We have endeavored to give in the previous discourses some idea of spiritual states and conditions. This, of course, has been the state and condition of the spirit itself - the state of being. That which we propose to invite your attention to now is the active state, or the state of doing.

All ideas of human employment must necessarily cluster around the senses. The labor of the hands is the great burden of human existence, the weary treadmill in which man finds himself immured, from which there seems to be little opportunity of escape, save through the avenue of wealth, indigence, or intellectual power. The wealthy seek exemption from the toil of the hands, as though, indeed, those cunningly fashioned instruments were not especially adapted to human uses; as though, fulfilling the purposes of thought and brain, the fingers and hands were not indeed the divine achievment which they are.

The very wealthy and the very idle seek exemption from the ban of toil only to plunge into a more toilsome pleasure. For if labor is indeed the tyrant of earth, there can be no greater than that of idleness - that which seeks freedom from systematic labor. A great pleasure-hunting, pleasure-loving, and pleasure-weary world, would be a spectacle far sadder to the eyes of the spirit than a labor-weary world. If there be a divine seal which God has placed on the human brow, and a signet of a nobility that prince and king can never wear, it is the seal of labor; not that kind of toil that comes with the weary, grinding slavery, nor that mechanism of toil that grinds the life out of the young that the great, and the proud, and the wealthy may revel in luxury, but the labor of the willing hand and ready heart; the daily preparation for the daily life. The accomplishment by each of something that is worthy and well done for every day, is the ennobling thought of human existence. The exemption from toil of the hands is the great triumph of mechanical art, but which only leads man into more skillful and intricate paths of toil. But, after all, in human life you construct your ideas of labor upon that which is most wearisome, and consider that a wholesome fatigue after the day of toil is something to be avoided. Do not think so. In the great coming time of the earth, in the golden age that is to be, there will be no drones, no idlers, no laggards, in the great human family. Every one will perform enough labor for bodily health, to supply the bodily needs, and a greater simplicity of life will lead to the greater happiness of spirit and to mind; while if mechanical arts are employed for uplifting the grosser burdens of toil, it will only be that the hands are set free to those employments more congenial, which satisfy the mind.

Often we have heard people say: " Oh, if I only had time !" Pardon me. Time is not so much an important factor; at least there is not so little time as there is lack of adaptation - lack of the right kind of energy, lack of useful employment of moments and hours, which perhaps are wasted in idle longing, in unnecessary desires for that which you do not possess. How much can be accomplished in an hour towards those pursuits that you say you long for.

The spectacle of humanity left without employment would be a spectacle of great sadness; a spectacle indeed that could not be contemplated without most absolute misery on the part of those left without occupation.

But the difference between the spiritual state and the earthly is, that the absolute necessities are spiritual instead of material; that therefore the employments must be spiritual instead of material. But if one accustomed to employment of the hands, and no thought beyond that, shall pass into spiritual life, that one surely is not left without an adequate substitute for that active employment which has engaged him here. So in reality he does engage in manual labor there by assisting those on earth who are still compelled to toil.

Do you not know when you have had an unusual amount of labor some particular day or week, how you have been aided, how your hands have been strengthened, how your mind has been encouraged, and your feet made to walk, by some presence and power not seen? Such assistance comes not only to the spirit from those who love you, but to the body from those who are willing and able to aid you in your toil.

The burdens of the world are not left for you to bear alone, provided you bear them willingly. It is the willing laborer which is assisted, but the sluggard, and the drone, and the complaining one is not in condition to be assisted in either world. There must come to each from out the spiritual states where strength and power are predominant, a distinct and conscious assistance. To aid those who are toiling wearily like the slave from morning till night, without the conscious lifting of his burden; to aid those who stand upon their feet from early morn till late at night, and have no opportunity to rest the weary limb or divert the weary brain, is a great privilege. The hands of human beings who minister in that capacity but find expression to their usual thought for employment and for toil. And these are they who help in the great wonder-workings of the world - the building of railways, of ships, of cities, of mighty enterprises that require countless human hands. This same element in spiritual life is utilized to make the burden of the toiler less.

The spirits do not find it necessary to labor physically for their own maintenance. They must, therefore, find that which corresponds to the thought of their labor or employment in assisting in the maintenance of others, endeavoring to make their burdens lighter.

Such is the necessity of occupation that many minds, even of earth, seek employment perhaps not necessary to be done. Restless conditions of mind are not necessarily conditions of employment. Dissatisfaction is not necessarily evidence of activity. Those who are restless would do well to find great employment in the majesty of content, and in the grandeur of seeking not simply something to do, but something that is needful to be done. It is not always necessary to take a broom and brush around in the centre of the room in order to be busy. Your speaker has known many housewives who have not only found it necessary to employ every moment of the day in doing that which had been done already, but doing it over again because it was not best to be idle. Such is not labor or employment, but it is a state of overwrought nerves; a condition of restlessness that would do well to seek rest.