At a recent Spiritualist Church service I was at, the medium said we were all born with two bodies — a physical body which we would lose when we crossed to the next world and a spiritual body which would last us throughout eternity. [St Paul in one of his letters to the Corinthians says that man possesses two bodies, one physical and the other spiritual] The medium spoke about the necessity of nourishing both our bodies. Now I learned years ago that the body is the temple of the soul so I had always thought of keeping my physical body in as good a condition as possible. We are given plenty of advice today on how to nourish our physical body so nobody can be unaware of this. Eat 5 a day, don’t smoke, don’t get fat, keep body and mind active etc. However the medium’s words made me think — what was I doing to nourish my spiritual body?

Our spirit guides tell us that our life on this earthplane is a school of learning and it can be a hard school! We are sent here to learn lessons to make us ready for the next world. Although I am very much in favour of a good education this is not what our guides mean. We are here to help our souls to grow. During our earth life we will experience suffering, grief, disappointments, mean acts by others, hurtful comments, unfairness but it is how we handle these things that will contribute to our soul’s growth and give nourishment to our spiritual body. So we have to try and be a good person and “turn the other cheek” when perhaps everything in you wants to hit back. Every good action you do in life will count towards your soul’s growth but every mean action will stunt your spiritual body.

According to how well we learn these lessons the more advanced will our position be in the higher life. One of the things we need to know for our school of life are the rules of living. God gave us His rules of living when He gave us the Ten Commandments. In addition we need a role model and God has provided us with a role model in the greatest of all evolved souls — Jesus. White Eagle has said that Jesus is the greatest ideal of God in man.

Do you remember from your schooldays how you were given “Gold Stars” when your lesson assignments were well done? This merit system has been carried over into adult life. I used to attend a slimming class and we were given stars when we had lost a certain amount of weight. So the star system always indicated “well-done.” There is an old hymn many of you may remember called “Will there be any stars in my crown?” Whenever I am told of a kind action by someone I often say “Well there’s another star in her/his crown.”So — everyone that’s how we nourish our spiritual body. We live as good a life as possible, overcoming “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and collect stars for good behaviour as we go through life. Here is the chorus of that lovely hymn. The words are by Eliza E. Hewitt and the music by John R. Sweney. There are quite a few recordings of it on the internet. A 1950’s western movie starring Joel McCrea as a parson was called “Stars in my Crown” and the song is sung as the film titles are shown.

Will there be any stars, any stars in my crown
When at evening the sun goeth down?
When I wake with the blest
In the mansions of rest,
Will there be any stars in my crown?

By Ada McKay
I am offering a free copy of my book “Why I am a Spiritualist” to anyone interested. Please contact me by email [email protected]