Deeds not Words

Between1925 and 1930, a retired schoolmaster and his wife sat together with a Planchette and received many inspirational pieces through automatic writing. They were written down exactly as received from spirit. This is one of them:

It is recorded in history that a great general, when a officer was recommended for promotion or when one was required for a daring and important undertaking, always asked the same question:- “What has he done?

In all departments of life today people are asking the same question, but very rarely make it a personal matter and ask, “What have I done?” There are many competitors who are eager and anxious to break the records of their forefathers and contemporaries in efforts of speed, daring, perseverance, endurance, invention and creation for the sake of honour, preferment and reward. The public recognise and appreciate these kind of feats unstintingly and the successful ones are feted, honoured and rewarded.

The great soldier is titled and honoured in the form of national gifts of money. The successful businessman is termed a genius of commerce and finance and the very daring, although called by opprobrious names, are worshipped as heroes.

Science, literature and art hold a very secondary place. The great teachers and preachers are a poor third and downright honest goodness is by no means considered a virtue to be praised, rewarded and practised.

Now I have said before that the only thing a man takes with him beyond the grave is his character, and this is formed by what he does, good and ill, and it is the only standard by which he is judged when he enters spirit life. It does not matter what religious denomination he has belonged to, but it does matter a great deal whether he has loved truth, beauty and goodness, and more especially whether he has been a lover of God and man. What has he done? Has he helped or has he hindered? Has he loved or has he hated? Has his life been a cheerful, inspiring song or a doleful dirge? Has he live a life that without honour, ostentation and fame has been an example in patience, long-suffering and the faithful discharge of all duties, as though they were performed in the presence of the great Taskmaster? – Or has he lived an aimless, useless and injurious life?

We all have talents. What are we doing with our one, five or ten talents? Are we using them in the service of man and God? Or are we neglecting and abusing them to our injury and to the detriment of the whole world at large?

It would be advisable to interrogate ourselves frequently in this manner, for it is not what we have said, nor what we have intended, nor what we have advised others to do, but what we ourselves have actually done that will merit the: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Like the tree, we shall be judged, not by the foliage but by the quality and quantity of the fruit. We shall be judged, not by our words but by our thoughts and deeds.