once men or women on some earth in the physical universe.
There is no great Evil Spirit, the Devil, who concentrates about himself all the powers of hell and wars with the Almighty for the mastery of the universe. How the idea of the personality of the devil originated, will be explained in its proper place.
The same universal truths which unfolded the mysteries of heaven, will reveal to us also the dreadful secrets of hell. These universal truths or keys are the doctrines of Influx, Free Agency. Degrees and Correspondence.
God is the sole life of the universe. He does not create life but gives it. It is uncreated. We live by his life; not by a force, derived perhaps from Him, but now fully our own and independent of Him; but by life from moment to moment flowing from Him and received into our spirit. This is influx. There is not, therefore, one God in heaven and another or a different one in hell; one law in heaven and an opposite in hell; an economy of grace in one and an economy of wrath in the other. The entire universe is held together by one breath, one life, one law.
What, then, is our own? Our will, our volition;
