Page:Dealings with the dead.djvu/87

 whereby the soul becomes mellowed, and fit for higher uses in the Soul-home. For these reasons, my joys, though great, were not equal to what they might have been; and yet, take it all in all, provided the entrance into the upper land is made with a clear and healthy conscience and a fair record be left behind, no sense of clearness, lightness and joy can equal that which is experienced subsequent to the first awakening after Azrael's decree has severed the marriage between matter and soul. The Senses! Roses emit sweet odors, grateful to the nostrils; yet not all the perfumes of the Gulistan is worth one inhalation of the celestial aroma in which the spirit of the good man or woman floats when once fairly over the barriers which separate the worlds. Color! I never knew the music of hues before I passed away—never conceived of the sublime mysteries, nor realized the great glory whose temple is the chalice of a flower. Touch! Ah, what language,. [sic] what pen, what tongue can describe the deep raptures of a soul, when God's sublime atmosphere first laves the immortal being! The highest, keenest nerve-joy the body can experience must be very, very dull and tame in comparison; and so on through the Sense-gamuts of Earth and the hyper ones of Spirit. Yet only the good enjoy these pleasures. Sin and pollution, whether of thought or overt act, detract from the senses and susceptibility to pleasure in both worlds alike; and so absolutely true is this, that sin and folly ought to be shunned by the people, if for no other than the selfish desire of being happy from oneself. It is better to live right, die right, and be right after death, than it is to purchase transient pleasures on earth by drawing too largely on the bank of life, 4*