December 13th, 1916
Received: by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here, Samuel.
No, I have not written for a long time, although I have been with you quite often and seen the other spirits write, and heard the conversation of yourself and friends on many occasions as you discussed the truth of things spiritual, and commented on the messages that you received on the sermons of the preachers who attempted to explain what they called the Bible truths. Tonight I desire to say a few words on the subject: "What causes the souls of men the unrest that now exists in the mortal world?"
This is a subject, I know, that of late has been widely discussed, and many causes given and tried to be explained as the basis for such conditions of men, individually, and as comprising nations. I realize that it is a large and comprehensive question, and to discuss it in all its features would require much more time than we have to devote to it tonight, and hence I will call attention to only a few of these causes.
In the first place man is so created, or rather he has brought himself into such a condition, that self love or selfishness - and I mean the purely human selfishness and not that of the higher and proper kind - has become the mainspring or active principle of all his motives for doing or not doing a thing or things, and in so acting the rights of others are considered only in a secondary or subordinate sense. If the recognition of these rights does not involve any sacrifice of what he considers is for his own advantage, then these rights may be recognized and admitted and permitted to be carried into actual enjoyment; but if there be any conflict between his conception of what he is entitled to and the actual rights of his brother or friend or stranger, he will see only the justice of his own rights and his consequent action will be based on that conception; and having this motive of selfishness predominant and controlling in his actions, it seldom occurs that the rights of these others are fairly recognized, and consequently, there arises injustice and harm; and the desire of conferring those things which would naturally arise from the conception of the rights of these brothers is ignored.
Your brother in Christ,
Samuel.