SELECTED SILVER BIRCH SAYINGS

　Sowing and reaping are part of the natural law which I wish was accepted by more people. It is in the cultivation of the fruits of the earth that you learn how inexorable are the laws of the Great Spirit. He who lives close to the soil and sees the operation of nature's law begins to appreciate the divine handiwork and realise something of the Mind which has planned all in its orderly sequence.

　That which is garnered is that which has been sown. The seed is always true to type. You cannot sow the seed of a potato and expect that a lettuce will grow. Always what has been sown will follow unswervingly the dictate of the natural law. And what is true in that realm of nature is equally true in the realm of human life and activity.

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　We cannot change your world overnight. There is no equivalent of the trumpet blast that will destroy the walls of today's materialistic Jericho. We have to proceed slowly by evolutionary, not revolutionary, methods, reaching one at a time. We do not want any attempts at emotional mass conversions that dissipate in the cold light of morning.

　We want souls to come into their own through self-realisation because they are convinced and know, not through knowledge obtained necessarily in books, but through the infallible knowledge that comes from within when you have strengthened the link that binds you to the Great Spirit and realise that you are part of an endless spiritual chain.

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　If saintliness could be achieved without difficulty, it would not have any value. If those who sin could, by the recital of some words, banish the consequence of their selfishness, divine justice would become a mockery and certainly worse than its human counterpart.

　Spiritual attainment is a long, slow, difficult path. As the pilgrim embarks on it, he leaves behind many familiar landscapes and journeys more and more into the unknown. But, as compensation, which is part of the natural law, he begins to have the warmth and beauty, the nobility and lustre, the grandeur and divinity of the spirit as part of his natural accompaniment. This is the law of compensation in action.

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　Nature, which is a reflection of the Great Spirit's handi-work, cannot be hastened, neither can the unfoldment of life as expressed through physical bodies. There must be a balance in order to have harmony. What you will get, as time goes on, is an increasing process of attunement, a growing awareness of the presence of those who are linked with you in the task you are performing..

　This depends on your own spiritual growth, so that you can achieve a merging and fusion of your being with others in our world. It is hard to explain because it is a spiritual process, not a physical one. The attributes of the spirit have to be expressed and unfold slowly, naturally and in orderly fashion. As they do so, increasing awareness comes.

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　My appeal is always to reason and common sense. If I say anything that makes your reason revolt or insults your intelligence, discard it. You should not accept any utterance from your world or mine that does not appeal to you. I can-

not make plain to you matters of spiritual import that require an understanding of conditions beyond earth in order to be more fully appreciated.

　I have never witnessed anything that is not in accordance with divine law, divine love, divine wisdom and divine justice. As progress is eternal you cannot see the whole picture. You have some knowledge and on that base you must build a faith that is reasonable, not one that is in-credulous.

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　You cannot have instant mediumship. Your world is always anxious for short cuts to everything. But there are no short cuts to spiritual attainment. Soul growth is neces-sarily slow, but it is sure. The soul cannot grow and achieve its next stage of development until it is ready to do so.

　You are on the right road, which is all that matters. Allegiance to truth wins through in the end. No matter how hostile the enemy, vigorous the opposition or tenacious the vested interest, truth breaks through. The battle is slowly but surely being won. It is not a uniform progress, but once the battle is won it can never be lost, or have to be fought again.

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　You are concerned with healing because this gift has been developed in you. Your responsibility is to be as pure an instrument as you can for the power of the spirit to flow through you. You are not responsible for what the patient does. You cannot say whether or not you will achieve success, either with his body, mind, or in touching his soul. This is outside your province. You offer yourself in service and those who use you will do the best they can to help the ones who are brought to you for healing.

  Do not worry about what happens to patients. That is their responsibility. They have their supreme chance when they cross your threshold. Serve them is all that you are asked to do. You cannot lift the burden from everybody's shoulders. It is their burden, they have placed it there and they must remove it. This is not said in any spirit of asperity or harshness, but to state a literal truth.

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 As our teaching grows in your world, it will mean the end of separateness between peoples. It will mean the end of national barriers, race distinctions, class distinctions, colour distinctions and all the distinctions between churches and chapels, temples, mosques and synagogues. All will learn they have a part to play in the Great Spirit's truth and that the part enshrined in the heart of every other religion in no way contradicts that portion which is precious to them.

　So, out of apparent confusion, the divine pattern will take shape, and harmony and peace will come. What we teach fits in with all the noble and elevated ideas that have come to the visions of reformers, saints, seers and idealists who have striven in every age to render service.

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　The secret of life is to be found in the

proper exercise of the spirit, mind and body. It is wrong to dwell only on the spirit and ignore the responsibilities of the body. It is equally wrong and foolish to concentrate on the body and ignore the responsibilities of the spirit. You must learn to establish concert, rhythm, harmony, balance and wholeness. Then you are at peace with the Great Spirit, with the world and with everybody in it and, most important of all, with your-self.

　This is because you are fulfilling yourself. You are allowing the Great Spirit to manifest in your life. What you need will be supplied. The incorruptible, untarnishable, jewels of the spirit once gained can never dwindle or be lost.

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　Man and woman are complementary to one another. Each has qualities the other lacks. When there is perfect harmony, when two halves make one whole, there, indeed is the fulness of the great plan expressed. In too many cases the coming together of two souls on earth does not achieve this fulness. The union is not actuated by that great power which alone is capable of uniting two souls in one eternal bond.

　Love is the greatest force. Love works wonders that no other power can achieve. Love desires no ill for its beloved or anybody else. The true marriage, the enduring marriage, is when two souls are in harmony.

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　We receive, day after day, the misfits, the derelicts, the outcasts, the flotsam and jetsam, the millions who come here unprepared, unready, unequipped and who have to learn all over again. Instead of passing to our world a stream of evolved souls ready to take up the tasks that await them, there come millions who have to be treated and nursed and tended because they are like bruised little children.

　This is why it is so important that man should receive truth, for with truth to guide him he cannot fail. Truth will bring understanding, peace and love. With love in his heart there is no problem that cannot be solved. All the problems confronting the leaders of mankind today would fade away if truth, wisdom, knowledge and love were to rule and guide humanity.

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　There is no new truth. Truth is truth. There is knowledge which depends upon the individual being ready to receive it. When you are children you are taught according to your capacity to assimilate. You begin with the letters of your alphabet and, as the mind grows, you are taught to make words and read. Gradually the knowledge contained in the printed word becomes accessible to you.

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大地が〝実り〟を産み出していく自然の営みの中に、神の摂理がいかに不変絶対であるかの教訓を読み取るべきです。大地に親しみ、大自然の摂理の働きを身近に見ておられる方なら、大自然の仕組みのすばらしさに感心し、秩序整然たる因果関係の営みの中に、そのすべてを計画した宇宙の大精神、すなわち神の御心をいくばくかでも悟られるはずです。

　蒔いたタネが実りをもたらすのです。タネは正直です。トマトのタネを蒔いてレタスができることはありません。蒔かれた原因（たね）は大自然の摂理に正直に従ってそれなりの結果（みのり）をもたらします。自然界ついて言えることは人間界についてもそのまま当てはまります。

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