December 21st, 1917
Received by:James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, Judge Syrick.
Well, old boy, how are you tonight? I speak thus that you may know that I am feeling just as friendly as I did when on earth, and you may feel assured that I am more friendly than I was when I used to talk to you about the mysteries of the unseen. Now, of course, I know a great many things that were to us, at that time, mysterious, and know that the mysterious exists only in the minds of men, and that everything in our universe of truth and mystery is merely a convenient man made word for hiding our want of knowledge.
Well, Padgett, I am glad that I can write to you again, for it gives me much pleasure in being able to do so. Of course, I am with you very often, listening to the conversation of yourself and friends, and the reading of the messages that you receive. There are so many spirits around you, all desiring to write, that I can only at times write myself, and, as you have learned, we always give the preference to others whenever we know of their desires. This is one of the things that we learn and apply in our life here as we progress. It is not only that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, but we do unto others as we know to be for the good of these others. We try to efface self, and as we advance in our possession of the love, we find it less and less difficult to sacrifice self for the benefit of others; and the wonderful thing is that in doing this we are the happier and realize that we should not live for self alone. Well, you will commence to think that I am a preacher, and in a way I am, but what I say I know to be true, and not the result of any speculation.
I am progressing and am now in the Seventh Sphere, and if I were to attempt to tell you what this means, and could do so, you would think that I was either a storyteller surpassing the author of the Thousand and One Nights, or that your imagination was running away with your senses. But it is a fact that the beauty and wonders of this sphere are beyond my ability to describe or your ability to understand.
Rose, of course, is with me, and we are so very happy. What a wonderful thing this soulmate love is! Now I realize that the happiness which is mine compensates for all the lonesome times of my old bachelor days on earth, and as I see that your friend is a poor, lonesome bachelor, I want to tell him that when he comes to the spirit world and has his soulmate to love and cherish him, he will forget that he was ever a lonesome bachelor on earth and will regret only that he had not become a spirit long before he entered that world which so many dread to think of. Sometimes I have been present when some of his Catholic friends visited him (Eugene Morgan) and attempted to annihilate him, and although you may look upon us as sedate and pious spirits, yet we enjoyed the encounter very much, and especially when we saw that these priests were worsted and lost all the fighting blood, as you may say.
While I did not know him on earth, yet I feel that I know him very well now, and I desire to tell him that he is doing a wonderful and exceptional work, and one that is doing and has done much good among these priest-ridden people. He may not know, but it is a fact that when he enters into these controversies with the priests, that they are not the only spirits present, for many of their followers accompany them to see the enemy of their church annihilated; and they hear what may be said and see the results, and, as a consequence, many of them are caused to think and seek the help of the numerous high spirits who are always present, ready to give the help that they need; and many of these followers are, by the means mentioned, rescued from their purgatory and erroneous beliefs. I should like to write more on this subject and describe the actual scenes that accompany his encounters with these priests, if only to encourage him, but I cannot do it tonight.
Well, Christmas will soon be here, and we have the Christmas feeling, but it is not exactly as you have it on earth. We have the actual visible presence of Jesus and feel his love, and know that he was born and is now the living, loving, all-embracing Christ in his teachings and manifestations of the Father's Love. I wish you and your friend and Dr. Stone a merry Christmas, and desire to tell you that many of your spirit friends will spend the day with you and bring as presents their love and prayers and best wishes for your happiness.
Good night, old friend, and God bless you,
Syrick.