"Oh! if Ja-bol-he-moth," he suddenly exclaimed with a fierce earnestness, "if Ja-bol-he-moth and other great antediluvian giants could only escape from their imprisonment, we would soon transform the whole earth to our liking."
"Unhappy spirit!" said I, "do you find pleasure in the contemplation of such a thought?"
"The only pleasure that is left me," he replied; and pa.s.sed into a frigid state with a deadly, stony stare, more like a statue than a man.
"Come," said my father, "our sphere has paralyzed him. I have one more strange thing to show you before we return to the world of spirits."
We left the ebony palace; and turning from the dark river with its colossal reeds and rushes, we pa.s.sed into a wilderness of sand, over which hung a gloomier twilight than any we had before witnessed.
Presently there appeared before us a great black dome of iron, reaching across the horizon from east to west, and sloping upward from the sand even to the sky. The blackness, the immensity, the gloom of this strange object cast a fearful shadow on my soul.
"This," said my father with deep solemnity, "is the tomb of the antediluvian world, which none can open or shut but Christ. In the terrible abysses underneath are imprisoned the evil spirits whose judgment is described in the Scriptures as a flood. Unless the Messiah had come in the flesh, this antediluvian sphere would have broken forth and deluged the world of spirits and the world of men."
"What would be the consequence?" said I.
"The total suffocation of the spiritual life, as the natural life is suffocated by drowning; a complete torpor of the moral sense, a paralysis of the intellectual faculties. Mankind would relapse into barbarism. The physical system would degenerate. The skin would become black and fetid; the hair woolly, the nose flat, the forehead low and debased. One step more, and from barbarians men would become beasts.
"This process of degeneration had already made sad havoc with a large portion of the human race, when the closure of the antediluvian h.e.l.ls and the inst.i.tution of a new order of things arrested its march. So the African now stands torpid, unprogressive, sensual, barbaric, bearing on his very body the typical shadows of h.e.l.l."
"Is there no hope for him?" said I, sadly,-for my mind reverted to my trusty friends, Ethopus and Anthony.
"Oh yes," said my father, "Jehovah is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
"The Lord in the form of a Divine Man will close these ancient h.e.l.ls and beat back the waves of evil. Great organic changes will go in the spiritual and natural worlds. In the far-off ages there will be a last judgment in the world of spirits and a new church upon earth. New causes will be set in operation; and these Africans at last will be delivered from their hereditary curse, and restored to the form of beauty and wisdom which their ancestors enjoyed in the beginning of the world."
I rejoiced at this glorious prophecy. And while thinking of the tender and n.o.ble emotions which seemed to govern the only Africans I had ever known, we ascended into the world of spirits, whose beautiful and peace-giving light I hailed with unspeakable pleasure.
"How little the inhabitants of earth know," said I, to myself, "of the spiritual philosophy of history!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament]
XX.
_FRIENDS IN HEAVEN._
[Ill.u.s.tration: Initial]
Heaven is above the world of spirits, as the latter is above the earth.
The way to heaven is through the world of spirits; but it is not reached by a process of death, but by a process of preparation. We are prepared for heaven by putting off the evils and falsities and imperfections that we carry with us from the natural world. We are then taught to feel, think and act in unison and love with thousands and millions of other beings. It takes a long time and a great deal of instruction in the world of spirits to bring some people to this degree of social development.
The harmony of souls in heaven is like that of an immense choir of music.
Each has a distinct part, and each must be perfect in his part. Imagine thousands of good and pure spirits living in choirs of thought, choirs of feeling, choirs of acting; and you will begin to have a faint idea of the order, peace, beauty and felicity of the social life in heaven.
New-comers into the world of spirits are always anxious to be admitted into heaven. There is a process by which they can be elevated into heavenly societies, and shown the wonders and glories of the celestial life. This favor is extended to all, and their legitimate curiosity is gratified. They then return into the world of spirits for judgment and preparation, and to undergo those organic changes which are necessary to a permanent residence in the higher spheres.
I was delighted to hear my father say that I had been unconsciously prepared for this wonderful journey. Walking along with a glad heart, engaged in pleasant conversation about the difference between the world of spirits and heaven, I suddenly perceived a beautiful road ascending a mountain deeply shaded with overhanging trees and bordered with brilliant flowers.
"This is our way," said my father. "The roads which lead out of the world of spirits, either up into heaven or down into h.e.l.l, are invisible to all but those who have been prepared to follow them. There is no danger of any one going astray. No mistakes are made here; no revelations but to the proper parties. All the art and cunning of Simon Magus or his master demons could not enable them to discover this little road leading up into the heaven where our loved ones reside."
How easy, how buoyant, how charming was that ascent! No fatigue, no hurry, no impatience, no terrestrial sensations. Our bodies seemed to grow lighter and stronger, and our minds clearer and happier as we ascended.
The air grew fresher and sweeter; the trees and flowers more beautiful; the sky softer and more brilliant. As we neared the summit we saw the most exquisite green lawns and terraces, which seemed to have been dipped in a golden ether. Here and there was a flock of sheep. Now a swarm of pearl and crimson b.u.t.terflies would sport around us; and then a flock of birds like little flying rainbows would illumine the air.
"These things," said my father, "are typical of the thoughts and affections of the blessed people whose homes we are approaching."
The vista from the summit exceeded in magnificence and beauty everything I had ever imagined. There were two interminable series of green knolls, one on the right hand and the other on the left, separated by a charming little valley with the softest, brightest verdure I had ever seen. On every knoll was a resplendent palace built of precious stones. The grand rainbow-like illumination produced by these mineral splendors flashing in the sun, is altogether indescribable. Away in the east where the palaces seemed to approach each other, the view was terminated by a great temple resembling the temple at Jerusalem, and shining like a gem in the distance.
The valley between these palaces was laid out in lawns, parks and gardens, adorned with flowers, statues, fountains, lakes, and picturesque walks and arbors. These things are common enough on earth; but here each of them exceeded the corresponding earthly form in all the elements of artistic beauty, as much as the most precious diamond in the world exceeds the commonest pebble on the sea-sh.o.r.e.
This was the heaven of a society of angels, all belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, and all interiorly united by similar thoughts and affections.
Now for the first time I learned that all angels were once men upon our earth or some other; that the physical universe is the indestructible basis of the spiritual; and that all things first receive root and form and substance in the former, to rise and expand indefinitely, in the latter. The earth is the footstool of the Lord, and is established for ever.
I now noticed that I had on different garments from those I had worn in the world of spirits, and much more beautiful.
"These garments are given you," said my father, "to adapt you to the sphere which you have entered. We are clothed here imperceptibly to ourselves, as the trees and flowers in the natural world are clothed with forms and colors by a generous nature. All our external things arise spontaneously around us, without our thought or care or labor, being perfect correspondences and mirrors of the things within us."
"Here is the home of your brother," said he; and we stood before a palace of marvelous splendor. Twelve steps of l.u.s.trous pearl led up to a grand piazza covered with a dazzling arch and supported by twelve columns of gold. We entered the s.p.a.cious hall, and before I had time to observe its beauties, a youthful spirit advanced, strongly resembling my father; and with a face full of light and love, and a voice overflowing with kindness, welcomed me to that little spot, as he called it, of the Lord"s spiritual kingdom.
"You shall see me as I used to be," he said "and then you will know me better."
Thereupon he underwent the same series of spiritual changes by which my father revealed himself to me as the poor old leper of the wilderness. He returned into the states and forms of his boyhood, as a full-blown rose might shut, leaf after leaf, contracting itself slowly into a beautiful bud again. He was the same little Samuel who sported with my sisters and myself in our garden in Bethany, and whose withdrawal from us had left so dark a cloud on the sunny places of our childhood.
Rea.s.suming his angelic form while I gazed at him with admiration and joy, he pointed to a chamber, the half-open door of which was one superb crystal. From it there issued a beautiful female form, clad in a silk robe of l.u.s.trous white. Her face was radiant with smiles and beauty, and a single rose was in her hair. The extreme gentleness and gracefulness of her movements, her manners, her tones, revealed the pure soul of this bright angel.
"Behold my wife!" said my brother.
Bewildered and delighted, I pressed timidly a brotherly kiss upon her cheek, and said:
"This is to me the greatest wonder of all in this realm of wonders.
Married in heaven! Husbands and wives living together in wedded bliss!
Enlighten my darkness; tell me something of this great and beautiful mystery."
"I perceive," said my brother, seriously, "by the glance of your eye and the tone of your voice, that you cannot yet be initiated into the sublime and heavenly secrets of the spiritual marriage. You have not been sufficiently divested of your earthly and sensuous state of thought to penetrate those truths which are only visible in the light of heaven. Be satisfied for the present to know that s.e.x and marriage are universal and eternal; that love is inextinguishable, and becomes purer and holier the higher it rises; and that conjugal pairs live together in heaven in eternal youth and eternal bliss."
"A most delightful and enn.o.bling thought," said I; "and I am willing to believe what you say, and to wait my own spiritual development before being able to comprehend its meaning."
I was then seized with an intense desire to see my mother. And lo! before I could give it utterance in words, she appeared before us, an angel as young and beautiful as my sister-in-law, but grown the female counterpart of my father by long and loving contemplation of his virtues.
"I was attracted hither," she exclaimed, in charming trepidation, "by strange gushes of maternal feeling. Who is it that calls me?"
Mother and child pa.s.sed simultaneously into the old forms of the earth-life, and into the long dormant states of the natural memory. She was a Jewish matron in Bethany, and I a little boy of five years old. How frantically she kissed my face and hands! How madly she pressed me to her heart! How we wept together!