Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/123

 cient has been said to induce serious reflection upon the subject. And here we might end the discussion; but there is one other circumstance which it may be useful to notice.

Although immediately after natural death every one passes into the world of spirits, it is not to be supposed that before the time of judgment the good and the evil mix up together and form, as it were, an indiscriminate crowd. Men with marked differences of character naturally separate from each other, even in this life; and this tendency of their spirits they will necessarily carry with them into the other life, and so induce, even there, certain arrangements of spiritual society. Although the good and faithful, and the wicked and depraved, all pass, by natural death, into the world of spirits, yet who can hesitate to believe that, on their arrival there, their dissimilarity of character will maintain the separation which they have effected here? Doubtless the faithful will be attracted towards that position in the intermediate region which is nearest heaven, and which may be described as "under the altar;" and "paradise!" while the faithless will betake: themselves to that opposite quarter, which is nearest hell, and which may be described as the residence of "Abaddon," and "Apollyon;" that is the destroyer—the destroyer of everything that is good and true which may still remain among them. And is it not reasonable to suppose that others, whose characters are less decided, will occupy some more central position until the time of judgment? It so appears to us; and here we leave the matter to the reflection of the reader.

We feel assured that the provision of an intermediate spiritual world, for our reception immediately after death, is a most merciful display of the Divine wisdom and good-