40. R.G. Ingersol

Jesus Is The Son Of God In Its Fullest Meaning

.   R.G. Ingersoll,* a most repentant believer now;
    I must say a word, for my heart is filled with regret and remorse and the recollections of my awful mistakes while on earth, that I must release my soul of its burdens so far as a confession can do it.
    I am Ingersoll, and I am not an agnostic any longer, but the most repentant believer in all God's spirit world, and one who no knows that Jesus Christ was and is the son of God to the fullest meaning of the word.
    Oh, how glad I am that I came to you when I did, and that you caused me to seek the society of your band of beautiful and bright spirits who are filled with the divine love of the Father, for if I had not been with them I would not have witnessed the scene of last night and today be a believer in the Jesus who I now know is the savior of men by his wonderful love and knowledge of the truth.
    Well, my dear friend, such a scene as I witnessed last night was never witnessed on earth, except, as I now believe, by the three disciples of the Master at the Transfiguration on the Mount, and then I doubt if the glory was as great and the brightness of the Master so blinding and magnificent as they were last night.
    And what must I think of you, a mere mortal as are thousands of others on earth having a soul development to a certain degree, to be selected for the work of doing the Master's desires on earth; and having that selection declared, or rather, by an occasion that made all the spirits present tremble with awe at the glory and power which were displayed by Jesus Christ, who I, on earth, proclaimed to be merely a good man.
    I tell you that you are wonderfully favored, not only in being selected to do his work, but in having that selection anointed, as it were, by such evidence of glory and God-like power as were shown last night. I had no conception of what the glory of God meant, or what the power of God could mean, and least of all did I suppose that any spirit in all the spirit world could possibly possess such glory and power to such a degree as to make him almost God-like.
    As I said, I was present and observed him as he wrote to you, and also what he wrote, and as he proceeded to tell you that he had selected you to do his work he was the beautiful, loving Jesus that he always is as I had seen him, but as he proceeded and you doubted the possibilities of such things, and even to doubt if Jesus was really writing to you, there came into his countenance a wonderful look of authority and power and glory indescribable, and upon which none of us could look, and we fell prostrate to the earth, as you would say. Oh, I tell you, the power which emanated from him was beyond all conception, and the wondrous authority that appeared in his whole being was not possible of being withstood by either spirits or mortals, and we were filled with awe and admiration. When he had finished writing the glory and brightness that I describe left him and he again appeared the humble, loving, and beautiful Master. And before leaving us he gave us his blessings, and to me came a great peace that passeth all understanding. I now know that Jesus is my savior, and that the divine love of the Father is a real, existing thing and I am striving to obtain it.
    I believe in the new birth and am praying for it, and your dear grandmother tells me that I will soon get it.
    So now I say to you that you can declare to the world that Ingersoll, the agnostic, is no longer the agnostic, but a believer in the Father's divine love and in Jesus Christ, His beloved son: The Way, the Truth and the Life.
    I will not write more tonight, but when I shall have gotten my thoughts and feelings together I will write you at large and tell you of what my soul says as to my future destiny. So, thanking you for your kindness and for you having such a grandmother, and for such a Jesus, I am your friend. 
    R. G. Ingersoll

*Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-99) Famous exponent of agnosticism.