April 18th, 1919
Received by:James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, John B. Johnson. Let me say just a word.
I have been with you tonight as you read the book and saw that in it you found something that agreed with your ideas of what was necessary for men to do in order to regain their conditions of pristine purity from which they fell. Well, these things are very helpful and true, and when the author said that men should exercise self-control, he stated a truth which is necessary that they may attain to a condition of purification. It will not do for men to teach and believe that they have a higher self which as soon as relieved from the burdens of the lower self, which takes place at death, is sufficient to make that man's soul fitted for the heavenly kingdom.
No, the soul is one and the self is one, and unless that self is purified by the efforts and struggles of man himself, he will never become a pure spirit and fitted to occupy the place that was his before the fall. I was interested in the book, and saw that it contained much of the truth that applies to man as the mere man. It knows nothing of the Celestial Angel or the manner in which the soul of man can become transformed into the Divine Essence of the Father, but has many suggestions, which, if followed, will lead into the way of the perfect man. This is all that I intended to say tonight.
Your friend,
John B. Johnson.