Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/174

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live, constitutes no part of his individual selfhood. It is the Jehovah in the soul, by which he is revealed to himself. That character in man, I grant, never changes.

It is the external individual character to which I wish to call attention in a special manner. Now that character which makes me an individual being, and by which I become wise or foolish, good or bad, true or false, is constantly undergoing changes, and is developed under laws growing out of relations which I sustain to material and spiritual things and influences which operate upon me from both the natural and spiritual plane. This finite character is the one by which I am to be judged.

I wish to examine man in his relations to the present and the future, and ascertain, if possible, how much of this finite character will continue with him after he enters the Spirit-world, because upon this point there is a great diversity of opinion. It is really one of the vital points of Spiritualism. How, then, is this external individual character unfolded? It depends upon the ruling love in the individual, as well as upon his intelligence or perception. We know that the individual dwelling in selfish lust unfolds his selfish character by doing that which he thinks will furnish him self-gratification, and we determine his character by the character of the impulse which governs him. The individual who has known no higher impulse than this desire for self-gratification, finds it impossible to conceive that a person can act from a higher impulse; but one who has experienced in himself a higher and purer impulse than that which looks after self-gratification,