CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Preface | [7] |
| The Theme | [13] |
| The Immortality of the Soul and a Future State of Existence | [18] |
| The Possibility of a more Intimate Knowledge of God; our Relations to Him, and of a Future State or Place of Habitation | [28] |
| The Creation | [30] |
| The Sun, the Source of Light and Heat | [33] |
| Wondrous Works of God | [35] |
| The Discoveries of the Motion of the Earth and Heavenly Bodies | [43] |
| The Romish Church | [51] |
| Ghastly Revelations | [61] |
| Attraction, Gravitation, &c. | [73] |
| Suns, Stars, Planets, &c. | [75] |
| Fixed Stars are Suns | [89] |
| A Contemplation | [96] |
| The Sun,—and Globe within | [100] |
| The Planets of our Solar System | [108] |
| God's Throne shall endure forever; so also shall the Sun. Scriptural Evidence for all that we claim | [118] |
| Sun and Heaven | [141] |
| A Plurality of Heavens | [145] |
| A Place for the Wicked | [150] |
| The Nature of the Light of the Heavenly World | [166] |
| That Heavenly World | [169] |
| The Dimensions and Capacity of the City—there is room for all, and to spare | [175] |
| The Native Population of the Heavenly World | [179] |
| The Vast Numbers of the Angels | [183] |
| Amazing Strength of Angels | [184] |
| Rapidity of Movement of the Angels | [185] |
| Certainty of a Resurrection | [190] |
| The Resurrection | [195] |
| A Serious Contemplation | [201] |
| The Final Judgment | [205] |
| A Home in Heaven | [206] |
| Conclusive and Concluding Argument | [211] |
| Will all take heed? | [215] |
| Appeal to Christian Ministers | [218] |
| Appeal to All | [237] |
PREFACE.
In presenting this volume to the "intelligence of the world," the author is fully aware of the incredulity with which it may meet in many literary minds. Nevertheless, the truths which it contains will remain unmarred by the salient attacks of "critics," when they have passed away and have ceased to be remembered. Thus it has ever been with the discovery of all great and important truths, from the creation of man down to the present day. For more than eighteen hundred years now past, the succession of a once prominent race have disbelieved in the Messiahship of Christ. And even the Christian world are still divided in their belief as to a Trinity in Unity.
Some three hundred years ago, the great and learned philosopher and astronomer, Galileo, made an ascent in the empire of mind and science, and promulgated immutable truths founded upon the laws of creation, emanating from God himself; yet these were, for a time, disbelieved, and, through the bigotry of a controlling Priesthood, he was even forced to renounce them before a court of "Cardinals" of the Romish Church, sitting as "inquisitors against heretical depravity" at the city of Rome; and at the venerable age of seventy years, to accept the sentence to a dungeon for life, in the "Inquisition;" and yet these same truths have universally prevailed. So, also, are there unbelievers to-day, in the existence of a God, and the immortality of the soul—the truth of which all Christians, and even heathens, believe.
We, therefore, feel that in advancing a new theory, especially one of such magnitude and import, that we shall meet more or less opposition; but we are willing to abide time's inevitable changes, in advancing the mind to grasp and comprehend truths which God himself has revealed for our contemplation. Still, we believe that there are many millions who are now ready to comprehend and believe, and are only waiting for a little additional light, or the grouping together of facts founded on the revelations of God, and examined in the light of a true science.
Philosophers and astronomers have advanced the idea of "a plurality of suns, and a plurality of worlds," and have sustained this theory by the most convincing evidence. This lays the foundation for a further advance in the contemplation of the wonderful works of the Creator, and justifies the hypothesis of a plurality of heavens; and we think the revelations of God, and revelations through the science of astronomy, will sustain the additional hypothesis that within what are denominated "suns" there are vast globes or worlds, separate and apart from the surrounding photosphere of ethereal fire, and that within what we denominate our sun, is our heaven.
We have, therefore, penned the following pages with this impression fixed in our mind, and send this volume forth to encounter the enlightenment of the age, to be sifted and weighed in the sieve and scale of intellect; and, relying on the Word of God and His revelations to man, we feel satisfied that when the ordeal is past, we shall still have remaining "full measure and weight."