| You are not logged in. |        |
Messages From the Open Door (Paperback)
Narrated Experiences of Life After Death
Margaret Scott Houts
(Retail, $12.95) WEBSITE PRICE, $10.50 |
 |
|
Price: $10.50 Stories from the afterlife told to a woman able to hear them. |
| The “messages” in this book, recorded in the early 1900s, were provided to Margaret Scott Houts by those who died and then found themselves even more alive and well in a similar but more perfect spiritual world. They then desired to help those left behind to understand what happens after death. Knowing that the spiritual world is real and wonderful can lessen fear and grief. Seeing the interrelationship between the two worlds illustrates that this earthly life is merely a preparation for eternal life. This can provide comfort as we come to view our challenges and tragedies with renewed meaning and purpose—as part of our progression to a purer reality. “You, too, are a spiritual being, though for the time encompassed by a body that has senses open on the natural plane; you, too, have inner senses that connect you with us on the interior plane, or real life.” —from a son’s message to his sorrowing mother. “...what you are, the feelings and thoughts you cherish, give form to the world about you...” —from Walter J. Worth. “I am in a college in the intermediate world, where I am being prepared to instruct others who have been born blind or lost their sight in early life.” —from Donald, a young man born blind and feeble- minded in the natural world. (Paperback, 394 pages) READ THE INTRODUCTION Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.(Revelation 3:8) This is not a book of fiction drawn from the imagination; neither is it the relation of visions nor simply a literary production written by any living person on earth. It is a plain narration of facts as related by reliable, intelligent people who have laid aside their natural bodies and have passed into the world beyond. These experiences of life after death were dictated word by word to the inner ear of the person who recorded them while in a perfectly normal state of mind and body. They declare the Divinity of the Lord, the holiness of the Word and emphasize the necessity of a life in accordance with the Commandments. Their exalted religious and moral tone gives clear and strong evidence of their source and genuineness. This book is submitted to the unbiased judgment of the Christian world. Investigation is invited. The validity and usefulness of the facts set forth should be tested by their agreement with the Opened Word, the revelations of the new age, and by their uplifting influence on life and character. These narratives are presented to intelligent, thoughtful people for the purpose of giving a clear conception of the value to them of forming right principles and true and just habits of thought and life. It shows, unmistakably, that these are the things which endure and determine one’s future destiny. This book is not published for the purpose of securing honor or gain. Its sole purpose is to give to the world definite and true information concerning the state of man after the resurrection from the material body. It carries a message of comfort and hope for all those who mourn the loss of loved ones. The fear of death, held by so many, comes from the uncertainty of what may lie beyond. Definite knowledge of conditions in the realm where relatives and friends have gone, and where one, also, from the very nature of things, must soon expect to follow, will tend to diminish greatly this prevailing dread. The recorder of these personal narratives of experiences in the next life was Mrs. T. F. Houts, ne’e (born) Miss Margaret Scott. As a little child, she had a depth of reverence for the Bible and all sacred things seldom seen in one of tender years. During all her life, she was an earnest and devoted seeker after the truth. She was not visionary. She was not imaginative. She was not what is called psychic. All who knew her life’s history would testify to the fact that from early childhood to the close of her long earth life she was a very conscientious person of unusually well-balanced mind and character. She had, even from childhood, a great thirst for knowledge and a strong desire for a thorough education. From the time she entered the country school near her home, until she was graduated from college, she had the confidence and respect of her teachers and fellow students. The year she was graduated from college her teacher of Latin and Greek resigned and recommended her as the successor. The president of the college endorsed this recommendation. She had not sought the position, but gladly accepted it. After one year of teaching, she married the Reverend T. F. Houts, a popular and talented minister of the Methodist Church. Several strenuous years of activity in church and home followed, and then her health failed. One day, as she lay upon her bed, suffering more than usual, she could visualize nothing before her but the grave, with the old idea of the resurrection of the material body at some distant day, leaving her dear husband bereft and her little children motherless. In deep agony of soul, she lifted her heart in prayer. A remarkable answer came. The depths of her soul were lighted with a joy, peace and courage that were indescribable, for she was told that she would live many years and would become the Lord’s witness. In reply to her thought, “How can I witness for the Lord? I am not a writer or speaker,” the answer came, “The way will open.” She arose and went to her husband, saying, “Do you think the Lord ever speaks to anyone now?” He saw her beaming face and replied, “Has He spoken to you?” She answered, “Yes, and I am not going to die and leave you; I am going to live many years.” That was all she told him. The whole experience was to her so very sacred that she never again mentioned it to anyone until after her spiritual senses were opened on the spiritual plane in the year 1905. It was not until then that she told me, her sister, of the experience, although, soon after the miraculous occurrence, her husband had mentioned to me that Margaret had recently had a very wonderful religious experience. The Lord, in His Divine humanity, could speak to Paul on his way to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4 ) Is His ability to communicate directly with the human race diminished by time? Could He not in this age answer the earnest, sincere cry of a humble-hearted disciple, a sincere follower that He was preparing to be His witness, His instrument in bringing to this world, darkened by materialistic thought, the knowledge of the state of man after the resurrection from the material body? No one who knew Mrs. Houts at any period of her long life would, for a moment, doubt her testimony about anything. The husband of the recorder passed into the spiritual world in 1902. Her senses were opened on the spiritual plane in 1905. Before this time he had passed his judgment, and was engaged in his first work in the intermediate world, as leader of a society there. (See Swedenborg’s Heaven and Hell, ch 44.) It was the worship of this society that she became cognizant of in her morning devotions. Her state was not a happening of chance, but the result of many years of interior spiritual discipline and development. In about middle life she discovered the writings of Swedenborg which explain the internal sense of the Bible. Her disciplined, well-trained mind, combined with her deep love of the truth, enabled her to comprehend much of these writings. The Bible, reverently read, is the medium of conjunction of the Lord and heaven with the human race. By a long life of seeking after the truth, by the reverent study of the Bible, and by faithful obedience to its teachings, she came so far into harmony with angels and good spirits that she was capable of perceiving their presence and being instructed by them. This she regarded as a thing very sacred. The Lord raised up and prepared His humble-minded, faithful servant to give to the world the testimonies of these His witnesses on the spiritual plane of life. Read these testimonies carefully with an unprejudiced mind, and judge for yourself whether they testify of and for the Lord and illustrate His spirit and teachings. These testimonies are one of the things we have in this new age from the world of causes. The following quotation from Swedenborg is confirmatory of the recorder’s experiences: Man is created by the Lord so that during his life in the body, he is capable of conversing with spirits and angels as, indeed, occurred in the most ancient times; for being a spirit clothed with a body, he is one with them. And from the Word: There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. I Corinthians 15:44 MARY A. FISH San Francisco, June 8, 1926 |