Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/63

 which is divorced from its lustful or selfish character—not based upon considerations of self-gain. We may desire the salvation of individuals on our own account, for our own enjoyment, and also from a love divorced from all considerations of self, which stands out holy, pure, and undefiled for a being outside of itself. The mother, in loving her child, experiences happiness; and as she presses it to her bosom, and imprints upon its delicate cheek the maternal kiss, there is joy deep and unutterable awakened in that mother's bosom; but she does not kiss the child that she may have the joy. It is not her joy and happiness that she seeks, but the comfort, happiness, and welfare of the child; and in thus supplying that demand of her maternal nature, she feels the influx of the divine nature, saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter into the joy of thy God." That is what God says to every mother who loves her babe from the true maternal feeling. So is it in the true relation between husband and wife. I mean now the union in heaven, and not the union fixed up by society and its institutions—I speak of such hearts as God has joined together. When the true husband meets the true wife and surrenders all his manhood to the care and keeping of that wife, in full confidence and trust that she will receive it and not abuse it; and when the wife in return gives all her womanhood to the care and fidelity of the trusting husband—when two such souls surrender each to each the other's self, loving from an interior and divine harmony, then the joys of conjugal love are awakened, the true demands of each soul are