TO LIVE IN HARMONY

　What people in your world do not understand is the tremendous potency of love. Love is the greatest power in the universe. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is the obverse side of the coin of life. If there were no divine love there would be no life in the universe. Life exists in its multitudinous forms only because divine love is responsible for its creation. Where there is true human love it is a reflection of divine love. It has in essence, though not of course to the same degree, all the aspects of divine love

　Thus where there is love that cements two beings, and one is parted from the other by the death of the physi-cal body, it acts as the attracting, magnetic, pulsating power. It enables the one in our world to break through all the difficulties and to make the conditions such that they can manipulate the atmosphere around you to ensure that what is best for you spiritually shall be accomplished. And what is best for you spiritually in the end is best for you materially.

　At one circle a young medium commented: "People use the word 'love' like a parrot, but they do not love. People, like yourself, come back with so much knowledge. But those who read it do not always act on it. There is something lacking which I do not understand." The reply came:

　It means they have a lot to learn. Sometimes I think the word "love" is the most misused one in your world. Love is expressed in service, mercy, goodness, compassion, kindliness. Love means helping wherever you can. Love means forgetting self. Love seeks nothing for itself but only to redeem itself by serving others. All you can do is to set the example and hope that others may follow.

　I am always grateful for love. Love is what we offer your world. When on earth love replaces hatred, compas-sion drives out cruelty, and mercy and tolerance are the natural outlook of the majority, then you will have rid your planet of many of those foul excrescences that erode all the time.

　If there were love, the blots, stains, cancers and all the foul things in your world would be abolished. Greed, avarice and selfishness, all the products of materialism, are respons-ible for the violence, ugliness and squalor that unfortunately are too rampant in your world. That is why we strive to enunciate these spiritual truths and principles which, if put into practice, enable people to find themselves and change their lives and as a result change the world in which they live.

　There is no other way. It cannot be changed by con-version to a creed or doctrine, by legislation in parliaments,

though these can provide some amelioration to physical conditions. It can be done only through self-regeneration. Then the spirit comes into its own and its divine qualities are expressed all the time.

　A woman visitor said: "My son has married somebody who believes in women's liberation. I do not know whether that has percolated into your sphere."

　It did not have to percolate.

　This is the younger generation who have quite different ideas from ours. Do you think the present rumblings of women's liberation are perhaps the promise of something much better to come in the shape of a higher form of marriage with freedom and a higher kind of constancy, not enforced, not selfish, exclusive of love, but unselfish including others?

　Let us analyse these questions and comments, and start at the beginning. What is love? If it is selfish it is not love

because love cannot be selfish. Love of necessity means sacrifice, service, compassion, helpfulness, so it cannot be

selfish.

　As for constancy, love, when it is love, and thus an expression of divine love, must be constant. If it is not constant it ceases to be love. When you come to discuss liberation this really turns on what you believe you are to be liberated from.

　Bondage.

　If there is love there is no bondage.

　They are wrong. If there is love they cannot be bound except a willingness to be bound to one another by the natural attracting power of love. Who would want to be separated when love has joined them together? So there is no bondage where there is love. 

　Of course we favour liberation, not only for women, not only for men, not only for children, but also for the animals in your world who are in bondage. We believe in liberation because the spirit should achieve freedom wherever it can and not be held in thraldom by anything material. The body should exist only as the means of giving the fullest expression to the spirit, and liberation implies that it casts away any possible restriction.

　If there are rumblings to help to abolish bondage, slavery, thraldom, these are good because discontent over darkness, imprisonment, mental, physical or spiritual, is to be encouraged.

　Love is not physical, it is spiritual. The fact of earthly parents providing a vehicle for a soul has no eternal signifi-cance. What is eternal is the attracting power of love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. And the law is the law of the Great Spirit. So the affinity exists because there is love.

　You have assured me. Just occasionally I hear and read about affinity. I feel satisfied to know that this great love does still exist.

　You cannot destroy love because love is eternal, love is infinite. You cannot change that which is of the spirit and make it into nothing. Love will always endure.

　You do not realise the extent to which spirit power is at work ensuring that what is best for humanity on earth and all creatures who share the planet with you should have the utmost opportunities for evolving.

　The fight is not easy. Your Bible talks about the war between the powers of darkness and of light. These powers exist. Light is stronger than darkness. Light will always pierce the darkness. But there are times when the darkness is very thick and it takes longer for the light to penetrate.

　So you get weary in your struggles and ask: "What are they doing? Why don't they do something?"

　We are always doing something. But we have to deal with the foolish people in your world, some of them the worst enemies of the causes they seek to serve. The biggest obstacles are all too often people attached to move-ments and who stand in the way of their progress. 

　It has been a hard, long struggle. I know we have broken through even in the most unlikely places. We will not for one moment be deflected. Never will we in any way turn aside from the great purpose to which we have given the whole of our lives.

　I wish you were gifted with that vision that would enable you to see the plan as it is in operation. Then you would never fear. There would never be sorrow. You would know that come what may, all will be well, divinely well. The universe is directed by the infinite power of love accompanied by wisdom. Love on its own is superb, but with the corollary of wisdom this inseparable pair will achieve all that is needed.

　Keep stout hearts. Do not worry about the opposition or the foolish ones. Be sorry for them and for their missed chances. They are hurting themselves and the causes they serve. But with patience you will find they are taken out of the way.

　In the battles in which we are engaged we have to be sure of our earthly generals. We do not want officers who desert their posts in crises. We want them to stand and fight and ensure that victory is won. If you are tested in the fray, make sure that you emerge stronger. That is the whole point of the test.

　The homes in which you live are blessed by the radiance of the spirit. Within their walls dwells the power of the spirit. This is the greatest power in the universe, the power of love expressing itself in your world.

　What your world needs is so simple, love in action. It can transform lives and show how foolish are strife and fratricide, greed and jealousy. If only they will share the lavish bounty of the Great Spirit all could live in happi-ness, harmony, concord and co-operation. It is all there for them to use rightly. Man's stupidity and cupidity are the obstacles to be overcome.

　But, like everything, love has its opposite. Of hate, Silver Birch said:

　Hatred is never right. It is wrong to hate. You must love. You must even try to love those who hate you and those who would do their worst to you.

　You must love in its most compassionate form. The acme of spiritual healing, for example, is compassionate love. Without compassion healing exists only in its physical or magnetic state. With compassion the spirit power is

beginning to operate and there is love in action. This is the divine, the Great Spirit being reflected in the service that you render. We must try to supplant hatred with love because this is transforming darkness into light.

　There will always be the few, not many, through whom the love of the Great Spirit will shine. The real work is not done by the many but by the few. It is always the cranks, the pioneers and revolutionaries who have per-formed the greatest service. Work with those who are animated by the power of love and desire to manifest it in even greater measure. The Great Spirit is not in a hurry as you are. The Great Spirit has been in charge of the universe for a very long time.

　The question of hurt arose when another guest told the guide: "I have a meeting which is tremendously important and I need spiritual help. A decision has to be made." He explained that in making such a decision affecting the whole organisation, he might have to hurt one or two people, with adverse results in their everyday life. Why were we called on to make decisions of this nature? Did the spirit world understand the seriousness and responsibility entailed in such crises? Silver Birch replied: 

　The good of the many is the priority and it all depends on the motive, which is the determining factor in every action. Confronted with any situation in which decisions have to be made, you must be sure your motive is for the good of the whole or the many. And you must be still

to allow your conscience, the divine monitor, to give its unerring directive.

　After the visitor detailed the nature of the problem and the issue that involved his organisation and leading people in it, the guide said:

　We are all part of a divine plan devised by infinite intelligence. This plan is simple on the surface but very complex. Its fulfilment depends on many intricacies and subtleties, the use of delicate vibrations, the drawing together of the right people in the right place at the right time.

　In essence that plan is to ensure that the power of the spirit shall abide in your world for all time, that no person, or collection of people, should be able to banish it, as has happened in days gone by. Then the outpouring of the spirit was sporadic. Now it is here to stay in your world as its permanent possession.

　And so it has infiltrated all round your globe. In practic-ally every country there are bridgeheads where the power of the spirit has been consolidated to ensure it will provide what is so essential to your world. This plan is in operation in your land, where you and others have a responsibility to discharge, to ensure that the power of the spirit should manifest in its richest, greatest and most constructive measure.

　There will be obstacles to overcome. The powers that be are implacably determined that the outpouring of the spirit is to perform its beneficent work in this land which has been chosen to give a lead to other countries. We require human instruments to fulfil themselves, to utilise their gifts without thought of self and serve wherever they can, drying the tears of mourners, mending broken hearts, healing the sick, giving strength to the weary and guidance for those who have lost their way. This is the task.

　When the subject of jealousy arose, the spirit guide told the questioner:

　You must always feel sorry for those who have the knowledge and do not allow themselves to follow its implication in their daily lives. It is the greater sin against the spirit when you have the knowledge and you do not live in harmony with the law than when you are ignorant. It is sad, but there is nothing we can do about it. This is their responsibility.

　The Great Spirit is very wise because the natural law ensures that you are responsible for what you do and not for what anybody else does. No matter how much you love others you cannot live their lives for them. That they must do for themselves. The measure of your responsi-bility is how you acquit yourself from day to day. The law works by the immutable sequence of cause and effect. Nobody and nothing has the power to break that sequence because it is mechanical in its operation.

　Those who exhibit the faults of humanity and allow their lower natures to override their higher instincts must pay the price, just as every goodness and kindness auto-matically means they are the better as a result. Things that are worth doing cannot be easy. If they were then they would not be worth doing. 

　Asked about selfishness, the guide said there was not more now than in the past. He added:

　You are the victims of an era that is so cataclysmic it turns upside down many attitudes. You certainly have a tremendous materialism governing a large part of your world's inhabitants. There is more violence; there is even to some extent more fratricide. But that is only one part of the picture. There is much unselfishness in the service rendered by many who try to help wherever they can in diverse forms of activity to their fellows.

　The picture is not one of unrelieved blackness. There is light breaking through in many places. But those who have the knowledge must be optimistic because they are convinced the divine plan will be fulfilled. Man can delay, man can hinder, man can obstruct; but man cannot prevent the fulfilment of the plan.

　The acquisition of knowledge brings responsibility. That responsibility is to order your life in the light of the know-

ledge. We are concerned with the demonstration of the spirit as a primal reality throughout your world.

　All your troubles derive from the fact that ignorance of spirit truths leads people to pursue materialistic gospels; selfishness, exploitation, greed, lust for power, war, cruelty, all these are the antitheses of spiritual principles. 

　If you are aware of spiritual reality then you know that mercy, tolerance, compassion, service, co-operation and helping the suffering are essential. It is not enough to enjoy the beauty and richness that spiritual knowledge brings. Indeed, this can become selfish.

　The purpose is not merely for one or more individuals to retain what they have learnedt because it illumines their lives and brings them understanding. The knowledge has to be spread and applied because your world is the place where the spirit incarnates to live in conditions that will enable it to flower.

　The squalor, oppression and all the horrible actions that blacken your world cannot help in the development of the spirit of those who are at the receiving end. It is spiritually wrong to exploit your neighbour or anybody. It is wrong to inflict cruelty on others. You cannot divorce ethics and morality from spiritual principles. They are part and parcel of one and the same thing.

　To say that you are believe that you believe in God and you praise the God in song and word and regularly attend services of worship does not necessarily achieve anything spiritual. It should be the means of inspiring you to help others, so that they can live in the light and not the darkness. All the stress fron our world is directed towards helping you to perform those tasks that will make earth a better place for those who dwell in it. No, the two go together. There are no watertight compart-ments.

　There may be some good in people living in mountain fastnesses and practising various exercises of meditation and attunement. It increases their awareness. But it is more important that people should end cruelty. Suffering there always will be. But needless suffering deliberately inflicted by man, that is not part of the divine plan.

　Since some might see selfishness as, for want of a better word, sin, here are the guide's views on that human failing. Faced with the problem, "When is an earthly sin not a spiritual one and how would the spirit world describe it?" Silver Birch explained:

　This depends on your codes of ethics and morality which vary from country to country in your world. What is regarded as immoral in one land is not so in another. There are sins, for example, so labelled by varying religious bodies that are not sinful. They are views and actions of people whom they consider have transgressed views which they uphold.

　It all hinges on the definition of what you regard as a sin. I would say sin is that which does harm to the sinner and to others. Sin is something that demeans the person who does it and injures others. There are sins of envy, greed, jealousy, and those performing evil actions. A sin must be something that is the reverse of giving a service.

　Would you agree with the definition of sin in the New Testa-ment that sin is lawlessness, anything which breaks spiritual law?

　Yes, if it is an attempt to contravene a spiritual law then it is a sin. But if it is an attempt to defy a man-made law then it is not necessarily a sin. There are people who are tied together in marriage in your world who are not spiritual partners for one another. From the standpoint of the spirit this could be a sin if they hurt one another. It all depends on how you view the problem. If you main-tain spiritual standards, there is no difficulty in finding the answers.

　Do you on the Other Side accept there is sin?

　Oh yes, transgression of natural law is sin.

　You always said you prefer the word "mistakes."

　Often it is the result of ignorance rather than deliberate action. But the number of wicked people in your world is comparatively small compared with the vast population. You must be very careful not to become too condemnatory because there are very minor faults that people have. If you hate people you are sinning. I think the issue is very simple. Anything which offends your conscience is contrary to the spiritual law.

　You do not first have to commit sins before you can evolve. You are imperfect physical beings in an imperfect physical world. The object of your existence is to allow the innate divinity, which is latent perfection, gradually to express itself. As it does so, the imperfections soon begin to fall away and you embark on the path of infinite progress. You do not have deliberately to plunge into the depths in order to rise. You have enough imperfections before doing that.

　Sin is an action that harms the one who does it and its receiver. More often than not, it is unconscious sinning, not deliberate, but due to ignorance, temper or haste. Instead of self-control, the individual loses his composure. He thinks, says and does things which in calmer moments of reflection he will regret.

　The greatest sin is always to hurt people, not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. Always you should try to help wherever you can. If your help is rejected, then be sorry for the one who had the chance and turned it down.

　A circle member interjected, "But you have said this is the earthly school where we make mistakes."

　You make mistakes many times and learn from them, if you are wise enough not to repeat them. It is through making mistakes that you learn. It is from falling down that you pick yourself up. It is not the mistakes that are so terrible, because they will help you. What is bad and wrong is to deny others what you can give them, to behave

unjustly and uncharitably. Do good wherever you can, that is the object of your existence.

　When antagonism and injustice were mentioned, Silver Birch told his questioners:

　Antagonism and hostility are the children of ignorance. They are irrational. Sometimes they are due to fear. At other times they are the result of what you call brain-washing. Minds have become polluted and are unable to reason apart from a set, predetermined course based on teaching given when they were too young to resist. 

　You must be sorry for them. How sad it is to see millions of people in your world living in darkness when they could be in the light. Why should so many prefer ignorance to knowledge, superstition to truth?

　It is sad for them because the whole purpose of their being on earth is to have a spiritual awakening, to achieve awareness and, as a result, to have the guide lines that will enable them to live so that they do not waste their earthly years, and are ready for the next stage of their eternal existence when death comes to them as it must to all.

　If you meet with antagonism, just pray for help that you may be given the words which can help those who alas have not yet found the rich jewel of truth which you possess. And if you can help them, then your meeting has not been in vain. If you cannot help them it means they are not ready. And when the soul is not ready there is nothing you can do.

　I always tell my friends that what is expected is to do the best you can. You are human beings with imperfections that have to be outworked gradually until you eliminate them. But this is a long task and will not be achieved in one earthly existence.

　In your world there is so much injustice and inequality. Some have too much, some have too little. Some find their path easy to travel. For others it is difficult and full of stones that make it harder. But this is the reason why you incarnate into earth so that through the variety of experi-ences it can offer, you can develop your spiritual nature to its greatest possible degree.

　If could see with spiritual eyes, you would realise that it is better to have an earth life with problems and hardships, with adversity and struggle, because all these are challenges to the soul and enable it to express more of its latent divinity. If you could see with spiritual eyes, you would be sorry for those who live only on the surface where all things appear materially well, with no problems to irk them.

　Yet so perfect is the natural law that a balance is struck, not often in your world because it is not possible, but when the soul leaves earth and takes up its life in the world that you call Beyond. Really it is a part of one unfolding life. There are no lines of demarcation between the life

in your world and in ours. Life, the essence, is spirit, not matter.

　What I am trying to tell you is that you have much to make you rejoice. The trials, tests, difficulties and prob-lems are all part of the soul's pilgrimage. In the fullness of time it is travail that helps the soul to unfold, not lotus-eating, not tasting to the full all that matter and sense have to offer. The law of compensation will, because it must, fulfil itself.

　The whole purpose of earthly life is to make mistakes and learn from them, to fall and pick yourself up, to meet the daily adventure, to realise always that you are a spirit with a body, and that what is most important is the effect on the spirit, to get your priorities right and to hold on to the fundamentals.

　You come to earth to enrich the soul, so that through the widest possible gamut of experiences it develops, unfolds and grows in stature and strength, and exhibits at the end of your earthly life more of the latent divinity than when you began. That is what it is all about.

　Too many people, even with a little knowledge, think of themselves as bodies with spirits and their focus is all wrong. If the spirit is right, the body will be right. If the spirit fails to find the expression which is its natural mani-festation, then the body will suffer.

　But if you live your life aright, and you are in harmony with the natural laws controlling the spirit, mind and body,

then you achieve not only health but the realisation that you are firmly placed on the path which is yours to tread. It will lead you into growing awareness and attainment. This is the purpose of being.

　Frustrations are part of the system. You cannot exist without checks and restraints. Occasionally you can be inspired to move forward. There are other times when, for your own sake, you must be held back. But the law is perfect and always fulfils itself, ensuring that each soureceives exactly its due.

　The great difficulty is you become so immersed in material things that you forget the eternal, spiritual prin-ciples on which all life is based. When you are harassed, frustrated or impatient, because you cannot achieve what you desire, you fail to see that the most important is what happens to the real you and not the body.

　For those who have work to do there cannot be any primrose path or a bed of roses. The most beautiful roses have thorns to protect them.

　So there it is, action and reaction, progress and retro-gression, all part and parcel of the natural law to ensure that you move according to the stage of evolution you have reached.

　But you have found, as have many others, that what has been of inestimable help is the knowledge of spiritual realities that you attained in the years gone by. These always provide a solid foundation, so that when the winds blow, the storms rage and the clouds obscure the sun, you know that you receive all possible help. I wish that many more could have this knowledge.

　At another circle meeting, a visitor admitted that despite "all the knowledge, the wonderful evidence and the love which surrounds us, things go wrong. I seem to slip back into depression." What could be done to avoid it? Silver Birch advised her: 

　Stop being depressed. There is for every soul a time when it experiences loneliness, however close others may be, but do not allow depression to secure any hold over you With the knowledge you have there is nothing to fear in your world or in mine.

　You have the evidence of being surrounded by love. This love will sustain, guard and guide you all the time. It is not always easy when you are immersed in the material problems and difficulties of earthly life. I am familiar with them. I have worked close to your world for a long time.

　But I would be failing in my duty if I did not reiterate that all these are ephemeral, transient. You have within you the power that belongs to the armoury of the spirit on which you can call when physical strength seems absent. You can always withdraw into the silence of the soul and allow this inner strength to surge through your being. And it will always be accompanied by the radiance of love from our world. It requires discipline, which is always good for you. You will come through all right, as you have done. If you have any doubts, cast your mind back and see how you have been helped. Because of that, know that you will be helped whatever the morrows bring for you.

　Loneliness was also discussed after the question, "Why are some people left entirely alone in this world?" Silver Birch

explained:

　Often because they have chosen that as being necessary for their soul's evolution. But physical loneliness does not mean there is also spiritual loneliness. If awareness could be developed and latent talents expressed, then everyone who is physically lonely would be conscious of the many things surrounding them. They would know

that many are bound to them by ties of love, affection, friendship or kinship.

　A circle member said, "So, in effect, nobody is left entirely alone in the world."

　No, the natural law is such, as you have heard me say many times, that nobody in your world is overlooked, forgotten, neglected or outside the scheme of its operation. The natural law is comprehensive. There is no individual,

no animal, no form of life that is outside the control of natural law. Everything is true to its pattern. Everything unfolds according to the law of its growth. The natural law is perfect. The natural law fulfils itself. The natural law ensures that the will of the Great Spirit must prevail.

　This led another circle member to comment on what was involved in physical and spiritual loneliness. The guide said:

　This is a matter for comparison. You can have a lonely person in a vast multitude. You can have spiritual loneliness because the soul is treading the path towards self-mastery and attainment which means automatically divorcing it from others. It depends how you interpret loneliness. Physical loneliness means being bereft of the companion-ship of others. Spiritual loneliness can be an ideal worthy

of attainment.

　You cannot help when they are not ready. This is one of the saddest of all experiences, that those who are spiritually deaf or blind cannot be helped because they are not open to receive it. You must bide your time until the thick wall that surrounds them can begin to be penetrated by a crack, however small.

　Such individuals must experience a crisis, perhaps an illness or some form of suffering which will touch the soul. This brings the beginning of an understanding that matter is not all, but only the semblance worn by reality. You cannot give anything to those who are not ready to receive it.

　But none in your world is denied the opportunity of receiving truth and understanding. At some stage that

opportunity will present itself. The Great Spirit has not overlooked them. They are spirit in essence even though they are unaware of that fact. As part of the plan there will come some chance so that they can become aware. It is possible they will fail. In that case it is very sad for they have missed the purpose of earthly life.

　A circle member pointed out that as people get very old they were more likely to lose earthly relatives and friends. How were they to blame for being lonely? The guide insisted: 

　You cannot judge purely by the material aspect because you are unaware of the spiritual considerations involved. What is best for them still may be to endure that loneliness because it is the only way they can learn the lesson for which they incarnated into earth.

　Frequently, Silver Birch has been asked about problems and difficulties. None of us can escape them. But here the guide puts life's trials and tribulations into perspective. His composite comments are taken from various circles.

　Sometimes in earthly life you have to dwell in the shadows. When that happens remember it is part, not the whole. The shadow exists because it is cast by the light of the sun which is there even when you cannot see it.
　Shadows are ephemeral. They do not last. In due course they dissolve and fade and allow the light to illumine your being. Hold on to all the knowledge that has been given to you, to the foundation on which you can always build and face the problems that inevitably arise in your world.

　It is not possible to have an earthly existence freed from problems, difficulties or troubles because that is why you are born into your world. What is important is the way you face them and call on the indwelling, latent divinity to provide the strength to find the solutions and draw you to do what is right.

　When you make a link with our world it cannot be broken. It opens a channel through which the power of the spirit reaches you. And in that form of transmission there is all that is necessary for the well-being of your spirit, mind and body.

　You all know it, but you do not practise it. You allow yourselves to become bogged down by the problems of your world which require attention, by the cares that beset you, and give them a magnified existence that is not real. Everything physical is only the pale reflection, the shadow of the spiritual reality.

　Matter of itself has no existence. Matter exists because it is activated by the spirit. Spirit is life and the power you receive is exactly the same as the life force. You are partakers in the process of creation. If you live aright, and think aright, you can share in all the infinite bounty that the spirit has to offer.

　By ordering your lives in harmony with this knowledge you automatically have at your disposal everything that is essential for your well-being, spiritually, mentally and physically. It is the thought that is wrong in allowing the physical things to predominate too much.

　I am not suggesting you should disregard your obliga-tions to the world in which you live, or to the physical body through which you express yourself. But if your thought is right, and you achieve the harmony and concord as a result, then all you require must come to you.

　That is why you are on earth, so that you can triumph over all that is negative and be spiritually stronger as a result. I am not saying this is easy. It is difficult. But the attainment of spiritual values cannot be easy because it involves a rigorous mental training so that your perspective and focus are always correct.

　There are times when purely physical weaknesses militate against your achieving the right balance. But you can conquer them by calling on the inner power that is yours. There is nothing stronger than the divinity within your spiritual armoury that has all the weapons to fight against anything that is negative.

　This is what we try to teach and instil into your minds, so that your attitude to all that life brings you is the right one, and that spiritually you are the better for whatever have to encounter. There will always be problems while you are on earth, because your world is where you learn your lessons. And to learn them they sometimes have to contain difficulties for you to master.

　Welcome the challenges that earth has to offer. I can say without fear of contradiction that I know of no case　where those who have served have been forgotten and lack the necessities of earthly life.

　It is not when life is rosy that the soul grows. It is only when facing the challenge that it has the opportunity to exhibit its latent divinity and strength, so that these can rise to the surface and help you to grow in mental stature and in spiritual grace. And that is the important thing which matters in your life.

　If the whole of your earthly existence was one long monotone where all was easy, then would accomplish nothing. Your souls would be stunted for lack of expression and unable to grow. Nature does not favour inertia. You cannot do nothing and evolve.

　When you experience problems, troubles, crises, diffi-culties and hardships, as inevitably you must, pause, reflect, and let the power of the spirit show the way and give you the chance to turn them to your spiritual advantage.

　You might say it is very easy for me to preach this gospel because I do not have to experience these conditions. But I am very familiar with them, not only having experi-enced them on earth, but also by virtue of the fact that I have to work closely with those I love and know what they must undergo. So keep a stout heart and maintain your usual, confident, radiant cheerfulness.

　We are aware of prevailing circumstances. If you do not worry us and make the path more difficult by thoughts of fear and agitation, then it is easier for us to come to you. Grief is bad for you and for the one who has left you and come to our world. Worry is bad for you. It blocks the

channel by which help can come.

　The soul who knows should be calm, sure, certain that at the right time the way will be shown. You are never left alone. Sometimes it is necessary as part of your spiritual development that you must face a situation where you have to make a choice. Then we stand back to see whether you will turn to the left or the right, or go straight on. We can tell by what you do whether like good children you have learned your lessons, or like bad children have not done so.

　But it is only in the darkness that you find light. It is only in sorrow that you can find joy. It is only when all seems lost that you can find the way. It is only when the world of matter has nothing to offer that the power of the spirit can step in and show there is a rich bounty awaiting you.

　As low materially as it seems sometimes people can sink, so correspondingly high can they as spiritual beings rise, so that there is ample compensation for all the experi-ences they have undergone. Were it not for the dark daysーthis is a euphemism because they were weeks, months and yearsーyou would not have become aware of the gifts of the spirit which you have utilised to serve others and help them as you have been helped.

　You can look back and see where the signpost of the spirit has pointed the way for you and brought you into a haven where there is peace within and an understanding so that you are aware of what you have still to achieve.

　I cannot tell you that earthly life is very easy for you because that would not be true. But difficulties are challenges to unfolding souls. As you meet them with the resolution born of knowledge you conquer them and increase in stature as a result. You have nothing to fear as to what the morrow will bring. At any time you can look back to the past, not to dwell on its too often unhappy associa-tions, but just to see how you have been guided when it seemed no such direction was possible.

　We are all blessed because we have had the benediction of the spirit. The influx of this power into our lives is the greatest blessing that any can have. I can only urge you to go forward, to greet each new morning as the oppor-tunity for serving and equipping your true self with the armoury it requires to do the battle of earthly living.

　Leave the easy road for those who have no spiritual attainment in front of them. The hard road is for those who seek spiritual mastery and all the riches that accompany it. The prizes of the spirit are not for those who seek easy pathways. Were they so, the prizes would not be worth having.

　It is better to fight a battle and to win than not to be engaged in any combat. It is only in the struggle that the soul comes into its own and its many latent qualities have the opportunity of expressing some of their innate divinity.

　Natural law is an immutable sequence of cause and effect. There are no chances, no coincidences. The question of unfairness can never arise. The Great Spirit is perfect love and perfect wisdom. Justice is always ultimately meted out so that none escapes the divine ordinances.

　Whatever circumstance comes to you is challenge. The soul possesses, because of its divine origin. power and energy to meet the challenge, to overcome it and to emerge stronger as a result. You should always welcome the challenge of circumstance and refuse to be pessimistic or to complain. With the knowledge you possess you can face every day with inner exaltation because there is nothing that can harm your eternal soul.

　The greatest souls have to endure the hardest earthly existence. Greatness of soul cannot be achieved without being tested and purified, without the true mettle of the spirit being able to be shown in all its beauty, radiance and splendour. Difficulties are good for the soul and sometimes also for the body. They constitute the challenge to call on latent strength to come to the surface. Thus the individual grows, develops, unfolds and the divinity becomes more manifest.

　It is the law of compensation and retribution. The law of polarity is at work. There is always redress for whatever

happens in your world, just as automatically there is always the advance for anything you have achieved spirit-ually.

　Earth life is a school where you come to learn your lessons. If they are easy you are not educated. So you must have difficulties. Only in mastering difficulties do you become truly educated in mind and spirit. If you fail to conquer hardship you have lost an opportunity for spiritual development. There is no circumstance,

no hardship, no obstacle so strong that you do not possess the inner power to surmount it. Whether you call it into being is entirely for you.

　One of the objects of hardship, difficulty, ill-health, bereavement and suffering is to awaken the soul to its possibilities and to allow it to begin to unfold. If earthly life were easy and everyone were materially rich and had no problems, then spiritually you would be puny weaklings. The balance must be struck. It is never part of our teaching to neglect the duties and requirements of your physical bodies. But it is equally true that you must tend your spirit as well. Both are necessary on earth.

　Alas for those who cannot distinguish between the material and the spiritual. You can struggle, have difficulties and battle, but you can still have tranquillity and peace. You can face all the battles of your world and still have inner peace because you know they cannot touch you. Peace does not come from without but from within. If people in your world would only realise the armoury of the spirit with which they are equipped. They could use all this tremendous power within to help them learn to retire and cultivate the fruits of the spirit which bring tranquillity, poise, calmness and peace.

　Of the great souls who live in your world, and achieve most for it with their reforms and pioneering, many have inner peace though the battle be strong and the opposition difficult. Do not equate physical happenings with spiritual principles. Spirit is master and matter is servant. Let the spirit show its mastery.

　Asked if he agreed that "sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind," Silver Birch said:

　The next two-part question was: "Is there any point at which apparent cruelty no longer matters? Would any purpose be served by, say, taking a snail from a thrush?"

　There is no point where cruelty has a purpose to serve, where those responsible for perpetrating it are concerned. When you come to the animal kingdom you are con-fronted with the operation of different laws which, though they are part of the same whole, operate in a fashion that is designed to allow nature to fulfil itself.

　The snail and the thrush are part of nature which, left to its own devices, will ensure that the balance is always struck. If you consider that you should remove the snail then do so. But it does not lie within your province to remove all the snails from all the thrushes. What cannot be excused, and carries within itself the seeds of its own punishment, is the needless cruelty perpetrated by humans on one another and on animals.