Celestial Mansions
The
great religions of the world have always taught of a life beyond that which we
now know. This belief has been the
subject of scorn by many, and yet the thinking minds in all ages have often
expressed, in comforting and inspiring words, the well-founded conclusion that
there actually are many "mansions" in our Father's house.
This
treatise is presented to you by the Spiritualist Episcopal Church, in the hope
that it will serve as a miniature commentary on the religious belief of a few
well known men and women; and thus, help you in attaining the comfort and
consolation of your own belief. It is
not intended as an extensive or exhaustive presentation of the subject, for
such would reouire volumes of books containing the quotations of thousands of
people.
May
we suggest that this be used as a complement to your Bible, in which you. may
read, at first hand, the stories of the Celestial Mansions.
I
"O! glorious
day, when I shall remove from this confused crowd to join the divine assembly
of souls: For I shall go not only to meet great men, but also my son, his
spirit looking back upon me, departed to that place, whither he knew that I
should come; and he has never deserted me. If I have borne his loss with
courage, it is because I consoled myself with the thought that our separation
would not be for long."
-Cato.
II
Dr. Adam Clark,
Methodist minister and
commentator, said, "I believe Samuel did actually appear to Saul; and that
he was sent to warn this infatuated king of
his approaching death, that he might have an opportunity to make his
peace with his Maker. “I believe there
is a supernatural or spiritual world, in which human spirits, both good and
bad, live in a state of consciousness. “I believe that any of these spirits
may, according to the order of God, in the laws of their place of residence,
have intercourse with this world and become visible to mortals.”
III
“There are
treasures laid up in the heart-treasures of charity, piety, temperance, and
soberness. These treasures a man takes
with him beyond death when he leaves this world.”
-Buddhist Scriptures.
IV
“I feel my
immortality o’ersweep all pains, all tears, all time, all fears; and peal, like
the eternal thunders of the deep, into my ears this truth--thou livest
forever.”
-Byron.
V
“Whatsoever that be
within us that feels, thinks, desires, and animates, is something celestial,
divine, and consequently, imperishable.”
-Aristotle.
VI
"In the
spiritual world, no one is permitted to think and will in one way and speak and act in another.”
-Emanuel
Swedenborg
VII
“Saul and Johnathan
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not
divided.”
_2
Samuel, 1:23.
VIII
"They that
live beyond the world cannot be separated by it.
"Death cannot
kill what never dies. Nor can spirits
ever be divided that live in the same divine principle, the root and record of
their friendship"
"Death is but crossing the
world as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
"This is the comfort of friends,
that thouth they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in
the best sense, ever present, because immortal."
-William
Penn.
IX
"It is impossible that anything
so natural, so necessary., and so universal as death, should ever have been
designed by Providence as an evil to mankind."
-Swift.
X
"The gods conceal from men the
happiness of death, that they may endure life."
-Lucan.
XI
"We call it death to leave this
world, but were we once out of it, and enstated into the happiness of the next,
we should think it were dying indeed to come back to it again."
-Sherlock.
XII
"How gloomy would be the
mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he should never die; that
what now acts, shall continue its agency, and what now thinks, shall think on
forever."
-Johnson.
XIII
"Earth hath no sorrow that
heaven cannot heal."
-Moore.
XIV
"Great
grief makes sacred those upon whom its hand is laid. Joy may elevate, ambition glorify, but only sorrow can
consecrate."
-Horace Greeley.
XV
In
his work, Religio Medici, Sir Thomas Browne said, "I do think that many
mysteries ascribed to our own inventions have been the courteous revelations of
Spirits; (for those noble essences in Heaven bear a friendly regard unto their
fellow Natures on Earth;)-."
XVI
"Cullen, in
his last moments, whispered 'I wish I
had the power of writing or speaking, for then I would describe to you how
pleasant a thing it is to die.' "
-Derby.
XVII
"My daughter
assured me that she was going to a pleasanter place than this. In her last illness, she paused for a few
hours between this world and the next, hardly in either. Once, she turned her face to mine, and said,
'Daddy, the houses are not so close together over here.'
"Through many
times of grief, those words have come back to me, and I am assured that she,
and others, are happy in the Celestial Mansions, over there. Thank God for the last words of the spirit,
the last manifestation of life in the physical body, the spirit giving
assurance of meeting loved ones and friends, and going to those beautiful
homes.
"It makes no
difference, in death-bed manifestations, to what 'ism' you belong. The thing that matters is that we live, and
gloriously, beyond that period."
Rev.
John Bunker
Presiding
Clergyperson
Spiritualist
Episcopal Church