We are aware that there are cases where perfect congeniality between the sitter and his assistants, and perfect consonance of feeling, make it an advantage for him to sit with them, but such cases are rare.

A right method and a sincere desire will draw about one disembodied spirits who are wiser than we of earth, and who make no mistakes in assisting the aspirant in his preparation for future usefulness. Where ignorant, mischievous, and sensual spirits find entrance, the blame lies at the door of the sensitive, or of some person present, who has consciously or unconsciously admitted them by a similar condition. The only exception to this is when benevolent spirits bring an ignorant, malicious, or sensual spirit, who desires to improve, in order to be benefitted by the help of a strong, spiritually minded medium. The high counsellors pour the right thoughts onto the sensitive brain of their medium, and as he is still in the body, he can transmit their counsel and strength to the suffering spirit, whose condition keeps him bound to the physical earth, better than they can do. This work is one of the noblest and holiest in which a medium can be engaged. But it is useless for him to reach out after it before the time. will be brought to him by benevolent spirit workers as soon as he is prepared to do it aright. In their philan thropic work of advancing all souls, they use all possible means to accomplish it, thus working in unison with the infinite soul of the universe, whose "ministering angels" they are. To be their instruments, and thus the instruments of the All-Good, is the noblest sphere in which a mortal can be engaged.

It

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THE RECEPTIVE MIND.

"The west winds blow, and, singing low,
I hear the glad streams run;

The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.

And so the shadows fall apart,

And so the west winds play;

And all the windows of my heart
I open to the day.”

WHITTIER.

CHAPTER VIII.

THIRD MENTAL STEP, ASPIRATION.

The aspirant is now ready to be instructed in regard to the third step in this heaven-given process of soulculture. He has become negative to all cares, unkindness, and pride, and a vacancy has thus been created in his soul for higher influences. He has become receptive to what may come, though a careful watch of the initiatory process has made him ready to receive from the good and not the bad, and he is now ready for the third step, which is to become aspirational. Each step grows easily out of the preceding one, being its natural sequence. This new step is a distinct advance in spiritual activity. From the quiescence of the negative stage, and the willingness of the receptive one, we pass readily into the active wishfulness of aspiration.

To aspire is literally to breathe towards. As the flame from a little candle streams up and away from the earth, so does the aspiring soul reach up and away from what is connected with the physical plane of life. It has been remarked that to long for a thing is to desire it so earnestly that we literally grow long in that direction. So does the aspiring soul stretch towards spiritual things and towards its infinite source.

"It upward tends to that abode,

To rest in its embrace."

One of old said, "I aspire while I expire." That is not always applicable. Many a dweller on earth is to

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ASPIRATION THE NORMAL CONDITION.

day more really in heaven than many a disembodied spirit whose wishes hold him to the earth-plane. That desire being contrary to the natural movement of his new mode of existence, he feels himself to be in hell. And in hell he remains until aspiration harmonizes him with his new state, and he joyfully joins the host of progressing souls. Happy those who learn to aspire before they leave the physical body.

What is the source of this spiritual aspiration? Is it natural to aspire, because this tendency originated in our own will, our own determined agency? Does the plant grow out of its own self-originated determination? It grows rather because a germ of life was implanted therein by the infinite activity; and so, hindrances being removed, and nutrient conditions being supplied, it grows, and it must do so. It is the same with our spiritual nature, this higher scion from the same infinite stock or source. The soul lives, because it is born of God, and when hindrances are removed, it grows naturally and inevitably towards the infinite All-Good, AllWise, All-Fair.

But being detached and individual agents, it is for us to prove our activity by removing so far as in us lies all hindrances to the onward growth of our soul. We have now made it lord and master over its physical envelop by conquering all fleshly appetites; we have tried to substitute kindness for hate, humility for pride, selfeffacement for self-will, and trust for anxiety. The hindrances being thus removed, we can reach upward to the source of all, and to those bright intelligences that depend on that everywhere pervasive energy, as the illimitable solar systems sweep their mighty orbits in

OUR RELATION TO INFINITE LIFE.

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obedience to the laws by which infinite intelligence expresses itself on the largest physical scale.

Why do we aspire? Because, as the sublime Plato said, "From God we came, and to God we shall eventually return." Plato's God was no selfish Zeus, no narrow Jehovah. It was the infinite truth, beauty, and goodness that expresses itself in all physical emanations, and in all individual souls, that may wander afar for awhile, but will eventually return to bask in the love of their mighty source.

On entering the third mental step our first aim is to realize our personal relation to the Universal Soul of all that is. Not with fear, as was taught by the old theology, do we seek to realize the truth of the Pauline statement that "in him we live and move and have our being." But rising beyond the personality implied in the use of the word "him," we let such thoughts as these have sway:

66 "I am alive. I live because of the infinite life of the universe. Life is every where, and as I am alive, I am a part of it. I am a part of God, though I am myself frail and small. But I fear not. I do not have to cling to this life, for it holds me; and as I am a part of it, my life can never end. I rest in it. I love to rest, mote that I am, in this infinite, beneficent life. As the little fish floats on the bosom of the great ocean which it does not comprehend, so do I float in this boundless life. As the little bird soars and is poised in the bosom of the atmosphere, whose scope is beyond its grasp, so do I soar and so am I poised in the bosom of this mighty life of which I am an integral part."

Having attained this state of mind, safely, joyfully