November 17th, 1916
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Garfield.
No, I have not written you for a long time though I have kept in touch with you and many times have heard the messages which you have received and also listened to the conversations of yourself and friends regarding these messages. I also have spent much time with Riddle and with your grandmother listening to their teachings and descriptions of their experiences in the spirit world and I have become much interested in what they have related to me and in the results of their experience as manifested to me by their appearances and conditions.
Your grandmother especially has had a very deep and beneficial influence on me and my thoughts, for she is a most wonderful and wise spirit and so filled with love and powers that I necessarily have to regard what she says with feelings of belief and credence. And besides I see that she is so very different not only in her appearance but also in her knowledge and conception of spiritual things from those spirits of intelligence with whom I am most frequently in association, that I have become dissatisfied with the course that I have pursued, believing that the mind is the great thing and its development the most to be desired and acquired.
So I desire to tell you that I am now trying to follow the advice of your grandmother and these other spirits who preach the doctrine of the Divine Love and am praying and longing for the inflowing of the love into my soul. It may seem strange to you that I should have for so long a time been told to secure (?) the truth of this doctrine in view of the fact that when on earth I was a kind of preacher in my church and attempted to preach the Scriptures; but when I tell you as I have told you before that my beliefs were mostly mental and as I now found to be erroneous after coming to the spirit world. When I realized as I quickly did, that my beliefs and teachings of the Bible were not true, I then became a kind of infidel and to such an extent that I was not willing to listen to any suggestions that partook of the nature or flavor of the teachings of the Bible or to the soul and spirits and heaven and hell, etc.
And it was only after I fully realized the want of satisfaction in my mental pursuits, that I agreed to try the conversations with Riddle and other spirits of what they claimed to be as a truth of the soul development, did I give serious attention to what I saw was not connected very intimately with the mental development and changed my course of investigations and turned to a search for the truths that your grandmother told me existed in the presence of the soul. And I want to tell you that I am so very thankful that this change came to me and I was started on the road to light and truth.
I am in much better condition than when I last wrote you and in more light and happiness and have a hope which I did not then have. I thought that you might be interested in knowing this and it gives me great pleasure in telling you the fact.
Well I am surprised by what you tell me for I have never heard of or seen displayed any of that power or glory that you speak of and I know her only as a loving tender spirit but very wise. I will ask about this power that you speak of, for it must be a wonderful thing and when I realize that such power may exist it makes me realize the truth of what she tells me to a greater extent than ever.
Yes I have met him (Ingersoll) on several occasions and must confess that I was surprised at his appearance and condition but I did not inquire as to the cause of the same, but from what I now know I suppose it was the possession of this love. I will do so.
Riddle is a very bright spirit and is getting brighter and brighter all the time and his happiness seems to be without end. Well, my friend, I will not write more. So thanking you for your kindness I will say good night.
Your brother and friend,
Garfield.