I AM HERE. Samuel.

I have not written for a long time, although I have been with you quite often and have seen the other spirits write. I heard the conversation of yourself and friends on many occasions, as you discussed the Truth of spiritual things and commented on the messages that you received on the sermons of the preachers who attempted to explain what they called the Bible truths.

Tonight, I desire to say a few words on the subject: “What Causes the Souls of Men the Unrest That Now Exists in Your Mortal World?”

This is a subject, I know, that has been widely discussed of late. And many causes have been given and have tried to be explained as the basis for such conditions of men, both individually and as comprising nations. I realize that it is a large and comprehensive question, and to discuss it in all its features would require much more time than we have to devote to it tonight. Hence, I will call attention to only a few of these causes.

In the first place, man is so created, or, rather, he has brought himself into such a condition that self-love or selfishness—and I mean the purely human selfishness, and not that of the higher and proper kind—has become the mainspring or active principle of all his motives for doing or not doing a thing or things. And, in so acting, the rights of others are considered only in a secondary or subordinate sense. If the recognition of these rights does not involve any sacrifice of what he considers is for his own advantage, then these rights may be recognized and admitted and permitted to be carried into actual enjoyment. But if there be any conflict between his conception of what he is entitled to and the actual rights of his brother or friend or stranger, he will see only the justice of his own rights, and his consequent action will be based on that conception. And having this motive of selfishness predominant and controlling in his actions, it seldom occurs that the rights of these others are fairly recognized. Consequently, there arises injustice and harm, and the desire of conferring those things which would naturally arise from the conceptions of the rights of these brothers is ignored.

Your brother in Christ,

SAMUEL.