CHAPTER III

　IF you were asked to broadcast on the truth of Spiritualism, what would you say?" When this question was put to Birch he replied:

　"I would begin by explaining that I am one of those whom your world of matter regards as dead, but that the beliefs of your world are founded on fallacy. Life cannot die. Life continues because it is part of the great, eternal, creative life-force. I would ask listeners to put on one side all the misconceptions of their inherited prejudices and to approach the subject of Survival with simplicity of heart and mind, seeking only to know the truth. I would appeal to them to be tolerant and sympathetic, and not to worry about what others have taught, but to seek for themselves. I would cite as witnesses the many all over the world who know that there is a life that continues beyond the tomb because they themselves have spoken with what are called the dead. Then, speaking for myself, I would say that I was one of those who, having completed my allotted earthly span and passed, many years ago, beyond the veil of mortal life, had decided to return to illumine your darkened world and teach it the truths of the spirit which have been buried for too long. 

　"I would outline some of those simple truths in simple lan-guage and ask whether those who listened thought that in any way they offended their reason or insulted their intelligence. I have no vested interest, I would tell them; I have no money to earn; I have no job to defend. I have nothing to gain. I come back after many, many years in a world of spirit to tell you what I know. It is for you to listen. I tell you that you are immortal, deathless, that the ones for whom you have mourned, for whom the tears of sorrow have streamed down your cheeks, stand silently by your sideーsilent to you because you cannot hear them, but their voices have cried out in anguish for a long time in their striving to reach you. You are the dead, the dead who are unconscious of life as it really exists. You have closed your eyes to all the beauties of the Great Spirit's universe. You have allowed yourselves to register only the infinitesimal fraction of an earthly world. All around you the whole atmosphere teems with a multitudinous life. Your own beloved are there, and behind them the serried ranks of the immortals, men and women from ages past, who, having served your world of matter when they were with you, are still anxious to offer you comradeship, guidance, fellowship and the wisdom of their extended experience.

　"If you prefer blindness, keep your eyes closed. If you prefer deafness, keep your ears closed. But if you are wise, you will open the windows of your souls, so that you can become aware of that mighty, vast power of the spirit which will strengthen and encourage you and make you know how life can be lived and enjoyed to the full. You are the children of a Great Spirit, a Great Spirit whose wisdom and love have fashioned the whole universe. The ties that bind you to that Great Spirit can be strengthened by your understanding. If churches stand in the way of your receiving that knowledge, then discard the churches. If men are the obstacles, then discard the men. If books are the obstacles, discard the books.

　"Retire into the silence of your own being; forget the world of matter with all its harsh "discord. Tune in to the subtle, delicate vibrations of the teeming spirit life around you, and you will know that you can transcend the limitations of the fleshly body. Awaken to knowledge; awaken to understanding. You need not be a prisoner, you can leave the jail of ignorance and live in the light of spiritual freedom. That is what I would say."

　Having been asked what he would say in a broadcast on Spiritualism, Silver Birch was then invited to say what he would preach to churchpeopleーif given the opportunity, and he replied: 

　"I would say that a church exists so that those who come there shall be enabled to learn the truth about religion. It exists so that collectively they can attune themselves to higher influences. It exists so that for a short while they can lay aside their cares and stresses, forget the turmoil and troubles that beset them and dwell on spiritual realities. I would say that true religion is to give service. You are no better than your fellows because you are here and they are absent. You are no better because you have been endowed with skins of whiteness instead of appearing as brown or red men and women. What is important is the evolution of your spirit, the growth of your soul. This church should equip you for the eternal life. This church should teach you how to train your spirit. Do not worry about words in books, about sermons, about rituals, about creeds. Do not give false allegiance to a building.

　"The Great Spirit is infinite and is not restricted to any build-ing, however sacred you may think it is. Four walls cannot contain infinity. No book, however beautiful its language, however wise its contents, however inspired its words, can contain within its few pages all the truths about an Infinite Spirit. No man, no matter what degrees he holds in your world, can come between you and the Great Spirit. You can obtain for yourself from the infinite storehouse of divine revela-tion all that you require for your own sustenance. You are forever linked with what you call God, the Great Spirit, the universal law behind all life.

　"If you would but allow that divinity which is within you to rise to the surface, if you would but learn the laws which are responsible for the full flowing of power and inspiration from higher spheres, you would begin to live as the Great Spirit intended that you should. You would, forgetting self, go out into the world, trying to heal the lame, to help the afflicted, to give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty; to be a strength and a refuge to those who have lost their way and to give kind-ness, sympathy and love to all who need it. Then you would be servingーand service is the only religion. I know of no other."

　"Will Spiritualism ever become a universal religion?" was another question.

　"What you call Spiritualism,” replied the guide, “is but the name given to certain natural laws, their operation and their implications. To me, religion is the living of a life, not the acceptance of certain sectarian beliefs. The laws that control life are universal. When there is universal understanding, then the universal religion will be one of mutual service. Whether it is called Spiritualism or not is unimportant. What is important is that truth shall spread and ignorance shall be destroyed, that superstition shall be erased from the minds of men and that wisdom shall flourish. Beware of labels, because in time more importance is attached to the label than the truths which the label seeks to represent, and men begin to worship the label and not the truth." Truth is all-important, the label does not matter.

　"You refer to certain happenings as being part of Spiritualism. These are caused by the operation of natural laws, and the name is unimportant. In the same way the word 'religion' has lost its meaning. It has now become associated with certain observances, with customs and rituals and ceremonies to which the label 'sacred' has been attached. There is nothing more sacred about a church or a synagogue than there is about any other building. Stones are still stones, whether they form part of a common home or a noble cathedral. There may be beauty in buildings erected for the worship of the Great Spirit, but beauty does not spell “sacredness'; beauty is merely an aesthetic appreciation,

　"Religion itself has nothing to do with churches. It may be that an iinspired man, a real minister, that is one who ministers to the needs of the people, possessing natural gifts of the spirit, is able to act as intermediary. Religion is not the practice of or the belief in certain theological statements. If you drink wine in church

you are not more religious than those who drink wine anywhere else. What is religious is that which enables you to achieve greater union with the Great Spirit of which you are a part. Religion is that which helps the Great Spirit in you to find expression. The Great Spirit finds expression in all the acts of service, of altruism, of kindliness, of reformーwherever men and women strive to uplift the fallen, to succour the weak, to sustain the helpless, to heal the sick, to spread truth and wisdom and destroy injustice. That is true religion. Man possesses now all that is necessary to enable him to practise his religionto the fullness of its capacity. You must dispel this idea that religion consists in the formulation of certain beliefs, no matter how wise may be the people who propound them.

　"It is never part of our task to encourage the children of the Great Spirit to believe they are serving Him merely by attending houses of worship. They may be sincere, but true religion can only be expressed in life as it is lived. It cannot be divorced from the practice of all the noble qualities which are resident within every human being."

　A member of the circle commented: “The Spiritualist move-ment will have failed as completely as Orthodoxy unless it produces people who act in the manner you outline.”

　"Yes, that must always be so," affirmed the guide. “We come back to your world, not to provide a sensation, or to give pleasure to a few people. Far more important than comforting the bereaved, than drying the tears of mourners, is the application of spiritual truth to all daily life. Your world must be purged of the evils which are largely the result of ignorance. All the in-justices must be redressed, all the bigotries and tyrannies must be driven away. Our task is dedicated to making the spirit within man find full, rich expression everywhere, so that all the ex-crescences of your civilisation, the dirt, the disease, the darkness and the slums, the vile conditions in which the divine spirit in man is compelled to labour shall be swept away.

　"Ours is a practical religion, a religion for every day, for 24 hours of every day, for 60 minutes of every hour and for 60 seconds of every minute. That is the standard we set, that is the ideal to be achieved, that is the true task of all those who have found knowledge—the responsibility of seeing that it is used to uplift mankind everywhere and not merely to give any pleasure or comfort to themselves alone. Spiritualism, like everything else, must be judged by its results. If none is richer because of your presence in the world of matter, then you have failed. If Spiritualists do not make their weight felt in all the pressing reforms that are'so vitally necessary, then they are false to them-selves and false to the inspiration which seeks to use them for that purpose. The mighty power of the spirit which is poured through human instruments has a mighty destiny to achieve. This destiny is regeneration.”

　When the famous and favourable report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's committee of inquiry into Spiritualism was sup-pressed by the Primate in consultation with the bishops, Silver Birch was asked to give his views. He made these comments:

　"Put not your trust in men, even though they be princes of the church. Put your trust in the eternal laws of the Great Spirit which will never fail you, once you live in harmony with them. Truth is truth, and none can destroy it. Many years ago there came to the world of matter one who was to bear the emblem of truth, a prophet, a messenger in whom the spirit of God was expressed to the highest degree that it has yet been manifested through any man. He was not popular with the princes of the church, only the common people heard him gladlý. He spoke with authority,' but his authority did not come from high position or high estate, for he was born of the poorest of the poor, a humble artisan, a carpenter and his wife. And yet the power of the spirit raised him up, intending that he should be the great exemplar, the pattern for all to emulate, the life which others could live.

　"The power of the spirit poured through him and he healed the sick, he comforted the mourner and he taught love and tolerance and charity. But he was not liked by the church of his day. You know what happened to him. He had to bear the painful death that was meted out to all who were regarded as teaching treason and being subversive to the Church or to the State. The truths which he enunciated did not die. Truth cannot die, for truth is infinite, divine, and therefore indestructible. By the self-same power of the spirit that enabled him to heal; to comfort and to teach, that raised him head and shoulders above the people of his time, he returned after death to give a practical illustration to his teaching, that the power of the spirit is supreme, and death has no power over life. And because of his return you have what is called Christianity.

　"In a few days”ーthis was spoken just before Easterー" the whole of the Christian world will hail that resurrection as being the supreme illustration of a divinely-lived existence. “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain, said. Paul, the great apostle of Christianity. The same truths which the Nazarene taught, the same psychic powers which he manifested, are once again being taught and manifested in your time. And once again they incur the wrath of the churches and its princes and all those who sit in palaces and in high places.

　These followers of the humble Nazarene, who told them, 'Go ye into the world without purse or scrip,' are the lineal descendants of the same people who persecuted the Nazarene, who are trying to persecute the teachers of his truth today. But the power of the spirit is greater than them all. It is too late. The truth will prevail and the blind leaders of the blind will not succeed in turning the children of the Great Spirit away from those paths of truth which lead to an understanding of life in all its ramifications. I say, without fear of contradiction, that behind all this power of the spirit being manifested today there is that same Nazarene who trod the earth, still striving to heal the sick, to comfort the mourner, to establish those fundamental truths of the spirit which require no churches, no archbishops, no priests, no sacred books, but loving hearts, willing minds and simple souls.

　"You cannot suppress truth. You cannot ban truth with bell book and candle. Long after all the falsities maintained in the name of Christianity have crumbled and been forgotten, the truths enshrined by the power of the spirit will be paramount and enthroned in the hearts of millions everywhere. The resurrection was a lawーnot a miracle—a law of the Great Spirit, a law that operates every time every soul passes through the change that men call death. You are all in turn resurrected through death into the fuller life. It is not a unique happening which occurred two thousand years ago in the case of one man. It is a law, a constant law; a law which never changes; a law which controls archbishop and artisan, king and commoner, saint and sinner, philosopher and dullard, all people, all the children of the Great Spirit. The return of the Nazarene was in accordance with psychic law. He manifested after his death, as dozens have manifested after their deaths, too."

　Asked to what extent the Bible stories were embellished with myths taken from older religions, the guide said:

　"They crowned the Nazarene with attributes of unique divinity because in all the myths only those who were divine or semi-divine could accomplish the apparent miracles, but the actual happenings, the spirit manifestations to former friends, these happened as described.”

　"Apparently they did not cause a stir because there is no his-torical record of these manifestations," was one comment.

　"Why should it cause any stir in a world which was then immersed in comparatively as much materialism as your world is today?" said the guide. “Do you find that this return from our life creates any stir in your world today? Yet when true history comes to be written, these will be recorded as far more important than the events which receive so much attention.”

　When the social crusade opened by Dr. Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, was attracting some attention, Silver Birch, when asked how he, from the spirit world, regarded it, said:

　"I am asked whether there is anything I can say in regard to the crusade that has been launched by the leaders of your National Church for social justice and greater equality among those who dwell in your land. I do not question the sincerity of the motive behind the crusade. I have always taught that wherever one individual, or a group, sets out to render any kind of service to humanity, to elevate it, to reveal some of its nobility and grand-eur of soul, to redress a wrong, to end an injustice, to alleviate any misery, sorrow or distress, automatically there comes to their aid those who dwell in my world who are attracted by the tie of mutual purpose. There are very many pioneers, martyrs, teachers, leaders of thought and opinion in my world who are anxious to render any service, who always look for instruments through whom they can pour the wisdom they have acquire and who seek to inspire these instruments to fulfil the task which they have laid upon themselves.

　"Let us give a welcome to any men who desire to uplift the fallen, to help the needy and to make things easier for those whose lot is hard to bear. That truly is religion, to serveーfor religion cannot be divorced from the practical application of all that is held to be ethical or moral. But we must look back. We must turn the pages of history. We must ask ourselves how far any one organisation can free itself from the ties which bind it. The history of your National Church is unfortunately one that is stained with many dark blots, some of the blots being crimson in their hue. How far is the Church which seeks to ally itself with the poor and the needy, with the outcast and the down-trodden, how far is it prepared to make the necessary sacrifices so that it can perform its task with hands that are clean and with motives which none can say are soiled? History, unfortunately, is against it, for it has been guilty of obstructing for centuries those who sought to perform what it now declares to be its own motive.

　"How far is the Church prepared to cleanse its own house? How far is it prepared to abolish inequality and injustice within its own organisation? How far is it prepared to sacrifice all its own privileges, some of which it has not earned, in order to accomplish the new task for which the clarion call has been sounded? How far is it prepared to make itself truly a National Church and to drive out from its own organisation all that which divides and limits, all that which imprisons and restricts? What place can there be in a new world for princes of the Church? What part can be played by meaningless ritual and ceremony, by gorgeous vestment, by stole and mitre, and by all the trappings which have obscured the meaning of religion for too long? How far will the Church examine its own beliefs and reject those which prevent the fulfilment of justice? For it must rid itself of all those teachings which are an obstruction to true equality and justice. I do not doubt the sincerity of the motive. But how far, how far, can they go? Time will tell.

　"We give our blessing and our helpfulness to any men from any quarter who render service; but, because of the dark record of history, we wonder how far along the road the Church will be able to travel, even though it is, at present, led by a man of passionate sincerity in his purpose and his motive. But we do ask that examples shall be given of the desire to be honest with itself and with others, that all attempts at persecution and suppression should end, that the true spirit of co-operation shall be made visible so that those who desire to give the service may say: 'We are truly doing the best we can. If we fail it will be a glorious failure. We desire to purge, not only the land of all the evils which we see, but our own organisation of all the evils which have caused it to decline and to lose the respect which once it earned.' That is as far as I can go in perfect fairness. It is as I, and others, see the position as it stands today. You must remember that the Church is a ship that is full of incrustations and barnacles which will impede its passage. All of them are checks, all of them will hold Dr. Temple back.”

　Then Hannen Swaffer said to Silver Birch: “You say that it has lost the respect which it once earned. When did it earn it?"

　Silver Birch: "Once it had earned it."

　Swaffer: “Was not the ‘respect' due to fear? Because, as I see the Church today, with all its faults, it is better than it has ever been. As men have improved, so has the Church.”

　Silver Birch: “Yes, but it is very difficult, because this Church is to me a successor to an earlier Church which was free from many of the taints which this one possesses. Go back far enough to the Church as it was, soon after the days of the Nazarene. It had then, for a time, the great ambition of truly serving the children to whom it ministered. The parting of the ways came when the instruments of the spirit were driven out.”

　Swaffer: “In 325?”

　Silver Birch: "It was earlier than that. That was the final division. The process of outlawing the mediums had been at work for some time before that. But, as the power of the spirit was driven out by driving out its best instruments, and the priests became the sole controllers, the respect began to dwindle. Originally the priest was a respected man who worked side by side with the instrument of the Great Spirit. He regarded himself as an equal. His charge was to administer the earthly wants of the people and the medium gave the inspiration from the larger life, so that you had the two forms of guidance side by side, the guidance of the spirit and the guidance from the priest in regard to the material affairs of the churches.

　"But the desire for supremacy drove out the instruments and all the authority that was vested in churches, and from that time there has been one long process of continuous deterioration. But the point I want to stress is that Dr. Temple is sincere; of that there can be no doubt. But some will give lip-service to the idea because they want to be thought loyal to their leader. They have no feelings of passionate zest for a crusade. They are not cru-saders; they are happy in their own little security; they do not want to be disturbed. But they regard it as part of their work to follow whatever lead is given. Then there are those who think it wrong for the Church to immerse itself in the practical things of your world; and again those who do not wish to leave the letter of the law and who regard themselves as safe only as long as they cling to that which they were taught. All these arc conflicting influences. It is not as if one man sounded a stirring call and all ranks immediately followed behind him. They will make some progress; but there will be many disagreements. 

　"I have spoken long with Woodbine Willie and Dick Shep-pard, and they both rejoice at the new note that has been struck. Sheppard is very doubtful as to whether you can put new life into what he calls 'fossilised habits.' Woodbine Willie thinks it will be possible to make some advance. But neither of them thinks that the Church, because of its very constitution, can whole-heartedly align itself with the new-world ideas that are moving in the breasts, in the minds and the spirits of men. Yet it must be supported, for however poor an attempt may ultimately become, it is one step more in the right direction to breaking down the privileges which for too long have held sway."

　"The Church, I think, will be all the better for this crusade," said one of the circle. “It will in some degree improve because of this outburst of justice and righteousness.

　Silver Birch: "I hope so. But you must remember that I am never concerned with organisations. I am concerned with actions, with service, with lives that are led. I see a power which has been frittered away. I see buildings which do not truly enable religion to be disseminated to those who go there. I see mausoleums where all is filled with the dust of antiquity, with prejudice, with old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian opinions. I see all creedalisms which are meaningless, and which for too long have held mankind in subjection. And I know that the soul must be free. It depends on how far the Church is prepared to be honest with itselfーif it will examine the structure of its own being, and if it will direct the searchlight of truth upon its own beliefs, which are to some extent an impediment to social justice.

　"Let me give one illustration of what I mean. If the Church teaches that you can escape justice by the faith that you profess, it is blocking true social justice; for it is itself befogging the mind and not allowing the soul to come into its own. All false teach-ing which obstructs truth must be an impediment towards true justice in your world. It certainly is towards justice in mine! How can you teach that man will be saved by vicarious blood-shed when he can only work out his own salvation in his daily life, in his conduct, in his actions? Justice is a two-edged sword, and he who wields it must be prepared to be just with himself, not only with others. There are some who are suspicious, too, who ask: 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?' I have seen enough to know this is not a political move, but' that. Dr. Temple is sincere in his motive to help those who have been suppressed. I do not wish to say anything that will hin-der, but I feel, as always, that what I consider the truth must be stressed. Wherever the spirit moves any man to service, however,

　"Dr. Temple is a theologian. He is well versed in the know-ledge of all the doctrines and all the theorisings that originated in the minds of men. He has been schooled and drilled in tħem, and, liberal-minded though he is, his allegiance is still to them, although he has gradually thrown some of these doctrines away. He does not realise that the power of the spirit is in operation to-day all over the world, not in any one church or organisation, but wherever there are instruments through whom it can be expressed. There, the power of the spirit moves men and women, as it has always done throughout the ages, as it will always do, irrespective of whether this meets with the approval of the ruler, of any church."

　A former Methodist minister, a member of the circle, asked: "Is there not a danger of many people, ordinary people, con-fusing the idea of social justice and getting it mixed up with the teachings of the Church and being unable to disentangle it in their minds? I mean they might accept the social teachings of the Church and at the same time swallow the confusion of dogma.”

　"I do not think so," replied Silver Birch. “You cannot stem the tide of knowledge. You cannot set back the clock of pro-gress. Where the Church will help is that it will lead those who are religiously inclined, in the ethical sense, to pay attention to injustice and to inequality that would have passed them by. For they would have thought it was no part of their business.

　Not even all Spiritualists would agree with Silver Birch's answer to the question: "What place should be given to Jesus of Nazareth in Spiritualism?” But the guide did not shirk it, as you will read: “I approach the subject with a little diffidence, for I desire to hurt and offend no one, merely to reveal the truth as it is known to me and to those whom I represent. It is essential to strip away the many falsities which have now been wrapped around the story of the Nazarene for so many years that in your world it is impossible for you to separate fact from fable. First, as to the historical part. Inspiration is a continuing process through-out all times. Ever since the first moment when man's conscious-ness dawned and began to blossom, there have been sent to help those who could guide his footsteps so that he can achieve his great destiny. The pages of earthly history a are illumined with the names of many seers and saints, teachers and pioneers, reformers and visionaries, prophets and sages, all of them using the gifts of the spirit with which they have been endowed. All of them have added imperishable lustre to their age. All of them responded to the power of the spirit which had raised them up, so that through them there could be poured all the wisdom that comes from the infinite storehouse.

　"The last teacher was the man that is called Jesus, who, born of Jewish parents, fulfilled his mission amongst his own people, combined his psychic talents with his simple oratory and left an indelible mark on the age-long history of mankind. Your world knows little about his ministry, for the few brief records that you possess are tainted. They are not an actual representation of events that transpired. There have been forgeries and inter-polations, tampering with many documents, both sacred and secular, to suit the needs of vested interests, of priestcraft and statecraft, so that the growing number of those who followed the Nazarene could be swayed in the direction that suited those who held power. Here was a man, a great psychic, gifted with the power of the spirit, possessing a mastery of the laws that control psychical phenomena. Because of his great knowledge, he was well versed in the studies concerning what you know as mediumship. He came to fulfil a task. That task was to raise people of that day from the materialism into which they had descended, so that they could be brought back to those paths of truth and understanding, realise the operation of spiritual laws and thus understand more about their eternal possessions.

　"How much of the record of the Bible is true?' you will ask. Certain passages in the Gospels are true. It is true that he lived in Palestine. It is true that there was a short ministry. It is true that the power of the spirit moved him so that, obscure though he was, born of parents of humble rank, he could speak with authority. It is true that he healed the sick. It is true that he drove out obsessing spirits that had become attached to those whose minds were foul. But it is equally true that all that was done, all that was accomplished, was in accord with the laws of the Great Spirit. No natural law was transgressed because no natural law can be transgressed. He was opposed by the priests of his day who regarded him as a usurper and an interloper, one who under-mined the authority of the Church and preached a doctrine which they alleged was one of evil. Because of their connivance he met his earthly end and passed to the higher life, therefrom to return to demonstrate those self-same laws of the spirit which already he had revealed in his own ministry. Weak disciples cowardly and timorous, were given fresh heart by the return of one whom they considered dead. As you know, the truths which he enunciated began to spread until once again priestcraft had its way and those truths were buried beneath a debris of falsity.

　"The power of the spirit ceased to express itself except on sporadic occasions. The truths the Nazarene taught were almost completely buried, and ancient myth and fable were all woven together, from which merged the new Christianity which has been taught for many hundreds of ycars. It is not the teaching of the Nazarene. It has not the power behind it that was revealed during his ministry. Your bishops do not heal the sick, they do not comfort the mourners, they do not drive out obsessions, they are not the instruments of the spirit. Now that is only a sketch, a very short sketch, but to come to the question: 'What place do you accord the Nazarene?' Some have elevated him to the rank and status of the Great Spirit, and to them God, Jesus, or Christ are interchangeable terms. They make no distinction between the Creator of the universe, the power which fashioned and shaped all its course, and the man whose mission lasted for a short time in Palestine 2,000 years ago. They are wrong. They

are still giving allegiance to old fables and to ancient myths.

　"How should you regard the Nazarene? As a great exemplar, a great teacher, still human but divine. The one who exhibited the powers of the spirit and emphasised the great principles, the cardinal principles of love, of kindliness, of service, which have been stressed throughout all ages by all the instruments of the Great Spirit. If you deify him, if you make him inaccessible, if you declare that all this was done, not by a man but by the Great Spirit, then you defeat the whole purpose of his mission and you are doing a disservice to the Nazarene himself. The great virtue, the great lesson is that it was an example.

　"We who belong to the higher life recognise in him the last of the long line of instruments, the one in whom there was manifested, more than any other before him, the power of the spirit. We do not worship him. We are proud of the con-tribution he has made. We know of his continued existence in the realm of spirit. We are familiar with his encouragement. We know that he is behind the direction of this great movement which is repeating in its career what happened to the Nazarene himself. You meet with the same opposition from the same type of mentality. But because what you teach is founded on truth which can be demonstrated, you will and must succeed. Place the Nazarene in his true perspective, a man, an instrument, a servant. All that he did you can do, and more, and in so doing you will be exhibiting that self-same power of the spirit which shined through all others who try to lead mankind towards the light of truth and understanding."

　One who listened asked: "Could you possibly tell us of any incident in the gospel which to your knowledge has been falsified?"  

　"Yes," replied the guide, “there is, for instance, the alleged records of the supernatural happenings which are said to have occurred during the time of the crucifixion. The violent dis- turbances and the graves giving up their dead—all that is not true.''

　"How much is true of the story of the birth, the stars and the magi?" was another question.

　"None of these,” was the answer. "He was born in the ordinary way. All that is fable.”

　"I wondered what happened to those wonderful magi," this sitter commented. “They had served their purpose," said the guide, "for those who borrowed them from the legends of Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon and India, so there was no need for them to continue in the story. You must remember that in order to lend colour to the deification process they had to surround it with awesome wonders and supernatural events, for the people of those days would not have been impressed with the purely humble, natural processes. Their god had truly to be a god, and all the legends were invoked to make sure that the god would indeed fit into his proper setting.''

　Answering another question, Silver Birch said: "The Nazarene would never do anything to sully his gift, nor would he at any time use his powers for his personal benefit. He was the great master of spiritual law; that is the point which must be stressed, far more than being a great medium. There have been many great mediums, but to have the mastery over the laws because of the perfect understanding and the great knowledge, that is another matter."

　After some discussion the spirit guide said: “You must remem-ber that there is nothing that can be added to the truths which are necessary for your struggle and your growth. You can only have a deeper perception of these truths, a deeper appreciation of their purpose, a deeper understanding of your relationship with the Great Spirit and with one another. I have nothing new to say to you. All I can do is to use the fruits of experience to present truth in such simplicity that it will strike those who are spirit-ually ready. Wisdom is born of experience, and when your heart is inclined to truth you will receive it. Then the important thing is what to do with it, the responsibility of using know-ledge so that it helps others. It is a slow process, but it is the only way by which humanity can advance. It is a constant enlarging of the sphere of illumination, a constant struggle against the forces of retreating darkness. Slowly, one by one, group by group, men and women gradually become ready, either through sorrow or pain, or bitter experience, and then because their hearts are inclined and their souls touched, their minds can open.

　"You do not require another Nazarene. If the Nazarene him-self were to return he would be one of the most unpopular men in your world, especially among the Churches who say they follow him and acknowledge his leadership.”

　"What happened to Jesus between the age of 14 and 30?" was another question. "The time was spent in study,” replied Silver Birch. "He was taken by his tutors to the various schools where the laws of the spirit were understood by the really wise men. He was given instruction in the development of his mediumship and in the acquiring of the understanding of the laws behind them. All that time was spent in the acquisition of knowledge and the unfolding of the gifts.”

　"Where were those colleges?" the guide was asked, and he answered: "Some in India and some in Egypt. The principal one was at Alexandria."