1937. There was a debate on this subject among the spirits, some of whose reasonings and responses I heard and received, though many I did not hear. They were, in my judgment, so subtle that men would wonder how a controversy could be carried on by such exquisitely framed arguments. But I observed that the minds of some, after the discussion, were so obscured that they knew not what was true, as often happens in regard to truths which are long disputed about - they become obscure, so that the disputants at length stumble in [the light of] the very truth itself. With some of these I was present. As far as relates to the effecting of the thing through the agency of omnipotence and miracles, it were as easy to the Lord to lead one as another; but when it pleases the Lord to lead one according to order, then it is easier for Him to lead one who is in order than one who is not, for such an one is first to be brought back into the [right] way, or into order, which is necessarily a work of time, that the spirit may not be broken, whereto I might add many confirming considerations, which, if they were adduced, would come into discussion, and thus into obscurity and ambiguity. This the Lord has seen fit to teach me by an abundant personal experience.