We suppose the generality of our readers will admit that countless thousands of good men and women among the Mahommedans, Chinese, Hindoos, and all the heathen nations, who live according to the measure of their light, are saved and taken to heaven. But it is very evident that they can not go to heaven carrying with them false notions on religious subjects, and knowing nothing of that good Lord into whose kingdom they are about to pass. They must be instructed. They must have errors removed from their minds, and truths implanted in their stead. Time is required to effect these changes, and the world of spirits is the school in which the process is accomplished. Instruction in truth is readily received by the simply good; and after being enlightened and purified from falsity, they are led to their eternal homes among the blessed—to those of a disposition and order of mind like themselves. Then, again, among Christians, there are many who die with slight failings pertaining to them, with infirmities of temper, with bad habits of one kind and another; yet who are really sound-hearted and good men. Their lot can not be hell; yet with these flaws in their character, their presence in heaven could not be pleasant, because their state of mind is at variance with the perfect order and peace of heaven. Such, then, remain in the world of spirits, passing through trials, and temptations, and sufferings, until they reject all that is disorderly and impure. The processes by which this removal of external evils is accomplished, are frequently extremely painful, and extend over many years. Their removal might with less difficulty have been accomplished in the present life. The Lord warns us of this in these words: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” Matthew v. 25, 26. Our adversary is the truth. Truth is ever an adversary to the evil. Elijah the prophet represented the Divine Truth. When he approached the wicked Ahab, Ahab cried: “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?” “In the way with him” is in the present life; and the “prison” is the world of spirits, often so called in the Word, out of which we shall not be delivered until entirely divested of selfish affections, and false principles of thought. How practical, thus viewed, becomes our Lord’s advice! But without a knowledge of the world of spirits, and the spiritual sense of Scripture, it is quite mystical and unintelligible.