The final consummation in which this separation will be achieved, may be at the distance of ages, and in the meantime all those minds that have passed, or will pass from this life, are in the same process of culture, discipline, and upward or downward progress, which exists in this life. Whether these advantages and temptations will be greater or less in the disembodied state, we have no data for inference or conjecture. The conduct and character formed in this life will have an abiding influence on the character and happiness of every mind through eternal ages.(10) CHAPTER XXIX. WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? We have considered the risks and dangers of the future state, as taught by reason and experience, and also as the foundation of a true standard of morality. We have seen that the true mode of escape from these dangers is _the formation of a truly virtuous character_, or in other words, _it is making it our chief end to obey all the laws of God_. The next question is, what are the teachings of reason and experience as to the most successful modes of securing true virtue, or voluntary obedience to all the laws of God? This brings up the inquiry as to the _causes_ of voluntary action, and of the power which one mind has of securing right or wrong volitions in another. In a previous chapter was pointed out the distinction to be recognized between the _producing_ cause and the _occasional_ causes of volition. Mind itself is the _only_ producing cause of its own volitions. Excited desires, and those objects which excite desire, are the _occasional_ causes of choice. The question is, in what sense can any being be the cause of virtuous actions, or virtuous character, in another mind? Here we must recur to the fact that the Creator, as the author of all minds, and of all the things that excite desire, is the cause, in one sense, of all the volitions and of all the characters of all finite minds. It is in this sense that, in the Bible, the Jehovah of the Old Testament says, “I make peace and _create evil_.” No other being but the Creator can be regarded as the cause of volitions in this sense, viz., as the author of all minds and their circumstances of temptation. There is a second sense in which the Creator is never the cause of sinful action in any mind. It is this: creating or modifying our susceptibilities, or arranging temptations with _the design_ or _intention_ of producing sinful action. This is established by proving, that the chief end of God is to make the most possible happiness, and that sin is the needless destruction of happiness, resulting from disobedience to the laws of God. The only sense, then, in which God can be called the author or cause of sinful volitions in the minds of his creatures, is the fact that he is the author of all created minds and of their circumstances of temptation.