90. So far as the devil is only an imaginary embodiment of the evil passions of men, as conceived by many enlightened Christians, no doubt those and many other analagous acts were due to the devil; but when the benevolent language of the spirits respecting sinners is contrasted with the cruel doctrine of the church in question, as well as by others, it can hardly be conceived that this language comes from Satan, and that of the churches from the “benevolent” Jesus Christ.
91. The following verses, which have already appeared in my letter to the Episcopal clergy, express the sentiments of the spirits—every soul having the privilege of reforming, and rising proportionally to the improvement thus obtained:
92. However late, as holy angels teach,
Souls now in Hades, bliss in Heaven may reach.
All whose conduct has been mainly right,
With lightning speed may gain that blissful height;
While those who selfish, sensual ends pursue,
For ages may their vicious conduct rue,
Doom’d in some low and loathsome plane to dwell,
Made through remorse and shame the sinner’s hell;