"If departed human beings can communicate with us and help us, can have any influence on our actions; then clearly the doors are open to a wealth of spiritual intercourse beyond what we have yet imagined."

Sir Oliver Lodge in "Life and Death," page 390.

VI

ANGELS

THE mystery of angelic existence can be more easily understood when it is compared with inexplicable natural phenomena.

The growth of a plant is noticed in the expanding leaf, but the subtle energy that lifts it out of the earth, and builds its branches, erecting a stately tree, cannot be observed. There is a plan, but the problem of its execution-the secret of its constructive force, defies analysis. It is easy to account for the substance in it, when it dies. It

decays, passing into the air, and mingling with the earth. Not an atom is lost; but what becomes of the imponderable and immaterial vitality? Certainly it is something very real. It was the most important part of the tree. It was in the seed-an invisible embryo, having mighty power, for it developed itself, and, gathering material from many

sources, produced a giant of the forest, able to endure the storms of a century. It filled every part of the tree, from the deepest roots in the darkness to the topmost branch, a hundred feet above, waving in the sunlight. It was, therefore, an invisible tree, manifesting its presence by the visible, and material form it had created; and the evidences of life that it exhibited. When the body in which this hidden, but forceful agency, had remained so long, was parted from its secret builder and nourisher, it fell in ruins never to rise again.

This vital energy, fully developed and mature was not lost. Being something it could not become nothing. Nor could it be blended with the surrounding elements in such a way as to make identification impossible to one capable of such discrimination. This would be easy for the Author of life, because varieties of existence have been generated by him, and he knows what becomes of them after they have passed out of visible forms.

It is evident that we cannot locate, or identify such a thing, and to us it must remain a profound mystery. Nevertheless, its existence cannot be successfully denied. It is still a part of nature. If it finds no environment, and, therefore, is not

used again, it has served its purpose, and, like everything else that has lived in the visible world and disappeared, it has no apparent utility or capacity for a normal existence. To us, it is of no consequence. It is like a thing that is lost, and, so far as we are concerned, is nothing, unless it can be found. It occupies no more space than an obsolete idea, and, therefore, it is not in the way. It is somewhere in the laboratory of nature, and could be discovered and identified if one could be found with ability for such difficult work. Therefore, a tree has a kind of soul-an invisible force within, full of promise and potency.

The growth and development of a human being is similar. He leaves the material body. But he is very different from a tree or an animal, for he is able to understand that he has been transferred to another state, and can exist without the body in which he formerly lived. He finds that he has the capacity for a new mode of existence, and if his tendencies are right he rejoices in the fact, for he sees that he can do better. He finds that ample provision has been made for super-mundane life, and that it is adapted to his tastes and ambitions; for he is a rational and moral being, having some

characteristics and proclivities that are like those of the divine Christ who lives without material form, and prefers the spiritual state because of its great advantages.

Angels, good and bad, are human, and were earthly in their origin.1 They lived and died and constitute the inhabitants of the spiritual world. They are not a different order of beings, but are simply men and women of the immortal states. There is no authentic record of the creation of angels, which shows that they were incorporeal in the beginning. It cannot be shown that they have never lived in the flesh as we do. When inquiry was made concerning our nature in the other world, the Saviour plainly stated that those who were worthy of a heavenly resurrection would be angels, for he said they are, in that superior life, "'equal unto,' or 'as,' the angels." 2 Not only in respect to immortality did he understand them to be the same, but in respect to the marriage relation, and in all other respects.3 He refers to Moses, and Abraham, and

1 Ch. ix., p. 180.

2 Matt. xxii. 30-32. Luke xx. 36-38.

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The scope is not limited. We should not infer from Christ's words in this passage that we shall lose the characteristics of manhood or womanhood when we enter the other

others, as examples of men who had become angels. And it cannot be shown that a bad man is not “equal unto," or "as," a spiritual devil on the other side.

Angels appear in human form and in spiritual bodies. In vision, or in symbol, they may have. wings, or assume various shapes, illustrating character, or powers, but in fact they are spiritual men and women. As messengers they appeared, and were known, as men of a heavenly kind, representing the celestial state, in their apparel, as well as their expressive faces.

· The first chapter of Genesis gives a vision of the Creation in general, including mankind. The second chapter is specific. We come to the production of a certain man whose locality is mentioned. He has special privileges, and is honored as the progenitor of a new race with a great future, through which a divine revelation is to be given

world. Sexuality is in the mind. Man is, and must be, eternally different from woman. The marriage relation, as we have it in this life, involving legal restrictions, births and deaths, will be a thing of the past. But connubial love, exalted, pure, celestial and rapturous, will find expression and response. This implies unions far more desirable than any known to us, making heaven the ideal life.