Spread Your Love Everywhere

An address from Brother Bernard

Recorded in a Church in Witney on the 15th January 1992

Good evening friends.

It is with joy that we come into your midst once again to leave with you one or two thoughts that might be of help to you, or that might be of hindrance to you. But, in any event, we hope that what we are able to say to you will strike a chord somewhere. Of course you need not agree with what we say, we do not mind.

Remember that each one of you, functioning in an Earth body, is an individual, an individual soul, and you are at an individual stage of progress, if you like, of evolution, of development; whatever word you like to use for it. But you are at a different stage from every other person upon Earth and, may we add, every other soul in the Spirit World, and in the other worlds that are beyond yours. You know that from a physical point of view each person on the earth plane is individual. The nearest that you have to it is when you have identical twins but, even there, there are differences between them; and so it is with you as Spiritual beings.

Your Earth body is different and so is your soul. But you have got to remember the importance of being an individual; of being somebody different from everybody else. After all, in your Earthly world, everything of note that has taken place; every discovery that has been made; every advance that your scientists have made or that your explorers have discovered; every new idea has started in one person. As an idea in one persons mind. Even though the idea at the beginning seems to be very trivial, unimportant perhaps, yet, if that idea is developed, if it grows, if it spreads from person to person, then that idea eventually can change a whole nation; can change a whole generation of beings.

You come to the earth plane in order to learn. You do not come in order to become perfect. While you are in a body of matter you are subject to the conditions of that matter. And, as you are born into a particular family, so you have a set of genes that decide the sort of person that you are: how long you are going to live upon the earth plane, whether you are going to succeed in what you have determined before you come or whether you are going to fail. You have got to remember that while you are on the Earth, while you are in a body of matter, you are learning.

Sometimes that learning can be very simple, very straightforward. But sometimes it seems as though it is necessary for you to undergo sever ordeals and trials and, at times, you find that you seem to have lost your faith, your believe in God, your trust in your fellow men and women, and life seems to you to be a very dark, black place. But, through it all, you have to remember that you are a spark of God. That within you there is Spirit and that Spirit is manifest in everything that has life.

You have been listening to a reading about visits to a Museum, comparing those with your journeys upon Earth. You would not expect your five year old child to go the depths of the Museum and to study and to learn the things that Professors have thought about and have written about. You realise, in your Earth life, that the lessons that you have to learn have to be adjusted to your stage of development and what you may read you may not always understand but some things will strike a chord within you. Some things will seem to you to be completely straightforward and you cannot understand why somebody else cannot see them as you do.

We often say that if the whole of life on the earth plane consisted of good and evil, of black and white, that life would be a simple matter; but you know that it isn't. You know that throughout your life there are shades of grey. That there are decisions that have to be made where there seems to be no clear-cut solution. You know that there are occasions when you find yourself completely at a loss as to what you should do, or what you should not do, and it isn't a question of dealing with good or evil, with black or white. It is a question of looking at the situation as a whole and trying to decide what is best, not only for your own development, but for those who are around you. And, taking the simile further, what is best for those in your village, in your town, in your country.

As you come to Earth so you bring with you vague memories of the life that you lived before you came into a body. Sometime you have vague memories of previous lives upon the earth plane in different Earth bodies. Sometimes you look at the puzzles that there are on Earth and you wonder why. Why should there be children born into the world to die within a very short while, why should there be so much suffering, why should there be so much misery, why should parts of your Earth world consist of people who have too much and others parts of people who have too little? How can you work? How can you do anything to alter the state of affairs in your earth plane?

Perhaps from a practical point of view there isn't much that you can do. But one of the ways in which you can help is to send out your prayers, to send out your thoughts, to send out your love, to look for the good there is in all parts of your world, to appreciate the beauties of Nature, to play your part as best you can to bring about more understanding of the World of Nature, to prevent some of the tragedies that are occurring the length and breadth of your world.

We want to say to you that however black things seem, however dark your world appears to you to be, there is hope because men are beginning to understand, men are beginning to question. They are beginning to realise that man cannot live by bread alone. He needs the things of the Spirit as well, and the mere fact that he is beginning to understand what his actions have been doing to your material world is a sign of hope for the future. Each one of you could play a part in that. Where you see destruction going on of the Earth's bounties you can add your protest to those that are already made. You can play your part by taking part in your town's affairs, by exercising your vote when voting day comes round, by doing the little things that come to your hand and by doing them knowing that you are buiding a better world, or should we say starting to build it because it will take a very long while before it really is better.

Your Earth is a very beautiful place. It has many beauties in it, it has many joys in it, it has much goodness, and that is what we want you to look for. To look for the goodness that there is. The good that is in other people, the good that is in your Government, that is in your country, the good that is trying to work in the far corners of world.

As we come down to you, we call it coming down but really it is just coming through from another stage of existence, we feel for you. We sense your thoughts, we understand the despair that attacks so many of you. But we do want to assure you that the Earth is in a state of flux, a state of movement, but it is a place where people come in order to learn. And the lessons that they take with them when they leave their body behind are lessons that will stand them in good stead in whatever guise they go forward. As you leave the earth plane, as you take the experiences that you have gained upon Earth, as you weave them into one glorious array for when you go to Spirit, so you will take with you the thoughts of many, many people on your earth plane.

People want to work, they want to join with Spirit. They want to give help, but so often they don't know how to start. It is up to you, each one of you, as Spiritualists, as people who know something about the continuety of life. It is up to you to spread the word, to speak to those with whom you come into contact, to tell them about the continuety of life and the progress that is open to every soul.

We leave you with a blessing praying that each one of you will go out and act as messengers spreading the good that you know, putting the evil to one side, sending your love to wherever it is needed. And that is everywhere.

Goodnight and God bless you all.