44

WINNING THOSE WHO OPPOSE.

himself, and it may be that little by little you will have the companionship of your nearest and dearest in the aspirations that you feel. If wholly unsuccessful, then proceed alone, but do it so unpretendingly, so kindly, that those nearest you will be proud of you, and will say that their husband, wife, parent, child, brother, sister, or friend is the best in the world. When you have won their sincere respect by the perfection of your own character, you may in the end succeed unexpectedly in what you most desire. But if you never succeed in winning them while on this earth, you have won yourself; and it may be yours in scenes not of this earth to lead them onward and upward by the same cheering and loving spirit that marked your intercourse with them while you dwelt on the physical planet. Remember, that the very saddest mistake you could possibly make would be to cease to aid the one nearest to you in the ties of earth. The duty that you shirk here will have to be done there before you can really progress.

Some separate from their partner or their relative here on the ground that the association hinders their advancement. This is a grave mistake. They thus throw away the opportunity that circumstances had given them for a certain development that they might have attained by fidelity to their obligations. When the abandoned one clings to you and does not desire to separate, the act has still worse results. If you walk a separate path here, you will have to seek forgiveness. there from your injured associate, and make up as well as you can for what should have been accomplished while here by "patient continuance in well-doing." Ties should not be lightly formed; and when once formed,

FIDELITY TO OBLIGATIONS.

45 they should not be dissolved unless the spiritual advancement of both requires the dissolution. That the spiritual advancement of one requires it is a fallacy, for the compassionate adherence to duty will do more for that one than walking a more flowery path, with the back turned on one to whom you had promised fidelity. Those who agree to live together while agreeable and convenient to both can never taste the sweetness that arises from making one's duty to another paramount over one's own pleasure.

"Straight is the line of duty,

Curved is the line of beauty;

Follow the first, and thou shalt see
The second ever following thee."

Some mediumistic persons part from their companion because the association hinders their medial development. That is not synonymous with spiritual development. A person is often a medium without being spiritual, and as this sort of mediumship is usually exerted for pecuniary gain, we should think that to be a very poor substitute for fidelity to one's obligations. "The life is more than meat." Mediumship is a curse to its possessor, unless it be united with spiritual aspiration. Many a medium will have to walk dark and desolate paths in the spirit world, and will wish he had earned his earthly living in some other way, and let his mediumship comfort the sad and skeptical, when it came spontaneously as the result of the blending of aura with aura and of soul with soul.

It is claimed that the exercise of mediumship exhausts all one's physical powers, and that all the time between the seances is needed for recuperation. Very true: the mistake lies in giving up all other duties in

46

THE MEDIUM'S OWN SPIRITUALITY.

order to give all one's physical powers to mediumship. That is what puts a medium into an abnormal condition, and makes him irritable, touchy, and nervous. Many mediums "get nothing for themselves." That is all wrong. Consciousness of the presence of disembodied friends and wise communications from them should first fructify his own nature. After that, the gift can usefully overflow and enrich his friends, in hours of withdrawal from the outside world and of soul-communion. That a medium should sit for any and everybody, as a business, prevents this communication between the visible and invisible from spiritualizing those engaged in it, and makes this last and most glorious gift from the unseen world a laughing-stock or a thing of scorn.

It is claimed that many skeptics are convinced by just such demonstrations as these. Skeptics who are secretly inclined to Spiritualism by an unconscious development of spirituality may be convinced. Persons who are materialistic by nature are not convinced. Nothing can convince them, because the substratum of spiritual aspiration is wanting in them. It is that quality that needs to be cultivated. Accepting the existence of disembodied spirits, and possible communications from them under favorable conditions as scientific facts in nature, have no more influence, per se, in developing the inner nature, than the acceptance of any other proved fact, as, that heat usually expands bodies, and that the air diminishes in density as it leaves the surface of the earth.

Better, far better than receiving communications through the organism of other people,―better, far better than to be a so-called medium himself, is it to become

PERSONAL ACCESSIBILITY BETTER.

47

spiritually susceptible to high and pure spiritual influences.

The world has found fault with some Christians, socalled, because they confine their religion to Sunday, the family altar, and the weekly prayer-meeting, instead of carrying it into the thousand recurrences of daily life. Quite as blame-worthy are those Spiritualists, so-called, who confine their Spiritualism to the seance hour and to the private sitting. Spiritualism cannot be engrafted in our nature by such outward appliances. To be worthy of the name it must be a growth from within, and be entirely independent of what may be received through the organism of another person.

Many will say in all sincerity that they are wholly destitute of evidence and consolation, unless they get it through another, because they are not mediumistic. Perhaps they never can be mediums for other persons, but all most certainly can, and to this statement do we beg the most earnest consideration of the reader, all most certainly can become accessible to spirit influences of a pure order, and can also in time receive in their own private, personal experience convincing evidence of the presence and the loving watch-care of their disembodied friends.

But this result, as a general thing, cannot be brought about in a month or even a year. It requires a clear understanding of the processes to be employed, and a persistent and regular practice of these spiritual methods until the growth of the soul has become apparent. From that point, there is no danger that the delighted aspirant will ever cease a development that has already brought such results.

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FOUR STEPS TO PEACE.

Always try to do the will of another, rather than thine own. Always seek to have less rather than more.

Always seek the lowest place.

Always desire that the will of God (Infinite Intelligence) may

may be accomplished in you.

He that does this enters into the region of rest and peace."

THOMAS à KEMPIS.