People pass into the spirit world in the full bloom of their egotism; hordes of them return to tell their friends things they know absolutely nothing about, and the folks on this side believe all they say, and so fool ignorance is passed along and stays in the minds of those who listen to the “messages” of egotism and ignorance.  There are “dead loads” of people who think this is all there is of Spiritualism.  While it is blessed that friends can return, and comfort the mourning ones by their assurances of remembrance and love, this should never be the final result sought for.  Those who have lived but a limited time in the spirit world—­the world of causes, of law—­cannot teach people here the knowledge that can satisfy their souls.  But there are educated souls, who have once lived honored and useful lives here, who are only too glad to respond to the needs of inquiring humanity, teaching them the ways of wisdom, and lifting them out of ignorance and darkness into the light.

RESPONSIVENESS.

Surely we are trying to solve the biggest problems before the class.  The people who are our profoundest teachers, through whom come our largest experiences and knowledge are often most unconscious of their influence on other minds; and this is lawful, for the moment a human soul begins to wriggle either from anxiety or egotism, the divine “chemical affinities” are disturbed.

Long before we get up to God, our nearer relative, “Mother Nature,” is most gracious in her methods of unfoldment, standing ever ready to whisper in the devoted, or willing ear, her “open sesame” to the manifold workings of her secret laws.  It is ever the same old exhortation:  “Seek and ye shall find,” “Knock and it shall be opened to you,” and the most wonderful of all is, the amount of unexpected testimony, and endorsement which she will contrive to bring to bear to prove to you the truth of what she asserts through your own individual experience.

“Elective affinities” hold their own royally.  You shall think and feel deeply, and the first friend you meet shall tell you—­quite spontaneously—­of his ponderings which tally with your own, never suspecting that they are held to you by a subtle, and beautiful chemistry, the response of soul to soul.

There is but one integral law.  All others are but its radiations.  The natural tendency of the human mind is ever toward being satisfied with its present limitations, instead of which we ought to constantly exercise our will and aspiration to fling off the mists of prejudice which so easily envelop the soul, and strive ever to enlarge our horizon, and push on to higher and better things.

HELL.

Such men as J. Knox in Scotland and J. Edwards in this country must have had chronic indigestion or cancers in their insides, or they could not have revelled so in hell, and “eternal damnation” as they did.  What unreckoned miseries would surely have been spared their listeners if they, and thousands of their sort, could have developed a modicum of Christian feeling and a little kindness toward their hypnotized hearers!