WHEN DEATH COMES

　"THERE is no one who could have had an easier into the new life," said Silver Birch, the first time he spoke after a member of the circle had been bereaved by the passing of her father. "But you must remember this is what he had won for himself. The soul was prepared. It thought no ill, harboured no resentments and, within its own orbit, did nothing to harm others. The life having been lived in its earthly phase, the time had come to say farewell and to receive what awaited him in our world.

　"While it is true, as always, that the loss is yours, never forget that he gains. For him it is a happy and a very sweet release be-cause the physical frame could no longer contain the spirit which was preparing, all the while, to leave. To have wished for a con-tinuance of earthly existence would not have been helpful to his own evolution. Death, as it is called, is an inevitable sequence in the endless role of life. Do not look at it with gloom, with sorrow or with tears."

　Speaking of the family left behind, the guide added: "I think you have discharged yourselves honourably in a great crisis. It is not easy. There comes a time in all lives when theory and knowledge and belief have to face the acid test of experience. It is then that the soul has to measure up to itself and see whether It can acquit itself. It is all very well to have this knowledge of the continuance of life, but when the angel of death comes into your own home and removes a beloved member, that is the when you have to fall back on your knowledge and see whether it will stand you in good stead."

　it a later message, the guide said of the father: "He is be-ginning to fill out now. He is not drawn or pinched any more. The bloom of radiant health is upon him. I do not think you would recognise him at once if you saw him. That is the great transformation scene, as you have in your theatres, but whereas that is unreal, artificial, accomplished only by mechanical de-vices, this is the reality. Age, infirmity, weariness, ailments, all disease fall away and the soul comes into its own, freed at last from the restrictions imposed on it by a fragile body. If you can imagine what that transformation is like, then you have a good conception of what heaven is like. Do not think of him any more as the aching figure of latter days, but of the rejuvenated spirit that now enjoys complete health.

　"Keep serene," he told the daughter, "do not waver. The test-ing time is still yours. Maintain unswerving confidence that as a child of the Great Spirit all that you require is available to enable you to face what life has to offer. It has to be, as part of life's pageant, that diverse experiences shall fall to your lot. It is only as the result of these variegated experiences, ranging from the sublime heights of happiness to the depths of despair, that the spirit can achieve its maturity and fit itself for its larger existence. It is one thing to hear that said; it is another to experience it. Fortunately you have knowledge and knowledge will help you.

　"The Great Spirit rules the universe not only when the sun is shining, when the birds are singing, when the beauteous flowers make their wondrous display, but when there are lightning and thunder, storms and darkness. It is all part of the same universe, ruled by the same Great Spirit. One day, when you look at your own life from a different vantage point, you will tribute to what you once regarded as the dark passages and realise that they played as important, if not more important, part in your own being than the sunshine and the joy."

　At another sitting Silver Birch relayed this spirit message from a husband to his wife concerning their daughter on the Other Side: "Now he wants you to know that his little girl has grown up. How he wishes you could see her, a picture of radiant beauty. The Great Spirit is full of infinite compassion and His laws work with perfect compensation. Those who do not have the full experiences of earthly life lose inevitably some of its beauties, but

they are also spared its strains and its stresses, and this young life, marred so early, is not blemished. She is a radiant spirit full of beauty and loveliness. And this is the great companion, close to

him, sharing his love, his mind, and giving him a richness that he did not think was possible.

　"She and his own mother are the compensations he has for the fact that he is not close with you in your own home as he always wanted to be. I am supposed to be gifted with some ability to paint word-pictures, but I feel lamentable in the task of convey-ing the radiant happiness that your own girl sheds around her. You should feel it when she enters your home day by day. It is as if the sun begins to shine and floods everything with its light and its warmth."

　"We do feel it," was the reply. 

　"What has gone cannot be undone. The past is a closed book. It is the present in which you must live and it is the future that you must face with anticipation that it has much to bring you that will enrich your own life and enable you to be of service to others. Let your heart sing with thankfulness for the peace which you have found, for the love which streams to you in ever-in-creasing measure, for the guiding arms that enfold you, and always direct your footsteps into pathways of attainment and fulfilment."

　This was immediately followed by a message to another visitor whose problems can be glimpsed by the contents of the commu-nication:

　"I am an old soul who has seen into hearts and minds of many who come my way. The gaze of the spirit penetrates all earthly secrets and leaves the soul in all its nakedness for inspection. There are no mysteries to those who can see with eyes of up. How he wishes you could see her, a picture of radiant beauty. The Great Spirit is full of infinite compassion and His laws work with perfect compensation. Those who do not have the full experiences of earthly life lose inevitably some of its beauties, but they are also spared its strains and its stresses, and this young life, marred so early, is not blemished. She is a radiant spirit full of beauty and loveliness. And this is the great companion, close to him, sharing his love, his mind, and giving him a richness that he did not think was possible.

　"She and his own mother are the compensations he has for the fact that he is not close with you in your own home as he always wanted to be. I am supposed to be gifted with some ability to paint word-pictures, but I feel lamentable in the task of convey-ing the radiant happiness that your own girl sheds around her. You should feel it when she enters your home day by day. It is as if the sun begins to shine and floods everything with its light and its warmth."

　"We do feel it," was the reply. 

　"What has gone cannot be undone. The past is a closed book. It is the present in which you must live and it is the future that you must face with anticipation that it has much to bring you that will enrich your own life and enable you to be of service to others. Let your heart sing with thankfulness for the peace which you have found, for the love which streams to you in ever-in-creasing measure, for the guiding arms that enfold you, and always direct your footsteps into pathways of attainment and fulfilment."

　This was immediately followed by a message to another visitor whose problems can be glimpsed by the contents of the commu-nication:

　"I am an old soul who has seen into hearts and minds of many who come my way. The gaze of the spirit penetrates all earthly secrets and leaves the soul in all its nakedness for inspection. There are no mysteries to those who can see with 

eyes of the spirit. And I have looked into your soul and have seen mir-rored there the great desire to be of service, to share with others the joy that comes with knowledge, to help to banish fear and

to be aware of the goodness that can permeate your world, com-ing as it does from beings filled with love and with the desire to uplift, sustain and comfort all who need this help.

　"I would like to tell that the past is a closed book. Let its pages remain closed and fix your gaze on what the future has to unroll for you. Its panorama is pleasing because it reveals a field of service, a corner of the vineyard that you can tread, a sphere where you can labour according to the dictates of your own heart, soul and mind, and fulfil the purpose of your own being. It will take from this land to other lands, but always it will be with the aim of spreading the gospel which, after all, only means the good news.

　"Be assured that what else is uncertain if your faith which has received blows in the past is sustained, if your loyalty and devo-tion are unswerving to the ideals which you have set yourself, you will be able to make of your earthly life a means of serving those who need the assistance that you can bring to them."

　After some personal messages, the guide added: "I who say to you that the past is a closed book would remind you that it is still a book, and a book is a record, a reminder of what has hap-pened. It is your means of gaining experience. Draw from the past the experiences that will equip you for the future. There are lessons to be learned; learn them. Treat us as comrades,

reasonable comrades, who do not resent any honest criticism and who will always attempt to meet reason with reason. There is much that has happened for which we can be blamed and much for which we cannot be blamed. The time for apportionment has not yet arrived. When it does we will survey the scene and strive to assess it correctly.

　"Till then, faith, love, confidence, loyalty, these are great virtues not to be indulged in with blindness, but they are neces-sary adjuncts to fortify you even when reason cannot take you all the way. They are attributes of the soul which are ahead of reason, for the mind can work much faster than the brain and accent much which it is natural so to do, and which the brain will arrive at a long time afterwards because of its slower process."

　Then there came these words: "Remember this truth is not for the few; it is for the many. To us it matters not whether you be rich or poor in your world's goods. It is the riches of the spirit that we desire to cultivate in everybody. Every human being is a soul alike in the eyes of the Great Spirit. They are all His child-ren, endowed with His divinity, created in His special image. His infinite love is extended equally to all regardless of their earthly possessions, their rank, their title. The Great Spirit does not see them as physical bodies, but as spirits and you all must strive to see your fellow-beings in a similar light."

　A close friend of one of the circle members had passed on sud-denly. At the next sitting, Silver Birch gave news of her. "Your friend is only just beginning to wake up," he said.

　"She would have had a great shock," said the circle member.

　"Yes, a very great shock. She was not ready for our world and many adjustments will have to be made and are being made. Your father has rendered her great service because he knows the ropes and he is ready to continue with the task of enlightening her about her surroundings, her new surroundings. What a pity it is that so many people delay the acquisition of knowledge which can help them in the greatest step in life, for that is truly what death is. It comes to all in time, and yet few, comparatively few, are really prepared for it."

　"She won't be happy there to start with, I know that, because she loved life," was the sitter's comment. To which the guide replied:

　"No, she is a rebel by nature and by temperament, I know, but she will learn to love life as it exists in a greater and more radiant form than you know it on earth. It is true that in the vast majority of cases no tears need be shed for those who make their way from your earth to our world. They are always better off, because they come out of the darkness into the sunlight. She has taken a great journey and gradually she will become acclimatised to all that it has to offer.

　"I think it was instantaneous, or did she suffer?"

　"No suffering at all, except for one pang, as in a brief moment of consciousness came the realisation that she was leaving earth. She tried to fight, but it was all too quick, the spirit had disen-gaged itself from the body and it had begun the long flight."

　Then the guide turned to another sitter and said: "I have also tried to be of some service to the one with whose passing you were concerned, but that is even more difficult. She, too, did not want to pass. There was more of an attraction of earth than a pull towards the spirit."

　"It must have been very hard for her."

　"Yes it is. But I do not make the laws. They will operate in every case, in man, woman, child, or animal. No aspect of life can evade the law; the law must be fulfilled. If life is not lived in harmony, then you pay the price. Cause and effect, these are automatic in their operation. I cannot, no one can, interfere with the sequence or cause them to be deviated by one hairbreadth. The law must fulfil itself always.

　"You have the priceless joy of knowledge. Let it enrich your life; let it guide your life; let it help when the storms blow and the rains come. The law will operate in sunshine and in storm because the law is the law. Your friend clung to earthly life, but she never gave the physical body a fair chance; it could not hold the spirit which was forced out because the mechanism could not function properly. Your friend had lived wrongly, not through any intent, but through ignorance and so the body was diseased and could not hold the spirit."

　Here the sitter asked: "Sometime, perhaps, you might give us the opinion of those on the Other Side, who are competent to know, as to what these drugs, which so many people are taking now are doing. There are so many young people passing over quickly and suddenly, and some think it has a connection with drugs."

　"The Great Spirit knows best. The natural laws rule the universe. If you live in accordance with them, in harmony with them, regulate your life by them, then you should have no dis-ease, because disease is merely disharmony, maladjustment of mind, body and spirit. Yours is an imperfect world. Matter is not perfect, and so always the body will gradually wear itself out because it contains within itself the seeds of its own dissolution. Unlike spirit, it has not within itself the properties for renewal and for life-giving vitality, so that it cannot continue.

　"The body of matter depends on the spirit, but, as I have said before, it is also the instrument for the spirit. It is a curious rela-tionship, one dependent on the other and yet the other providing the means by which it can be expressed. This constant interplay of forces mean that unless there is a clear harmony the spirit can-not perform its task efficiently. When that efficiency is impaired to an overwhelming degree, it begins to disengage itself. Any-thing which interferes with that relationship, any drug, stimulant or habit which prevents the bodily functions from behaving in such a way that the spirit and the mind do not get their normal interplay, means a hastening of the processes called death."

　A visitor asked how she could be of service.

　"The way to develop the spirit is to serve," answered Silver Birch, "but remember there are obligations to yourself as well. You must not wear out the physical body. The body is the temple of the spirit whilst you are on earth. The spirit cannot be expressed except through the physical bodyーthereisno other way. If you so live life that the temple is not efficient, it cannot properly express the spirit. Then you are not fair to yourself."

　"I understand that. I am sorry that I have been stupid in many ways."

　"This is the place where learn your lessons from your mistakes. That is the whole purpose of earthly life. You will not go through it without making mistakes, many of them. It is because you make mistakes and learn from them that your spirit grows, your character unfolds, your mind develops."

　Very occasionally, the home circle has met away from its home. This has happened sometimes when the guide has asked its members to lend their power at another venue because he was anxious to talk to old friends who were not well enough to visit his circle. On one such occasion, a seance was held in the home of a circle member whose mother was far from well. She is an old admirer of Silver Birch.

　After the guide had given an invocation, he spoke his usual words:

　"I am very happy to come amongst you and to bring you my love and greetings from the world of spirit. And I am very happy, on this occasion, to have such a fine gathering of all my friends and comrades, because in an atmosphere of love I feel the warmth that comes from your hearts and souls and I know that we are all at one in purpose and in spirit. I would like not to be formal on this occasion, but treat it more in the nature of a cele-bration, to enjoy the fruits of communion and forget for a while the cares and strife and the troubles of the world which is your temporary habitation. 

　"The Nazarene spoke of 'many mansions' in the world beyond yours, but I have many mansions in your world and this is one of them. It is one of the few places that I regard as my home, where I can come and be a member of your household, even though I am invisible and inaudible."

　Addressing the mother, the guide said: "I rejoice that you are able to participate in this gathering, because it gives me an oppor-tunity of telling you that you are surrounded by great love and affection that have continued to sustain you and shield you throughout all the years. Try to realise that the power of the spirit is at work even when there is no audible evidence of its activity. It is a power that commingles with your own life, never absent, always present, infiltrating its force into the whole of your being, suffusing it by its living, vital presence, giving you strength and guidance and a sure shield at all times.

　"I would like you to know that that is a living reality. It is not a figment of the imagination that those who 'leave' you and there are very many, are always with you, and they are very proud of what you have been able to do to help in a lot of direc-tions, quietly, but none the less to give service. Nothing that is in the nature of service is ever overlooked. They are close to you, helping you all the time. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that your presence here tonight is a demonstration of the power of the spirit, because if it were not for that you would have said farewell to this physical world a long time ago."

　Turning to a member of the circle whose mother had recently passed on, the guide said, "I asked my friend Red Cloud to pass on a message to you because I wanted you to know that I would receive mother." This referred to a spirit message she had received from Estelle Roberts, Red Cloud's medium.

　"I knew you would, and you know I am most grateful," an-swered the daughter. "How is she?"

　"She is quite all right now and she is beginning to enjoy the beauties of our life. Your mother did not really understand. Your father did, and even he did not understand anything like the reality."

　"Well, I should think it is overwhelming for any of us," was the daughter's comment. The guide added:

　"Your mother did not expect to find real people here. She and your father have fallen in love again. They do not leave one another, and they are full of endearment and quite happy in the presence of their children, with whom they are reunited. Do not encourage any tears to be shed over her discarded remains. These are not your mother. Your mother is a radiant spirit now, with no marks of disease, none of the ravages of infirmity upon her. She is a beautiful spirit, and she is a good spirit. If she were not, I would say nothing, preferring the tactfulness of silence. She is so pleased with her children, whom she did not expect to find as grown-up beings."

　After a series of personal messages, Silver Birch was in serious mood when, towards the end of the sitting he declared:

　"As to the full measure of the message of which I am the privi-leged messenger let that reveal itself. We have joked and we have laughed because we are all old friends. Fear motivates the lives of many in your world today. Its shadow lurks with them always. It reduces their ability, their constructive thinking. It makes them full of doubt and dismay. I want to help as many as possible to banish fear and to expose it for what it is, a shadow, nothing but a shadow. I want them to live in the light of know-ledge, for he who is armed with knowledge, glorious, radiant, wonderful knowledge, possessés the armoury of the spirit and is equipped for the battle of life. And if together, all of us, we can give that shield to one or two, or more, who do not now possess it, then we shall indeed be instruments of the spirit.

　"Your world requires no new philosophy, no mystical message, no occult teaching fraught with sacred significance, but simple truth in all its pristine beauty. Let them have the truth of the spirit, and let them become familiar with the power of the spirit that it might work its beneficent will and stir and move as many as possible to find themselves, to enable that jewel of divinity so seldom exhibited to shine in the light.

　"That is the sacred task. It is a task in which we can all play our part. It is a task which is vital. It is a task which will uplift those who are subdued, giving strength to the fallen and to the weak, comforting the mourner, healing the sick and giving guidance to those who are in perplexity. Fear is their great enemy. Let us teach them to banish fear, to drive out its attend-ants, ignorance and superstition, and to let knowledge reign and flourish, for where knowledge is, there is the Great Spirit."