He discovered also that when this change came to his body his spirit became more active; he could perceive more distinctly the principles of life around him. Instead of a fading away of the senses, there was a quickening' of every faculty. He could hear better and could see better. He could nut only see the forms of his loved ones standing around in the physical body, but he could feel their thoughts, understand their griefs, and plead with them not to be thinking that he was dying, but that he was growing more and more alive every moment.

The clock ticking upon the mantel wasnot only palpable to his senses, but he could feel the pulsation of time while the waves of eternity were rolling in upon and around him. He could see the thought of the attendant physician, whose hand was on his pulse, that he could not last many minutes longer, and in spirit he could smile at the feebleness of the physical physician, who did not know the reality of life from its semblance. "Last many minutes longer"? Why, he was preparing to last forever, and putting on this superconsciousness of immortality while yet the physical form was gradually receding.

A new transport, a new delight took possession of him. Every atom of the surrounding atmosphere was vocal; every particle was luminous, and instead of dull, empty air, there were millions of forms of life that before were unperceived, and the countenances with which he had become familiar in his periods of spiritual visitations, now came to him as a greater reality, as more living and palpable presences. He was suddenly conscious of expansion of vision, and saw all the places of the earth that he had ever visited. He perceived immortal heighths and depths that before were unknown to him, and which he had simply visited in the periods of spiritual vision. Oh, it was a seizing of life from its beginning! It was the transport of added birth ! As plumes to the bird, as wings to the butterfly, or as the higher air of the mountain to the one who has lived in a dark cave, such was the rapture that took possession of him.

And strangely enough, all persons who were in sympathy with him in the slightest degree, whose affections went out to him, who were thinking, perhaps, at this hour their friend was dying - to him their thoughts were as real and palpable as I hough they - were printed in burning letters before him. He could see their mistaken ideas of death; and he could feel compassion for them, for they did not know any better than to feel as they did. He could comprehend not only their condition, but he could say to himself, "I will soon convince you, my friends, that I am not dead." So alive did he seem, and so conscious, that he was really aware at one and the same time of the thoughts of all his friends.

This became the living reality into which he entered, and the spiritual states so endowed him with the palpable possession of the spirit, that all time, distance and space were annihilated by the perception of the spirit, and a thousand miles seemed but here, and a thousand days seemed but as a moment. All of his life was summed up in the charmed and crystal jewels that shone clear and bright as an epitome of his best and brightest thoughts; while the shadows, such as environ our human life, seemed to fade away in the greater and larger splendor of being.

As one who is accustomed to the waves shrinks not from plunging into the ocean, confident that the buoyancy will bear him up, so drinking in the splendor of freedom did that spirit feel in the light, and strength, and power of the new life; or better still, as one would feel if able to soar upwards and cleave with pinions of might the upper air, so did he feel when no longer encompassed by the physical form.

Better than this: The love, and the hope, and the faith that had been his, the confidence and the knowledge, became palpable reality - the living light of his presence. Still familiar with scientific truths upon earth as taught by man, the reality of the soul of science came upon him in that spiritual state; principles were perceived; it was no longer the relationships of matter with matter or atom with atom, time and space intervening. Oil, it was the work of life to feel the vital principles of vital truth. Stars were measured; space was annihilated; atoms were perceived in their relative position, and all government by the laws of intelligence and of life.

There could be no mystery to this man in death. He could see the thoughts of those whom he loved as palpable as you can a written page, and could feel their lamentations, understand their sorrow, and have compassion for the grief that they felt for his change. But he could triumph in the consciousness: " How they will feel when they come to know what death is, and the mistake that they have made." And with that triumph came the greatest compassion for the shortsightedness of human vision that considers death a darkness instead of the light.

Such a great presence as that in spiritual life - such a mind as that freed from the material form - is not the setting of a sun or star upon earth, but the rising of a splendor in the spiritual firmament. Such men bear with them into the spiritual kingdom the powers of mighty warriors. They are not monarchs of the field of blood upon the earth; they are not potentates that sway by the might of arms, but they are spirits who govern by the majesty of the law of love and kindness, and sway human lives by the grandeur of their spiritual perceptions.

Therefore, when the press of earth and the funereal pomp say to you a great splendor has gone out of human life, they know not what they say. A great splendor has been added to human life; has been set free to shine upon humanity; has been released, as a light that might have been hidden, as the sunshine obscured by the bank of fog, or an eclipse; as a planet not before discovered, shining within the radius of telescopic vision - such is a wise man when freed from the human form.