I AM HERE. Jesus.

I see that your work has prevented you from receiving my message tonight. While I am sorry, I do not complain, for you must do your work and get in condition the more rapidly thereby to start the effort to accumulate in order to get in the position you desire, and which is so necessary to our work. You are better tonight, spiritually, and our rapport is very complete. I could easily write my message, but you are physically tired and I do not think it wise to attempt to write. So, I will postpone doing so until tomorrow night when I hope there will be nothing to interfere.

(Do you feel that I will be in better condition to receive perhaps a longer as well as clearer message tomorrow night?)

Yes, that is the correct idea. And I will endeavor to make the message as full and lucid as possible. I know how you feel in reference to the matter, and that you desire to receive the message in the best possible shape; and I know that you will do so. You must not think that I am not willing to wait whenever you have your professional work to attend to, or that I will not be with you even though we cannot write; for I am with you very often, trying to help, as I have said. So, you must keep up your courage and trust me, and have faith in my promises.

I will not write more now, and will say that you have my love and blessings.

(Will I be able to actually see you in some way before too long?)

Well, as to that, I know that you will be able to see me in the not distant future, as you say, for I am desirous that you do so. You have the power of clairvoyance, but it is not desirable that it be developed in you at this time, as we wish all your power to become centered in receiving the messages.  But, some night, when you are praying and I am with you, the power will be given to you, and you will see me as I am while praying with you. I feel that this may strengthen your faith and draw you closer to me, and I myself want you to actually see me as I am.^[1]

Well, let us say good night and stop.

(Master, can you understand how I have rather expected to receive messages from you of a very high but yet more impersonal nature than those which you have actually written?)

Yes, I understand. But if I should come and write to you (as you may think) in the dignified way that an elevated spirit should write, you would not feel the nearness to me that I so much want you to feel. And, besides, you might not just understand what I intended to communicate. It is impossible for you to accommodate yourself to my condition, and, hence, I have to accommodate myself to yours. I want you to get as close to me as possible, and, in order that that may be, I have to become verily human, as you are. Otherwise, the rapport could not exist between us, and I would seem to you like some far-off nebulous being that you could not understand or feel the influences of. No, I am very human when I come to you.

But this I will say, in order that you may get a somewhat better idea of our relationship: that as you progress more in your soul development and in the possession of the Father’s Love, you will be less human—I mean in your condition of soul, which is that in you that furnishes the rapport between us—and I will meet you on the plane that you may occupy. So, you see what a determining factor your condition of soul is in our rapport. If you consider this for a moment, you will more clearly comprehend why it is that the dark spirits can find a closer rapport with you, that enables you to help them,  than they can find in the higher spirits. We try to make a rapport with them, but their souls do not respond. It is only after you have talked to them and directed their attention to us—which causes, as it were, an opening up of their souls to us—that we can come in that rapport with them that enables us to gain their attention and create an interest in them in what we may say to them.

This may seem surprising to you, as you believe that we who are more elevated must have great power with and over these dark spirits; and this is so for certain purposes. We do often restrain them from doing things that they should not do. But this, as you must understand, means that we arbitraily force them to do or not do certain things by our powers, just as your laws, or the enforcement of them, restrain those who desire to violate the laws from doing so on earth.

But when we come to the work of attempting to turn their thoughts to those things that affect their soul condition, this thing of constraint or force will not effectuate the work. We then must deal with the exercise of their free will; and, in such cases, only persuasion or love influence can possibly do the work of helping them out of their dark and tainted condition of soul. We must invite and persuade the soul to awaken; we cannot force it. And, to do so, we must form that relationship with these dark spirits that will cause them to voluntarily open up their souls to our influences.

The great obstacle to our work among spirits of this kind is that they will not listen to us or come in conversation with us, and we cannot compel and accomplish our purposes. No man or spirit can ever be made by force to open up his soul to the higher thoughts and essentials of the soul’s progress. Of course, when we once get in that rapport with them that enables us to enlist their attention, and they listen to what we say, we can then cause them to have an awakening by informing them of the sufferings and torments that will be theirs if they continue in their same condition. And by a kind of mental force, you may say, we compel them to think of these things that are holding them in their condition of darkness. But this does not occur unless we can first secure their attention and, to some extent, their confidence.

So, you may realize from this, to some degree, the importance of the work that you are doing among the dark spirits. Being in the condition of darkness and want of soul development, they cannot see any such development that you may have. To them, you are merely a mortal, as they themselves were a short time ago in many cases. And finding that they can communicate with you, they come to you just as one man would to another for the purpose of conversation. And outside of the phenomenon of spirit and mortal conversing, you do not seem any different to them from what men seemed to be to them when they were on earth. They are all very human and, to them, you conversation is very natural. Hence, they listen to you with the same feelings of confidence, or, rather, not of distrust, that they would have with another. And your opinions or ideas are just the same to them as they might expect if they were in the flesh, or if you were a spirit like themselves.

While these dark spirits may see the bright and beautiful spirits under certain circumstances, as they sometimes tell you they do, yet, they see only the appearance of the spirit body. They cannot see the condition of the spiritual development in these bright spirits, FOR IT IS A LAW THAT THE SPIRIT PERCEPTIONS CANNOT VISION CONDITIONS OF THE SOULS OF OTHERS OF A HIGHER DEGREE OF DEVELOPMENT THAN THEY THEMSELVES HAVE; AND THIS APPLIES TO ALL SPIRITS, NO MATTER WHAT SPHERE THEY MAY OCCUPY. HENCE, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THAT, AS WE PROGRESS IN OUR SOUL SPHERES, THE HIGHER WE ASCEND, THE MORE CLEAR AND COMPREHENSIBLE OUR SOUL PERCEPTIONS BECOME OF THE FATHER AND HIS DIVINE QUALITIES.

So, I say, so far as the real perceptions of these dark spirits are concerned, they cannot comprehend the real spiritual development of the higher spirits whom they often see. The interior condition of these higher spirits is just as hidden from the dark spirits as is the interior condition of one man from another. Only when like meets like can there be a perception—that is, not a real visual perception, but a spiritual perception of each other.

But the higher spirits can see the interior conditions of those who are in spheres lower than they, and they can determine just what the soul development of these lower ones is.

Also, you must understand that the appearance of the spirit body indicates and portrays, to a large extent, the condition of the soul; and, from this, one spirit may judge the actual development of another. I mean those may so judge who have progressed above the dark planes.

Well, I have written more than I intended. But, as you were desirous to have some conception of what I have written, I concluded that I would attempt to explain these matters to you. I know from my explanation, though, that you cannot fully understand what I have been trying to make known to you.

But we must stop now.

So, with my love, I will say good night.

Your brother and friend,

JESUS.