"A LITTLE CHILD SHALL ..."

　TWO little children sat on the knees of Silver Birch's medium and talked with the spirit as though he were a lifelong friend. They agreed to ignore the adults in the circle, and the questions and answers from the beloved guide made for the children a picture of the spirit world of great beauty.

　These children, Ruth, a girl of eight, and Paul, a boy of six, had prepared a list of questions that the guide had forecast would be harder to answer than most of the problems put to him by grown-ups. It was the first time they had seen anyone being entranced, but it had been explained to them that the medium would go to sleep and that the guide would take possession of his body.

　As the medium was overshadowed their bright eyes were fixed on his face as though they could see a change coming over it. Later, when they asked him how he looked, Silver Birch asked them to stand back a little and watch while he transfigured the medium's face. The change in appearance was striking.

　"You are different from the medium!” said the little boy.

　"You are beautiful!” said his sister, who declared almost as soon as the guide began with his blessing: “What a beautiful voice you have!" To her that was most important, for she forms estimates of character by voices.

　What was the purpose of the sitting? It was at the request of the guide that it was held, for he has repeatedly told the parents of the children that the girl is very psychic and has explained that she must be watched carefully for her powers would soon begin to manifest. He has even forecast the first spirit she will see.

　"Oh, Great White Spirit,” said the guide in his invocation, "may we be able to approach Thec with the simplicity of the child's heart and mind and learn those great truths that are revealed only to those who have the perfect trust of children in a loving and all-wise Parent. May we learn to approach Thee without fear, knowing that Thou art perfect wisdom and love and kindness."

　When the guide had asked the little ones to sit, one on each knee, with his head nestling against theirs, he said to them:    "I have brought some real fairies for you to play with, and I am going to leave them with you so that they will watch over your beds all through the night and keep you company,

　"I am going to try to make you see them, for they are real fairies, not out of books, but out of the fairy kingdom. We will not talk to the big children tonight; we will pretend they are not there. You know, I often come to play with you and bring my own little wigwam.”

　"What is a wigwam?" asked Paul.

　"You call it a tent," the guide replied. "When I lived on earth as an Indian I lived in a wigwam."

　"You have such a beautiful voice, and I can hear you so easily,” said Ruth.

　"This is my voice and not the voice of my medium.   I make it specially."

　"How do you talk in spirit land?" was her next question.

　"We don't speak. We send our thoughts out to each other on little wings, and they fly quickly through space carried by the stars. And then we receive other thoughts in reply, so that we do not have to find words. When we have a beautiful picture in our minds we can send it at once. We have so many beautiful things here; many more than you haveーtrees and flowers and birds and streams. Whenever we want a beautiful picture we can make it immediately for ourselves. We can make everything we need."

　Then the girl asked whether the guide would help a neigh-bour who had passed that week and who had been aided by Silver Birch and his band during an illness that invariably ends in great pain. She asked that the two children left behind should be cared for by the Great Spirit. The guide said he had already helped and would look after them.

　"Will he be a great spirit like you?" asked Paul.

　"Yes, but it will take some time—a few hundred years."

　"That is a long time," was Ruth's comment.

　"Does it seem a long time to you? No, you get used to it, and then even a long time seems like a little time," the spirit replied.

　"How long is it since you were born?" was her next question.

　"I have been in the spirit world nearly 3,000 yearsーand I am still very young.

　"I don't call that very young," she said, and added: "When we die will we become spirits?"

　"You are little spirits growing up to become big spirits."

　"But we are not the same as you," Paul said.

　"We are all children of the Great Spirit you call God, and as all the little parts of the Great Spirit are linked together we are one family of the spirit.”

　"God must be very big," was the boy's next comment.

　"He is as big as the whole wide world. And there is much that you cannot see.''

　"But did God make the Great Spirit?" was his next question.

　"He did not make it, for God is the Great Spirit Who is always there.''

　"Does He ever come to earth?” Ruth inquired.

　"Yes, He comes to earth every time a baby is born, for then He puts a part of Himself into it.”

　When the children said that they were glad they believed in spirits, the guide replied that they were very lucky children. "You are fortunate,” he said, “because you know you are surrounded by the light and love from those who have passed from your world to mine. They are protecting you always."

　"Is your world bigger than ours?" was Ruth's next question.

　"Yes. It is much, much bigger and it contains many more beautiful things than you have in your worldーsuch beautiful colours, such wonderful music, such great big trees, and flowers and birds and animals."

　"Do you have any animals?" Paul asked.

　"We have animals, but they are not wild."

　The boy then said: “I don't expect you kill them as you used to when you were on earth."

　"We don't kill anything at all."

　"Do you get hungry?” he asked.

　"No, never, because we are surrounded always by life, and when we get a little tired, we just breathe in more life. When you go up to your little bed at night you stand up and breathe in air, and when you do that you also breathe in life.”

　Then the children talked about not being able to remember their life in the spirit world, and they added that it seemed like their first life on earth because they could not remember any other existence.

　Ruth next asked: "How many lives do we have?"

　"You have as many lives as a cat. You know that in your world a cat is said to have nine lives.”

　"And then does it change into something else?" was the boy's eager query.

　"No, a cat is always a cat, but it becomes a more beautiful cat, just as little children coming from your world into mine grow more beautiful the longer they are here. We have no ugliness, no cruelty, no darkness, no fear in our world, which is always a land of sunshine."

　This puzzled Paul. "No rain! No rain!" he said.   " But if we don't have rain in our world we die."

　"But your world is very small. It is only the beginning of life. There are lots of other worlds. There are other worlds in the stars and in the planets where other children live."

　Ruth then surprised her hearers with these words: “In Psychic News, it says 'All Worlds Are One'” (a reference to a weekly heading of comments in Psychic News).

　"That is true, but you must know that there are millions and millions of worlds, and there are millions and millions of children, and they are all children of the Great Spirit. They are all one in the Great Spirit, and He is in all."

　"Are you tired of speaking?" she then asked.

　"No, no. I can speak for a long time yet."

　"When shall I see with my spirit eyes, if I have them?" was her next question.

　"You have spirit eyes and ears, hands and fingers, and legs with spirit toes, for you have another bodyーthat is the body of the spirit. You can see with your spirit eyes now, but you do not remember what you see while you are in the little physical body you have now. But gradually you will be able to catch what you have seen and hold it.'

　"Will my spirit eyes be ever so big?" she asked.

　"It does not matter, for the eyes of the spirit can see ever so far.''

　"Can they see right over the world?'' Paul inquired.

　"They are very like a telescope which can bring distant things into the range of your vision.''

　Like a bolt from the blue came the boy's next question: "Is there going to be another war?"

　"There is always a little war going on, but you don't have to worry about it. You have to think of peace and send the thought from your little mind out into the great world stream of peace and swell its note so that all men in their hearts will desire peace and that will help them to push war away.”

　Then Ruth asked: "When can I see you properly?''

　"You will have to wait a little. You see us very often, but you do not remember. When you go to sleep I take you by the spirit hands. Both of you leave your little earthly bodies aslecp on your beds and we travel in my world and we have such wonderful adventures. But when you get back to your body you forget them. You just say what a funny dream I have had."

　"But I don't know where I have been," declared Ruth.

　Here Paul said: "Sometimes I don't have dreams at all."

　"I think you do, but you forget them."

　"When you go to the spirit world, do you forget?" asked the girl.

　"Yes, the longer you are in the spirit world, the harder it is to reinember what happened in your world."

　Then unexpectedly the boy said: “I wonder why men kill animals."

　"Because they have not yet learned it is wrong."

　"Some men feed animals just to kill them,” Ruth re-marked.

　"You try to live without eating animals,” said the guide.

　"It is cruel to kill animals and eat them,” was Paul's contribution.

　"It is always wrong to kill anything. Never kill at all."

　"Can you speak to people when the medium is not there?" was his next question.

　"Oh, yes. I spoke to Swaffer when he went to America though my medium was in this country.”

　"How nice it must be in the spirit world!” said the girl.

　"It is very, very nice. We have nothing that is ugly or dark or miserable. We have such beauty, such splendour."

　Still fascinated by the spirit's voice Ruth said: “You really have a beautiful voice, I think," while her brother chimed in with: “I think it is rather unusual."

　Then the children, as though they were talking to a play-mate, went on to talk like little philosophers that it was a good thing people had different voices, the boy remarking that if we were all the same it would be a very dull world.

　The guide broke in to say that though we were all different we were also all the same, because we were all parts of the Great Spirit. Some people, he said, had big spirits in little bodies, and some had big bodies with little spirit.

　That gave the boy the idea for his next question, for he asked if there were any dwarfs in the spirit world. Silver Birch explained that there were none in his world, but when they came from the earth they began to grow up.

　Then after the girl had asked whether all spirit guides were the same, and whether they were all the same as he, Silver Birch asked them to stand back while he transfigured his instrument's features, so that they could see the difference between the face of the medium and his guide.

　Later they told the grown-ups that the guide had a longer face than the medium, and that he had a sharp chin, while the medium had a round one. The girl said that while the change was taking place she saw a light shining from the medium's face.

　When they returned to his knees, the boy, usually very shy, said as he nestled in the guide's arms: "I love you."

　In answer Silver Birch said: "The Great Spirit is full of such loveーsuch love as there is between us.'

　"I hope I shall always believe in spirits all my life," said Ruth.

　"You will," answered the guide.

　The boy asked whether the fairies brought by the guide were all of one colour.

　"Some are green, some are yellow, some are blue and some are of colours you have not even heard of,” was the reply. "Try to have a look at them just before you go to sleep. They will be with you all night. I will leave them to watch over you while you sleep.

　"And now," said the guide, “I want to tell you something before I go. In a very short while, I travel away from this world of yours and I go back into the spheres to be at a great festival we hold at Christmas. There many spirit guides come together and we are spoken to by one.you call Jesus, a great lover of children."

　Here the guide's moving words were broken off by the little boy who wanted to know if heaven was in the sky.

　"No," answered the spirit. "It is here around you, though you cannot see it with a telescope, nor with your earthly eyes.”

　He went on with his talk. "And when I have left your world just before Christmas I will meet Jesus and I will tell him that I know two little children on earth, one named Ruth and the other named Paul, and I will give Jesus their love."

　He continued by describing the festival. "The guides meet, having left their mediums behind," he said. "We take counsel and learn of the things we have done and tried to do. We get a new outlook, and perhaps new wisdom, perhaps even more love and faith and power to take to your world when we continue our work."

　Almost like a shot came the question of the boy: "What is wisdom?"

　"It is what you know," was the answer, almost as though the question had been anticipated.

　Placing a hand on each little head the guide, whose words had struck wonder into the grown-ups and made them silent listeners of the free, frank and loving talk between a great soul and two children, left them with this blessing:

　"I bless you in the name of the Great White Spirit Who is love and wisdom and beauty and truth. I pray that you will retain through the whole of your earthly life that simplicity which enables you to be in the kingdom of heaven now. I pray that you will respond to the influence that is now round and about you and that you will become instruments of the Great Power we seek to serve."

　Now it was the little girl who asked: "Where is heaven?" and drew an answer that brought tears to the eyes of the sitters.

　"Heaven is in your hearts when you are happy," Silver Birch declared.

　"It is not in your heart when you are unhappy," said the girl.

　"You need never be unhappy," the guide said. "You can always be in heaven when you want to. I am always with you and I try to help you. If you ever forget and cry, I will come and wipe away your tears and bring back the laughter to your eyes that you may grow in happiness."

　"You are very kind to us,” said the girl, but was met with silence for Silver Birch had left his medium ...