Notwithstanding all that John the Baptist and my father had said, my obtuse understanding had not yet grasped the idea, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah—the Supreme Being. “Has Jesus of Nazareth died also,” I inquired, “and been raised like myself from the natural into the spiritual world?” “Oh no!” said John, smiling sweetly at my bewilderment. “He exists in both worlds, in all worlds, at the same time.” “You speak enigmas,” said I; “interpret them.” “Whom do you suppose this Jesus to be?” inquired John, earnestly. “Some great prophet of God sent to perform miracles in Judea, and to preach a new gospel of peace and love.” “Jesus, the anointed One, is God himself,” said John, with deep solemnity. I answered nothing, for my mind was blank with astonishment. I gazed at the shining form with solemn awe. I now observed that Jesus was speaking or preaching to the multitude around him. I did not, however, hear a word he said. “These are good spirits,” said John, in explanation, “whom the Lord has liberated from the bondage of the evil spirits who infest this intermediate state. He is teaching them the spiritual truths adapted to their new condition, which correspond to the truths he is simultaneously teaching his disciples on earth. “You are not permitted to hear what he says, because the fallacies of your natural life have not been sufficiently removed; and your mind would pervert his divine truths, or change them into the opposite falsities. You will be instructed in due season, and all things necessary to your life and happiness will be given you. “In the mean time,” he continued, “let us be seated under this beautiful tree, whose boughs make mysterious music, while I endeavor to bring it clearly to your mind that Jesus is God; for without an acknowledgment of his supreme divinity, no genuine spiritual truth can be received. The idea of God is a fundamental idea; and every one’s state depends upon it or is determined by it. If that be false all is false; the mind is a dark chamber full of motes and cobwebs. “Did not the Jews stone Jesus for affirming his equality and identity with God? Did not Jesus declare his pre-existence in saying that before Abraham lived, he lived? Did he not teach his omnipotence, his infinity, when he claimed to be one with the Father, and told his disciples that whoever had seen him, had seen the Father? Is not his name Immanuel—‘God with us?’” “Yes.” “Did not the prophets affirm that the Messiah who was to be born of a virgin, and to redeem Israel in the form of a man, was really the mighty Counselor, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father, Jehovah? Did they not repeatedly mention the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah that was to come, under such titles as ‘the Lord of hosts,’ ‘the God of the whole earth,’ and other names applicable only to the Supreme Being?” “True.”