SILVER BIRCH AS OTHERS SEE HIM

　IASKED the man who is besieged with requests for spirit healing from all over the world, and who has hundreds of striking cures to his credit, to describe this friendship. Parish declared that to him it was almost a sacred association. The story opens when he and his wife visited Swaffer's home circle. "There we witnessed great revelations,” said Parish, "and listened to the glorious teachings of Silver Birch. Gradually I became conscious of his great love and presence during my quiet moments when, as a preparation for my work, I entered into the silence.”

　Then, through his medium, Silver Birch spoke to Parish in the healer's private sanctuary, where all his prayers are uttered, his absent healing performed and his spiritual preparation made for his great task. Silver Birch spoke many times to the healer in this sanctuary. Parish also said that the same medium was frequently used as the mouthpiece for others who were guiding him. Recalling some of these occasions, he said,  “How clear and precise were the instructions regarding the great work entrusted to me, and the necessity for every care to be taken of my body, which was being steadfastly prepared by the spirit world as a channel for rays to pass through it to heal God's children who were suffering in body and soul.”

　At all the talks with Silver Birch, Parish was conscious of this ripening friendship. He recalled an event which gave him great joy and happiness. It was the dedication by Silver Birch of the Sanctuary where he performs all his public healing. “It is gratifying to see,” said the healer, “that all the prophecies made at the dedication by the guide are being proved daily. The Sanctuary is, indeed, ‘a repository for the power of the spirit.''

　This friendship with Silver Birch, which Parish described as “clear, distinct, reverent and understanding,” has guided his life. Parish, who has renounced most worldly things to which people attach so much importance, regards these “soul-to-soul talks” with the guide as red-letter occasions. "He encouraged me to hold fast during many trying and testing times," said the healer, who recalled one of these occasions, and repeated, word for word, his conversation with the spirit.

　"My son,” Silver Birch said to him. “Do you know one of the great tasks we are called upon to perform?"

　"No, tell me," was Parish's reply.

　"It is to see the one you love very tenderly suffer, and have to stand on one side, not permitted to help.''

　Parish is not ashamed to confess that he has shed tears of joy as, in moving language, the guide has described the healer's mission for a suffering and broken humanity. Silver Birch's many messages are engraved in his memory. He men-tioned in particular his last talk with the guide. The spirit came with a message, said Parish, from those who are con-stantly watching over him, encouraging him and teaching him how to equip himself to receive an even greater mani-festation of spirit power.

　"I cannot find words to express the love existing between us," said Parish. "I am reminded of it when a little child kissses me after I have been permitted to heal it.”

　　　　★          ★          ★

　Here is a tribute from Vernon Moore, a former Methodist missionary in Australia, now a member of the circle:

　SINCE leaving Methodism and becoming a Spiritualist I have had the opportunity of observing most psychic phenomena. I have listened to discarnate entities speaking in the direct voice and attended materialization séances, particularly a memorable occasion when my dead father shook hands and spoke to me. Yet I regard the trance utter-ances of highly evolved guides, typified by Silver Birch, as the crowning phenomena.

　Silver Birch makes articulate all those lofty teachings that at our best moments we have consciously or subconsciously known to be true. Many things considered to be important are dismissed by this guide. Doctrines and creeds are unim-portant. Silver Birch says it is what we do that matters, not what we say. This guide has revolutionized my idea of the hereafter. Orthodoxy simply doesn't know what happens after death. It quotes Jesus as saying, “In my Father's house are many mansions"ーvery vague and unsatisfying, for example, to a widow who has lost her husband and wishes to know what has happened to him. I now know exactly what will happen to me when I die. I know what it will be like in the next world, because the people who live there have told me.

　Silver Birch's utterances have altered my idea of God, Whom he speaks of simply as the Great Spirit. Unlike Orthodoxy, Silver Birch does not dogmatize about the nature of God. He says we can but dimly comprehend. Even Silver Birch's magnificent oratory fails in his description of the majesty of the Great Cause behind all things. I have listened to thousands of extempore prayers from pulpits, but have heard nothing to compare remotely with the Silver Birch prayers. They are spontaneous tributes to the wonder of the Great Spirit.

　You who read them in cold print cannot but be impressed by his lofty sentiments, beautiful language, his reverent spirit permeating the utterances and his graceful facility of describ-ing divine attributes—how he finds the Great Spirit reflected in the glory of the sunset, the song of birds, the wash of the waves, the roar of thunder. It is the deep reverence and humble spirit in which they are uttered that makes us under-stand we are in the presence of a great soul.

　How long will it be before this great prophet, teacher, friend and guide will have the opportunity of broadcasting his great message on the radio?

　　　★           ★          ★

　And below I print the description by a prominent business man, a former agnostic, of the effect on him of Silver Birch's words. This man's visit to the circle was in the early days, when we sat in the darkness because of accompanying physical phenomena:

　I WAS privileged to spend an evening which I shall not forget as long as I live.

　For a while, we sat in darkness, and there was some singing. Very soon a medium went into trance, and we had a really wonderful address from his guide. I have heard many speakers, many of the greatest orators, most of the great divines. Never were there such moving words. Seldom have I felt so deeply the solace of the spoken word.

　"Your world,” said the guide, "tries to find gold in the earth. My world tries to find the gold in the human soul. There is gold there, but, like the gold in your material earth, it has to be brought to the surface and crushed and purified and tried by fire to reveal the pure metal. That is what we all seek to do. There is pure gold in every child of the Great Spirit. Sometimes it is so embedded in the dirt of the material world that it is hard to find, and almost impossible to extract. But it is there, and we are glad to find it and bring it to the surface.

　"I ask you to remember that, no matter what you see, the things we say, the voices you hear, the little toys which we all play with, these are the smallest things of all. The greatest thing is the purpose which binds us all together and makes the circle one. It is to render service wherever we can, to give strength to all those who are weak, help to those who are weary, comfort to those who are bereaved, healing to those who are in sickness, light to those who are in darkness, and

knowledge to those who are in ignorance.''

　I, for one, was profoundly touched and cannot imagine a listener who would not feel moved to respond to the call.