The human spirit is framed for perception and enjoyment of heavenly realities. It longs for its native eternity. All love of the beautiful, all aspirations after wisdom, all search for the fulness of truth, all yearning after purity attest the immortal existence in store for the spirit and to which, by virtue of origin and essence, it is indissolubly allied. Our strongest passion is to possess the beautiful. In the soul's juvenile periods there is the desire after physical beauty, but the best feelings of age are moved by "the beauty of holiness." The soul swells with unutterable yearnings for a speedy fulfilment of the prayer: Thy kingdom come. This is because the elements of which the spirit is constituted are the property of the Summer Land to come, but men invest this primary existence with imperishable characteristics inseparable from our true home. Ultimately the miseries and materiality of this life become burdens. Human association no longer satisfies. The soul goes forth thirsting and hungering after righteousness, but only from that Invisible Spirit Who is God of Nature does it attain rest and hope.
The power of the soul to anticipate realities belonging to the Land of Spirit is so perfect that on its arrival there a sense of familiarity steals over the mind, as though it had many times before witnessed the same scenes. Poets and painters of landscapes colour their
best thoughts with vague tints of immortal beauty. When such minds arrive at the Second Sphere they are instantly at home and content. The most physically wretched, the morally insane and crippled, even as the saint, cry naturally to heaven; and the soul's inmost fount of intuition is touched, ever and anon, by the presence of an angel. Bright and beautiful are countenances of the pure in heart, and beautiful and bright surpassingly are eyes of the higher angels. They express tender love and saving wisdom; they bring beauty and light in their garments; the aroma of their hearts mitigates pain and trouble; they give dreams of coming happiness to departing souls. How incessantly employed in deeds of friendship are the pure and noble of the Summer Land. They come down from their beautiful gardens to mingle with those on earth who pray and work for this reign of freedom. As goodness, truth and wisdom are manifestations of God, so love, purity, philanthropy come from the heart of Nature, and these attributes of humanity are displayed more fully in the world beyond. Each visitor is prompted to perform some kindly office for the sake of humanity. Of the benevolent and unselfish who once lived on earth there are millions in the adjoining world. A stream of constant philanthropy flows from them earthward: when possible, they lift the down-trodden and save the fallen from a lower depth. The selfishness of earth is not fostered in the Summer Land, and sweeter than the waters of Paradise is the breath of every one who visits mankind on missions of mercy.
Progression is the angel of our deliverance, and our heavenly visitors hasten the day of its power. While it is we always who must work out our own salvation from the causes of our unhappiness, the help of angels is with us, and it is extended in proportion as we help ourselves.