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A SERIES OF SEANCES UPON THE OCEAN. 131
paths of purity, in laboring unselfishly for the good of others,
and in pointing those who will listen to the " tree of life,"
that ever buds, blossoms, and bears immortal fruitage.
This
is to them satisfaction, true rest, heaven ! Considering the
condition of those in the lower spheres of moral darkness,
you see that it is infinitely preferable for mortals to prepare,
while on earth, for the higher life, that at death, so called,
they may avoid the planes of pride, passion, and perversions,
that, with their seeming gains and joys, bring to their possessors,
in the end, mental grief and deepest despair.
" Passing from this first spheral belt outward, we pass different
gradations of indulgence, vice, and discontent, — outward
and upward, till we reach etherealized planes of spirituality,
where resurrected souls have no desire to engage in
activities beneath themselves. These heavenly inhabitants
have become baptized into a celestial life of love, with
desires only for the cultivation of the spiritual ;
quite forgetting
the things beneath, and seeking the ideal of perfection,
which must ever lie in the infinite beyond.
" The intermediate spheres between the two just described
abound in all the employments and associations conceivable.
There is the scholarly plane, where all else is sacrificed to
intellectual research ; the musical, and the poetic ; and
the inventive, where all things are made subservient to the
genius of mechanism, thus sacrificing much that is higher
and more divinely beautiful. And there, too, is the domestic
plane, where abound the attractions of family and family
associations, with the narrow and selfish love for one's own
offspring. Family love, as opposed to universal love, is a
serious impediment to unfoldment of the soul. Complete
happiness is attained by sacrificing present ease, by forgetfulness
of self, in labor for others' good.
Those thus toiling
mold angels &om their own forms.
" In the more exalted states of existence, it is considered
that an equalizing and harmonizing of the mental and moral
faculties indicate an approach to the Christ-sphere of im-