I AM HERE. Jesus.

I have been with you as you prayed, and joined in your prayer to the Father for the inflowing of His Great Love into your soul in great abundance. And I know that His Holy Spirit is present, that His Love is flowing into your soul, and that you are becoming in at-onement with the Father. His Love will always come to you when you pray as you have tonight, and His listening Ear is always open to the earnest aspirations of His children who come to Him with the true longings of the soul. You have the secret of reaching the Father's Love* and, on all occasions, when you feel that you need that Love, or desire a nearness to the Father, use the secret and you will not be disappointed.

You are in better condition tonight in your soul development and perceptions, and can receive my message which I have desired to communicate for some time. I was waiting only for you to be in a complete rapport with me.

Well, you will remember that, in the early stages of our writings, I communicated to you my knowledge and conception of Who and What God is, and that I have recently told you that I desired to rewrite the message, as your condition is now so much better to receive these Truths than it was when the message was written. And, so, tonight, I will deliver the message and will take a more complete possession of your brain, and control of your hand, than I was able to do at the time mentioned.

Then, the question is: "Who and What is God?"

In dealing with this question, you must realize that it is not so easy to describe the Essence and Attributes of God in language that mortals can comprehend. And I feel the limitations that I am under in endeavoring to give you a satisfactory description of the only and true God, not because of the paucity of knowledge and conception on my part, but because of the fact that you have not the required soul development to enable me to form the necessary rapport with you in order that the exact Truth as to Who the Father is may be expressed through your brain.

WELL, TO BEGIN, GOD IS SOUL, AND SOUL IS GOD. NOT THE SOUL THAT IS IN THE CREATED MAN, BUT THE SOUL THAT IS DEITY AND SELF-EXISTENT, WITHOUT BEGINNING OR ENDING, AND WHOSE ENTITY IS THE ONE GREAT FACT IN THE UNIVERSE OF BEING.

God is without form, such as has been conceived of by man in nearly all ages, and especially by those who believe in the Bible of the Hebrews as well as in that of the Christians. But, nevertheless, He is of a Form which only the soul perceptions of the soul of a man which has arrived at a certain degree of development can discern and realize as an Entity-one who has taken on the Divine Nature of the Father and has thus become a part of the Soul of God. There is nothing in all nature with which men are acquainted or have knowledge of that can be used to make a comparison with this Great Soul, even with the spirit perceptions. Hence, for men to conceive of God as having a form in any manner resembling that of man is all erroneous. Only those who deny the anthropormorphic God in their beliefs and teachings are correct.

But, nevertheless, God is of Form such as to give Him an Entity and Substance and Seat of Habitation in contradistinction to that God which, in the teachings of some men, is said to be everywhere in this Substance and Entity-in the trees and rocks, in thunder and lightning, in men and beasts, in all created things and in Whom men are said to live and move and have their being. No, this concept of God is not in accord with the Truth, and it is vital to the knowledge and salvation of men that such conception of God be not entertained or believed in.

To believe that God is without Form is to believe that He is a mere force or principle or nebulous power and, as some say, the resultant of laws. However, as a fact, God has established these laws for the controlling of His Universe of Creation, and they are expressed and made manifest to men by these very powers and principles that, to some extent, men can comprehend.

The child has asked: "Who made God?" And because the wise men cannot answer that question, in their wisdom, they conclude and assert that there can be no real God of Personality or Soul Form; hence, only force, principle, or evolved laws can be God. In their own conceit, they think that they have solved the question. But the child may not be satisfied with the answer and may ask the wise men: "Who made principle and force and laws that must be accepted as the only God?" And, then, the wise men cannot answer unless they answer: "God," which they do not believe, but which, let me say, is the true and only answer.

God is in back of force and principle and law, which are all only expressions of His Being and which could not exist without Him. These expressions are only existences: changeable, dependent and subject to the Will of God Who, only, is Being.

GOD, THEN, IS SOUL. AND THAT SOUL HAS ITS FORM, PERCEPTIBLE ONLY TO ITSELF OR THAT OF MAN WHO, BY REASON OF THE SUFFICIENT POSSESSION OF THE VERY SUBSTANCE OF THE GREAT SOUL, HAS BECOME LIKE UNTO GOD-NOT IN IMAGE ONLY, BUT IN VERY ESSENCE. We spirits of the highest soul progression are enabled to see God and His Form by our soul perceptions. But, here, I use the words "see" and "form" as being the only words that I can use to give mortals a comparative conception of what I am endeavoring to describe.

When it is remembered that mortals can scarcely conceive of the form of the spirit body of a man, which is composed or formed of the material of the universe, though not usually accepted to be of the material, it will be readily seen that it is hardly possible for me to convey to them even a faint idea of the Soul Form of God, which is composed of that which is purely Spiritual-that is, not of the material, even though to the highest degree sublimated.

And although I am not able to describe to men that from which they may glean a conception of the Soul's Form because of the limitations mentioned-as such Form can be seen only with the soul's eye, which eyes men do not possess-it must not be believed that, because men cannot understand or perceive the Truth of the Soul's Form, therefore, it is not a Truth. A TRUTH, THOUGH NOT CONCEIVED OR PERCEIVED BY MEN, SPIRITS, OR ANGELS IS STILL A TRUTH; ITS EXISTENCE DOES NOT DEPEND UPON ITS BEING KNOWN. AND EVEN THOUGH ALL THE MORTALS OF EARTH AND ALL THE SPIRITS AND ANGELS OF HEAVEN, SAVE ONE, COULD NOT PERCEIVE THE EXISTENCE OF THAT TRUTH, YET ITS EXISTENCE PERCEIVED BY THAT ONE IRREFUTABLY PROVES ITS REALITY.

But, as I have said, the Truth of God's Form-the Soul's Form-can be testified to by more than one of the Celestial spirits of men passed from earth. And, as I have attempted to explain, the possibility is before mortals of the present life and in the great future to perceive God if their souls have become possessed of the Divine Substance of God's Love in sufficient abundance.
The created soul of man has its form-it being made in the image of God; yet man cannot see that form, although it is a fact and can be testified to by many in the spirit realms.

And here it needs to be said that, when in our messages we speak of God as being without form, we mean any such form as men have or think they have conceived of; and our expressions must not be considered as contradictory to what I have tried to explain as the Form of God.
Well, in addition to Form, God has a Personality; and this is expressed and made known to man by certain Attributes, which, to the consciousness of man, are existent in the universe. But, to some philosophers and scientists and wise men, these Attributes are their impersonal God, Himself, and, to them, the only God. They make the created, the Creator, not realizing that behind the expression must be the Cause; and that greater than the Attribute must be that from which the expression of the Attribute is projected, or, as they better like to say, evolved.

AND HERE, I, WHO KNOW, DESIRE TO SAY THAT THESE MANIFESTED ATTRIBUTES OR FORCES AND POWERS AND PRINCIPLES AND LAWS AND EXPRESSIONS DO NOT, ALL TOGETHER, CONSTITUTE GOD. HIS ATTRIBUTES OR EXPRESSIONS, MANIFESTED TO MORTALS OR SPIRITS, ARE ONLY THE RESULTS OR EFFECTS OF THE WORKINGS OF HIS SPIRIT, WHICH SPIRIT IS ONLY THE ACTIVE ENERGY OF HIS SOUL-HIMSELF. AND, HENCE, THE FORM OF GOD IS NOT DISTRIBUTED OVER THE WHOLE UNIVERSE OF CREATION, WHERE HIS ATTRIBUTES MAY BE, OR SIMPLY BECAUSE THESE ATTRIBUTES ARE MANIFESTED EVERYWHERE.

No, as was said by Moses of old, and as was said by me when on earth: God is in His Heavens. And although it may be surprising and startling to mortals to hear, God has His Habitation; and God, the Substance, the Self-Existing Soul Form, has His Locality. And men do not live and move and have their existence in God, but they do in His Emanations and Expressions and Spirit.

As you are somewhat exhausted, I think this is a good place to stop.

I am pleased that you are in such good condition. So, be prepared for an early resumption of the message.

With my love and blessings, I will say good night.
Your brother and friend,

JESUS

I AM HERE. Your grandmother.

Well, my son, I come tonight, as I promised, for the purpose of writing you a letter, telling you of a certain spiritual Truth that I desire you to know.
I am now in the Third Celestial Sphere, as I already told you, and am now in a much more exalted condition in my knowledge of spiritual Truths than I have ever been, and have had opened up to me a spiritual view that increases my understanding of Truth and of the Father's Provisions for the happiness and salvation of His children.

I know now more than ever that He is a real, existing God of Love and Power and Wisdom, and that wrath, such as is taught in the Bible, is no part of His Nature; and that He has only Love and Solicitude and Sympathy for His children on earth as well as in the spirit world.

He is not a God that is afar off waiting for the arrival of the "great judgment day" in order to approve or condemn His children according to the deeds done on earth, but He is with all men and spirits in a way that His Influence of Love and Beneficence may be felt by them (if they will only place themselves in that condition of receptivity of soul that such Influence may be felt); for, as we have said before, the relationship and nearness of God to man depends upon the will and desires of man himself to a very large extent.

God is not with men in what may be called His Personality, as has been taught by the teachers of the Bible and the religions of the world. And men do not live, move, and have their being in Him, as Paul wrote, for His Personality has a location which is not everywhere, but is in the high Heavens.

I know that this will appear startling to many persons, orthodox and otherwise, and that it apparently takes from them the consolation of believing and feeling that God is with and in them; but, nevertheless, what I say is true.

He is not in them or in nature, as some of the scientists say who believe in God. He is not in every flower or tree or other manifestation of His Creation. And, as regards His Personality, He is not omnipresent, though He has a knowledge of all things which He has created. I say "which He has created" because there are some things which appear to man as a part of the realities of the universe which He did not create, but which man alone created. And, for these things, He has no love and does not approve of or favor their existence; in the end, they will be destroyed from the face of His Universe.

And when I say that God, in His Personality, is not everywhere and not with men at all times, forming a part of their being, I do not mean that it shall be understood that He is not the Loving, Watchful Father, trying to make them happy and save them from the results of their own many wrongdoings, for such inference would not be true.

And, as I say, while He is not with men in this Personality, yet, He is with them in the sense and Truth that His Attributes of Love and Wisdom and Knowledge and Power are with them always. Life emanates from God, but life is not God; it is only one of His Attributes that is conferred upon the objects of His Creation so that they may live and grow and fulfill the designs of their creation. And when that purpose has been accomplished, He withdraws this Attribute of Life from them, and men can realize that fact.

God, Himself, has not ceased to be a part of that object, for He never was a part of it; but only this Attribute of Life has ceased to be a part of that object.

God is the Source and Origin of all life. But that life is merely one of His creatures, as we say, as is man or other things which mortals call matter.
Man does not live and move and have his being in God, but merely in the Attributes of God. So, you see, not all these Attributes together constitute God, for He is a Personality from which all these Attributes flow.

I know that it is difficult for you to comprehend the full purport of what I intend to convey, but you may grasp my meaning in part.
Love is a greater Attribute than even Life. But Love is not God, just as love is not man, though it is his greatest possession when it exists in its purity. And as man has many attributes which all together do not make the man, so God has many Attributes. Yet they are only part of His Nature and not His Entity.

Man has a physical body and a mind. Yet they do not constitute man, for he may lose them both and still be man, or spirit; that is, the ego or the soul is the real man-the personality. And all the wonderful parts of man, such as the mind and affections and desires and will, are merely of him. And if he were deprived of any of them, he would still be man, though not the perfect man as when they are all with him performing their proper functionings.

Man is so created that, unless he has these qualities which were made parts of him in his creation, and which were necessary to make him the perfect creature that he was, then he is not the perfect man that God decreed him to be. And until these qualities are fully restored or regained by him, he will not be the man that was the greatest Handiwork of the Almighty.

God is not God by reason of having Qualities, but these Qualities exist because they are the Attributes of God. He never loses them, nor do they become hidden or cease to do their functioning, but they are always existing and working and obedient to His Being.

GOD IS SOUL, AND SOUL IS GOD. AND IN THIS SOUL IS GOD'S PERSONALITY AND LIFE, WITHOUT FORM BUT REAL AND EXISTING, AND FROM WHICH FLOW ALL THESE ATTRIBUTES OF LIFE AND LOVE, ETC., OF WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN. GOD IS SPIRIT, BUT SPIRIT IS NOT GOD. SPIRIT IS ONLY ONE OF GOD'S QUALITIES.

I write this to give you some additional conception of Who and What God is, and to show you that He is not in man, nor does man have his being in God. To further show you that God does not, and could not, exist in the same place with those things which are not in accord with His Nature and Qualities, were He in man or man in Him, then no sin or error or things which violate would exist.

I must stop now, but will come soon to finish my message.

With all my love, I am

YOUR GRANDMOTHER.

I AM HERE. Your Grandmother.

I come to resume my discourse, if you think that you are in condition to receive the same. Well, we will try. If I find that you are not, I will stop until later.

As I was saying, God is not in man or material things as regards His Personality, but only those Attributes which men generally, but incorrectly, consider to be God, Himself, are manifested in the material things.

As I have said, God is not the creator of all things that appear to have an existence, for many things which control and govern the conduct of men are entirely the creatures of man, and are not in harmony with the Laws of God or with His Will. Hence, when it is realized that there exists evil thoughts and desires and conceptions in the souls and minds of men that are not in harmony with God's Creations, you can readily see that God cannot be and is not in such souls and minds, nor are His Attributes. As is said in the laws of physical philosophy, two things cannot occupy the same place at the same time. So, as regards spiritual philosophy, we may say that two things cannot occupy the same soul or mind at the same time, especially when they are antagonistic or opposed to each other in their qualities or fundamentals. Until the one vacates its occupancy, the other cannot come in. And this is invariably true of the creatures of God and the creatures of man, for they are always, and under all circumstances, opposed to each other.

When I speak of the creatures of God, it must be understood that my meaning must not be taken as including God; for He, as the Creator, is altogether different from His creatures. And while His creatures, or certain of His Attributes, may find a lodgment and habitation in the souls and the minds of men, and in the existence of material things, yet, He, God, never finds such lodgment and is never a part of such existences. He is as distinct from the creatures or, probably better, Emanations of His as are the thoughts and desires of man distinct from the man himself.
GOD IS IN HIS HEAVENS. AND THOSE HEAVENS HAVE A LOCALITY, JUST AS THE DIFFERENT SPHERES OF THE SPIRIT WORLD IN WHICH SPIRITS HAVE THEIR HOMES HAVE LOCALITIES. AND GOD'S LOCALITY IS WAY BEYOND THE HIGHEST CELESTIAL SPHERES KNOWN TO THE HIGHEST SPIRIT, AND TOWARDS WHICH SPIRITS ARE ALWAYS PROGRESSING. AND, AS THEY PROGRESS, THE MORE AND CLOSER THEY COME IN CONTACT WITH THESE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD WHICH ARE CONSTANTLY FLOWING FROM HIM.

Even Jesus, who, as you know, is the brightest of all the spirits and the one possessing more of these Attributes of the Father than any other spirit, has never seen God except through his soul's perception; nor has he ever realized that God is in him or forms a part of him. Mistaken and deceived are men when they say or believe that God is in them or that, in Him, they live and move and have their being!

To believe this as true, God can only be a kind of nebulous something-inconsistent as the air-and, as many of the Spiritualists say, merely a force permeating the whole universe, divided into many and infinitesimal manifestations, seen and felt today, and tomorrow having no existence-a "something" less substantial than man, at once weak and powerful at the same time, a contradiction beyond conception or explanation.
Such is not God. All these manifestations are merely evidence of the existence of a substantial and, I may say, never varying, Self-Existing Being Who is not the creature of man's mind or of man's necessities or desires, but is the Creator of all-even of these wise men who cannot conceive of any God but nature, the mere creature of His Being and Wisdom and Power.

The human mind, when left to itself-that is, to its own evolution, as your scientists say, and not influenced by the revelations of spiritual Truths or the suggestions of spirits who have advanced in knowledge of things beyond the material-has not improved much since the days when men lived and died as sun worshipers, and the worshipers of the sacred cats and bulls and elephants, and of the storms and thunders and lightnings. God was considered to be in all these manifestations, immanent and real, and to be appeased or loved as necessity required. Today, among your civilized nations, and the wise men of these nations who can see no God in the spiritual, the aggregate of all these material things is the God which they must worship, if they worship at all.

To them, nature is God. Thus, the only improvement that their minds have over the minds of the worshipers of the sun and of animals, etc., that I have mentioned, if there is any, is that those minds are not satisfied to see God in a single manifestation, but must see a combination of all these manifestations, which they call nature. You see, it is only a difference in degree. The scientist of today who refuses to accept or believe in any God, and who may be of a spiritual nature, is exactly the counterpart of his so-called "barbarian" brother who could see Him only in the sun, etc., except that he demands a larger God Who must be in the lowest form of mineral existence as well as in the highest form of solar excellence, and even in man (for with some, man is his own and only god).

It is questionable whether these wise men are not more limited in their conception and acceptance of a God than were the earlier uncivilized brothers, because many of the latter saw beyond and behind their sun god (and god of thunders, etc.) another and greater God Whom they could not see but could feel and realize His Existence in their souls.

But the wise men of civilizations have so evolved their intellects that they have lost their soul perceptions. No God beyond the horizon of their intellectual perceptions can exist; hence, as they think they know nature, nature is all of creation, and there can be no other God than nature.
But, oh, the terrible mistake!

GOD, THEN, AS I HAVE SAID, IS A BEING-A SOUL-WITH A PERSONALITY THAT HAS A LOCATION HIGH UP IN THE HEAVENS AND TOWARDS WHOM ALL SPIRITS OF THE CELESTIAL AND MANY OF THE SPIRITUAL SPHERES ARE STRIVING TO APPROACH IN GREATER AND GREATER NEARNESS; AND, AS THEY APPROACH, THEY REALIZE AND KNOW THE INCREASED LOVE AND LIFE AND LIGHT THAT EMANATES FROM THE FOUNTAINHEAD OF THESE ATTRIBUTES OF PERFECTION.

AND, SO, I REPEAT, GOD IS NOT IN MAN OR BEAST OR PLANT OR MINERAL, BUT ONLY HIS ATTRIBUTES ARE, AS HE SEES THE NECESSITY FOR THEIR WORKINGS. AND MAN DOES NOT LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE HIS BEING IN GOD.

Well, my son, in my imperfect way, I have given you some idea of Who and What God is. In substance, my explanation is the consensus of the knowledge of the Celestial spirits whose knowledge is based upon the Truths that no mortal, or all the mortals combined, can possibly learn with their finite minds.

I think that you have received my ideas and words quite correctly, and I hope the Truths which I have written may prove beneficial to all mankind.

I am very happy and will come again soon and write you some other Truths which may interest you.
I must stop now.

With all my love and blessings, I am

Your own loving grandmother,

ANN ROLLINS.

I AM HERE. Your father.

I have been listening to your grandmother's message and was interested in observing the way in which you received it, for it is a deep and important communication of Truth that is not generally known to mortals. Of course, we in the lower spheres do not know these Truths so extensively as the spirits of the Celestial Spheres do. But I have heard the Master discourse on the subject of God, and what your grandmother wrote you is, in short, what he has explained to us, but, of course, in a way that we could comprehend the Truth better and to a greater extent than can you.

There is one thing that I have observed in the case of those who are called scientists and who believe only the material, and also in the case of those who claim to be infidels. When they come into spirit life, they realize very soon that there is or must be a God, and that their god of nature, or their man-made god, does not exist here. Of course, they do not get a conception of the Nature of God in the beginning, but they know very soon after they come over that there is a God other and different from what they conceived Him to be when they had a false conception of Him on earth, or when they denied that there was any God; and they soon realize the absolute necessity for there being one. And when they had made man his own god, they then see many spirits of men in such conditions of darkness and suffering and helplessness that they readily realize that man is not God.

So, I say, the first Truth that enters their minds and souls when they become spirits is that there is a God, although they do not know His Nature and Attributes.

So, you see, there is only one little veil of flesh between the vaunted mind of a mortal that proclaims there is no God but nature, or no God at all, and the mind of a spirit that is conscious of its weakness and littleness as it exists in the spirit world.

But I must stop writing on this subject or you will think that I am going to write you a lecture, which I don't intend to do now.

With all my love, I am

Your loving father,

JOHN H. PADGETT.

I AM HERE. Your old Professor Salyards.

I merely want to say that I am very happy. I also want you to know that I am progressing in my condition of soul development and in my knowledge of the Truths that pertain to the spirit world. I have not written to you for a long time, but would now like to tell you of certain Truths that I have learned since last I wrote to you.

Well, I find that I am now in a condition of soul development that enables me to see the Truth of what the Master has told us in reference to the real Existence of God-a God Who knows what His creatures are doing and in what way they are making use of their souls and bodies. I mean that this God is One Who has all the Faculties that you would suppose only a being who had a personality and form would have; for one cannot really understand how a mere essence or formless existence could have such Powers and Qualities.

However, I never could comprehend the real Truth and meaning of God until recently, believing Him to be mere essence, devoid of form or personality, Who could have the Wisdom and Love and Power that I was taught such God possessed. But I now know that God is neither a mere essence nor is devoid of personality. Also, that comprehension of God's Qualities is actually beyond the finite mind, and can only be accepted as a realization of an existing condition or Truth by means of faith. Yet, now, I have more than faith to enable me to understand the fact that this God, Whom we call our Father, for He is, has all these Qualities and Powers. And, to me, such understanding is a wonderful and unexpected addition to my knowledge of God.

This understanding, of course, is not a thing that arises from any exercise of the mind. Nor is it the result of any mental power or quality which I may never have realized that I possessed. Rather, it is the result of the exercise of my soul perceptions. And these perceptions have become so great, and in such condition of unison or harmony with our Father's Qualities of Soul, that He and all these Attributes appear to me as real, perceptible Existences, having as much certainty of comprehensible Being as the existence of spirits and their attributes.

So, you see what soul development may mean and what its possibilities are. No mere development of the intellectual qualities or attributes could ever lead to a comprehension of the Personality of God as I have described it.

In all my life, natural or spiritual, I never conceived or expected that it was possible for any soul of mortal or spirit to see God as I now see Him. And I never could understand what was meant by the beatitude, "The pure in heart shall see God," except in this sense: that as we became pure in heart, those Qualities that were ascribed to God would become a part of us. And, as such possessors, we could "see" God, or, rather, perceive the result of those Attributes of God in our souls.

I don't know whether you can fully comprehend what I intend to convey to you, but I have tried my best to put the idea in such language that your mind may understand what my meaning is to some extent. I know that you will never fully know what this great soul perception is until you have experienced what this development is in your own soul. For this development is necessary to enable your soul to see with the clearness that I now see.

I thought that I would tell you of this progress of my soul so that you might have some faint idea of what the development of the soul means in a way other than an addition to the development of the natural love principle. For Divine Love is the fulfilling of the Law, and this Law includes that which enables us to perceive that God is a Personality Who has these Qualities that I speak of.

I see that I have written enough for tonight. If you will carefully read what I have written, you will find much food for thought, and probably some help to a correct, concrete comprehension of Who and What is God.

So, expressing my gratification and pleasure in being able to come to you again, and in having you take down my ideas of Who our Father is, and also for the opportunity to declare that God is a Being, having an Existence of His Own that is realized and understood by the soul perceptions of the redeemed of His creatures, I will say good night.

Your old professor and brother in Christ,

JOSEPH H. SALYARDS.