Page:Angelic Life in the Spiritual World, as revealed by the Sacred Scriptures.djvu/7

Rh stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free (Gal. v. 1).

What are the questions respecting the Spiritual World, for the solution of which men search the Scriptures?

They are these:

1. When and how do we enter the Spiritual World?

2. Who are the angels? Do men and women become angels?

3. Shall we recognize our friends? Are married pairs who in this life have tenderly loved each other re-united in the Spiritual World?

4. What shall we do in that world?

To all these questions, Revelation gives clear and satisfactory replies; yet those who do not desire to know them will not, at least in this life. Even the blessing of eternal life is not forced on any one. But "every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Luke xi. 10).

Is it not marvellous that most people are so averse to hearing or learning anything about the Spiritual World, that they meet all statements on the subject with incredulity or derision? The world in which they consciously live, the houses in which they dwell, their corporeal frames and the clothes which cover these, are to them tangible, therefore real: the Spiritual World, because intangible, inaudible, and invisible, is unreal, and their souls are vaporous and shadowy, unsatisfactory to a degree! Who believes that he is a soul, and has a body? Few acknowledge spiritual things to be substantial and permanent, as compared with material things; although the Apostle distinctly says, "The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. iv. 18).

Our first question is, When, and how, do we enter the Spiritual World?

The soul is the real man: the body is its instrument the uses of this world, a covering, adapted by Infinite