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

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This sphere of lust, I say, then, does not arise from the body, nor from the influence of the body on the soul. It arises from our neglect of our spiritual needs. This lust, this desire proclaims a divine life within, which demands activity corresponding to our real natures; and we can never get peace and happiness until those real demands of our natures are supplied. I appeal to all pleasure-seekers whether this is not true. You have heard it argued whether there be more pleasure in anticipation than in participation. The world’s pleasures are always in the future, never in the present. The man or the woman of the world is never satisfied with present conditions or present attainments. Why not? Because the man and the woman of the world are not attending to the present needs of the spiritual nature. The finite man 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.