I anticipated none of this message, and its tenor surprised me greatly. Before I had recovered from my astonishment Mrs. Gaylord exclaimed: “That must be the Easter letter he promised me!” Immediately he signed it. “Frederick, to Mother and all of you.”
We spoke of the relation of this whole revelation to orthodox religion, and some one said that it was not in accordance with the Bible.
“Yes, it is,” he contradicted. “You have never learned to read the Bible in this light. The great prophecies have always been phrased in the language, and more or less in the spirit, of the time in which they were uttered. This is the first time in the history of the world when physical science has been sufficiently advanced to enable us to tell the people the truth in terms they would truly understand. Prophecies have been veiled, apparently, not because the truth was vague, but because men were not prepared to understand it in all its details. Nor are they now. But this is to be the whole truth, as far as it can be understood now by your prophets and people. And for the first time it is possible to give it to you directly in this way, without pretense or mystery, book or bell, a natural law operating naturally and freely, through an accredited messenger who makes no claim to inspiration.”
In the course of our drifting talk his mother remembered that Mrs. Z—— had tried to convey a warning through her from Frederick to Mr. Wylie, but had been unable to tell her what it concerned. After some effort to discover its connection, suggesting possible journeys or business ventures, Mrs. Z—— had finally said that Dick was about to do something, she did not know what; but whatever it was, Frederick said he must not do it. Mrs. Gaylord now asked Frederick what he had intended to say.
“She didn’t get my message. I was trying to tell him not to be fearful about anything.” Mr. Wylie is sometimes prey to nervous apprehension and worry. “It keeps us back and we can’t help him as we’re trying to do. Open up, Dick! Let us in and we’ll all pull together.” This apparently touched some situation unknown to me, for Mr. and Mrs. Wylie exchanged glances, and instantly Frederick made his quick circles. “(O) That’s it! Now we’re off! No, it isn’t incredible,” he added, replying to some comment of theirs. “It’s the truest thing you ever heard. But Mrs. Z—— can’t get beyond externals.”
This seems to be a very good example of the way certain messages are confused by the persons through whom they come. In this case, while the intended warning was conveyed, a purely subjective and spiritual message was so distorted, however unconsciously and unintentionally, that it was given an objective and material significance.
Asked whether an acquaintance of theirs would be helped by a knowledge of their intercourse with him, he said: “She is not ready for this yet. Few people, comparatively, are free enough to accept it. It has been forbidden by the church, ridiculed by the laity, and labelled ‘poison, don’t touch’ by neurologists and the scientific, half-baked intellectuals.”
“Fake mediums have done a lot to bring it into disrepute,” Mr. Wylie suggested.
“That’s the reason for some of it. Another reason, less obvious to you, but equally potent, is that people who had the sensitiveness to be messengers frequently lacked the purpose of truth fundamentally, and though thinking they were honest, entertained devils unaware.... That is the reason so many people have gone to pieces, mentally and physically. The purposes of disintegration caught them and destroyed them. But this time, we beat them to it.”