EXT AB0BL TH0IV ^> Class Book ~J_ _ Copyright N° COPYRIGHT DEPOStr e ~~y "EXTENDED VISION!" — OR,— "LOOKING BEYOND THIS WORLD" BY REV. G. TABOR THOMPSON, D. D. MACOY PUBLISHING AND MASONIC SUPPLY CO. 45 JOHN STREET, NEW YORK 31 tot TTir COPYEIGHT, 1910, BY G. Tabor Thompson CCLA278256 This volume is most lovingly dedicated to my arisen MOTHER AND FATHER, BY The Authob INTRODUCTION. The author does not claim this volume to be a miracle of erudition. Able men have written metaphysically on these sub- jects, and delighted the learned readers who sat at their feet. The object in this work is to take great truth and clothe it in such simple language that those who are not scholastic may understand its every page. In an inter-denominational way we have endeavored to lov- ingly disclose to those who sit in the shadow of a great loss, and cannot penetrate the veil which divides the seen from the unseen, the latest truths about physical death and the life beyond our ken. If we have been inspired to dry the tears of the mourner, bind up the broken hearted, and enable the disconsolate to rejoice in the knowledge of reunion beyond the cross-roads of time, our efforts have not been in vain. G. Tabor Thompson, D. D., 526 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XL XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. PAGE How Long Does It Take for a Soul to Reach Its Heavenly Home? . 25 What Is Death? 37 There Are No Dead 47 Do Spirits Suffer When They See Us in Sorrow? 57 Heaven a City 69 Friends in the Great Beyond ... 81 Celestial Attendants 91 Heaven a Country 101 Spirit Soldiers of the Civil War . .111 Heaven a Condition 121 Suicide and Its After Results . . . 129 Heaven's Vast Shadow 139 Died Outside the Church . . . .151 Employment of Immortals . . . .165 No Father on Earth 179 Our Mother Which Art in Heaven . 191 Mates in Spirit Life 209 Our Brothers and Sisters Hereafter . 223 Green Graves Not Three Feet Long . 235 Redemption Not Confined to Man . 251 Wig- Wagging From Glory Land . 265 THE ETERNAL GOODNESS. Within the maddening maze of things, And tossed by storm and flood, To one fixed stake my spirit clings : I know that God is good. I long for household voices gone, For vanished smiles I long; But God hath led my dear ones on, And He can do no wrong. I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death His mercy underlies. And if my heart and flesh are weak To bear an untried pain, The bruised reed He will not break, But strengthen and sustain. And so, beside the silent sea, I wait the muffled oar ; No harm from Him can come to me On ocean or on shore. I know not where his islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. — Whittier. FOREWORD Having been most kindly invited by the author of the following deeply interesting and instructive pages to preface his words with a few of mine, I feel it only needful or desirable to call attention to the extremely widespreading interest now being manifested throughout the world in the intensely fascinat- ing subjects which are most lucidly and con- vincingly handled in this book. As I have been a lecturer and traveller from childhood, and my protracted journey- ings, together with my literary work, have brought me in contact with all sorts of people in various countries of the world, it has come within the range of my actual experience to know that in a multitude of significant in- stances there is a loud and strong demand for tjust such practical, heart-to-heart and head- to-head instruction as the reader will find in 11 12 dtettDeD Vision or, the several brilliant essays which constitute this volume. Though scepticism may be ram- pant in some directions, and orthodox conser- vatism unshaken in others, the great mass of the people to-day cannot satisfy themselves either with the negations of materialism or the dogmatic assertions of old-fashioned varieties of theology. The cry everywhere is for sound, fearless reasoning, and whenever possible for some palpable demonstration of the verity of the doctrine of our conscious individual sur- vival beyond physical dissolution. The peren- nial interest attaching to this problem can never be seriously diminished so long as be- reavement continues and affection outlives the disintegration of the external frame. As our race becomes increasingly sensitive to super- physical impressions, and as intuition becomes a more generally recognized available human faculty, the need for external phases of psy- chical phenomena may be gradually outgrown, seeing that these are only premonitory signals pointing the way to a fuller comprehension of the spiritual universe in which all of us are dwelling now, whether we are aware of it or not. But until a much deeper and far more Looking depend tins ft&otlD 13 nearly universal extension of psychic faculty is manifested than appears at present, there will certainly continue both call and place, for those many phases of spiritual ministration which, ranging all the way from the rudimen- tary to the highly advanced, serve to consti- tute a mental stairway up which multitudes of intellects can climb, while as yet clear spir- itual vision remains the developed possession of only the gifted few. The flippant popular criticism of average psychic messages, based on the plea that they are extremely trivial, has been superbly dealt with by Prof. Hyslop and other learned mem- bers of well-known Societies for Psychical Re- search, who are bringing to the work of cru- cial investigation trained minds by no means predisposed to accept anything without searching scrutiny. The chief reasons for the often unsatisfac- tory nature of communications with unseen planes of Nature may be classified under two distinctive heads: First, the lack of thor- oughness with which we attempt to prepare ourselves for profound investigation; Sec- ond, the admitted superficiality of our 14 Vision or, the harbor of heaven. Miserable comforters! Such leaders are not posted on heavenly trans- portation facilities. They are more antide- luvian than Noah's Ark. Learn to be opti- mistic along spiritual lines as well as in mat- ters of material moment. At the transition scene some preach, "No immortality at present." "Death is the pen- alty of sin." "They go down into the grave to wait until the blast of the angelic trumpet proclaims the dawning of the day of Immor- tality." If this instruction is true, poor Abel is experiencing a very long journey from Earth to Heaven, worse by far than that of the early settlers of our country. The Pilgrim Fathers would have lost heart under such cir- cumstances. Has Abel's death sentence, be- cause of sin, already lasted six thousand years ? Where does justice come in if another sleeps but a day, before this wonderful Judgment? The offence the same in both cases. One sleeps a day, another for thousands of years. Such instruction is only the ministry of ignorance. The body only goes into the grave; and that simply because it is discarded for a better one. Sin has nothing to do with it. That body will Looking OBeponD tins motID 29 never be needed again by the individual who was divested of it, any more than the baby body of that person will be again utilized. Another dangerous school of religionists commission many thousands of men in all parts of the world to say that there is a wait- ing place for the soul, ere it is able to reach heaven. How well we know that the crude, undeveloped individual does not enter the same spirit conditions hereafter, as does a re- fined and spiritual person. "Every man in his own order." "Star differeth from star in glory," "So shall it be in the resurrection." Nothing to keep one down but self. Every- thing to encourage one to evolve. All the stars are in the firmament, though they differ in magnitude. All souls safe, saved, and satis- fied, so far as salvation goes ; though ever seek- ing to learn and grow better. Socrates said, "You may kill me providing you can catch me." No spirit has been caught by Priest, Parish, or Potentate, and thrust into an intermediate state, to do penance for sin, in a man-made purgatory. A half-way house where a spirit waits until earthly friends put up enough cash to induce spiritual advisors 30 dtenDeO Vision ot, to pray them out, is surely unthinkable to peo- ple of average intelligence. Is monqy a legal tender in glory? If so, how is it that only men of the earth are enriched by it? If these souls were absolved before they die, if the blood of atonement paid all the debt they owed, why keep them incarcerated until the bill is paid the second time? In the name of common hon- esty, I assert it is not right here or hereafter to receive pay twice for the same debt. Such a transaction would be an injustice to the One who is alleged to have paid the debt on the tree. Such treatment would be a great wrong to the one held in spiritual darkness. Such procedure is a crime on the men who receive gold for such service. Such a belief is chain- ing millions of poor men and women who are denying themselves to better the conditions of their dead. Think on these things, O, toiling men and women of earth; and be not pauperized by a false system. If it be true that there are no eternal derelicts, that souls are not waiting for a remote "Judgment Day," that no de- tention is necessary because of earthly conduct, how long, then, does it take a soul to reach the Looking TBepond tins ft&orid 31 heavenly home? The thief on the cross was told by "The Man of Sorrows": "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." No eter- nal drifting because he had not been a good man. No fires of purgatory because of stained character. The record does not say that he had experienced conversion, been baptized, ac- cepted any particular creed or person, been inducted into any church, or ever received "Extreme Unction"; yet Jesus is reported to have voiced these comforting and hopeful words, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- dise." According to the Hebrew measurement of time, a day was from sunset to sunrise. This measurement was taken from the Book of Genesis, where we read — "The evening and the morning were the first day." "The evening and the morning were the second day," etc. Following this division of time, and connect- ing it with the scene of the Crucifixion, we are able to closely approximate the time nec- essary for an undeveloped soul to reach its spirit sphere, and by using the words of Paul, state the time necessary for one whose spiritual condition has been trained in the School of An- 32 <2B3EtenDeU Vision ot, gelic evolution to reach this sphere. The Jew- ish Sabbath began at 6 o'clock Friday even- ing. It was necessary for the bodies of crimi- nals executed on that day to be taken from the cross before the Sabbath began at sun- down, lest the day be desecrated. Jesus, with "Titus," and another robber, were being cru- cified. According to the record the first named must have passed out between three and four o'clock. His spirit sped to Paradise, there to welcome Titus somewhat later in the day. Had either of the malefactors expired after six o'clock, the laws of the Sabbath would have been violated. Had Titus left the world after six o'clock, the prophecy of the Man of Nazareth could not have been fulfilled. These words were spoken late Friday afternoon, and must needs be fulfilled before the setting of the sun. Somewhere near the close of the day — we will say at 5:30 o'clock — the Jews paid a visit to the crosses, with authority from Pilate to break the legs of the men, if alive, so as to hasten death. They state that Jesus was lifeless, but turning to the two robbers, they found them quite alive. Their legs were broken by the big club of the cruel execution- Looking 15epoitD t|»0 »rlD 33 ers, and they were quickly shocked into death. By the time the bodies were down from the trees it must have been only a few minutes of six. The Sabbath was kept inviolate, and the spirit of Titus reached Paradise just before the sun dipped. We should hear Jesus cry: "Said I not unto thee, 'To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise?' " Five or ten minutes were more than time enough for the spirit of this undeveloped young man to find his home in Paradise. The spiritual-minded, the ones who are ripe for angelic plucking (as the fruit matures on the tree ready for the gathering hand), these reach the heavenly home even quicker than those whose souls are heavy with the weight of guilt. Paul, speaking of the good, says : "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." This is instantaneous passage. When the writer leaned over the bed to watch the passing of his mother's spirit to the better-land, strange thoughts filled his brain. Day after day and night after night he had watched over her and nursed her, noticing the waning life- forces, and noting that one function after an- other refused to perform life's duties — yet 34 (EstettDeO Vision or, the spirit seemed loathe to leave the worn-out body on the shores of Time. When the last breath was finally expelled, and the "Eyes would not lift again, though I might call and call," I quickly remembered that the spirit was going on a journey it never had under- taken before. For years I had not left her to go alone. Even on a trolley-car some one was present to relieve her of every care. I wondered when I had sensed she had gone, if she experienced loneliness ; for she had said to me only a few hours before: "I wish I could take you with me." I thought of Paul writing about the "Spiritual Wickedness in the Heav- enlies," of "Ascending above principalities and powers," of "Wrestling with things greater than flesh and blood"; and I felt as though I must fly to her side, take her by the arm, as I had done often on earth, and lead her past the points of danger to her destination. I never felt my weakness and littleness as I did when shaken with the fear that she had gone beyond my reach, where I could not serve her. My soul suffered in agony, not be- cause of death, but rather because I desired to usher her into larger life. I had experi- Looking IBeponD tin's ftOoriO 35 enced the joy on earth of fitting up a home for her, and setting her feet into the place without cost or care on her part. Here I was impotent. I looked back to the bed and only- saw a worn-out envelope of clay; so changed by the suffering there was nothing which re- sembled my lovely mother, save the beautiful white hair, and the hands folded, never to be unfolded. As I sat by that body of death with no relative within a hundred miles, my heart was almost paralyzed with fear — fear that the journey might be too great for her, and some harm might reach her dear spirit. I looked up but could see nothing. I reached out, but my arm was too short. Turning my attention to the dear form which had to be prepared for God's acre, a sweet peace stole over me, and these words came rushing into my mind, "To-day— in Paradise." "Absent— Present." Years have passed, and tears have never dried, for earth is a strange place without mother; yet joy fills my heart when I remember she left my home Wednesday and reached her home the same Wednesday. When the record showed "Absent" on the earth side, it showed "Present" on the heaven side. When she had 36 (Estentieti Vision or, strength enough to come back and pay me a visit, her first words were, "My mother met me, and took me to the home prepared for me." My loss is being bravely borne since it is her gain. Dear reader, your departed made a quick journey from the home of earth to their heav- enly home. Before the telegraph key had time to tick out the fact of their transition, they were Home. Our journey will be as pleasant, and our home as satisfactory, when the time to exchange worlds is ours. Looking lBeponD tins morio 37 CHAPTER II WHAT IS DEATH? THE TWO MYSTERIES. We know not what it is, dear, this sleep so deep and still ; The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek so pale and chill; The lids that will not lift again, though we may call and call; The strange, white solitude of peace that settles over all. We know not what it means, dear, this desolate heart- pain, — This dread to take our daily way, and walk in it again. We know not to what other sphere the loved who leave us go; Nor why we're left to wonder still; nor why we do not know. But this we know : our loved and dead, if they should come this day, — Should come and ask us, "What is life?" not one of us could say. Life is a mystery as deep as ever death can be ; Yet, O, how sweet it is to us, this life we live and see ! 38 (BztzntJtti IHsfion or, Then might they say, — these vanished ones, — and blessed is the thought ! — "So death is sweet to us, beloved, though we may tell you naught; We may not tell it to the quick — this mystery of death, — Ye mav not tell us, if ye would — the mystery of breath." The child who enters life comes not with knowledge or intent, So those who enter death must go as little children sent, Nothing is known. But I believe that God is over- head; And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead. — Mary Mapes Dodge. WHAT IS DEATH? There is such a thing as Death to the Mate- rialist. It means the total and final extinction of a human being, when the earth body falls into dust. Such thinkers say: "Farewell for- ever!" How can extinction fare — well? This doctrine is so repugnant that even the most of those who have had no evidence of Futurity choose rather to be classed with agnostics. Those who have knowledge of the beyond feel it incumbent on them to say that death is the total, and the permanent, cessation of all the yital functions in an animal or vegetable body. JLoofeinff OBeponD t|)f0 Wotin 39 These functions cease ; because the life — what- ever that may be — goes out of the organic body. Life is eternal; but not eternal in cer- tain bodies from which it may be withdrawn. The dead body gradually disintegrates into its original chemical elements ; and these freed elements enter into new combinations in plants and animals. This does not apply to the in- dividualized spiritual life — for that ascends to its own sphere in the Spirit World. Man, in this present earth-condition, is a compound being. The outer envelope is made up of coarse material which can be seen by the physical eye; this can be felt and weighed. There is, besides this, a spiritual body. Paul says: "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." Both in the present tense. The spiritual body is of a very much finer ma- terial and cannot be seen or felt except by one who is a psychic. This body is so ethereal there is little weight to it. Experiments have recently been made with the body of criminals a moment before death, and a moment there- after, and there seems to be a difference of a few ounces. The cadaver being somewhat lighter — which indicates \* some that the spir- 40 45 * t e n D e D Vision or, itual body is so very light that the soul's re- ceptacle after death could be lifted by a very small child. Truly are we fearfully and won- derfully made! Quite a familiar illustration is a hypothet- ical indication of the spirit-body. Persons who have lost a limb feel pain and discomfort in that member just as if it were still joined to the body. A notable instance is on record where one had suffered the amputation of an arm. For months that man had the sensation of the fingers being in a cramped conditipn; unknown to him the severed member was ex- humed and the fingers were found as he felt them. These were straightened out, the arm re-buried; when all cramp and pain left the individual. No surgeon has ever amputated a spirit limb. That body being whole takes on the sensations of discomfort which a cramped physical body would experience. The body which is perishable is mainly composed of car- bon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. The spiritual inter-penetrates the natural for days, months or years, and enables it to perform its functions. When the spiritual withdraws the Hooking 15epond tins Wiotin 41 physical perishes. Within the spiritual body- is the ego. Death is the separation of the im- perishable spirit body and spirit from the per- ishable physical body. It is right to nicely robe the corpse for the grave. It is proper to erect a suitable tombstone, and see that the grave is kept green, for it is dear to relatives because of what inhabited it. Dr. Mason sat in a church one day listening to a funeral ora- tion over the remains of a talented son. Grief was too deep for tears, but when he saw the college men lift the casket on their shoulders, as they were about to convey it to its silent resting place, he said: "Young men, tread softly; you bear the temple of a spiritual body." The happy smile so often seen on the face of the dead is the last impress made by the de- parting soul on the body, as they see the bliss into which they are entering, or look into the faces of those who preceded them. We owe a duty to the dying, as well as to the living. This is frequently forgotten, if, indeed, it is sensed at all. Those who love the dying one should try and forget their part in death's tragedy, and facilitate the inevitable 42 (B^ttnntn iHfffon or, departure rather than to prevent it. The de- sire to hold one in the form makes it hard for the spirit to be freed from the body. One who was passing out begged the mother to loosen her finger. "It bindeth me, it holdeth me," sighed the little one. The most loving friends are the unselfish ones ; those who think of the welfare of the one who goes on the long jour- ney. How unwise it is to conform to fashion in conjunction with these parting scenes. Rela- tives in half hiding, up to and including the funeral exercises, friends clothed in dark gar- ments, and even crepe, which are calculated to depress the mourner and hold the liberated in- dividual back in its progression. Black cas- kets, hearses, door hangings, letter paper, etc. Strange, black tombstones are not used. All of these things are not in keeping with the glowing occasion. We have no right to con- duct such sacred farewells from our viewpoint, but from the viewpoint of the departed. It is their holiday we celebrate, and not their in- carceration. Many think a full enjoyment of the free- dom of spirit life cannot be attained until the Looking IBeponD tins saiotio 43 old physical body has begun to resolve into its original elements. If this is the case, how un- wise to put the body on ice, or even embalm it. It is thought these attempts to retard the disintegration of the body tend to hold the spirit in earth's conditions. Many advanced spirits strongly advise the cremation of the body. What purports to have been received from the over-watching spirit of one whose body was speedily separated into the original elements by the action of fire is quite interest- ing. "We were conscious of no pain. We came very suddenly into a blaze of light that almost dazed us. We soon became accus- tomed to it, and we speak favorably of this method of disposing of the abandoned earth tabernacle." The welfare of the dead, as well as sanitary conditions for the living, seem to be promoted by cremation. When we die we do not cease to live for a while, and then begin to live again. Not at all; we simply enter a larger life. The only part of us that even knows anything is more alive than ever, for it no longer has a body of sickness and disease to impede its activity. In death the spirit body and the spirit are borne out of the phys- 44 4£ * t e n D e d Vision or, ical body into a purer life. What we used to call death is now an open door into a new, im- mortal existence, and yet a very natural life. Loved faces will bend over us there, familiar hand clasps will welcome us, the long departed parents will enfold us in their embrace. We shall learn to speak the language of heaven and revel in our new found companions and home ; yet we shall always love the memory of the earth, for it was there we learned elemen- tal lessons in life. NOT DEATH. Not death, but life. Thank God that they have risen, That He has sent them peace, That from the pain and shadow of its prison The soul has found release. We may not know the glory and the gladness That on the spirit shine, That bore on earth its agony and sadness With patience so divine. We only know the weariness is ended, That they from pain are free, That the pure soul has to its God ascended, In joy and liberty. Tis ours to prize the nature we inherit, Which they have glorified. Looking IBeponD tbi* ftOorlD 45 Nor doubt the power of the immortal spirit Since they have lived and died. O silent lips ! the lessons you have taught us We tell with falling tears : O noble life ; what blessing thou hast brought us Through all thy weary years ! As all unconscious of thy wondrous beauty, Thou passeth into light, May thy sweet patience fill our hearts, and duty Grow holy in our sight. — Anon. CHAPTER III THERE ARE NO DEAD The celebrated writer and teacher, Dr. Lyman Abbott, once said: "We do not die and live again, we simply go on living/' In a dream the writer seemed to attend a funeral, and was greatly surprised to notice that in place of the departed one being in the casket, he was more alive than ever. There was a huge floral piece in the home, made in the form of a staircase. At the top of it was a light brighter than the noonday sun, having an exquisite heavenly sheen. Look- ing at the foot of the stairway, we saw the transformed one clothed in a beautiful gar- ment. On the face was a peace which passeth understanding. In the eyes a hope big with possibility. With a bounding step they were ascending the fragrant way, singing as they went toward 47 48 qggtenDet) Vision or, the apex. On this ladder of flowers we no- ticed a purple streamer of heavy silk floating in the breeze. A calm soon pervaded the scene; and, as the eyes fell on the ribbon, we saw a white hand pointing with index finger to an inscription worked in beaten gold let- ters, which read: "The Next Step in Life's Progression." This, said a voice, is what the inhabitants of earth call Death. Waking from the dream, I quoted the inspired words of an- other, part of which heads this article : "There is no Death — there are no Dead." As we have been taught to regard transition as death, we will employ the term here ; but de- sire the reader to ever remember it is a mis- nomer. "How are the dead raised up?" and "With what body do they come?" are two mo- mentous questions propounded in the first cen- tury of the Christian era by a man of great intellectual development and rich spiritual ex- perience. If we are able to give a wise an- swer to them, you may be able to see why the dead are not dead. May the fountain of your tears be dried, and the wounded heart healed as you peruse these pages. In our day and age vast numbers of reli- Looking IBeponD tins Wioiin 49 gionists, thousands of psychologists, and hun- dreds of scientists, are undertaking to answer these queries; so let us feel we are in good company. That truth has recently been re- vealed along these lines, there need not be the shadow of a doubt. Life has a different mean- ing, now that the key to it, here and hereafter, is found. People have thought that Life is a short line which starts at the cradle and ends at the grave. The great "Over-Soul" never made a straight line in Nature; and man is a product of Nature. "The Infinite Intelligence" deals with curves and circles. Eternity has no be- ginning and no end ; hence the circle is a good object lesson of it. Since we are to have an Eternity in the future, we must have had one in the past ; and we are in Eternity now. Our life will never end, because it never had a be- ginning. The fact that we may not remember the Eternity past does not signify that life began with physical birth. We do not re- member our first day, or year, in this expres- sion of life; nevertheless it was a part of our history. A page from the book of our past Eternity. 50 dtenHed $i$i on or, The soulical life changes, and seems to start and finish. Real life does neither. The spir- itual life never knows Babyhood, Old Age, or what is called Death. A slight knowledge of this part of ourselves helps us to find an an- swer to the first question asked by the Tent- Maker: "How are the dead raised up?" Not by virtue of accepting any particular creed or dogma; not by being inducted into any church; not by believing any book. People who have never heard of Church, Bible, or Christianity have been raised, and are being raised, as well as those who have been faithful to forms of religion with which we are fa- miliar. The dead are raised up by virtue of the eternal spiritual life inherent in each individ- ual — the Divinity within. The Deity within, the Eternity within, makes it obligatory for all the dead to be raised up. There is no such thing as "conditional immortality.' 5 By virtue of our natures it is compulsory. "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." No matter in which we may function, life lives on forever. Granting that the above state- ments are true, one naturally asks: "When Looking ISeponD this MJorlD 51 are the dead raised up?" The materialists say: "Never." The theologians of many- schools say: "On the Day of Judgment." They evidently think it will be a day of twenty-four hours; and that the graves will open, and the same old bodies come forth. A minority of Bible students look for a "Double Judgment Day" — covering a period of one thousand years. The good to come up, first, in the "Judgment of Reward"; and the bad to come to the "Judgment of Condemna- tion," at the end of the thousand years. The- ologians do not always teach the truth ; and the above is not the truth. The teacher may mean well ; but his doctrines are colored by the The- ological Seminary where he prepared for the ministry. The birth of the spiritual body takes place when death claims the physical body. That is the New Birth explained to Nicodemus by Jesus. All of us came into the world, one by one. There was no universal birthday for the physical race. There will be no universal birthday for the spiritual race. Every time the clock ticks some liberated spirit leaves be- hind a dead body — that body never to be worn 52 <&zttntizt} $ f 01 on or, again, any more than a discarded suit of clothes. Many of our loved ones have already ex- perienced the joys of Resurrection. Some glad day, not far distant, we shall leave the en- velope of mortality, to enter into the next grade of life's school. What a comforting thought that no individual is imprisoned in the grave, in purgatory, or in perdition. The only bondage we have is while in the flesh. After earth's dream, we (and those whom we love) will be more free than the eagles in the upper air ; and nothing can keep us from soar- ing into the Realms of Light, Life, and Love. Evolution, of the highest unfoldment, is our divine and eternal right. Now we take up the last question: "With what body do they come?" When correctly answered this gives us an understanding of Futurity, which makes a wonderful rift in the cloud of Death; and lets in spiritual effulg- ence we never saw before. "Shall we know each other there?" is asked at many deathbeds and open graves. Yes, we shall know as we are known. We begin life in our next les- sons exactly where we leave off here. We shall Looking TSeponO tins ftOorlD 53 begin there with a spiritual body — such as we earn here, by the development of personal character. No mortal has ever seen a spirit. We may, at times, see a body through which the spirit manifests, for purposes of identification. Our departed relatives and friends may, under cer- tain circumstances, show themselves to us ; but what they show is not their real spirit or their heavenly body. Back of the rough chestnut burr is a finer body, we call the shell ; back of that the chestnut. The mortal body of man- kind is like the chestnut burr; the spiritual body like the inner shell; and the spirit like the chestnut. Death is the frost which knocks off the physical burr ; and the inner body, with its covering of finer material, is taken into a spiritual environment, unseen by us — unless, perchance, we are able to see with the eye of the soul. That inner covering of the real per- sonality is changed "From glory to glory" all the time the real life is hidden. This does not mean our friends are never to be seen who have passed the Great Divide. They may be seen even while we tabernacle in the flesh ; but they are "seen through a glass darkly" — even 54 CstentieD IH01 on ot, though "face to face," that is, in a temporary spiritual body. Moses and Elias were seen and known on the "Mount of Transfiguration." They, it must be remembered, were seen and known simply because they temporarily materialized bodies for identification. These bodies were dematerialized — directly the conference ad- journed on Mount Tabor. Our friends who have passed through the doorway of Death left their worn-out bodies in the grip of the iron laws of Nature. By the power of Divinity, within, they function in spiritual bodies, in spirit spheres. Should they desire to manifest on earth, they will build up a temporary body in the likeness of the one known on earth — as did Moses and Elias; and, after the visitation, they will dis- tribute these particles back into the ether. As a child knows how to build various things with his blocks, and tear them down without loss, so our kindred and friends are able to build up and tear down spiritual bodies for means of identification. Nothing is lost by this process. Hence, one comes as a baby, to one who knew him in babyhood; and as a man to those who Looking IBeponD tins COotlD 55 knew him in manhood ; and as an aged one to those who knew him in the ripeness of years. Nothing lost in the gathering or distributing of these bodies — the spirit being hidden all the time behind the astral body. "With what body do they come?" With any body necessary to show the continuity of life; and the possibility, under certain circum- stances, of coming in rapport with the deso- late children of earth. HERE AND THERE. Here is the sorrow, the sighing, Here are the clouds and the night ; Here is the sickness, the dying, — There are the life and the light. Here is the fading, the wasting, The foe that so watchfully waits ; There are the hills everlasting, The city with beautiful gates. Here are the locks growing hoary, The glass with the vanishing sands ; There are the crown and the glory, The house that is made not with hands. 56 attended Vision or, Here is the longing, the vision, The hopes that so swiftly remove; There is the blessed fruition, The feast, and the fullness of love. Here are the heart-strings a-tremble, And here is the chastening rod; There is the song and the cymbal, And there is our Angel abode. — Alice Cary. Looking IBeponD tijis WLqiIH 57 CHAPTER IV DO SPIRITS SUFFER WHEN THEY SEE US IN SORROW? Many think the pains of earth must bring pangs of suffering to those on the other side of life; and if so, the spirits of our friends cannot be at rest. Let us see. Is ignorance necessary to rest ? Then wisdom must be any- thing but desirable. The child who comes into life, not by knowledge, or intent, knows noth- ing of the travail of its mother. Is it, there- fore, more happy than its mother? Pain may be a blessing in disguise. But for pain the child would not be born; but for pain the pneumonia patient could not clear the lungs; but for pain the eaglet would not learn to fly ; but for pain the body would not learn to die. To us, but "children crying in the night," we look upon suffering as a curse. The poised soul is that one who can say from the heart: 58