Читать книгу The Astral World—Higher Occult Powers. Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and Spirit-Healing Fully Explained онлайн

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I am now to commence with the first—man in the lowest department of his perception and affection, to show you its nature, and its presence in him, in society, in government, and in the Spirit-world. If we would learn the laws that govern in that sphere of the Spirit-world called outer darkness, we need only learn the laws that govern in the sphere of outer darkness which is in man, and which is caused by man to exist in society. A singular idea has obtained, that this lower animal nature derives its quality from the physical body we carry about with us; and that when we come to be separated from it, we shall no longer possess any of that nature; as though this earthly body was the foundation of perception or affection—as though the instrument were the cause—as though this body, which we temporarily inhabit, exercised more control over us than the mind!

I propose first, then, to inquire how much influence the body exercises upon the mind, and how much influence the mind exercises upon the body, so that we may arrive at something like an accurate conclusion as to what our condition will be beyond the grave; for if we know how much is to be subtracted, at death, from our animal natures, we can know how much of that nature remains after we have passed beyond the influence of these material bodies. My first position is this: The manifestation of impulse in finite beings rises out of the relation which one finite being sustains to another. There is no impulse that does not grow out of this relation; and the impulse is according to the nature and character of that relation. In the divine order, if my body, as a physical and a finite existence, did not sustain any relation, it would be subject to no impulse; therefore, whenever I perceive an impulse arising within me, I am informed thereby that I sustain a certain relation to something, and that if I would become truly wise in controlling that impulse, I must learn what that relation is. I might begin back of mind or conscious being to show how uniform this law is in the material or unconscious world, as that the influence between the earth and the sun arises out of a certain relation existing between them, and that if you change or destroy that relation, you change or destroy that influence. But I will illustrate this truth by reference to a conscious being. If man could be isolated from all laws, he would be a very different being from what he now is, although he might retain the same constitution which he now possesses; because he could not then come into certain relations which are necessary, in order to have revealed within him certain affections. I will take, for instance, the conjugal relation. It is the nearest the Divine. It is the first-begotten relation below the Infinite. Until a man and woman come into the true conjugal relation, they can not experience that love known as conjugal love. Till then it can not be begotten in them. They may conjecture they know what it is, but until that true relation is established between them, they can never have an adequate conception of it—can never know what it is to become so oblivious in another as the true wife does in the husband, or the true husband does in the wife; nor can they, like the true husband and wife, experience that perfect harmony of soul, or listen to that sweet spiritual music within, till they have entered this relation, which alone can fit them for a proper conjugal union. The law exists, and the conditions exist; but man must place himself, and woman must place herself, within the sphere of the law and the conditions, or they can not experience the benefit to be derived from them. So with the parental relation. No woman can know what maternal love is till she becomes a mother. Is it not so, mothers? People may conjecture that they know what it is, and suppose it to be a pure and friendly love-feeling existing between mother and child; but they can have no adequate conception of the deep tenderness and holiness of maternal love—their idea of it does not begin to reach down into the almost infinite depths of that holy love. There is no possible way for an individual to know what maternal love is, but to come into the maternal relation. That is the way God reveals it in the soul. The reason is, that the true maternal impulse in the finite is the manifestation of the Divine in the finite sphere, and this manifestation can only be made in an individual when that individual comes into the sphere where the Infinite can confer that blessing. The same is true with reference to paternal, fraternal, filial, and social love: they all depend for their development upon those in whom they are manifested coming into the true relation which gives birth to them.