Jesus Writes About the Individualization and Incarnation of the Soul

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

I am here, Jesus.

Let me write tonight as you are in good condition, and I desire very much to write you in reference to a subject that is important for men to know.

As I have before written you, there are two destinies for man in the spirit life, and the one or the other of them may be just as he desires and seeks for.

I was with you today as you listened to the preacher (Dr. Pierce) expound the reasons why he is a believer in the faith of the church (Unitarian) to which he belongs, and in which he is a leader and teacher. He is undoubtedly honest and earnest in his beliefs and, so far as they go, they will afford him the happiness that he spoke of, provided he puts such beliefs into actual, practical living and makes them the dominating, dynamic influence that shall guide and control him in his intercourse with humanity.

He said truly that there is a law that operates in wonderful power in shaping men's lives and which, when obeyed, will determine the career not only of men but of nations; and that law is, that when once a truth is ascertained or comes to the knowledge of men it must be recognized and acted upon, or it will lose its beneficent effect upon the lives of men. If he applies this law to his own life, he will experience a wonderful help in meeting the difficulties and cares of life and in overcoming the things that beset him as a thinking man.

This is a wonderful truth, and so far as it pervades the life of a man will result in making that life one of consistent goodness and cause harmony between that man and God, who overrules the secret things of the universe, and that man will enjoy a great happiness even while in the flesh.

But this is not the important object and aim of what the preacher calls religion, nor does it furnish the means by which a man may come into a greater and closer harmony with the will of God. I know, that to man this present mortal life seems a thing of the greatest importance, and that the chief aim of man should be to act in that manner that will make his life successful and happy and, so far as it is suited to make man the harmonious creature that is intended, it is advisable to follow that course of living and loving. But the preacher does not know of and cannot teach the great object of man's appearance on earth, and the goal that is ever before him, waiting to be reached and possessed.

As I have told you before, man's existence in the flesh is only for the purpose of giving his soul an individualization, and all other apparent objects are only secondary, as you may say, accidental accompaniments of this process of individualization.

Hence, you will observe that this great object is accomplished equally in the case of the infant who dies young and in the case of the man who lives to a ripe old age; in each case the object of the soul's incarnation in the flesh is effected. The old man, of course, has his experience - a longer and more diverse existence in meeting and overcoming or submitting to the exigencies of his living than does the infant, but the great object is not more perfectly accomplished in the one case than in the other.

The soul becomes individualized the moment it finds its lodgment in the receptacle prepared by the Laws of Nature in using the human father and mother as its instruments, and time thereafter does not influence or have any determining effect upon that soul so far as its individualization is concerned; and neither does eternity, for that condition being once fixed never can be changed nor annihilated, so far as is known to the highest spirits of God's Heavens. Of course, the soul as thus individualized is subject to the various influences that surround it in its mortal life, and these influences may be retarding, deadly or destructive to the progress of the soul, but cannot possibly affect the object obtained by that soul's coming into the flesh or ever require a new individualization of that soul. Its identity and character, as an individualized thing are established, and no condition of the soul as to its goodness or badness can ever, in the slightest degree, affect this character or identity. The soul once individualized always remains the individual, even though the elements that enter into and make up the form will always find itself being rebuilt and continued by the operations of the law that preserves the individuality of that soul.

Then, I say, the object of the incarnation of the soul is to give it an individualization, and this in two appearances; first, in that of the physical form which men by their perception of their natural organs of sense can perceive; and secondly, a form that is more sublimated and generally invisible to these organs - a spiritual form.

At the moment of incarnation, the soul takes the form which has been prepared for it by the forces that exist in the parents and retains that for during the natural life; and at the same moment, there is created for it or attracted to it, the form of the spirit body, which then and ever afterwards remains with it. Both of these bodies are of the material; one of the visible material of the universe, the other of the invisible but still of the material.

As you know, that body which is made of the visible material lasts for a little while only and then disappears forever, while that which is of the invisible, and which is more real and substantial than the former and exists all the time of the existence of the visible, continues with the soul after the disappearance of the visible1 body; and while changeable in response to the progress of that soul, yet the spirit body never in its composite form leaves that soul. This we in the spirit life know to be true, just as certainly as you mortals know the truth of the existence of the physical body. And as you mortals may in the short space of the life on earth identify the man - which is really the soul - by the appearance of his physical body, so we in the spirit world identify the same man by the appearance of the spirit body, and so this fact must be forever.

Then such being the fact, it must be conceived that the soul has its existence in the physical body for an infinitesimal short time; that is, its life on earth is only the breath of a moment, and then it enters on its career through eternity, and after a few years, as you may say, it may cease to remember that it ever had a lodgment in the physical body.

The preacher criticized the religion that taught man to think of and prepare for the future of the soul, and emphasized the fact that their thoughts should be more of the present, and that duty and good works towards their fellow man should be the object of their living, and their religion. Well, I recognize the importance of duty and good works and approve of them with all the knowledge that I now have of the demands and requirements of God's Love, but on the other hand must say, that their importance to man's future destiny is also the importance of other privileges and obligations possessed by, and resting on man, during the short time that the soul is clothed in the physical body. Duty performed, and good works will lessen the distress and sufferings of the mortal life, and cause the man who performs the duty and does the good works to become more in harmony with God's Laws of Mercy and Truth, but will never suffice to bring a soul into harmony with the will of the Father as regards the higher destiny of man. These things will tend to lead merely to the purification of the soul, and to cause it to come into accord with the laws of its own creation and their end. These constitute merely the exercise of compliance with the moral laws, and bring only a moral effect. And when I say moral laws I mean those laws that demand that, and by the observance of which, man comes into the condition of the perfect man, which was his at the time of his creation. He thereby obtains nothing more than belonged to him when he existed as the perfect man and was in complete harmony with God as such perfect man. He then loved God with all the capacity of his soul in the exercise of the Love that had been bestowed upon him, and could have loved his brother as himself.

And to this condition men are, to a more or less extent, now striving to attain, and many precepts of the Old Testament as well as of the New, will lead men to thus obtain, and if this were the only destiny of man, then the religion of the preacher, which he says is based on these moral precepts of love to God and love to his fellow man, would be sufficient to obtain the goal sought, and love and duty and service would be all that are required of men while on earth as well as after they become spirits; and the exercise of these graces by men while on earth would be just as necessary and helpful as would their exercise afterwards in the spirit world. These things of love to God and love to man, and service and sacrifice constitute the true religion that leads to the perfect man, and makes for that harmony with the laws of God governing the condition of the perfect man, but not the Divine man.

These things should be preached by all ministers and teachers, and practiced by men everywhere, for in their practice are happiness and bliss unspeakable. As these things work to a finality, man again becomes the son of God and obedient to His laws, and realizes the meaning of "love God and love your brother". And so I repeat, the preacher in pronouncing the basis of his religion, declared the truths that will lead him into the condition of the perfect man, in harmony with God's will as to man's creation.

Well, I see you are tired and so we will postpone the further writing. I am very much pleased that you are in so much better condition, and hope that we may continue our messages without further interruption. Only pray more and believe that the Father will answer your prayers. So believe that I love you and want you to be happy and free from care.

Good night. Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Writes She Wants to Learn the Secret of Divine Love

June 16, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Let me say a word and that is, that I have listened to the last message that was written you, (St. John) and if I could only utter from my soul as that spirit did the deep and true meaning of love and gladness, I would think that beyond the condition that I should then be in there could not possibly be any starry Heavens or beyond.

I am a bright spirit and happy, but my happiness is not that which I saw in the bright spirit who wrote, and my love to his is like a pale moonbeam compared to the glorious sunlight. I wonder now that such a spirit can possess such a glorious countenance of love and sympathy. When he spoke of the love of the mother for her son, his whole soul seemed to go with his words and to reflect the wondrous Love that he must possess.

This is the first time that I have ever attempted to write through a mortal, and my astonishment is great that I can do so with such ease, but I realize that it must be because there are so many beautiful spirits present encouraging me to do so.

You should be a very happy mortal to have all these glorious spirits around and so close to you, and they all seem to love you so very much and, as I write, they smile upon you and say that they love you, not only because they are your parents and relatives, but because in your heart - and I refer to both you mortals - there is a Love that responds to theirs and recognizes the fact of the mutuality of the affections.

Tell me what is the secret of this, to me, wonderful attraction, and what this Love is, for it must be beyond what I have experienced.

Well, I have heard what you said, and one beautiful spirit comes to me, and says that she is a country woman of mine and invites me to go with her for a little talk, and says that her name on earth was Kate, and now it is, a child of the Father and a possessor of His Love, which she says is a part of the Love that I see all around me. How wonderful this all is, and how I long to be among these beautiful spirits in their beauty and happiness!

Well, I will have to leave now and learn the secret of the Love. So thanking you, I will say good night.

Your true friend,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Jesus Writes Further About "Who and What is God?"

May 25, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Jesus.

I have been with you as you prayed and joined in your prayer to the Father for the inflowing of His Great Love into your soul in great abundance; and I know that His Holy Spirit is present and that His Love is flowing into your soul, and that you are becoming in at-onement with the Father. His Love will always come to you when you pray as you have tonight, and His listening ear is always open to the earnest aspirations of His children who come to him with the true longings of the soul.

You have the secret of reaching the Father's Love, and on all occasions when you feel that you need that Love, or desire a nearness to the Father, use the secret and you will not be disappointed.

You are in better condition tonight in your soul development and perceptions and can receive my message which I have desired for some time to communicate and to do which I was waiting only for you to be in a complete rapport with me.

Well, you will remember that in the early stages of our writings, I communicated to you my knowledge and conception of: "Who and what God is," and that I have recently told you that I desired to rewrite the message, as your condition is now so much better to receive these truths than it was when the message was written; and so, tonight, I will deliver the message and will take a more complete possession of your brain and control of your hand than I was able to do at the time mentioned.

Then the question is: Who and What is God?

In dealing with this question, you must realize that it is not so easy to describe in language that mortals can comprehend the Essence and Attributes of God, and I feel the limitations that I am under in endeavoring to give you a satisfactory description of the only and true God; not because of the paucity of knowledge and conception on my part, but because of the fact that you have not the required soul development to enable me to form the necessary rapport with you in order that through your brain may be expressed the exact truth as to who the Father is.

Well, to begin, God is Soul and Soul is God. Not the soul that is in the created man, but the Soul that is Deity and self-existent, without beginning or ending, and whose entity is the one great fact in the universe of being.

God is without form, such as has been conceived of by man in nearly all ages, and especially by those who believe in the Bible of the Hebrews, as well as in that of the Christians. But nevertheless, He is of form, which only the soul perceptions of the soul of a man, which has arrived at a certain degree of development, that is taken on the Divine Nature of the Father and, thus, become a part of the Soul of God can discern and realize as an entity. There is nothing in all nature with which men are acquainted or have knowledge of that can be used to make a comparison, even in the spirit perceptions, with this Great Soul; and, hence, for men to conceive of God as having a form in any manner resembling that of man, is all erroneous; and those who, in their beliefs and teachings deny the anthropomorphic God are correct.

But, nevertheless, God is of form such as to give him an entity and Substance and seat of habitation, in contradistinction to that God which, in the teachings of some men, is said to be everywhere in this Substance and entity - in the trees and rocks, and thunder and lightning, and in men and beasts, and in all created things, and in whom men are said to live and move and have their being. No, this concept of God is not in accord with the truth, and it is vital to the knowledge and salvation of men that such conception of God be not entertained or believed in.

To believe that God is without form is to believe that he is a mere force or principle or nebulous power and, as some say, the resultant of laws; which laws, as a fact, He has established for the controlling of His universe of creation, and which are expressed to men by these very powers and principles, that to some extent, they can comprehend.

The child has asked: "Who made God?"

And because the wise men cannot answer that question, in their wisdom, they conclude and assert that there can be no real God of personality or soul form and, hence, only force, principle or evolved laws can be God; and in their own conceit think that they have solved the question.

But the child may not be satisfied with the answer, and may ask the wise men: "Who made principle and force and laws that must be accepted as the only God?"

And then, the wise men cannot answer unless they answer: "God," which they do not believe, but which let me say, is the true and only answer.

God is back of force and principle and law, which are only expressions of His being, and which without Him could not exist; and they are only existences, changeable, dependent and subject to the will of God, who only, is Being.

God then, is Soul, and that Soul has its form, perceptible only to Itself, or that of man, which, by reason of the sufficient possession of the very Substance of the Great Soul has become like unto God, not in image only, but in very Essence. We spirits of the highest soul progression are enabled by our soul perceptions to see God and His form. But here, I use the words "see" and "form," as being the only words that I can use to give mortals a comparative conception of what I am endeavoring to describe.

When it is remembered that mortals can scarcely conceive of the form of the spirit body of a man, which is composed or formed of the material of the universe, though not usually accepted to be of the material, it will be readily seen that it is hardly possible for me to convey to them a faint idea even of the Soul form of God, which is composed of that which is purely spiritual - that is, not of the material, even though to the highest degree sublimated.

And although I am not able, because of the limitations mentioned, to describe to men that form which they may glean a conception of the Soul's form - as such form can be seen only with the soul's eye, which eyes men do not possess - it must not be believed that because men cannot understand or perceive the truth of the Soul's form, therefore, it is not a truth. A truth, though not conceived or perceived by men, spirits or angels, is still a truth, and its existence does not depend upon its being known; and even though all the mortals of earth, and the spirits and Angels of Heaven, save one, could not perceive the existence of that truth, yet its existence perceived by that one irrefutably proves its reality.

But, as I have said, the truth of God's form - the Soul's form can be testified to by more than one of the Celestial Spirits of men passed from earth; and the possibility is before mortals of the present life, in the great future, if their souls have become possessed of the Divine Substance of God's Love in sufficient abundance to perceive God as I have attempted to explain.

The created soul of man has its form, it being made in the image of God, yet man cannot see that form, although it is a fact and can be testified to by many in the spirit realms. And here it needs to be said that when in our message we speak of God as being without form, we mean any such form as men have or think they have conceived of, and our expressions must not be considered as contradictory to what I have tried to explain as the form of God.

Well, in addition to the form, God has a personality, and this is expressed and made known to man by certain attributes, which to the consciousness of man is existent in the universe; and to some philosophers and scientists and wise men these attributes are their impersonal God himself, and to them the only God. They make the created, the Creator, not realizing that behind the expression must be the Cause; and that greater than the attribute must be that from which the expression of the attribute is projected or, as they better like to say, evolved.

And here, I, who know, desire to say that these manifested attributes or forces and powers and principles and laws and expressions do not, all together, constitute or be that from which they flow or in which they have their source. God is Himself, alone. His Attributes or expressions manifested to mortals or spirits, are only the results or effects of the workings of His Spirit, which Spirit is only the active energy of His Soul - Himself. And, hence, the form of God is not distributed over the whole universe of creation where His attributes may be, or because they are everywhere manifested.

No, as was said by Moses of old, and as was said by me when on earth: God is in His Heavens. And although it may be surprising and startling to mortals to hear, God has His habitation, and God the Substance, the Self-existing and Soul form, has His locality, and men do not live and move and have their existence in God; but in His emanations and expressions and spirit they do.

As you are somewhat exhausted, I think this a good place to stop. I am pleased that you are in such good condition. So be prepared for an early resumption of the message.

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

Your brother and friend,
Jesus

Ann Rollins Writes that She Was Nearly Blind and Deaf on Earth, Was Not Unhappy, and Tells the Secret

January 9, 1917
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your Grandmother.

Well, my dear son, it has been sometime since I wrote you, and I feel that I must say a few words to you, as you are in a condition that needs some encouragement and sympathy. I love you, as you know, and while I have not written you lately, yet I have been with you a great deal watching over you and trying to influence you with my love and powers of bringing to you spiritual thoughts and soul's longings.

Now, I want to tell you a few things that may help you in your moments of worry. When on earth, as you know, I was nearly blind and deaf, and in such condition as would naturally cause me to worry and be unhappy, but I did not worry and was not unhappy; and the secret was that I had in my soul the Love of the Father, and it was so real to me that no doubt of its existence in my soul ever came to cause me unhappiness.

And that Love, I know and assure you, is the same kind of Love that now floods my whole being and gives me the happiness that I now possess. I remember that I did not have many material things to trouble me, for you looked after my material welfare and was always kind to me and loving, yet, nevertheless, if it had not been for the Love that I speak of, I can readily see that I should have been very unhappy and worried a great deal for my natural inclination was to worry when things did not go right, as we said.

And so I tell you from actual experience that all your worries, and by this I mean your causes of worry, may be taken from your conscious self if you will only seek for and obtain, which you certainly can do, this Love of the Father. It is astonishing how efficacious it is to cause the worries and troubles to disappear. They, as you may know, are very largely a matter of the mind and while in a certain sense they are real, yet the mind or its condition is the real cause of the realization of the worries.

And consider for a moment the fact, and I know that you will agree with me that it is a fact, that the indulging in these worries does not in one particular remove the material causes of the worry and does not in any manner bring relief from the troubles. No matter how much you may allow your mind to dwell on these things, and how intensely you may worry, the cause  the material cause - remains. You may say, and it is natural to do so, that it is easy enough to advise that you should not let these inconvenient things cause you to worry, but when you come to the practical experience and are the sufferer from these conditions, it is not so easy to throw aside the effect of the troubles on the mind.

Well, there is much truth in that, but notwithstanding, this Love that I tell you of, when living in the soul, will make even that effort easy to accomplish. The philosophy of the phenomenon, if you may call it such, is that this Love is of such real substantial Essence that it takes control of the mind and eliminates the consciousness of the reality of the causes of the worry.

Now I do not want to be understood as intending to convey the idea that these material causes are not real, for I am not a Christian Scientist to that extent, but what I do mean is that, notwithstanding the real existence of these causes, the effects of this Love and the faith that accompanies it upon the mind, which is the real cause of the worry, is such that forgetfulness of these causes of worry takes the place of the constant indulging in the thoughts of their existence and the unhappy consequence that must flow from them. The cause itself is not removed but the consciousness of their existence, for the time being, is dissipated, and to the mind that is, thus, influenced by the Love, these causes are as if they were not.

Of course, they are existing and facing you to some extent, but it will come to you that they are not so overwhelming and insurmountable as they would appear were this Love absent from the soul and its influence from the mind. And, in addition to this, Love and faith creates a confidence in the power of the Father and His willingness to help that engenders courage, which enables the possessor of this confidence to overcome these causes of worry that he would not otherwise be able to do.

What I have said may be called the philosophy of the workings of this Love in its effective destruction of worry. But the great fact is that the Father does, as a truth, help the one who is in the condition of being possessed with this Love. His Love is real and His help is real, and the effect is to make the causes named things of unreality so far as the happiness of the object of this help is concerned. And as a truth, shown by the experience of mortals, a very large proportion of the worries and troubles that harass and cause so much unhappiness to mortals is a thing of the imagination and never realized.

So my dear son, try to understand what I have written and apply it to your own condition, and you will find that your worries are not near so great as you now think. I know just what is facing you, but as you have been told by others who have written you, in a short time you will be relieved, and the sun will again shine in your consciousness of existence, and you will become in a much better condition to do your work, both that of your business and that of the Master. You must not for a moment think that you will not be looked after so that you can do and complete the task that you have been selected to do. This is as certain as that the sun shines, and while for a time yet some disagreeable and disheartening things may confront you, yet it will not be a great while before they will become things of the past, and you will be in condition to do this work without hindrance or interference.

So think of all that I have said and try to believe and make a practical application of my philosophy; and above all pray to the Father for a greater inflowing of this Love and have faith to realize that it will become yours, limited only by your longings and sincerity of aspirations.

Well, I will come soon and write you a long letter on some spiritual truth that will be of interest to you. I must stop now, and so with all my love and the Father's blessings, I will say, good night.

Your loving Grandmother

Luke Writes About the Mystery and the Truth of the Holy Spirit

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

I am here, St. Luke.

I come tonight to write you a message upon the truth of: "What the Holy Spirit is."

I know that the orthodox generally believe and classify it as a part of the Godhead, being one with and the equal of God, the Father, and not merely a manifestation of the Father, as spirit and, hence, necessarily identical with the Father, though having a different and distinct personality. In this belief and in this classification is included Jesus having a distinct personality.

The orthodox preachers and theological writers teach that it is a fact that these three are one, co-equal and existing, and that fact is the great mystery of God, and that men should not endeavor to fathom the mystery, because the sacred things of God are His own, and it is not lawful for men to enter into these secrets. Well, this declaration and admonition are very wise as men's wisdom goes and saves the expounders of these doctrines of mystery from attempting to explain what they cannot explain, because it is impossible for them to unravel that which as a fact, has no existence.

Men of thought all down the ages have sought to understand this great mystery, as they called it, and have been unsuccessful, and as the early fathers met with the same defeat in their endeavors to understand the mystery and, then because of such defeat, declared the explanation of the doctrine to be a secret of God, not to be inquired into by men, so all these other investigators of the church when they became convinced of the futility of the search adopted the admonition of the old fathers that God's secret must not be inquired into, for it belonged to Him alone, and sinful man and the redeemed man also must respect God's secret.

And, thus, from the beginning of the established church, after the death of Jesus and his apostles, was declared this doctrine of the trinity - one in three and three in one, yet only one - and made the vital foundationstone of their visible church's existence. Of course, from time to time, there arose men, both in the church who, having more enlightenment than their brothers in the church, attempted to gainsay the truth of the doctrine and declared and maintained that there was only one God, the Father.

But they were in the minority, and not acting with the more powerful, their views were rejected; and the mystery became the church's sacred symbol of truth, unexplainable and therefore more certain and entitled to more credence. And it seems to be the tendency of men's minds, or at least of those who believe in the Bible as the inspired word of God, to welcome and encourage as the more wonderful and important and the more to be cherished those things which savor of the mysterious, rather than those which a man may read and understand as he runneth. (Habbakuk 2:2).

Nowhere, not even in the Bible is there any saying of Jesus to the effect that God is tripartite, consisting of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; and, as a fact, never did Jesus when on earth teach any such doctrine, but only this: that the Father is God and the only God, and that he, Jesus, is his son and the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead, and that the Holy Ghost is God's messenger for conveying the Divine Love, and as such, the comforter.

I know that in some of the Gospels, as now contained in the Bible and adopted as canonical, it is said, in effect, that the Godhead consists of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost - these three are one - but such Gospels do not contain the truth in this respect and are not the same Gospels that were originally written. These original Gospels have been added to and taken from in the passing of the years and in the copying and the recopying that occurred before the adoption of the same.

They, the adopted ones, were compiled from many writings, and as the compilers in those early times differed in their opinions as men do now respecting religious truths, the more powerful of these having authority to declare what should be accepted, according to their interpretations of those manuscripts that were being copied, directed the copies to be made in accord with their ideas, and I may say, desires, and announced and put forth such productions to be true copies of the originals.

And as these copies were successively made the preceding ones were destroyed and, hence, the earliest existing manuscripts of these Gospels came into being many years after the originals from which they were claimed to be compiled were written and destroyed.

And I, Luke, who did write a gospel and who am acquainted with the present gospel ascribed to me, say that there are many vital things and declarations, that I never wrote and that are not true, contained in it; and many truths that I did write are not contained therein - and so with the other gospels.

In none of our Gospels did the mystery of the Godhead appear, and that for the reason that there was not and is not, and we did not teach that there was any Godhead, composed of three personalities. Only one God, the Father. Jesus was a son of man in the natural sense, and a son of God in the spiritual sense, but he was not God or a part of God in any sense except that he possessed the Divine Love of the Father, and in that sense was a part of His Essence. The Holy Spirit was not God, but merely His instrument - a Spirit - the Holy Spirit.

As you have been informed, the soul of man existed prior to man's creation in the flesh and was the only part of man that was made in the image of God. It existed in this pristine state without individuality, though having a personality, and resembled the Great Soul of the Almighty, which Soul is God Himself; though the soul that was given to man was not a part of the Great Soul, merely a likeness of it.

Some of you mortals have said that man's soul is a part of the "Oversoul," meaning the Soul of God, but this is not true, and if in any of our communications it has been said that the soul of man is a part of the Soul of God, and I mean while it existed before its incarnation, our saying must not be so interpreted. The ego of God as may be said, is the Soul, and from this Soul, emanates all the manifested attributes of God, such as power and wisdom and love - but not jealousy or wrath or hatred, as some of the writers of the Bible have said, for He possesses no such attributes. The ego of man is the soul, and in his created purity and perfection from his soul emanated all the manifested attributes belonging to him, such as power and love and wisdom; and neither were jealousy nor hatred nor wrath attributes of his before his fall.

It is said that man is composed of body, soul and spirit, and this is true. From your life's experience, you know what the body is, and I have told you what the soul is, and now the question arises, what is the spirit? I know that there have been for centuries great differences of opinion among theologians and other wise men as to what the spirit is; some contending that it and the soul are the same thing, and others, that the spirit is the real ego of man and the soul something of less quality and subordinate to the spirit, and others having other views, and all wrong. For as I have, said the soul is the ego, and everything else connected with man and forming a part at his creation when he was pronounced to be "very good," is subordinate to the soul, and only its instrumentality for manifesting itself.

As Jesus has told you, the spirit is the active energy of the soul and the instrumentality by which the soul manifests itself; and this definition applies to the spirit of man while a mortal as well as when he becomes an inhabitant of the spirit world. The spirit is inseparable from the soul, and has no function in the existence of man, except to make manifest the potentialities of the soul in its activities. Spirit is not life, but it may become an evidence of life - it is life's breath.

And as man was created in the image of his Maker - and as spirit is only the active energy of the soul, by the application of the principle of correspondences, which one of your former psychics declared to exist, it may be assumed and it is truth, that the Holy Spirit is the active energy of the Great Soul of the Father and, as we know from our experiences and observations, is used as the messenger of the Father to convey to mankind His Divine Love. And I do not mean to restrict the mission of the Holy Spirit to mankind in the flesh, for it also conveys and bestows this Great Love upon the souls of the Father's children who are spirits without the bodies of bone and flesh, and who are inhabitants of the spirit world. And so, it is a truth that the Holy Spirit is not God and no part of the Godhead, but merely His messenger of Truth and Love emanating from his Great Soul and bringing to man Love and Light and Happiness.

So you see there is no mystery of the Godhead, and no secret that God does not wish man to know and understand, and no truth that it is contrary to God's Laws and Will that man shall search for and possess. It is said that God is Spirit, and it is true; but spirit is not God, only one of his instruments used to work with mankind and the spirits of men. To worship the instrument is blasphemy, and only God alone must be worshiped. Jesus must not be worshiped as God, the Holy Spirit must not be so worshiped, and the sooner men learn this Truth and observe it, the sooner they will get in at-onement with the Father, and please the Master who, as some may not know, is the greatest worshiper of the Father in all his universe.

I have written longer than I expected, but I hope from my message many mortals may receive the truth, and believe that the Holy Spirit is not one of the Godhead, and that the mystery of the Godhead is a myth, without body, soul or spirit, and that there is no truth in all God's universe that man is not invited to search for and understand and possess.

I will now stop and in doing so will leave you my love and blessings, and will pray the Father to send the Holy Spirit to you with great abundance of the Divine Love. Good night and God bless you until I come again.

Your brother in Christ,
Luke

Helen Padgett and Mary Kennedy Write that Mary Has Progressed to the First Celestial Sphere

May 6, 1916
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your Helen.

And I merely want to say that I have been listening to the talk between you and Dr. Stone, and I think that you both have been enlightened as well as entertained by the message. It undoubtedly contains truths that are pregnant with ideas and thoughts that will cause many men to wonder and change the conceptions of many of their beliefs.

Well, who do you think is here now like a hen on a griddle, so afraid that she will not have the chance to tell the Dr. that she has another secret and he must know it; and she says just let her say one little word. So I suppose she will have to have her way.

Mary:

Well, Dr., I am here, as you may be surprised to know, if you have forgotten my last secret, but I don't believe that you have. I want to say I am in a happier condition than I have ever been, for I am now in the Celestial Spheres where I know that happiness is so much greater than ever before. So you must believe me when I tell you that my love is so very much more abundant, and that you are dearer to me than ever before. So try to realize what I mean and imagine that you are with me, even for a little while, and then you will be happier, too. I have said what I wanted to and must stop.

Helen:

Well, she feels better and says if she could go to sleep, she would sleep better now.

Yes, I am here again. Mary means that she is in a condition that is full of the Love of the Celestial Spheres, that are higher than the one in which she was when she last wrote you. She is in the First Celestial Sphere, but she feels that as she progresses, the other spheres are so much more filled with the Love that she speaks of.

Her expression of being near the Celestial Spheres may be misleading, but the truth is that her home is in the First Celestial and she is very near the Second and will probably be there in a short time. I have told you the exact fact and you must believe what I say.

Well sweetheart, I will not write more. So with all my love,

I am your own true and loving,
Helen

Albert G. Riddle Writes About His Soul's Progression from the Earth Plane to the Seventh Sphere

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

I am here, your old partner, Albert G. Riddle.

I desire to write to you tonight upon a subject which I think will be interesting, but it is so late now I hesitate to do so. Well, as you think it will be all right, I will do so. I want to write on the subject of the soul's progression as I have experienced it.

As you know, when I first came into the spirit world, I was an unbeliever in things pertaining to the soul, except that I thought that the soul, which in my then opinion was the equivalent of that part of man which survived death, would continue to exist, and progress as the mental qualities of the man should be developed. That the mind was the great and only thing in the future existence and, as the mind was developed more and more on earth, the condition of the man in his progression would be determined.

I had no conception of the soul as a distinct and independent existence from the mind, and I thought that all the qualities and attributes of the mind were those which belong to the soul, and that I had none others. And so I say, I entered the spirit world and did not change my beliefs until a long time after I became a spirit.

But as I continued to live in the spirit world in this belief, I found that the mental faculties and their development did not bring to me the satisfaction which I had anticipated; and also, met some of my friends of earth, who had preceded me by long years, men of great mental acquirements. I found that their condition was not as satisfactory a nature as I had led myself to believe that they should be, for many of these friends were only in the earth plane and some were in darkness, which was wholly contrary to what they should be if my theory of the 'allness' of the mind was true. All this caused me to think and in thinking, I commenced to realize that there might be something wrong in my theory, and that the soul might be a distinct thing from the mind in its nature and functions.

I did not find that these intellectual friends of mine had any very great happiness nor were they satisfied with their condition, and yet they could not by the exercise of any mental progress get out of their condition of darkness. Of course, they were engaged in pursuing studies of one kind or another, and such studies gave them considerable happiness and satisfaction, yet, notwithstanding all this, there was some restraining force that prevented them from going to spheres higher than they were then living in.

I found that there were higher spheres where the mind was developed to a much greater degree and where many spirits, who believed in the supremacy of the mind, lived and enjoyed the pursuits of their studies. At times, some of these spirits would come to our plane and tell of the wonderful development and happiness in these higher spheres and urge us to make the effort to progress and become inhabitants of them, and you may be assured we were willing and anxious to make such progress. But try as I would, and as my friends would, the efforts produced no visible effect and we continued in darkness.

Being of an inquisitive nature, I sought for the reason of our inability to get out of the darkness. At last I found that the mind was not everything, but the development of the moral qualities were necessary to enable us to progress as we desired, and that in order to develop these qualities, something more than the mere exercise of the mental faculties were required.

Conscience must be satisfied and our recollection of evil deeds on earth must be gotten rid of, and our qualities of soul, which determined our position and condition in the spirit world, must be so adjusted to the demands of the Laws of Harmony, so that we could be able to advance in our progress to that place which such adjustment would entitle us to occupy.

I further found that the darkness in which we lived was not created by any defective condition of the mind, for many spirits whose minds were highly cultivated and possessed of unusual knowledge were in just as much darkness as were many spirits of very meagre mentality and information.

All this knowledge came to me and caused me to seek a way to improve my moral nature and to get rid of the recollections of those things which tainted and darkened such nature, and I sought very diligently, but it was slow work and the efforts required were great.

But some progress was made, and if I had continued long enough and used my will powers in urging the cultivation of kind thoughts and love for the truth and affection, etc., I would undoubtedly have progressed from darkness.This had been the experience of many spirits who believed as I did, that the mind was the thing and depended upon their own will and exertions to bring the desired results.

But while in this condition of struggle and slow progress, I would occasionally meet spirits who seemed to be of a higher order and more beautiful than was I, and naturally I wondered what the cause was, although strange as it may seem to you, I never made the inquiry until one day I met some of our folks who had this beautiful appearance and seemed to be so perfectly happy.

Naturally in our conversation, I asked them the cause of their happiness and when they told me, I was so surprised that I gave very little credence to what they said, because what they told me was so similar to what I had heard on earth in the orthodox churches. I supposed that these friends had brought with them their old orthodox faiths and emotions and were deceiving themselves as to the cause of their appearances, and that the probable cause was that they were more moral than I, when on earth and, hence, their recollections of earthly sins were less and conscience was not so severe on them and, therefore, they had gotten out of their darkness into light with the resultant appearance of beauty and happiness. I would not at first accept their explanations of the cause of their conditions and continued for sometime longer in the effort to improve my moral condition and advance in my mental acquirements.

But there was one other thing I noticed and, that is, that while these beautiful friends had not the mental development, apparently, that some other spirits who had progressed out of the darkness into the higher spheres of light, yet the beauty and seeming happiness of these friends were so much greater and of a different nature from the happiness and appearance of those more highly mentally developed spirits.

And again, I thought and concluded that even moral and mental development could not explain the cause of the difference between the appearances and happiness of these friends and those of these more mentally developed spirits; so I again determined to seek the cause and, as a consequence, I sought these friends with the intention and desire to listen more seriously to what they might tell me and to open my mind to the secret as it was to me.

Well, I listened to them and they told me that their progress and condition was caused by the soul development which they had received in seeking for and obtaining the Divine Love of the Father. That the soul is the great and important part of being spirits; that the condition of the soul development determines the position and appearance and happiness of the spirit; that the spirit body and mind are both subordinate to the soul, and whenever the mind submits to the control of the soul and the will of the mind, as you may say, to the will of the soul, that then the progress to the highest sphere will commence, and the spirit who is thus progressing will show the state of his advancement by the appearance of his beauty and happiness.

They further explained to me the nature and power of the Divine Love and its great developing potentialities and the absolute necessity of its entering into and possessing the soul in order for it to make its greatest progress; that as this Divine Love became more and more a part of the soul's possessions, the soul took on itself the Divine Nature of the Father, and all these things which had a lodgment therein, and which tended to make it dark and sinful, disappeared and as these things disappeared, the soul mounted to higher spheres and became happier and more beautiful, and the spiritual body correspondingly manifested this happiness and beauty.

All these things and many more, these friends told me and urged me to seek for the Divine Love of the Father and offered in every way to help me. At first I could not understand what seeking this Divine Love meant, but they took great pains to instruct me, and told me that only through prayer and faith would it come to me; that while this Love was waiting to fill the soul of every spirit and anxious to do so, yet only by earnest, sincere seeking would It enter the soul and fill it with Its Great Essence.

At last they persuaded me to pray to the Father and then prayed with me, but it was hard to have faith in that which my mind did not understand and could not grasp. But they said, the soul has its faculties and is not dependent upon the mind for this faith, and upon my exercising these soul faculties would depend the question of my receiving this love and this faith, for as Love came, faith would come also, which faith was not a mere mental belief, but something greater and different.

Well, I continued to pray for this Love and after awhile, I felt a sensation which I had never felt before within my soul and, as I prayed, this feeling increased and faith in a small degree came to me, and I realized that there was a Love possessing me that was never with me before. I continued, thus, to seek and pray until at last this Great Love came to me in great abundance flooding, as it were, my whole soul and happiness unspeakable came to me and, as these friends said, light and beauty also.

Well, you can imagine that my longings and desires became insatiable. The darkness disappeared. My recollections of the evils of my life became fainter and fainter and suddenly I found myself in the Third Sphere, which then appeared to me to be the very Heaven of Heavens and the very fountainhead of beauty and happiness.

Now during all this time, and it was not accomplished in a day, I gave no attention to the development of my mind, or to the acquiring of knowledge of the material things, as I might say, of the spirit world, but when I found myself in the beautiful sphere that I have mentioned, it seemed to me that my mental faculties had expanded beyond all possibilities of belief and knowledge of things, that I had never before heard or conceived of, came to me with wonderful clearness.

But the soul - and not the mind - was the thing! And Love - this Divine Love of the Father - made happiness mine and everything beautiful and satisfying. He, who seeks only the development of the mind and lets the soul slumber, is poor indeed; but he who seeks the development of the soul finds that as his soul develops his mind does also, and rich he is beyond compare.

Well, I continued in this soul development and in the increased happiness and the attainment of great brightness, and more than all the possessions of this Great Love, until I passed through the Fifth Sphere, where everything was much more beautiful, and Love so more abundant than in the Third Sphere, and entered the Seventh Sphere, where I now am. I will not attempt to tell you the glories of this sphere, for I feel that words are inadequate to do so. Then in a faint, unsatisfying way have I attempted to rehearse to you the soul's development and the wholly sufficient thing that it is.

And my advice to all mortals, based on my own personal experience, is to seek with all their might and earnest efforts the development of the soul, and that of the mind will follow. This they can commence while yet on earth, and they will find that progress after they have crossed the border line will be much more rapid and easier.

Well, it is late and I have written long enough. But I wanted so much to write to you tonight upon this subject of the soul development as I see its vital importance to the future happiness of man and to his immortality.

So with all my love and blessings, I am

Your brother in Christ,
Albert G. Riddle

Helen and Mary Kennedy Write a Message to Permit Mary to Tell a Secret to Her Soulmate

December 29, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your Helen.

I will write you a little, if I am permitted to do so; but I suppose I will have to be real stern to another spirit here who says that she wants to write and tell you one little secret, which she has and if I will only let her say it, she will love me forever. So I suppose I must let her say it.

Mary now writes:

Well, Doctor*, don't you know whom Helen was talking about? I don't believe you do, because when I said I had a secret, you would immediately say it was not I, for I don't keep secrets but tell all I know - no matter who hears me.

But you are wrong, for I have a secret and I want to tell it to you, but only on condition that you promise not to reveal it. I assume that you promise. So listen as I whisper it to you: I love you with all my heart and soul and want you to know it.

Now Helen, I have told him, and I thank you.

Helen now writes:

Well, isn't she a cute little sweetheart! But she had to tell him or she would burst open, as you mortals say.

Well, sweetheart, you have had a long writing tonight and I will not detain you longer. I will say, though, that I am so happy and only wish that you could get one glimpse of me now, for you would see such love for you that you would never more doubt. But I must stop. So good night to you both.

Your own true and loving,
Helen

*Dr. Leslie R. Stone

Saelish, Formerly of Assyria, Writes That Reincarnation is a Fable and Has No Real Existence

November 3, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.

I am here, Saelish.

I was, when on earth, an inhabitant of the great Empire of Assyria of which Nineveh was the capital. I was not a king but was one of a great king's magicians or wise men, and when I lived was a man of great influence and power in the kingdom.

I came tonight to tell you a great truth in connection with the soul. As you may infer, when I lived we knew nothing of the one and only God, but we worshiped many gods, great and little, and believed that these gods could help or harm u, just as we deserved their help or their injurious workings. And so our many gods sometimes came in conflict in their treatment of us poor mortals, so that we at times hardly knew whether our gods were our friends or our enemies.

Of course, the help that we sought for was all of a material nature, for never did we think of help in the way of preparing us for a future life; that, we supposed, was only for those of us who by our great achievement in battle or in intellectual pursuits would, upon death, become gods ourselves. The poor, ordinary mortals were only intended to live the mortal life, at least during the incarnation that they then had, and their expectations were that, perhaps, in some future incarnation, they might have the opportunity and the favors of the unknown gods, so that they might become gods themselves.

This was the substance of the beliefs and hopes of the Assyrians at that time; and many millions died in that belief and are now inhabitants of the several planes of certain spheres of the spirit world. None of them has ever returned for a new incarnation and thereby start on their way to become gods, and this for the reason which is sufficient to satisfy them when they became spirits, sooner or later those men who they supposed had become gods when they died were in the spirit world spirits themselves and not gods at all.

So you see that the soul, when once it leaves the physical body, never returns again to any physical body, but continues in the spirit world to exist as a soul with a body of spirit form and substance; and no spirit has ever experienced the sensation of becoming reincarnated. And this is the truth that I wished to tell you; that the soul, when once it leaves the physical body, never again finds its habitation in another or the same physical body, but forever thereafter occupies the spirit body, and that in the spirit world only.

When a mortal dies, earth, so far as being the home of that mortal again in earthly body, becomes a thing of the past; it is a mere way station which has been left behind and will never again appear as a stopping place on the spirit's line of progression.

I thought it might do good for me to write this tonight, for it is the information from a spirit who long years ago lived on earth and believed in this doctrine of reincarnation, and who during all the long years of its spirit life has learned and experienced the truth, that reincarnation is a fable and has no real existence. No, the soul never retraces its steps or its method of existence, for it never goes back from the spirit to mortal.

I know that on the earth today there are thousands of mortals who believe in this doctrine of reincarnation, and many thousands more have died in that belief, but they live and die in that belief, and only when the truth comes to them, do they realize that their belief was an erroneous one, and that they will never reach Nirvana by retracing their course of life through the physical body. The soul never dies, but always lives, and whenever its position is such as to justify progression, it progresses.

I live in the Sixth Sphere and am considered to be a very exalted spirit in my intellectual acquirements and in my condition of freedom from sin and errors, which belonged to me on earth and which belongs to every mortal. My happiness is very great and my home and surroundings are beautiful. This sphere is a wonderful place, not only because of the surroundings and homes of the inhabitants, but because of the great mental and moral development of those who live in that sphere. No spirit who has not that development can live in this sphere because of its unfitness. Male and female spirits enjoy this wonderful development and their intercourse in the intellectual things that exist in this sphere is free and frequent and the interchange of thoughts brings much happiness and satisfaction.

We don't know of any spheres beyond the Sixth, although we have heard it rumored that there are other spheres, but we give little credence to these rumors, because none of us, I mean the inhabitants of this sphere, has ever found a higher one and many of us live in the highest planes of this sphere.

No, I have nothing else to write tonight.

Well, I, of course, can't say that is not true, but I do say that you astonish me beyond all belief, for I cannot imagine that any spirit can make higher progress than we have made. Well, what you tell me surprises me and I would like to investigate and discover the truth of this matter. But I don't know how to commence such investigation or where to start. Is it possible that you can show me the way in which I can commence this investigation?

I have done as you suggested and I do see some wonderfully beautiful spirits, and they seem to be so very happy, too, and interested in you. One says she is your grandmother, and she seems to excel the others in her beauty and brightness. She says she is very willing to start me in my investigation, and herself to tell me the great secret of the great progression that you speak of, and if I will accompany her, she will commence at once.

And while I write, there comes another beautiful spirit and says that she formerly lived in the Sixth Sphere and lived there many thousands of years before I lived on earth. She says that she was an Egyptian and that her name was Saleeba and that now she is an inhabitant of the Third Sphere in order to prepare herself for the great progression that she will make to spheres high above the Sixth and tells me that after I have conversed with your grandmother, she will be pleased to talk to me and tell me her experience. I will be with her, you may rest assured. All this is so wonderful to me that I hardly know what to think or do. But I will try to find the truth of it, if it can be found.

So, as I have written you a long time, expecting to enlighten you and not be enlightened myself and am now so anxious for that enlightenment, I will say that I am glad I came to you and good night.

Saelish

Princess Saleeba, an Ancient Egyptian Spirit, Writes About Her Life on Earth and in the Spirit World and Reveals Her Desire to Learn the Secret to Obtaining Divine Love

June 2, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

Let me write just a little as I need help, and I saw how you helped the last spirit who wrote. It was wonderful what a change came to her as you told her of God's Love, and when she went with that beautiful spirit who spoke so lovingly to her, I thought that hope is for me, too. So I know you will help me as I need it so much, and you seem willing to help us all.

I am a woman who lived a great many years ago in a land that is far distant from your home and at a time that runs back into the centuries. I was an Egyptian Princess and lived in the time when your Jesus, that I heard you speak of, was not known to the world. I was taught the philosophy of the ancient Egyptians, and Osiris and Isis were our god and goddess. We worshiped them, but not in love or soul adoration, but in fear and dread. They were not the loving Father that you say your God is, but the dread things of power and wrath that called for our obedience through fear of punishment and the tortures of the hells, which they were supposed to rule in and there torment the spirits of mortals who disobeyed them. So you see, our souls were not developed with love, but our minds were controlled with fear, and we offered our sacrifices to appease the terrible threatenings of their wrath.

I was naturally a loving woman, and in my life outside of my religious beliefs, I was compassionate and sympathetic. Those who were subject to me in our intercourse of government loved me and were grateful and obedient subjects. But when it became a question as to our worship and religious duties, I sacrificed many of them to satisfy the wrath and demands of our gods. These sacrifices were made at first openly, but so great did they become and deleterious to the good of the nation in its political aspect that latterly our sacrifices were made in private, but they were made nevertheless.

Our beliefs were as real and as earnest as are the beliefs of you Christians in your God of Love and mercy, and we did the will of our gods with as much belief that we were doing our duty, as do you the will of the Father in the belief that you are doing your duty.

But as I now see, what a difference in the motives, and what a difference in the results. Our motives were to appease our angry gods, and thereby prevent their wrath from falling upon us who continued to live - and your motives are to get and be filled with the Love and Mercy of a Father of Love and to have your souls filled with that which will enable you to live in His presence and become supremely happy.

In the long years that I have lived in the spirit world, I have learned all this intellectually, and many other things that show me the cruelty and degradation of the beliefs that prevailed when I was a mortal and which resulted in the deaths physically of many of my subjects and the death, also, of their souls.

Love to us was not a thing divine. Obedience and placating the anger of the gods were the divine things to us. And now, while I have heard of this Love of your Father and have seen the results of this Love upon their appearances and the apparent happiness of the worshipers of your God, yet, I have never understood this Great Love, except in an intellectual way.

My soul has never felt the influence of this Love, and I had never before thought it necessary for me to seek the secret of obtaining the benefit of this Love. But I now see that there is something more to this secret than the mere knowledge of the Love's existence, which the mind tells me must exist. And so having, in my journeys to earth, heard of your meetings with the spirits who are seeking this Love, or rather a way out of their darkness and sufferings, and having seen the effect of some of their efforts, I came to you to learn the way, if possible, by which I may obtain the soul experience which I have heard you, and the beautiful spirits who come to you, speak of.

Of course, my ancient beliefs still have some influence over me, though, I have found that Osiris and Isis are myths but, yet, that negative knowledge has not supplied me with the means by which I can get this Love you speak of. While I know that the angry gods do not exist, still there is a void in my soul which I realize has never been filled. So I pray that if you can help me to the way that will lead to my finding this soul-filling Love that you speak of, I will be greatly obliged if you will do so and will follow that way.

In the years since my coming into the spirit world, I have lived in a number of spheres, each one in succession a progressive one. But in none of these spheres, which I have lived in, have I found that the inhabitants are possessed of this soul Love that I am anxious to obtain. In the higher spheres in which I have lived and in the highest, there is a wonderful development of the mental qualities and the knowledge possessed by these spirit inhabitants is beyond all conception of mortals.

Sin does not exist in these highest spheres and happiness is very great, and the spirits are very beautiful and bright. But in my comparison of the beauty and brightness of these spirits with those who claim this soul development of Love, I notice a great difference.

We have our loves and our harmonies and peace reigns supreme but, yet, I am not satisfied, and so with many others who live where I do. But the cause of this dissatisfaction is not revealed to us and only, as I say in my visits to the earth plane and hearing of this Love, have I become convinced that the great secret of our dissatisfaction may be found among those spirits who claim to have this wonderful Love.

So I come to you and ask you to show me the way to learn of it. Well, I have visited the earth plane many times since I have been a spirit and, occasionally, have conversed with the spirits who claim to have this Love, and they have to some degree told me of this Love, but I never thought much about it until lately. I was happy in my condition, as I have told you of it, and did not think it worthwhile to inquire into the fact of what this Love meant. But somehow, lately, the desire to learn of it has taken possession of me and, hence, I come to you because I see others coming to you who say they need help.

I did not go to the others you speak of because I thought that I might get more help by coming to you first. The spirits who are seeking your help say that they can in some way obtain an advantage in coming to you first. I don't know why, but they believe it. And when I saw the effect of their coming to you, I thought it might be so and, hence, I came. I was the daughter of one of the early Pharaohs and my name was Princess Saleeba. I do not know how to compute the centuries, but I lived before the pyramids were built, so you see I have been in the spirit world a long time. Not now, but sometime I will come again and write you more in detail a description of the spheres through which I have progressed.

I have called for your mother, and she is so very beautiful. She must have a great amount of this Love. She says that she will show me the way to obtain it, and will love me herself, and take me to the greatest spirit in all the spirit world in whom I can see this Love developed in its greatest perfection. And I am going with her.

So remember my promise to come again, for I will. So with many thanks and my kindest regards, I will say goodnight.

Saleeba

Ann Rollins Writes About Seeking the Love of God on Earth; Meeting Jesus; Describes His Appearance; and Discusses Probation

May 13, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, your Grandmother.

I am happier than I can tell you. I am living in my home of which I told you a few nights ago, and it is a beautiful home beyond the possibility of description. Tonight, I want to tell you of my experience in seeking the Love of God, and in realizing that He is my Father, who loves me with a Love that knows no shadow of wavering or cessation.

I was not always filled with faith, or believed so implicitly in prayer, but in my early married life, I received the conviction that if I would be happy in life and fitted to receive the blessings which the Bible promised to those who should seek the Lord and his Love, I must see the necessity of seeking; and I, with all the earnestness of my nature, commenced seeking for the Father's Love, and as a result I found it and with it a great happiness and peace.

You know what my spiritual condition was in my later years on earth, and how my faith was such that, although I was nearly deaf and blind, yet, I was happy and joyful. Well, when I came to the spirit world, I brought that faith and love with me, and I found that it was just as real here as it had been on earth. Of course, in some of my beliefs I was mistaken, such as my belief that Jesus was God, and that his death and blood saved or could save me from sin and damnation; but notwithstanding my mistakes in these particulars, my love for the Father was not interfered with, and I continued to live in that love and was happy.

I had not been in the spirit world a great while before spirits of a higher order than myself came to me and told me many wonderful things of the Father's Kingdom, and that my progress to the higher spheres would depend upon my receiving more of this Divine Love in my soul and becoming more at-one with the Father.

The first time I saw Jesus was after I had been in the Third Sphere a short while, and when I met him he impressed me as being the most beautiful and loving spirit that I had ever seen; and when he told me that he was Jesus, I, of course, was somewhat surprised, because I had believed that he was sitting in the Heavens on the right hand of God, as I had been taught on earth to believe.

And when he saw my surprise, he looked on me with a wonderful love and said that I must not further believe that he was God, or even a part of Him, or that he was in the high Heavens accepting the worship of men, for he was only a spirit as I was and was still working among mortals as well as spirits to lead them into the light and the way to the Father's Love.

At first, I confess, it was difficult for me to believe this, and I had my doubts; but his manner of talking to me and the wonderful love that he displayed, not only for me but for all mankind, soon convinced me that he was the true Jesus and not an imposter. And afterwards, I met many spirits who knew him and had been his followers for many years, and they told me that he was the Jesus of the Bible, and I could not do anything else but believe. And now, after my long years of association with him and feeling his ministrations of love and the influence of his greatness, I know that he is the true Jesus, who by his teachings and overwhelming love saves men from their sins, by showing them the way to the Father's Kingdom. So my dear son, do not doubt what I tell you now in reference to this matter, or what I have already told you.

Well, it is somewhat difficult to describe his appearance, but I will try. He is of a commanding figure, as you say on earth. His features are regular, and his eyes are of a deep blue, almost a purple blue, with such depths of love in them that under its influence you almost forget to note the color of his eyes. The hair is a beautiful brown, worn long and parted in the middle so that it falls over his shoulders. His nose is straight and somewhat long, with nostrils very refined and showing the artistic elements in his nature. His other features are in keeping with those I have described. He wears a beard quite long and very silky and brown like his hair. His manner is grace itself and modesty personified and, yet, in him is the intensity of feeling which can show itself in just indignation when the occasion requires. And, yet, with all the great beauty of his person and the greater love of his soul showing itself, he is very humble - more so than any spirit I have seen.

I have given you a bare outline of his appearance, and you will never fully realize in your mind's eye just what his appearance is; and only when you come over and meet him will you fully understand the appearance of the most wonderful and beautiful and loving spirit in all God's universe.

Some day this will happen; and you will not have the doubts that I had, and your heart will go out to him from the first moment of your meeting. My dear son, it is a greater privilege than you can appreciate to be thus prepared to meet your friend and teacher; for he is your friend to a degree that is beyond what I thought he would ever be while you are on earth.

So you see, my experience was a somewhat exceptional one, and one secret of its being so is that I received very great faith and the Love of my Father while on earth.

While the teachings of many preachers are that the earth is the only place of probation, and that teaching is not correct; yet, if it were believed more, and mankind should prepare their future in view of that belief, many a man, when he becomes a spirit, would avoid experiences that are very unpleasant and retard his progress in the spirit world. Of course, such a belief (that the earth is the only place of probation) when the mortal fails to make the preparation, will work him great injury after he becomes a spirit; because such a belief is difficult to get rid of, and as long as it lasts the spirit is very apt to believe that his status is fixed forever and, hence, he will not progress until he accepts the truth.

So you see after all, the only good belief is a belief in the truth, which never changes.

Probation is not confined to the earth life but is with man and spirits alike. In fact it never ends, for each preceding condition of a spirit is nothing more than a probationary condition to what follows. But the great probationary condition, undoubtedly, is that which exists for the mortal while on earth; and if that probation is accepted and made the most of, the spirit of man gains an advantage which is beyond my ability to describe.

Sometimes men do not attempt to take all the advantage of this probation on earth, and come to the spirit world in all their material thoughts and sins, with their souls dead, as Jesus said, and find that in such condition, as spirits, they have a more difficult time to awaken from such condition and progress; and I am informed that some spirits have been in this world for many, many years and have not yet had an awakening. So you must see the importance of taking advantage of the earth probation.

Well dear son, I have written a great deal and must stop now, though I should like to write you a much longer time. So with all my love I will close, and sign myself,

Your loving Grandmother,
Ann Rollins

Helen tells James she is with him all the time, that Jesus is a Luminous Spirit and warns him about the imposter Rector

September 14, 1914
Received by James Padgett
Washington, D.C.

I am here, Helen.

I do with all my heart. I was and I was so happy. You must not be unhappy because I am with you all the time, and you will not be lonely if you love me as you did this morning. You are my only darling one and this is my one dear privilege of having you for myself. Be true to me and you will be happy.

Yes, the Master was with you on Saturday night and he is the only one who can help you to feel the love of God as you did.

Yes, and I heard what was said. He (Mr. Colburn) is not correct in saying that I do not know Jesus when he comes among us. He is so luminous with the love of God and the spirit of righteousness in his whole being that we all know that he is the true Christ. Do not let any doubt exist in your mind that the one who wrote to you was not Jesus. He was the true Jesus of the Bible.

Yes, and I have seen the spirit of Rector. He is not the spirit that he represents himself to be. He is a wicked spirit who goes about to deceive the mortals on earth. He is a wicked spirit who has no love for God or man, and he is trying to lead mankind to believe that he is the Christ. He will be severely punished at the time of reckoning. Yes, and I know what I am talking about, as I have been warned against him. Your grandmother, who is in one of the highest planes of the spirit world, has told me of him.

He (Jesus) is a very bright and handsome spirit. He is not the same as the picture on earth represents him to be. He is very lovely and kind and filled with love and has a face that seems to glow with the spirit of the Love of his Father. He is a most holy-looking spirit and does not know that he is a lovely one, but seems so humble and ready to serve all who need his help and love.

Yes he will, and you must believe in him and follow his advice. He wants you to become a good and pure man. He saw that you were longing to know the truth and he was anxious to help you. He saw that you were distressed and that you needed the assistance of his great love and teaching.

Tell Mr. Colburn that he must believe that Jesus is ready to come to him and show him the truth and Love of God and that he must not think that the Christ is not teaching mankind the way of truth and love. He is only hearing the cry of the penitent and the lost soul.

He will come when you earnestly call for him and will teach you the true and secret meanings of his sayings as recorded in the Bible. Only have faith and love the Father. He has told me that he is only waiting for you and your friend to call on him in faith and earnestness and he will come to you both.

Yes, and I am progressing very rapidly and will soon be in the Third Sphere. You must not wish for that now; be contented a little while and you will be with me.

No, I will wait for you and we will go together to the higher planes of love and light. We will always be together as husband and wife.

Yes, I love them and am with them very often, but they are the love mates of others. They will find their happiness in the society of these others. They will not need me after a little while, except that I shall help them to feel that their mother is watching over them and loves them as a mother. Do not let their lives be too much a part of yours as you are not the one that God decreed should be with them as their true loves forever. Let your love for them only help them to learn that they must live right and love their God.

Yes, she is in the school and is very happy and only wants to have her school commence its exercises. She loves you very much and is a true daughter and is learning the truths of Christ's teachings.

You are my dearest and only love and you will be my soulmate when you come to me in the future. Let me feel that you love me as I do you and I shall be very happy.

Yes, and I saw the book that you were reading. The last one is not helpful. Let it alone, as it is but the philosophy of a man that has a hobby, and he will not convince you of any helpful truth.

Be a true follower of Christ and you will need no other knowledge or help. Yes, and I do not agree with him as to Spiritualism or Christian Science. He is not well enough informed on either to form a correct judgment. He is too bigoted and has not a true conception of the Bible. Let him alone.

Goodnight with all my love and many kisses.

Helen