December 18th, 1914.
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Prof. Salyards:
I am here to tell you of some of my experiences in spirit life and I wish that you would let me speak first of my regeneration and birth into the higher sphere where I am now living. Your mother is the chief cause of my progression as she first showed me the way to the Love of God. I was, as you may know, not a very spiritual man when on earth, but thought that man only needed a great intellect in order to enjoy the great blessings of the spirit life. I was not what might be called a great sinner as I lived a tolerably good moral life as you may know from your experiences with me while you were at school under my instructions, but I had no idea that something more than mere intellectual acquirements were needed in order to enjoy the happiness which God had provided for his children who were willing to receive all the blessings that His Love and favor had in store for them.
Well, after I ascended to the spirit life I found that my intellectual and moral qualifications did not make me very happy although I enjoyed comparative happiness in the pursuit of knowledge and the investigation of those intellectual questions that appealed to my higher desires. I soon commenced to see that I had something more to acquire than mere knowledge of spiritual laws and things that appealed to the intellect or sympathies which all who are of a practical inclination deem sufficient for self satisfaction.
I began to study these things and have advanced very much in my knowledge of them and have succeeded in writing a poem which gives me great satisfaction and makes me think that I am really a poet. But not since I have progressed to the higher sphere where love rules and intellect is a mere subordinate medium of true happiness, I find that while my acquirement in the particulars mentioned are desirable and afford much enjoyment and delight to my mind, yet my true happiness is with possession and knowledge that I have the Love of God in my soul.
So you see mere intellect or moral qualities are not the important thing for a spirit who wants to enjoy the greatest happiness to possess. Keep this in mind in your earthly life and when you come over you will find that many things will appear easy to comprehend which otherwise you may have to search for in darkness and doubt.
Be sure that your heart is in the right place and you will gain many advantages which I was not blessed with. I am now in the Third (Spirit) Sphere with your wife and father and while we are all together in a sense, yet our real condition and place depends upon the extent of God's Love which we have in our souls.
Your mother first caused me to realize that I was not spiritually enlightened by her beauty of form and countenance and the great Love that she seemed to possess, and when she commenced to tell me of the cause of her appearance and love expressing itself so abundantly, I thought that after all I might be mistaken in my ideas that my mind and acquirements were not all that was necessary to enable me to progress to higher things. And I let my thoughts take the form of direct meditation and I soon realized that she must be correct in what she said.
She was so gentle and loving in her manner and speech that I was soon convinced that while my mind was superior to hers in that I had a greater extent of knowledge and superior endowments of things purely intellectual, yet what she possessed was far more necessary to my true happiness, and I commenced to inquire what the secret of her superior appearance and lovely disposition was.
Soon she explained to me that only the Love of God existing in the soul was the true secret, and that no spirit who had not that Love could possibly realize that true happiness. So you see I am much indebted to her for my present condition. I do not believe that any soul can obtain this happiness unless he lets this Love become a part of his very existence.
My one desire now is to obtain more of it, and keep on obtaining it, so that I may rise higher and higher until I get as close to the fountainhead of God's Love as possible. I will not attempt to tell you what this happiness means, but only say that without it I should still be grasping in the earth plane, seeking mere knowledge and composing verses which you might not think worthy of even a mere versifier [person who writes poetry].
I am now engaged in trying to teach others the way to this Love, but I am not yet in a condition of faith and Love to do very much good. Your grandmother is a wonderful spirit in love and beauty and I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to enjoy her companionship and instructions. She is trying very hard to show us the way to a more perfect realization of this Love and when I think that if you had not been a dear pupil of mine I would possibly never have met her. I feel so thankful that you came to my humble school and became so very dear to me as you did.
If your mother had not known me on earth, she possibly would not have known me here and I might have yet been in my condition of contentment in the study of merely intellectual things and have remained in that condition indefinitely, but thank God I knew you and through you your dear mother.
I have met Mr. Riddle whom as you know I made the acquaintance of in life and I find that he had heretofore been in that condition of self contentment that I had, before your mother showed me the way to my present home, and he is now commencing to see that there is something more than mere intellectual pursuit necessary to his progress too - that which will make him truly happy. He seems to be thinking of what you told him a few nights ago and has told me that you first caused him to think that there was something more in this spirit life than mere study of laws of spiritual communications in which he has been engaged. He seems to think that you have a correct idea of what is necessary to his salvation and he is praying as you advised him and is listening to your mother's teachings and Love of God which she tells him he must let come into his heart before he can come into perfect peace.
He is still thinking thoughts that he is a good man morally and that he does not need any help from God or Jesus, but this belief is narrowing and I believe that ere long he will realize that he is all wrong and must accept the plan which your mother tells him is the only one that can bring him in perfect accord with God's Love and make him a new man. I also try to tell him of the truth of this plan and he listens to me with considerable interest and I hope that very soon he will see that we are right and that he must accept it or be left to his present state of unrest and yearning after things that will never come to him.
So you see I am now in my home of peace and love and true happiness. Let me tell you of what I saw when your father left us to go to his home with your wife. He was so uncertain as to whether he really needed the Love of God more abundantly in his soul that he asked your mother if he could not have that Love and still try to have his earthly desires for things that he loved so on earth, such as dancing and smoking and other things of this nature and if it was absolutely necessary to let his thoughts turn from these things in order to progress.
She told him that it was necessary, as nothing which tended to keep his mind on earth or attract him to that life could possibly exist when his soul should be filled with the Love of the Father. He said that it was hard to give up these things as he enjoyed them so much and was only getting ready to have a good time when she told him that he was not to think of them any more, but to turn his thoughts to more spiritual things and pray to God to fill his soul with Love and longings for these higher things.
I feel that if she had not thus entreated him that he might still be in the earth plane and while very happy as he had some of God's Love in his heart yet not to the extent that made him feel that he had been Born Again.
Your mother is my own dear friend and I love her so much for what she had done for me. And your father is now with your wife in this sphere and is as happy as he can possibly be, until he gets more of this Love in his soul, but you must not think that he is as beautiful a spirit as your wife for he is not and neither am I. She is so earnest in her love and is making such efforts to progress that she will soon leave us as I believe for the sphere where your mother is and when she goes we will miss her so very much as she is so happy and cheerful and full of music and everything that makes our life happy that while we have our own soul's love and happiness yet we will miss her very much. She is now trying to tell you of her great love for you which is of such a deep nature that we all wonder at times because of its intensity. So you see what a very favored man you are to have such a soulmate as she.
My home is in the same sphere with her but not in the same place. Hers is more beautiful than mine, but she comes to me at times and I visit her. My soulmate and I have not yet met though I believe that she is in a higher sphere than mine. She has not yet come to me, why I know not, but am waiting for her to come to me and then I will be more happy than ever.
Soulmates do not meet each other always when we first come into the spirit world. I know this for I have met many spirits who have been here a long time and yet have never yet seen their soulmates. This seems to be the result of something done while on earth, but I do not understand it. I am hoping to soon see mine.
I have heard something to that effect, but I have never been able to find mine. Your wife may be right, but if so she has never told me the way. I will ask her, if she knows, for I want to know if possible.
I will write you some of my poems sometimes when we have more time and will also tell you the result of investigation of the spirit life, but not tonight as I am tired and so are you. I can write you a couplet but do not think it best to do so now as I do not wish to give you a part of the poem and so remove it from its place that you may not fully appreciate the whole. I will try.
If you do not love me as I have told you, I cannot write in a very successful way so that you must first learn to love me more before I attempt to write the poem. I know that you may reason that way, but what I say is true. My poem is one of Love to God and love to man and unless you love I cannot write it.
I cannot explain more fully now. So only trust me and I will show you in the near future that I am right.
Yes I am really Prof. Salyards who is writing and you must believe me or I will feel hurt. Yes, that is it, you seem to know, just what is waiting, so I must close for this time.
Your old professor and friend,
Joseph Salyards