Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/54

 ought to understand that he lives only in the present. God the Infinite only belongs to the future. Man's needs pertain to to-day. His physical, moral, and intellectual needs are all bearing upon the present, and not the future. The past is his schoolmaster, to teach him how to be ready to enjoy the future. It is to-day that we should take thought for; hence the divine saying of the man of Nazareth—"Take no thought for the morrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." If we look to the present, and supply the needs of the present, the future will take care of itself. The man seeking for religion thinks he wants it for the future, in order that he may die right; but a man does not want religion to die by. There will be no trouble about his dying if he only lives right. I do not care for religion for the sake of having it to die by. Only give me its living benefits, and you are welcome to its dying benefits. This shows the false estimate the world sets upon religion.

I desire to impress upon your minds this principle, that when you look down to the real basis of selfishness and lust, you will find that they do not originate in the body, but that they pertain to the spiritual being. There are certain needs, however, which do grow out of the physical body; but when the spirit is separated from the body, it no longer feels these physical demands; for instance, it will no longer feel the need of food, experience thirst, or be susceptible to the effects of the elements—heat and cold—as is the physical nature; but that which administers to the demands of the mind, independent of the body, belongs to the mind. And when you enter the Spirit world, if you