March 30th, 1915.
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, your old partner:
I am very happy and have progressed very much since I last wrote you, and have increased in my faith and knowledge of God and his love, I am very near the fifth sphere, and I hope to soon go there and be with your father and Prof. Salyards, who have been there for quite a while, and who are so very happy and filled with the Father's Love.
Well, I received the female spirit that you sent me last night, and I tried very hard to show her the way to redemption and freedom from her sufferings. She has such little soul development that it was a difficult undertaking to reach what little soul she has; but I struggled with her with all my powers of arguments, and also with all the influences of my love which I now possess, and at last she commenced to see the light, and promised me to pray to the Father, and try to believe in His Divine Love as standing ready to be bestowed on her and save her from her most unhappy condition. She was one of the most unloving and most unlovable spirits that I have ever met, and was literally starved in her soul. No love for anyone not even for herself, and in her strict ideas of what was right and wrong; she had sacrificed every sympathy and feeling of love to the building up of the intellect. So I had an uphill task from the beginning.
She said that you told her that she must come to me with an open mind and a will free from all prejudice and then I could help her. Well, she tried to assume that position, but it was difficult for her to do so. She is a very strong minded woman, and, consequently, she was not easily convinced of those things which did not appeal to her mind. She thought that the mind is the whole of spirit, as some earth people teach; but when I told her that spirit and mind are both only a part of the soul, and the mind the lesser part, she seemed astonished and couldn't accept the assertion as true. She has no soul, that is, it is all dried up and dead for want of exercise. She has now some little awakening, and if she persists in prayer and faith she will finally become convinced that soul is what brings happiness and joy, and saves her from her torment. So I will continue to help her if she will permit me to, and she now seems disposed to do so.
Well, you have had a great many communications since last I wrote you, and some of them were very wonderful in the information they conveyed.
The Master is so much interested in your welfare that he visits you very often, and you must not let your heart doubt that he comes to you, because he seems so brotherly and familiar. It is he, and his love for you is very great. I know this for he sometimes tells me of his great love and interest in you. He has told you of certain things that will come to you in the future, and I say to you, that you must believe him for they will come true. He knows better than anyone what the future will bring, even though he may decline to acknowledge this great power, only trust him and you will not be disappointed.
I am now preparing a discourse on a subject that I desire to write you in a little while for your consideration, and I hope information. I will let you know beforehand so that you may prepare yourself to receive it. Well, I will not write more tonight.
Well, I think that Garfield is too much given to the things purely intellectual to accept our teachings of the New Birth, but I think that sooner or later he will think of it, and when he does he will not rest until he has found the truth of the matter. Yes, he told me of his interview with your grandmother, and said that she had put to him some wonderful propositions which he could not exactly understand, but which he has been considering very earnestly. He thinks that your grandmother is a very superior spirit in her knowledge of spiritual things, and in her beauty and goodness; and he said there must be something in what she told him to account for her great beauty and power. She showed him such powers of soul and mind that he was astonished and could only keep silent while she talked, and listened to what she said. He was impressed by her and I think, after a little while, he will visit her again and seek for further information. I want to say that she is a wonderful spirit in all things that pertain to the bigger things of spirit life.
Yes, I saw him (Syrick) and said a few words to him in the way of encouragement, but he is not in a very good spiritual condition; but he has the advantage of having had his eyes opened to the fact that there is such a thing as spiritual development while on earth. He is only fairly happy, and as the new sensation of a new life wears off, I think he will commence to suffer because of the errors of his earth life. His soulmate is with him a great deal and is helping him and so is your wife. She is a wonderful spirit and seems so full of the Divine Love and goodness that her influence among spirits is marvelous. I tell you Padgett, that you are a fortunate man in having such a soulmate.
Well I must stop.
So goodnight.
Your old partner and brother.
A. G. Riddle