July 22nd, 1915
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, too - Hugh Taggart:
As Mackey said, I am grateful for what you have done for me, and the great light that has come to me by reason of your advice, and the teachings and help of your band, and especially the deep sympathy and sisterly love of that beautiful wife of yours. Why, Padgett, I want to tell you that the most fortunate things of my whole existence were my acquaintance with you and the wonderful results that flowed from it. I sometimes wonder how all of this could have come about.
When on earth, while I knew that you believed in spiritualism, yet I never realized what your belief and experience meant to you, and what a great help it would be to me, when the time came for me to become a spirit.
I will never forget our first argument after I became a spirit on this great question of how I might be rescued from my awful condition of suffering and darkness, and with what earnestness you maintained the position that you took and tried to show me that there was a way by which I could get light and happiness and relief from my torments. Mackey and I often talk about it, and we wonder that you could have had such knowledge of these spiritual matters and such faith to maintain the truth of their existence. But you were right and your faith was not misplaced.
Old friend, I thank you again, and God bless you! I am now in a condition of light and suffer very little and realize to a great extent that there is such a thing as the Love of the Father, and that it may be mine.
I pray and my faith is becoming stronger all the time. The great proof to me, aside from what I see in the condition of other spirits who claim to have this love, is my own change in soul happiness and in desire to progress to the higher spheres, which your band tells me exists, and that I may find my home there if I will only pray more to the Father and let my faith enlarge.
To me this Love and faith is a new revelation. Of course, when on earth I heard of God's Love and of faith, but to me they meant nothing more than the rhapsodies of the enthusiastic religionists, whose emotions had overcome their normal reasoning powers - a will o' the wisp - as it were.
But now I know the reality of these things and I find that the emotions are in things pertaining to the soul more certain leaders than are the reasoning faculties. I am quite happy at times, and I hope to make such progress in my soul development as to be happy all the time.
You are my true friend and I love you as a brother now.
Well, they are still in darkness, but have progressed some little. The great disappointment which Harvey experienced when he came over seems to have such a baleful influence on him, that it is almost impossible at this time for him to reach out and try to grasp the truth of the existence of this Love. But we are trying to help him, and he is commencing to wonder at our improved appearance and to think that maybe we know what we tell him to be the cause of the change.
Mac is still in darkness, and it seems hard for him to awaken to the fact that there can be any other condition that he may have. He is very hard to reason with, and does not seem to have much desire to have his condition change. Well, I will not write more tonight.
I saw some spirits writing to you but did not know them, except Jesus. I know him and I could never forget him for there are none like him in grandeur and beauty and love.
So my dear friend, let me again express my gratitude and say with all my heart, that I am
Your grateful,
Hugh T. Taggart