You have heard of Zencollia City, with its peaceful homes and stately temples. Let me now speak to you of that sweet, blooming, delightful Spring Garden City, where the good, the beautiful, and the noble gather together to engage in works of love for humanity. It is impossible for you of earth to conceive of the magnitude and extent of this spirit city, which seems almost boundless in width and length.
The habitations are of various hues and textures; many of them standing in the midst of luxuriant groves, where the branches of stately trees cast a pleasant shade, and where birds make music all the sunny day; or in the center of blooming gardens, where parterres of beautiful flowers make the balmy air redolent with perfume and the landscape to glow with beauty.
These habitations, built as they may be of spotless, alabaster-like stone, marble, or a particular kind of variegated stone, peculiar to this place, which seems almost translucent, as it gleams in rainbow colors beneath the shining sun, are all furnished and adorned with soft, velvet-like draperies, snowy hangings, pure white tables and seats, beautiful, life-like pictures, ivory statuary, and hanging baskets of flowering plants, and present a picture of home-like comfort and hospitality.
Many of the houses are open at the sides, the ceilings being supported by exquisitely carved columns of stone, around which emerald vines, laden with fragrant flowers, climb and cluster; and the passer-by can note the appearance of purity, peace, and comfort within.
THE PEOPLE OF SPRING GARDEN CITY.
The inhabitants of this celestial city are ever busy, either devising some new method of aiding and assisting the distressed, attending some of its many schools of instruction, its halls of music and literature, or working together in bands to elevate and instruct needy souls upon earth, or in the lower realms of spirit life.
These spirit people dress simply and naturally, in flowing robes, of any color which most harmonizes with their interior condition; they are all beautiful, a light radiating from each countenance, an expression of peace and contentment upon each face, and a smile upon the lips; all of which beautify the features and cast a halo of brilliancy around the form.
Beautiful groves, watered by running streams, shaded by lofty trees, and made charming by banks of velvety moss, starred with fragrant blossoms, are seen in the midst of this city of souls; and in these spots beneath the blue canopy of the sky, inhaling the perfumed invigorating air, many spirits daily congregate to listen to words of advice, instruction, and wisdom from inspired lips. And from these places the inhabitants of Spring Garden City go forth to their homes, exalted in spirit, or come down to mortals who dwell in sorrow, and shed over them the divine influence caught from higher scenes, which uplifts and strengthens the struggling ones below.
CHILDREN’S LYCEUM.
In the center of one of the largest, most beautiful groves, where rippling waters, breezes swaying the leafy branches of the trees, and the song of birds send a constant stream of melody through the air, made fragrant by odorous flowers, a stately temple stands. It is of burnished silver, which flashes and glows in the light of the sun. Within, its walls are hung with landscape paintings, and draperies of azure satin. The floor is of white marble, and the spotless ceiling is frescoed with paintings of marvelous beauty.