The man in whom the spiritual plane is opened acts from superior motives. The mere animal may indeed forget itself in the protection of its offspring, but that is in itself a natural or selfish motive—it is its own life by perpetuation and extension that it is protecting.
The spiritual man, or the man in whom the spiritual plane is opened, can forget self for those who are not related to him by ties of blood or selfish interest. He is willing to lay down his life, if need be, for those who need his aid and have no other claim upon him. He is capable of renouncing self-indulgence, self-enjoyment, self-exaltation, for the sake of others and for his God.
It would seem that we are entitled to call this the plane of heavenly life, or "eternal life," as Jesus called it, into which we come by regeneration, or the "new birth," or by being "born from above." It represents a new life, capable of being opened in every man by his acceptance of its governing principles, which are those enunciated by Jesus. He accepts those principles in theory, first of all, when from his spiritual plane he is enabled to acknowledge them as true and worthy of his obedience. He accepts
