Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/76

 bols of something spiritual, the latter should be so likewise. And so, indeed, it is.

We know it is the tendency of all infernal passions and propensities originating in the love of self, to darken the understanding in spiritual things;—to obscure our perceptions of what is just and true and good. While the more unselfish a man is, the more reverently he heeds the still small voice within him, the more earnestly he strives to do the will of the Heavenly Father, the clearer becomes his moral vision, the keener his perception of the true and right upon questions involving the higher and more permanent interests of humanity. Hence we read: "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be from God." "He that doeth truth, cometh to the light." Which texts conspire to prove that purity of purpose and the faithful doing of the truth, are indispensable to clearness of mental vision upon subjects of profoundest interest. But where the love of self is supreme, and there is no regard for God or duty, and no respect for the great laws of love and justice, there the understanding is darkened; there the moral perceptions are obscured, and the true and right are not seen. As saith the inspired penman: "The sun and the air are darkened by the smoke of the abyss."

From this we may see what is meant in the spiritual