It is the man who is satisfied, the man who
refers his salvation to some church or higher power without
steady travail of his own soul, who is in deadly danger. All
churches are good, Christian or non-Christian, so long as they
promote the actual spirit life of the individual, but all are
noxious the instant that they allow him to think that by any form
of ceremony, or by any fashion of creed, he obtains the least
advantage over his neighbour, or can in any way dispense with
that personal effort which is the only road to the higher places.
This is, of course, as applicable to believers in Spiritualism as
to any other belief. If it does not show in practice then it is
vain. One can get through this life very comfortably following
without question in some procession with a venerable leader. But
one does not die in a procession. One dies alone. And it is
then that one has alone to accept the level gained by the work of
life.
And what is the punishment of the undeveloped soul? It is
that it should be placed where it WILL develop, and sorrow
would seem always to be the forcing ground of souls. That
surely is our own experience in life where the insufferably
complacent and unsympathetic person softens and mellows into
beauty of character and charity of thought, when tried long
enough and high enough in the fires of life. The Bible has
talked about the "Outer darkness where there is weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
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