"GHOSTS AND THE EARTH WORLD"

…"MY CHILDREN, I know that in the thoughts of those who are seriously-minded there is anxiety in this same time, anxiety about threatened war, anxiety about rising costs, anxiety about unemployment; and over many years now there has been anxiety over homes. Men and women at times ask themselves why it is that a home has been denied to them, that they and their children should be forced to live under dreadful conditions.

"And the answer by those in authority is that circumstances forbid anything better to be offered, and in a measure there is some truth in this statement; but, as you know, again and again conditions have been controlled by human nature.

"As you look back over the last war with its terrible threat of annihilation, you can see so clearly outlined that those entirely adverse conditions were conquered, but in one way and one way alone - by concentrated effort, by unselfish service, by a determination to become a victor over circumstances, if humanly possible. And because that attitude of mind became so widely adopted, in due course events turned from the threat of utter disaster, and slowly but surely good was seen to prevail over the evil things that man would have done.

"I mention this as a little introduction, because although it seems to you that today another nation is being faced with that same great problem, if that nation and those bound to it by duty-ties, adopt the same measures as were adopted after all the mistakes had been made, then the end can be the same. But men and women in every part of the world are faced with the proviso that unless they are prepared to put their heel upon self and material desires, then the conflict will spread, precious lives will be forfeited, and much sorrow will fall upon that land and upon other lands as well.

"You cannot bargain with God. Spiritual Law is a fundamental, and unless those concerned are willing to face spiritual fact and to give the right conditions, then sorrow and suffering must be prolonged.

"But I do not wish to depress you. I have been sent into your presence tonight to speak on something which would seem to you a different subject altogether, and I call it: 'Ghosts And The Earth World'.

"Now, my children, you are all familiar with that term 'ghosts', and those who have been educated in regard to an After-Life realise that there are many kinds of ghosts.

"There are some who represent earth-bound spirits; and there is that form which is a materialisation of thought.

"Then there are the Bright Ones and the ones who love you, the ones who have won something of spiritual release. They all inhabit your homes, go with you on your daily walks, and strive to help you in the toil which you must do, however mundane that toil may be.

"So you see that the subject of 'ghosts' is a wide one. As you go back on the past you remember many stories of hauntings, and you have no reason to doubt that they were true stories. There were souls who could not give up their link with the old home, with the old possessions, and they were not released simply because those in the body did not understand the Law that governs Life in this world and in all the worlds.

"You must remember that when the physical body is discarded, there is a privilege which you all have offered unto you - to go into other states. Some are very interested in the stars and planets, and I can assure you that when sleep binds the body, and conditions are suitable, at times the Spirit of that individual passes through the earth plane and out far beyond that which you name the etheric, and it is possible, by a Divine dispensation, for that one to enter other worlds. And because they go with an altruistic motive they are able to help, they are able in a measure to inspire; and, again, according to their aspirations, they are able to gain inspiration from those there who are more highly evolved than themselves.

"But who are these people? They would appear as 'ghosts', they are people of another realm, people freed from the casket of flesh, or body, in which they are undergoing their experiences.

"Some people have had illustration of this in a tiny measure in regard to loved ones upon the earth plane who have appeared to them, although their physical bodies were far away in other lands. When these visitations occur something of consternation seems to strike the heart and the thought comes at once: 'Is he dead? Has she passed into the Spirit World?' Sometimes you find that the materialisation of that loved form in your home takes place during a period of serious illness, maybe of physical unconsciousness. But these forms - and it has occurred through the link of love by thought-transference - these images can be seen; but they are merely an image or a thought-form. As you know, the ones concerned are not free from the body, and if they were free from the body, they would appear in a somewhat different guise.

"In regard to ghosts, there are many changing images. Some appear as they were upon the earth plane; and it takes a lot of thought and a lot of hard work and a lot of power, to build up an image sufficiently clear to the physical sight of others so that they can be recognised.

"But a point which so many people forget is this: when they do not see the forms of their dear ones, it does not mean that those Spirits are not with them, nor does it mean when these thought-images or thought-forms are seen, that the real self of the one so dear is there in a greater measure than at any other time.

"As you can understand, my children, while you are in the flesh you are governed to a great extent by the physical mind, by the physical eyes and by the physical hearing. These are crude tools to us, extremely so, but they are very useful to you; and when you see or hear someone who has passed into the Great Beyond you feel, according to your spiritual education, either elated or a sense of consternation comes over you.

"Many people repudiate the thought of Spirit Return and Spirit Communion; they will have none of it simply because of this fear element. Some are extremely psychic, as you name it, and although they would not admit it, they are conscious that there are presences around them, and in the desire to be free of that which they do not understand and do not want, they say that such a thing cannot exist.

"Have patience with such as these because fear is a very terrible thing to possess anyone in whatever guise or whatever matter it concerns. Fear has a way of changing human nature as quickly even as jealousy, and these two failings are linked together; they are, as it were, a twin walking hand in hand.

"Why are people jealous? Because they fear that someone else is going to be preferred before them either in affection, in position or in possessions. You see, dear children, jealousy cannot live where there is no fear, because even as the instinct arises within - the instinct of self-preservation - it is killed by faith in God, by a desire to contact in a more real way with the brotherhood spirit.

"So you see that fear can strike a human being in many forms; it may appear as something righteous, it may be shown with another as proper pride, more often it manifests as something which is 'not fair', something which seems totally unjust. Think over this matter because at times you will be conscious of fear, fear of the unknown, fear of the future, fear in regard to unseen enemies.

"I want to give you the Law that should help you to overcome this fear. When a man or woman has tried to live a life as near as possible to that laid down by the Master Christ, fear should never touch them. Faith certainly has many assaults, because how can faith be tested unless there are those thrashings that go so deep? But I say unto such as these who have done their best over the years, that they must regard fear of attacks by seen and unseen enemies merely as temptation. In the first place, it is a denial of God's Love.

"But you may say to me: 'Many good people are attacked, they have dreadful troubles to bear!' And I answer that this must be the case because they are evolving souls and they are upon the earth plane to learn, and how can they learn if these valuable experiences are kept from them? Naturally there must be those assaults on faith; but the point is, dear children, that they are merely 'ghosts', phantoms built up partly because this is a material condition, and so from an outward point of view material things are favoured.

"I am sure that many of you can look back upon your lives and find that at a certain period, phantoms of this kind stood upon your path, phantoms which seemed at the time so real, so positive, that fear held your being. There did not seem to be any chance to overcome the dark shadow of trouble that had crept so close unto them; and yet the travellers were forced to go forward, they had no choice, it was the pathway of their own life. But as they stepped forward, to their amazement, after a certain amount of suffering and the withstanding of suffering, they found that the phantom was behind them; they were victors through the necessity of finding the courage to go on.

"Now if there is one here to whom this applies, then I speak with the greatest emphasis. I say to that man or that woman that their test is not the trouble that seems to threaten them; their test is to kill the fear - the thought of the trouble falling upon them. And as they pray for strength the strength shall come in mighty measure to overcome, and they shall forget.

"You see, my children, when we speak of 'ghosts' we have to take in a far wider area than the accepted term, which means so much to the majority today. You will find that a home which has the reputation of being haunted is left severely alone, even in these days of shortage of accommodation. There is something uncanny in individuals sharing a home with ghosts; but how foolish this sounds when you think that there is no one who is not sharing their home with many ghosts. They come and they go, they bring their treasures and they try to sweeten the conditions.

"True, because free-will is not interfered with, there are those ghosts who come on mischief bent, and those in the flesh may be influenced in great or little measure unless they are on their guard. There are many ghosts who try to destroy the harmony of churches, the harmony of communities, and the harmony of homes; but the point is: who is to be master - the one who owns the house or the ghost who has come to destroy that which is so precious to human life?

"It is a grave thought, and it is a reality; and when you take your homeward way you must remember that you are not the only occupiers of your homes, of your cars, or your trains, or any other conveyance which you use. There are those you see who are in the flesh; but there are many, many you cannot see.

"Every particle of this world, is, to use an earth term, haunted by Spirits, some who should have become freed from the bondage which holds them to the earthly plane, but many, many more who are here on missionary work, or, if not missionary work, upon the task entrusted to them specially to do.

"For instance: we have the Little People, we have the fairies and gnomes, and a vast host of Life recognised by only the few, but nevertheless there in very truth. If your eyes could be opened you would marvel at the scene portrayed in your own garden and even among the few pots of flowers that adorn a tenement dwelling. The fairies are ever doing what they can to stimulate the life of the flower-world, the life of the tree-world in the parks, and in the gardens, the life in the sea; yes, to sweeten its conditions and to keep it in a measure of health.

"As you can recognise, much goes into the deep waters which could bring epidemic and scatter the inhabitants of this little world, were it not for Nature's laws ordained by Divine Law, which makes it possible that streams shall be purified in a certain length to a certain extent; and that there shall be creatures in the deep waters to clear up that which would become a menace to mankind. I can but touch upon the outer edge of this great truth, but I want you to open your hearts and minds more and more to what is, because that is one way to kill fear for evermore.

"I know, children, that those in authority are tempted in many ways, but temptation could not come if they were aware of, and recognised, the truth of Spirit Return and Communion, and were more on their guard. The trouble is that many are self-confident, they ignore the spiritual instinct to walk warily during the earth life, and to remember that the Laws of Christ are not only the laws of material safety but of spiritual health as well.

"So in regard to your own lives, what is the 'ghost' that sometimes seems to keep step with you in spite of all that you would do by prayer and by work to forget the unwelcome stranger? My children, it may be fear of poverty in old age; or it may be the fear that many sick people experience - will the pains of the body become more than they can bear? It may be the fear of losing a dear friend, or a relative, by physical death, or fear of the unkindness or treachery of others; it may be fear of war, fear of the fire that pours down from the heavens, so it seems to those who crouch in the darkened shelters.

"All these ghosts have to be met and challenged; they have to be analysed, and one of the first factors which should despatch them for ever from your home is this - that you as a spirit have come into the earth body to take on certain experiences, and if those experiences were absent, the purpose of your life upon earth would never have been worked out; and those lessons, neglected or refused in one stage, are presented in a far more difficult form in the next stage into which the soul must pass.

"So is it not reasonable that you should argue with your own mind in this way - that you are surrounded by not only your own ghosts, but the ghosts of humanity? You do not pass an individual in the street who is not troubled by some 'ghost' - Can I get through this year? Will my employment last through the winter? Will old age bring poverty and loneliness? Will God forget my plight? You see, it is not only you individually: you are only one of millions of people, and those millions of people are not only in the flesh.

"What is it that brings disembodied souls who are earth-bound back into these conditions? It is fear, fear which prevents them from seeking, when they would find; and that same fear when they were in a physical body has brought about their present state.

"Have you ever considered that there are many disembodied souls who are just as much afraid of you as you would be if you could see them? Many of them do not understand the forms they see working and walking upon the earth plane. They passed through the change called death without any knowledge or any wish for knowledge of a Hereafter. Their memories are entirely confused, for they are still bound by the memories of the earth plane.

"And some spirits, because they are earth-bound, are filled with fear when they see those in the body; they are wondering whether someone in authority is going to punish them, knowing perhaps that the punishment is deserved.

"I ask you to try to enlarge your ideas about the different forms of Life and the different images which Life represents, and which are manifested to those in the body and free from the body. Some of you, perhaps, are tormented by your memories of the ghosts of happy days, which at times draw very close - 'Oh, to be young again!' 'If only I could re-live my life and taste the joys of yesterday!'

"To 're-live' your life, my children, is possible, and remembrance is a very useful tool; but also it can be a very dangerous weapon. What are your memories like? Do they bring regret; do they bring a sense of peace, or are they shattering to the little harmony which you may possess? All these things are merely ghosts, ghosts of other days, and they have no life at all except the life that you yourselves give unto them.

"And I want another point to be remembered as well. Those grievous sorrows or terrible illnesses from which you shrink even in thought, they also are numbered amongst the ghosts of yester-year; but in this form or image they will never be seen again, for when you pass into the Light and you look back over the past you will find that instead of something bearing the image of a phantom or a shade terrible to behold, in place of that will seem even as a bright angel, because, my children, sorrow on earth is turned into joy in the Life to come; but the measure of that joy depends entirely upon the fight which was put up to work through the sorrow or the trouble or the illness.

"You see where I am leading your thoughts, and how much depends upon you. First you have to take this into consideration - that God is your Father, that God has provided every protection for the Spirit within you; but the Spirit within would not be protected if it was able to extricate itself from the lessons which the earth life has to teach. God is working with the real Self within you; He cannot betray His trust to pander to the mind of the body. So you see that even in regard to those things which have gone wrong from your point of view, they represent stepping stones to better things; they take you, as it were, across the deep river of experience. Sometimes you are so frightened that it seems you must fall in, and you say to yourself and others: 'How I got over that I do not know!' But when you are free, once again you will see that although you had to step from stone to stone over that rushing river, those who can walk on the waters were with you, safeguarding your footsteps, cheering you when the heart would faint, restoring your courage when the phantom of fear would have destroyed you so far as that little journey was concerned.

"Have I been able to make things a little clearer for you, and are there not some here who in future will face fairly and squarely this subject of ghosts, ghosts upon the earth plane, ghosts in the planets and stars, in all those wide constellations, which perhaps you regard as the World of Spirit. Ghosts everywhere!

"But you, dear children, are the one to prove whether your ghosts are realities or merely phantoms of imagination, phantoms of temperament, phantoms of the past. You are Divine, and what some of you see today, one time will be found to have been so spiritualised that the natural sight will be lost to view, for Nature has to give way to Divinity.

"You are sons and daughters of the Most High, and you are called upon to lay your own ghosts and, also, to pass on that information which will allow others not only to conquer the ghosts which perhaps have haunted them over the years, but to realise that they have been attracted by things that seem, whereas it was possible for them to contact with things that are.

"And now I come amongst you, for I know that there are some here who have been tormented beyond their desserts, so they feel, and certainly far beyond the Will of God. Will you not from this day onward consider that which, in outline, I have sought to pass on, to say to yourselves: 'What is it that I am afraid of?' And then to analyse the roots of that fear and to argue with the mind of the body so that you become master of the ghosts that inhabit your home. And then with gratitude to recognise those other kinds of ghosts, the ones who come bringing for you that which the spirit desires the most, but not necessarily what the physical mind wants to have.

"You see, my children, I must always make this great distinction because if you had what the mind of the body wanted to possess, then I could not say unto you that in due course you will become victor over your circumstances, master of your own destiny, arbiter of your own fate. That is God's Law, but free-will cannot be interfered with and you must work through in your own way until, by experience and perhaps by the suffering which experience brings, at last the arguments which failed to convince you in the past are seen to be true.

"Those who have done their best, those who have sought to be brave, those who have fought against adverse conditions, they have nothing to fear! Tests will come, they must come because their spirit has invited them; but they are only tests, only seemingly dark objects upon their horizon; and those concerned, as they step forward with a valiant heart, shall prove to their entire satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of those around them, that all was well. They were climbing and they had grown a little breathless through the climb; and because the physical was beset upon, so perhaps anxiety came very close. But the will held firm, the determination to do the best prevailed, and such as these, as I have said before, are masters of circumstances, because God's angelic ones walk close beside them.

"So I ask you in regard to threatened war, to remember my words. Pray, certainly pray! But above all work for peace; see that your contribution in the home or in the wider field of toil is on the side of harmony. You cannot do much individually, but collectively you can do far more than the physical mind can grasp.

"Every fear met and mastered with what courage you can find, means that when you are free from the flesh, the One Who loves you best can at once confer upon you something of leadership, and with the cloak of a true Crusader upon your shoulders, you shall learn then to grapple with those ghosts so badly in need of help, and bring to them peace in God's good time.

"So we part in this same way, but always remember that what is said today stands for all time. As you think of the future and plan for the future in regard to this little temple of peace, so you will find that the ghosts of yesterday may seek to erect stumbling blocks which will cause your heart to ache; yet they are but 'ghosts', and the time will come when by determination and personal sacrifice and effort, the Spirit's desire will be accomplished.

"The testing stages are of full importance for they are building up the power, trying the temperaments of those concerned, and weeding out the ones who are weighed in the balance and are found wanting. wanting in the full surrender which alone can ensure God's work being done in God's way upon the earth plane.

"I bless you each and everyone, and I remind you that as sleep holds the body this night we can meet again in God's wide World of Beauty, but only if it is your desire and by an act of your own free-will.

"Farewell! Once again Christ has blessed us as we seek to do His Will and to bring the Kingdom of God in a measure upon the earth plane. Farewell dear children, farewell!"

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