GIFT OF 
 
 Rnnir$Fi i FRS 
 
New-Church Popular Series. [NO. i. 
 
 THE WORLD BEYOND: 
 
 PRESENTING 
 
 SOME OF THE FA CTS, LA WS AND PHENOMENA 
 OF THE GREAT HEREAFTER. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN DOUGHTY, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST NEW JERUSALEM SOCIETY 
 OF SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 E. CLAXTON & COMPANY. 
 
 930 MARKET STREET. 
 
 1883. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 
 
 E. CLAXTON & CO., 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 J PAGAN & SON, 
 
 STEREOTY1T. J-'OI'MiEKS, 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
,j|?, HIS little work consists of a series of lectures 
 ^pfcS delivered by the author in the New Jeru- 
 salem Temple in San Francisco, in the 
 spring and autumn of 1878. They were well re- 
 ceived at the time of their delivery, and a consid- 
 erable number of persons who heard them, have 
 since expressed a desire to see them in a printed 
 form. They are therefore given here substantially 
 as they were delivered, in the hope that they may, in 
 their present form, reach a somewhat larger audi- 
 ence, and thus become more extensively useful. 
 
 The work lays no claim to doctrinal originality, 
 nor does it pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on 
 the sublime subject whereof it treats. It has been 
 the author's desire and purpose simply to present 
 in an intelligible and compact form, the rational 
 and Scriptural argument in support of the more 
 prominent beliefs and teachings of the New Church 
 336041 iii 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 
 concerning the life beyond the grave ; trusting that 
 
 his very brevity of statement, coupled with the in- 
 trinsic interest and importance of the theme, may 
 kindle in the mind of the reader a desire to pursue 
 the investigation. 
 
 And if such desire should be awakened, the in- 
 quirer is referred for further instruction to Swe- 
 denborg's work on u Heaven and Hell," to the neat 
 little volumes (I. and II.) of the "Swedenborg 
 Library," to "The New View of Hell," by Mr. 
 Barrett, and "Our Children in Heaven," by Dr. 
 Holcombe. By a careful perusal of these works, 
 he will not only obtain a thorough knowledge of 
 the Pneumatology of the New Church, but learn 
 all that a thoughtful and reasonable person would 
 care to know about the World Beyond, or the facts, 
 laws and phenomena of the great Hereafter. 
 
 J. D. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, 
 
 September 5, 1882. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 HEAVEN. 
 
 PAGE 
 9 
 
 I. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN 
 
 II. THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. ... 25 
 
 III. WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? . . 41 
 
 IV. THE LIFE OF HEAVEN 58 
 
 V. CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEA VEN 76 
 
 VI. CHILDREN IN HEA VEN. . 93 
 
 HELL. 
 
 I. THE ORIGIN OF HELL . 
 II. THE NATURE OF HELL 
 
 III. THE DURATION OF HELL 
 
 IV. THE FIRES OF HELL 
 
 . 113 
 . 125 
 . 139 
 . 154 
 
 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS . .169 
 
HEAVEN. 
 
 Vll 
 
THE WORLD BEYOND. 
 
 HEAVEN. 
 
 i. 
 
 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 1 
 
 JlIE subject of immortality is one of surpass- 
 ing interest. There are few topics which 
 can more profitably engage our thoughts, 
 for a time at least, than this. The vastness of the 
 theme almost appals us. The wide field over which 
 it spreads, the numerous questions which present 
 themselves, the many problems seemingly so dim- 
 cult which it involves, produce a state of mind 
 which seeks relief, not always in skepticism, but 
 frequently in absolute denial. 
 
 Yet a belief in the soul's immortality is the rule ; 
 doubt and denial, the exception. Skeptics say that 
 there are no proofs. Believers assert that the evi- 
 dences are manifold and overwhelming. Infidels 
 affirm that the wish is father to the thought. 
 Christians declare that it is an almost universal 
 sentiment : true, because it is inborn ; not to be 
 doubted, because it is a need of human nature ; 
 certain, because it is a matter of Divine revelation. 
 
10 NATURE \N!) OHKltN OT HEAVEN. 
 
 It is sometimes useless to reason. If there is no 
 affirmative principle to appeal to, all argument is in 
 vain. If you plant a seed in the sand, it will 
 not grow for lack of the proper nutriment ; and if 
 you insinuate a spiritual idea into an irretrievably 
 skeptical mind, it will take no root for want of 
 proper soil. An inharmonious mind does not be- 
 lieve in harmony ; but a musical nature believes in 
 melody, because every fibre thrills with its sweet 
 concord. A selfish man does not believe in the 
 possibility of disinterestedness, nor a profligate in 
 virtue. To them these heavenly graces appear as 
 impossibilities. But so far as one is unselfish, he 
 knows its possibility ; and so far as he is virtuous, 
 he believes in the reality of virtue. 
 
 Why argue these first principles of religion. They 
 are matters of consciousness, not of controversy. 
 The true follower of the Lord, 110 matter how far 
 he may fall short of the full realization of his faith, 
 knows what he knows by the necessities of his na- 
 ture. He realizes revelation as the mathematician 
 realizes the wonderful certainty and power of num- 
 bers, as the musician feels the force of melody, as 
 the artist sees the beauty of art. 
 
 So of the immortality of the soul. It is a matter 
 of inspiration, not of argument. It comes by a re- 
 alization of one's nature, not by external proofs. 
 True, proofs of the future life abound ; proofs of 
 the soul's continued existence beyond this life, are 
 plentiful on every hand. Yet there are multitudes 
 who, without these, know of their own immortality, 
 because they feel it as a need of their nature. They 
 
A MATTER OF REVELATION. 11 
 
 look around upon creation, and observe that never 
 yet has God implanted an instinct, for the gratifica- 
 tion of which He has failed to provide the means ; 
 and of all our human instincts, not one is stronger 
 than the hope of immortality. 
 
 We do not, therefore, argue the immortality of 
 the soul here. We speak to all, indeed, but more 
 especially at this time to those whose nature so feels 
 its need as to realize it as a fact. 
 
 Eevelation is replete with the idea of a heaven. 
 From Genesis to the glowing record of the visions 
 of John, it crops out here and there even in the 
 most literal sense of holy Writ, brightening in 
 beauty, growing in grandeur, developing in power, 
 until in the Apocalypse it bursts forth in a myste- 
 rious glory which it bates the breath to listen to. 
 We who have wept amid this world's woes until we 
 have grown weary; we who have looked upon its 
 crimes, its wars, its violence and disorders until the 
 eyes have sickened with the sight ; we who greet 
 its misery and wretchedness at every corner, and 
 have, in our own persons, known its disappoint- 
 ments, its sorrows and its vices ; even we are called 
 upon, in the glowing words of inspiration and the 
 wonderful visions of men filled with the spirit of 
 God, to lift our eyes from the kingdoms of earth to 
 the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The conditions of the Holy City New Jerusalem 
 are the revealed conditions of heaven itself. For 
 what descends from God out of heaven must reveal 
 the absolute nature of that which exists in heaven. 
 No tears are there, no sorrow, no crying, no night, 
 
12 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 no pain, no death ; for the former things the earthly 
 passions, the confusion and disorder of the world, 
 the soul's unrest have passed away. Its streets 
 are of gold, because all its paths are love, the true 
 gold of life. Its walls are of jasper, because the 
 Word of God is the angel's wall of defence, translu- 
 cent with the light of Divine wisdom. Its founda- 
 tions are of all manner of precious stones, because 
 the lives of its denizens are founded on the precious 
 stones of truth laid down or revealed by the Lord 
 himself. Nature's sun grows dark in its beautiful 
 light, for the glory of God illumines its skies. The 
 throne of the Lord is there, and from it the river of 
 water of life flows, and the Tree of Life stands every- 
 where in its streets, whose leaves heal all the diseases 
 of the soul. 
 
 Then the heart cries out as it reads the glowing 
 page lit with the Divine light of inspiration Beau- 
 tiful kingdom of heaven ! blest dwelling-place of im- 
 mortal souls ! where art thou ? what art thou ? and 
 for whom were thy wondrous glories formed ? O 
 land of the heart beyond the dark river ! is there a 
 home there for me ? for me, the weary and worn 
 with the troubles and trials of earth ? 
 
 Eevelation was never designed for didactic teach- 
 ing, like the school-books of our childhood. It does 
 not contain the history of all religions with their 
 dates and epochs ; nor the arithmetic of the soul 
 with its faculties and powers labeled and numbered, 
 and with easy rules for the multiplication of its vir- 
 tues ; nor the geography arid climatology of heaven 
 with a catalogue of its chief products and the com- 
 
HEAVEN A STATE, NOT A PLACE. 13 
 
 mercial value of its imports and exports. How man 
 will persist in mistaking the spirit and intent of the 
 holy Word ! 
 
 The sayings of the Bible are, on the contrary, like 
 so many seeds of truth dropped into the soil of 
 human minds, there to germinate and grow. They 
 grow as we give them life within the heart ; they 
 germinate as we warm them with love ; they spring 
 from the cold, damp earth, and rise into the sunny 
 atmosphere of heart-land, as the tears of life, instead 
 of flowing off into desert sands, water them and 
 start them into greener growth. 
 
 The Word of God does not, therefore, teach us 
 many facts in regard to heaven ; but it gives us in- 
 numerable seed-germs of truth, which will grow into 
 immense heart realizations of its nature as we grow 
 toward heaven and the Lord. 
 
 Let us see. The first great truth of Eevelation 
 that comes from a close examination of its pages, 
 is : That heaven is a state of the soul and not a 
 place. It is a condition of the heart and not a 
 locality. Let us endeavor to fully comprehend this. 
 There is no understanding this question of salvation, 
 eternal life, and heaven without it. It is the golden 
 thread that leads us through all the labyrinths of 
 what is otherwise so puzzling a theme. Heaven 
 may indeed be in a place in any place ; but it is 
 the hearts of the people and not the place that make 
 it heaven. It is the Lord's sphere or influence with- 
 in the soul which constitutes all that can be prop- 
 erly recognized as the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 STor is this very difficult to understand. When 
 2 
 
14 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 our Lord, at the beginning of his active ministry, 
 said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," 
 He made no allusion to any remote locality, any 
 planet, star, or sun coming into proximity with the 
 earth ; but He referred to the coming power of Chris- 
 tian truth and righteousness. When He declared 
 to the scribe who answered Him so discreetly, "Thou 
 art not far from the kingdom of heaven," He had no 
 reference to his nearness to any particular place, but 
 to a heavenly state of mind. And when He was de- 
 manded of the Pharisees concerning the coming of 
 the kingdom of God, He answered, " The kingdom 
 of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall 
 they say, Lo here ! or Lo there ! for behold, the 
 kingdom of God is within you! " Now, the king- 
 dom of heaven and the kingdom of God mean the 
 same thing. This is evident from the fact that, in 
 several instances, in relating the same event, one 
 evangelist quotes Jesus as using the expression 
 kingdom of heaven, and another that of kingdom of 
 God. As notice the Beatitude, which, as given by 
 Matthew, reads, " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven, "f But in Luke, 
 we read, " Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the 
 kingdom of God."* Paul expressed the truth in 
 happy phrase when he said to the Romans, "The 
 kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteous- 
 ness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." J Pu- 
 rity, peace, religion, the Lord's spirit within the soul 
 these constitute heaven there. 
 
 * Luke vi. 20. f Matt. v. 3. J Rom. xiv. 17. 
 
HEAVEN IN THE SOUL. 15 
 
 Beautiful thought I We need not leave this earth 
 to enter heaven. Heaven is within us. God's king- 
 dom is right here. When we are heavenly minded, 
 we carry it about with us. Wherever we go, wher- 
 ever we stay, we are in heaven. It is part of us ; it 
 is inwoven into the very tissues of our heing. Just 
 as the summer blue is inwoven into the make-up of 
 the sky, as the lovely light into the brilliancy of the 
 morning, as beauty into the very existence of the 
 flower, so heaven becomes the constituent organiza- 
 tion of the soul. It is its life and beauty ; it is its 
 happiness and joy ; it is its work and reward. It is 
 ours wherever we are. It descends into the offices 
 of the hands ; it thrills the thoughts with nobler 
 life ; it loves through all our affections ; it makes of 
 us men, not beasts ; and it glows with the living 
 spirit of God. 
 
 Our Lord never spoke of heaven as something 
 remote from us. But He often alluded to it as some- 
 thing that could be preached, something that could 
 come nigh unto us, something within us. The idea 
 of the external heavens has, in the grossly natural 
 minds of men, taken the place of the thought evolved 
 in the Word of God. That the ancients, in the be- 
 lief that the sky was a solid brazen firmament, 
 should have placed the abode of the immortals upon 
 its upper surface, and have confounded the starry 
 heavens of nature with the kingdom of heaven 
 preached by Christ, is not to be wondered at. But 
 that any at this day should make a mistake akin 
 to that, is, indeed, surprising. 
 
 Let us reiterate it ; let us repeat it again and 
 
16 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 again until it is thoroughly grooved into the mind ; 
 that heaven is within us. All its first principles are 
 there ; all its outcomes flow from them. The word 
 heaven is derived from one that signifies high. What- 
 ever is high, lofty, elevated in desire, in thought, 
 in aspiration, in purpose that is heaven within. 
 Our Lord came into the world for the express pur- 
 pose of elevating the human mind, then so thoroughly 
 debased ; of ennobling the human character, then so 
 miserably degraded. He preached repentance ; He 
 preached regeneration ; He preached self-abnega- 
 tion love to God and man. In doing this He 
 preached the kingdom of heaven. When He found 
 those who did his commandments and lived near 
 to the spirit of his law, He said that they were not 
 far from the kingdom of heaven. Of the humble 
 in spirit, and of those who were persecuted because 
 of their righteousness, He said, " Theirs is the king- 
 dom of heaven. "* It was not a thing of the future ; 
 it was a thing of the present. It was not a reward 
 to come, but an existing condition of the heart. It 
 was not, " theirs will 6e," but "theirs is the king- 
 dom of heaven." And when He summed up the 
 qualifications of those who were the blessed of the 
 earth, the blessing was not of the future but of the 
 present ; it was not u Blessed will ye 6e," but it was 
 " Blessed are ye;" and He did not add as the great 
 incentive to religious life, "Great shall be your re- 
 ward in heaven," but "Great is your reward in 
 heaven, "t Heaven was a present thing; heaven 
 was within them. 
 
 *Matt. v. 3,10. t Matt - v - 12 
 
IN THE ATMOSPHERE OF INNOCENCE. 17 
 
 This is not difficult to comprehend. Its begin- 
 nings and some of its developments are frequently 
 perceived and recognized. You go into an assembly 
 of innocent little children; you observe them at 
 their sports ; you hear their songs ascend, imperfect 
 though they be, with childish melody. There is 
 always a feeling of nearness to heaven in the gath- 
 erings of little children, because the sphere of inno- 
 cence prevails ; and innocence is one of the con- 
 stituent principles of heaven. 
 
 Go where you please wherever circumstances 
 and surroundings lift up your hearts and thoughts, 
 so that you are carried away, as it were, from self 
 and sensual things, from worldly cares and worries, 
 into a region of mental peace and quietness, and 
 there pervades your spirit a feeling of forgiveness 
 to men and love for all, when your passions are at 
 rest and a gentle calm is on the soul, and you will 
 be very apt to describe your feelings by the excla- 
 mation, " I felt as though I were in heaven ! " And 
 you were. But because you were educated to be- 
 lieve in heaven as a place beyond the skies, in sun 
 or moon or stars, or perhaps on earth when the mil- 
 lennial fires shall have purified it ages hence, you did 
 not know where you were. But, let us learn this ; 
 that gentleness and peace of soul and rest of spirit 
 and elevation above sensual thoughts and the quiet- 
 ing of earthly passions and disinterested neighborly 
 love constitute the essence of heaven. Heaven is 
 of the spirit, and all places are heaven when the 
 soul is in a heavenly state. 
 
 Or perhaps you have been in a family where recip- 
 2* B 
 
18 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 rocal forbearance and mutual love have made the 
 manners gentle and softened the harshness of the 
 voice ; where neatness and order prevail, and method 
 makes work easy ; where all devote themselves to 
 the happiness of each, and each to that of all ; 
 where even amusements become a source of mutual 
 conciliation and love ; where the tastes are refined, 
 and where religion without fanaticism sits by the 
 hearthstone and reigns throughout the house. You 
 will return from a visit to such a family and say, 
 u That home is a perfect little heaven." It is a 
 heaven. It needs no millennial fire to make it so. It 
 is a heaven to-day, because all the virtues ruling 
 there are the very essence of heaven. The hearts 
 that cherish them have built a heaven there. 
 
 Then, imagine this Divine spirit and these holy 
 principles carried into all the offices of the world. 
 Let each man in society subordinate his selfhood to 
 the general good ; make sincerity the law of social 
 life ; eliminate from toil its vulgarity ; from mercan- 
 tile life its dishonor ; from the bench its corruption ; 
 from politics its selfish ambition ; from the church 
 its bigotry ; from capital its greed ; from all things 
 whatever is contrary to Christ's code of ethics, and 
 earth would be a heaven without any approximation 
 toward the stars. For where good and God reign 
 triumphant, there we behold the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 But do not understand me as calling in question 
 the existence of a heaven beyond the grave of a 
 future state of being so denominated in Scripture. 
 As revelation is true, so that is true. It is reiterated 
 a hundred times, and breathes through all its pages, 
 
IN THE REALMS ABOVE. 19 
 
 and exists as a necessary corollary to every evan- 
 gelic truth. But this is the point : its essence is in 
 the heart, and there is a heaven hereafter, not be- 
 cause God has created a locality in space which has 
 been so named, but because earth throws from her 
 restless bosom each year and day, souls more or less 
 charged with the principles and spirit of heaven. 
 These congregate in the future world. They are 
 drawn together there by the force of spiritual attrac- 
 tion ; they are bound by the ties of mutual affinity ; 
 and wherever heavenly hearts go, in this world or 
 the world beyond, there heaven exists. 
 
 Heaven, therefore, is the state and condition of the 
 good. In the realms above, it exists because of the 
 goodness of those there. The sphere of love flows 
 from each to all and from all to each. They unite 
 in a sphere of love to God and mutual love. Self 
 has been dethroned. Each, forgetful of self, seeks 
 only the good and the happiness of others. Conse- 
 quently the happiness and good of all are marvel- 
 ously subserved. Justice prevails ; right reigns tri- 
 umphant ; no one calls them in question. Anger is 
 unknown ; malice is never seen ; slander is never 
 heard ; sensuality has no part in its joys. The com- 
 mandments of God are the laws of society ; the spirit 
 of Christ rests within all hearts ; and love of the 
 virtues which Christianity teaches and stands for, is 
 the authority by which their obedience is enforced. 
 
 The origin of heaven is therefore in the hearts of 
 earth. It is in the cultivation of the spirit and 
 commandments of the Lord, the bringing them forth 
 into daily life, and the consequent reduction of the 
 
20 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 affairs of life, domestic, social, industrial, commer- 
 cial and political, to that state of tranquillity, order, 
 justice, honesty and love, toward which the com- 
 mandments of God plainly point. It is the faithful 
 observance of these commandments on earth, that 
 builds the mansions of heaven above. As one of 
 England's poets says : 
 
 " Angels are men of a superior kind ; 
 Angels are men in lighter habit clad, 
 High o'er celestial mountains winged in flight; 
 And men are angels loaded for an hour, 
 AVho wade this miry vale, and climb, with pain 
 And slippery step, the bottom of the steep." Young. 
 
 The idea that heaven was formed from a race of 
 beings called angels, created long before our world 
 began to exist, is a tradition and a myth. It has 
 been sustained only by the wrenching of a few pas- 
 sages of Scripture from their true meaning. All 
 Scripture allusion to angels gives them the form and 
 attributes of men. Moses and Elias, who were seen 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration, had been men. 
 The angel who announced to John, "I am thy fel- 
 low-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets,"* 
 was clearly one of the old Jewish prophets now be-- 
 come an angel. The great multitude of all nations 
 and kindreds and people and tongues, who were seen 
 l>y John standing before the throne of God, f- were 
 angels who had once been men, gathered from all 
 the regions of the earth. And not only does all 
 Scripture favor the idea that angels are beings who 
 
 * Rev. xxii. 9. f Rev. vii. 9. 
 
THE SEMJNARY OF HEAVEN. 21 
 
 had once been men, but it repeatedly calls them men. 
 The three who appeared to Abraham, the two who 
 made themselves manifest to Lot, the one who wres- 
 tled with Jacob at Peniel, the angel-captain of the 
 Lord's host who appeared to Joshua at Jericho, all 
 the angels who appeared to Ezekiel, the two who 
 were seen in shining garments at the sepulchre, and 
 many others too numerous to mention, are referred 
 to as men and are so denominated. 
 
 Earth is the seminary of angels, and heaven has 
 its origin here. The Scripture tells us so. I say 
 this, of course, only in the sense that human beings 
 are born on earth as the nursery of heaven : that 
 they are placed here first, in order that they may 
 begin, as all things begin, from the egg, the seed, 
 the first germ of existence, and grow by gradual 
 unfoldings and iucreasings into the perfect life for 
 which they were destined. Were there no earth, 
 there would be no heaven, because there would be 
 no births of children born to become men and 
 women, and destined, if they will, to become angels. 
 
 But in a higher sense, in the real and true sense, 
 the Lord is the origin of heaven. He is so, because 
 He is the origin of all that is true and good. The 
 Gospel doctrine of regeneration is hardly appreci- 
 ated by us in its proper meaning. Christians often 
 assent to it without realizing the genuine truth. It 
 is in too many instances a verbal assent, rather than 
 a comprehended idea or a realized fact. When our 
 Lord says, u He that abideth in me, and I in him, 
 the same bringeth forth much fruit," 45 ' He states a 
 
 * John xv. 5. 
 
22 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 positive fact and uses no metaphor. When He says, 
 " Without me, ye can do nothing," He means that 
 there must, in some sense, be an indwelling of Him- 
 self in the human soul, which gives to it all its spir- 
 itual life, germination and growth. Without this, 
 we cannot think a true thought nor do a good act ; 
 nor can we love Him or any one, or even compre- 
 hend the first principles of true religious life. His 
 indwelling is an actual one, and it is by means of 
 his Hoty Spirit, When He communicated the Holy 
 Spirit to his disciples according to previous prom- 
 ise, u He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye 
 the Holy Spirit."* This may be compared to the 
 dwelling of the sun in the bosom of the earth and 
 in its atmospheres. The sun, as it were, breathes 
 forth its light and heat, which enter the atmos- 
 pheres and substances of the earth, and furnish the 
 quickening powers or means of growth to all that 
 exists upon its surface. 
 
 The Lord is often compared to the sun in Scrip- 
 ture. Let us, then, think of the All-father as sur- 
 rounded by the spiritual sun, whence continually 
 radiate love and wisdom, the warmth and light of 
 the soul, which are indeed Himself, and which enter 
 the spirit and dwell there. These become its quick- 
 ening life. If a truth enters the mind seemingly 
 from without, they light it up to our comprehen- 
 sion. If that truth discloses the path of wisdom 
 and right, they warm the heart to love it, they give 
 the strength to live it, they give the force to act it 
 
 * John xx. 22. 
 
THE ALL IN ALL OF HEAVEN. 23 
 
 out on the natural plane of life. Under their influ- 
 ence the heart expands, the mind grows, the spirit- 
 ual understanding quickens, the holier love develops. 
 True, the man is in freedom to reject this Divine 
 light and life. He can turn from it and shut the 
 door of mind and heart against its influences. But 
 if he co-operates, if he places himself in a position 
 to receive them, if he grasps the means which God 
 affords, he goes on conquering and to conquer in the 
 battle of life. 
 
 The Lord, therefore, is the true origin of heaven. 
 He furnishes the wisdom, the good, the force, the 
 holy power, which make the heavens. Man's soul 
 is the mediate origin, as being the plane of its 
 human commencement and the field of its growth. 
 Earth is the theatre of its beginnings, as here its 
 first operations and growths are brought into play. 
 But the region of immortal bliss beyond the grave 
 is its final, its fullest and grandest field of action. 
 
 Is there no lesson in this ? Are there no duties 
 here enjoined ? Are we not doing most, each in his 
 little sphere, to build our mansions above, by mak- 
 ing a heaven of every theatre of action here below ? 
 Go, then, brethren, each one of you, to your own. 
 field of action. Go to your family, enter into your 
 social circle, work at your trade, perform the duties 
 of your office, and put heaven into them. Thrust 
 your selfhood aside and put your neighbor's good in 
 the first place. That is the way to find heaven. 
 You need no wings to carry you there. Do not be 
 ever praying for the rewards of heaven at some 
 future time. Make your heaven here, or you will 
 
24 NATURE AND ORIGIN OF HEAVEN. 
 
 surely lose it hereafter. If you cannot see much of 
 it around you, see to it that it is built up within 
 your own soul. You can be certain of heaven in no 
 other way. 
 
 And rest assured that what you do not acquire in 
 your spirit here, you cannot carry with you to the 
 world beyond. For spirit, not flesh, rises into the 
 eternal land. And if you do not carry from here a 
 heaven in your heart, that heart will never find a 
 heaven in any spot in all the realms of future life. 
 Give up all worrying about your salvation hereafter. 
 What you want is salvation in this world ; that in 
 the world to come will follow as a matter of course. 
 The truth of Christ lived out upon the field of active 
 life and duty, will save you ; his life received into 
 the soul as your source of strength and growth, will 
 save you ; but his literal blood and death, never ! 
 Your salvation is here; your entrance into heaven 
 is here ; your life is here ; your heaven itself is here, 
 if you will but have it so. It is in your heart, your 
 desire, your thought, your motive, your purpose, 
 your activity, your life, your works. And as you 
 acquire heaven here, so only will you know it, and 
 find it, and enjoy it, and love it, in the world to 
 come. 
 
II. 
 
 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 HATEYER primitive Christianity may have 
 k een > m d ern theology, it must be conceded, 
 is a compromise between Christianity and 
 Paganism. When the new religion began to become 
 wide-spread and popular, then by degrees its sim- 
 plicity faded away. Under Paul and the other apos- 
 tles harmonious and united, soon the church became 
 discordant, soon broken into belligerent factions. 
 The self-sacrificing spirit of the aposttes gave way 
 to the domineering temper of a new race of priests. 
 Then a desire to extend the sway of the priesthood, 
 took the place of the former love of diffusing the 
 spirit of the gospel. Pagan Europe refusing to ac- 
 cept the pure doctrine and self-sacrificing life of 
 Christianity, a crusade was inaugurated for the 
 triumph of its name and outward baptism. If Pagan 
 gods had anniversary days devoted to their peculiar 
 worship, those days were accepted in the Christian 
 scheme, and employed to commemorate events in 
 the life of Christ, for the purpose of rendering Chris- 
 tianity more acceptable. If Pagan priests wore at 
 their services gaudy vestments to please the wonder- 
 ing eyes of the vulgar, the Christian priests adopted 
 them. If there existed popular Pagan theories, the 
 ingrafting of which on the doctrines of Christ would 
 form a scheme which might be termed " Christianity 
 3 25 
 
26 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 made easy, " they were so ingrafted. Then this bold 
 or that bad man who had within him more of the 
 love of dominion than the love of Christ, set up 
 his peculiar engraftment or dogma or theory as the 
 essential thing in Christianity, in order to have a 
 watchword for the gathering of followers and the 
 gaining of a large backing to hoist him into eccle- 
 siastical power. The doctrinal terms of Christianity 
 were construed by each ecclesiastical high-place 
 hunter to suit himself. If argument would not carry 
 the day, as it seldom did, blows were resorted to. 
 The sword became the most popular argument 
 known to this pseudo-Christianity. The strongest 
 arm settled the question as to which or what was 
 the purest doctrine. This process was applied to 
 an innumerable number of disputed topics, in which 
 all questions of Christian doctrine became inextri- 
 cably involved, until at last the most important 
 were settled by compromise in general council, and 
 the mailed hand of an utterly unprincipled Roman 
 emperor enforced that compromise on the Christian 
 world. And this mixture has, in its main features, 
 come down to our day as orthodox Christianity and 
 evangelical faith. 
 
 This is not mere assertion. It is history ; and 
 every one may read it for himself. Nor is it aside 
 from our subject. It is a protest against accepting 
 any generally received theological opinion or defi- 
 nition, merely because it is generally received, or 
 because it is old. The heathenish spirit of the 
 middle ages does not, of necessity, give to definition 
 or doctrine the flavor of truth. 
 
SENSUOUS DOCTRINE OF THE JEWS. 27 
 
 The doctrine of the Kesurrection as usually re- 
 ceived, may be old ; but that does not necessarily 
 make it true. It may have come down to us crys- 
 tallized into a certain form, but that is no argument 
 in favor of its correctness. There is a resurrection. 
 Christ taught it ; the apostles preached it. One 
 sect, at least, of the Jews believed in it before the 
 time of Christ. The Jewish resurrection was, how- 
 ever, that of the material body, and at a future judg- 
 ment day. But Christ did not so teach it, nor did 
 the apostles so preach it. Yet either through the 
 mixture of Judaism with Christianity, or the effort 
 to pander to Judaic paganism for the sake of prose- 
 lytes, that sensuous conception, after the time of 
 the apostles, became incorporated into the Chris- 
 tian system, formed part of the heterogeneous com- 
 promise afterwards made, and has held its own ever 
 since. 
 
 We must therefore go back to the gospels if we 
 would learn the truth concerning the resurrection. 
 And we may add to this the testimony of Paul, if 
 we would know how the doctrine was held in the 
 Apostolic church. The creeds of the sects will not 
 serve us here ; they have too much of the flavor of 
 the period when the new religion was in a very un- 
 settled state. And it is safer even to go back to the 
 original term used in the Gospels, than to trust to 
 the word resurrection, which is the term used in 
 translating the original Greek. This has acquired 
 a theological meaning of which it is not easy to 
 divest our minds. 
 
 The original Greek term of the New Testament, 
 
28 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 translated resurrection, is anastasis. It is derived 
 from the verb anistcmi, to cause to stand up. It 
 does not mean, to arise in the sense of floating up- 
 wards. No such signification attaches to the word. 
 It does not mean a resuscitation of anything literally 
 dead. The Greeks never so understood or applied 
 it. But it was used as in such instances as that 
 where Matthew, who was sitting at the receipt of 
 custom, arose and followed Jesus ; that is, stood up 
 and followed Him. "When, therefore, we are con- 
 struing Scripture, where this term resurrection, or 
 anastasis, occurs, we get the exact meaning by think- 
 ing of it, not as of something dead coming to life, 
 which it does not mean nor as of a vivified dead 
 body rising and floating off to the skies, which also 
 it does not mean ; but as of something alive that 
 has been sitting or lying down, bent, or prone, now 
 standing up. 
 
 Our Lord used this term, therefore, as He used 
 all terms, because it expressed just what He meant. 
 He desired to set forth a new idea. True, the Jews 
 (or some of them) believed in a resurrection of the 
 body ; but He desired to teach the resurrection of 
 the spirit the real man. True, they believed in 
 this event as one that was to happen at a future 
 judgment day ; but He desired to teach it as an 
 event transpiring now. What, then, did He mean 
 by the anastasis or resurrection ? Evidently this : 
 that while at death the body would descend to the 
 dust from whence it was taken, would decay, die, 
 in the sense of the absolute dissolution and diffusion 
 
THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 29 
 
 of its particles, the soul would stand up in the pleni- 
 tude of its power as the real immortal man. 
 
 The expression was an apt one. All the forces 
 of the soul are, during its residence in the body, bent 
 down, as it were, toward the earth. The spirit 
 looks down into the world through its bodily eyes, 
 and bends down to listen to the sounds of the world 
 through its bodily ears. Every mental faculty, for 
 the sake of the soul's life, by means of its earthly 
 body leads toward the world. The very fact of 
 living in a material body concentrates its thoughts 
 and efforts in that direction. But when at death 
 the spirit is released from the body, it eeases to bend 
 its faculties and efforts down toward the world, and 
 stands up in its own congenial realm. This is the 
 anastasis, the standing up, the resurrection. 
 
 But to comprehend this fully, we must under- 
 stand that man is a two-fold being. He is body 
 and soul, or body and spirit. The soul or spirit is 
 the real man ; the body is the material garment it 
 puts on for the purposes of its earth-life. Spirit 
 and matter are different, separated by discrete 
 degrees. Spirit is not matter, nor is it material ; 
 any more than water is earth or earthy ; any more 
 than earth is air or ethereal. To present the chem- 
 ical difference between the two is not our purpose, 
 nor is it in our power. But the fact remains ; as 
 water is a distinct element from earth, and earth 
 from air,' so is spirit a distinct thing from all of them, 
 and from all that is material. But that does not 
 render it less perfect, less alive, or less potential ; 
 but more so. For on the principle that what pro- 
 3* 
 
30 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 pels is more powerful than the thing propelled, that 
 what moves is more alive than the thing moved, so 
 spirit is more alive than matter. A ship of itself is 
 a dead thing compared with the wind which propels 
 it. The iron body and bolts of the engine are very 
 inert and powerless compared with the steam which 
 nerves them with giant strength. So the human 
 body of itself is inert matter compared with the 
 spirit which fills it with life and power. 
 
 Now if spirit gives to body all the life and power 
 it has, it must itself be much alive and very power- 
 ful. And that the spirit is the life and power of the 
 body is manifest from the fact, that when it is with- 
 drawn at death, the body becomes powerless and 
 dead. And if the spirit is the body's life and power, 
 it also causes and preserves the body's peculiar 
 form. The body has eyes for the spirit to see 
 through ; ears for the spirit to hear through ; arms 
 and hands for the spirit to do its destined work 
 with ; feet to enable it to walk whithersoever the 
 spirit may determine ; brains to be the material 
 abode of the spirit from whence it may send its 
 messages and orders all through the body-man to 
 its very eyelids, fingers and toes. 
 
 There is a material-man, and a spirit-man within 
 the material ; and the spirit is more a man than 
 the body. The spirit is the real man, while the 
 body is but the machine man. Did you ever exam- 
 ine a school-book on physiology, where the different 
 systems that make up a man are separately set forth 
 in wood-cut illustrations ? There is the bony sys- 
 tem ; it pervades the whole man, and, depicted alone 
 
THE SPIRIT IS THE REAL MAN. 31 
 
 as a skeleton, it is in the form of a man. There is 
 the arterial or venous system ; it also pervades the 
 entire man, and pictured by itself is in the form of 
 a man. There is the nervous system ; it again per- 
 meates the entire frame, and its pictured represen- 
 tation is a man. So with the fleshly or muscular 
 system. Now, do you not believe that the same is 
 true of the spiritual system ? that, could it be faith- 
 fully pictured, it would be found to pervade the 
 whole bodily frame ? and that this is the cause of 
 all the vitality, power and activity of the material 
 system ? that the living force of it all pervaded and 
 filled it, lay close to every nerve and muscle and 
 fibre, acted upon it from within and forced it every- 
 where to do its bidding ? that spirit eyes saw into 
 the world through eyes of flesh and nerve and 
 artery ? that spirit hands worked in the world 
 through hands of bone and sinew ? that spirit feet 
 walked through the world and bore their master 
 whither he would, through feet of muscle, bone, 
 and tendon ? The spirit, then, is a man. It must 
 have form, or it could not possess power. And what 
 can this form be but the human form ? 
 
 And when the spirit has used the body long 
 enough ; when it has done its allotted work on the 
 plane of earthly life ; when the machine has become 
 worn out and incapable of doing longer its master's 
 bidding, whether through outward violence, disease 
 or old age ; when the spirit and its material vesture 
 are separated, and the body returns to the dust 
 from whence it came ; then the spirit stands up in its 
 own sphere, on its own plane of life, a perfect man, 
 
32 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 grown, developed, and perfected through its earth- 
 life and work and experience, ready to live a new 
 life on its new plane of being. This is its anastasis, ; 
 this is its resurrection. 
 
 And this the Scripture teaches ; not indeed in the 
 words of the illustrations I have here used, but in 
 principle and in fact. 
 
 That the natural body does not rise, was unques- 
 tionably believed by the apostles ; and by Paul it 
 is plainly declared. Referring to the resurrection, 
 he says: "But some will say, How are the dead 
 raised up ? and with what body do they come ? " 
 You observe, he is speaking directly to the point. 
 u Thou fool," he answers, " that which thou so west 
 is not quickened except it die. And that which 
 thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall 
 be." What could be plainer V The natural body 
 is the one sown in death ; this we know. But the 
 body that shall be, the body in which we shall live 
 hereafter, is noi, says Paul, the one that is sown. 
 Then he goes on to show that there are different 
 kinds of bodies ; that different orders of beings have 
 different bodies, each suited to its peculiar sphere ; 
 beasts one kind, birds another ; and so on. Then 
 he says, there are bodies celestial and bodies ter- 
 restrial, and one star differs from another in glory. 
 Having paved the way for his final point, he declares: 
 u So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown 
 in corruption, it is raised in incorruption ; it is sown 
 in dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weak- 
 ness, it is raised in power ; a natural body is sown, 
 a spiritual body is raised." In our common version 
 
PAUL'S DOCTRINE VERY CLEAR. 33 
 
 it reads, "it is sown a natural body, it is raised a 
 spiritual body , " * as though the same body that was 
 sown was raised. But Paul's Greek does not read 
 so. What he really said, giving to his words their 
 correct translation and meaning, was : "A natural 
 bo$y is sown; a spiritual body is raised." To para- 
 phrase the language in accordance with its true 
 spirit: The natural body which, in and of itself 
 when released from the spirit, is mere corruption, 
 dishonor and weakness, is sown or laid in the grave ; 
 but the spiritual body which is comparatively incor- 
 ruption, since it cannot die glory, in that it is im- 
 mortal power, in that it gives to the natural all 
 the life and power it has this rises ; this stands up. 
 The material body has no part in the anastasis ; the 
 spiritual body has it all. And he concludes the 
 sentence with these words, " There is a natural 
 body; and there is a spiritual body." Not there 
 will be, but there is. We have it all the time. You 
 and I have it now. The one pervades the other, 
 glorious, incorruptible, powerful. It is your spiritual 
 body, the real man, which will stand up at the anas- 
 tasis or resurrection ; but your natural body, corrupt, 
 dishonored by decay, weakness itself, will fall down, 
 dissolve into its original elements, and be known no 
 more forever. 
 
 Can any thing be plainer than these words of Paul ? 
 anything more conclusive as to the doctrine of the 
 Apostolic church on this subject ? anything more 
 certain than that the doctrine of the resurrection of 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 35-44. 
 C 
 
34 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 the material body was afterwards imported from 
 outside of Christianity, and ingrafted upon it. Is 
 there power in human language to express meaning 
 more clearly than these words express this doctrine ? 
 Yet Paul, for fear any one might mistake his mean- 
 ing, added: "Now this 1 say, brethren, that fles t h 
 and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of Gou ; 
 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 
 " Flesh and blood," that means this body. u Cor- 
 ruption," that means this body dead and decaying. 
 And none of us will carry any of this natural body, 
 this flesh and blood, this corruption, into the land 
 of glory and incorruption, toward which we all, let 
 us hope, are hastening ! 
 
 This teaching agrees with the doctrine held by 
 Solomon : " Then shall the dust return to the earth 
 from whence it was taken ; and the spirit shall re- 
 turn unto God who gave it."t But better still, it 
 agrees with the teachings of Christ. His lesson to 
 the Sadducees was, that when Moses at the bush 
 called God the God of Abraham, the God of Isaae. 
 and the God of Jacob, He then and there taught the 
 doctrine of the anastasis or resurrection.! u For," 
 said He, " God is not the God of the dead, but of 
 the living." It was as if He had said : "I declare 
 to you that there is a resurrection ; for Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob are declared, according to the spirit 
 of Moses' declaration, to be already resurrected." 
 Yet the great traditional resurrection day of the 
 future, when bodies should leap from their graves, 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 50. | E C- xii - * i Matt - xxii - 31 32 - 
 
NO GENERAL RESURRECTION. 35 
 
 had not come ; and this illustration with regard to 
 the patriarchs was the truth respecting all resurrec- 
 tion. Afterwards Peter, James and John were 
 favored with a face to face view of Moses and Elias 
 in their resurrection bodies their spiritual bodies ; 
 and they were men not myths ; and they talked to 
 Jesus. And every angel that ever showed himself 
 to man, according to the Bible record, and for whom 
 the wildest dogmatic tradition has never claimed 
 material bodies, and every man who ever died and 
 was at any time revealed in vision to prophet or 
 seer, was always seen and known as a man, with 
 speech and form and thought and all the attributes 
 of a man ; and there is no other idea, whatever 
 human tradition may say, which is even hinted at 
 in the Word of God. 
 
 So Paul was right ; and each man has a spiritual 
 as well as a natural body ; and when the natural 
 falls the spiritual stands erect ; and that is the way 
 the resurrection takes place. And it must take 
 place at once, and not at some day in the far distant 
 future ; because when the body falls at death, the 
 spirit stands up and lives, and there is no other 
 anastasis. 
 
 But is there no hint at a general resurrection at 
 some future day ? None whatever, if we take the 
 true spirit of holy Writ. Our allotted limits ren- 
 der it impossible to adduce all the texts which mi.irht 
 t>e cited. But the key to a solution of whatever dif- 
 ficulty is here presented, may be found in this idea, 
 too often forgotten : that there are two kinds of 
 resurrection referred to in the Bible. One is that 
 
36 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 from this world into the world beyond ; the other is 
 the resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual 
 life. By applying the former idea to the latter class 
 of texts, a seeming sanction, because of the misap- 
 plication, is given to the theory of the resurrection 
 of the material body. 
 
 Take, for example, these words of the Lord : 
 "The hour is coming when all that are in their 
 graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; 
 they that have done good to the resurrection of 
 life ; and they that have done evil to the resurrec- 
 tion of damnation. " Read this in the light of tradi- 
 tional dogma'; let not the mind wander from the 
 idea of a bodily resurrection as a confirmed belief, 
 and it appears to teach that doctrine does it hot ? 
 But go back a few sentences to the words which 
 lead up to this statement, and of which this is but 
 the conclusion: u Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God ; and they that 
 hear shall live." This NOW is makes a material 
 alteration in the thought or the doctrine taught. 
 If the hour was coming, and at that moment was, 
 that the dead should hear the voice of the Son of 
 God, it was an event that had already begun, that 
 was then progressing, and that would go forward in 
 the future. Certainly the physically dead had not 
 at that time been raised from their graves and none 
 were then being raised. No physically dead men. 
 resurrected, were then listening to the words of 
 Jesus, nor had any such at any time so listened. 
 
 Who, then, were the dead here referred to '? Evi- 
 dently those dead in trespasses and sins those who 
 
CHRIST'S TEACHING ON THIS SUBJECT. 37 
 
 were in the condition expressed by the words of 
 Paul, "To be carnally minded is death."* The 
 dead were those who rejected Christ, who refused 
 the gospel, who did not know the Christian life, 
 and were not alive to its glories and blessings. 
 Christ might well say of these, u Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when 
 the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
 they that hear shall live. " He was preaching every 
 day to this kind of dead. Every day was some one 
 receiving life from his words. Those who were spir- 
 itually in their graves in the graves of selfishness 
 and delusion and ignorance and carnal-mindedness, 
 were coming forth to listen to Him. To those who 
 came forth, stood up, listened, and obeyed his 
 words to those who did the good He taught, it 
 was a resurrection to newness of life spiritual life ; 
 but to those who stood up and listened, yet obeyed 
 Him not, but remained in their ignorance and evil, 
 it was a resurrection of damnation. There is no 
 doctrine of a future general resurrection of physical 
 bodies here ; it was a thing not of the future but 
 of the Now is ; and untrammeled by a traditional 
 dogma, all would see it to be so at a glance. 
 
 Now carry this idea to the interpretation of any 
 and every text which seems to teach a future gen- 
 eral resurrection day, a resurrection of dead bodies ; 
 carry the idea of a spiritual resurrection from the 
 grave of sin to the life of righteousness, from the 
 death of evil-mindedness to the heart-life of purity 
 
 *Rom. viii.6. 
 
38 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 which Christ gives, and you will catch the spirit 
 and genuine import of every such text. You will 
 also learn that, however you may have read before, 
 there is not a text within the lids of the Bible which 
 refers to the grave as a place from which material 
 bodies are to be resurrected, or to the dead as the 
 decaying or decayed corpses to which physical life is 
 again to be imparted at some great general judg- 
 ment-day. You have two resurrections ; one, the 
 standing up of the spirit in the spirit-sphere when 
 the natural body falls ; the other, that resurrection 
 from spiritual death to spiritual life, when the in- 
 ward man is made new, when the spiritual triumphs 
 over the natural, when from being dead in tres- 
 passes and sins you have become alive in Christ. 
 
 A removal of the old error is necessary to an un- 
 derstanding of the higher view. "We must clear 
 away the rubbish before we can begin to lay foun- 
 dations for the edifice of genuine heavenly truth. 
 Now the resurrection into heaven begins to take 
 form and shape. We have two kinds of resurrec- 
 tion into that beautiful land. As I have before said, 
 heaven is a state of the heart. When the heart is 
 a heaven, we carry heaven about with us wherever 
 we go, and make a heaven of every place which is 
 blessed with our presence. But if the heart is a 
 hell, we carry hell with us wherever we go, and 
 make a hell of every locality which becomes cursed 
 with our presence. These things are ingrained ; 
 they are a part of ourselves. Our character is our 
 heaven or our hell ; and as we have been through 
 life forming within us and weaving into the very 
 tissues of our souls the one or the other, that we 
 
FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH. 39 
 
 are. Death comes ; with it comes a resurrection. 
 The body falls ; the spirit stands up. The body cor- 
 rupts in the grave, and its elements enter into other 
 forms of existence, into soil, grasses, trees, animals, 
 and other bodies. But the soul lives on, enters at 
 once, nor waits for any future day, into a new era 
 of existence, beginning in the other world just where 
 it left off here. It carries its own heart with it, its 
 own character, its own quality. The heaven or hell 
 which it has built up for itself, it bears with it in 
 the anastasis. In the one case, it is a resurrection 
 of life ; in the other, of condemnation. 
 
 But there is another sort of resurrection. It is 
 that from spiritual death to spiritual life. All the 
 while we have lived in the world, if we have been 
 true to ourselves and the Lord, we have been slowly 
 emerging from the delusions of sense into the re- 
 alities of the higher life ; from our proneness to sin, 
 into a love for the Lord's commandments ; from 
 tastes and longings ignoble, low and mean, into de- 
 sires noble, pure and good ; from love of the world 
 into love of the neighbor ; from love of self into love 
 of God ; journeying the while from Egypt to Canaan, 
 from hell to heaven. We started out in life bent 
 down toward sensuality ; now we begin to stand 
 spiritually erect. Our hearts, once like the dry 
 bones in Ezekiel, become clothed with flesh, stand 
 up and live. This is another anastasis. "We have 
 been all the while becoming children of the resur- 
 rection. This resurrection is always toward heaven ; 
 for it is a new standing up of the character, a resur- 
 rection of the heart to higher and nobler purposes. 
 
40 THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 
 
 The longer it goes on the more erect the spirit 
 stands. 
 
 And if we have done this in the light and power 
 of God, resurrection into the other world at death 
 lands us amid all the beauty and bloom of the heaven 
 on the other shore ; stands us among the heavenly- 
 minded who have won their crowns even as we have 
 won ours ; renders us heirs of whatever of reward 
 peace, joy, happiness, salvation, eternal life waits 
 upon those whose hearts have become renewed after 
 the image of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Yes, if we have but partially done this work 
 truthfully and well, and few have done more, even 
 then we begin with so much of heaven as we have 
 already won on leaving here, and finish our resur- 
 rection into higher states in the world beyond. 
 But heaven must be in us here, or it will never be 
 around us there. It must be a heart's love, or it 
 will never be an outward realization. It must be an 
 inward light, or we shall never see the light of God 
 which irradiates the skies above. The resurrection 
 of the soul out of the body into the spirit world is 
 one thing ; that of its elevation into heaven is an- 
 other. Heaven is its own life and light and joy ; 
 the heavenly spirit, in the world beyond, rises into 
 it by its own native tendency. The one resurrection 
 is a great and glorious fact ; but the other is great- 
 ness, joy and glory in itself. The one gives an end 
 to live for, and a hope to die for ; but the other is a 
 present satisfaction, and an eternal peace. The one 
 is a boon beyond aught that is granted to the beasts 
 that perish ; but the other is God's own seal of eternal 
 blessedness set within the soul. 
 
III. 
 
 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 CHRISTENDOM has had its superstitions no 
 less than heathendom. Christendom has 
 had its traditions, whereby it has made 
 the Word of God of none effect, as certainly as 
 had the Pharisees of old. Let us rise out of this 
 mist of superstition and tradition. Let us dare to 
 grapple with religious questions of profound inter- 
 est, even though we cannot carry with us the ap- 
 proval of the church authorities, nor the sanction 
 of its creeds. No matter what we may have been 
 taught ; we want the truth. No matter what duty 
 the letter of Scripture has in the past been called 
 upon to perform ; we want its living spirit. 
 
 Tradition and superstition have located heaven 
 in very curious places. They have assigned it a 
 position in some of the stars. They have given it 
 a place in the moon. They have located it in the 
 sun. They have set it upon the upper portion of 
 the concave surface of the sky. They have placed 
 it on this earth renewed by millenial fires in some 
 indefinite future. All these localities are natural 
 and material ; but heaven as the eternal residence 
 of the soul, is spiritual. But to render this con- 
 sistent, they have resurrected our material bodies 
 to clothe the spirit withal once more, in order that 
 it may dwell somewhere in material space. 
 4* 41 
 
42 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 But suppose it were in the sun ; solar conditions 
 would instantaneously destroy these frames of frag- 
 ile matter. Suppose it were in the stars ; they are 
 but flaming suns like the centre of our own plan- 
 etary system. Suppose it were on the earth ; its ca- 
 pacity could neither hold nor support the countless 
 millions who would rise to people its surface ; or on 
 the moon, that is far less in size than the earth. 
 Suppose it were on the upper surface of the sky ; 
 but the intelligence of to-day knows there is no such 
 thing ; for the sky, augment the power of your tel- 
 escope as you will, is only space. These things are 
 supposable only to superstition or utter thought- 
 lessness. To intelligence, the} 7 are not supposable. 
 
 Yet the Scripture has laid down many a founda- 
 tion of truth on this and all kindred topics, on which 
 it calls upon us to build. It is a mistake to suppose 
 that the Bible is silent on this momentous theme. 
 True, in its letter it has not located the other world. 
 Inferentially, in its spirit it has. It has given us 
 no set lesson on heavenly geography ; yet the con- 
 clusions it leaves us to draw from its whole scope 
 and tenor are so plain, that we never could have 
 avoided them had not our minds been pre-occupied 
 by the pagan traditions which have fastened them- 
 selves on Christianity. 
 
 Let us proceed, however, by the light of the con- 
 clusions at which we have already arrived. Let us 
 remember that the soul or spirit is the real man, 
 and the body only the garment with which it is 
 clothed for the purposes of its earth-life, only the 
 machine within which it dwells and whose various 
 
THE SPIRIT IS THE REAL MAN. 43 
 
 parts it moves, and of whose cunning mechanism it 
 makes use to walk about and do its earthly work 
 with ; that this soul is in the human form, clothed 
 with a spiritual body which, when the earthly is 
 dissolved, stands up in its own sphere, and lives, in 
 appearance and in reality, a thoroughly human life ; 
 that it thinks, loves, feels, hears, sees, smells, on the 
 spiritual plane ; and if it be heavenly in character, 
 that it dwells in heavenly companionships hereafter, 
 and in that realm of the world beyond which we call 
 heaven. 
 
 I have said that the spirit is the real man. When 
 the body dies, it falls away, as it were, from the 
 spirit-man whom it had clothed, and the soul stands 
 up in its own sphere, untrammeled by impediments 
 of flesh. This is the resurrection. Where does this 
 soul clothed in its spiritual body, go ? Why, it does 
 not go anywhere. Its new relations are right around 
 it. This opaque body that it bore, has shut from 
 sight all its spiritual surroundings. Drop the mate- 
 rial body, and the scenery of the spiritual world be- 
 comes visible in every direction. There has been 
 no change in space. Place a screen in front of your 
 window, and your vision is confined to the room in 
 which you are ; remove the screen and your vision 
 extends over all the landscape to the horizon's ut- 
 most verge. This body is the screen before the 
 spirit. The real eyes were in the soul ; the eyes of 
 the body were only the windows through which it 
 looked into the world. The illustration, however, 
 is not perfect in every respect. Remove this screen 
 called the body and you cannot look into the world 
 
44 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 any more. But another world is around you, which 
 it had previously hidden from your view ; and the 
 real man, with alfhis normal powers restored, with- 
 out moving a step in space, without floating off to 
 sun, moon, or star, finds himself the centre of a hori- 
 zon of such wonderful reality and actual verity, that 
 if any spirit were to tell him he were in the land of 
 the dead, he would turn upon him, perhaps, with a 
 smile of incredulity. 
 
 "Well, then, the soul being the seat of character, 
 and being its own quality, its own character and 
 quality go with it and remain with it in the other 
 sphere of life. What it was the moment before it 
 dropped the body, that it is the moment after. The 
 death of the body does not alter the disposition of 
 the spirit. Has it during its earth-life woven heaven 
 or hell into the fabric of its constitution ? So will it 
 be a heaven or a hell in itself the moment it stands 
 upon the opposite shore. Has it left here with a 
 character not fully developed for good or evil 
 good in grain with much of the stain of earthly evil 
 still left, or bad in grain with many of the world's 
 external refinements and hypocrisies still clinging 
 to it? so will it enter upon its new state of existence. 
 
 But while it lived in this world, although there 
 was a screen before the windows of the soul, so that 
 its vision and action were circumscribed by worldly 
 sights and surroundings, it went not unattended by 
 spiritual companions, nor unsurrounded by spirit- 
 ual realities. The spiritual and natural worlds are 
 mutually interlocked. The soul stands here as to its 
 natural body upon the natural soil of earth, but 
 
OUR INVISIBLE ASSOCIATES. 45 
 
 steeped in all the mysteries and verities of the un- 
 seen sphere of life. Influences are pressing upon it 
 of which it takes no cognizance, limply because all 
 its interests and energies are going forth into this 
 world ; and the curtain which hides the other world 
 from view is not yet withdrawn. 
 
 But there is a curious law of mind which ignores 
 completely some of the phenomena of material ex- 
 istence. The spirit is bound by no such thing as 
 space. In that world thought and affection cause 
 presence. Let the thought be good and the affec- 
 tion pure, and we attract, by a sort of spiritual mag- 
 netism, angelic spirits ; let the thought be evil and 
 the affection defiled, and we are surrounded by in- 
 fernal spirits. Our invisible associates are those 
 whom our present states of mind and heart attract 
 to our sides. Let desire and thought be concen- 
 trated on the effort to draw nearer to God and obey 
 more faithfully his laws, and, imperfect though our 
 efforts be, we are among those on the other side 
 who sympathize with us and urge on the work ; 
 while the angels are near at hand with all their 
 holy influences. Let purity and peace serenely rest 
 upon the soul, and we have the angelic host spirit- 
 ually and really present ; though here in the body, 
 our souls are in heaven. Let but the veil drop, and 
 the mansions of the blest in all their beauty stand 
 before our eyes, the heavenly pastures and the 
 mountains of the Lord spread out to our enraptured 
 sight ; the love-lit eyes of lovelier hearts look back 
 on eyes of love, the forms of those who have gained 
 celestial heights stand forth in their celestial beauty ; 
 
46 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 yet we have not walked a rood, nor floated upward 
 through a hand's breadth of natural space ; but find 
 on the spiritual sid the law of matter quite ignored, 
 and a very present heaven for our spirit's home. 
 
 Heaven rests upon this earth. It is not a different 
 place, but a different realm or sphere of being. The 
 whole after-world rests upon the present world. It 
 is here ; its scenery surrounds us ; its inhabitants 
 cross our path at every turn ; they crowd our houses 
 and our streets ; they stir our hearts to fiendish pas- 
 sions malice or revenge ; or they whisper thoughts 
 of peace, purity, and contentment, according to the 
 feelings and purposes which we voluntarily cherish. 
 The poet's dream of conjuring into presence the 
 spirits of the dead, has more of truth in it than 
 some are aware of. We are conjuring them into 
 presence, though not to sight, in every thought and 
 purpose and wish and spontaneous effusion of the 
 heart. 
 
 To enter upon the spiritual chemistry of other- 
 world substance, or the spiritual geology of other- 
 world earths, is something that must be left until 
 we come openly into that world, and become inter- 
 ested students of spiritual science. The difference 
 between mind and matter no man has ever scien- 
 tifically analyzed ; yet mind is mind, and matter is 
 matter, and we know that they are totally different. 
 The sun shines in heaven notwithstanding the failure 
 of the scientist to develop its nature and to resolve 
 its constituent elements ; and the soul is a potent 
 fact, and wields this body with marvelous facility 
 and power, though no surgeon has ever yet dissected 
 
THE HEAVENS OPENED. 47 
 
 it. And so, too, the spiritual world is a world of 
 wonderful reality, and in immediate contact with 
 the earth, though we can resolve it neither into 
 matter nor the constituent elements of matter. 
 
 These truths are stated positively. If you credit 
 the Scriptures you cannot doubt them. You who 
 read your Bibles believingly, can you question the 
 truth of the views here presented concerning the 
 reality and presence of other-world existences ? 
 When the word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel and 
 the heavens were opened to him and he saw visions 
 of God, where was Ezekiel V Did he go off into the 
 distant realms of space ? and were the laws of nature 
 suspended that he might be wafted millions of miles 
 in the twinkling of an eye ? No : he was 'among 
 the Jewish captives by the river Chebar in the land 
 of Chaldaea. He simply " looked," so runs the sa- 
 cred record, and he beheld, within the opened heav- 
 ens, the marvellous things which he proceeds to nar- 
 rate.* "Was it the natural heavens that the prophet 
 refers to ? How can the skies, which are but vacant 
 space, open and disclose moving sights and living 
 scenes ? Surely this were more marvelous and in- 
 credible than the other. It was the curtain which 
 hid the other world from view then drawn aside. 
 It was that peculiar change of mental state, that 
 turning away of the eyes of the spirit from natural 
 things and the opening of them to the realities of 
 the spiritual world, which is possible and was often 
 permitted to seers and prophets, and which is called 
 
 * Ezek. i. 1, 4. 
 
48 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 in Scripture being " in the spirit." Ezekiel simply 
 u stood up " on Chaldoean soil, and looked forth 
 into heaven. 
 
 When John was u in the spirit" on the Lord's 
 day, and heard the voice of a great trumpet and 
 saw the seven candlesticks and one like unto the 
 Son of man, where was he ? When again he was 
 u in the spirit " and a door was opened in heaven, 
 and he saw a throne and Him that sat upon it, 
 where was he ? When on other occasions he was 
 "in the spirit" and saw heaven opened, as when 
 he beheld the white horse and the armies of heaven 
 following the rider, or when he gazed upon the de- 
 scending city, New Jerusalem, where was he ? * 
 Why, he was in the Isle of Patmos, and there re- 
 mained during the continuance of these visions. It 
 was only to be in the spirit, which, as proved by the 
 after occurrence, was to have his spiritual sight 
 opened, or to be gifted with the power of introvert- 
 ing his sight from earth to the heavenly realm, 
 when he could view the scenes of the other world 
 without stirring a foot from his position in this. 
 Can we believe that the opening of the heavens was 
 a great rent in the sky, and that these things were 
 seen by John, as they must have been if so seen at 
 all, millions of miles away in the azure blue ? Is 
 this reasonable ? Does it commend itself to the 
 rational understanding or the common sense of peo- 
 ple of our times ? 
 
 But there is one narrative in Scripture which is 
 
 * Rev. i. 9, 10; iv. 1, 2; vi. 2; xxi. 1, 2, etc. 
 
OPENING OF THE SPIRITS EYES. 49 
 
 so plain and conclusive that it seems as though it 
 had been placed there for the express purpose of 
 saving us from doubt on this point ; and that nar- 
 rative will stand forever as the lesson of God, lead- 
 ing our minds into correct currents of thought in 
 relation to heaven. 
 
 The king of Syria on a certain occasion warred 
 against Israel. But Elisha the prophet, by his timely 
 warnings and prophetic intuitions, saved the Israel- 
 ites and their king from every snare that was laid 
 for them. The king of Syria was informed that it 
 was through this prophet that his schemes so often 
 failed, and he resolved to capture him. So, learning 
 of Elisha's presence at Dothan, he sent thither a 
 host of horses and chariots and completely sur- 
 rounded the city. Now Elisha had a servant named 
 Gehazi ; and he, rising up early in the morning, dis- 
 covered this immense army encamped about them. 
 And he was troubled, and said to Elisha: "Alas, 
 my master ! how shall we do? " Elisha had no mis- 
 givings ; for he already saw, by the opening of his 
 spiritual sight, his heavenly surroundings. But he 
 desired that his servant should see what he saw. 
 And he prayed and said : " Lord, I pray thee, open 
 his eyes that he may see." The expression is note- 
 worthy ; but it is the usual Scripture expression for 
 this opening of the spiritual eyes that the seer may 
 view the things which surround him in the other 
 world. So, to cite the language of the sacred record, 
 " the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and 
 he saw ; and behold, the mountain was full of horses 
 and chariots of fire round about Elisha "the pro- 
 5 D 
 
50 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 tecting hosts of heaven who were to rout the Syrian 
 army by sudden panic and dismay ! * 
 
 This teaches us very plainly where the angels are ; 
 where heaven is ; where are all those protecting in- 
 fluences prepared for us by the Lord, and ministered 
 unto us by his heavenly hosts. Given, the opening 
 of the eyes into the spiritual realm, and a state of 
 mind which brings them near, and they are, with- 
 out reference to natural space, suddenly visible 
 round about us. 
 
 Thus we can see how Paul was caught up into the 
 third heaven, and there beheld things unspeakable, 
 without leaving the earth bodily. Thus we can un- 
 derstand how heaven was opened at the baptism of 
 Christ ; that it was no opening of natural skies, but 
 the opening of the great world beyond to the inner 
 eyes of the Divine Man. Thus saw Peter, James 
 and John, the transfigured body of Christ, as He 
 was in his inward spirit, Christ in his glorified 
 state, and the personal forms also of Moses and 
 Elias, now become angels. They were spiritually 
 present ; the spiritual sight of the Apostles was 
 opened ; they had only to look, and they beheld. 
 Thus came Samuel into the presence of Saul, bidden 
 from the other world. Thus, after his resurrection, 
 did our Lord appear and disappear in that upper 
 room, quite regardless of closed doors, to the wonder- 
 ing eyes of the disciples. He was seen by the open- 
 ing of their spiritual eyes ; when these were closed, 
 He vanished from their sight. So were Moses and 
 Elias and Samuel seen, and so they disappeared. 
 
 * 2 Kings vi. 1-18. 
 
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL SPACE. 51 
 
 I know how difficult it is to comprehend a real 
 world without the laws of matter and of space ; yet 
 we see that the Scripture view of this subject de- 
 mands ^it. If it is true, as Scripture teaches, that 
 the other world is right around us, visible, however, 
 to men on earth by the opening of an inner spiritual 
 sight ; if its inhabitants are with us by affection and 
 thought, the good, bad or mixed, as we draw them 
 to us by our own states or frames of mind ; why, 
 then, in that world natural space must be annihilated. 
 It does not follow, however, that there is no spiritual 
 space. It only follows that spiritual space is de- 
 termined by thought which is an attribute of spirit, 
 and that earthly space is measured by a surveyor's 
 chain which has the attributes of matter and not 
 of spirit. It is the difference between spirit and 
 matter. 
 
 We can only gain general principles here. We 
 shall have a clearer idea of the attributes and laws 
 of the other life when we come to live there con- 
 sciously. And ideas, it must be remembered, are 
 matters of growth with us. A full-grown man un- 
 derstands much better how day and night are formed 
 by the revolution of the earth on its axis, than the 
 child who is informed of the fact for the first time, 
 and who always thought that the sun travelled round 
 the earth each passing day. So reflection and con- 
 stant recurrence to the thought will, after a while, 
 thoroughly familiarize the mind with the idea of a 
 spirit-world without space that can be measured with 
 a yard-stick, and with space that can be measured 
 by thought and affection ; with the idea that near- 
 
52 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 ness of mental state causes presence not only be- 
 tween spirits in the other world, but also between 
 the angels of heaven and the souls of people on 
 earth, and not feet, rods and miles ; and yet that 
 the appearance of space there is just as clearly 
 marked as it is here. 
 
 So the question, Where is heaven ? is answered 
 by sacred Scripture in such words as our earth-life 
 affords us. Could we speak the language of heaven, 
 perhaps we would have better words with which to 
 clothe these ideas. But in heaven we shall also have 
 a better experience ; so for complete realizations we 
 must wait, though in part we may gain partial ones 
 here. 
 
 The other question, What is heaven ? is a large 
 one. As we have said, geologically or chemically, 
 or by analysis of any earthly science, the question 
 must remain forever unanswered. The reason is 
 obvious. Spirit is not matter, and it has its own 
 distinct laws. Heaven is not earth, and it exists 
 under conditions utterly diverse, under circum- 
 stances totally unlike those of earth. Its essential 
 constitution is one sui generis peculiarly its own. 
 Then again the Word of God is not a scientific trea- 
 tise. It was not only not intended as a text-book 
 for physical science, but it does not pretend to teach 
 spiritual things after a scientific manner. We must 
 not ask it ; we must not look for it. It was not in- 
 tended to furnish the intellect with theological defi- 
 nitions and rules, but to illumine it ; not to be so 
 much a text-book of theology as a means of bring- 
 
THE BIBLE FULL OF SEED-TRUTHS. 53 
 
 ing us into spiritual union with the Lord, and under 
 the influence of the angels. 
 
 Yet its principles are broad and clear. But we 
 oftener get them into us by our hearts warming 
 towards them, than by our reasoning powers being 
 exercised upon them. And if we start aright, these 
 principles grow and expand within us, and gradually 
 become better seen and more fully comprehended. 
 The kingdom of heaven is likened u to a grain of 
 mustard-seed which a man took and sowed in his 
 field, which indeed is the least of all seeds ; but 
 when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and 
 becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come 
 and lodge in the branches thereof." * The Bible is 
 full of seed-truths, which, sown in the mind, will 
 become great in due time, and grow into a tree of 
 knowledge with spreading and varied branches. 
 So is it with regard to heaven. The subject is not 
 laid open scientifically nor didactically ; but all 
 through the Scriptures are scattered these seed- 
 truths concerning heaven and the heavenly life, 
 which, if permitted to take root in the mind, will 
 develop into a satisfactory solution of questions 
 which, on their first reception, it is hard to answer. 
 
 Then we find not only that the soul is the real 
 man, but that the soul-world is the real world ; 
 that, while earth is our abode for a brief period, 
 heaven, if we attain unto it, is our abode for eter- 
 nity ; that while earthly joys are spasmodic and 
 fleeting, heavenly joys are everlasting ; that, where- 
 
 * Matt. xiii. 31. 
 5* 
 
54 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 as on earth we are (if followers of the Lord) con- 
 stantly battling to overcome our evils, in heaven we 
 have the blessed heart-rest of evil overcome ; that 
 while earth is a scene of disorder and strife, and, to a 
 certain degree, of unrest even to its purest and love- 
 liest souls, the happiness of heaven there being no 
 contact with evil there is supreme and unalloyed. 
 
 These truths and a hundred kindred ones which 
 we find cropping out from the letter of Scripture, 
 like grains of surface gold indicating rich veins of 
 ore beneath the surface, which patient digging (that 
 is, reverent living of the truth we know) will ulti- 
 mately disclose. And these things are so by reason 
 of the central truth, that heaven is, essentially, the 
 Lord's life and light within the soul, and that, there- 
 fore, its full and perfect development, as found in 
 the abodes of the blest beyond the grave, absolutely 
 must include all these and innumerable other joys 
 which grow out of a heart-state of purity and peace. 
 
 But we find even more than this. Startling as 
 the proposition may seem to those who have allowed 
 the traditions of centuries and the superstitions of 
 a crude religious era to constitute their creed, heaven 
 is a real world of sight and sense and sound. Though 
 not material, it is more real than this world ; and 
 on precisely the same principle that the soul is more 
 real than the body. 
 
 If the soul or spirit is real, must not the world in 
 which it dwells be real, too ? Do we doubt the ex- 
 istence of the soul, because our fingers cannot grasp 
 it ? Do I doubt your soul's existence because I can- 
 not lay this hand of clay upon its head ? because 
 
OBJECTS SEEN IN HEAVEN. 55 
 
 it requires an opening of my spiritual sight, similar 
 to that recorded of Ezekiel, Zechariah, Paul, or 
 John, before I can see it ? Then why doubt con- 
 cerning the spiritual world as a real existence with 
 inhabitants and other objects of reality, albeit its 
 nature is peculiarly its own, because these natural 
 eyes cannot view its spiritual scenes ? Ezekiel saw 
 that world ; Zechariah, Paul, and John saw it. 
 They saw it as something visible and tangible. 
 They saw its temples and palaces, its rivers and 
 mountains, its fountains, plains and trees. They 
 say so ; and they say they saw these things in 
 heaven. "The heavens were opened," says Eze- 
 kiel, "and I saw visions of God." "And behold a 
 door was opened in heaven," says John, and "a 
 throne was set in heaven and one sat upon the 
 throne;" and again, "I saw heaven opened and 
 behold a white horse." And they, each of them, 
 fill many chapters in relating what they saw. And 
 angels are clothed ; for among the many related 
 instances, the angel who sat at the sepulchre had 
 on a shining garment, and the four and twenty 
 elders that John saw in heaven, were clothed in, 
 white raiment. He and the earlier seers saw in 
 heaven clouds and rainbows, books and harps, 
 thrones and crowns, horses and chariots, All the 
 prophets, too, heard voices the voices of the an- 
 gels, some of them the sound of trumpets, some the 
 rush of mighty winds. Everywhere, when we read 
 of heaven, we hear of it as a region of sights ancl 
 sounds. But according to the sacred record one 
 must be "in the spirit" must have the inner 
 
56 WHERE AND WHAT IS HEAVEN? 
 
 senses of the spirit opened in order to witness these 
 spiritual phenomena. 
 
 The argument, then, is briefly this : that while 
 what the prophets saw was limited and only per- 
 mitted for the sake of the prophetic meaning of the 
 visions, or as seed-truths, not as full revealments 
 concerning the future life, yet they were real ; that 
 because they were visions, or things seen on the 
 spiritual plane, that does not deprive them of their 
 reality : that because they are invisible to the bodily 
 sense, that does not deprive them of their tangibility 
 so far as the spiritual senses are concerned ; that 
 spiritual things may have form and shape and visi- 
 bility and sound on their own plane, as certainly as 
 material things on theirs ; that the spiritual world 
 hidden from this, has its scenery and surroundings, 
 its voices and its thunderings, its perfumes and its 
 incense, cognizable, however, only by the spiritual 
 senses. It is not mapped out in its details in the 
 Scripture, but the suggestion and clear intimation 
 of it all is actually there. As the Word of God is 
 true, this is true. 
 
 In the great Hereafter, friend will meet friend ; 
 love will respond to love ; music will charm the 
 soul with melody ; scenes beautiful and grand will 
 display their forms before enchanted eyes. They 
 will be more perfect than those witnessed here, 
 more impressive, more living, more real, because 
 spirit is more real, living and perfect than matter. 
 I cannot doubt this, for the Word of God has so dis- 
 closed ; and I have more faith in the Lord's Word 
 
HEAVEN IN THE SOUL. 57 
 
 than in the most venerable traditions, or the most 
 ingenious hypothesis ever invented by man. 
 
 There is a tangible reality in the heaven about 
 which the Lord has taught us in his Word. "We can 
 look forward to it with an assurance of its splendor 
 and its peace. It looms up before the mind, not as 
 something fantastic, unreal and evanescent, like the 
 floating phantasmagoria of a bright and passing 
 dream, but as a region where the soul can find a 
 human joy and live as a human being. As it is the 
 seat of God's presence, his creative power will fill 
 it with all things that can delight the eye, excite 
 the activity of a regenerated mind, or answer the 
 cravings of the noblest desire and purest love. It 
 is the home of people made pure and good. It is 
 the everlasting abode of men become receptive of 
 the light of heavenly wisdom and the warmth and 
 sweetness of heavenly love. It is a state worth all 
 our exertions while on earth to live, for, and a home 
 worth all our hopes and prayers to die for. But 
 after all, it is a question of life, not faith ; and we 
 must grow into heaven, by a purification of the spirit 
 through the Lord's strength, else we shall never 
 realize the promises of his Word. Let heaven be a 
 lesson of daily life to us while on earth. For it is 
 a thing of the heart ; it is a struggle for nobility of 
 character purity and rectitude of purpose ; it is an 
 uprooting of innate selfishness ; it is a love for all 
 mankind ; it is a life in the spirit of the Lord. So 
 living, we obtain heaven here ; so dying, we enjoy 
 it hereafter. 
 
IV. 
 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 > HILE Jesus was preparing the minds of his 
 disciples for the coming event of the cruci- 
 fixion, and comforting them with words 
 designed to heighten their hopes and strengthen 
 their faith, He asked them to believe in Him ; to 
 have implicit confidence in his promises and his 
 work. If they would do this, He more than inti- 
 mated that all would be well. He directed their 
 thoughts to heaven ; it was one of the most comfort- 
 ing reflections to which He could lead them. "In 
 my Father's house," He said, " are many mansions. 
 If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to 
 prepare a place for you." It was necessary that 
 He should pass out of this earth-life, in order that 
 He might arrange the heavenly homes of his follow- 
 ers of all who should ever be his followers. No 
 matter at this time, why. But a good part of that 
 work consisted in moulding the hearts of his dis- 
 ciples into a heavenly form ; and this could only be 
 done by his laying down his earth-life. He said to 
 Peter, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me 
 now ; but thou shalt follow me afterwards." 
 
 But it was curious that He should mention the 
 fact, as one of his lessons of great comfort, that in 
 his Father's house there were " many mansions ; " 
 curious, because to the average, mind of Christen- 
 
 58 
 
VARIETY IN HEAVEN. 59 
 
 dom it has not seemed to prove a source of comfort. 
 The popular belief has been, that heaven is one 
 uniform level one unvaried life, the same for all. 
 The happiness of heaven has been thought to con- 
 sist in the hosts of the redeemed, undistinguished 
 by character, standing before the throne with harps 
 in hand, singing without cessation eternal praises 
 to God. This and other equally strange ideas not 
 consonant with human nature, nor in accordance 
 with the best desires of the heart, have been among 
 the vain imaginings of men. 
 
 But Scripture, rightly interpreted, will never be 
 found to ignore human nature. The infinite di- 
 versity of tastes, desires, characteristics, sympa- 
 thies the intense individuality of the human soul 
 whereby each person who ever lived is distinguished 
 from every other, is a birthright vouchsafed to man 
 from God himself. God-given, it is right and proper 
 that it should be so. As there were never two sets 
 of features exactly alike, as you may wander the 
 earth's surface all over and pick out your brother 
 or next friend from every other man's brother and 
 friend, because he is, in appearance, unlike every 
 other man that ever was born ; so might you wander 
 the world over and never find two hearts, two minds 
 or two souls exactly alike. Each man is himself 
 and nobody else. Each woman is herself, distinctly 
 individualized from all other women. And what is 
 remarkable, the more civilized a race is, the more 
 strongly individualized are its members ; and the 
 more brutalized, the less strongly so ; until, as you 
 descend lower in the scale of creation from men to 
 
60 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 beasts, and from thence to birds, fishes, insects, the 
 less easy it is to recognize a difference between dif- 
 ferent individuals of the same class. But perfect 
 similarity is never found. Individuality weakens 
 but is never lost ; even in the leaves of the forest or 
 the sands of the sea it never becomes totally ob- 
 literated. 
 
 But what is still more strange, experience will dem- 
 onstrate to those who will take note thereof, that 
 the more virtuous, the more lovely in character, the 
 more holy in life, the more earnest in deeds of good 
 one becomes, the more this law of distinct indi- 
 viduality deepens, the more marked the peculiarities 
 of character, the more different and clearly defined 
 every individual becomes from every other. There 
 is no such thing as absolute likeness of quality or 
 character throughout creation. And as the soul or 
 spirit, and not the body, is the real man, and as this 
 is what goes to heaven and not its earthly vestment, 
 it is clear that no two persons in heaven can be pre- 
 cisely alike. 
 
 And as there are distinctions of individuals, so 
 there are also general distinctions into classes. We 
 observe the division of the human race into several 
 families, as Caucasians, Indians, Mongolians, and 
 Negroes. We observe each of these divided into 
 nations and peoples, each again of their own peculiar 
 type, of their own peculiar class of intellect, taste, 
 habit, custom, civilization ; and each even of so 
 marked a physical type as to render it not difficult 
 to distinguish them in a mixed crowd. Even in the 
 same town or neighborhood the families divide off 
 
MANY SOCIETIES IN HEAVEN. 61 
 
 into circles and groups, attracted and arranged by 
 some law of affinity which the outward eye cannot 
 detect. If it is partly what the world calls accident, 
 it is largely mutual attraction. 
 
 This was the reason why our Lord declared that 
 in his Father's house, or heaven, there are many 
 mansions, or various classes of individuals. Call 
 them societies, congregations, communities, cities, 
 or what you please, the idea remains. The expression 
 is based on a Jewish custom. A family or tribe, or 
 the descendants of any patriarch were called a house. 
 Thus, u The house of David" is often used as an 
 expression to include all the lineage or family of 
 David. When the Lord said, "I have sworn unto 
 the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall 
 not be purged with sacrifice," He does not mean 
 the edifice in which Eli resided, but his lineage, 
 race, kindred or tribe. And when we read that 
 u there was war between the house of David and 
 the house of Saul," reference is had to the descend- 
 ants of those kings, their families and followers. It 
 would have been as well to render the text (John 
 xiv. 1) above cited, "In my Father's house are 
 many chambers ; " and this (to translate the meta- 
 phor or correspondence) might be paraphrased thus : 
 u In the family of God are many families ; " or, " In 
 the congregation of the righteous are many congre- 
 gations ;" or, "In the Lord's heaven are many 
 heavens." And thus we find the pith and marrow 
 of this text agreeing with what we know of human 
 nature, its demands and necessities, and of the 
 6 
 
62 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Lord's merciful care to adjust all things to its in- 
 herent laws and needs. 
 
 No : Heaven is not an unvarying level. If it 
 were, the Lord would have told us, as He says. 
 But He has not told us so, but has told us quite the 
 contrary. This is a more important truth than at 
 first might seem. For on this we build all our ideas 
 of the life of the better world. There is no aristoc- 
 racy in heaven. He that seeks to be greatest there, 
 will certainly find himself least ; and he who essays 
 to take the chief seat at the marriage supper of re- 
 generate souls, will unquestionably be invited to 
 occupy the lowest seat. This also is our Saviour's 
 teaching. There are no arbitrary class distinctions 
 there, based on the doctrine or conceit, " I am better 
 than thou." 
 
 But evidently if Hottentots go to heaven, Hot- 
 tentots and the most refined souls of Christendom 
 would not dwell together, simply because of their 
 dissimilarity, and the discomfort that would be mu- 
 tually caused thereby. No feeling of pride or aris- 
 tocracy would enter into this arrangement, since 
 such feelings belong to hell, not to heaven ; and no 
 one who entertains them could find a place among 
 the blest. It would be simply the spiritual law of 
 attraction, whereby like ones are drawn together 
 and bound together into societies. 
 
 We may, therefore, expect to find heaven as diverse 
 in its societies and congregations, its nations, tongues 
 and peoples, as earth, leaving out earth's evil. We 
 shall find that all there are good, and that all at last 
 become acknowledgers and followers of the Lord, 
 
VARIETY OF STATES THERE. 63 
 
 but after an infinite variety of ways. Some will be 
 more highly regenerated than others. Some will be 
 peculiarly in the love of one use, some of another. 
 Some will have one set of marked peculiarities, some 
 another. Some will be peculiarly of the affectionate 
 and loving class, some will be markedly intellectual 
 and keen-sighted ; some will be in mere obedience, 
 doing right simply because they are told to do right. 
 There is a place for every follower of the Lord. If 
 your spiritual nature is developed to a high degree, 
 so much the better and higher your position ; if to 
 a less degree, still there is a place. Peter and John 
 and Thomas were essentially different in character ; 
 but our Lord had a place and a use in heaven for each. 
 So each one of us who is to be saved, will have his 
 place in heaven. Our Lord has prepared a place 
 for each. But there are u many mansions ;" and 
 the place of one will not be the place of another. 
 Every one's place will depend on his own character, 
 or his mind and heart peculiarities. 
 
 The Bible, as I have before remarked, does not in 
 its letter lay down minute doctrines nor indulge in 
 amplified descriptions. It lays down broad princi- 
 ples. It leads you to a certain point, and then says 
 (in substance), "Think, reflect, make your own de- 
 ductions ; " and there it stops. So with reference 
 to the great doctrine of heaven. It gives us princi- 
 ples and asks us to build on them. It tells us that 
 heaven is a spiritural realm consisting of innumer- 
 able societies ; and we reflect upon human nature, 
 and see in a moment why. 
 
 Now there is another doctrine of our Lord, which 
 
64 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 leads us on beyond this, and unfolds for us the main 
 idea of life in heaven. It does not say, "Angels 
 spend their time in doing thus and so." but it gives 
 us the principle on which we are justified in build- 
 ing. This doctrine is set forth in the parable of the 
 sheep and goats.* The Lord is judging those who 
 have left this world ; and in rendering judgment, He 
 is represented as explaining the principle according 
 to which the separation takes place. It is likened to 
 the case of a shepherd who is dividing his sheep from 
 his goats. The heirs of hell are compared to the goats, 
 those of heaven to the sheep. The infernal king- 
 dom into which the lost go, is here the left hand ; 
 the heavenly kingdom which is for the righteous is 
 called the right hand. 
 
 Now the great dividing line between angels and 
 their opposites, the great principle upon which 
 the division takes place, is unequivocally set forth. 
 There is no circumlocution about it ; we have it in 
 the plainest language. It is not faith alone, nor 
 predestination, nor belonging to any sect which as- 
 sumes to be THE CHURCH ; nor is it joining the 
 church, nor any peculiar form of baptism, nor any 
 other distinction which men have made. Let us 
 see, then, what it is. 
 
 Our Lord who alone is able to judge all hearts, 
 says to those assembled on his right hand, that is, 
 in heaven, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
 the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation 
 of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave 
 
 * Matt. xxv. 31-46. 
 
VARIOUS MINISTRATIONS. 65 
 
 me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I 
 was a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye 
 clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited me ; I was 
 in prison, and ye came unto me." But as the mass 
 of men have never even had the opportunity to do 
 such things for their Lord, He explains further what 
 He means by this, and says: "Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me." But to those 
 who are on his left hand, to the lost, in remanding 
 them to their destination, He says: U I was an 
 hungered, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, 
 and ye gave me no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye 
 took me not in ; naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick 
 and in prison, and ye visited me not." But as the 
 opportunity to do or not to do so personally to the 
 Lord, may never have been presented, they also 
 receive the explanation: " Inasmuch as ye did it 
 not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." 
 u And these," it is added that is, they who did not 
 these things u shall go away into everlasting pun- 
 ishment ; but the righteous " they who did them 
 u into life eternal." 
 
 Now, it is not to be supposed that feeding the 
 hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the 
 naked, and ministering to the stranger, the sick and 
 imprisoned, are all the duties of life which qualify 
 us for heaven. But these, as important ministra- 
 tions of charity, stand for all the well-known duties 
 of life. They stand also for the correlative spiritual 
 duties of ministering to those who are hungry for 
 genuine disinterested love, or thirsty for God's truth; 
 6* E 
 
66 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 to those who are spiritually naked, lacking the robes 
 of righteousness ; who are strangers to the just de- 
 mands of the Lord's precepts, and the glorious truths 
 of his holy Word ; who are spiritually sick because 
 of sin, and are prisoners in that worst of all Bas- 
 tiles, self and the world. In fact, the truly Chris- 
 tian life consists in living for others, in ministering 
 to others, in considering the rights of others, in 
 loving and serving others. The true Christian is 
 not in the love of self, but in the love of use ; not 
 in the love of the world and its pleasures for his own 
 sake, but in the love of seeing how much use he can 
 make of the world in ministering to the good of 
 others, and to their legitimate pleasures. This 
 love of use, this love for the neighbor and his good, 
 the Lord accepts as personal devotion to Himself. 
 You cannot love the neighbor without loving the 
 Lord. The one leads up to the other, and culminates 
 in it* And the Lord demands of you a spirit which 
 prompts you to serve your neighbor, which you can 
 do ; and He accepts this in lieu of that personal ser- 
 vice to Himself, which you cannot give. 
 
 "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
 least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
 me." 
 
 Heaven is essentially in the heart. Heaven in 
 the heart, is the spirit of unselfishness manifested 
 in a love of being of real use to others in all the 
 walks and ways of life. Earth is the school in which 
 man is placed to cultivate this spirit, and make it 
 his own. If he does this, he gains a residence in 
 the heavenly world beyond the grave, because his 
 
THE RULING LOVE IN HEAVEN. 67 
 
 heart is in complete accord with the spirit of those 
 who dwell there, and which makes it heaven ; if he 
 does not, he gravitates to the other side and enters 
 into the companionship of the wicked, simply he- 
 cause his heart is in accord with the spirit of selfish- 
 ness which dwells among them. 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that as the very spirit 
 which fits the soul for heaven is the love of use, 
 the love of ministering in all possible and imaginable 
 ways to the good of others, that spirit constitutes 
 the very life of heaven. I do not mean its senti- 
 mental life merely, but its actual, practical, every- 
 day work and worship. This, of course, ignores 
 the literal standing before the throne, the endless 
 striking of the celestial harps, the everlasting psalm 
 and song. Why not ? For these are quite useless 
 things. Of what possible benefit can they be ? Can 
 they do good to God, the perfect One ? You cannot 
 do good to Him ; and because you cannot, He has 
 told you that your heirship to hea-ven depends on 
 your loving and doing good to the neighbor ; and 
 He accepts that as good done to Himself. But the 
 spirit of heaven is use ; the life of heaven is use ; 
 the love that prevails in heaven is the love of use. 
 Take off your golden crowns, hang up your harps, 
 and go forth into heaven to see what good your 
 hands- may find to do. You will find it a happier 
 life, a nobler and more exalted life, a purer and more 
 God-like life than any psalm the lips can sing. The 
 Son of Man, your God and Lord, came to earth to 
 minister and serve. He found other work than 
 merely singing psalms. He is your exemplar, both 
 
68 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 for earth and heaven. That spirit acquired is the 
 highest life known in all the universe. It is the 
 source of the purest and most exalted bliss that can 
 thrill the heart. It is the only heaven known to 
 angel or to God. It is difficult ? That does not 
 alter the truth. It is contrary to the prevailing 
 opinion of men ? That does not detract from the 
 fact that it is the plain teaching of the Lord. It is 
 impossible ? That is the suggestion of a false and 
 evil spirit ; the whisper of the serpent of sensuality 
 in the Eden of your own heart, tempting you as a 
 son of Adam to believe that God has lied. 
 
 To give even a general idea of the employments 
 of the angels were out of the question here. They 
 must be usefully employed. A good man without 
 employment is a very unhappy being. The happi- 
 ness of heaven, then, must unquestionably result 
 from useful employment. True, we shall there be 
 lifted above the necessity of the coarse manual labor 
 of earth. Here- we please the eye, and touch the 
 heart, and refine the feelings, and give comfort and 
 delight to others by the labor of our hands. But 
 there where toil is unknown we shall perform these 
 pleasing duties in a less laborious way. The best 
 work of life is, after all, addressed to the mind and 
 heart, not to the body. Our social intercourse, our 
 conversation, our instruction, our influence on our 
 children and friends, our worship, and innumerable 
 other things, are for the improvement and joy of the 
 soul and not for the mere comfort or ease of the body. 
 These are what will follow us to heaven. We shall 
 drop all those labors that the body and its support 
 
DISTINCTION OF SEX THERE. 69 
 
 required, and shall direct our energies to the culti- 
 vation and improvement of the soul. Our fields will 
 bloom without toil under the sunlight of God, but 
 the broad field of inquiry into all subjects of mental 
 or spiritual interest will have enlarged a thousand- 
 fold. Is the soul the real man and the body merely 
 the machine through which it speaks and acts in 
 the world, and shall not the soul which is the only 
 thing that survives death and was the only thing 
 that did the speaking and acting here, enjoy there 
 the pleasures of conversation on the highest themes ? 
 The angels talked to the patriarchs, prophets and 
 apostles ; and shall not we, if we become angels, 
 converse one with another ? The angels recognized 
 Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, John, Peter, 
 and Paul ; and shall not we, when we come to 
 angels' estate, recognize each other ? Does the 
 soul lose its identity because the material body 
 which was only a temporary garment, has dropped 
 from it ? The difference of character is ingrained 
 in the spirit, and the male mind is masculine and 
 the female mind feminine by virtue of their consti- 
 tution as spiritual beings ; and shall there not be 
 distinctions of sex in heaven ? The holiest mar- 
 riages on earth are not of convenience, or for money 
 or personal attractions, or from animal instinct, but 
 from mutual adaptibility, and from genuine sympa- 
 thy of mind with mind, and because it is misery to 
 the parties to live apart ; and will there be no true 
 wedded life in heaven ? The happiest condition of 
 life on earth is found in the family ties of a peaceful 
 and well-ordered home ; and shall those connections 
 
70 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 which true hearts most yearn for here, be utterly 
 obliterated there ? Were the natural body the real 
 man, and all there is of us, and were these yearnings 
 and instincts seated in the body, we should answer, 
 Yes. But as the soul is the real man. and they are 
 all seated in the soul, and it is the soul which goes 
 to heaven, the answer must be, No. 
 
 If the purer and nobler people become, the less 
 they lore these ties of marriage, family, home and 
 friends, then we might easily believe them obliter- 
 ated from the life of heaven. But since the contrary 
 is the case, and since we become more heavenly- 
 minded the purer these ties become and the more 
 we love them, therefore we may reasonably con- 
 clude that all these ties exist in the better land. 
 And so they do. There, where our real selves and 
 our truly human instincts have freer play, are wed- 
 ded lives and family ties ; homes, companionships, 
 and friends, the pleasures of mental culture, the 
 joys of heart refinement, with a better field for the 
 cultivation of our spiritual nature, which the ab- 
 sence of care for bodily necessities must afford. 
 Added to this, the angels are ministering spirits to 
 men so the Scriptures assure us. As the vast 
 caravan of departed souls continues its daily march 
 from earth to the world beyond, they have the edu- 
 cation of such of its men, women and children as 
 are willing to be instructed and led into a prepara- 
 tion for the life of heaven. Were they present with 
 the patriarchs, and are they not with us ? Watched 
 they by the cradle of John, and follow they not with 
 us from the cradle to the grave ? Sang they to 
 
HUMAN AND SOCIAL. 71 
 
 Bethlehem's shepherds, and have they never chant- 
 ed an anthem (though inaudible) to any wondering, 
 watching heart of earth from that glad day to this ? 
 Kejoiced they over the repentant sinners of Jesus' 
 day, and feel they no interest in those of our 
 own ? 
 
 Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not shut 
 our ears at the bidding of human traditions, to the 
 voice of truth which speaks from the holy Word of 
 God. The life of heaven is a wondrously human 
 and social life. Far more so than that of earth, 
 since it is purer, holier, more unselfish, fuller of 
 disinterested love ; far more so, since it is unalloyed 
 by the earthly taint that so often mars the pleasures 
 of this world's social sphere. Minds are brighter, 
 intellects are keener, hearts are holier, purposes are 
 nobler, worship is purer, the whole field of heavenly 
 science is more open for study and contemplation. 
 Melodies more full of celestial harmonies than earth 
 e'er dreamed of; poetry whose rhythmic flow is 
 flooded with soul that never yet has reached the 
 world ; ministries to lower spirits and to men, so 
 gentle, tender and loving, that it only shows how 
 mad we are to reject them as we do ; sabbaths of 
 worship all filled with the spirit of the Lord, to 
 rouse their noblest endeavors and thrill with joy 
 their inmost souls ; all services that elevate the 
 angel or tend to ennoble man, of whatever kind 
 those services may be ; these, and perhaps a thou- 
 sand uses yet unknown and incredible to men on 
 earth, may occupy the angelic hosts to all eternity. 
 But each, working in his own way, according to his 
 
72 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 own ability and on his own plane, be that plane 
 high or low. 
 
 And what of the scenery amid which the angels 
 live? We have the testimony of Scripture that 
 scenery does exist there. In the visions of Ezekiel, 
 Zechariah and John, who were in the spirit, and be- 
 held heaven opened and saw visions of God, we find, 
 it is true, but a limited field, and that for defined and 
 special purposes ; but we observe, nevertheless, those 
 visions peopled with angelic beings conversant with 
 the affairs of heaven and men ; filled with mountains 
 and valleys, hills and plains, rivers and seas, houses 
 and temples. This reveals the fact that heaven is 
 a real world of scenery palpable to the senses. It 
 must be so. Angels would scarcely be gifted with 
 sight if there were nothing to see ; or with hearing 
 if there were nothing to hear. But Paul teaches 
 us, as before remarked, that we are not raised with 
 natural, but with spiritual bodies. Our senses, then, 
 in the other life, are of a spiritual, not of a natural 
 order. Now spirit through material eyes can see 
 material things ; but, evidently, through spiritual 
 eyes, only spiritual things. These prophets of old 
 say they were u in the spirit " when they had their 
 visions. That is, what they saw was cognizable by 
 the spiritual not by the bodily sight. There is but 
 one conclusion : Spirit is essentially different from 
 matter. As a spiritual body differs from a natural 
 body and spiritual sight from natural sight, so the 
 objects of spiritual vision differ essentially from those 
 of natural vision. But this makes them none the 
 
THE SOUL'S CREATIONS. 73 
 
 less real on their own plane of existence. This much 
 we get from Scripture. 
 
 Now let us appeal to our own knowledge of the 
 operations of the soul. We observe that the spirit 
 of man has the power of creating its own world of 
 vision. Each one's experience has taught him this. 
 I refer to the phenomena of sleep and dreams. Set 
 at rest the bodily senses, and the creative powers 
 of the soul are quickened. Even when awake, think ! 
 Think of a house you plan, of an act you contem- 
 plate, of anything, no matter what, and the scene 
 or object is projected before your mind's eye. You 
 cannot think without projecting a mental picture 
 before the soul. Try it, and you will see. But this 
 is comparatively dim, and it is only the present 
 thought. Sleep, however let each bodily thought 
 become quiescent ; dream and your then present 
 state of mind takes form in a living world. The 
 reality of it is almost startling. In your dream you 
 would laugh at any one's questioning its reality. 
 It is only when you return to the world that you 
 doubt its actual existence. Yet that was a creation 
 of the soul or mind. The temporary state of thought 
 and feeling in which it then was, no matter from 
 what cause suggested or by what accident produced, 
 spread itself around you, beautifully pictured before 
 your vision, or fantastically fleeting, according to 
 circumstances. In sleep, however, there is a soul- 
 slumber as well as a body-slumber. Some faculties 
 are alive, some dormant. Your world is more or 
 less imperfect, evanescent, unreal. It only proves 
 the power of the soul, on its own plane and in its 
 7 
 
74 THE LIFE OF HEAVEN. 
 
 own sphere, to create worlds. But strip the soul of 
 its body entirely ; set it fully awake and alive to its 
 wants and necessities on its own plane, arouse it to 
 full activity and volition, and will you not find your 
 outward soul-world to be a work of creation wrought 
 out by spiritual law through your own mind ? Every 
 object will be real all things tangible ; not indeed 
 to the body, but to the spirit. Your world will then 
 be what you are ; your house just what you want 
 it ; your garden blooming with the flowers of your 
 choice. The concentrated creation of a society 
 of angels would surround them with permanent 
 scenery, the precise creation of their own loves and 
 tastes, the exact correspondences of their own 
 thoughts and affections. It would be a spirit world; 
 and that is the kind the spirit wants ; not evanescent, 
 because according to the combined, general, fixed 
 state of that angelic society ; surpassingly lovely, 
 because in correspondence with hearts filled with 
 the breath of love ; harmonious with the feelings, 
 tastes and thoughts, because actually brought forth 
 by them. It is not unreasonable to believe from 
 what we know of our own souls and their creative 
 operations, that God creates the phenomena of the 
 world beyond through the spirits of those who 
 dwell there ; that the scenery of heaven is a visi- 
 ble embodiment of the pure thoughts, the unself- 
 ish loves and the heavenly tastes of the angels 
 themselves. 
 
 But, think of this as we may, the Scripture testi- 
 mony, so far as it goes, is clear and explicit. On 
 this, then, repose your faith ; here rest your hopes ; 
 
BEAUTIFUL AND HUMAN. 75 
 
 on this build your firm foundation ; and you shall 
 have a heaven presented for your acceptance, so 
 real, so human, so life-like, so beautiful, that if you 
 will only live for it, and regulate your lives accord- 
 ing to what you really know of it, you shall find all 
 that is worth having, all that is worth living for or 
 gaining, all that justifies the Lord in creating us to 
 live forever, sweetly centred in its bosom. 
 
Y. 
 
 CONNECTION OF EAETH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 followed the angels from their be- 
 ginnings as men on earth, through their 
 development and resurrection into the heav- 
 enly land, let us now return with them again to 
 the world. 
 
 That was a beautiful dream which Jacob had, as 
 he tarried all night at Bethel on his way from Beer- 
 sheba to Haran.* With stones for his pillow, he 
 lay himself down to sleep. He dreamed ; and be- 
 hold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it 
 reached to heaven ; the angels of God were ascend- 
 ing and descending on it, and above it stood the 
 Lord. 
 
 The incidents of this dream are not related as the 
 phantasmagoria of the brain. They are spoken of 
 as an absolute revealment of the Lord and his angels. 
 There is an actual prophecy there recorded as hav- 
 ing been positively and divinely delivered ; and that 
 prophecy was in due time fulfilled. I believe there 
 is not an event recorded in the Scripture which does 
 not contain a lesson of the utmost importance to 
 man. I believe that, when viewed in their true 
 spirit, these lessons culled from widely-sundered 
 portions of the Bible, will be found harmonious in 
 
 * Gen. xxviii. 10-12. 
 
 76 
 
ANGELS WITH MEN. 77 
 
 all their parts. This position we will now proceed 
 to test, by briefly reviewing the Scripture doctrine 
 of the connection of angels with men. 
 
 But first let us remember a point which has already 
 been considered : that there is no Bible doctrine of 
 angels originally created such ; that angels are sim- 
 ply regenerated men ; that they began their career 
 on earth ; were born as you and I were born ; and 
 were developed into spirits of purer, nobler and di- 
 viner mould through the labor, struggle and battles 
 of this world's life, as you and I will be if we are 
 true to the Lord and ourselves. 
 
 With what Jacob believed in relation to this mat- 
 ter we are not concerned. With what he saw, we 
 are. And we may rest assured that the Jewish pa- 
 triarch was not more under the protecting care of 
 the Lord's providence than any other individual of 
 his race ; not more than any other child of God that 
 ever lived. The Lord is not partial in his dealings 
 with men ; the laws of his providence are universal 
 both in their nature and application ; and if He and 
 his angels followed Jacob from Bethel to Haran, He 
 follows every one that ever was born with the an- 
 gels of his mercy in every journey of life ; in all their 
 developments of mind and heart ; in the least event 
 and incident in the grand journey itself, which each 
 must make from the cradle to the grave. It is the 
 peculiarity of the Bible that the lesson to the indi- 
 vidual is a lesson to the entire race ; that the spir- 
 itual or supernatural experiences of one man, are 
 Divine teachings for all. That is why they are re- 
 corded. Were it not so, the record would be useless. 
 7* 
 
78 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 What happened to Jacob, then, has been set down 
 for our instruction : otherwise it had beeta better 
 left out. What happened to Jacob is more than an 
 idle dream ; otherwise it were no part of the Word 
 of God. What happened to him is an eternal truth 
 of universal application ; otherwise it takes its place 
 with the fairy tales of the nursery. 
 
 I dwell upon this, because it is so common to ac- 
 cept the Scripture in a general way as the Word of 
 God, and to relegate to the realm of fancy some of 
 its most valuable teachings ; to acknowledge in a 
 certain sense the hand of God in the production of 
 the Book, yet entertain a mental reservation that 
 whatever in it is supernatural is a sort of Hebrew 
 mythology. But this supernatural element is the 
 very foundation upon which the whole edifice is 
 built. Take it away, and you have no Bible. Take 
 it away, and there are no connecting links to hold 
 its parts together. Eliminate from the Scripture 
 its supernatural element, and you have taken all 
 the Scripture out. It is the one consistent idea 
 running through the sacred volume from Genesis to 
 Revelation, which gives it form and coherence and 
 meaning. And you might as well undertake to 
 write a history of Borne on the theory that Borne 
 itself was a myth, as to assert the verity of the 
 Scripture with the mental reservation that the su- 
 pernatural element, including God and his angels 
 and their ways with men, is the vain conceit of hu- 
 man imagination. 
 
 The dream of Jacob contains an important lesson. 
 And to those to whom, as Jacobs of a later day, the 
 
MEANING OF JACOB'S DREAM. 79 
 
 sun of religion has set, and, in relation to the things 
 of heaven and God, the obscurity of a mental night 
 now rests upon their hearts, and whose heads are 
 pillowed on the hard stones of the truths of science 
 and nature and the bare letter of the Word, unre- 
 lieved by the higher light, a dream of this kind 
 would be a good and unexpected gift. 
 
 The ladder of Jacob's dream represented the lad- 
 der of life the path from earth to heaven. It was 
 set upon earth and its top reached to heaven, to 
 show that the great journey of existence begins on 
 earth ; and, if rightly traveled, reaches by constant 
 climbing unto heaven. The angels did not descend 
 and ascend ; they ascended and descended. This 
 teaches us that we must first rise to angelhood, first 
 ascend in mind and thought and acquired purity to 
 heaven, where, in the after life, we are accepted as 
 angels of God ; and then we may descend again to 
 earth to become the ministering spirits of men. 
 Above it stands the Lord, watching in his provi- 
 dence the pathway of man, and making use of those 
 mortals who have attained to angelhood, as the 
 constant ministers and messengers of his mercy and 
 care. So impressed was Jacob with the reality of 
 his vision, that he exclaimed as he awoke, u Surely 
 the Lord is in this place." And he erected a pillar 
 on the spot to commemorate the event ; and he 
 called the place Beth-El the house of God. 
 
 It was not the first, but one of the earliest lessons 
 of the Lord to the patriarchs, teaching them of God's 
 constant care of man by the ministry of angels. He 
 had, however, previously vouchsafed to Abraham 
 
80 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 a vision of these angels, who entertained them un- 
 awares. Lot had been led forth by the ministry 
 of angels, and saved from the impending doom of 
 Sodom. Hagar had been met at the fountain and 
 comforted in her sore distress by an angel of the 
 Lord. There could be no doubt but that it was the 
 express desire of the Lord to impress upon the 
 Jewish mind, as at that time the only acceptors of 
 any immediate revelation from Him, two or three 
 leading ideas, to be more fully developed under 
 later dispensations. These were, the existence of 
 one God ; his constant watchfulness over all the 
 ways of men ; and his use of angels as ministering 
 spirits to protect and care for them. 
 
 The germs of truth must be implanted somewhere 
 in that age of universal error ; and the Jews were 
 chosen as the race to whom they were to be deliv- 
 ered. How far they themselves believed in the im- 
 mortality of the soul ; whether they were aware of 
 the fact that these angels had once, like themselves, 
 been men on earth these questions do not concern 
 us here. It is the fact that the great truths of the 
 existence of Jehovah and his angels, and of their 
 watchful care over men, were so carefully taught 
 and so solemnly recorded, with which we have to 
 do. These are not mythological statements. They 
 are recorded as solemn facts. And by the angels 
 whom Abraham entertained on the plains of Mamre, 
 by him who announced to Sarah the birth of her 
 child, by the comforter of Hagar in the wilderness, 
 by the saviors of Lot at Sodom, by the angelic voice 
 which counseled Abraham to withhold the knife 
 
MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 81 
 
 from the bosom of his son, by him who went before 
 the servant of Isaac to make all things favorable for 
 his marriage, we are taught that there is such a 
 thing as the ministration, visible and invisible, of 
 angels with men, and that there exists an intimate 
 connection of the inhabitants of the other world 
 with those of this. Then came the vision in which 
 it was reasserted to Jacob at Bethel. Next to the 
 announcement of the existence and unity of God, it 
 is the primary and leading truth of revelation ; as- 
 serted not once or twice, but, we might say, a thou- 
 sand times ; a doctrine which surrounds and en- 
 twines itself with every important event narrated 
 in Scripture ; an absolute and reiterated truth of 
 God. 
 
 Is it not so ? Through the long journey of forty 
 years from Egypt to Canaan, angels went before 
 the hosts of Israel, covering their retreat on the one 
 hand and guarding their advance on the other. 
 u Behold," saith the Lord, " I send an angel before 
 thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into 
 the place which I have prepared;"* and in the 
 language of Scripture, an angelic host is often called 
 an angel. Were they not with the Israelites in their 
 conquest of Canaan ? For again the Lord says : 
 " I will send an angel before thee ; and I will drive 
 out the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, 
 and the Hivite, and the Jebusite."t All through 
 the chronicle of sacred history these angels reap- 
 pear. With a mighty host they surrounded the 
 
 * Ex. xxiii. 20. f Ex - xxxiii. 2. 
 
82 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 city of Dothan to take their part in the discomfit- 
 ure of the Syrians. To Joshua, at the siege of Jer- 
 icho, the leader of the invisible host who interfered 
 in the contest for the protection of the Israelites, 
 appeared and proclaimed himself the captain of the 
 Lord's host. At Sennacherib it was an angel who 
 totally destroyed the Assyrian army. And to Dan- 
 iel the angel Gabriel announced the doctrine of 
 ministering angels presiding even over the destinies 
 and affairs of nations. 
 
 It was an angel who rebuked Israel at Bochim 
 and who obstructed the wicked path of Balaam. 
 It was an angel who announced to Gideon the pro- 
 tection of the Lord, and who instructed Manoah 
 and his wife concerning their son Samson. It was 
 an angel that came to the deliverance of the three 
 Hebrew brethren who were cast by the order of 
 Nebuchadnezzar into the furnace of fire. Isaiah 
 and Jeremiah, Elijah and Elisha, Ezekiel, Daniel, 
 and Zechariah were, at all times, under their in- 
 struction, protection and guidance. To catalogue 
 completely the instances of angel ministrations an- 
 nounced in the Old Testament, were almost to sum 
 up the entire record. 
 
 Nor does this doctrine of the ministry of angels 
 close with the Jewish dispensation. Neither is it 
 treated by Jesus, by his apostles, or by the Gospels, 
 as a mere tradition of the Jews. But angels appear 
 with full activity in the remarkable events which 
 accompany the ushering in and establishment of 
 the Christian dispensation. By an angel was the 
 birth of John the Baptist foretold to his father ; by 
 
SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. 83 
 
 an angel the birth of Jesus to Mary of Nazareth. 
 Angels espoused the cause of Mary to Joseph, warned 
 the latter of the wrath of Herod, sent him with 
 the young child, Jesus, into Egypt, and command- 
 ed his return. Angels sang their rejoicings over 
 Jesus in the presence of the Bethlehem shepherds, 
 ministered to the Saviour after his temptations in 
 the wilderness, watched by his tomb at the resur- 
 rection, comforted his disciples after He had risen. 
 
 Nor yet, in the establishment of the infant church, 
 was it to and in behalf of Jesus alone that they 
 came. The Lord sent his angels to the relief of the 
 apostles ; to Peter and John, to effect their release 
 from prison ; to Philip, the deacon, to guide him to 
 the Ethiopian eunuch of Candace, the queen ; to 
 Peter a second time, to deliver him from prison and 
 chains ; to Paul, to cheer him and through him his 
 companions when threatened with shipwreck. 
 
 Now why are these things related here ? Why 
 are any truths recorded on the pages of the sacred 
 chronicles ? Why, but to pass down to us and to 
 the ages yet unborn, the truth of God in relation to 
 matters whereof we should otherwise be ignorant. 
 And how, with such an array of facts before us, can 
 we we, I mean, who believe in the inspiration of 
 holy Writ how can we doubt the truth of the inti- 
 mate connection daily and hourly, yea, momenta- 
 rily which exists between angels and men ? 
 
 It is of small moment to us that angels interposed 
 on behalf of Abraham or Jacob, Peter or Paul, if 
 they care nothing for us. It does not interest us to 
 be told that the providences of God are partial and 
 
84 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 for favorites only. Nay, the interest of the chronicle 
 centres in this : that these recorded facts are set 
 down as examples of a universal truth, and as proofs 
 of a universal law. That is one evident reason why 
 the angels were with these men as open and visible 
 manifestations ; why they were permitted to come 
 forth from behind the veil in these special instances, 
 and make their ministrations manifest. Actual facts 
 strike the mind with more force than mere asserted 
 truths ; and, as recorded events, they become les- 
 sons that burn themselves into the mind in indelible 
 lines. 
 
 The word angel means, in the original, a messenger. 
 It is sometimes applied even to the spirits of evil 
 as in the expression, " The devil and his angels." 
 But in its hotter and usual sense, it means a messen- 
 ger of God to man. And this is why the spirits of 
 the just made perfect were called angels, because so 
 large and important a part of their work was as 
 messengers to men, and as ministers of God's provi- 
 dences in man's behalf. 
 
 That these recorded instances were exemplifica- 
 tions of a universal truth, the Scripture has not left 
 us to doubt. The Psalms of David give, in the lan- 
 guage of inspired prophecy, all those truths which 
 the narrative portions of the written Word teach by 
 incidents and events. The Psalms sing, in the sum- 
 marized language of Divine law, the pith and mean- 
 ing of the sacred histories. They take up, therefore, 
 the visits of the angels to the patriarchs and proph- 
 ets, and universalize that idea which might other- 
 wise seem partial, in the beautiful words, u The 
 
ANGELS NEAR LITTLE CHILDREN. 85 
 
 angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
 fear Him and delivereth them ; " * or in those other 
 words of hope and love, "He shall give his angels 
 charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways ! " f 
 There is now no more appearance of partiality. A 
 thousand recorded events are summed into one uni c 
 versal truth ; and a seeming special favor to special 
 favorites of God, becomes a fact which has an inter- 
 est and an application for all mankind in all ages, 
 and for each and all. This, too, we know by the joy 
 which exists in heaven over one repentant sinner, t 
 How near and watchful must they be, when not a 
 man, or woman, or a child, can repent of a single 
 sin, but the angels of God know of it, and rejoice 
 in the fact. This, too, we know, by the assurance 
 of our Lord, that little children, by reason of their 
 innocence, are under the protection and in close 
 communion with the angelic host. For He says : 
 "Their angels do always behold the face of my 
 Father which is in heaven ; " another way of ex- 
 pressing the idea of their peculiar nearness to God.? 
 And then Paul, who had personal experiences in the 
 heavenly realms, declares concerning the angels that 
 ' they are " all ministering spirits sent forth to minis- 
 ter for them who shall be heirs of salvation." || 
 
 If I have been over-careful to press home the full 
 force of the Scripture testimony on this important 
 theme, it is because in this skeptical age, when it is 
 considered clever even among Christians to doubt 
 
 # Ps, xxxiv. 7. f Ps. xci. 11. J Luke xv. 7. 
 
 g Matt, xviii. 10. || Heb. i. 14. 
 
 8 
 
86 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 the supernatural, we do not realize as we ought the 
 doctrine of the nearness of heaven and of the af- 
 fectionate relation of the angels to us. Men are too 
 apt to regard heaven as a far-off region angels as 
 beings originally created such, and of a different 
 mould from men. But the angels are always around 
 us, endeavoring to get access to our hearts. There- 
 fore heaven is around us, resting on the earth as its 
 foundation. Angels are seeking to guard us in all 
 our ways, their power to guard being in propor- 
 tion as our thoughts are pure, our ends good, and 
 our affections heavenly. They do not save us from 
 all evil ? No ; we are free men. We can turn to 
 evil as well as good. We can draw the devils around 
 and near us if we will. The angels encamp, so runs 
 the law, round about those who fear the Lord. When 
 we look to Him, the angels close in around us ; when 
 we look to self, they retreat from contact with the 
 infernal hosts which we then invite to our sides. 
 When we try to do and be good, they help us ; when 
 we do evil and seek only to gratify our selfish loves, 
 they have no power to help, because we have brought 
 ourselves into communion with the spirits of evil. 
 
 This is another doctrine of Scripture : We stand 
 unconsciously between two worlds. The spirits of 
 each have access to our souls. It is ours, in the 
 exercise of the freedom with which God has endowed 
 us, to choose our invisible associates ; to secure the 
 protection of angels, or to invite the malign influence 
 of their opposites. Equally recognized by Scripture 
 is the doctrine of the interference of evil spirits with 
 the affairs of men ; not so much, however, didacti- 
 
INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 87 
 
 cally taught as unquestionably assumed. Not to 
 dwell upon it, but to cite only a few allusions to the 
 fact: 
 
 Remember that Saul did his wicked acts under 
 the influence of an evil spirit whom David could 
 cause to depart from him by the music of his harp ; 
 that it was Satan who entered into the heart of 
 Judas when he betrayed the Saviour ; that our Lord 
 cured many of the evil spirits who had entered into 
 them, as well as cast out the devils, which in that 
 day could possess even the bodies of men as well 
 as their souls ; that He calls evil men the children of 
 the devil ; that James admonishes Christians to re- 
 sist the devil, assuring us that if we do, he will flee 
 from us ; that all the apostles recognized the in- 
 fluence of devils upon the heart. In fact, the doc- 
 trine of the influence of evil spirits is as clearly 
 recognized as that of the ministry of angels, though 
 not perhaps so often referred to. 
 
 Is it a matter of no importance, then, that we 
 should fully realize the position in which we stand? 
 Is it of no consequence that we should be made 
 aware of our relation to the invisible realm which 
 surrounds us and interpenetrates our moral being ? 
 Shall we gain no strength by understanding the laws 
 of our daily life, the snares into which we fall, the 
 subtle insinuations by which we are seduced, and 
 our momentary need, therefore, of an almighty and 
 ever-present Saviour ? Pitfalls are dug for us at 
 every turn ; snares are laid in every path ; nets are 
 spread whithersoever we go, They come from evil 
 but invisible spirits ; from this world's wicked men 
 
88 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 who, departing this life and becoming devils, seek 
 to drag us down to their own level. Influences are 
 brought to bear on us of whose subtlety and power 
 we are not aware ; insinuations are introduced into 
 our minds of the sources of which we are in total 
 ignorance ; seductions are spread temptingly before 
 the mind, and like Jesus in the wilderness we are 
 offered all the kingdoms of the world, that is, its 
 pleasures, its riches, its joys, its places, its power 
 and preferment, if we will only fall down and wor- 
 ship what is evil. No matter how much you over- 
 reach your neighbor ; no matter how ill-gotten your 
 wealth, get money ! No matter to what depths of 
 meanness you may stoop, get power and place ! No 
 matter how far you dull your moral sense, or debauch 
 your soul, get pleasure ! Everywhere, and at every 
 turn, these evil spirits sing to the heart that siren 
 song which was sung in the wilderness, " All these 
 things shall you have, if you will but fall down and 
 worship us ; for, only worship evil and you wor- 
 ship us." And the poor deluded soul goes down 
 on his knees to the invisible devil ; he does his be- 
 hests ; and he has his reward. Then from his pres- 
 ence fly the pure messengers of God, the spirits of 
 just men made perfect, who cannot come near be- 
 cause he is surrounded by atmospheres which they 
 cannot breathe. 
 
 It is when the temptation is resisted that the 
 angels come, as they came to Jesus, and minister 
 to the oppressed and wounded heart. It is on the 
 man's earnest appeal to the Lord that the spirits 
 of evil desert their posts and fly. James spake 
 truly when he said, "Resist the devil and he will 
 
INFERNAL AND ANGELIC INFLUENCE. 89 
 
 flee from you." You can only resist him effectually 
 by looking to the Lord for strength, and resisting 
 the evil thought. You can only resist him when 
 the wicked desire springs up within the heart, and 
 the ignoble deed is on the point of being done, and 
 the kingdom of this world is about to be reached 
 for and grasped by straightening up the soul, and 
 (in humble acknowledgment of the Lord as the sole 
 and almighty Deliverer) letting the heart exclaim, 
 whether the mouth does so or not, " Get thee be- 
 hind me, Satan I " 
 
 Or if the thought has given way to the tempter's 
 wiles, or the heart succumbed to the mean desire, 
 or if the act is done at the instigation of the evil 
 one, it is when sorrow comes, and the soul is smit- 
 ten with remorse, and conscience is aroused, that 
 there is joy among the angels of heaven over the 
 repentant sinner. Then they gather again ; they 
 come with their soft entrancing ways ; they wipe 
 the weeping eyes and dry the mourner's tears. 
 Then they soften and subdue the heart ; they enno- 
 ble the desire and purify the thought ; they lift the 
 aspirations to the Lord, and the whole inner man 
 becomes filled with earnest though silent prayer for 
 aid ; then, panoplied with the Lord's power, they 
 bear us up, as it were, in the arms of their strength, 
 and pour into us that spirit, courage and resolution 
 which, coming from Him who hath "all power," 
 can fight this battle with the evil one on the inner 
 field of the heart. 
 
 And the connection of earth with heaven cannot 
 be fitful and spasmodic ; at least, no more so than 
 
90 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 the vacillating heart of man may make it. The 
 influences of heaven must press for acceptance at 
 all times ; dependent, not on the will of the angels 
 veering or changing, but entirely on the will of 
 man. When the heart is serene and peaceful ; 
 when the lusts and passions are lulled to rest ; 
 when the true affections burn with steady flame, 
 and the thoughts rest in contemplation of the good 
 and true, of heaven and of God ; when there is a 
 holy desire to do right in all the relations of life, and 
 to live in strict conformity with the Lord's law ; at 
 such times we may know that we are resting in 
 angelic arms, and that our inspirations are drawn 
 from holy sources. You have felt, perhaps, that 
 rest and peace. All have their angel-encompassed 
 hours. Or you have felt the demon of passion rend 
 your soul, and the lust of depravity rise in its 
 strength and sweep you along in its fiery torrent 
 like a feather in the wind ; and you were forced 
 along in utter detestation of yourself, and with no 
 seeming strength to resist. That was not yourself; 
 it was the demoniac influence of the invisible world. 
 You opened a little loop-hole of ungodly thought or 
 purpose, and the whole force of hell poured in at its 
 invitation, and swept you away in its overmastering 
 current. Then, in devout acknowledgment of the 
 ever-present and almighty Saviour, swing yourself, 
 thought and heart, to the heavenly side ; and (with- 
 out disparaging or neglecting oral prayer) your every 
 desire and purpose and effort becomes a prayer to the 
 Lord for needed strength. Your heart is straight- 
 way opened to the Divine protecting sphere. And 
 in your deep distress, cannot the Heavenly Father 
 
A PRE CIO US THO UGHT. 91 
 
 send you, should you need them, "more than twelve 
 legions of angels " ? 
 
 It is a beautiful doctrine ; and true as it is beau- 
 tiful. And one of its greatest charms is in the 
 thought and hope, yea, the certainty, that as the 
 angels were once earth-born like ourselves, those 
 who have loved us best and gone before parents, 
 children, friends these most likely would be the 
 very ones who would lead us lovingly, cherish us 
 dearly, and cling to us fondly amid the troubles 
 and trials of our earthly life. 
 
 The songs of our Sunday-schools are justified, 
 though the worldliness of more mature age may 
 smother their delightful suggestions ; and the angels 
 beckon us on every hand. They chant by our cra- 
 dles their sweet inspiring songs ; they press to our 
 sides in all the vicissitudes of life ; they seek us still 
 when we reject them ; come at our call no matter 
 how often sent away ; lead us always, if we will 
 permit them, to heaven and the Lord ; illumine for 
 us the pages of the written Word ; protect and aid 
 us in many an emergency when our mental state 
 has placed us within the range of their protection ; 
 receive our last expiring breath ; and introduce us, 
 if we will allow them and our state of affection will 
 permit, among the shining ones in the world beyond. 
 
 The truths touching the connection of earth with 
 heaven are beautiful, indeed, and fraught with 
 power to impart a holy joy. It is ours to receive 
 or reject them as we may choose ; to use them or 
 abuse them. Let us act wisely and endeavor to 
 profit by a gift so precious. 
 
 I have in previous lectures traced the angel from 
 
92 CONNECTION OF EARTH WITH HEAVEN. 
 
 his formation on earth to his home in heaven ; and 
 back again as God's messenger to man. I return to 
 the first thought. Hearts make heavens. Earth is 
 the nursery whence they spring. This is a charm- 
 ing world ; it is filled with the Lord's good gifts, 
 with not a taint of evil naturally clinging to any 
 one of them. Its grass is green ; its flowers are 
 fair ; its fruits are luscious ; its sun-lit trees are 
 canopies of joyous life. It was built to be the nurs- 
 ery of heaven ; it was made to mould young hearts 
 into angels of light. How have we changed all 
 this, and made it the nursery of hosts of fiends ! 
 
 Yet the influence of heavenly hopes and hearts 
 surrounds it still. The Lord is increasing these 
 continually day by day. He is ever adding thou- 
 sands of angels to his fold. The world is still beau- 
 tiful, and man may restore the ruin he has wrought. 
 It is not abandoned pleasure, mad ambition, greed 
 of gold, or silly vanity, that shall restore its pristine 
 innocence. No : it is contentment, purity of heart, 
 righteousness of life. It is love of the neighbor, 
 love of right, love of use, that finds its chief joy in 
 serving rather than in being served ; a love that 
 emulates the Saviour's own self-sacrificing life when 
 on earth. Laboring and striving for these, we do 
 our part to restore this earth to its sublime destiny 
 of rearing souls for heaven. Gaining these, earth's 
 homes will be lit with love once more, its beauties 
 be but the reflection of each heart's best joy ; and 
 so near to heaven is it, that this mortal body is but 
 the veil which, drawn aside at death, leaves us in 
 open and blissful fellowship with the angels. 
 
yi. 
 
 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 jjHE Scripture furnishes but little direct testi- 
 mony concerning the lot of those who are 
 removed from this world in childhood, and 
 their condition in the other life. The question is 
 whether, in the light of the general truths concern- 
 ing the other world which are there taught, in the 
 true spirit of all its supernatural teachings, in the 
 unquestionable meaning, intent and drift of its pos- 
 itive utterances, we do not find enough to justify us 
 in laying down some very certain principles, full of 
 hope and comfort, concerning those of our little ones 
 who have passed on to the other side. 
 
 Should you ask me why the Scriptures are so silent 
 on a subject of such deep interest, while they are 
 replete with the terms and conditions of the salva- 
 tion of adults, and with warnings lest by their con- 
 duct they bring themselves under condemnation 
 and lose heaven, I should answer, that the fate of 
 our children is taken for granted. The Bible raises 
 no question on this point, because there is no ques- 
 tion. If it warns you to flee from the wrath to come, 
 it is because you are in danger. If it warns not the 
 children, it is because they are not in danger. If 
 it lays before you the blessing and the curse, the 
 blessing if you keep the commandments of the Lord, 
 and the curse if you keep them not, it is because 
 
 93 
 
94 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 you have the mental development, the experience 
 and the rationality which enable you to comprehend 
 the difference between right and wrong. You are 
 responsible because you are rational beings. You 
 are responsible precisely in the degree that you are 
 rational. The common sense of mankind makes 
 this distinction. It is recognized in our laws, in 
 our customs, in the government of our families. 
 
 The law does not punish idiots or insane persons 
 for their crimes, because they are not morally re- 
 sponsible. Their minds are not swayed by reason ; 
 and crime to be crime must be committed by one 
 who is morally capable of distinguishing between 
 right and wrong. The law would not punish a babe 
 for surreptitiously carrying off a piece of money, 
 even if it took it from your pocket, because the 
 very gist of crime is wanting, the knowledge that it 
 is a wrong that it is contrary to law that it is 
 sin. Custom overlooks in children the violation of 
 those courtesies in mariner and conversation, which 
 would be considered intolerable in adults. In our 
 families we pardon many things in a little child 
 which would be unendurable in one of maturer age ; 
 acts and words which we consider pleasant and cun- 
 ning in a child of six, become impertinent or vulgar 
 or criminal in one of sixteen. The responsibility 
 of man, both mental and moral, is measured by his 
 reason. True, the law, from the impossibility of 
 knowing the heart of man, cannot always make 
 nice discriminations ; but the Divine Father who 
 knows all hearts, makes discriminations with the 
 strictest accuracy. 
 
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 95 
 
 This was our Lord's meaning when He declared 
 that the servant who knew his Lord's will and did 
 it not, should be beaten with many stripes ; but he 
 that knew it not, yet did commit things worthy of 
 stripes, should be beaten with few. The punish- 
 ments that inhere in moral wrong, are in proportion 
 to its intelligent and wilful commission. If you know 
 what you are doing, and are rationally aware of its 
 evil nature, you are sinning, and incurring condem- 
 nation. 
 
 Some unpleasant consequences, however, follow 
 all errors and omissions, even though not deliberate 
 or wilful ; but these are comparatively trivial. From 
 an eternal point of view, the wilful commission of 
 acts which our reason proclaims to be wrong, fixes 
 the evil habit and character of the soul, confirms it 
 in the love of sinning ; and this condemns, because 
 if persisted in it becomes filially ineradicable. But 
 the commission of acts which we do not know to be 
 sins, although in themselves wrong, do not confirm 
 the soul in the love of sinning ; and a habit of that 
 kind is easily conquered when the reason sees it to 
 be sinful, and the heart is desirous to sin no more. 
 And this is just what our Lord meant when He said 
 to the Jews : "If ye were blind (morally, of course), 
 ye would have no sin ; but now ye say, We see ; 
 therefore your sin remaineth." 
 
 "We apply this law directly to the case of children. 
 We find how Revelation teaches us that those who 
 obey the Divine law, are in a state of happiness 
 hereafter, because the very elements of happiness 
 are within their breasts. We find that those who 
 
96 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 disobey have, in the conscious and wilful inversion 
 of what is truly human, lost the elements of happi- 
 ness. The one has admitted the Divine life within, 
 and has become good and God-like in quality. The 
 other has rejected or perverted that life, and become 
 bad, selfish and ungodly. One class is termed the 
 saved ; the other class the lost. To which class do 
 our departed children belong ? To which are they 
 consigned by the true spirit of Scripture ? To be 
 lost, it is necessary to sin knowingly and wilfully, 
 to love evil for its own sake, to have confirmed the 
 soul in a sinful habit. And since the child has not 
 done this, how can it be lost ? It is impossible, so 
 long as the Word and the character of God remain 
 what they are. 
 
 At what age, however, would this irresponsibility 
 cease and responsibility commence ? It were dif- 
 ficult to say. That will differ with different persons. 
 Some minds mature earlier than others. Some are 
 more responsible at sixteen than others at twenty- 
 six. The law fixes the age of legal responsibility at 
 eighteen for females, and twenty-one for males. 
 The law considers that at those ages the respective 
 sexes have arrived at years of sufficient rationality 
 to assume the control of themselves. In cases of 
 crime, large discretion is vested in the courts to de- 
 termine whether the individual is a child or an adult, 
 with reference to moral responsibility. In the ques- 
 tion of salvation, however, the Lord is the only king 
 and court. He alone can decide. 
 
 Now we believe that common sense is always on 
 the side of the higher truth. The Lord is love, 
 
THE QUESTION KETTLES ITSELF. 97 
 
 mercy, benignity and justice. These attributes are 
 his in an infinite degree. If it would be a crinle in 
 an earthly father to chastise his child for that which, 
 done by him in playfulness and innocence, would be 
 sin in an adult, so is it impossible that the heavenly 
 Father could commit so flagrant a violation of jus- 
 tice and of love. If the state, in its promulgation 
 of law, is wise and merciful with its children in re- 
 gard to this matter, how much more wise and merci- 
 ful is infinite Wisdom ? 
 
 That our children are punished in another life be- 
 cause they have not come to years of rationality in 
 this, is incredible ; that they are lost when evil has 
 not become the habit of the soul, no right-thinking 
 person can believe. The question settles itself. 
 
 Two of the tenderest scenes in the life of our 
 Saviour are in connection with little children. One 
 was, when the disciples had a dispute as to who 
 should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They 
 referred the matter to Jesus for decision. Accord- 
 ing to his frequent custom, He gave them no direct 
 answer ; but He called a little child to Him, and set 
 him in the midst of them. Then said He, " Except 
 ye be converted and become as little children, ye 
 shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Who- 
 soever, therefore, shall humble himself as this 
 little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of 
 heaven."* The characteristics of children, with 
 all their faults, are innocence and humility. And 
 these are the chief characteristics of heaven. They 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 3, 4. 
 9 G 
 
98 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 who possess these virtues, all who possess them, 
 are saved be they children or adults. Possessing 
 these, you cannot have faults of character so con- 
 demnatory as to lose your hold on heaven. There- 
 fore all children are saved because all have these. 
 Such is the lesson. 
 
 The second scene was, when loving parents brought 
 these cherished objects of their hearts to Jesus 
 that He might touch them. Unquestionably they 
 believed that great virtue would pass to these little 
 ones, if He would but lay his hands on them and 
 pray for them. But the disciples were indignant. 
 They deemed it beneath the dignity of the great 
 Master to do what these parents desired. Another 
 lesson was in store for the disciples concerning the 
 true nature of spiritual things. " Suffer the little 
 children," said Jesus, u to come unto me, and forbid 
 them not ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."* 
 Again He teaches that innocence and humility con- 
 stitute heaven. Again the only conclusion from his 
 words must be, that little children by reason of this, 
 whatever their unconfirmed errors might be, were 
 always heirs of heaven. " Of such is the kingdom 
 of heaven ! " Again, though in another form of 
 words, He utters that truth of touching import, 
 u Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 
 as a little child," that is with child-like innocence 
 and humility u he shall not enter therein." 
 
 But He did more than this. He took them up in 
 his arms and blessed them. There was a deep 
 
 * Matt. xix. 14. 
 
JESUS BLESSED THEM. 99 
 
 spiritual significance in this. Whom the gracious 
 Saviour takes in his arms and presses to his bosom, 
 those are the ones He most tenderly loves. I say 
 most tenderly, to indicate their peculiar nearness to 
 Him. The more humble and innocent we are, the 
 nearer we are to his bosom and the closer the union 
 between Him and us. But He blessed them. And 
 what is blessing ? It is a term indicating the highest 
 happiness and purest joy that can be conferred. 
 The Divine blessing to man is the largest measure 
 of spiritual happiness and joy that man can receive. 
 And the act of the Lord's blessing the little children 
 was a declaration that they in their humility and 
 innocence, of all the vast multitude to be found in 
 heaven, were the largest inheritors of the blessings 
 born of Him. 
 
 But on the first occasion, after wandering from 
 the subject, He returned to it in a peculiar and 
 striking manner. "Take heed," said He, "that 
 ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say 
 unto you, that in heaven their angels do always 
 behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." 
 The allusion is evidently here to the doctrine of 
 guardian angels, so clearly taught in other parts of 
 Scripture. We all those of us, at least, who are 
 becoming regenerate have ministering spirits, an- 
 gels of the Lord, encamped about us to keep us in 
 all our ways. But the angels of the little ones so 
 runs the text " do always behold the face " of their 
 Father which is in heaven.* Those who see God, 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 10. 
 
100 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 who are said in Scripture language to behold his face, 
 are the purest in heart. This is an expression indi- 
 cating rare purity and an exceptionally close union 
 with the Lord. The text teaches that the guardian 
 spirits of children are the highest and best of the 
 angels. They are in the sweetest angelic compan- 
 ionships, because they are the purest of earthly 
 beings. Is there, then, a possibility of their con- 
 demnation ? How could such a thought be enter- 
 tained by a righteous God ? Then there is the par- 
 able of the lost sheep and its summary conclusion : 
 u Even so, it is not the will of your Father which 
 is in heaven that one of these little ones should 
 perish ! " * 
 
 And if while on earth they are under the guar- 
 dianship of the purest in the celestial realms, death 
 severs not the connection. If, as the child-soul 
 drops its form of clay, it passes into the other 
 sphere clasped in the angels' loving arms, we may 
 be sure it is not abandoned by them on the other 
 side. As the angels are its ministering spirits here, 
 so must they be hereafter ; and we behold our little 
 ones, as they pass the portals of death, press on into 
 the deeper love and tenderer care of angels, who 
 will there educate them in a manner far surpassing 
 that of the best and wisest of earthly mothers. 
 Why not ? Is there any other reasonable conclu- 
 sion ? We pass from what our Lord teaches to what 
 inevitably follows from his teachings ; from what 
 we know, to what we cannot help believing as its 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 14. 
 
INSTRUCTED BY ANGELS. 101 
 
 legitimate results; and we* leave" our dhi'ldreti sev- 
 ered from us by death, with the Lord's blessing 
 resting upon their heads, and in the care of the 
 wisest and most loving of all the angels in the 
 heavenly realms. 
 
 We may follow in imagination these little ones, 
 now taken under the open protection of their hith- 
 erto invisible guardians. We may see them at their 
 childish sports ; we may hear their rippling laugh- 
 ter ; we may behold their eyes beaming with joy and 
 full of frolicsome mirth, each angel-mother also 
 laughing and sporting with them in like playful 
 mood. She is as innocent as they, with the wisdom 
 of maturity added to the simplicity of childhood. 
 The ebullitions of hereditary evil, the bad temper, 
 the tendencies to lie or steal or covet, are checked 
 in their very beginnings, nipped in the bud ; and so 
 they have no chance to grow. What an advantage 
 have these heavenly parents over those of earth ! 
 These angel-mothers read thoughts and hearts. All 
 in the higher realms do that. Spirit is made up of 
 will and understanding, of love and thought ; and 
 when we see soul or spirit, we see those embodied 
 in spiritual forms. How much more easily, then, in 
 the other sphere, to get at the disposition of the 
 child ! How much less difficult to check each dawn- 
 ing act of waywardness, each budding manifestation 
 of self-will, when the peculiar character of the little 
 one is beforehand known ! How much easier to in- 
 struct, when the mental capacity and moral founda- 
 tion are intuitively discerned. 
 
 Then remember that these teachers are assigned 
 9* 
 
102 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 by ho rrile of outward circumstance, or on the earthly 
 necessity of doing the best we can ; but from the 
 wide realms of the Lord's entire heaven the fittest, 
 wisest, best are selected for the work by unerring 
 Divine Wisdom. Their education goes on ; their 
 minds develop ; they grow into heaven, for heaven 
 grows into them ; they are surrounded by its influ- 
 ences ; they become living representatives of its 
 highest virtues. They, in their turn, become angels 
 of such purity, that they always behold the face of 
 their Father which is in heaven. 
 
 It seems hard to lose our children. If we love 
 them with a merely natural or animal passion, it is 
 hard. If we cherish them with a merely selfish 
 love, and desire them only to foster our pride and 
 vanity by the praises they receive and the admira- 
 tion they win and the triumphs they achieve, it is 
 hard. But in the degree that our affection is unself- 
 ish and true ; in the degree that it regards their 
 spiritual good rather than our natural comfort or 
 pride ; in the degree that it partakes of that Divine 
 quality which is willing to lay down even life for 
 their sakes ; in that degree we are resigned and 
 trustful, and the hardship of their removal loses its 
 poignancy. It requires considerable progress in the 
 regenerate life to resign our children unmurmuringly 
 into the Lord's hands, and yet maintain unbroken 
 the whole force of our parental affection. Yet a 
 firm conviction and a clear view of their lot in the 
 other life, with its many and great advantages over 
 the lot of most children here, should dispel our 
 doubts, comfort our hearts and dry our tears. 
 
THEY GROW TO MATURITY. 103 
 
 Do children develop in the world beyond ? Do 
 they grow to be men and women there ? Is there 
 any living organic form that does not grow till it 
 reaches its maturity ? Was there ever a sound 
 mind created that did not mature ? Are our chil- 
 dren like unripe fruit that forever remains unripe ? 
 like those feeble minds, which, by reason of some 
 defect in the material organism, never in this life 
 develop into rational beings ? These children left 
 their material bodies here ; their spirits continue 
 still to live. Of course they develop and grow in 
 the spirit world ; and this, because it is a universal 
 law of mind ; and it is mind that goes into the other 
 world. Human nature is human nature still, and 
 ever remains so. It no more changes because its 
 field of activity is removed to the other world, than 
 you would change if you changed your residence to 
 England or Japan. The universal law of life, men- 
 tal, moral and physical, is activity or decay growth 
 or dissolution. 
 
 Our children, therefore, are not stunted in stature 
 or dwarfed in intellect on the other shore, where 
 they have more and better advantages than they 
 would have had here. Peculiar educational privi- 
 leges do not belittle the intellect, nor do celestial 
 surroundings prevent the growth of the virtues. 
 The simple statement of this proposition reveals its 
 truth. And who believes that the nearer presence 
 of God, and the closer communion of angels, tend 
 to produce mental conditions approximating those 
 of idiots or fools ? We base our conclusions on the 
 known nature of the human mind and the consistent 
 
104 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 teachings of the Word of God ; and can any founda- 
 tion be more secure ? 
 
 Kemember, too, that the Lord likens the kingdom 
 of heaven to a grain of mustard-seed which, though 
 the least of all seeds, becomes a great tree which 
 spreads its branches toward heaven. An essential 
 element of heaven is growth. 
 
 We need not hesitate, then, to believe in the 
 glorious future for all who are taken from this 
 world in infancy and childhood. There is a provi- 
 dence in their removal, however deep and inscruta- 
 ble it may be to our narrow vision. We mourn for 
 our departed child ; and I would not forbid one tear 
 of affection which tends to soothe the aching breast, 
 or one sigh which marks a struggle for the resigna- 
 tion of the heart. Tears and sighs, like other things, 
 are good or bad according to the nature of the founts 
 from whence they flow. But how often parents part 
 with a child to give it better educational advantages 
 or to secure it a purer home on earth ; with a tear 
 perhaps, sometimes with a sigh. Now if you can 
 gain for that child the benefits of angelic education ; 
 if you can win for it the closer intimacy of heaven ; 
 if you can have the certainty of its entering the so- 
 ciety of the purest and noblest and best, and of be- 
 coming itself so pure and noble as to remain in such 
 society forever, would there be no support or solace 
 in the thought ? Then how do you know what your 
 child would have been had it remained on earth ? 
 Can you read the futurity of hearts ? May not the 
 tender mercy of the Lord have snatched it from a 
 fate a thousand-fold worse than death, and appointed 
 
A QUESTION ANSWERED. 105 
 
 it a destiny a thousand-fold^ better than the most 
 brilliant career on earth V Let us not question the 
 wisdom of God's providence in the removal of our 
 little ones from this lower sphere. 
 
 Then there is another aspect of the casa Why, 
 we are often asked, does the Lord take some and 
 leave others ? Why, if such be their glorious des- 
 tiny, must I plod on in this weary path below, when 
 I might have been, even as these have been and are, 
 so much better off in the world beyond ? Is Divinity 
 partial ? By no means. But it is much easier to 
 question the Lord's wisdom than to improve his 
 ways. Keflect that earth is the nursery of heaven. 
 Souls must be born into this life before they can reach 
 that. If people were all taken away in infancy, the 
 increase of heaven would cease. It is in the order 
 of the Lord's providence that heaven should increase 
 forever. He would set no limit to the multitude that 
 shall inherit its joys. To all eternity shall the vast 
 caravan, with its ever-multiplying numbers of new- 
 born souls, keep marching from the world below to 
 its holy Mecca in the world above. And somebody 
 must stay here and endure the world's temptations 
 for a while, and walk its rugged paths, that it may 
 remain the nursery of heaven. If there had never 
 been an earth, there would never have been a heav- 
 en ; if no inhabitants on earth, God would have 
 dwelt in solitude without an angel to be blessed by 
 his love ; and if all were removed from earth in in- 
 fancy, heaven would cease to grow. Why this or 
 that little one is taken and you and I are left, we 
 must leave to the wisdom of Him who orders all 
 
106 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 things well. Let us be thankful that so much larger 
 proportion of the born on earth are saved, because 
 of the removal of so many in infancy and childhood, 
 and rejoice that we shall be permitted to rejoin them 
 there, if f we do our work here faithfully and well. 
 
 Then, if we judge from the known laws of the 
 mind ; if we note the fact that the noblest characters 
 have their foundations laid in childhood, we are led 
 to the conclusion that the best of the angels come from 
 those who, being under constant angelic care, have 
 had the best foundations laid. Therefore the infants 
 soonest dead to earth, would mature into the most 
 loving angels of the better land. And perhaps the 
 earlier removed, the more exalted the state to which 
 they will finally attain. Then they become in turn 
 the peculiar ministers of the Lord to men. Under 
 Him, and in his strength, they become each in his 
 degree, the saviors of the world. They are needed 
 above ; are needed there for our sakes. Bad as the 
 world now is, what would it be without their minis- 
 trations ? By them the hearts of men are held to 
 what little spiritual anchorage they have, and in 
 connection with them is done what good is here 
 effected. 
 
 Far be it from me to weaken faith in the Lord's 
 immediate influence on man, by upholding the doc- 
 trine of the ministry of his supernal host. They go 
 together ; they are equally doctrines of truth Divine. 
 But the mediate uses under the Lord's providence, 
 that are performed by man upon his fellow-man, 
 show how infinitely more useful can be the angels 
 of his mercy to us who remain on earth. And we 
 
ARE PARENTS FORGOTTEN? 107 
 
 have in this another reason why so many infants are 
 taken from this world. They are the ones who can 
 receive from the Lord his most exalted blessings, his 
 most interior wisdom and love, and pass them on to 
 us. They have a use in the order of Providence to 
 other angels and to men. They are needed above. 
 They must go there, else the wisest plans of the Lord 
 would fail. What are our aching hearts to the vast 
 and beneficent designs of the most High ? What 
 are the momentary pangs we endure, to the setting 
 and keeping in order of the grand temple of hu- 
 manity on earth and in heaven ? Cease, O man, to 
 measure your tears and sighs against the eternal 
 well-being of the universe ! Calm your troubled 
 breast, for the salvation of the world is in wiser and 
 more beneficent hands than yours. 
 
 When you send your child to a distant school, you 
 can bear it, you say, because you have a reasonable 
 hope of meeting him again. What is time to eternity ? 
 What is your brief sojourn on earth to your ever- 
 lasting life in the other world ? And as love is born 
 of the spirit, and its heritage is immortal, why should 
 you not, as a living, breathing, human being, meet 
 again face to face your best beloved, when this clay 
 tenement no longer hinders ? If those who love each 
 other best cannot meet on the other shore, who can? 
 
 But will your little one grow away from you and 
 forget you ? Swedenborg somewhere makes a deli- 
 cate analysis of the likenesses of human minds. 
 He shows how, with all their endless variety, there 
 is a common resemblance in features and character 
 in each nation. Often the resemblance extends to 
 
108 CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. 
 
 provinces and their subdivisions. Still more marked 
 is this in races and families a fact which tends to 
 bind them closely together. There is a hereditary 
 thread of love and thought and disposition which 
 binds the members of a race or family in a bond 
 that cannot easily be broken. The Jewish race is a 
 notable instance of this. In the single family the 
 tie becomes much closer than in the race. It is the 
 link of similarity ; it is a hereditary trait that breaks 
 down all apparent differences ; an inward likeness 
 which forms a bond that, scattered as its members 
 may be, in difficulty or trouble, draws and holds 
 them together in a sympathy that baffles explana- 
 tion. There may be exceptions ; but the rule is 
 almost universal. 
 
 Now similarity is the common bond of souls. 
 Similarity brings people together in heaven. Pass- 
 ing through different experiences on earth, you 
 may acquire different tastes ; but let each soul be 
 regenerated after a heavenly pattern, let each be 
 cleansed of its earthly dross, and it will quickly be 
 seen how the hereditary disposition or genius of 
 race, lineage and family will bring together in a 
 world of souls those who have common soul- ties. 
 
 Best assured, then, that if you have become so 
 regenerated as to be ranked with the heirs of heaven ; 
 if your minds and hearts are spiritually knit togeth- 
 er, your loved ones gone before will crowd around 
 you by the very tie that gave them birth, by their 
 very inheritance of your life, by that very love of 
 yours which ushered in their existence. Forget 
 you ! Why, as born of your life and soul, bound to 
 
PREVENTING SPIRITUAL SEPARATION. 109 
 
 you by the ties of affection as well as of birth, they 
 have been with you ever since they left this world. 
 They have never deserted you unless in spirit you 
 have deserted them. 
 
 But not without regeneration can you hope to 
 dwell with your departed offspring in the great Here- 
 after. You must be born again born of the Spirit. 
 If you go the wrong way, they will not follow. 
 Then, certainly, separation must ensue. But they 
 will lead you into heaven if you will permit them. 
 They will wait for you and watch with you and 
 minister unto you if you will let them. They go 
 but one way ; if you sever the cord by going the 
 opposite way, then, of course, you are separated 
 from them. 
 
 Let us believe, rejoicingly, in the wisdom and 
 ways of the Lord ! Let us stand by his Word, and 
 hold to his philosophy, and walk in his ways, and 
 rest in his assurances ; then there will be joy in the 
 present, hope for the future, and peace for the soul 
 forever. There is no security elsewhere. Keason 
 without revelation is insufficient ; science without 
 the Word of God has no balm for the soul ; philoso- 
 phy without Scripture stops far this side of heaven. 
 But live under the knowledge of the Lord and his 
 gracious revealings, and all is harmony, peace and 
 hope ; die, and the spirit's fondest yearnings will be 
 all realized in the mansions above. 
 10 
 
HELL. 
 
 ill 
 
HELL. 
 
 i. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 |HE matter of primary interest, and that to 
 which we shall first direct our attention, is, 
 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. To fully under- 
 stand the origin of a thing, goes far toward solving 
 the mystery of its nature, and its final outcome 
 and cure. 
 
 First, let us glance at what is not the origin of hell 
 and then at what is. 
 
 The popular opinion and that which has been 
 backed up by a great number of theologians, is so 
 puerile, and has so feeble a foundation to rest upon, 
 that it is difficult to deal with it seriously. It is: 
 That there was a race of beings formed previous to 
 man's creation, higher than man, who were called 
 angels, and who on account of their purity and holi- 
 ness dwelt near to God in heaven ; that a certain 
 portion of them, incited thereto by one of the most 
 prominent and powerful named Lucifer, sometimes 
 also called Satan, and under his leadership, rebelled 
 against God ; that, in the conflict which ensued they 
 were cast down from heaven, and became fallen 
 , angels or devils ; and that since then, he and they 
 10* H 113 
 
114 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 have been the tormentors, persecutors and tempters 
 of mankind, seeking to lead us all into the same 
 miserable hell that was originally created for their 
 reception and abode. 
 
 John Milton, from the ground-work of mere tra- 
 dition, built up his wonderful poem of "Paradise 
 Lost," and worked out a thousand imaginary details 
 from this little thread of superstition ; and lo, it be- 
 came the orthodox faith of millions ! 
 
 But ask for its Scripture foundation, and all we 
 can find is three or four shreds that fall to pieces on 
 being looked at. Thus in Isaiah, we are pointed to 
 the text, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O 
 Lucifer, son of the morning ! " * But read that 14th 
 chapter, and it is very plain that there is not a word 
 there about Satan or his fall, but that it is Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, king of Babylon, and his fall that is set forth. 
 Nebuchadnezzar is apostrophized as Lucifer. Luci- 
 fer is the Hebrew name of the morning star; and the 
 king's fall from his pride and throne to the condition 
 of an idiot and a beast, is likened to the setting of 
 the morning star. 
 
 Then we are pointed to the 8th Psalm, where it is 
 written in our English version : c ' For thou hast made 
 man a little lower than the angels, "t seeming to 
 convey the idea of a race of beings created superior 
 to man. Yet when the original Hebrew is examined 
 and it is found that the term here rendered angels is 
 ELOHIM, the Hebrew word for GOD, we see that here 
 is a mistranslation, and that the text is simply, 
 
 * xiv. 12. f Ps. viii. 5. 
 
JUDE'S STATEMENT APOCRYPHAL. 115 
 
 u Thou hast made man a little lower than God ; " so 
 that this text furnishes no foundation for the popular 
 doctrine about fallen angels. 
 
 But Jude in his epistle says : " The angels which 
 kept not their first estate, but left their own habita- 
 tion, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under 
 darkness unto the judgment of the great day." 
 But then Jude's is the least quoted, least read, least 
 important, and least authentic of all the Epistles. 
 He quotes one or two Talmudic traditions which re- 
 ceive no countenance whatever from any portion of 
 the Bible as literal facts, to illustrate the point in 
 reference to the condemnation which he seeks to 
 make. This particular quotation is certainly too 
 obscure to build a doctrine upon, if we accept it as 
 intended to be given as a literal fact. Besides, this 
 is known to be a verbal quotation from a pretended 
 scripture called the u Book of Enoch," which has 
 been pronounced spurious by the best Biblical schol- 
 ars ; and Jude uses it not as a fact, but as I would 
 use a mythic tale to point a moral or illustrate a 
 position. 
 
 The text from Genesis that " The sons of God saw 
 the daughters of men that they were fair, and took 
 wives of them," is the last. But it is so much more 
 easy and rational to take the expression "sons of 
 God " in the same sense that it is used in all other 
 places in Scripture, as those who are in faith, and 
 thence in love and obedience to Him, than to believe 
 that disembodied angels openly and visibly lived in 
 marital relations with the inhabitants of the earth, 
 
116 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 that it is difficult to imagine how any one could ever 
 have thought of this latter interpretation. 
 
 So the doctrine of original or fallen angels, and the 
 origin of hell thence, has only this to rest upon no 
 more. We therefore dismiss it from further con- 
 sideration ; and assert, that so far as Scripture au- 
 thority is concerned, it has none. We are then pre- 
 pared for the only conclusion left, that whatever 
 there is of hell is from the human race ; that what- 
 ever devils there are, are the souls of the wicked 
 who have once lived in this world. 
 
 I say the souls of the wicked. For is not the soul 
 or spirit the real man ? Is not the material body 
 simply the machine which the spirit uses for the 
 purposes of this world's life ? Do we not know, 
 each one by his individual experience it requires 
 no philosophy to tell us this that it is the soul 
 which thinks, understands, loves, wills, reasons, in- 
 tends ? Is it not the will-faculty of the soul which 
 sets in motion the activities of the body ? Can the 
 body move in any direction or perform any action, 
 except as the will determines ? Is not the body a 
 simple machine, so made that the soul may inhabit 
 it, operate upon it, move it hither and thither, 
 cause it to do this or that according to its own vo- 
 lition ? Is it not the soul that sees through the 
 eyes, hears through the ears, feels through the 
 fingers and tastes through the tongue ? 
 
 Yes ; the soul is the man and the body is the 
 semblance of the man. The body is no more re- 
 sponsible for the murderous blow, the burglarious 
 robbery, or the monstrous lie, than is the ship for 
 
THE SOUL AN ORGANISM. Ill 
 
 the direction in which it is steered by the helmsman 
 or driven by the wind. It is no more responsible 
 for its acts than is the submarine armor which is 
 sent to the bottom of the sea, for the movements to 
 which it is directed by the human being it encases, 
 or than the automaton chess-player for the action 
 given to the springs of its arm by the man concealed 
 within. 
 
 The soul is not only the real man, but it is an intri- 
 cate organism. Let us cease to think of it as an un- 
 organized phantom, a puff of breath, a vapor of the 
 imagination. Organic power cannot be exercised 
 by inorganic life. If one strikes a blow under the 
 propulsion given to the hand by the force of the will, 
 which will fell an athlete to the ground, it is absurd 
 to say that that will-power was an unorganized 
 breath. You might as well call the lightning that 
 rends the sturdy oak a freak of nature, without 
 quality, elements or laws. The soul is a tremen- 
 dous fact and force ; and because scientists have thus 
 far failed to find it, to dissect it surgically or resolve 
 it chemically, this does not alter or lessen truth. 
 Your experience and mine, the very fact that we 
 possess numberless faculties, that we are swayed to 
 and fro by their impulses, that we love, know, will, 
 think, and by them act these are worth, as proofs 
 of the organic spirit within and of its reality as the 
 truly living man, more than all the failures of all the 
 scientists who ever lived. 
 
 The soul or spirit is the real man. It is organized 
 thought and understanding, love and affection, will 
 and purpose. The character of that thought, under- 
 
118 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 standing, love, affection, will and purpose, is the char- 
 acter of the man. The understanding may be orderly 
 or perverted , the thought may be directed to mercy 
 or revenge ; the love may be pure or impure ; the 
 affection may be directed to worthy or unworthy 
 objects ; the will may be for good or for evil ; the 
 purpose may be to do justly or unjustly ; according 
 as they are one or the other and according to the 
 degree or quantity or manner in which they veer to 
 the one side or the other, such is the moral charac- 
 ter of the man. 
 
 It is not a question of what the body does ; it is a 
 question of what the soul causes the body to do. A 
 killing, unintended as such by the soul within, is no 
 murder. Even the law knows that. Eut a killing 
 done from intended malice, is a crime. An appro- 
 priation of another's goods with the belief of the 
 soul that they were one's own, is no theft ; but the 
 same act with the desire and intention to appropri- 
 ate to one's self what belongs to another, is felony. 
 Therefore it is not the act in and of itself which 
 makes the character ; it is the inherent evil of the 
 soul which goes forth into evil deeds. 
 
 Each soul has its own quality or character. That 
 character is as much a part of it, and distinguishes 
 as clearly one man from another, as peculiarities of 
 countenance and form distinguish persons one from 
 another ; as peculiarities of conformation and color 
 distinguish apple from acorn, rose from violet. That 
 character is ingrained. It is changed only by long 
 and habitual practice. Vice gives way to virtue, 
 ignorance to education, vulgarity to refinement, 
 
UNCHANGED BY DEA TH. 119 
 
 evil to good, only by careful cultivation, assiduous 
 watchfulness, much self-forcing, sincere repentance 
 and earnest prayer. What the soul is, that the 
 character is, at any rate for the time ; and the body 
 may be stripped away, the outward husk may be 
 peeled off, may die, decay, perish still when the 
 soul stands forth on the spiritual plane in another 
 world as a purely spirit-man, it will stand there as 
 to quality and character just what it was here. 
 Just as it left here, will it emerge there ; with the 
 same thoughts, feelings, tastes, sympathies and 
 habits ; with the same methods of comprehending 
 things, and with affections similarly placed : if good, 
 good ; if bad, bad ; if mixed, mixed. It is the old 
 doctrine, "As the tree falls, so it lies." As it is in 
 this world, so it is in the next. And this, because 
 it is the soul which passes from this world into the 
 next ; and it necessarily takes itself just as it is with 
 it. It is the doctrine enunciated in the closing chap- 
 ter of holy Writ : He that is unjust will be unjust 
 still ; he that is filthy will be filthy still ; he that is 
 holy will be holy still ; and he that is righteous will 
 be righteous still. 
 
 It is in vain that we sentimentalize over what we 
 imagine the mercy and love of God ought to be. 
 Facts stare us in the face. What we are, we are. 
 What we are here, we are the next hour after we 
 have gone from here -and stand consciously on the 
 spirit plane. If character could be buried with the 
 body, if quality of heart could moulder away with 
 the flesh, it were different. But the character of 
 the soul is the soul itself, and the quality of the 
 
120 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 spirit is the spirit ; and in the same moral and spir- 
 itual direction that the tree fell here, as the axe of 
 the woodman, Death, cleaved it to the earth, in the 
 same direction will it lie beyond the grave. As it 
 believed here, so will it believe there ; as it thought, 
 spake, loved here, so will it think, speak and love 
 there. The soul is unchanged ; it has simply lost 
 its natural vesture. 
 
 Both Heaven and Hell are conditions of the soul. 
 They are names given to two qualities of man's 
 spirit, to two leading characteristics of humanity. 
 Nothing tells the story better than the very deriva- 
 tion of the words good old Saxon words, with plain 
 and distinctive meanings. Heaven means high, 
 arched or elevated ; hell, deep, depressed or low. 
 Heaven is within you, Hell is within you ; and the 
 outside heaven or hell is made by the outcome of 
 that which is within. Whoever is elevated in un- 
 derstanding, character and virtue, basking in the 
 sunlight of God, is a heaven within himself; who- 
 ever is low, ignoble, mean and selfish, turned away 
 from the holy influences of the Most High, is a hell 
 within himself. 
 
 Hell is throughout the world. It is in your gam- 
 bling dens, your gin palaces, your stock exchanges, 
 your halls of debauchery ; it is in your homes, by 
 your firesides and in your stores ; in your courts 
 and senate chambers, in so far as evil influences 
 control and govern there ; it is where every murder, 
 arson, theft or other crime is committed, and is the 
 inspiring breath of each ; wherever revengeful hearts 
 have met, or words of falsehood or hate are spoken, 
 
HELL IN ALL EVIL HEARTS. 121 
 
 or drunken footsteps totter ; it is in every life of 
 meanness and shame ; in all the greeds of selfish- 
 ness, in all the frailties of depravity, and in every 
 alluring snare of sin. Hellish hearts make hell all 
 over this beautiful green earth. What will they 
 make but hell, wherever they go to Europe, Asia, 
 or the far-off isles of the Indian Sea V to the sphere 
 beyond the grave the life that opens to us after 
 death ? 
 
 The origin of hell is here, nowhere else. "God 
 made man upright, but he hath sought out many 
 inventions," says Solomon. God made man and 
 man made hell ; and this, contrary to the express 
 command of God. 
 
 He said to Adam and we are all the Adams of 
 this allegory Eat of the tree of life and you shall 
 live ; eat of the forbidden fruit and you shall die. 
 Go forth, O man, the noblest creation of the hand 
 of God, in that you are morally free. Eat of the 
 heavenly fruit ; live by virtue, wisdom and love ; 
 sustain your health and life of soul by every influx 
 of light and life that proceedeth from Above, from 
 Me, and you shall live the most glorious life that 
 created mortal can attain aye, spiritually live for- 
 ever. But eat of the fruit of disobedience to tlie 
 laws of God, nourish your soul with the forbidden 
 fruit of sensuality, selfishness and self-seeking, and 
 in the act your soul shall find its moral death, its 
 spiritual grave. Live in the light of the Lord, and 
 all earth is Eden ; the whole world is heaven ; and 
 the glory of the heaven beyond the grave which you 
 here form for yourself, will be unspeakable. But 
 11 
 
122 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 live in the light of self and turn your back on the 
 wisdom of God, and your disobedience drives you 
 forth from Eden, the whole world is turned into a 
 hell of violence, disorder and confusion ; and the 
 hell you have burned in lines of moral fire within 
 the soul, will go with you because you go with your- 
 self to the regions of the dead. And in this you 
 have originated the very hell against which I warned 
 you. 
 
 But why was man created free, when God's power 
 might have made him powerless to sin ? Neither 
 you nor I can fathom the unsearchable wisdom of 
 the Creator. We are to believe, however, that there 
 is no condition of life which is at once immortal, 
 happy beyond measure, and glorious beyond con- 
 ception, no condition of life which is in the express 
 image and likeness of God's own life, except that of 
 moral and spiritual freedom. The law of obedience 
 cannot exist without the possibility of disobedience. 
 There can be no light, except its absence makes dark- 
 ness ; no sweet, that its absence be not bitter ; no good, 
 that its absence be not evil ; no virtue, that its ab- 
 sence be not vice ; no freedom, that its absence be 
 not slavery. 
 
 "We know this is so. And we know that honesty 
 under compulsion is not honesty ; that chastity un- 
 der compulsion is not purity ; and that no seeming 
 good done under compulsion, is good at all. We know 
 that handcuffs and prison-walls which forcibly forbid 
 crime, do not make upright, noble, pure and godlike 
 hearts. We know these things. And we know 
 furthermore that the man who, with temptation be- 
 
IN FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. 123 
 
 fore and around him, manfully resists the evil and 
 seeks the good, who, with positive freedom of right 
 to choose and choice to do, chooses the wisdom of 
 God and does his law, becomes strong in his virtue 
 beyond temptation, pure in his purposes beyond de- 
 filement, noble in his life beyond the conception of 
 him who has never been tried and strengthened. 
 Freely chosen virtue is the only virtue ; all other is 
 spurious. A voluntary life of good in the overcom- 
 ing of evil, is the only good ; the other is blind force. 
 A freely chosen heaven is the only heaven ; the other 
 would be outwardly good as it might seem a mere 
 brute indifference which is not heaven at all. But 
 as the laws of good are God's, and freedom is his 
 best gift, and freedom presupposes the power to dis- 
 obey and turn aside, it is plain that hell here and 
 hereafter originated with the perversity of man. 
 
 No Christian can say this freedom is not ours. 
 The very primal law as expressed in Deuteronomy, 
 " Behold I set before you a blessing and a curse ; a 
 blessing if ye obey my commandments, and a curse 
 if ye obey them not,"* presupposes power to obey 
 or disobey. The constant injunction of Christ in 
 phrases similar to this, u If ye would enter into life, 
 keep the commandments,"! implies beyond cavil 
 the freedom to keep or not to keep. 
 
 So we conclude that whatever there is of hell 
 originates from the human race ; that immortal 
 blessedness can only be given, even by the Lord, 
 through freely chosen godliness ; that freedom of 
 
 * Deut. xi. 26-28. f Matt. xix. 17. 
 
124 THE ORIGIN OF HELL. 
 
 choice carries with it the power to disobey the Di- 
 vine injunctions ; that the voluntary rejection of the 
 Lord and the life He offers, brings hell on earth ; 
 that hell is interwoven in the character ; that in- 
 fernal souls carry with them beyond the grave the 
 hell they have chosen here ; and that in the words 
 of Scripture, the wicked are turned into hell simply 
 by being "snared in the work of their own hands." 
 
 But there is in all this a moral of deep significance. 
 Whatever there is in the dreary desolation of the soul 
 which has said, " Evil be thou my good," is of the 
 soul's own choosing. If God cannot make angels 
 without their being free, because angelic virtue im- 
 plies that degree of spiritual strength which has con- 
 quered temptation in its voluntarily wielding the 
 sword of the Lord, He has at least given and gives 
 us every moment the strength to overcome. It is 
 ours to live ; it is ours to die. It is ours to succumb ; 
 it is ours to overcome. All is ours in the Lord's 
 strength. 
 
 But, "Blessed are they that do his command- 
 ments, that they may have right to the tree of life, 
 and may enter in through the gates into the city." 
 We are making hells or heavens every day. We are 
 originating new heavens or new hells for the eternal 
 world, in every act and thought and purpose of our 
 lives. Which shall it be? the blessing or the curse ? 
 
IL 
 
 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 read in the gospel of John : u This is the 
 " condemnation, that light has come into the 
 world, and men loved darkness rather than 
 light, because their deeds were evil." (Johniii. 19.) 
 This is a truth of universal application. It was not 
 more peculiarly suited to the time of Christ than to 
 other ages ; nor more appropriately said to the Jews 
 than to other men. Humanity is not condemned 
 because it does not believe in Moses, in the Pope, or 
 even in Christ. It is not condemned because it does 
 not believe in the Trinity, in the Atonement, or in 
 immersion. It is condemned in this : that the light 
 of true life having been in all ages held up before 
 the world ; in all ages there have been those who 
 loved spiritual darkness rather than light, because 
 an evil life was more loved by them than a good 
 life, because sin to their hearts was dearer than sal- 
 vation. 
 
 The belief in erroneous doctrine damns no man. 
 The force of education, strong hereditary tendencies 
 of thought, a limited degree of rationality, birth 
 among a people who have never known the truth, 
 imbecility or ignorance any or all of these causes 
 may prevent people from acknowledging, in this 
 world, the higher truths. But it is not more cer- 
 11* 125 
 
126 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 tain that a ship when the dry rot has gained the 
 mastery of its frame, will go down, or that a tree 
 when decay has struck its roots, will die, than that, 
 when evil life has struck to the heart, man's con- 
 demnation follows. Ignorance may be enlightened ; 
 a weak understanding may be strengthened ; error 
 may be acknowledged ; sin even, committed in mo- 
 ments of weakness, or in ignorance of its evil, or 
 with a yearning for a mastery over it, may be re- 
 pented of, atoned for, pardoned. But moral leprosy 
 condemns of itself. It needs no Divine voice to 
 speak the condemnation, for the fact is self-evident. 
 The human heart-ship goes down ; we see it sink. 
 The human tree stands blasted ; we see its naked- 
 ness. The soul is damned, not for its want of belief, 
 but because of the inward rottenness which causes 
 the unbelief; not because it cannot see, but because, 
 loving the evil which the divine light reveals and 
 condemns, it does not wish to see. 
 
 I do not like the word our Bible-translators so 
 often use damnation. Condemnation is the same 
 word, but it sounds better. Damnation has acquired 
 a false theological meaning. When we use it, we 
 think of an arbitrary God casting into torment a lost 
 soul because he denies a certain creed. Its signifi- 
 cance has become horrible, terrific. But condemna- 
 tion seems to come to us with a softer inflection. A 
 thief is condemned or sentenced to jail because of 
 his crime. Really it is his crime that condemns him r 
 not the judge. The judge is only the mouth-piece 
 of the law. So sin condemns a soul, not the Lord, 
 The love of sin has its law. The law is that of 
 
NATURE OF CONDEMNATION. 127 
 
 moral degradation. It is inherent in the sin, and is 
 the result of no vengeance on the part of any higher 
 power. A ship is said to be condemned when it is 
 pronounced unseaworthy. But there is no maledic- 
 tion or revenge in the matter. It is its own inher- 
 ent rottenness that condemns it. The Greek word 
 so often translated damnation, is the same as the 
 one which is rendered condemnation. The difference 
 is not in Divine inspiration, but in the taste of 
 translators in selecting English words to represent 
 the Greek. 
 
 The nature of hell, therefore, involves the nature 
 of damnation or condemnation. When we get at 
 what condemnation is, we have arrived at the nature 
 of Hell. 
 
 In the last lecture we reached these definite con- 
 clusions justified by reason and Scripture : That im- 
 mortal blessedness can only be given to a being who 
 is rationally free to choose the good ; that a man 
 morally free is the only virtuous man, the only holy 
 man, and the only happy man, in the Divine sense 
 of these terms ; that freedom of choice carries with 
 it the power to disobey the Divine injunctions ; that 
 the voluntary rejection of the Lord and the life of 
 good which He offers, brings evil and hell on earth ; 
 that hell is simply the love of vice interwoven in the 
 character ; that therefore wicked souls carry with 
 them beyond the grave the hell they have made and 
 chosen here ; that they must do so because they 
 arrive there with the same characters with which 
 they left here ; and therefore whatever there is of 
 hell hereafter, originated from the human race. 
 
128 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 We say that hell begins here. We know it is so, 
 for the fact is before our eyes. We have only to 
 look within ourselves and see if there is any wrong 
 desire, impure thought, or wicked device ; and so 
 much as there is of these, so much of hell is there in 
 the heart. We are under the condemnation just so 
 far as we love and act from what is evil and wrong. 
 
 Who condemns us ? Is it God ? By no means. 
 God is all love and mercy. But in creating man, the 
 noblest of all created beings, He has gathered to- 
 gether and centred in him the highest faculties 
 which can be given to a creature and not make that 
 creature equal with himself. One of these is free- 
 dom. Man is no slave. He is no dog that he must 
 fawn by the inherent force of his nature ; no tiger 
 that he must rend and tear by the unavoidable 
 instinct within him ; no lamb that he must be 
 meek by Divine compulsion. Man is morally free ; 
 spiritually a child of liberty. This is the main dif- 
 ference between man and beast. The beast is what 
 he is by nature. Man is what he makes himself. 
 True, he may have a hereditary proclivity this way 
 or that ; but he is free to overcome his hereditary 
 proclivity. 
 
 Law is law. It is not a thing to toy or sport over, 
 whose decrees may be changed with every human 
 whim. While man is free, he must obey the inher- 
 ent law of his creation or suffer the consequences. 
 Physically, morally and spiritually it is the same. 
 If he jumps from the third story of a lofty building, 
 the law of gravity will break his bones. If he places 
 himself on the revolving mill-wheel, the laws of me- 
 
VIOLATION OF LAW CONDEMNS. 129 
 
 chanics will crush him. If he puts his arm in the fire, 
 the law of heat will burn it off. So with the opera- 
 tion of depraved tastes. If through gluttony he 
 tampers with the laws of his physical system, the 
 offended law sends upon him dyspepsia or gout. If 
 he drinks to excess, it sends upon him delirium tre- 
 mens. Or if he lives a riotous life, it inflicts upon 
 him horrible diseases. 
 
 Now God does not send these things upon man. 
 His laws are inherent in creation. He has created 
 things for the best ; and if He could have made them 
 better He would. He could not create, and withdraw 
 all law from the objects created. He could not cre- 
 ate, and say : " Violate the laws of creation as you 
 please ; run riot in your perversions of my best gifts ; 
 and the very laws by which they were made and by 
 means of which they exist, shall be suspended in 
 order to demonstrate my love and mercy. " No : He 
 could not do that, and for a very simple reason. God 
 is the law ; and He works by the means which He 
 himself is, and cannot possibly work against 'Him- 
 self. There is reason in all things ; and this seems 
 very reasonable. Obeying and disobeying law must 
 produce opposite results. And if the one is beauty 
 and order and blessedness, the other must be deform- 
 ity and disorder and condemnation. 
 
 Thus, what is philosophically and physically true, 
 is morally and spiritually true. The spirit of man 
 is an organized being or substance. If it acts in har- 
 mony with the laws which the Creator impressed 
 upon it, it is healthy and happy. If it does not, it 
 is unhealthy and unhappy. If it studies those sci- 
 I 
 
130 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 ences and practices those arts which all recognize 
 as healthy and invigorating, the mind is constantly 
 and in an orderly manner strengthened and ex- 
 panded. If it reads French novels and gloats over 
 the horrible things in the Police Gazette, it will be- 
 come weakened and debased. If the affections are 
 placed on high and worthy objects, they grow more 
 heavenly every day ; if on things sensuous, low and 
 mean, they daily grow more hellish. If we cul- 
 tivate amiability, purity of thought, sincerity, truth- 
 fulness, honesty, courage, we are slowly becoming 
 angels ; if we are nursing selfishness, vanity, pride, 
 passion and the like, we are becoming devils. If 
 we are yielding ourselves to the gentle influence of 
 Christ and his angels, and loving more and more 
 the aesthetics of Divine life, we are becoming grad- 
 ually filled with the Lord's spirit ; and that is heaven. 
 If we are loving and choosing what the Lord con- 
 demns, and living as demons live, we are drifting 
 away from the Lord, losing life ; and that is hell. 
 
 In these respects the soul is the seat of it all. 
 Love and affection, mind and thought, intellect and 
 character, will and understanding are the constituent 
 elements of the soul. What these are the soul is. 
 The soul, therefore, may be healthy or diseased ac- 
 cording to its intellectual or affectional tone. It is 
 sound or vitiated according to its quality. These 
 things are as we choose and make them. If we live 
 and love a life of order, virtue and Divine law, it is 
 life for the spirit ; if of disorder, vice and disobedi- 
 ence, we are under condemnation. But the condem- 
 nation is not from the fiat of God, it is in the rotten- 
 
NO VENGEANCE IN GOD. 131 
 
 ness of our spirits. As decay of timbers is the 
 condemnation of the ship, as ill health, the result 
 of violation of physical law, is the condemnation of 
 the body, so disease of the mind, rottenness of heart, 
 all violations of the Divine law, are the condemna- 
 tion of the soul. God has no vengeance to appease, 
 no arbitrary stripes to inflict on the poor, writhing, 
 human worm because he has sinned ; but vice and 
 crime are corruptions of the spirit, which of them- 
 selves condemn the soul, and leave it incapable of 
 enjoying the blessings or rewards which follow vir- 
 tue and obedience. And there is no other damnation 
 or condemnation taught in the Bible, or known to 
 natural or spiritual existence, than this. 
 
 Here are the sheep ; there are the goats. That 
 they must be separated in their final homes, is not 
 an arbitrary appointment of the Lord ; it is an in- 
 herent necessity. God does not separate them ; 
 their characters separate them. Imagine, if you 
 please, you who love peace and order and refine- 
 ment, cultivated manners and pure conversation 
 you who love intellectual pleasures and virtuous 
 society imagine your being called upon to live for- 
 ever with the savage and filthy Indians of the plains, 
 with the debased Hottentots of Africa, or worse 
 still, with the creatures of vice, debauchery and 
 crime that swarm in some of the hideous alleys of 
 our own city. Why, the very thought is revolting. 
 Death were far preferable to such a life. Annihila- 
 tion would be a blessing in comparison. So in the 
 other world will the pure, the wise and the good, 
 they who love the Lord and his laws, fly with bated 
 
132 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 breath and trembling hearts from the presence of 
 the self-condemned, from those polluted with evil 
 and corrupted with crime, from those who despise 
 God's laws, contemn his ways, laugh at virtue and 
 worship vice. Reverse the picture. Will not these 
 latter equally despise you, scorn.your society, spit 
 upon your pretensions as hypocrisy ? Why, the 
 devils would suffocate in the atmosphere of heaven, 
 as surely as would the angels in that of hell. The 
 sheep and the goats will separate hereafter by mutual 
 repulsion. No fiat of God will send them to either 
 side. Each will seek his own ; and the hells and 
 heavens are formed by the law of mutual repulsion. 
 
 With stronger force does this truth press upon us 
 when we remember that in the other world, " there 
 is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor 
 hid that shall not be known." The devil may walk 
 the halls of virtue here for purposes of deviltry. 
 But when the mask is stripped off, and hypocrisy 
 can serve him no longer, and his schemes are baffled 
 in their concoction, then he like all others will seek 
 his own. In short, if the wicked were forced into 
 heaven, it would be no heaven to them, but a place 
 of torment from which they would long to be de- 
 livered. 
 
 We must not be frightened at mere names. The 
 name has been abused, and frightful pictures of God's 
 eternal vengeance and man's everlasting torment, 
 held up under its shadow. But the condition never- 
 theless exists, however much the pictures may be 
 misdrawn. But does it not begin to dawn upon us, 
 that while that condition or state called hell is a 
 
DIVINE MERCY FAR-REACHING. 133 
 
 thing of man's own invention, the region in the 
 other (so called) world, the separate allotment, the 
 government of its subjects, their treatment by the 
 Lord, may all be matters of his immediate love and 
 mercy ? If heaven would be hell to that class of 
 spirits, would not pivine Love permit them to sepa- 
 rate themselves from its inhabitants ? Would not 
 Divine Love rather ameliorate their sufferings than 
 increase them ? Would not our Lord act the part 
 of the exemplar He has himself held up, the good 
 Samaritan, and pour oil into their wounds rather 
 than aggravate their torture ? 
 
 The doctrine of eternal torment is more hellish 
 than hell itself. Divine Love must be very healing 
 in its nature ; Divine mercy very far-reaching. It 
 is impossible, inherently impossible, to get away 
 from the presence of the omnipotent One ; and his 
 presence carries blessings of some kind wherever it 
 is. Nothing can be more true than the words of 
 David, u If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: 
 if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there ! " * 
 But more particularly concerning this in my next 
 lecture on the Duration of Hell. 
 
 From these principles we arrive at some definite 
 conclusions with respect to the nature of Hell. It 
 cannot be a vast cavern in whose darkness lost souls 
 are eternally confined. It cannot be a lake of fire 
 in whose sulphurous flames the damned are eternally 
 burned. It cannot answer to any of the pictures 
 which superstition has so eagerly painted. Deprive 
 
 * Ps. cxxxix. 8. 
 12 
 
134 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 it of everything like Divine vengeance, and you 
 separate it from all the fable and mythology of the 
 mediaeval priests. True, there will be left the dif- 
 ference, whatever that is, between a spirit condition 
 and a body condition, between a spirit world and an 
 earthly world. But after that, v& have only to look 
 to an earthly hell in order to determine the nature 
 of the one beyond the grave. The fires that burn 
 here will burn there no other. 
 
 Hell is altogether of the heart. Whatever sur- 
 roundings it has are those which outflow from the 
 heart. Whatever is created about it or takes form 
 within the circle of its influence, is simply the out- 
 growth, the result, the fashion of the heart within, 
 or of such debilitated intelligence as goes with it. 
 You see a man who is in soul disorderly. The result 
 is, that so far as he is concerned in the creation of 
 the circumstances around him, all will be disorderly. 
 His room will be upside down, his accounts will be 
 in confusion, and he will never be on time. A woman 
 slovenly by nature, will be a slattern in dress, her 
 house will be topsy-turvy, and her cookery a thing 
 that particular people will not crave. The man and 
 woman may be very good in their way, and advanc- 
 ing in the heavenly life ; but there is something of 
 hell left in their souls, and it bespatters all their sur- 
 roundings. Now, in the other world where we live 
 out without let or hindrance the spirit's own char- 
 acter, what kind of surroundings do you imagine the 
 irretrievable slattern would create ? Is the Lord 
 going to force her to be neat ? If so, why does He 
 
SURROUNDINGS OF DEVILS. 135 
 
 not do so now and here ? If not here, what reason 
 have we for thinking He will do so there ? 
 
 Or take the case of thieves, cut- throats, profligates 
 and gamblers. They have their peculiar tastes, hab- 
 its and surroundings. They come into them as nat- 
 urally and revel in them as unctuously as swine in 
 their mire. Their boon companions and their sur- 
 roundings correspond with their own inward states. 
 It is unnecessary to describe them. To us they are 
 forbidding and disgusting ; to them they are attrac- 
 tive and agreeable. To us their habits and con- 
 versation are repuls'ive ; to them they are enjoyable. 
 It is their style of heaven ; they would be out of 
 place in a better one ; and a better one would be 
 unsuitable to them. 
 
 But this is only for illustration. It calls attention 
 to the nature of the difference which exists even 
 here between the homes of the virtuous and the 
 homes of the wicked. Each one lives out his own 
 life, and surrounds himself to a certain degree with 
 the things that are to his taste. How can we doubt 
 but that the same law will prevail in the other world ? 
 Self-separated, each class will surround themselves 
 with the things which are suitable to their habits 
 and conversation, as well as with the people who 
 are most congenial to them. The whole world about 
 them will be in exact correspondence with their in- 
 ward and real natures. 
 
 But here we are all more or less under the ban of 
 evil. Very wicked men mingle in very virtuous so- 
 ciety. Men of very depraved habits are frequently 
 persons of (in some respects) excellent tastes. Very 
 
136 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 worthy people are sometimes thrown into mean and 
 squalid quarters, and those of high spiritual attain- 
 ments are forced by circumstances into close inti- 
 macy with others of a worldly cast of mind. 
 . This simply shows that on earth heaven and hell 
 are to some extent, in their outward aspects, min- 
 gled. Faces are masks of character ; tongues con- 
 ceal sentiments instead of expressing them ; looks 
 belie the heart ; actions are hypocritical. Here, 
 because we have these bodily masks, heaven and hell 
 must more or less mingle. Here, because we have 
 not fully made up our minds to go to the bad, we 
 want to appear better than we are. Here, because 
 we want to be thought wise and good, we seek to 
 appear so. Here, each one's own character is mixed, 
 and we do not always ourselves know what we are. 
 Then we must not forget that a strong natural intel- 
 lect is not incompatible with a debased moral char- 
 acter ; and that what is mistakenly called good taste, 
 when solely directed to sensuous things, may easily 
 be mistaken for real refinement which is spiritual, 
 and that it may easily exist with a corrupt heart. 
 
 Hereafter, when disguises are stripped off, when 
 spirits live on spirit planes of life ; when we know 
 ourselves as we really are ; when faces cannot con- 
 ceal, and tongues cannot lie, and actions are in strict 
 accord with the promptings of the heart ; then ap- 
 pearances will yield to realities. Then the law 
 which is partially operative here, will be fully so 
 there ; and the outside hell will be just what the 
 thoughts and loves of the devils make it. 
 
 But this is no punishment ? Well, this is not 
 
FEAR NEVER REGENERATES. 137 
 
 where the question of punishment comes in. It cer- 
 tainly is not vengeance. It is plainly not vindictive. 
 But is God vengeful ? Is He vindictive ? Surely 
 not, except in the outward and deceitful appearance 
 of things. God is mercy ; God is love. He holds no 
 slave-driver's lash over the wicked or unfortunate, 
 or the already-much-punished disobedient. Let us 
 once and forever dismiss that from our minds. 
 There is no punishment in the heart of God ; though, 
 if you please, you may call by that name the una- 
 voidable consequences of evil and sin. 
 
 Where, then, is the terror of hell, if we cannot 
 hold up the fear of torment to restrain mankind 
 from rushing thither ? 'Ah ! my friends, fear never 
 yet in the world's history has kept a single heart 
 from hell. Fear may say, u Lord, I believe ; " fear 
 may make one writhe as the preacher pictures the 
 doom of the damned ; fear may hold one back from 
 the actual commission of the outward sin ; but it 
 does not regenerate intellect or heart. Never in 
 this world have eyes wept tears of genuine peni- 
 tence through fear ; never has the breast swelled 
 with love for its neighbor through fear ; never has 
 a single heart gone up with rapturous love to the 
 Lord, through fear of his wrath or damnation. 
 
 It is your heart that is your heaven ; not your 
 shattered nerves. It is your character that sinks 
 you to hell, not the vengeance of the Deity. The 
 light is all around us ; the light of a true and high 
 and holy life. We can read it in all creation ; we 
 can see it in all the beneficence of the Lord's love ; 
 we can admire it in every human impersonation of 
 12* 
 
138 THE NATURE OF HELL. 
 
 its beauty ; we can love it in every angelic deed, 
 and every face of angelic sweetness ; we can behold 
 it blazing brightly in the Word of God. The light 
 is in the world ; but the condemnation is in the 
 heart's loving darkness because of its love of self 
 and sin. And the nature of hell is in the nature of 
 sin and its unavoidable surroundings. You never 
 will be scared into heaven ; but cultivate the love 
 of the heavenly life, and you will be drawn thither 
 by the very life which you have learned to love. 
 
III. 
 
 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 I ascend up into heaven," says the Psalm- 
 "thou art there; if I make my bed in 
 hell, behold thou art there. If I take the 
 wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost 
 parts of the sea ; even there shall thy hand lead me, 
 and thy right hand shall hold me " (Ps. cxxxix. 8, 
 9, 10) : David's inspired answer to his own inspired 
 exclamation, addressed to Jehovah : " Whither shall 
 I go from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee from 
 thy presence ? " It comes to the consciousness with 
 that unequivocal directness which we sometimes 
 fkid in holy Writ. God is everywhere. Be it in 
 heaven, on earth, the uttermost parts of the sea, or 
 in hell, wherever there is breath of creation, there 
 is God. Not only cannot the creature who has 
 once drawn the breath of life get away from his 
 presence, but it cannot get away from his spirit. 
 So runs the testimony. But God is mercy ; how 
 then can it be otherwise than that his mercy is 
 wherever his presence and spirit are as well in hell 
 as in heaven ? And God is love ; how then can it 
 be otherwise than that his love is wherever his pres- 
 ence and spirit are exerted for the benefit of devils 
 as well as of angels ? Yes, even in hell, his hand 
 shall lead his creatures ; even as devils, his right 
 hand shall hold them. 
 
 139 
 
140 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 "All the paths of the Lord are mercy;" "His 
 mercy is everlasting;" u The Lord is good to all, 
 and his tender mercies are over all his works." Of 
 this character are the texts which describe his nature. 
 Love and mercy as Divine characteristics, like all 
 things Divine, are limitless. They are inoperative 
 in no portion of the realms of existence, either on 
 this side the grave or beyond. And it is true as well 
 of the other world as of this, that " He maketh his 
 sun (his love) to rise on the evil and on the good, 
 and sendeth rain (his mercy) on the just and on the 
 unjust." And if Christ denounced the doctrine, 
 "Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine 
 enemy," and asserted that other of angelic beauty, 
 "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
 good to them that hate you," and held up to us 
 in the law of sunshine and rain, that our heavenly 
 Father does this, and therefore we must do it if we 
 would be his children ; how then can it be otherwise, 
 than that God loves his enemies in hell, seeks to 
 bless them in spite of their railings against Him, 
 and endeavors to do good to them notwithstanding 
 their hatred of Him ? For this is Christianity, and 
 God is the Divine embodiment of the Christian 
 law. 
 
 The doctrine of Divine love, unlimited even by 
 the burning hatred of hell against Himself, is the 
 clear Bible truth. The doctrine of Divine wrath is 
 the fallacious appearance of truth. There are two 
 phases of the Bible two standpoints from which 
 different portions are written two aspects under 
 which it comes to man. And if men had recognized 
 
THE LORD APPEARING ANGRY. 141 
 
 this, how many false enunciations of doctrine might 
 have been avoided ! The one is the language of 
 glorification descriptive of the higher states of the 
 human soul, where the Lord shines forth clear and 
 cloudless to the mind, in all his justice, benignity, 
 kindness, providence, mercy and love. The other 
 is the language of the soul's prostration, temptation 
 and despair, where the divine splendors of the Lord's 
 nature are hidden in the clouds of the spirit, in its 
 darkness and gloom. Here, the Lord appears to the 
 mind conscious only of its worthlessness, guilt and 
 degradation, as the great avenger and punisher, a 
 Being of vindictive fury and everlasting wrath. 
 Now the one class of passages describes the truth 
 as it comes in its Divine radiance to the unclouded 
 spiritual intellect ; the other as it appears to the 
 brutalized and obscured faculties, or the despairing 
 conscience. It is meet that we should have them 
 both placed before us. There are excellent reasons 
 why the Divine Word should reveal the human soul 
 from its highest possibilities to its lowest degrada- 
 tion. There is a philosophy in its running the octaves 
 of all states and conditions possible to man. But 
 there is no propriety in substituting the God who 
 appears before the soul in its states of sensuality 
 and despair, for Him who shines forth in its states 
 of rapture and glory. The Divine Word is written 
 according to a plan. If we do not see the plan, that 
 is our misfortune and not the fault of God. But at 
 least let us cling to the enunciations which ennoble 
 Him to our thoughts and endear Him to our hearts, 
 and hold in abeyance for further light, those which 
 
142 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 are the fallacies of deep temptation or the outcries 
 of utter despair. 
 
 God is love ; his mercy embraces even hell. No 
 devil can so revile Him, that He will not give that 
 unfortunate the best blessing he is capable of receiv- 
 ing ; no fiend can so hate Him that He will not do 
 his utmost to reach and help him in his fallen state. 
 That only is Christian. That only is God-like. 
 
 The subject, then, of the duration of hell for that 
 is the theme of this discourse, however we may ap- 
 parently wander from it is not one that brings 
 God's love into controversy at all. When this ques- 
 tion arises, it is usually one of this nature : How 
 long will God's love inflict the stripes and burnings 
 which are the allotted punishment of the wicked ? 
 It is a singular question to ask. There is but one 
 true answer : God's love will not inflict them at all. 
 It inflicts them neither in this world nor in the next. 
 It inflicts them neither for one year nor a myriad of 
 years. Love, whether human or Divine, has no re- 
 venges to gratify. True, certain results follow from 
 the violation of certain laws results that are in- 
 herent in the violations. And men are punished, 
 not by the Lord but by their violations of law that 
 also is true. 
 
 That head-ache follows drunkenness, and de- 
 lirium, continuous debaucheries ; that sickness fol- 
 lows gluttony, and gout, too high wines and too rich 
 food ; that consumption follows careless exposures 
 or unremitting dissipations ; thus that each violation 
 of the law of health, has its inherent punishment 
 that is true. That profanity blunts one's reverence 
 
EVIL ITS OWN PUNISHMENT. 143 
 
 for God ; that ribaldry dulls the capacity of religious 
 enjoyment ; that covetousness destroys the principle 
 of neighborly love ; that adultery denies purity of 
 heart and shuts out heaven ; that the practice of 
 thievery makes knaves, and that of murder, demons ; 
 that each violation of the moral law hastens the deg- 
 radation and ruin of the soul, makes the understand- 
 ing averse to higher truth, and the heart callous to 
 the influences of heaven and God ; thus that each 
 violation of the law of the Lord has its own inherent 
 punishment that also is true. It comes in many 
 forms ; the writhing hatreds of the heart, the gnaw- 
 ings of envy, the unsatisfied desires of ambition 
 and avarice, the ungratified passions of vanity, the 
 eternal torments of jealousy, the lurid burnings of 
 the fires of revenge, the unsatisfactions of selfish- 
 ness, the depression of spirit after the pursuit of 
 worldly pleasure the thousand and one torments 
 which are the never-ending results of evil, are pun- 
 ishments as great as any soul need bear. 
 
 Say what we will, no wicked man is happy in his 
 crime ; no sinful man enjoys his sin. There is a cer- 
 tain mad pleasure, a certain insane, delirious delight 
 that exists in the excitement of the moment ; but 
 the sting of the law's violation is everywhere and 
 always asserting its presence, and never so strongly 
 as in the moments of inertia and reaction. It is not 
 necessarily in the conscience ; that may be dead. 
 Conscience does not torture in hell ; for it is of the 
 essence of hell that conscience has ceased to exist. 
 It is not in rlemorse ; remorse may be known no 
 longer. The sting exists in the very violated law. 
 
144 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 I have talked with some of the most abandoned vil- 
 lains under peculiar circumstances, and have become 
 convinced that they do not know what happiness 
 means. With them no sorrow for crime exists no 
 seeming pang of conscience for its commission. It 
 is a condition of utter demoralization and reckless- 
 ness. The extreme case serves to point the phil- 
 osophy. 
 
 A man may not be a criminal in the eye of the 
 law, and yet he may be a devil. There are degrees 
 of evil, and grades of even complete demoralization. 
 The devil of the heart may or may not be utterly 
 brutalized may or may not be unlettered or unre- 
 fined. But the pseudo gentleman of incarnate self- 
 ishness, or the polished scholar of absolutely no 
 principle, is as much a devil in his way as the mid- 
 night cut-throat or the highway ruffian. They are 
 violators of the laws under which God created souls 
 to live. They have lost the very capacity for happi- 
 ness as much so as the consumptive body or the 
 vitiated blood has. by violations of the physical law, 
 lost the essential conditions of health and comfort. 
 And as the consequences of corporeal disease the 
 low vitality, the sleepless nights, the painful humors, 
 the nervous tremors, the aches and pains are the 
 inborn punishments of the transgressions of the laws 
 of the system, so are the consequences of the moral 
 diseases of the soul, the unavoidable and inherent 
 punishments for our infringement of the laws of 
 eternal life. 
 
 If you say that experience does not* so teach, you 
 are not honest with yourself. Do you not see far 
 
EVERY EVIL SO MUCH HELL. 145 
 
 enough above, to know that perfect trust in the 
 Lord, for instance, or in other words, perfect con- 
 tentment and peace of soul, is the only absolute hap- 
 piness ? On the other hand, do you not know that 
 the love of admiration gives the soul unrest ? that 
 envy gives you sleepless nights and unsatisfied waking 
 hours ? that desire for revenge gnaws at the heart 
 with remorseless greed ? that there is not an evil of 
 soul, nor a sin of commission, which does not bring 
 its bitterness with it ? I speak to you as to those 
 who have committed no great crimes, but are prone, 
 or have been, to the less grievous evils of humanity. 
 Every evil or sin, no matter how light, is so much 
 hell within ; and each one has its gall its punish- 
 ment its result as an infringement of the moral 
 law. 
 
 This is the great principle. Then when we go 
 into the other life, how shall we get rid of our evils? 
 for they are seated in the soul. Surely we carry 
 our hell with us ; and its own punishments are in- 
 separable from its existence. 
 
 It has been my constant purpose in previous dis- 
 courses to press home the truth that hell is essentially 
 evil in the soul ; that as souls, not bodies, go into 
 the other life, each one carries his own life with him 
 whatever it is ; and that the natural law of repulsion 
 between the evil and the good, would separate the 
 former into a community which, as applied to the 
 other world, is denominated hell. 
 
 As therefore God has no revenges to execute, but 
 as He is all love toward his enemies, and mercy to- 
 ward those who hate and despitefully use Him, it 
 13 K 
 
146 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 follows that even there "His hand shall lead them 
 and his right hand hold them ; " that is, so far as it 
 is possible, they retaining their inborn freedom of 
 choice. Certainly, then, He will not scourge them. 
 He surely will not burn them. If anything in Scrip- 
 ture seems to indicate that, it is so utterly subver- 
 sive of Christian ethics, so entirely opposed to other 
 Bible teaching, that those who hold so must interpret 
 the Scripture wrongly. On the contrary He will 
 mollify their misery, and, so far as He can, will 
 quench the rising flame of their evil lusts. This 
 would be an expression of love ; the other would 
 not. 
 
 The nature of future punishment we learn by our 
 experience here. It is the burning flames of our 
 own wicked desires. These punish us savagely. 
 In this world, however, their punishment often tends 
 to reform. 
 
 Let me say here, that there is only one light in 
 which we can view this life as compared with the 
 other. "We are placed here to form character. We 
 are born here to determine in our freedom what we 
 will be hereafter. This life is threescore and ten ; 
 the other is eternity. We are like young trees in a 
 nursery, only we grow as we will to grow. If we 
 grow straight and true, we are transplanted at last 
 into the garden of the Lord ; if crooked and de- 
 formed, we are hewn down and cast into the fire 
 the fire of our own evil lusts. 
 
 Now there is a certain point to which a sapling 
 may grow crooked, and yet by judicious training be 
 brought back to a straight and graceful form. But 
 
A POINT BEYOND RECOVERY. 147 
 
 there is a certain degree of crookedness which it 
 may attain, wherein its gnarls and twists have be- 
 come so firmly set, so hard and obdurate, that no 
 ropes nor stakes nor pulleys can straighten it out 
 again. It will break, it will split, it will die, but it 
 will not straighten. Its crookedness has become its 
 character, inherent and forever obdurate. 
 
 The soul of man is often compared to a tree in the 
 Bible. And as souls we are born upon this plane of 
 life, as into nurseries of eternal character. None 
 of us grow up precisely as we ought. We get crooked 
 here and gnarly there, and twisted in the very parts 
 where we ought to show most spiritual grace. But 
 we are freer than the trees. We are our own hus- 
 bandmen. We till our own soil ; we drive our own 
 stakes ; we prune and tie back and straighten out 
 our own characters. The Lord gives us the strength, 
 but we do the straightening. He gives us the life, 
 but we appropriate or apply it. He gives the growth, 
 but we erect or crook ourselves under his sun of love 
 and rain of mercy at pleasure. And up to a certain 
 point we may go wrong, do sinful deeds, without 
 losing the power to retrieve our character. True, 
 each sin is weakening that power ; and as we yield 
 to our evils, it becomes harder and harder to spring 
 back to the proper place again. But there is a point 
 at which the heart becomes so gnarled and knotted, 
 so twisted and bent, so old in sin, so hardened in 
 iniquity, so given to worldliness, so much in love 
 with self, that neither the love nor the mercy of 
 God can straighten us out again. We might be 
 burned under its ardor, we might be crushed by its 
 
148 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 pressure, we might have our inward natures tortured 
 into a thousand agonies or utterly annihilated, but 
 we cannot straighten. The character is the man ; 
 the quality is the soul. And when the evil quality 
 or character freely chosen, has permeated each fibre, 
 artery and vein of the spirit organism, has become 
 indurated and permanent, if you wrench it out you 
 rend the soul into infinitesimal fragments. For 
 when you have taken out all that constitutes the 
 man, there is no man left. You can as easily ex- 
 tract the corrosion from vitriol, or the poison from 
 arsenic, and have vitriol and arsenic left, as take 
 the hell out of a soul that has confirmed itself in its 
 worldliness, selfishness and sin, and have an angel 
 left. All nature asserts this principle. And grieve 
 as we may over the fact, neither Scripture nor reason 
 justifies the belief that the immortal soul is an ex- 
 ception to the otherwise universally established law. 
 This world is the nursery of eternal character, O 
 man, for you. Improve it to your glory, or demoral- 
 ize yourself at your peril. That is the language ad- 
 dressed to you by all science and all revelation. 
 Here you stand in your moral freedom, the best gift 
 of God. Here make your heaven or your hell for 
 the great Hereafter, whichever you may choose. 
 
 I do not mean to say that dying in some of our 
 evils, we may not rid ourselves of them in the other 
 world. I speak of the final choice of the heart. I 
 discriminate between sins sorrowed over but not 
 yet fully conquered, and the sin-indurations of the 
 thoroughly calloused heart. Personally considered, 
 we cannot always tell which is which. It matters 
 
PUNISHMENT REFORMATORY. 149 
 
 not that we should. The final choice of good or 
 evil, here made in freedom deep down in the heart 
 of hearts, will fully manifest itself only where all 
 disguises are stripped oif and souls are open books 
 for all to read. 
 
 Then with the irretrievably crooked trees of hu- 
 manity as they congregate beyond the grave, God's 
 mercy and love will dwell forever, not his wrath and 
 fury. But how ? By torturing them with endeavors 
 to straighten out that which may break but cannot 
 bend ? By visiting them with a conscience and re- 
 morse which would only torment but not reform ? 
 By placing them under the eternal lash, or burning 
 them in flames of everlasting fire agonies of anguish 
 which would mete out endless punishment, but lead 
 to never a moment's regret for that which had be- 
 come hardened into eternal character ? 
 
 No : In one sense it is true that the advent of the 
 Lord has saved all mankind ; not all indeed upon 
 the plane of heaven and Christian love, but all to 
 some extent from the worst consequences of their 
 own evils. Thus the very law of punishment is in 
 some degree reformatory. Admit that a soul has 
 passed beyond the possibility of internal reform, that 
 by no means places him beyond the possibility of 
 external reform. For the very overflow of evil pas- 
 sion as it reverts upon itself, is made careful and 
 prudent in its workings. Then, again, the very self- 
 ishness of the soul will curb its selfishness for the 
 sake of self. We see this here ; why may it not be 
 so there ? We see men of intelligence, but selfish 
 and worldly to a degree, combine in this world to 
 13* 
 
150 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 protect themselves. Laws are often made here, 
 good laws, on hellish principles. That is, they are 
 made not in the desire to protect the rights of the 
 neighbor, and to mete out justice to him, but selfishly 
 to protect one's self in the enjoyment of his own 
 possessions and pleasures. Selfish men combine for 
 this end, and are true to one another in this. They 
 have to yield to each other for the sake of self. 
 Thus good is educed even from the law of evil. 
 
 Now I cannot view the Lord in the light of an 
 earthly monarch, ruling hell by arbitrary laws and 
 enforcing them at the point of the bayonet or by a 
 vigilant police, using the angels as the only trusty 
 agents for the enforcement of his edicts. I can- 
 not understand the eternal blessedness of angels in 
 such a role. But if we do away with the sulphur 
 and flames, and seek for subordination and order 
 even in hell, I can understand eternal principles, 
 the light of God's love flowing through the flames 
 of human passion, regulating and controlling the 
 mighty hosts of evil through their own selfish pro- 
 pensities, and educing final outward order from the 
 selfishness of evil and the dissonance of sin. I can 
 see how the eternal principle of love and the ever- 
 operating flow of mercy may so control the. law of 
 sin, as out of itself to evolve the best results and the 
 greatest happiness to which on the plane of selfish- 
 ness man may come. Here, however, intelligent 
 selfishness would have control. The more outwardly 
 refined would bring under their sway the more de- 
 based. Punishments would be instituted by those 
 who had the intellectual force for the intellectual 
 
ORDER PRODUCED BY FEAR. 151 
 
 always cows the brutal in the end for the protec- 
 tion of themselves. Fear would be held, like the 
 slave-driver's lash, over the insubordinate ; the cer- 
 tainty of punishment would bring them at last to a 
 state of subordination, and hell itself become re- 
 stored to a condition of outward order that would 
 make it a tolerable place for even devils to dwell in. 
 The sense of fear ingrained, would do for them what 
 the sense of love has failed to do. Thus hell would 
 be reduced to order. It would become the devil's 
 heaven ; but not heaven in any divine or angelic 
 sense. Hell would be eternal ; but not its punish- 
 ment, except so far as the inherent demoralization 
 is punishment. Its evil would be in the heart ; but 
 so far as restrained from breaking forth, the misery 
 would be alleviated. 
 
 Take a prison which holds a great number of 
 wicked, untamed men ; untamed at heart, but re- 
 strained by fear of the prison discipline. There is 
 work and play, study and recreation. Under fear, 
 that hell is reduced to a state of order. There 
 is more happiness or comfort for them than there 
 ever was in the unrestrained license of crime. Lib- 
 erate them, and they will run riot. Restrain them 
 into decency, and they have a measure of enjoyment. 
 The law of punishment has been executed on each, 
 until he knows its certainty for every violation of 
 the rules. He does not offend, because that punish- 
 ment is before his eyes. He therefore ceases to 
 offend, so long as the fear is not removed. True, 
 therefore, he would rush into crime if he dared ; but 
 he dare not. There is a certain degree of order, 
 
152 
 
 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 comfort and enjoyment ; not indeed that of a heav- 
 enly household, but far above the grade of a Cal- 
 vinistic hell. 
 
 Something like this would be my picture of hell 
 restored. I believe that there the law of retaliation 
 is inexorably self-executing; that, as the conceal- 
 ments of this world are removed, sin reacts upon 
 itself with swift judgment and becomes its own 
 avenger. I believe that the law of selfishness, left 
 to its own operation, becomes self-protective ; that 
 in a region where hypocrisies are of short duration 
 and easily discerned, it becomes inexorably self-pro- 
 tective. I do not affirm that the details here out- 
 lined for the sake of illustration, are to be found in 
 the Sacred Scripture, but I believe that the princi- 
 ples on which they are based, are the veritable 
 teachings of God's Word. I believe that hell will 
 be restored to order, therefore, by the working of 
 these laws ; not, however, as a heaven of angelic 
 love, but as a hell forever restrained and kept in 
 order by fear. 
 
 Let us believe, then, that the love, of God is .won- 
 derfully tender infinite and far reaching ; that 
 though He makes the human soul free, He saves 
 it on every plane of life, so far as He can without 
 violating its freedom. But let us not surrender our 
 rationality, and think that God can force man's 
 freedom to save him even from hell. For when 
 force comes in, freedom vanishes. But let us hold 
 up the banner of Divine Love on every mountain 
 top of thought ; affirm it as guiding in heaven ; 
 assert it as ruling in hell. Let the dogma of eter- 
 
GRADES OF BLISS AND WOE. 
 
 nal flames go down before it, and the lake of literal 
 fire forever vanish. 
 
 But though we see and know that there are grades 
 of life and happiness in the unending future, extend- 
 ing from the very steps of God's throne down through 
 the descending scale of loves and intelligences, until 
 we reach the lowest depths of selfishness and fear, 
 let us believe that God has laws which bind them 
 all in the everlasting chains of his mercy and bring 
 them under the ceaseless action of his love. Cher- 
 ishing this belief, while our sense of the dreadful 
 reality of hell is deepened, and its restraining power 
 increased rather than diminished, we rejoice to see 
 and know that God is infinitely more reasonable and 
 human than the old theologies have taught, and 
 some would still have us believe. 
 

 IV. 
 
 THE FIEES OF HELL. 
 
 HEKE is a large class of Bible interpreters, 
 who insist on a strictly literal exposition of 
 all Scripture. They will read you a passage 
 of appalling import, and, with a gesture of assertion 
 which means that from this position there is no ap- 
 peal, will say : " Thus saith the Lord ; and the pass- 
 age means just what it says ; and if you say any- 
 thing else, your are discrediting God's holy Word." 
 They insist that literal interpretation alone saves 
 the Scripture from profanation. No matter into 
 what strange paths it may lead you ; no matter 
 what vindictive sort of God it may ask you to wor- 
 ship ; no matter what unreasonable doctrines it may 
 require you to believe : so much the better ground 
 for the exercise of faith. 
 
 Interpreters of this class have never learned, or 
 else they totally forget, the first principles of Bibli- 
 cal criticism facts which are so patent, so well 
 known and so clearly undeniable that he who runs 
 may read. They forget that the very essence of 
 the oriental styles of writing, is their florid imagery, 
 their poetic diction, their proneness to express ideas 
 by similitude, allegory or parable. They forget that 
 one of the chief characteristics of the oriental lan- 
 guages, lies in the fact, that not only are ideas 
 
 154 
 
FIGURATIVE STYLE OF SCRIPTURE. 155 
 
 adorned with highly figurative expressions, but that 
 almost every word has, not only its literal, but also 
 its metaphorical or emblematic meaning. They for- 
 get that the Hebrew above all languages was thus 
 constituted. And they forget that even the New 
 Testament, though written in Greek, was written by 
 evangelists who were all Jews ; that Christ himself 
 on the human side, was a Jew, and that in speaking 
 He spake to Jews, and to Jewish comprehension 
 after the Jewish style. I set aside for the present 
 the idea (though I have not the slightest doubt of 
 its correctness), that the correspondential or sym- 
 bolic method is the Divine style of writing, and 
 maintain that the fact that the Old Testament was 
 written by Hebrews in Hebrew, and the New by 
 Hebrews in Greek, simply renders absurd the theory 
 that either is to be literally interpreted. 
 
 The theory that the Bible throughout is to be un- 
 derstood literally, so often and so emphatically in*- 
 sisted on, is scarcely worthy of serious consideration ; 
 so inconsistent is it with the character of the lan- 
 guage in which it was written, with the peculiari- 
 ties of the Hebrew mind, and so opposed to the in- 
 ternal evidence of all Divine writing. And no man 
 ever claimed it who was not obliged, almost in the 
 same breath, to use a Biblical phrase in a metaphor- 
 ical sense, in order to apply Scripture in any rational 
 manner. 
 
 Thus, because Jacob said, "Joseph is a fruitful 
 bough by a well, whose branches run over the 
 wall,' 7 * or " Kaphthali is a hind let loose,"! who 
 
 * Gen. xlix. 22. f Gen - xlix 21 - 
 
156 THE FIRES OF HELL. 
 
 would dream of claiming that Joseph was literally 
 a portion of a tree, or that Naphthali was veritably 
 a young deer ? Or because our Lord calls himself 
 the Good Shepherd, and because He commanded 
 Peter to feed his lambs, who is foolish enough to 
 think that Jesus was literally a keeper of sheep 
 when on earth, or that He desired the disciple to 
 feed his followers with the grass of the field. We 
 know very well that Christ was a shepherd only of 
 souls ; that his lambs were the true-hearted ones 
 of his church ; that the food with which they were to 
 be fed, were the truths of spiritual life. In this way 
 we can pass through the Scriptures verse by verse, 
 and see, if we will, that it is figurative, and written 
 by correspondences and similitudes in all its parts. 
 From the sensuous or literal interpretation of the 
 Scriptures, all the unreasonable and contradictory 
 dogmas of the church have sprung. In their spirit 
 they are consistent throughout. In their letter they 
 are not, for they were not intended to be in all re- 
 spects literally interpreted. 
 
 To illustrate : Our Lord said, "He that belie veth 
 and is baptized shall be saved." * Now, are we to 
 believe, as some would have us, that all who are not 
 plunged in water or sprinkled at the hands of a 
 Christian minister, are damned ? There is a bap- 
 tism of the Holy Spirit and of fire, as well as a bap- 
 tism of water. Now fire is a symbol of the Lord's 
 love. The water baptism is simply a representative 
 of the higher or spiritual baptism. While it is proper, 
 
 * Mark xv. 16. 
 
THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT. 157 
 
 therefore, to observe the outward form, do you not 
 see that it is not the plunging of the body in water 
 which effects salvation, but the immersion of the 
 soul in the spirit and love of God ? This makes us 
 truly his children. The letter here gives us a sol- 
 emn and significant rite ; but the spirit of the text 
 gives us a grand and practical truth. 
 
 Again; the Scripture says, "The soul that sin- 
 neth, it shall die."* Now, some would have us 
 believe,^in view of this, that the wicked soul after 
 this life, is annihilated blotted forever out of ex- 
 istence. They ignore the numerous passages of 
 Scripture which show what is meant by the term 
 death as applied to the soul. It is not annihilation, 
 but the destruction of spirituality, the higher and 
 heavenly life of the soul. Thus in the first pages 
 where Adam is commanded not to eat of the for- 
 bidden fruit, it is said, " In the day that thou eat- 
 est thereof thou shalt surely die." Yet in fact he 
 was only driven out of Eden, and according to the 
 letter lived for centuries after. The letter, therefore, 
 is not true. The spirit of this Scripture is, that 
 evil, self-seeking sin, is the forbidden fruit. Eat- 
 ing of this produces moral though not natural death. 
 The words therefore are true when understood spir- 
 itually. The meaning of the Scripture term, death, 
 as applied to the soul, was given by Paul to the 
 Romans when he said to them, " To be carnally 
 minded is death, "f 
 
 Again : Because it is said that the wicked " shall 
 
 * Eze. xviii. 20. f Rom. viii. 6. 
 
 14 
 
158 THE FIRES OF HELL. 
 
 go away into everlasting fire," are we justified in be- 
 lieving, as so large a portion of the Christian world 
 would have us, that they are tormented forever in 
 the flames of material fire ? Does not the Bible ex- 
 plain itself when it says that "wickedness burneth 
 as a fire"? Wickedness in the soul is similar to 
 fire in the field. Figuratively, it burns and rankles 
 there, and sends up its lurid flame and blackening 
 smoke like fire amid the stubble. There is a cor- 
 respondence between the two. The wickedness of 
 the soul is spiritual fire, but it is not material flame. 
 And as the fire of evil is kindled within us here, so, 
 unless we extinguish it by resisting and overcoming 
 the evil, it will burn forever in the future state. 
 The Scripture is full of these similitudes, contain- 
 ing often their own explanation. We are told that 
 jealousy u burneth like fire ;" that u wrath burn- 
 eth like fire." All evils and sins in their operation 
 upon the soul, are compared to the burning of fire. 
 So we often meet in the Bible with such expressions 
 as u consumed with terrors," u consumed with 
 anger," u consumed because of our iniquities." 
 And these are used not in the future tense, as of 
 something to happen hereafter, but in reference fo 
 the sins of the wicked as they are here in this world. 
 It is true that our moral nature consumes away 
 through sin ; that anger bursts forth like a flame ; 
 that envy, jealousy, revenge, mount up like fires 
 within the soul ; that all evils rankle and burn with 
 an unholy flame ; but it is not true that they are 
 material fire ; not true that they are different in the 
 other world from what they are in this ; not true that 
 
THE SENSUOUS INTERPRETATION. 159 
 
 they are anything else than comparisons, similitudes 
 or correspondences, designed to convey spiritual 
 truth which material things cannot measure nor 
 express in any other way than through the great 
 law of analogy or correspondence. It is also true 
 that if a good man were to have his spiritual sight 
 opened as did the seer of Patmos, he might see, as 
 John did, the hellish heart-conditions depicted in 
 correspondential forms of fire and smoke ; but it is 
 not true that these spiritual representations would 
 consist of material flame, brimstone or smoke. 
 
 It is the spirit of the Scripture that we want. It 
 is this that our souls need. If we get not this, we 
 get nothing true. It is not true that by seeking its 
 spirit, we get confused and wander away from its 
 safe landmarks, and pile up false doctrines. It is 
 from an absurd adherence to the letter that every 
 false doctrine known to the church, has had its 
 birth. It was from that, that the inquisition tor- 
 tured Galileo for asserting that the earth is round. 
 It was that which induced Luther to make the 
 broad assertion that faith, no matter what a man's 
 life might be, would save. It was that which led 
 the popes, as the supposed successors of St. Peter, 
 to assert the claim of infallibility and of power to 
 open and shut the gates of heaven to whomsoever 
 they would. It was this same sensuous and literal 
 method of interpretation, which gave birth to that 
 terrible exclamation of Jonathan Edwards addressed 
 to the unconverted, "The God that holds you over 
 the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some 
 loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you." 
 
160 THE FIEES OF HELL. 
 
 And yet the extreme literalists are very incon- 
 sistent. In the case of this doctrine of the eternal 
 burnings of hell, it is strikingly manifest. They 
 will take a text like this: "Therefore every tree 
 which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down 
 and cast into the fire." * And they will say : u Do 
 you not see ? He is cast into the fire. Fire means 
 fire ; the thing that we see every day, that consumes 
 everything it touches. Yes, it means fire and noth- 
 ing but fire." They will not say that a man who 
 goes to hell becomes a tree ; nor that when he leaves 
 this world, he is literally cut down by an axe of steel. 
 The absurdity of that is too apparent. Still they 
 insist that the fire is material flame. Surely the ex- 
 pression must be all literal or all figurative. The 
 commonest consistency requires that. If a man is 
 really burned by literal fire, then he is a tree, and 
 is cut down by an axe at death. But if he is only 
 a tree by similitude, and the hewing down is figura- 
 tive of his soul's falling into hellish degradation 
 through a false and evil life, why then he is only 
 burned by similitude, or cast into the fire in a moral 
 or spiritual sense. Is not that plain ? Is it not 
 sound reasoning ? 
 
 So when it is said that the Lord u will gather his 
 wheat into the garner, but will burn up the chaff 
 with unquenchable fire," f who pretends to believe 
 that the good hereafter become wheat, or that the 
 wicked become chaff, except figuratively or by cor- 
 respondence ? Yet the old school interpreters hold 
 
 * Matt. iii. 10. f Matt. iii. 12. 
 
DIVINE SYMBOLS. 161 
 
 to the unquenchable fire as a literal fact. If the un- 
 quenchable fire were meant by our Lord to be un- 
 derstood literally, then do the good literally become 
 wheat, and the wicked chaff ; and are not the former 
 as wheat actually garnered into granaries ? But if 
 this is not true and all will admit the idea to be 
 simply ludicrous then the unquenchable fire signi- 
 fies simply the fire of selfishness, worldliness, lust 
 and hate, which, becoming ingrained in the char- 
 acter, cannot be put out even by God without de- 
 stroying the soul ; and hell for that soul becomes an 
 eternal fact. 
 
 Take another illustration. It is said by our Lord, 
 " If thy hand offend thee cut it off; it is better for 
 thee to enter into life maimed, than having two 
 hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall 
 be quenched ; where their worm dieth not, and the 
 fire is not quenched." * So with regard to the foot 
 and the eye : "If thy foot offend, cut it off and cast 
 it from thee ; " "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it 
 out." And the same words are emphasized with 
 regard to entering into hell with two feet or two 
 eyes, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is 
 not quenched." Barely has fanaticism gone to the 
 absurdity of cutting off the hand or foot, or pluck- 
 ing out the eye. The language is recognized as that 
 of a parable, as figurative, except this eternal fire ! 
 This is to be understood and accepted literally. 
 
 But, spiritually interpreted, this is all very plain. 
 The hand is the instrument wherewith we work. 
 
 * Mark ix. 43, 44. 
 14* L 
 
162 THE FIRES OF HELL. 
 
 It therefore represents our works. The foot symbol- 
 izes our walk in life. The eye has reference to how 
 we see things ; not here naturally, but spiritually. 
 In other words, it is our understanding of life. How 
 do we view purity, virtue and godliness ? How do 
 we view evil and sin, lust and crime ? Now if our 
 works are wicked, let us cut them off and put them 
 away. If our walk in life is evil, let us do likewise. 
 If our understanding of the theory of life is false 
 and vain, let us pluck that out. Otherwise the very 
 wickedness and demoralization of our souls make 
 hells of them so cast us into hell. The worm is 
 the symbol of the lowest and most groveling lusts 
 of the sensual nature. When once these have the 
 mastery, and the soul is given up to their sway, 
 there is no end to it. The worm of sensuality and 
 lust never dies not in this world, not in the next. 
 The fires of evil passion become inherent, are un- 
 quenchable both in this world and the world to 
 come. 
 
 Such is the spirit of this Scripture, whatever its 
 letter may be. Here is another text ; and all is 
 figurative we are told except the worm and the fire. 
 Why these exceptions ? Let consistency assert it- 
 self. All is figurative, or none. If the eye and the 
 hand and the foot, then the worm and the fire. 
 
 And so it is with all the texts of similar import. 
 There is not one which is not connected directly 
 with a parable, or expressed in language that can 
 only be understood in a spiritual or figurative man- 
 ner. There is not a single exception to this. 
 
 The lake of fire and brimstone then, is not a myth, 
 
"ETERNAL" AND "EVERLASTING:' 163 
 
 but a symbol of hell. It is an expression repre- 
 sentative of the burnings of evil and lust within 
 the heart, representative of the realm where are 
 gathered those who have abandoned themselves 
 hopelessly to sin. These burnings are unquench- 
 able, but they are not the tortures of literal flame. 
 There is no indication in the Scripture that this ex- 
 pression and kindred ones were ever meant to be 
 understood literally. Our common sense is more 
 valuable in the interpretation of the Scriptures, than 
 any dogma of th e fathers. This is an age when reason 
 asserts its authority. The antiquity of a superstition 
 does not make it less a superstition; and the authority 
 of uninspired commentators has no binding force, 
 and cannot eliminate the true spirit of a sacred 
 book, nor make what is absurd reasonable, nor cause 
 error to be truth. 
 
 There has been prolonged discussion over the Scrip- 
 ture terms eternal and everlasting as applied to pun- 
 ishment. It is asserted by the opponents of eternal 
 punishment, that the Greek word aionion does not 
 mean eternal, but "into the ages," or, "for ages." 
 Therefore, while disposed to admit the doctrine of 
 a future punishment of some kind, they will not ad- 
 mit that it is endless. Their position seems to be 
 sound. The words do not necessarily imply punish- 
 ment of an eternal or everlasting nature. 
 
 In previous lectures I have indicated the New- 
 Church view of this question of future punishment. 
 There is punishment, if you please so to term it, 
 which is the natural result of a degraded nature. 
 Perhaps this may be more properly termed the con- 
 
164 THE FIRES OF HELL. 
 
 sequence than the punishment of sin. It is made 
 up of the heart-burnings, jealousies, ranklings of 
 the spirit, which are more or less inseparable from 
 the existence of envies, revenges, lusts, evils of all 
 kinds in the heart. These are the fires which can- 
 not be quenched. They flame up with more or less 
 activity as they are more or less indulged. They 
 sometimes smoulder, but they never die. Hell, or 
 any of its societies, or any single heart-hell, may be 
 likened to Vesuvius, whose fires are always alive in 
 its bosom, but become rampant only when there is 
 an eruption. 
 
 Then there is what we more commonly call pun- 
 ishment, which would be meted out in hell, to pre- 
 vent the utter anarchy and destruction of all its 
 spirits, by the unbridled license of evil acts on the 
 part of its hosts. That open crimes which lead to 
 anarchy would be repressed there by swift and cer- 
 tain punishments, which would in the course of ages 
 subdue them under the rod of fear, there can be no 
 doubt. These punishments would continue only ac- 
 cording to the necessities of the case, and for pur- 
 poses of outward reform. They would be simply 
 reformatory. Their purpose would be to repress by 
 fear the breakings out of the smothered fires into 
 volcanoes of crime. They would cease when the 
 necessity ceased, and be repeated when criminal 
 conduct demanded it. There must be order even in 
 hell. No state of society in this world or the other, 
 can exist in perpetual anarchy. But the task-mas- 
 ters of hellish societies, by the swift and sure inflic- 
 tion of these punishments, would in the end bring 
 
DURATION OF HELL. 165 
 
 individuals into a state where eruptions of crime 
 would be few and far between would almost cease. 
 While therefore the fires would be unquenchable, the 
 punishments would be only into the ages. While 
 the smouldering coals of hellish lusts would keep 
 alive forever, the punishments would be temporary. 
 
 This, too, is according to Scripture ; for the fire 
 of hell is often pronounced unquenchable, while the 
 punishment of hell is indicated by a term that does 
 not necessarily signify endless. Hell and its tor- 
 ment are, therefore, separable. Hell is eternal, but 
 its torment only for the time. Evil can never be- 
 come good, but fear may lash it into decent behavior. 
 Hell can never become heaven, but it may, through 
 fear of punishment, cease to wage constant war 
 upon its neighbor. It can be done so here ; it will 
 be done so hereafter. 
 
 To sum up the whole question under discussion : 
 God is all love and mercy. He is never actuated by 
 hate or revenge. He makes man morally free, and 
 holds up before him the truth that obedience to the 
 laws of good brings happiness, and that disobedience 
 brings woe. Man was made morally free, because 
 virtue is not virtue where one is forced to practice 
 it, but is only virtue when freely chosen. Therefore 
 virtue is life and heaven in the heart, and vice is 
 death and hell there. Ingrained virtue brings us 
 with the angels in heaven hereafter, and ingrained 
 vice with the devils in hell ; and this because heaven 
 and hell, angels and devils, separate hereafter by 
 the law of mutual repulsion. Whoever goes to 
 heaven or hell goes there from choice. Hell is 
 
166 THE FIRES OF HELL. 
 
 eternal, because it is the ingrained character of 
 the soul. Its flames are unquenchable, because evil 
 is its own fire. But punishment in the common ac- 
 ceptation of the term, is temporary, because it is 
 only for the repression of anarchy. Hell will never 
 cease to be hell, but will ultimately be brought into 
 order under the law or influence of fear. 
 
 If man does not become an angel, it is his fault, 
 not God's. The words of the Lord when on earth 
 are applicable to all times and places : " O Jerusa- 
 lem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and 
 stonest them that are sent unto thee I How often 
 would I have gathered thy children together, even 
 as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
 and ye would not." * The Lord would have us all 
 under his wings ; but we will not. 
 
 Let us never forget that hell as well as heaven is 
 within a thing of the heart. If we are to be saved, 
 it is not from literal burnings and brimstone and fire, 
 but from our own selfishness, worldliness and evil 
 lusts. God is ever ready to save. To this end his 
 providence is around us always and everywhere. 
 But a portion of this work is ours. We must co- 
 operate with the Lord. He gives us the freedom ; 
 we make the choice. He gives us the law ; we yield 
 or refuse obedience. He gives us the power ; we 
 appropriate or apply it. He gives us the weapons ; 
 we throw the spear. He gives us the armor ; we 
 put it on if we will. Heaven and hell are before 
 us ; which will we choose ? 
 
THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 167 
 
THE WOELD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 PEOPOSE in this lecture to consider the 
 question of the soul's preparation for its final 
 home in heaven or hell, so far as that may be 
 effected after death. 
 
 If the position taken in previous lectures be true, 
 that the soul, though spiritual in its nature, is a 
 highly and delicately organized being; that it is 
 human on the spiritual plane of life both in struct- 
 ure and form ; that it is the real man here which 
 does the thinking, willing, loving, feeling, hearing 
 and seeing, while the body is only the machine 
 through which these things are done ; if it is true 
 that our peculiar loves, affections, tastes, habits, 
 principles of life, modes of thinking and of viewing 
 things are what make up the soul, the very stuff, so 
 to speak, of which it is formed ; if it is true that 
 when the soul goes at death into the other world, it 
 carries its own character and qualit}'' with it, just as 
 when you export a rose-tree to Europe, it is the 
 same rose, with the same color, odor, conformation 
 of leaf, and other characteristics ; if these*things, I 
 say, are true, then it follows that the mass of peo- 
 ple when they die enter upon the spiritual plane of 
 life with mixed and diverse characters. 
 
 15 169 
 
170 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 Heaven is a state of perfect love to the Lord and 
 the neighbor. Hell is a state of consummate selfish- 
 ness. Heaven is a state of purity of heart ; hell a 
 state of spiritual defilement. Heaven has banished 
 all taint of evil from its presence ; hell has lost all 
 knowledge of the good, the angelic and the God- 
 like. Now, take an audience like this before me. 
 "Which of you feels that, were you to die to-night 
 and so pass from the plane of earth-life into the 
 other world, you are prepared to enter at once on 
 the life of heaven ? Which of you has cultivated to 
 its full extent that sense of entire dependence on the 
 Lord, that unwavering trust in his providence, that 
 total reliance on his love, that utter peace, and rest, 
 and love, and purity that makes you a perfect angel 
 fitted for the joys of the blessed ? Are there no 
 traces of earthly impurity still clinging to your 
 souls ? no disquietudes, no passions, no selfish- 
 ness, no little sins, which are incompatible with the 
 peace, purity and innocence of heaven ? 
 
 Or, look again among your friends, neighbors and 
 companions. How many characters of unmixed 
 heavenly-mindedness can you count within the 
 compass of your recollection ? How many can you 
 number within the present circle of your acquaint- 
 ance ? You see men and women, good, no doubt, 
 in their way, yet with some faults, failings and 
 moral weaknesses. We all have our good points ; 
 but who <5f us is entirely clean in the sight of God 
 and his angels ? We are not prepared our friends 
 and neighbors are not prepared to claim the merit 
 of having come up to that standard which Jesus 
 
\ CHANGE OF STATE GRADUAL. 171 
 
 Christ set up: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as 
 your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Men 
 cannot leave this world as they are not one in a 
 thousand and enter at once upon the glorious life 
 * of that realm concerning which the Word of God 
 says : " There shall in nowise enter into it anything 
 that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomina- 
 tion, or maketh a lie." 
 
 We know this. And we know that the soul cannot 
 be suddenly changed from evil to good, from defile- 
 ment to purity, from wrong thinking to right think- 
 ing, from wrong habit to right habit all of which 
 changes are necessary to an entrance into heaven, 
 in a moment, a day or a month. 
 
 All creation is a matter of growth ; the moral 
 creation of the soul as well as the material growth 
 of a tree ; the spiritual formation of heaven within 
 us, as well as the physical development of the body 
 from infancy to manhood, or the intellectual develop- 
 ment of the mind from the pretty foolishness of the 
 babe to the high wisdom of the sage. Even if you 
 are converted, or have turned from self and the 
 world to the Lord, still it requires a protracted com- 
 bat, unceasing vigilance, and much time, to grow 
 into the love and habitual practice of all the virtues 
 which the Lord commands. It is one thing to say 
 you are converted and regenerated, and quite an- 
 other thing to have every desire, thought and deed, 
 in the every-day business of life as well as in the 
 worship of the sanctuary, thoroughly saturated with 
 the spirit of God. 
 
 This is also the plain teaching of Christ. The 
 
172 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 perfect heavenly spirit that perfection of regenera- 
 tion which alone fits you for a life in heaven, is a 
 matter of slow and gradual development. The Lord 
 compares it to the growth of vegetation. He says 
 that the kingdom of God is " as if a man should cast 
 seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night 
 and day, and the seed should spring and grow up." * 
 He says that the growth of the kingdom of heaven 
 in the mind, is like that of grain, "first the blade, 
 then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." f 
 But He adds that the sickle is not put in, that souls 
 are not gathered by the angels unto themselves in 
 the great harvest-day, until the fruit is fully ripe. 
 He says also that the kingdom of heaven is like " a 
 grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and cast 
 into his garden ; and it grew and waxed a great 
 tree."t These teachings are intended to show us 
 that the graces and beauties and goodness of heaven, 
 grow in us by slow degrees, and never become ours 
 instantaneously or suddenly. Like the trees they 
 advance gradually day by day. I know that the 
 church of to-day does not always teach this ; but it 
 is clearly the teaching of the Divine Master. 
 
 So we do not, even the best of us, leave this world 
 quite angelic in purpose, thought and act. Good 
 and evil are mixed within us, and we are not fully 
 prepared for the heavenly realms. These weak- 
 nesses and failings and impurities must all be eradi- 
 cated, and their opposites obtained as fixed charac- 
 teristics of the soul, before that consummation is 
 reached. 
 
 * Mark iv. 26, 27. f Mark iv. 28. J Luke xiii. 19. 
 
PROCESS OF JUDGMENT. 173 
 
 Either, therefore, none of us will reach heaven, 
 or there is a preparatory place hereafter. Either 
 condemnation awaits almost the entire human race, 
 or else a work that is begun here is finished there. 
 The conclusion is irresistible. Men do not go di- 
 rectly to heaven after death. There is a prep- 
 aration state in the world beyond. If the work 
 has been begun here the work of soul purification 
 no matter whether you are Christian or heathen, 
 no matter what sect you belong to, or whether you 
 belong to any, if you have committed yourself to 
 the earnest work of the soul's purification here, the 
 work can be finished there, which will at last prepare 
 you for heaven. It is not a question of belief, doc- 
 trine or creed, it is a question of a fixed desire and 
 earnest striving for the heavenly life. 
 
 Has one been born in heathen lands, and never 
 heard the name of Christ ? or if he has heard it, 
 been educated to scorn it ? Or born in Christian 
 lands, has he been surrounded by influences which 
 have held him down ? or has he inherited traits or 
 taints which have separated him from the influences 
 of the wise and good ? Beyond the grave there is 
 a place for education and enlightenment, for disci- 
 pline and training, for reformatory correction, for ele- 
 vation and purification, under circumstances which 
 earth does not afford. 
 
 Or take those who are wicked at heart, selfish to 
 the core, worldly beyond hope, sensual and corporeal 
 beyond reclamation. Some perhaps sink down so 
 low before they leave this world, that they are about 
 ready to go with their own at once. But what multi- 
 15* 
 
174 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 tudes of ingrained selfish men would scout the idea 
 of their belonging to the company of the lost ! Out- 
 side of the churches they are moral men, who act 
 within the law, but from utterly selfish principles. 
 They do not steal ; but it is from fear of fine and 
 imprisonment. They do not commit burglaries or 
 assaults ; but it is from cowardice not principle. 
 They do not murder ; but it is because they fear the 
 gallows. They gain the good opinion of their fel- 
 low-men ; but it is from love of worldly reputation, 
 not from love of right. Or inside of the churches 
 they read their Bibles and pray ; but their hearts 
 are as hard as the stones of the street. They are 
 regular church attendants, but they can lie and 
 cunningly defraud as well as other men. They can 
 talk religion and wear long faces, but they hold prac- 
 tical virtue in light esteem, and practical sin they 
 believe in if hidden from the world's eye. They 
 believe in themselves, and would claim the highest 
 seats at the marriage supper when launched into 
 the other world, utterly ignorant of the fact that 
 their souls are not clothed in the wedding garment 
 of right principle or heavenly character. 
 
 Now, as remarked on a previous occasion, men go 
 to heaven or hell of their own free choice. Such 
 souls as these thoroughly believe in themselves and 
 their own merits. They must learn their own hearts, 
 It is slow work. They must be revealed to them- 
 selves. They must be placed in situations and un- 
 der circumstances where the exterior coverings of 
 character will, one by one, be torn off, and they be 
 brought into their own selves their inmost char- 
 
MEN GO TO HELL VOLUNTARILY. 175 
 
 acter. If they have thought that they believed in 
 God, they must learn that their belief was all a sham. 
 If they supposed that they accepted the spiritual 
 truths of religion, they must be convinced that it 
 was mere fallacy. If they pursued a life of piety, 
 they must be led to see that they lived a lie. For 
 evil does not believe in God, however much it may 
 profess ; sin does not believe in religion, however 
 sanctimoniously it may pray. And the inherently 
 dead soul may for the sake of a reputation, deceive 
 even itself as to its motives in professing faith and 
 piety. 
 
 Thus a preparatory state for even hell is needed. 
 For men must go there voluntarily, and not be pushed 
 in against their will by an almighty fiat. God is in 
 all things just. He has given the liberty of heart- 
 choice to every soul that was ever born. He will 
 place them in situations where they may see for 
 themselves ; but He will never force any one into 
 heaven or hell. 
 
 The constitution of the human mind is such, that 
 a preparatory state beyond this life is a necessity. 
 If we do not accept this view, we are forced into 
 gross absurdities. On the one hand, we must either 
 believe that the soul goes into heaven smirched with 
 the defilements of impurity, or that the Lord does 
 what all his works and declarations and all human 
 experience deny, turns the evil of the heart into 
 heavenly purity in the twinkling of an eye, and this 
 without the man's own co-operation. On the other 
 hand, we must either believe that the soul is sent to 
 hell a firm believer (in its own estimation) in God, 
 
176 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 his salvation and all true religion, and in himself as 
 a child of God, or else that in the twinkling of an 
 eye the Lord wrenches all these things out of the 
 man without his co-operation, and remands him to 
 eternal torments. In either case man's volition, his 
 freedom of choice, is entirely lost sight of. The very 
 principle above all others which makes him a man, 
 we deprive him of. This we hdid to be simply ab- 
 surd ; and we assert that the very principles of hu- 
 man existence, of salvation and of spiritual death, 
 which the Bible unequivocally lays down and Christ 
 plainly teaches, absolutely demand for their con- 
 sistent interpretation a state of preparation in the 
 other life. 
 
 I say a state of preparation. There are three 
 general states of life thus shadowed forth. This 
 world is the place where soul-character is formed. 
 Here the choice is made. You may not see it, nor 
 I, for we cannot read hearts. Yet it is made here ; 
 and we may well believe that none leave this world 
 until that point is settled. What is the inmost re- 
 solve of the soul, fixed, permanent and decisive ? 
 That is the question. Not, do evils even very gross 
 ones still cling to it ? Not, do falsities of religious 
 belief even very gross ones still assert their sway ? 
 Not, do hypocritical appearances or mere worldly 
 refinements lie to the world concerning the inner 
 man ? but what, in the heart's inmost secret place, 
 known perhaps to God alone, is the decisive love of 
 the soul ? Has it declared for good or for evil ? for 
 God or for self ? 
 
 This is the question that is answered in the World 
 
SOME SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. Ill 
 
 of Spirits which all enter when they leave this. 
 This is what is settled on that grand preparation 
 plane of future life. Here, character is formed and 
 determined. There, each one's ruling love is fully 
 developed and disclosed. Appearances are grad- 
 ually, one after another, stripped off. We find out 
 what we are. Have we chosen good and God? Then 
 the defilements that cling to us will be removed. 
 As fast as they appear as appear they all must 
 the chastening and chastising must go on until 
 they shall have been forever subdued ; and the 
 soul that seeks the good, will kiss the rod that re- 
 minds it of its work. Have we chosen evil and self ? 
 Then we enter into the inner life and belief of the 
 heart ; and when we see and know ourselves, we go 
 where we belong, and with those with whom alone 
 we can agree and live. 
 
 This place or state is clearly shadowed forth in 
 Scripture, though in the English version it does not 
 so distinctly appear. It is the Hades, the first place 
 of departed souls so often mentioned in the Bible, 
 but in our English version sometimes rendered hell, 
 and sometimes the grave. It is also referred to (aa 
 are often hell and heaven) by figurative expressions, 
 It is referred to in Isaiah and inEzekiel as the " lower 
 parts of the earth," but in terms which unmistak- 
 ably show that the expression refers to a state of 
 life beyond the grave.* It is the place under the 
 altar, that is, under heaven, described in the Beve^ 
 
 * See Swedenborg's Arcana Coeleatia, n. 7090 ; Is. xliv. 23 5 
 Ez. xxvi. 20 j xxxi. 14-16. 
 
 M 
 
178 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 lation, where certain souls were held for a season 
 until their time should be fulfilled.* It is referred 
 to by many symbols and correspondential expres- 
 sions, which admit of no rational interpretation ex- 
 cept on this theory. For where souls are spoken of, 
 as in the other life, yet as not having reached their 
 final place, where can they be but in a middle or 
 intermediate state V And why would they be kept 
 there, unless in preparation for their final destiny ? 
 "Why would they be spoken of as in tribulation 
 though white robes were finally given them and a 
 promise of deliverance unless they were passing 
 through a cleansing process by means of which they 
 were finally to receive the wedding garment of right- 
 eousness and be elevated into heaven ? 
 
 There is far more foundation in Scripture for the 
 Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory than Protest- 
 ants are willing to admit, if we but divest it of the 
 errors and superstitions which have been added to 
 it, and which find no favor in the written Word. 
 
 I repeat, then, that there are in general three 
 planes of life through which all mortals pass. This 
 earth-life which forms the character ; the world of 
 spirits hereafter, where the inmost of the character 
 already formed is fully developed, and the spirit is 
 fully prepared for heaven, or divested of its external 
 morality or holiness, and fitted thus for the life of 
 hell ; and, finally, the state of full fruition, or the 
 life which is forever lived in one or the other of these 
 abodes. 
 
 * See Rev. vi. 9,- vii. 1 ; x. 5 ; xiii. 11, etc. 
 
MEN'S INTERNALS REVEALED. 179 
 
 Thus we find the meaning of the words : u There 
 is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor 
 hid that shall not be known." Our Lord was here 
 speaking of characters and motives. He could not 
 have meant them as applicable to this world, for 
 in this world it is not so. We do not know each 
 other's hidden sentiments or motives. We know 
 comparatively little of each other. We are enigmas 
 even to ourselves. They could not apply to heaven, 
 for heaven is not a place where angels are horrified 
 with the emptyings of evil hearts in blasphemies, 
 impurities, and defilements of every kind. They 
 could not apply to hell, for those who are striving 
 for the better way would not go down among the 
 wicked in order to fit themselves for godliness, any 
 more than one of you would seek the Five-Points 
 of New York in order to gain heavenly-mindedness. 
 It is in the preparatory world where the spirit-man 
 is gradually stripped of all sophistries and conceal- 
 ments, and stands forth as he is. It is there that 
 all the heart's secrets are revealed, and all the soul's 
 motives known. 
 
 The great doctrine of "Know thyself" is here 
 brought into full play. When one knows himself 
 he takes his position, not before ; for till then he 
 does not know where he belongs. If he has evils 
 and sees them, he can then put them away ; but not 
 until he sees them. At first we would be brought 
 face to face with our more external evils ; then with 
 those of the thought ; then with those of inward 
 motive these one after another. For it is the ruling 
 love that makes the man, and not the mere act. It 
 
180 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 is not so much what we do, as why we do it, that 
 determines the real character. Here everybody sees 
 what we do, and judges us by that. Sometimes they 
 judge right and sometimes wrong. There they read 
 the inward motive, and we at last come to read it 
 also in ourselves. There is no misjudging there. 
 Then we come to see what we have to put away, 
 what to create anew within us. Then we may do 
 this ; but until we do, we cannot sit with the angels 
 as their companions and peers. 
 
 I am aware of the unsatisfactory nature of this 
 brief treatment of so great a theme. I am aware 
 that a hundred questions pertinent to the issue may 
 arise, which here remain unanswered. But you will 
 find them fully and satisfactorily answered by Swe- 
 denborg ; yes, and all other subjects concerning the 
 future life, handled by him in a conclusive and ex- 
 haustive manner.* To his works therefore I invite 
 your attention, provided you go to them not from 
 mere idle curiosity, but because you really thirst for 
 truth. If it is only for curiosity, you will have 
 neither the patience nor the spirit for their candid 
 perusal ; for the wonderful truths of the spiritual 
 realm are not to be appreciated or grasped, if read 
 as one would devour the last new novel, or drink in 
 the narrative of the latest sensation in the morning 
 papers. If, however, you are seeking truth for its 
 own sake, and have the patience to ponder and the 
 
 * See Vols. I. and II. of the " Swedenborg Library," which 
 contain the substance of the author's Pneumatology. 
 
MEASURE OF RESPONSIBILITY. 181 
 
 eagerness to examine, and a desire to live the truth, 
 which all ought to have, then you may drink at this 
 fountain and find it living water, clear to the com- 
 prehension, well proven to the intellect and satisfy- 
 ing to the heart. 
 
 One last thought : Does this view of a preparatory 
 state make it a matter of indifference how far we 
 purify the soul here ? By no means. Beware, lest 
 through indifference you form your character for 
 hell. The more truth you know, the less may you 
 dare to dally with the life of evil. He who sins 
 through ignorance, sins only in a light degree. But 
 he who sins in full view of the consequences, and of 
 the Lord's plan for our redemption, madly defies 
 God and plays with the thunderbolts of hell. He is 
 like the man who should cry, " See how closely I 
 can leap to the verge of the infernal precipice, and 
 not fall in I " 
 
 Prevention is infinitely better than any chances of 
 cure. The life of heaven may be so nearly lived on 
 earth, that it is but a step from this world to u the 
 shining shore." But each evil cherished, each sin 
 committed, is forming and maturing the character. 
 Each further step makes its eradication so much the 
 more difficult. Each yielding to wrong is a new fang 
 added to the moral cancer, a new agony to be en- 
 dured in cutting it out from the soul. If you would 
 avoid suffering, yield j^ourself to the Lord's com- 
 mandments now and here. If you would be spared 
 the delirious agonies of recovery from the soul's 
 fever, stand aloof from the pestilence while yet you 
 may. If you would climb to the loftiest heights, 
 
182 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. 
 
 dwell nearest to the throne of God, and receive the 
 beams of his love to the fulness of your capacity, 
 you must prepare yourself here. On earth the char- 
 acter is formed ; in other spheres you can only de- 
 velop the quality or kind of life freely chosen and 
 begun here. And whether you dwell on the border 
 lines of the beautiful land or in its inmost centre, 
 whether you enter the highest wisdom of its glorious 
 life or plod along its lower levels, whether the Divine 
 love is faintly discerned, or sweeps through your 
 trembling heart with a power which makes the won- 
 drous blessings of divinest strength your own, de- 
 pends on the degree of your fidelity to the laws of 
 your higher life, while yet you are on earth. The 
 more prompt and entire our obedience, the more 
 light ; the more love we acquire below, the more 
 power above to have and hold the life Divine. The 
 more musical the quality of tone which the heart's 
 harp-strings gain below, the sweeter the tune it will 
 play above, and the further its melody will float, 
 with the capacity of attuning other hearts to the 
 harmonies of heaven. 
 
"The Swedenborg Library." 
 
 COMPLETE in 12 volumes, averaging 250 pages each ; consisting 
 of choice selections from the writings of Swedenborg topically 
 arranged, with a full Table of Contents. The great Swede's re- 
 ligious and ethical teachings are here presented in a condensed, 
 intelligible, neat, and extremely cheap form ; with a very beauti- 
 ful portrait of the author in Vol. XII., which contains 320 pages. 
 The titles of the several volumes are : 
 
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 3. Freedom, Rationality and Catholicity. 
 
 4. Divine Providence and its Laws. 
 
 5. Charity, Faith and Works. 
 
 6. Free- Will, Repentance, Reformation and Regeneration. 
 
 7. Holy Scripture and the Key to its Spiritual Sense, 
 
 8. Creation, Incarnation,Redemption, and the Divine Trinity. 
 
 9. Marriage and the Sexes in both Worlds. 
 
 10. The Author's Memorabilia. 
 
 11. The Heavenly Doctrine of the Lord. 
 
 12. Swedenborg ; With a Compend of his Teachings. 
 
 SOME OF ITS RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 1st. It gives the substance of Swedenborg's teachings in a com- 
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 A liberal discount to ministers and theological students. 
 
 Address Swedenborg 1 Publishing Association, 
 
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 Or, B. F. BARRETT, GERMANTOWN, PA. 
 1 
 
WHAT GOOD JUDGES THINK OF IT. 
 
 THE following extracts are from letters received 
 by the Editor from seventeen intelligent New Church 
 ministers : 
 
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 miration of those whose attention I have called to it." 
 
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 substance of Swedenborg's teachings in such an attractive and 
 inexpensive form as the SWEDENBORG LIBRARY." 
 
 44 The publication of the SWEDENBORG LIBRARY meets my 
 heartiest approval. It was a well-conceived idea, and has been 
 carried out in great good taste." 
 
 44 This series of New Church works has, in my judgment, no 
 equal for giving to the masses the grand truths of the New 
 Age." 
 
 44 The little books are delightful. Volume 12 is a perfect treas- 
 ure, and must meet a very general want." 
 
 44 1 find the SWEDENDORG LIBRARY every way satisfactory. I 
 deem it among the very best works of the Church." 
 
 44 1 am more and more delighted with what I see of the 
 SWEDENBORG LIBRARY. Volume 12 seems to me one of the 
 very best things we have in the literature of the Church." 
 
 2 
 
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 *' The SWEDENBORG LIBRARY is the best adapted to the pur- 
 pose of bringing- Swedenborg's voluminous system within the 
 scope of popular comprehension, of any work that has come to 
 our notice." Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 44 It is one of the most useful works which has lately shown 
 itself in the Church. For this reason we recommend it with our 
 whole heart. . . . The choice of extracts is exquisite, admirable, 
 and of the greatest importance and use even to well-instructed 
 members of the New Church." Bote der Neuen Kirche (Rev. O. 
 A. Brickman, Editor). 
 
 44 The work is interesting to churchmen, and all who desire to be 
 well informed on the religions of the day." Kokomo Dispatch. 
 
 44 Managers of New-Church libraries will find the volumes of 
 this series especially useful to persons just becoming interested." 
 
 New Jerusalem Magazine. 
 
 44 We can heartily commend this little book to any who may 
 desire a general notion of the theological views of one of the 
 most remarkable men that ever lived." Cincinnati Times. 
 
 44 Swedenborg, when studied for the sake of his spirit only, 
 must improve in the esteem of all good men. The abridged 
 edition of his works is very attractive in form, and is full enough 
 to convey the author's meaning." The Christian Union. 
 
 44 Mr. Barrett is excellently well qualified for this labor. . . The 
 New Church is growing ; and this popularization of its creed will 
 be of value to some and interest to all." Phila. North American. 
 
 44 If one desires a succinct, clear, and adequate idea of the 
 teachings of the New Church, here in these handsome and port- 
 able volumes, in a cheap form, he can obtain it." Zion's Herald. 
 
 44 The editor has done a real service, not only to those of his 
 own special faith, but for thoughtful Christians in all denomina- 
 tions. . . Such selections as are contained in this neat little vol- 
 ume, are spiritually edifying and abundantly suggestive." 
 
 Chicago Advance. 
 
 44 Life is too short for us to read Swedenborg in extenso ; . . . 
 But gleaned from the wide expanse of the Swedenborg litera- 
 ture by a man of rare talent for his W9rk, the teachings of this 
 author appear to their best advantage in this edition." 
 
 Minneapolis Tribune. 
 
 44 We think this [Vol. VI.] an excellent continuation of an ex- 
 cellent series of New Church publications." 
 
 New Jerusalem Messenger. 
 
 44 An excellent condensation of the pith and substance of Swe- 
 denborg's teachings and revelations. Whoever desires to know 
 the fundamental views of his church, will find them here." 
 
 Zion's Herald. 
 
 44 The series is every way admirable, and cannot fail to be 
 welcomed by the religiously inclined of other denominations, 
 as well as by the immediate followers of the doctrines taught by 
 the Swedish philosopher." Chicago Journal. 
 3 
 
4 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY." 
 
 OPINION OF THE NEW-CHURCH REVIEW. 
 
 The following is copied from the July (1882) number 
 of the New-Church Review, and is from the pen of a 
 competent critic, and one of the most intelligent and 
 scholarly ministers in the New Church. 
 
 u Of the 'Swedenborg Library,' as edited by Mr. 
 Barrett, and published in the neat, elegant and at- 
 tractive little quartos, we may justly say that it will 
 be hard to find any other printed matter in the world, 
 which will so worthily occupy an equal twelve inches 
 of shelf-room. This little Library is a specialty, in- 
 deed. It is devoted to one and only one theological 
 system, but that a very catholic and comprehensive 
 one ; so that there is hardly a principle in science or 
 philosophy, a question of morals, or of life, or of death, 
 or of the here, or of the hereafter, that is not eluci- 
 dated in it. But it is analytic also, and so thoroughly 
 and admirably so, that we find here its peculiar value, 
 not only to the world at large but to the New Church- 
 man himself, to whom the theology here presented is 
 already tolerably familiar. 
 
 " In calling attention to the SWEDENBORG LIBRARY 
 in these pages, we have not in view so much to adver- 
 tise the work, already far more widely known than is 
 the REVIEW, as to dwell upon certain features which 
 commend the books, especially to the familiar and con- 
 stant use of the New Church, especially in the family 
 and in the instruction of youth. 
 
 u We need say but little about the advantages the 
 Library offers to the world at large. The handy and 
 inexpensive, yet thoroughly tasteful little volumes, 
 speak for themselves, and are sure to find a welcome 
 entry into thousands of homes and libraries where the 
 more sombre and stately volumes of the complete 
 4 
 
4 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY." 
 
 editions of the author, or the more elaborate and pon- 
 derous single treatises, would be politely declined ad- 
 mission. The advertising circular calls attention to 
 some of the ' distinguishing merits and obvious advan- 
 tages of this series,' enumerating among these its 
 cheapness, its convenient size, its attractiveness, its 
 compactness and brevity of statement, and the aid it 
 affords to the reader in its classification of subjects. It 
 is especially the last-named feature which commends 
 the work, in our judgment, and which puts the New 
 Church, as well as the general reading public, under 
 special obligation to the painstaking editor of this 
 series. 
 
 u The diffuseness of Swedenborg's style has been 
 the general complaint urged by most novitiate readers, 
 and the very vastness of the field his writings cover, 
 makes the investigation of them seem at first an almost 
 hopeless task. Just where to turn for enlightenment 
 on this or that special topic, has not been always at 
 the command of well-read New Churchmen, without 
 the aid of the somewhat rare indexes ; and then no 
 little time is consumed in searching for passages, in 
 half a dozen volumes it may be. 
 
 " Now we would not think for a moment of recom- 
 mending this analysis of the writings by Mr. Barrett 
 as a substitute for any student to adopt in any thor- 
 ough or fundamental investigation of any topic. The 
 editor never intended them for this use. He refers 
 his readers to the complete works of Swedenborg for 
 the thorough and final study of any of these subjects. 
 But we are free to say that for a ready reference and 
 a convenient summary of what Swedenborg has said 
 on any of the themes here mentioned, we do not know 
 where to look for a more valuable work than this. 
 Moreover, it is of the first importance that in the 
 study of any subject there should be an order and 
 
 5 .- 
 
'THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY." 
 
 a progressive classification of truths, as well as an 
 analysis. And here is where we have found much 
 to admire in these little books. 
 
 "With the helpfulness of this orderly arrangement 
 of the contents, we have been especially impressed 
 in Vol. I., on 'Death, Eesurrection and the Judg- 
 ment,' and in Vol. VIII., on 'Creation, Incarnation, 
 Kedemption and the Trinity.' Any one can see at a 
 glance that this is the natural order of these topics 
 when considered together, and the plan of the respec- 
 tive volumes is arranged accordingly. But few have 
 thought, perhaps, what a complete whole each of these 
 groups makes when thus considered together, and 
 what a clearly defined and lasting impress a careful 
 study of such a treatise must leave in any thinking 
 mind. . . . 
 
 ' ' Take this little book on Death, etc. , Vol. I. Here 
 a man is literally introduced into the spiritual world 
 at the threshold. He is led upward through the proc- 
 ess of physical dying, having first been described in 
 his real being, that is, as consisting of a spiritual and 
 immortal body, clothed on earth with a temporary 
 material one. Arriving in the spiritual world he is 
 shown what manner of life the spiritual body leads ; 
 then he is led through the several stages of the resur- 
 rection, or the development of the real man out of 
 all the outside concealments which in some measure 
 attend him even into the world of spirits, until at 
 length he is brought to that knowledge of his real, 
 abiding, unchangeable character or fitness for heaven 
 or hell, which constitutes the judgment. Then is 
 briefly described the quality of the life in heaven and 
 in hell, and some practical guides for us all as to ' the 
 way that leads to heaven,' while we are still under- 
 going the discipline of earth. The little book is a 
 wonderful mariner's chart for a world that reaches 
 6 
 
"THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY." 
 
 out into eternity. It will suffice for all the funeral dis- 
 courses that ever need be uttered, so far as instruc- 
 tion goes ; and it tells a man more of what he is made 
 of, than all the volumes of ancient or modern philos- 
 ophy put together. And yet this is but one of these 
 little treatises. 
 
 u In Yol. VIII. the arrangement is indeed drawn 
 from the author's True Christian Eeligion; but the 
 subject of creation is wonderfully elucidated by the 
 citations from the Divine Love and Wisdom. No sys- 
 tem of pure philosophy could present a more orderly 
 or logical sequence than is here observed, in starting 
 out first with God as the sole Creative Substance, then 
 discussing the materials, the form and process of crea- 
 tion by the method of discrete degrees, then the ends 
 or uses of creation, then the completed creation or 
 universe, as an image of the infinite ; then the influx 
 of spirit into nature, or the relation of matter to life 
 and of the natural to the spiritual world. From this 
 primary discussion the book proceeds to the descent 
 of Jehovah God into the created world or into nature 
 as man, for the purpose of the redemption and salva- 
 tion of the human race. This embraces the discussion 
 of the Incarnation, of the union of Humanity with 
 Divinity in the Lord ; also the wars with the power 
 of evil, or the 'conflict with the hells,' by which the 
 Lord succored mankind and restored the race to spir- 
 itual liberty and to the light of divine truth ; and 
 finally, the Holy Spirit and its operation, and the 
 divine Trinity, what it is and what it is not ; and the 
 Divine Providence as directing the formulating of the 
 Christian creeds, teaching a trinity of persons with a 
 view to protecting the Christian church from Arian- 
 ism, or the utter rejection of the Lord's Divinity until 
 the time of his second coming, to show us in Himself, 
 4 plainly of the Father ; ' this sublime progress of 
 7 
 
4 THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY." 
 
 truths is here unfolded to the reader with an admi- 
 rable order, conciseness and simplicity of arrangement, 
 which makes the study of the subject an attractive 
 one, and leaves a most satisfying impression, because 
 clear and well defined. 
 
 " We might instance the features of others of these 
 volumes which have especially delighted us ; but the 
 chief merit in all, is this excellent arrangement by 
 which the reader finds so conveniently at hand a brief 
 survey of the most interesting truths on the subject 
 before him. For purposes of religious culture, or for 
 devotional reading as a spiritual exercise most health- 
 ful for every Christian, we cannot too highly commend 
 the volume on Free Will, Repentance, Reformation and 
 Regeneration, as a most practical and genuinely useful 
 guide to a man's everyday thoughts and character. 
 
 " The volume on Heaven, far from being a mere repe- 
 tition of Vol. I., is a survey of the regenerated human 
 life, and a picture of a perfect society with its uses and 
 its delights as exhibited in the actual life of angels. 
 It is as beautiful and wonderful as any Utopia with 
 the advantage of being very real, and attainable to 
 all who will accept the simple rules of citizenship 
 here laid down. 
 
 "The volume on 'Holy Scripture and the Key to 
 its spiritual sense,' contains not only the general doc- 
 trine of the internal sense, but is full of practical and 
 pointed illustrations of the doctrine of correspond- 
 ences ; concluding with some 'trials of the key,' and 
 an example of ' its power to unlock Rev. xxi. ' This 
 very plain presentation of the subject cannot but im- 
 press favorably the minds of the young ; and we do 
 not see why the study of the Word by this means 
 should not become a fascinating as well as edifying 
 employment for youthful minds, provided it be done 
 reverently and in a religious spirit." 
 8 
 
MR. BARRETT'S WORKS. 
 
 Lectures on the New Dispensation. Extra cloth, pp. 328, 
 12 mo. Price 60 cents. 
 
 " An admirable work for making one acquainted with the 
 doctrines of the New Church." Intellectual Repository. 
 
 The New Yiew of Hell. Extra cloth, pp. 215, 12mo. 50 
 cents. 
 " Contains much that is profoundly true, and much that is 
 
 exceedingly suggestive." New York Independent. 
 
 The Golden City. Extra cloth, pp. 253, 12mo. Price 60 
 
 cents. 
 
 "The most important book concerning the New Church 
 which has been written for years." 
 
 Boston New Church Magazine. 
 
 Letters to Beecher on the Future Life. Extra cloth, 
 pp. 191, 12mo. Price 50 cents. 
 
 "A grand and impressive statement of the New Church 
 doctrine of the Future Life." New Church Independent. 
 
 Swedenborg- and Channing. Pp. 288, 12mo. 60 cents. 
 " A very interesting work." -Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette. 
 " The spirit of the work is excellent." The Congregationalist. 
 
 Letters to Beecher on the Divine Trinity. Extra cloth, 
 pp. 160, 12mo. Price 50 cents. 
 
 Presenting with great clearness and force the doctrine of 
 the Divine Trinity as taught by Emanuel Swedenborg. 
 
 The New Church; Its Nature and Whereabout. Pp. 
 
 213, 12mo. Price 50 cents. 
 
 Showing that this Church is not a sect, but much wider and 
 more comprehensive than any existing religious organization. 
 
 A Bishop's Gun Reversed. Being an Attack on the New 
 Church by Bishop Burgess, and the Reply thereto by B. 
 F. Barrett. Pp. 220, 18rno. Price 25 cents. 
 
 " Your reply to Bishop Burgess is doing good here. . . When 
 read along with the Bishop's attack the effect produced is ex- 
 cellent. By all means have the attack added." (It is added.) 
 
 Memorial to the General Convention ; and full Text of 
 passages in Swedenborg referred to, revealing the grand 
 catholicity of his teachings. Pp. 95. Price 6 cents ; five 
 copies for 25 cents. 
 
 The Man and His Mission. In two Parts. Pp. 60, 12mo. 
 Price 5 cents ; six copies for 25 cents, and 28 for $1. 
 
 Sent (post-paid) to any address on receipt of prices here named. 
 
 Address Swedenborg Publishing Association, 
 
 93O Market St., Philadelphia. 
 9 
 
SWEDENBORG'S THEOLOGICAL WOKKS 
 
 At Greatly Reduced Prices. 
 
 The American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing So- 
 ciety, desirous of securing a wider circulation for Sweden- 
 borg's writings, offers its large, uniform, octavo edition of 
 his Theological Works, on good paper and well bound in 
 cloth, at the following greatly reduced prices : 
 
 Per Vol. Formerly. 
 
 True Christian Keligion. 982 pp $1.OO $2.50 
 
 Arcana Coelestia. 10 vols., 5792 pp GO 1.50 
 
 Apocalypse Revealed, 2 vols., 1100 pp GO 1.50 
 
 Miscellaneous Theological Works, 526 pp.. GO 1.50 
 
 Conjugial Love. 472 pp GO 1.25 
 
 Heaven and Hell. 375 pp 5O 1.25 
 
 Divine Providence. 308 pp 5O 1.25 
 
 Divine Love and Wisdom. 199 pp SO 1.00 
 
 Four Leading Doctrines. 247 pp SO 1.00 
 
 When sent by mail, the following sums must be added for 
 postage : T. C. R., 24 cents ; A. C., 18 cents each vol. ; A. R., 15 
 cents each vol.; M. T. W., 16 cents; C. L., 15 cents; H. H., 15 
 cents ; D. P., 11 cents ; D. L. W., 8 cents ; F. L. D., 10 cents. 
 
 SPECIAL OFFER TO CLERGYMEN. 
 
 This Society offers to clergymen of all denominations its full 
 set of Swedenborg's Theological Works (19 volumes, 8vo), con- 
 taining 9,434 pages, on good paper, well bound in cloth, boxed 
 ready for shipment from New York, for 
 
 $7.5O. 
 
 To those who have already received " Heaven and Hell," " True 
 Christian Religion," and "Apocalypse Revealed," the set, exclu- 
 sive of these, will be sent for 
 
 $6.OO. 
 
 THE FOUR DOCTRINES, 32mo, 372 pages, flexible cloth. Single 
 copy, 30 cents ; seven copies for $1.00, postage included ; fifty 
 copies for $5.00, postage not included. Same on fine paper, vel- 
 lum cloth, gilt edges, 30 cents ; four copies for $1.00, postage in- 
 cluded. 
 
 Address E H SWINNEY, 
 
 20 Cooper Union, NEW YORK CITY. 
 
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 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY