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Lot, of the Old Testament.
I come because I now am a follower of the Master, and want to add my testimony to that of others of olden times who have written you that Jesus is alive and the ruler in the Celestial Heavens, and is now working among men and spirits to show them the way to eternal life, and the Divine Love of the Father.
I am not a Hebrew who would have denied him had I lived when he came to the earth for in my thoughts and belief, I expected the coming of the Messiah and to me Jesus was that Messiah in all the qualities and spiritual possessions that I expected him to have.
Of course, when I lived we had not the privilege of knowing what the Divine Love of the Father means,--we only knew that there was a God and that God loved us as we thought, as His chosen people and wanted us to live correct lives on earth, and thereby receive His blessings as mortals, and all the rewards that an obedient life might bring to us. But as to this Greater Love which makes angels of us all who possesses it, we had no knowledge, nor had we ever been taught by our seers or prophets that such a Love existed and as I now know the privilege of obtaining it did not then exist. Only with the coming of Jesus came that Love again to man and spirits.
But God had for us a natural love in contradistinction to the Divine Love and we had for Him a love which when fully purified makes us spirits with a happiness that is beyond all conception of human happiness. But even of that happiness we were not taught, and only did we have glimpses in the teachings of our prophets that such happiness might exist in the future life.
I was a lover of God as I then understood what God was; But such love was not that which arose from my conception of Him as a tender loving Father, but more as a stern wrathful God--one of jealousy and always watchful and ready to punish for disobedience to His commands. And yet we also learned that when we obeyed Him and did His will He would reward us.
SO YOU SEE THE GOD OF MY DAYS AND THE GOD OF THE PRESENT, AS WE NOW CONCEIVE HIM TO BE, ARE NOT SIMILAR. AND ALL MEN SHOULD NOW UNDERSTAND AND BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST BROUGHT TO LIGHT, AND BY THAT I MEAN TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF MEN, THE POSSIBILITY OF THEIR KNOWING THE TRUE GOD OF LOVE AND MERCY; AND ALSO, THAT BECAUSE OF THAT LOVE AND HIS GREAT MERCY IN THE REBESTOWAL UPON MANKIND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MEN BECOMING POSSESSED OF THE DIVINE LOVE OF THE FATHER WHICH WOULD MAKE THEM ONE WITH HIM AND CERTAINTY OF IMMORTALITY.
It was long years after Jesus came, before I received this Divine Love or believed the great truths which Jesus taught. I was so satisfied in my happiness as a spirit possessing merely this natural love which had been purified and freed from sin and error, that I thought there could be no greater love or no greater happiness. But in the course of time I had reasons to think that there might be another if not greater love in operation in the spirit world, because of the wonderful beauty and brightness of some of the spirits that I at times met. And I started to make investigation of the matter, and as a result, I learned of this Divine Love, and at last sought for and found it. And what a treasure I found!
I am now so filled with it, that my happiness is beyond all conception of not only man, but of spirits who live in lower spheres than I do.
I must not write more to-night, but I will tell you that I am one of the many Celestial Spirits who are interested in and now are engaged in doing the great work for the redemption of mankind.
Jesus is our leader and we are all following him in the effort to redeem the world, and by that I mean the individuals who comprise the world. For you must know that redemption is an individual matter and not one that can be accomplished in the way of redeeming a nation or a race as a whole.
So you see back of this work is the great power of the Celestial as well as of the spiritual heavens.
I have written enough for to-night.
Well, the incident of my wife turning into a pillar of salt is like a great many others related in the Old Testament--these incidents are mere figures of speech used to illustrate some moral or spiritual truth. My wife was never turned into salt, but died a natural death and her remains were buried where mine were buried. She is now in the Celestial Heavens also.
So my dear brother, I must say good-night.
LOT.Vol. II, p. 282
