"Evidence adduced to demonstrate a peaceful and happy state beyond the tomb"

Death brings every human being face to face with the greatest mystery known to man. It is that which closes all the scenes that lie between the morn of laughter and the night of tears, and where ends the false and true, the joys and griefs, the careless, shallow and the tragic deeps of earthly life.

But why should you dread that which will come to all that that is? You do not know, you cannot realize which is the greatest blessing, life or death. You cannot say that death is not better, and those of you who believe in immortality know that the grave is not the end of your existence, but that it is the door to another and more beautiful life, and that the night of sadness here is the dawn of your soul into spiritual life.

No person standing beside a grave has any right to prophesy a future life filled with pain and sorrow; for death gives all there is of worth to life, and those who stand with breaking hearts around the coffin of their dead need have no fear or sorrow for their future; for death, even at the worst, is only life continued.

You all must know that every human being prefers happiness to misery, and that sorrow and gloom are but the result of mistakes, and when we look with pity upon those around us, upon their pain and poverty, their sorrow and despair, we realize the truth of the celebrated Hindu Adept's words, who was great and good enough to say:

"There is no darkness, but ignorance."

It is only ignorance of what death really is that causes anyone to regard it with dread and sorrow, as it has been noticed by many observing people who have been at the bedside of a dying friend or loved one that just as the soul is about to leave the poor, diseased body a bright smile appears in the face. The dying seem to realize and see that they are going to a better and happier life.

The old idea of a fiery hell and eternal torment is fading away, and this generation seems to be getting a nearer insight into the spiritual and eternal life beyond the tomb, and that there is still something warm and familiar in those loved ones of ours for whom we yearn our past the grave, not cold and ghastly as they seemed at death, but human and sympathetic, with familiar faces; for they are not lost utterly to us even on earth, only a little farther off.

There is a great wave of spiritual light spreading over the Western world, bringing man nearer to his ascended friends. The horizon broadens and is filled with a golden light and warmth. Man need not be afraid to die; for the soul there is no death, only continuous life.

There will come a day when it will be demonstrated that the human soul throughout earthly existence lives in a condition where it can have communion, actual and indissoluble, with those who have passed to the spirit world beyond, and that they can come to us at any time and are with" us many times when we have no knowledge of their presence.

Death is a delighted transition to light and peace with no fear; the dying, as the earthly eyes grow dim, can with their spiritual sight look across the border to that higher life. Voices from the spirit land are human and natural; for the only angels there are those of our friends and loved ones. All superstitious dread of ghosts and the dead should be banished, as should dread and terror of death, and in their place should come that sweet and sacred feeling of the lover and husband described in the following beautiful spiritual poem: