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Life Here and Hereafter by Fred Rafferty 1927

 

A SPIRIT FROM THE TIME OF CROMWELL

"We think the earth people should be made thoroughly acquainted with what is in store for them here. It is not always happiness at first, and for some it seems that unhappiness is their lot for a very long time; and all because of too firmly fixed ideas of what the future is like.

 

"We have in mind one who has been under our direct care for a time. He is now a happy and joyous soul, but it seems that he has been here for generations, and all that time he has been in a purgatory of his own making.

 

"He was an Englishman, and left the earth in the time of Cromwell. He was a religious enthusiast, and had pictured the future life in terms of hell-fire on the one hand, and ages of bliss on the other. Not finding either, he conceived the idea that he had somehow missed the way, and was condemned to everlasting solitude. Can you understand what torment this would bring?"

'But in those times, was he to blame for having such ideas?' For the moment it seemed to us a terribly unjust punishment.

"We feel that he should have been able to learn more clearly what earth justice was, and that would have made him a different sort of a man. But he was opposed to anything contrary to his beliefs, and was unjust and oppressive to all who held them. This was something he should have been able to overcome despite his heredity and environment. We know that many who lived at that time had right ideas of justice, and administered the law with love and mercy. Such cases should have been an example for this man to follow. But he held the idea that only his way would take one into the realms of bliss in the future life, and he vigorously opposed any other belief."

'Was not that Cromwell's idea?'

"Yes, and he was many years in learning the truth here. But being a man of greater intelligence and reason, he did learn the truth sooner than the other one. But after all, he only saw there the same justice and injustice that the other man saw.

 

'But for so many, heredity and environment seem to positively hedge about all their actions and ideas?'

 

"Yes, of course we were not all cast in the same mould. But we were all given the power of reason and choice. Unfortunately, too many set themselves up as judges, and fail to observe the arguments on the other side.

 

"We think these things should be given a thorough study by the earth people. If the consequences here could be fully shown, they would certainly make some of them stop and examine themselves to ascertain what road they were traveling.

 

"When we were trying to influence this man we found that he was only able to move from place to place, and to see dimly some of his surroundings. He was not able to see those who were trying to help him, and he could hear nothing. His own thoughts were all the company he had through the long centuries. We do not know just how long the time seemed to him, for of course he had no way of measuring it. But he says he can only express it by saying that it seemed endless.

 

"We were able to influence him by surrounding him with music. The continuous tones at last broke through his deafness, and set him to wondering whence they came. His attention having once been drawn to the fact that he was receiving impressions of sound, he was then led to detect other sounds, and finally made to understand that some one was trying to talk to him. After that the progress was rapid."

The Small Merchant