We take with us the character that we have moulded in our earthly lives. This determines our position hereafter. We cannot cheat. We cannot pretend. The sinner, to use a very clumsy word, cannot escape the consequences of his actions by uttering a magical formula on his deathbed and thus have all misdeeds absolved for him. He must make restitution for whatever wrong he has committed. There is no progress for him until he has done so.

    Forgiveness does not release us from personal responsibility. The mere fact that the one whom we have wronged is willing to overlook our action does not alter the wrong we have done. A true balance can be struck only when we have made retribution.

    The true Spiritualist is always conscious of an urge from the other side of life, which stresses that real religion consists of the way one's daily life is led. You may call this morality and not religion, but I reply that religion cannot be divorced from ethics.

    Spiritualism enables you to realize that in all ages, prophets and seers have been inspired by revelations emanating from the spirit world. But these revelations were suited to the age in which they came.

    Properly understood, Spiritualism will be the means of unifying opposing religions, proving that none of them is superior to the other, but that each possesses some grain of truth.

    Spiritualism has no creeds or dogmas, but most Spiritualists accept what are known as the Seven Principles. These were given through mediumship at a time when it was necessary, for churches owning or leasing property, for a Spiritualist organization to declare its religious beliefs. The law demanded that this body, the Spiritualists' National Union, should submit the religious principles on which its members agreed. These principles are:
     1. The fatherhood of God. 
     2. The brotherhood of man. 
     3. The communion of spirits and the ministry of angels. 
     4. The continuous existence of the human soul. 
     5. Personal responsibility. 
     6. Compensation and retribution hereafter for all good and evil deeds done on earth. 
     7. Eternal progress open to every human soul.

    These principles very aptly sum up the religion of Spiritualism. Sincere religious people could not quarrel with any of them. To a large extent, they would be accepted by most modern minds in the Church.

     Spiritualists recognize that every individual must work out his spiritual salvation and that, in the end, man must stand on his own feet. They know that we cannot transfer the burden of our responsibilities to somebody else's shoulders. We get out of life just what we put into it-no more and no less.

    We are here to equip ourselves for the next stage of life. Earth is the school of our experience. If we fail to learn our lessons here, we will have to learn them when we pass on.

    We take with us the character we have evolved. Nobody else can evolve it for us. We accomplish our own growth and evolution by the way we live our lives. Selfishness and greed thwart the character. Altruism and idealism help the spirit to grow.

    These are natural laws. Man cannot cheat them for they operate inexorably. The more good we do, the better persons we are. The more we fail to help others, the worse we are.

    Because you are a spirit you survive death. And because you are a spirit you are alive today. The spirit within you, which causes you to live, is the same spirit that animates every member of every nation, of every race and of every colour. Spiritually, the people of the world are one. Spiritualism reveals the spiritual oneness of all mankind. God has made us all members of one vast spiritual family.