Mortals sometimes wonder if there is cold and frost, snow and ice, in the spirit world; and spirits, in making their statements concerning the surroundings and conditions in that land, do so according to their own experience, which is sometimes greatly varied and diversified. Speaking for myself, I have never witnessed any severe storm, nor been affected by either extreme of cold or heat, since passing to the “other life.” The atmosphere in which I dwell is mild and genial, rather of an exhilarating than of a depressing nature, because of the preponderance of the electrical current. While inhaling the air of my spirit home I always feel strong and full of vitality. Work is there like play, so easily is it taken up and pursued, and the mere act of breathing is an exquisite pleasure. Life is full of gladness, because no external condition presses heavily upon the bodily frame. Our clothing is adapted to the wants and purposes of the body; our food assimilates with the system, and provides nutriment for every part. And so, being blest with good health, pleasant surroundings, and an abundance of labor, we cannot be otherwise than cheerful and happy. Where I reside, we are never visited by storm and tempest; the face of nature is daily bathed in a soft, delicious mist that descends from the snowy clouds above, moistening the trees and flowers and wrapping everything in a semi-transparent veil through which the rosy light of day glows with a bewitching hue. This mist only remains long enough to give the world around a plenteous bath, and then disappears before the presence of the ever-genial yet to us never too-fervid sun.
REASONS FOR DIFFERENT VIEWS OF SPIRIT SURROUNDINGS.
I have visited other localities of the spirit world, whose inhabitants have complained of intense cold; and though I was not affected by any uncomfortable sensation, yet I have seen them shiver and shake as though smitten by an ague fit. The landscape to these unhappy ones appeared to be cold, lifeless, and barren, as though the dreariness of December days had settled upon it; but to me the scene was more promising and life-like, for I was not surrounded by the same conditions of mind and body as were those who dwelt in these haunts of woe.
I have known certain spirits to manifest themselves to mortals with the declaration that their homes in the spirit world had been visited by terrible storms and whirlwinds, and that the shock of those tempests had been almost too much for them to endure. This was very true; but those spirits did not realize or know that they had never entered the spiritual world, but that, through the earthly nature of their own magnetic attraction, they had gravitated to some condition of earthly life,—had attached themselves to crude-minded spirits yet in the flesh, and had encountered earthly storms and whirlwinds that had swept wildly over the terrestrial world.
Other spirits have testified to mortals that their homes are dark, dreary, rugged, and bleak. Such beings dwell very near the physical life. They have never explored the realms of spirit; their desires are all of a carnal character; the very persons who attract them to their earthly haunts are of a rough, uncouth, and undeveloped nature. Therefore, they come in contact with no refinement, no culture, and no beauty; their lives are barren indeed, and not until they desire to receive, understand, and acknowledge the truths that missionary spirits are ready to reveal to their comprehension will they emerge from their unhappy condition. “None are so blind as those who will not see;” and the arrogant, self-sufficient, and self-opinionated spirit prefers to wander in darkness, and to stumble on over a rough and thorny road, rather than to acknowledge his short-sightedness and admit a desire to be guided aright. Only suffering, keen and severe, will bring to such the experience required to produce a better and sweeter nature.
Beautiful homes, lovely associations, and the fondest and most endearing of ties, all of which will be found to be real, tangible, and enduring, await every spirit in the supernal world; yet those who are not aspirational in character, who are not ready to spurn the selfish propensities that belong to the animal nature, to lay aside all considerations of personal grandeur, glory, and aggrandizement, will not be able to perceive, appreciate, or enjoy those “homes not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
Oh, how earnestly we should all strive to cultivate a pure, noble, and unselfish character! How we should endeavor to uplift, guide, and instruct the poor, benighted spirits who know not the true meaning of existence! Those of you, O mortals, who have opened your hearts and homes to the presence of spirits, who devote a part of your time to the good work of receiving the poor, ignorant, and uncultured who come to you through mediumistic sources, are performing a grand mission in life; you are co-operating with exalted intelligences in accomplishing a noble work.
Speak not harshly to the erring, either of mortal or spirit life. Let your words be full of kindness, admonition, and instruction, and let your lives be living examples of the love and truth you expound. Thus you will accomplish a great and lasting good for the benefit of others and the glory of the angel world.
A word of kindness, a gentle clasp of the hand, the gift of a single flower tendered to an erring spirit, accompanied by a little instructive, loving advice, may be the means of setting a benighted soul forward upon the upward road which leadeth to light and joy, and peace everlasting. This is a work that all may do; let us, spirits and mortals, co-operate to the grand end of elevating the lowly.