ABOUT thirty years ago, quite by accident and it was an accident, the beginning of a forest fire, which some of us were able to finish off before it got well started, brought me into touch with Mr. and Mrs. Drake. Mrs. Drake was Mrs. Maude Lord-Drake, the famous medium. She and Mr. Drake insisted upon our going to their place which was quite nearby and resting, and later on, persuaded us to stay to dinner.

At that time Mrs. Drake had been practically blind for years. One eye was entirely blind but the other could tell the difference between daylight and darkness. *I took her to our own eye specialist and he said that her point of vision was so little that it could easily be covered by the fine point of a needle and so he would say she was entirely blind. But she could tell the difference between day and night.

Immediately upon shaking hands with me she inquired what was wrong with my Dad’s leg, but Mr. Drake shook his head at me to say nothing. So Mrs. Drake went on to express her great pity for a man who was suffering the “tortures of the damned.” (My Father had suffered from running sores, the result of an operation to remove varicose ulcers some 17 years before.) Finally, Mrs. Drake said that she could cure that leg—with three holes in it, one toward the ankle and two of them so far in that you could see the bone. I immediately said, “Well, if you could do that, it would be a miracle.” And her reply was, “No, not a miracle, for it is according to God’s Law; I am used merely as a channel for the healing.” Then she went on to say, “You are the same sort of a healing center, and the time will come when you will do these same miracles, so-called.”

Mrs. Drake was used as an instrument of healing, and in broad daylight, with all of us watching day after day, apparently condensed an ointment, smelling a rather weird tobacco-iodine odor, out of the air. There could not possibly have been any mistake about this, but I’ll give no more details as I want to get to the automatic writing. But perhaps you would be interested to hear that her prediction of my being used as a healer has worked out, and perhaps the greatest “miracle” that occurred with me as the channel was the restoration of sight to an elderly lady who had been blind for years. One is very grateful to be so used.

During our daily visits with Mrs. Drake, she finally said that I had the gift of automatic writing and to make use of it, and then she and Mr. Drake in about these words said:

“In sitting for anything of this sort, be sure always to pray; send your most earnest thoughts and wishes and hopes direct to God Himself, that He may keep you pure and good and ever in earnest in following spiritual values. But time and attention into those prayers so as to clear the passageway for any demonstration. Then ask, if it be His will, that such a manifestation may occur. It is necessary that you keep yourself as nearly pure and holy as you can and see that you are careful about the Truth as you know how to be. If you close all those avenues, no entity can approach too closely who might not be worthwhile. The vibrations of goodness and truth you work into yourself and then throw forth act as a barrier to keep undesirable entities away from you.

“Then, when you get your writing, be sure and ‘Test the spirits,’ as the Bible says. Simply because of the phenomena do not accept it as being worthwhile unless Common Sense approves it. Be constantly on your guard, for your job is after all to develop your own spiritual possibilities.”

Mr. Drake also told me to “Read aloud anything that is written, and if anything comes that you know positively is untruth, immediately disclaim it as such and demand the Truth and nothing but the Truth.”

For the most part the one who writes is always the same one. I was told from the start, “We are permitted to impress you with what seems best,—that is, we can send the thought to you, but not with much force, nor can we dwell upon it hypnotically. You, too, must work out your own salvation,’ and we dare not interfere with that. We are not with you for material benefits, nor to attempt to answer material questions, which we will not do. That would be to make you depend upon us and that must not be. You must cultivate your own spirit—that is your job in your present condition, fully as much as it is ours to do the same thing on what may be a slightly higher rung of the ladder. But too much help is weakening, so you must do your own thinking always.”

All through the years what I have received has been of the plus quality always—always inspirational and encouraging me to keep plugging to get closer to my own spirit. So, when I read of how others have had such a bad time, I’m sorry of course, but can hardly understand why they’ve failed.—R. J. E.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.”—Rev. 21:7-8.

HE WHO is possessed by the spirit of fearfulness, the spirit of unbelief, an abominable spirit, the spirit of murder, spirit of adultery, spirit of witchcraft, spirit of idol-worship, lying spirit—either in part or severally, such a one will naturally be removed from the earth-plane.

There being no resurrection from the second death, then naturally one possessed by any of the spiritual conditions above mentioned, when removed from the earth-plane, would pass into the second death. One moved by any of these spiritual conditions (forces) is already dead, and is being continually consumed by fire and brimstone, while seeming to be alive to natural eyes; the sentence of death is upon such a one. Finally that one passes into the grave (second death), from which for him there is no resurrection.

We that know the TRUTH, know that there is no resurrection in this age for one who goes to such a grave. In fact, ever since the Lord Jesus ascended and became ONE SPIRIT with the Father, there has been no resurrection outside of HIM. HE is the Resurrection and the LIFE.

Unless the Spirit of Jesus controls a man, then we will find either one or several of the spiritual conditions mentioned above controlling him.

Any one of the above mentioned spiritual forces will send him to the second death. (Dust he was and to dust he returneth). But—the HOUSE that the Lord builds today shall exist forever.

—S. T. N.

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