My faithful friend John the Baptist was near me, and extended his generous hand.

"Have I visited heaven," said I, "or have I been dreaming?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]

XXI.

_THE SPIRITUALLY DEAD._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Initial]

"You now understand," said my father, who had rejoined us, "the spiritual law which separates heaven from h.e.l.l. 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 a.s.sociates 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 G.o.d, 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 pa.s.s 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."

I was bewildered at these words.

"How can I return into nature?" said I. "How can I get back into the natural body? How can I die here when there is no death?"

"The difficulties which seem to you impossibilities," said John, "are easily met. The process is perfectly intelligible from the spiritual stand-point. Attend to my elucidation of it; for it involves the true nature of miracles and of the redemptive work of the Lord.

"You understand that Christ exists consciously and actively in both worlds at the same time; in his spiritual body here, in his natural body upon earth. You know this, for you have seem Him in both spheres.

"He is performing a series of divine works in both worlds at once; and a wonderful parallelism exists between his works here and his works there.

What he does in this sphere is repeated in that in a different but corresponding form.

"This is the world of causes, that is the world of effects. There is no effect without a cause. It seems to men in the flesh that the miracles of Jesus are performed by his word alone-by the breath of his mouth. That is a mistake. They are the natural effects of spiritual causes. Jesus is engaged in this world of spirits in inst.i.tuting a series of causes which are to produce certain natural effects; among them, his benevolent works called miracles.

"Miracles are not violations of natural law. They are only proofs that spiritual or divine forces govern in all the transformations of matter.

They teach men the true source and origin of causes, and the true relation between the spiritual and natural worlds. All things are miracles. They are only wonderful when the events are new, extraordinary, not understood, or misinterpreted.

"Christ could not restore natural sight to a blind man, unless he excited into activity those spiritual causes which produce both spiritual and natural sight. Imparting spiritual light or wisdom to the spiritually blind in this world, he originates a force which, pa.s.sing through his own natural body, restores vision to the correspondingly blind man on the earth upon whom he lays his hands.

"He here infuses moral vigor into souls who had lost the power of performing their spiritual duties. This becomes a cause producing a corresponding effect upon earth; namely, that the touch even of the hem of his garment will restore muscular strength and will to the paralytic.

"When the Divine Man resists and subdues the evil spirits who would destroy him, the natural effect is, that He stills the tempest and treads upon the waves,-that even the winds and the seas obey him.

"When he preaches spiritual truth to those who have never risen above the perception of natural things, and their minds are lifted from the natural to the spiritual degree of thought, the natural effect is, that he turns water into wine.

"So of all his miracles, even that of raising the dead. When he imparts spiritual life here to those who are spiritually dead, he sets in operation a spiritual cause which imparts life again to those who are dead in the natural sense.

"Such is the spiritual philosophy of miracles, which men in their ignorance suppose to be contraventions of natural law, designed to prove the possession of divine power. G.o.d violates no law either spiritual or natural. He is Law itself. It would be a contravention of the eternal organic law if miracles did not ensue, after the inst.i.tution of their specific causes in the world of spirits."

"You draw indeed," said I, "a wonderful and beautiful parallel between the spiritual and the natural works of Christ. It is clear that the biography of the Divine Man can only be written from the spiritual side. I understand also, in some measure, your philosophy of miracles; still I do not perceive how I am to get back into the natural world."

"I will make it plain to you presently. When you come within the power of an evil sphere, it endeavors to absorb your individuality, and to a.s.similate you entirely to itself. If you approach the sphere of spiritual pride and self-righteousness, unless you are under divine protection, you will become proud and self-righteous. Approach the sphere of ambition, and you become fired with the insatiable l.u.s.t of dominion. Approach the sphere of sensuality, and your heart, blood, brain, are all set on fire with h.e.l.l.

"Such is the contagion of evil. Contagion, whether moral or physical, is simply the influence of spheres-the imposition of one's state upon another-the transference of conditions.

"Now if under certain circ.u.mstances you enter the evil spheres of this world, you will be reduced to the state of the spiritually blind, deaf, dumb, paralytic or dead as the case may be. You will then be connected interiorly and by correspondence with the blind, deaf, dumb, paralytic or dead, in the natural world. Do you not see?"

"Go on," said I, following with deep interest the chain of his reasoning.

"Well, you will descend among these people whom we call the spiritually dead. You will enter into their spiritual state. Your spiritual body will be then reconnected by correspondence with your natural body now lying in the sepulchre; all without your co-operation, without your consciousness."

"Well-and then what?"

"When Christ in his judgment approaches the sphere of those who are spiritually dead, he will cast out the evil spirits who possess them.

Spiritual life will begin to dawn on their souls. Both spiritual and natural life will spring up for you simultaneously."

"Why for me alone? Why will not _their_ dead bodies also arise?"

"Because their connection with nature has been long and totally sundered.

On the contrary, you have still a natural body not yet disorganized; indeed, preserved by special providence for your resumption at the proper moment-thus manifesting the power and glory of G.o.d.

"Your spiritual companions will be delivered from their bondage to h.e.l.l, and will emerge into the activities of spiritual life. You will be correspondently delivered from the bondage of h.e.l.l and the grave; and will be raised from the dead and restored to your friends in Judea."

I contemplated with awe the extraordinary fate that awaited me. I felt some reluctance at leaving a sphere so bright and beautiful, where I had been initiated by such charming friends into high and holy truths. I felt deeply convinced, however, that I was unprepared for heaven, and was grateful for a more extended probation on earth. An encouragement also to resignation was the thought that I was going back to comfort and protect my loving and lovely sisters, Martha and Mary.

"But these people who are spiritually dead," said I. "Are their corpses here, also, and sepulchres and monumental inscriptions?"