own congenial realm which is spiritual, that is, homogeneous with itself; that this, therefore, necessitates the existence of a supersensuous or spiritual world vastly more populous than that in which we are now living,—a world into which tens of thousands of human beings are consciously introduced every hour; not a mere dream-land, or a region of unsubstantial shadows, but a real world inhabited by a countless host of rational and immortal spirits who were once invested with material bodies like our own. And this, too, is generally conceded.
But ask the ministers of Christ to-day—the ministers of that religion which is claimed to have brought "life and immortality to light"—about the spiritual world. Ask them in what condition we may expect to find ourselves when we shall have "shuffled off this mortal coil." Ask them if we shall still be in the human form, having eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other bodily organs;—if we shall retain the power of thinking, reasoning, remembering, loving, conversing and enjoying. Ask them if our departed friends still think of us and love us on "the shining shore;" if they are near us, interested in our welfare, and capable of exerting any influence upon us,—and if so, how, or according to what law. Ask whether, when we leave these mortal bodies, we shall join them in conscious visible association—be recognized and embraced by them, and recognize and embrace them in return. Ask whether the distinction of sex is preserved in the great Beyond, what kind of social life (if any) exists there, and what the law that governs in the association of spirits. Ask whether those who die in infancy and childhood retain forever
