Ritual and ceremonial and creed have so filled the thoughts of your churchmen that they have set aside the idea of spirit that underlies them. The first mark of a fading faith is that lack of spirituality which leads men to give up the unseen world, and to busy themselves with the useless husks that surround it. When men are cumbered with dogmas and creeds of human invention, and leave out of view the spiritual truths that underlie them, it is clear their faith is on the wane.

 

That which is placed before men at the present time is the acceptance or rejection of a spiritual revelation. Some will accept, some reject it.

 

Truth has hitherto centred itself in a single representative, but hereafter it will not be so. It will not run in one groove and so become cramped and confined, but it will be given through many mediums, purged of all that is individual, permeating the world and animating recipient souls. The times of exclusiveness are over; the times of open vision have arrived, when democracy rather than aristocracy shall be the leading principle. Divine Truth has ever had what man calls a lowly origin. Self dominates less; vanity and pride holding less sway.

 

When Peter said: ‘Silver and gold have I none,’ he pointed to a higher truth which has been lost sight of; for your greatest Church has been at pains to acquire a monetary position which the Apostle so eagerly disclaimed. Spiritual influences have gone from it, and material influence acquired.”

 

Ascension Day, 1875. Imperator controlling:

 

“It will not have escaped you that we are assembled on one of those days of which we have spoken to you on former occasions. The celebration of this festival typifies the ascended Son of man. The great mass of those amongst you who have considered religious questions, have agreed to believe that Christ was on this day transplanted to Heaven; although one of your own teachers has said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The phenomena which are now going on in various parts of the world will throw a flood of light on this point; they will show you that One so high as the Lord Jesus could prove Himself with a temporary enshrinement of matter. The life of Christ was abnormal, like that of all who enjoy intercourse with the world of spirits. Their lives are less known than His, and no halo has been thrown around them, but you must not therefore doubt that there are some here and there who can hold communion with the spirit-world.

 

The Lord Jesus was not, as your Church asserts, a God-man, separate from humanity, who died a miraculous death, and lived a still more miraculous life after death. It is true that He died and that He appeared among His own friends; but not in the body in which He had lived amongst them. It is also true that, as on this day, with a tender farewell to those who had loved Him, He vanished out of their sight, and His spirit returned to the realms from which it had come.

 

You are now troubled and perplexed about materialisation, but here you have an instance of it. Christ’s body after his cruel death was a materialised spirit body, and He appeared only to His own friends when perfect conditions could be secured. You must remember that in your atmosphere there exist the essences from which all material objects on your earth are formed, and the spiritual body can accrete to itself atoms which make a covering for it. The substance which is thus formed, when moulded under spirit power, can produce an impression on your senses and also on the sensitive plate, and it is held around the spirit body by a process which is magnetic. We do not use scientific terms, but we hope you will understand our meaning. One force (vital, if you like to call it so) unites you all at this moment and produces a connection, and, as it were, a harmony between you. Above you is a centre from which this force is spread, and where it is engendered. Within the circle thus formed manifestations occur; without it you have none. You can aid the generation of this force in various ways, as, for example, by rubbing your hands, by singing, etc.; and so we make musical sounds and breezes, and bring perfumes which produce a pleasant atmosphere and help to spread the force, for nothing is done without object.

 

The twelve apostles were all mediums, and were specially chosen on account of their mediumship, which was developed by association with their Head. Peter, James and John were most in sympathy with Him. In the same way Moses was commanded to choose seventy elders who were gifted with mediumistic power.

 

Christ was sent into the world to inaugurate a new spiritual epoch, and He was chiefly influenced by a high spirit never incarnated. The Divine Spirit never acts immediately through mediums. You can no more communicate directly with Him than you can communicate with the blades of grass around you.

 

It is to us a most remarkable fact that you should have so mistaken the office and work and ministry of the Christ, though we can discern some benefits which may flow from this. The minds of men cannot discriminate between Truth in the abstract and Truth in such portions as they are able to receive it. Truth is spiritual food, and must be suited to the mind and assimilated to its condition, just as food must be to the body. You must never forget that the mind of man is governed by the conditions of his incarnation, and that, until his spiritual faculties are more opened, he can only accept a certain amount of Truth.

 

The return of the Christ is a spiritual fact, but a material age has come to regard it as a material fact, and to imagine that His physical body, having been transported into a material place called Heaven, will hereafter return in a material form to judge the quick and the dead.

 

The festival which we would have you celebrate to-day is that of the glorious ascension of His pure and spiritual body; a type of the severance of the spirits of men from the material conditions which now surround them and prevent the rays of Divine Truth from illumining their souls.”

 

(Asked of Christ’s early years, Imperator said: )

 

“His early life was, throughout, a period of preparation. The record of the temptation is legendary, like many other records in you Bible.

 

By following out the peculiarities of the strange record which is received as the voice of God, you will find many discrepancies throughout all its parts. Thus you are told that a legendary devil took Christ into the wilderness, reduced Him by fasting, and then offered Him the world of which He was master. Such fables as these have been as millstones round the neck of progressive souls, and this fetter has bound men in all ages. They are false fables and imaginings which keep souls back from progress up to the Light. They must be blotted out from the book to which man looks for his enlightenment, before real progress can be made. Your Bible contains within it many gems of truth; but, if man is to benefit from it, he must learn discrimination.

 

The Lord Jesus was controlled and animated by spirits who had never been incarnated. His influence permeates your world now, and all spiritual light comes from Him, reaching you through innumerable links connected in one vast chain of influence. It is rare for any high spirit to control directly as we are controlling now. In such cases the medium’s spirit must be considerably developed, and such mediums are rare. The control can be conveyed through a number of links; but when the medium is mentally undeveloped the higher spirits will not endeavour to influence him. It is not possible for a spirit, as far progressed as the Christ, to directly control mediums on this earth. He was the immediate expression of a separate spiritual phase of the Divine Will. He has left no successor, nor will any ever spring from Him. His influence is entirely devoted to the enlightenment of your globe, for to each globe is assigned its own source of spiritual light.”

 

“In the case of the Christ, the general conception is that by a fiat of the Almighty there was born in a district of your world one who was an embodiment of the Almighty Himself, for the salvation of your race; which salvation was consummated by the summary execution of the vehicle of the Almighty! A crude idea indeed! Nevertheless, the conception of the vicarious atonement is based on an essential truth; for what has been termed the Christian principle is the true salvation of everyone, and, in proportion as a man evokes his spiritual nature, he is guided and elevated by influences from without. In the Man Christ Jesus the spiritual principle was most fully evoked, and fitly was He called the ‘Son of God’ in the language of Eastern hyperbole. The Son of God He was in the sense of being the most godlike of any who have walked this earth.

 

As in the case of the Buddha, the idea of Christ’s divinity did not arise till many years after His death. The prophet was exalted at the expense of the message which He delivered. He never claimed any such position as His followers have assigned to Him. He was the mediator between God and man in the truest sense for He was able to make manifest God’s Truth to the age in which He lived, and, through it, to succeeding ages.

 

Throughout His whole life He was in direct antagonism to the prevailing spirit of the age, and He met the fate all such must meet with; first maligned, then falsely accused, falsely condemned, and finally executed.

 

Legends you can put aside, but the beneficent life of Jesus, and the Gospel that He preached you must not put aside. The principle which underlay His teaching were Fatherhood of God, involving His worship; the brotherhood of man, involving the relations between man and man, the bonds which go to make up society; the law of worship and the law of self-sacrifice; namely, doing to others as you would they should do to you.”

Questioned if it is right to pray to Jesus Christ:

 

“It is quite right to pray to Him unless you can realise God the Father, the Eternal Spirit, dwelling in unsullied light. If you can do this, then pray direct to Him; but, if unable to grasp this idea of God, then pray to any intermediary agency you can realise, and your prayers will ascend to the Great Father through such agency.”

 

“We wish to urge upon you the fact that Spiritualism is a system of religious teaching, and we wonder much at those who argue against this. Others regard Spiritualism merely as a system of communication with their own friends who have passed to the other life; here, often, deceptive spirits come in to lead people astray by false communications.

 

One of the cardinal facts underlying your life is religion, by which we mean the intercourse of your spirits with the Great Father of spirits, through the innumerable ranks of spiritual beings which extend upwards and upwards to Him. When you pray, you must believe the ministering spirits receive your prayers and answer them according to their own discretion. The very inception of spiritual communion is a veritable act of religious worship. The pursuit of Spiritualism is not safe or likely to be followed with advantage if this truth is not accepted. Many have missed this central point, and thus the internal cravings of their nature have not been satisfied; for some form of religion is necessary to every child of man. If they fail to grasp the religious aspect of the subject, they say that this or that phenomenon is curious but unsatisfactory. Thus, those who might have derived from us the greatest comfort have turned aside and said that Spiritualism is illusory or deceptive, that Spiritualists are dealing with powers that are low and diabolic. So they pass on, reject the truth of God, and pin their faith to the inventions of man.

 

The voice of the Supreme is speaking to man, and there are many intermediary agencies between Him and you. In your day the spiritual food which has sufficed for nearly two thousand years has ceased to satisfy, and a new influx of spiritual power is coming. Spiritualism is, in very deed, the message of the Supreme to an age that sorely needs it, and a message that is in its essence religious in its effects and all its bearings.

It is a message to teach man that he not only eats and drinks, sleeps and dies, but that he has within him that which will not die; to teach him that, as he sows here, so will he garner hereafter. Hence it is that we speak of Spiritualism as the one regenerating influence in your world. You live in the inception of a great movement. The progress of it will be what you call republican, and the leadership spiritual. Jesus Christ was the head of a sect which, if it arose in your day, you would regard as composed of mere fanatical enthusiasts. The disciples believed in a temporal power, hence many inconsistencies. Man must prepare himself for spiritual light, for God never illumines a darkened soul.

 

Our work is an organised missionary effort to disseminate Truth, without which the spiritual life of your world would die. Of religion there is but little amongst you, and what little there is has, in most cases, lost its power to influence life and action. The vitality has gone, and the appearance alone remains. As it was in the time of the Christ, so now. Men are anxiously looking for something that is to come.

The whole fabric of society is honeycombed, and there are mines which may explode at any moment. What you call communism or socialism is an evil, the full potency of which none of your statesmen at present realise. In this very city it may suddenly show itself, and ruin your whole social system. It is responsible for all the discontent which in the near future will vex the legislators of your country. This your world, in its social and religious aspects, has come to its last gasp, and needs some new power to give it vitality. We regard what you call Spiritualism as the only possible antidote to this festering mass of corruption, the only means of purifying your world. We tell you plainly that your age is hollow, flashy and unreal. As the blessed air of Heaven keeps natural things pure, so the spiritual air from our world purifies and invigorates your spiritual life. Religion of some kind is needed by all. The Cause in which we and you are interested has made very large progress. It is in the development of pure spiritual Truth, in the growth of toleration, and the breaking down of hard and fast barriers, in the spread of the Christ-spirit, instead of that of theology, that progress has been made.

While you have been puzzled and dismayed by the deceptions and fraud which are rife in public manifestations, the foundations remain unshaken, and the foul air will be blown away, leaving the spiritual atmosphere cleansed and purified. Your age is an enquiring one, and is a period for sowing the seeds of Divine Truth.

 

Long ago we told you that attacks would be made on the existing embodiments of order in each country; Spain, Germany, Italy and still more in Russia. This has been the case, and a still more terrible manifestation of discord is to come. (Socialism, communism, atheism, nihilism–different names for the same insidious malady–are on the increase in your world.) Possibly these forces may be used for good when they have spent their powers; but at present they are wielded by the adversaries who animate the principles of disorder, in order to oppose our work.

 

Look at all great leaders, and you will find they have been men possessed with a burning sense of some wrong against which they contend; or with an earnest desire for some reform, for which they were ever ready to fight. There must be an end in view to make a man strenuous and earnest in opposing evil or contending for good. But in the case of men with strong views and strong character, the danger is that they may work only for their own ends, and so become selfish. Selfishness is the one great centre of spiritual disease. He who contends for himself becomes selfish, while he who contends for Truth becomes one of a vast brotherhood.”

 

(An Egyptian spirit controlling: )

 

“The Spirit-world looks with awe on the near future. War is probable, and everything tends to a great European convulsion. Wars will cease when man is perfect, but that can never be while he is incarnated.”

 

“Times of trouble are now at hand. Whenever Truth is manifested, the adversaries range themselves against it. Those who sigh for peace will have reason to sigh, but those who see in the contest between the true and the false the method of striking out the sparks of Divine Truth will not be without good reason for rejoicing. Meanwhile, you must look for wars and convulsions, for turmoil and distress, and for much that those who consider the Second Advent to be Christ’s return to earth have led you to expect. You live in the last days of this era which is called Christian. Christ is now returning in spirit and in power, bringing the new revelation which should enfranchise the souls of men. What the medium regards with dread as infidelity and unbelief is only the fallow land in which good seed may be sown. The mind choked with the tares of old superstitious beliefs is far worse than that which is free from all prejudices. Fear not because so many of your prominent men are destitute of what you call religion. A clear receptivity must exist before new truth can be borne into it.”

 

“In the life of the Christ you will find prophetic utterances which apply to the city in which you dwell, as well as to that over which He wept. He saw not only His own times, bur also those in which you are living. His wail over the Jerusalem He loved might be poured forth over those amongst whom your lot is cast. Money is taking the place of God; and in the luxury and idleness that prevail among you are to be found the elements of dissolution. Across the face of your country is now written ‘Ruin.’

 

Prepare, then, for the final struggle; it will be between good and evil, between faith and agnosticism, between law and order on the one hand and lawlessness on the other. It will be a time of grievous trouble, such as the Christ foretold. Then will the work be attributed to blind force or diabolic agency. Then will be seen among you the ‘sin against the Holy Ghost.’ Blessed are they who remain steadfast, for many will fall away; and for those who have seen the light and have then denied it is no salvation, either in this world or in the world to come.”

 

“Now is being fulfilled the prophecy of Christ’s return, as He said: ‘The Comforter shall come.’ That is the permeating influence of His own Spirit, and thus His return is being actually accomplished amongst you. Those who have reached the spheres of blessedness are now operating in your midst. The first effect of this will be increased discord, more active opposition of the adversaries, and a great shaking of the powers now established among you. The outpouring of the Spirit will produce pronounced antagonism and that violent display of bigotry and intolerance which always attends the advent of new Truth. We stand in the midst of two armies of adversaries; those powers of evil which love darkness rather than light, and those incarnated amongst you who regard all that is progressive as something to be shunned. We almost despair of bringing home to men any knowledge of the way in which affairs in your world are governed by spirits. You have no conception of it, as it does not appeal to your senses, and its workings are not visible.”

 

“We have sought to direct your attention to Divine Truth and to the fact of the intercommunion between spirit and matter, rather than to questions of merely personal interest; not that we would undervalue the strong conviction that is often produced by the return of friends. The mental bias of friends gives colour to communications, and they become affectionate rather than precise, effusive rather than true. Thus we have endeavoured to put evidence before you which rests on catholic rather than personal grounds. The experience of the individual may seem slight and unimportant, but the progress of Divine Truth has been great. There are many who have come out of the material Church, and have become recipients of spiritual knowledge. These have found a newer and a truer Church, which receives inspiration from the Supreme, and is brooded over by the Divine Spirit. From such as these shall be built up hereafter the true Church, which shall receive the ministry and a divine revelation.

The rising generation is being acted upon in a way of which you know but little; centres of spiritual influence are being formed on your earth. On the other hand, the destitution of the human spirit and the powers of the adversaries are sources of constant trouble to us. They are spirits who have developed an antagonism to the progress of all that is good amongst men. The days are coming when there shall be such an outpouring of the Divine Spirit as shall reach to the uttermost corners of the earth, driving the adversaries into open revolt, and bringing home to receptive souls the message of truth for which they are longing.

 

The prayer which earnest souls should raise should be for the abundant outpouring of the Divine Spirit, and for the gathering together of faithful souls united in the cause of Truth. Keep your eyes fixed on the future, and do not despair. Greater is He that is with you than all that are against you.”

 

Questioned as to testing spirits by asking if they worshipped the Lord Jesus:

 

“No profession of faith can guarantee the truth of any statement. Creeds are dissipated to the winds when the spirit soars above the earth. Many spirits, with the best intentions, communicate the most erroneous doctrines as they have not lost the theological fog gathered during earth-lives. Those of whom you speak may be unknowingly the agents of the adversaries, who seek to perpetuate doctrines which we fight against with determined energy. We have descended to your world for nothing else than to reveal Truth to man.”

 

“If a spirit ennobles you and leads you to a higher plane of intellectual, moral, or spiritual development, or elevates your affections, then follow it; but, if it drags you down and leads you to that which is earthly, then flee such, for they are of the adversaries, who would burlesque spirit intercourse, and bring it into contempt and derision.”

 

Asked about eternal punishment:

 

“To ground on texts the doctrine of everlasting punishment is blasphemous and terrible; they are perverted and distorted statements which more or less reflect a modicum of truth. You have in your world the evil and the good. To say that any soul leaves your world fit, either by vicarious atonement or by personal holiness, for the society of the blessed and the Supreme, or fit for the fabled devil and accursed ones, is mere human invention. You cannot roughly divide souls into bad and good, as each soul is in a state of progression, and is not fitted for either of these conditions. The great God does not gather round Himself spirits dragged up from the lower plane of progression (on which you now live), redeemed by the outpouring blood of His Son; nor does He hurl down into hell spirits whose worst faults have often arisen through unfortunate associations. The man who leaves your world was born into it under conditions of which you know nothing, the victim of vices over which, most frequently, he had no control. Some spirits leave your world of whom we say they progress with excellence and rapidity; but they would tell you that the idea of immediate association with the Deity is the mere romance of a human mind. There is, indeed, a hell in the remorse for what has been lost. Material fire could have no effect save on your material bodies.”

“Spirit is in itself eternal. We will speak of it first before it reaches your earth. It had a prior existence in the spheres which underlie, surround and control your world. All spirit finds its home in space till it takes upon it a body of flesh. Spirit is developed through various processes up to the time of incarnation. It becomes a microcosm, a representative of that divinity of which it enshrines a spark, and thus it becomes powerful over matter. One of the properties of matter is inertia. It can do nothing. It is governed and animated by spirit, which spirit is individualised when incarnated. Round your world, then, is a spiritual sphere, from which all spirit comes, and to which it returns. There are also the spheres of work and the spheres of contemplation. They are states, not places. The seven spheres of work are around your earth, and through them each incarnated spirit passes. The atmosphere of spirit that surrounds your world is the spiritual world. You dwell in it, although you know it not. It is similar to your world, only more beautiful and sublimated.

 

Spirit, in order to manifest, must be substantial and have a form, though spiritual. In the spirit-world there are the same gradations of substance that you have, such as vegetable, mineral and animal. Thus the change from your world to ours is only a change of condition. A man born blind cannot understand what light is; yet, if he gains sight, he has only changed his state, not his place. So, when you have thrown off your material body, you will not have changed your place, only your state.”

 

Imperator described the earth as the seventh sphere, with six below it, seven above (spheres of work and probation: progressive spheres) and seven beyond (spheres of contemplation).

 

“If we are to teach the minds of men, it must be by slow degrees. Had we told you at first of the elementary spirits you would one and all have refused to deal with us. Had we told you of the difficulty of getting true communications, and that your religious faith was entirely wrong as regards the Christ, you would have said: ‘This teaching contravenes the Gospel. This is one of the deceivers foretold to come in latter days; we will have none of them.’ We have led you on, as you could follow, to clearer views and a higher platform. Many truths remain which we cannot put before you, as you cannot receive them.”

 

“The medium’s mind has been tuned to the existence of a lower form of spirits, those amenable to invocation, elementaries, whom we prefer to call undeveloped spirits, and he has rather lost sight of fraud, the action of the unprogressed spirits of humanity. These are now the spirits that are dominant. We urge upon you our solemn warning to beware of the adversaries in the near future. There has been a large access of knowledge in your world, and the philosophy of spirit-intercourse has been advanced. This has irritated the adversaries. The conflict raging amongst you is but the reflex of the conflict that is going on with us. A strife is going on in our world on the subject of the suppression of the fact of spirit-communion. The more darkness, the better it is for the adversaries. By the exercise of will-power, the obstacles to intercourse with you guardians may be overcome.”

 

“The spiritual atmosphere is now much disturbed, and the clouds do not seem to lift. It is from your world that the darkness chiefly comes, and it would appear that trouble is at hand. Men never pass from an inferior state to a superior state without great and intense distress, the throes and agony of a new birth.”

“You live in an age of dire disturbance. There are hopes in the future, but between now and then there is the shadow of death. In the far future, the listening ear can catch the notes of the angels, and their hymn is the anthem of peace.”

 

“You are now living in an epoch of great spiritual outpouring, like that which occurred when the Lord Jesus dwelt among men. Even in this present epoch the light may wane, but we do not think so. The hour is at hand when the world of spirit will have far more power over your sphere than at any time of which you are conscious. Much doubt and difficulty will arise from this. Everything on your earth is now (May, 1875) in a disturbed condition, the external evidence of the internal forces of which we are to you the exponents. Unfortunately, the lower powers can counterfeit almost everything we can produce. The human race is morally, mentally and physically diseased, and requires for these diseases long treatment.”

 

“The Christ has recently returned from the Spheres of Contemplation, and is now specially acting on your world.

 

Since we last spoke with you a crisis has taken place in the Spheres of Contemplation, and they have now been placed in communication with us. The highest spirits have again undertaken active mission work in your world. Be patient, earnest and prayerful, seeking for the Truth, and ever regarding the army of spirits as the messengers of the Supreme, who are now camped around you.

 

May the All-Wise and loving Father pour down through us on you the plenitude of His benediction, that each and all of us may be so raised and elevated by the work in which we are engaged, that hereafter we may attain to those regions which are the Footstool of His Throne. Farewell.”

 

(Philosophus controlling: )

 

“The leaders of thought in your world have lost all faith in prayer. At this time it is very necessary; not merely conventional prayers, but a bending of the will, and asking the assistance of the higher spirits. Prayer must be the earnest cry of the spirit which knows it can bring a friend to its aid, and not mere recitation of a certain form of words.”

 

(Imperator followed, saying: )

 

“The present crisis demands earnest prayer; and by prayer we do not mean that curious recitation of ancient formularies which pass current among Christians as an address to the Deity. There need be no outward act; the cry of the troubled soul is enough to bring help and comfort in time of need. Prayer should be merely aspiration–the striving after a high ideal by means of the spiritual assistance of the guardians around you. Prayer does not reach within the Sphere of Contemplation.”

 

“Can ideas become objective?”

 

“With us thought is substance, and that which we think takes form and substance with you. Many of your most refined minds live in a world of their own creation. The poet, the dramatist and the novelist do, in fact, create a world for themselves. The projection of thought even with you is not so rare as you suppose. With us it would be impossible for any spirit to live with those for whose society it was not fitted. We see the nature and character of those of those with whom we have to do. Place is nothing to us, state is everything. Each character creates its own surroundings, and, in your probation sphere, the character of the spirit is formed. Every act goes to build up the character that is perpetuated and the home that you are hereafter to inhabit. In every sphere of training duties are assigned, the right performance of which helps the spirit to grow and develop. The processes of training in our sphere and yours, though different, are yet analogous.”

 

“The spirit-body has the same faculties as the natural, but, in addition, it has others which do not belong to your earth. Within the spirit-body dwells the pervading essence of Deity, and, by living much in prayer and meditation, and by the zealous discharge of active duties, the spiritual life may be developed, as that which is used becomes strong; this being universal law. The higher spirits can only exist for a short time in your atmosphere, and it is often difficult for us to approach you. I myself am far away from the medium, and unable to draw nearer to him, on account of his mental and corporeal conditions. When out of heath, I cannot approach him. Spirits recently passed from earth can more readily draw near to him, but we are able to influence from a distance–time and space not existing with us.”

 

Speaking of capital punishment:

 

“Under no circumstances should it be allowed. The soul, suddenly severed from the body, is thrown back, and becomes grievously dangerous to humanity. The guardians cannot draw near, and great difficulties are set in the way of its progress. It is only those who have passed away that know what evils follow from this rude and barbarous punishment.

 

To punish by the withdrawal of what you call life is an act of senseless folly. It is a remnant of an age of blood belonging to the Jewish dispensation. Reform or seclude the criminal, but never kill the body, as you sever from a body a spirit that has not fulfilled its time in your sphere of being.”

 

Asked if impurity was not the chief cause of the decadence of nations:

 

“Yes, it is the sin of all others that degrades man below the level of beasts, and places him on the plane with demons. It cuts him off from the ministry of angels and from his God more than any other sin. Rome fell through it; also Spain. France has fallen. England is fast following the same example. Oh, if men did but know; could have their spiritual eyes opened for a moment to see the hosts of angels waiting to minister to them to keep them from temptation. But they do not know, do not see till too late.”

 

With regard to re-incarnation, Imperator always said it was not true as generally held. It occurred sometimes when an exalted spirit wished to return to benefit mankind; it also happened when a spirit was so wicked that it sank to the lowest sphere and became merged in the ocean of spirit, to be at some future time re-incarnated; though, perhaps not in this world, as a school that has failed once was not likely to be tried again.

“People born in poverty and vice, with but few opportunities for good, will have their education in the other world.”

 

“Life is unending and progressive. The soul never stands still; it must improve or retrogress.”

 

“No one ever gets near to God; He sends spirits to act between Him and you.”

 

Spirit influence has more to do with our lives than we imagine. We are judged of by the spirits surrounding us.

 

All material things have an aura round them. Everything has spirit underlying its substance. In the next sphere we are little changed. Animals are also there, as life, once created, never dies.

 

“The lowest spirits, hovering near earth, are the ones that most frequently manifest at circles, and simulate characters that do not belong to them.”

 

“If men will put themselves in communication with the spheres under bad conditions, they do it at their peril. Evil influences are admitted, and danger arises. A circle should be composed of pure-minded people–seekers after Truth.”

 

“Spirits need not to see you to influence you. You imagine sight connected with the eyes. We are cognisant of your presence without seeing you. The influence of spirit on spirit is magnetic.”

 

“The birth of a spirit in the spheres is very like the birth of an infant in the world. The new-born spirit requires care and guidance.”

 

“You must remember that those of us who operate on the plane of spirit rather than of matter, do so on your earth under conditions that are very delicate and precarious. Matter has faded from our gaze, and when we return to the material plane, we see nothing of it. All we see is the spirit. We could nor present ourselves for a photograph, but we might commission other spirits to present an image of us.”

 

Of S. M.’s Guide, Mentor, it was said that in the spheres he was a great spirit, engaged in teaching, and controlling the powers of Nature. He had completed the work of education on which he had been engaged in the fourth sphere. “Such is the life with us ever learning, teaching others and progressing onwards and upwards.”

 

“Our worship consists in doing His work and will, helping to raise and elevate man.” “You are surrounded by spirit life, and are never alone, never.” Questioned as to the influence and teachings of Moody and Sankey:

 

“We are not scrupulous to mark the tools with which the rocky road may be broken up; as the waters must be troubled before spiritual life can be instilled into men. Let them be stirred and aroused rather than be allowed to sleep on in cold and dreary slumber. We do not wish to put a veto on anything that disturbs the level of complacency which so overpowers the spirits of men. You are passing through a phase in which spirit-influence manifests itself in a variety of ways.

 

You must remember that Moody and Sankey were preaching to men on a lower plane of intelligence, and the teaching was suitable to them. What you call a period of religious excitement, we should probably term a troubling of the waters before the descent of the angel. We welcome whatever can stir men from their coldness and apathy. It is inevitable that we should view these questions from a higher standpoint than you are able to reach.”

 

“You may desire the return of a spirit, but such return might bring it again within the sphere of temptation. Sometimes a return to earth would be a step backward, and would militate against the law of progression. You may, in many cases, drag a spirit back to earth by projection of will-power, but it may be very inadvisable for him to return to you. Laws of progression are often violated by dragging spirits back to earth, your wills being more powerful than theirs; so far you provide the way.

 

Those who have passed away from earth very often cannot return, and, when they are able to do so, they find it difficult to give clear communications. The over-anxiety of the spirits themselves and of their friends on earth produces a kind of repulsion and destroys the rapport.”

 

While controlling S. M., Imperator said: “His spirit is now in the spheres, gone with the guardians for instruction. Others might gain the powers he possesses, were their spirits as noble, true and unselfish. Widen your sympathies. Sink self, and ye shall have powers ye dream not of.”

 

“The spirit known as Daniel on earth was a very powerful medium, and an incarnation of a very high spirit. Greta spirits are sometimes incarnated and re-incarnated, but this is the exception, not the rule.”

 

On the Anniversary of Modern Spiritualism:

 

“Many spirits are very active to-night, as this is regarded as a great anniversary. At the commencement of what you call Modern Spiritualism the powerful influence of the higher spirits was directed to your earth, and mediumship was developed. Thus a bridge was formed by which many earth-bound spirits were enabled to rise, being released from their connection with the earth; on this account they keep up this anniversary.

 

Spiritualism, or, as we prefer to call it, the voice of the spirit-world, is the answer that comes to the cry of many an anxious soul.

 

There is in Spiritualism a growing and most fatal influence, a spiritual form of materialism which results from the study of phenomena only. Men care only for the force, and refuse to recognise the various forms of intelligence that underlie it. Matter is an accident, spirit is reality. All the religious systems of the world rest on a belief in the future life. Owing to the materialistic atmosphere round the world, there is too great a tendency to smother Divine Truth under a whole host of phenomena. If people rest content with these only, it would have been better for them to leave the subject alone. We hope, however, that many will rise above the phenomenal aspects of the subject and seek for those higher spiritual truths to which the former have only served as an introduction.”