[PAGE 75]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

                                  CHAPTER V

                       THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

   Jimmie  and Louise awaited the opening of the door with similar  forebod-
ings.   Louise  did not believe a single word of the wonderful  story  which
Jimmie had told her, though she was firmly convinced that Jimmie himself be-
lieved it.  Jimmie on the other hand, with his vivid memory of the adventure
was certain that it had really happened,  but was distrustful of the outcome
of this physical and concrete test,  and was wondering what excuse he  could
give if, as he feared, the house should prove to be tenanted by strangers.

   Louise  expected the door to be opened by an ordinary concierge and  that
the inevitable disillusionment would follow;  she was trying to determine in
her own mind what she could say to help Jimmie over his disappointment.

   Jimmie  feared much the same thing and was casting about for  a  possible
reason to give Louise for the collapse of his peculiar vision and was  find-
ing himself quite unsuccessful in the attempt, when the door opened.


[PAGE 76]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   Before them,  with a welcoming and slightly quizzical smile as though  he
had  in  some way divined their perplexities,  stood the man of  his  dream,
identical in every particular of dress and feature with the strange and pow-
erful being who had become familiar to him in the Land of the Living Dead by
the appellation of the "Elder Brother."

   Mutely accepting his cordial invitation they entered a well furnished li-
brary and were seated.   Not until then did Jimmie recover sufficiently from
his  bewilderment to introduce his companion.   With some  embarrassment  he
presented Mr.  Campion to Miss Louise Clayton, with the brief statement that
Miss  Clayton was the nurse who had taken care of him during  his  recovery;
that he had told her of his great adventure,  and had asked her to accompany
him on this expedition.

   "I am very glad that you did so, Lieutenant Westman, for Miss Clayton was
selected  as your nurse for several reasons, not the least of which was  the
fact that she is quite an advanced soul and it was determined that the  work
of re-integrating your vital body would be more easily and quickly done with
her  help  than  through any other o the available nurses.   You  see,  Miss
Clayton,  I am quite well acquainted with you though we have never  met  be-
fore."


[PAGE 77]                                     THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

   Louise  answered politely and somewhat formally but was unable  to  quite
conceal her incredulity at the statement which Mr. Campion had made.

   "Nevertheless," Mr. Campion continued as though answering some objection,
"you were selected and the wisdom of the choice is apparent  in the  result.
You  have  a  strong  and  well developed  aura,  and  your  vibrations  are
harmonious,  owing to certain stellar combinations of which you are probably
unaware;  that was a great help when Jimmie here (I am not going to call him
Lieutenant) was recovering consciousness.   You will,  perhaps remember that
as you bent over him to make out what he was mumbling,  he asked you why you
didn't  glow and where your aura was and then immediately apologized by  as-
suring you that you DID glow?"

   Louise  was  perplexed.   No one else had been present to  overhear  that
whispered conversation.  The head nurse had not been out of the hospital and
so could not have hunted up this man and told him of it, besides she had not
told  the head nurse much and had not spoken of it at all to any  one  else.
Jimmie she was sure, had not been out of the hospital grounds except the one
time when they had almost quarreled.   Could he have written to this man  or
was  the man a mind reader?   If Jimmie had written,  then he was  deceiving
her.  If  the  man  was  a mind reader, then he was an uncannily shrewd one.


[PAGE 78]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

She did not know what to say and so kept silent, but her glances roved about
the room.

   Mr. Campion spoke:

   "Miss Clayton,  you will pardon me, I am sure,  if I endeavor to set your
mind at rest and,  incidentally, Jimmie's also.  In doing so it will be nec-
essary to make some statements which cannot be proved to you now and the ex-
planation of which would require too much time, so I am going to ask you  to
hear me patiently and reserve your judgment until later.

   "To begin with, I must assure you that you are not the victim of any pre-
pared plot and that Jimmie has not written to me nor did the head nurse give
a second thought to what you told her."  Louise looked up quickly,  her eyes
wide with wonder.  "The, too, your surprise at meeting a mind reader without
the usual trappings of his trade was perfectly natural.

   "There  are here none of the customary paraphernalia of the  professional
wonder worker, and you looked in vain for skulls and stuffed owls and somber
drapery.   I assure you that while mind reading is not at all  difficult  to
the trained occultist,  yet I was not reading your mind when I spoke of your
few words with Jimmie when he regained consciousness.   I know what you said
because I was there at the time--"

   Louise looked up,  again with a gesture of surprise, and started to speak
but remembered his request.


[PAGE 79]                                     THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

   "I  was there,  although you did not see me and I followed you  when  you
went to make your report to the head nurse.   If you remember,  she was sit-
ting  at a desk writing and when you spoke to her you were alone in the  of-
fice with her.   She did not turn around but merely stopped writing when you
spoke to her.   Then she answered you, 'I don't think there is such a thing,
child.'   Also, as you passed out of the office you met two orderlies bring-
ing in a wounded man on a stretcher and just then one of them stumbled.  You
thought  he  was  going to drop his burden and you gave a  little  gasp  and
started forward--There!" he smiled at her.  "I think I have fully exonerated
our friend here, for he could not have written me these things."

   Louise made an inimitably graceful little gesture of surrender.

   "And now for the reason underlying all these strange doings.   The  human
race is made of a multitude of individual spirits who are evolving or learn-
ing  by repeated rebirths into physical bodies on the physical plane,  where
they  learn to obey the great laws of our Father in heaven just as  children
learn their lessons day by day in school.  In this great scheme of evolution
we are subject to the operation of two great laws:  First,  that of rebirth,
which brings us back to the concrete physical world again and again, in con-
stantly, though slowly improving bodies and surroundings.  Second the law of


[PAGE 80]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

consequence  which  decrees that we must suffer the natural results  of  our
mistakes,  which are usually called sins, even though many lives  may  some-
times intervene between the mistake and its result.

   "In order that this period of birth and death and learning and  suffering
may be shortened,  as much help as possible is given the race by great hosts
of  spiritual  being  who have themselves passed  through  similar  schools.
There  are  times (just as there are examinations in every school),  when  a
turning point in evolution is reached, and the race is, as we might say, ex-
amined or quizzed to see which classes of entities are worth of promotion.

   "This great war is the most tremendous turning point yet reached in human
evolution, and the need of the race for help and instruction is greater than
ever  before.   Help can be given in some respects more effectively  by  ad-
vanced  members of the same race,  and for that reason many individuals  are
being promoted just now for the assistance and teachings which they are able
to give.  The need is tremendous--much more so than either you or Jimmie re-
alize,  and  it was because of this fact that Jimmie was sent  back  to  the
physical life, for he would otherwise have remained permanently on the other
side.   It is for this reason that you have been brought here with  him  for
you must not think that it  is  the custom of occultists to give displays of


[PAGE 81]                                     THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

power merely in order to entertain people.

   "You and Jimmie are both advanced souls (I am not saying this to  flatter
either  of you) and in a few more lives would naturally reach the  point  to
which it is hoped you will presently attain in this life if you are  willing
to  work.   Help will be given you,  but you must remember the words of  the
Master that 'Unto whom much is given, of him much will be required.'  So the
choice  of  engaging in the work must be a purely voluntary one and  not  be
made lightly,  for as the benefit is great if we receive this teaching  wor-
thily, so is the danger great if we receive the same unworthily."

   Jimmie and Louise glanced at each other, both recognizing the allusion to
that beautiful sentence in the communion service.  Jimmie spoke:

   "You said something to me before, sir, about the great work,  but you did
not say what it was."

   "No.   For some time it was uncertain whether your etheric body could  be
re-integrated in time,  and when that was accomplished there was no opportu-
nity for instruction."

   For more than an hour Mr. Campion went on, telling them about the differ-
ent planes of being and the different bodies corresponding to those  planes,
and outlining the work of the Invisible Helpers with both the living and the
dead.  Louise and Jimmie listened  with  wonder which gradually changed into


[PAGE 82]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

awe as the tremendous Plan was sketched out for them.   Never had they heard
the like of it and yet it all seemed strangely familiar, just as though they
ought to have know it anyway.   As Mr.  Campion proceeded and showed how  it
all fitted in with the Scriptures and particularly with the words spoken  by
the  Christ,  explaining the parables and throwing light into the  dark  and
hidden places,  Louise began to realize that all her doubts were swept  away
and  felt ashamed that her mind had ever harbored them.   No longer did  she
think of "proofs."   No proofs were needed.   No man,  however great,  could
have invented such a scheme as this.  Not even mr. Campion,  mind reader and
occultist or whatever he was, could have originated such a complicated,  in-
terlocking plan.  He did not need to assure her that it was true.   She KNEW
it though she did not realize how she knew it.  It bore the imprint and sig-
nature of Divinity itself.

   Jimmie,  too, had listened, absorbed.  The things Mr. Campion was telling
them  explained  some of the apparent contradictions which he  had  observed
during his brief stay on the other side, and when the theory and practice of
attaining the freedom of the other planes of being were detailed,  he  began
to  understand that it really is not necessary to die in order to prove  im-
mortality.


[PAGE 83]                                     THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

   "But why was it,  then,"  he asked, "if there is all this hard work to be
done on the other side--why was so much trouble taken to send me back?"

   "Because  the crying need is for those on this side of the veil who  know
the  fact of immortality,  who have visited the other country and  have  re-
turned, who are willing and able to make their knowledge known, who can com-
fort the dying and more especially those who are left behind.   The need  is
for those who can say, 'I know,' as well as, "I believe.'"

   "Then if I persist in the exercises you have outlined,  you think that  I
can develop my spiritual sight?"

   "Undoubtedly you can,  and while I must not influence you one way or  the
other,  since the choice must be of your own free will,  yet you know how  I
long  to  meet you again as a volunteer in the Great Army in which  you  are
enlisted anyhow."

   Jimmie felt that it was a very serious moment.   He wanted to help.   His
heart  flowed  out in sympathy with those who are suffering  and  dying  and
yet--yet--that thing of "living the life"--could he do it?  When he got back
to  his regiment and his company--could he keep it up?   Then a doubt  crept
into his mind.  Mr. Campion had said, or had as good as said,  that in sleep
almost every one helps,  more or less,  so why could he not do whatever  was
possible during conscious hours and trust  to being an unconscious invisible


[PAGE 84]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

helper during sleep?

   Mr.  Campion sat watching them.  Louise was looking at him but not watch-
ing him.  Her eyes had that "far away" expression which showed that her mind
was busy with other things, as quickly became evident when she spoke.

   "Please tell me,  Mr.  Campion, if you will, just why the embodied worker
who  has the freedom of the other planes is so much more valuable  than  the
disembodied  worker  or the worker who cannot consciously visit  the  higher
worlds--does it not have something to do with the will power?"

   "You have the idea,  Miss Clayton.  The embodied worker has a power which
the same man, having lost his body by death does not have.   The explanation
is  a long one but you have come very near the mark when you speak  of  will
power.  Also, the worker on the other side is dealing largely with those who
have just passed over,  whose day in school is done, and whose period of re-
viewing  the physical life has commenced.   The worker on this side  of  the
veil,  however,  may be able to influence the lives of many causing them  to
refrain from things which they otherwise would do,  and to avoid much of the
pain  of  purgatory by leaving undone actions which would bring  on  them  a
great debt of destiny."

   Jimmie  and  Louise walked back to the hospital very quietly.   Each  was
busy thinking and their occasional intervals  of conversation were to review


[PAGE 85]                                     THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

some of the things Mr. Campion had said.

   Just before they reached the big gate Louise spoke:

   "Jimmie!  I have a confession to make."

   "What is it?"

   "Do you know,  before we went into that house I really did not think that
your adventure was anything but imagination.   I thought it was just one  of
those 'shell shock' dreams."

   "I was afraid you did."

   "But you needn't be afraid any longer.  I believe every word of it now."

   The  very excusable pleasure which Jimmie showed plainly on his face  and
which arose entirely from satisfaction at having his story finally  believed
must  have caused the old French porter at the gate to draw some highly  er-
roneous conclusions--judging from the smile with which his wrinkled old face
was wreathed as Jimmie and Louise entered the hospital; or else,  it is pos-
sible, we may have failed to overhear the entire conversation.

                                    * * *

   Back  once more with his company and after the hearty greetings and  con-
gratulations  at  his escape were over, Jimmie settled down  to  the  steady
grind  of drill and training which took up a considerable part of the  time,
even though they were now in a "rest billet" behind the lines.


[PAGE 86]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   The everyday, well known affairs of the now familiar army life,  the con-
stant contact with his men and his brother officers with all of whom he  was
a prime favorite,  tended to dull the keen edge of his enthusiasm,  and pro-
saic,  commonplace thoughts usurped the place of the high ideals  and  noble
aspirations  which had so thrilled him.   The glamour of his trip  into  the
Land  of  the  Living  Dead  began  to  pale  somewhat.   Pressing,   urgent
duties--insistent,  demanding duties--claimed his time.   When drill and the
various forms of training were over, he was tired and only too willing to be
swept along with the crowd on a visit to the "Y" or some entertainment.  Al-
ways  he  tried to quiet his conscience with the promise that  he  would  do
something in earnest soon, just as he got well rested.

   In  the meantime,  as he had promised,  he kept up the  foolishly  simply
little  exercise that Mr.  Campion had given him and which he  went  through
with every night just as regularly as clockwork, though he could not see, to
save his life,  how so ridiculously elementary a thing could have any  great
effect  upon him.   It stood to reason,  he thought,  that Mr.  Campion  was
wrong,  else why should not this exercise be widely known?  Why did not some
of  the ministers of the different churches know about it and teach it?   He
knew  that some of the criticism leveled at the heads of ministers  was  de-
served, but he know that, taken as a whole and averaging them up, the minis-
ters were honest and conscientious and doing  their  best according to their


[PAGE 87]                                     THE ELDER BROTHER IN THE FLESH

light.  Why, then, did they not know of such a thing if it were really true?

   He was seated one afternoon,  writing in a corner of the "Y".   Not  many
men were there but close to?  him an elderly and somewhat overzealous secre-
tary was taking to task a little group of soldiers who were evidently remiss
in  their attendance at the services.   These men had been in battle.   They
had  seen their comrades die--wounded--blow to atoms--gassed,  gasping  with
raw  and bleeding lungs for one breath of air they could not seem to  reach.
These men had seen their friends, young, brave, with all of life before them
a broader or a deeper or a higher, at any rate, a different, attitude toward
the great enigma of life.

   The  secretary had just come over and was full of zeal to save the  souls
of these poor, lost wanderers, to snatch the brands from the burning.   They
must  come  and be saved.   They must put on salvation.   They  must  accept
Christ  or forever they would burn in hell as children of the  devil.   They
must  become converted and filled with grace before it was too late and  the
bottomless pit yawned for them with the everlasting fires and--

   "Oh, can that brimstone stuff!"

   This interruption of a new voice with an evident note of impatience in it
4dcaught Jimmie's attention and he looked around at the speaker with  inter-
est.


[PAGE 88]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

                                 CHAPTER VI

                       A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

   The  tone  of voice of the last speaker attracted the  attention  of  our
friend Jimmie and he listened with interest.

   "What--what--what do you mean?" stammered the horrified secretary.

   "Just that.   Can that everlasting fire stuff.   It isn't logical and  it
isn't  scriptural and it isn't Christian and it isn't in the  Bible  anyway,
and  a God who would act the way you say He does would be a devil and not  a
God."

   It was a tall,  lean doughboy who spoke.   The interval of silence caused
by a stupefaction of the horrified secretary,  who really could not  believe
his ears and was dumb from amazement, gave Jimmie a chance to take a hurried
glance at the group before the doughboy continued:

   "Who is God, anyhow?"

   "Who is God!   Who is God!  Oh, my poor, poor brother!  Can you be so ig-
norant as to ask that question?"

   "You bet I can!   You seem to know a lot about Him,  at least you are al-
lowing that you do.  Now tell me just who He is and what is His business."


[PAGE 89]                                     A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

   "Who is He?   Oh,  dear, dear!  With a rod of iron he rules the world and
could  break it in pieces like a potter's vessel.   He made you and He  gave
his only Son to die for you to save you from eternal damnation,  and you ask
who He is!"

   "Now listen to me, parson.  I don't mean to be unkind and I don't mean to
be irreverent, but I've been through that hell out yonder and I saw my chum,
the  finest fellow that ever wore shoe leather and the bravest man--"   here
he glared around the little circle as though challenging any one to deny the
fact--"the  bravest man that ever lived.   I saw him hit with a shell  which
took  both his legs off,  and he died right there in my arms and  he  didn't
have  a chance.   I saw him die and I've got to go back when this  thing  is
over,  if I'm alive, and tell his wife and his mother how he died.   And you
tell  me  that God made the world and rules the world and He  allows  things
like this war to happen?  Why didn't He stop it?  If He is as great and holy
as you say, why didn't He stop the men who began this thing?"

   "My poor,  poor, ignorant brother.  God did not permit this war.   It was
the devil, that great Adversary, who brought this on."

   "Then God doesn't rule the world!  He made us but He made such a poor job
He had to send His only  Son  to  die  to  save us, and even at that He only


[PAGE 90]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

saves  a few--by your own reckoning the great majority are going to hell;  I
heard  you say so when you spoke of the broad,  easy way that leads  to  de-
struction."

   "Oh,  but, my brother, that is all in the Bible.  Do you mean to deny the
Word of God?"

   "I  don't know just what I'm denying, but I don't believe the Bible  says
that at all.   I believe you go to the Bible and get out of it just what you
happen  to want to get out of it and not what the Bible wants to  give  you.
Now you listen to me for a moment and tell me if I make a mistake.   God  is
almighty.  Is that so?"

   "Yes, yes, it is indeed and--"

   "Now,  just wait a minute,  parson,  if you'll excuse me,  it's my inning
right now and I am after getting at the truth if I can.   Now to start  over
again--God is almighty--that means He is able to do anything?"

   "Yes indeed."

   "And I heard a minister say once that He is omnipotent?"

   "Yes."

   "That means that He is almighty but it means a lot more too."

   Gee!   You're a regular lawyer!"  was the admiring interjection from  an-
other soldier in the group.


[PAGE 91]                                     A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

   "Well,  I  studied  law a lot and practiced a little  too,  but  I  never
trained for this kind of a fight."

   "Now, my brother, let me give you some tracts to read--"

   "No parson,  I don't want to read any tracts.  They all shy away from the
big questions.   You began this thing and I want you to stand up like a  man
and see it through because I'm not trying to damage religion any.   I'm  re-
ally  and honestly looking for light,  but I want real  light--sunlight--not
any of your tallow candle variety.   I want to get at the truth.   I've been
in hell out there past the trenches and I've walked face to face with  death
and  so have all these boys here,  and we are looking for  truth--fact--true
truth,  not any counterfeit.  Now I am right here to tell you, parson,  that
my eternal happiness is worth just as much to me as yours is to you, and I'm
not trying to shock you--I want the truth--so do all these boys."

   "But,  bother,  I have told you.  Accept Christ--put on the Gospel  armor
and you can resist all the wiles of the enemy."

   "There you go,  parson,  evading the issue.   The questions are:   Who is
God, why did He make us, why did He allow this war to come on?"

   "Oh,  but  you are wrong.   He didn't allow it.   It is all  against  his
will--"

   "Against  His  will and He omnipotent?  No,  parson,  you've got  to  try
again."


[PAGE 92]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "But  I tell you,  bother,  you must come humbly to the throne of  grace.
Accept  Christ  with the right hand of fellowship and even now  you  may  be
saved."

   The  tall soldier looked at the secretary for a moment,  gave a sigh  and
turned away.

   "It always ends this way," he said to another of the group; "I never knew
a  parson  who could hold up his end in a real discussion with any  one  who
wants to know the real truth if there is such a thing to be known.  They al-
ways shirk and dodge.  So long, parson," he said pleasantly as he passed out
of the building.

   Jimmie hastily folded his letter,  stuck it in his pocket,  and followed.
Here, perhaps, was chance to begin on the great work.  The Elder Brother had
said  that  the work would not be forced on him but that he would  be  given
chances to work if he were in earnest.  Perhaps this was a chance.  He over-
took the man, who quietly saluted as he fell into step with him.

   "I overhead part of your talk with the secretary,"  said Jimmie,  "and  I
want to ask you,  if I may, whether you were really in earnest when you said
that you wanted to know the truth?"

   "You bet I was,  Lieutenant, but I never can get a minister to answer the
questions I want to ask, and yet them seem reasonable to me."


[PAGE 93]                                     A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

   "I  think  I  can answer your questions.  If you will  let  me  take  the
parson's place, and anyhow I think we would enjoy the discussion."

   "All right, sir."

   The tone was a resigned one,  and Jimmie sensed the situation.   The tall
soldier  had told the truth when he said that he wanted light but  was  dis-
gusted at the idea that a very youthful second lieutenant should take up the
scanty leisure of a tired soldier with a lot of useless discussion on a sub-
ject of which he must be completely ignorant.   He (the soldier) had applied
frequently  for  light  to the regularly  appointed  light-bearers  and  had
received--darkness.  For this second lieutenant to presume to have what none
of  the  ministers  had was like a grammar school boy offering  to  teach  a
major-general  the  rudiments of strategy.  However,  the tall  soldier  was
good-natured and decided to put with the affliction for a few minutes to see
what the lieutenant had to say.

   Jimmie said after a little awkward silence:

   "You know,  I felt sorry for that poor secretary back there; you put some
hard questions to him."

   The tall soldier chuckled:

   "They did kinda get his goat, didn't they?"

   "They sure did.  Yet the answers are very simple."

   "I wish you'd give them."

   "Well--ask your questions."

   "Is there a life after death?"

   "Yes."


[PAGE 94]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   "How do you know?"

   "Because I've been there and come back."

   "Gee!  You scored that time, maybe.  But here's another:  How do you know
that you've been there and come back?"

   "I  thought  you would ask that question.  I know that I have  been  over
there  and come back because I have met and talked with people there whom  I
knew in earth life,  and also because I met and talked with a man there whom
I  had never known before but who had not laid aside his physical body,  and
by  following  his instructions I have met him in the physical  body  after-
wards.   Still,  I fully recognize the fact that what is proof to me is  not
proof to you,  because you have only my word for it; and even if you knew me
well  and did not doubt my word,  yet there is a large margin for  error  of
judgment,  so that strictly speaking there can be no 'proof'  for you except
through your own experience.   But, there may be a secondary proof,  circum-
stantial evidence as you might say, which would be ten times more convincing
'proof' than anything I might tell you, even if you did not doubt my word."

   "Just what do you mean?"

   "I  mean this:   You have been told from your childhood that there  is  a
God,  that He is wisdom, knowledge, love, etc.  You see certain facts in the
world around you which you find hard to  reconcile with such an idea of God.


[PAGE 95]                                     A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

You see injustice,  misery, war, pain, sorrow, parting; you see some who are
lucky  all  their lives and some who are unlucky through no fault  of  their
own.  You see all these things and you naturally want to know why they exist
in a world which has been created by a Being whose name is love.  Since they
do  exist and since they are not the evidences of love,  you argue that  God
either does not exist at all or that He is lacking in some of the attributes
you have always ascribed to Him or that there is a Rival Power of  darkness,
almost, if not quite, as powerful as God.  Is that not so?"

   "That's the case exactly, Lieutenant."

   "You ask for the reasons why such things are allowed in the world and you
are  met  with evasions and platitudes which show you that the men  who  are
supposed  to  know most about the things of God are really  as  ignorant  as
yourself  but not always honest enough to admit it.   They  believe  certain
things on what seems to you to be insufficient evidence,  and they wish  you
to  believe  just what they do but are wholly unable to answer any  of  your
questions and even resent the asking of the questions.  Yet the whole matter
becomes  plain  as day when you realize that we are  all  evolving  spirits,
parts  of  God just as the Bible says,  who are growing  in  experience  and
knowledge  and power through living many lives on earth one  after  another.
We are subject to two great laws, first,  that  of  rebirth  which brings us


[PAGE 96]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

back again and again to life on the physical plane, and second, that of con-
sequence which decrees that we must reap just what we sow--again just as the
Bible tells us.   In between our earth lives we are in another state of con-
sciousness in which the experience of the past life is incorporated into our
spirit as conscience.  Sin is the result of ignorance of God's laws, and the
resultant  suffering in time teaches us how to obey these laws,  just  as  a
child that has burnt its finger learns to avoid a hot stove.   But some  are
fortunate because they have progressed farther on the path of evolution than
others,  have learned more lessons, and are able to live more nearly accord-
ing  to God's law.   Others are unfortunate because in past lives they  have
done wrong and have laid up more of a debt;  or rather because they have not
progressed  as  far upon the path of evolution and so have not paid  off  as
many of their debts, for no one in all God's universe is called upon to suf-
fer anything which he has not deserved by his actions in the past;  but  you
must  remember that the past extends over hundreds of lives.   In the  great
scheme of human evolution there are great turning points where extra help is
given.   This war is one of those points and was allowed to come on  because
the race was becoming bogged in materialism, and a great shock was needed to
turn the thought of humanity back to the only real thing in the world, which


[PAGE 97]                                     A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

is the study of the laws of God and the attempt to obey them.   And the laws
of God were never better summarized than by Christ when He said to love  God
supremely and thy neighbor as thyself.  Do I make myself plain?"

   "Y-e-s, but if I have lived before, why don't I remember it?"

   "Well,  the  causes which operate to prevent your remembering  your  past
lives are complex and would take a long time to explain.   But the fact  re-
mains that it is a merciful provision of nature, because if you DID remember
all  your  past lives you could not advance at all,  for the old  loves  and
hates of the past would compel you to wrong actions.  A boy in school uses a
slate until he is past the primary grades and does not make many mistakes in
figures.   Later  on he discards his slate and uses pencil  and  paper,  and
still later he uses ink.   So with us.  When we learn to live right and  not
make so many mistakes, when we are freer from the passions of hatred and re-
venge, we shall remember all our past lives."

   "It seems to be all right but I can't see why I don't remember if I  have
lived before."

   "Think it over and maybe you will see."

   Jimmie judged it best to drop the subject here and left the man to go  on
his way.   He was disappointed, too, for to his enthusiasm, the inability to
see so plain a matter was a little disheartening.  He had  not  realized the


[PAGE 98]                                     IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

fact  that each one has his limitations and that the limitations of one  are
at  a  different distance from the center than those of  another.   A  large
circle  can contain a smaller and can comprehend it and the fact that  there
is space beyond the confines of the smaller circle, but the smaller one can-
not comprehend the large one until it has learned to reason from the  exist-
ence  of  still smaller circles that there may be something beyond  its  own
limitations.  It is easy for us to see the limitations of others but hard to
see  our own until we learn first to cast out the beam which is in  our  own
eye before we attempt to remove the moat which is in our brother's eye.

   An now began for Jimmie a life in which he found little time for the par-
ticular  work he was so anxious to do.   His regiment was sent back  to  the
trenches and the strenuous life and the little real privacy and quiet  which
he  could command hindered his attempts to further his own advancement.   He
did,  however, manage to perform most of the time the simple exercises which
Mr.  Campion had given him and managed to say a few words about  the  higher
life now and then when the chance offered.  But the excitement of the actual
fighting,  for his regiment was brigaded with a British army contingent  and
was holding back the German advance in the spring of 1918,  focused his  at-
tention almost wholly upon military affairs.  The  matter,  though,  was  in


[PAGE 99]                                     A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

stronger hands than his,  and one day,  in a  charge to retake a trench,  he
received  a bullet in his right arm and was sent back to a hospital,  fuming
at his ill luck.

   In  this hospital there was no Louise, and he had been there hardly  long
enough  to get his wound well dressed before he received orders to  sail  at
once for America for instruction duty in one of the big training camps.   He
tried  in  vain to get long enough leave to hunt up Miss  Clayton,  but  the
situation was urgent and his orders were peremptory.   He wrote a despairing
letter  to Mr.  Campion but received no reply and was forced to board a  re-
turning transport, in charge of a small contingent of wounded men, his great
work  undone,  Louise and Mr.  Campion left behind in France,  his  comrades
still fighting tooth and nail to hold the grey flood and himself in what  he
bitterly asserted to be perfect physical condition, forced to go home before
the war was won.

   Oh,  the bitterness of that embarkation, leaving behind him in France the
Great War in which he wished to continue, the girl whom he had grown to love
and  the man to whom he looked for guidance in the great work which  he  had
dimly sensed!  Leaving behind all the great activities which had entered his
life  and had changed it so completely, leaving it all for what?   A  safety
which he despised, a work which he felt others could do far better than  he,


[PAGE 100]                                    IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

a life of unwelcome ease and that dreadful, gnawing sense of separation from
those whom he wished to be near.

   Jimmie went aboard the transport,  weighed down with a feeling of  injus-
tice and calamity.  His arm gave him considerable trouble for it was encased
in a sling most of the time, and yet he knew that at the front he would have
hardly  noticed such pain as it caused.   But now little things annoyed  him
and  trifles seemed important,  and he grew,  not peevish,  for  Jimmie  had
naturally too sunny a disposition for that,  but less buoyantly joyful  than
he had generally been.  He spent as little time out of his cabin as possible
and  was generally supposed to be suffering more from the shell  shock  than
from the wound in his arm.  As shell shock is a most peculiar thing and acts
in  a thousand different ways,  his little foibles were passed over  without
remark and he was humored in them to the greatest possible extent.

   The  ship had been two nights and two days at sea and it was late in  the
evening of the third day,  long after dark,  that he stood at the rail alone
looking  wistfully out over the water.   The moon was setting,  a brand  new
moon, giving too little light to dim the beauty of the friendly stars.   The
breeze  was  blowing  gently from the southward and  the  great  ship  drove
through  the darkness without even the glimmer of a light to mark  her  way,
heaving  slowly  and  gently  to  the  long,  easy  swells  and rolling with


[PAGE 101]                                    A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

something  of  dignity in her motion as though in a dim way she  sensed  her
separate existence and the value of the precious human freight she bore.

   Jimmie  leaned  against the rail drinking deep breaths of the  salty  air
which tasted so clean and fresh after the reek of No-Man's-Land, fouled with
human hatred and the wrecks of human war, and watched each long,  low roller
brimming slowly to the vessel's side and raising her so easily,  so quietly,
as though the lifting of a score of thousand tons of weight were the  merest
play.   The exhibition of such tremendous power slowly brought into Jimmie's
mind,  torn with grief and disappointment, a feeling of calmness  and  rest,
and  when  he looked from the ocean to the sky and watched the  great  stars
shining  quietly above him as they had shone above Columbus and the  sailors
of  the  Spanish  Main,  as they had shone above Rome  and  Carthage,  above
Babylon and Baalbec,  above the builders of the pyramids and the armies  and
the navies of old Atlantis,  he felt stealing over him a faint perception of
that great Power whose Being they attested and whose majestic purpose  could
not  be  thwarted  a hair's breadth even by the great upheaval  of  all  the
peoples of the globe.

   His  mind ran back over history and he pictured to himself the  wars  and
plagues and pestilences and famines,  the myriad scenes of battle and murder
and sudden death, of quiet lives of unknown peoples,  of  the  loves and the


[PAGE 102]                                    IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

hates of men and women dead a thousand or ten thousand years ago,  upon  all
of  whom  these  same  stars had gazed with the  same  quiet  calm,  waiting
unperturbed the working out of God's great Plan.

   It  seemed  to him as the pictures of these things  flashed  through  his
mind,  as though the world swung on its way through space  leaving  swirling
behind it like a dense cloud of smoke visible to spiritual eyes the  prayers
and tears of all humanity, the screams of the wounded and the dying upon all
the battlefields since human history began, the appeals for mercy, the agony
of despair, the strife of nations, the rise of races and their fall, the cry
of the starving--all united in this dense black cloud which must roll upward
to the very Throne of God.   And through it all there sounded that same  de-
spairing appeal--Why!

   And  then he thought of his own little part in the mighty Drama,  how  he
had been protected and shown a little of the great Plot, how a corner of the
dark  Curtain had been lifted for a moment so that he might catch a  glimpse
of that which lay beyond in order that he might know how to help.

   How had he fulfilled his mission?   What had he done?   In his talk  with
the soldier who had asked such pointed questions at the "Y" hut, what had he
accomplished?  Nothing!


[PAGE 103]                                    A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

   His conscience troubled him,  yet,  after all, what could he have done by
argument?   This  question,  as he began to feel,  was one too great  to  be
solved by any burst of enthusiasm,  however ardent.   It must be the  quiet,
steady work of time,  unremitting,  unrelenting,  seeking every opportunity,
undaunted by failure,  and satisfied if, here and there, one person could be
helped though ever so slightly.   Then, perhaps,  after the war he might re-
turn  to  Paris  and  meet again that wise  man,  Mr.  Campion,  the  "Elder
Brother," and learn how to fit himself for the great work.

   And as his thought steadied itself into that firm resolve to "carry  on,"
no  matter  how hopeless the task might seem,  the calm of the  great  stars
filled  his heart and he turned away to seek his cabin and perhaps  write  a
few  more  words in a letter to Louise which he intended to mail to  her  as
soon as he got ashore.

   As  he carefully closed his cabin door before turning on the light  which
he  as an officer was allowed and which was so thoroughly screened  that  no
glimmer could possibly escape to be seen by lurking submarines, his mind was
filled with the magic of the stars,  of the sea,  and keyed with the resolve
to prove himself worthy, in time, of the confidence which had been placed in
him;  to show Mr. Campion, if he could ever find that gentleman again,  that
he was not an utterly unworthy pupil.


[PAGE 104]                                    IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

   But  he  was not prepared for the shock which met him as he  turned  away
from the door.  Sitting quietly in the one chair which the cabin boasted, as
though his presence were the most natural thing in the world,  was the  very
man about whom Jimmie had just been thinking--Mr. Campion.

   Jimmie started with surprise,  gasped out, "Wh-wh-why!"  and held out his
hand to his unexpected visitor.  Beyond that monosyllabic utterance he could
not seem to think of another word to say for an instant,  so completely  was
he taken aback.   But Mr.  Campion did not offer to shake hands,  merely mo-
tioning Jimmie, with a smile, to sit on the edge of the berth.

   "I am not here in my physical body, so I can't shake hands with you,  but
I am delighted that you are able to see so plainly.  I have come to take you
on a little excursion,  if you are not afraid to venture, and as our time is
short if you will lie down in the berth and fall asleep we will start on our
travels."

   Jimmie might have asked a few questions or have expressed some misgivings
if Mr. Campion had not used that expression "If you are not afraid," but af-
ter  that  challenge  he felt that it would not do for  an  officer  in  the
American  army to hold back.   So he quietly turned off the light,  disposed
himself comfortably in the berth, and in what seemed to him almost  no  time


[PAGE 105]                                    A DOUGHBOY'S IDEAS ON RELIGION

at all found himself standing on the floor,  looking down upon his recumbent
body, the whole cabin as plainly visible as though filled with daylight, and
Mr.  Campion, no longer avoiding physical contact, standing at his side with
one hand on Jimmie's shoulder.

   "This is your first conscious leaving of the body,  and you must not fear
that  we shall not find the ship again or that anything will happen  to  her
while you are away.  Take my hand and trust me implicitly,  and whatever you
may see do not give way to fear.  Come."

   They soared away right through the fabric of the ship, hovering for a mo-
ment above her masts,  looking down at her, for she was a beautiful sight as
she  plunged ahead through the smooth,  rolling swell,  plainly  visible  to
their etheric vision.

   Despite  the assurances Mr.  Campion had given him,  Jimmie  was  afraid.
There was his body, lying down below in its bunk,  safe enough perhaps,  but
going one way while he was going another.   The weather was calm but it  was
not weather which caused the ship to sail at her full speed without a light.
Suppose a sub--he checked himself.   Often had Jimmie gone over the top  and
never  had he done so without fear,  but no one who watched him  would  ever
have known that Lieutenant Westman was afraid.   Jimmie had the true courage
to do his duty whether or not he was afraid, to act just as  though  he  did


[PAGE 106]                                    IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING DEAD

not know what fear was,  and he had heard too many brave men admit  constant
fear to be ashamed of being afraid.   But he would have been ashamed to SHOW
that he was afraid and never had he done so.   He resolved that this experi-
ence  should never drag from him any expression of the fear he really  felt,
so he turned away from the ship and looked his guide full in the face with a
smile of readiness for anything that might come.


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