I now understood it all. I felt the self-abas.e.m.e.nt, the contrition, the inexpressible longing. The sun had already disappeared. The sun of the spiritual world does not rise and set like ours; but it brightens or pales in appearance with the changing states of the spirit. Then shone out innumerable stars in a blue dome, like the friendly faces of cherubim and seraphim smiling on us.
At length the wearied new-comer into the spiritual world pa.s.sed into that mysterious realm of profoundest sleep, which is common to all worlds, and in which the unconscious soul is alone with G.o.d.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]
XVII.
_JUDGMENT OF THE JEWS._
[Ill.u.s.tration: Initial]
When I awoke, the sun was shining through a golden mist: the dew glittered like a rainbow fallen upon the gra.s.s and flowers: the air was full of sweet odors and the voices of birds: a strange warmth and vigor pervaded my body, and a delightful activity reigned in my soul.
"Come," said my father, "the first awakening thought should be always a prayer."
He then repeated those beautiful words by which Jesus taught his disciples to pray. I will not describe the spiritual phenomena which attended this prayer. The mult.i.tude of ideas and influxes and perceptions which were crowded into every sentence, would be incomprehensible to men. It seemed to be an epitome of the universe, and to bring the soul into loving contact with all the spheres of the divine creation.
"Has Jesus taught that prayer in the world of spirits also?" I inquired.
"Yes. This prayer is the universal prayer which binds the heavens and all the angels together. It is the holiest thing of religion. It descends from G.o.d to angels and men; and blessed is he who receives it into his heart!
"We are now ready," continued my father, "by the divine permission and under the divine protection, to explore some of the evil spheres which have congregated in the world of spirits, and which infuse their deadly poisons into men in the world. You will then understand a part of the great work which Christ is performing in this intermediate state."
Thereupon he examined my face, head and hands with the utmost minuteness.
A man"s whole life is written upon these; and angels, having a perfect knowledge of correspondences, the key of symbolism, can read from them your whole history as from a book.
"I perceived," said he, "that in your earth-life you have been brought into contact with the corrupt sphere of the Jewish Church, with the sensuousness of Grecian art and philosophy, with the splendors of Roman ambition, and with the ancient and subtle power of Egyptian magic. You have seen these things on the natural or earthly side. I will show them to you on the spiritual and interior side, so that you may comprehend the dreadful condition of the human race, and see the necessity of the Divine incarnation."
The geography, if we may use the expression, of the world of spirits is ever changing. The Church of the Lord, meaning those who come from the world and possess a divine revelation, always occupies the centre; other nations with different religions are arranged in successive zones around it; the farthest off in the circ.u.mference being those pagans who have received the least portion of the divine light and life.
"Behold the mutations of the world," said my father. "Those remotest people, away off in the darkness and cold of the circ.u.mference, were once the chosen people of G.o.d, his church, occupying the centre, immediately under the down-falling rays of the Divine Sun. They proved faithless to their trust. They became so evil that a terrible spiritual catastrophe overwhelmed them, described as a flood,-for they were engulfed in a flood of falsities. They were the antediluvians, of celestial genius, the most richly endowed, the most beautiful of all; and now their descendants, the most hideous and debased, are the black and bronzed barbarians and savages of the world."
"We are accustomed to think," said I, "that those lower types of mankind are the last created, and therefore the least perfect."
"No! they are the descendants of the first created and most perfect. They are not imperfect but degraded types. Imperfect types would progress upward and onward by natural law. These barbarians of Africa will never make the least advance until new causes which do not now exist, are put in operation. This great mystery of the Divine Providence will not be solved for many, many ages to come.
"After the destruction of that antediluvian church, another succeeded, possessing a written Word, a splendid ceremonial and boundless treasures of spiritual wisdom. They also forfeited their birth-right and betrayed their trust. Their judgment occurred in this world of spirits when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire. Abraham and his family were the remnant saved from that church for the beginning of a new, as Noah and his family had been the remnant saved from the preceding.
"The descendants of this lost church compose chiefly the nationalities of Asia. They have remained for ages and will remain for ages to come in a stationary, semi-petrified condition, possessing no genuine truth, no vital religion, no element of progress; but living upon fables and myths which are the fragments of spiritual truth, whose interior light has long been lost to their understandings.
"For many centuries now of natural time, the Jewish Church has held the centre of the world of spirits. It also has become thoroughly corrupt, and is about to be removed to the circ.u.mference. Its great judgment is impending; its destruction approaches; but of this, that church itself is profoundly ignorant."
During this conversation we had ascended by insensible degrees to the summit of a high mountain. I was astonished at the splendid panorama spread out beneath us. It was the whole land of Canaan, from the Jordan on the east to the borders of Philistia on the west; from Damascus and Antioch gleaming away to the north, down to the great desert that frowned along the southern boundary.
Immediately beneath us was a city of Jerusalem, ten times as large as our earthly capital; and a holy temple of corresponding proportions, all transcending in glory and grandeur anything ever seen on earth.
"Behold," said my father, "the creation of spiritual fantasy, the imaginary heaven of the Jews, which will pa.s.s away like a scroll at the breath of the Lord when He comes in judgment upon them.
"You seem astonished," he continued, "that spirits should reproduce around themselves these spiritual semblances of the cities and countries they have left behind. Nothing is more simple and rational. These people are gross and sensual in their nature, with little or nothing of the celestial or spiritual about them. They loved material things exclusively; their thoughts never rose above outward, civil, and political affairs. Here their interior life is reproduced in exteriors. Therefore they create around themselves their old homes, cities, and countries; and re-enact, as far as possible, their earthly life, because all their affections and thoughts are earthly."
"This mountain," said I, "upon which we are standing puzzles me; for there is no similar elevation in the neighborhood of Jerusalem."
"This mountain," answered my father, "is symbolical of the lofty state of spiritual pride and presumption in which the Jewish Church now is-a state of self-glorification which precedes its judgment and final destruction.
It is only from this height, corresponding to their own spiritual state, that you can see the holy city and temple as they appear to them.
"Is it strange that a people, so gross, so unspiritual, so near their extinction as a church, should be so inflated with spiritual and theological conceit? They appear in their own eyes to have the most glorious city, the most holy church, and the most august ceremonials that ever existed; accounting all others unfit for heaven and unworthy of the Divine favor.
"It was on the pinnacle of that colossal temple which you now see, that the evil spirit placed Jesus, and attempted to infuse into his heart the arrogant self-glorification of the corrupt priesthood, which imagines itself the special care of all the angels of heaven."
"We had always supposed that that temptation occurred on the temple in Jerusalem."
"Oh, no!" said my father, "the temptations of the Lord always occur in the world of spirits. Evil spirits do not move around upon the temples and mountain-tops of the natural world. The Lord"s spiritual senses were opened into this world, which is the scene of his trials, his temptations, his combats with h.e.l.l; and will be the scene of his final glorification and ascension."
"These ideas are all new to me," I said, "but very rational."
"You will now see," my father continued, "how this imaginary heaven of the Jews, with its proud and worldly magnates, appears in the genuine light of heaven. An invisible angel accompanies us, who is commissioned to let in the heavenly light upon these scenes, to show you the internal and real character of this church."
Thereupon a ray of white light seemed to shoot down from the zenith. A black cloud immediately arose from the Salt Sea, and spread itself like a canopy over the whole land. Fearful thunderings and red lightnings issued from the bosom of this terrible cloud. The whole country around became a desolation-a dreary waste full of stone-heaps and pitfalls. The holy city sank into the earth; and in its place there rose a great lake, black as a mountain tarn unruffled by the wind. Floating in the midst of it was the gorgeous temple converted into a huge wooden house or Noah"s ark, from the innumerable windows of which looked out the hideous faces of wild beasts and the heads of enormous serpents.
I was at first terrified at these sights; but my father observed:
"This is a representation, a pictorial prophecy of a reality yet to come, before Christ has finished his conquering work in the world of spirits.
These people do not see the things we see. This heavenly light has come into our minds that we may discover what their interior life really is,-devoid of all spiritual vitality; desolate, dark, lurid; full of evil beasts and unclean birds and creeping things."
This sphere of ecclesiastical pride and presumption is not peculiar to the Jewish Church or nation. It is predominant in all religions, churches and individuals, when the religious instincts are satisfied and delighted with grandeur, power, numbers, fashion, wealth and glory.
"What will be the effect," I inquired, "of this disastrous judgment in the world of spirits, upon the Jewish nation in the natural world?"
"There will be fearful dissensions and conflicts; wars within and without; the city and the temple will be destroyed; the country made desolate; the people scattered as exiles and vagabonds among all nations. Their descendants, coming into the world of spirits, will recede toward the circ.u.mference among the pagans. A new church springing up among other nations, will take the central place, and give rise upon earth, after great struggles, to a purer religion and a n.o.bler civilization.
"You will now see, in symbolic representation, the three great cla.s.ses into which the Church will be dissolved at its judgment."
Then there appeared before us a great many domestic animals; oxen, horses, a.s.ses, camels, sheep, fowls, etc.; all mingled together in confusion, and all looking poor, jaded, filthy and wretched.
"These are the beasts of burden," said my father; "the ignorant and innocent ma.s.ses, presided over by a corrupt and cruel theocracy, which desecrates the name of G.o.d by imposing upon his children a spiritual despotism.
"Advance nearer to these creatures, and you will behold a wonderful sight, such as can never appear in the natural world, but is common enough in the world of spirits."
We came nearer, and lo! all the animals were found to be men and women.
Some of their forms and faces seemed taken from my memory; for I thought I recognized the crowds which followed Jesus in the world.
"From these people," said my father, "the remnant will be taken-the remnant about which the prophets speak so often. This remnant of Israel, starting with the apostles chosen by Christ, will be the seed and starting-point of a new Church.