第13章 THE COMING LIFE(2)

Without such punishment there could be no justice in the Universe, for how impossible it would be to imagine that the fate of a Rasputin is the same as that of a Father Damien.The punishment is very certain and very serious, though in its less severe forms it Page 69only consists in the fact that the grosser souls are in lower spheres with a knowledge that their own deeds have placed them there, but also with the hope that expiation and the help of those above them will educate them and bring them level with the others.In this saving process the higher spirits find part of their employment.Miss Julia Ames in her beautiful posthumous book, says in memorable words: "The greatest joy of Heaven is emptying Hell."Setting aside those probationary spheres, which should perhaps rather be looked upon as a hospital for weakly souls than as a penal community, the reports from the other world are all agreed as to the pleasant conditions of life in the beyond.They agree that like goes to like, that all who love or who have interests in common are united, that life is full of interest and of occupation, and that they would by no means desire to return.All of this is surely tidings of great joy, and I repeat that it is not a vague faith or hope, but that it is supported by all the laws of evidence which agree that where many independent witnesses give a similar account, Page 70that account has a claim to be considered a true one.If it were an account of glorified souls purged instantly from all human weakness and of a constant ecstasy of adoration round the throne of the all powerful, it might well be suspected as being the mere reflection of that popular theology which all the mediums had equally received in their youth.It is, however, very different to any preexisting system.It is also supported, as I have already pointed out, not merely by the consistency of the accounts, but by the fact that the accounts are the ultimate product of a long series of phenomena, all of which have been attested as true by those who have carefully examined them.

In connection with the general subject of life after death, people may say we have got this knowledge already through faith.But faith, however beautiful in the individual, has always in collective bodies been a very two-edged quality.All would be well if every faith were alike and the intuitions of the human race were constant.We know that it is not so.Faith means to say that you entirely believe a thing which you cannot Page 71prove.One man says: "My faith is this." Another says: "My faith is that." Neither can prove it, so they wrangle for ever, either mentally or in the old days physically.If one is stronger than the other, he is inclined to persecute him just to twist him round to the true faith.

Because Philip the Second's faith was strong and clear he, quite logically, killed a hundred thousand Lowlanders in the hope that their fellow countrymen would be turned to the all-important truth.Now, if it were recognised that it is by no means virtuous to claim what you could not prove, we should then be driven to observe facts, to reason from them, and perhaps reach common agreement.That is why this psychical movement appears so valuable.

Its feet are on something more solid than texts or traditions or intuitions.

It is religion from the double point of view of both worlds up to date, instead of the ancient traditions of one world.

We cannot look upon this coming world as a tidy Dutch garden of a place which is so exact that it can easily be described.It is probable that those messengers who come Page 72back to us are all, more or less, in one state of development and represent the same wave of life as it recedes from our shores.Communications usually come from those who have not long passed over, and tend to grow fainter, as one would expect.It is instructive in this respect to notice that Christ's reappearances to his disciples or to Paul, are said to have been within a very few years of his death, and that there is no claim among the early Christians to have seen him later.The cases of spirits who give good proof of authenticity and yet have passed some time are not common.There is, in Mr.Dawson Roger's life, a very good case of a spirit who called himself Manton, and claimed to have been born at Lawrence Lydiard and buried at Stoke Newington in 1677.It was clearly shown afterwards that there was such a man, and that he was Oliver Cromwell's chaplain.So far as my own reading goes, this is the oldest spirit who is on record as returning, and generally they are quite recent.Hence, one gets all one's views from the one generation, as it were, and we cannot take them as final, but Page 75only as partial.How spirits may see things in a different light as they progress in the other world is shown by Miss Julia Ames, who was deeply impressed at first by the necessity of forming a bureau of communication, but admitted, after fifteen years, that not one spirit in a million among the main body upon the further side ever wanted to communicate with us at all since their own loved ones had come over.She had been misled by the fact that when she first passed over everyone she met was newly arrived like herself.

Thus the account we give may be partial, but still such as it is it is very consistent and of extraordinary interest, since it refers to our own destiny and that of those we love.All agree that life beyond is for a limited period, after which they pass on to yet other phases, but apparently there is more communication between these phases than there is between us and Spiritland.The lower cannot ascend, but the higher can descend at will.The life has a close analogy to that of this world at it its best.It is pre-eminently a life of the mind, as this is of the body.Preoccupations Page 74of food, money, lust, pain, etc., are of the body and are gone.Music, the Arts, intellectual and spiritual knowledge, and progress have increased.