CHAPTER II

　WHAT follows immediately in this chapter reveals the humanity, wisdom and breadth of view of Silver Birch, who on one occasion said:

　"Though we laugh and joke, and all is done with such good humour, there is a great and serious purpose behind the task on which we are all engaged. You who come here can never realise the extent to which you have enabled thousands to rejoice because of what you have done. These words, which flow through these lips, part of the message which comes to me to transmit, by now have grown customary to you. They form part of the accepted background of your lives. There is nothing new or revolutionary in the things you hear me say.

　"And so, despite all opposition and hostility and antagonism, we continue to labour, reiterating the simple truths which in the end must prevail, knowing that even as little drops of water will in time wear away a stone, to one by one the light comes and the truth is embraced. Where it is understood and appreci-ated in all the fullness of its implications, there is to be found a soul who will never look back, who will never regret saying farewell to the bonds which held him for too long. You have moved out of darkness into light. You have seen the light of truth; you have tested it. You know that what we say is reason-able, it does not outrage your common sense, it does not make your intelligence revolt. You are puzzled why all people do not accept what is so crystal clear to you.

　"Remember, there are still great hosts arrayed against us—the professional vested interests of the Church particularly, who would do all in their power to resist our mission. They who have nothing to offer your world but antiquated teaching, they who dwell in the past and try to resurrect the splendour of yesterday because they have no glory of today, they whose temples are derelict mausoleums filled with a dreary emptiness where the Great Spirit is not to be found, they are the ones who denounce us and who declare that evil accompanies us, and that we seek to ensnare the gullible and the deluded. We weep over them, the men who often, though they do not know it, betray their calling, who do not lead their flock to the Great Spirit, who build a wall between the Great Spirit and His children, who cling to a book, to a creed, to a church, regarding all these as more important than truth.

　"It is to these people that we address words of sternness, seeing in them men who have failed, who are unable to give guidance or a lead in the afflictions that come to thousands. Religion has long since lost its meaning to them. It has been so adulterated with theology that the simple inspiration which their founder gave to the world has been forgotten. The religion we teach is the religion of service, for service is the coin of the spirit. When you serve the children of the Great Spirit, you are serving the Great Spirit and you are indeed religious.''

　The guide was asked whether, when dealing with the ortho-dox, it was better to be gentle or harsh. 

　"Speak the truth, fear no man,” he said. “You are a servant of the Great Spirit. Always refute evil, always answer lies. Be fearless; there is no need to be afraid. The power that fashioned the universe is not impressed because you build a great cathedral and fill it with beautiful music and have stained glass windows and impressive processions. You cannot imprison the Great Spirit in a building."

　Answering another question Silver Birch said: “You can put blinkers on the eyes of the people for a long time and compel them to live in darkness, but one day they remember they are children of the light, and they yearn for the sunshine of truth. You can delay, you can impede, but in the end truth finds its own level everywhere. You are spiritual beings, not bodies of matter alone, and because you are spiritual beings of infinite possibilities, divine in nature, all the powers of the spirit cry out for expression. You can deny them for a while, but you cannot extinguish them. That is why truth must prevail. Because you are spiritual beings the spirit that is within you is part of the power that fashioned the whole mighty universe in all its multitudinous manifestations. No priestcraft can still the voice of the spirit for ever."

　Asked whether days of prayer had any effect in the spirit world, Silver Birch replied: "Only insofar as people are of one mind for one little while. But true prayer is something that comes involuntarily from the heart. It is not an organised automatic means of addressing the Great Spirit.”

　"Would there be any point in Spiritualists holding a day of prayer?" was the next question.

　"There is no virtue in those who call themselves Spiritualists unless they are living in their lives the implications of the truth they have received," said the guide. "We do not worship labels. It is not what a man designates himself that matters; it is what he does."

　Developing the theme of the failure of Orthodoxy and the growth of spirit truth, Silver Birch said at another meeting of the circle:

　"You are beginning to witness some of the processes of crumbling and decay and to see once-proud teachers admitting that they no longer hold sway over the minds of the people. Those who, for too long, have been blind leaders of the blind, who have foisted their ancient creed and insisted that worship be paid to the God of their creation, who have resisted the upward march of truth and denied the power of the spirit as a living experience of today, are paying the price for their refusal to recognise the efficacy of spiritual law.

　"There is a great lesson for you to realise. All those who battle for truth must in the end prevail, for all the forces of goodness cannot be defeated. They may be stayed, they may be impeded, they may be delayed, but none can destroy truth or prevent her from being established in her rightful place. This is true, not only of religion, but of every aspect of life. Those who desire to resist error, to destroy falsity, to oppose superstition, in every branch of living, must never falter, must pin their complete faith to the great, eternal infinite power which sustains all life and which assures them of final victory.

　"I know how difficult it is for the many who have discovered the truths of spiritual laws which ensure communication between the two states of life to make progress when conditions imposed by war are against them, but they must hold fast to that which has been revealed to them. They must hold on to all the know-ledge which they have gained, so that when the time is ripe and there is a demand for the floodgates of knowledge to be opened wide, because many will be hungry and thirsty for this truth, they will be able to supply their needs. When the conflict ceases, when all the shouts of warfare have died down, there will be many thousands who will want to re-establish their lives on a foundation of knowledge. They will be more than dissatisfied with the ancient fables thrust on them in the name of religion. Having been through the crucible of bitter experience, having faced situations where they have been compelled to question the fundamentals of life, to ask themselves: 'Why? How? When?' they will want to know. They will yearn for truth. You must be ready for them, so that hearts which have become bitter, souls which have become dissatisfied, and minds which y earn for knowledge, can come to you and you can, with reason, with confidence, with logic, with truth and wisdom on your side, help them to play their part as citizens of the New World.

　"Do not look back too much on the past, except to learn from it the lessonsーhow failures may be corrected, how mis-takes may be avoided. Look towards the future, so that what you do today may prepare you for the greater days that are yet to come. The world will need you. Millions will turn to you for hope and comfort, for inspiration, for guidance. They will not go to churches, they will not go to clergymen, they will not go to priests. They will come to you, for having lived close to death, having experienced some of the laws which operate when death hovers near your world, their eyes will have become opened. The mist which has caused partial blindness will have fallen away. They will be ready, and you must be ready, too."

　When asked, "How do you see a new world being born?" this was the guide's reply: 

　"I see a plan, a divine plan. I see that the power of the sprit is the greatest power of the universe. Man may thwart and delay, man may impede and stay, but man cannot forever prevent the power of the spirit being made manifest. When you have the knowledge of spiritual truth, you have the key which unlocks all the doors of mankind's problems. I am not being unkind to all the sincere reformers who, moved by anger, by righteous wrath, or by an overwhelming sympathy for the downtrodden and the weak, seek to repress wrong, to fight injustices, to enable all the bounties of the Great Spirit to be fairly distributed. They see only one part of a problem. They see physical needs that must be satisfied—perhaps they see mental needs that must be satisfied, tooーbut pre-eminently man is a spirit, part of the Great Spirit, part of the power which fashioned all life. Man is not so infinitesimal that he is forgotten amidst the vast spaces of the universe. He is always part of the Great Spirit, contributing to the spiritual nature of Infinity.

　"You cannot stifle the power of the spirit; it must emerge. It will triumph over cruelty and hatred, it will triumph over bludgeons, concentration camps, dictators, because the spirit of man must be as free as the air which he breathes. That is his natural, divine, spiritual heritage. All those who have seen the vision splendid, and have beheld the new world that is to be, know that it must be, because it is part of that same purpose which breathed into man and raised him from animal to humanーand will raise him again from human to divine. Your task is always to hand on the torch, rekindle its flame, so that the gen-eration which comes after you will have a greater light to illumine its pathway. The foundations have been laid. They were laid many years ago in our world. And gradually, pain-fully, laboriously, men and women of all denominations, and of none, were raised up to be witnesses to the eternal spirit, to labour for the quickening of the divine plan. The new world must come.

　"If the new world has got to come by the result of our own efforts," asked one member of the circle, “why should the new world be born in your world?" 

　"Your world is the shadow; the light is cast in ours," was the spirit answer. “You are executing plans which you have helped to create and bring to fruition in your own world. All the original work, if you like to use those words, is done in our world, because all the energising, all the dynamic, originates, not with matter, but with spirit. You are all instruments, whether you are conscious of this fact or not. You receive and transmit. And according to the degree that you make your-selves susceptible to spirit influence, so are you successful or not."

　"So the new world is to be born through our own endeavours allied to yours," commented this sitter. 

　"Yes," said the guide, “because no one works alone. Wherever an effort is put forth it is always joined by our effort. We have to find instruments. You have to attune yourselves to the power which can flow through you. Perfection is never achieved. There is an eternal process at work smoothing away all the difficulties, getting rid of all the obstacles.”

　"We ourselves should earn our own earthly new world,” declared another member of the circle.

　"It can only come when you have earned it,” said Silver Birch. "I can only say to you, here are things which must be achieved because they are part of the plan. But your co-operation will determine the time it takes. There is a plan, but it is not automatic. It is subject to your free will. You are co-operators, you are not automatons, puppets or marionettes. You are part of the Great Spirit.”

　"You have been saying that a new world is coming," asserted another, “but we ourselves see hardly any sign of it at all.”

　But the guide answered: “As fast as the old order crashes so does the new begin. Have you not seen the processes of dis-integration before your eyes? Great empires have fallen. The power of money is no longer supreme. It has been proved that selfishness does not pay. The common man and woman have demonstrated the sterling qualities that can be called forth in service. Do not tell me that no progress has been made. The lesson is before your eyes. You require no power of clair-voyance to see it. It is there. The people deserve the new world. If they are denied it, it is because they are not exercising the power which is theirs. They have earned it by their sacrifice,

　"I do not say that it will be a mechanical process, but potenti-ally all is ready. You must play your part, and it is done by spreading knowledge, by waging war on all those vested in-terests that will cling with greedy fingers to every vestige of an old order."

　Hundreds of questions have been submitted to Silver Birch. He likes them, but excepting his private messages, he answers only impersonal ones, for he says that to deal with personal problems he would require to have before him the one who was perplexed, and that is not his real work, which is teaching. One of the questions put to him was: “Is it possible for you to give some new truth?" and this was his reply: "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 to read. Gradually the know-ledge contained in the printed word becomes accessible to you. As to the amount of knowledge that you receive, that is de-pendent wholly and solely upon your capacity for appreciating it. There is an infinity of wisdom, range upon range upon range; but it can only become available to you as you are mentally and spiritually equipped to receive it.

　"But no knowledge alters truth. There is no wisdom that in any way alters the truth of any teaching. If it was true in the past it is true today and will be true tomorrow. Truth is con-stant and eternal. You can add to wisdom, you can add to know-ledge, but you cannot bring new truth. Your world has all the truth that it requires for its essential purpose—the fundamental truths of kindness, service, love. It knows what it should do in order to have a better world. All that is necessary for your growth, progress, unfoldment, evolution has been made known throughout all the generations. If man would but follow the truth which has been revealed he could achieve here and now on earth far more of the divinity within him than has ever been manifested. All the great teachers, the instruments of the spirit who have added their lustre to the world, have taught truths that were similar in basis. Each came to reveal the spiritual nature of man, to draw attention to the eternal qualities pos-sessed by every human being. Each taught of the infinite soul, the divine spark, the portion of the Great Spirit resident within all human life. Each taught those principles which, if adopted and followed, would enable that spirit to have a greater ex-pression. Each made it clear that living according to spiritual ideals would banish from your world all the miserable spectres that haunt it, all the fears and miseries and sadnesses which have needlessly afflicted it for too long.

　"Love thy neighbour as thyself, give service to those who need it, help the weary and the thirsty, heal the sick, comfort the mourner, visit those who are in afflictionーthese are the truths that have been taught a long time ago. If man would but practise them he could transform the whole of his world and make it impossible for war, with all its hideous horrors, to be visited on him again. Let me make clear what is our attitude.

It is that man has at his command all that which is necessary for his growth and for his spiritual equipment. There are many sacred books, there have been many teachers, many inspired men and women who have caught glimpses of the inner life and each in his own way has interpreted what he has seen. But, unfortun-ately, the simple truth which has been revealed from the higher aspects of life has been overlaid. Men have built on it edifices of doctrine, of dogma, of creed, of ritual, of ceremony. A whole bulwark of theology has been placed on the foundation of simple spiritual truth until now the foundations are completely forgotten. Thus it is that we have constantly sought out instru-ments through whom the message of the spirit could be given in all its pristine beauty, in all the quality of its simplicity, radiant because it is unadorned.

　"We are not concerned with systems of belief fashioned by the minds of man, we are concerned with the truths of the spirit as they have been revealed in the world of spirit where we are not confronted with the illusions of your earthly life. It is because we have seen so many human wreckages, so many human derelicts coming to our world, it is because we have seen the transition of so many thousands completely unfitted in every way for the life that confronts them, ignorant, full of miscon-ception, filled with prejudice, that we decided that it would be far simpler if man, whilst on earth, could have in his midst the simple truth that would prepare him for that life which one day will be his abiding reality. And so we have declared constant war on all those systems and organisations, on all those beliefs which stand in the way, all the obstacles that have needlessly been created, all the superstitions which becloud and befuddle the mind, so that all the children of the Great Spirit can have at their command the eternal truths which will enable them to live their lives as the Great Spirit intended that they should.

　"Never mind what others say, forget all the condemnations and all the denunciations. These are the simple truths of the spirit that will stand forever. They will answer every test that reason demands. They will not demean your intelligence. They are simple, so simple, that they can be grasped and understood by any ordinary individual. These are the truths that will prevail long after all priestcraft has completely failed—simple, eternal truths of the spirit, founded on the eternal, natural laws. We require no popes, 'no archbishops, no priests, no clergymen, no churches, no temples, no synagogues. We build no system of theology. We enunciate simple truths and we are determined that, given the instruments, these truths will continue to per-meate every form of society, so that all men can be free in body, mind and spirit, and never again shall they become bondmen living in slavery. The darkness of ignorance will have perished and the light, the effulgent light of truth, will reign in its place."

　Another time, speaking of the aid which comes from the spirit world to those who are fighting for human liberty, Silver Birch said:

　"We have to wage war on needless ignorance. It is not part of the plan of the Great Spirit that His children, filled with the essence of His divinity, who exist because part of the divine spirit is immanent within them, should live their lives in the obscurity of ignorance, walking always in the shadows and the mists, seeing no purpose and no direction, asking questions to which they think there can be no answers. There is an infinite

storehouse of knowledge which is placed at the disposal of all who desire to have it, but it must be earned by growth and struggle, by evolution and progress. The soul must fit itself, the mind must ripen, the heart must be ready and prepared so that the knowledge can find a dwelling-place within. You can receive only that which you can bear to receive. The blind man who is about to see can only have the vision given to him in small degrees, for if suddenly he were able to view the whole of that which is round and about him, grave damage would be done. So it is with the truths of the spirit. Gradually as you mount the rungs. of the ladder, you draw nearer and nearer and you accumulate some grains of wisdom.

　"Once you display any initiative, and reveal by your actions and by your thoughts that you are ready and receptive, then you begin to harmonise and attune yourself with the processes which enable you to receive that knowledge and teaching for the stage you have reached. There are no final boundaries, there are no

limits beyond which man cannot go, for he is infinite, and know-ledge is infinite, too. But it is not only ignorance that we have to fight. We have to wage war on all those forces and organisa-tions which have for centuries deliberately encouraged the children of the Great Spirit to dwell in the darkness, who have by every means in their power, compelled those over whom

they held dominion to accept that which they propounded as truth and tried to prevent truth from spreading. We look back through the ages and see how, despite every attempt made from our world to aid man in his struggle for liberty and enfranchise-ment, we have had to combat the forces of so-called religion which, instead of aiding the soul in its natural desire for freedom, have resisted any attempt at the gates of the prison being opened.

　"There are still remnants of the opposition today. There are still those, either knowingly or unconsciously, who range them-selves against the forces of light, who denounce us with harsh-ness, bitterness and rancour, who oppose every effort to destroy the false creeds in which many of them no longer themselves believe, who cling to their sacredotalism, who will not relin-quish that which they regard as their privilege and who pay

allegiance to threadbare theological shibboleths. We come to reveal that there is a large and wondrous life of the spirit which beats restlessly and surges, so that the barriers can be broken down, so that the vast power of the spirit, that energising, dynamic, vital, life-giving force, can be placed at the disposal of all. It has inspired many in days gone by; it can inspire and will inspire many again.

　"There is much work to be done in a world filled with devast-ation; there is so much sorrow and sadness, weeping and tribu-lation, so many who feel their lives are aimless, so many who are bowed down with grief and do not know where to turn. To all of these, the power of the spirit, invisible though it may be, can prove that it is the abiding reality which will comfort them, inspire them, cherish them and lead them so that all who need the guidance shall receive it.

　"That is the part that can be played by all who have received the knowledge and who dedicate their lives to be instruments of the new, yet old, dispensation, so that they can spread the gospel of liberation, the evangel of freedom, and cause all those who are weary and downcast to lift up their hearts and to know the greater glory that could be theirs. It is the power of the

spirit that we offer, the power of the spirit which can triumph over every difficulty, conquer every obstacle and reveal the light of truth, wisdom and understanding and enable the children of the Great Spirit to build systems of enduring peace."

　Answering a comment made by one member of the circle, Silver Birch said: “Learn the secret of obtaining refreshment for the mind and spirit. You must not be so busy that you neglect the fundamentals of your own being. You have within yourself the means of recuperation, the power that will bring you vitality when you are tired.

　"Withdraw for a few moments into the quietness and solitude of your own being so that you can allow the spirit to be at one with the elemental forces of life which are round and about you. When you are passive and attuned to them, they will bring you all the vigour, they will recharge you and enable you to face a new day with more strength than you had before.

　"Try it sometimes. You will find it does work. I know that the war calls for each having to do greater tasks, but there is a means by which you can replenish the stock on which you draw."

　"Do spirit people always know in advance the time when people on earth will pass over even if they are killed in war?" was the next inquiry.

　"Some people in my world know, but how far in advance they know depends upon a variety of circumstances," replied the guide. "They always know when they are associated by ties of love when the final dissolution will take place, because it becomes part of their willing task to aid the spirit to free itself from its physical body. But the fact is not known to everybody who is now in the world of spirit. No one who dies, to use your language, ever dies alone. Always, without any exception, there is a company of their own beloved to help them across the bor-der, to receive the soul which has passed through the valley of shadows to begin the new and wondrous epoch in its life."

　Silver Birch always insists that he is the teacher of simple spirit truths. He refused to answer an involved question, “not because I wish to shirk the issue, but I am restricting myself to the dis-pensing of that information which is of immediate application. When you see so many ignorant of the veriest simplicities, who do not know the elementary beginnings, I do not think it wise to deal with the deeper issues that can bide their time. The paramount need of today is for the dissemination of those simple truths, assurance of the life beyond the grave, assurance that you are never friendless, neglected or lonely, assurance that there is an overruling, guiding, beneficent power filled with the warmth of divine love. These are the things which all should know. These are the priceless possessions which are available to all. And when there are thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, who are ignorant of these elementary truths, let us think of them first, for they are our primary duty."

　Developing this theme at another seance, the guide said:

　"The whole purpose of our return has been misconstrued by those who should be the leaders in all matters of religion. Primarily throughout all the ages, religion has been associated with the power of the spirit. It had its beginning in the fact that always there returned from my world teachers appointed to instruct the children of earth in all the laws that control and regulate their spiritual growth. The whole purpose of religion concerns itself with the spirit of man. That is its beginning, and religion is intended to convey what man should do in order that his spirit shall receive the exercise that will enable it to achieve its rightful growth. There is a whole range of spiritual law, but

unfortunately it has been misinterpreted and there has been con-fusion entirely due to the intervention of priestcraft which had its own ends to serve.

　"Primarily man is a spirit with a body, not a body with a spirit. The body is subservient to the superior spirit. The whole purpose of earthly life is to provide the training for the in-dwelling spirit, so that through a variety of experiences it can be matured, it can fit itself, it can prepare for the day, the day of liberation brought by death, when it starts its real career. Religion, therefore, is that set of precepts, that code of ethics, which enables the spirit to live as it should live. Now unfor-tunately, in days gone by, there was a clash between the instru-ment of the spirit (the medium) and the priest, whose task originally was to concern himself with the function of the temples or the churches, the buildings where religious practices were carried out. The two first worked side by side, and then the priest resented the attention paid to the one through whom inspiration came. There began that long process of theology, of the classification of creed, of ritual, of ceremony, of dogma, of doctrine, none of which has any real connection today with the gifts of the spirit or its life or its development.

　"And so real religion has become obscured today. Those who think of religion think of it in terms of certain set ceremonies; they think of readings from books regarded as sacred, they chant certain hymns, they wear certain vestments. They give their allegiance to certain forms of words and cling to them long after reason has dictated that they are fallacious. We are not concerned with any theology, we are not concerned with any creed, with any formula of any kind. We are concerned primar-ily with the spirit of man, and the whole of our teaching is directed to those natural laws to which we give our allegiance. That which man has made we cannot worship. That which the Great Spirit has created we know to be true. Therein is the chief difference in our approach to religion. We say that service, the exercise of the spirit, deeds which are unselfish and altruistic, the attempt to help those less fortunate than yourself, giving strength to the weak, removing the load off the shoulders of those who have much to carryーall this to us is religion.

　"It is not religion or religious to declare that the Great Spirit is 'Three in One or One in Three.' That does not increase the growth of the spirit by one iota. You may sing hymns from sunrise to sunset, but that will not make you any more spiritual. You may read the Bible, or the Talmud, or the Koran, or the Bhagavad-Gita, or any sacred book until your eyes grow weary, but that will not increase the growth of your spirit. You may do all things that men regard as religious, but unless they inspire you to lead better lives, unless they enable the spirit within you to find greater expression, then you are not religious as we see it.

　"We are not concerned with labels, we are not concerned with forms, we are not concerned with words. We are con-cerned with deeds, with actions and with the life that every individual lives. We teach the supreme law of cause and effect, that none thwarts the Great Spirit, that none cheats the law, that man is his own saviour and his own redeemer, that man pays the penalty for every wrongdoing, and that man reaps the reward for every kindness that he performs. We say that the laws of the Great Spirit are mechanical, automatic in their action; that kind-ness, tolerance, sympathy, service, automatically make you the better because you have practised them, and that selfishness, wrong-doing and intolerance automatically make you worse. You cannot alter that inflexible law. There is no cheap reprieve, there are no easy pardons. Divine justice rules the whole universe. A spiritual dwarf cannot pretend to be a spiritual giant. There is no death-bed repentance.'

　This is how Silver Birch gives his interpretation of the laws that regulate all life, contrasting them with the orthodox view taught for centuries all over the world:

　"Let us consider the unchanging, inflexible, omnipotent laws of the Great Spirit which are responsible for all that transpires throughout the whole wide universe. We constantly refer to those laws, for we do not teach of a God who is a person, subject to human weaknesses, human passion, human anger, one who has favourites, who loves some and despises others. We see the universe ruled by laws, laws that have always controlled every facet, laws that will always be in existence. It is by teaching your world that all which it sees, all which it knows, is due to these laws, that it will abolish the misconceptions and the falsities, the prejudices and the ignorance which for too long have held man in subjection and slavery. As a knowledge of these laws increases, so man's life will become richer in understanding. The veil which prevents him from seeing the full beauty of living will be removed and he will catch glimpses of that greater life which lies beyond the ken of his mortal existence.

　"And so we always render our homage and our tribute to the eternal, natural laws of the Great Spirit, the laws which never fail, the laws which never err, the laws which take care of every being, no matter how exalted or inferior his state may be. None is neglected, none is overlooked, none is forgotten, none is lonely. There are no people who are outside or beyond the scope of these laws. The mere fact of their existence is due to the operation of natural laws. Man's laws may fail, man's laws may change, man's laws may be repealed or superseded as growth and development enlarge his vision, as knowledge dispels ignorance, as changing circumstance demands the provision of new ordin-ances, but there are no additions to the laws of the Great Spirit, there are no revisions, there are no alterations. All the laws that are in operation today have always been in operation and always will be in operation. They are constant and immutable."