psych: 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
THE ONE WAY 
 
THE ONE WAY 
 
 BY 
 
 JANE REVERE BURKE 
 
 • • i *»'. ,' ^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY 
 
 68 1 Fifth Avenue 
 
Copyright 1922, by 4;jBiiARY^ 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANYeuu::. 
 
 PStC'.l. 
 
 All Rights Reserved LlBRARl 
 
 First Printing - Dec, 1921 
 Second Printing - June, 1923 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
PRELIMINARY NOTE 
 
 npHE message which is the important part of 
 ^ this book came through Mrs. Burke, a Bos- 
 ton lady, well known to many people as of admir- 
 able character and unquestioned veracity. She 
 tells in her Afterword how it came. She believes 
 it to have been imparted to her by William James, 
 who died in 1910. When her manuscript came 
 into my hands, apparently by chance, for ex- 
 amination, it seemed to me not of exceptional 
 importance as a spiritist document, but of decided 
 interest as a religious document. That is to say, 
 I thought the story of the process by which the 
 automatic writing was done, though interesting 
 and important as an introduction to what followed 
 it, had been more fully and persuasively told in 
 other books, but I thought the substance of the 
 discourses which make up most of the book was 
 remarkable and very useful, especially in its bear- 
 ing on the present world-crisis, and that it should 
 be brought to the notice of seekers after truth. 
 Failing to find a publisher disposed to publish 
 it, I concluded, with the author's consent, to have 
 
 •- o. <r^ i' -■ ' f* 
 
vi Preliminary Note 
 
 It put into type for private distribution. A thou- 
 sand copies were printed and have been widely 
 distributed, and have interested so many people, 
 and stirred so strong a call for a more extended 
 circulation, that the present publication has been 
 undertaken. In reading and rereading the proofs 
 for it, I have been more impressed than ever with 
 the remarkable quality of the message and its time- 
 liness in present affairs. 
 
 I have found some of the automatic books 
 both Interesting and edifying, and for that 
 reason was the more willing to assist in bringing 
 this one to print. It is very slightly edited ; books 
 of this derivation being, I think, better adapted 
 for examination and the exercise of judgment on 
 their validity, when their seeming imperfections 
 and digressions are left in them. The discourses 
 given as coming from the late William James, 
 were originally printed without consultation with 
 any member of Doctor James's family. That 
 seemed the most considerate way to do. If they 
 came out of the invisible world in which those 
 whom we call "dead'' continue their activities, 
 they are not subject to the same control that has 
 charge of what Doctor James wrote while still, 
 as we say, ''alive." Whether they did so come 
 
Preliminary Note vii 
 
 Is a matter for individual judgment, the substance 
 of the discourses being, I should say, the main 
 basis of opinion. 
 
 They are pubHshed now without endorsement 
 from anyone who has authority to speak for Doctor 
 James. Indeed, those who were nearest him in 
 life do not believe that he was the source of Mrs. 
 Burke's inspiration, but since various mediums have 
 published messages that purported to come from 
 him, they have not wished to object to the 
 publication of this one. 
 
 As evidence that Doctor James, and not Mrs. 
 Burke, was the real author of the discourses said 
 to be communicated, passages were written in al- 
 leged Greek and other passages in alleged Rus- 
 sian. These passages, and the mention of them, 
 have been omitted, partly because it has not been 
 possible as yet to make anything out of them, and 
 partly because the thing of real moment seemed 
 the substance of the discourses. 
 
 Thirty-seven years ago, In a letter written in 
 1884 to Thomas Davison, Doctor James said: 
 
 I confess I rather despair of any popular re- 
 ligion of a philosophic character, and I sometimes 
 find myself wondering whether there can be any 
 popular religion raised on the ruins of the old 
 
viii Preliminary Note 
 
 Christianity without the presence of that element 
 which in the past has presided over the origin of 
 all religions — namely, a belief in new physical 
 facts and possibilities. Abstract considerations 
 about the soul and the reality of a moral order 
 will not do in a year what the glimpse into a world 
 of new phenomenal possibilities enveloping those 
 of the present life, afforded by an extension of 
 our insight into the order of nature, would do in 
 an instant Are the much-despised "Spiritualism" 
 and the "Society for Psychical Research" to be 
 chosen instruments for a new era of faith? It 
 would surely be strange if they were; but if they 
 are not, I see no other agency that can do the 
 work. 
 
 Something of what he came to think about auto- 
 matic writing appears in the following extract 
 from an article he wrote for the American Mag- 
 azine in 1909, the year before he died. (The 
 italics are his) : 
 
 The first automatic writing I ever saw was forty 
 years ago. I unhesitatingly thought of it as de- 
 ceit, although it contained vague elements of super- 
 normal knowledge. Since then I have come to 
 see in automatic writing one example of a depart- 
 ment of human activity as vast as it is enigmatic. 
 Every sort of person is liable to it, or to some- 
 
Preliminary Note ix 
 
 thing equivalent to it, and whoever encourages It 
 In himself finds himself personating some one 
 else, either signing what he writes by a fictitious 
 name, or spelling out, by ouija board or table 
 tips, messages from the departed. Our subcon- 
 scious region seems, as a rule, to be dominated 
 either by a crazy "will to make-believe," or by 
 some curious external force Impelling us to per- 
 sonation. The first difference between the psy- 
 chical researcher and the Inexpert person Is that 
 the former realizes the commonness and typicality 
 of the phenomenon here, while the latter, less 
 informed, thinks It so rare as to be unworthy of 
 attention. / wish to go on record for the com- 
 monness. 
 
 The next thing I wish to go on record for is 
 the presence, in the midst of all the humbug, of 
 really supernormal knowledge. By this I mean 
 knowledge that cannot be traced to the ordinary 
 sources of information — the senses, namely, of 
 the automatlst. 
 
 Hardly, as yet, has the surface of the facts 
 called "psychic" begun to be scratched for scien- 
 tific purposes. It Is through following these facts, 
 I am persuaded, that the greatest scientific con- 
 quests of the coming generation will be achieved. 
 
 The surface has been scratched a great deal 
 since Doctor James died and the Great War tore 
 
X Preliminary Note 
 
 up the world and agitated the souls of men. Such 
 automatic books as now abound would doubtless 
 have caught his practiced attention. I cannot im- 
 agine that he would have objected to having this 
 one made available to readers. 
 
 Edward S. Martin. 
 
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD 
 
 XT OTHING would induce me to have anything 
 to do with this book if I didn't hope that 
 through it some people might find God; not 
 through some new channel of spiritualism, but 
 through the one old channel of Jesus Christ, the 
 Way. I feel very sure that if it were not for the 
 particular mood of the world to-day I might have 
 written this book exactly as I have, but without 
 realizing that it was being done by automatic 
 writing — simply believing that I was inspired. Of 
 myself alone I could never have written a book; 
 the manual labor of ordinary writing is to me so 
 irksome that I should never have undertaken it, 
 much less put it through. 
 
 I would not have anyone think that I believe 
 that spiritualism should be substituted for the 
 revelation of the Bible. I believe, with St. Paul, 
 that Christ is the final revelation. It seems to me 
 wholly compatible with what we know of our 
 Heavenly Father, who is Love, that He should be 
 willing to permit, especially at this time, when such 
 hosts of young people have passed over, a new 
 
 XI 
 
xii Author's Foreword 
 
 consciousness of the unseen world, to His foolish 
 children whose hearts have become blinded 
 through materialism. I believe that the spiritual 
 way is the only right way. I have come to be- 
 lieve that automatic writing can be a spiritual way. 
 I believe that anyone who is resorting to spiritual- 
 ism or spiritism for curiosity or idleness, is com- 
 mitting sin. 
 
 When I had been writing about a month, Mr. 
 James wrote the following: 
 
 You know that the language you and I use is 
 the thought language, and you perceive the 
 thought before the pencil gets it down. I was 
 appointed, as I told you before, to work with you 
 for months before you began to write; I stood by 
 your side as an earthly friend might have done, 
 and helped you; you were in a very open state 
 of mind — we call it fluid — through prayer, and 
 your desire to help your child; I was able to get 
 at your mind.^ Now, what is called possession by 
 
 *Oii July 6th, W. J. wrote the following in answer to my 
 question {'*JVhy do I knoiv nuhat the pencil is going to luritef") : 
 "Because you can hear the thought language. Also I have been 
 working with you half the winter." 
 
 {"Hoiv did you come to ivork ivith me?") 
 
 "Do you remember that day you were with Q. in the back 
 room, and said that you thought God might be preparing you 
 for some special work?" 
 
Author's Foreword xiii 
 
 a devil, is a similar thing; a human being through 
 evil thoughts or deeds opens his mind to some evil 
 man or spirit, and does it over and over again 
 until the evil spirit possesses him. The reasons 
 that you do not stand in danger of my obtaining 
 undue control over you are threefold. God is pro- 
 tecting you by your desire, your husband's present 
 work is to protect you, and I do not want to obtain 
 undue control. It would be deterrent, and I don't 
 stand for that purpose. . . . 
 
 I have never liked to think of my dear ones who 
 have passed through death, as being constantly 
 about me. That has seemed to me a chaining 
 them to our little life, which I find wholly repug- 
 nant. Difficult as It is for us with our present 
 limitations to take in that there is no time in 
 Eternity, it is yet a thought that has long been 
 very familiar to us. In our earthly life we occa- 
 sionally touch this law of Eternity, when under 
 some great stress a moment is lengthened Into 
 
 {"Yes.") 
 
 **Well, you opened a mental door then and God sent me to 
 work -with you and help sustain you in the strain of your 
 daughter's illness, and I was constantly at hand, and helped.'* 
 
 {"You understand that I <work only in God's service and to 
 do His holy ivillf") 
 
 "Yes, my dear woman, I wouldn't have anything to do with 
 you if you were not heart and soul given over to His holy 
 service." 
 
xiv Author's Foreword 
 
 hours, or days or months seem but as a passing 
 instant. 
 
 Still more impossible to take in is the practical 
 annihilation of space. Yet we know in a very 
 actual, a very real, if not exactly material way, 
 that the wireless message does annihilate space. 
 Still more in those instances of a telepathic call 
 from one person living on earth to another person 
 far away, yet living on earth — of which many in- 
 controvertible instances are extant. 
 
 In the light of this thought it seems easy to un- 
 derstand that those of our dear ones who are 
 gone before, while habitually at work doing God's 
 will far away, might at need be instantly by our 
 sides. 
 
 The old prayer against "evil thoughts that may 
 assault and hurt our souls" — what are they but the 
 thought language of heaven perverted and used 
 by evil spirits. St. Paul says, "For we wrestle 
 not against flesh and blood, but against principal- 
 ities, against powers, against the rulers of the 
 spiritual wickedness of this world." 
 
 There is so much that I do not know that I am 
 willing to concede that it is possible — though I 
 don't believe it — that men have seen with their 
 fleshly eyes ghosts — the spirits of the departed. 
 
Author's Foreword xvt 
 
 It seems to me much greater to have perceived 
 with the spirit the nearness of the departed, with 
 an absolute certainty which no gainsaying is able 
 to controvert. There is no power on earth that 
 could persuade me against my certainty that on a 
 certain morning my husband came and spoke to 
 me the one word of comfort that was essential 
 to my being able to go on and keep my balance. 
 I saw no form with my eyes, I heard no word, 
 yet I know that his spirit spoke to my spirit, and 
 in the strength of that certainty I traveled many 
 months and days. I have had, during a period of 
 many years, a few similar experiences. I grew 
 to realize that they were governed by one law. I 
 never perceived my husband's nearness or received 
 his directions except when I was living to the 
 highest that I knew — very close to God. 
 
 The experience of automatic writing is an abso- 
 lutely extraordinary one. No one who has been 
 through it can question the certainty of a control 
 outside themselves. Yet I have become convinced 
 that the control (I have to use this term, though 
 I don't like it) never touches the pencil. I feel 
 sure that the contact between the amanuensis and 
 the control can be wholly spiritual, and that 
 though it may be only psychic it is never material. 
 
xvi Author's Foreword 
 
 The material is always lower than the spiritual, 
 and art than nature. Yet the finished athlete, 
 at first endowed with his great bodily strength, 
 travels through art back to nature, before he 
 reaches his highest perfection. The great singer, 
 with his great God-given gift, must also travel 
 through art back to nature; and I believe that, 
 correctly understood, the present wave of com- 
 munication with the unseen world is but another 
 example of traveling through art back to nature. 
 I was told by Mr. James, "You have been receiv- 
 ing thoughts both good and bad all through the 
 ages." Now, if this is true. Is it not a great step 
 in advance to do it consciously, Intelligently? 
 
 One element in automatic writing that is tre- 
 mendously convincing, to the person who receives 
 it, is the way that the pencil crosses out both 
 verbal mistakes and whole sentences. There are 
 statements In this book that I would not dare 
 make In my own person. Some of these are in 
 complete accordance with my own personal and 
 private belief or Interpretation of the truth of 
 God as I understand it, yet I should hesitate a 
 long time before I published them on my own 
 authority. Others are utterly beyond my knowl- 
 edge, and I have felt great awe and question as 
 
Author's Foreword xvii 
 
 I have perceived my hand writing them out, and 
 many times I have feared, lest what I was writing 
 was not true or was touching some profound ques- 
 tion, that has long puzzled sages. I can only say 
 that I have constantly stopped, and repeated: 
 ''Father, this is thy pencil. I am thy child. Do 
 not let this pencil write any word that is contrary 
 to thy will." If, therefore, any of my readers feel 
 I have dared to tread where I should not, I can 
 only say that I am but an instrument, and if I have 
 marred the message on receiving it, or mangled 
 it through the limitations of my development, I 
 am sorry. It was not wilfully done. 
 
 As I have progressed in this automatic writing 
 I have become convinced that the contact between 
 me and the control is a wholly spiritual one, in 
 spite of the fact that when I am working at my 
 best the contact is so strong that the pencil is 
 driven like lightning, being often dug into the 
 paper and almost giving me the sensation of being 
 forced to write.^ 
 
 ^It will be seen from the afterword that at first I thought 
 there was direct control of the pencil. 
 
 On August 6th, my husband wrote: "I can't touch the pencil 
 because we can't touch or handle those things that have no real 
 enduring existence." 
 
xviii Author's Foreword 
 
 We all know that many of our actions are 
 automatic, controlled by what we term our func- 
 tional brain. I am now convinced that this spirit- 
 ual control causes my hand to make the pencil 
 write. The writing of different controls varies 
 greatly. 
 
 In order to do the best work, I find it necessary 
 to stop very frequently, and say, "Father, this is 
 thy pencil, I am thy child, I am dealing with a 
 force that I do not understand, and I am relying 
 absolutely on thee not to allow this pencil to write 
 one word you do not wish to have written." 
 Nevertheless, I am obliged to keep a very real 
 rein on myself not to intrude my ideas. I follow 
 what is written often with the very keenest inter- 
 est. You will see that in the course of the writing 
 I have been very much troubled at knowing be- 
 forehand the word or the thought that the pencil 
 is going to write. When I reread the manuscript, 
 to prepare it for typing, I came on long passages 
 which I have no remembrance of having written. 
 Since this whole subject of automatic writing is so 
 much before the mind of men to-day it has seemed 
 to me worth while to let my readers inside this 
 sort of detail. I think that all readers of these 
 books should realize that those who receive this 
 
Author's Foreword xix 
 
 automatic writing are liable at times to limit the 
 message by placing the barrier of their own ig- 
 norance or doubt In the way of the control/ 
 
 In a passage which I have not published, Mr. 
 James, in speaking of a certain book automatically 
 written, said, "It is a fine book, with a very im- 
 portant message, but I think the message was 
 limited because of the lack of spiritual develop- 
 ment of the person who received it." 
 
 It is essential to keep very much on the alert^ 
 for an interference, otherwise one might give a 
 
 ^ {You understand hovi much people are questioning about 
 automatic 'writing — is it like this? You think to me the thought, 
 "Your friend" {meaning the one ivho is staying ivith me) and 
 I ivrite her name doivn — you give it into my mind in a thought, 
 I receive it as a thought, but let it out through my hand and 
 the pencil in words, saying, "My friend, Mrs. Wilson" — do you 
 get ivhat I am asking about?) 
 
 William James's control. "You have it exactly. I do not 
 know the name of your friend. I see in your mind, as in a 
 mirror, that you are thinking of one certain friend. I think 
 a thought to you about that friend and you write down her 
 name. A man who has a series of bells touches a given button 
 and the bell attached to that button rings. I think the thought 
 to you about your friend and you write out her name." 
 
 {Is it not, therefore, easy for me to make a mistake in ivrit" 
 ing your thought into human language?) 
 
 William James's control. "Yes and no. When you are work- 
 ing well, you put my thought into clear, correct human language. 
 When you grow weary you may cloud the meaning." 
 
XX Author's Foreword 
 
 garbled message. Thus far I believe every in- 
 terference I have had was by the same personality, 
 and the way that she gained entrance was because 
 of a state of mental vagueness on my part from 
 my being scattered or ''distrait," which, of course, 
 was deterrent. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preliminary Note v 
 
 Author's Foreword xi 
 
 Message Purporting to be from Professor 
 William James 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. To Prove Christianity; Live it . . . i 
 
 II. The Value of Certain Philosophies; 
 
 Both of the East and of the West 20 
 
 III. Of the Lives of the Saints — and Single- 
 
 ness OF Heart 39 
 
 IV. On Cooperation between Those on 
 
 Earth and the Departed .... 54 
 
 V. The Present Crisis is not Confined to 
 
 Earth 73 
 
 VI. The Need of the World To-day is the 
 
 Love of God and Religion ... 86 
 
 VII. Of Union w^ith God the One Source of 
 
 ALL Power 98 
 
 Author's Afterword 119 
 
 ZZl 
 
THE ONE WAY 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 To Prove Christianity; Live It 
 
 TULY 6th, 1920. "The message which comes 
 to you In this book Is addressed first and fore- 
 most to those, my old pupils and friends, to whom 
 a message from me will come with greater force 
 than if It came w^ithout my name attached to It. 
 I therefore begin — I — William James, late pro- 
 fessor of psychology ^ at Harvard University, 
 Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A., am sending you this 
 message. While I was on earth — alive, as you call 
 It — I thought that I knew a lot, but now that I 
 have begun to learn a very little I see that I failed 
 to know what is in truth about the most essential 
 thing of all — namely, you cannot prove by your 
 intellect those things which can be proved only by 
 life. I mean Jesus Christ said: T am the Way, 
 the Truth and the Life.' If you want to prove the 
 truth of the gospels — the New Testament record 
 
 *From 1889 to 1897 his title was Professor of Psychology. See 
 "The Letters of William James," Vol. I., page xix. 
 
2 The One Way 
 
 of the life of Christ — there Is only one way In 
 which it can be done ; that is by living it out in your 
 daily life. I thought that I could reason about re- 
 ligion and I neglected the simple method of living 
 the religion myself. You think that the day has 
 gone by when people can turn to their Bibles, and 
 get guidance for everyday affairs therefrom, but I 
 tell you, read your Bible, both the Old Testament 
 and the New, and devour them, not in any contro- 
 versial spirit, or to help you to prove this or that, 
 but read it for the practical basis of every part of 
 your daily lives. Now In the 20th century, it Is the 
 only possible solution of present-day needs. Let 
 the politicians learn to read their Bibles. You 
 who used to be — may I say my disciples — oh, I beg 
 you to listen to me now and obey me. Read your 
 Bibles. *They are they which testify of me,' Christ 
 said, referring to the Old Testament. How much 
 more then, should you read both that and also the 
 New Testament, In order to meet your present 
 crisis. All that was said in *The Seven Purposes,' 
 about the terrific struggle that Is coming, only 
 feebly foreshadows what lies ahead of us all — us 
 and you. You must let us Into your lives and work 
 consciously, clearly with us. There are teachers 
 who can and will teach you how to do this. Oh, 
 throw away your conservatism that you are so 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 3 
 
 proud of and be ready to take the necessary for- 
 ward path with us. 
 
 "We who have passed through that, which you 
 call death, are ten thousand times more alive than 
 we were upon earth; we have all the powers that 
 we then had, intensified, and far greater and more 
 developed powers, of which I will tell you what 
 I can later. But right here and now, let me tell 
 you, that there is a tremendous lot that we can't 
 tell you, because you are wholly Incapable of tak- 
 ing It in in your present undeveloped state. How- 
 ever, If you will only learn to be fluid, and be 
 willing to be led by us, you can be told all that is 
 necessary for us, those with you and those here, 
 who stand for the true God, to work together for 
 the overthrow of the powers of evil. 
 
 "You think that the Great War was a terrible 
 time. I tell you, it is as nothing, compared to what 
 is coming; and if you won't help us and let us help 
 you, the race will be held back for centuries. Oh, 
 lay aside your prejudices and help us. Men have 
 greatly erred in trying to train the brain to the ex- 
 clusion of other faculties and you must stop it now. 
 You are trying to train the body and to some ex- 
 tent the hands, but the instincts are being neg- 
 lected. Who do you think teaches the birds when 
 to migrate each year? Who do you think teaches 
 
4 The One Way 
 
 the fish where to spawn? Who do you think has 
 led man up and up from the lowest savagery? — 
 God, God, God ! Who do you think would teach 
 you and all the men and women of today if you 
 would let him? God Almighty. He has so made 
 man that it is possible for him to 'come unto him 
 and make his abode with him.' Do you suppose 
 that Jesus Christ made any mistake when He said 
 that? I tell you He did not; He enunciated one 
 of the great fundamental truths of the whole uni- 
 verse, and now at the end of nineteen centuries, 
 you are all of you seeking every sort of way to 
 accomplish the salvation of the human race, except 
 the one and only way, the way of the indwelling 
 God — God in the heart and soul of every son of 
 man, leading and guiding him all the time. It is 
 so simple that most of you are afraid to trust your- 
 selves to anything so simple and so easy too, if you 
 will only learn to yield to your instinctive knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 ''You all speak familiarly of your consciences; 
 the true, clear conscience of a child speaks clear 
 and straight because his instincts have not yet been; 
 blinded and stunted by education. The foolish- 
 ness of man, made the form of education, of which 
 you are so proud. Stop it — that is, stop, the over- 
 emphasis on one side, of man's powers. The in- 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 5 
 
 tellect and the Instincts; the body, the mind, and 
 the spirit, should each have their due place; 
 whereas, your present-day education overempha- 
 sizes the intellect. Get back to elemental things; 
 the men In the trenches got back to elemental life, 
 and they at once began to have visions and to see 
 forms about them — and those forms were real — 
 they were there. 
 
 "I tell you the human race Is one, one, one — 
 write large, ONE, and we who are ten thousand 
 times as much alive as you are, are able to help 
 you if you will let us because you and we are one. 
 You have got to be open minded and train your 
 instincts and stop trying to find some grand new 
 way, and go back to the old way, the simple Bible 
 way. 
 
 "Mrs. B , you go to bed now. I can'*- work 
 
 with you any more to-night because the next part 
 is so important, and you must be fresh. You must 
 perfect the mechanical arrangements because such 
 rapid writing Is hard on your arm. You don't 
 know how tremendously Important the book Is and 
 you will have to work many hours a day. It must 
 be published in the early autumn." 
 
 (You made a mistake and told me the other 
 night that the doctor would not come and he 
 walked in. I had not asked you a direct question. 
 
6 The One Way 
 
 though I was wondering if he would come, and 
 though I know those details have no spiritual im^ 
 portance, they are upsetting to mere human intelli- 
 gence. Y 
 
 **Yes my dear friend but we expect you to rise 
 above such mistakes. I knew that your boy was 
 not seriously ill and I knew you needed the rest 
 and so I said go to bed. Now you have got to 
 learn to distinguish between important or spiritual 
 thought messages and unimportant. The language 
 of heaven is the thought language governed by 
 love. Also you must forgive me for my mistakes. 
 I too am just human — a little more advanced than 
 I was when on earth, at which time I thought I 
 knew a lot; now I know that I know nothing." 
 
 July nth. {It is hard for me to balance the 
 ordinary daily duties and the call to this new 
 work, which is exciting and interesting.) 
 
 "Well then, pray; you understand that; do it. 
 God as you know wants to help at every second 
 of your life. 
 
 "One of the most serious dangers of this time 
 is the demand for scientific proof of spiritual 
 things. My friends, science must have scientific 
 proof, but the things of the spirit must have spir- 
 itual proof and spiritual proof comes only from 
 
 * Throughout this book the italics denote that Mrs. Burke is 
 speaking. 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 7 
 
 living the Life, and If you will accept the word of 
 tried scientists In astronomy or any other of the 
 scientific branches, why do you refuse to accept the 
 spiritual dictum of those who are proving the 
 things of the spirit by the Life. Get back to the 
 elements; drop theological discussions and stand- 
 points and get back to first principles. Don't Im- 
 agine that I do not know how many times I have 
 said that same thing, but I am writing to those for 
 whom my word has weight and I have to repeat 
 the important points till you realize that you must 
 attend to what I am trying to get across to you. 
 No matter what church you belong to, work shoul- 
 der to shoulder with every force that is making 
 for true progress, and find out If they are making 
 for true progress, by measuring them up, not 
 against some standard you have been accustomed 
 to thinking correct, but take Christ for your 
 standard. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; 
 if things won't measure up to Him cast them off. 
 Now, you know that this was not what I taught 
 on earth, but oh! don't make any mistake, it is the 
 only way. He is the Way. I am writing like a 
 child, but all truly great things are simple. You 
 must help, you must listen. You must believe. 
 One of the reasons why the messages from this 
 side seem so unsatisfactory to you, is that many of 
 the things you long most to have us tell you are the 
 
8 The One Way 
 
 things you must find out for yourselves. God has 
 already provided you with the basic data from 
 which you could find out, and it would weaken your 
 moral fiber if we told you those things. To speak 
 In an old-fashioned phrase, 'It is not allowed,' that 
 is it could be done but it is not for the best devel- 
 opment of the race, and we could not do it because 
 here we want to do God's will and we have already 
 learned that nothing is to be gained by pushing our 
 wills. Man has but one real possession, and that 
 gift God has given him, his free will. It Is a God- 
 like attribute and Is to be reverenced and prized, 
 but while it is the most essential resemblance to 
 God — 'Man made in the image of God' — yet, the 
 first thing to do with it, is to give it back to Him 
 and say: Thy will not mine be done. 
 
 "You are almost all of you under trained in 
 what I call making an act of will. That is an- 
 other thing of which I must treat at length." 
 
 (Mr. James, when I was talking to Miss Davis 
 about this — were you prompting me?) 
 
 "No, not at all. Of course I have been trying 
 to familiarize you with all sorts of ideas, and try- 
 ing to teach you to hear and understand my 
 thoughts, and this Is a most essential truth, and I 
 may have thought to you (note this expression), 
 thought to you, not talked to you on the subject. 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 9 
 
 I was not in any sense prompting you when you 
 talked to her." 
 
 {Did you know that I talked to hcrf) 
 
 "Yes, I did." 
 
 Sunday, July I2th. *'The gist of the whole mat- 
 ter is, that God has already granted unto man all 
 the revelation that is actually necessary for his sal- 
 vation, but the mass of men, having perverted 
 their freedom and used their free will to follow out 
 their own ways, have blinded themselves and can 
 no longer easily take the leading God has given. 
 
 "This matter of automatic writing is far older 
 than you suppose; it is no new thing. It probably 
 accounts for much, in fact perhaps for nearly all, 
 of what we call inspired literature. 
 
 "Have you never found yourself In a situation 
 of danger, some position wholly new to your ex- 
 perience, and yet in a second, quicker than thought, 
 you knew your only chance was to follow some line 
 of escape? Had you had more time and begun to 
 use your reason and think out what you ought to 
 do, ten to one, you might have become befogged 
 and done the wrong thing. As It was, you fol- 
 lowed your Instinct. You can train your instincts 
 just as you train a voice to produce a singer. It 
 has to be done. There are certain teachers already 
 at work In this matter of whom the most success- 
 
10 The One Way 
 
 ful is Roger Vittoz of Lausanne. He himself does 
 not go far enough, and realise that beyond the emi- 
 nently scientific method he has worked out, lies the 
 absolute reliance on God, which is an absolute ne- 
 cessity if man is to work out his own destiny. And 
 man has to work out his own destiny. God will 
 never take away from you his own priceless gift of 
 free will. You must say, 'Father, I have but one, 
 real, enduring, everlasting, possession, my free 
 will ; it is Thy gift to me and I will take it and give 
 It back to Thee, and do Thy perfect will which 
 will give me true freedom.' All real thinkers know 
 that true freedom instantly implies discipline. A 
 free country is not one where every man is free 
 to follow out his own will — you do not permit 
 the Bolshevik to commit crimes, you restrain him 
 by laws and no country would have freedom that 
 had no restraining laws. Your athlete must have 
 the most careful discipline and training if he is to 
 obtain the true freedom which will gain him the 
 mastery over his own body and win him the race. 
 "If you want success in earthly things you must 
 work for it, and the same law obtains in heavenly 
 things; you have to cultivate the spiritual and in- 
 stinctive side of your nature as assiduously as if 
 it were a garden, where weeds crop up and grow 
 with most astonishing rapidity. This sounds trite, 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It ii 
 
 but I have to make the whole matter commonplace 
 and practical. Remember what I was as you knew 
 me on earth, searching afar off for the explana- 
 tions of the great mysteries, and pay attention to 
 what I say now; live your religion, prove its 
 truth in your everyday life and don't go theorizing 
 about it. It is w^hat you are, not what you think, 
 that counts. 
 
 ''God has implanted deep in the nature of every 
 son of man the power to know good from evil, 
 and you must exercise your free will and choose 
 the good. Remember you have to go on and on 
 choosing the good, His will, and laying your free 
 will back into his hand, and you will have to go 
 on doing it to the end of your earthly life. The 
 process of learning to probe deep into your own 
 nature, is for you at present difficult, because it 
 involves much quiet and meditation, a thing for 
 which both the pleasure and the work of the world 
 to-day leaves but little time, but you must make 
 the time for it. I tell you from this side, where I 
 know a great deal more than most of you do from 
 your side, that nothing In human life to-day com- 
 pares with the need of preparedness for the great 
 SDlrltual battles that are imminent. America was 
 very slow about preparedness for the Great War. 
 In God's name, heed our warnings and make 
 
12 The One Way 
 
 preparations for the far greater war that is surely 
 coming. Most of you are not single hearted 
 enough; you must get less complex, not only in 
 your external lives but in the essential you Inside. 
 Make one clear choice for God and the right, and 
 stop splitting hairs. The men in the armies, as I 
 have said before and as everyone knows, got down 
 to the bare essentials and you must do the same, — 
 plain food, plain clothes and no waste of your 
 essential powers. *How long halt ye between 
 two opinions? If the Lord be God follow him, 
 but if Baal then follow him.* I want to put this 
 in such plain language that a baby could under- 
 stand it, but it is worthy of the practice of the wis- 
 est man among you. Get back to your Bibles — 
 because *they are they which testify of me,' as 
 Christ said, and you must get back to the one 
 elemental cause of all things, God Almighty the 
 creator of the Universe, the Father of mankind. 
 Get God for the background of all your life and 
 all your thoughts, get him for the centre and the 
 kernel of your whole life. *In Him we live and 
 move and have cur being' is absolutely true just as 
 it stands; you can't love your wife and children 
 except that God in you, the imminent, indwelling 
 God, who himself is love, enables you to do so. 
 Whatever value the Bible may have as an histor- 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 13 
 
 ical record, or as literature, Its true value Is that it 
 shows forth God's dealings with men and man's 
 growing relation to God. God made man In his 
 image. He made him to be His own companion. 
 God would not want a companion who was unlike 
 himself, and since he is omnipotent, omnipresent 
 and omniscient, he fills man with his own power 
 and presence and wisdom, always provided that 
 the Individual chooses God — ^lays down his free 
 will and says : 'I have my one God-given eternal 
 possession, my Godlike quality of free will; I lay 
 it down voluntarily to do the Perfect will of God.' 
 When a man does that, he rises into a far greater 
 degree of Godllkeness or becomes far more fit 
 to be the companion of God himself, thus fulfilling 
 his own destiny. Let your priests and teachers 
 get back to the Bible and preach Bible sermons, 
 simply because there you find a supreme record of 
 God's relation to man and man's relation to God. 
 The habit of preaching from one short text has 
 been overdone — take your Bible in bigger doses, 
 feel the swing and the power of the stories. The 
 real reason for reading the Bible, is to get an in- 
 troduction, as it were, to God — then you must 
 pursue the matter and grow into the most inti- 
 mate possible relation to him by talking to him, by 
 consulting him in your perplexities, and remember, 
 
14 The One Way 
 
 that If you go to consult an earthly friend, out of 
 mere common politeness you pause to give him a 
 chance to answer while you listen. It is this art 
 of listening to God that is the most important 
 lesson for the world today and it must be done in 
 the quiet of your own heart. Our Lord said: 
 *Enter into thy closet and when thou hast shut 
 thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret 
 and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward 
 thee openly.* That closet is the silence of your 
 own heart. Marcus Aurelius said: 'Man know 
 thyself, it is the sum of knowledge.' You must 
 have times of quiet, of retirement, if you are going 
 to learn this most profound side of prayer. The 
 old conception of prayer to God, man asking for 
 things he wants or needs, is a very childish, one 
 sided conception of prayer. Prayer should be in- 
 tercourse with God and if you do all the speaking 
 and no listening I think it Is easily seen that your 
 knowledge of, and friendship for, God will not 
 grow very fast. Great public meetings for silent 
 prayer are of immense power and Importance. 
 Get a thousand or two or three thousand persons 
 together and let them join In silent prayer and 
 you will find great power from God Almighty 
 descending upon you. I have spoken of the book 
 called the 'Seven Purposes' ; therein Is set forth 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 15 
 
 with great truth the fact that the crisis of the 
 Great War is but a small incident in the crisis of 
 the whole universe that is upon us. If you don't 
 help us and let us help you, the progress of the 
 whole human race will be delayed (and please re- 
 member that the human race is not merely those 
 who live on your tiny star but that we here also 
 belong to the human race.) Choose whom you 
 will serve, God or Baal, and have no double-mind- 
 edness in any of your ways. Men pursue wealth 
 and nothing else, and they become rich in filthy 
 lucre; pursue God and let everything else go, and 
 don't make any silly mistake and say, 'that's all 
 very well, who will provide for my wife and chil- 
 dren?' You fools and slow of heart to under- 
 stand ! Keep God in all your thoughts, have him 
 for the end and centre of your being and then live 
 your common daily life as in his sight, 'not with 
 eye service as men pleasers but as servants of 
 Christ serving the Lord.' Of course you have to 
 attend to the daily earthly life. The man who is 
 mad to make money lives his daily life with the 
 basic idea of becoming a millionaire, or still bet- 
 ter a multimillionaire. I am only asking you to 
 pursue the natural daily duties of your earthly life, 
 with the basic idea of serving God first and last 
 and all the time. I have lived on earth and I 
 
i6 The One Way 
 
 know what human life is, and now I am in a more 
 advanced stage and I know what I am talking 
 about. Perhaps you will laugh and say, 'James 
 used to think he knew what he was talking about 
 and evidently he hasn't changed much.' Men 
 don't change much, they develop and evolve here 
 slowly or fast according to their abilities, but 
 chiefly according to the degree of spiritual devel- 
 opment that they had obtained before they came 
 here. I tell you a titanic struggle lies ahead, join 
 forces with us, choose whom ye will serve ; if God 
 be God serve him. *Ye cannot serve God and 
 Mammon.' 
 
 "What I have already written should show you 
 a little of that knowledge which I have gained. 
 It is nothing and yet such as it is — I give it you. 
 The fear of the Lord — that should be translated 
 the awe or wondering contemplation of the Lord 
 — is the beginning of wisdom. He is omniscient, 
 the source and end of wisdom. If you would 
 only learn how to open your whole natures to 
 him and let him into you, — the indwelling God, — 
 you would attain to wisdom, not through the pain- 
 ful process of committing to memory through your 
 brains only. Of course God gave you your minds 
 and of course they are to be used and cultivated 
 and I would be an utter fool to say stop learning 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 17 
 
 and studying, but I do say you must cultivate the 
 whole man, and the Instincts are a part of man that 
 has almost atrophied. The intellectuals of the 
 world do not know the debt that they owe to the 
 religious teachers and thinkers who have made 
 their religion practical, living out in their daily 
 lives those things which they believe, for they, 
 and they alone, have kept alive the instinctive 
 powers of man among the more highly cultured 
 peoples — and when I say Instinctive, don^t think I 
 mean emotional. It may Include emotion, but Is 
 far deeper and greater than mere emotion. 
 
 ^'The only real freedom comes from following 
 out those laws which govern the thing with which 
 you are dealing. Take for instance the force; 
 of electricity, it Is a very dangerous, death-dealing 
 force; work within the laws that govern It and 
 you control It. You are free from its dangers. 
 A parallel law works with spiritual things. You 
 must learn the spiritual laws. As I shall try to 
 show you, in the chapter In which I shall deal 
 with the lives of the saints, you have already all 
 the revelation about those spiritual laws which 
 are necessary to your human life on earth. There 
 are greater degrees of spiritual life here and here- 
 after, but the basic principles — all of which you 
 stand In need — have been given you already, there- 
 
i8 The One Way 
 
 fore go back to straight old fashioned, apostolic, 
 Bible Christianity, leave the discussion of the- 
 ology till you are able to understand what you are 
 talking about. 
 
 "This sums up my present position about the 
 revelation of the Bible. I have tried to make it 
 clear, but it is not easy, because we no longer use 
 human language, and it is not easy to be sure of 
 getting the matter through. The most trouble- 
 some thing we have to deal with is the doubt of 
 our amanuenses. That is not a wholly bad thing, 
 because a person undertaking this work carelessly 
 or out of idle curiosity, is in danger of becoming 
 an instrument in the hands of unscrupulous or de- 
 terrent spirits, and it needs the greatest vigilance 
 on the part of the person receiving the message not 
 to be interfered with.^ Yet, in order to write. 
 
 ^I have not Interrupted the book to tell of the many inter- 
 ferences which have occurred. At one time, during the summer, 
 I could do no work for several days, because as soon as the 
 words "William James Control" were written, the pencil would 
 either run around and be silly, or a woman, whose handwriting 
 never varied, and whose manner of writing was utterly different 
 from that of any other person, would persist in trying to tell me 
 a story of her little children. She said they were in great need 
 and begged me to go to them and help them. At her direction 
 
 I wrote to a W B , lo Speedway, Providence, R. I. 
 
 That letter was returned to me by the post office authorities. 
 There was a lot to it. She knew exactly how to appeal to my 
 sympathies, first for her husband — whom she afterward claimed 
 
To Prove Christianity; Live It 19 
 
 they must sink their own personality to the disap- 
 pearing point, chain their imagination, and at the 
 same time, be keenly on the alert, reading and 
 following what Is written. Hence, you ought to 
 be able to see that shades of meaning can easily 
 be blurred — therefore read with an open mind, 
 ready to receive the truth and to prove It by prac- 
 tical daily living, not in a harshly critical or analy- 
 tical mood. If it is not absolutely correct, re- 
 member I too am human, though you are not in the 
 habit of applying that word to those of us who 
 have passed through the change of death. I too 
 am fallible, and whereas I once thought I knew a 
 lot, I now know that I am but the humblest of 
 learners — although teaching Is still my work and 
 my purpose is progress." 
 
 had committed suicide — then for the children. I felt she was 
 evil so I did not want to put it in the book. At the end of that 
 period my husband wrote of having had a great fight, and Dr. 
 James wrote : "Now are you satisfied that that woman is deter- 
 rent? You let her in." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Value of Certain Philosophies; Both 
 OF THE East and of the West 
 
 *'^T^HAT the Western and the Eastern philoso- 
 phies have very widely diverging points of 
 view, Is the current opinion I know, but in truth, 
 there is much greater fundamental agreement than 
 you know. What few thinkers have as yet real- 
 ized, is that the whole human race is one. In our 
 Western minds is deeply ingrained the idea of the 
 Jews as Chosen people of God. When they failed 
 to fulfill their destiny and recognize their Messiah 
 when he came, we feel that we Christians in- 
 herited as it were, their place and became the best 
 beloved of God. In a sense, there is just enough 
 of vital truth in that idea to have helped us to go 
 off at half cock and accept it as the whole truth. 
 Now the fact is, the whole human race is God's 
 creation one and in a sense indivisible. Backward 
 races hold back the whole progress. The so-called 
 heathen nations hold back the progress of Chris- 
 tianity, and the self-satisfied attitude of the mass 
 
 20 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 21 
 
 of the Christian world has prevented them from 
 recognizing, that at the heart of the so-called 
 heathen religions lies an aspect of truth whereby 
 God was preparing those people to be ready for 
 the teaching of Christianity, which should have 
 been brought to them centuries ago. It is hardly 
 possible to speak too strongly of the importance of 
 missionary work among the so-called heathen 
 nations. The luke-warmness of many Christians 
 on that subject, not to speak of the actual antagon- 
 ism, is a fearful blot and disgrace on the church 
 and should be ruthlessly cut out by individuals and 
 masses of men, like any other cancerous evil 
 growth. The family dies If no children are born, 
 the church must atrophy and decay, unless it is 
 spreading and increasing — not only at home but 
 abroad. You have seen how the world has been 
 rocked almost to its foundation by one nation de- 
 termined on destruction. Germany's population 
 at the beginning of the war was only one seven- 
 teenth part of the population of the world. What 
 do you think will happen to business and art and 
 science if you let things go on as at present? 
 China, Japan, Africa, with their teeming millions 
 of non-Christians getting education and external 
 civilization and no real Christianity? Then add 
 to that, the vast numbers of heathen in our own 
 
22 The One Way 
 
 so-called Christian lands — and right here, let me 
 tell you that Christianity pure and as it was given 
 to the world nineteen centuries ago, is the final 
 religion; put that on your housetops and let it be 
 engraven on your hearts. 'Jesus Christ is the 
 Way, the Truth and the Life.' There is no other 
 way. Live it out in your daily lives. Neverthe- 
 less, the full revelation of the gospel of Christ 
 will never come until Orientals and all races of 
 men are drawn in — adding their interpretation of 
 the Christ to yours. 
 
 God is not a man to be suited to one race or 
 nation alone. He is the creator of the universe, 
 and he can and does fill all men and all things. 
 Many have become disgusted with Christianity, 
 because there are so many professing Christians 
 who belie the truth of what they say they be- 
 lieve. Most of the followers of the Eastern 
 philosophies, or religions, if you prefer so to 
 call them, have done the same thing only a 
 thousand fold more so. The practices of Bud- 
 dhism for instance, are very far removed from the 
 original ideas of Buddha — Buddhism should have 
 been but a preparatory revelation, leading on to 
 and preparing for, a fuller revelation of God's 
 eternal truth. It has, in point of fact, become so 
 debauched that, as generally practised and lived 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 23 
 
 today, It has little or no relation to the original 
 high Ideals such as you find In their sacred books. 
 It Is as true for them as for you that It Is not 
 what Is written In their religious books that counts, 
 but what the actual lives of the men and women 
 are. So far as I know, every one of the great 
 philosophers of the world have perceived or real- 
 ized a small vital grain or aspect of truth, and on 
 that they have built up a whole fabric — trying to 
 stretch that bit of the truth to cover a far greater 
 field than It could cover. The mind of man Is so 
 small that It is absolutely Impossible for him to 
 take in more than the merest suggestion of 
 Eternal Truth. But when a man runs across — 
 discovers or learns about — one small aspect of 
 truth he Is so overwhelmingly Impressed by the 
 inherent power that is latent In all truth, that he 
 with his finite mind feels that he has discovered 
 all truth. You can hold your hand before your 
 eyes and blot out the widest landscape. You only 
 blot It out from yourself, the landscape is still 
 there. Your Ignorance or disbelief in the Eternal 
 Verities of God doesn't hurt those Eternal Veri- 
 ties, but it does handicap you. One reason why 
 scientists have found it so hard to accept purely 
 religious truths Is, that the aspect of truth to which 
 they have been devoting their study has blinded 
 
24 The One Way 
 
 them. It Is this limitation of your whole mental 
 attitude that you must clear away. Life Is not in 
 little sections; the life of God's whole universe 
 Is a unit, a whole, hanging together — let one part 
 be damaged, all is damaged, its perfection marred. 
 *'If I can persuade you to open your eyes to the 
 new aspect of old truths, I think I can show you 
 that there is value in most of the philosophies 
 both of the East and West, but a partial value, a 
 small contribution that each had to make to the 
 whole. Take for instance, Berkeley's philosophy. 
 He obtained a great following, his writings are 
 still studied, but I think that If you have a slight 
 restating of this man's theories you will find a 
 great illumination of all his writing. You will 
 see the value of what he taught, and yet lose the 
 limitation of his point of view. He states that we 
 have no proof of the existence of matter. How 
 does that strike the average man of today, with 
 the materialistic point of view that that only is 
 real which I can touch, handle or prove indisput- 
 ably? In this connection, consider for a moment 
 all the class of thinkers who say pain and suffer- 
 ing are not real. You must acknowledge that if 
 one man can break his leg and feel no pain, he 
 has something over the next man who breaks his 
 leg and suffers torture. Of course, at once I hear 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 25 
 
 a clamor of voices asserting, 'the first man is just 
 a liar; he has the pain but he won't admit It.' No 
 friends, there you are wrong; that man has got 
 hold of a secret — in reality it Is an aspect of truth 
 that should be free to all. It is this, that though 
 a broken bone usually carries with It much pain, 
 in the present state of the development of the 
 human race, there Is a higher law. To the man 
 who lives steadfastly facing God, matter and Its 
 laws can practically cease to exist because the 
 higher can wholly dominate and swallow up the 
 low^er. God, the indwelling Father, can, if his 
 child chooses that he shall — Interpenetrate every 
 atom of a man's body, and to the man who has 
 learned this as a practical working principle of 
 daily life, the coming of the broken bone need not 
 necessarily bring pain, because he can so open his 
 whole self to God that God can come In and show 
 forth his power, just at that point where It is most 
 needed. There are on the earth today, many 
 men who are practising the presence of God In 
 their bodies, to such an extent that they are freed 
 from physical pain. Please let me remind you, 
 that God will never force himself into either your 
 soul or your body, unless you choose to have him 
 — he will never Interfere with your royal preroga- 
 tive of free will — therefore, you must learn by a 
 
26 The One Way 
 
 steady practice of the Presence of God to call his 
 indwelling power into your body and your soul. 
 It is rare that a man can open himself to God's 
 indwelling power in his body in an emergency, 
 unless he has been at least a little in the habit of 
 practising the Presence of God in his daily life. I 
 say, in his body, advisedly, because many a man 
 subconsciously in his soul practises the Presence of 
 God and acknowledges his sovereignty in his soul, 
 even when his intellect does not assent, but your 
 intellect must assent before you can be very suc- 
 cessful in opening your body to God's indwelling 
 power. Remember always that your ignorance of 
 a law does not make it untrue. There are many 
 men and women among you today who are living 
 this truth in their daily life. It is for you too, 
 if you choose to get up and work for it. 
 
 ("Mrs. B do not doubt, because so much 
 
 of this that I am writing is familiar to you. It is 
 just because you are advanced in many lines of 
 spiritual thought that you have been appointed to 
 receive and transmit this message. I know it is 
 hard for you to believe that I am really in control, 
 because you often hear my thought, at least in 
 part, before the pencil writes it down, but it need 
 be no matter of quarrel between us who writes 
 this book if it contains a message of vital, living 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 27 
 
 truth to needy men and women; It Is no matter 
 if I borrow some of your thoughts and write them 
 down. Not one word has been written that I 
 don't fully assent to.) 
 
 "Don't let anyone think that they can attain 
 unto It without hard work. It requires a constant 
 renewing of your determination to live according 
 to God's will, not according to your own fancy 
 and desire. Suppose that we state It something 
 like this. That alone is real which has eternal 
 or enduring existence. Then matter — your chairs 
 and tables, your houses and lands are not real for 
 you all know that given enough time they will fade 
 aw^ay and be gone. The pain of the broken limb 
 of the man who is Ignorant of the indwelling 
 power of God will not endure eternally, yet it is 
 very real to him while it lasts. It is actual and for 
 him very terrible and it is simply silly to say he 
 has no pain — of course he has the pain — he is 
 suffering horribly. It is true that he has pain, 
 nevertheless It is more true that It is possible for 
 a man to break his leg and if he be sufficiently 
 versed In the art of opening himself to the Indwell- 
 ing power of God both in his body and his soul 
 he can have the broken leg without pain. This is 
 a fact. Now, since It is a fact, hadn't you better 
 learn how to open yourself body and soul to the 
 
28 The One Way 
 
 indwelling power of your heavenly Father and 
 gradually let pain and sickness be done away for 
 the race? Your soul is real, for it will endure 
 forever. Berkeley contended that the only thing 
 that a man really knew existed was his own self 
 or soul. Take your Berkeley and reread it from 
 this point of view. Take your modern books that 
 deal with these points and reread them In the light 
 of what I have told you — suck the drop of vital, 
 eternal, enduring truth out of each one and in- 
 corporate it into your daily life. God Is not only 
 an Indwelling God but He Is omniscient, the end 
 and source of ill wisdom, and the man who 
 chooses to have God for his all, has open to him 
 the source of all wisdom. If you truly rely upon 
 God, he will guide you Into all wisdom. Don't 
 let anyone think I am preaching a doctrine of ease, 
 of lying down upon God and doing no work them- 
 selves. No other form of life demands an equal 
 degree of moral fibre, or an equal degree of effort 
 on your part. That old free will of yours will be 
 cropping up to the last day of your earthly life, 
 and as often as It reappears you must take It and 
 lay It at God's feet determinedly. You will never 
 win to Heaven — that place or state where God 
 dwells — on flowery beds of ease, and yet it is true 
 you can only attain to Heaven through God's 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 29 
 
 power alone. By yourselves you could never 
 reach there. The real art of living Is to open 
 yourself so that he can come In and dwell in you. 
 *In whom we live and move and have our being.' 
 At first, it may seem a paradox to say, you cannot 
 attain by any striving of your own, God has to do 
 it all, and then to say you must work every second 
 to accomplish the end. The hardest thing a man 
 can do Is to lay down that Godlike quality of free 
 will — that quality which above all others shows 
 him to be made in the image of God — but if you 
 wish to attain, you must lay down the Image or 
 likeness to God in order that He may enter into 
 you and dwell In you so that you will become one 
 with Him. It is obviously greater to become one 
 with God than to be made in His image. 
 
 ^'Search out in your Bible and find how many 
 centuries before Christ it was stated, 'The temples 
 of the Lord are ye.' Men and women, that Is 
 what you were created for, to be the Temples of 
 the Lord. Are you fulfilling your destiny? I ask 
 all who hear this message to clear out their 
 temples and let God alone dwell In them, and to 
 help all other men to clear out their temples 
 and let God come into His own. Be assured 
 of this; Christ meant exactly what he said 
 when he said "If a man love me he will keep my 
 
50 The One Way 
 
 commandments and my Father and I will come 
 unto him and make our abode with him.' " 
 
 July 15th. "Take for another example the 
 teachings of Socrates, with their great beauty of 
 Ideals. They again were meant to be a prepara- 
 tion for the fuller revelation of the Gospel of 
 Christ. That man should seek happiness as the 
 goal of his desire Is entirely proper, but do you 
 want permanent or transitory happiness? Do you 
 want the pleasure of the flesh which will pass with 
 the flesh or do you want the pleasure of the Intel- 
 lect and the soul? Most men are so short sighted 
 that it Is hard for them to look ahead of their 
 earthly life and realize that to us here, even those 
 of us who lived a long time on earth and have been 
 here but a short time, the life of earth Is but a 
 moment. It Is a fact that the sins of the flesh 
 destroy the flesh. You may think that Is of no 
 consequence since your flesh is left upon earth. 
 Here, we have not fleshly bodies yet we feel all 
 our members, just as completely, — no, far more 
 completely than you feel yours, and just as you 
 would feel with a fleshly body minus your limbs 
 or some of your vital organs, so Is a man here 
 who having Indulged In the sins of the flesh has 
 destroyed some vital part of his spiritual body. 
 You make your spiritual bodies by the life you live 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 31 
 
 upon earth — therefore If you want happiness it 
 behooves you to seek It even with tears. Remem- 
 ber this the next time you read Socrates. 
 
 "What I am trying to tell you should, If I make 
 my meaning clear, enhance the value of the beauty 
 you find In your Socrates and give a wholly new 
 value to It. The same Is true of Plato. He 
 wrote, as most men do, for his day, revealing as 
 much as the men of his day were capable of re- 
 ceiving. Take back to your classical reading the 
 Idea that they were playing their part In a great 
 world plan known from the beginning to the Al- 
 mighty Father. 
 
 "Right here, comes in again the old age-long 
 question, If man has free will how can God know 
 beforehand what man will do? How could God 
 have a plan which man will fulfill? Simply be- 
 cause man, having been made in the image of 
 God, must in the end fulfill his own destiny and 
 become truly Godlike. Now, when man chooses 
 to go off on his own wilful way and do that which 
 is contrary to his own inherent God likeness, he 
 delays the whole plan, and sometimes a few men 
 have succeeded In putting back the progress of the 
 w^orld, for centuries, prolonging the agony. This 
 would have happened If Germany had been suc- 
 cessful and won the war. 
 
32 The One Way 
 
 "Nearly all thinkers recognize that you have 
 come to the end of one era in the history of the 
 earth and the beginning of a new era. What you 
 do not realize is, that it is also an eternal crisis 
 and unless the forces that are for progress — and 
 when I speak of the forces for progress I mean 
 all men everywhere who are working construct- 
 ively for God, whether consciously or uncon- 
 sciously — unless these forces unite and put their 
 whole power into the fight, the deterrent forces 
 who are united may win the battle for the time 
 being, and the development of all men be held 
 back for centuries. We are permitted to tell you 
 that the world war is as nothing compared to the 
 titanic struggle that lies before the human race, 
 and don't forget, that that includes us here. A 
 very large part of the world today thinks, that 
 when death comes to a man his account is settled 
 and he goes to his place and his chance is over. 
 That idea has gained such ascendancy over the 
 human race because it has in it such a great amount 
 of truth. Your earthly life is given you to make 
 all your most important growth in, that is, the 
 starting of your growth, the potential growth if I 
 may so express it. In what I am now saying, I 
 speak of the ordinary average human being, not 
 of maimed individuals whose imperfections of 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 33 
 
 mind and body put them Into a separate class. 
 Of them I will speak later. The essential growth 
 you have to make is your choice between good 
 and evil : on that hangs all the rest. All intellect- 
 ual development is only relatively important. 
 Every man has thousands of chances to renew or 
 even change his choice, but your whole future does 
 depend on the choice you make in your earthly life, 
 A man who has sinned on earth, consistently and 
 deliberately, can return to God and to goodness, 
 but through a course of training and discipline that 
 is more terrible than any hell fire you have ever 
 conceived of. The burning of flames is a purely 
 material interpretation, suited to the development 
 of man at the time that the teaching was put into 
 words : the burning of remorse is to a spirit unut- 
 terably greater and more terrible than any suffer- 
 ing of your body such as being burned. During 
 your earthly life you are given hundreds and thou- 
 sands of chances to make your choice. If you re- 
 fuse to make your choice there, when you come 
 here you will have to take the consequences. 
 There Is no organized punishment here; there are 
 the consequences. Sinners, as you popularly use 
 that term, who come here, are met with love and 
 given a chance to make their choice here. If they 
 will not take it they must take the consequences and 
 
34 The One Way 
 
 the consequences are more awful than any words 
 can describe. Yet, the Salvation of Christ will not 
 be complete until all men have come in and re- 
 turned to God, though it be from the lowest hell 
 — through agony unutterable — every single soul is 
 necessary to God. 
 
 ^*The reason why Germany was able to with- 
 stand the whole world for such a long time was 
 that Germany, the central empire, was completely 
 united under a despotic government that held it 
 into a unit all acting together. The Allies might 
 have been victorious much earlier had they earlier 
 been united as they later became. The deterrent, 
 or what you would call evil, forces are uniting now 
 for a titanic struggle. God is permitting us a 
 chance to talk to you and to help you to unite 
 before it is too late. Put aside your differences 
 of all kinds, religious, political, civic, economic, 
 and unite. Unite with each other and unite with 
 us. 
 
 "People who are successful in doing automatic 
 writing for the forces of progress learn very 
 quickly to recognize when a deterrent spirit 
 touches the pencil, and you must learn to recog- 
 nize when a deterrent spirit whispers a thought 
 or suggestion to your mind or spirit, to recognize 
 them and instantly send them to their own place. 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 35 
 
 You can protect yourself by a clear determined 
 order. 'Get thee behind me.' Say, 'I absolutely 
 refuse to be Interfered with by mischievous or de- 
 terrent spirits whether In the body or out of It.' 
 But remember your whole will must be behind the 
 above statement. If you have not attained suf- 
 ficient force of will, pray. Prayer Is one of the 
 levers that can lift the universe, because by true 
 prayer you unite yourself to the Almighty Creator 
 of the universe. Remember true prayer is union 
 with God, not petitions asking for benefits. Prayer 
 in Christ's name Is prayer which Is in unison with 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 "I have said that this chapter was to deal with 
 the different philosophies both western and 
 eastern. I do not propose to take them up one 
 by one and discuss them. I only mean to give you 
 suggestions; pointing the way — so that you can 
 compare them to the fuller revelation, and for 
 yourselves put them w^here they belong. Your 
 earthly life Is your best time for growth and we 
 slfeould weaken your fibre If we who know a little 
 mpre than you do should direct you what to do or 
 what to think. You must make your own decisions 
 and experiments. It Is a fresh outpouring of the 
 infinite love of the Almighty Father that at this 
 time there is permitted a lifting of the veil be- 
 
36 The One Way 
 
 tween our worlds. It is not nearly so great a 
 change as you believe it to be. In days gone by, 
 prophets and great men have received inspiration, 
 some of them direct from God or from some of 
 his servants whom he has appointed for that pur- 
 pose, into their minds or in the case of authors 
 through the pen or pencil. If you will look this 
 matter up you will find now and again records of 
 authors, who wrote their books with a rapidity 
 that was absolutely incredible. Without the least 
 doubt that was pure automatic writing. 
 
 "Now to merely mention such men as Ran." 
 
 (Here follow a series of attempts to take a 
 name.) 
 
 {Wait a minute^ let us pray for God^s power. 
 Are you tired f) 
 
 "No because we don't get tired in that sense as 
 long as there is work to be done and the proper 
 opportunity to do it; God supplies us with his 
 strength, just as the water main supplies the water 
 in your pipes as long as you make the demand for 
 It by keeping your faucet open. The same supply 
 Is for you, only you have not yet learned to use 
 It when your minds and bodies grow what you call 
 weary." 
 
 ( Then it is I who am — what I call tired?) 
 
 "Yes." 
 
The Values of Certain Philosophies 37 
 
 (Nothing is more convincing to nic than the 
 way the pencil stops when Mr. James or my hus- 
 band are done.) 
 
 (After nearly an hour's rest.) 
 
 "You know those two names now but didn't I 
 have a time with you? Take such men as Renan 
 and Jean Jacques Rousseau — they allowed doubts 
 to come in so that to many people they were really 
 deterrent spirits, yet mixed in was honest seeking 
 after truth. It is not my place to tell you which 
 were and which were not deterrent spirits, but to 
 remind you that you have a standard to measure 
 by. 'The fulness of the measure of the stature 
 of Christ.' Some men there are — Nietzsche and 
 Zwindei — Zwinderk — Zwindecky, my goodness 
 let me write with the pencil, what is the matter 
 with you, Zwindecku the Russian — who were 
 wholly deterrent and yet who incorporated just 
 enough truth into their work to accomplish the 
 most enormous amount of harm. 
 
 "I know that to many people this chapter will 
 seem utterly unsatisfactory, because they would 
 like me to do their deciding and thinking for them. 
 I am not permitted to do that. Of course I could 
 tell you all that I now know but doing so would 
 be a deterrent act, and I hope you know I am not 
 on that side." 
 
38 The One Way 
 
 {Did I get that Russian name rig^htf) 
 
 ''Zwitnbouchu, Znwimbouchu, Tznwimbouchu 
 — You were awful." 
 
 {Was it because I was tired or was it some 
 stupidity on my part?) 
 
 "No, names especially unknown and foreign 
 ones, are always hard to get through. 
 
 "Now go on. Someone tried to interfere. I 
 don't believe I will go into any of the Oriental 
 philosophies or even touch on them. This chapter 
 is only to offer a pointer. The rest must be 
 worked out by you who read this. 
 
 I have never read any philosophy, with the exception of one 
 college textbook of Berkeley's. This I remembered so inaccu- 
 rately, connecting it with the name of Lord Bacon, that when in 
 the course of the automatic writing it came through Berkeley 
 (see page 39), I said to myself: "Why, that is the Baconian 
 theory. I must have made a mistake and written that wrongly." 
 It was with fear and trembling that I first gave my manuscript 
 to a friend to read, dreading his immediately saying with scorn: 
 "The list of men that you give as philosophers is enough to 
 wholly condemn your book as an automatic script Dr. James 
 could never have mentioned such men in such a connection." 
 I did not know whether Plato, Socrates, Renan, Rousseau, and 
 Nietzsche were philosophers. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Of the Lives of the Saints — and Singleness 
 
 OF Heart 
 
 ''T^ON'T think that I have forgotten your 
 ^-^ point of view. You want accurate scientific 
 information given you. What you know as the 
 scientific attitude is too small, too sectional. It 
 is perfect as far as it goes, but astronomers don't 
 use the laws of electricity to measure by. So, 
 don't you think that because your scientific way is 
 so good for certain things, that everything comes 
 under that one method of proof. It does not. It 
 is one of the important ways of working out your 
 side of the problem. The place where you err, 
 is that you feel as if all things must be proved by 
 scientific rules. That is simply your limitation and 
 ignorance. Science is one department. It is not 
 the whole thing. At present you cannot subject 
 spiritual laws to accurate scientific tests. Even 
 medicine has never been an absolutely accurate 
 science, because the recuperative power of the 
 
 39 
 
40 The One Way 
 
 human body Is a spiritual quality and you can't 
 estimate it except on spiritual lines and by spiritual 
 laws." 
 
 July 17th. "I do not feel very well satisfied 
 with that last chapter. You better let us read that 
 last chapter over together." 
 
 {How can yoii read it?) 
 
 "By your reading It I can perceive the Ideas in 
 your mind. I do not think I have given a good 
 title to Chapter II. You change it. Call it 'The 
 Value of Certain Philosophies, Both of the East 
 and West.' Now continue Chapter III. 
 
 "The way that you can prove spiritual laws is 
 by living them and that Is the only way. You 
 must have the courage to experiment. Think of 
 the pioneers of science, the men who have given 
 their lives for electricity, steam, aviation and ten 
 thousand other developments. You need not give 
 up the life of your body in the sense of dying, 
 but you must devote yourselves, body, soul and 
 mind, to the experiment of proving spiritual laws. 
 Fortunately for you there has gone before a vast 
 amount of work Into this experiment. If I were 
 to give a list of experimenters — the saints of the 
 earth — It alone would fill a book. Some of the 
 best for you to study are found In the Bible. To 
 many, a half familiarity with the Bible stories 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 41 
 
 has dulled their understanding and appreciation. 
 Conquer that; It is stupid. 
 
 "Take Marcus Aurelius. You won't like all he 
 says. Find out parts of his writing that appeal 
 to you, and live those. It is easier to do that with 
 books than with living saints, the set of whose 
 bonnet or the tones of whose voices annoy and 
 rasp you. Yet the same thing that I counsel your 
 doing with the writings of saints I counsel, I had 
 almost said I command — not that I have any right 
 to command, and It would become useless if I 
 commanded and you obeyed, for you must choose 
 the right for yourself — therefore I counsel that 
 you look at the living men or women w^ho are 
 fitting to be leaders, saints, holy men, and find 
 their essential goodness and unite with them. Let 
 the annoying things In them slide off you like water 
 off a duck's back. Cut out from your mind the 
 attitude, 'Yes, no doubt he or she is a fine force, 
 a strong character, but I can't stand this or that 
 small thing In them.' Unite with their fine pur- 
 poses and let us get to work to beat the forces 
 of evil, we call them deterrent forces here. The 
 idea that evil has power is wrong. God alone 
 has real power. Individuals who choose to follow 
 their own v»'Ills, thus denying God, are deterrent 
 and produce evil results. You can protect your- 
 
42 The One Way 
 
 self from them by allying yourselves firmly to 
 God. You should understand by this time, that 
 the language we use here is the thought language, 
 consequently a Russian and an Englishman, or 
 any combination, can speak freely together pro- 
 vided only that their level of development be the 
 same — which means not only their intellectual edu- 
 cation but their spiritual knowledge. There are 
 many instances of thought transference known 
 among you, and they are simply examples of our 
 common manner of communicating here. Now 
 you can learn much of that language. You al- 
 ready know much more of it than you realize. 
 You hear many thoughts, both elevating and de- 
 basing, and you must choose which kind of 
 thoughts you will entertain. You can protect 
 yourself by a determined choice. Say in words, 
 *I refuse to be interfered with,' and mean it when 
 you say it. 
 
 ''The lives of the saints are very little studied 
 in these days, but certain of them should be con- 
 stantly in use among you. 'The Practise of the 
 Presence of God,' by Brother Lawrence, Jeremy 
 Taylor's 'Holy Living and Dying,' the 'Lives of 
 the Saints,' by Williamson." 
 
 {Is that the right title?) 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 43 
 
 *'The 'Lives of the Saints' by Williamson, 'Men 
 and Martyrs' by Manlius Welby." 
 
 {IV as that right?) 
 
 *'Yes. 'Many Men of Saintly Life' by Wilkin- 
 son and others. 'Father John' of Russia/ I don't 
 remember the exact title of his book. It deals 
 with the miracles of healing performed through 
 the Holy Communion. There are many others 
 but these especially bear on points I want to bring 
 out. Of course they must be read from the point 
 of view I have laid down for you, both as to 
 measuring them by the One and Only Standard, 
 Christ, and also as contributing their part to the 
 whole revelation. God has revealed Himself 
 always through the lives of certain men, and the 
 study of the lives of the saints would be of very 
 small value unless they sent you back to God from 
 whom of course they drew all their power. God 
 made man in His Image; to be His temple; to be- 
 come His companion; as an Instrument through 
 which He could manifest Himself to others, until 
 all come to 'the measure of the stature of the 
 fulness of Christ.' 
 
 "Most people, who have attained to mastery in 
 any line, have learned that to discover as far as 
 
 ^ Ivan Iliilch Sergief. Probably his Diary is indicated. 
 
44 The One Way 
 
 possible the laws of that with which they are work- 
 ing, then to work in harmony with those laws, 
 yielding themselves as freely as possible to the 
 element in which they work, brings the most 
 rapid success. Take as an example the athlete. 
 He trains his muscle but he must keep his supple- 
 ness and freedom of motion or he instantly loses 
 power, but he must never descend to sloth or relax 
 to the degree of loss of power. Now you have 
 got to learn to become fluid. Here we speak of 
 a person's essential essence.'* 
 
 (Once when I was meditating wHh a friend and 
 had felt an intense sense of God's presence and 
 power, I felt as if I were partially outside and 
 above my own body which was lying on the bed. 
 What zvas that?) 
 
 *' Probably you were so closely united to our 
 Heavenly Father that your essential essence had 
 partially passed out of your body, but I cannot 
 speak with authority about it. It is a possible 
 thing to be done, but an extremely dangerous one 
 if practised under any but the highest spiritual 
 conditions. No such experience should be sought 
 for itself. If It occurs in the course of prayer 
 that is one thing, but seeking spiritual experiences 
 of such kind, except as they may occur in the 
 course of prayer and adoration, is not only dan- 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 45 
 
 gerous but wrong. In spiritual things never work 
 for the loaves and fishes. One reason why people 
 so often fail to receive spiritual healing of bodily 
 ills is, that they seek the healing, the relief from 
 pain, as the end, whereas it should not be the end 
 but an incident in their growing knowledge and 
 worship of God. Seek Him. When you have 
 reached Him you will be healed and you can be- 
 come ^perfect even as your Father in heaven is 
 perfect.' God is the heart of the universe, and 
 as your blood flows from your heart to all parts 
 of your body, so God's power can flow to every 
 part of the universe, filling, energizing, healing 
 every soul who desires to receive Him. Desires 
 is not quite the right word, because It does not 
 signify a determination to lay down your will and 
 do His; a determination as hard as adamant, yet 
 as free and fluid as the flowing seas." 
 
 {Could we get it a little clearer about my per- 
 haps writing down my ideas or influencing the 
 pencil from the point of view of this world, of 
 people other than myself? I think it will take 
 from the strength and power of your message 
 if our readers feel that I influenced what was 
 written,) 
 
 "We can make that clear. Not one single word 
 have you written, without my full assent, except 
 
46 The One Way 
 
 when I have crossed it out. I am the master in 
 this situation because you are willingly yielding 
 your hand an instrument to me. I think the 
 thoughts to your mind and you write them down, 
 and when you get tired or stop receiving freely I 
 send you to bed or out of doors.^ 
 
 *'The chief trouble with the world today is that 
 men and women are not clear about the purpose 
 they mean to serve. There are only seven purposes 
 in the universe. They are progress, healing, light, 
 power or force, building or production, trutli and 
 love, which includes justice and service. Here we 
 come to one of our great limitations. Those seven 
 words are the nearest I can come to naming the 
 seven purposes, but they are inadequate and you 
 can't understand until you attain to more complete 
 knowledge. But take it practically. Look into 
 the lives about you — your own and others. Aren't 
 all the people — with a very few exceptions — try- 
 ing to grasp at too many things? They want edu- 
 cation, possessions, development, pleasures, riches, 
 and in the end, feebly, spiritual things. 
 
 "That is making things topsy turvy. If you 
 have spiritual things first, the other things natur- 
 ally follow. God put you into the world. 'Your 
 
 ^ This writing was done chiefly in the evening. 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 47 
 
 Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of 
 these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God 
 and all these things shall be added unto you.' 
 
 "It Is an absolute impossibility to state too 
 strongly the need of singleness of heart and pur- 
 pose. The confusion in people's minds as to 
 which of two courses to follow Is responsible for 
 the greatest amount of harm both to individuals 
 and to the whole destiny of man. You should 
 train yourselves and your children how to make 
 decisions quickly and clearly. It can be trained 
 just as definitely as you can train your muscles for 
 any purpose you choose to work for. It is a part 
 of that training of the Instincts of which I have 
 told you so many times. God made man capable 
 of discerning between good and evil and you 
 should be able to do it promptly. 
 
 "The most important thing to be taught Is a 
 power of decision, which is now greatly lacking 
 both in the individual and in the race at large. 
 Many of the most serious difficulties arise from 
 indecision. The capacity to make true acts of will 
 has not been taught because many people do not 
 know what a true act of wall is in the sense of not 
 being able to analyze an act of will nor to make 
 one on command. By that I mean, if I say to you, 
 'Make an act of will,' you don't know what I 
 
48 The One Way 
 
 mean. Most people would not have the least idea 
 how to begin. If you take an Individual who has 
 a naturally strong will and clear understanding, 
 place him in a situation demanding quick and in- 
 telligent action, he will make his act of will splen- 
 didly but automatically. Take the same person 
 and ask him to make an act of will and he will 
 not have any idea how he does it, or where. Ten 
 to one he will say, 'I make my decisions In my 
 brain.' He does not. The Intellect may or may 
 not assent to the act of will, but the act of will Is 
 far more simple and elemental — it is not made in 
 the intellect. The will is the most fundamental 
 part of man. You make your act of will where 
 you know the difference between good and evil, 
 in the centre of your being, in your soul. The 
 psychologists of today spend a lot of time talking 
 over what is the nature of the subconscious mind, 
 the functional brain. I tell you that this is your 
 soul, the essential you, the undying worm. It is 
 there that you make your acts of will, your true 
 decisions. The will is, as I have repeated over 
 and over, the most fundamental part of man's na- 
 ture. It is therefore essential that men should 
 be able to make true acts of will, clear decisions, 
 discern clearly and promptly between two courses. 
 These acts of will are made at the centre of your 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 49 
 
 being. Men call it the subconscious mind or the 
 functional brain. It is your soul. Please note 
 that from now on when I say your soul, that in- 
 cludes what you call the subconscious mind. After 
 the decision has been made in the soul, it is im- 
 portant that the intellect should assent in order 
 to give the soul full freedom and enable it to be 
 your guide. 
 
 *'The whole matter is so subtle, yet withal so 
 utterly simple, that I find it almost impossible to 
 use human words to express my meaning. It Is of 
 the most fundamental Importance that I get this 
 over clearly and that you understand and then that 
 you Incorporate It into your daily life. The In- 
 stincts which I have urged you to train are the 
 same thing, the soul life. It Is though his soul 
 that man approacHes to God, through his soul that 
 he hears the guiding voice of God and feels what 
 we here call the rhythm of the universe. The 
 peace of God which passeth understanding is again 
 the rhythm of the Creator. It Is at once universal 
 and most intensely personal from the Father to 
 the child. The more a man lives within the rhythm 
 of God, the more power he attains to. Now it 
 is not a gift reserved for the few, but a common 
 universal right of every child of God. I have 
 said you were to train the instincts. You must 
 
50 The One Way 
 
 train your souls, that is one and the same thing. 
 It is simple. It is not unlike the training required 
 for the muscles. It must be simple at first, even 
 trivial, then increasing in importance. A true act 
 of will must follow these three rules: it must be 
 possible, it must be single, it must be sincere. Let 
 us say you are reading; you glance up and see that 
 a picture is crooked and you make an act of will 
 to straighten it. First, the straightening must 
 be a possibility; second, it must be single, i.e., you 
 must not say 'If I can find the stepladder I will 
 straighten that picture.' In case the stepladder is 
 necessary to enable you to put it straight you 
 would, during the process of training your self in 
 making true acts of will, have to make two sepa- 
 rate acts of will — The first, 'I will go get the step- 
 ladder'; that is one complete act of will. Then 
 make a second one, 'I will straightetn that pic- 
 ture.' Thirdly, in both cases you must be sincere 
 in your determination to get the stepladder and 
 to straighten the picture. 
 
 "Why all this history over a tiny act of that 
 kind that is thought of, done, forgotten in a 
 second? Because a large proportion of the men 
 and women in the world look at the picture and 
 see the need of straightening it and say vaguely 
 to themselves, 'I must straighten that picture.' 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 51 
 
 They finish reading and forget it and have put, 
 according to the old saying, a paving stone In 
 hell. Instead of being clear, Incisive doers of the 
 right they have done a deterrent act. They saw 
 what w^as right to do and straightway forgot what 
 manner of man they are and never did what they 
 ought to have done. By the time a man or woman 
 has repeated that kind of vagueness a few thou- 
 sand of times, he has Injured his own powders 
 both Intellectual and spiritual. He has committed 
 many trivial deterrent acts, each of seemingly no 
 importance in itself, but deteriorating his powers. 
 It Is not necessary to get up from your reading to 
 straighten that picture. If you make a true act of 
 will it Is done In one flash, not requiring to be 
 mentally expressed in words, 'When I am done 
 reading I will get the steps and straighten that 
 picture.' The single-minded, efficient man does 
 straighten It when he gets up and that is wiped off 
 the slate. He doesn't have to tire his over-taxed 
 brain by remembering when he is halfway down 
 town, 'Oh, I didn't straighten that picture!' 
 
 "There will be three classes of readers of this 
 passage. The man who habitually makes clear, 
 true acts of will will call the whole thing trash. 
 He has never broken down his power of will. He 
 doesn't know that the reason so many people he 
 
52 The One Way 
 
 has to deal with are incompetent and good for 
 nothing is that they did not Inherit strong, decisive 
 wills and no one has trained their wills to make 
 them strong. The second class are those who, 
 through shock, illness, or bad, slack mental habits 
 have lost their will power, they will read with joy 
 and realize that there is hope and renewal ahead 
 of them. The third class are those who were 
 born with weakened will power and never have 
 been taught. The first and second classes must 
 take care of the third class and teach them. 
 
 "The cases of reformed men and women who 
 were apparently reformed by a miracle are simply 
 cases where some shock has startled them, and 
 their whole will power has been so aroused that 
 they have risen up and made one tremendous act 
 of will which has changed their whole lives. It 
 Is not a miracle — at least, If by miracle you mean 
 something outside of law — it is simply the work- 
 ing of a common everyday law, but one with which 
 you are not consciously familiar. Now get fa- 
 miliar with that law and begin to use it, just as 
 you have chained the lightning to light your 
 houses. 
 
 "It Is simply Impossible to exaggerate the Im- 
 portance of this. The central empire was com- 
 pletely united, hence her success. When the Allies 
 
Of the Lives of the Saints 53 
 
 became truly united they were victorious. Most 
 of the men and women you know are like the 
 Allies during the earlier part of the war. Their 
 central purpose is to serve God, but they commit 
 so many deterrent acts (you call them sins) that 
 they lose their singleness of heart and neither they 
 themselves nor their friends know where they 
 stand. You must find out your place in God's 
 scheme and then turn neither to the right nor the 
 left, pursue it for your life, pursue it as the miser 
 pursues gold, with absolute singleness of heart. 
 *Be '^e therefore perfect as your Father In heaven 
 is perfect' That Is no unattainable counsel of 
 perfection. Seek only one thing, God, and His 
 righteousness, and you will become so filled with 
 His indwelling power that you will be one with 
 His perfection — not man made In the image of 
 God, but man in absolute union with God. So 
 shall ye dominate all things." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 On Cooperation between Those on Earth 
 AND THE Departed 
 
 **^T^HIS chapter is to deal with the question of 
 -■- how you can help us and how we can help 
 you. I have touched on the subject of thought 
 language. The language of heaven is governed 
 by love. The thought language is that used by all 
 disembodied spirits; deterrent spirits use it also; 
 they are not governed by the law of love. You 
 all know much more of this thought language 
 than you realize. People on earth who are very 
 sympathetic are often able to read each other's 
 unspoken thoughts. Under certain conditions 
 people can send their thought definitely to each 
 other though separated by distance. These ex- 
 periences are all commonly classed under the term 
 telepathy. The first step in our mutual coopera- 
 tion is for you to recognize that you can and do 
 receive thoughts from us — and to practice it con- 
 sciously. This involves a serious danger unless 
 done with the highest purpose. You are familiar 
 with the fact that a wireless instrument receives 
 
 54 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 55 
 
 the message to which it is attuned but cannot re- 
 ceive that to which it is not attuned. Now you, 
 each one of you, hold the power of deciding abso- 
 lutely what messages you will receive; to what 
 class of message you will be attuned. If you are 
 controlled, clear, concise, and refuse to admit any 
 interference with mischievous or deterrent spirits, 
 they cannot get in — but be sure they will not cease 
 trying to get in, and if you become undecided, lazy 
 or slothful, beware, for they will come at once 
 and give you thought messages. Satan walking 
 to and fro in the earth seeking whom he may de- 
 vour, is no bad image. 
 
 "The same clearness of which I have spoken in 
 regard to acts of will is demanded here in con- 
 sciously receiving thought messages from us or in 
 sending them to us. You must be single-minded. 
 St. James says, 'A double-minded man is unstable 
 in all his ways.' To many people, consciously to 
 receive or send thought messages will at first de- 
 mand a good deal of effort at mental self-control, 
 but the prize Is worth all the price that must be 
 paid for it. Mrs. Burke has given in her Intro- 
 duction, a very good suggestion of how to practice 
 receiving a thought message. The real you is 
 what you are in your mind and soul and heart, 
 not what you are in your fleshly body. Five min- 
 
56 The One Way 
 
 utes after death your essential self is just what it 
 was five minutes before death. Of course in say- 
 ing that, I am thinking of a person to whom death 
 comes when they are in health and full possession 
 of their powers." 
 
 {Do you mean if phey were not hi possession of 
 their full powers before death the infirmity would 
 not he carried on?) 
 
 ^'Exactly. Almost immediately after death you 
 find yourself possessed of the power to read or 
 hear thoughts. As that is the case, you can easily 
 see how soon with conscious practice you could 
 learn to receive direct clear conscious communica- 
 tions with us. Without your cooperation we can 
 only communicate our thoughts to you, provided 
 all conditions are favorable. Sometimes that 
 means months or years of waiting. Simple people 
 are the easiest to reach. The more complex you 
 are the more difficult it is to us to get in. The 
 most highly educated and intellectual men are 
 frequently very complex and very difficult to in- 
 fluence. The truest greatness is, however, simple. 
 Your intellectual development is an advantage to 
 us, besides carrying much miore weight in your life, 
 especially to your most powerfuly developed 
 thinkers. Therefore, we want you to cooperate 
 to retrain your instincts. We need your whole 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 57 
 
 man in its highest perfection, and that can only 
 be reached by your being more direct, less com- 
 plex. Your houses, your food, your dress are all 
 too elaborate. The paraphernalia of your lives is 
 too complicated. During the war everything was 
 simplified and almost every one preferred that 
 simplicity. Why have you gone right back to the 
 old way? 
 
 ''What I want to teach you is as old as the hills 
 and as simple as A, B, C, yet you do not see it 
 and believe it and live It. We here stand for God 
 clearly and strongly (I am using human expres- 
 sions) because here you either stand for God or 
 against Him. There is no half way or mixture 
 of motives. On earth you can change back and 
 forth. Here you either do His will with all your 
 heart and soul and strength or you are deterrent. 
 Now what I want you to do is the old thing of 
 making your choice on earth — once for all decide 
 to stand for God and give up divided motives. 
 We who stand for God, when we know a thing 
 is right, do it quickly. You must gain the same 
 directness and decision. The chance is given to 
 all human beings who live on earth to make their 
 choice. There are individuals who never have 
 that chance during their earthly life, but they 
 belong to another class. I refer to defectives and 
 
58 The One Way 
 
 a few isolated Individuals, and I am not including 
 them at present. I want you to get the Eternal 
 point of view and do nothing which won't be an 
 advantage to you when you, too, have passed 
 through the change called death. You all try to 
 keep away from smallpox and leprosy. The 
 mental habits of indecision, the inability to make 
 true acts of will, are responsible for more evils 
 than you conceive. From my point of view now 
 I would rather have suffered in my flesh all dis- 
 eases rather than that of indecision. That has a 
 spiritual significance compared with which no 
 mere disease of the flesh is of any consequence, 
 because that is a soul disease. That is a result of, 
 and also a cause of, diseased moral fibre. You 
 can't greatly help us here in this great crisis unless 
 you can get this clear, and act on it. God put 
 you in your world. He knows you have to work 
 for food and raiment, but you don't have to do 
 dishonest things in order to make extra money, so 
 that you can buy finer clothes and houses and 
 lands than your neighbors. You want to give 
 your children advantages. By all means, but 
 make sure that you give them real and enduring 
 advantages. Roughly speaking, in one hundred 
 years every soul now on earth will be here with 
 us, and they will leave their earthly possessions 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 59 
 
 behind and stand bare of all surroundings and 
 will only possess what they are. You know that. 
 Why do you, so many of you, ignore it? The first 
 shall be last and the last first. It may be that 
 the most despised of earth's creatures, one who 
 had no chance to learn anything but evil, yet who 
 had a little spark of love in his heart and made 
 this choice for God and goodness at some time 
 that was the determining chance of his life, will 
 take precedence of men who have done many 
 good acts yet whose first purpose was material ad- 
 vantages, not God's service. You can't deceive 
 God and you can't deceive your own soul. If you, 
 with honesty, look deep into your own heart you 
 know whether you stand for God." 
 
 {Am I being difficult to-day ^ or is it that the 
 message is difficult?) 
 
 "Both. You feel you know too much what I 
 want to say and you don't at all. And also what 
 I want to say is very hard to put in forcible lan- 
 guage because you know It all already, but the 
 world is not acting up to it. People have read so 
 much and tried to use their puny intellects to solve 
 questions that are too difficult for them to such an 
 extent that they have become entirely befogged 
 over those simple straight things which, if they 
 would live them in their daily lives, would so ad- 
 
6o The One Way 
 
 vance the whole sum of human knowledge and 
 experience that you could advance to subjects that 
 are now beyond you." 
 
 {Can you explain why recourse to familiar, 
 spirits is forbidden in the Bible?) 
 
 "Why, of course I can. The people tried to 
 get directions from spirits on points which they 
 should have decided themselves, or gone direct to 
 God for wisdom. If you learn consciously to re- 
 ceive thought messages and then start asking ques- 
 tions to satisfy your idle curiosity or to find out 
 things you should find out for yourselves, you will 
 be doing the same thing that was forbidden. You 
 can't come to us to get our help on matters you 
 ought to decide yourselves. That would weaken 
 your moral fibre." 
 
 {It seems very complicated to understand how 
 we can help you if we are not to ask questions and 
 advice. ) 
 
 "While it Is just a probem on paper it may 
 seem so, but when you begin to live it out in your 
 life It will smooth out." 
 
 {It seems to me that the thing that stands in 
 the way of so many people is that they doubt an 
 existence after death, or if they believe in it, it is 
 so vague as to be negligible,) 
 
 "Yes, that is the reason that we are being per- 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 6l 
 
 mitted to use this means of communication — be- 
 cause the love of the Father is so great that he 
 permits us to meet the true and great desire of 
 this time to bridge the chasm. It is not the only 
 way, as you know from personal experience, but 
 it is the only way that certain spiritually unde- 
 veloped people can get it, and It Is permitted now. 
 The thought messages are the best way. That is 
 the reason why you are to make every effort to 
 consciously learn how to receive and send them. 
 For Instance, you asked your husband what made 
 the pain in your foot. [See Afterword, July 
 17th, 9.30 P.M.] Now you consciously sought his 
 help. He told you to turn to God who Is the 
 source of all health and healing. You obeyed 
 and that enabled your husband to help you much 
 more effectively than he could have done without 
 your cooperation. He might have helped you, 
 your mutual love forming a channel, but not as 
 he did. You have your minds and you must use 
 them. 
 
 *'We have gone very clearly into the matter of 
 God's not forcing any one of His children to serve 
 Him or to let Him into their lives and hearts 
 unless they choose. In a lesser degree the same 
 is true of us. We cannot force our help upon you. 
 You must not only help yourselves but you must 
 
62 The One Way 
 
 deserve our help and open yourselves to it, if we 
 are to accomplish what we are desirous and able 
 to accomplish for you. We have together one 
 great barrier to break down — the world-wide idea 
 of separation between our life here and your life 
 there. A certain very real separation there must 
 always remain, but if you will help us, we can 
 bridge it over in a marvelous degree. There is 
 no death. There is life with you, a very embryo 
 kind of life it looks to us from here, and with us 
 there is the beginning of absolute perfection. You 
 know in your own life that you cannot give to an- 
 other person the advantage of your experience in 
 any given line, unless they are willing to receive 
 it. If they are headstrong and obstinate it is no use 
 to try and help them, but given an individual, who 
 is preparing to go through an experience which 
 you have already had, and who is ready to learn 
 from you, you can help him enormously. You 
 call that being open-minded. Now we want you 
 to go a step, and a long step, further, and learn 
 to be fluid-minded. That doesn't mean that you 
 have got to be colorless, weak creatures. You 
 not only may, but must, prove by living what we 
 will give you, but your conservative-mindedness 
 is no longer a virtue. You must get freedom and 
 vision. Try the spirits' (I John 4-1) by all 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 63 
 
 means, but don't refuse to listen to them, to give 
 them a trial. If the Christian church had not al- 
 most completely forgotten the fact of the miracles 
 of healing, performed by Christ, it would not 
 have been necessary to form a whole new cult to 
 bring to light the fact that God has lost none of 
 the power that He once had. Christian Science 
 has lost a very valuable something, because It had 
 to go outside the historic Church to proclaim the 
 truth which Christ taught, and which has been 
 kept alive In certain Isolated cases through all the 
 centuries. Don't make so sure that automatic 
 Tvritlng is some fearful new Invention of the devil, 
 and so drive the truth which should be within the 
 historic Church outside it. Men are so small- 
 minded. Because a person or a book has some 
 trait or part that is repugnant, or even distasteful 
 to them, they condemn the whole thing as worth- 
 less or low. Now the Protestant world, horrified 
 at an abuse of offering prayer to the saints, has 
 for centuries forbidden prayer for the dead. 
 Your dead are still far, very far from perfection, 
 and they have to grow and develop in God's keep- 
 ing. You cause your dear ones great pain by 
 shutting them out of your lives, putting them 
 utterly away from you. Your prayer to God for 
 them helps keep you open and enables them to 
 
 \ 
 
64 The One Way 
 
 help you. If you went to a distant part of the 
 earth to live, and your nearest and dearest never 
 wrote to you or sent you anything or came to see 
 you, you would be not only intensely pained but 
 it probably would result in maiming you. You 
 would probably become so bitter that your de- 
 velopment would be partially arrested. It is 
 somewhat the same thing that can happen here. 
 This is very difficult to get over. The souls who 
 come here are occasionally held back in their de- 
 velopment by the pain of being shut out by those 
 they love on earth, but that is rare and is partially 
 because they are not spiritually developed enough 
 to completely trust God, and is a temporary hold- 
 ing them back, but those who are left on earth, 
 who mourn their dear ones here and yet wholly 
 shut them out are often maimed. Suppose your 
 dear ones have had much pain and suffering in 
 their earthly life and you can rise to being glad 
 that they are delivered from that, but can never 
 cease to regret the joys of earth that they are 
 losing, and never allow yourself to give up the 
 idea that they would have been better off there. 
 They on their side are longing to tell you of the 
 unutterable joy and development that is theirs, 
 longing to have you share first in imagination and 
 spiritual understanding, and then, when the time 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 65 
 
 comes, in reality, that marvelous life that is theirs, 
 and you are dragging them back to some lost plea- 
 sures of earth. If a woman had a son who had 
 become a hero — a leader among leaders — and in- 
 stead of rejoicing in his greatness and the develop- 
 ment of his life and power, she was always wishing 
 him back in the nursery, playing with tin trains 
 and toy ships, you would judge her unfit to be 
 the mother of such a man. You would say he 
 never took his great qualities from her. You 
 simply don't believe that 'eye hath not seen nor 
 ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart 
 of man the things that God hath prepared for 
 them that love Him' (I Cor. 2:9). You marvel 
 at the unutterable wonders of your tiny star. You 
 want your dear ones to taste earthly love, travel, 
 discovery, companionship. 'God is not a man 
 that He should lie.' In countless ways He has 
 taught you the truth of the future life. Behold 
 a worm crawling on the ground, afraid to become 
 a butterfly and soar above. Don't think I am call- 
 ing you worms. I, too, am a man and the angels 
 revere men. The man who can say truly, and 
 mean it, 'Though He slay me yet will I trust 
 Him,' is an object of the greatest reverence and 
 honour to those who have always lived where faith 
 is lost in sight. But if a worm refused to become 
 
66 The One Way 
 
 a butterfly it would not be half so silly as thou- 
 sands — nay, millions — of intelligent men and 
 women who refuse to believe in the future life. 
 'The last enemy that shall be overcome is death.' 
 The first step in overcoming that last enemy is to 
 believe in the life beyond — not to say you believe 
 but to realize — to know that we who have passed 
 over are ten thousand times more alive than we 
 were on your side. 
 
 *'I must warn you once more of the tremendous 
 danger of becoming fluid and open, unless you are 
 absolutely clear that you mean to serve God and 
 Him alone. You can protect yourselves utterly, 
 but the chances of death are infinitely greater than 
 in dealing with the worst and most death-dealing 
 electrical machines, because it is not the death of 
 the body you are in danger of, it's the crippling 
 of your souls. Yet you can know absolutely what 
 kind of spirits you are dealing with; far more 
 certainly, if you take the proper training, than 
 you can with living men and women, because on 
 earth people's motives and purposes are so mixed 
 that the man who is deterrent today may be 
 strongly for God next time you meet him. Here, 
 we either serve God or we don't." 
 
 {Do I understand that a spirit who has beert 
 deterrent can turn and become God's servant?) 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 67 
 
 ''Why certainly! When they have finally 
 worked their way through the remorse and wish 
 to return, it Is possible. 
 
 "The most spiritually developed of those who 
 are consciously doing automatic writing will tell 
 you that they can tell at once when an interference 
 occurs. If you are spiritually keen and absolutely 
 set to do God's will and His will alone, you would 
 detect the deterrent spirit far more quickly in 
 automatic writing than over the telephone. Now 
 you know quite well that the men or women who 
 are very keenly developed spiritually detect in- 
 stantly the suggestion of sin, no matter how subtle. 
 W^hy then, when you have accepted that ages ago, 
 is it so very difficult to think of practising the 
 thought language consciously? You all of you 
 practise It unconsciously continually. The way to 
 cooperate with us is to begin to do consciously and 
 intelligently that which you have done uncon- 
 sciously, blindly. But don't let any one think it is 
 purely or even chiefly an exercise of the Intellect 
 that I am asking you to learn. The Intellect must 
 play its part surely, but the instinctive or soul 
 nature must be developed chiefly to this end. It 
 is not that the instincts are greater than the In- 
 tellect. But you have neglected the instincts so 
 terribly that to bring your threefold nature up, you 
 
68 The One Way 
 
 must for a time concentrate upon the instinctive 
 side of your nature. To try to put into human 
 language the unutterable, the inexpressible, let me 
 say, the mind of God, the heart of Christ and the 
 soul of the Holy Spirit. Remember that can't be 
 expressed in thought, can far less be put into 
 words, yet it may give you the shadow of an idea. 
 One of the greatest causes of unbelief today is the 
 insistence of those who are now here who taught 
 dogmatically; who tried to set down in words and 
 doctrines the eternal verities of God which will 
 take us all eternity to fully understand. But don't 
 make the mistake of throwing over all doctrines. 
 As long as the human race remains on earth they 
 will have to try to find human words to express 
 those inexpressible truths of God. As soon as you 
 recognize the Inability of the vehicle of words to 
 carry the unutterable truths of God, you will begin 
 to wonder at the marvelous attempts men have 
 made to express the Inexpressible. The more you 
 develop and grow in spiritual understanding, the 
 more Truth you will see behind the old dogmatic 
 theological efforts of great men. Of course you 
 will understand that here I am speaking of the 
 great dogmas. When you begin to try and express 
 those dogmas in terms of life, always recognizing 
 their partial character, you will find that there Is 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 69 
 
 an extraordinary amount of truth In them. In- 
 stead of cavilling at their narrowness, you will 
 wonder at their nearness to the truth, at the 
 amount of truth they were able to express. You 
 must utterly cut out from your mind the mental 
 attitude, 'Believe this or be damned.* 
 
 " 'There is now no condemnation to them that 
 love the Lord.' This is literally true, therefore 
 learn to love God. You say, how shall I set about 
 it? If you love a man you do something to please 
 him. You give him a gift or you render him a 
 service, and if he has done anything for you you 
 thank him for It with all the courtesy and warmth 
 of heart you possess. Form the habit of thanking 
 God, talk to Him, demand His counsel, offer Him 
 gifts of all you have, large, free gifts, and above 
 all give Him yourself, your loyalty, your whole 
 life, all that you are. Many a man has grown 
 close to God through the above exercises. Why 
 not you? It is far easier to be a friend of God's 
 than to become the friend of the wealthy and 
 powerful of your earth. God wants your love and 
 friendship. He w^ants exactly such service and 
 love rendered to Him as you would render to your 
 friend. He wants you to prove Him by treating 
 Him just as you would treat an earthly friend. 
 Go to Him. Say, 'Why don't you help me? I 
 
70 The One Way 
 
 want your counsel or your help. My father or 
 my brother would help me in this undertaking 
 (always provided it is in accordance with God's 
 will and for His glory), why don't you?' When 
 you want your father's help you don't sit and 
 vaguely wish he would help. You go right to him 
 with a proposition and you insist on his hearing 
 your plans and helping you out. Do the same 
 thing with God, and in a lesser degree do the 
 same thing with those of us here whom you know 
 you can trust. Enter into conscious partnership 
 with us, demand of us, let us help you. But under- 
 stand at the very beginning that we cannot, rather 
 will not, help you when you ought to turn to 
 God. Perhaps I am not making it clear. You 
 go outdoors and see a glorious view, a beautiful 
 day, and your heart expands and you feel it is 
 glorious to be alive. Say, 'Father, I thank Thee 
 for this glorious view. I thank Thee for all this 
 beauty which you have given me. I thank Thee 
 for so having made me that I am capable of enjoy- 
 ing it. Help me to enjoy it in Thee and with 
 Thee.' As this habit becomes fixed, you will find 
 the beauty increased tenfold, just as you enjoy 
 your day out of doors more with a congenial com- 
 panion than alone or with one whose mind and 
 mood grates on you. Just in the same way, per- 
 
Cooperation — Living and Dead 71 
 
 haps, you have tried to be a man of your word, 
 strictly honesft, scrupulously true, because you 
 think that the decent way to be. Now stop and 
 say, 'I will be true because Thou art Truth.' God 
 made you for His companion, and how long has 
 the human race kept Him waiting for their com- 
 panionship? And so on through all your dally 
 life and duties, do consciously with clear intention 
 of love and service to Him what has been only for 
 righteousness heretofore. 
 
 "It took America years of European war to 
 realize her duty and go in. Oh! I beseech you 
 who were my former pupils, if you have found any 
 finger pointing toward truth In my works, to listen 
 now and realize the magnitude of the crisis. You 
 don't have to give up your pleasures, your amuse- 
 ments, your exercise, but take God Into them, let 
 us in; clean your lives of double motives and 
 double standards, believe in the truth of this book, 
 believe In the reality of the life we lead. It is the 
 most ridiculous thing from our point of view to 
 think that you can doubt of our being alive, we 
 who have infinitely greater powers of every kind 
 than we had when we lived on your tiny star. 
 Those of you who are really willing to carry on, 
 learn to receive our wTltten message as the writer 
 of this book has learned. It is not a thing that 
 
72 The One Way 
 
 only one person can do. You have to learn how. 
 *'When you get here you will find that your 
 ignorance of the fact, that certain things could 
 or should have been done, is no excuse, provided 
 you could have learned the facts if you had tried. 
 On the other hand, where no opportunity of learn- 
 ing has been granted, the ignorance is a complete 
 excuse. The people who read this book are likely 
 to be of those to whom opportunity has been 
 given, and there is no excuse for your not proving 
 whether or no the thing I here tell you is or is not 
 true. On earth you are so unnecessarily ignorant 
 because you won't prove the things by living 
 them." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Present Crisis is not Confined 
 TO Earth 
 
 *'^T^HE whole state of ferment In the world to- 
 ■*- day is due to the fact that man has not 
 taken the proper opportunities for progress. 
 Have you never experienced In your own life, that 
 if a thing was not accomplished at the right time 
 that was assigned to it, you never had another 
 time for it except by making the time. It might 
 be some trifle or it might be a big thing. It had 
 its proper time and for some reason you failed to 
 do It at its proper time — at times an unavoidable 
 interruption, at other times carelessness, laziness 
 or sloth prevented the doing of It. It may be that 
 you did accomplish it later, but you did it at 
 greater cost of energy and labor and you had to 
 push something aside In order to accomplish It. 
 You are very fond, at this time, of the use of the 
 expression 'the psychological moment.' I have 
 spoken of what you of course know or should 
 know, that God has a plan for the whole human 
 
 73 
 
74 The One Way 
 
 race. He did not create the universe and man on 
 a haphazard. But the perversion of the royal 
 prerogative of man, his free will, has fearfully 
 upset and delayed the working out of God's plan. 
 Over and over again the great psychological 
 moment of a crisis in human history has come and 
 gone by, without advantage being taken of it, 
 sometimes deliberately by the plan of evil minded 
 men, either in the flesh or out of it, and the re- 
 tarding of the whole race has been enormously 
 greater than would have seemed necessary, if one 
 looked at that one incident alone. The history 
 of man is clearly a progress from lower to higher. 
 Everyone of you knows that. The evolution that 
 has been accomplished is far greater than many 
 of you realize but what you often term the millen- 
 nium is much nearer If you take advantage of the 
 present crisis than any of you dream; yet you 
 stand in fearful jeopardy of missing this psycho- 
 logical moment. Politics must be cleansed of 
 personal motive. Try and make the nations real- 
 ize that greatness, which everyone admires and 
 respects in individual men, can be reproduced in 
 national character just as well. Nations have a 
 character, an individuality, just as much as single 
 men. A great man with tremendous heart, mind 
 and soul has his work, his especial capacities and 
 
The Present Crisis 75 
 
 duties, and If he is truly great he is not jealous of 
 some other great man. Rather he rejoices in him. 
 Imagine to yourself a city or town, where Instead 
 of one great man there were one hundred or one 
 thousand men of towering personality and ability 
 — each following out his own bent — or even two 
 or three following out the same line; if they were 
 truly great, they would not spend their time in 
 petty jealousy, they would be too much absorbed 
 in the advancement of the great cause they were 
 following, and like the best grade of sportsman 
 would cry. Veil done, good play,' when the next 
 man excelled them. It is time for the nations 
 to stop bickering and self seeking and above all 
 to stop fear, — fear lest the next man shall grab 
 some advantage that they want to secure for them- 
 selves. In a family one member is not all the 
 time trying to outwit the next; rather each, though 
 he be pursuing his own interest, has a due regard 
 to and care for his brother, even, at times, caus- 
 ing his own Interests to be put aside and, at times, 
 actually injured In order that his brothers may be 
 served. That this spirit is abroad In the town, 
 in the state. In the country and dominated all the 
 allied nations for a time, is so well known that it 
 seems laughable for me to be writing It out, but 
 you, who rose to this greatness in a time which 
 
76 The One Way 
 
 you recognized to be an overwhelming crisis, are 
 slipping back into your old ways of thinking and 
 acting. 
 
 "What I touched on above, in regard to dogmas 
 or theological subjects, has a parallel here. Your 
 legal language and legal codes have become so 
 complicated that it is no wonder that you are 
 afraid of binding yourselves by written legal docu- 
 ments. All lawyers know that a complete and 
 perfect last will and testament can be drawn up 
 in a few sentences provided they are simple 
 enough. A league of nations is an absolute neces- 
 sity, if you are to be the victors in the present 
 crisis. Words are entangling. Just as an enorm- 
 ous amount of evil has resulted from trying to 
 compress the unspeakable eternal verities into a 
 few words, so, to try to provide for all the future 
 by a document that lays down now how you shall 
 act in some future unforeseen contingency, is un- 
 wise. Yet, you must have a league of nations. 
 Perhaps you will think now is a good chance for 
 James to show his metal and write us a docu- 
 ment, that is at once simple and comprehensive. 
 Of course, I could write a better one than any 
 living man, in your sense of that word, for we see 
 values of things past, things present and to a cer- 
 tain extent of things to come ; but to tell you how 
 
The Present Crisis 77 
 
 you should do what It is your place to work out 
 for yourselves would be deterrent. St. Paul said: 
 *Look not every man on his own things but every 
 man also on the things of others.' Phil. 2 : 4." 
 
 {Can I ask a question?) 
 
 *Tes." 
 
 {Suppose a person here had succeeded in learn- 
 ing the thought language so as to he able to re- 
 ceive thoughts consciously, could you teach him in 
 his heart how to write such a document, and then 
 he write it down of himself?) 
 
 "Why there you are beating the devil around 
 the bush as the old saying is. Neither I, nor any 
 other man who is serving God, could go to a per- 
 son on earth and tell them in their hearts what 
 it would be deterrent to tell them through auto- 
 matic writing.'' 
 
 (/ know that God himself can help us by giving 
 us his wisdom. But how can you help us?) 
 
 'There are many ways that we can help you, 
 many things that would not be deterrent to tell 
 you, but it is very subtle and I do not think I had 
 better try to explain to you now, even if I could 
 succeed in making you understand, of which I do 
 not feel at all sure. 
 
 "That was a digression — and even now, much 
 as you and I have gained in working together, such 
 
78 The One Way 
 
 a digression checks the ease and freedom of our 
 work. 
 
 *'WhIle we are on the subject of the inability 
 of human language to express meaning, since it Is 
 and must long remain the chief mode of communi- 
 cation on earth, I want to say a little about it. 
 Empty words are the most potent of all means 
 of concealing truth, but a true word lived, proved 
 by Life, the Life that is of God, is powerful be- 
 yond any power of expression. The centurion 
 said: 
 
 " *Say in a word and my servant shall be healed, 
 for I also am a man set under authority, and I 
 say to one come and he cometh . . . and to my 
 servant do this and he doeth it' (Luke 7 : 7 and 
 8.) He knew a great truth, the word of truth 
 spoken in earnest by a righteous man Is all power- 
 ful. I have told you again and again that you 
 could speak the word, 'I absolutely refuse to be in- 
 terfered with by deterrent spirits' — and it is a 
 complete protection, but remember never to say 
 those words over as a charm, for then all their 
 power goes from them and they become empty 
 idle words. Your whole self must stand behind 
 them just as the power of the Roman Empire 
 stood behind the centurion. Read the first chap- 
 ter of St. John's gospel, learn it by heart and 
 
The Present Crisis 79 
 
 repeat it to yourself a thousand times, always with 
 prayer that God will give you the grace to under- 
 stand the unsearchable mystery contained therein. 
 Don t be afraid of that old Bible word 'the Grace 
 of God.' You know It means power, a thing you 
 all long to possess — and use. Why dabble with 
 imitations? Why not use the power that moves 
 the whole universe? 
 
 "And by the way, Mrs. B , what are you 
 
 doing with that ice on your leg; is not God, the 
 source of all health and healing, a better healer 
 than Ice?" 
 
 (Can you tell me what word to speak?) 
 "No, of course I won't because you know, and 
 I am utterly ashamed of you. You know better." 
 (/ have tried to put it into his hands com' 
 pletely.) 
 
 "Well it was a very poor grade of trying and 
 has resulted In failure, as such quality of trying 
 always will." 
 
 {Don't get so cross and spiteful about it.) 
 "I am neither cross or spiteful, but for a 
 woman of your development to be laid up by a 
 few bumble bees Is enough to make me feel dis- 
 couraged. If Christ opened the eyes of the blind 
 and healed all m.anner of disease and you know 
 
8o The One Way 
 
 he did It too, then why do you doubt his power 
 of completely taking away the inflammation from 
 a few bee stings? All I can say is I am ashamed 
 of you." 
 
 {Do you want me to publish that?) 
 
 "I want you to do what is right and to do it 
 now too." ^ 
 
 (Interval.) 
 
 "I am sorry I seemed unkind but you know you 
 must give no deterrent spirit any opening." 
 
 {It has been a real source of difficulty that for 
 
 'August 4th. "J , what is the matter?" 
 
 {Today my foot ached very much because I <was badly stung 
 by bees, and I put ice on it. Do you get that?) 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 {Mr. James suddenly upbraided me and said ivhat nvas I 
 doing, thinking ice could help, and not depending solely on God, 
 Do you get that?) 
 
 ''Yes, I do." 
 
 {Sometimes people can't help themselves all alone, and I have 
 tried to ask God to help me. If you luere here it <vjould be right 
 for you to help me.) 
 
 "J , I am helping you night and day. Don't you realize 
 
 that the strain was very great and you cannot come out of it 
 in a minute?" 
 
 {Why did Mr. James feel so?) 
 
 **I don't know; I think he knew you needed stimulating. Be 
 honest, didn't it help?" 
 {Yes, it did.) 
 
 "God will help you and I will give my little help too." 
 
The Present Crisis 8i 
 
 so long I have been unable to feel God's nearness 
 in VI y body.) 
 
 "You all depend far too much on feeling; ask 
 for His presence, then know that he is there, and 
 don't feel afraid to declare It. 'Before they call 
 I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will 
 
 hear.' (Isaiah 65:24.) Mrs. B , you must 
 
 verify that quotation for you controlled the pencil. 
 I think you have worked enough; go out now, 
 God bless you." 
 
 Aug. 5 th, 1.30 P.M. "You are not yet in a state 
 where you can expect to accomplish good work; 
 go lie down and take in God's strength. Perhaps 
 you'd better talk to your husband first a bit before 
 we work." 
 
 "J , Mr. James Is right." 
 
 (Later.) 
 
 "That Is better, you were simply Impossible be- 
 fore. 
 
 "•You must work steadily and faithfully along 
 all the lines of advancement now laid down. In 
 philanthropy, In all Its branches, you must try to 
 get rid of the red tape and get a spirit of love into 
 the work." 
 
 (/ think we know that as a desideratum. Give. 
 us some very practical instruction as to how to 
 deal with the very good devoted class of workers 
 
82 The One Way 
 
 whose point of view is old-fashioned, who are 
 hidebound by precendent, and who are obstinate, 
 yet willing to give of themselves, their time, and 
 their money according to their lights.) 
 
 ''Why suppose you are In a committee meeting 
 and you wish to put In a wider vision, a greater 
 understanding of the present need or outlook of 
 the work you are dealing with and you are blocked 
 by some good, worthy, devoted but blind person 
 — that Is what they are If their eyes are holden 
 and they cannot get the needed vision. Pray for 
 them, say silently 'William Smith, I command you 
 to open your eyes and see with the eyes of Christ' 
 — or 'William Smith, I command you to see as 
 God sees' — or 'Mary Jones, let the Christ nature 
 in you, come out and see with the eyes of God.' 
 But observe that you are not to say, 'Mary Jones, 
 Let the Christ nature in you come out and see this 
 matter as I see it,' because you too may be mis- 
 taken. When you are commanding Mary Jones, 
 look out for the beam in your own eye. Say 
 'Mary Jones, I command you to let the Christ 
 nature in you come out and let us both ask God 
 to let us see with his eyes.' You must get entirely 
 and completely done with the spirit of forcing 
 your neighbor to see the truth as you see It — let 
 him get It from his angle and keep yourself fluids 
 
The Present Crisis 83 
 
 That doesn't mean you are to be carried about 
 by every wind of doctrine; not at all. It means, 
 don't be so set In your own opinion as to what Is 
 truth, that you can't hear God speak and direct 
 your heart and mind to new aspects of his infinite 
 truth. If Mary Jones has gone to the meeting 
 in a fluid state of mind she will both hear you and 
 obey. If she has gone down on her knees before 
 she went to the meeting and said, *0h Father this 
 is thy work — I am thy child — pour thy grace Into 
 my heart — show me what you want done and give 
 me the strength and power to do it — give me ears 
 attentive to your voice and a will wholly set to 
 carry out your commands,' you will have no 
 trouble when you call upon her to let the Christ 
 nature come out. If, on the other hand, she has 
 gone there set as adamant to carry the whole 
 thing her way, you will need a double measure of 
 God's spirit to move her; but remember that in 
 such a case yoii do not have to move her; you 
 should be so open to God's power that, like the 
 great water main, a flood Is flowing through you. 
 Keep It extremely clear in your mind that you are 
 the conduit, not the water. It is God who must 
 deal with the adamant, set, self willed Mary 
 Jones, but he does need you as the water pipe. Of 
 course if he had chosen to make man after a 
 
84 The One Way 
 
 wholly different plan he could have dispensed with 
 the conduit, but he, being absolute perfection, does 
 only the perfect way and he made man to be his 
 companion, his fellow worker, to cooperate with 
 him, and his perfect way for its perfect consum- 
 mation must have man's cooperation. 
 
 **Now in case any of you are ever like Mary 
 Jones, adamant to force your own will upon others, 
 let me here point out to you that even though 
 your whole time and strength may be given to 
 good works, if you do them in that spirit, you may 
 easily, nay you most probably will, become de- 
 terrent. Now then, I think you can see how it is 
 that we can help you If you let us consciously, and 
 how very hard It is for us to help if you refuse 
 to let us In. I have tried to show you that vague- 
 ness and indecision are deterrent states of mind, 
 so to be vague about letting us help you or not, 
 or thinking you will wait until after you are dead 
 before you try to understand the mysteries of the 
 eternal verities of God, is deterrent. I can tell 
 you right now that it will take you all eternity 
 to wholly understand the eternal verities of God, 
 but your understanding will be horribly delayed 
 if you haven't tried up to the limit of the oppor- 
 tunities which have been presented to you in your 
 earthly career. Integrity of Intention followed by 
 
The Present Crisis 85 
 
 sincerity of action are essential characteristics of 
 heavenly mindedness. 
 
 *The ways in which we can help you are beyond 
 what it is possible for me to tell you now, but you 
 hold the master key. You can keep out deterrent 
 spirits as I have told you. You can keep us out 
 by yourselves being deterrent and serving mixed 
 motives. 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon/ 
 Also for us, you who are on earth and us here, 
 to unite and work effectively for the bringing in 
 of the kingdom of God upon earth, you have got 
 to become open and clearly recognize us and our 
 messages, both written and mental, and cooperate 
 with us. During the war you laid aside differ- 
 ences and worked in the most remarkable harmony 
 for a great end, and because you recognized a 
 great danger. We want to help you to recognize 
 a far greater peril and to help you to unite more 
 and more completely. 
 
 *'It is of the greatest importance to cultivate 
 the habit of emphasizing the points of agreement 
 with your neighbors, rather than the points of dif- 
 ferences, not to weaken either your position or 
 his, but to try to eliminate the sense of friction 
 which has unfortunately become so widespread.'* 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Need of the World To-day is the Love 
 OF God and Religion 
 
 *'TT rHILE we are looking at the whole ques- 
 ^^ tlon of how to meet this crisis, we must 
 face the fact that alone we shall surely fail, but 
 God and one man are a host. God alone is om- 
 nipotent but he chooses to have the one man to use 
 as his instrument — by his own choice he is unable 
 to accomplish the work without his instrument. 
 No philosophy, no man, no book, no experience is 
 truly valuable unless it lead you back to the one 
 Source. In your political, your religious, your 
 philanthropic, your social, finally and most of all 
 in your personal life, get back to the One Source, 
 the Almighty Father, the God who is love. If you 
 are going to serve him you must learn to love 
 more. Your daily task may be drudgery to you, 
 you may long to get away and be free of it, and 
 be employed where the talents you feel you possess 
 can develop and shine — the remedy is to do the 
 work you dislike, or even hate, for love. Seek 
 
 86 
 
Need of the World To-day 87 
 
 God in It. Say, 'Father this is work I hate, If you 
 are In It show me where you are — teach me how 
 to do It for you and for you alone.' If the next 
 time you think of It you still hate It and you are 
 honest In wishing to learn to like it and to do It 
 as a service to God — put it right up to him. *Now 
 Father, I asked you to make me like It, to show 
 me yourself In It; where are you?' Don't let God 
 alone — badger him till he shows you himself. 
 'One thing have I desired of the Lord which I 
 will require' (Psalm 27:4, prayerbook version^) 
 — but remember you must be honest. You may 
 think it not worth while, but do show a little com- 
 mon sense; If you have got to do your work to 
 earn your bread you might as well enjoy It as 
 hate It, while you are doing It, even if that were 
 all, but it's not all. You are all Immortal souls, 
 very temporarily inhabiting bodies, and the things 
 you have failed to learn there, you will have to 
 learn here. But remember, if through careless- 
 ness or wilful neglect, you fail to learn in your 
 earth life that which belongs to that part of your 
 
 '^ It should be remembered that when I was working freely I 
 often received a whole thought at once — which thought I should 
 naturally have expressed in the form most familiar to myself. 
 It seems improbable that Dr. James would have used this version 
 if he had dictated it word bv word. 
 
88 The One Way 
 
 life, it will be enormously more difficult to make 
 it up here than to have learned it at first. You 
 have to fulfill your own destiny and though it may 
 take you an eternity to accomplish it, yet you will 
 fulfill it. The Protestant world, having been dis- 
 gusted by a fearful abuse of the doctrine of pur- 
 gatory, has imagined, taking for their authority 
 isolated verses from the Bible, that your life on 
 earth comxprised all your capacity for growth, that 
 what you are at death is all you can ever attain 
 to, that there is no further chance. God is love 
 and justice is a department or attribute of his 
 love. That mental attitude referred to above is 
 too silly to make it worth my while to spend any 
 time refuting or discussing it. If purgatory means 
 purging you'll get it all right. You have your 
 work to do, no matter in what department of life 
 it lies, and the work of each man is honorable if 
 he chooses to make it so. If you can only get it 
 firmly fixed in your hearts and minds that every 
 man is an immortal son of God — every single one 
 of them essential to God — the poor man and the 
 rich man, the ignorant and the educated, the lowly 
 endowed and the highly gifted, each one will begin 
 to regard the other differently. You say we have 
 been told all this for centuries but it doesn't hold 
 water; it has been tried out, yes by individuals, 
 
Need of the World To-day 89 
 
 but not by whole nations. There Is not a Chris- 
 tian nation upon the earth; more shame to human- 
 ity! There are some nations where a larger pro- 
 portion of the men and women are truly Chris- 
 tians than in other nations, but it remains yet for 
 you to make even one town of one thousand in- 
 habitants where every man is In love with God. 
 Now that is what your task is; to so train and 
 teach every man, woman and child that they shall 
 truly love God and their fellow men. You must 
 begin to practise love everywhere and at all times. 
 You see a little crying child with an ignorant cross 
 mother twitching or slapping It and only making 
 it naughtier. If you speak in your heart clearly, 
 insistently, lovingly the words, 'Let the Christ 
 nature in you come out' you will attain simply un- 
 believable results. Speak to the soul of the 
 woman and the soul of the child; behind their 
 ignorance, their vice, their forelgnness, their dirt, 
 lies the kernel of their being, the place where al- 
 ways a litde atom of God their Father dwells. 
 Water the seed, dig about it. My metaphor is 
 inadequate, poor, but see my meaning behind the 
 words and begin to live It and your knowledge will 
 soon grow so that it will outstrip all that I have 
 attempted to tell you. What Anglo-Saxon Is there 
 among you who does not feel contempt for the 
 
90 The One Way 
 
 Oriental caste system, but what about the beam 
 in your own eye? Right here I would say, that 
 the present feeling of the plainer poorer people 
 against the rich is responsible for a tremendous 
 proportion of the misunderstanding and class pre- 
 judice existing today. In the past the sins of the 
 ruling class against those below them created that 
 attitude, therefore the more privileged people will 
 have to do much more than half the work of doing 
 away with that feeling, but you will have to teach 
 and work along those lines as never before in the 
 history of man. 
 
 "There is no department of your present life 
 where you do not need to do missionary work. 
 The spirit that goes out to correct the mistakes 
 and wrongdoings of others is not a force for 
 progress. The spirit which lays aside all personal 
 aggrandisement and advancement and goes out 
 to carry a great gift is wholly different. You are 
 to go out into all departments of the life of man, 
 to carry the knowledge of the love of God and 
 of the absolute freedom wherewith Christ has 
 made you free." 
 
 {How do you know if the message you are giv- 
 ing me has gotten through? You can^t read the 
 words on the paper.) 
 
 "No, I can't read the words on the paper, but 
 
Need of the World To-day 91 
 
 I can read the ideas in your head and heart as 
 clear as in a mirror. I know that it has gone 
 through/ 
 
 "The one thing man needs today is the love of 
 God, the knowledge of the reality and truth of 
 religion. It will cleanse all departments of life. 
 It will bring order out of chaos. Remember the 
 Bolshevists have very able evil leaders, both in 
 and out of the flesh, and those that are out of the 
 flesh are absolutely united for the downfall of the 
 whole human race, as they hope. It can never 
 be; 'the Lord reigns be the earth never so un- 
 quiet'; but the setback, the unutterable and com- 
 pletely unnecessary suffering, if they should be 
 temporarily successful, is impossible to contem- 
 plate. You must wake mankind with a clarion 
 cry everywhere. Among you are many men and 
 women who are powerful forces for progress, for 
 God, but who, because of some intellectual quib- 
 bles, doubts or the mistaken emphasis that has 
 been put on theology, are standing outside organ- 
 ized religion. Theology is man's work; it had 
 its work to do, but don't put new wine in old bot- 
 tles; forge ahead; see things in the large; don't 
 
 ^ If this is the method by which the book is dictated, is it not 
 clear that the language and the style might difiFer widely from 
 W. J.'s other writings? 
 
92 The One Way 
 
 squabble nor stop over little differences; let the 
 next man do his way, don't try to force him into 
 yours. If you have something to give him, bring 
 him in by love, not by force. 
 
 "There are enormous numbers of people who 
 would resent distinct interference from other per- 
 sons on earth, who yet permit constant Interfer- 
 ence from disembodied spirits, and since it is the 
 fact, you might just as well know It; but thoughts 
 or tendencies that you credit to your human flesh 
 would seem very different to you If they came from 
 without. You might be willing to eat glutton- 
 ously, if you felt it was only your own flesh that 
 you were satisfying, but if you knew It was a 
 definite interference of an evil disembodied spirit 
 you might not choose to have them rule you. If 
 the man next door came and proposed a scheme, 
 whereby you and he could enrich yourselves at 
 the expense of your other neighbors, you would 
 perhaps feel ready to kick him out of the door, 
 and yet if some disembodied neighbor makes such 
 a suggestion, far more subtly than the first one, 
 you very likely entertain the thought — consider it 
 — reject it — think It over again — accept the idea 
 suggested to you of the benefit your scheme will 
 bestow In Improved convenience to the neighbor- 
 hood. In the end, because of the habitual lack of 
 
Need of the World To-day 93 
 
 clearness, of straight thinking, of singleness of 
 heart, of which so much has been said, you may 
 enter into and carry out a scheme utterly unworthy 
 of your best self because you didn't see straight 
 in the beginning and because you had no idea that 
 a definite personality was presenting the idea. If 
 you could once learn the fact that the thought 
 language lies behind the babel tongues of the 
 human race, and that all men can understand the 
 thought language, you would begin to open your 
 eyes to a great class of facts, to which you are 
 now blinded. Many a man who would resent a 
 Bolshevik's suggestion, if he came to him openly, 
 is entangled by the mixed motives suggested to 
 him by a man whom he had supposed to be hon- 
 orable and upright. If a living man can do this 
 to you, I tell you that with the increased power 
 of intellect of the disembodied Bolsheviki — call 
 them devils straight out, and you won't be far 
 wrong — your danger is fearful to contemplate. 
 The remedy is clear, simplify your actions, your 
 thinking, all your standards. *How,' you say, 'is 
 it to be done?' I answer very simply; all you 
 need Is to get the eternal point of view. How is 
 this thought or action going to check up in eternity 
 — will It be entered on the debit or the credit 
 side? Idol worship is not cut out from the so- 
 
94 The One Way 
 
 called Christian nations. Men and women who 
 would look with horror on a heathen whom they 
 saw praying to an image of wood or stone, them- 
 selves worship the God of power, social or po- 
 litical, the God of gold, the God of material 
 achievement and success, the God of influence or 
 leadership, making their chosen God the end of 
 all their effort Behind the Idea which has be- 
 come a matter of worship to you, lies just that 
 modicum of truth which has served to blind you. 
 Social and political power are fine things if used 
 to further the plan of God Almighty. Gold can 
 do untold good, if used for God's glory and the 
 service of mankind rather than for the aggrand- 
 isement of the possessor. Material achievement 
 and success is an absolute necessity if man is to 
 work out his own destiny which Is God's plan; but 
 you must have the one eternal point of view for- 
 ever behind your whole life and thought, a back- 
 ground that gives meaning and the correct value 
 to the entire picture. God having created each 
 one of you an essential unit in his scheme, you 
 naturally want to find your place and fulfill your 
 own destiny. Effort, a fair competition such as 
 we see in the highest, cleanest kind of athletics, is 
 as natural to your human experience on earth as 
 breathing. In the best athletics you penalize the 
 
Need of the World To-day 95 
 
 man who descends to a dirty trick to accomplish 
 his end. Get that spirit into all your life, busi- 
 ness, politics, religion. The self-made man could 
 never have made himself if making himself had 
 not been the background of his whole life and 
 thought; just so we want you to realize that your 
 whole human life is either a preparation for an 
 infinitely fuller, more satisfying life, or an experi- 
 :ence of remorse that is indescribable suffering." 
 
 I have spoken very clearly of the fact that you 
 already have all the revelation that is necessary 
 to your whole salvation, but many men are so 
 mixed that our God, who is love, is ready to give 
 you another help on the way. Automatic writing 
 is as old as the earliest of Inspired writers, 
 whether they are poets or moralists, for under 
 inspired writing Is much that is not sacred; but at 
 this time God Is permitting man to recognize just 
 what automatic writing Is and how to use It. God 
 loves you and longs to draw you to his heart — at 
 the same time that he will never force you — and 
 because of the greatness of the crisis that lies 
 ahead he is permitting certain leaders to use this 
 means of convincing hundreds and thousands of 
 the reality of the life beyond your tiny star. The 
 minute a man becomes absolutely convinced of 
 eternal life and gets the adjustment of his point 
 
96 The One Way 
 
 of view that enables him to see that life on eartH 
 IS a preparation for that eternity, all his values 
 change and fall each into its own place. It is of 
 utmost importance that he should realize that 
 eternal life is ruled by love, that justice is a part 
 of love, and that the man who wilfully refuses to 
 seek the light on earth, which it is his duty to seek 
 there, must take the consequences. Note that I 
 say wilfully refuses. Those to whom opportunity 
 has been denied will have Divine justice directed 
 by Divine love. 
 
 "You will see that it is not merely Bolshevism, 
 directed by men on earth, that you have to fight 
 — for 'ye fight against principalities, against 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
 world,' and you fight with your arms tied so long 
 as you have divided motives in yourselves. If it 
 were only possible to convince you of the unutter- 
 able importance of this crisis — to gain your undi- 
 vided allegiance to this cause, we could give you 
 such a tremendous amount of assistance. Picture 
 a loving father who has told his small son to do 
 a certain thing and told him that unless he obeys, 
 a given punishment will follow. The father 
 knows that the child does not appreciate in the 
 least the bitterness of the consequences of disobe- 
 dience and longs to help his boy to obey — but 
 
Need of the World To-day 97 
 
 since It would not be obedience if he forced him, 
 he can only sit silently by and try to draw him by 
 his love — fatherly love, intelligent, tender and 
 yearning against obstinacy, self will and Ignorance. 
 Imagine that same human father, separated from 
 his son by the transition you call death with In- 
 finitely Increased Intelligence and power to love. 
 Can you imagine the Intensity of his yearning love, 
 eager to save his son — no it is beyond your powers 
 — yet I have only been describing the love of a 
 human parent. Therefore I Implore you to lay 
 aside your doubts and prove the truth of these 
 things I have been trying to get across to you. 
 Experience is the most convincing of teachers. 
 Those persons who have experienced conscious 
 automatic writing are convinced — learn of them. 
 The conscious Interchange of thought between 
 those In your realm and those in our realms wuU 
 be convincing In a degree you cannot dream of, 
 Beware of receiving thoughts either conscious or 
 unconscious from deterrent spirits." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Of Union with God the One Source of 
 All Power 
 
 TN conclusion, the end, the beginning, all the 
 ways and means, are One. There Is Only 
 One source, One ending. One way of achievement. 
 All is God. God is love Love Is wise, love is 
 just, love is patient, love is untiring, love is ever 
 ready, love is law, love Is the greatest force in all 
 the universe, the dynamic that can accomplish all 
 things. I have just said that love Is law. Now 
 perhaps the reason for the most fearful failures 
 of the present civilization of the human race, Is 
 that with you law is not love, for it Is one of those 
 things that should work both ways. Love Is law, 
 and law should be love The present laws of 
 man in the most civilized countries are made with 
 the purpose of attaining the greatest justice for 
 the greatest number, but justice being only a part 
 of Divine love, justice alone is not enough. God^s 
 love is also law, and to make law only justice is 
 to restrict law in a way that It should not be 
 
 98 
 
Union with God 99 
 
 restricted. Another part of justice is retribution 
 or punishment. Now there is nothing that is so 
 utterly misunderstood by men today as punish- 
 ment. The only object of punishment is to make 
 the offender do better, and all vengeance should 
 be cut out. The idea that God is vengeful is 
 utterly false. It is one of those points where man 
 has constructed a God out of his imagination and 
 then taught his neighbors that God the Father, 
 the Creator of the universe, the God who is love, 
 is vengeful. It is utterly and entirely incompatible 
 that Perfect Love should be vengeful. God is 
 just. He is a God of law and He created his 
 universe with perfect laws which, if they had been 
 kept, would have produced an unbroken harmony 
 and progress. One of His fundamental laws is 
 that of cause and effect. Let man break God's 
 laws, and just In proportion to the way that they 
 are broken, will be the consequence or effect. 
 This is the absolutely simple explanation of the 
 existence of evil, of sin, disease and death. The 
 caterpillar does not die when he goes Into his 
 chrysalis. Neither did God originally make man 
 to pass through such a distressing and violent 
 change as death, in many Instances, has become. 
 Man should fall peacefully asleep and presently 
 pass Into eternal life, having recognized before- 
 
100 The One Way 
 
 hand that the end of his life on earth was coming 
 soon and made his plans in an orderly manner. 
 Every naturalist knows that the creature which 
 changes from one form of life on your earth, 
 visibly before your eyes, slows down its activities, 
 as it were, appears to be heavy and preparing for 
 a change, before it passes Into the intermediate 
 stage. There is no reason to suppose that the 
 dragonfly grub feels any sickness or pain when he 
 crawls from the bottom of the pond. That 
 process for him is as natural a part of existence 
 as breathing, seeking his food, or swimming. 
 Even so it should be for man as simple and( 
 natural a part of existence to pass from your 
 sphere to ours as for him to pass from his 
 mother's body into earthly life. The most fond 
 and loving parent that ever existed, does not wish 
 his child to remain unborn because the actual 
 process of birth is attended with difficulty. Of 
 course in an ideal state, it should not be attended 
 with pain ; effort and travail but not pain. Neither 
 with man nor with beast should there be pain, if 
 you all knew how to take in God's power as you 
 should know how, and that is one of the things 
 that you must study and learn. There is no need 
 of physical pain. That is a very different state- 
 ment from the one that is the source of so much 
 
Union with God lOl 
 
 controversy, namely, 'There Is no pain.' Of 
 travail, in the sense of extreme effort, yes, but 
 who minds extreme effort for a desired end. 
 
 "God being love, cannot have In Himself any 
 quality that is contrary to love. Vengeance is not 
 a part of love and never could be All punish- 
 ment should be an act of tender love and justice 
 toward the offender. Such is the unhindered pun- 
 ishment of God. By that I mean such punishment 
 as is meted out after the change you call death. 
 While you live on earth you are free to do your 
 own will. After you leave the earth your free 
 will ceases In just this sense. If you have been 
 deterrent and choose to remain so, you are de- 
 terrent and only deterrent until such time as you 
 choose to turn and seek God and Him alone, but 
 if you chose to serve God and Him alone before 
 you left the earth (or such of you as may make 
 that choice here), you no longer do anything but 
 the will of God. Thy will be done upon earth as 
 It Is done in heaven. How Is it done In heaven? 
 With abounding joy, with absolute allegiance, 
 with haste and fidelity. In the life of the blessed 
 after death — I cannot once let that expression 
 pass, it must each time be Vhat you call death' 
 — there Is no divided purpose, there Is no mixture 
 of motives. You have to be either wholly good 
 
102 The One Way 
 
 or wholly deterrent. A spirit who after coming 
 to this sphere definitely chooses to be deterrent is 
 capable of repentance, but it comes only through 
 a suffering that is indescribable, unless the choice 
 is made at once at the time of passing. You have 
 heard often of deathbed repentances. That is 
 nothing uncommon. That is to say, at the time 
 of passing every soul has a renewed chance of 
 choice. If at that time a man chooses to remain 
 deterrent, the road back to God must be through 
 great agony of remorse. What is known to you 
 as a deathbed repentance is, thank God, very com- 
 mon, only you see it but rarely because it generally 
 happens this side of the veil. Let no man think 
 that a deathbed repentance, or one on this side 
 of the veil, is a simple and easy method of squar- 
 ing up accounts; that you can live a bad life and 
 then repent at the end. What you call a deathbed 
 repentance is always the direct consequence of 
 former things. That is, suppose a man whose 
 external visible life has been vicious and bad, re- 
 pents at death. The true explanation of that is 
 always that he never before had a chance of seeing 
 things in their true values. Either environment 
 or inheritance blinded him, and suddenly, just at 
 the time of passing, he sees everything in its true 
 value and gets his chance to choose. You will 
 
Union with God 103 
 
 very likely think that you can cite cases that c'ould 
 not possibly come under this law, but that is be- 
 cause you judge with the judgment of men who 
 look on the outside, not with the judgment of the 
 Almighty Father who sees the whole. When 
 every man sees the whole In its true value, he is 
 capable of judging himself. He knows whether 
 he Is to be condemned or not. For that moment, 
 he becomes as God to judge himself. He sees 
 all things that appertain to his own life In true 
 value and true proportion to each other, and there 
 is given to him the capacity to judge himself. 
 This Is true in spite of the fact that our Lord 
 says, 'AH judgment is committed unto Me.* Even 
 unto us here this Is a mystery, but I think It Is 
 like this. The Christ nature In every child of man 
 asserts itself at that time, and for the moment, 
 the man judging himself Is not himself alone but 
 God dwelleth in him. This Is so very difficult to 
 express in human language that I must beg you 
 to try and read it, not in the spirit of saying, *I 
 don't believe that,' or 'How dare he assert that,' 
 but rather In the spirit of, *Let me see If I can see 
 any explanation of what he means behind the veil 
 of his words.' 
 
 "Man is an Integral part of God. The life that 
 is In you is God life. There Is only one source 
 
104 The One Way 
 
 of Life, God. Therefore say that the life that 
 is in you is God life, or Himself. The love that 
 is in you, to whatever degree it is developed, is 
 God love. God is love. All love is of Him and 
 is Him. You cannot love your mother, your wife, 
 your child, your home, the beauties of nature or 
 any other thing except the love of God be in you 
 to some degree. All true loving, no matter how 
 unworthy the object, is a little bit of God dwelling 
 In you. God is wisdom. Therefore, all true wis- 
 dom is God's wisdom, and you cannot apprehend 
 Truth, that which is Truth, without the wisdom 
 of God being in you. Nothing can live anywhere 
 In the universe apart from the life of God. By liv- 
 ing, you are in contact with, and in a sense a part 
 of. Him. Yet He chose to create man an indi- 
 vidual, and the individuality of man is sacred. 
 You will never lose your individuality. You are 
 a part of God the Father, and you can never reach 
 the development which he designed for you, until 
 you recognize this with your heart, your mind and 
 your spirit, and translate it into life by living it. 
 
 *'The Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana or nothing- 
 ness is a perversion of this truth. Buddha had a 
 realization of the all-pervasiveness of God, and 
 because he had not the advantage of the unre- 
 stricted light, of *the true Light which lighteth 
 
Union with God 105 
 
 every man that cometh into the world,' he got it 
 crooked. He perceived that God is everywhere, 
 that He is the end and the source, but his under- 
 standing was darkened and he beheld all the evil 
 of earthly life, and being horrified at it he pro- 
 claimed that Nirvana or nothingness was the one 
 end to be desired. There was just enough of the 
 spirit of truth in his doctrine to have held and 
 bound millions and millions of men to the doc- 
 trine. The real truth is that you should empty 
 yourselves of self, so that God may utterly fill 
 you and live in you, ruling your hearts and minds 
 and spirits, until you are so utterly united with 
 Him that you live in Him and He in you, and you 
 thus attain to your full individuality, a human 
 soul wherein dwelleth the Almighty Father, the 
 indwelling God. It is a kind of nothingness, be- 
 cause when you perceive God to be all in all — 
 above all, beyond all, yet dwelling in all — you 
 become to yourself nothing, and then, and only 
 then, do you attain to your true self, which is an 
 instrument, or vessel, wherewith God can express 
 Himself, wherein He can dwell. 
 
 "When I was talking to you about the philoso- 
 phies, old and new, I had not brought the thought 
 which I am trying to express through this book 
 to such development as enabled me to show you 
 
io6 The One Way 
 
 what I hope I have shown you now about the 
 Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana. If those who go 
 to bring to Buddhists the Light of the world — 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, who is one with the Father, 
 very God of very God — ^would recognize the 
 kernel of Eternal truth that underlies such a doc- 
 trine, utterly perverted though It be, the difficulties 
 of converting the world would become as nothing. 
 When you try to teach the truth to another, don't 
 argue and refute his present belief, but show him, 
 whenever it is possible, that his present opinion 
 or belief is only a part of the larger truth. Don't 
 for one minute believe that God Almighty, the 
 perfect loving Father of mankind, has allowed 
 millions and millions of His children to dwell in 
 utter and complete ignorance of Himself. He 
 has borne witness to Himself in their hearts, and 
 the man who In utter ignorance prays to a God 
 of wood or stone, but prays sincerely, receives an 
 answer from 'the Father who seeth in secret.' 
 That is one of the reasons why erroneous teach- 
 ings have had such power over the minds of men. 
 That ignorant man who prays to a stone or 
 wooden Image Is not for a minute to be con- 
 demned. He knows no better. He is simply fol- 
 lowing out the Integral law of his nature. Man 
 being the child of God, a part of God, needs to 
 
Union with God 107 
 
 seek his Father, and the man who sincerely seeks, 
 no matter what the depths of his ignorance may 
 be, is justified and will be counted holy. It is 
 the man who knows more and doesn't try to seek 
 God who is to be condemned. He is wilfully 
 neglecting. In many cases he has let his Intellect 
 get in his way until he is blind. Such a man must 
 take the consequences of his wilful neglect. 
 Search after truth, no matter how often It eludes 
 you. 
 
 *'To return to the question of punishment: It Is 
 a matter so utterly mishandled In your present 
 civilization, so needing reform, that I beg you to 
 w^holly revolutionize your methods and let It be 
 done only In a spirit of love. In Christian lands, 
 the way that prisons and reformatories are con- 
 ducted Is appalling. Get the general public more 
 closely Into touch with the matter. Help them to 
 realize that the criminal Is often a strong good 
 man gone astray. Punishment should be conse- 
 quence, but should be lovingly dealt out. You 
 must at present have jails and prisons because you 
 have among you many defectives, and from them 
 spring practically all the great criminals. There 
 are many who are defectives whom your authori- 
 ties do not recognize as such. When you get more 
 of God Into your lives, your bodily as well as your 
 
io8 The One Way 
 
 spiritual health will improve and defectives will 
 gradually disappear. Most wonderful w^ork is 
 started along these lines, but the one thing that 
 will make it easy to carry out Is to realize, ex- 
 perience and live your oneness with God. Get 
 all your power from Him. You live in houses 
 with water-works, the merest baby can run and 
 turn on the faucet and let loose a flood. Your 
 grandparents had to pump and carry all the water 
 and therefore used it more sparingly, and in earl- 
 iest times water had to be fetched, often from 
 great distances, and was consequently very spar- 
 ingly used. In all the ages there have been, here 
 and there, great souls who apprehended God and 
 got near to Him and received from Him in no 
 small measure the Water of Life. The time has 
 come when the world at large should know how 
 to attach themselves to the Source and receive 
 the Water of Life freely. 'Whosoever drinketh 
 of the water that I shall give him shall never 
 thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall 
 be in him a well of water springing up into ever- 
 lasting Life.' (John 4:14.) You have got to 
 learn how absolutely easy and simple It Is to obtain 
 this Water of Life, the unlimited strength and 
 power of God in your lives. In every home and 
 every heart, you must learn that there is nothing 
 
Union with God 109 
 
 to do but an act as simple as turning the 
 faucet. 
 
 "Of all the good and joyous things of life you 
 need not give up one. You must give up selfish- 
 ness and greed, gluttony, lust, envy, hatred, 
 malice. 
 
 "There are many fearful questions to be met. 
 There is but one solution to them all. The Al- 
 mighty Father, the indwelling God, the King of 
 Love, the Prince of Peace. It Is just as practical 
 as turning the spigot. The water Is there but 
 doesn't come out until you open the cock. There 
 are many ways of taking In God's power — by 
 prayer of all kinds, by study, by work, through 
 love and service to others — but chlefest of all, 
 at this time, I would recommend silent prayer. 
 Down in the profound depths of the heart of 
 every man is that centre where God dwells, and 
 in order to experience the knowledge and joy of 
 companionship with Him, you have got to learn 
 to be silent. 'Be still and know that I am God.' 
 Psalms 46:10. Some will Immediately believe 
 that It Is a doctrine of quietism, but there Is no 
 exercise of the intellect so difficult, as that of keep- 
 ing still without thoughts, and yet not being either 
 sleepy or distrait, to be absolutely on the alert, 
 yet utterly still, to empty your mind yet keep it 
 
no The One Way 
 
 clear and under perfect poise. 'Lord, give me 
 Samuel's ear to hear.' When a patient is too tense 
 in muscle he must be taught how to relax his 
 muscles. At first It is not easy. If he has gone a 
 step farther and become nervously tense, it is still 
 more difficult to teach him how to relax that nerv- 
 ous tension. In neither case must he be allowed 
 to relax to that degree where he touches loss of 
 power. He must lay down voluntarily the tension, 
 and become free, but never allow that freedom to 
 degenerate into loss of control. When disord- 
 ered, the nerves are more difficult to control than 
 the muscles, and the mind is far more difficult than 
 either. But the man who has the most perfect 
 mental poise and control can relax at will, volun- 
 tarily laying down mental effort, but he can also 
 instantaneously resume mental effort. To relax 
 over a game of any kind, or a detective story, or 
 a play at the theatre, or a concert according to 
 the Individual taste is easy, but to relax and listen 
 to hear what God will say, while it is not hard 
 after you have learned how, must in the present 
 state of the race be cultivated, at first, assiduously. 
 Then, when once attained, you can learn to hear 
 the voice of God at all times. 
 
 "The whole of life would become simplified if 
 you could only learn to work In harmony. There 
 
Union with God ill 
 
 is unlimited power at your command If you will 
 only learn to use it. You have often heard of 'the 
 music of the spheres,' and most of you have 
 thought of it as a beautiful poetic expression. In 
 reality it is the simple fact of the universe. The 
 harmony of those parts of the world that fulfill 
 absolutely the will of God is perfect, and it actu- 
 ally produces spiritual sound and rhythm. The 
 greatest musicians have caught a bit of the sound 
 and given you an imitation. Now when any part 
 of the universe wholly fulfills the will of God its 
 spiritual or ethereal existence renders it visible to 
 those of us who have passed from your sphere.^ 
 
 ^August 2ist. (/ ivant to knotjj can you see me?) 
 
 "J , of course I cannot see you. I know how you have felt 
 
 about the writing, it is not ever easy but you must not neglect 
 your prayer or any of the ways you know of approaching to God. 
 It is a dangerous thing because unless the receiver is careful they 
 may want to put the writing in the place of spiritual approaches 
 to God. You ought to be able to understand about my not seeing 
 you. I can see, but not things that have no eternal existence. It is 
 this way, I can see, but only those things which are eternal. I 
 can see you, the real you, your spirit. Some human beings are 
 so little developed spiritually that we cannot see them at all. 
 We do perceive them but not by seeing." 
 
 {Can you see the mountains and the sea?) 
 
 "Why of course we can, because they are in one sense spir- 
 itual." 
 
 (Hoiv are the mountains more spiritual than human flesh? 
 God made both.) 
 
 "Yes. But though the mountains will perish in the course of 
 
112 The One Way 
 
 We can neither see nor touch those things that 
 have neither spiritual nor ethereal existence. All 
 material things are capable of ethereal existence. 
 The well-known feeling so often experienced on 
 entering a great cathedral, of a sense of person- 
 ality beyond the beauty of its form, color or pro- 
 portions is actual. That is its ethereal existence 
 and is to the cathedral what the spirit is to man. 
 
 *'Man being the greatest of God's creatures was 
 given dominion over the earth, and man's good or 
 evil conduct can even affect the weather. That 
 is, man is so powerful and is capable of such close 
 relation to the Father, that if he is living greatly 
 out of harmony with God, his lack of harmony 
 can communicate itself to external conditions and 
 produce discord such as great storms. It is like 
 this. Divine rhythm is a medium, as it were, and 
 along that medium Nature works, and when man 
 
 the ages they are fulfilling God's love and law. They are not re- 
 sisting. The mountains have no free will. Men have free will 
 and they have so far, in many cases, perverted themselves as 
 to be all but invisible to us except their spirits, but not so the 
 mountains and the sea and nature generally. You are just 
 right, the trees and flowers and nature generally, are living in 
 harmony and fulfilling God's laws and in that consists their 
 true beauty. They have not man's free will." 
 
 {What makes freaks of nature and deformities of plants or 
 trees?) 
 
 n don't know." 
 
Union with God 113 
 
 works in harmony with the Divine rhythm there is 
 no discord; but let man throw out a sufficient 
 amount of discord, he may jar the rhythm, or pro- 
 ject discord into it, which might produce storms. 
 The fact that scientists know how to predict the 
 weather does not alter this Truth. As you have 
 no scientific proof of this it may make a great 
 many people ready to distrust me and my book to 
 put in such facts as these, but I can tell you that 
 the scientists are going to get a good many sur- 
 prises before they get through their experiences 
 after death, and I don't mind giving them a little 
 surprise now. I have spoken several times of our 
 difficulty in using human language because so much 
 that we would like to tell you is wholly beyond 
 the power of human language to express. To 
 those men, who during their earthly life, have ex- 
 perienced a very little of the perfect rhythm of the 
 universe it is so utterly delicious beyond all other 
 joys that they prize it as their highest possession. 
 It can be felt through art, music, nature, and most 
 of all through religion. If I might so express 
 myself, it is the mechanical means whereby your 
 instinctive natures receive direction from God. 
 Many men and women have experienced it in one 
 line or another, but if you can learn how to open 
 yourself to the experience at will and to recognize 
 
114 The One Way 
 
 It with your mind and your spirit, there is no limit 
 to what you and we can do together. Of course 
 all telepathic experiences work along this line of 
 rhythm. The man whose sensitive instinctive 
 nature is so trained that, like the dumb creatures 
 — beasts and birds — he can receive direct guidance 
 from his Heavenly Father and in each new emer- 
 gency of life be shown how to act, has a lot of 
 advantage over the man who must reason out in 
 his own mind how to act in a situation which con- 
 tains unknown factors. But the man who stands 
 in the commanding position is he who is trained, 
 not only in his instinctive or soul nature, but whose 
 intellect also takes its full part, working in just 
 conjunction with both his soul and heart or will. 
 
 "God Is the Beginning, the Ending, the Way, 
 the Means, the Source, the Prize, the Power. He 
 is in all and through all and yet you can turn away 
 from Him and live outside the rhythm of his love. 
 He is always there but It is part of your right of 
 free will to live out of harmony with the Divine 
 rhythm if you choose to be deterrent. The 
 simplest child can receive Him In his heart and be 
 actuated by Him and feel the thrill of the rhythm 
 of the universe, and the wisest and greatest must 
 become like the simplest little child if they desire 
 to be utterly united to Him, the all-wise, all-power- 
 
Union with God 115 
 
 ful, all-loving Heavenly Father. You all need 
 more faith, but remember that faith is a result of 
 obedience to God's law. So many people Imagine 
 that faith is a kind of heavenly talent bestowed 
 upon one man and denied to another. Faith is a 
 result. Any one can obtain It who will faithfully, 
 honestly obey and prove the promises of God. 
 We here, know of no other way to attain to faith, 
 except through obedience, and I know that If you 
 apply to those persons on earth who have attained 
 to great faith they will tell you the same thing. 
 God has made the promises and He never fails to 
 keep His part. Our blessed Lord said, 'If ye, then 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children, how much more shall your Heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him.' (Luke xi:i3.) How many hundreds of 
 men and women have for years and years of their 
 lives been praying for the gift of God's holy 
 spirit and yet feel that they have not greatly 
 grown in their knowledge of God? Why is this? 
 Because they have feared to take God at His word 
 and believe that he would stand up to His promise. 
 True prayer In Christ's name must be In harmony 
 with the will of God. It Is the Father's will to 
 pour out His spirit upon you and make you abso- 
 lutely one with Him. 'That they all may be one, 
 
Ii6 The One Way 
 
 as thou, Father art In me, and I In thee; that they 
 also may be one In us.' (John xvii:2i.) There- 
 fore, that prayer for the spirit of God Is perfect 
 and is certain of Its results If you will go one step 
 further and beheve when ye ask for things that 
 ye have them. In the eleventh chapter of St. 
 Mark's gospel (the 23rd and 24th verses) our 
 Lord speaks absolutely clearly about this. 'What 
 things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that 
 ye receive them and ye shall have them.' When 
 He said that, He knew what He was saying, and 
 He meant just that, not something else. When 
 you ask God to pour His spirit upon you, do not 
 hesitate to declare with the most absolute convic- 
 tion. The power and the presence of the Almighty 
 is upon me, anointing me and healing me, or in- 
 structing me or guiding me, but do not then jump 
 up and immediately set about doing your own 
 sweet will. After that stay still in absolute, pro- 
 found stillness and silence and hear what God will 
 say, feel the rhythm of the Divine power of God, 
 be filled with the water of life. 
 
 "I could go on forever reiterating the same 
 things that have been told you through the ages. 
 You know them all. I have nothing new to tell 
 you, only to call on all who ever cared for me or 
 my words to hear and heed what I say, to go back 
 
Union with God 117 
 
 to all the sources of wisdom, strength and power, 
 but most of all to the One Source and let us con- 
 sciously act together for the good of the whole 
 universe." 
 
 Aug. 23rd, noon, 1920. 
 
Author's Afterword 
 
 ^T^HIS book must be its own justification. 
 ^ Should it prove of value to anyone, let him 
 receive the message. I make no claims that will 
 convince the skeptical. I myself know that I did 
 not write it alone, yet I am quite aware that my 
 conviction that It is a genuine message received by 
 means of automatic writing will have no weight 
 with the general public. Nevertheless, for those 
 to whom it is of interest, it may be best for me to 
 make a statement of how I happened to commence 
 the undertaking. I have never even seen a ouija 
 board or planchette. Prior to November, 19 19, 
 I only remember one occasion on which I ever 
 tipped a table. About the year 1894, In a mixed 
 company In a boarding house, we succeeded in 
 getting some one who acknowledged to being bad, 
 and then proved to be the father of a young 
 w^oman, dressed In deep mourning, whose great 
 agitation broke up the seance. This served to in- 
 crease my general belief that If tables could really 
 be tipped it was only done by evil spirits. With 
 them I wished to have no trafficking. 
 
 119 
 
120 The One Way 
 
 It so happened I had never read a book by 
 William James — this summer (1920) I have pur- 
 posely avoided doing so. Since The One Way was 
 completed, two persons who have read the manu- 
 script have said that it did not seem at all like Mr. 
 William James. 
 
 For me, it would rob Eternity of much of the 
 beauty and joy that I anticipate, if we are to re- 
 main exactly what we are when we leave this 
 world. Ten years of travel and adventure can 
 change a man's whole point of view in this world, 
 and I feel that Mr. William James might have 
 changed a great deal in ten years in Eternity. 
 
 In case the language of this book seems so un- 
 like his old style as to preclude the idea of his 
 having dictated the book, let me explain that I am 
 convinced that he dictates the idea to my mind, 
 but does not dictate each word or sentence. 
 
 My mother, who was the most joyous Christian 
 I have ever known, was also an inveterate traveler, 
 who took the greatest delight in new places, and 
 when she knew she was going on a journey entered 
 into all the plans with the keenest zest. From her 
 I learned to take a most intense interest in heaven 
 in exactly that same spirit of a traveler. She read 
 aloud to me "The Land of Darkness" and the 
 "The Land of Suspense," by Mrs. Oliphant. I 
 
Author's Afterword I2l 
 
 read by myself the rest of the stories of "Seen 
 and Unseen," by the same author. Many years 
 later, after the death of my husband, these stories 
 were of Intense Interest and comfort to me. I de- 
 voured them, and then reread them. When a little 
 later a friend gave me a little book called Letters 
 from Julia, purporting to be written by a dead 
 woman to a living friend, I found the Idea very 
 repulsive. Yet now I am Inclined to believe that 
 those stories of Mrs. Ollphant's were done by 
 automatic writing. What Is said of the extreme 
 rapidity with which she sometimes wrote, favors 
 that view. She says in her biography: "These 
 stories are not like others. I can only produce 
 them when they come to me." And In regard to 
 "The Land of Suspense," she says, "I think It 
 came to me from them." Some time during the 
 last two years, after reading some book which 
 claimed to be written automatically and which In- 
 terested me very much, I said to my daughter, 
 "Whichever of us dies first, if automatic writing 
 is In accordance with God's will, we will do It." 
 I do not remember that she made any rejoinder — 
 certainly she betrayed no special interest. 
 
 In November, 19 19, I was away from home for 
 a couple of days. When I returned, my daughter 
 said: "I don't know what you will say when you 
 
122 The One Way 
 
 know what we did while you were gone. We 
 tipped the table." I think she expected me to ex- 
 press strong disapproval. I did not either feel or 
 express any disapproval. 
 
 Shortly after that, a cousin, Miss K., was stay- 
 ing with us, who has always been very successful 
 in tipping tables. An acquaintance happened In 
 to supper, and we four tipped the table. This last 
 lady had no knowledge or experience In the mat- 
 ter; she only half believed, and her curiosity was 
 roused. When she left, I said I believe that there 
 Is only one right way to do this, and that is to 
 use the name of Jesus Christ, and say that we, 
 being sworn servants of God, will have nothing to 
 do with mischievous spirits; and that if tipping 
 tables Is contrary to the will of God we will have 
 nothing whatever to do with It. We found re- 
 peatedly that when the table began tipping — and 
 knocking clearly to say — "In the name of Jesus 
 Christ I forbid any interference from mischievous 
 spirits," stopped It dead. On the other hand, we 
 found that sometimes the table assented very vig- 
 orously, and twice we got a reasonable communi- 
 cation. 
 
 In this Afterword I shall give such of the 
 communications I have received from my husband 
 
Author's Afterword 123 
 
 and daughter as seem of general interest. My 
 daughter died in April, 1920, after an Illness of 
 many months, during which time I knew, that so 
 far as human knowledge and skill went, there was 
 absolutely no hope. Near the end of May I read 
 Private Dowding, by Tudor Pole. On June 5th, 
 while reading The Abolishing of Death, by Basil 
 King, I felt that I could try to write. I sat down 
 in the dark, holding the pencil so lightly that I 
 scarcely touched it, and holding my arm free above 
 the table. I got in the faintest writing, and with 
 a great sense of effort, "Mother, mother. 
 Mother, I love you. I have been with God all 
 the time. Father loves you every minute of the 
 time." Then, for the first time, the pencil wrote 
 my name — which has since then become the way 
 
 my husband always addresses me — "J , you 
 
 are to teach — God will show you. God has a 
 plan. Be content." 
 
 I wish it were possible to describe the peace 
 that that "Be content" brought me. 
 
 June 6th, 1920. Taken In the dark. "Mother 
 — Mother, I am Pattie." ^ 
 
 {Can I ask a question?)^ 
 
 ^ Pattie is an assumed name. 
 
124 The One Way 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 {Have you been waiting to try and get mef) 
 
 ''No." 
 
 {Could you call me?) 
 
 ''No, not yet. Be content. Good night." (Ob- 
 viously this might be just my subconscious mind 
 directing my pencil, but when one has experienced 
 the sensation of the pencil being controlled, that 
 idea gives no explanation of the peculiar manner 
 of writing. It is not my intention to argue or try 
 to convince anyone. If there is a message for me 
 to deliver, all that I have to do is to give It faith- 
 fully. You will see from what follows that I ac- 
 knowledge my doubts — I give them In full, per- 
 haps in tiresome detail, because there are certain 
 persons to whom these technical details are Im- 
 portant.) 
 
 June 9th, 8.30 P.M. "Mother, Mother, I am 
 Pattle." 
 
 {Do you understand that I only want to do 
 God's will?) 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 {Would it he better if I did not try to write?) 
 
 "No." 
 
 {Do I disturb you by sitting down with the 
 pencil?) 
 
 "No. God bless you. Good-night." 
 
Author's Afterword 125 
 
 *7 , God blss— " 
 
 "Mother, you are no mother." 
 
 (This last seemed puzzling. It is impossible to 
 convey the sense of varying personalities.) 
 
 June nth, 8.30 P.M. ^'Mother, Mother. Yes. 
 Tom ^ will pass his exams." "Mother, Mother, 
 I am Pattie. God blss you. Good night." 
 
 "J , I don't want you to write." 
 
 {Who are yoii?) 
 
 "N ." (My husband's nickname incor- 
 rectly spelled.) 
 
 {Is it because I am tired yoii don't want me to 
 write?) 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 (Taken in semidark, I could not see the writing, 
 but I could see my hand. I seem to feel or know 
 beforehand what word I am going to write. It 
 might all come from my subconscious mind — but 
 the method of writing is queer. To-night I in- 
 tentionally took control of the pencil and finished 
 one letter, and then it was a good many seconds 
 before the writing began again.) 
 
 June 14th, 1.50 P.M. "Mother, Mother. Yes, 
 yes." 
 
 {What did father mean when he told me not to 
 write?) 
 
 ^ Tom is an assumed name. 
 
126 The One Way 
 
 "That you were tired. Yes. Yes." 
 
 {Are you saying ^'Yes, Yes/' meaning it is 
 you?) 
 
 "Yes. Mother, we want you to learn how to 
 write. You must practise every day, then we can 
 talk all the time." 
 
 {In the name of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of 
 the World, we will only write according to God's 
 will.) 
 
 "Yes, that is understood." 
 
 {Are you happy?) 
 
 "Mother, Mother, God is love. Yes, yes. Get 
 the big paper." (This was in reference to my 
 thought of buying wall paper such as Margaret 
 Cameron said in The Seven Purposes that she 
 used.) "You are no mother — Mother, Mother, 
 Mother — " 
 
 {Did you mean to write ^^You are no 
 mother?'') "My — my Mother, Mother Mother 
 Mother." 
 
 "J , go out to drive now." 
 
 (I seem to know in my mind what word Is going 
 to be written — that might be my subconscious 
 
 mind, but Pattie and N write so differently. 
 
 I have laughed aloud with joy at the latter's char- 
 acteristic tone.) 
 
 June 15th, 7 P.M. "Mother, Mother, yes yes." 
 
Author's Afterword 127 
 
 {Have you heard all the things I have been 
 thinking in the garden?) 
 
 ''No." 
 
 {Has Father?) 
 
 'Tes." 
 
 {IV hy?) 
 
 "Because you were thinking to him.'''' 
 
 {If I think questions to Father, cant you read 
 my mind?) 
 
 "No, Mother." 
 
 {Is it hard for you to write anything besides 
 Mother?) 
 
 "Yes" — very strongly written. 
 
 (Then occurred a change of writing. It was, 
 as I have since learned, an interference.) Then 
 Mother, twelve times over and in much more 
 powerful and free writing. This seemed to me 
 to be just practice of writing with my hand — then 
 enormous circles made like lightning, and very 
 strongly. 
 
 {JVhat does that mean?) 
 
 ^'Joy? Joy? Joy" (written nine times). "Mother, 
 I adore you. Mother, do you know I am Pattie? 
 Yes yes yes" — nine times. "Mother, I love you" 
 — four times. 
 
 {Do you like to write this way, Pattie?) 
 
 "Mother, I love to write with your hand." 
 
128 The One Way 
 
 {Pattle you know I can't help doubting a little 
 when I know in my mind what the pencil is going 
 to write; explain if you can.) 
 
 "Mother, I can't explain that. Mother, you 
 must buy plenty of soft pencils for writing." (/ 
 must here have taken control of the pencil, for she 
 wrote — ) "Don't you write, Mother; it inter- 
 rupts me." 
 
 {You don't cross t's or dot i's.) 
 
 "No, I can't; Mother Mother. Yes Yes." 
 
 {Can you write out what it is to which you write 
 *'Yes^ Yesf") (The only reply was:) 
 
 "Mother Mother Yes, yes, yes, Mother." 
 
 {JV^hy does father stop me all the time?) 
 
 "Because at present it is not good for you to 
 write much." 
 
 {Is Father there?) 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 {Can I ask him a question?) 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 {Who are you?) 
 
 "J , I am your husband." 
 
 {Does our daughter understand about your not 
 wanting me to write?) 
 1 es. 
 
 {Will you please give me directions not only for 
 to-night?) 
 
 "J , you are to teach and you must get 
 
Author's Afterword 129 
 
 rested — practise your exercises and keep out of 
 doors all that Is possible." 
 
 {N , of course it is very exciting la feel that 
 
 you and Pattie can zvrite ivith my hand. I cati't 
 help feeling as if you were waiting, trying to com- 
 municate if I don't try.) 
 
 "God has important work for you to do, and 
 you must rest first." 
 
 {How shall I know when I may write again?) 
 
 "Mother, Mother, Mother. Father wants you 
 to rest and I am so happy here I understand." 
 
 {Do you want me^ not to write again till I get 
 to ?) 
 
 "Yes, J , not till you get to . God 
 
 bless you and Tom. . . ." 
 
 (Then came Joy circles.) 
 
 {What does that meanfy 
 
 "That means joy for all Eternity." 
 
 (A^ , why do I know in my mind before- 
 hand what the pencil will write?) 
 
 "I can't explain until later. . . ." 
 
 {God keep you, my daughter,) 
 
 "Mother, God does keep me, and I am so 
 happy, only I want you to be happy, too. . . . 
 Mother, God bless you and Tom all the time." 
 
 "J . . . Good night. Bless you now and 
 
 always." 
 
 After writing the above I wrote a letter to Tom, 
 
130 The One Way 
 
 and I felt that my pencil was controlled, and I 
 wrote excessively rapidly, but I said what I wanted 
 to to Tom, not what some one else wanted; then 
 I thought I would try to write down a thought that 
 has been constantly In my mind lately. I began, 
 and I wrote faster than I ever wrote in my life, 
 the following: 
 
 June 15th, 7.45 P.M. **Truth, not what you 
 consider the truth, or what I consider the truth, 
 but God's eternal verity, has in it such inherent 
 power that when a man touches it, at any point, he 
 is overwhelmed by the strength of the Truth, and 
 that is one reason why men who are studying 
 Science feel unable to grasp religious truth. It 
 is only that the minds of most men are so finite 
 that they cannot grasp more than one small aspect 
 of truth and that one atom of God's eternal truth 
 is so overwhelmingly true that they feel T have 
 found truth,' 'This is truth,' and that blinds them 
 to all sorts of other aspects of truth. You can put 
 your hand before your eyes and blot out the widest 
 landscape yet the landscape is there all the time, 
 only you don't see it. Don't think because you 
 have found one atom of truth that you have found 
 it all, and don't be afraid of the Truth wherever 
 you find itJ* 
 
 {Who are you?) 
 
 *'I am not your husband but I have to get a 
 
Author's Afterword 131 
 
 chance to speak through you. My name is 
 William James, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
 U. S. A. ; the man who thought he knew a lot 
 while he was on earth, and now that he has learned 
 a little he wants to tell the people on earth through 
 you. But you must rest now, God bless you. You 
 have got a tremendous work to do for God and 
 his children." 
 
 {My husband told me to go to bed and that I 
 must rest first.) 
 
 "Your husband Is right; don't you write another 
 page of automatic writing for him, or for me, 
 
 until after you get to . You go buy about 
 
 fifteen rolls of the best paper, wall paper at 
 
 's, on Street, pay 30 cents a roll for It, 
 
 and don't be afraid about the money for that or 
 anything else about this work, for God will pro- 
 vide the money; and now you go to bed, and God 
 bless you." 
 
 The sensation of this writing was Intensely ex- 
 citing. Between four and five In the morning of 
 June 1 6th I woke with the pulses In my head 
 beating as if they would burst. I have since real- 
 ized that the sensations with which I awoke were 
 such as have frequently been described by those 
 who saw or perceived some supernatural being. 
 I at once took up the pencil, which wrote: 
 
 "J , you are too excited. I want you to go 
 
132 The One Way 
 
 to sleep. Give me your hands. It is just as actual 
 as that day fourteen years ago at the hospital." 
 (This referred to a time when I was very ill and 
 intensely nervous, and he made me go to sleep.) 
 *'Yield yourself to me. I am your husband. I 
 love you with all my heart and soul. You are 
 mine, and belong to me forever and ever. Now 
 lie still and I will hold your hands, and God will 
 
 put you to sleep." (When N writes God's 
 
 name he pauses, and writes so slowly that it brings 
 an indescribable sense of God's nearness, and such 
 reverence.) 
 
 June 1 6th, 9.45 P.M. (After certain directions 
 
 about resting, I got) : *'J , go out of doors and 
 
 enjoy God works alone with him." 
 
 {Do you mean don't go to see Mrs. W, — a 
 friend?) 
 
 *'Yes, go now quick, don't keep asking questions 
 • — do what I tell you. Obey. God bless you." 
 
 June 1 6th, 7.35 p.m. "J , you cannot real^ 
 
 ize the importance of the work you are to do and 
 you must be rested first." 
 
 June 17th, 7.45. "J , you are not keeping 
 
 your promise ; don't take up the pencil unless you 
 are in very great need of my help ; turn to God. I 
 will be helping all the time. You must be rested, 
 and don't hesitate to spend the money to make 
 
Author's Afterword 133 
 
 proper arrangements about your clothes for the 
 summer. Wear white all the time and don't you 
 wear crepe." 
 
 On June 17th my husband told me that I was 
 not keepuig my promise. I did not quite realize 
 that I had made a promise and that it meant I 
 was not to touch a pencil with "intent of automatic 
 writing" till I reached . But I now appre- 
 ciate that this period of enforced quiet will prove 
 of the greatest possible benefit to me — because 
 through it I am realizing that the highest spiritual 
 interpretation is the only one I can follow in this 
 work. At first it seemed more than I could bear 
 not to try to write. The intense sense of my hus- 
 band's personality (and my daughter's) and the 
 extraordinary change not only of writing, but of 
 personality, when William James began to wTite, 
 are all that I have as proof, and I am quite well 
 aware that that is proof only to me — but to me 
 the proof Is so complete that I can hardly contain 
 myself for joy.^ As my husband has spoken of 
 work of great Importance and teaching, and as 
 iW. J. ordered me to buy so much paper, I natur- 
 
 * The sense of excitement was at this time so intense that I 
 feel that I could easily understand how a person might lose his 
 mental balance over this automatic writing; temporarily, all the 
 old values seem thrown out. 
 
134 The One Way 
 
 ally suppose that I am to write a book. It may 
 be worth noting as an evidence of my convic- 
 tion that I instantly obeyed W. J., a complete 
 stranger's, direction, not to consider money in 
 regard to this work, and have planned to spend 
 money in a variety of ways I should never have 
 dreamed it right for me to do, and to alter my 
 summer arrangements, that I may be wholly un- 
 trammeled for the work. I obeyed my husband 
 at once, about my clothes. I mean now to wear 
 white and to discard crepe entirely. 
 
 On Friday, June i8th, the story of a great 
 tragedy was told me, and I was emotionally very 
 deeply stirred, so that I scarcely felt as if I knew 
 what I was doing. I knew I ought to go home 
 and lie down. Instead, I went to choose the wall 
 paper ordered by W. J. I could not decide which 
 kind to buy. I held my shopping pencil lightly; 
 in a minute it wrote, "take the grey," which I pro- 
 ceeded to do. My mind was in a turmoil; scat- 
 tered, not concentrated. I think it is the condition 
 referred to so many times in the book by M. Cam- 
 eron, The Seven Purposes^ as ^'divided purpose." 
 It is a condition of indecision, painfully familiar 
 to many people. 
 
 Please note that I said "I knew'''' by one flash of 
 the inner voice in that place where "we know," 
 
Author's Afterword 135 
 
 that I should go home — call It conscience If you 
 prefer. I had made the human plan of shopping. 
 It was interrupted, and though I was perfectly 
 exhausted I carried out my own plan and will, 
 partly because I had told my friend I was going 
 shopping and didn't want her to observe a change 
 of plan. As I was feeling terribly distressed, I 
 felt I had my husband's permission to seek his 
 help through the pencil. Later, when I did grow 
 calm, I was not satisfied that it had been he who 
 answered me; then the conviction grew that It was 
 not his answer. 
 
 June 19th, 1920, I P.M. Naturally all this has 
 been In my mind at every waking minute, and I 
 can see how wise was the order from my husband 
 not to write till after I get to , also the di- 
 rection, "Turn to God." In the Abolishing of 
 Death, by Basil King, there is a chapter called 
 "The New Tongue" — i.e., the language of 
 Thought. This morning I said: at present I am 
 forbidden to do the automatic writing, but I can 
 make an experiment In thought language. I said 
 to myself. If I went out In the automobile and was 
 suddenly killed, I should presumably soon be able 
 to practice — falteringly enough, no doubt, at first 
 — the heavenly language, thought exchange; there 
 would, however, have been no real change in my 
 
136 The One Way 
 
 spirit; hence It is possible that I could try to re- 
 ceive consciously a thought now. I went to my 
 husband's old desk and sent a thought message 
 to my husband that I was ready to receive con- 
 sciously a message. (I don't want to go into this 
 thing and become unbalanced over it. I know 
 that I have as yet no proof for anyone else that 
 all this does not come from my subconscious mind. 
 For my self the only proof I have Is an over- 
 whelming sense of certainty that I have been in 
 direct communication with my husband's person- 
 ality and also my daughter's.) I then "chained 
 my imagination," "entered the silence." Nothing 
 came, and I thought probably I am not capable 
 yet. Suddenly I saw how I could make a practical 
 use of a certain desk I have when writing on the 
 rolls of wall paper. I had already so far per- 
 fected a plan of a table on which to write, that I 
 had this morning thought of sending an exact 
 
 paper pattern of the table to a carpenter at , 
 
 so that the table would be ready when I reached 
 there. In a flash I saw how the desk I already 
 have could be made to serve splendidly, far better 
 than the table I had planned. I am writing this 
 down now because if it was a message I want it 
 written down. Granted that we are so made as 
 to be capable of receiving these thought messages, 
 
Author's Afterword 137 
 
 It seems to mc it will be a great step In advance 
 to do so consciously.^ 
 
 June 20th, Sunday evening. I have felt con- 
 vinced all day long that that message on Friday 
 was an Interference. I am now absolutely con- 
 vinced that it was a deterrent or mischievous 
 spirit. On July 22d, after two days of constant 
 Interference, I referred to this piece of manuscript 
 and found that the handwriting used on June 20th 
 was the same. This seems to me to point very 
 clearly to the danger of getting under the power 
 of an evil or deterrent personality, If in doing 
 automatic writing one is actuated by curiosity or 
 any light motive. 
 
 June 2 1 St. That interference was good for me, 
 as it made the danger so evident. 
 
 July 4th. N In control. . . . "J , 
 
 some one tried to interfere. J , always pray 
 
 If the pencil gets silly and runs around." 
 
 July 4th. {Do yoii hear all my thoughts or only 
 those I clearly direct to yoiif) 
 
 "J . I do not hear your thoughts in words. 
 
 ^ Suddenly on July 19th my husband, referring to the desk, 
 
 wrote, "J , you did receive that thought. Of course you all 
 
 receive thoughts both good and bad constantly from this side; 
 to do so consciously is the greatest advance." 
 
138 The One Way 
 
 I feel the effects of them as they affect your spirit- 
 ual life. . . ." 
 
 (Later, after sending a clear thought.) (Can 
 you get what I have told you?) 
 
 "Yes, I do, now that you are sending the 
 thought clearly to me." 
 
 July 5th, 1920, 1.45 P.M. "J , don't come 
 
 unless you need me." (N. B. — Here the writing 
 was extremely small, and came apparently with 
 great difficulty.) 
 
 July 5th, 5 P.M. **J , trust God and don't 
 
 keep coming unnecessarily." 
 
 {Why?) 
 
 ^'Because you must live your life with God just 
 as before, growing in your closeness to Him; 
 otherwise it is idle use of the pencil. God bless 
 you." 
 
 {This I take to mean that automatic writing, 
 unless used for or toward a spiritual end, is abuse 
 of a sacred privilege. It is not to he used as idle, 
 gratification.) 
 
 In the two above cases I came with mental ques- 
 tions — not for the pure joy of talking to him. 
 
 July 5th, 8.20 P.M. (. . . you don^t mind my 
 coming just for joy, do you?) 
 
 "J ... I want to write with your hand 
 
 every second of the day. What you must not do 
 
Author's Afterword 139 
 
 is to come to me with questions that you ought to 
 settle for yourself, in order that you may grow 
 closer to God. You see, this is your most impor- 
 tant growing time, and I must not interrupt your 
 growth. . . . You do not need to be assured that 
 this is I, your own husband; you know it." 
 
 J to N . July 7th, 4.30 P.M. {Mr, 
 
 James said the other night the doctor wouldnt 
 come, and he came at once. Why was that?) 
 
 "I don't know; he made a mistake. You see, 
 those details are not important." 
 
 {Yes, bin they are very confusing to us here. 
 Both you and Pattie said Tom would pass his 
 exams, and he failed on three of them}) 
 
 ''Sorry we made a mistake. I think the truth 
 is you shouldn't ask us specific questions of small 
 details; they seem so small to us here." 
 
 July 8th, 5.30. ''J you must not doubt, 
 
 for it is of tremendous importance that you 
 should believe the real truth of this w^hole mat- 
 ter." 
 
 {Can't you tell me sofiiething I don't know and 
 couldn't write alone f) 
 
 "J , I can't think why you keep asking for 
 
 proof. You know. God bless you." 
 
 * Subsequently he passed them off. Does not this indicate that 
 they are oblivious of the element of time? 
 
140 The One Way 
 
 July 9th. "J , I want to talk to you a 
 
 minute. We have been starved for conscious in- 
 tercourse. ... I did suggest that arrangement 
 of the desk and you did understand. . . . Don't 
 be afraid to pray" [corrected to believe]. 
 
 {Now, why did that write wrongly?) 
 
 *'You see it is not even yet quite natural for me 
 to write with your hand." 
 
 July loth. {Do I have to decide about the 
 stenographer and all those details alone?) 
 
 July nth, 9 P.M. "J , you do have to 
 
 decide that. That is part of your human life, and 
 it would weaken you if I decided those things and 
 it is essential that you should grow in your spirit- 
 ual life In order to do the work to which God has 
 called you." 
 
 July 1 2th. *'J . I am with you all the 
 
 time when you need me. I too need to go away 
 and receive God's strength." 
 
 {What would happen if I called you when you 
 were there?) 
 
 "I should come to you because you are my 
 appointed work now, and then I should go back 
 to worship and renewal from the Father.'* 
 
 July 13th, 7.30 A.M. {Why didn^t you answer 
 that question above?) 
 
 "Because at the time [when it was asked] I had 
 
Author's Afterword 141 
 
 said you were to go to bed — and I said it not to 
 order you, but because it was right; and here when 
 we know a thing to be right we do it, wc don't 
 dally round till we get good and ready." 
 
 {Can you answer that question now?) 
 
 (I had asked him If he knew about a certain 
 spiritual experience I once had.) "No . . . not 
 even a husband Interferes between the Father and 
 his child, even though she be his wife." 
 
 July 13th, 7.30 A.M. (/ know nothing about 
 literary work. If I were doing a hook with a 
 person here I should consult him. Is it wrong for 
 me to ask William lames' advice about a stenog- 
 rapher? He wrote lots of hooks when he lived 
 ^here.) 
 
 *'No Indeed, ask him by all means." 
 
 {Is it just as easy for you to hear my questions 
 without my writing them down?) 
 
 "Yes, but I think you need to write them for 
 the sake of record." 
 
 July 13th, 7.30 P.M. *^ . . It Isn't at all easy 
 
 for me to answ^er questions. J , don't doubt, 
 
 even though the pencil writes what you think your- 
 self. If Mr. James finds in your mind a thought 
 or expression that you feel Is your own and that 
 he feels is the right one to carry his meaning, he 
 will use It." 
 
142 The One Way 
 
 July 17th, 9.30 P.M. (Can deterrent spirits do 
 things to our bodies, like the pain in my foot, to 
 accomplish their deterrent purposes?) 
 
 "J , no deterrent spirit can interfere if you 
 
 forbid it." 
 
 (What makes the pain in my foot, and how can 
 I get rid of it?) 
 
 '^You know that God is the Source of all health 
 and healing; go to Him. I can't help when the 
 right thing is for you to go to Him. It is not that 
 I don't love you, but you must go to Him." 
 
 (TV , if you were on earth you could help 
 
 me. Even though I ought to go to God, you could 
 help, I understand that it would not he real help 
 if I turned to you, who are his child, when I should 
 go to Him, the Source, Is it that as soon as I go 
 to Him you will begin to help?) 
 
 ''J , I have already begun, but not by writ- 
 ten words. It is under the same law as what Mr. 
 James has been writing today; you have already 
 the revelation of God's power of healing and you 
 must for your own development work out on that. 
 For me to tell you in words what you should learn' 
 by living out your Faith in God's healing power, 
 would be, for me, a deterrent act." ^ 
 
 * "Deterrent" is used throughout the book where we should 
 use evil or wrong. 
 
Author's Afterword 143 
 
 July 24th, 9 P.M. "J , you know that I am 
 
 your husband; you know that you have been hear- 
 ing from me. Don't doubt; pray. You have an 
 Important work to do. If I used your mode of 
 expression I should say I am so proud that you 
 have been chosen for this work, but here we know 
 that there Is no room for pride; it Is just that the 
 Father's love is working through you." 
 
 {Is it possible for you to explain to me why I 
 understand beforehand what the pencil will 
 write?) 
 
 "But you know already; the language we use 
 here Is the thought language. And when you 
 empty your mind for me to control It, you hear 
 my thought, and my thought in your mind makes 
 your mind control the pencil. I can't touch the 
 pencil. I do it through your mind. It is a very 
 subtle thing; I know that it Is hard for you to 
 
 understand. You must trust. J , you know 
 
 you can trust me." 
 
 July 30th, 12.30. {How do you know when I 
 take tip the pencil?) 
 
 *'Why it is somewhat as you would know if 
 Tom called you. If you were busy and he came 
 in and called, you would answer. If I were away 
 from you, I should come. Now that Is human 
 language and I have to use it because it is all you 
 understand, but to us, space, as you know it, 
 
144 The One Way 
 
 doesn't exist; time as you know it, doesn't exist; 
 and yet — the truth is, here is one of those chasms 
 we can't bridge because you simply can't under- 
 stand. You know height, depth and breadth; if 
 I tried to explain another dimension you couldn't 
 understand, and you have to accept that there is a 
 lot you can't understand. You have, already sup- 
 plied you, all the data that is essential for your 
 human lives. Live those to the fullest; then when 
 you get here you'll be fully prepared for this life. 
 Those who come here not having tried to live to 
 the fullest that which has been supplied to them 
 in their earthly life, are like maimed people with 
 you." 
 
 {Do you mean that a person without education 
 — whose earthly life had been almost completely 
 hare of opportunities^ yet who had tried to ad- 
 vance all they could or been as good as they knew 
 how, might, after death, be much more spiritually 
 advanced than a person of great education and op- 
 portunities who had been less faithful in trying 
 to do right?) 
 
 "Exactly; the last shall be first and the first 
 last; the real advancement is gauged according to 
 integrity of intention followed by sincerity of 
 action." 
 
 {Do I trouble you by controlling the pencil too 
 much?) 
 
Author's Afterword 145 
 
 "Why, you do at times. If you could only over- 
 come your doubts. You do know you have been in 
 constant touch with your husband. Why doubt? 
 Pray. The whole world is in ferment because 
 it does not know its own mind. So few people face 
 facts. They dodge and misstate, and are not 
 honest with themselves. They do what is wrong 
 and then they condone and excuse. Right is right 
 and wrong is wrong, and God made man in such 
 a way that if he had not perverted his powers 
 he could discern clearly, quickly, what Is the right 
 in each case. And when you know what is right, 
 do it and do it quick. I know all you immediately 
 want to bring up about the situations where cir- 
 cumstances or other people who are deterrent, or 
 evil, prevent your doing the ideal right. God 
 knows all your circumstances and there Is a right 
 thing for each one of you to do In every circum- 
 stance, and if you will learn how to use your God- 
 given instincts and trust to them, the change in 
 you and in the life of the whole world will seem 
 nothing less than miraculous. I am not dreaming. 
 I am telling you of what I know. The only way 
 to do It Is to get closer to the heart of the universe 
 which is God, your Father. Learn how to let 
 Him dwell in you and reign In you. You have all 
 the data. Use it and stop doubting." 
 
NOTE TO THIS EDITION 
 
 When this book was prepared for private pub- 
 licatioriy it seemed to me impossible to use my 
 daughter's name. At that time. I hoped it would 
 not be necessary to publish under my own name. 
 Therefore I called her a son and substituted the 
 name of Philip. The book is now corrected to fit 
 the fact. Pattie and Tom, however, are assumed 
 names. 
 
 Jane Revere Burke. 
 
 November, 1921. 
 
 146 
 
INDEX 
 
 Agreement, points of, should be emphasized, 85. 
 
 Amanuensis, the doubts of our, 18, 45, 124, 145. 
 
 Author of this book, autobiographic notes of, v, 119, 121, 122, 
 123, 131, 132, 138, 139. 
 
 Automatic writing, remarks on, 8, 9, 18, 45, 120, 121, 123, 124, 
 129, 130, 133. Note, 138, 141, 143. 
 
 Automatic writing, to be successful the writer must be at- 
 tuned, 55. 
 
 Bible, the, 1, 2, 12, 13, 18, 60. 
 Buddhism, 104, 105, 106. 
 
 Cameron, Margaret, 2, 14, 126, 134. 
 Christ, life and teaching of, i, 45. 
 Christianity is the final religion, 22. Cf. 17. 
 Christian Science, 63. Cf. 100, loi, 142. 
 Communion of Saints, the, 63, 64. 
 
 Control, the, dictates ideas not words, 26, 27, 45, 46, 120, 123, 
 129, 141, 143. 
 
 Dead, prayer for the, 63. 
 
 Death as God originally planned it, 99, 100. 
 
 Defectives, 107, 108. 
 
 Deterrent influences, 18, 32, 34, 35, 37, 66, 6-jy 77, 78, 84, 92, 
 
 93, 96, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 142. 
 Dogmas, the great, not to be discarded, 68, 69. 
 Doctrines, 68, 69, 83. 
 Doubts of the automatic writer, 17. 
 Dimension, fourth, 144. 
 
 Education, without Christianity, 21. 
 Evil, existence of, explained, 99. 
 
 147 
 
148 Index 
 
 Facts must be faced, which few do, 145. 
 
 Faith is a result, 115. 
 
 Familiar Spirits in the Bible, 60. 
 
 Fluid, learn to be, 3, 44, 45, 62, 63, 66, Cf. 82, 83. 
 
 Fourth dimension, 144. 
 
 Gospels, the, how alone their truth can be proved, 1, 2, 7, 22. 
 Growing in closeness to God, 13, 16, 138, 139, 140, 142. 
 
 Healing, spiritual, in the Bible, 24, 25, 26, 27, 39, 40, 107, 108, 
 142. 
 
 Idolatry, 93, 94, 106. 
 
 Individual experiences, 139, 140. 
 
 Instincts, training of the, 16, 17, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 67, 68, 
 
 113, 114, 145. Cf. 2. 
 Intellect, part of the, in conjunction with our instincts, 17, 113, 
 
 114. 
 Interference, 18, 32, 34, 35, 38, 122, 127, 134, 135, 137, 142 note. 
 Italics, how used in this book, 6 noU, 
 
 James, Professor William, letters and magazine article of, 
 
 quoted, vii, viii, ix. 
 James, Professor William, the attitude of his family toward 
 
 this book, vii. 
 James, Professor William, the author of this book has not read 
 
 his writings, 120. 
 
 League of Nations, a, is absolutely necessary, 76, 77. 
 
 Medicine, 39. 
 Millennium, the, 74 
 
 Missions, the importance of Christian, 20, 21, 22. 
 Mistakes, correct by control in automatic writing, xv, 46, 140. 
 Cf. 27. 
 
 Names, why hard to get through, xix, 37, 38. 
 Nirvana, 104, 105, 106. 
 
Index 14.9 
 
 OUphant, Mrs., her psychic stories, X2i. 
 Opportunities, use of, ou Earth, 84, 144. 
 
 Pain, 63, 100, loi. Cf. 27, 28, 39. 
 
 Prayer, 14, 35, 61, 69, 70. 
 
 Prayer, silent, 14, 109. 
 
 Prayer for the dead, 63, 64. 
 
 Prayer to the Saints is an abuse, 63. 
 
 Protestant world, a mistake of the, 63. 
 
 Questions, no answers given to, when one ought to settle them 
 oneself, 6, 7, 60, 139, 142. 
 
 Relax, no. 
 
 Religion, Christianity is the final, 22. Cf. 144, 145. 
 Religion 'versus Science, 6, 7, 23, 39, 40, 130. 
 Repentance, deathbed, 102, 103. 
 
 Scientists, why religious truth is hard for, 6, 7, 23, 39, 40, 130. 
 
 Seven Purposes, remarks on the book, 2, 14, 126, 134. 
 
 Silent prayer, 14, 109. 
 
 Spirits, familiar, in the Bible, 60. 
 
 Spiritual healing, 24, 25, 26, 27, 39, 40, 107, 108, 142. 
 
 Soul, 26, 48, 49, 50. Cf. H2, 113. 
 
 Subconscious, the, 48. 
 
 Subliminal, the, 26, 40. 
 
 Table-tipping, 119, 121. 
 
 Telepathy, xiv, 113, 114, 143. Cf. 9, 26, 42. 
 
 Truth, scientific, versus religious, 6, 7, 23, 39, 40, 130. 
 
 Universe, the life of God's whole, 19 a unit, 24. 
 Universe, the, a titanic struggle lies ahead, 15. 
 
 Vittoz, Dr. Roger, 10, 24, 25, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 109, no. 
 
 War, the greatest, is yet to come, 11, 15, 91. 
 
 War, America in the late, 71. 
 
 Will, true acts of, 10, 24, 25, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 109, no. 
 
^'^.\*^:\.,j^zj-*^.-j^i^.'i^:'~:-i^ra7^^- --t-t^ cyr-^-^ ;^^j*tt ^.--^ 
 
 ONE MONTH USE 
 
 PLEASE RETURN TO DESK 
 FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 EDUCATION-PSYCHOLOGY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 l-month loans may be renewed by calling 642-4209 
 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior 
 
 to due date. 
 
 ALL BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO RECALL 7 DAYS 
 
 AFTER DATE CHECKED OUT. 
 
 ^CT 1^1975 
 
 OCT i MLHJ -12 iSC, 
 SEMESTER t(fMNI 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 m 
 
 vZi^LL^J At^^^ 
 
 H££ML 
 
 OCT 01 
 
 -» 
 
 i\f\ 
 
 i,OUC>'^NUH.U^^^ 
 
 LD 21A-30m-5,'75 
 (S5877L) 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
yC BERKELEY LIBRAHir 
 
 III I II M I 
 
iflH 
 
 m 
 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 Hi I 
 
 i 
 
 il Hi 
 
 
 Hi 
 
 
 t ! 
 
 If 
 
 i I