The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-06-10

most often by mothers, not because it is
not the greatest possible misfortune fer a
child to die, but because calamity more in
supportable to herself is to be apprehended if
it fall into vice, namely. its estrangement,
and intromission into lower spheres, to be
known to her no more, perhaps, forever.
By the spiritual law every death of child
is monstrous and unnatural-every death, ex-
ceptng in old age, a criminal abuse or viola
ton Of the law. In old age death releases the
spirit man by process analogous to the birth
of the natural body, throughout which he is
conscious of being attended by spirit friends,
seeing them about him when in the spir-
itual condition as he sees those in the body in
his natural conditon-these conditions per-
petually alternating throughout the dying pro-
cess. The beautiful and perfect illustration
afforded by the death described in P. c. No.
I3 was given with view to qualify the writer
to comprehend completely the character of
the change we call death. 1t is always, when
occurring in age, scene Of joy not pain, of
congratulation not mourning, and there is no
other death known to the spiritual law, or
having the sanction of the Author of Life.
The celestial country concentric with the
natural earth, which is the home and present
destination of the spiritual Man, is a land of
splendor and glory necessarily inconceivable
to the external mind. Its boundary should
be the border of the earth world, but the dead
of thousand centuries have. Converted the
region of country Immediately adjacent, and
extending through vast distances over us, into
homes required for their occupation on &C
count of dying unprepared for the spiritual
life. And these vast ascending spheres are
schools and temporary abodes for qualifying
those who inhabit them for living in the land
of their birth-the Celestial Land.
Spirits have not wings to fly. The pictures
of angels so adorned, and with rays emanating
from the head, denote the force with which
principle or truth will make its way through
the unwisdom of the world and be recognized.
When you land upon the spiritual terra frma
and look up into the Heavens you will see
them full OF moving stars, sailing with such
velocity as the will or desire impels. These are
spirits, or men, and are Of various degrees Of
brilliance, or greater or less magnitude, ac-
cordiug to the advancement Of the individual
mind. The head is surrounded with lumi-
nous aura, often of dazzling splendor, for
often strangers from other planets visit US
and come as near the surface of our earth as
atmospheric conditions will permit. But
these are at very great distances in the en-
pyrean, and are watched for with intense in
terest as we might here for a new planet, or
cometin our Heavens. One of the early mes
sages / received from the beloved one de-
scribed in P. c. No. I3 was in the following
words. 1t has for nearly thirty years been liv-
ing talisman in my mind, sustaining me under
all Affections, realizing all it promised, and
rendering all msfortunes powerless against
me:
81 am with you in your silent moments,
am with you in the busy scenes of life, ard
when death shall release your spirit ! will
meet you, and we will together sail through
this beautiful country-never more to part"
What terror can death have for him who
knows it to be the door that shall bring to him
this greeting, and greetings of numberless
dear ones besides, when the sublime and beau
tiful realization of thousand times our utmost
hopes shall await those of US fitted for their
enjoyment? And these precious words all
guardian spirits speak, unheard and UNDECIDED,
to those by whom not to be recognized and
known is their heaviest grief, as they come in
the still hours of night to the familiar home to
find no memory even of them there. Are the
delights of church music and the wisdom of
sermons better than these?
The cultivation of flowers, as all art, is but
the shaping in the mind of every controlling
wish or want. The instant flowers are desired
in spirit life they are granted, of such varieties
of color and fragrance as will fulfill the most
lavish conception. So at every mental call
the earth opens, and the ready lymph ripples
over pebbly sands in crystal purity and glad
ness. So, too, the abodes, towering and
grand, or rustic and lowly, clustered in some
Paradise of trees and streams, embracing all
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