March 4th, 1915
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, Jesus. I want to write tonight on the love of man. This love is one that is not understood by humanity in its most important particular. I mean that this love is not one that is sufficient to give man the highest degree of happiness which he may obtain in either the mortal life or in the life to come.
This love is of a nature that changes with the change in the ideas and desires of man, and has no stability that will serve to keep him constant in his affections. No man who has only this love can ever be in condition to say that he will continue to have this love for a longer time than the present; and when he thinks that his love can never change, or leave him, he is only giving wish to the thought.
But this love is one that may last for a long time, and sometimes it seems that it can never die or grow less; yet, in it's very nature, it has not that constancy which ensures its lasting longer than a moment of time.
I do not mean to say anything disparaging of this natural love, for it is undoubtedly the greatest gift that the Father has bestowed upon mankind, and without it, men would be in a very unhappy condition. Yet, it is not the Great Love of the Father which all men may receive, if they will only seek and strive to obtain it by prayer and faith.
This natural love is that which unites men and women in unity while on earth, and enables them to approach nearer to a life of happiness than does any other human quality; but still it has the danger always accompanying it, that some time, in some way, it may cease to exist.
The mother's love is the strongest of all loves given to mortals, and apparently it can never end or grow old, yet a time may come when even that love will die or cease to retain all its vitality or beauty. I know it is said that love never dies; but that is not true as regards this natural love; and no man can say that his love of today will remain his love of a few years hence.
Yet, there is a love that may be called the natural love that will last forever, providing these souls seek and obtain the Divine Love, and that is the love that God has implanted in two souls that he has designed to become one in spirit life. This love is in reality not the love of two souls, but one and the same love manifested in the two opposite sexes, and which is only a complete one when these two apparently independent souls come together in perfect unity. This is what is commonly called the love of soulmates, and which is that essence of spiritual love which makes the happiness of the two spirits or mortals seemingly complete. Yet this love is not of a Divine nature, but merely the highest type of the natural love. (But still not God's Divine Essence.) So, when men speak of the love of one mortal for his fellow man, it means merely the love which his human nature is capable of having and giving to another mortal.
I do not wish to be understood as in any way implying that this love is not a great boon and blessing to mankind, for it is, and without it, there would not be the harmony that exists on earth even to its present extent; when hatred and anger seems to have taken its place in the hearts of many men who are now striving to kill and destroy.(World War I) But this is only for a season; the war will cease and then men will realize, more than for a long time that only their love for one another can make the earth a happy and desirable place to live on.
Love, I know it is said, is the fulfilling of the law, but no man can thoroughly understand this until he knows what love is. I do not mean that in order to fulfill every law man must have the Divine Love of the Father, because there are laws that govern the Divine existence, and laws that govern the human and merely spiritual existence; and the Love of the Divine is the fulfillment of the former laws, and the natural love is the fulfillment of the latter laws. So you must see that only as men have the Love of the Divine can they fulfill the laws of the Divine existence; and so, as they have the natural love only, can they fulfill the natural laws.
But this natural love will not suffice to make them at-one with the Father, as I have before written; and the utmost of its powers and functions is to give them that happiness which they will receive in living the life of a spirit or man unredeemed.
I will not say that man should not cultivate this love for his fellow man to the greatest possible degree, for he should; and if that should be the only kind of love that he may have, either on earth or in the spirit world, the more of it that he possesses the happier will he be, and the greater will be the happiness of his fellow man and fellow spirit.
So when I said, while on earth, that men should love their God and love their fellow men as themselves, I meant that they should do so with all the possibilities of whatever love they might possess. Yet, if men would only learn, as they can, that there is no necessity for them to have only the natural love, but that they can all seek the Greater Love, and obtain the correspondingly greater happiness, and immortality. Men do not realize this, though, and seem to be satisfied with this natural love and the pleasures that ensue from its possession.
I would not have them do anything that would lessen this love or shut their hearts to its influence, when it is pure and good; but yet, I cannot help trying to impress upon them the great desirability of having this higher Love in their souls. I am a lover of all men, and I want them to feel the happiness of the inflowing of the Divine Love, and thereby learn what the Love of God means, and what they may have if they will only seek.
This love of the purely natural will not suffice for the temptations that beset men on earth; and, also, will not insure against temptations when they become spirits. I know this, and hence I say it with the positiveness of one who knows - you may say, with authority.
As you are tired I must stop. With all my blessings and love, I am,
Your brother in spirit, Jesus.