Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/176

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of goodness and truth shall have been consumed before it—till every virtuous emotion, all regard for honesty, justice and uprightness shall have perished forever. The wicked spirit may also have been surrounded in the natural world by many good men, to whom he was united by the strongest natural affections. These affections cannot suddenly perish. And though the strong current of his evil loves, bears him downwards with a force which seems irresistible, because he has no sincere and earnest desire to resist it, yet before he arrives at his eternal state, he is doomed to suffer many a painful struggle, in breaking loose forever, his affections, from those whom he once loved, but whom he can love no longer. Breaking away from every restraint he goes to his own place—to those who are internally as well as externally, like himself, and there he finds his eternal abode.

Every spirit, whether good or evil, upon entering the spiritual world, is received with kindness and compassionate care. He is surrounded with every attention, that angelic love and wisdom can bestow. This we may safely infer, from what we know of the nature of heavenly love. Even a good man will cheerfully leave all other duties, for the purpose of administering aid and comfort, in a dying hour, to his worst enemy. And are not angels much better than men. If we had no light on this subject, except what reason derives from what is known of the nature of angelic love, we would be fully sustained in the belief, that even the vilest wretch that goes from the natural to the spiritual world, is kindly and tenderly received by angels, whom the Lord has appointed for that purpose. But in addition to this natural inference, we have also the strongest collateral evidence,—the reasonings and testimony of one who well knew the truth of what he wrote. And from all these sources we learn, that all men, without regard to what their lives have been, are thus kindly received into the world of spirits. The internal state of every spirit who enters that world, is carefully examined, and such influences of good-