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    raise ?* Our island was instantly propelled with such velocity that , it soon overtook thdin . * These are spirits , ' said my companion , * who have lately arrived in these happy ahodes attended by ministering atigels , and who , prompted by a love of knowledge and under their

    guidance , are sailing rapidly m every direction . Listen to the expressions of ecstatic joy from some of them , to the songs of adoration from others ; all are so full cf thankfulness for the gracious gift of immortality and the hope of blessings yet

    to come , that though their capacities are enlarged even beyond what you . can now conceive , they are unable to find utterance for the fulness of their thoughts . Some , you perceive , are hearing from the ministering spirits ( who maintain a short but

    often-repeated converse with them ) the mysteries of their creation and redemption , but these I am not permitted to communicate to you , and even if I were , your soul is not sufficiently unburthencd of mortality to comprehend them ! ' I

    observed their countenances beaming with delight at the mysteries which were explained to them , glowing with fervent gratitude towards the Author of their happiness , or marked with joyful wander at every scene that opened to their view . Some of them entered into

    converse with my guide , and on learning that I was not yet an inhabitant of thensphere , -exhorted me to follow the ex * ample of their Divine Master , that on leaving my earthly cell I might rejoin them . « Our course lies this way , ' said my guide , and we left this celestial jubilee to pursue our way . "

    The author then affords another illustration with fervour and beauty : " As we sailed about the vast expanse many of the beings came to our island and discoursed with my divine companion . The angelic sweetness of their manner , the kind familiarity of their

    conversation , shewed the elevated nature of their souls . When alone with my heavenly monitor , I inquired if they were all known to each other , as I had observed that they entered without hesitation into converse with any they met . « Here / rejoined my guide , neither rank nor riches are known ; here is no distinction

    of persons or nations . The cold suspicion of the mortals of your earth has no place in our thoughts , and all the irreguiar an ( j degrading passions of humanity are changed for universal benevolence and love . Since we have no reason for not associating without reserve , our reason and feelings prompt us a to pursue the same course of holinets

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    and to employ ourselres continually in adoring and thanking the Author of our joy , in continuing to learn from ministering spirits his unfathomable wisdom and power , in admiring his innumerable iiiftHfks , in receiving intelligence from the angels of the hope they have that those we lored on earth will be again united to ns , and at the narration of which we

    rejoice with them } in associating with the spirits of those whom while on earth we loved , and to whom we now feel a refined attachment such as no mortal < ran experience ; for here , though we associate freely with all , we form * sweet societies' of those who were the objects of

    our affection during our mortal sojourn , and pursue inquiries with them , and wander at pleasure either on islands or through these realms of everlasting day with a buoyancy of unspeakable delight . Such are our occupations , joined to the ceaseless pleasure of contemplating so many millions unable to exhaust the

    measure of their bliss , increasing in knowledge and rising in the scale of heiugs , which , as we do , our appearance wears a more lucid radiance ; for observe , and you will discern that the spirits differ in their degrees of brightness ! * " Suddenly , a louder strain and a vast

    Island , on which were many spirits , attracted ray attention . We met them and found they were rejoicing with parents who only a short time before had been united for ever to their children ! The spirits they had known on earth had

    assembled , and also numbers of angels who with them were celebrating the arrival with songs ; the enraptured parents were hearing from the tongues of angels , the trials and victory of their children ! My heavenly guide felt the fervid joy that

    spirits feel at such a sight , and joined in praises with the applauding band . Again , our island floated on , sometimes with rapidity , at other times joining islands which our inclination prompted us to visit . One was chiefly occupied by those rulers who had either framed laws or

    supported them for the benefit of mankind , and by heroes who had passed their earthly life in defending the religion and laws of their country from the aggressions of the wicked ! On another , we found the spirits of two who while on earth had been allied in mortal bonds , now inet

    again never to have those bonds rudely severed by the hand of death , relating to each other how the hope was realized that their earthly might be changed for a heavenly and inseparable love , and guiding the island to view the magnificence of the realms they then inhabited . Their converse was interrupted by at glorious spirit who came careering from on high .

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    Dr . Evans on the Employments of Heaven . 2 ff

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 277, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/21/