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 Revelat 
 
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 and the 
 
 life 
 
 to 
 
 come 
 
 
 
 
 
REVELATION 
 
 AND THE 
 
 LIFE TO COME 
 
 r 
 
 EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION IN TWO PAHTS BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF " THE WAY: THE NATURE 
 
 AND MEANS OF REVELATION " 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 "Cbc TRnicfterbocfter press 
 1916 
 
Copyright, 19 i6 
 
 BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 Ubc Tftnfcfterboc'n'er iprcss, mew Jgorft 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Parts I and II in what follows — treat- 
 ing of the resurrection, and of certain re- 
 lated spiritual phenomena of the New 
 Testament — are in the nature of an intro- 
 duction to Part III, which is comprised of 
 extracts from the record of an experi- 
 ence that is best explained in this connec- 
 tion. The writings in Part III are a direct 
 verbal product of this experience. They 
 were printed for private distribution in 
 1894, under the title ''The Kingdom of 
 Heaven"; and are herein reprinted for 
 publication, with the addition of the two 
 introductory parts and an appendix to 
 emphasize their source and character as a 
 revelation of truth. 
 
 in 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Resurrection in the Light of an 
 
 Experience .... 3 
 
 PART II 
 
 The Comforter, or Spirit of 
 
 Truth 65 
 
 PART III 
 Revelation and the Life to Come 119 
 
 Appendices . ... . .193 
 
PART I 
 
 RESURRECTION IN THE LIGHT 
 OF AN EXPERIENCE 
 
THE RESURRECTION 
 
 " In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn 
 toward the first day of the week, came Mary 
 Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 
 . . . And they entered in, and found not the body 
 of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they 
 were much perplexed thereabout, behold! two men 
 stood by them in shining raiment : and as they were 
 afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, 
 they said unto them. Why seek ye the living among 
 the dead? He is not here, he is risen. . . . And 
 they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear 
 and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples 
 word. . . . 
 
 "The same day, at evening, being the first day of 
 the week, when the doors were shut where the dis- 
 ciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came 
 Jesus and stood in the midst, and said unto them, 
 Peace be unto you. . . . But they were terrified 
 and affrighted, and supposed that they beheld a 
 spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye 
 troubled, and why do questionings arise in your 
 hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I 
 myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not 
 flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he 
 had thus spoken he showed them his hands and his 
 feet. And while they believed not for joy, and 
 wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any 
 meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled 
 fish and an honeycomb, and he took it, and did eat 
 before them."— Sts. Matthew, Luke, and John. 
 
RESURRECTION IN THE LIGHT 
 OF AN EXPERIENCE 
 
 THE PHENOMENA OF THE RESURRECTION 
 
 Apart from their association with the 
 sacred character and mission of Christ, the 
 phenomena of the resurrection, studied in 
 the light of later but related experiences, 
 are discerned to be a distinct revelation, 
 disclosing incidentally the nature of that 
 intermediate stage of life between the 
 earthly and the heavenly: the phenomena 
 referred to were comprised in the mani- 
 festations of the risen Jesus intervening 
 between his death and his ascension into 
 heaven, specified as an interval of forty days. 
 
 That the phenomena of the resurrection, 
 as recorded in the Gospel, have commonly 
 3 
 
4 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 been regarded as miraculous, may account 
 for the fact that for many Christian believers 
 at the present time, under the influence of 
 recent modes of thought, they have lost in 
 some degree their significance as a revela- 
 tion of truth. That which the apostle 
 Paul regarded as the central truth of the 
 Christian revelation, as implied in the 
 words ''If Christ be not risen then is our 
 preaching vain, and your faith is also vain, "^ 
 is now often treated with silence, as if 
 beyond the bounds of rational conviction; 
 while the manifestations of the risen Jesus, 
 if not deemed miraculous, or regarded as 
 mythical tradition, or as hallucination, are 
 interpreted by others as mystical symbols: 
 and this latter conception is not without 
 its significance, notwithstanding its entire 
 variance with that order of attestation, as 
 to the objective fact, implied in the words 
 "Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not 
 flesh and bones, as ye see me have. "^ 
 
 ^ I Cor. XV : 3-8 and 12-15. 
 * Luke xxiv: 39. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 5 
 
 II 
 
 Manifestations from the unseen pro- 
 jected on the plane of the known world, 
 though not uncommonly reported in all 
 ages and frequently in the scriptures, are 
 unverifiable on ordinary grounds of evi- 
 dence for the reason that the phenomena 
 cannot be called forth or repeated at will, 
 as facts are verifiable in the physical world. 
 An apparitional psychic form, "a spirit," 
 subjectively manifested, would be in accord 
 with ideas, however derived, that are 
 common to the race ; but a physical manifes- 
 tation from the unseen, as specified con- 
 cerning the phenomena of the resurrection, 
 seemed to contradict the reason as well as 
 common beliefs; and notwithstanding the 
 visible, audible, and tactual forms of evi- 
 dence accorded the disciples, when the mani- 
 festation had vanished from their sight 
 more than one of them questioned its 
 reahty, for it is said that "some doubted" :^ 
 
 ^ Matt, xxviii: 17. 
 
6 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 and this frankly expressed doubt tends to 
 confirm the integrity of the Gospel record. 
 Though physical in form the manifes- 
 tation of the risen Jesus appeared and van- 
 ished away before the eyes of the disciples, 
 "the doors being shut. "^ Though attes- 
 ted by the senses the experience was ab- 
 normal to common beliefs; as such it was 
 startling and distracting to the mind — the 
 disciples ''were terrified and affrighted."^ 
 
 Ill 
 
 While they "believed not for joy,^ and 
 wondered, he said unto them, Have ye 
 here anything to eat ? And they gave him 
 a piece of a broiled fish. And he took it, 
 and did eat before them."^ Why this 
 further insistence, by this special act, 
 after Jesus had demonstrated to the senses 
 the objective reality of his manifested 
 
 ^ John XX : 19 and 26. ^ Luke xxiv: 37. 
 
 3 As "too good to be true," in the language of 
 today. 
 
 4 Luke xxiv: 43. (R. V.) 
 
THE RESURRECTION 7 
 
 form? This significant act bears witness 
 to the fact that the manifestation was in 
 itself a revelation of truth; not, as often 
 interpreted, in the form of a miraculous 
 symbol, but an orderly disclosure of that 
 which is of universal application in connec- 
 tion with immortality, namely, thje immedi- 
 ate resurrection of the human personality 
 at dissolution and its ultimate ascension 
 into heaven. 
 
 By assuming physical materiality in the 
 presence of witnesses, partaking of food, 
 and then vanishing into invisible conditions, 
 the manifestations of the resurrection, so 
 far as their phenomenal side is concerned, 
 were a demonstration of the fact that the 
 physical organism is fundamentally psy- 
 chic; and this psychical personality is 
 "clothed upon"^ physically in a physical 
 world, but is freed from that order of sub- 
 stance in passing into a spiritual world. 
 In other words the soul itself is an organic 
 form, and the opening of psychic senses, 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. v: 1-2. 
 
8 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 as to hearing and seeing^ — frequently 
 referred to in the scriptures as an experi- 
 ence common to ''prophets" and ''seers" — 
 is the unveiHng of the senses of this psychic 
 organism, or "spiritual body. "^ 
 
 IV 
 
 Viewed as a revelation of truth the mani- 
 festations of the risen Jesus — now visible, 
 audible, and tactual, and then vanishing 
 into the unseen — attest this organic con- 
 stitution of the soul ; the manifestation of 
 which, under favoring conditions, is not 
 miraculous, but orderly and natural within 
 certain limitations. The manifestations 
 subsequently witnessed by Paul,^ though 
 no longer physical, enabled that apostle 
 to determine, specifically, through the 
 knowledge thus gained, the truths stated in 
 his Epistle to the Corinthians concerning 
 
 ^ 2 Kings vi: 17; and Luke xxiv: 31. 
 =» I Cor. XV : 44. 
 
 3 Acts ix : 3-6 ; xxii 117,22; xxiii : 1 1 ; and xxvii : 23- 
 24. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 9 
 
 the return of the dead; wherein he says, 
 ''There is a natural body, and there is 
 [not, there will be] a spiritual body":^ 
 implying that these coexist in man; that is, 
 strictly speaking in the light of subsequent 
 testimony, there is but one organism, but 
 differently conditioned — manifested physi- 
 cally in a physical world, and psychically in 
 a spiritual world. 
 
 This conception once clearly grasped, 
 concerning the organic constitution of the 
 soul itself, will be found to explain, in part, 
 the nature of manifestations from the un- 
 seen; the soul, at times, even while in the 
 flesh, being capable of acting independently 
 of physical conditions that relate it tem- 
 porarily to a physical world. 
 
 As thus discerned the manifestations of 
 the resurrection were not miraculous crea- 
 tions of the hour, but a temporary precipita- 
 
 * I Cor. XV : 44. 
 
lo THE RESURRECTION 
 
 tion, as it were (speaking tropically), of 
 physical conditions upon a psychical, or 
 "spiritual body," that already existed be- 
 fore dissolution, and which death simply sets 
 free. As attested by Paul the knowledge 
 of this fact stands in marked contrast with 
 conceptions which have, at times, identi- 
 fied organic existence solely and exclu- 
 sively with that physical body which, in 
 the common experience, decays in the 
 grave, as expressed in the following: — 
 **And the graves were opened; and many 
 bodies of the saints which slept arose, and 
 came out of the graves after his resur- 
 rection, and went into the holy city, and 
 appeared unto many "^ — momentary mani- 
 festations from the unseen being thus 
 identified in the mind of the writer w4th 
 former imaginings regarding the state of 
 the dead. 
 
 In marked contrast with such conceptions 
 is the revelation of the truth in him who, 
 having died upon the cross, after a brief 
 
 'Matt, xxvii: 52, 53. 
 
THE RESURRECTION n 
 
 interval manifested himself to his follow- 
 ers, revealing the common experience that 
 follows dissolution; when, after regaining 
 consciousness, man finds himself alive and 
 in a familiar organism, the exact counter- 
 part in outward appearance to that body 
 which was laid in the grave, but differently 
 conditioned. Referring to this change, 
 Paul affirms, "But some will say, How are 
 the dead raised up? and in what body do 
 they come ? . . . It is sown a natural body ; 
 it is raised a spiritual body, "^ &c., and the 
 manifestations of the risen Jesus will be 
 found to mark the distinction when the 
 phenomena of the resurrection are studied 
 as a revelation of truth. 
 
 VI 
 
 Transmutations, whether of the psy- 
 chical into the physical, or of the physical 
 into the psychic, are frequently instanced 
 in the scriptures, and are not unknown 
 through subsequent experiences credibly 
 
 ^ I Cor. XV : 35-44- 
 
12 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 attested. That there are forces and forms 
 of matter, so called, that extend into the 
 unseen world, or are projected thence into 
 this world, through which means psychic 
 phenomena may be outwardly conditioned 
 and sometimes made physically visible 
 under laws as immutable as those governing 
 the natural phenomena of the physical 
 world, is now gradually being reduced to 
 knowledge. The experience of the seer and 
 prophet implies an organic connection 
 between the seen and unseen worlds, a 
 correlation of forces operating in a psy- 
 chic substance common to both worlds and 
 forming a material connection of some kind, 
 however rarefied, or sublimated, when 
 contrasted with the physical, yet known 
 through its forces and effects. 
 
 That the transmutation of the psychic 
 into the physical (and contrariwise), is 
 possible, is attested by the manifestations 
 of the risen Jesus, for he appeared and 
 disappeared in the presence of his disciples; 
 and this is not exceptional in the human 
 
THE RESURRECTION 13 
 
 experience. But a distinction is to be 
 noted in the transmutation of that physical 
 body which was laid in the tomb. 
 
 That the physical, when wholly purified, 
 or "redeemed from corruption,"^ may 
 be transmuted into the psychical without 
 undergoing the common experience, is af- 
 firmed in the case of Elijah and of Enoch 
 — who ''walked with God and was trans- 
 lated."^ When the sepulchre where the 
 body of Jesus was laid was visited by the 
 disciples it was found empty, and his 
 manifestations from the unseen began at 
 once. That these manifestations, (of 
 which ten are mentioned in the scriptures) , 
 were usually brief, may be inferred from 
 the record; but on several specified occa- 
 sions they appear to have been prolonged; 
 as when Jesus aimed to establish in the 
 minds of his followers his personal identi- 
 fication and the substantial reality of his 
 manifested form;^ likewise when mani- 
 
 ^ Acts ii: 31. " 2 Kings ii: 11; Heb. xi: 5. 
 
 3 John XX : 19-20. 
 
14 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 fested on the way to Emmaus, ^ and on the 
 shore of the lake;^ and finally when "he 
 led them out as far as Bethany. ' ' ^ Nothing 
 comparable, in degree, with the fullness 
 or completeness of these manifestations 
 from the unseen is met with elsewhere in 
 the human experience. 
 
 VII 
 
 The appearance to Abraham of the three 
 angels, who partook of food and conversed 
 with the patriarch "^ — Sarah also being a 
 witness — resembles the manifestation of 
 the Christ in some features, but not as to 
 one who had recently passed through 
 death; while the record of that remoter 
 experience has not the particularity of the 
 New Testament scriptures concerning the 
 phenomena of the resurrection. It may, 
 however, be remarked in passing, that no 
 * * power, " " miracle ' ' (so called) , or * * work, * ' 
 manifested by Christ, was wholly unpre- 
 
 ^ Luke xxiv: 13-36. "John xxi: j-14. 
 
 ' Luke xxiv: 50. ■* Gen. xviii. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 15 
 
 cedented; for the powers manifested by 
 the prophets, though exhibited in sub- 
 ordinate degree, are strictly related in 
 kind to those manifested by Jesus; and it 
 may yet be more widely known that these 
 phenomena are all orderly and in strict 
 conformity with higher laws of organic 
 being that are without variableness or 
 shadow of turning; as are the laws of that 
 more familiar order of nature with which 
 the human mind is commonly occupied on 
 the physical plane. 
 
 VIII 
 
 Divested of the miraculous the manifes- 
 tations of the risen Jesus, studied in the 
 light of related phenomena, reveal in a 
 degree the natural constitution of that 
 unseen world which is entered through 
 death. A miracle could explain nothing, 
 for it would stand unrelated to universal 
 truth as applicable to all men; but a 
 manifestation from the unseen projected, 
 as it were, on the plane of the visible world 
 
i6 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 in orderly form, through preternatural 
 laws governing the requisite conditions, 
 makes knowable by this means that which 
 otherwise could not be known except it 
 were thus shown. 
 
 The evidence of truths of this kind rests 
 in the scriptures on the testimony of 
 "faithful witnesses," who report the facts 
 simply and without argument as an actual 
 experience attested by forms of proof with 
 which the human mind is familiar in the 
 order of its natural constitution. That it 
 requires "faith" to accept this testimony 
 on the part of others, is another matter 
 pertaining to the religious mind: Jesus 
 reproached his disciples for "their unbelief 
 and hardness of heart, because they be- 
 lieved not them which had seen him after 
 he was risen. "^ 
 
 IX 
 
 Freeing the record of subsequent specu- 
 lative conjecture — which may either deny 
 
 ^ Markxvi: 14. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 17 
 
 the reality of the experience, or interpret 
 it in terms of its own mental habit — the 
 phenomena of the resurrection, as reported 
 by witnesses and studied in the light of 
 subordinate but related experiences, is 
 discerned as a distinct revelation of an 
 intermediate world, or state of being, 
 intervening between the earthly and the 
 heavenly; a substantial though unseen 
 world into which the soul is immediately 
 transmitted through dissolution; not by 
 traversing space, or undergoing any change 
 affecting the mind, but simply by freeing 
 the psychic organism from its earthly shell 
 or tenement — which in the common ex- 
 perience falls back into the earth by which 
 it was nourished. 
 
 Viewed as a revelation of what is common 
 to man at dissolution, and associated with 
 a personality with whom the disciples 
 had recently been in familiar intercourse 
 as a friend with friend, the manifestation 
 of the risen Jesus occasioned extreme joy 
 by its demonstrating as the truth that 
 
i8 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 whichrif thought of at all, was regarded 
 as merely conjectural — namely, personal 
 immortality. More than this, they saw 
 in the manifestation the persistence of 
 human life beyond the grave in the form 
 of an organic personality fully conscious 
 of all that is deemed precious in the earthly 
 life. 
 
 Divesting the experience of that element 
 of the miraculous which would separate it 
 from the life of man by isolating it as an 
 unrelated fact pertaining to the life of 
 Christ alone, every incidental act and 
 circumstance of the resurrection may be 
 studied as a revelation of truth. Viewed 
 in this light it is no longer possible to 
 regard that unseen world which is entered 
 at dissolution as a bourne from which no 
 traveler returns; for he who returned in 
 fulfillment of the promise made to his 
 disciples^ while he was with them in the 
 
 ' John xvi: 22. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 19 
 
 flesh, has revealed not a little of the 
 conditions of that unseen world by dis- 
 closing the nature of the organism that 
 inhabits it. Much is also revealed in the 
 acts and words of the risen Jesus while thus 
 manifesting himself; for the revelation 
 discloses the order of mind in which the 
 soul rises at dissolution, as still occupied 
 with its former interests and affections, 
 these remaining unchanged in the earlier 
 stages of that life. 
 
 Paul, discerning in the revelations 
 accorded him after Christ's ascension into 
 heaven, that although "Eye hath not 
 seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into 
 the heart of man, the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love him," 
 nevertheless adds: — "But God hath re- 
 vealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the 
 Spirit search eth all things." In other 
 words, what cannot be seen by the physical 
 sense, or discerned by the natural percep- 
 tions, is disclosed freely and fully to a 
 spiritual consciousness, when that form of 
 
20 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 apprehension is developed in man. And 
 the apostle refers to this higher, or spiritual 
 revelation, as unstinted: — "For the Spirit 
 searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
 of God . . . which things also we speak, 
 not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, 
 but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, com- 
 paring spiritual things with spiritual."^ 
 Nothing could be plainer than his declara- 
 tion that this spiritual enlightenment is 
 through a direct form of teaching by a 
 conscious means, whieh the apostle was 
 able to distinguish from the wisdom and 
 operation of his own mind. 
 
 XI 
 
 From the nature of the testimony it may 
 be discerned that he who "brought life 
 and immortality to light" included in the 
 revelation both a natural and a spiritual 
 experience: the phenomena of the resurrec- 
 tion attested the former, and the "m^anifes- 
 tations of the Holy Ghost" attest the 
 
 * I Cor. ii: 9-14. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 21 
 
 latter as reported in The Acts and Epistles, 
 and in the Apocalypse of John — not to 
 mention subsequent experiences not un- 
 common. The truths concerning the 
 immediate resurrection of the organic 
 personality, at dissolution, were thus 
 manifested to the world as of uni- 
 versal application; for in all stages of 
 existence Christ reveals the life and 
 destiny of "perfect man,"^ of a perfected 
 humanity. 
 
 The manifestations made to the women, 
 and to others not of the eleven, attest the 
 freedom of these revelations, without 
 regard to special channels. That Christ 
 gave expression in two of his most moment- 
 ous teachings, to individuals not of his 
 chosen body of followers — to Nicodemus 
 and to the woman of Samaria — is likewise 
 in evidence of this "freedom of the Spirit " ; 
 which regards only the human heart 
 wherever and by whomsoever the gift of 
 light is received in its original form of 
 
 ^ Eph. iv: 13. 
 
22 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 communion; for the message of "good 
 tidings of great joy" is primarily to the 
 human consciousness. In all ages the 
 first and most important function of 
 revelation is to bring life and light to man ; 
 and there is no distinction of persons, or of 
 instrumentalities — nowhere is this more 
 clearly shown than in the scriptures. 
 
 XII 
 
 Nevertheless, associated as the manifesta- 
 tions of the resurrection were with times 
 and seasons, with "the hour," with 
 "place" sometimes; and as dependent on 
 conditions the lack of which made it 
 impossible for Jesus, on a former occasion, 
 in Nazareth, to do there "any mighty 
 work because of their unbelief,"^ suggests 
 their distinct relation to favoring circum- 
 stances. That the risen Jesus directed 
 his disciples to "go into Galilee," unto a 
 place that he "had appointed them,""* that 
 
 ^ Mark vi: 4-5, ' Matt, xxviii: 7, 10, 16. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 23 
 
 he might there manifest himself to them, 
 suggests that there may have been favoring 
 conditions in a place which was familiar 
 and associated with memories and affec- 
 tions — what significance has it otherwise? 
 Much importance is attached to "holy 
 places" in the scriptures, and it is a 
 characteristic of the human mind to 
 identify a place with an experience through 
 emotional associations. When it is said of 
 the disciples, after the ascension of Christ, 
 that "they were all with one accord in one 
 place ";^ and again, that they "continued 
 with one accord in prayer and supplication, 
 with the women, and Mary the mother of 
 Jesus, and with his brethren";' the true 
 Christian mystic, or believer in this 
 conscious intercourse — who is not wholly 
 unfamiHar with the nature of the means — 
 would say that there was significance in 
 this, as affording conditions that were 
 favorable. Prayer has a direct relation to 
 this, as an interest which unites as one 
 ^Actsiiri. ^ Acts 1:14. 
 
24 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 several minds with sincere aspiration and 
 expectancy: — "Where two or three are 
 met together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst. "^ Christ distinguished between his 
 followers and ''the multitude"^ when refer- 
 ring to these things as heavenly mysteries :^ 
 while on especially sacred occasions he 
 chose even from the twelve, three, as more 
 nearly related to the essentials for such 
 manifestation, or conscious communion/ 
 
 XIII 
 
 As an experience revealing what is 
 common to man at dissolution the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus is the central truth of his 
 *'good tidings"; and when its universal 
 application is once clearly apprehended it 
 will again become what it was to Paul and 
 the immediate followers of Christ — the 
 very heart of the Christian revelation. 
 For this is the characteristic of the messi- 
 
 * Matt, xviii : 20 ; John xiv : 22. ^ Matt, xiii : 34. 
 sMatt. xiii: lo-ii. " Matt, xvii: 1-9. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 25 
 
 anic revelation in Christ: that *'the way, 
 the truth, and the life " ^ were manifested to 
 the world in the form of a personality that 
 identifies the revelation throughout with the 
 hum.an experience. It is not a philosophy, 
 but an experience, and as such it addresses 
 all orders of mind with equal power. 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus was a revela- 
 tion of truths b}^ things shown; disclosing 
 by actual manifestation the continuance of 
 organic life beyond the grave, the per- 
 sistence of individual personality and all 
 that this implies, and its final ascension 
 into heaven. These fundamental truths 
 were expressed in the form of personal 
 acts and habitual modes of thought: at 
 Emmaus they recognized Jesus *'in the 
 breaking of bread ";^ and when mani- 
 festing himself *'on the shore of the lake'* 
 it is said that "no one durst ask him, 
 Who art thou? knowing that it was the 
 Lord";^ for on these occasions he was 
 
 ^ John xiv: 6. ' Luke xxiv: 35. 
 
 3 John xxi: 12. 
 
26 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 differently manifested, being recognized 
 through his acts and spoken words. 
 
 XIV 
 
 A manifestation of the psychic organism 
 projected outwardly, as it were, from an 
 unseen world, as a true organism, and no 
 mere spectral form, or "shade," carries 
 with it an implied environment in corre- 
 spondence with that organism, which to 
 some extent may be apprehended by the 
 natural reason; for the manifestation 
 implies an order of preternatural law, or 
 psychic agency, that determines this or- 
 ganism objectively, and admits of its 
 being visibly projected on the plane of the 
 known world. Thus the phenomena of the 
 resurrection, when studied in the light of 
 related experiences, will be found to en- 
 large the horizon of the mind so as to 
 include somewhat of that unseen world in 
 the form of definite knowledge. 
 
 To draw an analogy: it is quite possible 
 
THE RESURRECTION 27 
 
 in the light of science to form, in a degree, 
 a true conception of a prehistoric past by 
 the study of extinct organisms once related 
 to that past; and in like manner when 
 shown the living organism of a future or 
 invisible world, it is possible for the mind 
 to apprehend— from the nature of this 
 organism and the order of mind associated 
 with it — somewhat of its invisible environ- 
 ment and life. This is a rational explana- 
 tion of the act of the risen Jesus in partaking 
 of food while thus manifested in the 
 presence of his disciples; and the trans- 
 mutation of the food partaken of, when he 
 vanished from their sight, forms part of 
 the revelation; for it suggests a similar 
 transmutation of the physical body that 
 was laid in the tomb. The specified loca- 
 tion of ''the linen clothes tying, and the 
 napkin that was wrapped about his head, 
 not lying with the linen clothes,"^ indi- 
 cates that these fell in their places 
 when the body was transmuted without 
 » John XX : 6-7. 
 
28 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 being unswathed^ — these details are sig- 
 nificant. 
 
 XV 
 
 Phenomena that apparently contradict 
 the common experience are usually deemed 
 abnormal, supernatural, or miraculous; 
 but to those who have witnessed these 
 things, like the prophet for instance, they 
 stand normal to an enlarged consciousness 
 which apprehends them as a definite form 
 of knowledge. By this means, from his 
 own experience of manifestations from the 
 unseen, the apostle Paul was enabled to 
 affirm the return of the dead, and to dis- 
 criminate the nature of their organism 
 from that which is physical. For revela- 
 tion is distinctly a form of knowledge 
 acquired through preternatural experiences 
 making known, by manifestation, that 
 which the mind cannot acquire of itself; 
 but once known, then this form of knowl- 
 
 ^ John xix: 40. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 29 
 
 edge is no longer abnormal to that mind; 
 manifestations from the unseen are then 
 discerned as both orderly and natural — ■ 
 though for the majority of persons they 
 appear to stand wholly unrelated to what 
 is commonly designated the known order 
 of nature. Phenomena apparently as 
 fixed as the stars in their orbits may, with 
 the progress of mind, be found to be sub- 
 ject to change, or transfiguration, through 
 the operation of newly discovered laws 
 of being which extend the order of nature 
 far into the unseen; enlarging the appre- 
 hension of conscious life so as to embrace 
 somewhat of the future state, as a means 
 of drawing the human soul onward and 
 upward "out of the earth": this is what 
 prophecy affirms and the new revelations 
 are verifying. 
 
 XVI 
 
 While there is a spiritual, or supernatural, 
 element in heavenly revelations forming 
 
30 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 the basis of religious belief, the channels 
 by which this is communicated to man are 
 not supernatural, but preternatural; and 
 as still of the order of nature, whether 
 of seen or unseen worlds, they may be 
 studied without prejudice, or superstitious 
 fear. Jesus plainly indicated this when he 
 permitted the apostle Thomas to apply his 
 prescribed tests to establish his belief in 
 the reality of the manifestation; and this 
 experience of Thomas may be considered 
 as representative of that order of mind 
 which cannot arrive at a belief in immor- 
 tality except through some form of sensible 
 attestation; some emxpirical "sign," or 
 "token," that may constitute a basis for 
 this belief. Thomas declared that he would 
 not believe unless he could apply such tests 
 as he himself deemed reliable and satis- 
 factory.' In all honesty of mind persons 
 of this temperamental constitution require 
 proofs acceptable to their own mental 
 habit. If one standing so close to the 
 ^ John XX : 24-39. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 31 
 
 person of Jesus, and knowing so well the 
 character of the other witnesses, declared 
 he could not accept their testimony as to 
 the fact, it is not surprising that there are 
 others, the vast majority in fact, remote as 
 to time and in their mental attitude, who 
 are in the same dilemma, requiring evi- 
 dence adapted to their own limitations. 
 The demands of Thomas were not denied, 
 and his physical tests lifted the mani- 
 festation out of the region of mental, 
 or emotional hallucination, by demon- 
 strating its objective reality: the ex- 
 perience is representative of that form of 
 knowledge which rests on observation and 
 experiment. 
 
 XVII 
 
 When Jesus "arose from the dead" he 
 was manifested as in familiar surroundings, 
 with his human affections still active, 
 uniting him to his ** brethren" and to his 
 former interests. Let us look at this, not 
 
32 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 as seen across the ages, or through the 
 speculative mind that intervenes, but 
 studied, as it were, at first hand by the 
 light of witnesses invited to "handle and 
 see"^ that it was indeed the same Jesus 
 whom they had known and loved; who 
 expressed his mind familiarly in the words 
 ** Children, have ye any meat ? "^ and again, 
 **Come and break your fast."^ vSacred is 
 that bond of friendship manifested in such 
 acts, and the tie that binds heart to heart — 
 it is divine. How natural and free from 
 all that is morbid, or abnormal to the 
 present life, were these manifestations and 
 spoken words of the resurrected Jesus! 
 The conjectures of the speculative mind, 
 as to the condition of the dead, are in 
 marked contrast with the naturalness of 
 the manifestation of the risen Christ 
 standing in the midst of his followers, 
 disclosing to their minds and hearts his 
 undying love and fellowship, as suggested 
 
 ^ Acts x: 41. ' John xxi: 5. 
 
 3 John xxi: 12. (R. V.) 
 
THE RESURRECTION 33 
 
 by the words "Then were the disciples 
 glad when they saw the Lord."^ 
 
 XVIII 
 
 During the interval of the forty days 
 Jesus was manifested as a man; not as an 
 angel, or spirit; that is, the manifestations 
 were of a natural state of being, on a 
 natural plane of life: the earth was with 
 him still, his thoughts were occupied with 
 the things of this life — every act and 
 utterance implies this. He makes but 
 brief reference to the Father, to whom, he 
 said, he had "not yet ascended."^ The 
 teaching of the resurrection is with refer- 
 ence to human interests; the experience 
 appears to have been wholly natural, 
 rather than spiritual ; and when he "opened 
 their minds to an understanding of the 
 scriptures "2 it was with reference to the 
 fact that the "Christ should suffer, and 
 
 ^ John XX : 20. ■ John xx: 17. 
 
 sLuke xxiv: 45-47 
 3 
 
34 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 rise from the dead on the third day; and 
 that repentance for the remission of sins 
 should be preached in his name among all 
 nations, beginning at Jerusalem: baptizing 
 them in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost"; teaching 
 them to observe "all things whatsoever 
 I have commanded you."' And again: 
 "These are my words which I spake unto 
 you while I was yet with you, that all 
 things must be fulfilled which were written 
 in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, 
 and in the psalms concerning me."^ For 
 further spiritual teaching than that already 
 given while he wasVith them in the earthly 
 life "he commanded them that they 
 should not depart from Jerusalem, but 
 wait for the promise of the Father; which, 
 saith he, ye have heard of me. For John 
 truly baptized with water, unto repentance ; 
 but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 
 Spirit not many days hence." ^ As to 
 
 ' Matt, xxviii: 19-20. ' Luke xxiv: 44. 
 
 'Acts i: 4. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 35 
 
 their discernment of spiritual things, 
 "which the Father hath put in his own 
 power," they must wait until "after that 
 the Holy Spirit is come upon"^ them: for, 
 as Paul affirmed, "spiritual things are 
 spiritually discerned . " * 
 
 XIX 
 
 That the revelation in Jesus is of univer- 
 sal application may be inferred from his 
 words to Mary, when manifesting himself 
 at the sepulchre : — ' ' Go to my brethren, and 
 say unto them; I ascend to my Father, 
 and your Father; to my God, and your 
 God." 2 He is their elder brother; they 
 are of one family of "man"; his spiritual 
 or divine sonship to God is to be theirs like- 
 wise when they are "born of the Spirit. ""• 
 He joyfully reveals to them what is their 
 common inheritance; what is common to 
 the life and destiny of a perfected human- 
 
 ^ Acts i: 7-8. = I Cor. ii: 14. 
 
 3 John xx: 17. < John iii: 5-7. 
 
36 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 ity. In every incidental act and circum- 
 stance of his manifestations after his disso- 
 lution there is a revelation of truths equally 
 applicable to his followers when they stand 
 where he stands, even to the transmuta- 
 tion of the purified physical. In this light 
 nothing in the revelation is miraculous, or 
 contrary to established order, which under 
 like circumstances is universal. 
 
 When the course of human life is thus 
 revealed as projected into an invisible, 
 but not less substantial world, without 
 change of personality, or the cessation of 
 human interests, all this may be discerned 
 as familiar, natural, and reasonable, how- 
 ever startling was its abrupt disclosure 
 to the disciples. The revelation was for 
 them and for all "good tidings of great 
 joy"; for death was seen to be swallowed 
 up in conscious and continuous life. Like 
 birth, death was shown to be a parturition, 
 a "dissolution" of the physical simply, all 
 else remaining as before. For the world 
 that is entered at death is revealed as 
 
THE RESURRECTION 37 
 
 related to the powers of the psychic senses 
 quite as substantially as the physical 
 world is related to the physical senses ; the 
 organic manifestations of the resurrection 
 plainly imply this : the character, including 
 the will and affections, remaining the 
 same; for changes in these respects are 
 neither abrupt nor miraculous. 
 
 XX 
 
 It was the orderliness and familiarity of 
 the manifestations of the resurrection, as 
 regards all the constituents of individual 
 personality, that occasioned joy in connec- 
 tion with the revelation of a future state. 
 Were the manifestations strange, unfa- 
 miliar, or of the pattern of imaginary con- 
 ceptions standing unrelated to the present 
 life, as commonly fancied, they might have 
 inspired peculiar emotions, but not those 
 of joy. The revelation that the life once 
 begun is unending; that individual iden- 
 tity persists throughout all outward 
 changes; that the present life is harmoni- 
 
38 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 ously, and sometimes consciously, related 
 to the next world; and that the discarnate 
 soul is still human, and natural in its 
 affections and life; make it desirable to 
 study this order of revelation as reasonable 
 and profitable, and as capable of being 
 brought to some extent within the bounds 
 of certain knowledge. 
 
 XXI 
 
 Ideas of the miraculous in Christ's life 
 may so separate his life from the life of 
 man that Jesus is parted from his brethren. 
 The eye should not be blinded by appear- 
 ances: Jesus revealed the divine order as 
 in itself it really is for everyone who 
 follows in his footsteps with a like "faith 
 in God."' If the path trod by Jesus were 
 supernatural, in the sense of miraculous — 
 raised above human possibiHty by special 
 miracle — then Jesus could not serve as a 
 pattern for man, for he would be separated 
 
 » Mark xi: 22. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 39 
 
 from the human experience. It is this 
 idea of the miraculous that has tended to 
 hide from view the real scope and meaning 
 of the manifestations of the risen Christ, as 
 a revelation of truth disclosing the nature 
 of the life to come. 
 
 The manifestations, in addition to what 
 has been shov/n, imply that man, in the 
 immediate next stage of life, is still con- 
 cerned with the completion of his earthly- 
 tasks, as witnessed by the return of Moses 
 and Elias in communion with Jesus; and 
 by the risen Christ himself in his inter- 
 course with those whom he had known on 
 earth — with the women as well as with the 
 eleven disciples. The passage of the soul 
 to a heavenly realm appears to be con- 
 ditionally connected with the completion 
 of its earthly responsibilities, as said of 
 those who had gone before: — "God having 
 provided some better thing for us, that 
 they without us should not be made per- 
 fect."^ 
 
 » Heb. xi: 39-40, 
 
40 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 XXII 
 
 That no essential tie is severed by death 
 is made evident by the revelation of the 
 resurrected Jesus. He manifested himself 
 first to the women; whose intuitional per- 
 ceptions and active sympathy, which drew 
 them to the sepulchre, may have rendered 
 them more susceptible to the influence. 
 He remembered the individual characteris- 
 tics of his disciples, their weaknesses and 
 infirmities of faith. He accorded to 
 Thomas his prescribed tests to induce 
 belief; he strove to establish the faith of 
 Peter on the sure foundation of love, as the 
 root of the divine life. His approaches 
 were individual and sympathetic, as to 
 Mary Magdalene, to Thomas, and to 
 Peter; the earthly tie remained unbroken. 
 He supped with his followers; he walked 
 with them by the way; he conversed with 
 them as between man and man; he came 
 to them while engaged in their daily toil, 
 in familiar ways recognizing their individ- 
 
THE RESURRECTION 41 
 
 ual needs. Though this conscious inter- 
 course was at times but momentary, or of 
 the passing hour, it nevertheless revealed, 
 by these hints and suggestions, the per- 
 sistence, in a future state, of all that is 
 deemed most precious in the earthly life, as 
 to the natural affections not less than in 
 spiritual aspiration. 
 
 XXIII 
 
 While the physical is ceaselessly under- 
 going change, and the human organism is 
 perpetually renewing itself throughout all 
 its stages of growth and development, 
 nevertheless there is a certain apparent 
 permanency of form and feature by which 
 outward personality is identified in the 
 earthly life. But the appearance of 
 the psychic personality, as revealed in the 
 manifestations of the resurrection, is not 
 confined Vithin these limitations. Condi- 
 tioned in a more sublimated form of 
 substance the ''spiritual body"^ responds 
 
 ' I Cor. XV : 44. 
 
42 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 more freely to the will and the mental 
 moods. The variableness of the form of the 
 risen Jesus is variously attested in the 
 scriptures, and previous to that occasion 
 when he manifested himself for the special 
 benefit of Thomas. That Mary did not at 
 first recognize the risen Christ at the sepul- 
 chre, mistaking him for "the gardener,"^ 
 may have been due to the obscurity of 
 the early dawn; the single expression, 
 *'Mary!" awakening within her heart a 
 recognition of the Master. But to the two 
 disciples on the way to Emmaus, in the 
 afternoon of the same day, Jesus mani- 
 fested himself in a form that was plainly 
 not recognizable, for it is said that he 
 appeared to themas *'a stranger." It was 
 not till he sat at meat with them, when 
 "the day was far spent," that "their eyes 
 were opened, and they knew him; and he 
 vanished out of their sight. ""^ Referring 
 to this occasion the scripture says, "He 
 was manifested in another form unto two 
 * John XX : 15. ^ Luke xxiv: 18. 
 
THE resurrection; 43 
 
 of them, as they walked, on their way into 
 the country."^ Thus these two disciples, 
 one of whom was an intimate follower of 
 Jesus, saw in the resurrected form of the 
 Master nothing to identify him as one 
 whom they had known and loved, so far 
 as the external features of his person were 
 concerned. It was when their spiritual 
 perceptions were "opened" that they 
 recognized him, then they recalled how his 
 conversation had caused their hearts to 
 "burn within them as he spake with them 
 by the way."^ 
 
 XXIV 
 
 When, therefore, he manifested himself 
 to his followers with the intent of identify- 
 ing himself as the same Jesus who had 
 died on the cross, disclosing to them the 
 wounds inflicted upon his person, it is not 
 to be inferred that these marks were per- 
 manent in the resurrection body ; they were 
 dependent on his will and purpose; if he 
 
 » Mark xvi: 12. ■ Luke xxiv: 32. 
 
44 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 willed his body to bear these marks they 
 were sensibly present; and if he willed the 
 manifestation of himself to be outwardly 
 "in another form" the appearance was 
 directly responsive to his mood of mind. 
 With the comparative rigidity of a physi- 
 cally conditioned organism, as known to 
 this world, this seems magical and per- 
 haps" confusing — as to the identification of 
 outward personality. But it is not so to 
 the psychic perceptions; for in purely 
 psychical conditions the response of out- 
 ward feature to the inward mental mood is 
 far more mobile in reflecting thought. And 
 this is one of the truths disclosed by the 
 varied character of the manifestations of 
 the forty days, revealing a larger freedom 
 of the mind over its environment by virtue 
 of the superior conditions in which the soul 
 rises at dissolution. 
 
 XXV 
 
 Had there been an abrupt termination 
 of the earthly life of Jesus, and an im- 
 
THE RESURRECTION 45 
 
 mediate "ascension into heaven" without 
 these manifestations from the intermedi- 
 ate state, there would have been no reve- 
 lation of human destiny in the sense of 
 bringing to light the path of the soul's 
 progress in passing from the earthly to the 
 heavenly states of being — a knowledge of 
 which is profitable for inducing belief in 
 personal immortality. And instead of a 
 religion based on the revelation of "life 
 and immortality," the teaching of the 
 Christ, had Jesus not thus manifested 
 himself from the unseen, would have been 
 simply a contribution to the teaching of 
 the prophets, and doubtless would have 
 been classed as such. How otherwise 
 could there have been any knowledge 
 formed of that heavenly personality desig- 
 nated "the Holy Ghost" — which the 
 scripture says "was not yet given, because 
 Jesus was not yet glorified"' — except for 
 the revelation of that living personality 
 which, at the close of this intervening 
 
 I John vii : 39. 
 
46 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 period, was symbolically manifested as 
 "ascending into heaven when a cloud 
 received him out of their sight"?' For, 
 until spiritually discerned, spiritual truths 
 are conveyed to the natural mind through 
 symbols; and by ascending through space 
 Jesus figuratively implied his spiritual 
 "ascension" through the heavens "to the 
 Father." 
 
 XXVI 
 
 That this spiritual or heavenly person- 
 ality of the Christ should receive recogni- 
 tion and be serviceable to man, it was 
 necessary that Jesus should first manifest 
 himself naturally from the intermediate 
 state; in order to demonstrate to the 
 natural mind that it was to be "this same 
 Jesus" who should "so come in like 
 manner as ye beheld him going into 
 heaven"^ when returning in the power and 
 personality of the Paraclete, or Comforter.^ 
 
 » Acts i: 9. 2 Acts i: li. (R. V.) 
 
 3 2 Cor. iii: 17. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 47 
 
 Manifesting himself, therefore, first in a 
 form and order of thought with which his 
 followers were already familiar, the risen 
 Jesus gradually led them on to form a more 
 inward and spiritual apprehension of his 
 true personality and unseen presence. How 
 otherwise could it have been known that 
 he still lived and had them in his care? 
 having "passed into the heavens'*^ with a 
 full consciousness of his earthly life, carry- 
 ing these memories and affections with 
 him into the Father's unveiled presence — 
 as figuratively implied? 
 
 To repeat: it was essential for a knowl- 
 edge of the heavenly Christ, and of his 
 mode of operation — sometimes by personal 
 manifestation and verbal communion, as 
 made to Paul and John — that his later 
 spiritual ministrations as "the Comforter'* 
 should have been preceded by the experi- 
 ence and phenomena of the resurrection 
 as reported in the Gospels; revealing the 
 persistence, in a future state, of the human 
 
 »Heb. iv: 14. 
 
48 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 personality of the Christ, and his final 
 ascension into heaven. For it is through 
 that heavenly human personality of the 
 glorified Christ, filled with the Spirit of 
 God, that the Divine Presence is brought to 
 the consciousness of men, enabling them to 
 distinguish that spiritual or divine in- 
 fluence from the operation of their own 
 minds. 
 
 XXVII 
 
 Let us pause to consider what was the 
 original attitude of mind on the part of 
 the disciples toward these revelations and 
 manifestations from the unseen. In the 
 ordinary sense it was not religious; the 
 disciples were all Israelites and followed 
 that order of worship and belief. The 
 association of this new and momentous 
 experience with doctrinal beliefs was an 
 afterthought, a subsequent development. 
 The disciples, including Jesus, were all 
 laymen; the whole experience was in a 
 
THE RESURRECTION 49 
 
 sense laic — that is, standing wholly apart 
 from temple, priest, or doctrinal beliefs. 
 There was no religious authority whatever 
 associated with the experience beyond that 
 derived from the sanction of a spiritual 
 consciousness in the hearts of the followers 
 of Jesus. Institutional religion was set 
 against it: it was simply a question of life 
 and light addressing the mind in a fuller 
 sense than had ever been experienced or 
 conceived before. Its subsequent religious 
 association, as commonly understood, has 
 had a tendency to veil it in part with 
 doctrinal conceptions born of systematic 
 forms of thought and of institutional ideas; 
 by this means the experience gradually 
 acquired an authoritative status that 
 originally was denied it by the institu- 
 tional mind. 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 The prophet necessarily must have no 
 other sanction, or authority, in the form of 
 4 
 
50 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 credential, than the "power" of his de- 
 liverance:^ any association of human or 
 ecclesiastical authority with this would 
 subvert its dependence on a divine inspira- 
 tion; this explains the fact that the proph- 
 ets were almost invariably laymen. The 
 institutional mind, as such, is concerned 
 with maintaining and developing an institu- 
 tional past; with reference to public wor- 
 ship, the ministering of sacraments, and 
 the preservation and interpretation of what 
 Paul terms "the oracles of God."^ Its 
 attitude is naturally hostile toward any 
 new form of revelation:^ and this doubtless 
 is a reasonable and consistent attitude; not 
 as applicable to the individual, but adapted 
 to the maintenance of institutional func- 
 tions and forms, and for guarding against 
 error, or imposture. Before a new truth of 
 revelation can be taken up and incorporated 
 with institutional religion it must have 
 experienced the test of time in its appeal 
 
 "^ Jeremiah xxiii: 28, 29. =» Rom. iii: 1-2. 
 
 5 John ix: 29. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 5 1 
 
 to the spiritual consciousness. There is a 
 reason therefore why, in the initial experi- 
 ences, revelation and conscious communion 
 with the unseen should not be identified 
 with human sanctions, or ecclesiastical 
 authority. The apostle Paul specifies 
 weak and despised instrumentalities as 
 divinely chosen for this purpose; that the 
 power may be known to be of God, and 
 not of men.^ 
 
 XXIX 
 
 And with regard to the experiences 
 affirming the resurrection of Jesus, this is 
 the characteristic of the original witnesses 
 — they were exclusively religious laymen, 
 and of both sexes; they were not of "the 
 wise and prudent"^ in any intellectual or 
 philosophical sense. The initial manifesta- 
 tions of the risen Christ were made to the 
 women, who were the first to herald his 
 
 * I Cor. i: 26-30; 2 Cor. iv: 7. 
 
 * Matt, xi: 25; Luke x: 21. 
 
52 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 resurrection:^ this is significant; as is also 
 the fact that the initial manifestation was 
 to Mary of Magdala; and not to the 
 apostles, or to the one who stood nearest 
 to Jesus. 
 
 It is necessary to divest the actual 
 experience of subsequent overlying concep- 
 tions and associations — to see it, as it were, 
 at first hand, in the light of plain-minded 
 "witnesses" whose report is wholly free 
 from philosophical conjecture — to discern 
 in the phenomena of the resurrection a 
 revelation of truth in the form of an actual 
 experience on the plane of nature. During 
 the interval between his resurrection and 
 ascension the character of the manifesta- 
 tions all indicate that Jesus was still in a 
 natural state of being ; there was no sug- 
 gestion of heavenly things. He aimed to 
 impress his followers, both men and women, 
 with the truth that he was not parted from 
 them by dissolution. By his sudden ap- 
 pearance, and disappearance, when mani- 
 
 '^ John xx: 17, 18. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 53 
 
 festing himself, he gradually accustomed 
 them to think of him as present, though 
 invisible; and by his words to Thomas, 
 and to Peter, as cognizant of their individ- 
 ual thoughts and needs. Thenceforth his 
 invisible presence was not less real to them 
 than were these phenomenal manifesta- 
 tions. A distinct step had been taken by 
 this means for giving substantial reality to 
 spiritual conceptions ; which otherwise must 
 be vague, conjectural, and ineffective. 
 
 It was no abstract emotion that the 
 risen Jesus sought to awaken in the heart 
 of Peter by his thrice repeated question 
 "Lovest thou me?"^ but a concrete love 
 and devotion to that living personality 
 revealed to him as ''the Christ of God." 
 And when the approach was no longer 
 from without, through the physical sense, 
 as Paul discerned of the heavenly Christ — 
 when "known no more after the flesh"* 
 — then the conception formed of that heav- 
 enly and divine presence, "the Son of man 
 
 ^ John xxi: 15-17. ' 2 Cor. v: 16. 
 
54 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 in heaven," passes from a natural to a 
 spiritual order of discernment ; which is not 
 less real, to say the least, when "spiritual 
 things are spiritually discerned."^ 
 
 XXX 
 
 The phenomena of the resurrection, and 
 those which followed after the ascension of 
 Jesus, enable the mind to mark a distinction 
 between the psychical and the spiritual in 
 manifestations from the unseen. By con- 
 founding psychical with spiritual things 
 erroneous views are formed that engender 
 misconceptions and superstitions. All 
 psychic phenomena are essentially organic ; 
 they pertain to an order of nature, whether 
 of seen or unseen worlds. They are there- 
 fore not in themselves more sacred than 
 are physical phenomena; to the devout 
 mind all things are sacred when rightly 
 viewed. That which is psychic, as to 
 forces and phenomena, pertains to an 
 
 ' I Cor. ii: 14. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 55 
 
 invisible realm, or world, or state of being, 
 wherein all things are outwardly condi- 
 tioned in a form of substance corresponding 
 to psychic organisms, or "spiritual bodies," 
 as Paul terms them;^ and are governed by 
 laws that are preternatural, but not super- 
 natural. Beyond this order of nature, 
 pertaining to a physically-invisible psychic 
 state, that alone is spiritual which is 
 divine. Truly spiritual phenomena, there- 
 fore, are psychic manifestations informed 
 with divinity itself — such are the "mani- 
 festations of the Holy Ghost"; and these 
 followed after the ascension of Christ into 
 heaven. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 The order, or form of revelation, is 
 equally important and essential in all its 
 stages, and the manifestations of the forty 
 days cannot be dispensed with if the mind 
 of the believer would pass intelligently 
 
 ' I Cor. XV : 44. 
 
56 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 from the dispensation of the historic Christ, 
 to the ministrations of the Paraclete, or 
 heavenly Christ.^ As in the creation and 
 perfecting of man there is a manifest order 
 impHed in the words "First the natural; 
 afterward, then that which is spiritual";^ 
 so do the manifestations of the resurrec- 
 tion, as reported in the Gospels, stand in 
 relation to those which followed after the 
 ascension of Jesus. In both experiences 
 the phenomenal has its place in supplying 
 the initial impulse, or data, for the develop- 
 ment of a spiritual consciousness, as in the 
 experience of Paul in the way. Were there 
 no revelation by manifestation and pro- 
 phecy there could be no substantial basis 
 for spiritual conceptions : and if this means 
 of enlightenment be ruled out of the re- 
 ligious consciousness through unbelief; or 
 relegated wholly to the past as miraculous ; 
 or as merely mythical tradition, or hallu- 
 cination; then that spiritual development, 
 
 ^ John vil: 39; Hcb. xii: 25; 2 Cor. iii: 17. 
 » I Cor. XV : 46. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 57 
 
 which was so marked in the experience of 
 the immediate followers of Christ, must 
 either come to an end, or forever remain 
 stationary; notwithstanding the promise 
 that the Paraclete would "guide into all 
 truth and reveal the things to come."^ 
 
 XXXII 
 
 To conclude, therefore: while there is a 
 spiritual view of "resurrection," implying 
 the soul's rising "from death unto life"' 
 through the quickening power of the 
 Spirit, there is likewise a natural view, as 
 shown in the Gospel narrative, revealing 
 the resurrection of the organic personality ; 
 both experiences have their place in the 
 revelation of Jesus Christ. As regards the 
 former, the spiritual view, Jesus said, "I 
 am the resurrection and the life; he that 
 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live; and whosoever liveth and 
 believeth in me shall never die."^ Life and 
 
 ^ John xvi: 13. ^ John v: 24. 
 
 3 John xi: 25-26. 
 
58 THE RESURRECTION 
 
 death are herein referred to as a subjective 
 experience, with reference to the presence 
 or absence of the divine Spirit in the con- 
 sciousness of man. This distinction is Hke- 
 wise indicated in the teaching of Paul: — 
 "For ye are dead, and your Hfe is hid with 
 Christ in God."' The apostle also refers 
 to Christ himself as "Declared to be the 
 Son of God with power, according to the 
 Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from 
 the dead."^ But these spiritual concep- 
 tions are not intended as a substitute for 
 that resurrection of the organic personality 
 attested in the Gospels; they are super- 
 added to that experience; being based 
 upon it, by analogy, as the rising of the 
 soul into a higher order of life by the 
 quickening power of the indwelling Spirit, 
 when the heart has been opened to that 
 divine influence. 
 
 There is therefore both a natural and a 
 spiritual view of resurrection, and both 
 views are equally true, and equally adapted 
 
 ' Col. iii: 3. ' Rom. i: 4. 
 
THE RESURRECTION 59 
 
 to human need. Spiritually " the king- 
 dom of heaven, " as taught by Christ, is a 
 state of life wherein the human is united to 
 the divine through oneness of will and 
 spirit — whether in the earthly life or in a 
 future state. Nevertheless there is a 
 heaven of the angels, a celestial paradise,^ 
 which is not less real and substantial, to 
 say the least, than is the present world to 
 the natural consciousness. And while, on 
 the natural plane, the words of Jesus, as to 
 his being "lifted up above the earth," are 
 interpreted as "signifying by what death 
 he should die";^ on the spiritual plane 
 they have another and even deeper signifi- 
 cance, as referring to the ascension of the 
 living Christ into heaven: — Jesus said: 
 "And I, if I be lifted up from [R. V. marg. 
 'out of] the earth, will draw all men unto 
 me."3 
 
 He who died on the cross and was laid 
 in the tomb, rose again after a brief interval, 
 
 * Luke xxiii: 43. ^ John xii: 33. 
 
 3 John xii: 32. 
 
6o THE RESURRECTION 
 
 manifesting himself to his followers. And 
 at the end of forty days "He led them oat 
 as far as Bethany,"^ to Mount Olivet, 
 which is near to Jerusalem, a sabbath 
 day's journey. . . . "And while they be- 
 held, he was taken up, and a cloud received 
 him out of their sight. And while they 
 looked steadfastly toward heaven as he 
 went up, behold, two men stood by them in 
 shining raiment ; which also said, Ye men 
 of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up 
 into heaven? This same Jesus, who is 
 taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
 come in like manner as ye have seen him 
 go into heaven."^ 
 
 The disciples, both men and women, 
 were thus made "witnesses" by manifesta- 
 tions of the risen and ascended Christ; 
 attesting the fulfillment of the promise of 
 a Paraclete, or Comforter, as a heavenly 
 personality with whom henceforth they, 
 and all succeeding disciples to the end of 
 the world, were to be brought, at times, in 
 
 ' Luke xxiv: 50-51. * Acts i: 9-12, 
 
THE RESURRECTION 6i 
 
 conscious communion; and in no other 
 way could this momentous truth have 
 been conveyed to the human mind as a 
 reality, than through this experience of the 
 resurrection and ascension of Jesus as nar- 
 rated in the Gospels. In the absence of 
 that objective experience the immortality 
 of man must have remained a matter of 
 speculative conjecture; as it still is when 
 viewed in the light of philosophy, apart 
 from a revelation of the truth. 
 
PART II 
 
 THE COMFORTER, OR SPIRIT OF 
 TRUTH 
 
 63 
 
THE COMFORTER, OR SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 Jesus said: — "I will pray the Father and he will 
 give you another Comforter, that he may abide 
 with you forever; even the Spirit of truth: whom the 
 world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
 neither knoweth him: but ye know him, for he 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not 
 leave you comfortless: I will come to you. . . . 
 He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and 
 I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. . . . 
 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet 
 present with you. But the Comforter, which is the 
 Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
 he will teach you all things, and bring to your 
 remembrance whatsoever things I have said unto 
 you. ... Ye have heard how I said unto you, I 
 go away, and come again unto you. . . . And now 
 I have told you before it comes to pass, that when 
 it is come to pass, ye might believe. ... It is 
 expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away 
 the Comforter will not come unto you. ... I have 
 yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
 bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of 
 truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth. . . . 
 He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he 
 shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you 
 things to come. ... He shall glorify me; for he 
 shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. . . . 
 I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, 
 and your joy no man can take from you." — John 
 xiv, XV, and xvi. 
 
THE COMFORTER, OR SPIRIT OF 
 TRUTH 
 
 MANIFESTATIONS OF THE COMFORTER 
 
 Before treating of the phenomena 
 designated "manifestations of the Holy- 
 Ghost," it may be well to recapitulate 
 briefly- the experiences that preceded this 
 later revelation. 
 
 Having died on the cross, Jesus rose 
 again; and for the space of forty. days was 
 manifested, at intervals, not as an angel, or 
 spirit, but as a man; that is, in a natural 
 state of being. His words (John xx: 17) 
 imply that he had "not yet ascended" into 
 heaven. There was nothing in the manifes- 
 tation to indicate that a spiritual change 
 had taken place through dissolution. He 
 s 65 
 
66 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 rose again with the same personality ; with 
 the same mind as to its interests and affec- 
 tions; and apparently with the same body, 
 bearing at first the recognizable marks that 
 served to identify him as the same Jesus 
 who was crucified. In the earlier manifesta- 
 tions these characteristics were observable, 
 and they served for his outward identifica- 
 tion. 
 
 But associated with these familiar fea- 
 tures of his person were certain powers 
 peculiar to the change that was wrought 
 by death; the risen Jesus could render his 
 person visible and palpable, or invisible 
 and impalpable, at will; while the form 
 itself was variously manifested, according 
 to his purpose. He emerged, as it were, 
 from the unseen in the presence of witnesses, 
 "the doors being shut, " and vanished from 
 their sight; revealing by these changes a 
 control over the elements in which his 
 organic personality was outwardly condi- 
 tioned. 
 
 Nevertheless tHere was in the manifesta- 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 67 
 
 tion no indication that Jesus had risen, 
 through dissolution, above a natural state 
 of being; there was no radiancy, or "glory," 
 associated with the phenomena. Con- 
 trasted with the dazzling splendor of his 
 subsequent manifestation to Paul in the 
 way, ^ or with the radiancy of angelic beings 
 as elsewhere described,^ the manifestations 
 of the forty days' interval between his 
 death and ascension into heaven were 
 earthly in character and, on more than one 
 occasion, physical in form; preternatural, 
 but not supernatural — not spiritual, as 
 this term is rightly discriminated. Jesus 
 himself directed the minds of his disciples 
 to this fact when he said, "Handle me, and 
 see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, 
 as ye see me have. ' ' ^ 
 
 The phenomena of the resurrection seem 
 to indicate that the purpose of the risen 
 Christ, during the interval between his 
 death and his ascension into heaven, was 
 
 » Acts xxvi: 13, 14. ' Rev. i: 16. 
 
 3 Luke xxiv : 39. 
 
68 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 to reveal, by his manifestations from 
 the unseen, personal immortality and the 
 natural conditions of the after-life; to 
 disclose, incidentally, to the minds of his 
 followers the substantial reality of that 
 invisible intermediate world, or state of be- 
 ing, between the earthly and the heavenly. 
 During this period there were no further 
 spiritual teachings given to his followers; 
 the abnormal character of the manifesta- 
 tion doubtless precluded this; for as physi- 
 cal manifestations from the unseen the 
 phenomena were, strictly speaking, normal 
 to neither world. Their purpose has been 
 sufficiently indicated as the revelation of a 
 state of being intervening between dissolu- 
 tion and the soul's ascension into heaven. 
 
 II 
 
 We come now to the consideration of 
 that personality which, at the end of the 
 forty days, "ascended into heaven." 
 
 Existence, as applied to being, is in- 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 69 
 
 separable from personality of some kind. 
 In the mind of Christ this is strikingly- 
 manifest in contradistinction to abstract 
 ideas that conceive of the Deity as an 
 impersonal "power which makes' for right- 
 eousness " ; but every reference Jesus made 
 to his "Father in heaven" implied a per- 
 sonal Being whose attributes were re- 
 flected in himself. 
 
 The revelation of the resurrection and 
 ascension of Jesus discloses the persistence 
 of the human personality throughout all 
 worlds. There is likewise revealed by this 
 means a further distinction of natural and 
 spiritual personalities, resting in a distinc- 
 tion of soul and spirit. These terms are 
 often used indiscriminately, as if desig- 
 nating a single fundamental principle, or 
 essence in the constitution of man. But 
 the teaching of scripture affirms that "the 
 word of the Lord parteth asunder soul and 
 spirit":^ that is, the revelation of a spirit- 
 ual or divine essence shows the soul to be 
 
 ^ Heb. iv: 12. 
 
70 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 exterior to this as a fundamental human 
 principle. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Natural and spiritual personalities are 
 commonly designated "man " and "angel " : 
 man is outwardly organized in physical 
 conditions; while an angel, or spirit, is 
 outwardly organized in psychical condi- 
 tions; both these series of conditions, 
 though utterly unlike, are "material" in 
 substance, and are therefore of the order 
 of nature in their respective worlds, or 
 spheres, as may be discerned in the light 
 of revelation. 
 
 It has been held by many that man was 
 originally created a spiritual being, that he 
 fell from that divine estate, and that a 
 spiritual principle slumbers in the soul 
 awaiting its reawakening to life. But a 
 clearer discernment of the symbols of 
 revelation marks the distinction of soul and 
 Spirit as standing for the human and the 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 71 
 
 divine; and that the former is created with 
 a capacity for the reception of the divine 
 when man is "born of the Spirit,"^ or 
 "born of God." For the process of crea- 
 tion is an act of becoming: — *'To as many 
 as received him, to them gave he power to 
 become the sons of God";^ and this dis- 
 tinction is further marked in the teaching 
 of Paul respecting the order of creation : — 
 "First the natural; afterward, then that 
 which is spiritual; the first man is of the 
 earth, earthy; the second man is from 
 heaven : and as we have borne the image of 
 the earthy, we shall also bear the image of 
 the heavenly."^ 
 
 This distinction, of natural and spiritual 
 personalities, is essential to a proper under- 
 standing of what follows: for the natural 
 personality is fundamentally psychic, or 
 human; but the spiritual personality is 
 fundamentally spiritual, or divine : even as 
 implied when Jesus prayed to the Father, 
 
 ' John iii: 2-9. » John i: 12-14. 
 
 3 I Cor. XV : 46-49. 
 
72 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 when about to die, "Glorify thou me with 
 thine own self."^ 
 
 IV 
 
 To mark the distinction of natural 
 and spiritual personalities in the Christ, as 
 "Son of man" and "Holy Ghost," it may 
 be well to recall some of the characteristics 
 of the former. Jesus was loved as a teacher 
 long before his disciples were convinced 
 that he was their Lord, the Son of God.^ 
 He abode with them in human fellowship, 
 "going in and out among them" in daily 
 intercourse. As friend with friend one 
 "leaned upon his bosom while they sat at 
 meat";^ he wept with his friends who 
 mourned, "* and opened to them "the mys- 
 teries of the kingdom of heaven"^ — some- 
 times in a phenomenal way.^ He taught 
 his followers how to commune with God,^ 
 
 ^ John xvii: 5. " Luke xxii: 70-71. 
 
 3 John xiii: 23. < John xi: 35. 
 
 s Matt, xiii: ii. ^ Luke ix: 28-37. 
 'Matt, vi: 7-13. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 73 
 
 and revealed to them the nature of the 
 heavenly life by parables the meaning 
 of which they discerned at a later day.^ 
 They felt that in him God drew nigh to 
 them ; that the divine was actually present 
 in him: they who discerned this perceived 
 in his words and acts a revelation of the 
 Father. He was thus for them a Comforter, 
 as to his natural personality, disclosing to 
 their minds and hearts ''the way, the 
 truth, and the life";^ and when about to 
 die, he said: — "I will pray the Father, and 
 he will give you another Comforter . . . 
 that he may abide with you forever."* 
 
 By his ascension into heaven in bodily 
 form, as manifested to his followers in a 
 symbol at the end of the forty days, Jesus 
 disclosed to their minds the truth that 
 even in that final, or celestial state, the 
 human invests the divine in the form of a 
 
 ^ Matt. xiii. ' John xiv: 6. 
 
 3 John xiv: 16-18. 
 
74 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 Spiritual personality, otherwise unknowable 
 had it not been thus manifested ; from this 
 the inference may be drawn that there is, 
 in that celestial state, a corresponding 
 outward environment transcendent to 
 earthly conceptions yet nevertheless 
 capable of being spiritually discerned — as 
 affirmed by Paul.' With reference to his 
 heavenly manifestations Jesus said, "The 
 Son of Man shall come in his own glory, 
 and in his Father's";^ that is, the manifes- 
 tation will be both psychic and spiritual, 
 both human and divine. For a manifesta- 
 tion of the divine Spirit, "whom no man 
 hath seen, nor can see,"^ is impossible of 
 apprehension by the earthly mind except 
 through this psychic means, "the Son of 
 man in heaven"; and this also is implied 
 in the words: "No man hath seen God 
 at any time: the only begotten Son . . . 
 he hath revealed him."^ 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. xii: 2-4; i Cor. ii: 9-10. 
 
 ^ Luke ix: 26. 3 j Tim. vi: 16. 
 
 4 John i: iS. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 75 
 
 VI 
 
 The heavenly manifestations of the 
 Christ differ from the manifestations of the 
 "forty days" inasmuch as their outward 
 form is psychic, never addressing the phy- 
 sical sense: that is, when the manifesta- 
 tion is personal. But there are varieties of 
 phenomena, originally classed as "mani- 
 festations of the Holy Ghost," which 
 proceed from a heavenl}^ source through out- 
 ward instrumentalities that are cognizable 
 by the physical sense; but these are not 
 personal, they are "signs" and "tokens" 
 of spiritual things; of such a nature were 
 the initial phenomena by that means, as 
 thus described: — "And when the day of 
 Pentecost was fully come, they were all 
 with one accord in one place. And 
 suddenly there came a sound from heaven, 
 as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled 
 all the house where the}^ were sitting. And 
 there appeared unto them cloven tongues of 
 flame, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of 
 
76 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 them. And they were all filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
 tongues, as the Spirit gave them utter- 
 ance."^ 
 
 VII 
 
 It is noticeable in the scriptures that all 
 reference to "manifestations of the Holy 
 Ghost," as distinguished from spiritual 
 communion in the heart and in the con- 
 science, is associated with phenomena 
 capable of being sensibly cognized; either 
 as an instrumentality, or by its outward 
 effects; the following may serve for illus- 
 tration: — "Now when the apostles which 
 were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had 
 received the word of God they sent unto 
 them Peter and John ; who, when they were 
 come down, prayed with them, that 
 they might receive the Holy Ghost (for as 
 yet he was fallen upon none of them; only 
 they were baptized in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus). Then they laid their hands on 
 
 ^ Acts ii: 1-5. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 77 
 
 them, and they received the Holy Ghost "^ 
 — elsewhere indicated by "speaking with 
 tongues, and prophesy ings." 
 
 This implies something superadded to 
 their reception of "the word of God," 
 which is spiritual; something addressing 
 the outer consciousness, even as its com- 
 munication was outward — through "the 
 laying on of hands." The declaration that 
 thereupon "they received the Holy Ghost" 
 was grounded in some sensible form of 
 evidence apparent to the observers.^ A 
 purely spiritual influence is not thus 
 manifested, but is a matter of the inward 
 experience. What these believers received 
 by these means was something added, 
 ab extra, to what may be conceived as purely 
 spiritual; for the latter is not tactually 
 conveyable, but concerns the heart of the 
 believer — as distinguished b}^ Paul in the 
 thirteenth chapter of ist Corinthians, 1-4. 
 This tactual means is for the conveyance 
 
 ^ Acts viii: 14-18. 
 
 ' Acts viii: 18-19, and x: 44-47. 
 
78 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 of psychic "power" as a channel for the 
 spiritual; and is commonly employed in 
 the earlier stages of this intercourse, among 
 mystics, as an initial act when two or three 
 are met together for this communion. 
 
 VIII 
 
 What originally was designated "the 
 power," in modern terms has been variously 
 designated magnetism, mesmerism, hypno- 
 tism, etc. — which terms explain nothing, 
 but serve merely to indicate various out- 
 ward phases of a psychic force, not in the 
 least degree spiritual. There is a distinc- 
 tion to be noted, however, in the study of 
 these psychic phenomena, as to whether 
 they are regarded simply as abnormal 
 forces or effects ; or , in their higher forms, as 
 a means susceptible of being developed as 
 an instrumentality for conscious commun- 
 ion with the unseen. This distinction was 
 clearly indicated by Paul, in discriminating 
 "spiritual gifts," when he said that he 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 79 
 
 would "rather speak five words with the 
 understanding, than ten thousand words 
 in a tongue. . . . Tongues," he said, 
 "are for a sign, not to them which believe, 
 but to them that believe not ; but prophesy- 
 ing serveth not for them that believe not, 
 but for them which believe."^ The apostle 
 eventually discerned the various nature of 
 these psychic phenomena as instrumentali- 
 ties ; as a possible channel for higher things ; 
 and among his followers he undertook to 
 regulate their service in the light of reason, 
 as a means for "revelations" and spiritual 
 teachings designated ' ' prophesyings ' ' ; 
 emanating from the unseen through con- 
 scious communion. 
 
 IX 
 
 It may be well to define, in the light of 
 the later revelation, what is the significance 
 of "prophecy"; as there is a distinction 
 to be noted in the scriptural uses of this 
 
 * I Cor. xiv: 19-22. 
 
8o THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 term. Prophecy, in the sense of prediction, 
 is but incidental to its larger meaning as 
 inspirational teachings from a heavenly 
 source, often verbally communicated. In 
 the Old Testament the prediction of 
 events by prophecy was with reference to 
 their fulfillment in time; in the New Testa- 
 ment the promised revelation of "the 
 things to come," the function of the Com- 
 forter, is strictly with reference to the 
 spiritual life, or "kingdom of Heaven." 
 Prophesyings, therefore, are inspirational 
 teachings by a conscious means of inter- 
 course with the unseen, designated in the 
 Apostles* Creed "the communion of 
 saints" — the spiritual-minded who have 
 passed into the heavens. Through this 
 order of communion, when under a heav- 
 enly inspiration, the spiritual consciousness 
 is specifically enlightened, according to the 
 promise of Jesus concerning the Comforter ; 
 namely, that "He will guide into all truth 
 and reveal the things to come";^ for these 
 ^ John xvi: 13. 
 
THE SPIRIT OP TRUTH Bt 
 
 communings, when proceeding from a 
 heavenly source, are all under that minis- 
 tration. • 
 
 A spiritual consciousness is not developed 
 arbitrarily, or miraculously; it is a matter 
 of gradual enlightenment; and is greatly 
 aided by this conscious spiritual commun- 
 ion and the study of the scriptures: for as 
 enlightenment on the natural plane is 
 dependent on the acquisition of knowledge, 
 so is spiritual enlightenment dependent on 
 revelation and prophecy, as supplying 
 the data for this development, especially 
 in its initial stages; the coming of the 
 Messiah implies this necessity, * * That they 
 might have life, and have it more abun- 
 dantly."^ 
 
 While discriminating herein the phe- 
 nomenal side of revelation and prophecy — 
 disclosed by manifestations bringing to 
 
 ^ I John x: lo. 
 6 
 
82 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 light by an external means, designated 
 "power," that which could not otherwise 
 have been known except it were thus re- 
 vealed — these instrumentalities are never- 
 theless all clearly distinguishable, even in 
 their higher forms, from that purely 
 spiritual communion which follows when, 
 as the scripture says, "God sends forth 
 the Spirit of his Son into 3^our hearts, crying 
 Abba, Father."^ For there is then im- 
 parted to the human soul that "gift of the 
 Spirit" which establishes in the heart of 
 the believer a direct spiritual relationship 
 and communion between the human and 
 the divine. But until this "day-star" 
 arises in the heart, it is said that there is 
 "a sure word of prophecy, of which it is 
 well to take heed, as a light that shineth in 
 a dark place, until the day dawn,"^ other- 
 wise there is little to build upon for the 
 development of a spiritual consciousness. 
 
 ' Gal. iv: 6. ' 2 Peter i: 19. 
 
THE SPIRIT OP TRUTH 83 
 
 XI 
 
 The scriptures indicate that there are 
 aids and instrumentab'ties available, under 
 the dispensation of the heavenly Christ, 
 that tend directly toward this spiritual 
 enlightenment when rightly used; not as 
 ends in themselves, but as a means, or 
 channel for conscious heavenly commun- 
 ion: such were those phenomena originally 
 designated " prophesyings " and "manifes- 
 tations of the Holy Ghost," of which the 
 following example is given: When Paul 
 came to Ephesus he found there a group of 
 disciples of John the Baptist, to whom he 
 said, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost 
 since ye believed? And they answered 
 him, We have not so much as heard whether 
 there be any Holy Ghost. . . . And when 
 Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy 
 Ghost came on them, and they spake with 
 tongues, and prophesied." » 
 
 Here was added to that ethical teaching 
 
 ' Acts xix: 1-7. 
 
84 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 received from John, including, doubtless, a 
 knowledge of the historic Christ, something 
 of which these believers were hitherto in 
 ignorance; something apparently com- 
 municable by the touch, irrespective of any 
 change of heart; disclosing some unseen 
 agency, or ''power," that was recognizable 
 by its outward effects, and discerned as 
 available for conscious communion with 
 the unseen through "prophesyings." The 
 laying on of hands for communicating 
 "the power" was followed by some form 
 of sensible phenomena, which the apostle 
 eventually discerned as susceptible of 
 development; passing from an outward, to 
 a more inward form of manifestation: 
 ''Forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual 
 gifts," he says, "seek that ye may excel to 
 the edifying of the church." Paul advised 
 that if one possessed an elementary gift, 
 as of "tongues, let him pray that he may 
 interpret, that the understanding may be 
 fruitful." And in furtherance of this end, 
 he adds, "When ye assemble together, if 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 85 
 
 all speak with tongues, and there come in 
 men unlearned [in the mystery], or un- 
 believing, will they not say that ye are 
 mad? But if ye prophesy and there come 
 in an unbeliever, or one ignorant [of these 
 things], he is reproved, he is judged; the 
 secrets of his heart are made known. "^ 
 
 XII 
 
 It is needless to specify what this signifies 
 in the light of the modern experience of 
 these psychic gifts, of which the above 
 gives an accurate description, tempered 
 with a wise discrimination. Paul clearly 
 indicates that the gift was susceptible of 
 development; passing from a lower, or 
 elementary psychic stage, to that of a 
 higher, or spiritual form of intelligence — 
 *^to the edifying of the church." 
 
 A careful study of these phenomena, and 
 of Paul's attitude of mind toward them, 
 
 ^ I Cor. xiv. The chapter is largely concerned 
 with the instrumentalities of revelation and proph- 
 ecy. 
 
86 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 will show them to be a means of conscious 
 communion with the unseen; whereby not 
 only "the secrets of the heart are made 
 known," but in their higher forms they may 
 become, as implied in the scriptures, the 
 channel of conscious heavenly communion. 
 
 But before passing on to the higher 
 forms it will be well to discriminate further 
 the elementary psychic stage of these gifts ; 
 not only of "tongues" — which are often 
 incoherent, though sometimes actual speech 
 in a language unknown to the one giving 
 utterance to it — but a still more elementary 
 form of phenomena is mentioned by Paul, 
 as "things without life giving forth 
 sounds";^ which the apostle regarded as 
 wholly unprofitable. And yet he recognizes 
 that these elementary phenomena belong 
 to the initial stage of a channel of conscious 
 psychic intercourse with the unseen, dis- 
 tinguished only by the uses made of it: 
 something not to be accorded any sacred- 
 ness in itself, save when employed for 
 
 ' I Cor. xiv: 7. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH ^7 
 
 Spiritual, or divine, communion in response 
 to the highest and purest' aspirations of the 
 human heart. 
 
 XIII 
 
 For it is plainly implied in the scriptures 
 that this same instrumentality, which may 
 be divinely used, is alike available for a 
 trifling, or unprofitable, intercourse with 
 the unseen, when its possible higher service 
 is not discerned; and St. John advises those 
 believers who would avail themselves of 
 this means of communion, to "try the 
 spirits,"^ suggesting a certain test for 
 determining whether they be "of God" — 
 that is, spiritual-minded — otherwise they 
 are "false prophets." Whatever be its 
 claim therefore, the product of such inter- 
 course should be judged solely by its in- 
 trinsic character and inward spirit, for 
 determining its true source and merit; as 
 when Paul says, ''Know ye not that we 
 shall judge angels?"^ In short, the product 
 
 ' I John iv: i. 5 i Cor. vi: 3. 
 
88 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH ^ 
 
 should be discriminated by that same 
 enlightened judgment which determined 
 what was spiritually inspired, from what 
 was apocryphal, in forming the canon of 
 New Testament scriptures. 
 
 XIV 
 
 A growing intelligence in the light of the 
 modern experience of these gifts, discerning 
 their lower and higher service, will result 
 in their proper discrimination, distinguish- 
 ing clearly the psychical from the spiritual. 
 Paul refers to * * the abundance of the revela- 
 tions"^ that were given him, and. to the 
 variety of his "gifts" — in reply to those 
 who regarded these things as the credentials 
 of apostleship; but he himself did not so 
 regard them; the " sanctification of the 
 Spirit"^ was his sole credential of authority 
 for his teaching, and it is the only real 
 authority in the religious life. Whatever 
 came to the apostle by these psychic 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. xii: 7. ^ Thes. ii: 13. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 89 
 
 instrumentalities he endeavored to inter- 
 pret in terms that would address the under- 
 standing and assist in the development of 
 a spiritual consciousness; if they failed in 
 this they were as nothing. He clearly 
 distinguishes these psychic gifts, even in 
 their higher forms, from that "fruit of the 
 Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
 meekness, temperance"^ — for these are 
 *' manifestations of the Spirit" indeed. 
 
 But originally, for designating these 
 preternatural experiences, the term ** mani- 
 festations of the Holy Ghost" was some- 
 times applied indiscriminately to a variety 
 of psychic phenomena which had the 
 appearance of being supernatural, or mirac- 
 ulous; and while Sts. Paul and John even- 
 tually were able to distinguish their various 
 sources, it is for the growing intelligence of 
 man to discriminate these still further in 
 the light of the modern experience. 
 
 » Gal. v: 22-23. 
 
90 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 XV _ 
 
 For a clearer discernment of the true 
 nature of these various instrumentaHties, 
 serving as a channel for revelation and 
 prophecy, it may be well, before passing 
 on to the consideration of their higher 
 phenomenal phases, to refer briefly to some 
 other subordinate forms, as hinted in the 
 scriptures. In The Acts is given an example 
 of an obsession by this means; indicating 
 the influence of a foolish, rather than evil- 
 disposed spirit ; whose persistent reiteration, 
 *' continued for many days,"^ annoyed, or 
 *' troubled" Paul; who was doubtless un- 
 certain how he should deal with a spirit 
 affirming the truth, though unwisely; but 
 eventually he released the maid from its 
 influence. Later on, this apostle discerned 
 that "the spirits of the prophets are sub- 
 ject to the prophets ";'' that is, they do not 
 take arbitrary possession, but respect the 
 minds of those with whom they are in 
 
 * Acts xiv: 16-19. (R. V.) ^ i Cor. xiv: 32. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 91 
 
 association, aiding and working in unison 
 
 with them. 
 
 Another distinction is marked in the 
 following: — In his journey into Asia, Paul 
 was delayed at Tyre ; ' ' and finding disciples 
 he tarried there seven days, who said to 
 Paul through the Spirit that he should not 
 go up to Jerusalem.'" It is important, in 
 this case, to discern whether the term 
 "Spirit," as printed in the text, is rightly 
 or wrongly capitalized ; whether it refers to 
 the Holy Spirit, or whether it designates 
 some inferior spirit; that it was the latter, 
 in this case, is implied by Paul's disregard 
 of the injunction; for by this time the 
 apostle was able to distinguish communi- 
 cations by this means as of various charac- 
 ter, emanating from divers sources; and 
 he refused to yield his judgment to their 
 dictation. He therefore gave no heed to 
 the command, obeying by preference the 
 dictate of his own conscience. In short, 
 Paul was able to distinguish between the 
 
 = Ac'-s xxi: 4-15. 
 
92 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 Spirit that prompted him to go to Jeru- 
 salem, ^ and the spirit communing through 
 these Tyrian disciples which commanded 
 him not to go. Another similar instance 
 is given in his meeting with "a certain 
 prophet named Agabus,"^ who foretold 
 what should befall him at Jerusalem. 
 
 XVI 
 
 Other phases of "the power," often 
 communicable by the touch, were con- 
 spicuous in the cures effected by Jesus: 
 one who secretly touched him "with faith 
 to be healed" by that means, withdrew 
 from him some force, or "virtue, "^ capable 
 of producing marked physical effects. 
 Sometimes this was communicated by the 
 fixed attention of the eye, reinforced by a 
 command; as in the case of the healing of 
 a deformed person by Peter and John: 
 "Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with 
 John, said. Look on us! . . . In the 
 
 ^ Gal. ii: 1-2. " Acts xxi: 10-13. 
 
 3 Mark v: 30. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 93 
 
 name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and 
 walk. And he took him by the right hand, 
 and lifted him up: and immediately his 
 feet and ankle bones received strength. 
 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and 
 entered with them into the temple, walking, 
 and leaping, and praising God."^ 
 
 This steadfastly looking at the person 
 to be healed, and directing him to look on 
 them, and taking him by the hand, estab- 
 lished conditions for the magnetic force 
 and spiritual will-power, exercised in the 
 Spirit of Christ, to operate in as a healing 
 means through faith. The same instru- 
 mentality is indicated in another curing of 
 a cripple: ''Paul, fastening his eyes on 
 him, and seeing that he had faith to be 
 made whole, said in a loud voice. Stand 
 upright on thy feet! And he leaped up, 
 and walked. ' ' ^ The loud voice of command 
 is often specified in such cases, as in the 
 raising of Lazarus.^ It is said of Paul 
 
 ^ Acts iii: 4-9. ^ Acts xiv: 9-1 1. 
 
 3 John xi: 43. 
 
94 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 himself, after he had been stoned, "The 
 people supposing him to be dead, drew 
 him out of the city. Howbeit, as the 
 disciples stood round about him, he rose 
 up, and came into the city."^ This stand- 
 ing about the person to be healed, and the 
 union of the wills of all in prayer, as a 
 means of drawing down "power" from 
 above, is commonly reported of faith-cures 
 in all ages. That this power is available in 
 like conditions, when reinforced by a will 
 that is free from doubt and united to higher 
 powers, is implied in the teaching"of Jesus: 
 "He that believeth on me, the works that I 
 do, shall he do also."^ 
 
 While this faith was still fervid, though 
 "but as a grain of mustard seed, "^ the 
 immediate followers of Jesus likewise 
 exercised the same powers ; but when even- 
 tually faith became an historic tradition, 
 a merely doctrinal or dogmatic form of 
 teaching and belief, it lost its virtue: for 
 
 ^ Acts xiv: 19-20. "John xiv: 12. 
 
 sMatt. xvii: 20. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 95 
 
 its efficacy lies in a "faith in God"^ that 
 is individual and personal, like the faith 
 of Jesus. Like conditions are requisite for 
 the exercise of like powers; and in the 
 spiritual world, not less than in the natural 
 world, these conditions are imperative. 
 
 Having indicated some of the varieties 
 of the means, or instrumentalities, included 
 in manifestations of ' ' the power, ' ' it re- 
 mains to consider that which is more 
 distinctly spiritual and personal in this 
 conscious intercourse with the unseen 
 through "manifestations of the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 xvii] 
 
 Conscious verbal communion with the 
 heavenly Christ is implied in certain 
 passages in The Acts, as in the following: — 
 "As they ministered to the Lord, and 
 fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me 
 Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto 
 I have called them."^ This indicates an 
 
 * Mark xi: 22-23. ' Acts xiii: 2. 
 
96 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 expression of the will of the Holy Ghost by 
 a direct verbal communication, and not 
 merely by subconsciously illumining the 
 minds of the disciples. A similar order of 
 verbal communication is implied by the 
 words used in the letter of the apostles and 
 elders, commending Paul and Barnabas to 
 the brethren at Antioch and elsewhere — 
 "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and 
 to us, to lay upon you no greater burden 
 than these necessary things,"^ etc. This 
 manner of speaking of the Holy Ghost as 
 having given a conscious expression of 
 opinion apart from the minds of the 
 apostles — as of two that agreed — is sig- 
 nificant; for such words could never have 
 been used had the manifestation been a 
 subjective blending of two minds as one 
 through a purely spiritual influence; the 
 words plainly imply an outward commun- 
 ion of thought by some conscious means, 
 through which the mind of the Paraclete 
 was verbally expressed. (See Acts xvi : 6-7, 
 » Acts XV : 28. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 97 
 
 R. v., which identifies the Holy Ghost with 
 "the Spirit of Jesus.") 
 
 XVIII 
 
 Again, Paul narrates the following: — 
 **And it came to pass, that, when I had 
 returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed 
 in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw 
 him, saying unto me. Make haste, and get 
 thee quickly out of Jerusalem : because they 
 will not receive thy testimony concerning 
 me. And I said, Lord, they themselves 
 know that I imprisoned and beat in every 
 synagogue them that believed on thee. . . . 
 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will 
 send thee forth far hence unto the 
 Gentiles."^ And again: they brought 
 **Paul, a prisoner, into the castle. And 
 the night following the Lord stood by him, 
 and said. Be of good cheer: for as thou 
 hast testified concerning me at Jerusalem, 
 so must thou bear witness also at Rome."* 
 
 ' Acts xxii: 17-21. (R. V.) 'Acts xxiii: 11. 
 7 
 
98 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 Elsewhere Paul affirms : * ' The Holy Ghost 
 testifieth unto me in every city, saying that 
 bonds and afflictions await me"^ — here 
 again, however, it is questionable whether 
 the term "Holy Ghost" is correctly ap- 
 plied. 
 
 Again, the following is recorded of this 
 apostle: — "And the Lord said unto Paul in 
 the night, by a vision, Be not afraid, but 
 speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am 
 with thee, and no man shall set on thee to 
 harm thee: for I have much people in this 
 city."^ While of his first experience of 
 this conscious visitation of the heavenly 
 Christ, the manifestation being dazzling 
 "beyond the brightness of the sun at 
 noonday," the apostle says: — "I heard 
 a voice speaking unto me, and saying 
 in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, 
 why persecutest thou me? it is hard for 
 thee to kick against the goad. And I 
 said, Who art thou, Lord? And he 
 said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. 
 
 * Acts xx: 23. (R. V.) ^ Acts xviii: 9-10. 
 
THE SPIRIT OP TRUTH 99 
 
 But rise up, and stand upon thy feet: 
 for to this end have I appeared unto 
 thee, to appoint thee a minister and a 
 witness both of the things wherein thou 
 hast seen me, and of the things wherein 
 I will appear unto thee; delivering thee 
 from the people, and from the Gentiles, 
 unto whom I send thee, to open their 
 eyes that they may turn from darkness 
 to light, "^ etc. There are other im- 
 plied verbal communications from the 
 same source: as, for example, when the 
 institution of the Eucharist, as Paul 
 affirmed, was imparted to this apostle, and 
 with greater fullness than is given in the 
 Gospels :'^ and on another occasion, when 
 significant hints were given in reply to 
 Paul's request for the removal of "a 
 thorn in the flesh; to which the Lord 
 gave answer. My grace is sufficient for 
 thee; for my strength is made perfect in 
 weakness."^ 
 
 ^ Acts xxvi: 12-19. ^ I Cor. xi: 23-29. 
 
 3 2 Cor. xii: 7-10. 
 
100 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 XIX 
 
 These examples of verbal communion 
 are quoted at some length in illustration of 
 their varied character, and of their inti- 
 mate, personal, and specific significance 
 with reference to Paul's actions and 
 thoughts; even to his personal request, 
 during the manifestation, for the removal 
 of a physical infirmity. They are not such 
 expressions as the imagination would have 
 been likely to associate with a heavenly 
 manifestation — as for instance the implied 
 image of the ox driven by a goad: they 
 hold, in fact, that internal evidence of 
 truth which is seldom, or never, according 
 to human anticipations, or imagined con- 
 ceptions. 
 
 The ministrations of the heavenly Christ 
 are revealed in these experiences as both 
 psychic and spiritual, as both human and 
 divine; and he is designated a "Comforter'* 
 because he approaches his followers Soul 
 to soul, as well as Spirit to spirit ; humanly 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH loi 
 
 as well as divinely, having passed into the 
 heavens touched with the feeling of human 
 infirmities/ 
 
 The initial signs, as on the day of Pente- 
 cost, were preliminary to a more spiritual 
 and personal form of manifestation to the 
 individual consciousness; as experienced 
 by Stephen in the moment of his martyr- 
 dom;^ by Paul in the way;^ by John at 
 Patmos;"* and by Francis of Assisi and 
 others ; these were visible and audible alone 
 to the psychic senses of the individuals 
 referred to. Purely spiritual manifesta- 
 tion, as in the Beatific Vision, is Spirit to 
 spirit ; by a transcendent means of approach 
 that is only possible in the spiritual con- 
 sciousness when the soul is "caught up," 
 or temporarily freed from the veil of the 
 flesh in a state of trance — as when Paul 
 afiirms he was "caught up into the third 
 heaven and heard unspeakable words, 
 impossible to utter." 
 
 ' Heb. iv: 15. * Acts viii: 56. 
 
 3 Acts ix: 3-6- <Rev. i:i. 
 
I02 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 XX 
 
 Manifestations of the Holy Ghost are 
 designated in the scriptures "a joy and 
 comfort to them which believe";^ because 
 they make conscious to the soul what 
 hitherto was subconscious; and "they are 
 given to profit withal";^ that is, to refresh 
 the heart and renew and strengthen 
 heavenly aspirations. They demonstrate 
 to the spiritual consciousness the reality 
 of the unseen, and give to faith and hope 
 the assurance of substantial realization in 
 fulfillment of the promise that *'He will 
 guide into all truth and reveal the things to 
 come." 
 
 The pains taken by Jesus, in the mani- 
 festations of the resurrection^and ascension, 
 to reveal the persistence of the human 
 personality in the intermediate and heav- 
 enly states, is significant; for it is through 
 this personality, "himself man, "^ that a 
 
 ^ Acts ix: 31; Rom. xiv: 17. 
 
 » I Cor. xii: 7. ^ i Tim. ii : 5 (R. V.). 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 103 
 
 means, or ''mediator," is provided for 
 making conscious to his followers, at times, 
 that which otherwise could not be known 
 except it were thus manifested. For a 
 revelation by manifestation enables the 
 mind to grasp spiritual things as realities 
 addressing the understanding; and quali- 
 fies it to distinguish this personal means, 
 through the ministry of the Comforter — • 
 including the subordinate instrumentalities 
 of ** angels [messengers] and minister- 
 ing spirits" — from that otherwise subcon- 
 scious Spirit of the Father, which cannot 
 be known until spiritually discerned. As 
 preparatory to this, for gradually implant- 
 ing in them a spiritual consciousness, the 
 followers of Christ were first approached, 
 as on the day of Pentecost, through an 
 outward psychic means that arrested atten- 
 tion and addressed the outward under- 
 standing. This was also the experience of 
 Paul in the way, while persecuting the 
 followers of Jesus; and of Francis of Assisi 
 while still leading a profligate life. This 
 
104 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 is not so exceptional as is generally sup- 
 posed; for Jesus himself said that "the 
 sign of the Son of man in heaven"^ shall 
 come, "as a snare, upon all them that 
 dwell on the face of the whole earth ":^ 
 whether it arrests attention, or is dis- 
 regarded, is a matter of individual concern ; 
 for it may be easily explained away and 
 forgotten. 
 
 XXI 
 
 The discernment of many of these truths 
 by Paul was through a gradual and pro- 
 gressive enlightenment on his part under 
 this heavenly ministration of the Christ, 
 especially emphasized in TJie Acts and in 
 the Epistles where reference is made to 
 "spiritual gifts" and phenomenal "mani- 
 festations." While laying far greater 
 stress on that which is wholly spiritual, as 
 concerning the heart and the life, the 
 apostle nevertheless did not disregard 
 
 ' Matt, xxiv: 30. ^ I^uke xxi : 33. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 105 
 
 instrumentalities that were susceptible of 
 development as a channel for "prophesy- 
 ings," or verbal heavenly communion — 
 whether oral, or written, by this means. 
 He cautions his followers that they "de- 
 spise not prophesyings ; but prove all things, 
 and hold fast that which is good."^ For 
 without these psychic instrumentalities 
 there could be no actual disclosure of "the 
 things to come"; no means for enhghten- 
 ing the mind as to immortality and human 
 destiny; and no "communion of saints"^ — 
 as originally understood. The incarnation 
 itself implies this organic necessity, and is a 
 comprehensive verification and vindication 
 of it through the instrumentality of the 
 natural and spiritual personalities of the 
 Christ as "Son of man" and "Holy Ghost." 
 
 XXII 
 
 When referring to that spiritual person- 
 ality, to quote his own words, "Whom 
 ^ I Thess. V : 20. ' Apostles' Creed. 
 
io6 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 the Father will send in my name,"^ Jesus 
 spoke, as it were, in the third person; as 
 referring to that which his followers could 
 not then comprehend: even as Paul said 
 of himself, "I knew a man in Christ, 
 whether in the body or out of the body, 
 I cannot tell, God knoweth; how that he 
 was caught up into the third heaven. ... I 
 knew such a man . . . how that he was 
 caught up into paradise and heard unspeak- 
 able words, impossible for a man to utter." ^ 
 And in like manner Jesus referred to that 
 promised heavenly Comforter as another 
 personality, and yet his own, but "glori- 
 fied" — the heavenly Christ. While on 
 earth, for the conveyance of spiritual 
 truths, in opening the spiritual percep- 
 tions of his followers, Jesus was obliged to 
 teach them by parable; but he promised 
 that a time would come when, to quote 
 his own words, he said, "I will no more 
 speak unto you in proverbs, but will show 
 
 ^ John xiv : 26. 
 
 '2 Cor. xii: 2-4. See verse 5. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 107 
 
 you plainly of the Father."' For after 
 his ascension into heaven, and they had 
 themselves received the Spirit (as pre- 
 figured after he had risen, when *'he 
 breathed on them, and said. Receive ye 
 the Holy Spirit.'"'), Christ could then 
 approach his followers by an inward com- 
 munion, Spirit to spirit; when all figurative, 
 or phenomenal, forms of communion would 
 be dispensed with. 
 
 While therefore the historic Christ was a 
 Comforter approaching his followers on 
 the natural plane; revealing divine things 
 as manifested in himself — in his own 
 earthly experience and teaching — Jesus 
 intimated that "another Comforter" 
 would be required to "guide them into all 
 truth and reveal the things to come."^ 
 For it is through the revelation of heavenly 
 things that spiritual aspirations are kindled 
 in the soul ; without which they never would 
 be aroused except in the form of mysti- 
 
 ^ John xvi : 25. ' John xx : 22. 
 
 3 John xvi : 13. 
 
io8 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 cal emotion, without a knowledge of the 
 truth. 
 
 These successive revelations, by the risen 
 Jesus and the heavenly Christ, disclose the 
 pathway of the soul's progress from the 
 earthly to the heavenly life; not only 
 through a subconscious spiritual means, 
 but sometimes by personal manifestation 
 and conscious verbal communion ; by which 
 spiritual truths are brought to the out- 
 ward understanding ; giving them additional 
 power and potency when thus made appre- 
 hensible as things capable of being definitely 
 known.' And while Jesus, as the Christ 
 of God, is the supreme revelator, through 
 the power and personality of the Holy 
 Ghost, "revealing the things to come," 
 there are many subordinate instrumen- 
 talities, adapted to various grades of intelli- 
 gence, which may at times be divinely 
 employed, even in their elementary forms, 
 as "signs" and "tokens" to induce a belief 
 in the hereafter: whether this is to the 
 
 ^ Thess. ii: 13. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 109 
 
 profit, or detriment, of a spiritual con- 
 sciousness, rests with the motive and mind 
 of the individual inquirer; for "Virtue is 
 free, the chooser is answerable, God is 
 justified." 
 
 XXIII 
 
 Many other examples might be given, 
 from both the Old and New Testament 
 scriptures, in illustration of the nature of 
 the instrumentalities employed for reve- 
 lation and prophecy; examples that distin- 
 guish plainly between "man's wisdom"^ 
 and "revelations of the Spirit"; indicating 
 likewise the organic means for the trans- 
 mission of the latter when consciously 
 manifested. But enough has been said to 
 suggest their varied character and objective 
 reality: for to a spiritual consciousness the 
 psychical is not less truly objective than 
 the physical. 
 
 That the "ministry of angels and spirits'* 
 
 ' I Cor. ii : 4. 
 
no THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 is by an organic means, and that these 
 instrumentalities of revelation are out- 
 wardly psychic, is a truth that must be 
 recognized before it is possible to apprehend 
 the nature of that heavenly or divine com- 
 munion through the power and personality 
 of the Holy Ghost. The testimony run- 
 ning through the whole body of scripture 
 is concurrent as to the organic means of 
 revelation and prophecy; and this con- 
 currence, covering vast periods of time and 
 unconsciously attested by innumerable wit- 
 nesses, rests on no mere figure of speech, 
 but on facts objectively discerned. The 
 angelic agencies employed as "messengers" 
 are not less distinctly organic than are the 
 mind and senses of the prophet who is the 
 recipient of these things. The prophet 
 invariably discerns these instrumentalities 
 as living personalities ; and he reports their 
 acts and words as things "seen and heard." 
 By this conscious means the prophet was 
 enabled to distinguish revelation and 
 prophecy from that subconscious spiritual 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH iii 
 
 influence which is ceaseless throughout all 
 worlds, but is otherwise incapable of being 
 discriminated from the spontaneous oper- 
 ation of the human mind. ^ 
 
 The record of scripture makes no dis- 
 tinction between words heard psychically, 
 and sounds addressing the physical sense; 
 the former are just as sonorous as the latter 
 while the psychic senses are "opened," 
 — this truth finds definite illustration in 
 "the call of Samuel, "^ as well as in Paul's 
 experience, previously noted. And simi- 
 larly the psychic sight is not less real, to 
 say the least, than is the physical sight, 
 discerning as objective "the things that 
 were shown." Ezekiel says of his experi- 
 ence, "I beheld the appearance of the 
 likeness of the glory of the Lord : and when 
 I saw it I fell down upon my face, and I 
 heard a voice of one that spake. And he 
 said unto me. Son of man, stand upon thy 
 feet, and I will speak unto thee. " Then 
 followed a change in the order of mani- 
 
 ^ Numbers 22 : 38. ' i Samuel iii : 4-10. 
 
112 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 festation, the vision was merged into proph- 
 esyings: — "And the spirit entered into 
 me when he spake with me, and set me 
 upon my feet: and I heard him that spake 
 unto me. " ^ The spirit who'showed Ezekiel 
 the vision by opening his psychic senses 
 then took possession of the vocal organs of 
 the prophet and gave verbal expression 
 to his message, saying, ''Thus saith the 
 Lord," etc. The prophet narrates the 
 following as plain matter of fact: "The 
 spirit lifted me up and took me away":^ 
 even as the soul of Paul was "caught up" 
 out of the body. 2 
 
 XXIV 
 
 Studied in the light of related knowledge 
 arbitrary miracle disappears and the 
 means, or instrumentalities, of revelation 
 and prophecy are found to be organic 
 throughout ; dependent on a series of living 
 
 ' Ezekiel i : 28 and ii : 1-2. 
 
 ' Ezekiel iii : 14. ^ 2 Cor. xii : 2-4. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 113 
 
 agents — ''angels and ministering spirits"^ 
 — for transmitting divine teachings by an 
 outward channel, or conscious means, 
 before they are spiritually discerned "face 
 to face." In the New Testament this 
 organic means is indicated in the following: 
 — "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which 
 God gave unto him, to show unto his ser- 
 vants things which must shortly come to 
 pass: and he sent and signified it by his 
 angel unto his servant John: who bare 
 record of the word of God, and of the 
 testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all the 
 things that he saw. "^ ^ 
 
 ^ Heb. i : 14. ' Rev. 1:1-2. 
 
 3 Note : The ministry of Angels in the life of Christ 
 is specified as follows : — The Angel of the Annuncia- 
 tion: Luke i : 26-38; the Angel that appeared to 
 Joseph, Matt, i: 20; The vision of Angels seen by 
 the shepherds: Luke ii : 8-17; the Angel directing the 
 flight into Egypt : Matt, ii : 13 ; the ministry of Angels 
 after the temptation: Mark i : 13; Moses and Elias 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration; "an Angel 
 strengthening him" in Gethsemane: Luke xxii: 
 43; the Angels at the sepulchre: Matt, xxviii: 1-4; 
 Mark xvi : 5-6; Luke xxiv : 7-8 and John xx : 12,13; 
 the two Angels at the Ascension : Acts i : i o, 11. 
 8 
 
114 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 Not only is the instrumentality by 
 organic contact, but later revelations of 
 spiritual truths must necessarily be linked 
 to former revelations, often employing 
 similar forms of expression ; for this spiritual 
 continuity is just as imperative as is the 
 organic connection; thus is the New Testa- 
 ment revelation distinctly related to the 
 promises and prophesyings^ of the Old 
 Testament ; one order of revelation serving 
 to interpret and illuminate the other. 
 There could be no progress in spiritual 
 enlightenment without this spiritual contin- 
 uity ; and no prophet can be a " true proph- 
 et" of heavenly things except his mind is 
 already familiar with, and reverences as 
 a reality, the divine communion of the past. 
 
 The impulse of John to worship the 
 angelic messenger was repelled by the 
 words: — "See thou do it not; for I am thy 
 fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the 
 prophets;"^ while the appearance of Moses 
 
 ' Rom. XV : 8 and Heb. vi : 12 and 2 Peter i : 4. 
 ' Rev. xix : 10 and xxii : 8-9. 
 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 115 
 
 and Elias in communion with Jesus on the 
 mount, advising him of his approaching 
 crucifixion at Jerusalem/ likewise indi- 
 cates this organic necessity and spiritual 
 continuity for outward revelations; even 
 when proceeding from a heavenly, or 
 divine source. 
 
 XXV 
 
 Nevertheless while, for a specific purpose 
 with reference to what follows in Part III, 
 emphasis has herein been laid on the na- 
 ture of the' organic instrumentalities that 
 constitute a 'channel of revelation and 
 prophecy, eliminating the miraculous, Paul 
 distinctly cautions his associates against an 
 undue estimate of the phenomenal, the 
 intellectual,^ and even that which may be a 
 direct offspring of faith, in comparison with 
 that which proceeds from the heart — 
 "out of which are the issues of life"^ — 
 
 ' Luke ix : 30-31. ' Col. ii : 8. 
 
 3 Prov. iv : 23, 
 
Ii6 THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 
 
 manifested in the love of God and man. 
 After referring specifically to these outward 
 instrumentalities for spiritual enlighten- 
 ment, which he counseled are to be desired, ^ 
 and are not to be despised,^ he adds: — 
 "And yet I show unto you a more excellent 
 way. Though I speak with the tongues of 
 men and of angels, and have not love, I 
 am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 
 cymbal. And though I have the gift of 
 prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 
 and all knowledge; and though I have all 
 faith, so that I could remove mountains, 
 and have not love, I am nothing. "^ 
 
 * I Cor. xiv : I. ' i Thess. v : 20. 
 
 3 I Cor. xii : 31 and xiii : 1-2. 
 
PART III 
 
 REVELATION AND THE LIFE TO 
 COME 
 
 117 
 
[The writings that follow are extracts from the 
 record of a series of experiences extending, at inter- 
 vals, over several years — from 1881 to 1886. The 
 record from which these selections are made is a 
 direct verbal product, or deposit, of these experiences, 
 by a means indicated in the Appendix. 
 
 These writings are of the nature of a revelation of 
 the life to come: in their higher spiritual forms 
 they are of the character of what were formerly 
 termed " prophesyings " and "manifestations of the 
 Spirit." They will be found to contain within 
 themselves all that is needful to a clear perception of 
 their true source and significance.] 
 
 118 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 * 
 
 [When*' the power'' was established, and the 
 hand brought under control by the invisible 
 guiding influence, the following was written:] 
 
 . . . "If you abandon yourselves to the 
 influence you may extend your life into 
 our world and share in the pure light of 
 Spirit, but when absorbed in temporal 
 things you are separated from us as by 
 an impassable wall. We would pour into 
 your hearts the Light of Day, the bright- 
 ness of that spiritual light which enfolds 
 the earnest seeker — for are not we your 
 ministering spirits? But often are we 
 compelled to drive back into the sanctuary 
 of thought our desires for you. 
 
 "In the light that now shines on you 
 through this communion is already ful- 
 filled for you the promise of a new heaven 
 119 
 
I20 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- 
 ness. For you may now look back on the 
 time when you gased intently into the 
 future as if there alone lay your hope, 
 while around you, unperceived, was a 
 possible, a real heaven. Cherish especi- 
 ally the thought of a present Eternity; it 
 will refine and upHft the mind, and give a 
 meaning and use to every thought and act. 
 Live always in the Light, for they to whom 
 God is an ever-shining Sun will reap a rich 
 harvest of blessing in this vale of struggle, 
 as well as in the brightness of the Heavenly 
 Land. The lesson which abides with us 
 here, is that of reaHsing, continually, the 
 presence of God, in us and about us. For 
 they who are born of the Spirit are already 
 at home in the Father's House; and if it be 
 but the lower rooms we are in, nevertheless 
 it is the Father's House. " 
 
 [In reply to a question.] 
 
 "We all stand on the shores of a bound- 
 less sea; we see in one light, you in another; 
 the infinite is equally before us in this life, 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 121 
 
 as m yours. Even as your eyes are dim, 
 and your hands feeble, so the veil of our 
 imperfection is suspended between us and 
 the vast unknown. We press forward, 
 and still a beyond lies before us. With 
 constant endeavor we grasp, and it eludes 
 us, but something remains to bless us as 
 a foundation for more." 
 
 Are you permitted to reveal sacred things, as 
 in the past? 
 
 "Until the time is at hand for a distinct 
 revelation, before it becomes possible for it 
 to be a revelation, and after the ground 
 is prepared, then, and only then, will He 
 who sows come, and give the good gift. 
 We know this to be true from experience. 
 The Light, were it shown you without a 
 preparation of mind and heart, would be too 
 strong for you to bear, and God shows His 
 mercy no less in withholding the Light than 
 in bringing you into it. In His infinite 
 mercy He will open your eyes day by day 
 until you shall be prepared to receive His 
 own words, by His own Messengers, those 
 
122 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 who come out from His immediate Pres- 
 ence. While you thus wait the Life is 
 poured into your souls, and in a moment 
 your growth in grace may be greater than 
 you can know. 
 
 "We see clearly that man's only hope 
 of Life is by patiently enduring, through 
 faith, until he shall receive the blessing 
 which comes from God speaking to the soul 
 directly; and if you listen to this inner 
 voice, and obey its dictates, you will make 
 a greater advance than you can measure. 
 For God's own word, that speaks to you 
 through the heart, is surer than any 
 voice which may be heard; surer than 
 spoken words, for in these you have but 
 the interpretation of the thought, while 
 with God's voice in the conscience you 
 have His words free from any impur- 
 ity, which is mixed with all outward 
 expression. . . . 
 
 "When you have once seen the Light 
 then the Spirit opens your minds to the 
 apprehension of spiritual truths in a way 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 123 
 
 that was before impossible; then your true 
 life has begun, then you are numbered 
 among God's children and are heirs of 
 immortality. 
 
 "The life of the Spirit is a progressive 
 life, requiring continually the food from 
 heaven to bring it to perfection. This 
 food is the Light of Life; and this is that 
 Light which God Himself, through the 
 operation of the Spirit, gives to man; to 
 each as he asks, to each one as he lays him- 
 self open to the Influence, which may come 
 to him in great abundance. No man 
 need be without this Light, for it is the 
 Great Inheritance, the common inheritance 
 of man. When you come into this Light 
 you may then recognise a power of thought 
 to which the natural man is blinded. It 
 bids you see for the first time. It calls 
 you to take possession of your birthright 
 and become the being your Eternal Father 
 has destined you to be. Then, and then 
 only, can you be said to live, to live as unto 
 God. 
 
124 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 " By a constant endeavor to discern those 
 things which make for righteousness you 
 may walk in the Spirit in many ways which 
 are the fulfilment of the promises of God. 
 Happy are they who dwell continually in 
 His presence, for their life is real, and they 
 shall abide forever in His kingdom and 
 be the means of conveying to others words 
 of Eternal Life." 
 
* 
 * * 
 
 [November 5, 1882.] 
 
 // was written : 
 
 . . . "Remember that the gift is not 
 yours, but in you. Regard it as a sacred 
 trust, for the benefit of others as well as for 
 yourselves. . . . Calmness of mind is neces. 
 sary for the development of these powers, 
 and in preparation for the life that awaits 
 you when the flesh is laid down. Do not 
 fear shocks, either physical, or mental; if 
 accepted calmly they may be regarded as 
 steps in the onward movement of the spirit. 
 Growth is gradual; in order to last it must 
 be so; but crises occur in all lives. . . . 
 
 *'We shall on this occasion be the means 
 
 of conveying to you words from which 
 
 life and hope may be born. The messenger 
 
 will choose his own hour, but we are assured 
 125 
 
126 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 that before we leave you we shall have 
 his words, for this is the urgent call that 
 has brought us together now. . . . 
 
 "It is but seldom, and as a great and 
 precious blessing, for a special purpose, 
 that the Saints commune with men. Our 
 means of drawing to us the great and 
 pure spirits is by love and veneration. 
 We dwell much on the power of love, for it 
 is the greatest force in this world where 
 sympathy is sight. Love, in active exer- 
 cise, is charity; and here as with you the 
 words are true, that charity covers a multi- 
 tude of sins. Love descends and broods 
 over the weakness and sorrows of human- 
 ity. Love is the ladder by which we climb. 
 Our weaknesses and faults fall away from 
 us insensibly, almost without effort, when 
 for love's pure sake we are engaged in works 
 of love. We do not then have to strive, or 
 labor with ourselves, but purity comes 
 to us and faults fade away as darkness is 
 dispelled by daylight. 
 
 ** One of the blessings of this intercourse 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 127 
 
 is, that love brings us to you and aids us in 
 overcoming the many obstacles encount- 
 ered in this new path, of communion with 
 mortals. But these very efforts benefit us 
 by strengthening our powers of manifesta- 
 tion in our world, and by drawing us out 
 of ourselves they give us another motive 
 beyond the desire to grow in our own spirit- 
 ual life. In other ways we are benefited 
 by this intercourse, of which you may gain 
 some knowledge in the effort to raise the 
 thought of those about you to a higher plane. 
 We are closely united with those who, in 
 the Earth-life, strive to do this, and thus 
 are good and great things accompHshed. 
 
 "We are filled with the earnest desire 
 to aid you in this enlightenment. Use 
 the opportunity, for it is a question of 
 times and seasons, of atmospheric influ- 
 ences, and even the fleshly atoms have 
 something to do with it, or we could not 
 control, as we do, the eyes, the voice, the 
 hand. Fill the mind with spiritual thoughts, 
 dwell upon them when rising up and lying 
 
128 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 down. When such thoughts fill your minds 
 you need no assurance that we are beside 
 you. But do not be disappointed if this 
 favorable season should terminate; it can- 
 not be always spring. Cherish what comes, 
 and live on it in times of drought. [A 
 pause.] 
 
 "A pure and mighty one is near you. 
 Listen!" 
 
 [The writing became slow and measured, as 
 if from dictation:] 
 
 " 'To you who crave for goodness as the 
 hart pants after the waters I come with 
 words of love and hope and encouragement. 
 
 " 'We, by the mercy and love of God, 
 dwell in the land of light, in the kingdom of 
 endless ages. Here is undying life ; here the 
 peace that passeth understanding ; here joy 
 wanes not, here beauty withers not, here 
 love grows not cold, for we dwell in the smile 
 of the Face of God. 
 
 "'We, too, have been as you now are, 
 tossed on the waves of this troublesome 
 world. Now we stand on the eternal 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 12^ 
 
 shore and see your peril, as the billows of 
 trial and temptation surge around you. 
 And we hold up to you the light of Love and 
 Truth to guide you home. And we bid you 
 remember that the day is coming, when in 
 you, as in us, patience shall have wrought 
 her perfect work, when hope shall be lost in 
 fruition, and when you, too, shall know the 
 fulness of joy that abides in the Presence 
 of God.'" 
 9 
 
* * * 
 
 [January 7, 1883.] 
 
 [After reading aloud the words received 
 on the previous occasion, the following was 
 communicated by the writing:] 
 
 ' ' You have called us around you by that 
 unfailing summons, sacred to us, as to your 
 mortal ears. 
 
 "You should be willing, and prepared, to 
 resign yourselves to the power. For if you 
 give us free scope we can, as you now know, 
 soar with you into the heights of divine 
 blessing, and probe deeply the mystery 
 of the unseen. But a passive receptivity 
 will not suffice. There should be more 
 than willingness to receive; there must 
 be ardent desire corresponding to the 
 boon you seek, and which we are around you 
 to give. We aim to supply all the needful 
 130 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 131 
 
 power. Others, too, of a higher order, are 
 near you, influencing your minds to grow 
 and expand. When you breathe that sa- 
 cred Message, and when your hearts are 
 in unison, the power called forth is greater 
 than you can know. 
 
 "Time has been given that you might 
 take to your hearts words which were to us, 
 as to you, a great and wonderful blessing. 
 No time is lost that is so used, for you gain 
 as much by that means as by direct com- 
 munion with the spirit world. . . . 
 
 ' ' If your desire is for these higher gifts 
 you will have to relinquish the lesser com- 
 munion for the greater; for many from 
 beyond, of whom you have no knowledge, 
 will come, hoping to influence the expres- 
 sion of truth. The blessing of a higher inter- 
 course will impose on you this voluntary 
 sacrifice as a necessity. But we can give 
 you no higher proof of our love and in- 
 terest, for thus we take you into the secret 
 thoughts of our life here. We likewise de- 
 pend on you, for without you we cannot 
 
132 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 have the direct words which holy ones from 
 beyond bring for those in your life. . . . 
 
 "The light that we may reflect for you is 
 not ours, it is exterior to ourselves, shining 
 through our minds. To bring it within 
 the compass of words, by this means, is our 
 great difficulty. To-night we draw you 
 into our assembled company as longing for 
 the same blessing, in the unity of the Spirit 
 and the bond of peace. All are here; the 
 place is a holy place, for we all await the 
 voice of one who speaks with authority to 
 us and to you alike. One who has * heard 
 the voice of God resounding through 
 the ages,/ and who by faith and patience 
 and purity has obtained an unspeakable 
 reward." 
 
 [By another communing spirit:] "The 
 old lesson — not he that repeateth the Name, 
 but he that doeth the Will: that was the 
 lesson of the Great Master. That is a les- 
 son for your life, and for ours. Here we 
 learn that Will more fully, but the perfec- 
 tion awaits us in a higher sphere. " 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 13s 
 
 [By another:] "Purity and self-sacrifice 
 are the best preparation for the life to come. 
 By self-sacrifice you may practice on Earth, 
 by gradual steps, the work of your future 
 eternal life, which will be a complete and 
 perfect submission to the Will of God. For 
 this is heaven indeed — one will, one desire; 
 no further temptation because all self-will 
 has been uprooted and subdued. 
 
 * ' We grow gradually into this oneness of 
 will, and the earthly stage is all part of the 
 preparation for blessedness hereafter." 
 
 [After a pause the following was com- 
 municated hy the writing with great delibera- 
 tion and calmness, as if hy dictation:] 
 
 " 'Peace, good will to men. 
 
 ** * Peace to the kindred of the saints, on 
 whom shines the dawning of the Day of 
 God. 
 
 '"Unite your wills to the Will of God, 
 so shall your peace flow as a river, and your 
 purification shall be perfected. 
 
 "'In this heavenly country, where the 
 
134 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 King reigns in His beauty, we follow His 
 will, we are wholly His, for no cloud can 
 separate us from His love. We live only 
 for Him, we abide where He places us, we 
 have no will but His, and He is our God 
 forever and ever. 
 
 "'God directs your way for His own 
 glory, which is your highest good. He will 
 have you live and labor for Him, not seeing 
 the fruit of your toil, content to know you 
 are doing His work, that you prepare His 
 way, and plough up the soil of the world 
 for the seed of the future, knowing your 
 record is on high. He makes of your 
 weakness the throne of His mercy, the seat 
 of His omnipotence. To you, and in you, 
 He draws near, and gloom vanishes before 
 His bright presence. 
 
 " 'We, in His name, strengthen and cheer 
 you with the promise of the home where He 
 in His love and mercy has gathered us, and 
 where He will surely bring all who live in 
 love. There, in the land of eternal spring, 
 of everlasting light, awaits you an inherit- 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 135 
 
 ance incorruptible, an unfailing treasure, 
 a life of perfect peace. Your waking souls 
 can yet see only in dim vision that land 
 of light, you can look only on the veils of 
 the bliss to be revealed, on the shadows 
 of the heavenly glory that overflows the 
 paradise of God. But look up, and lift up 
 your heads, for your redemption draweth 
 nigh, day by day. 
 
 "'0, blessed, endless eternity, wherein 
 shall grow continually the love of the Holy 
 Will of God.'" 
 
 [After a long silence the following was 
 given in reply to questions asked:] 
 
 "We know not the name now, but you 
 shall learn it ; we also desire to know whence 
 these words which come to us all and help 
 our lives. In the great presence of this 
 night we likewise are listeners, and we also 
 are privileged to be here. 
 
 ' ' There need be no pause in our onward 
 and upward journey. Their desire is to 
 strengthen us in this cause, and to renew 
 
136 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 US day by day. When we come together 
 again make your preparation by earnest 
 prayer, and the blessing will be given with- 
 out measure. And remember us in your 
 prayers, for we receive the blessing with you 
 when in harmony. " 
 
 [On a subsequent occasion the following 
 was communicated:] " He who came is God's 
 servant, who does His bidding; by him the 
 Spirit of the Most High gains conscious 
 access to your hearts. And by this means 
 we receive strength, which only comes when 
 God speaks to His children on Earth. 
 When He shall see fit to give us the higher 
 Hfe, the life of His saints, then shall be 
 fulfilled in us the saying which is written 
 — How beautiful are the feet of those who 
 bring glad tidings. " 
 
 "They come to you with a high end to 
 accomplish. Through this means they see 
 a channel for the spread of God's truth. It 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 137 
 
 is by no mere chance that this has come 
 about, but by a power beyond your own. 
 Every gift brings its responsibility, but 
 your strength shall be as your day. Let 
 your hearts be filled with thanksgiving; 
 that is your acceptable sacrifice. Every 
 note of praise in your souls finds its echo 
 in the great harmony of rejoicing now 
 ascending from us all. A common boon, 
 a common gift, therefore are we united 
 in our common praise." 
 
 [By another, in reply to a question:] "He 
 who came is of that heavenly order whose 
 mission it is to guide and protect all the 
 heirs of eternal life. Their commission is 
 not to single souls, but to the great family 
 of God. Individual guardianship is by 
 spirits of the lower spheres. The name 
 was given for your confirmation in faith. 
 When you have reached a further stage 
 in spiritual progress you will not care 
 to know the precise channel of the high 
 communication. Your first Message was 
 for cheer and comfort; now you have had 
 
138 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 your first lesson in heavenly things. This, 
 the first step, is likewise the last, for the 
 will of God IS to be done in Earth as in 
 Heaven; and neither in the earthly life, 
 nor even in the higher spheres, can that 
 lesson be perfectly learned." 
 
 [By another:] ''When you have seen 
 and understood these things — that is the 
 meaning of the words of the message, 
 'your redemption draweth nigh. ' A reali- 
 sation of the meaning of the words is the 
 evidence of this redemption. By this inward 
 light alone can you be said to live truly, to 
 live as unto God, the author of all that is 
 good and true in life. No one can be said 
 to have passed into the condition of the 
 higher life until he feels that God Himself 
 has touched him, and made him live again. 
 Then, and then only, begins the true life. " 
 
 [By another:] "Faith alone can inter- 
 pret hfe. Faith will solve for you the enig- 
 mas of the world: such faith as you may 
 attain to, tinctured with spiritual sight. 
 You may then look calmly on the trials of 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 139 
 
 life, even on the mystery of pain; for pain 
 and discontent are the rebellion of body 
 and mind against existing conditions. Let 
 this be only a stimulus to bring these 
 conditions into conformity with God's 
 will, who is All Good, and who ordains 
 only that which is for good if His children 
 leave His plans to be accomplished. In 
 all your trials, great and small, turn them 
 into good; either by active endeavor to 
 remove the evil which produces them, or 
 by a quiet submission of your own will to 
 the great Father. " 
 
* 
 * * 
 
 [March ii, 1883.] 
 
 It was written : 
 
 . . ."Gradually the light breaks. We 
 must be prepared, or we shall be unable 
 to bear the light. God's Holy Influence 
 will guide our thought, and the revelation 
 will gradually dawn upon our sight. We 
 know that there will come from these 
 Messages an eternal fruition. 
 
 "We can now tell you of one of the 
 mysteries of our life. We know the 
 Heavenly Messenger is coming. We know 
 that only the thin veil of our imperfection 
 will hide from us a heavenly and awful 
 presence. Yet when he comes every sense 
 will be stirred as with surprise. We shall 
 have, united, a sense of satisfied expecta- 
 tion, and yet of wonder. Here we enjoy 
 
 the good things granted us without satiety ; 
 140 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 14I 
 
 their delights do not pall, nor lessen by 
 custom, or use; the bloom of the first 
 pleasure does not fade, but endures con- 
 tinually. This is one of the mysteries 
 of our life as compared with yours." 
 
 [It was asked by what means they know of 
 the coming of a Messenger, and the purport of 
 his message before its actual delivery?] 
 
 *'lt is in the air. We know, how we 
 know we know not. Our being is per- 
 vaded with a sweet and thrilling influence, 
 by which we are made to feel the nature of 
 the teaching we await. It is an influence 
 such as we, in our degree, may exercise 
 over those in Earth-life." 
 
 [By another:] "Be sure of one thing: 
 whatever may befall, God is leading you to 
 happiness by the easiest road. Happiness 
 is the natural result of the fulfilment of 
 God's will, which continually increases 
 throughout eternity as your expanding 
 souls grow in capacity for good. God's 
 eternity is the measure of yours, and the 
 spiritual life, born from the knowledge 
 
142 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 of spiritual things, is heaven begun." 
 [A pause.] 
 
 " If your eyes were opened you would see 
 the great company that is now gather- 
 ing about us; for we, with you, await a 
 blessing." 
 
 [A long silence ensued, when the following 
 was communicated in a measured form, as if 
 dictated sentence by sentence:"^ 
 
 '"Behold the Love of God! 
 
 "'Behold Him who is uncreated Love, 
 unbounded by time, or space; who has 
 loved you with an everlasting love; who is 
 the God of love, and worthy of all love. 
 
 " 'Behold Him whose love is Life; whose 
 life is Love; who binds all spheres in one 
 by the unity of the Spirit, by the bond of 
 a common paternity, by the hope of a 
 common inheritance. 
 
 "'The home of His children is in the 
 Heart of God, who fills all worlds; realise 
 His sacred presence in the inner sanctuary 
 of your secret life, so may you now begin to 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 143 
 
 possess Him, whom to know is the bliss of 
 heaven. Press onward to the goal, the 
 crown of reward, gasing steadfastly on the 
 love of the Eternal Father, till He receives 
 all those who are perfected by patience 
 into the inheritance of the children of 
 God. Then shall happiness be changed 
 into heavenly joy, when He makes manifest 
 the glory that encompasses His throne. 
 Then shall you know the serene stillness of 
 a soul that rests in God, the rapture of 
 doing Him service, the ethereal calm of a 
 will united to the 'Divine. Then shall you 
 be tranquilised, gladdened, refreshed, and 
 satisfied, with the fruition of God; for He, 
 the everlasting God, will be All in all. 
 
 "'O King of all beauty and glory, we 
 desire no inheritance beside Thee. ' " 
 
 [On a subsequent occasion the following was 
 
 communicated:] 
 
 "These Messages are a great blessing to 
 
144 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 US all, for they come from the source of All 
 Good. We know that he who brought 
 these words of comfort is God's Messenger. 
 God is love, and by the exercise of the 
 love of God we call around us those who 
 stand before the great Author of Love. . . . 
 **When you exercise the love of God in 
 your hearts then you may expect the bless- 
 ing of those who stand in His immediate 
 presence. And we likewise stand and watch 
 and wait to help forward those who, in 
 Earth-life, seek the presence of our common 
 Father, who is ever ready to bless His 
 children." 
 
 "They who come out from God's pres- 
 ence are Messengers, whose joyful service 
 it is to bring life to the souls of men. They 
 are God's instruments for making conscious 
 in man the operation of the Spirit. 
 
 "The teaching of old, which came in Hke 
 manner to the beloved of the Lord, has its 
 echo in our hearts: Beloved, now are we 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 145 
 
 the children of God, but It doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be ; but we know that 
 when He, our King, our Master, our Leader, 
 the divine Son of God, shall appear, we shall 
 be like Him; for we shall see Him as He 
 is, and the light of His purity will pervade 
 our souls and conform us to His likeness; 
 not only as by the reflection of His image, 
 but the influence of His purity and beauty 
 and virtue will be communicated to our 
 natures. 
 
 * ' A magnetic virtue of healing went out 
 from Him when He dwelt on Earth, and a 
 virtue of sanctification goes out from Him 
 now to those to whom He draws near. "... 
 
* * 
 
 [December 28, 1884.] 
 
 It was written : 
 
 . . . ** We feel the pressure of a solemn 
 influence, as if our thoughts were restrained 
 that some higher power may find ex- 
 pression when perfect harmony is estab- 
 lished. We dare not be too confident that 
 this will be in words, but we are sure 
 that a higher presence will make itself 
 felt. 
 
 "We know only in part, and are conscious 
 
 of the unworthiness and imperfection of the 
 
 means by which this higher influence can 
 
 reach you. Holiness of heart can alone 
 
 render us meet channels for such gifts. 
 
 The knowledge that the treasure, though 
 
 given in earthen vessels, is not lessened by 
 
 contact with weakness and imperfection, 
 
 does not do away with the feeling that an 
 146 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 147 
 
 unworthy attitude of mind unfits us for a 
 great duty. 
 
 "Here we are ever striving for a fuller 
 knowledge of God. The desire for God 
 is the first principle of our spiritual being, 
 as the contemplation of Him is the end 
 of all our hopes." 
 
 [By another:] "The light that now shines 
 on you imposes on you a deeper responsi- 
 bility for these gifts of God. If you find 
 deep, deep in your hearts the desire for God, 
 for the knowledge and love of God, you 
 must not dare to hold these gifts lightly, as 
 if they were dependent on your will. They 
 are implanted in you by God, to whom you 
 must render account. But the dealings 
 of God with you are from a Father, not a 
 taskmaster." . . 
 
 "In the sincere heart truth asserts its 
 sovereignty, and every deep thought of 
 truth leads the mind to God. " 
 
 [By another:] "Be calm and trustful; 
 the end is not yet. But that which you 
 earnestly strive for, even if not attained in 
 
148. TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 your present sphere, will be granted in full- 
 est measure in the day that God appoints. " 
 [A pause.] 
 
 ' ' A word will come to you from beyond ! 
 
 "When God's Messengers come to us we 
 must bid farewell to sense and sight. All 
 here is in the realm of faith. Faith alone 
 can pierce the cloud and penetrate the thick 
 darkness in which, because of our weakness 
 and imperfection, God is veiled. " 
 
 [A long silence, after which these words 
 followed:] "There standeth one amongst 
 you that you know not ! 
 
 A change of influence : 
 
 " 'Peace on Earth, good will to men. 
 
 " 'Even the peace of God, which shall 
 possess and satisfy your souls; for He is the 
 end of all your aspirations and desires, the 
 port of the wanderer, the home of the exile, 
 the fulfilment of your love. 
 
 " 'Lift up your hearts, fear nothing, for 
 His love is around you. By purity and love 
 prepare His tabernacle; walking in His 
 presence go on to perfection till your life, 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 149 
 
 being conformed to His will, is no longer 
 yours, but His. 
 
 " ' He makes you partakers of His nature; 
 in you He wills to dwell, that He may be 
 made manifest to the world, and that His 
 invisible glory may be revealed. Open 
 your hearts to Him, that He may rest and 
 dwell in you, and fill you with the gifts of 
 love. Unite your weakness to His strength, 
 your imperfection to His holiness ; bear your 
 human griefs with Him who traveled the 
 hard road of sorrow even to the death of the 
 cross; trust all to His guiding hand, and rest 
 in the Peace of God. For the mountains 
 shall depart, and the hills be removed, but 
 His kindness shall not depart from you, 
 neither shall the covenant of His peace be 
 removed, saith the Lord, who hath mercy 
 upon you.'" 
 
* 
 
 [After reading aloud the words received on 
 the previous occasion, it was written:] 
 
 . . . "Nothing unites us so closely as 
 our receiving these wonderful words to- 
 gether, for they are the very Life of life. 
 We have our own inward revealings, as you 
 may have in the Earth-life; but these 
 spoken words, which come to us in clear and 
 distinct form, that you may receive them, 
 are more to us than the still small voice. 
 God speaks silently to the silent heart, but 
 in these Messages of Grace He speaks as a 
 Father to His children, and we believe that 
 we can hear in them the very tones of the 
 Divine Love. These occasions quicken 
 into a most intense and vivid emotion our 
 desire for God. Of this we are deeply con- 
 scious even when resting in anticipation. 
 150 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 151 
 
 What we feel when the blessing is in the act 
 of bestowal cannot be expressed in words. " 
 
 What is the nature of the intimation you 
 receive in anticipation of the gift ? 
 
 "The knowledge that a revelation, or 
 instruction from a higher sphere, is com- 
 ing to us, is, as we said before, conveyed 
 by unknown channels. It is an Influence 
 that compels us to deep solemnity and a 
 feeling of devotion. This influence seems 
 to pervade our spiritual atmosphere. We 
 are impelled to resign ourselves to it by 
 subduing every feeling of self-will or self- 
 interest. All personal affections are ab- 
 sorbed in the desire to lay our souls open, 
 passively, to the influence of the Messenger. 
 The love of God fills our hearts, and we dwell 
 on the knowledge we have of Him, and 
 of His goodness. Our whole being is, for 
 the time, devoted to this Intention. The 
 words vaguely fill the air till the moment of 
 the delivery of the Message. When he 
 speaks, it is to us as an actual union with the 
 Divine. You have It faintly shadowed 
 
152 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 in the highest aspiration you may know 
 in prayer and spiritual communion. But 
 for you, in the flesh, it is impossible to 
 experience, in equal degree, this melting of 
 the individual nature into the highest Being 
 of God, realising a union with the Infinite. " 
 
 Do the Messages always come to you in 
 actual words ? 
 
 "When they are designed for you in 
 Earth-life they do, and are given in plainest 
 form, that you may be able to receive them. 
 At other times we have communion by 
 thought. These Messages are primarily for 
 you in trust. When you read them aloud 
 we have a sense of the influence of the 
 higher ones who bring them. " 
 
 What are your impressions of them, the 
 Messengers ? 
 
 "They seem to be in a state of absolute 
 rest and calm, for their understanding and 
 will are united to the Divine by love. We 
 do not think of them as obedient to God, 
 but as united to Him. Their time of dis- 
 cipline, as we think of discipline, is past, and 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 153 
 
 they are ever actively engaged in the ac- 
 complishment of God's will. There is no 
 more taking up of the cross, or conquering 
 of self, but in doing God's will they continu- 
 ally advance — for he that watereth shall be 
 watered himself. If they recall their past 
 on Earth, even in faintest memory, they 
 must be filled with a sense of their own 
 unworthiness and cover their faces before 
 Him. But for them penitence is of the 
 past. Wherein they serve God except in 
 ministering to His children we know not. 
 
 "You may think of us as calm and 
 sheltered, and so we are from the physical 
 trials that beset you, for they lie behind us. 
 But in our difficulties and struggles we look 
 forward to the next step we shall take, hop- 
 ing that there we shall find complete rest. 
 But only in the teachings of the highest ai*e 
 we told of a state of perfect peace ; and even 
 then it is not the peace of completed work 
 but of unity with the will of God. 
 
 "We are quite able to perceive degrees of 
 perfection among those who have passed 
 
154 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 beyond into the higher spheres. Some of 
 them seem as far above us as the stars of 
 heaven are above you; but all are bound 
 together in an unbroken chain, forever 
 ascending. 
 
 "The farther we advance, the more 
 gladly we dwell on the thought of eternity, 
 in which we may ever grow nearer to God 
 — 'Oh, blessed, endless eternity, wherein 
 shall grow continually the love of the Holy 
 Will of God.'" 
 
 [A pause of some moments:] ' ' My mother, 
 who guides my power when I am communing 
 with you, is going to speak with you by me. 
 She has passed beyond all the surroundings 
 that still keep us near the Earth-sphere; but 
 she can, by me, give you her own words." 
 [A pause, followed by a change in the writing, 
 which was very faint.] 
 
 " 'I will speak to you by my son. 
 
 " 'The Angels come to visit you, to give 
 you a glimpse of your Home, and to draw 
 your hearts thither. 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 155 
 
 "'Learn what is the Vision of Peace 
 which the Blessed see, when the storms of 
 Earth-Hfe are past, and we stand on the 
 threshold of our true and everlasting Home. 
 
 " 'We behold the Eternal Truth as you 
 behold the light of the sun — without inten- 
 tion, or effort. God gives to each of us, 
 in our measure, of Himself; we partake of 
 His nature, and share in the work of the 
 Father's House. 
 
 " 'Without, you still have to fight with 
 evil. Within, strengthened by conflict, 
 the sheltered soul grows in the grace and 
 beauty of holiness. Wait in hope, till, at- 
 taining all you now long for, you rest in 
 the sight of God and are filled with His 
 overflowing love. ' " 
 
 [The former resuming:] "This is a rare 
 power, seldom available — that which Hnks 
 those beyond us directly with you in the 
 Earth-life. There must be a sympathetic 
 chain making the means of communion 
 continuous and unbroken through two 
 distinct spheres. These conditions, neces- 
 
156 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 sary for conscious' intercourse, are not 
 essential in spiritual communion. In mo- 
 ments of exalted aspiration you are fitted to 
 hold with the higher spheres a communion 
 that is more real, because it is more spiritual. 
 Then you may experience an essential 
 union, the true intercourse of spirit with 
 spirit through the unity of the Spirit of God 
 — which is 'wider than human life, and 
 deeper than human need. ' " 
 
* * 
 
 [In reply to questions asked concerning 
 *'the Blessed/' the follozving was communi- 
 cated:] 
 
 "We know so much as this : that what we 
 long for, and make an effort to see, is poured 
 forth before them without check, or hin- 
 drance. But we beHeve they are ever 
 earnestly seeking for a further manifesta- 
 tion, for something beyond what is possible 
 for them to communicate to us. 
 
 "The Divine within us is ever seeking to 
 free itself from limitation; and this must 
 still be so, in their degree, even with those 
 who dwell in the higher spheres. Each 
 stage of life, while passing, must seem lim- 
 ited according to its ideal standard, but 
 in every successive stage the sight is ever 
 growing clearer, while the aims and aspir- 
 157 
 
158 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 ations are continually expanding. Your 
 struggle is for freedom; ours is for purity; 
 especially that purity which belongs to the 
 attainment of higher virtue, rather than 
 the laying down of definite sin. Purity is 
 the abandonment of the creature for the 
 Creator, seeking happiness alone in the 
 presence of Light and Holiness." 
 
 [By another:] "Each spirit, we, or you, 
 or others of a higher sphere, serving God 
 as He appoints, is part of a Divine order, 
 and the purpose each has to fulfil is a sacred 
 work. God needs each one, and He has an 
 end to accomplish by each one. Is your 
 life a struggle to accomplish something? 
 If not, it is no life at all. The light is given 
 that you may follow it wherever it leads; 
 not merely are you to rest in its contem- 
 plation." 
 
 [The former, resuming, after a pause:] 
 "You cannot realise what power is now be- 
 ing put forth to enable this means to be 
 complete for the expression of a word 
 from beyond. Only for a time does a wave 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 159 
 
 of force and light put it in our power to act 
 thus consciously on you; for, as you know, 
 it is a question of times and seasons, and 
 now we are concentrating all our strength. " 
 [After a silence the following was communi- 
 cated under another influence:] 
 
 " * God, the eternal Giver of Life, delights 
 in the free-will offering of love. Yield 
 yourselves to Him, whose Divine Will is the 
 law of our world. Cast all your love and 
 desires and purposes and aims and hopes 
 into that unknown Will, till He draws you 
 to Himself. He will take you beyond the 
 reach of weakness and fear. The light of 
 truth and knowledge will shine on you. 
 Around you shall be shed joy everlasting, 
 flowing forth from the encompassing flood 
 of the Love of God. 
 
 " 'To the lover of purity and the seeker 
 after good, every good gift shall be given. 
 All good gifts are from the Father of Light. 
 The word of the Father of spirits, the King 
 of the true kingdom, is your rock of hope. ' ' ' 
 
* 
 * * 
 
 [May i6, 1885.] 
 
 It was written : 
 
 . . . "We must prepare our hearts 
 when we hope for direct communion with 
 the Saints. We avoid all distractions, 
 whether of companionship or thought. 
 We perform all our duties with a quiet 
 thought of the gift we hope for. Maintain- 
 ing silence, outward and inward, we speak 
 only with those who share our aspirations. 
 Our thoughts being thus restrained, as by a 
 calm and passive resting in God, we find 
 ourselves prepared to receive the great 
 gift. 
 
 "All are gathering, for we know that the 
 heavens will soon be opened. " 
 
 [A long silence ensued, when the following 
 words were communicated slowly, as if dic- 
 tated sentence by sentence:] 
 160 
 
TRUTH REVEALED i6i 
 
 " 'I, the messenger of God, come from 
 the land of light and beauty. 
 
 " * I come in the name of the Light of the 
 World, in whom the distant is drawn near, 
 and before whose presence darkness and 
 sorrow and sighing have fled away. 
 
 "'Lift up your hearts, for upon your 
 seeking spirits shines the Light of God, 
 brighter, clearer, purer, diviner than hath 
 entered into the heart of man to conceive, 
 and in that Holy Light each thought and 
 act is revealed. 
 
 "'Draw near to God, who dwelleth in 
 light, veiled in the brightness of His infinite 
 glory from the eyes of His creatures; fall 
 down before Him and open your hearts 
 to the influences of His Spirit. 
 
 " * Set your affections on the things which 
 are of God, on the infinite, the abiding, the 
 eternal ; these only are worthy of your love, 
 for you are made only for Him, and to 
 become like Him is your heavenly heritage. 
 Render humbly to Him the sacrifice of 
 your will, striving for the angelic constancy 
 
i62 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 of obedience, and His love will draw you 
 near and blend your wills in harmony with 
 His divine will. Let the joys of earth 
 become to you but the shadows of the true; 
 lay down your earthly cares, look up to 
 that pure Light, the source of perfectness 
 and peace, and its beams shall kindle in 
 your hearts the love of God, in whose pres- 
 ence and blessing you shall forever rest. 
 
 " *To you shall be granted a foretaste of 
 the reward of those who love with single- 
 ness of heart; you shall conceive of sweet 
 delights which absorb and transport the 
 spirit — freed from the burden of the flesh — 
 whose desires are fixed on things eternal. 
 So shall God show you Himself, and all 
 things in Himself. He will dispel all 
 darkness and ignorance and imperfection, 
 and shall bring you out of the uncertainty 
 of hopes and questionings, into the desire 
 and love and light of wisdom. There, in 
 that celestial Light, all joy, all happiness is 
 found. Out of His treasury are shed forth 
 heavenly blessings for the portion of all 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 163 
 
 those who will open their hearts to receive 
 the gift of His love, and to rejoice in the 
 blessing of the Mighty God. They shall be 
 abundantly satisfied with the plenteousness 
 of His House, and He shall make them to 
 drink of His pleasures as of a river. 
 
 " '0, Lord of Hosts, blessed in the man 
 that trusteth in Thee ! "* 
 
 [Subsequently the following was communi- 
 cated in reply to questions asked:] 
 
 "A cloud of witnesses filled the air when 
 your great gift came. When we receive, 
 with you, these revelations from above, we 
 are filled with thanksgiving, and cherish 
 the lingering influence long after the voice 
 has passed away. For it opens to us the 
 gate of heaven. 
 
 "These Messages link us with the saints, 
 and aid us in holding a more intimate inter- 
 course with them. After such a gift we 
 cling to the influence that still hovers about 
 us, uplifting our minds, if not taking pos- 
 session. Let us desire further illumination, 
 
164 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 and be very jealous of any interest which 
 may disturb our thought — 'Lord, it is good 
 to be here! I will not let Thee go except 
 Thou bless me.'" 
 

 [After reading aloud the words received on 
 the former occasion, the following was written 
 in reply to questions asked: — ] 
 
 . . . " The thoughts and feelings inspired 
 by the Messages are so deeply engraven 
 on our hearts that we can trace in each 
 other their effect. A distinct step seems 
 taken in our spiritual life. They influence 
 all our motives, our every thought and act. 
 Having told you of our preparation for 
 these gifts, I now tell you of our attitude 
 after receiving them. " 
 
 [By another:] "God always grants you 
 that to which you aspire, the measure of 
 knowledge that is meet for you. You can- 
 not look beyond the veil, but just enough 
 light shines through to show you there is a 
 
 veil. And if you press forward earnestly, 
 165 
 
I66 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 and take joyfully each new ray that is shed 
 forth, the veil will dissolve before your 
 eyes, and you will be filled with a new meas- 
 ure of light and wisdom and glory. For the 
 spirit advances ever, piercing the clouds it 
 attains new heights, sees new treasures with- 
 in its reach, and passes from glory to glory. " 
 
 [By another:] "Trial and suffering and 
 humiliation have a real value for one who 
 has learned to measure all things by the 
 standard of eternity ; they detach the mind 
 from earthly things, and instil a desire to 
 become fit for a higher work. But that 
 which makes life smooth and pleasant veils 
 the heavenly horison. Remember!" 
 
 [By another:] "Live ever in the know- 
 ledge of the love of the Highest, for love 
 turns the crown of thorns into one of gold, 
 and under its light the wave of trouble 
 flashes with heavenly brightness. Love 
 rules the Infinite Heart, and they who yield 
 to the dominion of love bear the seal of 
 sonship. [A pause.] We hear a voice from 
 beyond!" 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 167 
 
 [" From the sphere of the Blessed"":] 
 
 '"Now is your night, but the morning 
 Cometh. 
 
 "'They who live in Spirit, in the light of 
 the resplendent City of God, need never 
 shrink from His Messengers, at whatever 
 hour, or under whatever strange form they 
 may come. 
 
 "'We draw near, and nearer still, to the 
 presence of the Divine Father, in sure 
 confidence that we shall at length rest 
 in the eternal temple of peace. God is 
 the eternal fulness, whose goodness is 
 ever overflowing. On earth was the seed- 
 time, now is the spring-tide of blossom, 
 and hereafter shall be the harvest. Then 
 the twilight gloamed around us; beyond 
 us glows the everlasting light. In some 
 happier future we shall know that this, our 
 high noon of blessing, was but the seed-time 
 of a more glorious ingathering of the harvest 
 of truth,'" 
 
[JUNB 21, 1885.] 
 
 It was written : 
 
 . . . "Our minds now blend harmo- 
 niously, and we look on this unity as one 
 of the clearest signs of progress. We are 
 many, yet one; and in this bond you are 
 united with us. 
 
 "They who have begun the spiritual 
 life on Earth are wonderfully stimulated by 
 the beauty and goodness to which their 
 eyes are opened when they come here, and 
 this lends an effective force to their effort 
 to overcome all obstacles to progress. This 
 early, eager impulse, gradually subsides into 
 steadfast, persistent endeavor, and becomes 
 calmer as we advance. . . . Our surround- 
 ings all tend to promote the good and expel 
 the evil, often unconsciously to ourselves. 
 
 When the need of effort grows less, then we 
 168 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 169 
 
 know we are advancing. . . . The reward 
 of obedience is the inward manifestation 
 of the Divine Presence, and the joy and 
 triumph of having over come the world. . . . 
 Self-love and self-will stand between the 
 heart and God. Commit your way to 
 Him, and trust in Him wholly, for He 
 brings all to pass. [A pause.] 
 
 "Above us is the light which betokens 
 a heavenly presence. We dare not dispel 
 the power now by individual messages, but 
 all unite in saying: Live ever in the reali- 
 sation of the true spiritual life, the invisible 
 kingdom of Truth and Love ; now no longer 
 hidden from you but the real home of the 
 soul." 
 
 [After a prolonged silence the following was 
 communicated under another influence:] 
 
 * ' * Prepare your hearts ! 
 
 "'He passeth by who is the hidden 
 God. 
 
 * ' ' The shadowing veil is lifted ; He passeth 
 by who is the King of Love. 
 
I70 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 "'With the adoring host of the Blessed 
 He reveals to you the special Presence of 
 the great invisible One, and with still small 
 voice He murmurs to the soul divine secrets, 
 beyond the power of human utterance. 
 
 "'Commit your way to God, and stay 
 your heart on the Eternal. Dwell here 
 and now and ever in the true home of your 
 waiting hearts, in the heavenly eden of 
 peace, and rejoice in the love of God with 
 His living children. 
 
 " ' Awake, Winds of God ! breathe on us 
 the Breath of Life, and bear our oblation 
 of praise to the Throne of Light. 
 
 " * Open to us, loving Master, the higher 
 mansions of purity and blessedness, where 
 Thou abidest ever, that we may rejoice 
 continually in Thy beauty and glory, and 
 dwell in the paradise of delights where 
 shines the Day of God. * " 
 
 [After a solemn stillness a Vision ensued 
 to the one in trance; the following words 
 *'were spoken with great calmness and gentle- 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 171 
 
 ness, as if to each one separately'' and 
 transmitted by the writing:] 
 
 "Peace be with you: My peace I give 
 
 UNTO YOU." 
 

 [In reply to questions asked, relative to 
 their own experience on that great occasion , 
 the following was communicated:] 
 
 * ' You are to bear two words in mind when 
 you dwell on that last gift. One is, ' Your 
 joy no man can take from you': and the 
 other is, 'Thanks be to God for His unspeak- 
 able gift.' 
 
 "This is one of the many good things 
 that come by earnest seeking. The stead- 
 fast endeavor of all earnest will is never in 
 vain. 
 
 "The revelation of what was coming 
 dawned on us suddenly and unexpectedly. 
 There was the sense of a higher influence, 
 and a quickening of the power exerted over 
 us by the Blessed. Then, suddenly, a con- 
 sciousness of the presence of the Messengers 
 172 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 173 
 
 amongst us, with the promise of our highest 
 blessing. All the holy ones we know of, or 
 can conceive of, seemed to encompass us 
 with their power, heralding the coming 
 of One who is their Master and King. 
 
 "'Prepare your hearts,' was spoken by 
 those immediately beyond us. Then came 
 the words of the messenger who brought 
 your first great Message. He spoke in 
 plainest words. The Message that fol- 
 lowed was from the higher order, unitedly, 
 beginning with the words, 'Commit your 
 way to God,' and who were influenced to 
 give it by a greater than they. Their 
 offering of praise was spoken; and the peti- 
 tion that followed it came to us in the words 
 of the Blessed. 
 
 "The Blessing of Peace — we need not tell 
 you its source. 
 
 "We receive these higher revelations only 
 in the presence of those who are still in the 
 Earth-life; God having so ordered it that 
 'we without you should not be made per- 
 fect.' He manifests Himself in different 
 
174 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 ways amongst the different orders of His 
 children, and it is only when all are united 
 by an intense interest, which really is unity 
 of will, that a perfect vision, or manifesta- 
 tion of Him, can be given. We know, too, 
 that the Blessed never receive their highest 
 gifts except when some of us, in the spirit 
 land, are united with them in thought and 
 heart. Those who are far beyond the 
 Blessed, whose will is in perfect and abso- 
 lute harmony with the Divine, dwell con- 
 tinually in the Vision of Peace. 
 
 "We have twice before seen this Great 
 Vision in your presence, but our power over 
 you was not then sufficient for us to convey 
 it to you. One occasion was when you re- 
 ceived your third great Message — ' Behold 
 the Love of God.' The other occasion was 
 just before the long interruption, when 
 those few words were given from on high — 
 'Strive, strive, strive, till hope brightens 
 into sight and rest is won. The Promise 
 of God standeth sure . ' Had you but known 
 it, the promise was then certain that at a 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 175 
 
 coming day the blessing of His conscious 
 Presence would be yours. 
 
 "Sight is rarely given to those in Earth- 
 life. Those with us here to whom it has not 
 yet been granted to see, as we now see, are 
 conscious only of a feeling of deep solemnity 
 and awe, without a knowledge of the won- 
 derful Presence which inspires them. Had 
 you dissipated your thought with attention 
 to external manifestations in this inter- 
 course, even in the slightest degree, you 
 would have been incapable of supplying 
 the link we need with Earth-life, and you 
 would have been far removed from the 
 possibility of sharing with us this great 
 and wonderful blessing. " 
 
[The following was in reply to questions 
 asked concerning the various *' spheres'' of 
 the life to come.] 
 
 . . . "All conflict must be over before 
 we can pass from this sphere to a higher 
 one. There is a great difference between 
 that willing obedience to God's will which 
 can be attained in its completeness here, 
 and that perfect conscious unity with it 
 after which the Blessed strive, and which 
 even there is not attained in its per- 
 fection." 
 
 [The question was asked, mentally , whether 
 
 they recognized more than three general stages, 
 
 or ''spheres,'" of which some knowledge had 
 
 been gained through the previous intercourse: 
 
 namely, the ''spirit world, " the sphere of "the 
 176 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 177 
 
 Blessed,'' and that celestial realm from 
 whence the Messengers came forth. It was 
 answered by the writing:] 
 
 "We know from those who influence us 
 (the Blessed) that there is between their 
 world and that of the great ones at least one 
 sphere, which bears the same relation to 
 their life (the Blessed) that ours does to the 
 Earth-life." 
 
 What are your chief means of progress? 
 
 "There are many and various functions 
 necessary to the development of the human 
 soul, duties which you recognise as pertain- 
 ing to physical, mental, and social life. But 
 with us, here, the training and discipline 
 of the spirit is our absorbing interest; and as 
 violent transitions are hurtful in our world, 
 as in yours, this training is at first accom- 
 plished by means of duties connected either 
 with the Earth-life, or with those who are 
 lowest in the spirit-world. The perfecting 
 of the spirit is our means of progress. " 
 
 What is the nature of the change in passing 
 frojn sphere to sphere? 
 
178 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 "The change in passing from this sphere 
 to the one beyond is greater than the change 
 you will experience when you pass into this 
 life; it is more marked; but less so, we are 
 told, when those beyond us pass into a 
 still higher sphere. All conflict must be 
 over, as I have said, before we can pass 
 into the next sphere." 
 
 What relation does one sphere bear to 
 another ? 
 
 *' We have learned that each stage of life 
 has its two spheres, linked together in the 
 same relation that exists between what you 
 call the material and the spiritual worlds. 
 But in our intercourse with higher spheres 
 little is told us of what would correspond to 
 the idea of physical or material conditions 
 there, for most of us have but little interest 
 in that inquiry compared to the things that 
 relate to our spiritual progress, and we 
 know that such knowledge cannot be 
 clearly conve^^ed. Now we would turn 
 away from these thoughts, for they do 
 not concern our real life. " 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 179 
 
 [By another:] "If it is God's will, in 
 drawing you to the spiritual life, to use an 
 outward ministration, as well as the silent 
 influence of His Messengers, the weakest 
 instrument is the fittest, for then it is mani- 
 fest that you must look to a power beyond 
 yourselves for these communications, and 
 there is less temptation to self-exaltation, 
 less danger of self-deception, and of neces- 
 sity you look to the Father of all, invisibly 
 working by human means and manifesting 
 His Presence by organs borrowed from His 
 creatures. 
 
 "God shows you Himself. He does not 
 need to show you how to approach Him, 
 or how to serve and worship Him, for the 
 knowledge of Him calls forth a response 
 from your hearts. He reveals what He is, 
 and this revelation of the Divine Fullness 
 is infinite in duration and development; 
 for His gifts partake of the infinity and 
 eternity of His love. Such a gift as you 
 have received was a direct ray from His 
 sacred Presence, kindling inner light. '* 
 
i8o TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 [By another, in reply to a question:] * ' The 
 natural effect of Earth-life is a tendency to 
 limit thought by things human and finite. 
 You are inclined to dwell too much in the 
 sense of time, as implied in Eternal Life. 
 Earnest effort and the desire for good is 
 Eternal Life, for it is a partaking of the 
 nature of the Eternal One, who wills only 
 good, whom we seek to approach, and whom 
 to know is Eternal Life. " 
 
[August i6, 1885.] 
 
 // was written : 
 
 ... "A new influence is present, 
 controlling the power. I cannot name it. 
 He has a special end in view and dictates 
 from a distance. I will interpret his 
 thought in my own words, for the power is 
 given in a strange form : 
 
 "Those who have suffered struggle and 
 
 conflict are better fitted for higher work in 
 
 the next spheres, they who have borne the 
 
 burden and heat of the day, who are 
 
 strengthened by trial, they do here a work 
 
 for God and draw the world to a knowledge 
 
 of His truth. Each has a special blessing; 
 
 the strong do a divine work, while those 
 
 who dwell in innocence and peace aid with 
 
 their prayers, and in the end shall crown 
 
 with their love the victor in many conflicts. 
 181 
 
i82 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 " Now he speaks . I will give you his own 
 words : 
 
 "'Let all earthly care be as nothing; 
 welcome as blessings the evils of life ; see in 
 its sadness, joy; and in its thorns, a crown; 
 for by them the Hand of God is moulding you 
 to do work in His higher kingdom. He 
 purifies by outward fire the inward evil; 
 He draws the heart from a world of weariness 
 and care, to find eternal peace and rest in 
 Him. His love is everywhere, and always, 
 round you. But now, with love surpassing 
 all, more tender, more intense, more loving 
 than heart can conceive. He overshadows 
 you with Hispersonal Presence, and breathes 
 on you power and life. In that Presence 
 is fullness of joy, of glory, power, wisdom; 
 only the dim shadow can be seen, but all 
 is there, proceeding from Him, abiding in 
 Him ; and in endless happiness you will one 
 day receive it all through His Love. In the 
 calm moment of His Presence the clouds of 
 Earth will part and reveal a glimpse of the 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 183 
 
 Heavenly Land illumined with the pure 
 Love of God.'" 
 
 [A pause of some minutes* duration.] 
 
 "We see the bright light that surrounds 
 the Messenger. We see only by the will 
 of those who come; not by our own power. 
 
 " The Presence is coming amongst us, and 
 likewise a great company of those who share 
 our gifts. For One will come." 
 
 [A long silence ensued, the following being 
 given under another influence:] 
 
 "'He draws near who is the Light of 
 Hope, the Crown of Day; He who is the 
 perfection of wisdom, who sees the deepest 
 meaning of hidden mystery. 
 
 "'His coming is heralded with celestial 
 light, for He is the Leader of the armies 
 of God's angels, who go forth to conquer 
 all evil with the power of Love and Truth. 
 
 "'Here is that Divine Heart which lives 
 for you; He who comes to lighten sorrow 
 and care; He who has ever loved you. ' " 
 
i84 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 [.4 silence was followed by a Vision, as 
 before; in which these words were spoken, 
 and transmitted to the others by the writing:] 
 
 "If YE LOVE ME, YE SHALL BE LOVED OF 
 
 God; and I will love you, and manifest 
 
 MYSELF TO YOU. " 
 
[Januaby 3, 1886.] 
 
 // was written: 
 
 ... "No preparation for these gifts 
 is so effectual as a life of active charity a nd 
 inward faith. A blessing is only awaiting 
 the complete establishment of the power, 
 to be given you. We all are waiting with 
 you, for we never receive these gifts in such 
 full measure as when we are made the 
 channel of blessing for those in Earth-life. '* 
 
 [By another:] "Sorrow and care may 
 truly be said to be turned into joy for those 
 who live the life of the Spirit, because your 
 penalty has then become your purification. 
 Trials do their work of conforming your 
 will to the Divine. They who earnestly 
 seek patience and a calm spirit, and con- 
 sent to bear whatever burdens are laid upon 
 them, soon reap the first fruits by that 
 185 
 
i86 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 restful calm with which they encounter 
 whatever may befall them in the day of 
 their appointed time. Thus are earthly 
 things united with heavenly, and by the 
 infusion of angelic peace and good will 
 are you made partakers of the life of the 
 Blessed." 
 
 [After an interval the following was com- 
 municated ''from the sphere of the Blessed'' :] 
 
 *"A Light shall arise in obscurity, and 
 darkness shall be as the noonday; for 
 around you shines the light of a brighter 
 land, and those who draw near to you dwell 
 among the angels, and are fulfilled with the 
 Vision of Peace. 
 
 '"Let the true Light find in your spirits 
 a quiet abiding place; so shall it enrich 
 the barren pathway of care which leads 
 to the Land of Peace, and shines ever more 
 and more till dawns for you the Perfect Day. 
 
 " * For you have passed through the Gate 
 of Life; woe and conflict have ceased 
 to affright you, and eternal refreshment 
 has begun. Soon shall you see what 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 187 
 
 now you believe, possess what you now 
 desire, and attain to the joys of the life of 
 the Blessed. Here the hunger of the spirit 
 is stilled ; here is found its peaceful rest ; here, 
 perfectly renewed, each power blossoms 
 into fullest life and is offered in service to 
 the King of our love. 
 
 "'Here the depths of the heart are 
 sounded; here the forces of the spirit un- 
 folded; here the aspirations of humanity 
 attain fullest perfection under the enkind- 
 ling light of the Vision of God. 
 
 " ' Look forward through the endless path 
 of life which has opened before you, wherein 
 you shall rejoice ever in the Love of God, 
 till, united to Him, you possess Him wholly, 
 and share His fullness for evermore. ' " 
 
 I" Several voices, unitedly, from the sphere 
 of the Blessed'' :] 
 
 "'Come! spirits of Hght and beauty; 
 come! visions of purity, encircling band of 
 Heaven's own brightness; come from that 
 Celestial Land, and give us, who wait in 
 longing, a glimpse of your changeless 
 
I88 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 peace, who dwell in the unveiled presence 
 of God.'" 
 
 [''By one voice — a Messenger'':] "*He 
 who is encompassed with ineffable light 
 shall so infuse Himself into your spirits that 
 His Presence may be made manifest in your 
 midst. He will nourish and sustain you, 
 and fill you with the joys of Paradise. ' " 
 
 ['By many angels'':] *''Hail! Holy, 
 Living Life, whose unsearchable wisdom 
 disposes all things in perfect order. Hail! 
 Thou Fountain of life and beauty, who 
 sheds forth blessing forever. Guide and 
 preserve Thy children who call on Thee, 
 and shelter them through the storms which 
 are bringing them daily nearer to the haven 
 of rest and glory."* 
 
 [A silence was followed hy a Vision, in 
 which the following words were audibly 
 spoken as before, and were simultaneously 
 transmitted to the others by the writing:] 
 
 "To HIM THAT OVERCOMETH I WILL GIVE 
 OF THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF LIFE, IN THE 
 MIDST OF THE PARADISE OF GOD. " 
 
* * 
 
 [A parting word.] 
 
 " *Lift your eyes to the hills of light, the 
 dawning Day is at hand. Go forth on your 
 mission fearlessly; God's is the Hand which 
 guides you onward. Manifest your light to 
 man, the creature of His Hand, who now 
 gropes in darkness and despair. 
 
 **'0, Divine Light, that illumines the 
 path of the beloved of God. Work while it 
 is called to-day, for night cometh, and with 
 the night comes rest to the faithful soul.'" 
 [After a pause it was asked:] 
 
 From whom are these words? 
 
 "The Sent of God." 
 
 [This channel of conscious communion, was 
 closed with these words, on a subsequent oc- 
 casion:] "Waiting for the dawn; the Day 
 
 breaks so gradually, sending forth these 
 189 
 
I90 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 rays, and then again obscured. But that 
 the fullest Day is at hand we know, and 
 give thanks. 
 
 "Those living words fill all voids and 
 abide forever — 'To him that overcometh.' 
 And this, even this very thing is the victory 
 that overcometh the world — even our faith. 
 Every sorrow and care and trial but proves 
 our faith that God is good, the Father and 
 King of Love." 
 
 [By another, in reply to a question:] ' ' The 
 highest, noblest faith does not act regardless 
 of time and opportunity; it waits till the 
 harvest, and then takes a place among the 
 reapers. . . . The better prepared is the field, 
 the stronger will be the growth of the seed, 
 and the world is rapidly being made more 
 ready to receive these glad tidings of great 
 joy." 
 
 [By another:] "The mission of the hu- 
 man race is to mould the world to a likeness 
 of the kingdom of heaven, and by giving 
 to others this glimpse of the spiritual world 
 you help them to realise the continual 
 
TRUTH REVEALED 191 
 
 presence of God — the most powerful check 
 to evil and stimulus to good. " 
 
 [By another:] "Remember that the 
 echoes of Truth never die; they sound on 
 forever, beyond the narrow limits of your 
 own circle, your own age, your own race. 
 
 "Look not too far forward, either with 
 longing, or with fear; to-morrow will dawn 
 with to-morrow's light. Could you but 
 know our peace in trust and faith!" 
 
 [By another:] "We look forward to a 
 day of rejoicing when we shall see in Earth- 
 life an impulse go forth from those Messages 
 of Grace. For we see in them the promise 
 of a blessed future, the promise of still 
 larger benefits that must arise from this 
 beginning. We know, but only in part, 
 that this is the first step in a new movement 
 from these spheres to yours in Earth-life. 
 And when we have realised a strength 
 which we shall see has originated here, 
 then we shall go on from strength to 
 strength, and God will give the increase; 
 so that, by His help and guidance, this shall 
 
192 TRUTH REVEALED 
 
 be a means of bringing many into His 
 kingdom." 
 
 [By another:] * * The treasures which you 
 possess [the Messages], though they speak 
 in riddles to the souls of Earth, are as dear 
 to us in this land of heavenly brightness 
 as they are to you, to whom they appear 
 as stars of promise on a dark sky. This 
 bond of knowledge and possession unites 
 us and our world to you and yours. We 
 long to be again the channel of communion 
 from that heavenly sphere; but no power 
 of love, or desire, can draw aside the veil 
 until the blessing is ready for bestowal. 
 Farewell!" 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 13 193 
 
[It was purposed to confine the selections from 
 the record to those higher products of the experience 
 comprised in Part III, as privately printed in 1894. 
 But on reprinting them for publication it was 
 thought best to add, as Appendices, a few extracts 
 relating to the means and other interests of the 
 earlier stage of the inquiry. These follow.] 
 
 194 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 The origin of the experience was as follows: — • 
 Three, and in the earlier stage occasionally four per- 
 sons, friends, met together in their homes to inquire 
 experimentally into the nature of an alleged conscious 
 intercourse with the unseen by "automatic" or"nie- 
 dianimic" writing: none of whom had any previous 
 experience of this intercourse. During their meetings 
 there was gradually developed in one of their number 
 a state of "magnetic sleep," or trance, the senses 
 being in a state of total suspension. A pencil was 
 placed in the hand of the one so influenced, and the 
 inquiry was conducted by means of questions asked, 
 to which responses were made by written replies: 
 these were read aloud as they proceeded (as 
 suggested by the writing), "that the minds of all 
 might be bent in the same direction." Passing 
 beyond an experimental stage the writings varied in 
 character and occasionally in form; preceded by 
 the Christian name, or the initials, of the invisible 
 influence purporting to be guiding the hand. Some- 
 times the writings terminated in a vision ; what was 
 seen and heard in this state being visible and audible 
 alone to the one in trance; the others present partici- 
 pating in this experience as simultaneously com- 
 municated by the writing, or as orally reported 
 when consciousness was partly restored. The writ- 
 195 
 
196 APPENDIX B 
 
 ings were seldom more frequent than once a week, 
 and sometimes were separated by an interval of 
 months; a single experience was usually limited to 
 an hour's duration. 
 
 By a gradual progress the experience eventually 
 rose to the plane indicated in the selections given 
 in Part III, when all subordinate interests gave place 
 to purely spiritual aims, in seeking light by this 
 means. 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Early in the experience it was asked of the con- 
 trolling influence: — Do you guide the writing by 
 your will, or by your hand? To this it was written 
 in reply: — "By both: my will moves me, but the 
 force of my will has also to move the hand that 
 writes. The life-power is actually passing from one 
 
 to the other while control lasts, from me to . I 
 
 have not atoms of flesh, but a nerve-power and tangi- 
 ble form exists with us, and this is used. By natural 
 law we also are governed, and we come to you thus 
 by that means; but the capacity to understand this 
 can only come when physical conditions pass away. 
 We speak as in a strange tongue when we strive to 
 give knowledge of that which relates to the natural 
 part of our life here; to you so mysterious, to us as 
 simple as breathing. Were we alike in ignorance 
 of your conditions could you explain to us what is 
 meant by color, or sweetness, or fragrance? We 
 find it difficult to explain our outward conditions. 
 Think of us as ever in light, a growing light, forever 
 increasing. ..." It was asked : Do you regard this 
 
APPENDIX B 197 
 
 intercourse as abnormal? "No: all intuitional 
 thought comes to you in this way; that is, from 
 another sphere, though you are unaware of it. 
 When you are in open communion with us you see 
 the means, ordinarily you see only the effect. . . . 
 Connecting our thought with the thought of those 
 in the Earth-life is a means of growth in the earlier 
 stages of this life. As all things grow by contact, 
 so the special powers of "those in Earth-life supply 
 us with certain forces which give an impulse to 
 thought. The effect of communing with those on 
 Earth is also beneficial to us in augmenting our 
 power of manifesting ourselves in this world, on the 
 principle that activity engenders power, and our 
 activity is first brought about by contact with those 
 who are still in the Earth-life. Some are detained 
 but a short period, while others are slow in de- 
 veloping their spiritual powers. Some carry with 
 them a power of conviction which others reach only 
 by association with those who are still in the flesh. 
 Then, too, we can incarnate our thought with the 
 thought of those on Earth, and thus are good and 
 great things accomplished." 
 
 It was asked if the surrounding objects in theroom 
 were visible to them; it was written in reply: — 
 *'For us and for those entranced, purely physical 
 things disappear, or are seen only in outline — that is, 
 inanimate objects. The human form [as fundament- 
 ally psychic] appears to us precisely as it does to you, 
 and other objects can, by a distinct effort, be seen for 
 
198 APPENDIX C 
 
 a time. That which is physical does not belong to 
 our material conditions, consequently it does not 
 affect our senses ; we perceive it through your minds 
 when we are united with you. But when you exert 
 magnetic force, which corresponds to our material 
 conditions, we are enabled to come amongst you 
 freely, and the light gradually increases in in- 
 tensity until it is as bright as the sunlight is to your 
 eyes. . . . 
 
 "These outward means of intercourse are far 
 below the deep mystic communion of spirit with 
 spirit; in your daily lives you little realise how 
 constant this is ; a suspension of these outward means 
 does not check this in the least, though it does 
 lessen your susceptibility to our near influence; or 
 rather the power of perceiving it. ' ' 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 In reply to questions asked as to what may be 
 attributable in this intercourse to the mind of the 
 one whose hand is controlled, or to the minds of 
 others present, it was written : — 
 
 "It is easier for me to guide the hand to write 
 of what is in my own mind, than of that I must find 
 out from others present with me; it is also easier to 
 guide the hand to write of things of which you have 
 some idea, than of those that are entirely new to you 
 all; and the hand is more easily controlled when 
 some related knowledge is also dormant in the mind 
 of the one serving as the instrument." In answer 
 to this it was remarked: It is for this reason that 
 many are skeptical of the truth of spirit-intercourse ! 
 
APPENDIX C 199' 
 
 It was written: "Yes, we cannot help that. The 
 physical atoms are hard to move. Ordinarily we use 
 and work upon the knowledge and forms of expres- 
 sion already present in the mind of the instrument 
 used: it is my thought in another's language. It is 
 much easier to do this than to give a verbal message 
 from dictation by others present with me." Sub- 
 sequently it was said, by the writing, that a verbal 
 message dictated from a higher sphere was " a greater 
 strain," requiring "greater concentrated power 
 and the united wills of those who came." 
 
 At a later day it was written, with reference to 
 the means of this intercourse : — 
 
 "Now that you have learned to touch closely on 
 this spirit-world those with me combine in what 
 is said to you. One after another is drawn into 
 the mystic bond that links you to us, and us to you. 
 Each one contributes a new power, a fuller life, 
 a deeper shade of meaning. Others are acting on 
 your minds to enable you to receive what is said ; to 
 draw from you the magnetic sympathy that is the 
 secret of our close communion. Every one present 
 with me is taking part in this. 
 
 "We come to you by the Unity of the Spirit. 
 Without that bond how poor and superficial would 
 be our intercourse? But in the harmony of the 
 Spirit we have free access, hindered only by the 
 barriers of the flesh. These may grow less and less, 
 but they cannot be wholly removed; without pre- 
 paredness of heart our words would be as sounds 
 
200 APPENDIX C 
 
 without meaning. Occasional failures and variations 
 there may be, but you will be given what your hearts 
 are open to receive. Many believe these truths with 
 the mind alone, and they are not conscious of our 
 nearness, nor are we. But when spiritual truths are 
 received in the heart their light dawns gradually on 
 the mind as the stars come out in an evening sky, and 
 they become part of your life. 
 
 "True enlightenment can come only from contact 
 with the Light of All Worlds, whose pure effulgence 
 will remain unfathomed throughout Eternity. No 
 searching can enable you to find out God, who is 
 Spirit, but you may learn gradually to see in Him the 
 true union of the spiritual and the material ; to know 
 Him in Whom mind and matter meet, the origin and 
 fulfilment of both. ..." 
 
 On another occasion it was asked: How is this 
 intercourse viewed by those in your world ; here it is 
 commonly regarded as a delusion? In reply to this 
 it was written: — "You must know that in our world 
 our association is only with those whose sympathies 
 are with us, especially in higher things. In ordinary 
 matters we come in contact with spirits of all dis- 
 positions ; but we can isolate ourselves, and in things 
 that concern our deeper affections we are united 
 with those only whose interests are the same as ours. 
 There are many here who scoff at the bare idea of 
 holding intercourse with a world above us, who yet 
 know that we can influence those we have left on 
 Earth. They know, almost universally, that com- 
 
APPENDIX D 20I 
 
 munication with the world we have left is possible, 
 but many think it useless. Those who have experi- 
 enced it in your life will naturally bring their know- 
 ledge with them, and will not be " as strangers in a 
 strange land." 
 
 APPENDIX D 
 
 At this earlier stage of the inquiry it was also 
 asked : — Can you advise us as to conduct in temporal 
 affairs? To this the reply through the Wiiting was: 
 — "We cannot take the power of judging out of your 
 hands; we are not permitted to do that, we can only 
 influence." Have you a clearer knowledge of the 
 future than we have? "What we cannot see, we 
 know will be well. ' ' Then you see, as we do, with the 
 eye of faith? "It is more than faith, it is a clear 
 knowledge: we cannot see always, but we do know." 
 Then you see farther into the future than we do? 
 "Yes, we feel a future; it is not prescience, but a 
 knowledge that we cannot defme to you." Are 
 you able to predict events? "We see sometimes in 
 glimpses, and can judge more correctly what will be 
 the consequence of dawning events. Though we are 
 not always right, for a hindrance to the natural 
 course of things sometimes arises." Then we 
 should not look to you for guidance in temporal 
 affairs? "No; for that would palsy your powers 
 of mind and judgment; in forming which you may 
 be guided by influences far wiser than ours, of which 
 we have no knowledge. ..." 
 
 In reply to questions concerning doctrines of 
 religious belief, it was written at this earlier stage : — • 
 
202 APPENDIX D 
 
 " Do not inquire too deeply into these mysteries, for 
 such matters of our inmost life are impossible to 
 reveal in words. I could only give you my belief on 
 a subject on which we have yet much to learn." 
 Those with you, then, may hold different views? 
 "Yes; and you have more likelihood of attaining a 
 fuller and more correct knowledge of us, and of our 
 life, by a comparison of what you may learn from 
 different sources, as in the things of your own 
 mental world. One reason why we are permitted 
 to have such free communion with you is, that 
 you are prepared to exercise your own minds on what 
 you are told, and do not give a blind acceptance to 
 all that may come to you by this means. It is on 
 account of this favorable disposition for the reception 
 of spiritual teachings that you have developed the 
 power in so short a time, and we too are glad to speak 
 with you for this reason. " 
 
 Before passing into magnetic sleep the person so 
 influenced* desired, at a later stage of the inquiry, 
 that it should be asked, "Why it was that the 
 communications were almost exclusively confined to 
 subjects of religious interest? " When this question 
 was asked, it was written: — "Because we can 
 speak to you more freely on this subject than on any 
 other. The spiritual is the most universally applica- 
 ble of all elevating interests ; all who desire spiritual 
 growth have this in common : and there is a closer 
 affinity between your methods of thought and ours 
 
 * Who died some years after the writings ceased. 
 
APPENDIX D 203 
 
 on this subject than on any other. The unity of the 
 Spirit is our bond, for this unites all spheres in one. " 
 [The endeavor to resolve definite, concrete impres- 
 sions of their outward life and environment was 
 necessarily elusive because of fundamental distinc- 
 tions in the outward nature of that life as distin- 
 guished from physical conditions.] 
 
 On another occasion it was written: — "When I 
 pause in the writing it is often because some new 
 influence wishes to gain expression, but usually 
 those associated with me must communicate through 
 me [the habit being formed which rendered the 
 conditions favorable]: W. D. says, 'To the earthly 
 view life is but a transient appearance, bursting 
 from darkness into light and vanishing away in 
 gloom. But every spirit who has ever inhabited 
 a human body is living and conscious to-day. 
 Each is living a life that is a permanent reality, for 
 every act entails its consequences and in a measure 
 affects every other act. The essence of all we learned 
 on Earth remains with us, and is as real and neces- 
 sary as anything we learn here.' Here we see 
 with greater fullness and clearness what to us while 
 on Earth was but a dim vision of truth; but the 
 gradual process of growth from dimness to clearness 
 was needful for us. Our desire is to enlarge our 
 capacity, and the knowledge of goodness increases 
 as we"^ — [advance?]. Here the writing merged into 
 a distinct message from another source, which had 
 begun while the above was in progress, being inter- 
 
204 APPENDIX D 
 
 polated in another handwriting; as if the two in- 
 fluences affecting the hand were unconscious of each 
 other's control. On inquiring about this later it was 
 written : — " We did not see his presence and supposed 
 your counsellor had gone." This experience included 
 likewise, as shown above (indicated by the initials 
 W. D.), an example of words, not his own, but given 
 by dictation through the habitual control. 
 
 On still another occasion it was written, so faintly 
 as to be almost illegible: — "These long intervals 
 hinder our influence, or rather the development 
 of the power: touch the hand. [This was done and 
 immediately the writing became strong.] While 
 you dwell on that higher Message [see elsewhere, 
 under date of March ii, 1883, page 142], its influence 
 remains powerful. Your treasure is beyond all 
 price. See to it that the earthen vessels to whom 
 it is committed guard and cherish it with all possible 
 love and reverence. The power was taken from me 
 by one higher than myself. These simple means 
 may aid you in working the miracle of translating 
 your minds from darkness into light. They raise 
 you above the Earth and place you, though with 
 unopened eyes, in this world where even common 
 things are transfigured. ..." 
 
 After several attempts it was written, at the 
 conclusion of a new experience: — "We were obliged 
 
APPENDIX D 205 
 
 to let use the power as the only means of 
 
 obtaining a quiet transition of the force after X 
 [a new influence] had written. Now we are all 
 uniting our strength in the effort to use the waning 
 power collectively." After the hand had gone 
 through the motions of writing, with but few words 
 that were legible, it was faintly written: — "Can you 
 read it?" On replying in the negative, it was 
 written: — "Try again; touch the hand" — the writ- 
 ing then became stronger. 
 
 On still another occasion the hand went through 
 the motions of writing a whole sheet without the 
 pencil touching the paper, or only here and there, 
 and very faintly. Eventually it was written: — ■ 
 "Feeble and imperfect, we cannot guide the hand. 
 All our force, every effort, was useless. The words 
 of the Message sounded around us, but were not 
 given in a way by which we could write them for 
 you.". . . [It was necessary to meet again to 
 receive the words, when it was written:] "It is 
 quite impossible for you to join with us in receiving 
 tliese Messages from the higher spheres if you come 
 together absorbed in other interests. Your proper 
 preparation, but still more perfect passivity of mind 
 during the writing, is what enables us to impress 
 you, and renders you susceptible to the higher 
 influence. . . . All are now gathering about us, for 
 we know that the heavens will be opened to us, and 
 to you : we are all awaiting this. ' ' A pause followed, 
 during which the pencil fell from the hand. The 
 head of the one in trance was bent low, as if in rever- 
 ence, the eyes still closed in deep magnetic sleep. 
 When the hand resumed the pencil there followed 
 
2o6 APPENDIX E 
 
 the Message given ]May i6, 1885, as will be found 
 elsewhere, (page 161). 
 
 APPENDIX E 
 
 On another occasion it was written : — 
 . . . "Sorrow ceases when we enter upon the 
 true spiritual life. Prolonged existence may seem 
 to you a prolonged struggle, but this struggle with us 
 is an unconscious one ; one in which we are so taken 
 out of ourselves that we do not realise it has been 
 a struggle until we look back and mark the progress 
 that has been made. Perpetually successful effort 
 is conducive to happiness. Our wider outlook recon- 
 ciles us to much that troubles you, and even when not 
 rejoicing, we are content. ... A cloud of witnesses 
 here testify that life is the highest blessing God 
 has to give, and without those first stages of trial and 
 discipline you would never be fitted for its con- 
 summation. ... All effort on your part is a means 
 to that end ; but the happiness that is sought for, will 
 always fly before you. If this truth is not learned on 
 Earth, it takes long to acquire it here. " Is it more 
 difficult to acquire a new truth there than here? 
 "Yes, if that truth is one which should have been 
 learned on Earth, but to which the mind has been 
 wilfully closed. That you are not to make happiness 
 an end is a truth which Earth-life is intended to 
 teach. Many who even try to do right go through 
 life without acquiring it." 
 
 Subsequently it was written: — "What was 
 dear to us in the Earth-life is still rooted in our 
 
APPENDIX E i07 
 
 affections. You part with nothing that is good 
 and pure in passing into this Hfe. Of evil you will 
 be purged: a time of purging comes to all; sometimes 
 in your life, the first life, through suffering; and they 
 are happy who suffer thus on earth, for they enter 
 sooner into a fuller life here." How is it with 
 those who have led evil lives on Earth? " They are 
 helped to cast out evil. The power to cast out evil is 
 in proportion to the exercise the faculties have had in 
 your world — your training-school. As you are in 
 your character, you will be in all your uendencies 
 here, and with us they are as varying as with you. " 
 What is now your view of evil? "We recognise in 
 it the presence of a power: more than this we do 
 not know. It is not as obscure to us as to you, but 
 we have not much light on this subject, for it does 
 not personally and immediately concern us." Are 
 you not subject to external temptation? "Not 
 external, for those with me here are guarded 
 from evil. Internal temptation we may be said 
 to be subject to, for the habits we have formed 
 still cling to us; but as the atmosphere is pure, we 
 desire purity, and evil falls away from our natures 
 more easily and more rapidly than you can con- 
 ceive. " Then it is not a struggle between good 
 and evil influences? "No, it can hardly be called 
 a struggle, for almost all the influences are in one 
 direction — that of good." Does evil exist as a 
 means of discipline? " It is subject to God's Almighty 
 Power. It is in His hands an instrument for the 
 training of character; but we are distressed and 
 perplexed at its great force when brought in contact 
 with it; either in those we love on Earth, or with 
 
2o8 APPENDIX F 
 
 those here who are undergoing their purification in 
 the ante-chamber of this new Hfe. " May not evil 
 be regarded as the absence of good? "It is not 
 merely a negation, it is a positive force; allowed, if 
 not created, by God as a discipline and punish- 
 ment. " Are some with you still tempted with evil 
 desires? "They are, when evil has been willingly 
 indulged in, and the spirit has become infected with 
 it. The more evil one brings with him out of your 
 earthly life, the harder and longer is his purification 
 — although help is ever extended to him. ' ' 
 
 [These thoughts are of special interest as the 
 thoughts of one speaking from the immediate next 
 stage of life. In this connection the following was 
 dictated through the habitual control, by another 
 influence:] "He says, If you bear in mind that 
 what you do on earth is the key to your future eter- 
 nal life, you are furnished with a motive to effort 
 in that which is good stronger than any that could 
 be laid down. That is the reasonable motive. 
 The motive of the affections, or the impulse of grati- 
 tude, should be as strong, but in nature it seldom is. 
 Thus even self-interest is turned to good. He bade 
 me write these words. " 
 
 APPENDIX F 
 
 [The entrance of a little child in their midst, 
 interrupting a communication, prompted the 
 following:] "The innocence of those who come here 
 as little children saves them from all conflict with 
 the weaknesses which others bring with them. 
 This is more than a compensation for the power 
 
APPENDIX G 209 
 
 they might have attained in a successful struggle 
 for good, had they lived longer in your world. Some 
 are given a mission to fulfill which detains them here ; 
 but when this is not the case their innocence and 
 purity enable them to advance so rapidly that they 
 soon pass on to a higher life. In your world the 
 innocence which belongs only to ignorance of evil 
 might be a source of weakness to one exposed to 
 conflict with evil; but here no conflict comes to 
 these little ones; their innocence heightens all good, 
 and is a perpetual support and guide to therr. This 
 does not separate them from those who love then, 
 for they are not capable of seeing evil. One reason 
 why so many pass on quickly must seem to you a sad 
 one — the quick forgetfulness by those they have left 
 behind; especially when they have left on earth 
 but a slight trace of their Hves, so that when they 
 pass away they seem to have wholly gone. But while 
 the bond of affection is maintained they will never 
 pass beyond the reach of those who love them; they 
 will remain in this sphere till those who love them 
 come to them, yet ever holding communion with a 
 still higher life." 
 
 APPENDIX G 
 
 [A speculative question] 
 
 An expression of their view was asked concerning 
 the nature and persistency of sex. It was written in 
 reply: — "You must have learned by this intercourse 
 that although the physical body passes away, the 
 masculine and feminine principles of the soul are of 
 14 
 
210 APPENDIX G 
 
 an eternal character. With you, on Earth, God 
 has chosen to embody these principles separately in 
 man and woman ; but this is His plan for the lower 
 spheres only. To my apprehension the feminine 
 principle is the spirit, or life; while the masculine 
 principle is force, or the manifestation of spirit and 
 life. Even in your stage of life these two principles 
 have already begun to be blended, and the sphere in 
 which they will be completely harmonised and united 
 is within our conception, though we have no real 
 knowledge of it. This blending begins with you 
 in every true marriage ; first in a blending of interests 
 and work. Perhaps it does not begin there, for as 
 these two principles pervade the world there are 
 many lower stages of life where this [duality] is mani- 
 fested before it is seen in man and woman. In our 
 life we already begin to feel the change that is 
 wrought by the closer union of these two principles ; 
 and a little farther on we know that they will be 
 united in one being. No single individual is solely 
 man, or solely woman, a fusion is taking place in 
 each one; but this is only complete in the highest 
 and most perfect natures — you have already re- 
 marked this of Christ. 
 
 "But for the beginning of this union you must go 
 back to the lower stages of life. That the stronger 
 oppress the weaker is apart from the ordinance of 
 God that has separated these principles in man and 
 woman. This is a condition which must be gradu- 
 ally changed, as must all others that result from 
 human wrong." Do these conditions extend into 
 your sphere? "They do through its earlier stages; 
 principally because no established influence, or habit, 
 
APPENDIX H 211 
 
 can suddenly be shaken off. But you may see for 
 yourselves how much these conditions must be 
 affected by the dropping off of the physical body 
 with its inherited weakness. 
 
 "The connection between the physical and the 
 spiritual is in many respects clearer to your minds 
 now than it was [before this intercourse was opened]. 
 The senses are not physical, although they manifest 
 themselves through your physical bodies. We 
 experience pleasures in our life which you experi- 
 ence in connection with the senses, onl} they are 
 purified, heightened, and glorified. Those here 
 who have not begun their effort to improve and 
 advance, experience just the same sensations they 
 did when their spirits dwelt in earthly bodies. 
 
 "But there are many things which draw us 
 more closely together than the discussion of such 
 subjects of the natural life. The Messages you 
 have received belong to another sphere, where 
 such thoughts are wholly subordinated to higher 
 interests; and to that sphere you may lift your 
 minds in your calm moments. Here we meet you 
 on common ground as both partaking of the good 
 things given us." 
 
 APPENDIX H 
 
 In reply to questions asked concerning the will, it 
 was written by another influence: — " The will is 
 that spiritual part of you which passes into this life 
 unchanged; its powers are intensified here, and 
 its chosen direction deepened : against it the strong- 
 est force we can exercise is powerless. . . , 
 
212 APPENDIX I 
 
 " The force of every effort, of every obstacle over- 
 come, passes into the soul. That same force against 
 which you strive becomes your own, with which to go 
 forth in the vanquishing of evil, to be ever renewed 
 so long as the will is pure. . . , 
 
 "The first step in the training of the will is the 
 giving up of self. We are taught to do this indirectly 
 by ignoring self — to have no self-will; and more 
 directly by going out of ourselves and thinking of, 
 and for, others whom we love. . . . When we desire 
 to do the Will of God we find our power to advance 
 is limited only by our power of self-abnegation. In 
 loving others we love God more, for we see them as 
 indwelt and inspired by Him. 
 
 "The will is the being, hence in the union of the 
 human will to God you are made part of Him, actu- 
 ally partaking of His nature. Dififerent degrees of 
 holiness only imply more or less unity of the will 
 to God." 
 
 [These additional extracts from the writings will 
 suffice to indicate their varied character, especially 
 in the earlier stage of the experience; not only in 
 relation to the means, or instrumentalities, but as to 
 the quality of the thought expressed.] 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 While it was purposed to eliminate personal 
 attributions altogether from the selections given in 
 Part III, the culmination of the whole experience 
 seemed to require that some exceptions should be 
 made, as indicating the higher agencies that gradu- 
 ally led up to this culmination. Another important 
 
APPENDIX I 213 
 
 reason, for one exception at least, is indicated in 
 what follows. Some time after the reception of the 
 first Message, attributed to St. Augustine (page 128), 
 there was discovered among his published writings a 
 passage having marked points of resemblance to the 
 wording of the Message received November 5, 1882. 
 This similarity of expression naturally suggested that 
 the one serving as the means for its communication 
 may have had subconsciously lodged in the mind, 
 or memory, some latent knowledge of this earlier 
 writing. But subsequent teachings revealed the 
 fact that a spirit, even the highest, when descending 
 into earthly conditions for this outward communion, 
 necessarily reenters a state of mind that was his 
 while on Earth; using similar forms of expression, 
 and sometimes even the same tongue — as illustrated 
 in " the gift of tongues. ' ' When this was ascertained, 
 then what had given rise to questionings, tended 
 to confirm the truth of this attribution. The two 
 writings referred to are placed here side by side for 
 comparison : 
 
 THE MESSAGE FROM AUGUSTINE'S 
 
 WRITINGS 
 
 "To you who crave 
 
 for goodness as the hart ' Like as the hart 
 
 pants after the waters I desireththewaterbrooks, 
 
 come with words of love so longeth my soul after 
 
 and hope and encourage- thee, O God. . . . Blessed 
 
 jnent. ^^^ ^^®y '^^'^ have passed 
 over the great and wide 
 
 "We, by the mercy sea to the eternal shore, 
 
 and love of God, dwell in and are now blessed 
 
 the land of light, in the in their desired rest. . . . 
 
 kingdom of endless ages. How long shall I be tossed 
 
214 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Here is undying life, here 
 the peace which passeth 
 understanding, here joy 
 wanes not, here beauty 
 withers not, here love 
 grows not cold, for we 
 dwell in the smile of the 
 Face of God. 
 
 "We, too, have been 
 as you now are, tossed 
 on the waves of this 
 troublesome world. Now 
 we stand on the Eternal 
 shore and see your peril 
 as the billows of trial 
 and temptation surge 
 around you. And we 
 hold up to you the light 
 of Love and Truth to 
 guide you home. And 
 we bid you remember 
 that the day is coming, 
 when in you, as in 
 us, patience shall have 
 wrought her perfect 
 work, when hope shall be 
 lost in fruition, and when 
 you, too, shall know the 
 fullness of joy that 
 abides in the Presence of 
 God." 
 
 about on the waves of 
 this mortal life. . . . Hear 
 me, O Lord, from this 
 great and wide ocean , and 
 bring me to the everlast- 
 ing Haven. O ever- 
 lasting kingdom of end- 
 less ages, wherein rests 
 the untroubled light and 
 peace of God, which 
 passeth all understand- 
 ing, where the souls of the 
 Saints are at rest, and 
 everlasting joy is upon 
 their heads, and sorrow 
 and sighing have fled 
 away. . . . There, is in- 
 finite, unfailing joy ; 
 gladness without sor- 
 row; light without dark- 
 ness ; life without death ; 
 there the vigor of age 
 knows no decay; and 
 beauty withers not; nor 
 does love grow cold ; nor 
 joy wane away; for there 
 we look evermore upon 
 the Face of the Lord 
 God of Hosts. ... We 
 are tossed about on the 
 wild and stormy waves 
 in the dark night; and 
 Thou, standing on the 
 shore, beholdest our 
 peril. . . . Guide us 
 among the shoals and 
 quicksands which beset 
 all our course, and bring 
 us at length in safety to 
 the Haven where we 
 would be." 
 
APPENDIX I 215 
 
 It will be seen that while the form of the Message 
 is similar, the thought and purpose differ; as of one 
 who had attained and experienced what the other 
 writing aspired to and hoped for. The Messages 
 received December 28, 1884, and May 16, 1885, 
 were also attributed to this same influence. 
 
 In this connection it was asked if the names of 
 Messengers of still higher significance, as given 
 in the writings, were assumed by others speaking for 
 them, or were they themselves actually present? 
 To this the reply by the writing was: — "They 
 were themselves present; but their words were 
 inspired from a still Higher Source. ' ' The Message 
 of January 7, 1883 (page 133), was attributed to 
 "Saint Thomas, the apostle"; and that of March 
 II, 1883 (page 142) to "Saint Stephen." Of this 
 latter attribution, it was asked: How was this 
 known? It was written in reply: — "We were told 
 by those who came before, and those who followed 
 after, the Martyr." Of these higher instrumentali- 
 ties it was written: — "Their desire is to strengthen 
 us in this cause, . . . They come with a high end to 
 accomplish" (pages 135-6). These attributions are 
 omitted in Part III lest they divert attention from 
 the spiritual aim of the revelation by reference to 
 personal instrumentalities which might be deemed 
 incredible even by those prepared to receive their 
 Messages as Words of Life. 
 
 In the Message received January 7, 1883 (page 133) 
 the second sentence was addressed (as in several 
 
2i6 APPENDIX J 
 
 instances easily discerned in other Messages) to those 
 in the immediate next stage of life who were the 
 means of opening and guarding this channel of con- 
 scious communion with the higher spheres; for the 
 Messages were equally for them as for those of 
 Earth. 
 
 APPENDIX J 
 
 When asked what would be the probable effect 
 of publishing these writings, it was written: — 
 "You must judge for yourselves; for you are in the 
 conditions where your judgment would be better 
 than ours, who have passed beyond them. But 
 remember that prudence does not count for nothing. 
 . . . We also earnestly desire a wider diffusion of this 
 light in connection with our work here, and we judge 
 of its importance by the effect it has had on your 
 minds." 
 
 That these writings may find a wider field of 
 distribution than was possible through private 
 channels, they have been edited for publication in 
 this form; addressed primarily to all who profess and 
 call themselves Christians (because of their knowl- 
 edge of the Scriptures), but equally to those also 
 who may be otherwise prepared to receive them with 
 an open mind. 
 
''iiMMi^M?M».II',^°'°il'^^' Seminary Libraries 
 
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