Page:The Other Life.djvu/241

 is, that it was done to counteract as much as possible the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. The perversions of truth on this subject, calculated to extend the spiritual dominion of the Catholic clergy and to augment the revenues of the church, were so revolting to reason and so dangerous to society, that the reactionary spirit carried the Reformers to the extreme of dropping from their creed an article of faith, which was necessary to a proper understanding of what the Scriptures teach about the spiritual world.

If there is no intermediate state or life, the soul must go consciously into heaven or hell after death, which is a practical judgment upon it, rendering useless the formal judgment which is expected at the last day. Or it must remain for ages in a state of unconsciousness or insensibility, which is an idea utterly unscriptural.

"This day," said our Lord to the penitent thief, "thou shalt be with me in paradise."

Leaving the theologians to adjust these difficulties as they please, or to learn the genuine truth from the excellent works of Hayden and Rendell on the last judgment, I shall endeavor to prove the existence and uses of the world of spirits from a different and more interior standpoint.