　　　　CHAPTER II

　　SPIRIT VIEW OF MARRIAGE

　AN old friend of Silver Birch came to our circle. After dealing with some of the visitor's problems, the guide spoke these words, which express a relationship that exists between many spirit guides and their earthly friends:

　"Give my love to all my friends, to all my large family that grows larger, and tell them I am the invisible member of the family who is always present. These are not idle words. I state a truth. I will never fail you. When you want my help, just pause, call on me and I am there. I always do the best I can. I cannot do more than that.

　"I cannot promise that difficulties will not cross their path. I cannot smooth away every stone against which they will stumble. But they will never fall. I will uphold and sustain them. I will share their adversity so as to lighten its load. I will share their joy so as to increase the measure of its happiness.

　"No problem shall come their way that is too great for them to solve, no obstacle too large to be removed, for together we will move them. What human hands may find difficulty in doing, then other hands will succeed once the effort has been made.”

　A spirit view of marriage was given by Silver Birch when he spoke to Dorothy, daughter of Lilian Bailey, the medium, and her husband, Gordon Adams. They had been married recently, and the guide, who a long time ago said he would talk with them, addressed these words to the husband:

　"It gives me great joy to welcome you here, to bid you to feel you are truly at home. I have been with you for a long, long time, striving to guide your footsteps, so that you should feel that you are indeed on the road to knowledge. And always, whenever trials have been met I have striven to serve, sometimes with success, but whenever we have not been able to do what we have liked, it is because the conditions made it impossible.

　"This is a great and joyous occasion," he remarked in an aside to members of his circle, and then addressed the young couple:

　"Man lives upon three planes of life. He is a spirit, he has a mind, and he has a body. It is when he is conscious of his existence on these three planes and learns how to harmonise these three aspects of one life that he begins to achieve some of the fulness of his own individuality.

　"Those who confine themselves to the world of matter and to its sensations miss the greater, deeper, more beauteous joys that can be obtained only in the mental and spiritual life. And those who seek merely the inner satisfaction that comes in the contemplation of the mental and spiritual are selfish if they ignore their earthly responsibilities.

　"Body, mind and spirit; all three are aspects of one life, and it is the function of those who return from the greater life to impart knowledge that those who still dwell on earth may realise how to express all the faculties with which the Great Spirit has endowed them. Man and woman are comple-mentary to one another. Each has qualities the other lacks. When there is a perfect harmony, when two halves make one whole, there, indeed, is the fulness of the great plan expressed.

　"Unfortunately, in too many cases, the coming together for a time of two souls on earth does not achieve this fulness. The union is not actuated by that great power which alone is capable of uniting two souls in the one eternal bond.

　"Love is the greatest force of which we have any knowledge. Love works wonders that no other power can achieve. Love long time, striving to guide your footsteps, so that you should feel that you are indeed on the road to knowledge. And always, whenever trials have been met I have striven to serve, sometimes with success, but whenever we have not been able to do what we have liked, it is because the conditions made it impossible.

　"This is a great and joyous occasion," he remarked in an aside to members of his circle, and then addressed the young couple:

　"Man lives upon three planes of life. He is a spirit, he has a mind, and he has a body. It is when he is conscious of his existence on these three planes and learns how to harmonise these three aspects of one life that he begins to achieve some of the fulness of his own individuality.

　"Those who confine themselves to the world of matter and to its sensations miss the greater, deeper, more beauteous joys that can be obtained only in the mental and spiritual life. And those who seek merely the inner satisfaction that comes in the contemplation of the mental and spiritual are selfish if they ignore their earthly responsibilities.

　"Body, mind and spirit; all three are aspects of one life, and it is the function of those who return from the greater life to impart knowledge that those who still dwell on earth may realise how to express all the faculties with which the Great Spirit has endowed them. Man and woman are comple-mentary to one another. Each has qualities the other lacks. When there is a perfect harmony, when two halves make one whole, there, indeed, is the fulness of the great plan expressed.

　"Unfortunately, in too many cases, the coming together for a time of two souls on earth does not achieve this fulness. The union is not actuated by that great power which alone is capable of uniting two souls in the one eternal bond.

　"Love is the greatest force of which we have any knowledge. Love works wonders that no other power can achieve. Love knows itself. Love desires no ill for its beloved or for anybody else. Rejoice therefore that true love has enabled you to recognise and to claim one another, not only on earth but long after your earthly pilgrimage is ended.

　"You have started on a journey whose end you cannot see, but hand in hand, heart in heart, mind in mind and soul in soul you will for ever walk and dwell together. There is no need for anyone in my world or in yours to call down a blessing on that which is already blessed, hallowed and consecrated by the force of the love which has united it.

　"And so, it is unnecessary for me to say, May this union be blessed.' That has been achieved by the power which has attracted you and, having brought you together, it cements, solidifies and unifies your life throughout all the ages which are in front of you. Rejoice, therefore, in the knowledge which has brought you together. Realise that the true mar-riage, the enduring marriage, is the one where two souls are in harmony and, therefore, desire to help the other to fulfil the law of evolution in a joint service.

　"Go forward knowing that strength and guidance, in-spiration and wisdom are your constant attendants, that at all times the power of the spirit is in your midst, ready to help, to serve, to inspire and that with your loyalty and your affection, those who are close to you will always strive to demonstrate how truly near they are.

　"You are indeed one, and the years that lie ahead will be full of rich blessings. I do not mean by that that there will be no problems, no difficulties, no troubles. You are bound to have them. The soul that passes through earth must ex, perience all its vicissitudes, but you will meet them and conquer them together. They will be powerless to touch you because when difficulty is met by one it may seem very hard sometimes, but when it is met by two it is immediately halved and it is not such a problem after all.

　"But, for the rest, there is a life full of richness, for you have attracted to yourselves many who will serve you because through you others will be served in turn.

　"There is nothing for you to fear. You can look forward to a future full of glorious promise and much activity. You are conscious already of the power of the spirit working in your midst. It has been waiting for a long time, but the con-ditions under which you have lived have not been very suitable and only occasionally were you able to get glimpses of what it had in store for you.

　"But you will find through your own powers that a closer touch with the world of spirit will be made, and that is a source of great joy. Once you allow the power of the spirit to operate through you, you have opened the avenue to heaven, you have become the instruments of a great stream of power, with all that accompanies it, beauty, wisdom, truth, love, friendship, affection, fellowship. All these attributes of the spirit will make themselves known to you and you will feel that no matter what transpires on earth the power of the spirit will uphold, sustain and guard you always.

　"You must be beginning to think you are going to have a lot of trouble by the way I am talking, but I do not mean that. It is only those who, being joined with the higher life, realise how it works and how it makes its impress on your world, are able to feel that inner joy that comes from this association.

　"It is difficult to translate this into earthly language, but to those who have received this benediction of the spirit, they go through life triumphant, knowing that there is nothing which can touch them, that can thwart them, that can prevent them from fulfilling their divine destiny. All this wonderful richness, divine in content, spiritual in origin; all these infinite jewels, part of the treasury of the Great Spirit, are your eternal possessions once your character allows you to acquire them.

　"Rejoice that in a young life, from the earthly point of view, your eyes have been opened to see the truth. Rejoice that the mists have rolled away, rejoice that knowledge has found its place in your mind and in your heart, and know that even as it has brought liberation to your soul, so in turn will it bring freedom to others.”

　To another couple, who were celebrating the anniversary of their wedding, Silver Birch said:

　"I would like to share your rejoicings. I am happy always when two souls find one another and achieve that unity which is part of themselves. It happens so infrequently that it is matter of great rejoicing to me to see this achievement in your world.

　"Rejoice that love resides and holds you in its warm embrace, that throughout the years it has not dimmed or lost its lustre, that its wonder and its beauty and charm still enfold you, and indeed with the passage of time brings greater recognition of its joy.

　"How I would that all could find that happiness when com-plete unity is achieved. How much easier would their lives be, and how much better they would be as a result."

　"We have had a lot of help from you that others have not had," said the wife.

　"It has been mutual,” replied the guide. “As you have served, so I have served, and together we have brought the measure of comfort to many who are not known to us in person. We do not know how far we have succeeded, or the extent of our accomplishment. As I have so often said that you could almost quote these words—if we have enabled one soul to find light in the darkness, then it has been worth while, and truly we can say not one but many.

　"Always try and let your vision extend beyond this im-mediate gathering and know that there are those to whom a few simple words of spirit teaching come as a revelation, bringing freedom in its train."

　Another time, there came a visitor whose husband had recently passed to the spirit world. Both were Spiritualists, old friends of the guide.

　"You are not alone and never will be,” Silver Birch assured her. She had been a Roman Catholic, but evidence of survival from her dead daughter destroyed her orthodox religious views. Now, in addition to her son who is on earth she knows that she has a daughter grown up in the after-life.

　"It is not part of my task,” the guide said, “to tell you of the many examples that you will have of the nearness of those who love you, but I can help you a little by telling you that in the fulness of time a great peace will come over you, certainty will enfold you in her arms and you will understand and be full of confidence that all is well, divinely well.”

　Of her widowhood he said: “It is a cross that has to be borne, but how much better it is to bear it with knowledge, with understanding, than have to face it with ignorance and perhaps a lost faith? There is no problem, no difficulty that crosses your path that can be so large that it will overpower you. You will find that just as these loom into the horizon so they will melt away, for the power of the spirit will be at your service, and where there is calmness and trustfulness not born of an empty faith, but a faith founded on certainty, in that atmosphere much work can be done from our world in your midst.

　"Have no fear. Greet each morning as the harbinger of a day of great promise that will enable you to complete the tasks that lie ahead. Continue to be an exemplar and radiate your own assurance so that others less favourably circum-stanced, wavering, fearful, doubting and perhaps filled with great trepidation, will know that in you they can find a sanctuary, a harbour, a refuge.

　"As you enable the beams of the spirit to be illuminated from the lighthouse of your own soul, so you flood your own being with a greater measure of spirit power and you become not only a transmitter but a receiver of power which can accomplish much in your own surroundings.

　"I cannot say to you your that your husband is without any regrets—I cannot say to you that he is completely happy and contented; that would not be true. He is not. There are many adjustments to be made and the accounts are not yet balanced, so he must wait awhile; he must adjust himself to the new life.

　"But much of the emotion, the stress, has gone and he is much, much better than he was. And now gradually he can begin to exert his influence steadily around you. He has been doing it in what you call fits and starts. It is not his normal way of doing things. He wants to do it methodically, and gradually to tidy up all the loose ends that have been lying about."

　"Can I help him?" asked the wife.

　"Send him your love,” said Silver Birch, “that is what he wants. It is a strange thing to say to you, but he did rely on you for quite a lot, and he is sorry for much that he did not do. He says he is like the man in the Bibleー'I have left undone the things that I ought to have done.'

　"But he will have the means to accomplish all that, and there is no need for you to have the slightest fear about the morrow. If only I could convey to you the sense of security that will be yours—not an earthly securityーfor to me things of earth are but transient and temporary, but the security that is founded on spiritual verities; if only I could convey to you that your pathway will not be one of querulous problems, but of a gradual opening out, an avenue where all becomes clearer, the light stronger as you pass through it."

　"That is lovely and comforting," said the widow.

　"It will be so; it will be so," was the reassuring reply. "Too many people in your world worry, and all this worry surrounds them with a great mist which acts as a fog and a barrier to the one who wants to come close to them. The more you worry—I do not mean you personally, but I mean the more some people worry—the more difficult you make it for your loved ones.”

　"Most people have not that assurance," said a member of the circle. “They do not know and they have cause for worry.”

　"I know," was the guide's comment, “but even those who have the knowledge worry sometimes, and that is something I cannot understand. I can say to every one of you that there is nothing to fear in your world.

　"The great human fear is the fear of death, and when that is gone and you know that life is eternal and that you are eternal, too, and that you are provided with all the spiritual armoury which can sustain you, why then should there be any cause for fear?”

　"We have suffering,” said the visitor to the circle, “and not without cause sometimes."

　"The anticipation of suffering is greater than the suffering itself,” said Silver Birch. "It is the fear that is worse than the performance."

　"You are a very evolved soul,” said a member of the circle, "and you speak in that way, but I think the majority of the rank and file, not being so evolved, cannot see the law in its perfect manifestation."

　"I would be failing in my task if I did not speak to you of what I know," replied the guide, "and I am not so evolved as to be out of touch with what you call the rank and file. I know all your problems. I have lived in your world for a long time now. I have lived close to each one of you and I have entered into all your difficulties. And you know I can look back and see that never once was there anything in-superable. Have no fear, the power of the spirit cannot work miracles because miracles do not exist. The power of the spirit can work wonders in your world provided that you supply the necessary conditions.

　"We are not on your earth. We are in a world of spirit and you have to supply us with the means by which we accomplish our work in your world. You are our hands, you are our bodies. You provide us with the implementsーand we can do the work. And those who are faithful and loyal never regret it.

　"I wish you I could see your big girl," said the kindly guide to his visitor.

　"Oh, I wish I could,” was the mother's heartfelt reply.

　"She is nearly as tall as you are,” he went on, "and she and her father love one another very much. I hope I have helped you. I have not said very much to you."

　"You have helped me enormously," was the answer.

　"I am your friend and I will always be at your side," said Silver Birch. "I have a large family and I try to help every member of it. When you go away from here this night you will not go away empty-handed. A part of the power of the spirit, the most precious force in the universe, will go with you to remain with you all the time, and I shall come with it, if you want it."

　"You said I could help with my love," declared the visitor. "Do all thoughts help? Can knowledge help him, too?"

　"Yes," was the answer, “because he turns to you for a steadying influence. You must realise that he is very close to earth still, and will be for a long time, and thus he is more accessible to you than he is to us. He wants to feel that you are not a wavering, hesitant, doubting influence, and if you stand steady as a rock, that calms him. If you send him thoughts of love and helpfulness, so that all the time you are surround-ing him with the garment of certainty, that will help him."

　"It makes it all so much more worth while if I know that," said the widow.

　"It is worth while because of love,” he went on, "and love is always worth while. Love cannot be bought or sold. It can only be given freely from the loved to its beloved. But when it is so done then there is an influence far stronger than any of the material forces known to all your world.

　"Give him your love and confidence and certainty so that he may feel he does not have to worry about you, and if he knows that, it helps a lot. Gradually he will grow in the strength of the spirit. He will learn more and more about the powers which he can use and what influence he can shed. But that will take time.

　"There is a strong magnetic pull to earth all the time be-cause you are there and somebody else, too. So, face the future full of cheerfulness. There is nothing to cause de-pression. You will see that. I am sure of it."

　"Yes, I have already felt it," the woman said. “I am full of confidence really."

　it was the questioning mind of this visitor that had made her reject the tenets of Roman Catholicism. She searched for the truths of Spiritualism and found they satisfied her. Then came convincing evidence of her little girl's survival. Later still, a sudden accident transported her husband to the spirit world.

　She could not understand why, since spirit teaching tells of the existence of a universal law of cause and effect, there should be what seemed to her an accident. She considered that her husband, passing in the prime of physical life, had died before his allotted time.

　She discussed her problem with friends, and returned to Silver Birch to hear his views on her own case.

　"Your man," he told her, “is happier than he has been for a long, long time. He is more resigned now and is not chafing with irritability at so much which he thinks could have been avoided. Now he knows where he is and has learned what he can do, you will find that his ability is not impaired by death, but it has improved.

　"He has so much to make up to you, he says, and he is going to do it. So, you can face your daily world with equanimity, knowing that his power, his love, will help to carry you through and lead you to those avenues where the best results can be obtained. Mentally he is at peace and the disturbing vibrations have gone.”

　"That is wonderful,” commented the widow.

　"Now," continued Silver Birch, "hand in hand with your girl, he seeks more than ever to prove how close he is.

　"But he wants you to know that the universe is organised by love and wisdom. It is not possible for finite eyes to see the whole of life's plan, but where you have knowledge that law and order are at work and you have had demonstrated the great truth of the continuation of life after death, then faith, real faith, founded on knowledge, can sustain you through that which is at present not clear to you.

　"That is put in my own words. Those are not his words, but that is what he is trying to say to you. Be of good heart. Do not worry. Those who are touched by the power of the spirit need have no fear. They should know that with that force around them there is no happening that can thwart them, or prevent them from fulfilling their destiny, or that there will be an obstacle so great that they cannot triumph over it.”

　Then the conversation turned on a comment made earlier by a member of the circle about healing and illness.

　"It seems to me quite wrong," said the sitter, "that if people break the law and become ill, they should not pay the penalty.”

　"They do," commented the guide, and the sitter retorted: "It seems an easy way out that, through a healer, they can escape the consequences of their illness."

　"No one escapes the consequences of wrongdoing," answered Silver Birch.

　"When a man is ill because of some law he has broken and the illness is taken away through the agency of a healer, is not that getting away with it?" queried the sitter.

　"No," was the reply.

　"How do you explain it?"

　"Because no law will be able to prevent him from having the illness which is the result of any wrongdoing he has done. What the healer does is to shorten its duration, or to effect a cure, or, more important still, to touch that soul which is ready for knowledge.

　"It goes beyond the mere question of the wrongdoing and the punishment. The question of the soul itself is involved. Often the soul will not find itself until its companion is sorrow or illness.

　"When the individual is brought to depths of despair, then the soul is able to come into its own. When the individual finds that in the world of matter there is no abiding comfort, or hope, or inspiration, then the soul begins to emerge. His spirit which has lain dormant for too long awakens.

　"The healer is able to touch it, stimulate it and new under-standing begins to dawn. The whole of life consists of inter-action between mind, body and spirit. Unfortunately, in too many cases, the activity of the spirit is so restricted that its properties and gifts and faculties are expressed only in very minute quantities.

　"Through the healing effected by spiritual means there is one method of enabling the soul of the sick man to find its own."

　"It still seems to me," said the questioner, "that, because of the intervention of spirit healing, a man who was going to have, say a month's illness, because he broke a law has only a week's illness.”

　"It is not a matter of duration," was the answer. "It is a question of the spirit. It could be that in a few seconds the spirit has a greater experience than if the condition lasted for many days or weeks.

　"You cannot judge the things of the spirit by physical measurement. Things of the spirit must be spiritually dis-cerned. You cannot assess the value of a spiritual happening by its physical duration.

　"Besides, the fact that the healer is able to bring alleviation, relief or cure, is evidence of a law at work, and that means that the soul of the patient is ready for that help. Nothing happens by chance, by accident.”

　Then the widow, who had listened to all this, asked, "Nothing?"

　"Nothing," was the quiet reply. “I know what is in your mind, but it is all part of the lawsーlaws of cause and effect, laws within laws."

　"I said,” she continued, "when my husband passed over that I was quite prepared to believe it was all part of a plan and I believe somebody said that to you. You replied on that occasion it was an accident and I said, 'I didn't think there can be any such thing as accident and law.'"

　"I didn't it say it was an accident in the sense that the Great Spirit had made a mistake,” replied the guide. “There are laws within laws. I will do my best to try to make it clear to you. What I did say was that it was not part of your husband's own plan that he should pass at that date.”

　"But it is never any of our plans that we should pass at any date, surely?" was the woman's response.

　"You are touching on very difficult questions,” said the guide, “for it is in some cases."

　"I can see,” she continued, “that if he had married some-body else the law of cause and effect would have been quite different. Some cause would not have happened resulting in the effect of him passing out at that particular timeーor is that too complicated?”

　"No, it is not too complicated for me. The whole of life is regulated by law. Predestination, fatalism, destiny—these are problems which have agitated the minds of philosophers for many centuries. What is true is that there are laws within laws. There are the main fundamental laws of the universe over which individuals have no control. There are other laws over which individuals have control in the sense that they themselves set in motion causes that produce the in-evitable effects. Is that clear?”

　"Yes,” said the questioner.

　"Now,” he continued, “it was an accident in the sense that he need not have passed from your world to ours when he did, but it still was the operation of a law of cause and effect.”

　"The accident occurred in the cause then?”

　"Yes. I mean by that it was not predestined that his passing should take place."

　"That gives us a pretty wide scope in free will and yet it is not free,” was the woman's comment.

　"That is so," remarked Silver Birch. "It gives you a wide scope. And another scope it gives you—the scope of your own individuality, according to the evolution it has reached at the time. I told you, you are asking difficult questions.

　"Always you come back to the cardinal fact that law reigns supreme. But you are the Great Spirit, that is, you all contribute to the Great Spirit. Life is spirit; spirit is life; you are spirit. You have the power of helping the plan of life to unfold, and you play your part in the infinite processes of creation.

　"There are laws which you are compelled to obey. There are other laws with which you do not live in harmony and thus you create a cause which contains within itself as a seed the effect which must follow.”

　"Could we have consciously and knowingly avoided the effect?" he was asked.

　"That involves the question of the evolution of the soul at the time."

　"Supposing,” she went on, “some people always managed to live up to the highest within them, would they be creating a good cause from an effect?"

　"That is not quite the way to regard it,” said the guide,

　"because the question of knowledge is important—a know-ledge of the spiritual aspects of life. You can have good people who are ignorant and who through ignorance break laws.

　"A child, a good child, may thrust its hand in the fire. The fire is not concerned with the child's goodness or badness, but the fire burns. If the child had knowledge, it would not thrust its hand in the fire. It depends on the knowledge that the individual has. And that is why I say these things are regulated by the evolution of the soul. Cause and effect must follow. They are unconcerned with human belief or human desire.”

　"Or even human ethics, I suppose," said the widow.

　"Or even human ethics,” she was told. “If effect were divorced from cause, then the universe becomes incomprehen-sible, and justice and wisdom are absent from its governance. You throw a cork on the sea, it floats; you throw a piece of iron, it sinks. The cork has no alternative, the iron has no alternative, they must obey the natural law.

"You may be good or bad. Whatever you do you must have the effect of that action. Heighten your own knowledge, increase your own evolution and you have a greater awareness of the laws and how to regulate your life.”

　"What we should do is to learn as much as we can about the law here," commented the man who had begun with the questions on healing.

　"Yes,” said Silver Birch, "and this is where I return to your question—it is the duty of those who have knowledge to use it to help others. It is the duty of those who have unfolded the powers of the spirit to exercise them in the service of others. That is how they achieve their own soul growth.

　"We must spread not indifference, not disregard, not callousness to the well-being of others, but tenderness, mercy, compassion, sympathy and service. He whose soul is awak-ened cannot be indifferent to the sufferings of others. His brother's pains are his pains and his brother's sorrows are his sorrows.

　"I suppose,” said the questioner, a former Methodist minister, “when the Nazarene said, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,' he was referring to the knowledge of the spiritual laws that govern this life.”

　"Yes," answered the guide, “and the treasures consist of the treasures of the spirit. These are the priceless gems, the attributes of the soul expressed in action. You equip and fortify, express and evolve your own spiritual being. Your stature, your spiritual stature, is your heavenly, eternal treasure. I can only enunciate the laws as I have learned them. I can only stress the fundamentals of this philosophy and I say to you, here are certain unchangeable truths.

　"If you allow your lives to be guided by them, you will derive the fullest and the richest that is to be obtained. If you disregard them your lives will be empty and meaningless, so far as your inner activity is concerned. Your soul, your spirit, that is your eternal possession, that is what you are, that is all you will have when you have discarded the physical body."

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