Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/33

 the first or lowest sphere of Spiritual being. The second sphere corresponds to man's intellectual or moral nature. It is called "Paradise," the place of happiness. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "To-*day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Two days after, when Mary met him at the tomb, and offered to embrace him, he said, "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father."

He had been in Paradise—in the second sphere—and he told them that when he ascended to his Father they should see him no more. Both Gehenna and Paradise are spheres of Spirit-manifestation. Those who are charitable, and who do possess truly spiritual natures or affections, are in alliance with Paradise. Those in lust are in alliance with the sphere of lust or Gehenna. Those who have passed through, and fulfilled every impulse and every love in the second sphere, are said then to be brought into the divine presence. They no longer need a middle man between them and the Divine, because the Father can then speak directly to them. But so long as man is in the sphere of outer darkness or in Paradise, there is between him and the Divine (and he must approach by a mediator) something that can take the things of the Father and make them manifest to him in the visible sense. But when man has come into the third sphere, there is no longer a middle man; Christ himself becomes subject to the Father, and God becomes all in all. Then comes the New Dispensation, or the Consummation of the Christian Age. The point to which I wish to call your attention is, that the governments in earth, as well as in heaven, all have their basis in man*