Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/174

 when leaving the natural world, belong to one or the other of these classes, it becomes a matter of importance, to trace the spirit's upward or downward progress to its eternal abode. Nothing could be more absurd that to suppose that death, by some magic power, suddenly divests the good spirit of all remaining evil or imperfection, and converts him into an angel of heaven. If the spiritual evil which adheres to the good man dies with his natural body, must not the evil that appertains to the wicked man, be destroyed in the same way? But with the man who is confirmed in wickedness, the love of evil constitutes his life; if this were to perish there would be a destruction of what may be called his spiritual-natural life; he would cease to exist; or if there were still a spiritual form it would be the subject of no love, and hence no thought, no life. But this absurd supposition would require another, in which the absurdity would be still more apparent. If spiritual evil dies with the natural body, it must belong to the body and not to the spirit. But this is opposed to the reason and consciousness of every man. Spiritual evil is but another name for the love of that which is evil and false. It belongs therefore to the mind and its affections, to the spirit itself; it goes wherever the spirit goes. Its continuance is quite independent of anything that death can do.

Let us, then, direct our attention again to the spirit, just having entered the unseen world,—the man just now divested of his mortal body. He has taken with him the same loves and affections, for these constitute his life. It is true his external, natural form, has been exchanged for a spiritual one, but internally and really he is the same man still. He has a ruling love, either good or evil, which is seeking to bring all other things into subjection to itself—And yet he is as free as ever, for freedom is essential to his life. Every step he takes, towards heaven or towards hell, is a voluntary step. His progress, either upward or downward, must continue to be gradual there, as it has been