Interpersonal relations -- Fiction; Spiritualism -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
“To that question I will give you an explanation given me by one far
wiser than I and much older in this realm of life: ‘Death simply
denotes a rising from inactivity to action, from obscurity to eminence,
awaking from sleep, or promotion from an inferior condition.’”
“Is there a resurrection?”
“Every death is a resurrection.”
“Edith, do you ever wish to be back here in the body?”
“Never. There would be nothing to gain and much to lose.”
“Why is it that although you and others come and talk with us clearly
and freely at times, there is yet so much of your new life of which you
tell us nothing?”
“There are many reasons, which I am not permitted to give, nor could
you understand them. I myself comprehend them but dimly. I simply obey
the law.”
“What is the judgment, if there is a judgment?”
“For me it is the beholding of my mistakes.”
“What is the most wonderful phase of your present life, if I may be
pardoned for so bold a question?” Cartice asked.
“The knowledge that love is all there is--that it fills all universes;
lights all worlds; encompasses every soul, and is the life of every
soul. This is as true of your world as of ours; but nearly all there
refuse to believe it. Here we cannot doubt it--that is, those who have
love in their own hearts cannot doubt it. Those who love not do not
know it, for all is darkness to them; but that darkness disappears when
they begin to love.”
“What is love?”
“The living principle of good, which by a law that includes and governs
all that is, constantly flows out from the infinite centre. The more
you have of it the more of good in its highest and best form will
you receive, because it is the greatest of all magnets, irresistibly
attracting its like. Love is God. God is love.
“You are destined to realize this fully some day; but you might realize
it even now if you would, and then the whole face of the earth would
change and become new and beautiful. Heaven, indeed, would be opened.
But the love I speak of is not the sentiment that usually goes by that
name on earth, which too often is but an exaggeration of self, a kind
of sublimated selfishness, going out to special persons with whom your
lives are intertwined and whose well-being particularly conduces to
your own. No, no; the love that is God is universal in its application,
enfolding the humblest and most wayward as well as the highest and
most perfect. Cultivate this love and you will find heaven even on the
earth. All good will come to you. It is the kingdom of righteousness
spoken of in your scriptures, to which, if you first seek and attain,
all other things shall be added. Love, even in its crudest, most
selfish expression and narrowest interpretation yet has in it a spark
of the divine principle from the great source or centre which lights
and gives life to all worlds and all consciousness.”
“If you could give us but one precept to live by, what would it be?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account