soul followed by a development of that soul in His Love. No, God is in His Heavens, and man can reach Him only by the persistent longings of that soul for the inflowing of His Love.

These things that the preacher declared were the presence of God are only the expressions of His being, and they do not declare His presence in any other sense than as the evidence of His existence - in His habitation, from which these expressions flow and make known to man His presence, as these things reflect it.

I am sorry that this speaker has not more knowledge of the true God, and of His seat of habitation, for then he would realize that these things upon which he places so much belief as being the very God, Himself, are but the expressions that flow from Him.

Man has within him that which has in itself wonderful possibilities - I mean the soul. And it may, by the observance of the way that transforms it into a Divine Angel, become Divine itself, or it may only by the slow process of renunciation become merely the perfect man with his natural love in a pure state, which was the condition of the first parents. If men will listen to the call to their souls, they will realize this possibility and receive this Divinity, and with it, immortality; but without this transformation they never can become other or greater than the perfect man.

I know that men teach that there is implanted within the souls of all men, that which is capable of being developed into an existence like unto God, that man needs only this development in order to become a God, and that there is nothing else necessary to make a human soul a part of the Soul of God. But in this teaching men are mistaken and will find themselves, at the stage of their highest development, nothing more than the perfect man.

Man has within him only that with which he was created and can of himself add not one thing that will change him from this condition of his creation. It is true that he can by a right course of thinking and living renounce those things that have tainted his soul and alienated it from the Father and made it sinful and disobedient; but when this is done, he is still only the perfect man, and nothing of the Divine is in him.

Jesus was the perfect man and, as such, was an exemplar of what all men will ultimately become; and if Jesus had never become more than the perfect man, he would not now be an inhabitant of the Celestial Heavens and the beloved Son of the Father. Yet he became more than the perfect man, and it was only after he attained to this condition of excellence, that he could say, "I and my Father are one," for it was then only that he possessed the Divine Love to that degree which made him at-one with the Father.

Only he is at-one with the Father that realizes that he is possessed of the very nature and Essence of the Father, and there is only one way in which this can be obtained, and that is by the inflowing into the soul of the Divine Love. Jesus could not say to the multitude that they were at-one with him and with the Father, for they had only the natural love and had not experienced the transformation of their souls; and such sayings as this were addressed only to his disciples, or to those among his hearers that had received this Love.

The speaker spoke of the New Birth, but had no conception of what it meant and, like many other teachers in and out of the churches, believes that a mere condition of the purification of the natural love constitutes this New Birth, and that that is all Jesus meant when he taught the necessity of being Born Again. There is only one way in which this New Birth can be brought about, and that you already know.

As to the moral truths taught by the Master, such as are referred to in the Sermon on the Mount, undoubtedly they will, if observed in the heart, bring about a regeneration of the soul that will lead men to the glory of the perfect man and make him at-one with the laws of his creation. This condition is devoutly to be wished for and sought after by all men, and when they attain to this condition they will experience the beatitudes that are mentioned in the sermon; but this is only the state of the perfect man and nothing of the Divine enters into their condition.

"New Thought," as it is called, has in it something that is an improvement on orthodoxy, and men will be the better if they will embrace some of its teachings. The great stumbling blocks of the Trinity, and the vicarious atonement and the blood would be moved from the worship of men, and they would then rely on the moral truths in the development of their souls for salvation, and would not rest supinely in the belief of the efficacy of the vicarious atonement. But some other things that it teaches are all wrong, and its followers will find when they come to the spirit world that there is a God to be worshipped, and that man has not within him that God to be developed by his own thoughts and deeds.

I know that according to the orthodox teachings too little is thought of the natural goodness of man, and too much emphasis placed in his innate depravity, and that nothing in man is worthy of the release from the sin and disobedience in which he is now living; and that of himself he can do nothing to bring about his purification and restoration to his original condition of the perfect man. This is wrong, for very largely upon man's efforts depends his redemption; "and as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." He is naturally good, and his present condition was brought about by his permitting his soul to be contaminated with sin, and to become again good he needs only to pursue that way that will remove sin and its consequences from his soul.

Man created sin, and he will have to remove sin, and the process will be slow, but ultimately it will be accomplished, and by the efforts of man himself. He will be helped by spirits who are God's ministering angels in these efforts, but upon him depends the removal of that which he created and imposed. And here let me say, that unless man wills it, he will forever remain in sin, and God will not, contrary to man's desires, make him a pure and undefiled being; and man's belief, unaccompanied by striving and seeking, will not be sufficient to bring about this remedy.

The speaker is a good man, and has experienced to a large degree the workings of his own will upon the conditions of his soul, and knows that his own efforts have caused him to renounce many things that tended to defile him and cause doubt, and in this condition realizes much happiness, and thinks that he is of himself sufficient to attain to that which will bring him into a perfect unison with the God that he thinks is within him. In this he is deceiving himself, for what he thinks is God is only an unusual condition of soul development in its natural love, that gives him a happiness which causes him to believe that God must be in and a part of him.

As you have been told, the happiness of the purified soul is beyond all conception of humans, and the nearer a man approaches to that condition of purification of his soul, the greater becomes his happiness, and the belief that God must in some way be in that happiness and form a part of it, when the fact is that this happiness is only that which was bestowed upon man in the beginning. As the soul becomes purer and relieved from the defilement of sin, man becomes what he was in the beginning and has regained only that which by nature is his. He does not receive any part of the Divine, nor does the Father bestow upon him anything that was not his at the creation, and he must realize that by the removal of sin, his soul becomes more and more in harmony with the will of God, and less and less in harmony with his own perverted will.

Let "New Thought" progress until men may realize that they are at-one with themselves, their created selves, but let it not teach them that what they experience as a removal of sin from their own souls by their own efforts and thoughts, is evidence of a development of any supposed God within them, for it is not true; but is merely the development of their own natural created selves, freed from that which defiled and made them unnatural.

The speaker said that the Kingdom of Heaven is within all men, and needs only for men to realize that fact, and declare its truth, and that then they will become pure and like unto God, and find themselves in the presence of God, and see Him face to face. Well, in this he is all wrong, for the Kingdom of Heaven or Celestial Kingdom is not within men, though it may be, and neither is God in their souls and capable of being seen face to face. These men - who teach purification of their natural love and a superior state resulting from that purification and nothing more - will never see God, and they will always remain in the mere image in which they were created, a merely purified man made in the image of God, and nothing more. The Father will then be the same unseen Creator as he is now, and men will worship Him in faith only, for their soul perceptions, which are the only eyes of the soul that can see God, will not exist, and to them God will still remain the unseen and unknowable being that exists today in the knowledge and belief of men.

Well, I have written enough for tonight, but saw that you were somewhat interested in the teachings of the day, and thought it best that I should write you as to the truth of the subject of which he discoursed and evidently believed.

With my love to you, and the hope that our messages may now continue without interruption, I will say, good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

John Writes About the Difference Between the Natural Love and the Divine Love

February 19, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, John.

Let me say just a word. I was with you today when you were talking to your friend, (Mr. Colburn) and heard your conversation and saw the utter want of comprehension on the part of your friend as to the truths of the spirit world and, especially, of the laws that divide the mere perfect man from the Divine man or spirit. He is so engulfed in the conceptions that he has of these loves arising from his experience in life that he can only see the existence of one love, the natural, and his mind is not capable of seeing the other Love and, of course, his soul has not that development which would assure him of the reality of the Divine Love.

The mind itself is capable of informing him of the existence and working of the natural love, and as this is the only means that he possesses of understanding what love is, he cannot possibly understand this Love, and that soul developed to a degree by the very Love itself. He may argue to the extent of the capacity of his mind and he will never be able to comprehend the Love that requires a perception of the soul, and he may remain satisfied and convince himself that the natural love is the only love and that when it becomes developed to a certain degree it becomes the Divine Love, and then find that he is far away from the truth.

He must know, and I mean it is necessary for him to know, that only those who have the Divine Love to some degree are capable of knowing that the Divine is a thing of itself, and not the development of the natural love and has in it not the qualities of that love. The one is of God; that is, partakes of His very nature, while the other is also of God, but does not partake of His nature, but is only a creation intended to make man happy and perfect in his condition of the mere man - the merely created existence.

I thought that I would give you these short comments on your conversation in order to show the grave and important mistake under which your friend is laboring. He will not easily believe these things of truth while in the flesh, and when he comes to spirit life, the difficulties will be just as great, and it may be that he will always be content to remain the possessor of this natural love only. I wish that it might be otherwise, and that he might let go his intellectual belief and harken to the call of the soul, which when not trammeled by these beliefs is continually longing for this Greater Love.

Believe that I am your friend and interested in you to an extent that you cannot now comprehend, but which some day you will understand and wonder that such a thing could have been. Good night.

Your brother in Christ,
John

Job Writes on the Book that Mr. Padgett Was Reading, Which is About the Natural Love and not the Divine Love

February 19, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Job.

Let me say a few words tonight upon a subject that is of importance to mankind and to the future of man.

I see that you have been reading a book professing to give communications from a spirit who claims to be possessed of a divine mission in the way of teaching men the truths of the soul and of the way to immortality and life. Well, you may accept what is said with some degree of truth as to the condition of spirits who are progressing in the development of their natural love, and as to the facts that await a soul after it has left the mortal life. Many of the statements contained in the writings are true and should be accepted and acted upon by mortals who desire a knowledge of the true way to a kingdom of the purified soul and to a reconciliation to God in the way of renunciation.

God is good and not the hateful and merciless being that your orthodox beliefs teach and is always the same now as in the days of old when men's conception of Him were determined by their own ideas of what a God should be, and what men should believe him to be. But there are many things taught in the writings of the book that are not true, though in accord with the knowledge possessed by the writers and suited to the condition of the medium through whom the messages were delivered.

The writers were spirits who were highly developed intellectually and morally and had knowledge of the truths to an extent that made what they said powerful expositions of the truth as they knew it to be; but beyond the fact that men must, in order to become pure and holy, do those things which the Law of Harmony in their natural love demands, they could not teach.

Now, while this is all true, yet they did not know of the higher truths that make a man or the soul of a man divine and at-one with the Father and could not teach, because they did not possess any knowledge of, and only so far as they knew, must, their teachings be accepted as truth. They were far in advance in their renditions of the disclosures contained in the Bible, both as to God and Jesus, and the final destiny of man, and their revelations should be accepted in place of the teachings of the Bible. They were not only acquainted with the laws of God as dealing with man in his relation to good and evil, but also with the laws as to man's release from the consequences of his acts and deeds of earth, and as to his release from the consequences of his evil acts.

I would like to write now, but the rapport is broken.

Good night,
Job

Spinoza Writes About a Medium's Inability to Predict the Future

January 5, 1919
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Spinoza.

Let me write a few lines, as I have not written you for some time and am quite anxious to give some thoughts that may be of benefit to you. I am not one of the spirits who write to you of what they call the higher truths, yet I have a knowledge of some of these truths and believe in all that has been communicated to you, for I know that the spirits who write you are of the Celestial Spheres possessed of knowledge that we, who live in the spirit spheres, do not possess.

Well, I merely want to say a few words in reference to the predictions, which you heard tonight, and as regards the source of the same. As you know, the woman is a medium gifted with the power of clairvoyance and inspirational receptivity and on many occasions, she perceives and receives some of the truths of the spirit world, and some of the persons whom she professes to see. Her communicants, though, are not of a very high order of development and she, herself, could not see the highly developed spirits, because the Law of Communication and Rapport applies to her phases of mediumship just as it does to yours. She is a very good woman morally with some temperamental defects and attracts spirits of moral worth and conditions, and her guides are in the condition that enables them to live in the brighter spheres, yet not having much spiritual development.

She professes to declare the predictions of her spirit friend, G____, as to what the future for the ensuing year will be in the experience of men and nations. Well, she has such a control, and he is a very intelligent spirit, and to some extent inspires her with his ideas of what the future holds out to mankind, and she with more or less exactness declare his thoughts as they are impressed upon her mind. But in connection with these thoughts, she incorporates thoughts of her own, believing that they are inspired also, but such is not the fact, though, possibly, these thoughts furnish as good grounds for the predictions as do the thoughts of her control.

I do not believe, at least I have never had it demonstrated to me, that any spirit can make truthful predictions, such as the medium expressed tonight; for spirits have not the powers of omniscience and are as dependent upon the workings of the Law of Cause and Effect as are mortals with this exception, that they can perceive many existing causes that mortals cannot and, hence, because of this knowledge can make predictions of the future happening of effects, that mortals cannot make. Take from spirits the knowledge of these causes and their predictions are merely guesses, which may or may not come true.

As you heard, she declared many things that are problems now existing and the subjects of much thought and study on the part of mortals who give their attention to these matters; and she, as one of them, had her own thoughts and had formed her own conclusions and believed that they were the results of inspiration, whereas they had their foundation in her own mind, arising from her knowledge of and speculations on these things.

The present conditions of the world are such that there exists great probabilities of the happening of many things that the medium predicted, and many persons having knowledge of these conditions will predict, if they be called upon, future occurrences similar to those mentioned by the medium, and if they should happen, it will not be because any spirits know the fact, but because there are causes existing which will necessarily bring them about.

Well, such meetings and such predictions will not do any harm, but, on the contrary, will cause many people to turn their thoughts to spiritual things and to spiritualism, which will tend to liberate their minds from the shackles that are now preventing them from seeking and understanding the truth.

I will not consume more of your time now, but hope to be able to write later. Goodbye, your friend,

Spinoza

**********

Helen confirms Spinoza writing and says that he is a very bright and intelligent spirit.

I am here, Helen.

Well dear, I am sorry that I could not write a while ago, but there were some spirits in trouble who wanted to write, and I did not feel justified in using force to drive them away, though White Eagle would not let them write. We must expect such interferences and abide the results for a while. You understand, I know, and will not think that I did not desire to write.

Well, you have received a letter tonight from a spirit who has written you before, and, as I then told you, he is a very bright and intelligent spirit, but not of the Celestial Spheres, and only knows the truths which came with the development of his soul in natural love. We have tried to help him but have not yet been successful in convincing him that what we tell him is the only way that will lead him to the happiness of the Divine. Yet we expect that sooner or later, he will understand and follow our advice.

Helen

Helen Writes About the Different Loves: Divine Love, Natural Love, Soulmate Love and Other Loves

November 26, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

After I passed over, I saw that I must seek a way to communicate with you in my spirit existence, and you may not know, but it is a fact that I was with you when you visited the mediums who informed you that you were a medium, being possessed of the gift of automatic writing; and I, having learned this fact from some of your spirit relatives, and principally your father, impressed these mediums to tell you of the fact of your mediumship. And when, at last, you made the experiment, I was present with you and exerted all my powers, and had the help of other spirits, in making your experiment a success. And when you commenced to receive the messages I cannot tell you how happy I was and thankful that the way was opened up that enabled me to tell you what, above everything else, I was so anxious to tell you. And if you will think for a moment of the nature of my communications, you will remember that the burden of all my messages was my love for you, and no matter how important other portions of the messages might be, yet in them was the continuous assurance that I loved you with all my heart and soul.

There are various kinds of love existing between humans and also between spirits and humans, each having its source in different conditions of fact and in varying causes; and of all these loves, only one is or can be the true and eternal one. The love of husband and wife is a beautiful thing, and may exist during the life on earth and bring much happiness to its possessors even though that love is temporary, and, in the workings of the law of attraction in the spirit life, may entirely cease its existence and become forgotten. And so, I may state, will be the destiny of the paternal and maternal, and brotherly and sisterly love. All these are based upon causes or conditions that are merely temporary - that is, may last during time and for a more or less longer period in eternity, but finally must end.

These loves, as I understand, are provisions of God which are necessary to enable mankind to work out their progress through the human life in the way that will produce the greatest harmony and happiness among mortals as they contend with the difficulties, cares and disappointments of the earth life. In the spirit world there is no need for these loves, for a greater bond of affection is provided, and is created or brought into operation by the great law of attraction, which causes the merely personal relationship that may have existed between spirits when inhabiting the earthly forms, to cease to be forgotten. This law of attraction is based upon the condition of the soul, whether that soul possesses the development created by the Divine Love or only that created by the purification of the natural love.

In the early stages in the spirit life the conditions of the earth life may remain for a time, because the spirit's state of soul and desires and affections may continue to be as they were when on earth; but as stagnation is not a quality of the soul in spirit life, these things which may have bound the humans together in the relationship mentioned do not long continue as they were, as there is no way of avoiding the workings of this law and its results. In order for this state to continue any great length of time, it would be necessary that all the spirits bound by these affections or conditions should remain without change in their souls, and that rarely happens, for in our world the individual becomes the individual in fact, and the real is apparent and spirits see one another face to face, and pretense or effort to hide the true condition of love or affection, or want of the same, becomes futile; so that, as is the real state of the spirit, so is his relationship to other spirits.

Again, this Law of Attraction operates in other directions than that of determining the mere affections, for men's mental conditions and aspirations are determining factors in establishing relationships among themselves. When men become spirits they are at the time of transition, and for a longer or shorter period afterwards, the possessors of the same knowledge and aspirations as they were immediately preceding their passage, with this difference: that to a more or less extent this knowledge and these aspirations, when in spirit life, are made apparent to others, not necessarily in words and professions, but by the power of seeing, which all but the very depraved spirits possess, so that, pretense and dissembling being absent or of no avail, these spirits, under the law, attract those affections arising from their human relationships cease to bind these several spirits, and they obey the law. The temporary love has fulfilled its mission and object, and to continue to exist under the circumstances mentioned would work injury and retardation to the progress of these spirits, no matter what may be the nature or cause of that progress.

Now, while what I have said is all true, yet there is another provision of the Father's law, designed for the happiness of men while mortals, that causes the love arising from the human relationship to continue with the spirit so long as the object of that love continues in the flesh, and no matter what the progress of that spirit may be or what its attractions are, yet it continues to love the mortal during his earthly career, and to watch over and help him, and all this even though this love which once existed for other mortals in the same relationship, and who have passed to spirit life, may have ended and been forgotten. This human love is subject to change and death, and those of earth life who console themselves with the thought that when they pass to spirit life they will meet their loved ones who have gone before, never to part again, will be disappointed, but not long distressed, for they will soon thereafter learn and experience the workings of the great law of attraction, and in that experience will be happy.

But there is another and differing love, not of the temporal, but of the everlasting, in its nature, and all humans have it, though probably unaware of the fact, but which at some period - and this may be for some time - in eternity they will become conscious of, and then never deprived of, for it is the perfect fulfillment of this law of attraction. I mean the soulmate love, of which I have written you so often. It was born before any man appeared in the flesh, and was a part of his very soul's creation, and of which he could never be deprived, though so often does it lie dormant in the souls and consciousness of man. I and others have written you as to how when the souls of men were created by the Father these souls were made male and female, though constituting only the one soul - two in one, the perfect one. And with their creation was bestowed upon them a love - not two loves, but only one - which was possessed equally by each part of the complete soul, and which will always remain one in its complete workings, although these two parts of the soul have to be, and are, separated in their incarnation in the human body, which incarnation is for the purpose of giving the male and the female parts of the one soul a separate individuality, without severing or disuniting this love, which through all eternity binds together these two parts as one.

The love of which I have first spoken is the love for time only; the soulmate love is the love for all eternity, and this great love which requires that at some stage in eternity these two parts of the one soul shall become one again, should be one of the most convincing proofs that all men, sooner or later, will come into harmony with the will of the Father and with the laws creating such souls. The fundamental law of the universe is that all things shall come into harmony with the will of the Father, and as the hells and all that they contain are out of such harmony, men may believe that in the ultimate working out of this law no soul will remain in the hells or in the condition or state of existence that primarily makes the hells, but that all souls in their perfected union will become inhabitants of either the spiritual or the Celestial heavens. And further, I must say, as you have been told before, that this soulmate love is the only love that can have a separate and individual existence in the Celestial heavens, where the Divine Love exists to the exclusion of every other love save the soulmate love; and the more the spirits - the united two in one - possess the Divine Love, the greater will be their possession of this soulmate love.

As you know, I am your soulmate and come to you so often in my love, and you realize the fact and respond, and at times are very happy. You have experienced on several occasions the depth and yearnings of my love to such an extent that your soul has come to me in my spirit world and enjoyed moments of unspeakable bliss; and as you may not know, left me with protestations against its return to your mortal body, and, if my love had not been wise as well as intense and wonderfully absorbing, your protests would have been heeded and you would have remained with me to enjoy the happiness which can be yours only when you come to the spirit world to find your home everlasting.

It has been said that the man in love is a fool, and that may be true in regard to the merely human love, but as to this soulmate love the more of it we possess the wiser we become and correspondingly happy.

I cannot tell you the depth and height and wonders of my love, and only say that it fulfills to the uttermost the great law of attraction, and there is nothing, save the Divine Love, in all the universe of being that can excel it or take its place, or make two souls so united that even death cannot sever it.

I will be with you as long as you continue to live on earth, in all the fullness of my love, and when the time of your passing comes, I will be present; and so much love will be around you that you will forget the dying and the awakening, and know only that your soulmate is with you telling you of love and happiness and the beauties of the life that will be yours, and showing you to a large degree how splendid and heavenly this love can make a spirit that possesses the Divine Love also.

Well dear, Baby is here and says she has read what I have written and is so glad that you have me for your soulmate. She is very happy and is growing all the time in beauty and in the possession of the Father's Love, and so wants you to seek more and more for this love, and says, "How rich Daddy is to have the soulmate love of my beautiful mother and the certainty of the great love of the Father, if he will only seek for it; and in addition, which may not count for much, he has the love of his own Baby, who is now so happy."

And Mary says that I must not neglect to say that she is here also, and has read my message with great pleasure, and wants me to tell the Dr. that if he will only substitute himself in your place and her in my place and read the letter he will know something of her love for him; that he is her soulmate and can never be another's and she is with him so very often trying to impress him with her presence and love.

Well dear, you have written a great deal and I will stop. I am so glad that I could write. Good night, my dear Ned.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Helen Writes the Epistles in the Bible are Not the Same that the Apostles Wrote

October 29, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your own true and loving Helen.

Well dear, I see that you have been reading portions of the Bible tonight and that you have not found in the same any mention of the Divine Love in the sense that it has been explained to you or any evidence that the writers had any knowledge of the Love in the way of being Born Again. Of course, they used the expression, but the meaning that they gave to it is altogether different from the one that Jesus gave the other night.

Now you have been told that he taught the Apostles this true meaning and that they to a more or less extent understood it, and especially John, and as a truth, being the very foundation of the truth of salvation. It may be surprising to you that if John wrote the epistles which are ascribed to him, he did not speak of or attempt to explain the meaning of this New Existence. But the epistles do not mention the New Birth in the light of the explanation that has been given to you, and you may very reasonably infer that these epistles were not written by any of the Apostles to whom they are accredited, but by some writers who had some knowledge of the moral truths of Jesus' teachings and of the great one expressed as that: "They should love their brethren as themselves."

You will find very little in any portion of the Bible that will show you that the great truth of the New Birth was understood by the writers thereof; and all that you will find is that love between man and God, and man and man, with all that flows from it, such as patience and kindness and charity, etc., is the fulfilling of the Christian doctrines. No distinction is made between the natural love of man and the Love of God bestowed upon him at his creation and the great Divine Love, which man never possessed until the coming of the Master.

It may seem strange that this knowledge that the Apostles and many others had in the time of the Master when on earth should have been lost to the world, but it is a fact and, as a consequence, the teachings of Jesus as to this great truth have for all these long years failed to work out his mission. Well, I could write for a long time on this matter but it is not necessary, as you already know of these things. Good night.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

Helen Writes that the Effect of Preacher, Billy Sunday's Sermon, is Directed Towards the Progress of the Soul in the Natural Love

January 9, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Helen.

Well dear, I was with you tonight and saw that you were not much benefited by Billy Sunday's sermon and,  of course, could not be, because the preacher said nothing to feed the hungry soul. He said some things which were very good in the way of showing men and women what they should do in order to make their earth lives more happy and it will be well, if the hearers will heed and follow the advice. But nothing much was said to help the progress of the soul.

I saw that you were not in much sympathy with the methods and sayings of the preacher and thought that there was too much hilarity and not enough reverence present as a meeting for the opening up of the soul and helping the development of those qualities that will lead to the Father's Love and the Celestial Heavens. But nevertheless, some things that he said will do good to some people.

You must not forget that the teachings of the Master were twofold, and for those who were not in a condition to hear and understand his higher spiritual truths, he preached those things which, if followed, would make them better men and women and cause them to progress in the development of their natural love. And in this latter effort, the preacher will do good and his work must not be undervalued, for all men are not alike in their conditions, intellectual or spiritual. And besides, here and there in his preachings some truths that he utters may, by its influence upon the hearts of his hearers, cause such hearers to think more deeply about spiritual things of the higher nature and, in thinking, their souls may be opened up to the influence of the spirits who have the Divine Love in their souls, and from which may follow the longings of these hearers for this Love of the Father.

Everything said that tends to cause a spirit to progress towards either of the conditions of love must be encouraged for the Father works in His own way. And frequently, the Love comes into a man's soul, and the man not being intellectually conscious of what the Love is. Whoever is not against us in this work is, in a certain sense, with us; for the salvation of men is the objects of all our efforts; and if we, or mortals, cannot awaken dead souls to a life in the higher condition, then we must work to bring them into that condition that will cause them to get into a state of purified natural love.

They are all the children of God, and if they will not become His beloved children in the Divine sense, then He wants them to become the pure spirits that the first parents were before the fall. So do not criticize or look down upon the work of this preacher, because he does not show men the true way to the Celestial Heavens, or because he says and does things that may not appear to be reverent.

God looks at the heart and the intentions; and the forms of expression used by the preacher are not important, except as they may have the effect of causing some soul to turn away from the truths that the preacher may communicate. All men are not alike and the preachings of the man, while they may, as some say, disgust some hearers, yet others will be affected by them and good will be done.

I write this because I see that you are inclined to criticize the preacher and conclude that his teachings are not conducive to spiritual progress. Well, as you have been told, the large majority of men and spirits will never become inhabitants of the Celestial Heavens, but that is no reason why they should not be taught the way that will tend to purge them of their sins so far as the natural love is concerned. Those who will not become Angels must become purified men, and any and everything that will help them to become the latter is approved by the Father and is the object of His favor.

Well dear, I will not write more now, as I see that you are cold and must go to bed. But remember this: that while all men will not become dwellers in the spheres of the soul in the Celestial Kingdom, yet they are brothers, and the favored brothers must try and help in every way possible the less favored brothers in obtaining that which the Father has designed shall be their portion, even though they refuse or neglect to seek for and obtain the great goal of Divine Love and Immortality. So love me and pray to the Father for His Love, and with all the sincerity of your soul, thank Him that you have found the way to His Great Love and the mansions in the Divine Heavens.

And what I have said to you, I say to Dr. Stone; for I see that his thoughts are somewhat similar to your own and that you both think that unless a preacher can and does show the way to the Celestial Kingdom, his work is not worthy of much consideration and falls short of what he - as a saviour of souls - should do. And so it is, but all cannot teach the higher truths, for they do not know or understand them; but that fact must not cause you, or any who know the truths, to think that this work, when sincere and beneficial in its moral teachings, should not be taught.

I thought best to write this tonight, so that you may not get a wrong conception of what men who cannot teach the great truths should or should not teach. All men are not in that condition of soul and Love, and they should be taught the way that will lead them to those mansions in the Heavens that will be theirs by free will choice.

I love you, my dear husband, and am closer to you in your thoughts, and do not want you to think wrong in anything, even though you think right in a great many and the most important things. Pray and let your faith increase and believe that we are all with you trying to direct you aright; and one who knows is more anxious than any of us that your knowledge of the truths increase, and your experiences arising from that knowledge bring to you with more convincing force the truths that - God is Love - and your God. Good night.

Your own and true and loving,
Helen

Priscilla Stone Writes of Her Spiritual Progress and Confirms Leslie R. Stone's Visit to the Spirit World to Help Eleanor Meads

December 10, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, his mother, Priscilla Stone.

I am here, the mother of Leslie, and very much desire to write a few lines, as I feel that he would like to hear from me and receive an expression of my love. Well, in the first place, I desire to tell him that I am progressing and am in a sphere that is so beautiful and full of the Father's Love, that for me to attempt to describe it would result only in failure. But when I tell him that my happiness is so very great that even I, at a very recent time when in what I thought was the acme of happiness, had no conception of what happiness meant as compared to what I now possess.

All this is so wonderful to me, that it is difficult even for a soul that is filled with this Love to conceive what the Love of the Father in its fullness can be. And the great thing of wonderment is that as we progress, we realize that it is impossible to comprehend the heights and depths of this Great Love.

When on earth and I read that "God is Love," I had not a faint idea even of what the expression meant, for as you must know, my conception of love was based largely on what I knew or thought the human love was, such as my love for my children, which was to me the greatest expression of love. But, as I say, this love is not even a faint shadow of what the Love of the Father is: and the great beauty of it all is that, while this Divine Love is always the same, yet in seeking and obtaining it, I find that more and more is waiting for me.

We know of no cessation of progress and are never satisfied, yet never unhappy, because we realize that we are not the possessor of it in all its fullness. No, our happiness is in proportion to the amount of Love that we possess, and for the time that Love is sufficient for our complete happiness. I do not know that mortals can fully understand this, because, as you may know, when mortals are seeking the natural love of another and desire more and more of it, and they are happy in its possession, yet at the same time they have some pain or unhappiness, because they do not have all the love that their desires ask for.

Well, this is not the condition of us who have and seek this Divine Love, for it, of itself, seems to have the quality of causing complete, perfect happiness, without taking from us the desire and longings for more. I doubt that any of your philosophers can explain this apparent inconsistency, because they have nothing on earth to which they can make a comparison. A mortal who is satisfied with the love that he may have on earth has not the longings for more, and when he has the longings, he is not wholly happy in the enjoyment of that which he possesses.

And the same principle applies to the possession and longings of mortals for everything else of the natural or material. Ambitions for fame and power and position and the accumulation of wealth, and the love of a woman or man, are all subject to this Law of the accompaniment of pain and unhappiness. So you may in a short way understand what great qualities the Divine Love has in its operations, and how it differs from the mere natural love.

Well, my boy will think I am somewhat of a philosopher and have changed from my course of thought while on earth. And so I have, but he must not be surprised to know that as I receive the Great Love in my soul in increased abundance, there comes with it a knowledge of law and principles and the relationship of things that I have never studied or attempted to acquire by study. And this is one of the surprising results of the obtaining of this Divine Love. It seems to have in it, as a part of its qualities, knowledge and wisdom and understanding that is not dependent upon the mind or intellect of the natural man, but which is a part of the mind of the soul that is developed as the soul is developed in Love.

I thought I would write in this way tonight that Leslie may, in a faint way, comprehend what the progress of his mother means and comprehends. With Love there can be no ignorance, for Love is, of itself, wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And from all this you will see that the mortals whose ambition is that when they get into the spirit world, they will have the opportunity to pursue the studies which they loved on earth, and that during all the long eternity, there will be no cessation of opportunity to gratify their ambition. I say, you will see that these mortals will find themselves very poor, indeed, as compared with those whose ambition is to obtain the Divine Love, which brings with it all these things, and others greater and beyond conception of knowledge that these mortals can possibly have.

Well, I will not write further on this subject tonight, but some time, if it pleases you, I will come and write my boy a regular thesis upon some spiritual truth that may interest him very much.

(Mrs. Stone confirms Leslie's astral flight to help in the spirit world in the same way that he tried to do when the spirit was a mortal in order to help Eleanor Meads.)

I heard him tell of his experience of a few nights ago, in going out of his body, and wondering if it were really true. Well, it was true. He left his body, and he may be a little surprised to know that the great desire of that young spirit to have him come to her and tell her again of some of the things that he had told her on earth was the cause of his leaving his body. Her desires were so great that they actually drew his spirit to her. What he saw, he saw with his spirit eyes, and the persons who appeared to him were actually present; and the young spirit heard his conversation, and in it found some relief.

She brought with her to the spirit world some of the thoughts that he had conveyed to her during his earth life; and having the experience of not finding what she had been taught, when on earth, that she would find in the spirit world, she became disappointed and doubtful, and then recalled what Leslie had told her, and with these memories came the desire that he should come and repeat to her these explanations that he had made to her of the truths and condition of the spirit world.

She is now very much better and is seeking for the truth, or rather a corroboration of the truth that she learned from him. I was present, as he thought, and when he left her, I went with her and took her in my care and have been trying to help her into the light and to a longing for this Love. She is so young and her soul so susceptible to the influence of Love, without being bound very much by erroneous beliefs that were taught her, she will, I know, soon become convinced of the true way to happiness and redemption.

And her grandmother, who loves this young spirit so much, was with her and heard what Leslie said, and, of course, was shocked and grieved that he should try to teach the child such blasphemous things; and she shed tears and was very unhappy and wanted her child to go with her and not listen to what he said or was saying. But just here we interfered to a certain extent, and caused them to separate, and induced the grandmother to leave the child for awhile, though she did not want to do so.

And when Leslie said that he assisted her to a lower plane, he actually did so, for while she is a woman of a kindly nature, and a somewhat Christian character, as she understands, yet she is not fitted for the plane on which the scene related took place. And here let me say that the young spirit and her grandmother, because of the great Law of Attraction, are not suited to the same plane, and this grieves the grandmother very much, and also the child. But the regeneration of the child will, no doubt, have a great effect upon the grandmother, and when the time comes, that is, after the child has learned the truth and received some of the Love and goes to her grandmother to show her beauty and tell of her experience, we will go to the grandmother, also, and attempt to explain to her these truths and the error of her belief.

Well, I have written enough, and your wife says that I had better stop now. So with my love, I will say good night,

His mother,
Priscilla Stone

Paul Writes About the Methodist Preacher Who Has Divine Love and Encourages Mr. Padgett to Tell Him the Truths of God and Salvation

July 3, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Paul.

Let me write a few lines, as I desire to say a word about the condition of the man to whom you were talking a short time ago on matters connected with your work and the messages that you are receiving. I mean the Methodist preacher. (Dr. Mitchell)

As you may judge from his conversation, his mind is open to the reception of the truth, and his beliefs in the dogmas of the Bible teachings are not such as to cause him to be unduly biased, so that if the truth be presented to him with any degree of reasonable force, he will give consideration to the same. Of course, he is an orthodox in the way of believing in the plan of salvation provided by God, as recognized and enunciated by the creeds of the churches, and to him Jesus is God, and his sacrifice and vicarious atonement are truths vital to the salvation of mankind; and that the man who does not believe in these necessary prerequisites cannot possibly become reconciled to God or be at-one with Him. To him, Jesus is God, and the only saviour of men, and without Him (Jesus in this sense) it is not possible for man to escape the great condemnation.

Now, while all this is true as regards the preacher's belief, yet he does not believe positively that the man who dies in his sins, as the churchmen term it, will be condemned to a separation from God for all eternity. His belief on this question is not fixed, and his love for mankind creates in him a hope that this may not be so, and that some means will be provided by which such an awful condemnation will not be imposed on men.

He has in his soul much of the Divine Love, without having the consciousness that this is a separate and distinct Love from the natural love that has been to some extent purified. In fact, he has no conception of any Love of God other than the love that was given to men at the time of the creation of the first parents, and which every human being born since that time has received, although it has become defiled by sin and error and the willfulness of man. He believes that man, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, is cleansed of this defilement of the love with which he was endowed, and by the atonement of Jesus is brought into a state of reconciliation with the Father, and no other or different love is necessary for the redemption of the fallen human. That Jesus, by his sacrifice, is all that is required; and when a mortal, by his belief and acceptance of that sacrifice, receives Jesus into his life and nature, he becomes a redeemed child of God.

Of course, he cannot fully understand just the method by which this change is brought about. He believes that there is something mysterious connected with the manner in which the resultant condition of goodness and purification and the change of the vile man into an angel, which flows from the sacrifice and acceptance and belief, yet the man is so changed, and the manner thereof is known to God, and it is not necessary for man to understand. This is a path which does not demand knowledge, a mystery of God which need not be inquired into; only: "Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, and ye shall be saved." I say that this belief is his and is sufficient for him, and in it he rests securely.

Well, he is comparatively happy in his belief and is willing to retain it for, as he sometimes thinks, if he renounces it, where and unto what shall he go? He can see nothing to take its place, and he is wise not to give it up. For in Jesus is salvation, when Jesus is correctly understood; and as the preacher turns his thoughts to Jesus and sends forth his soul's longings to the Master and what he represents, his soul at times catches a true conception of the very Jesus, although this conception does not agree with and is not the same thing as his intellectual comprehension of the Jesus of the Bible as interpreted by the creeds.

I am glad that you had the conversation with him, and I believe that as he listens to the unfoldment of the truths, as contained in the messages, his mind will take on a new and true conception of the truth, and his soul open up to a greater inflowing of the Love that will make him at-one with the Father, and transform that soul into the very substance of the Father's Divinity in Love.

I would advise you to present these truths to him, for he is an important factor in the work of man's salvation, when it is considered that one soul is of more worth than the whole world. He has the opportunity to show the way to salvation to many souls by the preaching of the truth, and any personal sacrifice which may come to him as a result of learning and believing the truths is not to be considered. While his material happiness on earth is to be considered and not thrown away whenever it is possible to retain it in connection with the teachings of the truth, yet his soul's happiness and that of many other souls are of more importance than the mere material happiness that arises from ignorance of the truth, or the living in that ignorance. So I say, let him know the truth no matter what the consequences may be, for in the end happiness will come to him, even on earth, as well as in the great eternity.

I will not write more now. So, with my love, I will say good night, and God bless you and the preacher, for I am interested in him, and in the future may possibly sustain a closer relation to him than is now possible by reason of his false beliefs and the want of the necessary rapport with him.

Your brother in Christ,
Paul

Jesus Writes on the Only Way to the Kingdom of God in the Celestial Heavens

May 15, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come tonight and desire to finish my message and hope that you may be able to receive it. Well, to continue. I have described the way to the Kingdom of God on earth and in the spirit world, and now I will describe the only way to the Kingdom of God in the Celestial Heavens.

As I have written before, when man was created, in addition to having bestowed upon him those things that made him the perfect man and in harmony with the laws and will of the Father, he also bestowed upon him the potentiality or privilege of receiving the Divine Love, provided he should seek for it in the only way that God had planned for its attainment. But instead of embracing this great privilege, man became disobedient and sought to exercise his own will, and did so in that manner that lead not only to his fall from the condition  of the perfect manhood in which God had created him, but also to the loss of the great privilege of receiving this Divine Love, which privilege was never rebestowed upon him until my coming and teaching that rebestowal and the true way to obtain this Love.

Now, here it had better be understood what this Divine Love was and is, for it is the same today that it was when man was created in the image of God. This Love differs from the natural love of man, with which he was endowed when created and which belongs to all men and which they all possess in a more or less perfect condition, in this, that the Divine Love is that Love which belongs to or is a part of God, possessing His Nature and composed of His Substance, and which when possessed by man to a sufficient degree, makes him Divine and of the Nature of God. This Great Love God intended should be received and possessed by all men who should desire to receive it and who would make the effort to obtain it.

It is the Divine Love that contains in itself the divine, which the natural love does not. Many, I know, write and believe that all men, irrespective of the kind of love they have in their souls, possess what they call "the divine spark," which needs only the proper development to make all men divine. But this conception of the state of man in his natural condition is all wrong, for man has not in him any part of the divine, and never can have, unless he receives and has developed in him this Divine Love.

In all God's universe and creation of things material and spiritual, the only one of His creatures who can possibly have within him anything of a Divine Nature is he who possesses this Divine Love. The bestowal of this Love was intended, in its operation and effect, to transform man from the merely perfect man into the Divine Angel, and thus create a Kingdom of God in the Celestial Spheres, where only that which is divine can enter and find a habitation.

And you must understand that as it depends very largely upon man, himself to establish the Kingdom of God on earth or in the spiritual world, so it also depends largely on man to establish the Kingdom in the Celestial Heavens. God will not and does not by any power that He may have establish this Divine Kingdom, and if man had never received this Divine Love into his soul, there never would have been any such kingdom brought into existence.

There is now a Kingdom in the Celestial Sphere, but not a finished one, for it is still open and in the process of formation, and is open to the entry of all spirits, and men must seek for it in the only way that the Father has provided, and no man or spirit will be excluded from it, who, with all the longings of his soul, will aspire to enter that Kingdom.

I must also state that the time will come when this Celestial Kingdom will be completed, and thereafter neither spirit nor man will be able to enter therein; for this Divine Love of the Father will again be withdrawn from man, as it was from the first parents, and the only Kingdom that will then be accessible to man will be the Kingdom that will exist on earth or that which now exists in the spirit world.

Then what is the way that leads to this Celestial Kingdom? The only way - for there is but one.

The observance of the moral precepts and the cleansing of men's souls from sin by following these precepts, will not lead to this Kingdom, for as it can be readily seen, the stream can rise no higher than its source, and the source of the souls of men in a merely purified state, is the condition of the perfect man - that condition in which he was before his fall - and, hence the results of the observance and living of the merely moral precepts and the exercise of the natural love in its pure state is that man will be restored to the condition of the perfect man - the created man in whom there is nothing of the divine. But this restored condition of man will be so perfect and so in harmony with God's will and His laws governing the highest and most perfect of His creatures, that man will be very happy. Yet, he will continue to be only the created being, having nothing more than the image of his Maker.

So, I say, living in a harmony with the moral laws and the exercise of this natural love in its highest and purest state towards God and towards his fellow man, will not lead into the way to the Celestial Kingdom, but the greatest height of his attainment will be the Kingdom on earth or that in the spirit Heavens.

And the distinct and differing nature of these Kingdoms from that of the Celestial Heavens, will enable mankind to understand the difference between the missions of the great teachers and reformers who preceded me in their work among men, and the mission which I was selected to perform on earth. The former could not possibly have taught the way to the Celestial Kingdom, for until my coming, this Divine Love of which I write was not possible for man to obtain. The privilege was not, before that time, in existence after the first parents lost it, and there was no Celestial Kingdom in which men could find their eternal home.

So, I repeat, all the moral teachings of the world's history could not show the way to the Celestial Kingdom of God, and cannot now, for morality, as understood and taught by mankind and by the spirits and angels, cannot give to man that which is absolutely necessary in order to transform his soul into that state or condition that fits him for an entrance into this truly Divine Kingdom of the Father.

But the way thereto is simple and men were taught that way by me when I was on earth; and could have been taught that way during all the centuries since I left the human life; and I must say that some have been so taught and have found that way, but comparatively few, for the mortals whose ostensible and claimed mission and privilege were to teach that way - I mean the priests and preachers and churches - have neglected to teach the same, but rather, though in earnestness and realizing their allegiance to God and their obligations to mankind, have taught merely the way which the observance of the moral precepts would lead men into.

And all this, notwithstanding, that in the Bible, which most of those professing to be Christians believe contains my sayings and teachings, is set forth this way to the Celestial Kingdom. The words are few and the way is plain, and no mystery prevents men from comprehending the meaning thereof. When I said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God," I disclosed the only and true way to this Kingdom.

During my time on earth there were some who understood this great truth, and since that time, there have been some who not only understood this truth, but found the way and followed it until they reached the goal and are now inhabitants of this Kingdom; but the vast majority of men - priests, teachers and people - have never understood and have never sought to find the way. This great truth to their spiritual senses has been, as it were, a hidden thing; and as they read or even recite the same to their hearers it has no special significance, but is merely as one of the moral precepts, such as "Love your neighbor as yourself," and with not as much importance attached to it as to some of these moral instructions.

And so, all down the ages since the great Kingdom has been waiting for men, they, though in all sincerity and in love towards God, have sought for and to a greater or lesser extent, found only the Kingdom of the perfect man and have neglected to seek for and missed the Kingdom of the Divine Angel.

Then, as I have said, this Divine Love of the Father, when possessed by the soul of man, makes him in his substance and essence Divine like unto the Divinity of the Father, and only such souls constitute and inhabit the Celestial or Divine Kingdom of God; and this being so, it must be readily seen that the only way to the Celestial Kingdom is that which leads to the obtaining of this Divine Love, which means the New Birth; and which New Birth is brought about by the flowing into the souls of men this Divine Love, whereby the very Nature and Substance of the Father, and wherefrom men cease to be the merely created beings, but become the souls of men born into the Divine reality of God.

Then the only way to the Celestial Kingdom being by the New Birth, and that birth being brought to men only by the inflowing and working of this Divine Love, and whether or not a man shall experience this birth depending in its initiative on the man himself, the question arises how or in what way can a man obtain this Divine Love and this New Birth and the Celestial Kingdom. And because the way is so easy and simple, it may be that men will doubt the truth of my explanation, and continue to believe and place all their hopes upon the orthodox doctrines of the vicarious atonement - the washing of the blood, my sufferings on the cross and bearing all the sins of the world, and my resurrection from the dead - doctrines as harmful to the salvation of mankind as they are without truth or foundation in fact or effect.

The only way then is simply this: "That men shall believe with all the sincerity of their minds and souls that this Great Love of the Father is waiting to be bestowed upon each and all of them, and that when they come to the Father in faith and earnest aspirations, this Love will not be withholden from them, and in addition to this belief, pray with all the earnestness and longings of their souls that he open up their souls to the inflowing of this Love, and that then may come to them the Holy Spirit to bring this Love into their souls in such abundance that their souls may be transformed into the very Essence of the Father's Love."

The man who will thus believe and pray will never be disappointed, and the way to the Kingdom will be his as certainly as that the sun shines day by day upon the just and the unjust alike. No mediator is needed, nor are the prayers or ceremonies of priests or preachers, for God comes to man himself, and hears his prayers and responds thereto by sending the Comforter, which is the Father's messenger for conveying into the souls of men this great Divine Love. I have thus explained the only way to the Celestial Kingdom of God and to the Divine Nature in Love; and there is no other way whereby it is possible to reach this Kingdom and the certain knowledge of immortality.

So, I implore men to meditate on these great truths, and in meditating believe, and when believing, pray to the Father for the inflowing into their souls of this Divine Love, and in doing so they will experience belief, faith and possession and ownership of that which can never be taken from them - no, not in all eternity. And so it is with man to choose and fix his destiny. Will that destiny be the perfect man or the Divine Angel?

I have finished and feel that you have received my message as I intended, and am pleased. I will not write more now, and with my love and blessings, will say good night.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

**********

Samuel Confirms Jesus' Message


I am here, Samuel, Prophet of Old.

I have heard the Master's message and as are all of his, it is filled with truths that are vital to man's future happiness and condition of being. I have also been with you very often, and have tried to help you in every way that I could, and you must believe that you have around you a host of celestial as well as spiritual spirits who are interested in you and endeavoring to assist you in your work.

I will come soon and write. So with my love I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
Samuel

St. John Confirms the Previous Message from Jesus

May 5, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

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

I will not write much, but I desire to say that you have a wonderful message from the Master tonight, and that he was very anxious that you should receive it as correctly as possible; and I must tell you that he was very well satisfied with the way in which he was able to express his thoughts.

It is a wonderful disclosure of the two kingdoms that may and will be established; the Kingdom in the spirit world has already been established, for there are many spirits who have the purification of the natural love in that degree that makes them the perfect men as were the first parents.

Well, he will come soon and describe the greater and more important way to the true Kingdom of the Father, and I hope that you will be in condition to receive this part of the message in as correct a manner as you have received what has been written tonight. What a Jesus of knowledge and love he is. Can you doubt that he is the very Christ and the Saviour of mankind and showed men the only way to the Celestial Kingdom?

There was a great concourse of spirits present tonight, and many who heard his message were astonished and, I know, benefited thereby. The higher spirits were here in great numbers, and also many who have learned the way and are now progressing; and if you could have seen the expressions of love on their countenances you would thank the Father with all the gratitude of your soul that you have been selected for this work. Oh, my brother, let not doubt come into your soul as to your mission and as to the work that you are doing.

Your bands, both the higher and those who are progressing, were here, and they were so thankful that the Father is so good and blesses you so much. I will not write more but in closing repeat; pray and believe and the Love will come to you in greater and greater abundance.

With my love and the blessings of the Father, I will say good night.

Your brother in Christ,
John

Jesus Writes on the Only Way Men Can Reach the Kingdom of God or the Way to the Perfect Man

May 5, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I come tonight to write on the only way by which men can reach the Kingdom of God, or the way to the perfect man.

This is a subject that many men and teachers have endeavored to explain to mankind, and the ways described have been as varied and sometimes contradictory as the thoughts and education of these men have differed; and all have sought to base their teachings and conclusions on the Bible. I, of course, mean those who profess to be Christians. As to other teachers and reformers, as they have been called, their teachings are based on the doctrines of the various sects to which they have belonged or professed allegiance. But the Kingdom of God is more peculiarly a phrase that is found in and belongs to the Christian Bible, and to some extent in the Hebrew scriptures.

In considering the subject of this message it is first important to understand what is meant by the "Kingdom of God." Some understand or conceive it to be a kingdom on earth in which the will and laws of God will be followed and obeyed by men in the mortal life, and others understand it to be that Kingdom of God, which exists and will continue to exist in perfection in the spirit world; and some few, that Kingdom which will find its home or place of existence in the Celestial Spheres.

Now, the way to each of these kingdoms is not the same, although in pursuing the way to one, and that the Celestial Kingdom, the way to the others, must necessarily be followed, or in other words, he who follows the way to the Celestial Kingdom pursues that course which, in its pursuit, will cause him to do those things and obey those laws of God that are necessary to establish the kingdoms on earth and in the spirit world; but he who pursues only the way that leads to the establishment of the kingdom on earth and in the spirit world cannot possibly become an inhabitant of the Celestial Kingdom. The Kingdom of God on earth, or in the spirit world, may be obtained by man, or spirit, by obeying the will of God in those essentials that will work a purification of his natural love and cause that coming into harmony with His laws which affect and control man as mere man; that is, that will restore man to the condition of perfection that existed before the fall of the first parents; and many of my teachings, when on earth, of which there are preserved a number in the Bible, were intended to instruct men into that way of life that would develop their moral qualities and free them from the taint and destructiveness of sin in which they were then and are now living.

By the observance of my teachings and sincere obedience to these moral precepts, man will lose those things that belong to his appetites and passions and evil thoughts and desires, and realize that in their places will come a purer love and more spiritual desires and thoughts which lead to a cleansing of his heart and soul, and which means a living and thinking in harmony with the will and laws of God. For God is all good, and all His laws require that man shall become good in order that this kingdom in the spirit world shall be established.

Naturally, and I mean according to His creation, man is good, and not the depraved creature that for so many centuries the teachings and doctrines of the church have declared him to be; and when he shall arrive at that state of goodness that was his in the beginning, he will merely have rid himself of those contaminating appetites, thoughts and desires that made him the sinful and inharmonious being that he now is.

So, from this, you will see that the work of man, in order to enable the kingdom to become established on earth, is largely a work of renunciation; and this truth was taught by prophets and teachers prior to the time of my coming to earth and teaching the way to the Celestial Kingdom; and the same truth applies to the spirits that shall make up and establish the kingdom in the spirit world.

In these kingdoms of the purification and regaining of the perfected natural love, there will be nothing of the Divine Nature of the Father, except as may be generally said, all the objects of His creation, by reason of being such objects, may partake of the image of the divine. But this is not the divine. The Divine in its true sense is that which partakes of the very essence and nature of God and not that which is merely the object of His creation.

Man, in body, soul and spirit body, is only a creation of God and, as to the soul, an image of its Creator, but this creation was not made of any, the least part of the essence or substance of God; and this creation can, if it so please the Father, in its composite and coordinated existence, be utterly destroyed and reduced to the elements of which it was created, without in the smallest degree affecting the true substance or nature of God. So you will see that in truth, there is in or of man nothing of the divine; and, hence, when the Kingdom of God shall be established on earth, or in the spirit world, there will be therein, nothing of the divine, only the existence of the perfect creatures, living and thinking in harmony with the laws of God which control their creation and existence.

So that the way in which these two kingdoms of the non-divine can be established, is by man pursuing that course of thinking and living that will enable him to renounce and get rid of those things - foreign to his true nature - which prevent him from coming again into the exact harmony with the will of God as expressed and made obligatory by the law of man's creation.

The observance of the moral law will enable men to accomplish this end. The love with which man was endowed, as the perfect man, enables him, as it becomes purified and more harmonious, to love God and to love his fellow-man as himself, for this natural love is one that in its perfection and nature is universal, and in its exercise every man is his neighbor's brother.

The progressive qualities of this love which every man may obtain, are truly and wonderfully set forth by Peter in one of his epistles as contained in the Bible (II Peter, Chapter 1, Verses 5, 6, 7) and if men will seek these successive steps in acquiring the purifying development of this love, they will obtain the great object sought for. As I have written, the Bible contains many of my teachings which if followed, will lead to this end, and men will realize the Kingdom of God on earth.

And here let me correct one mistaken belief or idea that has so long prevailed among mankind, and which, in its results, has delayed the coming of the kingdom on earth; and the correction is, that God by His mere fiat, or irrespective of the desires and workings of men's souls, will not establish this kingdom. Its establishment depends upon men, themselves, and until their loves become and they become in harmony with God's will, this kingdom will never be established.

I know that it is believed and taught and emphasized, and men place all their hopes and expectations of a heaven of bliss on the statement, that I will at sometime come in the clouds of Heaven with a great shout, to earth, and by the power which they believe exists in me, establish the Kingdom of God - a kind of kingdom in which I will be the king and rule supreme, and receive as my subjects those who believe in and worship me, and send those who do not into eternal damnation and outer darkness.

Well, this is pitiable, untrue and all erroneous. This kingdom will never be established in this way, for only man, himself, can call into existence this kingdom, only by becoming the pure perfect man that existed when God's earthly kingdom had at man's creation, its existence. Man alone, brought sin into the world, and man must himself destroy sin, and then harmony with the Father's will will be restored, and also this kingdom.

But, from what I have written, it must not for a moment or in the slightest degree be inferred even, that God is not taking and will not take any part in the reestablishment of this kingdom, for it is a fact, that He is working through His Angels upon the souls and thoughts of men to bring this kingdom on earth; but He will not force its establishment - it must come voluntarily on the part of men.

When He created man, He gave him a free will - the most wonderful of the natural gifts to man - and He will not, by the exercise of His power arbitrarily control the direction of that will, but as to it leaves man supreme. Of course while this is so, yet if man in such exercise contravenes the laws of God, man must suffer the consequences, for He never changes or sets aside His laws. Man may exercise his free will as he desires and as his thoughts and appetites may influence him to do, but the freedom of exercise does not prevent the imposition of the penalties that the laws prescribe when they are violated. Thus you see there is freedom without limitation, but every inharmonious exercise of that freedom must invite the infliction of that which necessarily follows the violation of harmony.

God wants and is patiently waiting for the love of man, and is always the loving Father who delights not in the suffering of His creatures, for He wants their love to come voluntarily and without constraint or fear of punishment or hope of reward, except that reward which must necessarily follow the blending of God's Love and the love of man.

Then I say, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is not the Divine Kingdom, and has not in it that which is necessarily divine, except the love of God to His creatures to bless and make them happy. His essence and substance are not conferred upon them, for if they were, men would not remain in the kingdom of earth, but would, to a degree, be in the Celestial Heaven, even while on earth, and as I know some men, while still mortals, are in this Divine Heaven.

Now, what I have said with reference to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, applies with equal truth to the Kingdom of God in the spirit world, for there the inhabitants are merely the spirits of men after they have surrendered their physical bodies, and become purified in their natural love and in harmony with the will and laws of God controlling their existence as perfect men.

While the Kingdom of God has not yet been established on earth, it has been in the spirit world, for in the highest sphere of that world the souls of men have become purified and harmony has been restored, and the souls of men enjoy the supreme happiness that was bestowed upon them at the time of their first creation, which God pronounced very good. Sometime you will have described to you the bliss and wonderful happiness of that kingdom; and I will not say that this is beyond all conception of men, and was established not by the mere power and will of God, but by the exercise of the will of men after they became spirits in renouncing evil and sin, and having their thoughts and desires and soul in its natural love purified and made harmonious. And here I must say, that all men who have ever lived, or who shall ever live, will, at sometime live in this Kingdom of God in the spirit world, or in the Kingdom of the Celestial Spheres; but the large majority will find their homes in the former kingdom.

The hells and dark places will be emptied of their inhabitants and abolished forever, and, surprising as it may seem to mortals, not by the fiat of God, but the exercise of men's will and desires and longings for the attainment of the purification of their love, and by their reaching the goal of their aspirations. But God will be with them in their efforts, and his angels will do his will in helping mortals and spirits along this way to the spiritual kingdom.

Then how important it is that mortals should understand and realize the great work that they must do in establishing the kingdom on earth and the kingdom in the spirit world, and not rest supinely in the mere intellectual belief that God will in His own way and at His own time, establish this kingdom, and that they who believe in God and observe the creeds and doctrines of their churches and perform their duties as church members, will become inhabitants of that kingdom, and in a moment become pure and undefiled and in harmony with the will of God and His laws.

It is a very harmful belief, because the only way to this kingdom is the way of renunciation and purification, and all the beliefs ever possessed by men that do not lead to this purification of men's souls, will not lead to this kingdom. Man, with the help of the Father, must hew his own destiny, and the Father, without the effort of man will not make for him a destiny that his condition of soul and love do not entitle him to.

But there is a Kingdom greater and different and unlike these kingdoms of which I have been writing, and that is the Celestial Kingdom of God; and only those who receive of the Divine Essence can become inhabitants of this Kingdom. The souls of men must become transformed into the very Nature Divine of God, and the natural love of man be changed in all its qualities and elements into the Divine Love of the Father.

I have written that many of my moral teachings are recorded in the Bible, and that I came, or rather my acceptance by the Father as His beloved son, and the reception into my soul of His Divine Love qualified me to teach the way to the several kingdoms; and as was said in that Book, what was lost by the disobedience of the first man was restored by the coming of the second, and that only means, that by reason of the knowledge that came to me of truth and of the laws of harmony that govern God's universe, I was enabled to teach men the way to a return to the purity and development of their souls in natural love that existed before the great loss caused by the disobedience of the first man. I was not to bring about this restoration by any great power or Godlike qualities of omniscience that I might be supposed to possess, but merely by teaching men to love God and their brothers, and to pursue that course of living and thinking that would necessarily enable them to renounce sin and evil and come into a state of harmony with the laws of their creation.

Now, while I taught these moral truths, I also taught the great spiritual truths that show men the way to the Celestial Kingdom, for in my communions with the Father there came to me not only the Divine Love which transformed my soul into the substance of the Father in its love qualities, but also the knowledge by which this Divine Love might be acquired and the certain way to the Celestial Kingdom, even though to a degree while in the flesh.

But my spiritual teachings that show the way to the Celestial Kingdom were not so well understood by my hearers - and not even by my intimate disciples - but more so by John, and consequently were not preserved in the Bible, as were my moral teachings. And as to the Bible, I mean the original manuscripts were not written until many years after my death. Even in these manuscripts not many of my teachings as to the way that leads to this Celestial Kingdom, were contained; and afterwards when these manuscripts were copied, and the copies recopied, these important truths were not preserved - scarcely any. Though the fundamental ones, namely: God is love, and except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven were retained.

And as time went by and the recopying continued, fewer and fewer of my precepts were preserved, and men came to know less and less of these higher truths, and, consequently, the mere moral teachings became better understood and were used by the teachers and instructors of the masses to lead men to a kingdom of God.

And in addition to this, these leaders changed even these moral truths and the interpretations of the early writers in such a way as to enable these leaders to attain to wealth and power and control over the common people in their beliefs and observances of worship. The God of love then, to a large extent, became a God of hatred and wrath, inflicting punishment upon those who dared to disobey those injunctions that the hierarchy of the church placed upon them as the demands and will of God.

But these matters have been written upon more fully elsewhere, and I will not further enlarge upon them, and will now disclose the true way that leads to the Kingdom of God in the Celestial Heavens. Well, we have written a long time tonight, and I think it best to postpone my further writing till later. I must say this though, that I am pleased that you are in so much better condition, and I feel that now we can proceed more rapidly with our messages.

Remember this, that my promises will be fulfilled, and you must have faith. I am with you very often, and love you as you know, and will continue to pray to the Father for you. So trust me and be assured that I am helping you in your desire. Good night and God bless you.

Your brother and friend,
Jesus