This is the standard extending to include “All Souls.”
“It seems to inhere in the very nature of human life that men will fight for: (1) Personal liberty: freedom from physical bondage and involuntary servitude; (2) For defence of those nearest and dearest enshrined in the ‘home’; (3) For country when it represents the ‘home’ and those ‘Ideals’ to which the heart ever clings.”
To “remove the Causes of War” all selfish seeking, all aggression by any nation upon the rights of others must cease, “and this must come by growth, by enlightenment in the cardinal principles of justice, love and truth.” These and many other thoughts were given forth in that assembly.
[A]A great wave of uprising among the women of all nations was predicted in favor of conditions that would “make for peace” leading to united efforts between the most enlightened men and women of all nations to the establishment of “Peace born of Right—Not Might.” The Peace foretold by poets and sages of all time. Yet all agree in that wonderful assemblage, that “treaties of Peace” are without avail unless the moral force of the nations—among their leaders, rulers and a majority of their people—is sufficient to dominate; and make just treaties binding.
As individuals are now expected to adjust their difference in Courts of Law (often misnamed justice), and it is the aim of a majority of citizens not to encroach upon the real rights of others, so the time must come when nations will agree to a similar method in adjusting possible differences that may arise; and this much can come even before the real millenium of “Peace on Earth and Love to all Mankind.” There must be some other International Tribunal than the battlefield! Earth, sea, and air, must not be held in bondage for physical carnage!
In the final “Day of Peace” even Peace Tribunals will not be needed, but now—“may Angels speed the Day of Peace born of Justice.”
In most instances I could tell the personality, or human name, of each one giving forth a particular thought, and all were in accord. Alas, I could also perceive that they saw, in viewing the conditions of Earth that “the end is not yet.”
I cannot mar this wonderful visit—this respite from pain and cares of Earth by dwelling too long among the shadows, warclouds and darkened states of Earth life. As beyond the storm clouds of Earth’s nearest material atmosphere the sun always shines glorious and with resplendent brightness, so beyond the horrors of war the desolation and ravagement of nations incident thereto, beyond the storms, earthquakes, and cataclysmic throes of nature, the Sun of Spiritual Hope and Love ever shines surpassing fair, and all the Angelic and Spiritual Hosts are ready to aid, strengthen, succor the spirits enshrouded in time and earth conditions.
The Return
More and more frequent were the summons and the visits to my mortal body, to reimbue, as it was now found possible, with my spirit, to restore with the personal presence, the body within which the vital spark had been kept alive by blessed Guardian Spirits and devoted friends on Earth.
More and more the spirit “Home friends,” the Best Beloved, and the Guides encouraged the thought of my return to fulfill the appointed work on Earth. I had prayed to be allowed to remain, to let the body pass; but now, gradually it is true, the idea of resuming the human habiliments, the garb of the material body, became less repugnant, and I finally freely said: “Yes, I will go as that is the appointed way.”
Have you, dear friend, who may be reading these imperfect fragments of a perfect experience, (as any narrative must be) ever visited some fair garden, some sequestered home of dearest friends, a place radiant with beauty and enchantment; where there were flowers massed in rarest combinations of color and fragrance, fountains murmuring in answer to the summer winds, music, such as seemed a part of the enrapturing scene; have you enjoyed this with the chosen friends that alone could make the scene sacred, the Best Beloved? And have you known the reluctance to return to the “outer world” of daily routine of care, perhaps of pain? Ah, then you know in the smallest degree what it meant to me to return to my bodily form!
Yet even now the soul of all that was mine in that wonderful, surpassing state is ever with me; nor will it again be absent from me—since it is enfolded in my very being. I am more complete now, even in the body which ever divides us from the Soul of Life.
“You will be with us again and often,” they said; the Guide said no formal “farewells,” no “leavetaking,” but everywhere from every Dear and Blessed one “Blessings, Peace, Joy, and Love go with you into added Strength and Work.”
And here I am: ready to help the body to grow stronger, and to willingly, joyfully, in the future as in the past, perform the work assigned me—until—they—call—me—Home.
Cora L. V. Richmond.