To
Inspire Ambassadors
For most
of the delegates at this large meeting of the Commonwealth of churches
connected with the Spiritualist Association of Great Britain, held in its
Belgrave Square headquarters, it was their first chance of hearing Silver
Birch. He readily accepted the invitation to address them.
After
a typical invocation he told them:
“I am very
happy to come amongst you and to bring you my love and greetings from the
world of spirit. I would like you to feel that we are not strangers to
one another, but that we are comrades actuated by the same motive of helping
wherever we can and playing our part to bring spiritual, mental and physical
freedom to all who come within our orbit.
I would
also like to say just a few words which perhaps may be of some encouragement
to all of you who are channels, instruments, dispensers of the power of
the spirit which produces in its train such vivifying effects.
Then I would
like you to appreciate that none of you is ever alone, overlooked, neglected
or forgotten. You have made yourselves accessible to the sublime power
of the spirit, which is the mightiest force in the boundless universe.
It is the power of life itself. That is why, for example, in your healings
you are able to obtain results where other means have failed. You enable
the life force to produce its rejuvenating effect on the life force of
the sufferer you are helping.
You are
all privileged to be ambassadors of the Great Spirit. You are representatives
of the Great Spirit wherever you labour. It becomes your charge and responsibility
to see that your gifts are used in such a fashion that they produce the
maximum good wherever you can.
There will
be brought to you those whom you can help. They will often be pitiful derelicts,
sick, ill, worried, cheerless, full of problems, feeling that life on earth
has nothing more to offer them. It becomes your privilege to help them
to become aware of themselves, of their true nature, of their inner spirit,
the gift of divinity conferred at birth, so that they begin to get a realization
of how they should order their lives and derive from them the fullness,
richness, beauty, splendour and radiance that should be theirs.
That is
your function, to make the power of the spirit available to all who come
to you. It is the reason why you have buildings, churches, temples and
societies, so that you are accessible. And accessibility is the reason
for the existence of all your organizations.
I want you
to appreciate that so far as we are concerned, if you help one soul to
find itself, to become aware of its latent divinity and to begin to express
it, then the whole of your earth life is well worth while. But you will
be able to help more than one. You will be able, as a result, to perform
this unique service that no others in your world can possibly give because
they have made themselves inaccessible to the power of the spirit which
is the life-giving essence for the whole cosmos in which we all dwell.
Do not worry
if any come to you and after you have done your best you are unable to
help them. They have had their chance. You must be sorry because they have
not taken it. What you must realize is that until their soul is touched,
until they are spiritually ready, there is nothing you can do to help them.
What will
produce this preparation is not always easy to understand. It may be an
illness. It may be a crisis. It may be anything which brings them to the
lowest depths of despair, when they feel there is nothing in the whole
of the material world that can produce the answer. Then they should begin
to come into their own and you should be able to kindle the divine spark
so that it can begin to grow into a lambent flame. That is why you exist
in your churches, societies and organizations.
I must also
say this. Because of what you are, because this tremendous power, divine
in origin flows through you, yours is the greater responsibility to see
that you do nothing that in any way lessens the trust that is reposed in
you. We are not dictators. We are not your masters. We do not regard you
as marionettes who have to dance when the strings are pulled in our world.
You are our co-operators. We want to work together. We will always provide
whatever is spiritually necessary according to the conditions available
at the time.
We will
lead. We will guide. We will direct. We will help, but we will not order.
We will not compel and we will not dictate. If you hear, supposedly emanating
from our life, entities who command you to do this, that and the other,
you can be sure that their spiritual status is not very evolved. Co-operation
is the law of the spirit. We would win you with love, with common sense
and with reason. We would offer you nothing that is an insult to your intelligence
or would make your reason revolt. Together we can help the Great Spirit
in the eternal processes of evolution and creation.
This is
the task on which we are all engaged. This is the opportunity given to
all of us to help the Great Spirit so that His children may live a richer,
fuller life and not waste all the opportunities earth provides in obtaining
the equipment that is necessary when people come to our side of being.
We get too
many misfits, too many ill-equipped, too many derelicts who are unready.
It is easier for their education to begin in your world than it is in ours.
So be aware of the tremendous possibilities that lie within you. Be aware
of the great opportunities that you have for service. Do the best you can
and then you will be fulfilling the purpose for which you came into your
world”.
Two years
later the guide addressed the Council of Spiritualists, which was then
composed of the Greater World Association of Great Britain, Spiritualists’
National Union and the Union of Spiritualist Mediums. Among his comments
were:
“Wherever
there are human beings there are difficulties and problems, because you
are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world. If you were perfect
you would not be on earth. You would have joined the apex of divinity which
is the great spirit of life.
You must
expect troubles, difficulties, problems, pitfalls and differences of opinion
because you are very human. But if you have compassion, if you are prepared
to co-operate, to be democratic, to sink self and let the good of the many
prevail, then you will come through. And we will always help you. The trouble
is that there are too many people - I am not referring to your council
-- who are more concerned with themselves than with others. These are the
stumbling blocks in the promulgation of any truth.
We are always
on the look-out for means of ensuring that spirit truths and power should
advance in increasing measure. We bring together, wherever we can, those
who can help to ensure that the spirit plan goes forward. It is not an
easy task because the manipulation of matter from our world is very difficult
and involves many problems. We have to work with very delicate and subtle
vibrations which can be easily nullified by foolish actions in your world.
If you will
co-operate with us, and forgive my saying this because I mean it most kindly,
not demand, but be prepared to receive, you will find that in this atmosphere
we can accomplish much together. It is always desirable to have unity in
diversity, but not to try to achieve uniformity. You can unite on the fundamentals
on which you all agree. There must always be differences of opinion because
all the individuals within the ranks of what you might loosely call the
Spiritualist movement are at different stages of spiritual and mental growth
and evolution. They cannot think alike.
Some of
you are perhaps already familiar with the fact that you have discarded
views, beliefs and opinions that you held dearly in years gone by because
a greater understanding has brought you a different perspective. And so
the great necessity is for toleration. Brotherhood does not mean that you
will all agree. It means that you recognize brotherhood in spite of your
diversities. That is the only way I can put it. You must try to achieve
the ideal. You may not succeed in doing so 100 per cent.
Go on trying
to enlist others, because co-operation is part of the law governing the
universe. You should always strive to achieve it among yourselves. After
all, basically you are agreed on the prime facts. There are differences
of interpretation. Respect one another’s viewpoints and combine on what
you can agree. This is not easy. But I always say that generals must not
expect to be given easy battles to fight”.