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 Copyright^J? 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEM 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 A MESSAGE OF GOD, A WORD FROM HEAVEN 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRY BRAYTON TOWNSEND 
 
 c "The Christopher Publishing House 
 Boston, Massachusetts 
 
BFi3o 
 
 Copyright IQ2I 
 By The Christopher Publishing House 
 
 MAR 18 1921 
 
 ©CI.A611186 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 "Leaves From Heaven," a message of God, 
 a word from Heaven. 
 
 This book is dedicated to my brother, Harry 
 Brayton Watson Townsend, who is held in 
 high esteem, by his sister, the sender of this 
 message, Clara Townsend, one who had suf- 
 fered and gained the reward in Heaven. It 
 is given to my brother through a child of God, 
 with the love of God in her soul, to the world. 
 
 "Leaves From Heaven" is directed from 
 the home of God and the home of the soul. 
 
 Thus to my brother I dedicate this book 
 through this child, Ethel G. Casterline. 
 
TO OUR READERS 
 
 Before this message was sent to me 
 through my sister-in-law I had read very- 
 little about spiritualism. I will not say I was 
 a skeptic, or a sound believer in all that I had 
 read, but I at least thought about it, and medi- 
 tated upon it. 
 
 One night as I sat in my room in my home 
 thinking about the readings I had looked over, 
 about the future life, it came to me, if only I 
 had some self experience I could believe, or 
 not, as the case might be. 
 
 My sister-in-law was at our home then, a 
 bright, clean-witted American girl, fond of 
 sweets and full of life. I called her to me and 
 said, sit down and take pencil and paper. I 
 directed her, how to give herself up and let 
 her hand be guided. She was a little timid at 
 first but followed my command obediently. 
 
 The pencil moved slowly and the word Clara 
 was received, which was the name of my 
 sister who had died many years before. I 
 talked with her and with my Father and 
 Mother that night, and other near relatives. 
 
 It was all very natural just as if I had beer 
 seeing them and talking to them all along. I 
 was deeply convinced and very glad for the 
 experience. After receiving these messages 
 every day from the other side, I am now con- 
 vinced that our world will be brought closer 
 and closer to the hereafter, from time to 
 time. 
 
6 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 And in this way the "Leaves From Heaven" 
 came to me for the world, through this young 
 girl and myself. 
 
 Harry B. Townsend, M. D. 
 
 After the above book was sent to me, my 
 curiosity was aroused as to the work and the 
 details in general of the life above — and of 
 friends and all circumstances of every nature. 
 So I asked if I could talk to friends and near 
 relatives and ask questions and find out in- 
 quiries that puzzle our earthly brain. 
 
 The answer was the affirmative, from the 
 other side, and on the following evenings I 
 also found out much through our automatic 
 writing. 
 
 I talked to friends and to strangers I had 
 never known, but who identified themselves 
 perfectly. I know that to the reader all of 
 these messages from the soldier boy who was 
 killed in the battle of Chateau Thierry will be 
 very very interesting and enlightening and 
 also the whole interview in general will give 
 the reader much knowledge of the afterlife. 
 
 All these messages are just as they came 
 from the other side, given to you for proof 
 of the after-life and assurance, as the reader 
 will have found out. 
 
 Harry B. Townsend, M. D. 
 Father Townsend. 
 
 Do you work there? 
 
 Yes, yes, Harry, yes I have work here, 
 strange work. I am on the fourth plane. My 
 work is given by God. I can't understand but 
 He has given me a grand task, I cannot see 
 the result as yet. I wish I could tell you 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 7 
 
 about it Harry, and I will some time. 
 
 Question : Are you and mother together 
 much? 
 
 Harry, mother and I are always together, 
 we are never separated; mother is saving 
 poetry, mother is writing; read. 
 
 MOTHER TOWNSEND 
 
 Yes, Harry, I chase dad right around, and 
 our life here is very, very wonderful; and 
 the great thing about our life here is, we are 
 just natural; all is just natural, like your 
 world, but with all distress, sickness, wicked- 
 ness, sorrow removed ; and more beautiful and 
 wonderful in every respect. God is all, and 
 Harry, I have not seen Him yet but I have 
 felt His ray. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 As the reader picks up this book and gazes 
 at the title, the first thoughts that issue from 
 his brain will be, whence the name, "Leaves 
 From Heaven"? But as he goes through the 
 book reading its wonderful message to the 
 earth, he will say: "Leaves From Heaven." 
 
 "Leaves From Heaven" is direct from the 
 numberless planes of the soul in its almighty 
 resting place among the angels and God. It 
 is a message to the earth, floating downward 
 to this sphere as soft and delightful as a sun- 
 beam, which indeed it is — lighting the dark 
 world, making better the chosen few who will 
 read it. 
 
 The reader will wonder again how this 
 message was received, so to clear his mind 
 of all doubts and suppositions I will explain. 
 
 It is dedicated to a dear brother of mine, 
 sent by his sister, who has passed to the great 
 beyond many years previous to this message ; 
 and who was held in high esteem by his sister, 
 And to him this book is dedicated. 
 
 Through a clean minded young girl inex- 
 perienced in all works of spiritualism, it comes 
 to this blood thirsty ignorant little globe — a 
 girl, inexperienced in all suppositions and theo- 
 ries of any kind, sincere in her work of bring- 
 ing the here and the hereafter closer together. 
 She writes only what is sent to her without 
 
10 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 any changes or alterations whatsoever, for I 
 guide her hand. 
 
 The reader will again wonder how all this 
 came about — I will say, never mind the in- 
 stances before this message. 
 
 The hand of this child who is taking down 
 this noble work is guided by "I", the one who 
 has passed out of the globe of agony and strife, 
 and entered the life supreme. 
 
 This message will lighten the earth, it is a 
 ray of God, sent here below to comfort and 
 bring your beings into a preparatory state. 
 
 A message from God to a sincere child, and 
 a generous and intelligent man of forty years, 
 is all the reader has to remember. True in all 
 it says, perspective in all its views, is the book, 
 "Leaves From Heaven." 
 
 Before plunging into sacred things a general 
 outline of the whole is needed. 
 
 The keynote of Heaven, the hereafter of 
 the soul, is love. Love is the beginning and 
 the everlasting. It is a word indescribable and 
 inexplainable. It is God, God is love, and 
 when the highest pitch of love is reached we 
 then see God. I can not say enough about this 
 marvelous love for it is the pathway of the 
 soul, the passage of the soul and the soul itself. 
 Remember, love is the zenith of Heaven, and 
 the more love is in the soul the sooner God is 
 seen. The only punishment is remorse, which 
 is the lack of love. 
 
 This book is going to bring out, make clear, 
 many almost fathomless impossibilities. Its 
 readers will wonder where the hereafter is. I 
 will try and make clear. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 11 
 
 Our home is on globes, as your home is on 
 earth. Each globe is higher than its relative 
 one, one nearer to God, and so on till we reach 
 the kingdom of Heaven. They are, as your 
 globe is, floating in space, subject to the ele- 
 ments as are yours, except the highest spheres 
 which are incapable of changes. As we per- 
 fect our souls we advance, and so on, on, on, 
 always ascending and perfecting, improving, 
 endowing, forever. 
 
 The first link between the here and the here- 
 after is the birth. It is holy as it is the result 
 of love. That is the only link connecting the 
 sphere of life and everlasting life until the 
 soul throws off the flesh, the disguise of the 
 earth. What you call a death is really a new 
 birth. You call it death yet you know not 
 why. You call it death because you are to be 
 freed from the covering which is holding you 
 down to earth. It is death of flesh, of body, 
 and of sins — and birth of soul and love. Your 
 material body holds you to earth as an anchor 
 holds a ship. Your soul would rise to the 
 Kingdom of God, as a vessel would float away 
 were it not for its anchor, thus your body is 
 the covering of your soul, your best part, a 
 protector until it can be released through a 
 new birth by your so-called death — a transi- 
 tion of the soul, a birth of love, and a meeting 
 with God and His workers. 
 
 How true is the saying, "Man was born to 
 die." He is born to pass through the strug- 
 gles of life and to gain a reward by "death." 
 Each good act in his life reflects on his life to 
 come, however minute it is, ascends to 
 
12 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 Heaven to be perfected for the arrival of his 
 soul. 
 
 As his soul stands on the entrance of the 
 "Promised Land" awaiting the discarding of 
 body the first link is completed. If in the sick 
 room or on the battlefield or an instant death, 
 the good deeds which he has performed are 
 ready to enter his soul before its ascension. 
 There is no terror about your so-called death. 
 You see I always say "so-called" because it 
 is no death, but new birth. There is no 
 anguish, no fear, but a feeling of great love, 
 rest, contentment, hope and curiosity. If the 
 soul passes into the next world from the sick 
 room the transition is gentle and slow. Always 
 the transition is like the condition of the body 
 immediately before the ascension, but always 
 without fear, no anguish, or fright. If the 
 body has been drowned or burned the soul is 
 quicker in its ascension ; while the soul leaving 
 from the body in a sick room, one who has 
 suffered much, is slow, gentle, and soft. 
 
 As the soul leaves the body it takes the 
 form of its disguise, but it is only with imagin- 
 ary substance, resembling the body in every 
 detail, although perfected, if any faults are 
 found. The soul leaves the body in a state 
 of perfectness. In the sickroom, if there the 
 t>ody is, a guide is sent by God, a tender loving 
 soul who knows the works of God. He leads 
 the newcomer where he is destined — to the 
 first of the "Globes." The newcomer is full of 
 curiosity, no regret for having to leave the 
 world from whence he came. If the soul is 
 in need of much care and making over he is 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 13 
 
 not put to his task at first. He is given rest, 
 he meets his friends and relatives. He cannot 
 go to the higher planes, but those higher than 
 he can come to his plane. If he is ready for 
 his chosen work he is put to it at once. It is 
 all natural for him, it is as natural as his life 
 on earth. He is happy and free from all en- 
 cumbrances. His work is that which he is 
 best fitted for or likes the best. He has the 
 power to come back to the world he left for 
 intervals but he does not often wish to do so. 
 It seems so small to him so foolish, and so 
 full of terror. He is contented with his work. 
 He has gained a new citizenship in the realms 
 of God. He is nourished with a new love. 
 Many times the question of food comes up. 
 He may eat if he wishes and all new comers 
 wish it at first. It is because that desire has 
 been in his soul on earth and as his soul is 
 not chang'ed, only made larger, he craves 
 food. Soon he becomes acquainted with the 
 new life and this desire weakens because he 
 is improving and being improved, yet at all 
 times he may eat if he wishes. The soul needs 
 no food but the desire for food is nourished, 
 for if he desires he can create. He can re- 
 sume his material form if he wishes. For in- 
 stance, an old man after his ascension is in 
 the condition of youth. All are equal in that 
 way, all are youthful and nourished with love ; 
 but the nourishment by food may be had. 
 
LIFE ON THE DIFFERENT PLANES 
 
 As the life on earth is preparatory so is that 
 on the first plane. On it one is being fitted 
 for the next plane, mostly by rest, tender care, 
 and being nursed with love. The weakest 
 have the tenderest care, the ones who have 
 sinned the most on earth receive the greatest 
 love. We stay only long enough to fill our 
 souls with love, our souls which have been re- 
 tarded by sin. 
 
 Now that we have just briefly begun, I will 
 describe the preparatory life more vividly, I 
 am using simple words, words with meaning 
 best fitted so that the most uneducated as well 
 as those of the highest education may read 
 with the same ease. 
 
 Our life on the first plane is a life of study. 
 It is like the school room. It is the kinder- 
 garten globe of the hereafter. We learn and 
 study and feed our souls for the advance work 
 period. It is a simple easy life and we are 
 not long here. It is most like a large hos- 
 pital where the sick and afflicted are being 
 cared for, although many from the higher 
 planes have work to do here. 
 
 The second plane of our evolution is 
 reached after the mission is fulfilled on the 
 first. It is a beautiful land, flowers, birds, 
 mountains, and valleys, rivers and streams. 
 We have all your animals, here, cats and dogs, 
 domestic and wild. We inhabit houses. We live 
 in groups or single as each may choose. Rela- 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 15 
 
 tives mostly group together. We have na- 
 tionalities here, who live together under their 
 head or globe-ruler. We have Globe-rulers ; 
 we do not know who they are, only that they 
 are the most like God, His soul and being. 
 I believe they are priests. I know not why I 
 believe this to be so. I do not mean ministers 
 but priests. We love God through them — until 
 we reach His almighty seat where He, alone, 
 is. We know of God by a wonderful ray of 
 light, or a beautiful spark of love, which is 
 burning in us. 
 
 We carry on work on this plane. We build 
 and tear down, build again more completely. 
 It is like a child with his blocks — he builds 
 them up, he tears them down, puts them up 
 again better, and with more speed and more 
 skill. I have much to say on this preparatory 
 globe. 
 
 We never get tired, that is impossible be- 
 cause we are under the ray of God and not 
 encumbered with material flesh. We can ma- 
 terialize ourselves as we were on earth, even 
 then we would not tire, because of the 
 atmosphere of God, of love. Many people 
 here delight themselves with things they de- 
 sired on earth but could not have. Many do 
 not work on this plane, but the majority do, 
 because their ambitions are so inspired by 
 God. Our God is limitless. We know Him 
 by His reflections, we love Him with the love 
 He gave us when we first took breath. Many 
 on this plane plan the lives which they want to 
 live. They have a right to do this. We can- 
 not sin, for we know no sin. There are no 
 
16 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 mischievous ones here, understand please, mis- 
 chievous ones ; that is not probable or pos- 
 sible. All are perfect, some more perfect, 
 while others are a little less so, but all are 
 images of God Himself. We cannot see evil; 
 only happiness can we see. 
 
 We manufacture on this plane. We carry 
 on trade with the next, while they perfect the 
 things we send them, and so on to the inven- 
 tive plane. We have beautiful flowers here, all 
 kinds, for every flower that dies on earth 
 blooms here, everlasting in strength and fra- 
 grance. Your flowers of earth are nearer to 
 God than your bodies, notice I do not say 
 souls, for your soul is a flower of God put on 
 earth in a mask. Perhaps this is hard to in- 
 terpret but it is as true as God Himself. I will 
 conclude by saying our love is increased on 
 this plane in an unaccountable way. Could 
 you only understand how much love brings 
 you to God for every good deed you do. Love 
 and you are stepping over the threshold into 
 eternal bliss. 
 
 I am going to leave the second plane for 
 a moment and explain the marvelous transi- 
 tion from one plane to the next. Could I make 
 this a little personal I could explain it better, 
 but I cannot do so and have it general for 
 everyone as a whole. 
 
 The transition from one plane to the next 
 is momentary. When the work is completed 
 on the lower plane and we have completed 
 our work on that plane we are called together 
 by our globe-ruler. All those who are ready 
 to go forward to the next are grouped to- 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 17 
 
 gether. We are under this globe-ruler and 
 we love him for he is as God. He gathers us 
 together in a group ; we are flushed with 
 desire to go forward. He explains our work 
 ahead. And Ave are given over to the higher 
 globe-ruler. We are still on our home plane. 
 Suddenly we see a light, wonderful in its color, 
 magical and powerful in its strength. We 
 cannot look, we dare not, not in the sense of 
 fear, but with a sense of duty and obedience. 
 The light is soft, yet piercing, comforting, and 
 love, Oh what love, a new, stronger, more 
 complete love is rushed into our souls. We 
 pass over to the next plane. It is as you say 
 momentarily. Our globe-ruler is with us to 
 teach us again" in a higher sense. We know 
 not why we cannot see or keep our eyes open 
 to this wonderful light of God for we know it 
 is His light; our love teaches us that. We 
 have mysteries as you earth people do, but 
 our mysteries are pure mysteries of God. If 
 we wish to go on the next plane we cannot, 
 until our work is finished on that plane, 
 but if we wish to go to the one lower we 
 have only to wish and it is granted, instantan- 
 eously we are there or back to our own plane. 
 We cherish a tender loving hope of seeing God 
 and His light. I believe that when we are 
 assembled together to leave one plane and 
 waiting for the transition, we are brought 
 before our God for inspection, as an army 
 arrayed before its general. Many of us be- 
 lieve that. And for that reason many believe 
 our eyes are closed because we are not yet 
 perfected enough to see our God. Our transi- 
 
18 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 tion is not frightful or terrifying but full of 
 hope and a new love. I know we are brought 
 in front of God because we feel a new awak- 
 ening in our souls. It is as a soft refreshing 
 rain to the dry hot burning earth. It is re- 
 freshing and grand and our lives on the third 
 plane are ready to be taken up. I believe we 
 are in a semi-conscious condition when we are 
 brought to our God. 
 
 Life on the third plane resembles that of the 
 second to a great extent. Only this is more 
 complex, complete and more perfect. We 
 notice as we arrive on this plane that God's 
 reflection is stronger. His globe-ruler more as 
 we think He is. He instructs us only a little 
 for we know about what we have to do. We 
 are ready for our work and happy and content. 
 There are houses here and animals also, and 
 everything there is on earth. We have sum- 
 mer always and little night, as God's ray is 
 stronger than that of the lower plane. We 
 invent here, experiment to the highest degree. 
 This plane is full of electricity and many men 
 are here. Wonderful inventions are being per- 
 fected for experimental purposes. I cannot 
 tell you about them or why they are being 
 invented. The second and third are the only 
 planes where manufacture and inventions are 
 carried on. I shall tell you next about the 
 reincarnation. 
 
 There was only one reincarnation, God re- 
 incarnated His soul in His son for the people 
 of the earth. That is the only true reincarna- 
 tion as you know it. Souls that pass on to 
 Heaven are never returned to earth for exist- 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 19 
 
 ence on earth again in a material form. Did 
 you or any one on your earth ever see two 
 persons exactly alike? No, never, they are 
 always different in some way. 
 
 Yet you pass through a sort of reincarna- 
 tion as you leave your world and pass into 
 this. You are reincarnated to a perfect life, 
 with a clean soul, and, if you desire, a new 
 body, mapped from the old, but never rein- 
 carnated to earth again, after knowing God 
 and seeing Him. Think of putting a soul, com- 
 plete in every respect, perfect, alike to God 
 Himself, into another disguise and placing him 
 on earth again. It could not be or will it ever. 
 Even animals are not reincarnated or brought 
 back on earth. It would be a punishment to 
 imprison the soul again after its release from 
 the body. 
 
 Flowers pass through the same transforma- 
 tion or in a sense a reincarnation, as do souls. 
 But once with us they never return to earth. 
 Others may grow like them, but once here 
 forever and hereafter. Do you get the sense 
 of the word? Does it mean what it should? 
 FOREVER, FOREVER. The reincarnation 
 is impossible only, as God reincarnated His 
 soul in His son for you. 
 
 The fourth plane is widely different from 
 the first and second although we have the 
 same love. Here there is no globe-ruler, we 
 need none but God Himself. Yet we are not 
 to see Him yet. But His light is very strong 
 on this plane. We are made instructors if we 
 wish on this plane. We do not have to live 
 on this plane unless we wish; we may go to 
 
20 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 the one lower. Some souls, I will say people, 
 for we are people, not like you but more per- 
 fect, prefer to live on the second plane. That 
 plane is the most like the earth and some call 
 it the earth plane. Others prefer to live on 
 the plane which they have reached. Here we 
 are unto God Himself and our work is given 
 to us by Him. All the guides come from this 
 plane, those who guide the soul after it dis- 
 cards its shell. We feel the influence of God 
 very strong here and we see we are much like 
 Him. His light is strong yet not glaring like 
 it was on the first plane and we dare look at 
 it. That is because we are more perfect. It 
 is soft to our eyes because we are more like 
 our master. We have two more planes to 
 cover before we see and know God. Then we 
 know we shall be as He is and like unto Him. 
 The Soul that He gave us has blossomed, 
 flourished and grown into an everlasting full- 
 ness of peace and grace and rest. 
 
 I have told you about the first, second and 
 third and fourth planes of the soul on its up- 
 ward progress to the home of the Father. All 
 I can say of the fifth plane could be defined 
 by the one word Love. Here we come nearer 
 to God than we ever did before. Here it is 
 that our souls came from when first we took 
 life. Here it is that our souls are completed 
 to prepare for God, to live with Him forever. 
 When a child is born there is life in his body, 
 love in his soul, yet it is not complete. Where 
 is the other half of his soul for the soul itself 
 is not completed on earth. It is here that 
 the soul is completed for God to teach and 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 21 
 
 love and to be with Him forever, for theirs is 
 the Kingdom of Heaven. Here we are on the 
 nearest plane to Him until we can be with Him 
 on His heavenly plane. The light of God is 
 marvelously strong here. It is a love, a light 
 that cannot be described; we know that our 
 meeting with God is soon to come. It is a land 
 beautiful, trees, flowers and birds. And, Oh, 
 such a wonderful fragrance fills the air ! 
 Always there is a soft far-away echo of music. 
 It comes from God's home, for to God, music 
 is love, love is music, and God is love. We are 
 here long, although we have no work to ac- 
 complish. I think we are made to stay here 
 until we can get used to God's powerful rays. 
 It is wonderful and there are many things 
 here I cannot explain, for the people who are 
 going to read this message from God could not 
 or would not be able to realize or conceive. 
 I can only say it is too wonderful for world 
 words. It is like a home of happiness for that 
 it is, a land of love, love, love. 
 
 God Himself comes after us when we are 
 ready to leave this plane ; if only I could de- 
 scribe Him, but He is indescribable. He is the 
 all, everything. I can give you His appearance 
 only in this way. He is of the masculine sex, 
 with a countenance as the sun itself. He has 
 no wings. When first we arrive to the sixth 
 plane, to the Lower Home of God, we cannot 
 gaze at our God directly. When I first beheld 
 him I was a little timid, not with fear but with 
 a sensation of obedience. At first I thought I 
 saw little wings on the side of his head, but 
 when I looked again I was mistaken ; God 
 
22 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 smiled; I trembled, not with fear but in a 
 sense of duty. God spoke, his voice, mighty, 
 soft, majestic, and like unto a peal of far-off 
 thunder. Many went home with me. I call 
 it home for God wishes we would. We have 
 no work to do here ; if we wish to work we 
 go to the second plane. If we wish to be 
 guides we go to the fourth plane. When we 
 came home God led us through the transition. 
 We are now on His heavenly plane, never to 
 be taken away unless for His noble work.* 
 
 The voice of God swells our heart. He 
 talked to us long and whenever He spoke a 
 flush of crimson filled the atmosphere. Oh, it 
 is grand here, and how we love Him and how 
 we love to be with Him ! Here love is every- 
 thing, love of Mother, sexual love, all reach 
 their highest phase. Our love goes on for- 
 ever, but we do not go to any higher plane 
 than God's, but this plane is limitless. It is 
 like the love of sweethearts, only a million 
 times greater. Should one lover lose his love 
 forever, he would love her just the same ; his 
 love would go on — where? To the end of space. 
 Yet his body does not progress in comparison 
 with his love. So with us our love is always 
 increasing, yet we reach no higher planes in a 
 numerical sense. We could not, for here we 
 are with God, to love Him forever, for God's 
 love is unsearchable. God is complex. I know 
 He is on earth many, many times. He tells us 
 He is at every death bed, but He does not say 
 
 * The act of SEEING God is called the Seventh Plane — It 
 is numberless and complex. This transition is endless and 
 what might be called the Seventh Plane. It is the reaction, 
 and eventuates the other six planes. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 23 
 
 death (I use it to make you understand). He 
 is always near to the dying one who is to be 
 born again. No guide is there in this great 
 moment but the chief of all, God. He is always 
 with the soul when it leaves the body. How 
 many of your peoples who have fought death 
 for days, unwilling almost to the end, to give 
 yourselves up — then when this moment 
 comes, leave their world of strife, with a 
 smile as of God. What is this smile on 
 the face of the dying, who are eager to live? 
 Why are they, at the end, won over? Why do 
 they want to go? Did your earth people ever 
 think of this? Nothing could make a dying 
 man, who has suffered agony for weeks, smile 
 as God, but God Himself, God smiled, and lo, 
 it is ! For when the body is about to go to new 
 birth God is revealed to him. He sees God and 
 smiles back at his Lord. His poor weak suf- 
 fering body is filled with a new desire, not to 
 live on earth to be thrown about, but to go 
 with the smiler at the bedside God can be 
 at hundreds of deathbeds (this is literal) at 
 the same time, for he is complex, for God 
 willed and it was so. 
 
LOVE 
 
 How great your little world is in sin and 
 how small your great world is in love ! Christ 
 inspired your bodies in love, he gave a 
 Mother's love the bloom of Motherhood, the 
 maiden's love the bloom of hope. Love is 
 hope, hope is God and God is love. The earth 
 needs love, love, love, as a dungeon needs a 
 light. You are capable of great love, a little 
 for a great world. But the world would be 
 lost, lost to the spirits of the airy vapors were 
 it not for your little love. Everything begins 
 with love, God is love and he loves you with 
 all your foolish little fancies, with a great, 
 everlasting, celestial, and healing love. 
 
 If only you people of the world would love 
 one-third of your hate how much closer you 
 could be to us. There is a great dark divide 
 between you and God, here and the hereafter, 
 between the present and the future, a great 
 divide that love could span, a great divide that 
 love could light as a candle lights the Temples 
 of God. Love is God and the more you love 
 the sooner you will meet your Source of love, 
 your Healer. 
 
 We cannot feel the effects of your whims 
 but when you love we know it and we can 
 conceive it. You are brought closer to us and 
 your God. It is as a wanderer on a foreign 
 shore. He hears a tinkle of a bell, he follows 
 the sound. Does he know that he is going to 
 his Mother and home who has been lost to him 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 25 
 
 many years? No. But he follows the little 
 insignificant tinkle of the bell, minute in com- 
 parison to the noise of the world in which he 
 is living. So is your love leading you to your 
 home, Father and eternal bliss. 
 
 Love, love, love, will lead you as the bell 
 leads the lost man. Why is it when you are 
 given love, born by it, reared in it, and yet you 
 are so ready to hate? Love, hate not; love is 
 Heaven, God. God loves and to Him hate is 
 your most evil sin, not that you will be pun- 
 ished in Heaven, no, for God brings you to 
 Himself to restore and teach you His love 
 not to make you scorn Him by your torture 
 and agony. God is love and the more you love 
 the sooner God is. How beautiful the child 
 who knows only love. Why do you not all 
 love as the child? You do not see the force 
 of love only in your sarcastic sense of duty. 
 How beautiful the babe in the cradle who is 
 love, alone the love of God. Do you know 
 why this little babe may be only two or three 
 months old lies in her cradle and smiles in 
 her sleep? She does not smile at things in 
 her life, things which happened a day before, 
 she cannot because she is too young to realize 
 or remember. Then why does she lay in her 
 crib, asleep, now and then smiling, why? Be- 
 cause she sees her God. .And to see God you 
 must be a symbol of love as the babe is. God 
 loves children and often He stands near to 
 them at night. God is love of the world and 
 to see God, love with body and soul. 
 
 Our love here is like the bloom of flowers, 
 strong as your oak, fragrant as your rose, 
 
26 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 beautiful as your violet and pure as your lily. 
 Our love is universal. We all love and God 
 loves us all. Our strongest love here is that 
 of God, and mates. Here we are mated. 
 
 What are your little societies, who make up 
 the societies? Who are the founders of its 
 decrees? What is conventionality? What 
 are the laws of love, of Christ and God com- 
 pared to your little earth laws. God says love ; 
 we love here or we would not be here. Love 
 more and more, and you will be nearer to 
 your God. Love is like the sky you see above, 
 unbounded, indefinable and great in extent. 
 You make the sin of the world by not loving 
 as you ought. Love is the keyword to Heaven. 
 
 SINS 
 
 So unto you is the little babe, so you in turn 
 are to Christ. You do not blame the babe for 
 crying at night. You do not blame the child 
 should he pick up a loaded gun and shoot his 
 mother. You do not blame the child if he does 
 any of these things. You do not punish him 
 for life. You may punish him a little, send 
 him to bed or make him go without something 
 he desires. But you do not punish him for 
 the years to come. You would pity him if 
 anyone would punish him so. So as the babe 
 is to you, you are to God. Your sins are your 
 frailties ; you are capable of all kinds of sins 
 because your soul is not complete. God did 
 not send your soul on earth in a perfect state 
 because if He had done so He could not have 
 saved your soul. He keeps half of your soul 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 27 
 
 in His soul in His eternal home. When you 
 sin He pities you. He does not make you pay 
 with years of agony in Heaven no more than 
 the Mother does her child who has set the 
 house on fire and left her in poverty. A 
 Mother's love is a spark of God's love. He 
 sees your weaknesses, He knows your faults, 
 He considers your trials, which causes your 
 sins, for as you are to God, God is to you. 
 When you sin you pay on earth but not in 
 Heaven. God is a gracious God, God is a kind 
 God and God forgives His children as the 
 mother, her child. 
 
 He came to prepare a place for you. Would 
 he lock some souls out for the weaknesses they 
 comprehend not? No, for our God is a gen- 
 erous God. Your sins on earth are small, little 
 weaknesses. That you sin God knows, but 
 He sees the soul, He came, He ascended to 
 prepare a dwelling place. 
 
 For as the mother is to her babe, God is to 
 you, generous, gracious and loving you with 
 a love great and wonderful and world for- 
 giving. If you love do you not forgive? Yea 
 and God's love is a million times stronger, so 
 He forgives a million times more. 
 
 Go ye and sin no more. God is love, Love 
 forgiving and loved. 
 
 And now, little world, wallowing in your 
 bed of strife, peopled with a people of weak- 
 nesses, governed by God and His love, do 
 you understand? As an artist paints only the 
 beautiful, never the ugly, so are your good 
 traits and deeds painted or inscribed on the 
 soul that God keeps. 
 
28 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 HATE 
 
 Your life is drowned by sin as a flame is by- 
 water. Hate is the ruination of the soul on 
 its earth plane. When a man lets hate slip 
 into his soul he lets the love be burned as a 
 flame burns the paper. Hate is not reflected 
 on us but it brings the soul farther away from 
 the hereafter. The soul has its mate, the rest 
 of the soul which God keeps with Him, and 
 this world-wide hate makes your earth soul 
 smaller so that God has more repairing to do, 
 before it can reach its mate half which God 
 has kept. What is result of your hate? What 
 is the cause .of your war hate ? What is the 
 result of the war to the world? Hate a dead 
 purple hate. Mothers who have lost sons, 
 husbands and daughters, they realize the war 
 and they hate. Thus separating the earth 
 from its home. Hate is deadly, hate is kill- 
 ing. It kills love, it is as poisonous as the 
 rattle-snake and it is universal here below. 
 It is drowning out love. If you peoples of the 
 earth could realize the significance of love 
 and the killing powers of hate you would be 
 more like the God above. 
 
 You are little peoples. You are much 
 smaller now, compared to your station to be, 
 with God and his home. Yet you relish hate, 
 it flourishes in your bosoms. It is hard for 
 you to love and easy to hate, while here we 
 love and cannot hate. The comparison of 
 love and hate are as a running stream which 
 empties into the sea, and with a stagnant pool 
 covered with the decay of ages. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 29 
 
 When a man hates he is suffering himself 
 and flinging out bitter resentment to his com- 
 panions. The man who hates is lost to this 
 plane and his soul suffers badly. Yet God is 
 there pouring balm over his soul. If God did 
 not do this the soul would be dead, it would 
 die, never to return to life. Do anything but 
 hate — even the act of murder is far better 
 than hate. Hate is deadly as it scorches the 
 soul and were it not for God's tender love to 
 work against your hate your soul would be 
 ashes given to the winds. Why can't you love 
 when God is so generous and comforting? He 
 loves you, He loves you far better than you 
 know. 
 
 You hate because you are an ignorant race 
 of people, frivolous, hating one another with 
 a deadly hate. Love all you hate, and you 
 will love God more and be near to Him and 
 see Him sooner. 
 
 Can you not see that all your troubles here 
 below, your wars and your strikes and strife 
 come from a source known as hate? Hate is 
 increasing in your world and I believe that a 
 judgment day stands in wait for you poor 
 beings there below. 
 
 Why will you hate when your God has given 
 you all means to love? When he has put 
 upon your earth the scenery of Heaven and 
 given His son that hate might be erased from 
 the world forever. Wlien He has given you 
 His likeness, even to His great love. When 
 He has given you His promise? World! little 
 world of love, big world of hate, cease your 
 wars and strife, turn your hate to love and 
 come to Him who gives you all. 
 
30 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 Love, do not hate. Love, do not hate and 
 the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. 
 
 GENEROSITY 
 
 When a man gives to his neighbor he lends 
 to God. God is a generous God — did He not 
 give His son to the world, and why? You 
 never, never think why. No, you are too busy 
 with your little things to think why. No one 
 on your plane has ever had time to think why. 
 God gave His son to save the world from 
 destruction and the soul from agony, and give 
 the body a new birth. Your race is a funny 
 little race of people. Most of you would 
 rather let your surplus of things, whether 
 food or clothing, decay as your soul would 
 were it not for Christ, rather than give to 
 your neighbor. When you share with your 
 neighbor you in turn lend to God, and blest 
 is your soul. God is generous with His love, 
 His son and His power, for God is love and 
 His love is generous. I have said love was 
 the beginning and the hereafter. No matter 
 what subject I explain to you people, love is 
 always the first. 
 
 Generosity is God, love is God and God is 
 love. You have peoples who are what they 
 think kind and good. Yet they deprive them- 
 selves of love, which is not generosity. Give 
 to your neighbor, love your neighbor and God 
 will smile. His smile is relief for your soul, 
 home for your soul, a final resting place with 
 God. God is the symbol of generosity. Could 
 he have given anything more than His be- 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 31 
 
 loved son? Think of this, little world, think, 
 for he who gives water shall receive water. 
 
 HYPOCRISY 
 
 The word as deadly as hate, as black as 
 night, as stagnant as a pool! Hypocrisy is 
 deadly, yet God does not condemn for always. 
 He is slow to anger and ready to forget. If 
 you love as He loves you, live a new life full 
 of love of God. Love God and see God, I say 
 love Him, strong, deep, with your body and 
 your soul. He will forgive and condemn not. 
 God is love. And do you want to counterfeit 
 the soul, simulate the soul, which is you, your 
 best? You are a proud little people with no 
 reason at all. Yet you are proud. 
 
 A hypocrite is one who has shut God of love 
 and strength out of his soul, who has lost 
 his purpose on earth, yet he is a big, bois- 
 terous one, to the world or himself, and the 
 small little being to God who knows his fail- 
 ures and pities him in the depths of his soul. 
 Your world is full of hypocrites and of sin. 
 
 JEALOUSY 
 
 Dear little world, poor little world you 
 should have no jealousy. For God gave His 
 son to all, equally. He has given you no cause 
 for jealousy as for all of you the reward of 
 Heaven and perfect love is the same. 
 
 Dear little world, jealousy is a sister to hate. 
 They go hand in hand, where one can fly in 
 
32 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 so can the other, to kill the soul or cause dis- 
 content. Why should you be jealous if you 
 think of the bliss of Heaven and the reward 
 of God and the hereafter. But you are mortal 
 and God knows you are capable of all such 
 sins. Only one, the One above, the Lover, is 
 all, is selfish. He is ; He has a right, and He 
 is jealous of sin, for you, you peoples of the 
 far-off, love sin better than His love. Yet God 
 forgives this deadly thorn which pierces the 
 soul and kills the body. He knows thy every 
 weakness and He sees your faults. 
 
 People of the world, sin no more ; sins are 
 hate, selfishness and lack of generosity and 
 love. They are deadly to you. Love your God 
 and He will shut sin, hateful sin, selfish sin, 
 jealous sin out of your world. 
 
 PRIDE 
 
 Pride is two sided; it has a wicked side and 
 a good side. The latter is quite unknown, in 
 comparison to your numbers. Pride in God 
 is the highest aim that your world-life could 
 give you. You should be proud of God and 
 His works, His mighty love, but not proud of 
 your ego. 
 
 Self-pride is destruction, self-pride as you, 
 above all, you first, then the other fellow (you 
 see I talk in your language to make you com- 
 prehend more easily). Pride is destruction of 
 soul if it is for self. But be proud of your 
 God. 
 
 You do some great thing — you think it is 
 great, but to us it is small. You shout your 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 33 
 
 praise to the four winds, you shout your 
 praise to the world, to the peoples of those 
 worlds, but do you stop to think, to wonder, 
 to ponder, to question, whence your imagina- 
 tion, the food of your brain, the power of 
 your plans? No, no, you only think how great 
 am I and you desert your God, who sent your 
 soul, who loves your soul and inspires and 
 feeds your body with divine love and hope and 
 strength and trust. Oh think well little world, 
 your being now, as to your hereafter, is too 
 meager, too small, too minute to be compared. 
 When this pride comes so also does shame. 
 
 DUTY 
 
 God gave to your soul the highest sense of 
 duty. Your perception of duty to your soul 
 is very, very keen. God gave it for various 
 reasons. It is a trial of body though you 
 know it not, on earth. You know your duty, 
 and you know God knows it, and the world. 
 There is that little answering, inspiring, sen- 
 sation in your heart, in your soul, that urges 
 you to duty. 
 
 You feel it like a breath of cold air, you feel 
 you should do your duty; you start to, then 
 you forget; you run away from your duty. 
 Then your soul pays hard on earth remember, 
 on earth, there alone. God gives you the 
 sense of duty first; then if you do not realize 
 it, God helps you no more on earth. Lack of 
 doing your duty is unpardonable to Him for 
 in your heart He has insured such realization 
 of duty that even the faintest in faith and 
 
34 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 hope and trust knows that call. God is so 
 good to you and wants to help you so and 
 does help you so. Have you ever started to 
 go to a certain place or do a certain thing, 
 then, on. a second thought, (your second 
 thought is God's thought) you decided differ- 
 ently? The reader will think many times the 
 second thought is worse than the first, the end 
 more destructive ; but remember God's wis- 
 dom is great and His ways wondrous. That 
 thought is duty to the soul and duty to God 
 and the world. 
 
 Do your duty at all times, under all cir- 
 cumstances, and God is yours forever. 
 
 Think of Christ at Calvary. Did he do his 
 duty and how did he? That is what counts 
 with God, a willing sense of duty, hopeful and 
 performed in earnestness ; only the beginning 
 is hard for if you begin your duty right, God 
 is with you. 
 
 FEAR OF MAN, FEAR OF GOD 
 
 You fear man because you cannot know of 
 love as you ought. If you knew God's love 
 you would not fear man. You fear him, fear 
 he will ruin you, fear he may overcome you. 
 Fear is deadly in this case, as it is the lack of 
 love. Christ knew no fear, Christ could not 
 for he forgave his enemies, for he knew they 
 sinned against him and knew it not. Fear is 
 the lack of Godly love. It is large, covering 
 the world with sin. What is the cause of your 
 wars, why all this wallowing in blood, why all 
 these unnamed graves, watery graves, why all 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 35 
 
 these tears of sorrow and grief? Fear. Fear, 
 fear of man — fear of being conquered by man, 
 who is as equal as he (I mean the Kaiser, the 
 brute of fear). Fear caused all these, and 
 how deadly is fear, the lack of love. 
 
 FEAR OF GOD 
 
 Fear of God is love, how contrasting, but 
 how true. You fear God because you fear the 
 future and you, fearing, will try to please him 
 and be as He is. To fear God is to love God, 
 to fear God with a true soul is to see God. 
 
 HOPE 
 
 Hope is the seed of the soul, the food of 
 the body, and mind. Hope is a flower ; it buds ; 
 it blooms ; it flourishes in the sun; it fades but 
 why? Oh, what does it leave? Its fragrance 
 on the earth, its image on the mind! So in 
 turn, hope leaves the soul with a picture of 
 God, God's soul never to be erased. Hope may 
 fade but only to be born again ; it is like the 
 eddying sea, one little wave after the other; 
 so on forever and anon. Hope is God. God 
 gives you hope and love in partnership. Hope 
 is love. You can never lose hope ; it can stand 
 the test of water, fire, but ever comes to the 
 front, blooming. 
 
 God is hope for you ; hope to see Him. If 
 there were no hope in this world there would 
 be no world. The more a man hopes the more 
 he loves, the greater his reward for hope is 
 the stimulating power from the spirit of God, 
 
36 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 the soul of God Himself. Hope dear world. 
 Hope to see God and you will. Nothing is 
 impossible to him who hopes and all things 
 are possible. There is a secret in hope. I can- 
 not describe it to you as you would perceive it 
 not. But hope and you will have all you 
 want and desire to have. Hope is God, love is 
 God, hope is love. It is essential, it is holy, 
 it is divine and to him who hopes nothing is 
 impossible. 
 
 MERCY 
 
 "The quality of mercy is not strained; it 
 droppeth from the Heaven above upon the 
 place beneath." 
 
 God is the password of mercy. How great 
 is His mercy, like the fountain, flowing to 
 Heaven, back to earth, brilliant in the rays of 
 the sun, colored with the light of Heaven. God 
 is merciful to you children of the earth. God 
 is merciful to you and loves you. God is full 
 of mercy for your sins, mercy for your faults. 
 God loves you as a sign of His mercy. And 
 God gave His son to show His mercy. You 
 children of little minds, are you merciful in 
 turn? No, no. For instance, something hap- 
 pens in your home or in your worlds ; you say 
 why did God let it be ; perhaps a death, rather 
 a birth, a giving of the soul to God. You 
 mourn and say, how could God do it? The 
 answer is, in His mercy He does all things 
 well. You cannot see the merciful side of it, 
 no, for you are too ignorant and small and 
 narrow-minded. Yet God is merciful and in 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 37 
 
 mercy He calls His children home, home to 
 Him from danger as a mother calls her 
 son from the pond away from danger of thin 
 ice. This giving birth of the soul by death is 
 mercy. Poor children, you cannot under- 
 stand Him but you will when your day of 
 days is revealed. The quality of mercy is not 
 strained. God is merciful and merciful to the 
 people of the world where you stay, for God 
 does all thines well. 
 
 L te- 
 
 JUSTICE 
 
 As a symbol of your justice you have a lady 
 blind-folded holding the weights of justice. 
 Why do you have her blind-folded? There 
 you are ! She cannot see, she is as blind as 
 your justice. Justice, you know not what it 
 means, because it is not justice as to judging, 
 but a financial justice. For instance a poor 
 man comes before your court, ragged and 
 weak. He is convicted of theft for bread to 
 live on, and he is sent to jail punished for his 
 hunger. While a man higher in a social and 
 financial platform only robbed a million people 
 of their hard earned wages, he stole from 
 these people in a banking business. Is he sen- 
 tenced? No, he is talked to a little, then in- 
 vited out to dine with his judges. Or if he is 
 sentenced to spend his time in jail he is led 
 to his cell in state. His cell is upholstered in 
 satin, pictures of "Grace and Innocence" de- 
 corate his walls, his meals are served in cour- 
 ses (even to the finger bowls) he spends his 
 term here, which is a rest, comes out fresh 
 
38 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 and ready to do the same thing over. Justice, 
 is that your justice? Is that your view of 
 justice? Again I say you follow the minority 
 but to God justice is justice ; to Him it means 
 equal balance, equal right to live and love. God 
 is justice and His son Christ on the cross at 
 Calvary is a symbol of Justice. How little, of 
 no consequence, is your justice, for it is not 
 justice, but whole robberies — disgusting rob- 
 beries of a soul's right to live. 
 
 When Christ met the hungry, when Christ 
 met the weak, when Christ met the afflicted, 
 did he push them aside and turn them down? 
 No he healed them all, pitied them and brought 
 them to God. That is justice, but your world 
 would never know it until you take off the 
 blindfold from your lady, tear up that handicap 
 of the lady of equal balance, give her a chance 
 and justice will predominate. For a just 
 weight is a delight to the Lord. 
 
 CHRIST AND GOD, GOD AND CHRIST 
 
 God was in the beginning, He was the first, 
 His son was second, but as one is to the other, 
 both are to the world. 
 
 God sent Himself through Christ to the earth 
 for you to profit by, to prepare you for His 
 home. God cannot be reasoned with, con- 
 cerning His marvelous powers for He is God. 
 Capable of all things He could not come to 
 •earth Himself for then Heaven would never 
 have been. He had to stay. So He created 
 flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone, in His 
 wonderful power, a son. Do you understand? 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 39 
 
 I cannot explain the conception more; it is 
 not for you to know. But Christ is God and 
 God is Christ. And Christ is of God and one 
 is of the other. They are one unit. We 
 are taught in our home that as Christ is to God 
 a part of the whole we will be with our mates. 
 Is it hard to understand? It is a very delicate 
 question, a secret which new birth alone can 
 reveal, as Christ was revealed to earth. God 
 gave His son as a sign of mercy, love, faith, 
 trust, hope and an eternal home. When God 
 is near, Christ is near ; it is very hard for you 
 to understand, but to us it is as sunshine, 
 bright and clear. 
 
 Christ is God's shadow alike to Him, and, 
 as you, who pass in the sunlight throw a 
 shadow, so God does likewise. A shadow of 
 love, hope and faith, not black as your shadow 
 is, but bright, illuminating the Heavens with 
 a love that is God. 
 
 When you have passed the borderland and 
 reached your Heavenly home to be with Christ 
 and God, God and Christ, you will be relieved 
 of your mask and permitted to see and know 
 all. 
 
 As a bud of a flower is to the blossom, for 
 were it not for the bud there would be no 
 flower, in the same sense Christ is to God. 
 They are united, they are united in love and 
 faith for you poor beings below, but yet widely 
 separated. Christ will come again. I know it 
 is so, he is coming. 
 
EPILOGUE 
 
 MYSTERIES OF HEAVEN 
 
 Oh Lord, how manifold are your works, by 
 your wisdom alone we know you, the earth 
 is full of your riches. 
 
 Our planes, our homes of God, our love of 
 God all are completed. We are able to create 
 here, for we can create what we desire. Many 
 people here create the things they most de- 
 sired on earth. We are able to do this because 
 we know love, because our souls are complete, 
 because God is our ruler and our Father. God 
 is love and to love there is no bounds. We 
 are the immortal, we have thrown away all 
 encumbrances, we have been born again in a 
 perfect condition. Time does not exist here. 
 We know no time as you do by days, months 
 and years. Our time is only a sense of com- 
 pletion. Nor do we have age, as we are not 
 materialized, that could not be. Nor do we 
 have distances. We can be a thousand miles 
 away from our planes or your earth and in 
 an instant, a wink, back to our plane or where 
 ever we wish; we think and we are, we wish 
 and it is. Neither time or distance, or age 
 exists here. 
 
 I have taken you, dear reader, to your home, 
 to your home in the hereafter, to your God, 
 through this noble child, and by the "Leaves 
 From Heaven" I have taken you to our seventh 
 plane, our worlds. I have described the first, 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 41 
 
 the preparatory, the second, the earth plane, 
 where all trades and occupations are carried 
 on, where we live as you try to live on earth. 
 
 To the third plane, the inventive plane, to 
 the fourth plane, from which the guides come ; 
 to the fifth plane, the preparatory plane for 
 the meeting of God, to the sixth and seventh 
 planes where we are with God forever. I 
 have revealed all that God ordained; I have 
 told you only what He willed and all that is 
 here written is true. I have given to you, the 
 reader of this book, the message of God. I 
 have bid you to be prepared. 
 
 I have shown to your dark, unlighted world 
 the value of love, the value of faith, the value 
 of hope, the value of truth and that of jus- 
 tice. I will try and make clear to you how 
 love is perfected in Heaven. How by loving 
 more on earth, so much more in Heaven. God 
 is love and love is God and Heaven is home 
 for the sick, for the weak, for the meek and 
 for the rich and poor ; an equal Heaven, equal 
 in all its wonderful powers and of love. 
 
 I have shown you how God loves- you and 
 spares you, pleads with you, begs of you, im- 
 plores you and then forgiving your sins, your 
 faults, your absence of love of Him, takes you 
 home. I have shown you the transition from 
 your so-called death of the earth, to the new 
 birth, and the transition from each of our 
 planes to the higher planes. 
 
 I have told you in His words of our guides, 
 our teachers and our preparers. All these I 
 have told you through the clean clear brain 
 of this child. I have shown of God's mercy. 
 
42 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 God is so merciful that at your death-bed he 
 does not send a substitute but he comes in 
 person, so that the transition may be gentle, 
 without shock or fear. For a glance of God 
 and the roaring lions are asleep. 
 
 I have shown to you how your good acts, 
 your soul itself, can reflect on the happy planes 
 from whence I come. I have told you that 
 there is no punishment except remorse, and 
 how God is merciful. To you dear reader all 
 this has been revealed. To you I have spoken 
 with the voice of God. To you this message 
 has been sent and as a falling leaf from the 
 mother tree, this message comes to you, softly, 
 and enlightening, revealing and making better 
 your soul. It is the voice of God and the 
 words of God and God's love. In the begin- 
 ning you ask whence the "Leaves From 
 Heaven." You were mystified, a little afraid, 
 but now you have grown strong under this 
 message. You know more of God than has 
 ever before been revealed to *your plane. 
 
 God is love, love is new birth to your soul, 
 to your relatives and friends, and to your God. 
 If you are weary from a life of pilgrimage 
 there is rest for you, rest with God. If you 
 are weak with care and sickness there is cure 
 and relief. If you are troubled in heart there 
 is perfect peace. If you are maimed through 
 your wars there is perfect completion of body 
 if you desire, and always completion of soul. 
 God awaits you with His love, His promise 
 and when once you see His light, never, never 
 could you think of returning to your globe 
 of misery. You, the peoples of the earth can 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 43 
 
 only get a faint impression of His love by the 
 inevitable sky above you, of His glory by the 
 glare of the sun, of His mercy by the soft- 
 ness of the sunshine, of His strength by the 
 force of the elements. These alone are God's 
 and to God they belong. 
 
 Dear reader, now as we have reached the 
 closing of the "Leaves From Heaven" let me 
 again say of God's love. Love God and you 
 are saved to be born again, to see Him and 
 your friends. God's love is like the flowers 
 of earth, which are the deeds and love of God, 
 beautiful in coloring, wonderful to the eye, 
 everlasting to the mind, and perfume to the 
 soul. God is love, God is merciful, love is 
 hope ; thus the leaves of love, the flowers of 
 mercy, hope, and faith come to you from God 
 Himself, in this book which God has called the 
 "Leaves From Heaven." 
 
 For our God is a zealous God and as God 
 wills so shall it be. 
 
 Harry, your earth people feel it, very near 
 to you often, and often you feel His pres- 
 ence by a silence that is almost audible. I am 
 going to tell you about our Heaven, our home- 
 plane, trees and birds. 
 
 Harry, oh I can hardly describe our Heaven 
 to you my son. You are blessed here for your 
 goodness to me before I left your world, all 
 your kindness to me and father are multiplied 
 tenfold. 
 
 And we have birds here, you know in one 
 of your books there is written, "God knows 
 every sparrow's fall." He saves even the birds 
 for an eternal life. 
 
44 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 Harry, aren't your plane peoples very igno- 
 rant? You are not and I am glad. They can- 
 not see what reward the fallen bird has, who 
 also has another life to live without fright. 
 I see you understand and I am glad. 
 Father Townsend. 
 
 Question: How about Free Will? 
 
 Yes, Harry, your free will is God's will. But 
 I will lead up to that. Do you want to hear 
 what I have to say, what I was going to say? 
 
 You asked about free-will, do you know 
 what you ask about? Harry I know, you 
 have the ladder, I mean what your earth 
 peoples use to build with, to ascend, you have 
 the two steps, the two straight supporters for 
 the rounds ; each supporter has two individual 
 ends, the tops and the bottoms ; is this clear 
 before I go on? 
 
 We will number them one and two, top and 
 bottom of remaining number one. Number 
 one is birth of Soul in Heaven, it is high as 
 your routine or stairway of life is given, birth 
 in Heaven, then coming to earth. Harry the 
 sub-number one of the supporter is the one 
 that stands on the ground. That is your ma- 
 terial birth. 
 
 The supporting ladder on earth is nearly 
 perfect, I mean strong and looks enduring and 
 your carpenter says it will hold, that it is a 
 good ladder, but one or two rounds are miss- 
 ing at God's will, but the carpenter thinks 
 that he can use it, do you understand, Harry? 
 Each round of this ladder we will name ; the 
 first may be a good act, it probably will be as 
 the first part of one's career, it is likely to be 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 45 
 
 all of good, as the infancy, maybe the second 
 and third act (I mean rounds) will be good 
 deeds, the fourth and fifth good deeds, then 
 two or three rounds will be broken as wicked 
 acts, you understand; Harry. 
 
 Perhaps the ladder may be only two or 
 three feet, or, maybe twenty feet high, either 
 it may be very short or very high, as the dura- 
 tion of the life. If your carpenter expects to 
 work on a high building he chooses a long lad- 
 der, not a short one, so God chooses your lad- 
 der so, if your work on earth is to be very 
 long then your ladder of life is long, if you are 
 born weak, then your ladder of life is also 
 short or weak, if for instance God chooses an 
 individual's work on earth, plentiful and long, 
 so is his ladder of life. 
 
 Each round must be stepped on, each sup- 
 porter used to cling to as you climb your lad- 
 der, for your supporters are the results of 
 your acts of your career, as the supporters 
 are the result of the ladder, so if the sup- 
 porters are weak, the ladder is weak and will 
 break. 
 
 So Harry, as I said before, you begin to 
 climb as a babe, careful, little by little and 
 as a result your first rounds will probably be 
 strong. 
 
 Each round is an act, each act makes up a 
 career, and the career is your pathway of life ; 
 do you, Oh do you understand? 
 
 We will say the fifth from the top of the 
 ladder of life, the fifth round is broken, com- 
 pletely off, or there is no round, then what? 
 That is the end of your life, your new birth is 
 
46 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 about to take place and your ladder of life is 
 finished on earth, the rest completed on the 
 first plane. 
 
 We will begin with the babe on the first 
 round, each round is touched, each round is 
 sounded and results. One support is from 
 Heaven to earth (which is number one) the 
 other from earth to Heaven (number two) 
 you understand? I know you realize the con- 
 trast of life, the contrast with one hand on 
 the supporter which extends from Heaven to 
 earth, the other hand on the supporter which 
 leads from earth to Heaven. (That contrast is 
 your earth-tragedy). 
 
 Harry we will begin on the bottom round, 
 climbing slowly up to Heaven or top of lad- 
 der as a child first, on each round growing a 
 little older, or stronger or weaker, sinning 
 great or little, always the two together. 
 
 He climbs steadily, then he steps on a round, 
 it breaks and he falls, but not to earth as you 
 would, only literally speaking, one round we 
 will say will be divided into a good and evil 
 part, good predominating, but the bad is 
 chosen, the evil: he cannot choose only the 
 one ordained by God in his birth. He must 
 choose the one God has given him to decide, 
 or decided. He could not; but if his will- 
 power, free will power is very, very strong 
 and sensitive to God's will he will hesitate, 
 then that is an act and that hesitation is his 
 free will power, do you understand Harry? 
 
 He climbs blindly, steadily, cringing with 
 fear, he cannot fail for his foundation is strong 
 and his soul is bound to rise, for God is at 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 47 
 
 the doorway, waiting and beckoning, smiling 
 at the soul on the road to the Heavenly home. 
 Thus he climbs up, up, sinning, doing good, 
 sinning, each an act, sub-act, a round con- 
 necting the stays or supporters of birth to 
 earth and then to home. 
 
 Number two is Heaven, the doorway of 
 home, where his path extends to, or his ladder 
 leans against, he cannot fail, his soul will rise, 
 as a bubble rises through the water to the 
 surface. 
 
 So is your ladder of life, a turmoil, a con- 
 trast, you go with one hand on supporters from 
 Heaven, the other on the supporters to 
 Heaven. 
 
 It is like having a hundred pound weight on 
 your feet and a balloon on your head (realize 
 the contrast?) you are born to live, suffer, 
 sin, be born again to a life complete in love 
 and perfect in God. 
 
 Harry, so is your ladder the same, from the 
 cradle of Heaven, to the grave of body and 
 the birth of the soul. 
 
LIFE 
 
 CLARA TOWNSEND 
 
 (Was Mother Casterline with us last night, 
 Clara, when Father Townsend was talking to 
 me through Ethel?) 
 
 (CLARA) 
 
 No, but father Townsend sent for them 
 where he was on the fourth plane, they gath- 
 ered there, all but mother Casterline, so father 
 Townsend went back to second plane for 
 mother Casterline. He was in the room a great 
 deal but did not stay on account of his holy at- 
 mosphere, which was too strong for Ethel, (I 
 make him be very careful for his personality, 
 his heavenly environment is very startling and 
 penetrating to Ethel; that is the cause of her 
 present condition, understand Edith?) * 
 
 Ethel you like pretty picturesque things, so 
 I will describe life in heavenly words, while 
 father described it in barren, thick, descriptive 
 man-words. 
 
 Clara Townsend. 
 
 LIFE 
 
 Life we will say is a mountain, a high moun- 
 tain and you are going to climb, for you see 
 your hopes, your ambitions realized in God at 
 
 * My wife, given name. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 49 
 
 the top of the mountain. You start down the 
 road of life, road of despair, road of love, road 
 of anguish, road of hope ; each milestone is a 
 character of good or bad. You reach the 
 mountain, you stop and look up, up, you un- 
 derstand, up, not sideways for your soul points 
 up. You decide it is steep, very rugged, but 
 Oh, see the beautiful flower a little about mid- 
 way ; you say "If I can only reach that flower 
 I will be satisfied/' We will say that that 
 flower is a hope, it is sent by God to spur you 
 on, encourage you. You start to climb, you 
 slip back, you regain your place, slip back 
 again, and just as you are in the bottomless 
 pit of despair, behold, dear child, the flower, 
 how much more beautiful, and now you can 
 even smell its fragrance ; you try again, you 
 
 * In explanation of the question and answer on 
 the opposite page, I want to say that the evening 
 before when Father Townsend was sending in his 
 message on Foreordination, Ethel was writing with 
 her left arm curved on the table her head resting 
 upon it and her eyes partly closed, (the attitude 
 she always assumed when taking messages) there 
 came a warning written into Father's message, from 
 Clara, saying for me to watch Ethel for she was 
 going to collapse. Up to that warning I had not 
 noticed her, but now I looked and saw she was 
 dead white, but Father kept sending the message 
 just the same until he had finished, when it became 
 necessary to lift Ethel out of her chair and carry 
 her to the couch where she remained all night. 
 The next night Father told us he had stood too 
 close to her in sending his message and that his 
 spiritual atmosphere was too strong for her. He 
 said it would never happen again nor did it. He 
 said he would send all messages from himself from 
 first plane thereafter. I write this so you will 
 understand what Clara refers to in speaking about 
 Ethel. 
 
SO LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 succeed, perhaps -you reach the flower, per- 
 haps when you reach its abode it is still ahead 
 of you, but you do not despair now, for just 
 a glance backwards, towards the bottom of 
 the mountain from where you started, fills you 
 with that desire to go up, up, up. Nature tries 
 you, tempts you, lifts you, cuts you, bruises 
 you, your body, but fills your soul with that 
 ever rising desire to go up (understand) 
 (read). 
 
 Your soul will rise because always it is 
 reaching out in a million ways for the har- 
 mony, the harmonizing waves from God, to 
 the soul ; only the good of earth, and the har- 
 mony and unity of Heaven is sensitive to the 
 Soul. Harmony melts into the soul as one drop 
 of water does into the sea, becomes a part of 
 the whole, understand, and your soul is always 
 reaching out, as the tentacles of your sponges 
 of the ocean for food, reaching out, pulling 
 back, reaching out, yielding and carrying back 
 to the soul the accordance, the harmony of 
 Heaven. It is like two flames united to pro- 
 duce more heat. The soul only acts upon or 
 picks up what is in the environment that is 
 exactly like itself, and that in turn performs 
 the same duty and so on always extending out* 
 reaching up, (yielding back when a strain of 
 unharmony or discord is reached.) It is like 
 one of your water plants reaching its millions 
 of rootlets out through the water, feeling, 
 sounding and drawing back in a minute, and 
 resuming its natural appearance. 
 
 (But I am off your question Ethel, I guess 
 I was reading Harry's thought.) 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 51 
 
 You are only starting up the mountain just 
 a gain of a little, but you have no thoughts 
 of returning, no. Rise, want, want to rise. 
 You look aloft and behold, you see the light 
 of God — but wait — a dark cloud marks out 
 the image of God. And out of a hidden fissure 
 or cave in the mountain steps Hypocrisy, huge, 
 and she chains your feet and binds your eyes, 
 but, she herself, is weak and blind and she 
 thinks you cannot get away, so she leaves 
 you chained to her cave door and retreats 
 therein. But no, no, she does not know your 
 soul, she has only come to a decision by your 
 careworn countenance, you look aloft, you 
 look at the chains of hypocrisy, strong, but 
 you struggle; they tighten, on you, you strug- 
 gle again, you become weaker and just as you 
 are going to utter a cry of remorse to God, 
 behold you are free, and struggle up the 
 mountain again. You seem weak, yet that 
 soul of yours seems to push you up and say 
 to you, you cannot fail, go on, on and on, and 
 so you climb again realizing your hopes and 
 sins and God's sun shines on you and you 
 are strengthened and you drink in the beauty 
 of the scenery, the wonder of God, you are 
 moved by Him then in turn tried by Him, 
 tested and spurned by Him to try His experi- 
 ment endowed on you. 
 
 Again you travel upward, you are encour- 
 aged by God and you think you are nearly to 
 the sun, the crown of the mountain, when sin 
 steps out of his cave, a four-headed Sin — 
 one head hatred, one jealousy, one murder, 
 one and the main head, selfishness ; he does 
 
52 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 not chain you but he talks to you, he pleads 
 in a voice of pity, to follow him, to join him. 
 He shows you wonderful hopes you can 
 realize; you are tempted; you stand as if one 
 foot on the mountain the other in the air. 
 You picture his hopes, yet you looked well 
 and you see his foundations are jon sand. 
 When you see this, when your soul pictures 
 it to your eyes you have won and you look, 
 where is the monster? He is gone, hurrying, 
 crouching away in the shadow of the cave. 
 
 Again you go on not knowing your God is 
 by your side, and at last you reach the top of 
 the mountain, but why the look of despair, 
 the cry of anguish, the shock of remorse? 
 Lo and behold you see the sun resting its head 
 on the crown of another mountain in the dis- 
 tance, you fall in a faint of despair, torture, 
 and humiliation and lost hope ; you sleep a 
 wink and then your God is with you, you see 
 His smile, your soul is tranquil, you smile 
 back at the smiler, you see all your hopes 
 realized, you smile, you faint, you sleep, you 
 wake, to go with God. Child, God leads you 
 on, on, spurns you, mocks you, sounds and 
 tunes you, tests you, tries you, rebels you, to 
 make your Soul. Then at the final moment, 
 the hour of victory. He is there ready to re- 
 ceive His masterpiece, to take it home to love 
 and teach it forever. 
 
 Question: Why Father, do we not have the 
 chance to do right? 
 
 Harry this is steel type. Harry if all your 
 people knew what was right and always 
 did it and always lived the perfect life, what 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 53 
 
 would your world be? What Harry? Why, 
 Heaven in every respect. Because you would 
 have no sin, no wickedness and you would be 
 perfect. You would not need a new life or a 
 new birth or a heavenly home, for your earth 
 would be that, and Harry you would not have 
 that wonderful mystery of Heaven and seeing 
 of God to look forward to were you without 
 sin on your earth plane, if you understand I 
 will go on. 
 
 Question : Why do people not like to ac- 
 knowledge God? 
 
 Yes, yes, Harry I received your perception 
 that is right ; they are a little afraid, abashed 
 to acknowledge God, yet they say I have a 
 Bible home. Should you go to their home and 
 look for their Bible, sure enough you would 
 find it, but not until you removed four or five 
 years of dust ; yet they have a Bible home. 
 
 No, Harry I am not speaking about morals ; 
 no, Harry you are mistaken, very bad, son ; 
 but I am speaking about truths of God. 
 Truths your earth people see every day, know 
 them to be truths but do not want to accept 
 them as such ; they want to know why they 
 are truths of God or promises of God. You 
 see son, I am speaking about the visible effects 
 of God on your world, how you know and 
 feel Him and comprehend not. 
 
 Your earth peoples know there is a God ; and 
 pin them down to the smallest atom, cross- 
 examine them, and they will admit God, yet, 
 place them in a crowd of your earth people 
 and they will make believe they do not; they 
 would not want to commit themselves, openly, 
 
54 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 among so many. Yet they know there is a ruler 
 of their Universe ; they know that there is a 
 life to be, but they want to see if there is any 
 possible way they can find anything contra- 
 dictory to the fact, just a little frail side issue, 
 that is all. 
 
 Then they will polish it up and leave the 
 polishing stuff on, not take it off to see the 
 results it has made but leave it on, so their 
 frail little contradictory fact will be enlarged 
 a little, a little more pronounced, yet they be- 
 lieve in God and in the Book but they, why 
 will they question? cross and recross-examine 
 Him, who cannot be defined? Harry isn't it 
 interesting? And so funny, Harry, for your 
 peoples have a million ways of knowing God 
 and not one single way of rejecting or doubt- 
 ing Him. 
 
FOREORDINATION 
 FATHER TOWNSEND 
 
 Question : Father, is everything foreor- 
 dained? 
 
 No, Harry, you are wrong, no sins can be 
 avoided or made over, or stopped for a good 
 act, for each of your sins are one act, in your 
 routine of life on earth. At the minute of 
 birth, the minute you are given life, your 
 routine of life or your career or journey is 
 mapped or planned out, each sin, each good 
 deed in your routine is a sub act to another 
 act, good or wicked; if you hesitate, you know 
 not whether to do the wicked, which you know 
 to be bad, or do the good which you know to 
 be good ; that is one act, one step in your career 
 of life or your road; that is one stone on 
 your road, or a flower, you cannot skip it, 
 you cannot go around, you cannot jump over 
 it, you cannot mine under it, for it in itself, 
 whether wicked to the uttermost or good to 
 the uttermost is a link in your life, a step in 
 your career, a stone or a flower on your path ; 
 it has been marked out Harry, planned out 
 and has got to be ; you could not skip over an 
 act or step, no more than you could climb on 
 a ladder and jump from the second or third 
 round to the top of it, where you had deter- 
 mined to go ; so with your life, your wicked- 
 ness, your goodness, your dangling, hesitating 
 swinging ideas, of whether it is good or evil, 
 all are rounds in your ladder of life. 
 
56 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 God, Harry (this is Father all the time, 
 Ethel, not Clara) Harry : — God often changes 
 a road of your life, or a round in your ladder, 
 putting in a new strong rung, one you do not 
 know whether it will hold you or not. He puts 
 in a weak one, (often He does) and you fall 
 by it, it breaks under your strength, that act 
 of God in itself is an act of your journey, an act 
 of your career. Harry, Oh Harry, is it plain 
 to you. Yes, but read; that moment in your 
 life is an act in your life, which cannot be 
 avoided. 
 
 Question: Do we not know good? 
 
 Flarry, yes, perhaps as you would look 
 at it, but Harry, you cannot determine it 
 for it has been decided, and what you decide, 
 whether good or evil, is what was decided by God 
 when He mapped your journey through life. 
 
 Harry, no, no test, no test, Harry, no test. 
 That weak round, if God puts in one, it is a re- 
 sult of the rest of your life, a good result, al- 
 though in itself it may seem very bad, very 
 sorrowful, but its results on the rest of your 
 life is good, for the best, and Harry, when God 
 puts in a new round, weak or strong, or 
 changes your pathway of life, the remainder of 
 your career is changed from that period on, as 
 God sees fit. But Harry, that weak round 
 makes the rest of the rounds stronger, because 
 you have gone through the experience of fall- 
 ing, do you understand, Harry? 
 
 Question: Is all foreordained? 
 
 Yes, yes, yes, every hope, wish, mistake, 
 trouble. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 57 
 
 CLARA 
 
 Harry, I was a little afraid you were not 
 going to talk with me tonight. Father heard 
 what you said about him, and he laughed over 
 it, it pleased him so Harry, yes, yes. I hope 
 Harry, I hope Harry — are you and your 
 people living under the bonds of slavery? Oh, 
 I wish we could talk every night. Harry I 
 have been on the first plane all day caring 
 for wounded, sick and wounded, and I have 
 been on earth a great deal, Europe, where 
 there was a train wreck, January 17 or 18, 
 1920, O. K. 
 
 FATHER 
 
 Harry, now I am going to tell you just how 
 funny, little peoples how queer you are ; I 
 mean Harry, my son, (this is father speaking) 
 I mean your earth peoples. Here you have 
 them ; they have a strong, reliable, perfect 
 foundation for a certain subject, a foundation 
 built as if on rock, and then another frail, poor 
 foundation, built on sand, they know the good 
 foundation will stand all tests, yet if they do 
 not, they do not question about it, but just 
 jump into the frail little sandy foundation, 
 just to see, just to experience, what will be- 
 come of it, how it will stand their weight ; 
 they never question the frail foundation, but 
 jump into the abyss, they never question the 
 strong foundation but leave it alone and fol- 
 low the frail weakness. 
 
 Harry ! Harry ! "Clara speaking." Have you 
 ever guessed to your mind of speech exactly 
 
58 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 what I am Harry? Have you ever thought 
 "She must be an angel," have you? Do you 
 know what that word means Harry? No! do 
 not think only about this child. I told you the 
 guides were men; you remember* Jere told 
 you also, that is right, and brother, you know 
 what angel means "Daughter of God." Men 
 are never angels by name, they are called 
 guides, but we, the daughters of God are the 
 angels. We do not have wings unless we 
 wish, although we fly, or float, through the 
 air, the Heaven, if we wish ; perhaps we want 
 to travel naturally, but fast; then we fly in- 
 stead of wish, and are there Harry, we never 
 pass through houses or through trees, or 
 through brick walls as is sometimes described 
 on your plane ; No ! We do not only when we 
 are in a spirit stage, invisible to you then, Oh, 
 Harry, how could you see us, you could not, 
 yet your earth people say we pass through 
 brick walls or cement houses or any of those 
 things, like you pass through smoke ; but see 
 how foolish it is, because you cannot see a 
 spirit, yet some men on your plane wrote that 
 we go through, penetrate stone piles in a ma- 
 terial form. 
 
 "Present capacity to view mental capacity 
 while on earth." 
 
 Harry! yes my son, I can see, I see my 
 weakness, from a humorous platform. It does 
 not worry me or make me feel bad, because 
 there is no sorrow here, Harry, do not think 
 me proud now, yet I have reason to be ; where 
 I am we do not cherish proudness, but Harry, 
 
 * Brother-in-law, passed on, 1913. 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 59 
 
 I see I was far above many of my friends, 
 when I was on your plane, yet I see now from 
 the height, where I now stand, the heights of 
 perfection, that I was very small and meager, 
 compared with me now. I see it from the 
 humorous side, and I smile. 
 
 Question : Does personality change after re- 
 birth? 
 
 Say Harry, about personality and character, 
 just imagine a man going home leaving his 
 personality on earth, so and so, then going to 
 his master who would change his personality 
 and character, make it entirely different, who 
 would he be? Harry, he wouldn't be. His 
 Soul in Heaven could not unite with his per- 
 sonal soul, his earthly personality; it would 
 be like making a triangle into a square, quite 
 impossible. 
 
 Harry, your personality is not changed, not 
 one little bit, but supposing you have some 
 bad traits, personality contains no bad traits, 
 so the evil is sin, not personality, which is the 
 image of the production or the result, or the 
 reflection of your soul in Heaven. Person- 
 ality is character and character is of good 
 doings or results ; thus, the good in your soul, 
 personal soul, is only strengthened, and the 
 bad is eradicated, and the good substituted. I 
 know they say bad traits of character, but, if 
 bad, it is not character, you use the word 
 wrong. A weak personality, Harry, is a small 
 personality, a little personality, and generally 
 when it is small, I will say not generally but 
 always Harry, the personality waiting the 
 coming of the soul which has been imprisoned 
 
60 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 on earth, is just that much, larger, that 
 much stronger, to bring his earth personality 
 to the right standard of perfection. Person- 
 ality is affected by environment, and an envir- 
 onment in return, is the influence of the soul 
 surrounding the body invisibly. 
 
 EFFECTS OF PRAYER 
 
 Prayer, Harry, is very, very good for the 
 Soul in Heaven ; prayers reflect on it momen- 
 tarily as an image reflects in the pool of water. 
 They prepare the soul, they refine the soul, 
 as they are mostly of hopes ; hopes are prayers 
 and those who- believe in prayer believe in 
 hope ; those hopes will present themselves in 
 time, very pronounced, I mean prayers. Pray- 
 ers not altogether in a fine church, when you 
 are dressed all in fligagigs and lace, but prayers 
 which come from the soul, from the longings 
 of hope and desire, they are the voice of the 
 soul in this case, and not the voice of pride 
 or habit. God always, always hears the prayer 
 of the soul. Harry, I do not mean that you 
 have got to be in your church, on bended 
 knees, but the prayers / mean are these, a 
 rush of hope from the soul, perhaps when you 
 are working or contending with strife, those 
 which come quickly, in a moment. Harry, I 
 am glad God does not always answer your 
 prayer, not always, but if you have a prayer 
 that is answered, remember it was an inci- 
 dent or step on your stairway of life, that 
 he has answered. Many times your soul, your 
 other half, influences your bodily soul, then a 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 61 
 
 prayer coming from Heaven to your soul, on 
 earth through God, is answered by God, often 
 it is this way, though you do not know, that 
 gasping of breath, that rushing prayer was 
 sent by God to complete your round on your 
 journey home ; as an explorer coming from a 
 foreign land to his own country, are you on 
 your journey home. 
 
 MORTALITY AND IMMORTALITY 
 
 So Harry we will define mortality first. 
 
 Mortality is the evidence of reason, to dis- 
 tinguish between right and wrong. Do you 
 see Harry, you do, I know. It is the duty of 
 the senses, yet you are not permitted to dis- 
 tinguish the evidence, or I mean to have the 
 liberty to use your reasoning unless they are 
 the reasonings God has determined for you. 
 Now, Harry, what could be clearer? So for 
 example, should you have the power to pick 
 up a locomotive from nowhere, and holding 
 it in your hand, make the underlay construct 
 the track ; put the engine on it and say go, 
 where would that engine go? Why just where 
 the track did! Up hill and down hill, over 
 seas or over ravines, if the track did, cer- 
 tainly ; or if you had the power* to create a 
 river, and with your hand say, "run this way," 
 meanwhile pointing out its course with your 
 hand where would the river run? Where you 
 had determined it to go. Maybe through 
 marshes, filthy places, but it would go where 
 you had coursed it. Do you get the simile? 
 And just so has God planned out your stay on 
 
62 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 earth. Harry, if you go down town at three 
 o'clock on Wednesday, God has ordained just 
 that, that you go down town Wednesday at 
 three. If a child expects to go to a well after 
 water, he starts and half way there he turns 
 and hastens back from where he started does a 
 certain little thing, then goes to the well; al- 
 though you see he would be a few minutes 
 later than if he had not returned home, but 
 that was just to be ; perhaps God returned him 
 to his home for some little thing, maybe only 
 to tell his Mother something, maybe only to 
 get his ball, but you see those two minutes 
 could possibly change his whole routine ; so 
 God intercepted him so, to make his following 
 routine, to run in unity. Do you see? It is 
 simple, easy, very, very, easy. Everything you 
 do, you do not do. You think, you forget, it is a 
 link in your chain ; but, suppose you could 
 drop a link then what would you have, why 
 two parts incomplete. Do you understand and 
 see? Man can never drop or lose one little 
 act of his routine, or his career, should it Only 
 be picking up a pin on the walk, when he is 
 going home or away, it has just got to be. 
 
 How many people know these things 
 father? Why Harry, a handful, a child's hand, 
 Harry. Father, if we could all know this, 
 then we could always know just exactly what 
 was right and do it; why cannot that be? 
 Harry, we will try and suppose it, to what ad- 
 vantage would it bring them? None. They 
 would take it as a matter of fact, I mean your 
 world as a whole, of course some, like you 
 Harry, would give it thought, and ponder on it, 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 63 
 
 but the world would just let it drift by. Many 
 of your people believe in an infernal Hell, you 
 know that, but Harry, do they lead their lives 
 in any different way? Even if they could, they 
 would sin just the same sins, and while sin- 
 ning would forget their Hell of heat and fire ; 
 but we will say the whole world does know. 
 
 We will say they know their course of life 
 planned by God, just as they know God now. 
 You would think that they would say "Why, 
 I don't care what I say or do, or if I kill, be- 
 cause it must be in my course." They would 
 kill a man and say to themselves, "God or- 
 dained it." Remember, the above is supposition, 
 to make clear. 
 
 But, Harry, it would not make any differ- 
 ence whatsoever. For God has marked their life 
 by a path and sideway or alleys, and they 
 could not do any different. Do you see? I 
 want it clear, Harry. 
 
 Heaven, Harry, is run on a basis of accord- 
 ance, unity and harmony, plus a love stronger 
 than knowledge ; it is run on a basis as your 
 world, only in a harmonizing way. Here every- 
 thing is immortal, and with you everything is 
 mortal, do you see the yawning divide? It is 
 very, very easy to see that you people are of 
 a perishable stuff, you are imprisoned; you are 
 bound down with a chain of life, yet in your 
 soul is that awful sensation of rising to God, 
 which Harry, is your discontent that you all 
 experience on earth. 
 
 As I see you now your peoples of earth are 
 proud of what is called mortality. But why? 
 Because you say that is the only thing that 
 
64 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 separates you from the animal Kingdom. Yet 
 if your earth dog could speak he would say, 
 "run away, man, you are mortal, while I am 
 immortal." He would lift his head and go his 
 way. You are like a rubber ball and a child, 
 no connection between the child and ball, no 
 connection only a chain of slavery, the child 
 the master, the ball the slave ; he bounds the 
 ball artd catches it, bounds it again and 
 catches, throws it in the air and catches it ; so 
 God has put your soul on earth, in a shell, as 
 we will say, and throws you on earth, for 
 hardships and sorrow ; but why does He, you 
 will say, why does He throw sorrow on us, 
 tempt us, when He could lead us right, save us 
 from trouble and anguish and care and strife? 
 
 Harry, this is why, this I tell you, He does 
 it because the soul that has never sinned, seen 
 sin, experienced the result of sin, gains the 
 grand reward, by the experience that only life 
 on earth can give. As I said it polishes and 
 refinees the soul, strengthens it by seeing and 
 experiencing the failure of the body, on earth, 
 and as the ball thrown on earth, bounds 
 back to the sender, understand? Back to the 
 Source from whence it came, tempted but suc- 
 ceeding, strengthened by failure of body on 
 earth. 
 
 Sin, Harry, cannot destroy the soul ; it can- 
 not, but it can check and retard the growth 
 of the soul. That is the only result of earth 
 sin, which God inflicts on your peoples. You 
 know, for instance, take a very valuable sub- 
 ject, you first find all its antecedents, which 
 harm it, do you not? For when knowing 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 65 
 
 things that harm your purpose, you avoid the 
 harmful elements to your uttermost but if 
 they fling themselves before you you gain 
 much through bitterness. 
 
 So with the soul. God sends the soul Harry 
 
 ( ) and calls it home for rest and eternity 
 
 Home, Harry, Ethel is tiring out, father is so 
 magnetic — it is very hard work for her. 
 
 Harry, people wonder on your plane — 
 when God is so merciful why he inflicts pain 
 so readily. I have told you why to purify the 
 Soul as I said. 
 
 Now Harry, I am going to tell you a little 
 about your race of beings. You think, you 
 even say, "we are free people, the days of 
 slavery are over." Down to your time, Harry, 
 from the beginning, forever, on earth, you 
 will be under the stripes of slavery. I mean 
 your bodies, yet you say, you are free people. 
 You are not, for you know the ruler of Ger- 
 many has made the whole universe of yours 
 his slaves. Is it not true? Yes. I know what 
 you will say, we had to, to protect our homes ; 
 yes but just the same you did it under a sense 
 of slavery, yet your people never imagine they 
 are slaves. 
 
 Harry only your soul is free, free a little, 
 but just the same free, because it cannot sin 
 and. because it has a reward; of course it is 
 imprisoned but just the same it is your master, 
 your ruler, your governing impulse and again 
 you are the slave of your bodies. 
 
 The animals of your plane have a wider range 
 of freedom than you for their souls are im- 
 mortal, more than your souls are. I do not 
 
66 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 mean that it is in heaven but on earth (more 
 immortal) than your soul, for on earth their 
 souls are complete, while your soul awaits 
 completion. 
 
 Yes, Harry and again your race is a slave 
 to natural circumstances, again you are slaves, 
 you know exactly what caused the earth war. 
 Do you? No. No one on your earth does, not 
 even the originator of the war. He does not 
 know. I will tell you, a two and one-half 
 minute delay in a certain response of a Ger- 
 man officer, can you realize it? And God 
 caused that delay, for his purpose, the war. 
 I cannot tell you why your war was started, 
 I mean why God ordained it, but you know 
 why it was started on your basis of existence. 
 I only wish I could tell, but God had a great 
 purpose for it, something like the flood of the 
 olden days ; I cannot say more, for God does 
 not permit. I know your people look at it 
 with a terrible feeling of injustice ; but if they 
 could only see the shadow of God's purpose 
 they would say, I understand, I understand 
 perfectly. 
 
 Harry, now I am going to speak more about 
 the mortal and immortal, to make it a little 
 plainer to you. Harry, wait son my topic first 
 — I am your father yet, son of earth. 
 
 Harry I have told you your animals of 
 earth are immortal, you people of earth are 
 not. I have told you their souls are com- 
 pleted, on earth, while your soul awaits com- 
 pletion through suffering and bitterness. You 
 will think that when we are higher in sense, 
 wisdom, in mind than they are, why are they 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 67 
 
 given the reward of a completed soul on 
 earth, while we have to climb for ours? This 
 is why Harry, it is because they cannot sin, 
 they know no sin, thus they cannot exper- 
 ience it. Is it clear? While your bodies are 
 bathed with it, your bodies mounted by it. 
 Then I will tell you the difference again be- 
 tween the mortal and the immortal. When you 
 invent, you first think and ponder a wee little 
 plan, you work it out, worry over it, test it, 
 tear it down, plan it over, while we just create, 
 no planning or testing and why are you always 
 planning, why? Because you are under a 
 strong plan, exercising the system of planning 
 as God planned your career, while we do not 
 have ours planned for we have been through 
 the testing mill. We create and you invent, 
 which is the very, very small beginning to a 
 creative power. Then you will say, why, when 
 the immortal can create, why, when in the 
 life hereafter we create, we, the immortal, 
 then why cannot your earth animals create? 
 They are immortal and the immortal creates, 
 why can't they? Because they are not on a 
 creative plane and when they come to our 
 plane, because their fidelity and love is great, 
 so great that they desire not even then that 
 power, also they have never invented as man, 
 on earth, (and as Heaven is natural) for them 
 to create would not be natural; here, thus 
 Harry, one difference between mortal and im- 
 mortal. 
 
 We can penetrate everything, we can see 
 everything at a mere glance ; nothing is beyond 
 our reach, we are in a state of evolution for- 
 
68 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 ever ; we can penetrate the earth and the stones 
 night is as day to us, we can tell anything, 
 everything- at a moment's notice ; we cannot 
 forget. What you on your plane have striven 
 years to find out, we know at a single side- 
 ways glance. 
 
 You are a tomb of sin, disease, torture, 
 wickedness ; we are the freedom of space, the 
 love of God, the limitless boundaries of the 
 sky. Do you understand Harry? do you? 
 
 We create everything, anything at a mo- 
 ment's notice. We are like unto God, we love 
 God because we see our reward, the reward of 
 our suffering on earth. 
 
 Our wisdom is undefinable, we know why 
 the sun is bright, why the sun sets, why the 
 sun is like God's own face. 
 
 To your wondering race Harry, your race 
 is helped by its wondering, you say, why can 
 we not see our friends who have gone home 
 to God; if only we could it would be such a 
 satisfaction; but Harry you can never see the 
 friends and loved ones who have their reward 
 in Heaven with God; because Harry, it is 
 like this, like a child who has never sinned, 
 who does not know sin, yet he or she stands 
 near to a sinner and delights in his work be- 
 cause he knows not. It is sin, so with you 
 — you could be with us if you were able to 
 be like us, without sin ; and if you were able to 
 give up the flesh of mortality but your world 
 life has blinded you to the glories of light and 
 love. And by a mere small reflection of us 
 who are wholly perfect, in every thing you 
 would be instantly blinded on account of your 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 69 
 
 imperfectness.* Harry under the immortal I 
 am going to bring in flowers and music. Your 
 earth flowers are immortal as they are the 
 shading and coloring of God's mercy, the 
 music of your earth, the faint sweet echo of 
 God's voice. Your flowers of earth are im- 
 mortal, they have a soul, for their soul is 
 God's soul. With any other soul they couldn't 
 be so beautiful to behold and so tranquilizing 
 to the mind. Your earth flowers bloom, die, 
 and are born again in Heaven, where they 
 reach a perfectness, for as soon as they reach 
 Heaven, God recalls his soul again to Him- 
 self and gives to them an individual soul of 
 their own, that is the mystery about flowers. 
 Why God does this I do not know, but I do 
 think He wished to put His soul on earth in 
 the form of flowers to make your home beau- 
 tiful, and to see if you would recognize His 
 presence. 
 
 God loves music, for God is music, and 
 music is immortal ; music is God's presence, 
 his word to the world. If ever in your time 
 you have been in the woods, alone, sitting ?r\d 
 thinking about the different incidents in your 
 life and all at once you seem to hear a far off 
 peal of music, it thrills your soul, for your 
 soul knows that sound and responds to it ; yet 
 you do not know it, you hardly believe you 
 have heard it ; you go on with your cares and 
 troubles thinking not much of this little inci- 
 dent or day-dream as you call it. 
 
 ♦When you look at the sun you are blinded by 
 its brightness, should you look at us you would be 
 blinded by our perfectness. 
 
RESULT OF EDUCATION ON SOULS 
 HEREAFTER 
 
 Question : What effect has education on the 
 after-life? 
 
 The result of education is a result on the 
 conscious mind, from that mind to the sub- 
 conscious mind (the soul) ; so you see edu- 
 cation affects the soul, here and hereafter. 
 Education, the good education of surrounding 
 environment of the senses, feeds the mind and 
 produces results on the subconscious mind. 
 For instance, as a seed planted in the ground, 
 although one does not know what color the 
 blossom will be. He images this and that, he 
 pictures a large blossom, or a small one and in- 
 numerable different sizes of leaves, and waits 
 anxiously the blossom. It roots, grows, blos- 
 soms, and behold, he has a flower more beau- 
 tiful that he could image and not in the least 
 like the one he pictured in his mind. So with 
 education, it presents to the conscious mind a 
 definite fact, a fact that seems right, sound 
 in perspective, and mathematical, the con- 
 scious comes to a decision as to its worth or 
 rightness ; but then, the sub-conscious mind 
 takes it up and strains it, sifts it, and behold 
 Harry, another plant altogether different in 
 principle ; so in this way the subconscious mind 
 is enlightened, made refined, brightened. So 
 in the pathway of the soul, education acts as 
 a stimulant, very, very strong. 
 
 The first plane (the preparatory plane) needs 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 71 
 
 as you know now, Harry, wisdom, and if the 
 soul is not as far advanced as it ought to be, 
 the stay is longer here, while on the other hand 
 if the soul is advanced the stay is less long, 
 the second plane, (the earth plane) here is 
 where the soul reaches its highest point of 
 completion before it connects with its mate ; 
 understand Harry, the soul is complete after 
 rebirth, but the completion is in a larger sense 
 when one passes to the second plane. The 
 third plane (the inventive plane) is where the 
 soul has all its chance to show its inventive 
 powers ; of course Harry, if one is not in- 
 clined this way the soul reaches its comple- 
 tion, its mate, on second plane. 
 
 Inventions are made through wisdom, which 
 is education, maybe earth education or in- 
 spired education from Heaven. So if the soul 
 has experienced education on earth its per- 
 fectness is reached in a greater sense here. An 
 educated soul, a soul with a body and mind 
 educated on earth has many more duties here 
 as a guide or chief worker of God. 
 
 Education affects the soul as a cleaning 
 liquid does a material on which it is used, as 
 Harry, we will say a silver pitcher is washed, 
 scoured, sealed and looks like new, you could 
 not imagine it to look better, not until per- 
 haps a neighbor or selling agent has sold you 
 some substance with which to clean it better, 
 you try it and the pitcher looks twice as well, 
 more than you could possibly conceive, yet 
 before the pitcher looked 100% par, but now 
 it is over par. 
 
72 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 Some supposition Harry but it makes it 
 clear. 
 
 Education is like a beautiful plate glass win- 
 dow, we will say the soul is the window and 
 education the ray of sun shining on it. How 
 much more beautiful and how much more 
 costly it appears. 
 
 Question: How about my reading? 
 
 Your readings Harry are of the very best, 
 I could even say they are destined readings, 
 your books are very helpful, you will realize 
 it when you have come to live with us. 
 
 Your books are like a time table or railroad 
 map to the stranger; he would be lost or be- 
 wildered without it. 
 
 The following message relating to the soul 
 and sudden death, came to us one night while 
 we were talking with Clara, and in the fol- 
 lowing manner : 
 
 Clara was sending in messages in answer 
 to various questions about which we asked 
 and in course of her answers we would occa- 
 sionally get the word Smith ; this occurred so 
 frequently that I finally asked her who this 
 Smith was, and she answered that he was an 
 American soldier killed instantly on the battle- 
 field at Chateau-Thierry; that he wished to 
 send in a communication to his mother, and 
 that she (Clara) was going to allow him to 
 talk. His communication is as follows : Hello 
 Harry ! This is Joe Smith. You don't know 
 me but I would like to talk to mother so, if 
 I only could. I heard about you from your 
 grandfather and mother. My mother lived in 
 New Orleans. I was killed in war and mother 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 73 
 
 oh ! mother did not know until after a long 
 while ; if she knew how happy I am she would 
 be so glad. I was killed in Chateau-Thierry, 
 both legs shot off and killed instantly by a 
 mine explosion. Killed instantly. Can I tell 
 you about that Harry? 
 
 I knew I was going somewhere five minutes 
 before the Germans struck the mine. I knew 
 I was going somewhere for I saw a light in 
 the sky, and in the eyes of one of my friends ; 
 he whispered to me, "Joe we are going some- 
 where this time I know." I didn't know 
 where but I felt strong, clean, big and good. 
 We were advancing when the mine was 
 struck. I had my dog with me too ; my pal 
 said to me when we were running along under 
 fierce fire, "Joe we're done for," but he said 
 it as though he was glad, and I wondered why 
 he would say it in that way, but I knew I felt 
 it just the same. 
 
 Well, we were advancing, running slow and 
 it was raining like the deuce, I felt as though 
 the muddy, rough ground under me was like 
 a carpet and my poor tired feet were so soft 
 and felt so good. A few minutes before the 
 mine was hit I knew, Harry, I knew I was go- 
 ing home, and I thought of my mother just be- 
 fore I was by-sected into the winds of air, but 
 in a quicker time, why, so quick that you could 
 not count it, I saw a wonderful light by me 
 and I knew I had reached what they call 
 Heaven. I looked around and hundreds of 
 our men had been blown to pieces. There was 
 no jar, I cannot remember the terrible sound 
 of the explosion or the jar. I thought it was 
 
74 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 so strange that when I had experienced so 
 many mines on earth and heard them, their 
 awful rumble and crash, that I did not hear 
 this one, but I have been taught that your ears 
 just before death are numb to the noises of 
 earth and opened to Heaven. I said I knew I 
 was going home, but I expected to see God by 
 me ; I did not, but I saw a light that closed 
 my eyes, and I felt as though I was rising 
 slowly, softy, gently to the skies and slowly, 
 softly, gently back agani. I remember when 
 my feet touched the battle-field again, I opened 
 my eyes and a man I thought was God (but 
 I see it was not) was there with me and my 
 boys. Some of our boys were alive yet and 
 many men were tending them. I thought that 
 I had never seen those men in our company, 
 but I now know that they were people, good 
 people from here ; they nursed the ones who 
 are going to Heaven soon. When I saw all 
 the bodies and pieces lying around I felt what 
 you would say a little faint, and I wanted my 
 gun, the piece of it, so I picked it up and the 
 man by my side smiled at me. I felt so light, 
 so queer but so good, and I left the world. He 
 told me just before I left to look upward; I 
 did and my eyes went closed. I floated up, up, 
 until I reached this world. I asked the man 
 who took me from earth why, just before the 
 mine exploded, I felt that rising feeling, and 
 my guide, that is what we call them, said, 
 "just before an instant death, the soul leaves 
 the body and floats up until the time is over, 
 the time of explosion is over, then it is right 
 by the body again." I asked why; he said, 
 
LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 75 
 
 "to avoid the soul being shocked or jarred;" 
 that is why Harry you feel no jar or tremble, 
 or shock at this kind of death. When my 
 guide came after me and we were going home, 
 I noticed he knew everything, I thought, "Gee 
 but I have to be careful." I thought to myself 
 "who in blazes are you" and quick as thought 
 he answered me, hardly before I had com- 
 pleted my thought ; Gee, Harry, it struck me 
 like a blow, then I caught on ; he smiled and 
 said "I knew you would see." I asked him to 
 show his goods and he created a number of 
 things on the battle-field, that the workers 
 there did not see or notice and walked right 
 through them ; and then I knew he was a real 
 angel. You see I got cheated out of every- 
 thing on earth and I wasn't going to take any 
 chances. He told me every death was dif- 
 ferent in that respect, but always without fear 
 or shock. 
 
 I asked my guide if I had to stew for a 
 month ; he laughed and said no, not unless I 
 wanted to eat a great deal, then I could cook 
 my own meals. I do eat; all do not, but I 
 like to, they say I will get over it. 
 
 I have learned now, that when a man is to 
 be killed instantly, he realizes it a few minutes 
 before he goes ; I mean knows he is done for, 
 and that so it will not scare him, so that he 
 will not take fright. 
 
 Would it be possible for a man to die so 
 suddenly that he would not receive a warn- 
 ing? 
 
 No ! No ! No ! There is no time here. If he 
 
76 LEAVES FROM HEAVEN 
 
 was killed quicker than thought, he would 
 know it. 
 
 CLARA 
 
 What are the stepping stones to succes in 
 life and God? 
 
 Hope! Hope! Tranquility! Hope! Content- 
 ment ! Hope ! Deep thinking, always saying, 
 I can, I will, I must, I am, and love, love, love. 
 
 The last evening that we talked, Ethel was 
 returning home the next day. We had received 
 this book and m'fciny messages of a personal 
 nature beside. I asked Clara if there was any 
 last message she wished to send before we 
 parted; she would not say goodbye, but sent 
 in the following message : 
 
 If I were able to feel sorrow or pain, Harry, 
 my soul would ache at this parting for so 
 long, but I cannot and you shall not; I am so 
 glad I can talk to you, and help you and let 
 you know of us ; if only more could do it ! 
 Think of poor Smith, he wants to talk to his 
 mother, and he is going to if we can put it 
 through.