I think we should be happier and better, I think the Unseen World would come back more clearly on our horizon if we kept our dear ones in our prayers as we used to do before they died. Do not keep any hidden chambers in your hearts shut out from Christ. Bring your dear departed ones to Him as you bring all else to Him. He knows what is best for them. Pray only for that. Pray "Lord help them to grow closer to Thee. Help them if it may be to help others and make them happy in Thy great Kingdom until we meet again." Pray something like that. Oh, how can you help doing it if you love them and believe in prayer? How can I cease to pray for thee? Somewhere In God's wide universe thou art to-day. Can He not reach thee with His tender care? Can He not hear me when for thee I pray? Somewhere thou livest and hast need of Him, Somewhere thy soul sees higher heights to climb, And somewhere, too, there may be valleys dim Which thou must pass to reach the heights sublime. Then all the more because thou canst not hear Poor human words of blessing will I pray. O, true brave heart, God bless thee wheresoe'er In God's wide universe thou art to-day! [1] It is true that the Greek word translated "witnesses" is not the word meaning "spectators" but rather "witnesses for the faith," but as most good commentators (including Bishop Westcott) say--it is impossible to exclude the thought of spectators in an amphitheatre watching a race. The Revised Version, too, seems to accept this view for it prints the word "witnesses" without any marginal remark. [2] Luckock, _After Death_. [3] The evidence for this can be seen in full in any standard work on the subject, e. g., Luckock, _After Death_; or Lee, _Christian Doctrine of Prayer for the Departed_. CHAPTER IX GROWTH AND PURIFICATION What is the main purpose of the Intermediate Life? Is there something to be done there which cannot be fully done at any other time? Let us still try to keep to the firm ground of Scripture, and to avoid confusion let us confine ourselves still to the case of those who have died, in some degree at least, in penitence and faith. § 1 We have already seen that Scripture intimates that that life is not one of sleep or unconsciousness. It is a clear conscious life. It is therefore natural to ask what happens in it? What is the use of it? Science and experience teach that growth is the law of all the life which we know anything about. Even if we had no further light of revelation we should find it difficult to believe that imperfect beings dying in the grace of God pass into that life and live in it for years or for ages without any growth or development.