From "More Spirit Teachings", Part 1:
"In the case of the Christ, the general conception is that by a fiat of the Almighty there was born in a district of your world one who was an embodiment of the Almighty Himself, for the salvation of your race; which salvation was consummated by the summary execution of the vehicle of the Almighty! A crude idea indeed! Nevertheless, the conception of the vicarious atonement is based on an essential truth; for what has been termed the Christian principle is the true salvation of everyone, and, in proportion as a man evokes his spiritual nature, he is guided and elevated by influences from without.
"In the Man Christ Jesus the spiritual principle was most fully evoked, and fitly was He called the 'Son of God' in the language of Eastern hyperbole. The Son of God He was in the sense of being the most godlike of any who have walked this earth.
"As in the case of the Buddha, the idea of Christ's divinity did not arise till many years after His death. The prophet was exalted at the expense of the message which He delivered. He never claimed any such position as His followers have assigned to Him. He was the mediator between God and man in the truest sense for He was able to make manifest God's Truth to the age in which He lived, and, through it, to succeeding ages.
"Throughout His whole life He was in direct antagonism to the prevailing spirit of the age, and He met the fate all such must meet with; first maligned, then falsely accused, falsely condemned, and finally executed.
"Legends you can put aside, but the beneficent life of Jesus, and the Gospel that He preached you must not put aside. The principle which underlay His teaching were Fatherhood of God, involving His worship; the brotherhood of man, involving the relations between man and man, the bonds which go to make up society; the law of worship and the law of self-sacrifice; namely, doing to others as you would they should do to you."
From "Spirit Teachings", Section 30:
[I inquired as to the character of Christ's human body, and the spiritual significance of His life.]
"It is sufficient to say that the Incarnation of an exalted spirit for the purpose of regenerating mankind is not confined to a single instance. The special salvation which mankind derives from these special Saviours is that of which at the time it stands in need. These special Incarnations you will know more of hereafter. For the present we say only that they are in degree different from that of ordinary men, even as among men there is every grade of nationality in the body: some gross and sensual, others refined and ethereal. The human body of Jesus was of the most ethereal and perfect nature, and it was trained and prepared during thirty years of seclusion for the three years of active work that the spirit had to do.
"You err in supposing [the thought had crossed my mind, How disproportionate the preparation to the work!] that the work done by an incarned spirit is to be bounded by the span of earthly existence. It is very frequently, as in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, the after-effect of the life that is the truest part of the work. So, though the work was begun during these three years, it has been carried on ever since.
"It
was the union of the majestic with the humble that was the note of His life.
Majesty and meanness combined. The majesty shone out at seasons--at His birth,
at His death, at intervals during His life, as at Jordan when the attesting
voice of spirit sanctified His mission. Men knew of Him, all his life through,
that He was not as other men: that His life was not bound by social or domestic
ties: though the harmony of the social circle was pleasant to Him. Men knew
this: and your Bible gives you, in this respect, a most imperfect idea of
the influence He exercised on all who came near Him. It dwells too little
on the moral effect His words and actions caused, and too much on the ignorant
misconceptions of the learned and respectable classes who then, as always,
were bitterest foes of new truth. The Scribes and Rulers, the Pharisees and
Sadducees, were the ignorant foes of the Christ, even as your learned men
and doctors, your theologians and men of science so- called, hate, and would
persecute, the mission that springs from Christ now.
'When you come to write the story of our work, you would not seek for its
records among such classes of men; and the fault is, that those who have given
you the only record you have of the life of Jesus have insisted too much on
His persecution by learned ignorance, and too little on the moral dignity
of His life amongst those who lived with Him. They had not access to the original
recipients of His teaching, and borrowed at tenth hand stories that were rife.
It is as though, centuries hence, men should compile a history of these days
from the current stories of society. It is important to mark this.
"The life of Christ, so far as it was public, was comprised within three
years and a few months. For that the previous thirty years had been a preparation.
During all that time He was receiving instruction from those exalted angels
who inspired Him with zeal and love for His mission. He was a constant communer
with the world of spirit; and was the more able to drink in their teachings
that His body was no bar to His spirit.
"In the case of most incarnate spirits, who have descended to minister on earth, the assumption of corporeity dims spiritual vision, and cuts it off from remembrance of its previous existence. Not so with Him. So little did His ethereal body blind the sense of spirit, that He could converse with the angels as one of their own order, who was cognisant of their life, and remembered His own part in it before incarnation. His remembrance of previous life was never blunted, and a great part of His time was spent in disunion from the body and in conscious communion with spirit. Long trances, as you call the interior state, fitted Him for this, as you may see in some distorted passages of your records--the supposed Temptation, for instance, or that which speaks of His habit of meditating and praying alone on the mountain-top, or in the Garden Agony.
"You may also detect by the light we now give you flashes of recollection of His state before incarnation, even, as He is recorded to have said, in the glory of the Father before the world began. There are many such.
"His
life, but little hampered by the body--which, indeed, was but a temporary
envelope to His spirit, assumed only when it was necessary for the spirit
to come in contact with material things,--was different in degree, though
not in kind, from the ordinary life of man--purer, simpler, nobler, more loving,
and more loved. Such a life could never be understood aright by those who
were contemporary with it. It is of necessity that such lives should be misunderstood,
misinterpreted, maligned, and mistaken. It is so in a degree with all that
step out from the ranks, but especially with Him."
Continued from above.
"Prematurely was that Divine Life cut short by human ignorance and malignity. Little did men grasp the significance of the truth to which they carelessly give utterance when they say that Christ came into the world to die for it. He did so come: but in the sense of these enthusiasts, He came not. The drama of Calvary was of man's not God's devising. It was not the eternal purpose of God that Jesus should die when the work of the Christ was just commencing. That was man's work, foul, evil, accursed.
"Christ came to die for and to save man in the same, though in a higher, sense that all regenerators of men have been their Saviours, and have yielded up bodily existence in devotion to an overmastering idea. In this sense He came to save and die for men: but in the sense that the scene on Calvary was foreordained to occur when man consummated his foul deed, He came not. And this is a mighty truth.
"Had the full life of Jesus been completed on earth, what vast, what incalculable blessings would men have reaped? But they were not fitted, and they pushed aside the proffered blessings, having but just tasted them. They were not prepared. So with all great lives. Men take from them only that which they can grasp, and leave the rest for after-ages: or they push them impatiently aside, and will have none of them: and after-ages worship and revere a spirit incarned too soon. This too is a mighty truth.
"It is not permitted us, nay, it is not in the counsels of the Supreme Himself, to force on man a truth for which he is not ripe. There must be, throughout God's universe, orderly progression and systematic development. So it is now. Were men fitted to receive the truths we tell of, the world would be blest with a revelation such as it has not had since last the angels shed on it the beams of Divine Truth. But it is not prepared: and only the few who have learned wisdom will receive now what future ages will drink in with gladness. In this sense the Christ life was a failure during His existence on earth, and a potent vivifying influence among men afterwards."
From "Spirit Teachings", Section 9:
.... And the Atonement: What do you make of that?
"It is in some sense true. We do not deny it; we do but fight against the crude human view which renders God contemptible, and makes Him a cruel tyrant who needed to be propitiated by His Son's death. We do not detract from Jesus' work when we disavow the false and dishonouring fables which have gathered round His name, and have obscured the simple grandeur of His life, the moral purpose of His sacrifice. We shall have somewhat to say to you hereafter on the growth of dogma until an assumption becomes established as de fide, and its rejection or denial passes for mortal sin. Were God to leave man to his own ends it would be held to be a mortal heresy, deserving of eternal burnings, to deny that the Supreme has delegated to a man one of His own inalienable prerogatives. One great section of the Christian Church would claim infallible knowledge for its head, and persecute in life, and condemn in death, even to everlasting shame and torment, those who receive it or not. This is a dogma of late growth in your very midst; but so all dogmas have grown up. So it has become difficult, nay, impossible, for unaided human reason to distinguish God's truth from man's glosses upon it. So all who have had the boldness to clear away the rubbish have been held accursed. It has been the story of all time. And we are not justly chargeable with wrong- doing if from our superior standpoint of knowledge we point out to you human figments of error, and endeavour to sweep them away..."
(From the same discussion; the medium asks why the spirits prefix a cross-sign to their names when writing, if they deny the Atonement. E.g. "+IMPERATOR".)
"We would have you know that the spiritual ideal of Jesus the Christ is no more like the human notion, with its accessories of atonement and redemption, as men have grasped them, than was the calf ignorantly carved by the ancient Hebrews like the God who strove to reveal Himself to them. We wish to show you, as you can grasp it, the spiritual truths which underlie the life of Him who is known to you as the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Son of God. We would tell you of the true significance of the life of the Christ, and show you, as we can, how low and mean are the views of Him which we are striving to do away with.
"You ask how the sign of the Cross can be prefixed to such teaching. Friend,
the spiritual truth of which that sign is typical is the very cardinal truth
which it is our 
special
mission to declare. The self- denying love which would benefit humanity even
at the sacrifice of life and home and earthly happiness--the pure spirit of
Christ, this is what we would declare to you as the godlike spirit. This is
the true salvation from meanness and self-aggrandizement, and self-pleasing
and luxurious sloth, which can redeem humanity, and make of men the children
of God. This self-abnegation and incarnate love is that which can atone for
sin, and make man like to God. This is the true atonement! Not, indeed, a reconciliation
of sin-stained humanity to an angry and holy God, purchased by the sacrifice
of His sinless son, but a higher and truer atonement in the ennobling of the
nature, the purifying of the spirit; the making of the human and the divine,
ONE in aim and purpose:--the drawing of man's spirit, even whilst incarned,
up nearer and nearer to the Divine.
"This was the mission of Christ. In this He was a manifestation of God: the son of God: the Saviour of man: the Reconciler: the Atoner: and herein we perpetuate His work, we carry on His mission, we work under His symbol, we fight against the enemies of His faith, against all who ignorantly or willfully dishonour Him, even though it be under the banner of orthodoxy and under the protection of His Name."
(See also: "The Atonement" in "Sin
and Salvation" page of this web site.)
From "Spirit Teachings", Section 11:
I have thought very much of what has been said by you, and I have read some of it to a friend in whose judgment I rely. It is startling to find doctrines of Christianity, which we have been taught to consider as essential dogmas of the faith, denied under the symbol of the Cross. I cannot more strongly put my difficulty than by saying that though your statements command my assent intellectually, still the faith of Christendom which has lasted now 1800 years, and more, cannot lightly be upset by statements, however reasonable they may seem to me, which are not authenticated by any authority that I can test. Will you state clearly for me what position you assign to Jesus Christ?...
"You inquire from us what position we assign Jesus the Christ. We are not careful to enter into curious comparisons between different teachers who, in different ages, have been sent from God. The time is not yet come for that; but this we know, that no spirit more pure, more godlike, more noble, more blessing and more blessed, ever descended to find a home on your earth. None more worthily earned by a life of self- sacrificing love the adoring reverence and devotion to mankind. None bestowed more blessings on humanity; none wrought a greater work for God. It is not necessary that we should enter into curious comparisons between God's great teachers. Rather would we give to all the meed of praise that is their due, and hold up the example of self-denial, self- sacrifice, and love to the imitation of a generation which sadly needs such a pattern. Had men devoted their energies to the imitation of the simplicity and sincerity, the loving toil and earnest purpose, the self- sacrifice and purity of thought and life which elevated and distinguished the Christ, they had wrangled less of His nature, and had wasted fewer words upon useless metaphysical sophistries. Those of your theologians who dwelt in the days of darkness, and who have left to you an accursed heritage in their idle and foolish speculations, would have turned their minds into a more useful channel, and have been a blessing instead of a curse to mankind. Men would not have derogated from the honour due to the great God alone, but would have accepted, as Jesus intended, the simple Gospel that He preached. But instead of this they have elaborated an anthropomorphic theology which has led them to wander further and further from the simplicity of His teaching; which has turned His name and creed into a battle-ground of sects; and has resulted in a parody on His teachings--a sight on which His pure spirit looks with sorrow and pity.
"Friend, you must discriminate between God's truth and man's glosses. We do not dishonour the Lord Jesus--before whose exalted majesty we bow--by refusing to acquiesce in a fiction which He would disown, and which man has forced upon His name. No, assuredly: but they who from a strict adherence to the literal text of Scripture--a text which they have not understood, and the spirit of which they have never grasped--have dishonoured the Great Father of Him, and of all alike, and have impiously, albeit ignorantly, derogated from the honour due to the Supreme alone. Not we, but they dishonour God! Not we, but they, though they have the prescription of long usage, though their words be coloured by extracts from writings which they have decided to be Divine: and though in those writings there be found words which pronounce a curse on any who may disagree with what is stated there. We do not regard such curses save with pity. We do not labour to upset belief when it is a harmless error, but we can lend no countenance to views that dishonour God, and retard a soul's progress. The attributing to a man of Divine honour, to the exclusion in very many cases of personal honour and love for the Great Father, is a mischievous error which derogates from the duty of man to his God. The holding of a narrow, cold, dogmatic creed, in all its rigid, lifeless literalism, cramps the soul, dwarfs its spirituality, clogs its progress, and stunts its growth. 'The letter,' says your Scripture, 'the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' Hence we denounce such views of God as are contained in the fable of a material hell; and we proclaim to you purer and more rational ideas than are contained in the orthodox notions of atonement and vicarious sacrifice. We proclaim to you a spiritualised religion. We call you from the dead formalism, the lifeless, loveless literalism of the past, to a religion of spiritualised truth, to the lovely symbolism of angel teaching, to the higher planes of spirit, where the material finds no place, and the formal dogmatism of the past is for ever gone.
"We have spoken to you with care, and with a due sense of the importance of what we say. Dwell on it with care. Ponder it with single desire for truth, and seek the Divine aid ministered to all who pray for it."
From "Spirit Teachings", Section 17:
[.... I was fain to stop, for I could get no satisfaction. On July 24th, some questions were put on theological questions, one touching the passage, "I and my Father are one" (John x.30). I had insisted, in the course of conversation, that they were incompatible with Imperator's statements. A question was accordingly asked, and the explanation given was as follows:--]
"The words which you have quoted must be taken in their context. Jesus was at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Dedication, and the old question was put by the Jews--'If thou be the Christ, tell usomes plainly?' They wished for a sign, as you wish for resolution of your doubts. He referred them, as we have referred you, to the works and tenor of His teaching, as evidence of its Divine origin. Those, He said, who were prepared--His 'Father's sheep'--heard and answered His voice. They accepted His mission. The questioners could not accept, because they could not understand, and were not prepared to believe. The prepared ones heard and followed Jesus to eternal life, to progress and happiness. Such was the Father's will, and no man had power to hinder it. They were kept in the Father's hand, and in the mission which was to regenerate them and mankind at large, the Father and the Teacher were One--'I and my Father are One.'
"Such were the claims put forward. The Jews understood them as an assumption of Divine honour, and stoned Him. But He justified Himself. How? By admitting His Divinity, and defending the claim--I am the Son of God, and I prove it? Nay, verily. But He, the pure, truthful Spirit, over whose transparent sincerity no shadow of duplicity ever passed, He asked, in amazement, for which of His miracles they were about to stone Him. For none, His accusers said, but for blasphemously claiming union with the undivided Godhead. Thus challenged, He distinctly put aside the claim. Why, He says, in your own sacred records, the term is applied to many on whom the Spirit was outpoured, 'Ye are gods.' How then can it be blashphemy to say of Him whom the Father Himself hath sanctified and separated for so special a work, He is the Son of God? If you doubt, regard the works I do. There is no claim of Divinity there, but the reverse."
From "More Spirit Teachings", Part 2:
S. M.: "Then, what do you make of the many passages in which plain claims of divinity seem to be made?"
"We are rather inclined to believe that the claims of Jesus were overstated in earth-life, and that the disciples who heard the words recorded them in a sense far stronger than He Himself would have used. Doubtless, He did claim for Himself a divine mission, as, indeed, it was. He claimed in hyperbolical Eastern metaphor honour and respect as the Messenger of the Most High. And His followers, ignorant and uneducated, magnified His claims in the light of the Crucifixion and Resurrection and their attendant wonders. And so the story grew until it has reached the marvelous dimensions which now astonish reflecting men."
From "Spirit Teachings", Section 18:
"This was the mission of the Christ. He claimed for Himself that fulfillment of the law, not its abolition or abrogation, was His intent. He pointed out the truth which was at the root of the Mosaic commandment. He stripped off the rags of Pharisaical ritual, the glosses of Rabbinical speculation, and laid bare the divine truth that was beneath all, the grand principles divinely inspired which man had well-nigh buried. He was not only a religious but a social reformer; and the grand business of His life was to elevate the people, spirit and body, to expose pretenders, and to strip off the mask of hypocrisy; to take the foot of the despot from the neck of the struggling slave, and to make man free by virtue of that truth which He came from God to declare. 'Ye shall know the truth,' He told His followers, 'and the truth shall make you free: and ye shall be free indeed.'
"He reasoned of life and death and eternity; of the true nobility and dignity of man's nature; of the way to progressive knowledge of God. He came as the Great Fulfiller of the law; the man who showed, as never man showed before, the end for which the law was given--the amelioration of humanity. He taught men to look into the depths of their hearts, to test their lives, to try their motives, and to weigh all they did by the one ascertained balance--the fruits of life as the test of religion. He told men to be humble, merciful, truthful, pure, self-denying, honest in heart and intent; and He set before them a living example of the life which He preached.
"He
was the great social reformer, whose object was at least as much to benefit
man corporeally, and to reveal to him a salvation from bigotry and selfishness,
and narrow-mindedness in this life, as it was to reveal glimpses of a better
life in the hereafter. He preached the religion of daily life, the moral progress
of the spirit in the path of daily duty forward to a higher knowledge. Repentance
for the past, amendment and progress in the future, summed up most of His teaching.
He found a world buried in ignorance, at the mercy of an unscrupulous priesthood
in matters religious; under the absolute sway of a tyrant in matters political.
He taught liberty of both; but liberty without license; the liberty of a responsible
spirit with duties to God and to itself; of a spirit corporeally enshrined with
a corresponding duty to its brethen in the flesh. He laboured to show the true
dignity of man. He would elevate him to the dignity of the truth, the truth
which should make him free. He was no respecter of persons. He chose His associates
and His apostles from the mean and poor. He lived amongst the common people;
of them, with them, in their homes; teaching them simple lessons of truth which
they needed and which they could receive. He went but little among those whose
eyes were blinded by the mists of orthodoxy, respectability, or so-called human
wisdom. He fired the hearts of His listeners with a yearning for something nobler,
better, higher than they yet possessed; and He told them how to get it.
"The gospel of humanity is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the only gospel that man needs; the only one that can reach his wants and minister of his necessities."
From "Spirit Teachings," Section 30:
(Easter message for the year 1875.)
"We have told you that we always celebrate anniversaries, and Easter is with us a festival as well as with you: though we celebrate it for other reasons, and with a higher knowledge. Easter is to us the Festival of Resurrection, but not of the body. To us it symbolises not Resurrection of matter, but Resurrection from matter, the Resurrection of Spirit: and not this alone, but Resurrection of Spirit from material beliefs and surroundings: the emancipation of the soul from the earthly and material, even as the spirit rises from the dead body with which it has done for ever.
"You have learned that there is a spiritual significance in everything, even as there is a spirit underlying every material object. So the dogma that Christendom celebrates to-day is to us of special significance. Christians keep festival in memory of the rescue of their Master, the Lord Jesus, from the grasp of death: and though they erroneously believe that the material body was revived, they do in ignorance celebrate the great spiritual truth that there is no death. The festival to us is one of joy over the partial recognition of a truth divinely seen by men: and of still greater rejoicing over the mighty work consummated on this day. It is not that death was vanquished, as you say, but that man began dimly to see a vision of eternal life.....
"You know that the three branches of the Church of Christ are agreed in celebrating certain festivals in memory of events in the life of Jesus. They who, outside the Church, have refused to keep fast and festival are not wise. They cut themselves off from a portion of the truth. But the Christian Church keeps in memory of its Head, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsuntide. Those are the landmarks in the Christ life, and each represents an event in His life with a hidden spiritual significance.
"The Christmas Festival of the Birth of the Spirit on the plane of Incarnation typifies Love and Self-denial. The exalted spirit tabernacles in flesh, abnegates Self, animated by Love. It is to us the Festival of Self-denial.
"The Epiphany, the Festival of the manifestation of this new light to the world, it is to us the Festival of Spiritual Enlightenment: the shining of the True Light that lighteth everyone that is born into the world: not the carrying of it to men, but the uplifting of the Light so that they who can see may come to it.
"The Fast of Lent typifies to us the struggles of Truth with darkness. It is the Wrestling with the Adversaries. The recurring season shadows forth a constantly recurring struggle. It is the Fast of Conflict: of wrestling with evil: of the endeavour to overcome the world.
"Good Friday typifies to us the consummation of the struggle, the end that awaits all such conflicts in your world--Death: but Death in Life. It is the Festival of Triumphant Self-sacrifice: the realisation and consummation of the Christ life. It is to us no Fast, but a Festival of Triumphant Love.
"Easter, the Festival of the Resurrection, typifies to us the perfected life, the risen life, the glorified life. It is the Festival of Spirit, conquering and to conquer: of the risen life, enfranchised and set free.
"Whitsuntide, which Christendom associates with the baptism of the Spirit, is to us a Festival of great import. It typifies the outpouring of a large measure of spiritual truth on those who have accepted the Christ life. It is the Festival which is the complement of Good Friday. As human ignorance slays the truth that it cannot receive: so, as a consequence, from the higher realm of spirit comes a blessing on those who have embraced what the world has crucified. It is the Festival of the outpoured Spirit, of increased grace, of richer truth.
"Ascension, lastly, is the Festival of the completed life, of the return of the Spirit to its home, of the final sundering from matter. It is the end as Christmas was the beginning: not of life but of earth life: not the end of existence but of that span consecrated by love and self-denial to mankind. It is the Festival of the completed work.
"These are the spiritual ideas which underlie the Festivals of your Church. It is not because she has not fully grasped their meaning that she has not done well to celebrate them. And as the spirit who has charge of us and of our work has broken down for you the wall of dogmatism and has shed light on the superstitions of the Church, so it is permitted to us to show you that beneath all lies enshrined the germ of truth: and when man's error is removed, God's truth is more plainly seen.
"We have desired to complement the teaching you have received. As it was necessary to destroy, so is it to conserve. Even as He, the Lamb of God, the Saviour of men, rescued Divine Truth from Jewish ignorance and superstition, so do we rescue Divine Verities from the crushing weight of man's theology. As He, the great Healer of the nations, unloosed the struggling souls, and released them from the dominion of spiritual evil: so do we set free the spirit from the bonds of human dogma, and bid the enfranchised Truth to soar so that men may see it and know that it is of God."
From "More Spirit Teachings", Part 1:
"Has it ever occurred to you that the majority of Christian men regard themselves as the heirs of an assured Heaven, and believe that the Supreme has sent His Own Son to live and die for them? That they have a revelation which is the inspired message of His own servants, and that no other message has ever come to man? Also, that it is their bounden duty to instruct the Hindus, Chinese and the heathen in general in the doctrines confided to them alone? That this perfect revelation is the final utterance of the Supreme?
"Put aside such doctrines as false and egotistical. We know of no such favouritism on the part of the Supreme. He, God over all, blessed for ever, shows no favouritism to any clique of His creatures in one corner of the earth. In all ages there has been a revelation of God, suited to the particular circumstances of the time.
"Each religion, as sent by God, has one great central idea; and Spiritualism, as you are pleased to call it, gathers them together into one harmonious whole. All these fragments that have been revealed are now to be gathered up and welded into one homogenous mass, under the name of Spiritualism. Some of these fragments have been purer and truer than others. That of Jesus Christ was the truest of all, and the older religions of India would probably rank next to that. The great bar to knowledge is prejudice.
"When I lived on earth I knew nothing of the older religions. There was nothing in my time among the Jews that could be called a belief in immortality, only a yearning for it. Jesus Christ introduced the idea as a real belief. It was part of His mission to spread this truth. The Jews were like the Christians in the present day, and had ceased to think much of a future state. Christ came to teach the indestructibility of spirit, and the perpetuity of existence; even as we come to tell you of the possibility of communion with those who have passed to the spirit world."
"As regards the fate of those whom you call the heathen, the majority of Christians decide that they will fare badly in the hereafter, being left to the justice of the Supreme without any claims on His mercy. It is strange they have forgotten that Christ has said that there are other sheep, not of the Christian fold, who will be brought in and judged according to their works. Paul, on Mars Hill, spoke of God as having made of one blood all nations of men on earth, and describes mankind as sprung from one family, all yearning after God, if so be they might find Him."
From "More Spirit Teachings", Part 2:
S. M. asks about the Second Coming of the Christ.
"You must be warned not to attach too great importance to the wording of records which are, in many cases, obscure and erroneous; which record the vague impressions of men who frequently did not understand what was being said to them; which have been badly translated, and which must frequently convey erroneous impressions. With these restrictions, there is much that the Lord Jesus spoke of in the days of His Incarnation which is finding its fulfillment now, especially as regards the general outlook for a new revelation; even as in His own days on earth, and as regards His return to your world."
"The return, then, is purely spiritual?"
"It is. The return of the Lord Jesus to your earth is in process amongst you. He operates by His intermediary agencies; though He Himself may personally come to influence men if it be necessary; but not in the flesh. This is the age of spirit, and the influence is spiritual. The influence is akin to what it was in the days of the Incarnation.
"On the Mount of Transfiguration He talked visibly with those potent spirits through whom the channel of influence had been given; and who have been, and who are, intimately associated with this and all other similar movements. They - Moses and Elias - acting under the commands of the Lord, inspire and direct this movement. You will see then why we have spoken of it as religious."
"Armageddon, the mystic conflict between good and evil in the world,
is being fought out. And, in your midst, for the eye of faith to see, stands
the Risen Christ. It was to prepare His way that we returned and spoke to
men. It was to pave the way, not, indeed, for the material manifestation of
the arisen Jesus, but for the spiritual return of the Christ that we came
to earth.
Learn, friend, that it is not the Jesus of history, but the Christ-principle
that is revived among men. Divest your mind of materialistic ideas, and learn
the mystic truth.
"The return of the Christ, which the world has confounded with the second advent of Jesus, is solely the resurrection and re-development of the principle of which the Christ was the incarnate representation.
"It was not the first time, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that the principle which He represented was manifested among men. In all ages, and among all people, God has taught them of Himself. The popular notion of the coming Messiah took form and shape from the words of ancient prophecy. Here, then, you see the prevalent error as to the method by which it was to be inaugurated. It is the same with you in this present day.
"You have the same expectation of a new dispensation; the same misconception as to its real character. The Jew looked for his second Solomon who should regain for him the splendour and prosperity which had departed from him. The Christian looks for his Lord to come in the air, attended by legions of angels, to inaugurate a reign of universal peace and glory in which he hopes to have his full share. As the Jews found it hard to believe that the meek and lowly son of the carpenter was the monarch they desired, so your wise men find it hard to fancy that the truth which is everywhere spoken against is, in very deed, the Gospel of the Risen Christ. The dispensation of the Spirit is being evolved amongst you; the reign of the Comforter; the development of the highest truth that men can know. No open establishment of an earthly kingdom, but the silent setting up of a spiritual one.
"The Christ-principle which we declare is that return of the Christ which His followers expect; only it is spiritual, whereas their ideas are earthly and material."
"I gather that Jesus Himself has not appeared on earth, but may do so."
"Not the man Jesus as He was. He has passed beyond the state when that would be possible."
"More as an influence?"
"Yes, as a spiritual effluence from the higher spheres, temporarily concentrated on you. His work is done by us, who have more power to abide with you. All this strife that surrounds you is the sign of the conflict that attends the new development of Truth. The birth-throes of Truth are ever accompanied by pain and distress...."
From "Spirit Teachings", Section 30:
[Easter Day, 1877.]
"May the blessing of the Supreme and All-good be on you! We have somewhat to say to you, as our habit is at this season, of resurrection and renewal of life.
"We will leave the plain symbolism of the Christian festival, of which we have before discoursed. We have told you of conflict followed by victory. You have learned how the life of the Man of Christ Jesus was a symbolic representation of the progress of spirit. It may be well that we remind you here of this symbolism.
"Descending
from His spiritual life in the spheres of bliss, the Anointed One came to
your earth to fulfil His Divine mission. Veiling in human form the radiance
of His pure spirit, He took a body in the manger of Bethlehem, and became
man, with all the imperfections and frailties of humanity, subject to the
sorrows, the temptations, the discipline through which alone progress is gained.
"In this read a type of the descent of spirit into matter as its sole means of progress. Spirit, existent in the ages past having won for itself the requisite development, descends to incarnation, so that by conflict and by discipline it may be purified and made fit for the progress it cannot otherwise gain.
"Born thus into the sphere of humanity, the Anointed One became subject at once to persecution and assault from a Prince of the world. The powers of the sphere into which He came were arrayed against Him, and sought to try and prove Him. The word went forth to slay the Anointed One because His royal claims were thought to be in conflict with the pretensions of the earthly monarch.
"A type this of the conflict that besets the incarnate spirit from the moment of its entrance into the sphere of earth.
"At the threshold of every new sphere of development stand, as we have told you, the guardians from whom the benefits to be gained by entering it are won only after wrestling and agony [i.e. as afterwards explained, conflict]. These blessings are not to be gathered idly and dreamily, without risk and strenuous labour. Were it so, the benefit would cease to be. It is in the conflict that the blessing lies, in overcoming the foes, in victory after the battle is over. Lay it to your account that this is so, and that for the incarnate spirit there is always a persecutor who seeks to slay.
"Threatened by these enemies, the young child was withdrawn to Egypt, where He was safe, and where from a full storehouse He gathered in a rich store of knowledge. Egypt had been, since earliest days, the receptacle of mystic knowledge, and there was derived much of that mystic knowledge that the Anointed One displayed in after years.
"You will not need to seek far for the significance of this type. Where
shall the spirit, beset and threatened by the foes that throng around it,
find its sanctuary at once and its armoury more surely than in the mystic
lore stored up for it by those who have preceded it in trial, and have left
for it records of their experience? In the Egypt of esoteric lore is that
armoury 
whence
the militant spirit may find power to overcome, thoroughly furnished and equipped
for the conflict, instructed and edified by what it has learned. For, be it
known to you, the withdrawal to Egypt has a double significance. It is not
only a retreat to a place of safety, but a sojourning in a school of instruction.
The spirit that seeks to withdraw into the esoteric sphere of instruction,
so as to be edified there, draws from the edification its spiritual weapons
of conflict, the while it rests and refreshes itself in an atmosphere of comparative
peace. Meditation, edification, growth to the full stature of the warrior--even
as the Anointed One grew from puny childhood to the vigour of youth, and was
edified in mind by the knowledge He acquired in proportion as His body increased
in strength. He increased, as it is said, in wisdom and stature.
"This closes a typical epoch in the symbolic life of the Anointed One. The seed-time closes with the commencement of the public life. The spirit that has nerved itself for the life of progress and for development during the time of incarnation beyond what is sought by the mass of its fellows is permitted to pass through a process of preparation, during which it receives so much of truth as it can assimilate, prior to the second period, as we may call it, of its life on earth. You do not need to be told that it is an essential condition of spiritual progress that selfishness in all its forms be crushed out, that no gift be kept for private and isolated use, but that in all things the precept be obeyed, Freely ye have received, freely give.
"So that which has been given must be shared with those who seek to partake of it. The truth, in its exoteric form at least, must be proffered to the world; while the inner and diviner secrets must be cherished and kept pure, so that the soul may refresh itself in the intervals of conflict, as the Anointed One retired to the solitudes of the mountain-top, that He might commune with Himself in lonely meditation, and be refreshed by association with those who were not of earth. For Him no companionship then. His spirit soared too high, His associates were too exalted for the gaze even of His nearest friends, save one, who on many occasions was privileged to see the glories that surrounded the chosen Messenger of the Most High in His moments of chiefest exaltation."
[This was afterwards explained as referring to Saint John, who, on many occasions not specifically named, enjoyed a near view of the glory of his Master.]
"Blessed in this respect are they who can journey with a kindred soul, and derive mutual support and joy from an earthly as well as a heavenly communion. The esoteric truth loses no bloom by such handling. The lamp shed no less light, and that light no less pure, because another eye beholds it, if only the eye be single and the sympathy sincere and perfect. But it is rare that two can walk thus, even if they be agreed, and there must always be, for those who aspire, the mountain-top of silent reverence and prayer, to which they resort alone, knowing that for each there is the peculiar path which it is necessary for his feet to tread.
"The life of instruction, complemented by the life of aspiration, prepares for the public life of ministration.
"When the Anointed One came forth from the seclusion of His preparatory training, instructed in the wisdom of Egypt, and nurtured in silent meditation, clothed in purity, animated by charity, instinct with zeal, He went forth to His people to preach the gospel He had learned. There glowed within Him a holy boldness for the truth, but He was no iconoclast. Not to destroy, but to fulfil, was His aim. Not to lay desolate and to waste, but to plough, and to till, and to sow the seed, so that the crop might spring up, and the desert and the waste place might blossom and be glad. The materials ready at hand were used, the dross was purged away, and the lifeless ceremony, touched by the magic of His word of truth, was transmuted into the symbolism of a living verity. The dry bones lived, the spirit returned to the corpse, the dead arose and stood upon their feet.
"In all this, be it observed by the faithful watcher, there was no rude severance, no harsh closing of an epoch, no gulf between the present and the past. All was transition and gradual awakening, just as it is in Nature now. There is no rude severance between the death and the resurrection of the year. You hardly know what power has rolled away the stone from the sepulchre in which the year lay buried. One day all is cold, lifeless, cheerless, and you mourn over the glories that seem to be past and gone for ever, replaced by abiding gloom. But, by- and-by, the change comes, not by might, nor by power, as man sees, but by the potent spirit. The sun shines forth, and his rays unlock the prison-house in which the dead year has lain, and buds begin to peep, and flowers to lift their heads shyly and half in fear, and the emerald carpet grows beneath your feet, and the mantle of tender green is spread around, and behold! The dry bones live. The season of resurrection has burst upon you, or rather has grown upon you silently, a development of the dead past. It is Nature's yearly parable of regeneration.
"Read the lesson in the life of the Anointed One. When He came forth to teach His people wisdom, the whole of the spiritual life of the Jewish nation was cold and bare as the leafless tree in winter. The sap had ceased, it seemed, to flow. The branches were bare and gaunt, devoid of their seemly covering of leaves. The weary traveller should look in vain for fruit, or seek a stray flower to gladden his eyes. The death-plague was on all. He came, the Anointed Messenger of God, the chosen Messiah, on His missionary labours, the Sun of Righteousness and Truth--the Son who was also the Sun, for there was no difference there--shed His beams of enlightenment and warmth on those dead, dry, naked branches, and see the change! Empty formalism glowed again with spiritual truth, cold precepts were vivified again into exuberant life. What had been said by them of old time gained a new and extended significance. Social life was elevated, reformed, ennobled. Religion was raised to a pitch of spirituality it had never reached before. In place of selfishness there was taught charity; in place of formalism, spirituality; in place of ostentatious ritual, silent, secret prayer; in place of open parade of religion--the seeking to be seen of men--the seclusion of the secret chamber, the lonely communing between self and God. In a word, vulgar, empty, proud, unreal externalism was abolished and replaced by the meek, spiritual, aspiring life of the soul, the truest exemplification of which was not in the market-place, but in the silent chamber; not in the Pharisee, but in the Publican; not in the eyes of men, but before the searching scrutiny of the Supreme.
"The parable of Nature and of the Pattern Life runs through the life of spirit too. Duly prepared, educated, edified with such knowledge as it has been able to acquire it, the spirit that has passed its probation goes forth on its journey in the new life. The dead past of formalism, of externalism, it transmuted by the touch of spirit, and a new life opens. The veriest physical fact gains a new significance as the spiritual meaning that underlies it becomes plainer to the purged eye of faith. The bare boughs are clothed with the living green: the dry bones of externalism that lay apparently dead arise under the quickening touch of spirit, and live a new life. It is not that the old is abolished; it is that it is transmuted. It is not that the duties of life are neglected: rather are they discharged with a quickened zeal and a more loving care. It is not that the weary round of toil is shortened: it is that its lengthened path is cheered and dignified by the spiritual significance of even the meanest act.
"Those dry and sapless forms of devotion that seemed so cold and dead that the soul has often cried in despair, 'O Lord! can these dry bones live?' are found to be touched with life, and warmth, and reality, as the resurrection spirit quickens them. The old forms that have served their purpose are regenerated into a life more suited to the new conditions. They live again with more than the old vitality, with a loveliness more spiritual than that of the past. They have renewed their youth, and it is seen by the spiritually-enlightened that no atom of truth can perish, but is renewed and re-combined as there is need of it in the laboratory of the Master.
"And so the spirit shares in the general resurrection that surrounds it. It renews its life, soars to higher planes of knowledge, to teach to others the Divine methods of enlightenment, development, and growth. Not as man sees does it see: not as man acts does it act. Beneath the most unpromising exterior it sees Divine possibilities. The veriest cumberer it would not cut down, save in so far as pruning may facilitate growth, and the lopping off of dead wood may allow the young and living branches to find place. Side by side with this public work is the unceasing esoteric life of growth in spirit, a life of aspiration and development, of communing with the spirit of truth, of rising more and more above the material and the earthly, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Anointed One.
"Silent spiritual growth is the source of public spiritual teaching.
"The closing scenes of the earth life of the Anointed One carry their symbolic meaning too. It is the lot of a teacher who combats the prejudices of an age to incur the enmity, the scorn, the persecution, that is the world's requital for unwelcome truth. You, who regard these records of the Pattern Life as matter of history, can see now how impossible it was that teaching such as His should meet with other fate than it did. That prosperous shams should have been laid bare without those who made gain by them being arrayed against the daring innovator--that pompous and pretentious Pharisaism should have been denounced in terms more vigorous than were bestowed on the Magdalene and the Publican without setting the Pharisee in outraged wrath against his accuser--that the national religion, with its cheap ceremonialism, and its easy path for those who could pave it with gold, should be reformed, and the path made easier for Publicans and harlots than for Scribes and Pharisees, without bringing down the wrath of those in place and power on the despised Nazarene, who dared to lay His impious hand on God's own ark--this you can see to be impossible.
"He was too pure and good to escape envy, too uncompromising and earnest not to provoke jealousy. His doctrines were too searching to be popular; His life precepts too spiritual to suit an age of luxury and ease. And so the age that could not receive the advanced truth crucified Him who taught it. The age of hollowness and impurity revenged itself on the pure and holy Son of Truth by hanging Him on the tree of shame between the representatives of crime.
"So it was. So in many cases it is still in intent, if not in deed. There have been reformers who have meted out to an age, over which a wave of Divine enthusiasm has just passed, that aspect of truth which commends itself to them, and so have found acceptance for their message, and have won honour and renown in its preaching. There have been others, too, who have had more of the world's wisdom and discretion, and so have been of higher service. But these are rare. To most, as to the Anointed One, death comes with contumely and open shame as the reward of truth. Death to the teacher, but resurrection and new life to His teaching. It is not till the instrument is lost sight of that the value of the message is realised. We need not draw out the parable at length.
"Hanging on the cross, the friends of the Christ were few indeed--a few women whose readier instincts and affections were true and firm in the hour of deepest darkness; and two of those who should have been nearest at hand, Joseph and Nicodemus, the two, be it known, who had made least open profession, and had even seemed most cowardly. All the rest were fled. The Teacher of new truth, the preacher of a new dispensation, where was He? Dead. And where was His gospel? Dead, too, to all appearance. None remembered, none heeded it or Him. But men judge hastily. None knew who rolled that stone from the tomb's mouth, save that it was done by that might of Spirit wherewith ever and anon your world is regenerated, and death turned into new life. An angel did it; and the same power that opened that tomb and stirred its occupant whom men thought dead and buried out of sight availed to vivify His message, and to nurture it through evil and good report, until it dominated the nations, and became in its age a mighty engine of spiritual truth.
"Turn now to the individual soul. Its lot is much the same. Whether its message of what to it is Divine truth is one that makes its impress on the age or not: whether, if it do, it be received as the needful word in season, or as the impertinence of a meddling innovator, it will, almost surely, have to make its way through conflict to acceptance. Such is the Divine method of sifting. And in proportion to the severity of that conflict will be the vigour with which it will be found to have taken hold of men. The roots will be all the deeper and firmer fixed in proportion as the ground above has been trampled down by contending feet. Whether the life of conflict end as did the life we contemplate, or whether feebler zeal or larger discretion preserve the teacher from the same fate, matters little. The word of truth must pass through the conflict to final victory, even as the soul in its solicitude and isolation must contend with tempters and with foes till it becomes perfect through suffering, and wins the crown by the cross.
"The life of the Christ during such time as He remained on earth after His resurrection was symbolic of the change that passes on the risen life of spirit. In the world, but not of it: moving in it as a visitor who conforms to but does not belong to it. He was animated by that most potent law of spirit which you may trace in all the ways of spirit-influence--the law of love. Whenever He appeared, whatever He did, this was the motive. The records left to you, both meagre and erroneous as they are, are yet sufficiently full to show this. He fulfilled the law of love, and then ascended to His own proper sphere: no longer seen, but felt: no longer a personal presence, but an effluence and influence of grace.
"So the souls who voluntarily linger around your earth are those whose motive-spring is love, or they whose mission is animated by the same master principle. Personal affection or universal love are the motives that draw the higher spirits down to you. And when the duty is discharged they too will ascend to the common Father and the Universal God.
"Be of good hope! You are too apt to fancy that truth is dead. When the cold dark days of winter are with you, you are chilled. You forget the spring that has dawned on many a winter past. You forget that death leads to resurrection, and on to regenerated life--life in a wider sphere, with extended usefulness, with nobler aims, with truer purpose. You forget that death must precede such life--that what you call death, so far as it can affect Divine Truth, is but the dying of the grain of seed which is the condition of abundant increase. Death in life is the spiritual motto. Death culminating in a higher life. Victory in the grave, and through death. In dealing with spiritual truth do not forget this.
"In times of brightness and calm you may fear. When the air is stagnant and the heat scorching, when the moisture is dried up, and the fierce sun beats down with untempered splendour, the tender plant may wither and fade. And so in days of ease and smoothness, when all goes swimmingly, when all men seem to speak well of the Word of Truth, you may with good reason fear lest it fade, and its outlines be blurred, and its tone assimilated to the conventional fashion of the world. You may settle with yourselves that if all accept unquestioned the truth presented to them, then that phase of truth needs changing, and some stronger form is requisite. But when it is born in conflict, be of good cheer, for by such birth-pangs man-children are brought forth, whose vigour and energy shall suffice to resist attack, and to carry on the Divine standard to a further vantage-ground.
"It was in some such sort that the life of the Anointed One began and ran its course to the final consummation. It is a parable for all time."
These spirit- teachings are claimed to have been either written
or spoken through the English medium, Rev. Stainton Moses (1839-1892), by a
band of 49 spirits led by their chief, "Imperator".
