Received by James Padgett.
Washington D.C.
I am here and want to write a little tonight with the permission of your band and yourself. You will remember me when I tell you that I am an old friend of yours and a brother in the profession.
You knew me as G. H., and I knew you as my young lawyer friend.
I am living in the third sphere and am comparatively happy, and am trying to progress to the higher spheres, but somehow the old beliefs that I imbibed, when on earth, seem to retard my progress. As you know, I was a Methodist and believed in the Methodist doctrines, and yet was not so spiritual as I should have been. I have learned or rather unlearned and learned many things since I have been here, and, as a consequence, I am in a better condition to appreciate the truth than when on earth.
Well, I know now that the blood of Jesus, as such, does not wash away sin, and also that he is not the saviour of men because of any vicarious atonement. These were great stumbling blocks to me when I came into the spirit world, and my disappointment growing out of these beliefs was very great, and almost caused me to believe that there never was any Jesus or any God. But thanks to some of my spirit friends who knew the truth, I was prevented from becoming an unbeliever in the truths of salvation and so was saved from what might have been a great stagnation of my soul and its progress.
Yes, and I am somewhat surprised at Riddle's progress, for I must tell you that he is in a higher sphere than I am, and is more filled with this Love of the Father. He has told me somewhat of his experience, and how you first started him to right thinking, and then how your band, I mean your grandmother, and the rest of your kinfolk, came to him and helped him to see the light, and the necessity of seeking and obtaining God's Love. He is now a very bright spirit and has much faith. So you see, a man may have his doubts on earth and yet succeed in progressing more rapidly than one, who, though he believes in God and the Bible, yet because of his erroneous beliefs, stands still.
Well, I must say that I have been with you a number of times when the spirits were writing to you, and I was very much surprised at first that such a thing should be; and I saw that you were doing the dark spirits a great deal of good in the way in which you helped them out of their darkness and sufferings . When I was on earth I did not suppose that there would ever come a time when you would be in this kind of work - in fact I did not know that there was such a work to be performed by any one. Yes, I have seen Jesus writing to you a number of times, and only tonight did he do so.
My views as to him have changed very much since I was on earth. As you may have thought, I then believed him to be God or one of three that constituted God, and that he was a way up in the heavens, sitting on the right hand of the Father, controlling the heavens and the earth. But since I have been in the spirit world my beliefs have changed, and now I know that Jesus is not God, but only his highest, best son, and a spirit such as I am. He has at times talked to me and told me of many erroneous beliefs contained in the Bible and in the dogmas of the churches. He is a wonderful spirit - the brightest in all the spirit world, and the one that is closer to the Father than any of the others, ancient or modern.
He is so very filled with the Divine Love of his Father that we adore him as our Master-not worship him as God. I have been surprised at the great interest he has in you, and the abundance of love that he has for you. But I know that I need not have been surprised for he has selected you to write his messages to the world.
What a fortunate man you are. I don't sometimes understand how such a thing can be, but he says that the world must have all the truths of the Father, and he selected you because he saw that you could carry out his desires better than any other mortal; and so you are favored.
Well I must stop as I have written a very long letter and some others wish to write also. So my dear brother I will say goodnight.
Your old friend,
G. H.