The Universal Truth

The Heavenly Spheres—Character of Residents in Each, and Their Occupations* was written by Martha Washington, using the mediumship of M. J. Upham Hendee. This communication from the spirit world was commenced in 1876 and written in sections, at different sittings, extending into January 1877.

I come today, writes Martha, from my heavenly home to try and arouse the minds of honest, earnest people, to trust their whole soul to the divine inherent principle which would guide them aright, were they to trust God more fully, by receiving his intentions as manifested to them by impressions, and not resist the Holy Ghost, as is written in the Bible teachings of old. The Holy Ghost is the true spirit of God, which manifests itself to man in all his walks of life, and which has been denied, misunderstood, and thereby driven away. The Nazarene often spoke of his spirit and urged upon his Apostles to listen to its voice. Learn then to listen to the still, small voice which speaks when all is still in the silent chambers of the soul. It is the infinite speaking to the inner mind. It is only by the finest sensation that mortal can distinguish the voice of God. Sometimes He speaks to the sensitive man so that the spirit vibrates through the nerves of the physical being. These impressions are the soul's language. Often spirits of the departed who are speaking to the spirits of mortals, converse by these impressions; were they understood and allowed to guide, they would be found true monitors. Spirit communion has been denied until the world has become a cold, lifeless body, with the spark of life nearly quenched, but the united effort of the angel world has broken the chains of darkness and doubt from thousands of earth's children, and caused the link binding the two worlds to be welded, until there can be no more separation. By degrees, the universal truth of man's future life will be so fully revealed, that all shall know God or infinite wisdom from the least unto the greatest; as Jesus said, the light has truly come into the world,  and its magnitude will be known.

When once released from the material and become free independent beings, and established in full spiritual identity, we commence to learn the true conditions of life, unclogged by its earthly texture which has so closely held us, that we have only had faint glimpses of the inner chambers of our soul's home. It is then that we commence to realise our condition in the new field of labour and investigation, retaining of our former life, only that we can apply to our needs and happiness. Thus the progress of the soul is never delayed, for the golden chain is still linked with time and eternity, holding the spirit while it is materially clothed—retaining its attractions through all changes, drawing the soul ever upwards to its divine soul home.

We have come back from our heavenly visit to the home of the blest, with a yearning desire to proclaim to the world the gospel of light, and awaken it to a new revelation regarding their future abode. As we come we find so many in the darkness of superstition—fears—doubts—awed into acquiescence to material teachings of punishment after death; all of which have produced a dwarfed race, whose souls have shrunken, and now find it impossible to live a full life as designed by the heavenly Father.

But clear and beautiful shall spiritual things become to the children of earth when they learn to receive the gifts God, the Father, gives to bless the world, and sustain the beings called to occupy and enjoy them. All things coming from the infinite source are beautiful and adapted in perfect harmony to the use designed. The darkness and obscurity which has so long blinded the world has been caused by the teachings of an offended Deity, instead of a full and free confidence in the unbounded love of a divine Father, whose omnipotent wisdom has given life, liberty and growth to all. As the sun of day rises and shines upon your earth, so does the love of the Infinite power illuminate all, giving life, and childlike confidence. Amid the scenes of our spiritual unfolding we behold the divine life—the divinity of all things—the soul germs of the eternal, and find that all had a true type at the time of taking form of expression on coming into earthly conditions to be clothed upon in the expressed form of material existence, thereby moulding the spirit body preparatory to its departure for the different spheres. Therefore, all types must be represented in separate order, to be classified in their appropriate condition. It is this twofold divine arrangement of spirit and matter that gives beauty and sublimity to all both infinite and finite, the law is so perfect that neither man or Deity can change it. It is marked by the highest infinity, and all must be subject to its law; without it, all would be chaos; with it, all is perfect harmony in the grand reflex of its perfect grandeur. As we allow principles of intelligence supremacy—you may call it God or infinite wisdom clothed with an embodiment as significant of power—we care not what it is called; we know this, that we find it a fountain of light, love, intelligence; power with order and harmony embodied with heat, life and growth. We find matter worlds or planets and stars, whose fixed position renders them  habitable, and all controlled by one and the same, and call it God; for it pervades all things, and is therefore deific. From these material conditions, we change to the spiritual, passing through sphere after sphere until we are received into the seventh where we are freed from all material condition that has retarded our progress toward that illimitable sphere of soul life where the fullest love and unbounded joy awaits the perfected soul. This is the acme of life—the soul centre of God's love—a fountain of eternal joy from which radiations are ever expanding toward all spheres; a world whose atmosphere is tinged with roseate hues—where rarest music is chanted through the sylvan glades, and the echoing vespers make harmony which fills the soul with joy, where fountains of life are ever flowing, and where eternal beauty reigns supreme. I feel, friend, that my pen through this medium fails to convey to your mind the wondrous beauty and exaltation of this blessed soul home, where in dreamy love, all former life, whether earthly or spiritual, passes before you; where yon may add to your store of knowledge, and realise that you still may clasp the old loved friends and know that they are ever yours; realise that like children, we may forever wander amid the fragrant flowers and perfumed glades, or soar to towering mountain tops, without fatigue, to view the vast expanse of ether blue, touched with golden, fleecy clouds floating over this Summerland home of souls' eternal rest. We have tried to define the true principles of all existence to your understanding, having done the best we could through this medium of communication, and must now close this, to me, interesting moment of expressing my experience in sphere life to the children of earth, even though it be in this crude form. We have taken you through the different phases of our progress in spirit lands and hope our faint and imperfect description of soul home may prove a blessing to those yet in the mortal form. Now, dear friend, 1 must leave with the fraternal blessing of those who have given into your hands brief description of our heavenly home, George Washington, Mary, his beloved mother, and I, his soul partner in all the joys and sorrows of his earthly life, and still united with him in all his spiritual

gifts, begging that you will call ourselves fraternally your guides.

MARTHA WASHINGTON

* The Heavenly Spheres Character of Residents in Each and Their Occupations, Martha Washington, San Francisco, 1877

The Washington Family—Edward Savage (1761—1817)—National Gallery of Art