My first proposition is this―
The spirit world is something―or it is nothing.
There is a spirit world―or there is not.
There can be no half-way about it.
If the spirit world is something, you ought to know about it.
It is folly to say―
I cannot know very much about the higher life until I get there.
You can know a great deal about it.
Anything―everything―can be known if the knowledge is diligently sought for.
There are thousands of spirits eager and willing to give this knowledge to those who seek for it in the right way.
If the Spirit-world does exist, it is a real and tangible world, filled with life and beauty―
If there is a Spiritual world, it is for the purpose of holding spiritual life, for life is spirit―
Without spirit, there is no life.
Everything that lives and moves and has a being is the spirit that lives, and moves within it, or rather, the life or spirit covers itself with matter, and whenever that matter is cast aside, the life or spirit rises and takes its place within the spiritual world―
The principle holds good with everything that has the power of growth―or has a form.
The waters rise into the spiritual realm, carrying with them the life and spirits within them in their various beautiful forms.
This spirit-land, Summer Land, spirit-world, exists.
To spirit-lives, the things of earth look coarse, unreal, and unsubstantial―
All spiritual forms come up from the earth, for all spiritual germs must develop within matter, and as they develop and throw off their coarser covering, they rise into the spiritual realm.
The trees, the grass, the flowers, the shrubs―even to the tiny mosses and lichens.
All things separate―each to its own order or kingdom.
The earth is the great reservoir, or feeder, of the realms, which rise above and surround it.
Vegetation, grass, trees and flowers yield up their lives more slowly than the Animal and insect kingdom do, for the animal kingdom is higher than the vegetable or floral.
The animal yields up his life or spirit at once, and rises rapidly upward―nor does it pause until it strikes the spirit-land.
The animal has a certain amount of intelligence and finds its place according to its attractions―a wild animal immediately seeks a dense, spiritual forest―
A domestic animal often pauses near the lovely, spiritual homes, or revels in the green meadows beside the running streams and rivers, gazing with its large, beautiful, dewy eyes at the lakes―
The birds wing their way, singing their sweet songs―they love to linger near the habitations of men—or spirits.
The insects also gravitate to their natural places.
The spiritual world is not an intangible nothingness, but real―filled with real-life, and the living souls and spiritual bodies of men, women and children―with its homes, colleges, institutions for knowledge of all kinds, and as rapidly as the errors and mistakes of earth can be purged away, peace and purity reign supreme—
Wisdom and love go hand in hand, and an eternity of joy and gladness awaits the soul.
