“Why, what did he do?” asked Mrs. Mailey.
“No, no!” cried Mason. “I tried in my poor way to guide a darkened soul. Let us leave it at that. But that is exactly what we are here for now, and what these dear people do every week of their lives. It was from Mr. Mailey here that I learned how to attempt it.”
“Well, certainly we have plenty of practice,” said Mailey. “You have seen enough of it, Mason, to know that.”
“But I can’t get the focus of this at all!” cried Malone. “Could you clear my mind a little on the point? I accept for the moment your hypothesis, that we are surrounded by material earth-bound spirits who find themselves under strange conditions which they don’t understand, and who want counsel and guidance. That more or less expresses it, does it not?”
The Maileys both nodded their agreement.
“Well, their dead friends and relatives are presumably on the other side and cognisant of their benighted condition. They know the truth. Could they not minister to the wants of these afflicted ones far better than we can?”
“It is a most natural question,” Mailey answered. “Of course we put that objection to them and we can only accept their answer. They appear to be actually anchored to the surface of this earth, too heavy and gross to rise. The others are, presumably, on a spiritual level and far separated from them. They explain that they are much nearer to us and that they are cognisant of us, but not of anything higher. Therefore it is we who can reach them best.”
“There was one poor dear dark soul——”
“My wife loves everybody and everything,” Mailey explained. “She is capable of talking of the poor dear devil.”
“Well, surely they are to be pitied and loved!” cried the lady. “This poor fellow was nursed along by us week by week. He had really come from the depths. Then one day he cried in rapture, ‘My mother has come! My mother is here!’ We naturally said, ‘But why did she not come before?’ ‘How could she,’ said he, ‘when I was in so dark a place that she could not see me?’”