Here you are, gathered together in this room. You are not afraid of one another; the law of humanity and the amenities of life bind you together in one society, without the aid of the strong hand of the law. You have no intention of doing violence to one another, or to any human being. The average human life is higher than the level of crime, and therefore when spirits enter spiritual life the average is above the shadow level instead of below it, and therefore the power of the good that is there must be infinitely greater than the power of evil; for even those who have passed away from earth life in evil conditions, have been still gradually improved by slow degrees, and gradually drawing nearer to the light, while those who passed away from earth life in conditions of goodness, have certainly now reached a state that is almost saint-like in their splendor and brightness.

So, while good is forever augmenting, evils are everywhere lessening, and the earth is gradually being uplifted by this strong light from the realms of the spirit that penetrates the darkness here as well as the darkness of the other world.

The individual state is more a subject to be considered and commiserated than the aggregate power of evil; for the individual criminal, the individual sinner, those individuals in darkness, and especially the. individual selfishness, results in much misery. Gehenna is within, and as that cannot be righted at once, because it is not powerful, so it may be within as a consuming fire, an unquenchable flame, which cannot possibly cease until it has burned the dross away within the heart. For this state there is everything that deserves compassion, and deserves the sympathy and pity of those who are beyond it. But certainly you cannot fear - the poor drunkard, inebriated on the street, is as potent to do you harm as a spirit intoxicated by its own misdeeds and selfishness on earth. You pick him up, or despise him may be, but you do not fear him.

The Divine affection of spirit life and of angelic existence looks upon the shadow-land of the abject criminal and the abjectly selfish in the same way. The philanthropist looks upon the victim of earthly appetites with divine compassion, or as the Master looked upon those who were condemned and censured of men - "Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more." What had He to fear from their condition? How could the publicans and sinners harm Him who had a message of life to give, and the}* in the shadows of death?

So ye who have a message of life, give that message to man, woman, child or spirit, but do not fear that their shadow will come up to engulf you; for the voice that is within you and the truth that you express, if it be in earnest, is so potent and powerful that it not only can conquer death, but swallow Hades, Gehenna, and all the darkness of the bottomless pit, and shine in upon those who are immured in the shadows of their own creation, as the light let in by a loving hand can illumine the dungeon cell and set the captive free.

Homes and Association In. Spirit Life,.

The ideal home of earth is the ideal centre of human happiness and civilization; that which forms the basis of all associative life, and elevates humanity at once from the standard of materiality to the realm of spiritual and moral existence.

As the home is the centre of human society, so is affection the centre of the home; and this, whether it be in palace or cottage, whether it be in the midst of crowded cities, or far out upon the plains, or in the wilderness, is the basis of all human civilization. The nomadic tribes of the earth, wandering-hither and thither in pursuit of game or shelter, can of course, owing to their earthly conditions of dependence, have no real home.

Locality seems to be as essential to the actual home of earth as affection is to its more spiritual quality. The reason of this is evident. Marauding and wandering peoples cannot possibly cultivate the affections to the degree of permanence. The Tartaric tribes that have descended all over the Orient, devastating the ancient civilization of the earth, brought with them that lack of centralizing power of civilization - the home.

The reason that Mohammedanism has desolated the nations over which it has spread, is not because the kingdom of Allah or the worship of the Mohammedan is less exalted, but because there is no home.

That centre and basis of all life is absent where polygamy abounds, and the home-life must be robbed of its sweetness wherever that devastation spreads. Consequently the kings of Israel, elevated to pomp and power by the greatness of their ambition, could not perpetuate the estate 'of the true Church upon earth because of the centralizing power of riches instead of affection; of worldly power and pride instead of the exaltation of the spirit.

To one who contemplates the Kingdom of Heaven as a kingdom without a home, there can be but little save desolation and loneliness; and that creed or religion that declares it possible for man to be happy while his fellow-beings and the brothers of his own household may be writhing in misery, declares a monstrosity such as no kingdom, nation or class of people can believe without degradation.

Therefore when a prominent divine said that the soul is destined to pass through eternity alone in the sight of God, he declared that which, were it true, would rob Heaven of its glory and eternity of its happiness.

As we have stated, the ideal home is the centre of earthly life. What is the ideal?

One cannot picture a palace without some time entering there and finding misery and darkness. One cannot picture a cottage without some time finding want, and penury, and woe. But somewhere upon the earth, and somewhere in the secluded and sequestered regions of memory, your thought of childhood goes back to the real home. It is not the walls nor pictures hanging thereon, nor the frescoed ceiling, nor the carved images in. the niche, nor the marble tessellated floor, but it is the centre from which the mother's eve gleamed out with affection; from which the father's benign countenance, full of wisdom and full of love, shines with reverent air; and clustering like flowers around a central group in the garden, you meet your brothers and sisters, and unite again in childish sports and joy, and receive the benediction and blessings of home.