July 3rd, 1917
Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
Let me say just a word.
I am interested in the message that has just been written you more than you may imagine, for I am the mother of the dear boy whom Paul refers to as the preacher. (Dr Mitchell) I know that what Paul has said is true, for during the years that I have been in the spirit world, I have been with my son so very often and, as you may be surprised to know, in contradictory conditions of mind and belief, and also influence that I tried to exercise upon him.
When I lived on earth I believed as my son now believes. To me Jesus was God and saviour and the redeemer of my soul by his blood and sacrifice and vicarious atonement; and when I first entered the spirit world and for some years thereafter, I believed as I did when on earth, and, as a consequence, I visited my son in his study and in the churches as he preached, and tried to impress upon him the truth of this belief, and also endeavored to inspire him in his soul as he proclaimed these truths to his hearers. And I was comparatively happy in these beliefs, and so, as I saw, was my son; and I thought that he was doing a great work for the Master; and I often prayed for him and gave thanks to God, that I had on earth a boy who was doing so great a work for the salvation of men and the glory of the Father.
Now you may wonder that I continued in these beliefs any great while after I entered the spirit world, and infer that I must soon have realized that I was not in the arms of Jesus and singing praises around the throne of God, as our church teachers sometime assured us would be our experience when we passed to spirit life. Well, I will confess that I had that expectation, and was disappointed upon arriving in the spirit world to find no arms of Jesus to receive me, and in not going into the presence of the Father. But I loved Jesus and I loved God, and had in my soul a great deal of the Divine Love, though then I did not realize just what that love is, and, consequently, after I arrived in the spirit world I found myself in a beautiful plane of light and love, and glorious spirits having homes such as I had not conceived of on earth, even though I had thought of the many mansions that Jesus had spoken of. And I was happy, very happy, and retained my belief that at the proper time I would go to where Jesus was sitting on the right of the Father. (I believed) that there was some reason, personal to me, why I was not admitted into his presence, and that when he saw that I was fitted in my soul, I would be called to him. I continued to believe in this hope, and prayed to him and rested in the assurance that he had reconciled God to me, and that there was no doubt that at the proper time I would realize the expectations of my belief, and live with Jesus in his home forever.
Well I have not time to tell you how I was awakened from these false beliefs, and learned the truth; that while Jesus was my savior, yet he was not my God, nor did his sacrifice and vicarious sufferings reconcile the Father to me. I learned what a glorious and loving spirit Jesus is - the Prince of the Celestial Heavens and the most beloved of the Father. Yet the humblest; for he is still working among the lowly and contrite to show them the way to the Father and immortality.
I also learned the great and vital truth that only by the New Birth - the flowing of the Divine Love into the soul of a man or spirit can he become reconciled to the Father and take upon himself a part of that Father's divinity, and inhabitant of the Celestial Spheres, where Jesus is now forming the kingdom of heaven in which those only who have taken on the Divine nature can possibly live. And here let me tell my son, for I know he will rejoice in the fact, that I am an inhabitant of that Celestial Kingdom, and know that I am immortal, never to die or to lose the Divine Essence that is a part of my soul.
Well, to hurry. When this great knowledge and transformation came to me, I did not cease to be with my son as he worked for the salvation of souls, but continued with him in a greater love than I had ever before had, and endeavored to impress him and guide his mind in the truth - but oh, how different from heretofore! No more did I rejoice when he preached the sacrifice and blood, but prayed to the Father that my boy might become enlightened in the truth, and that I might be given power to cause him to realize that there was only one way to salvation, and that through the wonderful Divine Love, and not through the blood. But, alas, I could not reach his mind so that his intellectual beliefs could be changed and a mental knowledge of the truth come to him; but even this I did to some extent, for many times he has had his doubts as to some of the doctrines of his creed or church teachings not knowing that his mother was working with all her love to make these doubts the way to truth.
But these beliefs remained and are his still, and he must not feel hurt at his mother telling him that they are as fragile and of as little tensile strength as the shell of an egg. But this consolation I have, that while I could not work effectively on his mind, I did help his soul to open up to the inflowing of this Great Love, and to become the possessor of a great deal of it; and sometimes this love dominates his beliefs, and he thinks thoughts and has come to him conceptions of things spiritual that cause him to wonder as to their source.
Well, I have intruded upon you too long already but I love my boy so very much and want him to find the truth as soon as possible and thereby liberate his soul development from the bands that his intellectual beliefs fasten around it.
I am thankful for this opportunity to communicate to him and let him know, not only what his mother now knows as facts, but that his mother is with him very often, praying with and for him, and casting around him her mother's love which has been made so much sweeter and purer by that other love which she now possesses so abundantly.
I would like to write further, but I must not, and when I tell you that for a long time I have been waiting for this opportunity to tell my boy all that I have told him, you, I know, will pardon my long writing. With my love to him and the blessings of the Father, I will say good night,
his mother, Mrs. Mitchell.