_THE SPIRITUALLY DEAD._
[Illustration: Initial]
“You now understand,” said my father, who had rejoined us, “the spiritual
law which separates heaven from hell. Similarity of mental states produces
presence; dissimilarity separates. Societies are held together by the
cohesive power of spiritual affinity. In heaven they are all in perfect
light and perfect peace, because they all obey the spiritual attractions
of the Sun of heaven, which is the Lord.”
“Heaven, then,” said I, “is open to all, but none can live there save
those who are as good and wise as its inhabitants?”
“Precisely so. Whenever a false or sensual idea arises in the mind of the
new-comer, or some unrighteous feeling is aroused in his heart, he
disappears from his heavenly associates and they from him.”
“How then can one be prepared for heaven?” asked I, sadly; “for it seems
that I am very, very far from that state of perfection.”
“One is prepared for heaven by his life on earth. The life of a man is the
aggregate of his loves. The state of the heart determines the hereafter.
It is the intellect only which is anxious about many things—many dogmas,
many creeds, many questions. To the heart there is but one thing needful,
one care, one duty—to cast out the love of self, or duly subordinate it to
the love of the Lord and the neighbor.
“Kindly feeling toward the neighbor, acts of civility and charity
unconnected with the hope of reward, deeds of self-sacrifice, generous
emotions, pure affections, the spirit of forgiveness, reverence for God,
obedience to law, humility, patience; these are the angels of the heart
and the powers which build up the heavenly character in the soul, and the
future heavenly world in which it resides.”
“My life upon earth is then a poor warrant of a life in heaven,” I
answered pensively. “I do not know that I have any faith at all. I have no
purified motives, no fixed principles. I have no love for spiritual
things. I have a certain taste for the true and beautiful, a certain
admiration for the pure and good. I am kind and affectionate by hereditary
organization; but I have never thought of devoting myself to the good of
others. No aspirations beyond the sensuous life have been kindled in my
soul.”
“Do not despair, my son. You have, without doubt, the basis on which the
heavenly superstructure can be reared. Your house in the heavens was not
finished, but it was begun. You will pass through various stages of
instruction, and even through trials and sufferings in the world of
spirits.”
“And in the world of nature also, where his period of probation will be
extended for many years to come,” added John the Baptist.
As we both looked to him anxiously for an explanation of these singular
words, he continued:
“As the herald of the Lord, forerunning His work in the world of spirits
as I did in the natural world, I have become acquainted with an
extraordinary fact, which it is my business here to announce. You are to
leave us and return into your natural body. You disappeared from your
earthly friends and became visible to us; you will now disappear from us
and become visible to them. Christ will recall you from the dead after
your body has lain four days in the grave. You will be the subject of a
great miracle of the Lord; and your story will animate the faith and hope
and love of the Church in all ages of the world.”