Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/201

 spiritual body) out of the natural, and comes consciously into the spiritual realm. He leaves behind him all natural things; or, what is equivalent, he passes into a realm where these things are no longer seen or thought of. He leaves the natural body; but straightway finds himself in the enjoyment of superior faculties belonging to a superior kind of body, which has always been within the natural—a body that is spiritual and substantial. He leaves the natural world; but immediately enters, or has opened up to his consciousness, another world in which all things are more real and substantial, but spiritual in their nature. He leaves the natural or literal sense of the Scripture, that is, he no longer sees or thinks of this sense; but he comes into the perception and understanding of a vastly higher and more important sense, viz., the spiritual. He leaves the natural memory, that is, the memory of merely natural facts,—or, what is the same, this memory becomes quiescent; but a new, more interior and enduring memory is then developed, viz., the spiritual.

Now the logical inference from all this is, that natural relationships terminate when the body dies, and new and higher relationships are then established; and that these new relationships rest upon higher or more interior ground, and are determined by people's spiritual resemblance or proximity to each other. The members of the same family on earth are said to be closely related; and they are so naturally. But this is simply a flesh and blood relationship—often nothing more; and as such, we should expect it to cease when the body dies. For members of the same family are often quite different in