Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/89

 We see this great law of affinity exemplified here on earth—among animals as well as the human race. Those of the same species or general characteristics, always prefer the society of each other. Beavers love to be with beavers, bears with bears, wolves with wolves, mice with mice. None of these creatures feel quite contented or at home in the society of animals of a totally different nature.

And so with the members of the human family. Not only do the evil, when left to act in perfect freedom, shun the society of the good, but they group themselves together according to the kinds and degrees of wickedness in which they are. Pirates choose the society of pirates; thieves the society of thieves; counterfeiters the society of counterfeiters; tipplers, gamblers, burglars, profligates, the society of persons of their own profession—persons most like themselves. So obvious is this truth, that it has passed into the proverbs, universally accepted, "Birds of a feather flock together;" and "A man is known by the company he keeps."

There can be no doubt, then, that this law of affinity is one of the unchangeable laws of the moral universe; and it must, therefore, govern in the arrangements of all in the spiritual world—the evil as well as the good. It must group congenial spirits into innumerable associations. And a most wise and beneficent provision it is, too;—a provision whereby every human being, whatever be his character, shall have a home in the Hereafter