THE TABLES ARE TURNED

　AFTER the posing of many questions to the guide of our circle, one day he turned the tables on us by saying: “It is time I asked a question. What do you regard as the greatest result of all the knowledge you have obtained?”

　"I should say,” said the former Methodist preacher, “it gives one a picture of being a member of an ordered and co-herent world, instead of apparently being in a lunatic asylum. You see a plan for the world, for society and for yourself as an individual. You have a law explained to you. You are given some details of the law and its general principles. You know that your job is to do everything in your power to abide by and adhere to that law. You know that you are on the right path if, bit by bit, you are learning more about the law."

　"Yes,” commented another, “I feel that is a good reply. You do know what things are about now, whereas before they never meant anything. You know why things are as they are. You can see what is behind it, whereas before there was never any solution to anything."

　"I would say,” said a third member, “that although, un-fortunately, it does not always do so, it should make you always your own judge of what is right and what is wrong, and should make you impervious to criticism. You know the character you are building, and you should not swerve to the right or to the left. You know there is only one way of life and that we all have to find it for ourselves."

　"But we do get help,” added another sitter.

　"I think you get encouragement,” was the previous speaker's reply, “but I don't think you get helpーonly encouragement. That is what we need. I don't want to ask for help—I don't think I am entitled to, but the encouragement you get, I would say, makes you help yourself. I don't think that I have had any actual help."

　"I think you have forgotten," another commented. “I think you have been helped many times, though you may not neces-sarily have asked for it."

　"Then you are breaking the natural law, was the reply of the sitter who thought no actual help had been given. "There is a law of cause and effect. You have got to pay for everything. And why should help that you receive deviate from what you have earned?"

　"You might have earned the help," was another sitter's reply.

　"That is the law—you have earned the help," was the answer. Another member of the circle commented, “This knowledge clarifies those things which were in the mind which were not clear and it helps with all your problems."

　Then the one who had made the first reply to Silver Birch said: "I would also like to add that all my life I was shocked by the bitterness death caused among people and the procession of mourners who followed the coffin. It always seemed to me to be rather out of place and wrong. Now I know that all of that is unnecessary.

　"I am hoping that I shall have a chance later on to publish that truth abroad by speaking," added this former preacher. "I want to tell people that all that bitter anguish is unnecessary, because we can prove that people do not really die. I think that is secondary to what I said at first, but it is also most im-portant."

　"My addition to what I said before,” added the sitter who had spoken of help, “is that you have got to stand alone.”

　"Because when you do, you never are," replied the guide.

　"I agree," was the retort, "when you know that you have to do everything yourself, then you get the help. You have to make your own fight. As much as guides want to help you, in certain cases, they cannot, or must not, and those are the cases in which you have to stand by yourself. I think that everybody, sooner or later, has to discover that.”

　"I find it very interesting to hear what you tell me," said the guide. “You feel far more than you can express, I know."

　" Well, we are experiencing something similar to what you experience," said a sitter. “It is very hard, in words, to express the innermost secrets of the depths of your spirit."

　"Yes, I know that," was Silver Birch's comment. "Shall we all be in agreement if I epitomise what you have said by saying that the greatest result of the knowledge is that it teaches you to find yourself?"

　"Yes, then to express yourself,” said a sitter.

　"You have to find yourself first,” replied Silver Birch, who added, “Next time I will try to set another examination paper."

　"It would be interesting," said one, "to hear if you have any criticism to make of what we have said; whether there are any comments with which you disagree."

　Silver Birch answered: “I was asking you for your opinion, not mine, and I listened to what you say with the greatest interest. I will make one comment. It is true, 'Ask and ye shall receive.' But the asking must be sincere, and the soul must be in a condition to receive the right answer to its request.

　"You do not get what you have asked for just because you have asked for it. You get what is best suited to the condition of your evolution at that time. No soul is ever alone, although it might think it is, for always you are surrounded by those who love you. Whether or not they can impinge on your consciousness depends upon the conditions operating around you.

　"In addition to direct, deliberate, spontaneous help, there is a constant aid directed from our world to yours, where the influence of the spirit seeps into individuals in your world in a thousand different ways, intuitions, premonitions, forebodings, inspiration, 'hunches'ーas you call themーand all the methods of the unseen, invisible approach."